Where are your online leads coming from?
BY LAUREN LABUNSKY
Having a great dealership website is vital to your business for so many reasons. Your website is providing a platform for potential customers to easily find your dealership online and browse your inventory. But one of the most crucial functions of your website should be its ability to capture online leads. Online leads most commonly come from website visitors who fill out a form on your site, either on a specific unit or a more general form such as “Contact Us.” Collecting leads through your website should be a top priority for your dealership’s digital strategy.
Generating leads through your site is a crucial capability on its own, but what about finding the source of those leads? To manage leads and follow up on them most efficiently, it’s important to achieve Lead Attribution. Basically, this means identifying the reason that brings a customer to submit an online lead.
A potential customer who visits your site should be able to get in touch with you in a variety of different ways. For example, someone who fills out a general “Contact Us” form may just have a simple question about the types of units your dealership sells. A visitor who fills out a “Schedule Demo” form has likely done some research and is willing to take time out of his or her day for an in-person visit, showing intention to purchase. These two leads, while both valuable, require different things and should be handled accordingly.
It is also valuable for you, as the dealership professional, to see what kinds of leads your dealership earns through the website as well as how frequently you receive them. For example, if you receive tons of leads through a form for financing options, it may be a good idea to assign those leads to a member of your accounting department first, rather than pushing those leads directly to your sales team. Your customer will receive a quicker solution than if he or she were to be passed along from sales, and your sales staff will be cleared up to handle leads that are farther along in the buying process.
Another way Lead Attribution can contribute value and show you digital ROI is through Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Running paid ads for your dealership on search engines can be costly, and it isn’t always clear how effectively those ads are performing. Lead Attribution allows you to filter and identify the leads that come in through your website after clicking on a search engine ad first. Having this information allows you to allocate funds for your digital marketing budget accordingly.
If your dealership website is bringing in leads for your business in the first place, that’s a great start. However, organizing those leads by type and handling them based on individual need is the most effective way to convert lead to sale. Lead Attribution is an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to your dealership website, and your dealership’s sales strategy needs it to perform at the highest level.
Lauren Labunsky is the public relations manager at Dealer Spike, a leading web services provider for powersports dealerships. The award-winning digital advertising company is focused on helping dealers increase sales through powerful, distinctive website design and a full suite of online marketing tools to drive results. Dealer Spike’s expertise comes from real-world dealership experience and a team of professionals who also ride. When you work with Dealer Spike, you’re working with digital marketing experts who have a passion for your industry.