Brand new dealership. HELP!!

So here is my situation. I have been in sales for 2 years and have produced well. I had a friend who was promoted to GM of a new dealership his owner was opening up. So he asked me if I wanted to come along. He had a payplan that is better than I have ever seen with a guarantee salary and a lot of good experience I would never have gotten at my other store. So I switched stores. Now here I am. Now my new dealership has only 3 front end people. We have around 120 used cars & 200 new. The best I can tell is that no one is considering what we can do to help us gain more customers on the web. Our visibility is terrible at this point even if you type in our dealerships name we are about 6th in Google rankings. I am not sure how much our owner is willing to spend on web advertising. Of course we know about all of the usual routes cars.com/autotrader.com and we are on autotrader. So I really need advice on how I can help our dealership gain more web exposure with more people seeing that we exist. Our brand (Mitsubishi) is an under performer but we are the only Mitsubishi dealer within 50 miles of a pretty populated area. I am good with the web but I have never marketed a dealership before. Any advice on what would be a good avenue for me to take to get more people in the door would be greatly appreciated!

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Permalink Reply by Marsh Buice on November 2, 2011 at 8:30pm

Matt, are you saying there are 3 salespeople when you say 3 front end people?

Permalink Reply by Mark Fiorini on November 3, 2011 at 7:36pm

Matt,

I have a dealer that ran an IPad give away that he advertised in ALL of his advertising. Print,TV, and Radio...

The requirement was to enroll on the dealer website. Email address was required for enrollment. 

He captured 31,000 emails. To date he has sold over 900 cars from this promotion...Major percentage of them via Email Promotions that Drove customers to the dealer website to print off Discount Vouchers....

 

We supply them with protective coatings and extend service contracts and our numbers went through the roof as well.

Good Luck!!!

Permalink Reply by Kenny Jackson on November 4, 2011 at 12:54pm

Hello Matt,

   Iam in position to help your dealership not only show up on page 1 "organic" Google but also Yahoo, Bing and YouTube. Example go to google and type in: "lease hyundai sonata el monte" and you can see my customer Win Hyundai dominate with video. According to Google, people are 55% more likely to click on a video than a text ad.

I work in sales for Car-Mercial go to www.car-mercial.com and chek us out.

Please call me in my office at: 949-388-5823

Kenny Jackson

Permalink Reply by David Simpson on November 4, 2011 at 2:41pm
I ran a Misubishi store for 3 years before leaving to do training and consulting, and you need to be adept at advertising and getting exposure for your used cars, as that will dive more traffic than new cars. My dealer told me when Mitsubishi started to slide as a brand, "The right used car inventory drives traffic." I have lived by that and it is true. Rule #1 that I would say is measure Internet inquiries by make, model and price and identify trends. Also I have a GM that I worked with for several years in my current capacity who has done a great job with used cars and has found several ways to grow her Internet traffic on a strict budget using, among others I am sure, google, Edmunds and Facebook. I will pick her brain for you. Email or call me and I will let you know what she has been doing. David@dealerconsultinggroup.com or (469) 939-0410 cell.

Good luck,

David Simpson
Permalink Reply by Andrew Kappler on November 5, 2011 at 2:06pm

Step 1-

Google your dealerships name

Step 2-

Go through each site that mentions your name. (yelp,superpages,merchant circle,car dr,etc..)

Step 3-

UPDATE AND CLAIM ALL THOSE PAGES INCLUDING YAHOO & GOOGLE

Step 4-

Go out and take pictures of almost all your inventory new and used, just one picture each is all you need

Step 5-

Go to Flickr and open an acct for the dealership (you will need a yahoo acct)

Step 6-

Upload all pictures to Flickr and title/tag the pictures accordingly and also ad the name and address of your dealership (the more pics the better)

Step 7-

MAKE SURE YOUR FLICKR ACCT IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Step 8-

Start a Facebook page for the dealership, add all the dealer specific info (name,address,phone #,location etc..)

Step 9-

If you do not have a FB page, you better friggin get one...Find out how many people in your dealership have a FB page and get them to "like" it and empower some of them to add content for the dealership (you will figure out which ones to trust,go with the ones that have tons of friends and seem to interact daily with them)..they will help grow the page

Step 10-

Repeat steps 4-7 only this time use video and open a Youtube acct

Step 11-

Go to your website and remove pricing from the inventory, make sure to update your specials, and make sure your phone # is visible everywhere

Step 12-

Find a company to place your vehicles on Craigslist, DO NOT PRICE THEM (trust me)

Step 13-

Drive by your dealership a number of times and take a good close look at what you are doing, chances are the cars are less then 3 feet apart, facing the same way straight in, looking all the same sort of like a Costco or Sams Club

Step 14-

Find out who your biggest competitor is and figure out why

Step 15-

Look at steps 1-14...get off your ass... and get to work

 

I am just a squirrel trying to get a nut, I want my share and at the end of the day I want your share also !!!! Good Luck

 

BTW... All of these steps (except Craigslist, which I pay $200 a month) are free, if the owner has a problem with any of these than I suggest moving on.... Good Luck !!!

