Web marketing works, there’s no doubt about it, and CarCareCONNECT has plenty of customers who vouch for its effectiveness. Once your automotive website is launched, SEO is getting results and you’re seeing good web traffic, the next step is to get more customers right?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is yes, but you need to understand the type of customer that the web brings you. Potential customers that find you through the web have a different set of needs and expectations than someone who was referred by a friend, or someone who’s car broke down in front of your shop, but how often does that really happen?

Let’s run through a few of the most common types of potential customers from the web:

• Organic searcher: Congrats! You just converted a customer from your website! This is a main component of web marketing, and a sign that your SEO is doing its job. This potential customer most likely searched for auto repair businesses like yours in their area, or services that you offer, and your website compelled them to pay you a visit.

It’s important to bridge the personal gap with these customers. They’re taking a leap of faith by bringing their business to a shop that they don’t know and need to be assured that your website was an accurate prediction of the automotive services they can expect at your shop.

• Pay Per Click-er: These potential customers are shopping around for a service more than any other. They’re looking for a shop to get the job done well, and at a fair price.

• Review Site Reader: While more and more people are reading sites like Yelp and AngiesList these days, most Review Site Readers are especially savvy. They’ve come to your shop because you’ve got a great rating and that’s what they trust. Much like a Word of Mouth referral, many these potential customers are ready to give you business. Make sure you don’t let them down- the consequences can be ugly!
• The Groupon buyer: Watch out for these potential customers. While sites like Groupon and LivingSocial have come under fire lately from many businesses, many small business owners still resort to using them. Groupon buyers are only in for a good deal, and not very many stick around as regular customers.

Now, how do you handle these new breeds of automotive customers? Pay close attention to these tips:

1. Consistency is key. Your first point of contact with potential customers from the web is most likely going to be on the phone when they call to ask about a service or set up an appointment. Some simply drop by in person, but it’s less common. Make sure that you, and your staff, have a method to answering the phone and receiving visitors to the shop. Let everyone in your shop know about the types of calls they might get, and what kind of questions they might have to answer, so you can be prepared to make the best possible impression on web-savvy customers.
2. Keep your staff in the know. If you’re running a promotion, be sure to tell your employees about it. You’d be surprised how many people forget this one! Nothing frustrates a customer more than trying to use a promotion and being told it’s not valid, or that an employee doesn’t know about it or how to use it. That will lose you a customer. Brief employees on each and every promotion you run, how they should handle calls about it, and how to apply it when it comes time to pay.
3. Hold up your end of the bargain. Remember what we said about people taking that leap of faith? Well, it’s your job as a business owner on the web to treat them well and give them the service they came for. If you post an auto repair promotion on your website without an expiration date or forget to remove promotions you’ve stopped running, and a customer expects to use them- you need to honor it regardless. If you’re not able to honor that specific promotion, make sure you figure out another way to make it up to them.
4. Stay up to date on website appointments. Lots of small business websites opt to use an appointment-setting feature on their website where users can schedule an appointment, if not request one. If you choose to feature this on your site, make sure you and your staff check it regularly and always follow-up with potential customers who set appointments, request one or use the “Contact Us” form on your website.
5. Use different tactics for different channels. If you’re running campaigns across multiple marketing channels, such as Pay Per Click, a Groupon deal, and coupons on your website, you need to be strategic about it. Realize that just because all of these people use the web, doesn’t mean they have the same expectations or needs, so they’ll respond to different promotions.
6. Offer web-exclusive coupons. Your website is a great place to offer deals and promotions, but to experiment with effectiveness, you can try advertising specific promotions only on your website. Another way to do this is to make an alteration to an existing promotion and put it on your site. Being able to tell the difference between promotions used on different your website (between those on radio, direct mail, or Groupon) shows you which channels are converting the most customers
7. Use call-tracking. Call-tracking is a popular feature used in PPC, but there are lots of applications for other areas of marketing. Promotions using call-tracking each get a unique phone number that automatically forwards to your shop. When a potential customer calls that number, you can see who they are and what promotion they saw just by looking at the caller ID. This is another effective way to get an idea of which campaigns and promotions are the most successful.
8. Be strategic and aggressive with Pay Per Click. Pay Per Click campaigns are guaranteed ways to boost traffic, but they’re also highly effective at getting more of the automotive repairs you want. Using landing pages, call-tracking and special offers in combination with PPC is a safe bet to success.
9. Always ask new customers how they heard about you. You’ll never know ‘til you ask! (Unless you use Call Tracking, that is.)
10. Understand that times change. As technology becomes more ever-present in our lives, we need to realize that it’s going to change people’s mindsets and how they interact with the world. It’s important not to get frustrated with customers that the web brings to your shop, especially if it feels like they’re much different than what you’re used to. Our society is changing, and like it or not, web-savvy customers are here to stay.