New Internet Manager looking for resources

[yagoparamo]

Both a blog and straight better content on your site is very important however is a fairly long strategy. So if your GM is going to ask for what you do each week and not support you for a long haul strategy you are better off investing on other things.

 

[Colby Joyner]

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?

Read as much of the forums as possible. Get the Book swimming with digital sharks by brian pasch. Reach out to whoever you may know in the industry to try to get processes and ideas on your internet strategy. I am happy to help if you need it. Its a big undertaking. Just understand that it will take time and things will not change over night. Stay focused on the future and build the team and process to succed. Good Luck!

 

[Alexander Lau]

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.

LOL at the red.

 

[AWNick]

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?

Maintaining a blog is absolutely critical to your website. I've found that dealerships have a difficult time doing that themselves. It's important that blogs are posted on a regular basis, are relevant to your area and the current state of the industry (write about the right cars), and interesting. Dealerships usually have a difficult time managing this on their own. A third party website provider that's committed to SEO and content can create HUGE results for a dealership.

Nick
Content Manager

 

[RossS]

So a few months in now. We have some processes set that are getting results. Close rates have gone from 2%-4% to 10%.
My current challenge is to increase the number of leads that we are getting, especially in our Used Car Dept. Right now we average 1-2 leads per day in used. The usual answer when I suggest trying different vendors is "we've tried them before and they didn't work." But I have been given the liberty of choosing one new lead provider and being personally responsible for it. Right now most of our leads come from our website, some come from Edmunds, and we began a trial of CarGurus last month.

What are your most effective Used Car lead providers?

 

[mpreiber]

This is really reliant on a ton of factors, like your location, how much you want to spend, your pricing strategy, what is your competition is doing, etc. Here in the metro Detroit market it is super competitive so regular avenues for advertising can be super expensive(ex many dealership in this market are paying 5-10k to Autotrader and for the same stuff it could be half that in your market). Because of costs we have to look for new alternative ways to find customers that our competition may have missed.

That being said if your website is converting well, using that strength is not a bad idea, finding a way to divert more car buying traffic to your website may be a good start before venturing into the 3rd party lead source area.

Also mining your current data base is also a great way to build up some business, there are a lot of great tools out there to do this and many CRMs have tool to help you do this ( ex. equity mining)

If I had to suggest a lead provider, I'd have to suggest Cargurus since you have already started with them and they are relatively affordable and a reliable lead source.
I just took a peek and we have averaged 50 form leads a month (ytd) from Cargurus (we have 100-130 used cars with 70% of them being certified pre-owned). The one thing that has always bothered me about Cargurus is they cherry pick your inventory. They rank the inventory Great, good, fair, high price, over priced. This is awesome for the customer but any inventory that is high price or worse might as well not exist.

 

[AWNick]

A proper website can make a huge difference in the amount of leads you generate - instantly. So many of the OEM providers are operating on stale technology and recycled designs. In a recent website we launched for a Honda store in the midwest, we saw Sales Leads increase by 83% in the first month - purely based on an improved User Experience.

 

[RossS]

I am definitely looking to drive more traffic straight to our website in addition to adding some other lead providers. I know that creating better content for our blog will be necessary, and I will be expected to create the content. I am struggling to find ideas for that content.