Now that most dealerships out there have an automotive website, an online presence is simply not enough to bring in more customers. Your dealer website needs to stand out from your competitors.
One way to make your dealership website stand out is to incorporate more unique features on your site. We aren’t talking about interesting animation or pop-ups, which actually slow down your website. We are talking about automotive website features that reduce the amount of time you have to spend maintaining it, are more user-friendly for customers, and increase customer trust. With over 19 years of experience in the automotive website industry, we know what features reach customers. Here are 5 dealership website features that will help make your site stand out.
1. Facebook Integration
The future of automotive marketing is in social media, and the future of your dealership is impacted by how well it is integrated with the online community. AutoJini’s Facebook apps automatically pull information from your dealer site and place it on your Facebook page. You don’t have to spend time updating your Facebook page anymore with Facebook integration.
When people use the Facebook app on their smartphones, they are reluctant to leave the application to view another website. This lets your Facebook followers basically view the contents of your website without having to leave Facebook.
2. Inventory Showcasing
You should be showcasing your inventory online and have a dedicated vehicle details page (VDP) for each car. This is beneficial for you because it makes it easy to organize your vehicles and find information about them quickly. It also brings more customers to your website because when they search for a specific type of car, your VDP will show up in the search results, matching your dealership to your customer.
Not all inventory management systems are built the same. A good inventory management system will let you upload hi-res images, include vehicle history reports, and have a button for customers to easily schedule a test drive.
3. Custom Online Forms
Paper forms are easy to lose, and most customers aren’t willing to visit a dealership for more information about financing, a car, scheduling, or more. Custom online forms are better for the environment, easy to organize, and help encourage customers to engage with your dealership from the comfort of their homes or smartphones. The reality is that people are always on the go and don’t want to call or visit a business unless they absolutely have to.
They also work as lead-generating forms, and help you collect customer information. You can include required fields like a phone number, email address, and more. Even if your customers don’t follow up with you immediately, you have the information at hand to connect with them again.
4. Built-in Dealership Blog
You probably already know that blogging is a proven and cost-effective way to improve your search engine optimization (SEO) and bring more traffic to your website. When you regularly update a blog on your website, Google and other search engines will recognize your website as an active and expert site for automotive topics, and in return they place your website higher up on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Along with boosted SEO, a built-in dealership blog also helps you stand out from your customers. When you provide unique and valuable content to your website visitors, it shows your customers that you care and keeps them coming back for more. You will also get additional web traffic from people sharing your articles with their friends and family.
5. Testimonials Page
Did you know that people trust customer reviews just as much as they trust recommendations from their friends and family? 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting any business. That’s why your dealership website should have a testimonials page. A testimonial management system puts you in control of your dealer reviews and makes it easy for you to add and update your testimonials page. You can import reviews from Facebook and Google, post video reviews, and more.
These features will help your dealership increase web traffic and bring in more visitors to your dealership. See more unique dealer website features here. To learn more about what makes a successful auto dealer website, call us at 515-232-2024 or get started by clicking the button below!