Why Mobile-First Marketing Matters To Automotive Dealers

Auto deal­ers can suc­ceed at mobile-first mar­ket­ing by fol­low­ing these best prac­tices.

Troy Smith By Troy Smith from Search Optics. Join the discussion » 0 comments

Mobile has nev­er been more impor­tant to the auto­mo­tive indus­try. Recent research shows that 63 per­cent of car shop­pers engage in “show­room­ing” – exam­in­ing mer­chan­dise online via mobile while phys­i­cal­ly shop­ping an auto lot. Of the mobile con­tent sought out by these shop­pers, 51 per­cent per­tains to price, pay­ments and offers, and 29 per­cent is inven­to­ry infor­ma­tion. These num­bers indi­cate that large num­bers of cus­tomers are rely­ing on mobile not just for pre­lim­i­nary research, but also as they make final deci­sions about what to pur­chase and where.


It is imper­a­tive that auto deal­ers reach poten­tial buy­ers dur­ing the crit­i­cal final stages of the shop­ping process. But with so many cus­tomers using mobile devices to cross-shop right from the deal­er show­room, get­ting and keep­ing their atten­tion is more chal­leng­ing than ever.

Cus­tomers need a sim­ple, reli­able way to access inven­to­ry and pric­ing infor­ma­tion from their mobile devices. If a buy­er lands on a dealer’s mobile web­site and it’s miss­ing key fea­tures and func­tion­al­i­ty that help make their buy­ing expe­ri­ence easy, that deal­er will like­ly lose the cus­tomer to a com­peti­tor.

In this envi­ron­ment, stan­dard mobile-friend­ly web­site design isn’t enough. Tra­di­tion­al­ly, deal­ers have tak­en an adap­tive approach, which uses a pre­de­fined lay­out set for pop­u­lar devices. It strips out key fea­tures of a reg­u­lar desk­top web­site to make it fit onto small­er screens, result­ing in web­sites that do not pro­vide a con­sis­tent expe­ri­ence across all devices – and that may not func­tion at all for some mobile users.

The Impact of Mobile-First Web Design

To stay com­pet­i­tive, auto­mo­tive deal­ers must deliv­er infor­ma­tion about their inven­to­ry and offer­ings in a for­mat that’s mobile-first, not just mobile-friend­ly.

A key com­po­nent of a mobile-first approach is respon­sive web design, which brings cus­tomers a ful­ly rel­e­vant, view­able, and search­able expe­ri­ence. Because a respon­sive design doesn’t com­pro­mise the integri­ty of the exist­ing web­site, it deliv­ers the best pos­si­ble user expe­ri­ence on any device, any time.

Addi­tion­al­ly, a respon­sive web­site pro­vides a vast­ly greater degree of func­tion­al­i­ty for the con­sumer, cre­at­ing a major com­pet­i­tive advan­tage for deal­ers who are will­ing to embrace a mobile-first men­tal­i­ty. When users can more eas­i­ly find the infor­ma­tion they need, engage­ment increas­es, which is why respon­sive web design has been proven to gen­er­ate bet­ter leads and improve deal­er­ship calls and vis­its.

The 5 Keys to a Mobile-First Approach

Deal­ers can suc­ceed at mobile-first mar­ket­ing by fol­low­ing these best prac­tices for respon­sive web design:

  • Form begets func­tion: Mobile-first web design means think­ing about the needs of mobile users before any­thing else. When build­ing an inven­to­ry search tool, for exam­ple, it’s crit­i­cal that the inter­face is ful­ly func­tion­al and easy for cus­tomers to use on mobile. Then back into the desk­top ver­sion, which will only be rich­er and fuller in func­tion­al­i­ty.
  • It’s all about the results: Regard­less of how web­site design­ers think a mobile site should look and func­tion, the key is test­ing to make sure the users are get­ting what they want. The func­tion­al­i­ty of a mobile site should be the first pri­or­i­ty, not an after­thought as it often is with tra­di­tion­al “mobile-friend­ly” sites.
  • Know what they’re look­ing for: A mobile-first web­site pro­vides users with easy access to con­tent they’re look­ing for. While it may not be fea­si­ble to deliv­er all the con­tent users would see on a larg­er screen, it’s still pos­si­ble to give them access to the most impor­tant infor­ma­tion.
  • Keep them engaged: In order to keep cus­tomers engaged, it’s crit­i­cal to design mobile-first web­sites with the user’s per­spec­tive in mind. This means tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion what they’re look­ing for and how they’ll find it. For exam­ple, it’s impor­tant to direct them to a vehi­cle of choice, a phone num­ber, a CTA, or oth­er rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion.
  • Pri­or­i­tize con­tent: Mobile-first web­site design­ers need to pri­or­i­tize con­tent, since not every piece of con­tent can be viewed on a small screen. Thought­ful pri­or­i­ti­za­tion of con­tent means users are always see­ing the most impor­tant mes­sage. It’s also crit­i­cal that CTAs are log­i­cal for mobile users; for exam­ple, users are unlike­ly to fill out a form on a mobile device while on the go.

Mobile Is Critical For Auto Dealers

In near­ly every indus­try, shop­pers have come to expect a ful­ly immer­sive mobile expe­ri­ence that offers easy access to prod­uct infor­ma­tion on any device. And just as impor­tant as the user expe­ri­ence is Google’s recent announce­ment of its plans to add a mobile rank­ings fac­tor to its algo­rithm.

Google already gives mobile-friend­ly sites an advan­tage by tag­ging them for users. Soon, sites that haven’t been designed for mobile might not show up in search at all. These devel­op­ments mean mobile-first mar­ket­ing using a respon­sive approach to web­site design will only become more crit­i­cal — for most any retail busi­ness.


Are you deliv­er­ing infor­ma­tion to con­sumers about inven­to­ry and offer­ings in a for­mat that’s mobile-first?

Troy Smith

Written by Troy Smith

President, Search Optics

Troy Smith is president of Search Optics, a leading digital marketing provider with a specialty in automotive. Troy has a diverse background in digital marketing, technology, automotive and sales, and he helps thousands of automotive dealers and OEMs integrate digital marketing campaigns that emphasize quality lead generation.

Inked is published by Linkdex, the SEO platform of choice for professional marketers.

Discover why brands and agencies choose Linkdex

  • Get started fast with easy onboarding & training
  • Import and connect data from other platforms
  • Scale with your business, websites and markets
  • Up-skill teams with training & accreditation
  • Build workflows with tasks, reporting and alerts

Get a free induction and experience of Linkdex.

Just fill out this form, and one of our team members will get in touch to arrange your own, personalised demo.