Hi, my name is Sean Cassy, and I am happy that you’re joining us today for a brand new episode of our podcast 30 Days To Sell Cars.
I’m really excited you decided to join me today because we’re wrapping up, in this episode, the holy trilogy of automotive conquest marketing. If you’ve been following the launch of our new podcast, you know from episode #1 why successful car dealers focus their efforts and advertising dollars on the 90% of the population we would qualify as non-intenders instead the 7%-9% of people in-market. You also understand, from episode #2, the importance of pre-framing your traffic based on its temperature and how this technique is imperative to your conquest success.
If you haven't listened to the first two episodes, I strongly recommend you do it now. It will provide you the foundation necessary to connect the dots of our automotive conquest recipe. It will also help you understand the content of this episode and why I say that your dealership Website is your biggest enemy when it comes to generating leads from conquest customers for your new car department.
Yes, I said it. I don’t want to be a doomsday prophet, but the end is near for traditional Websites. Now don’t take me wrong, I understand your dealership needs a Website. You have thousands of customers who need to interact with the different departments of your dealership throughout their ownership experience, and your Website is making sure these people can rapidly connect with a specific individual within your store. I’m talking from the sales side of things here.
Let me explain:
Most Websites are the equivalent of a brick wall for sales leads. Prospects come on your home page curious, excited by the promises made by your marketing and your advertising then they get visually and mentally “hit” with over 50 different places to click, rotating banners, images, videos, social media feeds and other elements that only distract from the initial sales message.
Unless you believe that a brochure can sell a vehicle, I don’t know why you would send any sale leads to a Website. Think about it. You’ve spent a ton of money on advertising to get an interested prospect to a place where the next step you want them to take is unclear!?! I know you want them to buy a vehicle but, practically speaking, what’s the next step you need them to take in the relationship so that it will lead them to the purchase of that new vehicle.
Sending sales traffic to a normal Website is like sending showroom traffic to a salesperson who can present for hours but can’t ask for the sale and close the deal.
When I’m selling face to face or online, I know precisely what I’m trying to accomplish at every step. First, I want to answer the most important question my prospect has in mind: “What’s in it for them?” Then I want to emphasize why they can believe what I’m saying. Then, I tell them exactly what I want them to do (the call for action). Finally, I give them a good reason to act now so they don’t postpone their decision!
If you don’t immediately answer the “what’s in it for me?” prospects will leave. If you don’t provide prospects a reason to believe, they won’t have the intellectual and emotional reasoning to feel comfortable to take action. If you don’t tell prospects exactly what you want them to do, they won’t figure it out. If you don’t give prospects a reason to do it now, they will think about it.
Now, take a good look at your Website’s home page, and tell me how well it's doing relating to these four direct-response marketing questions:
Why should they watch, listen or read?
Why should they believe your message?
What do you want prospects to do?
Why should they do it now?
Is it doing the job? Remember, prospects shouldn’t have to figure out the answers to these four questions. They shouldn’t have to piece them together browsing your Website, and they shouldn’t have to decipher the answers through the clutter of your home page. If they have to, you won’t get any leads.
Now you might be saying to yourself: “I am getting leads right now through my Website?” but I’m not talking about the leads you’re getting from vehicle shoppers asking questions relating to your new or pre-owned inventory. We’re talking conquest customers business here. I’m trying to help you figure out how to blow up your sales from non-intenders. These people will not have any questions relating to your inventory if you don’t provide a solution to the automotive questions your pre-framing has triggered through your marketing first.
Let’s examine your Website more carefully:
Do you have a clear, bold, very visible headline at the top of your home page stipulating what’s in it for the prospect? Think about the headline in relations to the five misperceptions of non-intenders which are Price, Payments, Trade, Cash, and Credit. The headline should support their primary desire (solution) and emphasize their pain. Headline examples could go something like these for:
Price: Get the Best Price Possible On your Next New Vehicle Today, Without Ever Having to Fight Or Negotiate With A Salesperson!
Payment: Get A Payment Guaranteed To Fit In Your Family’s Budget, Without Having To Spread The Loan Over the Next 10 Years!
