I'm sure this has been talked about before on this forum...but I'm fairly new here and haven't seen anything. I was wanting to know how many of you had success on CL...And at what level? I think I'm getting alot of referrals but not the amount of phone calls I should and I get very few email leads and chat requests.
Craigslist
- Thread starter Stephen Hill
- Start date
- Apr 28, 2009
- 1,163
- 363
- First Name
- Jerry
If you are not posting cars on Craigslist you are missing an opportunity. When we coach phone calls we'll track the lead source. You can see from the picture above that Craiglist is 3rd.
Every salesperson should be posting 5 cars a day to Craigslist. I'd even have them do a video. Cars posted without price will generate a lot of calls, but they may not be good quality calls. A sales staff with good phone skills can be effective using this technique. Posting cars with pricing will yield less calls, but these calls will be of better quality.
There are also services out there that will do this for you. Me, I'd make my salespeople do this every day before they could take a lead.
What method are you posting to CL with and how are you accurately tracking these things?
CL takes some good effort to be successful with, but when you do it right it works well. You do have to stay on top of changes and take note of things.
I've heard through the grapevine (nobody in particular just the grapevine itself) that they aren't having the same success on CL as they used to. You should definitely be getting calls. How often are you posting? With or without pricing? What's your post ratio on the calls vs e-mail vs chat?
CL has way more traffic than anyone else. The key is to start an account. https://accounts.craigslist.org/ AND THEN JUST POST A LINK AND ONE PICTURE of each unit. Make the user goto your websites details pages to get more info. Who knows maybe while they are at your website they will find something else they like better. renew your ads every 48 hours. (Make the listings current so they don't get buried.)
Even if you hire a vendor to post for you it will probably be worth it. Honestly it could depend on your market too though. Down here we average about $1,800 on each c/l deal.
If you have an inventory marketing tool that has some templates then absolutely have your salespeople get involved. Even if you don't have the templates, it's also a great way to get them to buy into the idea of running their own little business if you will. Plus then you don't have to pay a vendor anywhere from $400-$600 a month to post on your behalf.
The biggest advantage to using a vendor though is that you know the vehicles are being posted everyday instead of being posted when Sales feels like it.
If you have an inventory marketing tool that has some templates then absolutely have your salespeople get involved. Even if you don't have the templates, it's also a great way to get them to buy into the idea of running their own little business if you will. Plus then you don't have to pay a vendor anywhere from $400-$600 a month to post on your behalf.
The biggest advantage to using a vendor though is that you know the vehicles are being posted everyday instead of being posted when Sales feels like it.
"Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ" The Greatest Craigslist Car Ad Ever"
I'm not sure THIS is how it's done, but I know I would be on CraigsList!
I'm not sure THIS is how it's done, but I know I would be on CraigsList!
here is the KISS (keep it simple stupid method) that I use.. all you have to do is copy the url of the vehicles details page on your website and right mouse click any photo of it and paste it into this code.
<a href="http://www.canandaiguachryslerdodgejeep.com/used/Toyota/2007-Toyota-4Runner-42063e730a0d0649015b0bc6efc8311a.htm">Click Here For More Information</a><br><img src="http://pictures.dealer.com/c/canandaiguacdjcllc/1257/1684aa67a91f92b59c554e5df0c4ccafx.jpg>
<a href="http://www.canandaiguachryslerdodgejeep.com/used/Toyota/2007-Toyota-4Runner-42063e730a0d0649015b0bc6efc8311a.htm">Click Here For More Information</a><br><img src="http://pictures.dealer.com/c/canandaiguacdjcllc/1257/1684aa67a91f92b59c554e5df0c4ccafx.jpg>
- Dec 30, 2009
- 1,883
- 480
- First Name
- Yago
Besides posting in the correct area in CL (meaning matching location with customer type), frequency, type of ad (HTML Vs. image), and a few other things, you need to pay attention to the message that you present in CL. Does your ad reflect your dealership? Do you have the right calls to action?
These 2 ads message are quite different:
2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazer LTZ 4WD
2012 Audi A5 Coupe 2.0T quattro Tiptro
