Hello and welcome! We’re glad to have you with us watching live. Today, we will be discussing how to optimize your website for maximum conversion. Our aim is to ensure that when visitors get to your site, they are compelled to either call you, chat with you or book an appointment with you, leading to the highest possible conversion rate.

We have found that your website’s ability to convert can make all the difference
between your website and marketing not performing, and your website and marketing
performing really well.

So, here’s what we’re going to cover. This isn’t going to be a super technical workshop, but what we’re going to cover are the strategies that have been well researched, tested and proven to increase the conversion rates of Auto Repair shops websites on the Internet. To be specific what we mean by Conversion Rate is how do you convert more of the potential customers that are already coming to your website into booked jobs?

My main objective, my true purpose for today’s session, is for you to be set up for massive success going into 2024 and beyond. Ok, that’s the agenda, that’s what we’re going to be covering.

Now, let me introduce myself real quick. I’ve been in digital marketing since 2009 and I’m the author of 2 books “The Ultimate SEO Guide for Automotive Service Businesses, How to Triple Your Sales in Record Time!” And “Triple Your Sales and Grow Your Business: The ultimate Internet Marketing Guide to Grow Your Business Online”.

We are the producers of Top Shop Podcast where we interview industry leaders in the
automotive repair space which is what most other podcasts produce but we do something
different, we look for Auto repair shop owners that have been in business 10 years or longer and interview them. Why 10 years? Because research shows 80% of Shops fail within the first five years and another 80% of Shops fail within the second five years. So, an auto repair shop owner that’s been in business over 10 years has proven to us that they are successful by standing the test of time and their insights can be extremely beneficial to other repair shop owners. and We are the issuer of the Golden Wrench award recognizing people who have contributed greatly to the automotive industry. There are many individuals that have really dedicated their life to this industry and have contributed significantly and therefore we provide the Golden Wrench award to select individuals that meet our criteria and make it through our selection process.

If you or somebody you know has made significant contributions to the automotive industry, I urge you to go to goldenwrenchaward.com , I’ll toss that link in the chat right now, and go ahead and nominate the person you know and give them the opportunity to receive this prestigious award. A lot of times people work really hard in their careers. They are authors. They’re the executive directors or presidents of associations or trade groups, and they really appreciate the acknowledgment of their contributions and this is a great way for us to contribute back to the Automotive community.

I make this a very interactive experience. Before we proceed, a couple of housekeeping items: please turn off your cell phones and Facebook. If you’re serious about getting better results from your website, let’s give this your undivided attention. My goal is to keep this to about 30 to 45 minutes.

I will provide you with specific actionable insights on how you can improve your website’s conversion rates. Please let me know in the comments if you’re okay with that, just a quick 1 to ensure everyone is focused and paying attention. We’ve got a great workbook for you which makes it possible for you to easily track along with me, easily follow and enter your notes. So, what I want everyone to do is to click that link in the chat or use the QR code This is part of our overall digital dominance method, where we feel that to maximize your lead flow online, you need to have a great website built to convert visitors to booked jobs, show up organically in the non-paid listings, drive paid traffic with local service ads and Google ads, have retargeting in place to be in front of those prospects that leave the page but don’t convert, have marketing automation in place, and show up in all the places that your clients and potential customers are looking. This is our digital dominance method to maximize your lead flow online.

Today, we will focus on your foundation, which is your website, making sure it is built to convert. This is the bottleneck at which all of your other marketing will either perform well or not perform well. I want to let you know right away that the strategies that I’m about to share with you all come from the latest research. A couple of years ago they found out that 20 to 60% of the traffic to goes to most websites leave on unconverted. This caused a flurry of research to discover what can be done to make sure that we get websites to convert better. Most of what the research came up with was subconscious in the in the mind of the consumer and the biggest was speed to lead. You are 21 times, not two or three times but 21more likely to get a booked job if you get back to top your lead within five minutes so we will be discussing all the follow automation software with you in this workshop.

Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of things, shall we? These sessions should always be framed with a problem, right? What’s the point of learning about conversion if there isn’t a problem to solve? Many of you are making big investments in marketing. You’re investing in, branding, and marketing, and you’re spending a lot of money on website SEO and pay-per-click advertising. many of you have You’ve tried many different companies, and it’s frustrating because you’re getting traffic because you’re paying for Ads you’re paying for Google Ads and Facebook Ads, but not enough leads, not enough qualified leads that turn into paying customers and oftentimes you have a low ROI.

