LET’S TALK CONTENT…
If you have questions when it comes to content for your dealership’s website, you’re not alone. We hear them all the time…
“How do I write content?”
“How do I improve my content?”
But what’s often surprising is how often we hear the question, “What do you mean by content?”
In the simplest terms, anything you’ve made available on your website or posted to your various social media platforms can be counted as content. It could be a simple post on Facebook wishing your dealer principle a Happy Birthday or a 3,000-word blog post on your site about the history of the American pickup truck.
We’re going to leave the discussion of social media posting to another day. For today, we’re going to focus on the three types of content that can improve your dealership’s website, increase traffic, and create greater potential for lead conversion.
NAVIGATIONAL CONTENT
Your website needs to be more than just a showcase for your inventory with some contact information tacked onto it. Now, don’t get me wrong, both are important building blocks for a successful website but Navigational Content is of equal importance, so don’t undervalue it.
Navigational content should be viewed as the starting place for potential clients.
So, where do you start?
Begin by focusing on topics that potential clients will be searching for. Introduce your dealership, and what helps you to stand out from competitors. Stay away from overused cliches if you’re a family-owned dealership, and stop bragging about your expansive inventory. Introduce your dealership in an intimate fashion and convey your unique value proposition. Focus on the unique aspects of your business.
LANDING PAGES
Once navigational content has been created for your page, you’ll need landing pages. To the casual eye, they may seem similar, but think of it this way: navigational pages provide a starting point for visitors, and landing pages build outward from it.
A landing page is a piece of content with one specific goal. Some might refer to it as a call to action but, personally, I think that oversimplifies it.The goal of a landing page is to consolidate information on a specific service, product, or another keyword that exemplifies your business goals onto one page to educate readers. A proper landing page is informative, making it suitable for emails, blog posts, and social media posts to link back to.
In this case, let’s say your goal is to sell Chevy trucks. What you don’t want is a single sentence or just a couple paragraphs saying, “we sell Chevy trucks, buy them here.”
As Wikimotive’s editor, I read a lot of content from major players in the automotive industry, from OEMs, from dealerships like yours, from competitors and from professional content writers. I even read books about content in my spare time. So, trust me on this: don’t be the [censored] that writes a single sentence saying “we sell Chevy trucks,” then ramble on nonsensically for two paragraphs because you think you can trick “good ol’ Google“ into thinking it’s something special. Even if your page (for some ungodly reason) shows up in search results, it doesn’t provide anything of value to a prospective customer. Who’s going to want to buy a truck from you if you can’t give your reader the information they need? Not me, that’s for sure.
You must create your landing pages to provide useful, actionable information for your reader. And since I’m feeling particularly generous today, here’s a few basic points you may want to touch upon:
1. We sell Chevy trucks. (yes, you want to say it – but you’ll need to work a little harder).
2. Tell the reader why Chevy’s lineup of trucks is awesome.
3. Present each model alongside the basic information anyone would need to decide which one best meets their individual needs. You don’t need to break into every little detail. Just give a few key facts, so they’re well-informed when they walk into your showroom. This also helps to convey your authoritativeness to Google, which we’ll discuss more at a later date.
4. Now you can tell them about your dealership, and WHY they should do business with you. Here are a few suggestions:
- What can you offer that your local competitors can’t?
- Do you have a service center that they can bring their new truck to, and what distinguishes it from other service centers?
- How’s your Finance Department, and what empowers them to help your customers find the best financing option?
- And yes, if you want to take it a step further, throw in a call to action. In this case, BUY YOUR CHEVY TRUCK HERE.
It’s that easy. Well, sort of. You will still need to fill in some holes and actually write.
So, we’ve introduced Navigational and Landing Page content, let’s talk about your blog.
BLOG POSTS
The good ol’ blog roll. Content here should be relevant to your dealership and can come in many forms, but the basic principle is you want to create unique content that drives traffic to your website. It should be interesting, informative, relevant to your brand or site, and should set you up as an authority. The more interesting and engaging your blog content, the more traffic it generates to your site. So, like I said earlier, your blog content SHOULD BE INTERESTING.
You want content that people will want to read, and that will appeal to a wider audience. Don’t take the easy way out and write to your built-in audience for a specific model or body style. Branch out man.
Use analytics to define your audience, identify any targets that might be missing, and write content that relates to them. But how? Easy. Focus on hot button topics, like history, major brand changes, hot tech features, and so on. There’s so much to talk about, just don’t limit yourself. Now, go write some awesome content.