@ Alex Synder- Don't know if this was posted yet but Congratulations on being voted #1 Dealer Website by Auto Dealer Monthly. Your group site is very impressive!!
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- May 1, 2005
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- Jeff
Ok guys, lets get this one back on track.
1. B. Get one phone lead - I'll take a phone lead over 3 emails leads any day.
2. B. Spend $2,000 on high-level SEO - SEO becomes residual sales and income.
3. A. Get an email from a customer saying “your price is too high”. - I can overcome a pricing objection.
4. B. Have no form at all for service - No response to a form can make the customer feel unimportant and give a bad first impression.
5. A. Have a competitor directly under you in the SERPs - Assuming the customer did a keyword search for my dealer, I'll take a competitive dealer under my dealers URL in the SERPS any day.
6. B. Have one that pays out for Internet-based Service revenue - Residual on a previous customer in the sales department is nice but making money on service could be several times a year per customer rather then once every 3-5 years.
7. B. Remove all the email forms from your site and rely only on the phone numbers. - I know I'm breaking the rules a little here but this would depend on the manufacturer. Mercedes = PHONE, Honda = Forms
8. Lose your domain name - This is a tough one. If you loose your domain you could loose all of your placement in the SERPS but being blacklisted prevents total email communication, like cutting the phone line. But of course I might answer that one differently if I never had a form on my website like in question 7.
1. B. Get one phone lead - I'll take a phone lead over 3 emails leads any day.
2. B. Spend $2,000 on high-level SEO - SEO becomes residual sales and income.
3. A. Get an email from a customer saying “your price is too high”. - I can overcome a pricing objection.
4. B. Have no form at all for service - No response to a form can make the customer feel unimportant and give a bad first impression.
5. A. Have a competitor directly under you in the SERPs - Assuming the customer did a keyword search for my dealer, I'll take a competitive dealer under my dealers URL in the SERPS any day.
6. B. Have one that pays out for Internet-based Service revenue - Residual on a previous customer in the sales department is nice but making money on service could be several times a year per customer rather then once every 3-5 years.
7. B. Remove all the email forms from your site and rely only on the phone numbers. - I know I'm breaking the rules a little here but this would depend on the manufacturer. Mercedes = PHONE, Honda = Forms
8. Lose your domain name - This is a tough one. If you loose your domain you could loose all of your placement in the SERPS but being blacklisted prevents total email communication, like cutting the phone line. But of course I might answer that one differently if I never had a form on my website like in question 7.
"6. B. Have one that pays out for Internet-based Service revenue - Residual on a previous customer in the sales department is but nice making money on service could be several times a year rather then once every 3-5 years."
Right, and besides, who stays at one dealership for 5 years? Fuggedaboutit!
Right, and besides, who stays at one dealership for 5 years? Fuggedaboutit!
B. Get one phone lead - of course the disclaimer is that if the three email leads came from my highest closing ratio provider...
B. Spend $2,000 on high-level SEO - nobody with any smarts clicks in the paids
A. Get an email from a customer saying “your price is too high” - not having what they want is almost always insurmountable
B. Have no form at all - agree with Jeff on this one...only get one chance to make a first impression
A. Have a competitor directly under you in the SERPs - hate bad reviews!
A. Have a payplan that pays out for previous Internet customers - there is something to be said for being able to garner repeat and referral from the mooches
B. Remove all the email forms from your site and rely only on the phone numbers - again...the phone is the gold.
B. Have your mail server blacklisted - Mail server is replaceable - domain is not as easy to replace.
B. Spend $2,000 on high-level SEO - nobody with any smarts clicks in the paids
A. Get an email from a customer saying “your price is too high” - not having what they want is almost always insurmountable
B. Have no form at all - agree with Jeff on this one...only get one chance to make a first impression
A. Have a competitor directly under you in the SERPs - hate bad reviews!
A. Have a payplan that pays out for previous Internet customers - there is something to be said for being able to garner repeat and referral from the mooches
B. Remove all the email forms from your site and rely only on the phone numbers - again...the phone is the gold.
B. Have your mail server blacklisted - Mail server is replaceable - domain is not as easy to replace.
I'll take my crack at these. It's interesting, I look at this from a Internet Marketer perspective rather than a dealer insider so there could be some differences of opinion here.
A. Get three third party email leads
Or
B. Get one phone lead - Big time. There is all sorts of controversey around 3rd party leads, across lots of industries these days (look up news with a stock VCLK). Further, someone that calls the dealership is likely to be further through the buying process and has already expressed an interest in your particular dealer.
A. Spend $2,000 on PPC - Absolutely here as well. SEO is a process that can take time and it's hard to find decent SEO work for under $1,500 per month. BTW - Ranking for your dealer name isn't decent SEO work, you wouldn't believe how many people want to argue with me on this. So, at best you would get about 1 month of SEO, where solid SEO work usually requires about 12 months. Further, for $2,000 you could buy a lot of clicks to your site. A lot dealers say PPC doesn't work, but I often see PPC being too poorly targeted - too broad and too early in the buying cycle - to be effective.
