industry expert / technology
for your subprime site that will not only engage consumers and increase the conversion of your site but also provide fan- tastic, rich material for search engines is to create a fre- quently asked question (FAQ) section. Provide useful and educational information to distressed-credit consumers who are researching their credit options. If you can in- corporate information about your subprime process as well as your lead forms and calls to action within the FAQ section, you not only get more traffic from organic search, but you get more leads.
Because a subprime site should be focusing primarily on the credit approval process, the calls to action, the home- page layout, the testimonials and the consumer "trust" symbols are all going to be different from what you use on your primary dealership website. A well-designed BHPH website will have clear
Dealers who don't have a stand-alone subprime
website might be missing out on a very profitable consumer segment in their area.
calls to action like "Pre-qualify in Seconds," "Get Approved" or "Get Financing" on the homepage. There should be testimonials (text with pic- tures and/or video) from satis- fied customers who've gone through the subprime process. (Check out www.frederick carcredit.com for an example.)
If your dealership has a ster- ling Better Business Bureau rating, include that logo by your credit form; if you belong to the local chamber of commerce or Rotary Club, include those symbols on your homepage—give the con- sumer a reason to trust you at the moment they're determin- ing whether or not to fill out
the lead form. Remember, on your subprime site, you don't have to merchandise hundreds of vehicles and segment your traffic for vehicle versus fixed ops traffic. However, you do need to give consumers who already know they have bad credit a reason to trust that you will treat their credit appli- cation as fairly as possible.
Another way to increase your subprime leads is by dedicating some marketing dollars to pay-per-click (PPC) search engine marketing, targeting keyword phrases focused on consumers' needs for "challenged credit" financing. There is no need to include any
manufacturer-specific keywords in your subprime PPC campaigns because most indi- viduals will be looking for fi- nancing not a specific vehicle.
A well-designed and opti- mized finance website can generate some very high conversion ratesboth website leads and phone calls. So, if you have been considering setting up a standalone subprime credit site, I would encourage you to go for it. The data we've seen with our customers suggests there's money to be made if you build out a well-designed website and commit some resources to making it work.
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