Finally, your dealership is live online! You have a beautiful, informative website that really makes your dealership shine. Your website is optimized with best practices to gain online traction, and you’re eagerly anticipating the shoppers that will come your way as your brand achieves online prominence.
How can you increase your online exposure faster to ensure your amazing website is found by online shoppers? Here are some priceless (but free) strategies to drive more traffic to your website.
Is all of your important store information (phone, location, store photos, reviews, hours, Q&A info, website URL) available on your online listings? This includes your free Google business directory. LocaliQ reports that complete Google business listings receive 7x more visits than incomplete listings. Increased page visitation means that more prospective customers are encountering your website link.
Organic social posts are a great way to build customer loyalty, and with the right actions, it also can drive more traffic to your website. Create social posts that direct your followers right back to your website. How? Here are a few options:
LinkedIn is a professional social networking site, but it’s not just a means to find a job. You can find customers, too. While prospects may not go on LinkedIn to find a dealership, they could encounter your brand through their network connections. A study by HubSpot found that LinkedIn has a 2.74% visitor-to-lead conversion rate, the highest of the social media giants (including Facebook and Twitter). If your dealership has a LinkedIn account, you can post industry thought leadership content to connect with similar businesses and professionals, who might connect you with future customers.
Hashtags allow social media users to follow a topic across multiple discussions. For example, if you add #tireshop to a relevant Instagram post, that post joins the feed of other posts using the same hashtag. Any social media user who investigates #tireshop could come across your Instagram post, which could in turn direct them to your website. This strategy holds true across all social media platforms that embrace hashtags (including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn).
Reddit, Quora, Twitter and LinkedIn all offer public discussion forums for just about any industry, including automotive. By engaging in relevant online discussions and offering your expertise to enquiries (and even links to your webpages, if appropriate), you establish rapport with online users and drive buyer interest back to your website.
Your online results aren’t solely dependent on your digital actions. The following offline strategies can also boost your brand exposure:
Shoppers form their first impression of your business from their online interactions with your website, digital ads and social media. When they visit your store, they already have some expectations for their experience. Analyze your website and online marketing content. Does it accurately portray your store’s brand, personality and values? If not, new shoppers may experience a culture shock when they walk through your doors. A streamlined brand identity provides your shoppers with a dependable shopping experience, which fosters customer loyalty.
We all know that happy customers make the whole day better. Did you also know that they increase your online prominence? Think about it: Happy customers write positive reviews on Facebook, Google and other sites, which increases your website’s prominence and improves your reputation among prospective customers. Happy customers also mention their shopping experience to family, friends and coworkers, especially if your team went above and beyond in taking care of their needs.
Maybe you already attend trade shows and can attest that this activity is highly effective in generating more brand exposure. If you haven’t yet begun attending trade shows, we encourage you to scope out upcoming events taking place in your area (or online, if your state is encouraging social distancing). Over time, and as your schedule allows, you may consider expanding to out-of-county or even out-of-state events to meet and network with other independent auto professionals and tap into new networks of customers.
Your website is a significant step in gaining a sustainable flow of customer traffic, but your efforts to boost your website don’t have to take place on your site alone. While website prominence takes time to build, you can help your site pickup speed – without additional cost to your marketing budget – by engaging in online and offline strategies that highlight your website as the desired destination.
If you are interested in more strategies to enhance your online presence, our team of industry experts is happy to help. Contact Net Driven today!
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