I've been meaning to get to this post for a while. My two cents.
1. To compete as a small dealer, you have to do things that you know the big dealers are bad at.
a. Improve merchandising
x. your pictures aren't bad, but there is too much in the background
xx. the AI background is weak - there are better options
xxx. group your hot button features together
xxxx. label your hot button features
xxxxx. pictures should be in a consistent order that flows well with the layout of the car
xxxxxx. some may disagree, but, to me, pricing is a part of merchandising - I don't know your market and maybe everybody else is at MSRP minus incentives, but to gain market share you're going to need heavier discounts
b. Clean up your site
x. don't make customer scroll the main page looking for what they want and don't rely on the menus - they should be able to see where they are wanting to go very quickly (new, used, service, parts)
xx. trade and payment tools shouldn't be the first thing they see and shouldn't be the first crack you get at a form fill as trade leads don't convert as high
xxx. on desktop remove the CTA's from the VSR - they don't care about that yet and it creates a lot of wasted space and takes longer to get to your next vehicle
xxxx. on mobile use the same concept and just list the price as well - they don't need the full breakdown yet and you have the same scroll problem
xxxxx. remove pagination and go to endless scroll
xxxxxx. too many CTAs on the VDP - keep it simple - I went to one button and started getting more leads - you don't have to go as crazy as me, but 5 is too many
xxxxxxx. your stack of CTAs actually made me ignore them and I almost missed that you had a payments button
xxxxxxxx. fix the incentive stack on desktop VDPs - it's messy and fills up the page
xxxxxxxxx. on desktop look at all of the blank space under the photos on your VDP created by the incentive stack and CTA's
xxxxxxxxxx. there isn't a location in the description or otherwise that allows the guest to quickly identify the hot button features on the VDP
2. If you have trust issues, you need to offer things that build trust.
a. display prices clearly in the windows
b. offer a used car warranty (i.e. 30 day, 30% P&L powertrain warranty)
c. return or exchange policy
d. sign up with DealerRater and start building some reviews and get them on the site somewhere.
e. customer testimonials
f. improve your staff page - celebrate your people
g. boost your FB page for likes
h. post your customers taking delivery of their vehicles on FB
i. get rid of "Get ePrice" - that doesn't say "trust me"
j. this one might be controversial but the market pricing showing savings on used cars is bunk - it creates mistrust IMO
