Automotive is one of the industries where call tracking is a hot topic. Especially in challenging times for car companies, call tracking is proving its added value. And who better to ask about this than the Online Marketing Director of the only Dutch full-service advertising agency that specializes in the automotive industry? We're talking about David Verheijde of CRC.
Who are CRC and David Verheijde?
"CRC is a retail advertising agency that has now been in existence for 20 years. Originated from the need of the importer of Volkswagen, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, SEAT and ŠKODA to relieve the car dealers within the VAG network in their local marketing and the translation of the national brand campaigns into sales-oriented local dealer campaigns. So traditionally, we are very strong in automotive. In addition, we have made the move into the franchise business. The reason we took this step is that we believe in the local hero. All the knowledge and expertise that we as CRC have gained in the automotive is also of added value for other franchise organizations. We offer everything under one roof: from online marketing to web development and from concepting to creation.
As Online Marketing Director at CRC, I am responsible for digital marketing, innovation and for managing the marketing department. In addition, I still enjoy sparring with clients on issues of digital marketing and conversion optimization."
CRC's approach
Why would a car dealer choose you and not an all-round marketing agency? David: "We have known for 20 years how to use marketing in the automotive and retail sector in the best possible way. CRC is able to map the entire customer journey and even attribute an individual offline sale to specific marketing channels. That is very unique in automotive and in franchising. In the 13 years I have been working in these industries now, I have never experienced another agency doing this same thing the right way. Our distinctive approach, which we developed in the automotive sector, we now also use for franchise organizations. For example, for a fitness club with 29 branches, specifically for ladies. There we even linked the marketing automation to CRM. This enables us, for example, to fire off EDMs (personal emails and other messages) based on the number of workouts a customer does at a local fitness club. Or based on their birthday. In addition, we can see whether online leads become members offline at local clubs and which marketing channels are responsible for these conversions. The latter, of course, is what you want to measure for your conversion attribution."
'Many car dealers miss out on online opportunities'
If you look at the customer journey of car buyers, what role does the phone play in this? David: "That role is very diverse. A lot of telephone interaction takes place when a person is already a customer at the dealership. But even before that, potential customers often contact us by phone. They realize: 'a caller is faster'. But dealers too often miss opportunities in this area, in the hustle and bustle of daily operations. Their websites are also not always optimally set up for telephone conversions. We respond to this very clearly when we build websites for car dealerships. We provide clear call to actions, such as click-to-call buttons. Thanks to call tracking, we can provide insight into the calls. We then integrate this call data into various systems at the car companies. In Syntec, for example. When the dealer answers the phone, he already sees who is calling - the customer card is shown - and the call tracking data is added to that. Then the call is easily processed in the system."
'With Call Tracking, you can safely add 1% to your conversion rate'
That sounds great! And can you also tell us something about the results you are achieving by using call tracking? David: "There are actually quite a lot! An important learning is that you can generally add at least 1% to the conversion rate of your website. Suppose your website now has a conversion ratio of 2%, you can easily turn that into 3% with call tracking. In this way, you can quite easily achieve a 50% increase in your conversion rate. That makes sales managers and online marketers in the automotive industry very happy. They want to generate as many leads as possible. By using call tracking in the right way, your conversion rates go up automatically. And the cost per conversion goes down. That is exactly what you want, and this is what we see happening at several car companies.
'You already know what someone is calling about before you answer'
So what about Sales? Is that department also reaping the benefits of call tracking? David: "You could say that yes! For sales departments, the process of follow-up is further automated and we feed them additional data. If you already know what someone is calling about, before you even pick up the phone, then of course you're bacon. This allows you to respond smartly to the wishes of the (potential) customer, increasing the sales opportunity. In addition, you can trace whether a phone call contributed to the realization of a sale. Including from which marketing channels those calls came. As a marketer, you absolutely want to know that in order to determine an ROI on your marketing activities. We do this by creating smart links between our call tracking software and software at the dealerships where the leads are tracked."
'Longer delivery times may play a role in purchasing behavior'
The auto industry has been having a pretty tough time lately. Think of chip shortages, corona and the collapse of the diesel market. How does this affect your work? David: "You see that almost every brand is facing delivery problems for different models. As a result, brands are mainly pushing the better deliverable models. It is typical automotive that marketing then becomes even more ad hoc and supply-driven. Personally, I prefer to see marketing as an on-going and data-driven activity. Consumer behavior is also changing. It may well be that delivery time will play a role in purchasing behavior. Not everyone wants to wait a year for the car of their choice to be delivered. People may decide to go for an alternative brand that can be delivered faster. You see this a lot with business drivers, who want their car delivered this year in terms of the additional tax liability."
'Without call dates, you're missing an important part of the puzzle'
Thank you for this interview! Very interesting to see how CRC uses call tracking and what it has brought you guys. In closing, is there anything you would like to say to our readers? David: "I can't stress enough that there is still a huge opportunity for car companies to gain insight from which marketing channels calls are coming from and whether those calls ultimately lead to sales. Are you not including your call data in your marketing? Then you are simply missing an important part of the puzzle, which means you are not using your marketing budget optimally and actually end up selling fewer cars or services. Therefore, I would like to invite every dealership organization to get in touch with us. Our specialists will be happy to sit down with you to see how you can get more leads into the showroom."
Wondering how CRC has helped dealerships get more warm leads?
