Need some help

[jabarnes81]

First post is going to be a little long but really need some input on what I need to do.

Our metrics have dropped the past three months in row across the board. Dealer sites are slow same with 3rd party vendors. The owner called me in and wanted to figure out why so I shared with him that a lot of it has to do with the time of year, inventory cut backs, and marketing funds being cut back. He asked me to think of new ideas that will get us back on track so I suggested we add SEM to our dealer sites since our entire market is on some sort of paid search. He looked at me like I was crazy and said no Im not spending more money find a way to make it work without spending anymore money. I told him we are spending quite a bit of money on a 3rd party vendor that has only generated 17 Chevy leads in 5 months and cost right around 1800 per month so lets stop wasting the money and move it towards SEM. He again was upset saying we need to find ways to get things back on track without spending more money or changing anything. My question is this if I already have the google plus, yelp, facebook, email blasts, pricing specials, 100% pictures, 100% descriptions, 100% new car specials, and everything else done what the hell can I do without increasing the spend or making changes to the current budget.

I really dont have any ideas and my boss doesn't either. Im stuck and need some help!

 

[brandon.march]

Who's running your website for you? The reason I ask is because a lot of "dealer focused internet site providers" really suck at the SEO game, and Google Hummingbird has been a godsend to our little neck of the web with regards to traffic and page ranks. Our site is hosted by us and coded by me and outperforms almost anything out there that we can buy currently.

 

[jabarnes81]

We use Cobalt for our Chevrolet Store(cant use anyone else), Ford store is OEM as well, and our portal site is through cobalt as well. I cant really change anything there.

 

[rcar]

Who's running your website for you? The reason I ask is because a lot of "dealer focused internet site providers" really suck at the SEO game, and Google Hummingbird has been a godsend to our little neck of the web with regards to traffic and page ranks. Our site is hosted by us and coded by me and outperforms almost anything out there that we can buy currently.

Brandon this may come off harsh but I'm doing it for the sake of your dealership. So no offense but please don't give advice if you don't know what you're talking about. While I agree that a lot of "dealer focused internet site providers" really suck at the SEO game by the looks of it your website sucks even more.

Quick issues I've identified without even giving it a full run through:
1) No mobile version. Giving 30-50% of your visitors a non-ideal experience right off the bat.

2) No navigation bar. People are used to navigating website with an easy to use navigation bar. Your buttons are extremely difficult to find.

3) Have to input contact info just to view inventory. Think of how many people bounce off that page as soon as they see that form. That's why you may think your website is "amazing" because you're getting so many leads. But it's not all about leads, you're losing out a TON on vdp views. A few other dealers have went the route of a lead form gated inventory but have executed it better. Take a look at Frank Myers Auto Maxx for a good example.

4) Text is hard to read. Enough said. Weird fonts. Size 8-10 used in some spots.

5) VDP's are horrible. Can't navigate photos - have to watch slideshow. The text again makes it impossible to read the options and features.

6) SEO is horrible. Don't even have basic stuff like unique page titles on a bunch of pages. Don't you think your pages should have a page title with more info than just "Easley Mitsubishi". You also don't have meta descriptions. Don't rely on google to come up with descriptions 100% of the time, trust me it can get ugly as evidenced by your SERP's. I don't even want to get into the more advanced stuff like structured data because it is clearly far over your head.

7) Coding is horrible. You really had to make the navigation bar image based with image map links. They have come out with something called CSS that can accomplish this and which Google can actually read among other benefits. That was an obvious item I quickly noticed, noticed much more lacking when looking through your source code.

8) Design is horrible. You look like a buy here pay here grade or mom & pop car dealership....not a franchise mitsubishi store. You are the reason manufacturers require dealers to use crappy website providers like cobalt.

9) Your google reviews are horrendous. 2 out of 5 stars. Really?? Work on improving that asap.

I could have went a lot more indepth but I think I illustrated my point that what you're doing isn't up to snuff.

