Businesses Need to Focus on Getting to the Point with their Advertising

There’s a saying that goes something like this: “Give me the baby. I don’t need the labor pains.”

This definitely applies to modern digital marketing and advertising. It’s actually contrary to certain trends. Faster internet connection, faster mobile devices, and a resurgence of multi-step digital processes point to the concept that perhaps we don’t need to be so focused on getting to the point, but the other factors point in the other direction. Most notable of these factors would be the fact that people have been forced to jump through hoops in the past and those who emulate this same process will not be rewarded.

One of the most obvious scenarios where this continues to happen today is in the automotive lead selling segment of the industry. Companies have been generating and selling leads to dealers, finance companies, OEMs, and other vendors for nearly two decades now (yes, it has been that long). There’s nothing wrong with them and they have their place in the world to jumpstart sales and increase opportunities, but the system has flaws that go contrary to the trends. First and foremost, people are filling out fewer forms, particularly on the third party sites that feed them the leads. They’ve already been burned in the past when they filled out a lead form and were contacted by several entities that the lead company sold their information to, something that people are more sensitive about today than ever before.

Even if you take away this as a negative and point to the idea that businesses need more leads for this very reason, there’s still the concept of “cutting out the middle man” that people appreciate. If they’re going to look at a car, they want to be able to contact the dealership that has that car directly. Third party sites are great as a gateway and there are reasons that people go to them, but they are also usually the step before the final step – finding live inventory on a dealership’s website itself.

This is one of the reasons that LotLinx intrigued us so much. The service is one of the very few that we actually partnered with in order to offer it directly to dealers. They cut out the middle man. They take the traffic from these third party sites and brings it directly to the vehicle details pages on the dealership’s website. Rather than dealers paying for leads that may or may not be exclusive to them, they pay for traffic to their website from the same sources in order to generate leads that they know are directed at them and them alone.

As we continue to explore them and other services that “get to the point”, we’ll want to take into account what has happened in the recent past and where that points us in the future. That’s not to say that businesses and marketing companies should be guided strictly by trends. There are things that have worked in the past that will likely continue to work into the future. However, staying mindful of the way that people interact with businesses and the experience they want to receive will help businesses and marketers keep their advertising focused on the things that are important.

via Soshable | Social Media Blog http://ift.tt/Tv06A1