Or
B. Spend $2,000 on high-level SEO
A. Get an email from a customer saying “your price is too high” - If the price is "too high" then you have what the customer wants so they are emotionally tied in to you, the price might just be an excuse for other emotional triggers they are having about a major purchase. Good salesmanship and consulting seems like it would frequently overcome this - if you actually have what the customer wants.
Or
B. Get an email saying “you don’t have what I want”
A. Have a Service Appointment form on your site that never gets responded to - YOU HAVE TO HAVE FORMS - Internet users expect forms. If the form isn't getting responses then you can always test and alter it until you are closer to the performance you wanted for it.
Or
B. Have no form at all
A. Have a competitor directly under you in the SERPs - Absolutely. Customers expect competitors - there are 10s of thousands of dealerships in the US. Negative customer reviews can really harm a business - just Google 'Husker BMW'. These guys have been slaughtered on the Internet for a problem they had on eBayMotors.
Or
B. Have a negative consumer review directly under you
A. Have a payplan that pays out for previous Internet customers - This one is out of my league.
Or
B. Have one that pays out for Internet-based Service revenue
A. Remove all the phone numbers from your site and rely only on the email forms - I would have to say remove phone numbers. A lot of Internet visitors don't want personal contact for their stage of the buying cycle, but they do want to ask questions through email at 2am. Once the email dialouge is good, they will want the phone number or you could send it to them.
Or
B. Remove all the email forms from your site and rely only on the phone numbers
A. Lose your domain name - A good email marketing campaign is crucial. Domain names can change.
Or
B. Have your mail server blacklisted
A. Get three third party email leads
Or
B. Get one phone lead - Big time. There is all sorts of controversey around 3rd party leads, across lots of industries these days (look up news with a stock VCLK). Further, someone that calls the dealership is likely to be further through the buying process and has already expressed an interest in your particular dealer.
A. Spend $2,000 on PPC - Absolutely here as well. SEO is a process that can take time and it's hard to find decent SEO work for under $1,500 per month. BTW - Ranking for your dealer name isn't decent SEO work, you wouldn't believe how many people want to argue with me on this. So, at best you would get about 1 month of SEO, where solid SEO work usually requires about 12 months. Further, for $2,000 you could buy a lot of clicks to your site. A lot dealers say PPC doesn't work, but I often see PPC being too poorly targeted - too broad and too early in the buying cycle - to be effective.
Or
B. Spend $2,000 on high-level SEO
A. Get an email from a customer saying “your price is too high” - If the price is "too high" then you have what the customer wants so they are emotionally tied in to you, the price might just be an excuse for other emotional triggers they are having about a major purchase. Good salesmanship and consulting seems like it would frequently overcome this - if you actually have what the customer wants.
Or
B. Get an email saying “you don’t have what I want”
A. Have a Service Appointment form on your site that never gets responded to - YOU HAVE TO HAVE FORMS - Internet users expect forms. If the form isn't getting responses then you can always test and alter it until you are closer to the performance you wanted for it.
Or
B. Have no form at all
A. Have a competitor directly under you in the SERPs - Absolutely. Customers expect competitors - there are 10s of thousands of dealerships in the US. Negative customer reviews can really harm a business - just Google 'Husker BMW'. These guys have been slaughtered on the Internet for a problem they had on eBayMotors.
Or
B. Have a negative consumer review directly under you
A. Have a payplan that pays out for previous Internet customers - This one is out of my league.
Or
B. Have one that pays out for Internet-based Service revenue
A. Remove all the phone numbers from your site and rely only on the email forms - I would have to say remove phone numbers. A lot of Internet visitors don't want personal contact for their stage of the buying cycle, but they do want to ask questions through email at 2am. Once the email dialouge is good, they will want the phone number or you could send it to them.
Or
B. Remove all the email forms from your site and rely only on the phone numbers
A. Lose your domain name - A good email marketing campaign is crucial. Domain names can change.
Or
B. Have your mail server blacklisted
Mitch -
"And Alex, regarding your comment about those elusive "positive" reviews from consumers... that's pretty much on you, the dealer, to solicit. Consumers aren't going to write good things by their own accord."
That was a joke - I've never seen a customer create a happy website about a car dealership.
"And Alex, regarding your comment about those elusive "positive" reviews from consumers... that's pretty much on you, the dealer, to solicit. Consumers aren't going to write good things by their own accord."
That was a joke - I've never seen a customer create a happy website about a car dealership.
