The car dealer review website decreased load time by 83% making it easier to search for car dealers and read reviews. Waltham, MA (PRWEB) September 29, 2008

DealerRater.com, the nation’s premier car dealer review website, today unveiled the website’s new homepage. This version of DealerRater.com allows users quick page downloads and navigation through the website.

“We were able to achieve faster download time by 83% on the DealerRater.com website by reducing the number of graphic images and optimizing the on-page content. Users will be able to access reviews and search car dealers in much less time,” explains Chip Grueter, president of DealerRater.com. “We are happy to keep our distinctive look, while meeting our goals to offer a site that loads faster and provides quicker information retrieval.”

The homepage strategy will enhance site wide changes already made to benefit the new Apple iPhone and other mobile device users. The iPhone version of DealerRater.com may be viewed at http://www.dealerrater.com/iphone/.

New Homepage Features

The DealerRater.com website maximized its clean and easy to use structure with features such as larger text title bars for easy navigation, a condensed news section to allow users to scan the latest headlines, and a list of the latest dealer reviews posted.

DealerRater.com also introduced a section for car dealers and the DealerRater.com Certified Dealer Program. The Certified Dealer Program provides the opportunity for dealers to promote their best customer service practices to the DealerRater.com community.

About DealerRater.com:

DealerRater.com was founded in 2002 as the first car dealer review website worldwide. DealerRater.com is committed to providing a central collection point for informative reviews. The site currently features more than 24,000 US and International car dealers and over 50,000 user reviews. DealerRater.com provides the opportunity for users to search for car dealerships, read current reviews, write their own review, and find car deals – all for free. Car dealers are rated on the criteria of customer service, quality of work, friendliness, price and overall experience. DealerRater.com users also have the option to recommend the dealer to other users and provide a descriptive review. Website users and car dealerships may post free auto classified ads. DealerRater.com visitors may request vehicle quotes and Certified Dealers receive free vehicle leads.

For DealerRater.com information, please contact Michelle Oldershaw 1.800.266.9455 or visit http://www.dealerrater.com/

Contact:
Michelle Oldershaw
DealerRater.com
http://www.dealerrater.com/
800.266.9455

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Dealers get customizable Web sites linked to brand sites – New approach provides optimized Internet lead service. AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/

Chrysler LLC will provide its dealers with an all-new set of industry-leading Internet marketing tools. The new direction was developed as a joint effort with Chrysler LLC and the Chrysler Dealer Internet Advisory Committee to help dealers who want to excel as interactive dealers. The first phase of this new approach includes both dealer Web sites and an Internet lead service.

The all-new dealer Web sites are designed to drive more Internet leads, provide dealers with unparalleled customization options and achieve greater optimization on search engines. Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep(R) Web site visitors will be able to easily access dealer content, including inventory, local messages, dealer special offers and related information. The sites will be rolled-out to dealers across the county in a phased approach between October 1 and the end of the year.

“The way people shop has changed dramatically in recent years. Chrysler understands today’s consumers well. These new tools represent a fundamental shift in the way we go to market,” said Deborah Meyer, vice president and chief marketing officer, Chrysler LLC. “Because our brand and dealer Web sites will be fully integrated, consumers will now be able to move more easily through the shopping experience and our Dealers will be able to respond faster to them.”

The all-new Chrysler Internet lead service will offer dealers the highest quality Internet leads generated by independent automotive websites at a price that is 30 – 40 percent below retail lead costs. Benefits to dealers include high-quality leads that have been filtered and de-duplicated, which will be sent directly to dealers’ lead management tool of choice. To ensure dealer satisfaction, all dealers will receive a free 30-day trial of both programs. There is no long-term commitment required for participation. Once dealers have enrolled, they may opt-out of the service at any time with only 30 days notice.

The new Internet program will provide Chrysler LLC and its dealers with greater integration of marketing campaigns, allowing information to be easily and quickly transmitted to consumers. Dealers will be provided with a proven framework that can be used to create individual online dealer
branding.

