TK Carsites

There are a lot of numbers (and names for these numbers) being thrown at car dealers that they "should" monitor to understand the effectiveness of their websites.  Conversion rates, indexed pages, bounce rates, stickiness, click thrus - all are being tossed around and used to highlight the prowess of websites and lead providers.

Are they important?  Usually, yes.  Are they the bottom-line indicator of the health and effectiveness of a website?  Absolutely not.

In the end, the only questions that really matter are:

"Am I getting more leads?"

"Am I turning more leads into sales?"

Your dealership could have the greatest conversion rate in the world with 0% bounce and 15,000 indexed pages, but if it isn’t converting MORE leads that turn into MORE sales, it’s all just smoke and mirrors.  Here is a breakdown of the subtle techniques used to promote websites and ways to get to the real meat:

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Technorati Tags: automotive websites, conversion rate, conversions

I was reading an article recently about some of the differences in the ways the two campaigns operated during this past election and some things really jumped out at me.

From their first meeting in early 2007, the Obama team faced an uphill challenge. They had almost no money and were facing a primary opponent who had a lot of money and a well-established organization. But, they decided to make the Internet the core of their strategy. As a result, they were able to get more local volunteers on the ground in key states than their opponent, which was especially important in smaller states and caucus states.

Next, in the general election, they decided to actively compete in 18 states that no one thought they could win. Instead of focusing on the same blue states that democrats had always focused on, they would use the Internet to raise money and spread their message in those 18 states. No one took their strategy seriously, including the McCain camp.

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One of the biggest misconceptions in the automotive website business is that the more pages you have, the more leads your website will produce.  There are arguments in both directions, but one thing is definitely true:

The more QUALITY, LEAD-GENERATING pages you have, the more leads you’re going to get.

This is not an entry into the debate over indexing inventory versus not.  That’s an entire other post.  Today, let’s explore the power and effectiveness of landing pages both as part of your website as well as outside of your website.

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Technorati Tags: automotive landing pages

Every four years, many people hold their breath.  It’s not their lungs that they tighten up - it’s their pocketbooks.  Non-essential spending is pulled back and the car business takes the hit.

I’m talking about Election Day, of course.  When we decide as a country who to put in the White House, there is a natural tendancy for many to delay major decisions until after the results.  The funny part is that, regardless of who wins, those people who were waiting are still going to buy a vehicle regardless of which side they were on.

Call it the "Brace for Impact" philosophy.  Call it whatever you want.  People who need a car will buy a car.  Even if the election has very little impact on their purchasing decision, it’s a common perception that it will, so people wait.  With the economy in its current state, this is probably amplified even more.

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Technorati Tags: Car Sales, election

One of the most perplexing aspects of working with special finance customers is that many are reluctant to give the information necessary to grant them a loan.  Just about everyone understands that you need a job, a social security number, and a residence to get a car loan, yet they are often hesitant to reveal this information, especially when they’re visiting a dealer’s website.

The average car dealer website only generates a handful of credit leads per month, yet many of our clients have seen over 1,000% increase in credit leads the first month they get our websites.  There are three reasons that our 30-Second Credit Application is more effective:

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Technorati Tags: credit leads, finance, lead generating

As our company grows, I am able to get out into the field and talk face to face with clients and prospective clients more so than ever in our history.  In my travels, I have noticed a change in the mindset that many car dealers are using when it comes to their Internet department and their dealership as a whole.

It used to be that the Internet Sales Manager or BDC Manager was a salesperson or sales manager who had the strongest knowledge of the Internet.  This person would coordinate the leads, work with Internet vendors, and fix internal and external problems related to the web.

Now, we are seeing more and more dealers hire people from other industries, including IT, finance, and marketing, to come in and work with the technical side of automotive Internet marketing.  Other dealers are taking their current ISMs and getting them the training they need to be ahead of the curve.

Regardless of the way that dealers go, most are heading in the same direction: towards having an Internet department run by people who know more than just how to run Outlook and their ILM/CRM.  In this tough economy, it is so important to either have the right people in the right position or to enable those in the position to gain the proper knowledge necessary to effectively lead their departments from every angle.

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Technorati Tags: automotive technology, bdc, ism

When I was selling cars, I noticed something that was consistent at all of my dealerships.  When the Internet first started taking hold, car dealers were reluctant to spend money on it.  The scale was off for some reason.  They would cut corners and pinch pennies when it came to spending thousands of dollars on their website, marketing, online classified sites, and third-party lead providers.  While they were figuring out ways to spend less on the Internet, I was spending more… and smiling all the way to the bank.

For years, car dealers had no problem with dropping tens of thousands of dollars on television, radio, and newspaper, yet there was a stigma about marketing on the Internet, their virtual dealership, a marketing platform that people trusted that would draw more traffic in a day than their physical dealership could get in a week, even a month.  I always had the advantage over my competitors because I believed in 3 letters: SGS.

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Technorati Tags: automotive websites

It’s a tough market.  We all know that.  BusinessWeek paints a grim picture with two recent articles, one that shows that auto sales have been sliding for 11 straight months and another that shows a shakedown for domestic auto dealers.  For dealers to avoid being a statistic, they have to take the bull by the horns, roll up their sleeves, and do something that many have not done in a long time.

They have to take chances

This doesn’t mean that car dealers need to bet their flooplan money on the ponies or start buying shares in AIG.  What they need to do if they want to have a chance in this volatile automotive market is to get out of the mentality that the Internet is something on the side and really dive in head-first.  It is an investment, and one that can truly make a difference in the level of success a dealership can enjoy.

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Technorati Tags: automotive websites, jim bradford, tk carsites

The more I talk to car dealers, the more I realize that we are in the middle of a "breakout" age for marketing online.  We hear from so many Internet managers, general managers, and even owners about how they are ready to take their Internet marketing to the next level.

The question is, "What is the next level?"

With so many options available for getting inventories, branding, and additional services out to the masses, it can be a daunting task to choose how to spend the Internet marketing budgets properly.  Most dealers are starting to allocate more money to the Internet and less to traditional media, but the different options make putting together a proper strategy challenging.

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Technorati Tags: automotive internet marketing

The economy is down, but help is on the way.

Gas prices are high, but they seem to be looking better than they have in recent months.

Competition is tight, but both the OEMs and other dealers are doing things to bring that level down a bit.

Overall, it appears that the automotive industry is ready to be rejuvenated in the coming months.  Before the skeptic in all of us starts chiming in, consider the following points:

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Technorati Tags: car business