I talk to many auto service shop owners each week, and they say they spend thousands of dollars a month on online marketing, but many only generate enough to break even if that. You’re spending money on marketing, but the results just aren’t there. It can be super frustrating when you’re trying everything, but it’s just not working. Give me a 1 of the comments if you have experienced this at some level, if you’ve experienced this before, if you feel like you’re spending money but you’re just not getting where you want to go.

You’re willing to put the money into online marketing but the results just aren’t there. The most expensive problem to solve right now is finding good technicians and getting them trained. Usually, that’s the big bottleneck in this business. The one thing you can’t afford is a marketing strategy that leaves your shop half full because technicians can find jobs elsewhere and will leave. That will become a massive problem for you. That’s why it is essential to focus on what we will discuss today. Generating leads is critical because it is the only way to grow, serve the community, and maintain a thriving business.

Our goal for todays session is to ensure that you have a great website, a compelling website built to covert visitors into leads. More importantly, these leads should turn into booked jobs, which will provide a steady stream of revenue for your business.

With a full schedule and increased lead flow you’ll keep your techs busy, and you’ll have the confidence to recruit new techs and expand your business. Generating leads and having the ability to turn them into new customers will provide you with the momentum and consistent growth required to take your business to the next level.

Our ultimate goal is to get the phones ringing, and the business booming. What we are going to discuss in the next few minutes it’s how to take the traffic that you’re already getting to your website and convert it to more book jobs without adding to your advertising budget.

“Okay, so your website really is the hub. If you think about your marketing strategy as a whole, whether it’s print ads, Facebook ads or PPC, SEO, etc., the reality is everybody before they convert, which means they pick up the phone and call or they submit a form or they start a chat, they’re going to wind up on your website. So, the website really has to be well honed and built to convert. Otherwise, you’ll be literally hemorrhaging leads and opportunities.

“Let’s talk about why conversion is so important. Say you have 1,500 visitors a month coming to the website, via whatever channel be it SEO, Paid search, organic traffic, whatever and you convert at a rate of 5%. I’ve looked at a lot of Auto service companies businesses and on average they’ll convert from anywhere between 5 and 15%. So, if you look at how many visitors go to your site and then how many actually called in or filled out a form that’s about the average. Let’s say your websites not performing that well and it’s in the lower spectrum around 5%. That would give you about 75 calls or leads. Let’s say your conversion from Lead to booked job, in other words your conversion rate from lead to book job is 30%, That would mean you’d have 22 booked jobs, say your average transaction is $450 I know a lot of you have a much higher average transaction value but that would have you generating about $10,000 in revenue for that traffic that is already existing that’s already getting to your website.

Let us turn the tables and imagine we could generate an equal amount of traffic without spending an extra dollar on advertisements or SEO. Suppose we could increase that to 15%. In today’s session, I will provide examples of auto service company websites converting at a rate of over 30%. I will also show you the elements of a website that contribute to such conversions.

Let us assume, for instance, that you can increase your conversion rate from 5 to 15 without changing anything else. This would generate 225 leads or calls. Keeping the conversion rate constant at 30% you would have 67 booked jobs, and maintaining the average transaction value of $450, you would have $30,000 in revenue, which is a massive increase from $10,000 in revenue.

Therefore, I believe it is crucial to optimize your website’s conversion rate as you can triple your leads and revenue, just by focusing on this one vitally important task. Let’s make sure every visitor becomes more valuable, generating more bookings and revenue for your shop.

Suppose your website is converting at a low rate, and you are losing potential customers. In that case, you must make some modifications to improve it. There are numerous methods to accomplish this. One approach is to provide a very modern and current website design. When the consumer sees a really modern current website, they subconsciously assume the same about your shop.

Another method to get your website to immediately convert better is to provide clear and convincing social proof right in the top loading part of your website. Additionally, make sure that your website has a sufficient number of calls to action otherwise known as CTA’s on your homepage and your most important, relevant webpages.

I’d like to share an example of how this strategy worked for one of our clients, Northwest Collision Center in St Petersburg, FL. Greg came to us with a website that lacked personality and authenticity, making it hard for them to stand out from their competitors, despite having a well-known brand in the marketplace. (show old site) We redesigned their site using the key elements that I’m discussing in today’s webinar, including personality, authenticity, and conversion-focused design. (show new site)

The results were impressive as his revenues were 350,000 when he hired us to over 500,000 in the first 24 months with our company and he is at 650,000 per month in his 3rd year with us. Greg wanted us to focus on Tesla auto body repair as his licensed by Tesla to repair Tesla vehicles. Once we got him right at the top of Google for Tesla auto body repair in Sarasota Tampa Saint Petersburg and Clearwater and by converting more of their existing traffic, they were able to see a significant increase in bookings and revenue. This case is a great example of what’s possible.