So in conclusion Brandon you should seriously consider taking the path of jabarnes and start looking for a new website provider. I know it will hurt your pride since you created this from scratch and probably put a ton of hours into it but it's just not cutting it in today's landscape. Alot of dealers have succeeded with custom websites like Anderson Auto Group but you don't appear to be one of them. A website vendor is your best bet right now. Swallow your pride and make the change. You'll thank me later. If you don't eventually Easley Mitsubishi will hopefully realize they need to get out of 2004 and move on up to 2014 standards.

PS: I'm also hoping that Gilstrap Family of Dealerships is related to Suzuki of Witchita in some way. So not sure if you also "coded" gilstrapfamilydealerships.com but that is an EXACT copy of Suzuki of Wichita's old website. Not cool at all if that is the case. I'm hoping that the same vendor did both websites or you are the same company...

 

[yagoparamo]

We use Cobalt for our Chevrolet Store(cant use anyone else), Ford store is OEM as well, and our portal site is through cobalt as well. I cant really change anything there.

J,

Yes, you can use other providers other than Cobalt. You just have to keep the Cobalt site active.

 

[Chris Cachor]

I understand where the owner is coming from and my suggestion is to cut the $1800 3rd party vendor. That's a nice chunk of change each month to put to use on something more effective. I recommend NOT putting money into SEM, especially on Cobalt sites (their conversion rate is inferior relative to the competition). In my opinion, you could get much more for your money investing in social marketing to help capture more of the existing market around you.

Looking at your site, you could probably toss live chat on there for a few hundred bucks a month and help with your current conversion. Also, this might be a bit unconventional but you might be able to negotiate with existing vendors to find more money for your budget.

I'll think of some ideas around the social marketing program and respond again. The reason I say put your money into social over SEM is that SEM is pretty saturated and highly competitive already, while theres more room for growth in social marketing and advertising.

 

[yagoparamo]

Chris,

Lots of good thoughts (specially about Cobalt!) but I think these guys need action right now and social media may take little bit too long to do something noticeable.

My 2 cents to do something right now:

If you are in a good CraigsList market, give that a shot. It will cost you less than $1000/month to run your inventory. Fort Wayne (I think that is close to you) doesn't seem to have much traffic... you may need to explore other areas.

Test other 3rd party providers. Take short contracts even if you have to pay a little extra, you can negotiate better terms later, and explore other websites that may work for your market.

 

[jabarnes81]

Chris,

Lots of good thoughts (specially about Cobalt!) but I think these guys need action right now and social media may take little bit too long to do something noticeable.

My 2 cents to do something right now:

If you are in a good CraigsList market, give that a shot. It will cost you less than $1000/month to run your inventory. Fort Wayne (I think that is close to you) doesn't seem to have much traffic... you may need to explore other areas.

Test other 3rd party providers. Take short contracts even if you have to pay a little extra, you can negotiate better terms later, and explore other websites that may work for your market.

Craigslist was used for awhile but now they are charging for ads. I cant really test any 3rd party providers because he doesnt want to increase our budget. I posted this on another forum and most are saying the same thing as everyone on here. This just helps me explain that in order to change anything we are doing it will take extra money or changing some providers out. I really dont know what else we can do as far as FREE

 

[yagoparamo]

Craigslist was used for awhile but now they are charging for ads. I cant really test any 3rd party providers because he doesnt want to increase our budget. I posted this on another forum and most are saying the same thing as everyone on here. This just helps me explain that in order to change anything we are doing it will take extra money or changing some providers out. I really dont know what else we can do as far as FREE

You can "fine tune" thins for free, you can "squeeze a little more" out of things for free, but there is not such a thing as a free game changer (in digital advertising that is).

What you have to look at is at dropping the least performing assets of what you currently do (news paper, 3rd party less, etc) and be willing to test other things with the time and effort that is going to take.

 

[mwpistell]

I recommend NOT putting money into SEM, especially on Cobalt sites (their conversion rate is inferior relative to the competition).

I've managed hundreds of AdWords accounts for Cobalt sites across the country and this hasn't been my experience.