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It’s not enough for your auto business to have a website. It must have a website that actively drives interested prospects and customers toward connecting with you.

One way to do that is by setting up your online presence so it regularly and effectively drives calls to your auto business.

Driving phone calls is how you connect with new leads, inform customers about your products and services, schedule appointments, and initiate upsells and cross-sells. So if your online presence isn’t leading web audiences to call your business, use these tips to fix it.

Optimize Your Website

The first step in using your online presence to drive calls to your auto business is optimizing your website. There are strategies you can implement to get more of your website visitors to call you.

  1. Utilize click-to-call buttons. If you want online audiences to call your business, you must make it easy for them. Set all of the phone numbers on your website as click-to-call buttons. When your phone numbers are set as click-to-call buttons, they are an active hyperlink that users can click on to dial the number. With this strategy, website visitors can simply click on the link to dial your business from their mobile device.
  2. Think about mobile first. Most of the calls that you drive from your online presence will likely come from mobile devices. Interested customers often search for local businesses on their phone and use click-to-call buttons to contact those businesses. So as you design your website, always think about that audience. Design your website in a way that will appeal to mobile users first and desktop users second.
  3. Feature your phone number at the top of your homepage. A lot of businesses hide their phone number in the footer of the site. But if you want to drive more calls to your auto business, your number must be front and center. Include it at the top of the page so mobile users see it right away.
  4. Feature your phone number on all landing pages. Your phone number should be at the top of all pages, and it should also appear again throughout landing pages that promote your services. Consider the experience of someone who uses a mobile device and scrolls through your page. They don’t want to scroll back to the top to call. Includes numbers in other areas so they can easily click-to-call.
  5. Use call-to-actions that tell people to call. Don’t just insert your phone number in random places on your landing pages. Use your copy to guide readers to know why they should call, and then use call-to-actions that come right out and tell users to click-to-call.

Once your site is optimized for driving calls to your auto business, it’s time to drive traffic to your website.

Drive Traffic With Paid Search

If your website is new or you are just starting to use your site to drive calls to your auto business, you may need to invest in paid ads. Organic traffic is difficult to grow in the early stages of your online presence, so invest in paid ads to drive calls right away.

  1. Launch Google ads. Create an account for your auto business on Google Adwords. Start by creating a few ads for your most profitable services.
  2. Add your phone number to your Google Ad. Because your goal is to drive calls to your auto business, create ads that feature your phone number and use copy that tells audiences to call to learn more.
  3. Utilize Google Call reporting. Utilize Google’s call reporting feature that uses forwarding numbers to measure the performance of your calls and call-only ads. This reporting method will help you measure your performance and perform the next step.
  4. Test, test, test. A paid Google ads strategy is not something you set and forget. To get optimal results, continue to review your performance and adjust your campaigns based on what is working and what is not.

You can also use Google ads to promote landing pages on your website (instead of focusing solely on a click-to-call ad strategy) because your online presence is optimized for driving calls. Try both and see what works best for your business, products, and services.

Leverage Incoming Calls

At this point, you have done a lot of work to start driving calls to your auto business. But the work isn’t over. You do not want to succeed in driving calls to your business and then fail to capitalize on the calling coming in. You need to create a plan to manage the influx of phone calls. To do that:

  1. Don’t drive phone traffic when your business is closed. If you’re using ads to drive calls, set the promotion schedule so ads are off during your non-business hours.
  2. Answer and route calls quickly. If you can’t manage your calls with human resources alone, utilize VoIP phone solutions and auto attendants that can quickly answer and route callers.
  3. Never leave callers in silence. Even with a strong answering and routing system, it’s likely that some of your callers are going to be left on hold. Use on-hold messaging to engage waiting callers or risk having them hang up. Sixty percentage of callers left on-hold in silence will hang up.
  4. Use voice talent that matches your brand. If someone clicks-to-call your auto business from an ad, the phone call could be one of their first touch points with your brand. Make sure your business is accurately represented by using voice talent that matches your brand voice and style.
  5. Educate and sell to callers while they wait. A caller is an extremely engaged prospect. Capitalize on having their attention by sharing messages that greet, help, direct, promote, and educate callers.   

There is no reason to drive calls to your business if you aren’t equipped to handle the calls when they come in. So make sure you’re prepared to manage and capitalize on calls before you start driving calls to your auto business.

Drive Calls to Your Auto Business & Beyond

Your online presence is an important part of your auto business. Once you optimize it so it regularly drives calls to your auto business, it becomes even more powerful.

Use these tips to create a system that drives calls to your business. Then, develop a customer calling experience plan to ensure that when people call, you are using every opportunity you have to connect and sell to them.   

To learn more about getting the most out of your customer calling experience, get our free ebook that is jam-packed with tips and tactics to increase your revenue with a strong on-hold messaging plan.