Why Driving Shoppers to VDPs Makes the Most Sense

The more people that are shopping for a car that you can get in front of your inventory, the more cars you're going to sell. Some would say it's a bold statement. Others would say that it's pretty obvious. Depending on which side of the coin you're on, you'll either need to be convinced or you're already doing it.

Let's start with the disclaimer. Everything our company does is geared around driving more VDP views. Search, social, and even our partner products like LotLinx are all "inventory drivers" for our clients. We don't believe in coaxing people to these pages. We're going after intent.

With that out of the way, let's get into the hard facts. People have so many choices when it comes to finding their next vehicle purchase. There are more third-party sites vying for their attention than dealers in any given market. These sites try different things in order to generate revenue. Some sell subscriptions and placement like AutoTrader and Cars.com. Others sell listings themselves like Craigslist and eBay. Others sell leads. They all know that the automotive industry is lucrative and they want to make money. There's nothing wrong with that.

A recent trend has been for many dealers to focus specifically on generating their own leads. They don't want to be part of these other listing sites. They don't want to buy leads. They are finding that the highest quality comes from people who are visiting their own site and they would be correct. However, there's an important fact to note before cancelling all of your third-party subscriptions.

The reason that the leads from a dealer's website usually convert so much better than other leads is because they are often a captive audience. Most of your search traffic is coming from searches for your dealership by name, which means that they want to consider doing business with you. There are fewer barriers to overcome to sell them a car when they are already inclined to like you, so the lead quality will always be higher here.

This is why we recommend to dealers to still participate in other sites while focusing on their own. It's why we partnered with LotLinx. It's why we push SEO so heavily and it's why we position our social media product to be specifically geared towards driving people intending to buy a car to your website.

The reason that driving shoppers to your VDPs will increase sales is the same reason that putting people behind the wheel will sell more cars. It's excitement. When they're shopping, they're in the early stages of excitement, but it's still present. They can picture themselves driving it. They like to look at pictures. They want to read the specs. They want to scrutinize the history report, compare the prices, check out the features, and imagine what Toreador Red would look like in their driveway.

As dealers move forward with their evolving strategies, it's important to look at the numbers. There are no tricks to this, really. Regardless of where they are on the internet, there's a chance that you can get them in front of your inventory. The advertising possibilities are endless. Don't get caught up in complicated strategies. Get more people in front of your cars and you will sell more of them.

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Comment by steven chessin on June 23, 2014 at 8:50pm

Philip  -- Yes. Exactly right.

The VDP has the potential to transcend generic marketing and go to the next level down-funnel   --- direct internet sales -- where presentation from real video + instant communication via chat / text / and "click to call"  -- provide the necessary "show-&-tell" and immediate follow-up for immediate discussion-making.

I like this recent example because the car itself spoke very well on behalf of itself answering the prospect's question. And while this did NOT need go onto the website because the video email version closed the deal.

But if it hadn't  --- it certainly would have gone onto the VDPs.

My "Plan-A" is the direct-response version to the primary lead 1-on-1.

My "Plan-B" is "sales/marketing" version for the VDP 1-on-ALL.

Hope you like this "theory". I firmly believe it brings old-school "brick" and new-tech "click" together.

http://covideo.com/p.php?s=5089f982b2

Comment by Philip Zelinger on June 17, 2014 at 10:53am
I agree that driving potential customers to your VDP will result in more sales. However, if you really want to maximize your conversion rate at this critical point in their shopping process you need to provide more than pictures and even videos when they get there. New VDP platforms are being introduced that provide integrated direct links to customer reviews, social media connections, competitive comparisons with dynamic market pricing -(think automated real time VAuto)- and accesss to all of the information a shopper needs to make a decision without ever leaving the VDP. Forward thinking dealers will evaluate every component of their websites with special attention to their VDP and treat each section independently to determine if it represents the best in class solution for that particular function for their customers. Simply put, provide true relevancy and transparency for your customers on your websites with special focus on your VDP so that your customers never have to look elsewhere and you will sell more vehicles. It really is that simple!

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