Evolving Call to Actions - should ePrice die?

[Alex Snyder]

The importance of websites drastically changed this year and I'm not convinced everyone has woken up to where that fully takes us. Digital retailing might be making leads, but it isn't creating much more than that on an appreciable level. It makes me believe we are still using the same old Calls to Action with a lack of understanding of the consumer's mindset.

I'd like to throw these CTAs on the table for debate:

• ePrice
• Get Price
• Your Price
• Buy Now
• Express Purchase

Who believes these are the right CTAs?

 

[rickyfay]

Everyone talks about "Transparency" but e-price, get price and your price are not transparent. One Price is the way to go. I recently moved to FL and can't believe the dealer fees here. According to state statute advertised prices are to include everything the consumer will have to pay with the exception of tax, title, registration and plate. I see Doc Fees of $600 and dealer prep fees of $999 in disclamers on multiple websites. These same dealers advertise $X below KBB fair market value for their pre-owned vehicles. Talk about deceptive advertising, come on. We as an industry are our own worst enemy. Advertise a real price and everything else takes care of itself. Advertise the fact that there are no dealer fees. This is what the consumer wants. Having $1,600 added to your puchase price with no benefit after you've decided on the vehicle you want just angers the consumer.

 

[ChrisR]

The importance of websites drastically changed this year and I'm not convinced everyone has woken up to where that fully takes us. Digital retailing might be making leads, but it isn't creating much more than that on an appreciable level. It makes me believe we are still using the same old Calls to Action with a lack of understanding of the consumer's mindset.

I'd like to throw these CTAs on the table for debate:

• ePrice
• Get Price
• Your Price
• Buy Now
• Express Purchase

Who believes these are the right CTAs?

I LOVE those CTAs...




for my competition's sites.

 

[Josh S]

Most of these CTAs infer that individuals are going to get different prices (for whatever reason) further promoting the sentiment that everyone involved is going to have to grind each other into misery.

 

[BillKVMotorCo]

Just like everything else, these CTA's used to have a place until people realized what clicking those CTA's really meant. We actually had a great experiment with this. When we first started using Gubagoo's VR tool, the button said, "Get Payments." We wanted it to be more clear that it was a full DR tool so we changed the button to "Buy Now." Clicks on the button reduced about 80%. So yeah, if you have that as a CTA it is time to move on.

The only exception we allow to any of the above CTA's is on our Toyota site. We have a button that says, "Confirm Best Price Instantly" that opens directly into a chat so that we can instantly tell people when we are priced below MAP pricing.

 

[Rob]

Just like everything else, these CTA's used to have a place until people realized what clicking those CTA's really meant. We actually had a great experiment with this. When we first started using Gubagoo's VR tool, the button said, "Get Payments." We wanted it to be more clear that it was a full DR tool so we changed the button to "Buy Now." Clicks on the button reduced about 80%. So yeah, if you have that as a CTA it is time to move on.

The only exception we allow to any of the above CTA's is on our Toyota site. We have a button that says, "Confirm Best Price Instantly" that opens directly into a chat so that we can instantly tell people when we are priced below MAP pricing.

Ahh the lengths we have to go to to get around MAP.

 

[BillKVMotorCo]

As a smaller BP dealer we actually like MAP pricing. We can compete with the big guys better. We're rooting for GM to go with MAP pricing which they are already slowly moving towards with their new AIS standards. I always joke that we accidentally sell Toyota. We spend $0 on Toyota and still smoke our numbers. If GM goes the same direction we will dominate our market. We better be careful though. This could start a whole different debate and I don't want to hijack the thread.

 

[John V.]

"Get Today's ePrice"

Now & Forever!

Ask yourself - do you want 100 leads that sell 10 cars leaving you 90 people to sell cars to in the future. - OR - do you want 15 leads that sell 10 cars leaving you with only 5 people to sell cars to in the future?

That really is the debate -in my opinion.

100 people are more likely to go "yea sure why not" and click you eprice button vs. maybe 15 that go "Buy Now?! Hell yea gimme gimme!"

 

[Dan Sayer]

Speaking of something that should die, Ford just showed their future version of Chevy's Shop Click Drive with a main CTA of "Buy Now". I would challenge anyone to show me, in automotive digital retail, where "Buy Now" out-performed something. Well unless someone tried a CTA of "Bend Over".

 

[GerryFoster]

So...what are CTA's that perform better? (genuinely curious, and woefully underinformed).