Creating a profitable website that’s easy for people to use is super important. Especially for a car business like yours to do well. And it’s the best way to get info from people who are looking for a solution. 

However, getting new customers is crucial. But keeping the ones you have is also a big deal. It helps you know what your customers think. Plus, it will make your business more money.

You may be asking about how this will improve your automotive business. Well, here are five incredible things about having an easy-to-use website for your car business:

Improved SEO: Google and other search engines like websites that are easy to use and give people a good time. If your website is friendly and simple, it’s more likely to appear at the top when people search. This is awesome because more folks will find and check out your website.

Increased engagement: Let people easily find what they want. Let them have fun on your website. The more they do, the more likely they are to stay, like the stuff on the site, and do things like clicking buttons or exploring more.

Enhanced conversion rates: A website that’s easy to use can help turn more visitors into leads. People want to find what they want fast. And this, without getting annoyed. Then, they’re more likely to call you or leave their contact info.

Improved brand reputation: A website that’s easy to use makes your brand look good. People who have a good time on your site are likelier to think your brand is honest and dependable.

Reduced customer support costs: A website that is easy to use can save you money on customer support. When people can find what they want on the website, your support team does not have to help with simple things. This lets them concentrate on trickier problems.

So basically,

• People trust you more when your website is easy to use.
• A user-friendly site makes your brand look better.
• When your website works well, your team can focus on important things.
• People are less likely to leave your site if it’s easy to use.

Let’s take a moment to understand why knowing your audience is important. Then, we go over solutions you can use on your website.

Understand your Audience

Firstly, Whether you’re already in the automotive industry or thinking about getting into it. You need to know exactly who your perfect customer is. And it is really important to understand what they’re like. This will help you create a content marketing plan that works well and lasts long.

The more you can speak directly to them, the more they’ll feel like the message is just for them.

Here is the segmentation for your car business to make your life easier:

1. Demographic Segmentation

• Age (ideal for car dealerships and auto styling shops)
• Income (primarily for car dealerships)
• Location (applies to most car businesses).

2. Psychographic Segementation

• Lifestyle & Interests

3. Behavioral Segmentation

• Purchase history
• Online Behavior
• Vehicle Usage

4. Data Collection & Analytics

• CRM (Customer Relationship Management Application)
• Social Media Analytics
• Industry Reports & Trends.

Now you understand what you need to look out for. Here is helpful information for the individual industry.

Car Dealership Websites ( New & Used )

• Help customers easily find what they’re looking for in your inventory
• Give them a virtual tour of your offerings.
• Make buying stuff from your site simple and easy.
• Let people see what others think about your products or services with reviews.
• Make the online visit feel unique and tailored to each customer.

Auto Styling Shop Websites

• Share all the services you offer in detail.
• Let customers schedule services on your website.
• Give detailed info about each service you offer.
• Show before and after pictures to highlight your service quality.
• Share feedback from others to build trust with potential leads.

Body Shop Websites

• Give customers a clear idea of the costs for repairs.
• Let customers schedule services on your website.
• Send customers live updates on their repair progress.
• Offer virtual consultation to give customers an idea of their repair needs.
• Show before and after pictures to highlight your service quality.

Focus on 4 Keys to Build an Automotive Website

Now, we’ve talked about what needs to be done before creating a user-friendly website. Let’s talk about the important parts of what makes a website easy to use.

1. Responsive Design is like this:

• Looks Good on ALL Devices: Your website looks great on any device.
• Easy to Use: Make your website simple to navigate. People want to move around fast and quickly.
• Professional Look: Give your website a professional look. It’ll create trust and credibility in the minds of your visitors.

So, use a responsive design. Make sure your website is open and enjoyable for everyone. Think of it as having a well-designed house where everyone feels good.

2. Intuitive navigation is also known as your menu and structure of information.

• Clear and consistent labeling.
• Organized structure that is easy to understand.
• Utilize User testing and experiment with different modifications.