I Have to place my 2 cents worth and it would be spend the budget on PPC & SEO. 2k on PPC will get you the immediate results and SEO will eventually take over, of course that is if your existing site is optimized and continually updated. So I would recommend a vendor that offers website design as well as PPC with the testimonials to back up the results. So to conclude my 2 cents with past and current experience what we have found is that direct hits to your website have the highest conversion and we all know Owners and GM's like high ROI!
- Ron (DealerFire)
- Ron (DealerFire)
Ha, I know you were joking Alex... just wanted to spin it so people would realize you can actually get positive reviews out of customers. It's just that you can't wait for them to do it themselves.
1. Definitely phone leads.
2. Spend $2,000 on PPC - I like instant gratification, especially if you put money on keywords that convert the best. SEO is important, but I think most of us who read this blog are constantly optimizing our sites by creating relevant content and keywords that are appreciated by consumers and indexed by search engines.
3. “your price is too high” Can't sell what you don't have.
4. Have no form at all - lack of response is a buzz kill for converting first time unique visitors into returning visitors and getting bookmarked. If you're gonna spend money on service PPC campaigns to drive customers to your website, you better answer their online request. If they put out the effort of giving their real name and a valid phone number/email, they deserve an immediate response. Otherwise, delete the form and convert to a phone lead.
5. Have a negative consumer review directly under you - curious customers will still click on your weblink. Bad press is better than no press. Negative reviews give more attention to you than your competition dominating the SERPS. How many people are aware of Husker BMW now? The great thing about feedback, positive or negative, is that you can respond to it, blog about it, refute it, YouTube it, provide "happy customer" testimontials to counteract it, and use it as a launch pad for even more press.
6. Have a payplan that pays out for previous Internet customers - the internet has changed owner loyalty and it's important that we don't forget about the customer after the first sale. We spend all this time trying to buy leads from third parties, optimize our websites, implement SEM, just to get new prospects. We should spend at least half the time we do on current customers as we do prospecting. These customers can be a huge referral base, regardless of geography. We should get back the investment we put into advertising so hard to acquire the "internet" customer in the first place!
7. Remove all the email forms from your site and rely only on the phone numbers. PHONE LEADS rock! The biggest challenge of our bdc is getting customers to give us their phone number. It takes a lot of effort - we average between 5 and 10 emails back and forth to a customer - before they finally give in and share their phone #. How many of you get ebay local "best offers" on a car, and all you have is their ebay id? ? No phone number, no email address, no customer name. How much time is wasted trying to respond to these leads? In "internet lead triage," the ones with phone numbers are always treated first.
8. Have your mail server blacklisted. Their are tons or legit, whitelisted email marketing firms out there who are happy to host your email marketing campaigns. Losing your domain name or getting blacklisted by the search engines is sure death for a website and it can take years to get back into Page 1 of SERPS.
2. Spend $2,000 on PPC - I like instant gratification, especially if you put money on keywords that convert the best. SEO is important, but I think most of us who read this blog are constantly optimizing our sites by creating relevant content and keywords that are appreciated by consumers and indexed by search engines.
3. “your price is too high” Can't sell what you don't have.
4. Have no form at all - lack of response is a buzz kill for converting first time unique visitors into returning visitors and getting bookmarked. If you're gonna spend money on service PPC campaigns to drive customers to your website, you better answer their online request. If they put out the effort of giving their real name and a valid phone number/email, they deserve an immediate response. Otherwise, delete the form and convert to a phone lead.
5. Have a negative consumer review directly under you - curious customers will still click on your weblink. Bad press is better than no press. Negative reviews give more attention to you than your competition dominating the SERPS. How many people are aware of Husker BMW now? The great thing about feedback, positive or negative, is that you can respond to it, blog about it, refute it, YouTube it, provide "happy customer" testimontials to counteract it, and use it as a launch pad for even more press.
6. Have a payplan that pays out for previous Internet customers - the internet has changed owner loyalty and it's important that we don't forget about the customer after the first sale. We spend all this time trying to buy leads from third parties, optimize our websites, implement SEM, just to get new prospects. We should spend at least half the time we do on current customers as we do prospecting. These customers can be a huge referral base, regardless of geography. We should get back the investment we put into advertising so hard to acquire the "internet" customer in the first place!
7. Remove all the email forms from your site and rely only on the phone numbers. PHONE LEADS rock! The biggest challenge of our bdc is getting customers to give us their phone number. It takes a lot of effort - we average between 5 and 10 emails back and forth to a customer - before they finally give in and share their phone #. How many of you get ebay local "best offers" on a car, and all you have is their ebay id? ? No phone number, no email address, no customer name. How much time is wasted trying to respond to these leads? In "internet lead triage," the ones with phone numbers are always treated first.
8. Have your mail server blacklisted. Their are tons or legit, whitelisted email marketing firms out there who are happy to host your email marketing campaigns. Losing your domain name or getting blacklisted by the search engines is sure death for a website and it can take years to get back into Page 1 of SERPS.
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