Arnolds Auto was with another digital marketing company for years and they could never get them off page 2 of Google. This is hios old website And this is his new website. We got him ranked number one in google organic and the map pack within the first three months

We had of him ranked number one in google organic and the map pack within the first
three months and this is caused a significant increase and is a phone calls.

Now, let’s discuss the 12 critical factors that will help your website convert. I’ll talk about
this at a real high level then we will go into an example. First and foremost, make sure that your website speaks to the target avatar, which refers to the ideal customer you want to work with. Identify their fears, frustrations, and why they should choose your shop over the competition.

Many auto service shop websites are technically heavy or SEO-centric, filled with
keywords and technical terms. Instead, focus on your customer’s problems and what
they are looking for. Speak to them through the messaging and imagery on your website
to increase your conversion rate. So really think about the messaging on the page itself.

The second factor is authenticity. To connect with your customers, use real and
authentic images of yourself, your team, technicians, building, customer waiting area
etc. Customers like to do business with real people they know, like and trust, so
prioritize effectiveness over aesthetics as both are important, but effectiveness
always overrides aesthetics.

The pictures on the website often show a smiling family or a technician in a spotless jumpsuit holding a wrench. These pictures might look good, but customers want to see
the real company behind the website. They want to know that the company can provide
quality service, stand behind their word, and are legitimate. This authenticity will have a
big impact on conversion. Number three. Using video and multimedia on your website is essential. More and more people prefer to watch videos. A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a million.

With today’s technology, you can shoot a quick video either standing in front of your
building, or on your shop floor, welcoming visitors to your website. In the video, you can
introduce your company, explain how you can help, and mention the areas you serve.
Quick videos like this on your homepage and service pages will improve conversion and
engage customers.

In order to improve your website’s stick rate, it’s important to incorporate multimedia
such as pictures and videos. This will encourage visitors to stay longer, potentially
boosting your SEO rankings by indicating to Google that your page is relevant to the
user’s search. Furthermore, multimedia content such as videos of yourself or your
services will significantly increase your conversion rates, as visitors will be more likely to
contact you and choose your services over those of your competitors.

So, consider creating a welcome video for your homepage, as well as videos for each of your services. By creating a short video for each one of your services, you could seriously increase the amount of time that people stay on your webpages. This is noticed by Google and is one of the 200 various ranking factors. Not only will this help with conversions, but it will also be featured on YouTube, which can further boost your SEO rankings.

A quick video, explaining why a customer should consider you or contact you over the competition can be very effective. speaking to the customer, is a simple but effective way to resonate with potential clients and ultimately convert more leads. number four is in order to make your website more effective, we should leverage social proof. This means that most every potential new customer will likely conduct a search to find out more about your business. They will look at review sites like Yelp and Google to see how many reviews you have, your average rating, and what customers are saying about your services. It’s imperative that you leverage that social proof.

It’s important to have these reviews accessible on your website, so people can easily
see that you are a legitimate company. Research shows the best place to put. Your
Reviews is in the header image on your website. This way the moment website load you
just said the subconscious signal to your potential customer that you’re a trustworthy
shop. The reason for the revues in the header image is Mobile.

Number 5 you want to make sure that you have the absolute basics in order.

Make sure that your website includes a phone number in the upper right-hand corner of
every single page and a web form for people to contact you.

Everybody has their own preferred communication method, and many people may not
want to call they may just want to fill out a form, and wait for you to call them back. Be
sure to get get back to them within 15 minutes or the lead goes cold, and they probably
already hired or spoken to somebody else.

You can add credibility factors to your website, such as BBB accreditation or awards like
Super Service Awards. ASA AMRA MAP

Number 6 It’s also crucial to have clear calls to action, which tell visitors what to do next.
Instead of just writing about your services, you should include specific calls to action,
such as “Click here to schedule service” or “Call us at this number for more
information.” At the end of every block of text there must be a clear call to action AKA a
CTA in our industry.