“We were allowed to start with a clean sheet of paper to develop this fresh and new approach,” said Chuck Sullivan, director – interactive, Chrysler LLC. “We carefully studied digital best practices across many industries to design an industry-leading program.

To develop and deploy the new Interactive approach, Chrysler’s digital team tapped newly formed agency SHIFT Digital of Troy, Mich., which is led by industry expert Steve St Andre. For the new dealer sites, Chrysler worked closely with Dealer.com, based in Burlington, Vt., to customize their platform to Chrysler requirements.

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I would like to hear some thoughts and/or comments on Online Display advertising and Pay-Per-Click (SEM).  Who is doing this currently?

Who uses what company, and who is doing it themselves. At my dealer I have done some research on both PPC and Online Display Advertising. I currently have BZ Results managing my PPC Campaigns on Google and Yahoo.  I am very pleased with the results and the amount of leads I am getting directly from these campaigns. I recently have built up these campaigns to the point I am no longer relying on third-party lead providers, i.e. Dealix, Automotive.com, etc. Is this really a good idea, or should I still be buying those third-party leads?  Typically an internet lead from your dealer website will close at a higher rate than third-party leads.

Also, I’m looking to take this one step further and add some display advertising in conjunction with my PPC Campaigns. I’m told both work good separately but the impact of combining the two is greater than the sum of the effects of search and display individually. In other words the synergistic effect; add two and two and you get five.  What are your thoughts?

Richard Klepach
Business Development Director

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A list of affordable Internet Lead Manager tools

Here is a question I get a lot…

“Do you have a few Lead Management Tools that you can provide
to me off the top of your head?”

or

“My dealer currently doesn’t have a full CRM but I need an ILM to work my Internet leads. Do you know of any affordable ($200-400.00 a month) Internet Lead Management tool available?”

Maybe I’m lost but I too have to ask “where are all the affordable ILM tools“? For many Internet sales representative having an affordable ILM tool is vital. Believe it or not, there are a lot of dealers that still do not have a full fledge Customer Relation Manager (CRM) tool and as you know, many of the CRM’s have ILM features but are more of an after thought and lack what you really need.

Most of us have used or are still using either AVV Webcontrol or Cobalts LMCC. These 2 ILM tools used to be the only options available for dealers. Then after the initial offering from AVV and Cobalt, a few more ILM tools that cropped up.

iMagiclabs (then known as icarconnect) had a top shelf ILM tool that I believe eventually evolved into their full CRM. eLead also had an Internet lead management system that was quit robust but this too turned into a full CRM. Both of these vendors I believe still offer their ILM product as an a la carte but I’m not 100% sure anymore.

Since I get this question a lot, AND since I too have sort of lost touch with all the different ILM tools available, lets get a list going. I’ll start off with the ones that I know..

1. Cobalt LMCC
2. AVV Webcontrol
3. iMagicLab ILM
4. MLM Dealer Sight
5. Dealerpeak E-Lead Manager
6. Dealer.com LeadMachine
7. AutoJocky Lead Manager
8. NetTrack Lead Management
9. VinSolutions MotoSnap ILM
10. CAR-Research

If you know of or are using an Internet Lead Management program that’s affordable and a good fit for dealers looking for a lead management tool for a 1 person or small Internet sales department, SPEAK UP!! Let us know what you think and what you’re paying.

If you’re a vendor and you offer an ILM solution…let us know what you offer. Feel free to include your features and pricing. I’ll be sure to add your link to this post.

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Have you tried the new
Google Chrome browser?

I’m having a hard warming up to it for some reason. Not sure if it’s the look and feel or what. I feel like I’m on a web page rather an actual browser. I like the most visited feature on the default homepage but and the suggest as you type but I’m not sure I’d be willing to so quickly dump my Firefox over Chrome.

What do you think?

I like the incognito feature!!

Google’s Story behind the Google Chrome Browser on YouTube.

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