Obstacles, Observations and Opinions of an Automotive Internet Sales & Marketing Manager
The end result noted 92% of auto dealers are going to expand their Internet departments this up and coming year. Are dealers finally catching on?
A result from the survey; "Twenty-seven percent said they (dealers) followed-up leads for at least two weeks and 21 percent said they followed-up on sales leads indefinitely." Dealers still have a long way to go is this is true.
Today while searching a few popular keyword phrases for my dealers website, I found a new dealer listings directory.
While investigating the site, I found it gave me the ability to enter a detailed listings which include the dealerships name, a link to my dealers website, an address, a local phone number, a toll-free number, business hours and a list of services offered. It also gave me the flexibility to include descriptions of vehicles offered, inventory, specials and promotions, rebates and incentives, and financing services. All this at no charge!
Cardealersnearyou.com offers dealers free detailed business listings for local car dealerships in the United States. There are not too many services that is offers a detailed listing to car dealers for free.
Take a moment and submit your dealers information!
Here’s a statistical chart borrowed from the latest J.D. Power New Autoshopper.com Survey. I thought it was interesting to see KBB to have such a lead on the other sites. I thought for sure Edmunds would be closer behind.
I’d be interested in seeing this broken down by demographic locations and what content is being viewed the most on KBB. Are shoppers visiting KBB more frequently for new vehicle information or for trade-in evaluations?
It’s interesting and educational to what sites our shoppers are visiting and where they are gathering their information. I recommend taking an hour or so and visit these sites to get a feel and understanding of what your customers are viewing. This can help overcome objections that your customer might gather from these websites. We all know these sites are sometimes full of opinions and not so accurate information.
I’m always searching dealer websites hoping to find something new with all the right elements. What I have found is an increasing number of dealers switching to ADP and ReyRey websites.
I’m really baffled by this. On average I find their homepages to be sloppy, navigation hard to follow, vehicle details and homepages lack call to actions and multi photos (sorry for the slap guys). From what I have heard around the block, they usually produce a below average conversion rate. (Some of their newer sites are an improvement but they are far and few between). 
What’s happening here? One site that I visit often, Paul Miller, was a user of BZResults. BZ has used them in their “many” advertisements. I just checked their site only to find ADP has taken over (What happened Sean?). MileOne, another huge dealer group dropped their many providers for ReyRey.
ADP and ReyRey have to be getting aggressive with their sales pitches or throwing their websites in with their CRM software (that sounds more like it). Sorry for the slander guys, but with the power and money at your disposal, you could be at the forefront of dealer website design and technology.
Anyone have an idea or know first person what’s happening here? I’m curious.