7 It’s also a good idea to offer special promotions or coupons to encourage people to
use your services.

8 is Another important factor to consider is mobile optimization. More than 70% of traffic
to auto service company websites is from mobile devices, so your website needs to be
optimized for mobile viewing. When customers need automotive services, they are typically on their mobile phones, not sitting at their computer, which is why it’s essential to have a mobile-friendly website with a click-to-call function that loads quickly. To accommodate busy customers, you want to make sure that your website is easily accessible from a mobile device and can quickly connect them with your services.

number 9 is Incorporating a live chat function on your website can be a valuable way to
communicate with customers. In recent years, there has been a shift towards customers
preferring text-based communication over phone calls. Text messaging is often seen as easier and less time-consuming than phone calls, making it a preferred method of communication for many people. Would you choose a text message over a phone call to solve a problem?

Let us know in the chat by typing 1 for text or 2 for a phone call. Today’s customer would prefer to engage with you on two-way text. When most consumers are presented the choice of text or call many will go for text messages. However, I feel calls are better as you can talk people into booking much easier but the chat is the starting point of communication with the new customer then you convert it to a call.

We still want phone calls, but we should know that your next-generation consumer would rather do a text. If you don’t have that option for them and they can click to the next company’s website and see the opportunity to text and to schedule their appointment right there without having to talk, they’re going go to somebody else. This could be a reason that you lose some of the jobs you could be getting.

Number 10 is we want to give them the option to book online. The technology exists now with most all shop management software programs, where you can show your schedule online. If you’re not doing online booking, you can expect a 20% increase in bookings just by putting online booking on your website.

Number 11 is site speed. If your website doesn’t load in 3 seconds or less, you’re going to be losing visitors, especially on the mobile device. If they click on your site and it doesn’t load extremely quickly when they’re on 3G, when they’re out in the backyard, it’s going to hurt your conversion rates. It’s also going to hurt your SEO ranking. Site speed is super important.

Last but not least, we want to engage via SMS, phone, and marketing automation. We’re thinking about how to maximize conversion, not just from visitor to lead but from lead to booked job. We want to make sure that we’re putting some automations in place.

When someone calls and we miss the call, they receive a text message. If they fill out a web form with their contact details, we follow up within 5 minutes via phone, SMS, and email. It’s important to follow up quickly because leads that aren’t followed up within 5 minutes tend to go to a competitor. You can fully automate the speed of your follow-up

and multiple touches, which helps you book more jobs. We call it the Speed to lead
advantage and most of automotive service businesses are missing this. Successfully
implementing just this one thing will increase revenues. You want to make sure that you
are leveraging technology and this technology exists now. you can automate the speed
in which you can follow up, also automate multiple touches where that lead Will get
emails or text messages from you.
I know it’s hard to understand this concept just through bullet points, but let me know if
you’re following along with a “1.”

What is the most critical element of the overall success or failure of your marketing
efforts?

It is whether your website is optimized to convert.

I want to show you real-life visuals and the results of when you get this right. Let me
show you one of our clients, Arnold auto located in Ogden, UT. Let me pull up their
website.
The first thing you notice on their website is the personality and authenticity front and
center. The owner of the business is Chad. This makes you feel like you’re dealing with
a real and solid company. You can also easily book an appointment and access their
phone number. These are some of the conversion elements that you can infuse into
your site to improve your conversion rates.
On this small frame, you have everything you need to make a buying decision –
personality, authenticity, phone number in the top right-hand corner. Book a time and
speak to the customer avatar for exceptional service, quality workmanship social proof,
front and center. Let’s talk about the psychological things that your customers are trying
to solve before they reach out to you.

The average conversion rates for auto service businesses are between three and 5%

Now the example that I’m going to show you is extraordinary. People say, oh you can’t
get websites to convert at over 20%. The principles and techniques that I’m showing
you in this webinar, are not common knowledge. The psychological research into how to
climb down into the mind of the Consumer and build immediate trust when a webpage
loads to get these kinds of conversions is out there on the Internet, but it’s not easy to
find. Website design schools do not teach the psychology behind how to get people to
convert or to buy from webpages.

Now, you might be asking how do I get my website to convert like that?

I do have a great resource for you guys. We have a cheat sheet to go along with this
webinar. Just go to autorepairseo.com/cheatsheet that will take you to a page where
you can download our ultimate Internet, marketing checklist for automotive service
companies. This checklist has the power to radically transform your shop. Just go on
the list and check off everything that you know that you’ve got nailed, you know that
you’re really on top of. And then mark off and circle the things that you are unsure of or
you need to find out more about. By focusing on making sure that you’re able to check
off most thing on this list, by the time you get done, you will not have the same shop that
you have now. And your Shops digital presence will be in the top 1 to 3% of Shops
nationwide because there’s one thing that most shops have in common that are really
growing. Is they can check off just about everything on this list.

