HOW DO I OPTIMIZE MY AUTO DEALERSHIP WEBSITE FOR MOBILE DEVICES?
If you missed our previous article, 10(ish) Mobile Usage Statistics and What they Mean to Your Business, you can find it here.
The world has shifted to an online presence that is impossible to ignore. Consumer purchasing habits have altered in such a way that every business needs to re-examine their marketing strategy to make sure it includes a consistent and dynamic brand engagement strategy and a powerful internet presence. One of the biggest missing pieces from the puzzle is mobile optimization.
Optimizing your dealership website for mobile use is integral to your business because it’s now a part of how people search, research, shop, and purchase. See our last article to see how North America is spending their time on their mobile devices and you’ll realize just how important a mobile web presence is to your business.
WHY GO MOBILE?
1) It’ll create better brand engagement. The average user will impulse-search on their mobile device as a foundation to searching more in depth later. By creating an engaging and interactive mobile experience for your dealership you’ll be reaching your customers at their first stop on the buying journey.
2) It’ll allow you, as a business, to easily adapt to the consumer buying process. According to a recent Google report, 90% of people will move between devices when searching. This process is called multi-screening and it comes in two forms:
- Simultaneous Usage – This is the act of using more than one device at a time for the same or related task. For example, using your phone to browse a dealership website while looking up user reviews about the brand and product of interest.
- Sequential Usage – This involves moving from one device to another in order to complete a specific task. For example, searching for a dealership in your area on your phone and browsing the main site later for product info on your desktop.
By optimizing the mobile experience to make it easily transitionable between devices you’ll be creating a bond with your customers and fostering a trustworthy relationship that has the opportunity to continue through the sales and buying process.
3) It’ll give you access to the 1.2 billion people who are using their mobile phones to search the internet right now, as you’re reading this article.
4) And most importantly, if your competitors aren’t already working on optimization for mobile, they will be after they read this article. You should too.
HOW DO YOU CREATE A MOBILE EXPERIENCE?
Here are the things you’ll want to bear in mind when looking at optimizing your website for mobile devices.
1) Make it fast! 57% of mobile customers will abandon your site if they have to wait 3 seconds for a page to load. That’s all you get! The memory span of an average goldfish. A properly optimized site will have to load quickly or you’re going to lose over half of your business.
2) Streamline the user experience to encourage multi-screening. Make sure the transition from your desktop site to your mobile site is fluid and consistent. With over 90% of people searching and browsing this way, you can’t afford not to.
3) No flashing! Flash content doesn’t work on most mobile devices or will require the download of a plugin so best to avoid it for your mobile site. Users hate nothing more than to be greeted with a ‘You Must Install Flash to View this Video’ . . . and ‘POOF’ they’ve already moved on to the next site.
4) Eye-catching design elements. Ensure your brand messaging, calls to action, and key selling points are displayed in a fashion that will make your customers want to click on them.
5) In this particular case, bigger is better. Having to pinch to zoom is a big no-no. Your site should be easily readable without the user having to manually increase the font size.
6) Provide easy and interactive navigation. Simplicity is often best when it comes to your mobile site. Getting from A to B, then taking a look at C, then hopping over to D in order to submit a sales lead for your auto dealership, should be a stress free experience. If the user doesn’t figure out how to navigate your site on the first try, over 50% of users will simply leave the site.
Optimizing your website for mobile devices and providing a friendly, no-nonsense, attractive, engaging, and interactive experience needs to be an essential part of your marketing strategy. Combining this optimization with campaigns, social media marketing, and your online presence is a sure recipe to encourage customer engagement, inquiries, and sales.
*Statistical data sourced from 2013-2014 reports by Google, Latitude, Nielsen, Trinity Digital Marketing, and Forrester.