Ask a dealer or general manager where most of their leads come from. “Newspaper,” some will say, and still others, “Radio.”

Occasionally, a dealer cites their own website or credits an online classified site like AutoTrader or Kijiji Autos. Most likely, no one will say “a pediatrician’s office” or, “minivans at the stop light by the dealership across town.”

Yet mobile is the single fastest growing segment in digital (digital is the only media to actually grow in 2012 over 2011 levels of consumption and user engagement), and your customers are using mobile platforms every day to search your cars, find your store and get information about shopping your sales or service department.

According to a recent landmark publication authored and contributed to by the “who’s-who” at Google, 79 percent of consumers say they use their smartphone to help them make shopping decisions.

This same study noted that digital media sources are heavily relied upon in shopping decisions, but almost twice as many sources are used by auto shoppers.  And yet this stage of research is not replacing traditional media in terms of brand building or top-of-mind awareness.

Rather, digital platforms including social, desktop search and mobile search are being used by consumers to help them quickly and efficiently seek out highly targeted information, which will either reinforce their opinions about brands and products or change the focus of their subsequent research.  In short, everything a prospective car buyer needs to know about your dealership they can fit in the palm of their hand.

Think about it: It takes a lot of effort to drive in to a dealership.  Some effort to pick up the phone and call. Still a bit of effort to power up the laptop and connect to the Internet from your home office.

But there’s no work involved in mobile search, really, when the device is probably within arm’s reach 24 hours a day (two-thirds of smartphone owners sleep with their phone beside their bed!), and always connected to the Web with only a few keystrokes required to render neat, tiny little pages of mobile optimized search engine results or reviews.

This explains the level of mobile engagement, with  2012 seeing 82 percent growth over 2011, in terms of time spent online via mobile (Source: Nielsen).

So what do you need to know about mobile to capitalize on the massive traffic and potential customers to be had? For one thing, know who your audience is. Nielsen data suggests that women and people aged 25–34 spend the most time shopping via mobile through either social or Web apps.  Use of apps via mobile is absolutely viral, with sites such as Pinterest posting nearly 1,700 percent year-over-year growth.

Post relevant content that is either review related or research driven, in bite sized chunks that lend themselves to pinning or +1’ing to synthesize the reach of social networks with the enhanced credibility associated with digital word of mouth. Do this, and you will be rewarded by people who are actually interested in and have a need for your product.

Mobile allows you as a dealer to reach potential car buyers in hard to segment urban areas, fragmented suburban centers and multi-cultural pockets with efficiency and authenticity.

As a working mom who is on call seven days a week for dealers (and the kids), I estimate that over 90 percent of my Web browsing takes place on my iPhone. A good percentage of that is in waiting rooms, line ups and other effectively dead zones where I am forced to hurry up and wait.  It may take me six different sign-ins ofthree to 10 minutes each to figure out what hotel to book for my anniversary, but I can pretty much guarantee I will do it on Safari or via a reservations app — possibly while I am already en route!

I think I’m a pretty desirable customer: reasonable expectations, willing to pay for a great experience and customer service, pleasant to deal with. If you want to attract customers like me, make sure you are a desirable digital dealer, and follow these basic guidelines on your mobile website:

1. Make sure you have a mobile site. Period. Nothing is worse that zooming in a scrolling around to try to push a button on the screen.
2. Activate click to call so I can call you with just a push of a button.
3. Keep it simple. Make it easy for me to find the things I most likely came to your site to do: browse cars (include sub menus on deeper pages), contact you or find your store.
4. Make it make sense. Remember that mobile shoppers are often multi-tasking, so don’t make me think too hard or fill in too much information. I once spent twelve minutes trying to order a pizza on my iPhone and have it delivered and finally gave up and drove over to get it. Nothing should be that complicated!
5. Let me talk. To you, your employees, your other customers. Provide plenty of quick contact forms and actually monitor them.

In the past 12 months mobile has virtually exploded and is connecting busy people to the information they need in a more efficient and customer-driven way than has ever been possible before.

So when your sales managers tell you that all your leads are walk-ins or from the local paper, ask them where else the customer found you. With stats showing over 18 online sources consulted for every car shopper, chances are good that your opportunity to sell more cars is right there in your own hand.

Cathie Clark is the director of Automotive Insider Consulting.