Amanda,
You have a large operation.
IMO, here is the MOST important question...
Do you have an in-house Internet Marketing Director (IMD)? Is it you?
The IMD should be driving the scope of the job. This person will be on the point, working on the 3rd most valuable asset you have. IMO, a dealer’s most precious non-cash assets 1-2-3 are:
#1) your Brand.
#2) your real estate.
#3) your web site.
The IMD's job is to "work your web audience". How large is your web audience?
- For every car you sell at New River Auto Mall, 99.2 visitors came to your site and didn’t buy.
- 50% of your visitors are in the market for >3 weeks
Give an IMD the tools (read: a killer site) there is an enormous upside to explore and exploit.
Look at your web traffic stats. Folllow along in this thread:
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f40/web-visitors-vs-sales-survey-218.html Find a way work the website visitors you have already have with a goal to sell a small fraction more than your currently selling now. The ROI potential is off the charts!
The IMD needs to make your web site alive with fresh specials, theme based specials (i.e. ladies day, SUV Sell Down Sale, Gas Sippers on Special), manuf'er promos, in-house videos (walk arounds, testimonials, 3rd party videos like WheelsTV, etc), sales and service chat, service specials, service appts, service shuttle scheduling, inventory recording standards (pic quality, options detail quality)
IMD will be working hard with Contact Management processes, email marketing (prospect campaigns and client referral/retention campaigns), all of which point back to the home site.
IMD will need a site that is Pay-Per-Click and SEO friendly.
IMD will attend meetings with management to offer web based solutions to sales, marketing and operations.
IMD works with and co-ordinates with ad agency to tie all the moving parts together.
Improving “Inventory Recording Standards” has big upside but so few understand…
We haven’t even touched on Reputation Management! Akkkk!!
There so much more, but I'm getting a little freaked out with how the scope of this job has grown over the years...