Dealers Receive More High Quality Leads Using This Strategy

As I continue to build out my online course for dealers and managers who want to learn more about Customer Data Platforms (and related topics: identity resolution, data hygiene, and marketing automation), I decided to share a strategy contained in the course which can help dealers increase retention rates and generate more leads to move inventory now.

Outside of automotive, it is very common to see ecommerce websites chase consumers who have left something in their shopping cart without purchasing. The image above was included in an email from Cigars.com which said:

"You picked out some excellent items?but left them?behind in your cart. Hurry back to make your purchase before it's too late!"

In many cases, retailers also offer a discount code to further entice a consumer to complete the purchase. Does it work? Yes! In fact, some consumers abandon shopping carts deliberately just to see if they get a discounted offer. Do you?

The point is that ecommerce companies know when customers are on their websites shopping. Most dealers are only counting leads in their CRM, yet more opportunities can be extracted from their websites!

Why are we not using this strategy for automotive website retail tools?

What if I told you that I created a video to explain how to implement an abandoned shopping cart strategy for your website? A strategy which could create higher quality leads and create an elevated customer experience?

Car Dealers Don't Transact Online - But.....

Now, some readers may push back because they don't see the opportunity, so let me make my case before you watch the video I created. All dealer websites have Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons, which launch automotive retail tools. Here are a few examples below:

These CTA button may open simple forms, but others have multi-step tools for trade values, calculating car payment (i.e. DR tools), applying for financing, scheduling service, etc. Today, most dealers only KNOW a very small percentage of the people who use these tools because they only wait for a lead.

Less than 25% of the consumers who start a CTA process give their personal information: email, phone, and name.

In the example below, 87 consumers clicked the blue CTA button to get a trade value and 44 completed some of the steps in the process but stopped short of giving their name, phone, and email. Twelve people (14%) completed the process, and dealers would see 12 trade leads in their CRM.

Why settle for 12 leads when you could identify more of the 44 people who were very engaged with your trade tool? By knowing what they were doing on your website, you can craft a special communication or offer to get them to re-engage, just like cigars.com did to me.

Even More Important For Service

This also applies to your service scheduler, which for years has been a black hole for online marketing! A small percentage of the people who start a dealer's service scheduler complete the booking. Many of the consumers who start the service booking process are existing customers, or live locally (i.e. high value leads).

What if you could know when your customers (in your DMS) are on your website using trade, digital retailing, credit, or service scheduling tools but don't complete the form?

Identity resolution frameworks can unlock abandoned shopping cart leads when implemented across iframes!

Sadly, many of the dealers who have identity resolution tools on their websites are unaware that the consumer shopping activity inside their "iframed" retail tools (i.e. DR, trade, service) are not connected to the digital ID assigned when the consumer first visits the website.

In many other cases, some retail tools are not sending ASC events for each step in the workflow so you can differentiate engaged shoppers versus accidental CTA clicks.

However, when implemented correctly, dealers can be notified when known customers or previous leads (CRM) are back on the website working inside these important tools.

The context is critical to make proactive engagement effective.

Explainer Video: Abandoned Shopping Carts in Automotive Retail

I created a video to make the case for implementing an "abandoned shopping cart" process on dealership websites. This explainer video is one of the many videos that will be included in my online course on Customer Data Platforms (CDP).

This course is included (free) in your ticket purchase to attend the 2024 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC), and I will be also conducting a two-hour workshop on first-party data management using CDP technology. I strongly encourage dealers to send someone from their marketing department to DMSC because the next generation of technology to accelerate sales and retention rate will be demonstrated.

Watch Video Below

You can click below to watch the video, and I encourage you to share your feedback.

If you enjoyed this video, and want to learn more about how to manage and activate your first-party data, join me at DMSC in Austin Texas, June 2nd-4th. Questions? Just send me a message on LinkedIn.

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