Here are a few tips to watch out for:

• Keep your navigation menu short and simple. Aim for at most seven top-level navigation items.
• Let the navigation bar be sticky so it can be accessed anytime.
• Have a clear call-to-action button and describe what they can expect when it is clicked.

By following these tips, you can create a navigation system that is easy to use and helps users find what they need quickly and efficiently. This will lead to a better user experience and increased engagement with your website or app.

3. Fast loading times are essential to make your website stand out.

And here’s why: nowadays, people want information immediately. The human attention span has become shorter. You may not get their business if it takes you too long to answer their question, even if you have exactly what they need.

Here are five tips to make your website load faster:

1. Optimize Images: Make photos smaller, reduce video resolution, or remove decorative photos.
2. Better Hosting Provider: Pick a hosting provider that can handle more visitors.
3. Use Cache Plugins: This keeps your content on your visitor’s device.
4. Monitor and Analyze: Check your website regularly. Observe the changes you’ve made. Do this once a month.
5. Bring down the number of pages that won’t add value to your prospect.

4. Create content that grabs your visitor’s attention and turns them into a hot lead.

We’ve all stumbled upon a website that made us click through the entire site until nothing was left to discover. This magic happens when you follow these three tips:

• Understand Your Audience: Test and determine your audience’s favorite.
• Original High-Quality Content: It might sound confusing, but it’s true. Stock images feel fake. Accurate content about your service or product shows you’re proud of your offer.
• Tell a Story: Share a story that your visitors can connect with. Explain what drives you, showcase faces, and introduce the team behind your organization.
• BONUS: Let your customers speak for you. Showcase their opinions, suggestions, and honest feedback.

Now, let’s think about your website visitors. How do you know if what you’ve made is easy for them to use? Many car shops and dealerships make a big mistake by doing things only once and not considering them for a long time.

Although I want you to be different! I want your business to grow and make more money. So, here are seven ways you can find out what your visitors and customers think:

• On-Page Feedback Form: Ask questions to get feedback right on your website.
• Clever Feedback Form Placement: Put feedback forms where many people visit your site.
• Use Social Media: Make special offers to get honest customer feedback.
• Ask Your Email List: Email your customers and ask about one thing on your site.
• Watch How People Use Your Site: See what pages they look at and what buttons they press.
• Test Things Out: Try changing one thing at a time and see what works best.
• Talk to Your Customers: Call them, send a text message, or even a postcard. Being personal is essential!

As time goes on and you receive feedback, you can make changes. Look for patterns, common problems, or things that people like. The more problems you fix, the more people will enjoy your site. And when people appreciate it, they will tell their friends to check it out, too!

However, over 52% of customers pay more for a better experience. This means that more than half of your customers are willing to pay a higher price for an improved experience. However, most auto businesses do not take any feedback, and when we found a website that does, there was no change or response to the feedback given. Hubspot has a great full comprehensive list of Feedback surveys for any type of business.

But what do suitable feedback forms for car businesses have in common?

They… 

• are easy to answer,
• have open-ended questions,
• are short and specific,
• and are adjusted to fit the customer’s journey.

Before showing examples of a good form, you must mention what platforms or software you can use to create your feedback form.

• Smartsheet: The form builder is free, easy to understand, and can be modified quickly
• JotForm: Offers five forms for free. They offer specific forms for different industries.
• FormStack has a Free Trial, offering an automation feature to let it run without manual work.
• Typeform: The Free Account version is limited. A paid account allows complete control and customization, including branding and color scheme adjustment.

What do great feedback forms look like?

For example, after the visitors stay, they will ask for your stay and its experience. Airbnb personalized the message with the host’s first name.

As an automotive business, you could ask your customer who recently bought anything from you about the experience with your service/sales rep. 

It’s a very simplistic questionnaire, but it has been working for Blick. The question is short. Very easy to understand the question.

