As we know, the wealth of information available online has transformed the way consumers are making their purchasing decisions.

For example, booking a holiday without reading independent reviews beforehand is now seen as a risk for the buyer, and we are now seeing the same trend rippling over to many other sectors, particularly when the customer is spending a large amount of money on the product. With a new car arguably being the second biggest purchase made by customers, it’s only fitting that they ensure that they’re making the right decision to best suit their requirements.

Understanding the way that this online content can influence purchasing decisions, however, opens up many doors for manufacturers and dealers to engage with the right audience. Typically, if consumers are in the market for a new car they won’t change their vehicle every year, so knowing when to target customers, and more importantly, what to target them with, is vital.

Whilst sounding easy in practice, the time and effort it takes for dealers and manufacturers to create content, analyse data, qualify leads and contact customers can be a lengthy process, particularly when content is being uploaded on a daily basis by other content providers.

Having undertaken a recent survey into online researching decisions in the automotive sector, it also appears that manufacturer-led and dealer-led content is not what influences purchasing decisions the most. Although consumers placed importance on this, with 37% listing this content as influencing their decision, independent professional reviews (63%) and editorial reviews (50%) are far more likely to cause consumers to take the next step in their buying process.

What’s more, customers are dedicating a fair amount of time to their research, with the majority spending more than four months reading reviews before they’re ready to make their decision – and only taking a month to put an order in once their research is complete.

Given the length of time it takes customers to research their car purchasing decisions, manufacturers and dealers alike are faced with more challenges to disrupt this experience and influence purchasing decisions from the offset. Not recognising the sources consumers are using and assuming a customer has no knowledge of what it is they are looking for when they walk through the door puts dealers one step behind the customer.

Dealers must therefore get back in front by understanding what their customer wants, and when they’re ready to buy if they are to maximise their window of opportunity to sell, and catch customers at the right moment.

This requires an understanding of data and the knowledge about the customer’s online journey and preferences, if it is to be successful. We’re noticing more that it’s easy for customers to compare prices and check other deals whilst shopping – and a third of our respondents admitted that they’d be doing just that on their mobile phones whilst in the dealership. The way products and offers are marketed must therefore be communicated throughout the whole journey from research to buying, if they are to get noticed by the customer.

Ultimately, it all comes down to developing a personal relationship with each individual customer – and part of that includes knowing what will cause them not to buy. This insight is just as important as knowing what to target customers with – and allows marketing messages to be pulled together which address these points. For example, we know that a deterrent for customers is when stock isn’t available within a certain time frame.

Using this to send messages to customers that outline delivery dates and what is available for customers transforms the marketing approach.

With the growth of digital channels, completing research online is a natural progression for any customer before they make a big purchasing decision. Those that recognise, understand, and most importantly use information available to understand their customers’ needs and preferences will find it easier to keep their monthly sales figures high.

 

By Chris Smith, Head at CarKeys

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