I was running through a dealer's website the other day and came across Purecars.com on their website.  I haven't heard much about Purecars.com in a while and decided to look at it again.  I started a thread in the forums to gauge whether anyone was doing anything with it and not much has been said, but then I came across this statement on their dealer page.

The PureCars Pricing Graph

The number one concern used car buyers have is price. With hundreds of customers clicking the PureCars Value Report button found on every used vehicle page on your website, we'll independently verify for customers when you're priced below market. Customers will see the PureCars Pricing Graph when they're getting a great price, and if you're priced above market, there's no worries, as the PureCars Value Report will automatically showcase all of the other known value highlights of your vehicles such as Vehicle Certification, Owner and Accident History, Low Miles, and Popular Color, among others.

Click to expand...

This got me thinking "how does Purecars.com make a car that is priced too high appear to be a good value for a customer?"  This program sounds really good!

So I dug a little further.  Here is a PureCars report for a 2006 Subaru Forester that looks to be priced a little high:  http://www.purecars.com/ValueReport/ValueReport3.aspx?vehicleID=5590043



Things to note:

• LL Bean Edition
  
• $18,881 price tag
  
• PureCars is looking at a 150+ mile radius

Using this dealer's zip code on Autotrader.com (01702) by advanced searching for a 2006 Subaru Forester with the keyword "bean" in a 100 mile radius I found these Autotrader results (keep in mind these results will change over time).

Things to note:

• Out of 15 results, only 2 are more expensive than the car in the provided PureCars report
  
• I only searched within 100 miles

And another link from another used car marketing site to look at for this example:  CarGurus search for a Forester around 01702 (these results will change over time).

This PureCars example obviously stacks the cards in favor of the dealer, but are customers gullible enough to fall for this?  Sooooo, are you using PureCars and is it working for you?  Any other opinions?

Car dealers are invited to participate in the largest group study for Automotive Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  The study will educate and mentor 100 car dealers who are interested in applying Automotive SEO strategies at their automotive dealership.  Results of the four month study will be published and presented at the 2011 NADA Conference in San Francisco.

August 13, 2010 –(Rumson, NJ) Internet sales and marketing professionals who are currently working at car dealerships and want to master powerful SEO tools and strategies to improve the search visibility of their website are invited to participate in a unique Automotive SEO Study which will be presented at the 2011 NADA Convention in San Francisco.  The study is co-sponsored by PCG Digital Marketing and DrivingSales.com.

The Automotive SEO Study will be limited to 100 automotive dealers*. Registration ends on August 30, 2010. There is no cost to participate however members should budget approximately $100 for domain purchases, blog hosting and/or fees paid to third part marketing sites, directories and related sites as needed.

Study members will be trained and coached how to use content publishing, link building, social media, video, PDF brochures, and automotive networks to improve their Google Page One results for popular consumer search phrases.  Members in the study will be required to dedicate 3-4 hours a week to complete the tasks required to deliver measurable results for their dealership.

The 100 dealers will have access to winning digital marketing strategies, training videos, marketing outlines, tutorials, and websites managed by PCG Digital Marketing and DrivingSales that will enhance the results of their work. In return, members in the study will share the results of their work and be included in a whitepaper being prepared by PCG Digital Marketing and DrivingSales.com.

"The Automotive SEO Study will be the first of its kind", according to Brian Pasch, CEO of PCG Digital Marketing.   "The partnership with DrivingSales.com, the leading automotive social media community, is consistent with founder Jared Hamilton's goal to provide digital marketing curriculums and best practices to assist automotive retailers with online advertising and communications."

Term of Study

The study will run from September 1, 2010 to January 1, 2011. In those four months, members in the study will document their work and record data on a number of search marketing factors which will include website link counts, Google ranking for specific keywords, unique visitor traffic, lead submissions, and changes in their Google Page One Management (GPOM) results.

The results will be published and presented at the 2011 NADA Convention in San Francisco. Monthly updates during the four month study, as well as the final results, will be shared with members of www.DrivingSales.com . Car dealers interested in the results of this study should create a free account on Drivingsales.com and follow the progress of their peers through the interactive blogs and dealership forums.

Automotive SEO Study Requirements

The requirements to participate in the study are:

1. Participants must be an employee of a car dealership, proof will be required.
   
2. Participants must have written permission to write about the dealership online; blogs, press releases, social media, etc.
   
3. Participants must have an email address from an active dealership domain.
   
4. Members in the study will be required to dedicate 4 hours a week to complete the tasks required for success.
   
5. Participants must be willing to share the results of their work via Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics data and allow the data to be summarized* in the final study whitepaper.

No confidential data or specific dealership website results will be published in the whitepaper or made public without written permission from participant.

Register For Study

Dealers interested in participating should register online at www.automotiveseostudy.com.  Inquiries can be sent to: [email protected]. PCG Digital Marketing retains the right to decline dealer participation in the Automotive SEO Study based on conflicts of interest with current clients.

