New Internet Manager looking for resources

[RossS]

I was just hired to manage internet operations for an autogroup that includes a Chevy dealership, a Subaru dealership, and multiple used car shops. I am relatively new to the industry and completely new to automotive internet sales.

My job is two faceted. I am to create and implement a system for managing internet leads, follow up processes, etc. I am also responsible for making sure that we are competitive online (internet pricing strategy, utilization of third party resources, SEO, etc.)

I have been combing through all of the information available online, including these forums, and the few related books that I can get my hands on. Can anyone recommend resources that will help me to gain a strong understanding of the online automotive industry?

 

[MichaelJ]

Mystery shop a large, successful Chevy dealer by submitting an Internet inquiry then do the same for Subaru. Shop your local competitors on prices and pick & choose the processes you think will work best in your market. You've already found one of the best resources available in this forum, but also check out things like:

• 30/30 Archive Page
• Retail Chatbots
• SEM Rush Digital Mkgt in India
• Car Gurus: Multi-Touch Marketing
• National Brands & Local Search: Use insights to drive actions
• Retailers’ Investment in Mobile is Paying Off
• 30 Mins on the Last 30 Days in Search, Social + Content by Conductor
• Use call and SMS data to drive new customers

There are a number of weekly webinars put on by vendors that are invaluable in the learning curve like DealerOn , Automotive News and others

 

[RossS]

Thanks Michael. I will be checking out all of those links. I have actually been mystery shopping all the other Chevy dealers in our region as well as several large ones across the country, and am documenting their follow-up schedule and email templates. (They want me to focus on optimizing the Chevy dealership right now, then move to Subaru and Used later.)
I also input all the prices and discounts from all of our local competitor's inventory into Excel so I can analyse their pricing strategies compared to ours.

Right now I am having trouble comparing prices on our used vehicles. There are so many variables that affect the vehicles value, its difficult to do an accurate comparison. Any tips there?

 

[Katie Jo]

I was just hired to manage internet operations for an autogroup that includes a Chevy dealership, a Subaru dealership, and multiple used car shops. I am relatively new to the industry and completely new to automotive internet sales.
My job is two faceted. I am to create and implement a system for managing internet leads, follow up processes, etc. I am also responsible for making sure that we are competitive online (internet pricing strategy, utilization of third party resources, SEO, etc.)
I have been combing through all of the information available online, including these forums, and the few related books that I can get my hands on. Can anyone recommend resources that will help me to gain a strong understanding of the online automotive industry?

Hello there Ross,
This is my first reply to anyone on this site, as I just signed up today myself (so apologies in advance if I somehow didn't respond properly). However, I wanted to say that I noticed that you're having troubles comparing prices on your used vehicles. You are correct that there are many variables that go into play when it comes to coming up with the right retail price.

The rest of this comment was removed due to self promoting.

 

[Patrick80639]

Right now I am having trouble comparing prices on our used vehicles. There are so many variables that affect the vehicles value, its difficult to do an accurate comparison. Any tips there?

The simplest way is to use the Car Values on Cargurus. That's what many of your pre-owned customers will be looking at, so might as well be on the same page as them. Be sure to keep in mind the value your franchise adds as you look at your independent competition's pricing, though.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

I was just hired to manage internet operations for an autogroup that includes a Chevy dealership, a Subaru dealership, and multiple used car shops. I am relatively new to the industry and completely new to automotive internet sales.

My job is two faceted. I am to create and implement a system for managing internet leads, follow up processes, etc. I am also responsible for making sure that we are competitive online (internet pricing strategy, utilization of third party resources, SEO, etc.)

I have been combing through all of the information available online, including these forums, and the few related books that I can get my hands on. Can anyone recommend resources that will help me to gain a strong understanding of the online automotive industry?

@RossS welcome to the forums. Sounds like you have large task ahead. As mentioned, between the dealer forums here and over on the blog, we have 13+ years of information. Use the DealerRefresh Power Search to search both the dealer forums AND blog. Keep in the loop and follow DealerRefresh on Twitter and Facebook! We are now hosting a Refresh Friday webcast series and you can sign up here - https://www.facebook.com/pg/dealerrefresh/events/

I would recommend leveraging your vendors on how to best use the services and program you already have in place.

 

[RossS]

The simplest way is to use the Car Values on Cargurus. That's what many of your pre-owned customers will be looking at, so might as well be on the same page as them. Be sure to keep in mind the value your franchise adds as you look at your independent competition's pricing, though.

Thanks Patrick, CarGurus does seem to be the best way to compare so far.

 

[mpreiber]

Thanks Patrick, CarGurus does seem to be the best way to compare so far.

are you using a inventory management tool like Firstlook or Vauto? both have pretty good pricing tools and if you're dealing with a lot of used inventory it make the job a ton easier, not just from a pricing stand point but also making the ad and pushing that to all the different vendors you use (cars.com, autotrader, your website, etc).

there are plenty of these tools but out of the few that I have used they are the only ones I would recommend.

 

[RossS]

Thanks everyone for your input, I am slowly growing into this role and seeing slow, but steady improvement.

I have another question. How important is maintaining a blog? Our website has a blog page, but it hasn't been updated in a long time, and the few posts on it are low quality. Most SEO resources recommend maintaining a blog, regardless of the kind of product or service you offer.
Have any of you run a blog for your dealership? And if so, has it been worth the time invested into it?

 

[Jason@nabthat]

@RossS Good luck with the task at hand.

You need to invest in SEO 100%, how you do that is debatable. Sorry for the unhelpful answer.

What I did want to mention was that you should mystery shop your own dealership at least 1 a month through various lead sources - While looking at other dealers may show you a good process to adopt, your own mystery shopping will immediately display the shortcomings that need addressed.

Good luck!