Automotive Internet Marketing Insight by DealerDex.com

One of the identifying marks of a car dealership absent of any serious Internet Marketing personnel is a domain name(s) WHOIS with old, outdated information. This shouldn’t be a big deal to any business but in many small companies it often is. Here’s a timeline that shows why:

• 1998. 1998 was a big year for dealers getting their first websites, because that’s when Reynolds realized it had some value and pushed it on all their uninterested dealers. “The guy who knows about computers” in the company is asked to buy the domain. Naturally, he uses his own personal data to fill out the WHOIS, because he doesn’t have a corporate email address, and there’s no one else’s name to put on the thing besides his own. Maybe he buys a five-year term… maybe 10. No one cares about the site so it really doesn’t matter to him. [click to continue…]

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In a perfect world, what would car dealers need to create a great video for showcasing vehicle inventory? Let’s see… a Steadicam or some dolly-type device for professional, steady shooting… high-quality recording hardware to do the voice-over… effects software to overlay images and text… about a dozen takes… [click to continue…]

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If I had a dime for every dealer who demanded to be at “the top” of Google… trouble is, most of them don’t know where the top actually is. Or, they know where the top is and (as usual) prefer to invest money for instant ROI rather than invest time and effort for long-term ROI. In both of these cases, the dealer inevitably lands on spot #2: the top of paid search.

But folks, that ain’t the top.

If you’re a dealer asking questions about getting to the top of Google, then you already have some understanding of the power and value of search engine presence. But what you haven’t realized - or refuse to realize - is that “paid search” (PPC) marketing is not the magic bullet of search engine marketing. While PPC is highly cost-effective and can be tracked and analyzed to no end, it’s still just rented ad space. If you don’t pay for your ad to be there tomorrow, some other competitor will take your place… just like print ads.

Organic SEO on the other hand, builds upon itself. These are the results that “naturally” list out along the left side of the page; the sites which Google has deemed relevant to what users are searching for. The closer your site gets to the top of that area, the more clicks you receive, the more Google values your site, and the higher your site will go. It’s the snowball effect, and there’s really nothing like it in any other area of automotive advertising. Build a high-quality site and maintain it frequently, and you could be on top of the natural listings within a few months. That’s the discipline to keep in mind: the top of Google is in the organic/natural listings, not the paid listings.

The #1 result in the organic listings (Spot#1) gets about 40% of the click share on Google and other search engines. The #1 paid result doesn’t even come close (maybe 20% of the click share on a good day when listed above the organic side (Spot #3), and more like 10% at the top of the sponsored side (Spot #4)), and often you get better results as the #2 organic listing (Spot #2) than you would as the #1 paid listing. That means the majority of people are going to look past your PPC advertising efforts to find the page that Google has declared the most relevant page on the queried topic. That’s because users know PPC marketing listings are ads, and to a degree, they’ve trained themselves to avoid looking at such listings. It’s also because the organic results deliver more information in their results, so the user has a better idea of what they’re clicking on.

Now there are still a ton of people who mistakenly or purposefully click on paid listings, and I’m not suggesting you give it up. It is, after all, the second best marketing expense in this industry right now. But it’s still an expense, and that’s why it’s in the same boat as newspaper, direct mail, radio and TV advertising: when you stop paying, you stop getting leads. If you’re on a tirade about being #1 in Google, your first step is to realize that it’s not going to happen overnight, and that PPC marketing is not what gets you to #1. Your second step is to find a website developer who rocks at SEO and can build you a killer site… unfortunately, that means looking outside the offerings within this industry.

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I’ve always told dealers that letting me loose on a Service Department is like letting a kid into a candy store… there’s so much going wrong on the Service side of the roof from an e-commerce perspective that Consultants such as myself could live on that alone, without ever having to step foot in the Sales side of the mess.

Funny thing is, I was prompted to write this post after my experience as a consumer, rather than a Consultant. Now that I’m nearly a year gone from the days of driving demos, servicing my vehicle is a regular occurence. My local Acura dealer couldn’t hack it, so I started searching around for other options… I located another nearby dealer to try out, and sent a Service Appointment lead in off their crappy Reynolds site. I forgot the format Reynolds demands its users instinctively know in order to complete the Appointment form, so it took me three tries to submit that. And did I get an autoresponder to confirm that the dealer knows I exist? Nah. Did I get a response via email or phone at any point in the day? Nope. Okay, so it looks like in order to give this dealership my money, I’m going to have to set the appointment myself by making a phone call.

Ah, but there’s no Service phone number on the Service Appointment form. And the number on the Service Department page apparently just rings to the Sales receptionist… I know that because when I called, I got the overflow voicemail for the Sales department. Hi folks, it’s me, Mr. Customer - I have $39.95 I want to hand to you… is anyone there? Anyone?

Did I neglect to mention that this is a Penske-owned store? I guess there’s no corporate efficiency trickling down to the franchises these days. What else can you do but shake your head and wonder how much money Service Departments leave on the table every month simply because they make it as difficult as possible for customers to request work.

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