Chris, we went with a mainstream provider with some custom work. I looked outside automotive but didn't find anyone I felt would be able to give me more than what I saw inside without a large investment of time.
Websites made by a company that doesn't specialize in dealerships?
- Thread starter Spencer Tichenor
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Great job on the site. It's right up there in the top 3 dealer sites I've seen so far. CTA's are all well placed and awesome job on the testimonials graphics. Nice use of custom fonts as well. A+
- Outlier
- ...In statistics, an outlier is an observation point that is distant from other observations... Wikipedia
Every facet of this discussion proves my point. If you think that building a website is as simple as hiring a geek and drawing some ideas on a napkin... your ego is about blow up a few years of your life.
"Just because it's a good idea, doesn't mean it'll work".
p.s. DR forums is a magnet for the "Outliers" in our space. Welcome you FREAKS OF NATURE
Our previous website vendor was a pretty good one and they did a decent job, but a vendor "template" website can take you so far. I say template because they have to repeat the content, SEO, VLPs, VPDs across each and every market. They, along with every other website vendor, needs to provide a scalable platform which can fit into any dealership and market.
Yup, everywhere I look, there's another Chad or a Craig hanging out on the street corner looking for work.
Sorry Chad. You're an outlier (& you too Craig
Thanks Joe for the compliment.
I would say there are plenty of talented companies and freelancers out there than can do the exact same thing I have done. It doesn't take someone from inside or knowing of the industry to provide a viable website platform. Dealerships tend to rely on vendors for everything and vendors have done a good job taking advantage of that.
Thanks a ton. I'm making a major push this spring/summer is dealership and sales advisor reviews and trying to separate us out more from the competition on the Why Buy message.
- Dec 30, 2009
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- Yago
Chad,
I have to disagree with some of that.
Everything is a template until you work it. from a block of paper that becomes a book to a piece of clay that becomes a sculpture. All start with the same platform and become very unique pieces.
Repeated content, SEO, etc was repeated because nobody at the dealer bothered to work on it. I see that as an independent issue from whoever the website provider is.
As far as seeing an scalable platform that fits many dealers as a negative I see that as a positive. Joe can testify that the dev teams are working non stop like crazy. I think we have 10+ projects going on right now (some pretty amazing and some not so much).
This point I agree with fully. When going with an automotive vendor, they're constantly working on add-ons, features, etc. that are targeted towards a automotive website. If you go with an in-house or agency website you will not get this benefit.
- Dec 30, 2009
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- Yago
Chad,
I also think it is hard to keep up with changes in the business that are non technical.
You are exposed to 2-8 dealers, I have 1000+ in my system. My learning curve is much faster.
Sometimes we see a change happening in a state (we adopt a new form for example that provides a batter conversion rate) and we see it spread across the country. We now look for these patterns so we can adapt faster to what's working. The individual dealer has a hard time hitting the right idea without being able to see a larger picture of the market.
A "regular" webdev company certainly has its appeal, but I think that if you're willing to put in the time to find a good one, there are enough solid, specialized developers to go around.
