The Secrets to Growing Your Website’s Leads, Calls & Sales: A Button Strategy That Drives Leads!
As I wrote in the previous post in this series, a button strategy that drives leads is one of the simplest changes you can make to your website that will immediately drive more sales leads.
So simple to get right… and so simple to get wrong.
Buttons? Really?
Buttons are so important to the average car dealer’s website and its ability to generate sales leads, that they probably deserve their own blog series. In fact, when doing your buttons right, it’s not just about which buttons to use, but a complete button process.
Buttons, by the way, are about all conversion: convincing a website visitor to take a few steps to generate a sales lead or actual sale; instead of just browsing and abandoning your site.
A good button process starts with awareness, then action, and finally completion. This means visitors must be aware of your buttons; they must see them. Once they see your buttons, they must want to take an action; that is, they need to click on your buttons. Finally, once they click on your buttons, you need them to complete the form you’ve presented.
That’s the button process – let’s call it Buttons 101.
Bad Buttons?
Let’s be honest, do your buttons drive an awareness of what you need from visitors? Do your buttons entice consumers to take an action? Do those that click your buttons also complete your forms?
Awareness comes from placing your buttons where they matter while using a color scheme and contrast that is both noticeable and pleasing to the eye. Placing your buttons as close to your vehicle pricing (whether on a Search Results Page or Vehicle Details Page) is critical to getting them noticed. Now, just ensure they’re not white buttons on a white background and you’ve probably created sufficient awareness.
Button Hierarchy
Our data shows that button combinations just thrown together usually won’t convert at the maximum rate. It’s only when dealers use the proper buttons based on a button hierarchy do they achieve the highest conversion rates possible. The right mix of buttons, in our experience, is one that contains three to four buttons with at least one each coming from the following groups:
- low commitment buttons, like “check availability”
- medium commitment buttons like “value my trade”
- high commitments buttons, like “buy it now”
The commitment we’re discussing here is the commitment in the mind of the consumer. The level commitment in each these groups (low, medium, high) is determined by how much personal information or time a given prospect might feel is required to complete the task or process that a given button indicates.
Low Commitment Conversion Buttons
The following are some examples of what are usually considered to be low commitment buttons; as consumers don’t feel like they will need to exchange very much of their private information to achieve whatever goal the button verbiage indicates:
- check availability
- get e-price
- share this vehicle
- verify first
- calculate payment
- save vehicle
Medium Commitment Conversion Buttons
Here are a few of the medium commitment buttons that will certainly generate leads, but where consumers understand that more of their personal information may be required to complete the process promised by the button verbiage:
- let’s chat
- schedule a test drive
- get price alerts
- request more information
- value my trade
- personalize my payments
- contact us
- schedule test drive
High Commitment Conversion Buttons
Finally, here are a few of the buttons where consumers understand that by clicking on them, they may need to exchange or provide a lot of private information in order to achieve whatever goal they have in mind:
- buy it now
- apply for financing
- start my deal
- lock in my price
- make offer.
- text us
Generally speaking, if you will include one low commitment button, one medium commitment button and one high commitment button everywhere that you include conversion buttons on your website, you will achieve higher conversion rates than those dealers that include just one button, or just buttons from one level of the hierarchy.
Next up in this series: Can You Have Too Many Buttons?
(If you’re catching this series for the first time, you may want to begin with the first post: Before You Change Even One Word on Your Website…)
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About TheManager:
Steve Stauning, creator of The Appointment Culture and an expert in Digital Marketing and Website Conversion. He is also an extremely popular keynote speaker, writer, and industry consultant. Learn more about Steve at SteveStauning.com.