This was a question I asked a customer recently, he didn't have a Valuations tool on his web site.
On further questioning there were three reasons given.
As many of you will know, I'm a great fan of Marcus Sheridan and his "They Ask, You Answer" philosophy (if you are into sales and marketing, this is a must read!!).
The principle is simple - if you want to engage with prospective customers and ensure they do business with you, your web site and social media should be about the Questions that your prospective customer will be asking and delivering answers to these - even if the answers mean that the prospective customer decides that you aren't the supplier for him.
In this case, from a Prospect's perspective. It's 8pm at night, and they are thinking of buying a new car. One of the key questions that he will want the answer to is "What is my car worth?". We Buy Any Car is so successful for example because it gives an instant valuation for the vehicle.
So, if the prospect goes to your web site, and he needs to know what the value of his car is before he can work out what cars he can afford. If your web site doesn't give him an answer, is it likely that the prospect will put his tablet down and make a note to call the dealership the next day? or is it more likely that he will keep searching until he finds a web site that does.... ?
It is clearly very important that you can give him an answer to this fundamental question.
But, we can't see his car, so any value is approximate and is useless? or is it?
This is actually a fantastic opportunity to engage with the customer, build up trust and keep him on *your* web site.
So, the journey goes like this. The prospect clicks on the "Get a Value for your Car" button. This opens a page which prompts for the car details and the basic condition. It is here that the magic can start.
Simply the page needs to explain in a sentence that part exchange values vary depending on the actual condition of the car. This can link on to a second page or a video which explains how you value cars (it can talk about CAP values for example) and what effects the value - so it can show images of scuffed alloys (-£50 each) or small dints and scratches (-£50 again) etc. This will give the prospective customer a real idea on *how* you come up with a value, and how he can adjust this to be real for his car.
More importantly, it will take him five minutes to consume this information and because you have demystified the process, you have gained his trust. He can then continue his journey on your site with the warm fuzzy feeling that you are a company he would want to do business with.
At some point, he may put an enquiry on a specific car, make a phone call or come into the dealership - but the key is that he does this when *he* is ready, not when you are.
In addition, writing this sort of article on your web site and maybe generating a video will give a large amount of collateral for your Social Media. Social Media is all about gaining trust from your audience, and becoming a thought-leader in your field. So, you automatically have social media posts with titles such as :-
These all will click-through to the pages you've already written, drawing them into your web site, gaining further trust with you so when they are ready to buy a car they will contact you. In addition, even if they aren't ready, they are more likely to refer their friends to you..
Maybe it's time to review your web site, from the perspective of what does your customer want to know, rather than what do I want to tell them.
The team here at Navigator can help with your Web Site, your Social Media - take a tour on our web site to find out more about how we can help
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