On the topic of Automotive parts websites, we're going to cover some important considerations for a website, technology that will improve the customer experience, and a common mistake that most companies in Automotive make when launching a new website. This is part of our series on Automotive website design...
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Ease of use has to be a top priority when planning an automotive parts website, and it can be the biggest challenges with web design, especially if you have multiple categories of products. Your home page will typically attract the most visitors so it's essential to have a nice modular layout that allows visitors to easily jump to the sections most relevant to them.
Starting off with the right page template pack makes it much easier to achieve the optimal page layouts and website structure. Because it's linked to ROI, we always start with the HubSpot CMS as it shows you what pages generate the most website visitors, leads, and customers, the source of your best customers (so you can spend more time investing in those channels), allows you to make updates without a programmer, and because it's all-in-one with the other sales and marketing tools.
We typically head over to the HubSpot Marketplace and shortlist three website template packs that are the best fit for each company. This takes away the heavy lifting without the need to develop each page and code from scratch. Then we modify each of the templates with the right branding, logo, and style as well as modify layouts and structure so they're fit for purpose. An example of one of the template packs we used recently is the Growth Series Pack in the HubSpot Marketplace.
Smart content is a great way to signpost each website visitor as it can be setup to automatically change for each person based on their location or based on the information you have stored about them in your CRM. With Smart content there's no need to have a 'one website for everybody', instead you'll have 'a website that works for each person'.
This one is simple: Not asking your ideal customers what they want.
You cannot make sensible decisions about a new or updated website unless you have the facts. Some of those facts come from data analysis in tools like HubSpot and Google Analytics; however, the most powerful facts come from researching your customers and prospects. Knowing what they want and what they need are critical parts of planning a new or updated website.
A typical list of what your ideal customers want is:
Just based on that typical list we know that the website should have a knowledge base of articles, automated emails to keep contacts information on the latest innovations and regulations, a document management section where customers can login to access the latest documents, lead nurturing to educate around customer support, and live chat with AI to instantly answer common questions and route through to sales and support staff.
You can find previous posts in this series on our blog, at iTunes and Soundcloud, or on YouTube.