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Inventory Marketing, Which Is Better?

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BrierG

BrierG

Apr 3, 2014
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First Name
Brier
#1
Hello everyone,

When it comes to marketing your inventory, which of these seem to be the better of the two?

Feeding out to as many free sites available? Or paying for a few of the bigger guys to have your inventory on their sites? I'm a more of a believer in you get what you pay for, but I would like to hear other inputs on the subject.

Thank You
Brier
 
#2
BrienG,

I've been syndicating inventory for the last 14 years.

Free car marketing gives you... the same as free food, free clothes, free books, etc. Will not sustain the business, as a matter of fact, it will rarely affect the business at all one way or the other.

Take the free sites if they look legit, but you must take a look at Autotrader, Cars, Cargurus, and Craigslist and see which one does well in your particular market.
 
#5
yagoparamo said:
Agreed but... HOW?
Click to expand...

There's always going to be a mix of old and new needed. That said, I've seen dealerships successfully leave "traditional" behind if they've done it long enough and re-focus that money on digital in a strategic way. The thing is, you can't just buy AutoTrader, Cars.com and AdWords and expect that you'll be any different than your competitor. It's hard to make a list of unique opportunities for obvious reasons, but there are some that I believe in:


  • Microsites / Landing pages - I believe it was Anderson Auto Group that did this quite well?
  • Scheduled digital communications - whether this is social media, emails, website updates, etc - set a schedule for things like a contest, a membership club (without loyalty points).
  • Proper promotions through AdWords - There is your generic AdWords and then your specialized AdWords. I firmly believe in creating ads to promote your monthly specials specifically, creating ads for special (and individual) vehicles, etc. Setup proper landing pages and do smarter promotions.

etc.
 
#6
BrierG said:
Hello everyone,

When it comes to marketing your inventory, which of these seem to be the better of the two?

Feeding out to as many free sites available? Or paying for a few of the bigger guys to have your inventory on their sites? I'm a more of a believer in you get what you pay for, but I would like to hear other inputs on the subject.

Thank You
Brier
Click to expand...

We used to use a web provider that fed our vehicles out to "hundreds" of free sites, plus any of the big players that we paid for. I don't think I ever saw a single sale off of the free sites. Your experience may be different, but you do indeed get what you pay for in most cases.
 
#7
I do outside photos only because usually that suffices and looks way better than a stock photo. The reason we started doing it is for the same reason you mentioned...none of our competitors shoot photos of their new cars so I think it makes our inventory stand out on vehicle search pages.




adil
 
#9
emilymoore said:
Are there any drawbacks or reasons to not list your inventory on the (legit) free sites or as many places as possible?
Click to expand...

The only drawbacks I've seen over the years are:

1. That they use your inventory and the leads are not coming to you (they are sold to a 3rd party that in turn sells them to you.
2. That the site doesn't update as fast or frequent as the paid ones and that gets you in trouble (depending on the state) if you are selling cars for more than advertised (special finance) or if your sold cars linger there for a while so customers come on units you no longer have.

Other than that... I don't see negatives. But my comment was more towards dealers shouldn't think that this is something they should rely on saving the month. It won't. Get a real strategy going.
 
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