It used to be: "Once a dealership, always a dealership." Today, the motto is: "Buy your dream car online at the click of a button".
- Torben Ullmann
Lead management in the automotive trade
Lead management is important for all companies, including of course every car dealership. Efficient online marketing leads to leads that the sales department can exploit. Controlling is now important: it ensures that the company's own marketing activities become quantifiable. What financial expenditure was made for a lead? What does the RoI therefore look like?
What are the goals of lead management?
It is all about generating qualified leads and controlling the related results. The car dealership can use the analysis to adapt its online marketing. After all, a wide variety of online channels play a role:
- own homepage
- landing pages
- E-mail marketing
- Online PR
- Search engine marketing (SEO and SEA)
- social media marketing
- affiliate marketing
Interested parties can come from any of these channels, but these channels cause a different effort in each case. It is therefore very interesting to know how many leads a channel generates based on which activities, what it has cost and what type of prospects it is. The last aspect is sometimes not given enough attention in lead management. There may be channels and activities that motivate a prospect to obtain more information about a car model, simply because a Facebook post, for example, appealed to him or her (was humorously presented or linked to a competition) - but this prospect may hardly ever become a buyer because he or she lacks the financial means for this car brand. This effect really does exist. Anyone who makes expensive sports cars appealing to a young, sporty, male target group is luring them to his site. But these sports enthusiasts do not have the money for the sports car that excites them. That's why people are always talking about so-called qualified leads, namely those with whom you can really do something. For this reason, lead management also pursues the goal of supplying the car dealership with usable leads that convert into buyers. Of course, there should also be many interested parties. In case of doubt, however, the class beats the masses: many useless prospects like the sports fans described above cost resources because they are being dealt with. They just do not buy. Few usable interested parties, however, generate real turnover and profit with less effort.
What does lead management practically do for online marketing?
- attract the right prospects
- Motivate interested parties to take part in the campaign (they contact the car dealership)
- average online behaviour of the interested parties
- Controlling: What happens through which marketing channels?
- Definition of the relevant contents in marketing communication
- Qualify contacts: What is the customer's condition, in what price range does he buy, what brand affinity does he have, how long does he drive a car, is he perhaps a cash payer, how is his solvency?
- Create added value for interested parties
- Optimize response rates
Controlling in online marketing
In online marketing, controlling is almost always done by tracking. It is easy to track digitally on which channel the customer first contacted us. All that is required are tracking tools, while powerful CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software evaluates the data. There are, of course, limits to the assignment, as we have already noted in another article: The customer may have become aware of the vehicle and the dealership through other channels before. It is possible that he or she will be asked to clarify the assignment. But even if not: An optimal (no maximum) control is better than no control at all.
Any more questions? Would you like more information? We look forward to hearing from you.
Feel free to contact us today to discuss your challenges and to learn more about whether Automanager is the right tool for you.
Our tip
On trend
Recommended articles
The online used car market is booming! The importance of used car exchanges for the car market can also be seen in the figures: In 2023, over 6 million people in Germany will have
In today's fast and digital car trade, one thing is clear: data is the key to success. Every customer who enters your dealership, sees your online advertisements or
Social media platforms are leading the way: Our purchasing decisions are increasingly influenced by visual stimuli. Of course, this also applies to the car trade. Today's car buyers demand
Digitalization has long since found its way into the car trade and is having a lasting impact on the industry. But where do we currently stand? At the moment, the industry is