You can add your twist to the feedback list as a dealership. Examples are…

• Friendliness of the front desk
• professional of front desk/sales/service personal
• cleanness of facility
• the quickness of being helped
• speed of completing work
• price expectation vs. paid

Alternatively, Columbia is one of our favorites because it implements all variations in one without being too complicated or too long. It starts with a Yes/No approach, continues with a rating style, and ends the questionnaire that lets the customer add their comment to allow your customer to specify the issue they’ve had.

How to get your customers to give feedback for your auto business. Zonka Feedback has also a great article on how to get customers leave feedbacks

Now, a vendor or even a customer needs more time. This means each second is valuable. So, you’ll need them to give you a reason to provide feedback. Our shortlist offers real-life examples of getting your visitor or customer to give feedback.

• On a web page with a pop-up, testing website features.
• On a blog post with a rating scale or yes/no question to identify if it solved your customers’ issue.
• After a purchase, sending an email or text is ideal to access the survey to confirm appointment attendance.
• Lead magnets are best used in advertisements—for example, a chance to win a free inspection when the survey is completed.
• Test different varieties, remove the language barrier, or use emojis instead.
• Have a “Missing Feature” button on the page to allow your visitors to explain their needs. Then, you can choose whether or not the topic can be covered on the website.

Automotive Content Marketing Strategies

Lastly, a content marketing strategy will bring in more visitors. It lets you share your website with current customers and reach out to past customers to tell them about the new stuff you’ve put out there.

What we are looking for is evergreen, value-driven content.

I’ll focus on three types of industries: dealerships, body shops, and auto styling shops.

Dealership Content:

Dealerships have an advantage over other car businesses. They have an endless supply of new products. This means unlimited opportunities for photos and videos. There are always features people need to learn about. Be the one that helps the viewer.

Additionally, you can talk about leasing, financing, and other topics. That helps your potential buyer decide to reach out to you.

Here’s what I recommend on how to apply this to your dealership’s content marketing campaign.

• New-Vehicle hidden features
• Used Car common issue
• Insurance differences
• Unboxing videos
• Customer purchase / Testimonial

Repair and Body Shop Content:

Repair and Body Shops have a disadvantage in not having a particular brand pattern. This makes us more creative and think outside the box.

Great content collaborations work with similar businesses that encourage people to visit you. I.e., Car wash pages and car detailing. And it doesn’t stop there.

You can involve unique care visits, i.e., You repaired an exotic supercar. Or create content with a  local car rental business. Again, the goal is to drive value and collaborate with others with the same audience. Here are five content tips,

• how to avoid accidents
• What’s typically covered within insurance policies
• how to maintain your paint appearance
• special car job
• customer purchase / before after / testimonial

Auto Styling Shop Content:

Now, they have the advantage of clean work that significantly impacts a car’s value based on a customer’s wish. This can be more entertaining, as we noticed a trend for auto styling shops showing how things are done and what the first-time visitor experience looks like. Some of the shops explained the differences between the different products, etc. 

Here, we have the advantage of using value-driven that’s entertaining. It catches the website user’s eye. Here are content tips to consider:

• Product differences
• Legalities in product usage
• exotic car job
• Follow trends in audio and video editing
• Customer purchase / before after / testimonial

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In Conclusion,

Let’s bring it all together. So, you can begin creating a user-friendly website and a marketing strategy. It will help people discover your business, and more visitors will become customers. And it’ll encourage previous customers to come back. The key is showing genuine care & support to your customers.

Understand your Audience, organize your list, and keep it up to date. So, you ensure a great open rate when sending out emails about promotions.

Focus on four key areas of a user-friendly website: design, loading speed, navigation, and the content itself —no fluff — straight to the point.

Collect Customer feedback data in different ways to find opportunities to improve. Encourage inputs with lead magnets so you get more data. The more feedback, the better the improvement can be.

Take examples of the case studies, apply, copy, and use our templates to get the most out of your visitor. 

Lastly, build a content plan. Make it easy to follow through, and you stick to it. The more, the better, but nothing beats consistency. So start slowly, build your confidence, and increase the post frequency.

Use our example to get started and stick with 3-4 ideas. And it will turn your online presence into a marketing powerhouse.

Until next time.

Niclas