|
About Me
Working in web design, my job is to help dealers. This blog is my take from the other side, discussing what they SHOULD do. It’s my gripe area. Recent Posts
Categories
Links
CarSpace Automotive Website DesignThere is such a wide range of styles that different car dealers use for their websites. Some are too flashy, some are too boring, and others fall right in the middle where they belong. This blog will discuss the options and what customers want from a dealer website. Sep 3, 2007 - A Social Network for Car DealersCar dealers, as I've said in the past, are often 1-2 ears behind the internet trends. Recently, there has been in increase in the number of dealers interested in services that have been around for a while: Search Engine Optimization, Blogs, and PPC Marketing. One item that I created recently to help auto dealers and anyone in the industry to stay informed is an automotive social network on Ning. Unlike a blog, here the members can all post their stories and thoughts on the front page. They can post pictures, videos, whatever. They can make comments, share concerns, offer links -- a true social gathering. This Car Dealer Network is social and informative. The goal is to help members by letting them help other members. Hopefully, some will learn, some will teach, and everyone will enjoy.
Aug 12, 2007 - Making Auto Websites Quick and Easy to UseHave you ever been to an automotive website that just didn't make sense. It ran you through page after page, link after link, sometimes leaving you without every having found the information you needed. In frustration, you called the phone number (if you could find it) and got the information the old fashioned way. Others may even leave the website completely and go to a different dealership that was able to meet their needs. Read the article on making automotive websites flow at Auto Dealer Website Design. The article is very short, quick, easy, and delivers all of the pertinent information necessary for a dealership to have an effective website. Isn't that how the website itself is supposed to be? Most people hate shopping for cars, but at least the Internet has shortened the amount of time people spend dealerships while also reducing the number of dealerships that need to be visited. When you can narrow down your choices, it makes things much easier. Too many dealers are still trying to confuse and frustrate people through their websites by making them force the consumer to contact them if they want information. Even prices are not always posted on websites, which absolutely blows my mind and turns me off. It reminds me of the old saying when something doesn't have a price tag. "If you have to ask the price, you probably can't afford it." The only difference here is that it the quote needs to be changed a bit when dealing with car dealer websites that do not put their prices on there: "If you have to ask the price, we probably have it priced so high that you wouldn't come by if we told you, so we won't post it and we'll hope that you either show up or call so we can talk to you about how good of a deal it actually is despite what Edmunds says about it." Sheesh!
Jul 31, 2007 - My Car DealersI thought it would be good to write a post about the car dealers that I optimize. You see, I am a search engine optimization consultant and marketing specialist for several websites. My goal is to get them ranked to the top for their respective markets. Here are some of the ones for whom I am currently working: In the Portland, OR area, buying a Honda, Toyota, Scion, Lincoln, or Mercury is easy with Griffith Motors. Parts of their auto group are Portland Honda, Portland Toyota, Portland Scion, and Portland Lincoln Mercury. They have been in business for a long time and they know how to treat their customers. For those near Harrisburg, PA, they should visit Harrisburg PA Ford Dealers. As a Roush Mustang dealer, they are one of the top domestic dealerships in the state of Pennsylvania. Atlantic City Chevrolet Dealers has one of the best websites on the east coast for selling automobiles. GM is starting to do well again, so Bennett hopes to start attracting more visitors to their site. I will update this regularly. It would be boring to continue to list automotive website after automotive website, so for no, this should be plenty to browse. Enjoy!
Jul 26, 2007 - Why Car Dealers don't Understand SEOBelow is a short and somewhat strange (but true) article about search engine optimization and why car dealers sometimes just don't get it. People in the automotive industry are not unintelligent. They are professionals who have a deep layman's understanding of buyer psychology, marketing, business planning, and, of course, sales theory. Those who think that car dealer employees in general are dumb are walking into the negotiations ill-prepared. SEO, on the other hand, is not difficult to grasp, despite general feelings to the contrary. It's about content, placement, and links. Nothing more. Still, the services can be time consuming, and thus, expensive. The basic reason that auto dealer decision makers do not get into SEO the way they should is because they cannot fathom spending more money promoting the site than having the site built. This is a concept that isn't unique to the car business, but is extremely wide-spread. Read the full article by clicking on SEO for Auto Dealers.
Jul 23, 2007 - Car Dealer Website Features: Credit Application - Good or Bad?Every car dealer website should have a secure credit application. It's a given that many people interested in buying a car, especially those with credit challenges, will want a way to get approved for a car loan without having to drive to the dealership. There are simple in-house forms out there that work well, prompting for people to give a ton of information, but these are normally not optimal because they present the information in a long, exhaustive format that begs for people to give up and move on. There are super-integrated forms that do everything from walk the people through the process in steps to pulling the credit and delivering it to the dealership, while sending a pre-approval email to the person. While these are attractive to a dealership, they have many pitfalls. All it takes is that first person who comes to the dealership, drives a few cars, negotiates, and walks into the finance department, only then pulling out the pre-approval printout and demanding to know why their financing isn't already set up. In that instance, the sales team gets flustered, the finance department gets more flustered, and the GM or owner gets downright irrate over having to apologize and explain that "pre-approval" doesn't necessarily mean they have the loan. The best option is one that mixes the best parts of both. Dealers like Atlantic City Chevrolet Dealers and Harrisburg PA Ford Dealers have a 30-second credit application that walks them through the process, delivers the information to the dealership, but makes no promises to the customer without a contact from the internet department. This is a much more honest process that collects more credit applications, and thus, more leads, without giving the consumer any false information. To answer the question of whether credit applications are a good or bad feature for car dealer websites, the answer is "Maybe." It depends on the credit application itself.
|
