In the information age, auto consumers have taken a more active role in their buying decision than ever before. In fact, there are shoppers looking for the cars on your lot right now. They’ve just moved their search from the dealership to the internet. The key to success in this new market is gearing your digital automotive merchandising strategy toward reaching consumers who are already interested in buying.
Adjust Your Automotive Merchandising Strategy to Attract Customers Who Are Ready to Buy
Targeting in-market customers offers the most ROI for your marketing strategy because these buyers are more likely to convert and are cheaper to reach than other consumers. Here are some tips to help you appeal to these buyers.
Know What Your Customers are Looking For
A good start to crafting your automotive merchandising strategy around the modern customer is being aware of how they search for vehicles. Our research has shown that the early stages their searches are fairly basic. They probably have a few models that they’re interested in. Within these few models, they’re also looking at the following:
- Mileage
- Model year
- Price
- Color
At this stage, they’re not interested in trim levels or options. What they really want is a good value vehicle for a fair price.
Take advantage of consumer search patterns by optimizing your ads and vehicle display pages (VDPs) for these buyers. Make sure the information they’re looking for is up front, well organized, and clear.
Perhaps the most important part of your content on these new pages will be the price information. Customers don’t want this information hidden behind a wall. Display the price clearly and justify it in your on-page content.
Know How Customers Make Their Decisions
Once you have a customer on your website or in your dealership, knowledge of what drives their decision-making will help you convert. Price is still significant here, but you can’t win sales by simply lowering your price because someone will always undercut you.
Luckily price isn’t the only point of data shoppers use in their decision. So what does drive customer’s decision to buy? The following factors play a major part in their choices:
- Perceived value
- Excitement
- Trust
For this reason, you should have VDP’s that go above and beyond the basics. They need to show why your car is a good value and a great fit for them. This can be done by spotlighting special packages or features. If you’re successful, the customer will begin to become excited about the vehicle.
You can also foster trust by being transparent with the information you display. Include customer reviews of the model and the vehicle history report. This is information they’ll already be looking for, so providing it to them will show that you’re confident in your own vehicles.
Meet Your Customers Where They Are
Car buyers no longer start their searches at nearby dealerships. They usually begin their search on third-party websites, where they work to whittle down their choice to just a few vehicles at even fewer dealerships. To get feet in your store, you need to make sure their third-party research leads them to your website.
By distributing ads for your vehicles out to third-party websites, you can get them in front of in-market consumers. Make sure that the ads are well-made and informative enough to stand out.
Make Automotive Merchandising Easier
Need help optimizing your automotive merchandising strategy for consumers who are already prepared to buy? MAXDigital makes the process simple.
Our digital marketing platform helps you enhance your VDPs to appeal to the modern in-market customer. It also automatically creates ads and distributes them to third-party websites.
Schedule a demo of our dealership software solutions to learn how we can help you, or contact us at (888) 841-0884.
