“To a brick-and-mortar business, location is everything. Opening your store in a place where lots of potential customers see you can provide a huge boost to the success of your business as it increases traffic and exposure. That said, today many businesses offer goods and services to people who’ve never set foot in their physical location, owing to an established online presence by means of a responsive website.”
What’s on the Page?
This section is broken out into five main components to help you better understand how to create an optimal website. Let’s start with overall user experience.
User Experience
First, while we are talking about websites, user experience (UX) is not relegated to digital alone. How a consumer experiences your website should match how they experience your dealership, your social sites, your radio and TV ads – everything. So, when applying UX best practices to your website, you need to put your customers first and consider their preferences and expectations in how you build their entire experience with your brand.
You might also be confused about the difference between UX and UI, or user interface. UI can fall within UX because it’s about the look and feel, but UX goes broader.
CareerFoundry explains that “UX design is all about the overall feel of the experience,” which should connect to how consumers experience your brand and stores everywhere they find it, “while UI design is all about how the product’s interfaces look and function.”
“Have the interface and experience work effectively when someone is glancing through your website quickly. Websites are scanned – not read.”
“Be concise. Anyone surfing your website wants clarity and simplicity.”
Digital Retailing
It is important to provide creative avenues for customers and prospects to shop and purchase from the comfort of their own homes.
It is just as vital to ensure consumers know about your offerings, and your website is the obvious first place they’ll start when considering a purchase or service decision, even if they’ve been loyal to your store in the past.
If you haven’t already, consider implementing immediately: Virtual Showrooms & At-Home Services.
This is becoming more common and available, and rightly so, giving shoppers an opportunity to better view vehicles online and even make online purchases. It also keeps your dealership accessible to customers if they aren’t comfortable or able to go to the store in person.
Luther Automotive Group is just one example offering No-Contact Sales and Service, all the way from searching online to delivery. Acton Toyota in Massachusetts is another that has service (pick-up AND delivery), 100% online purchases (with delivery), and even 24-hour online service scheduling.
Offering at-home pickups and delivery services should be the norm for every dealer because consumers expect it today.
“Offering at-home pickups and delivery services should be the norm for every dealer because consumers expect it today.”
Some examples for how and where to let consumers know what you are offering are:
- Website banner – whether as a popup, part of your top image carousel, or in your navigation, make it clear on your homepage what you are offering for a digital retail experience,
- Social posting – that means on Facebook, Twitter, even LinkedIn, and through video where possible, so you are visible where your customers are,
- Digital advertising – you may consider cutting back on TV and radio spend, but don’t cut digital where you can measure ROI; stay top of mind while consumers are surfing online.
A great example can be seen on the homepage for Toyota of Irving, where they include information in their image carousel to make their offerings clear.
Today’s consumer landscape is certainly different, but consumers still need vehicles and servicing on the vehicles they own. Follow the recommendations above to ensure your consumers are consistently engaged and educated.
SEM Management
SearchEngine Journal says that “growth marketing is essentially the path to attracting the right visitors to your business. Not just the low-hanging-fruit, top-of-funnel visitors, but those who are ‘sticky’ and likely to lead to a conversion or sale.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the unsung hero — and the secret weapon — for today’s growth marketing leaders.”
“Growth marketing is essentially the path to attracting the right visitors to your business.”
First, consider your goals. Just like with deciding the purpose of each page on your website, what is the purpose of your marketing efforts? Once you know your goals, align your marketing to accomplish them.
Do you want sales, service, loyalty from current customers? Likely all three and more, but each campaign should keep a narrow focus on that goal.
Next, be sure that you are delivering value to each person who meets your target audience, so they have a reason to complete your calls-to-action.
Are you targeting at the next level or just the way you always have?
Build out specific personas for who you’re targeting, choose keywords that align with each, and keep consistent with your messaging – both in your marketing, search engine related or otherwise, and where consumers land on your website.
And finally, be smart about Paid Search. Did you know that customers who click paid search or social ads are more likely to buy and spend more, and that running search and display at the same time can double your conversation rate?
You know it’s important to have an amazing website, so work on better ways to get people there and to engage them when they arrive.
“The digital marketing metrics that matter end in conversions and increased ROI.”

About the Author
Amanda Meuwissen, Content & Brand Manager at Outsell
Amanda Meuwissen is an accomplished marketer and published author. Amanda has over ten years’ experience managing website, blog, marketing automation, and social media content for both publishing and SaaS companies, as well as creating other online and advertising collateral.
Hubspot certified with HTML, graphic design, and a professional editing background, Amanda wears many hats in both the marketing and publishing industries.
Amanda Meuwissen
Content and Brand Manager
Mobile: +1 612.236.1519
Email: Amanda.meuwissen@outsell.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-meuwissen-b7678215/