Improving Your Customer’s Web Experience

Strong’s digital director, Gayle Rogers, is sharing some tips on how to improve the overall experience that your customer has when they visit your dealership’s website.

Tip 1: Customizing the Content

There are three things every dealer needs to understand to improve the content on their website to provide a better experience for the customer.

1. Information: When a customer visits the website they are looking for general and specific information. You need to provide both in an easy and accessible way. Customize the information you are providing by using your location and targeted keywords throughout the content.
2. Assistance: Provide information on how your dealership can assist the customer better.
3. Insight: By giving the customer information from other perspectives on why your cars are better you are providing better insight. Different perspectives allow the customer to relate better to the car they are interested in purchasing. Or by translating information like 40 MPG into how much money that will actually save you a year.

But don’t forget to sell through all aspects of your customized content! This means making your offers or specials visible on each page and within the content. For example, you can link specials for service through your vehicle information pages or links to new or used cars in your general information.

Tip 2: Customizing the Look

The average car buying customer will visit about four websites during their car purchase process. This makes it imperative for dealers to customize the look of their website. By doing so they are separating themselves from the rest of the dealers that have the same cookie cutter style or look for their sites. Even the smallest changes like customizing the background to the skyline of your city or enhancing the header to look slightly different will set you apart in the customer’s mind. A better designed website will enhance the customer’s car buying experience and ultimately lead them to your physical dealership.

Tip 3: Customizing Your Offers

Customizing your offers is an important aspect to keeping your website more relevant than the competition. By having customized offers you are setting your website apart. If an average customer searches about four websites before going to the dealership, you want to make sure that your website has an offer that is different from the others. You need to make it visible and easy to understand by simplifying your offers on your website. And be sure that your offers are constantly updated; you don’t want last weekend’s offer to appear after it’s over.