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Young buck

Green Pea
Dec 10, 2011
3
0
First Name
Travis
#1
Ok guys and gals,
I'm a young guy here looking for some advice. First off a little about me... From a small town that is very conservative. Parents always raised me on the idea that you get what you work for and that's never easy, and don't blow money on unnecessary things. Also I've been a humble person, but want credit for my ideas and work effort. I'm 22 years old and I know a lot of people would take me for a joke just cause of my age, but I'm hoping a few people will read this and look beyond that. I started selling at the age of 18 at a large (for the area) store. I left the store for personal reasons (not the type of guy that wants to keep jumping around hoping the grass is greener however) and moved to a smaller store that has more franchises but sells less vehicles. Within 2 months I was moved to a finance manager position, and have been enjoying it. I've recently become involved in the Internet because I know they are missing out on a huge chunk of the market there. Which if nothing else helping that department out will turn out to be more profit for myself and the dealership. I'm looking for two separate pieces of advice here. One, ideas to help the Internet out. And two, ways to become more involved in the overall dealership operations. Honestly my goal is to manage the operations one day. And I know a lot of people say that is their goal, but I feel that most people don't mean it or have the fire lit up under their ass to be a go getter and put in the necessary work to achieve this goal. Sorry for the long drawn out intro here, but just looking for valid help. If you think I'm just young and dumb let me know, I take all input as constructional.


For those of those that have read this whole boring post, here's a little more about our internet. We have a website that is ok, but needs a few improvements that I'm trying to get fixed right now. Not currently on any lead generators but hooking up with autotrader again this month, and exploring other options as well. Are website is currently getting less than 500 hits a month, and I don't believe there is any way to track individual looks at each specific vehicle. We have one person handling leads, who is good at his job, but we just need to get the traffic to him. That is all I can think of for now because it is getting late and I just had to get this off my chest.

As I said, any input is GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,
young buck
 
#2
Also, the only "statistic" is that our Internet accounted for approximately 4 percent of sales last month. And I say statistically very sparingly because I know it hasn't been tracked properly. Which is another thing I'm trying to get done correctly. Because everyone know you have to know where your leads are coming from.
 
#3
Welp, for starters, 500 "Hits" a month (whatever a hit is), is not enough. There's your first opportunity for growth.

Although some would argue the future viability of long-term SEO strategy, if you are getting little to no traffic to your website, which sounds like is the case, start with SEO. Get your site noticed. Put your product where the eyeballs are looking. Fish where the fish are.

SEM, if you have any budget, can be of great assistance in the short term to get some traffic moving to your sight.

Start with the basics: Optimize your sight: (do you have good tools to capture traffic? How are seekers finding you?), and do what you can budget-wise to send traffic to your sight.

Good luck!
 
#4
If you really want to get the ball rolling, you need to talk with management and do this full time as your only job. With 500 hits a month, and from what you've said so far.. It's going to be a TON of work, it always it. Plus considering since you're starting so behind, you'll be able to push things in the right direction and get recognition and praise when you get it all going..
 
#7
Information is updated, name is Travis. Out website is ran by dealer active. I'm waiting on the owner to get back for clearance on full run of the Internet. Honestly don't see him having a problem with it. Our website is ran by dealer active and like I said I know there's a few things that need tweaked on it as soon as I am allowed to pick up the phone and get ahold of them. Im not thrilled about our website, but with a few improvements it will work. What my concern is of course is getting the traffic there, and tracking properly. And I'm sure it'll take more than autotrader to get it done.
 
#8
I suspect that your site is getting more than 500 visitors per month. The traffic counter on your home page shows almost 80K visitors. So unless that site is many years old, that suggest more traffic is coming to your site than youre counting. Are you getting your traffic number from Google Analytics? It appears that someone in your dealership has claimed your Google Places listing, but it could use some updating. Try putting more photos and videos and take advantage of the "offers" section to load some coupons.

Being from VA myself, I am familiar with your area. Yes, Staunton is a smaller town but you are surrounded by several larger towns that you could draw traffic from. Create some SEO content and target Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, etc. I tried a few searches for your products and surrounding areas and your dealership does not show up. I could only find a PPC listing for "Buick dealers Charlottesville" that appears to be a factory ad that clicks to the Cobalt GMC site.

Just a couple of ideas to get you started. Hope it helps.
 
#9
Like Bill, I found your Cobalt site but also a Chrome Systems site that you don't seem to use.

The store doesn't use Cars.com or AutoTrader and glancing through the used cars they appear to be priced above market. It leaves me with the impression that they want an internet presence but don't want to compete.
 
#10
ddavis said:
Like Bill, I found your Cobalt site but also a Chrome Systems site that you don't seem to use.

The store doesn't use Cars.com or AutoTrader and glancing through the used cars they appear to be priced above market. It leaves me with the impression that they want an internet presence but don't want to compete.
Click to expand...
I ran the inventory through an analysis using our tools. The used pricing isn't just a little high, it's high to the point of being completely uncompetitive. 'Winning the ZMOT' with anyone spending any time at all researching pricing online will be a very daunting task.
 
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