 

Permalink Reply by FusionZone Automotive on November 7, 2011 at 10:01am

Matt:

There are many solutions to the issues being faced.  What I am seeing is you need to improve your Google rankings, need more organic leads and an improved webpresense.  This can be done with one easy fix.  Call Robb Metz at FusionZone Automotive. His number is 818-428-0340. Listen to this.  Robb is the director of sales at this company and a good guy. We are the only Website Presense that offers a a100% full money back guarantee if we do not double your organic internet leads in 90 days. THAT MEANS more internet traffic and a stronger internet presense.  We will by using Google's own requirements move you up to the top of their rankings. We are without a doubt the best at what we do and there is ZERO RISK. 

Permalink Reply by Matt Harper on November 8, 2011 at 12:44am
Thanks everyone I really appreciate the advice.

Andrew - Really good tips. You see I am being given no money to market this new dealership with. So I am going to have to improvise.

I am going to do what I can but I am seeing a real struggle for this dealership to even stay in business very long. I have a budget of $0 from the dealership and whatever I am willing to pay out of my pocket. I dont see how we can compete with absolutely no marketing. We are not going to go after the internet. No SEO. I can do whatever I want I just cant spend any money.
Permalink Reply by Andrew Kappler on November 8, 2011 at 9:09am

Matt you absolutely need to go after the internet, go after it hard...MOST EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO GET STARTED IS 100% FREE... If Cobalt is hosting your website, call them and take control of it..update your factory incentives for each model and most importantly drop the pricing from your used cars, pricing on your website has no effect on manufacturers search results, but it will have a huge result on lot traffic and phone ups...You can add verbage that will indeed influence your placement on google and yahoo...STAY AWAY FROM THE WORD "PRE-OWNED", it is never searched AND QUITE FRANKLY IS SMUG... Here are 3 sites that have very heavy search result influences...eBay...Youtube...Flickr...these sites pay millions and millions of dollars to stay on top...YOU CAN DO THIS, YOU ARE IN A VERY UNIQUE POSITION TO CREATE SOMETHING THAT CURRENTLY DOES NOT EXIST...Get to work!!!!!

Permalink Reply by Sam David on November 8, 2011 at 10:26am

Andrew,

Your advice is among the best I've seen on dealerelite.  Great stuff!

 

Thanks


Andrew Kappler said:

Matt you absolutely need to go after the internet, go after it hard...MOST EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO GET STARTED IS 100% FREE... If Cobalt is hosting your website, call them and take control of it..update your factory incentives for each model and most importantly drop the pricing from your used cars, pricing on your website has no effect on manufacturers search results, but it will have a huge result on lot traffic and phone ups...You can add verbage that will indeed influence your placement on google and yahoo...STAY AWAY FROM THE WORD "PRE-OWNED", it is never searched AND QUITE FRANKLY IS SMUG... Here are 3 sites that have very heavy search result influences...eBay...Youtube...Flickr...these sites pay millions and millions of dollars to stay on top...YOU CAN DO THIS, YOU ARE IN A VERY UNIQUE POSITION TO CREATE SOMETHING THAT CURRENTLY DOES NOT EXIST...Get to work!!!!!

Permalink Reply by Dennis Cole on November 15, 2011 at 1:49pm

Great Post. Andrew has given excellent advice the Internet is what can make or break your dealership. In your case you really don't know how lucky you are. If your dealership does not have an invested or a strong internet department. It opens up the door for you to be the internet department.Use it to your advantage and watch your sales soar my man.Think of your internet customers the same way you do as customers on the lot. "GO AFTER THEM" Search local internet message boards and social media sites. Look up every webpage in your community and work out a deal where you can post a banner on there webpage. Offer them a $100 for every vehicle sold that came from there site. Facebook is the best tool you can use. Upload all your photos to Facebook and include dealership name and phone number at the end of the name. Make a sold folder move your sold to the folder to keep it fresh and organized. Take pictures of every delivery at your dealership and post Mr and Mrs ? smiling with there new vehicle. Keep up to date on what your friends are doing if you see someone complaining of being broke message them offer them a bird dog fee there is always people complaining about there car message them and get them on your lot. Make sure your website is posted everywhere on all print and in all TV or Radio, I would speak to your manager or owner and ask them to invest some of the $ they are spending on radio and newspaper and put it into web advertising. Radio,newspaper,and TV or not NOT what they used to be.and can drain a budget very fast. You need to survey everyone that hits your lot or calls in and ask them how they heard of your dealership or the vehicle they are inquiring about. If you can show the management that Radio is weak or the thousands spent a month in newspaper is weak you will have a crutch to stand on. The car biz is evolving and advertising needs to evolve as well. Upload nice walk around videos of your vehicles put them on facebook,youtube, and metacafe.See what your competitor is doing to drive traffic to there site. Check there meta tags and key words. More customers search the internet for a vehicle nowadays then getting in a car and driving lot.You can e-mail me at dennis618mma@gmail.com and I will e-mail you a huge list of links on posting your vehicles.

Permalink Reply by Jock Schowalter on January 20, 2012 at 1:15pm

Make sure you are taking advantage of posting on Craigslist.  Many dealers will see your store there and then consequently  visit your website.  And it's free!  You can also post a QR Code as one of your images to direct someone directly to your website.  Good luck with it.

Jock - DealerPeak.com

Permalink Reply by Troy Spring on March 29, 2012 at 1:01pm

Matt,

I just posted a video about this about two hours ago and it is #2 already on the video leader boards. It is called Ad Budget Review.   I would be glad to help you out even just a 10 minute phone call to actually chat and share with you my thoughts.    Troy   610-570-3022   FYI, I wont try and sell you anything...lol  Just help you out... I believe in CARMA>

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