About PCG Digital Marketing

PCG Digital Marketing (www.pcgdigitalmarketing.com) is a full service digital marketing agency that serves the Automotive Industry.  PCG is nationally recognized as a leader in Automotive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and automotive digital marketing.

Brian Pasch, CEO and founder of PCG Digital Marketing is an active blogger, writer and speaker at automotive conferences, 20 Groups and digital marketing forums.  PCG Digital Marketing is also the sponsor of the 2010 ASMA awards which recognizes the best automotive websites platforms based on their search marketing effectiveness.  (www.asmaawards.org).

About DrivingSales.com

DrivingSales.com (www.drivingsales.com ) is the largest car dealer social network where thousands of dealership professionals collaborate and share best practices in a 20-group style setting. The site is the industry’s largest source of free dealership best practices information, including the industry’s first vendor rating system.

DrivingSales was created and built from the ground up in 2003 by Jared Hamilton, a third generation auto dealer, as a private automotive business community to network his NADA Dealer Candidate Academy class.  The site opened nationally in 2008 and is the industry’s leading automotive social media custom platform.  DrivingSales was named one of ten social media gambits for 2009 by Automotive News and one of the Top 10 Companies to Watch by Auto Success Magazine.



The recent post on the DealerRefresh forums about Social Media Gurus and scams led to the idea that some information might be helpful to dealers in deciding who to hire and trust.

Here are some questions to consider:

How can you research a company or consultant when they claim to be social media gurus?

What's considered authentic in terms of social media consulting for your dealership?

These are justifiable questions, that deserve to be answered with examples of work and real results. It's difficult however, for a company who isn't quite clear on the examples they've been provided to make a confident decision on whether they're hiring a quality provider.

Lets dive in and discuss five ways you can do some due diligence when selecting a high quality social media provider.

1. Client List

The first thing you should look at is their current and past clients. If the provider is reputable, they should provide you with as much information about what they are doing and what they've done for clients in the past. Ask them for some specific examples and reports where they've blown away their clients with results. Ask them for some popular posts they've done, or ways that they've engaged on Twitter. You should be able to sense whether they have the passion to work with you on that same level, or if they are a large agency, whether you'll get the level of attention this work requires. Social media for your dealership is extremely time sensitive, so immediate action is often necessary, be sure to ask about their response time to urgent issues.

2. Knowledge

You're hiring a provider to leverage their knowledge and to apply that skill and knowledge to your marketing initiatives. Often times you will find that a number of different tasks may be needed to announce an upcoming event that your dealership is promoting, and its good if they have the broad range of skills to help you develop the landing pages, registration, emailing, integration of the page on your site, SEO, socially spreading the message, images, videos, etc. The ability for your provider to understand and be willing to help you handle all of these things will enable you to be less involved with the technical requirements of the events and to me more focused on what, where, and when the event will take place.

3. Who's In Their Network

High quality providers will leverage their network when needed to help you. If you're considering a provider that isn't well known then you could be missing out on finding one that has built a solid network. Request that they connect with you on LinkedIn so you can look over their network. If they do not have connections with influential or notable people then it could mean that they aren't taking their work very seriously. Building relationships with recognized and successful bloggers, founders of internet companies, venture capitalists, and others in interesting positions means that they have been highly invested in building relationships - which is the core of what social media is about.

4. Statistics = Warning Sign

If you get an offer that is promising your dealership "x" number of anything, Twitter followers, links to your website, or just about anything that sounds outrageous, just ignore them. Trustworthy providers won't try to wow you with numbers, because the real value comes from building quality relationships. Ask them for a few examples of what they consider to be reputable sites that have linked to them. If these are genuine links, meaning they were not placed in profile by themselves or a site they built themselves, than consider how they earned the link and ask if you can expect that type of commitment. Almost always it requires that they've contributed something of great quality, and as a result they got a link for the work.

Links are the most important thing you can get that will benefit you from an SEO standpoint, and if it's a site that anyone can buy a link or place a link then it's not as valuable and could potentially harm your rankings.

5. Influencers

In order to be successful as a blogger, or social media consultant, you must have the ability to become influential. Ask them for examples of popular sites where they've contributed meaningful information, or if they've built any websites that allowed others to contribute information. Finding an influencer that will do social media on your behalf is not going to come cheap, this person is typically an entrepreneur or a blogger that has built a substantial network. If you aren't getting the advantage of having someone who's done this type of work for themselves, then it's unlikely that they will know what works and what doesn't. If you aren't sure, ask if they'd be willing to come meet you in person, as this is a great way to find out whether you trust and believe they will be able to deliver.

Hopefully these 5 suggestions help you screen some of your candidates on hiring the right social media firm for your dealership. There are clearly some things that I've left out, but these are some of what I believe to be true tests of ones ability to perform for your dealership.

If you have any questions about these suggestions or would like to share some experiences or opinions about what I've stated, please do so in the comments.