The next important thing is really making sure that you’re jumping on those opportunities
when they arise and converting them into booked jobs at the highest level possible.

So we firmly believe that if you can see your customers through their eyes, then you can
sell what they buy.

We have to get our message correct on that homepage. What are the benefits of
dealing or working with your shop?

What are the benefits of dealing or working with your shop?
NEW
Building trust is imperative, doing it through a website that has social proof, front and
center mentions of national automotive organizations your shop is affiliated with,
authentic imagery, reviews front and center. It all screams subconsciously to the
consumer that you’re the place to do business with. Now, give me a one in the
comments if you think that your competitors have their Website set up like this. If they
don’t and you’re the one shop in your marketplace that has your website set up to
convert better than your competitors guess who gets the business?
NEW
Very few companies have their reviews right in the top loading part of their website and
that’s imperative, but you can also have reviews on other key pages. Sending a
constant reminder that you are a great shop to do business with.

This is an action webinar. I’m providing information that you can implement right away,
so why don’t we pick three things.
Go ahead and write three things down now that you can do to implement. If you want
more business, you remember the old saying, keep doing the same thing over and over
expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

Here’s why I really think that lead conversion is the big issue: leads that don’t get
followed up within 5 minutes or less go cold.
The average customer needs to be touched 5 to 7 times before booking. Specifically,
I’m talking about those customers that didn’t convert right there on the call. Most shop
owners only take the initial call booked. If the customer calls in and say’s yes you put
them on your schedule. If they didn’t book right on the call, there’s no one calling them
back or following up using a tracker to see where they are at in getting their issue
resolved. So most shop owners leave most of their potential booked jobs on the table.
Lastly most of today’s consumers prefer to interact via text message, verse phone call
or email.

So, here’s the solution. Marketing automation now exists where you can leverage
automation to follow up with your forms in two minutes. Every single form that comes in
can have Automation set up so, as soon as they submit the form, they immediately get
a text message, “we are in receipt of your request and someone will call you back to
you shortly” then you call them right away within a few minutes. How it works Is you’ll
get a phone call and It’ll say “you have a new lead press one to connect now”. You
press one, and it dials out directly to the person who just submitted the form.
Remember many of today’s customer would prefer to interact via text than phone call or
email for that matter.
One thing we can do with automation is to catch unconverted leads, such as those who
did not respond to your email or did not book right away. We can set up automation to
check in with them tomorrow, saying something like, “Hey, you had expressed interest in
____________. Do you still need help with that?” Since it’s a text message, it’s easy for
them to write back and say they’re still interested.
From there, you can send follow-up messages and even schedule a time for them. This
automatic touching can continue until they either book or tell you they’re no longer
interested.
If you had this automation in place where every lead was followed up within five minutes
or less, and every unconverted lead was touched via phone, email, and especially text
message at least five times, would you convert at a higher level?

Just a few tweaks to how your website is set up and how you conduct lead follow up
can have major dramatic changes in your revenues.

Let us know if you have any questions or if you need any help implementing any of
these proven strategies. You can schedule a Discovery Call with us just by going to our
website autorepairseo.com and click on the schedule a Discovery Call button.

You can also reach us at 877-237-6969

if you guys have any questions at all about anything Digital don’t hesitate to call us
that’s what we’re here for. We’re as much of an educational company than a digital
marketing company because we have to make sure that all of our clients understand
exactly what’s being done and how it’s affecting them.

Once again that Discovery Call is the fastest way to get accurate information about your
specific company and your website in your specific market.
If that sounds interesting, you can go to autorepairseo.com/schedule and pick a time.

here are the links to all of today’s free resources. If you’d like us to email you these links
just type in the comments, send links and will get them right out to you.

For anyone with further questions, feel free to reach out to us. we have provided you
with very valuable insight and actionable items to improve your shops, digital presence.
It was once said by someone that knowledge is power, and that is incorrect because
someone came along and made a correction to that statement, “Applied knowledge is
power”, and I agree with that statement. It’s only when we apply what we have learned
and make changes can we expect different results. I’m sure everyone has heard the
statement, doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is the
definition of insanity.
Thank you for your valuable time and attention today.