Whether you believe it or not, your band’s success relies on you having a great online car-buying process. Without it, your auto dealership sales will decrease significantly, primarily because car buyers don’t just shop in person. They shop online as well.
According to a recent report by Capital One, 82% of consumers prefer a hybrid car buying experience that mixes online and in-person elements. For example, before heading to a dealership, car buyers prefer to take multiple steps online—44% want to research vehicle information, 41% want to ensure a price is fair, and 40% want to choose their preferred make and model. Only after taking those steps do 47% of car buyers want to come in person to see and test drive a vehicle.
So, while you shouldn’t close your brick-and-mortar operations any time soon since they’ll still receive foot traffic, you should make sure your online car-buying process is up to par, especially since consumers want to use it, and it could impact your auto dealership sales.
The Benefits of Enhancing Your Online Sales Process
Enhancing your dealership’s online car buying process provides multiple ways to increase your sales and long-term success. For example, if you give consumers the online sales process they want, you’ll experience five specific advantages that all lead to more customers.
1. More customer data
When you provide car buyers with a way to shop digitally, you can easily track their behavior and online journey to gather more customer data. With additional insights about your target audience, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the vehicles your target audience likes and the paths that led them to your website. Knowing those two things will allow you to refine your inventory and marketing tactics to generate more sales.
2. An improved reputation
One of the best things about having a great online car buying process is that it typically includes a way for people to leave reviews. Car buyers want to read others’ feedback when they’re researching dealerships, and when they have an opportunity to do so, it informs which dealership they’ll visit. If yours has positive reviews, you’ll have no problem attracting more customers.
3. A wider pool of potential customers
Over five billion people are on the internet, which means you don’t have to rely on car buyers within a five-mile radius to generate sales. You can access a wide pool of potential customers if you’re open to enhancing your online sales process. Of course, that doesn’t mean every internet user looking for a car will be in your target audience.
Your dealership will still appeal to people who live in the same state your business is in. But instead of relying on those in your business’s community to generate sales, you can reach car buyers in neighboring counties and cities if you have an online sales process that attracts and builds relationships with them.
4. Increased credibility
Since car buyers like to research online before visiting a dealership, you need to have content on your website that answers questions and provides education. With helpful website content, you’ll not only offer the insights consumers are looking for but also enhance your credibility in the process.
One of the top three reasons for producing content is to establish credibility. People have a hard time trusting businesses—misinformation, scams, and greed have left consumers unsure of which companies deserve their hard-earned money. People only want to buy from brands they trust, and the high-quality content in your online sales process will pave the way to establishing that trust so that car buyers think you’re credible enough to purchase from.
5. An efficient sales process
Developing the online side of your sales machine will make the car buying process for consumers significantly more seamless. Instead of having to call your dealership or visit in person for every inquiry, potential customers can get some of the information they need online—and they will appreciate that convenience. Additionally, if you have digital tools to streamline transactions, car buyers will be even happier. By making the final steps of their journey easy and simple, consumers will drive off the lot content and willing to recommend your business.
The Road Boosting Auto Dealership Sales
If you want to experience the benefits of a great online car-buying process, you need to incorporate the right tools and strategies. Specifically, you must have three components to create a process that increases your auto dealership sales.
1. Content Marketing Strategy
This piece is critical. With almost half of car buyers researching vehicles online, you can’t afford to have a website or social media account void of content. You need blogs, buying guides, FAQs, images, and vehicle information on your site and social media platforms. That way, car buyers have the foundational insights they need and want to take the next step of visiting your dealership.
2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System
You want to capture as many online leads as possible and know where they stand in your car-buying process—and a CRM will help you do both. By having a vault of leads, you’ll have more opportunities to follow up with potential customers and nurture relationships to the finish line. By knowing the stage potential car buyers are in, you’ll know how to nurture those relationships and which information to provide to help potential customers take the next step.
3. An online DMV platform
After a transaction, you must ensure your customers get their titles, tags, and vehicle registration. This step usually takes a while because you have to work with the DMV. However, you can cut down the time by using an online DMV platform, which companies like ours offer.
At Barry Risk Management, you don’t have to interact with a slow-paced DMV to get what your customers need. Instead, you can rely on our representatives to use a propriety online DMV platform to quickly and efficiently get the documents your car buyers require. We work with dealerships in every state and know the DMV rules across the U.S. We have the experience needed to get car buyers’ legal forms in no time. And when your customers get their titles, tags, and vehicle registration in a timely manner, you can guarantee they’ll end their buying process just as happy as they started it, leading to rave reviews about your dealership that attract more customers.
Want to use an online DMV platform to enhance your online car buying process? Contact our team at 1-888-995-TAGS(8247)!
