A Harris Poll study came out recently and found that the top two methods adult consumers use for gathering information for a purchase decision were using a website (36%) followed by talking to a salesperson (22%) at a local outlet. By comparison the very hot social networking websites like Facebook are only at 4%.
If that’s the path consumers tells us they take, let’s help them get from your website to your best local dealer more easily and better informed.
The best way to do that is to do a much better job of bringing dealer information up to your national website.
One brand person told me that the site’s job was to make their product so compelling a consumer would overcome any obstacle to find it locally so he wasn’t worried about the dealer locator. He’s no longer with the company.
I don’t care how good your site is, for most durable goods the consumer still needs to talk to the right salesperson and it’s in the brand’s best interest to make that happen. Unfortunately, most brand sites almost hide their dealer locator and then provide little or no information to the consumer about the local retailer. A map and a phone number isn’t good enough anymore.
Granted it’s not always easy to get the information about your local retailers but it’s worth the effort.
If you have an online ad builder for your dealers than that’s the place to gather local information for publishing on your site. A good ad builder should allow the dealer to load information about his company giving consumers a reason other than just price to buy. And, if they do have a promotion going, load it in the ad builder and have it published on the brand site.
With good information about the dealer on the site then the dealer locator can become a quick path to a sale. No reason to hide it anymore. On every product page there should be a option to “Find Locally”. When a consumer enters their zip you can then let them see dealer microsites loaded with great information.
The Internet has given brands a much better way to communicate with consumers, now we have to get much better at what we tell them.