Trade: Use Our Brand New Trade-in Technology To Get The Maximum Amount of Money Possible For Your Current Vehicle, Without Having To Go From Dealer to Dealer Getting Appraisals For the Next 2 Weeks!
If you do have a strong headline at the top of your page, do you have a strong copy (text), or a video that explains how you will fulfill your promise, why they should believe your message, and exactly what you need them to do to be able to take advantage of your promise? Do you have a visible call to action button or a Webform to capture the information of prospects interested by your promise? Do you have a strong reason build in your copy or in your video to create the necessary urgency for them to act now?
My guess is your current Website doesn’t provide for potential prospects the journey I’m describing, and most obviously, not for all five automotive misperceptions of non-intenders. You’re probably even thinking by now: “But Sean if my Website looked like what you’re describing, all my non-sales visitors would be totally confused when landing on my home page?” and you would be right.
So here’s my preferred solution to the problem: a sales funnel, or I should say multiple sales funnels!
A sales funnel is the final stage of evolution of what we used to call landing pages, squeeze pages or microsites. Well-designed sales funnels will clearly articulate for the prospect the answers to the four direct-response questions they innately have in mind, which will allow you to qualify subscribers (people ready to provide you with their email), qualify buyers (people interested in purchasing a vehicle) and identify hyperactive buyers (people who want to buy right now!)
Good sales funnels will also provide qualified subscriber and buyers a lead nurturing experience which is going to prepare the ground for your sales team to follow-up and schedule the in-dealership appointment. Lead nurturing videos could ask people with less than perfect credit to bring specific documents in the context of special finance sales funnels, or explain to prospects your team won’t be giving “ballpark” trade prices over the phone in the context of a trade focus funnel.
Sales funnels will allow you to maintain your current Website for all your existing customers and the different departments of your dealership while redirecting your sales traffic to environments guaranteed to generate quality leads from conquest vehicle shoppers excited to buy from you.
Your bounce rate is going to go down, your leads are going to go through the roof, and the ROI of your advertising budget will be the healthiest you’ve ever seen!
But that’s just the beginning. The BIGGEST advantage of sales funnels (in my humble opinion) is your ability to track conversion for specific segments of conquest vehicle shoppers and leverage powerful algorithms that will start looking everywhere on the Web and in Social Media for highly converting similar prospects.
Yes, you heard correctly. By targeting and isolating specific visitors on the first page of your funnel, and tracking on the thank you page the profile of the individuals who complete the forms and turn into subscribers or buyers, you can get the equivalent of powerful little robots scouring the Web and Social Media sites to find you more conquest vehicle shoppers around your dealership that will ultimately turn into buyers.
Facebook calls these look-a-like audiences, some platforms talk about programmatic ads or digital conquesting. My goal in today’s podcast is not to dive deep into the technology, but to open your eyes to a new way to funnel your sales Web traffic so you can start capturing leads and start feeding the data these tools need to help you find the most likely conquest vehicle shoppers around your dealership.
More leads, more deals, better ROI and robots working for you… I hope that should be enough to get you excited about creating your first sales funnel!
If you would like to see a few examples of how we use automotive video sales funnels here at Turbo to leverage the power of robots to help you find quality leads from conquest vehicle shoppers around your dealership, visit this link. A few minutes of browsing through our campaigns will be enough to stretch your mind to brand new possibilities for your dealership’s marketing. And you know what they say about a brain that’s been stretched, it never goes back to its original size!
We’ll it was a pleasure to have you over. I hope you liked this episode and that you will be back for more. Make sure to subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes or Google Play, so you don’t miss the next strategies I want to share with you. Make sure also to leave me comments. I’m making this show for you, and without your input, I can’t improve it!
In the next episode, I want to talk to you about multiplying content and how you can set up an easy and sustainable content marketing strategy for your dealership that will triple your Website traffic without increasing your advertising budget by a penny. I hope I catch you on the next Podcast.
Until then, I wish you a great week. Remember that we only have 30 days to sell cars when the month starts, and we probably have less than that now if you look at your calendar! So like I love to say: Let’s sell some cars!
Sean Cassy is the digital marketing specialist and co-owner of Turbo Marketing Solutions. You can contact him by email here or reach him by phone every weekday at Turbo Marketing’s head office.