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10 Effective Strategies for Car Sales Lead Generation

by
Megan Thorp
September 2, 2021

With car buyers spending most of their time searching for cars on the internet, consumers are no longer as dependent on salespeople for information. That means by the time a customer comes into a car dealership, they already know what make, model, and year of car they want to buy. With so many of the purchasing decisions being made entirely online, you need to be taking advantage of marketing and lead generation to be competitive. But what's the difference between a good car sales lead and a purchased list of contacts?

While running down a list of contacts may feel productive, it's usually a significant waste of time. Most of the people on that list haven't opted-in to your marketing campaigns and aren't even in the market to buy a car. These leads are costing you money in wasted time and resources. At WinnowPro, we solve the challenge of finding good leads through utilizing our AI-powered solutions, helping increase your new vehicle sales and lease penetration.

Effective car sales leads are classified as:

1. Backed by Data

2. Competitive

3. Engaged

4. Forward Thinking

5. Innovative

6. Insightful

7. Local

8. Proactive

9. Specific

10. Timely

Backed by Data

Good car sales leads are data-driven. You can spend thousands of dollars in marketing without results if you target ads towards people who are not ready to buy. Fortunately, in today's internet age, there's never been a better time to find those people who are primed to purchase from you. To do so, however, requires tools to analyze data and use it to improve your marketing and sales leads.

Competitive

Convincing buyers to purchase from you rather than your competitor is a demanding but necessary part of marketing. Most consumers are willing to consider up to eight different brands before they make their final decision. You need to understand your target audience and their concerns and have a plan to solve their problems. Additionally, you need to know your competitors and the gaps in their marketing. Digital marketing leaders will use a profiling database to refine attributions that will help you fill those gaps and stay ahead of your competition.

Engaged

The best partners can give you a variety of opportunities to engage with your customers at every stage of their journey. We understand the importance of casting a wide net across multiple channels to help you achieve maximum exposure. Using a virtual sales flow, we can find the customers who are most likely to purchase from you. Then our intelligent profiling techniques lets you address your customers' pain points using language that resonates with them.

Forward Thinking

Only two percent of web traffic converts on the first visit. Retargeting marketing works to reach the other 98 percent.  Retargeting is effective because it connects with people who have already expressed an interest in your dealership. These are people who may not be ready to purchase now, but WinnowPro can keep your company in their minds across platforms, formats, and devices to stay top-of-mind for their next car purchase. Before people buy from you, they need to feel comfortable with you. A good rule of thumb is that customers need to be exposed to your message seven times before they're ready to buy.

Local

Regardless of how impressive your marketing is, if it isn't targeting people who are ready to buy in your area, it's useless. In 2021, car buyers in the U.S. indicated that the furthest they’d travel to buy a new car is 65 miles. The best digital partners will use precise location data to find customers who are closest to your dealership, and they won't waste your advertising dollars reaching out to customers who are out of your optimal geo-zone.

Innovative

Your profitability should be a priority to your partners. With an constantly evolving digital landscape, innovation and growth should be at the forefront of digital marketing activities. In order to generate leads, partners should leverage established methods such as social media marketing, retargeting, and dynamic display ads, but also regularly evaluate methodologies and develop new ones. Digital leaders will stay on top of what your competition is doing as well. Understanding what they're spending their money on, and the resulting effect, can help you formulate your most effective marketing strategy.

Insightful

Social media is ubiquitous in our lives today. We all wake up checking Facebook and fall asleep to Instagram stories. If you want to reach consumers, you need to meet them where they are. It's no longer enough to create a Facebook business page and promote the cars you're selling. People expect brands to interact with them and address their questions and concerns immediately.

Insightful resource: WinnowPro's automated virtual assistant will help capture your customers' attention and impress them with your responsiveness through an intelligent chatbot available for your website and Facebook business page. Ask us how we can customize the chatbot for your website.

Proactive

The majority of people who visit a website find it through a search engine. Search engine marketing is an important tool to increase your online visibility and drive traffic to your website. By bidding on keywords relevant to your dealership, you can improve your rank in search engine results. A dedicated partner will help you understand how other dealerships near you are ranking and develop strategies to outrank them. WinnowPro helps dealers do this with the Competitive Intelligence Tool.

Specific

VIN-specific advertising targets consumers who are looking for precisely the inventory you have. This innovative marketing technique provides information about the cars in your inventory to people who are actively looking for that information. Your dealership can deliver content specifically related to a potential customer's vehicle of choice. Strategic partners can use your inventory to show dynamic display ads to buyers at the moment they're most interested.

Timely

Effective lead generation tools work at the speed of the digital world. The top-performing partners understand that timing is everything, which is why we send you leads in real-time. You need to be able to reach your customers exactly when they're ready to buy. Leads that are days or even hours old are likely to have already been snatched up by your competition.

WinnowPro Solutions

WinnowPro offers you the latest and most effective car dealership and marketing solutions. We'd love to talk to you about how we can help you generate the most high-quality leads at the most affordable price. Our car sales lead generation experts are happy to answer your questions and discuss the best strategies to position your dealership as a market leader. We want to be your partner in success, so reach out to us today.

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