How often do you use your smartphone now compared to 10 years ago? Probably a lot more. In our fast-paced technological world, mobile devices are becoming the preferred way to browse the internet. People buy their groceries, order things to their home, and schedule their doctor’s appointments right on their phones now. They are also conducting searching for their next car purchase on their smartphones.
Are you giving your customers the best possible experience both online and on their mobile devices? Mobile devices are changing how people research the vehicle they want to purchase, as well as how they discover cars. According to a study from Ipsos, 71% of respondents admitted to using their phones during the car purchasing process, and 58% said that in their future, they only intend to use their smartphone to research for their next vehicle. 62% said that if they could complete the entire vehicle purchase process online, that they definitely would.
With that number of customers using mobile devices for their car purchases, having a responsive and mobile-friendly dealer website is more crucial than ever. Not only will optimizing your site for mobile devices increase your likeliness of gaining new customers, but it will also increase your SEO rankings. Part of Google’s ranking system is based on the usability and experience of the user.
Mobile devices also make it easier for customers to share information or links from your website to their friends and family. However, there are some points where smartphone and tablet users say that their experience is lacking. Mobile users say that desktop works better for customizing vehicles and watching videos.
So, how can you meet the needs of your mobile customers better? AutoJini has created a list of five ways to improve your website and marketing strategies to reach mobile users better. To learn more, keep reading this article.
- Check to make sure your website is responsive and mobile-friendly. An unpleasant mobile experience, including slow loading speed or hard-to-read text, can cause users to immediately exit the web page. Don’t lose potential customers! In this day and age, your dealer website needs to run smoothly and seamlessly across all devices, from desktop to mobile and even including tablets.
You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to see if your website performs well on a mobile device.
If your website isn’t passing the mobile-friendly test, AutoJini is happy to help! All of our sites are responsive, custom-designed, and mobile-friendly. To learn more, click here. - Reach people in the early stages of the purchase process. The average car buyer has already narrowed down their top few cars during the last month before they make a purchase, and it is likely that their minds won’t change outside of those top picks. Driving brand awareness and bringing more attention to local customers will help you have a higher chance of being the customer’s dealership of choice, which brings us to our next point: ads.
- Create or tailor your ads for mobile users. On Google, Facebook, Instagram, and more, you can create ads that will specifically target mobile devices as opposed to desktop ads, mobile ads have different requirements including the image size and the way the text appears. Phone numbers and direction extensions from mobile ads are more likely to be called than on desktop ads because of the convenience factor, so make sure to include them.
- Have plenty of photos of your vehicles on your website. Additionally, we highly recommend getting videos uploaded if you can. Mobile customers tend to look for videos to help them determine what car they should buy. Make sure the images and videos are responsive and high in quality. Users shouldn’t have to pinch to zoom in or scroll sideways to be able to view the photos or videos.
- Customize your website features with mobile customers in mind. A mobile site should allow users to get directions, call your dealership, email your dealership, schedule service appointments, and more right from the website. Allowing your customers to have this convenience shows that your dealership is ahead of the competition and ready to serve your clients. The functionality of your site makes a difference in how likely a customer is going to engage with your dealership.
At AutoJini, all of our websites are made to work seamlessly across all devices. We are happy to help you meet the needs of your mobile customers better. For more information about our responsive and mobile-friendly websites, click here, or call us today at 515-232-2024.