New Role Overseeing Dealer Group "Internet" - Ideas?

[Nick Spolec]

Hey everyone, sorry for being away --- I've been busy (as you can imagine), though I've read through and considered everything everyone has offered. The role is still being defined, and I've been working some new ideas to build first on our branding, but I'm hoping to streamline and get some commonality in the advertising across the three stores, as @Dan Sayer has alluded to. Also, I've been working to get merchandising standardized across the three stores, so the style of pictures and comments match.

To answer @Jeff Kershner, we do not have a group wide BDC, and apparently, that is one role I will take on 3-6 months down the line, at least, I will be overseeing that (not necessarily being the BDC, but the manager of whoever is tasked with lead handling/follow up at the stores). Also, the Schimmercars.com is a defunct portal that used to house access to all our stores. That hasn't been used in advertising at all in about 3 years. The stores being covered are Schimmerford/Schimmerhyundai.com, Mendotaford.com, and Springvalleyford.com. Straight away, I set out to try and standardize the content/menus on all three stores websites, but I still need to work on that, as while most of the content is the same, how it's accessed is a bit different.

 

[Susan Shephard]

So, I've been with the same Dealer Group for about 7 years now, and for about 5 years I've been a "catch all" Digital Marketing Director, which includes everything from fixing a sales persons PC to editing the websites, doing merchandising (taking pictures), social media, and doing facebook/google ad campaigns from time to time.

Now, I've been tasked with taking over the entirety of 3 dealerships and their marketing, websites, online presence --- i.e. "the internet". The goal seems to be to streamline the strategies between the 3 stores I'll be handling, modernizing our focus, and driving increased traffic/sales.

It's a pretty big undertaking, and I'm not sure how success is going to be determined. I'm not even sure the management knows what they expect from this (besides what they want --- more sales).

There is a general feeling that the dealerships are behind the curve in terms of how we conduct business and how we target the current market, in terms of digital.

I've been kicking it around for a day, thinking where to start. Well, I kind of know where to start --- Develop a goal of what we should be doing, look at what we are currently doing/spending, and figure out how to plug the holes. But I was maybe hoping for some ideas on things I should be considering/places I should be taking the dealership.

(just an FYI, currently, the stores are all pretty much on the same model --- 3rd party classified ads (i.e. AutoTrader/Cars.com/CarGurus), using OEM Websites, occasional direct marketing mailers, radio)

Hi Nick,
Pretty big responsibility you have taken on especially without defined goals which means all of the GM's you will be reporting to will have different goals. So, short of a bag of pixie dust and a magic wand, the first thing I would do would be to meet with each GM you will be reporting to and make then vocalize their goals which, quickly will be to sell more cars and spend less money.
The next thing I would do after meeting with the GM's would be to do a super deep dive into my third parties and PPC. Find out exactly what you are buying, look at all ancillary products and see if they are bringing value and using the phone numbers and emails of shoppers that contacted you, see what percentage actually converted to an in-store shopper and then to a sale. Most managers that come on board after following other digital managers are normally surprised at some of the products they have from third parties, so copies of the contracts will be handy but you will really need the contracts broken down by product.
If you are not good with Google Analytics now would be the time to start getting great. If you are using a third party to buy your PPC, what percentage of your spend is going to the agency? It can be as low as 10% and as high as 35%. Is your agency/vendor being totally transparent with this piece of information? What can they share with you about their optimization process. Basically you want to ensure it has not turned into a set it and forget it.
And don't forget the basics on everything......verify that phones are ringing to the right place, links are going to the right place, leads are coming in properly, etc.
A deep dive like this will shed light on wasteful spending and also sales process follow-up. And this deep dive will give you loads of opportunity to not only identify issues but to correct them, and most of them are an easy fix, it's the finding them that can be a bit labor intensive. After this, I would, of course, start focusing and building it back up from the ground with sales training, how you present your dealerships to the world, what other digital opportunities are out there to grow your business, etc.....it is a neverending adventure.
Best of luck to you.