OK, Please put your hand all the way up if you know how a micro site can help you sell cars?

Many ageless dealers might even be first asking themselves, “How can my actual site help me sell cars -let alone a micro site?”

All of these questions start with the same answer: “how much is an appointment worth to you?”

Most dealers experience roughly a 50%-60% closing rate on set appointments. The average profit per copy on most used deals is around $2,500 front and back. So a 60% chance at that gross profit – would mean that EVERY SINGLE appointment to your store is worth around $1,500 in real money.. That figure is even higher for most dealers – they are plugging in a 75% sold appointment ratio and a 4k per copy avg. ($3,000 per appt.) That’s a lot of money.  The question becomes not, “where can I get more car deals?”  -   but rather:  “Where can I get more APPOINTMENTS?”   The internet is where you go to find more appointments.

There is ONE thing that dealers have gotten correct about using the internet to sell cars when they say:  “The internet doesn’t sell cars.”  They are right.  HERE IS A FACT: The only person in your dealership that sells cars… is the finance guy.  Every other person in your dealership just talks about cars, or talks about numbers, or talks about ideas. Your finance guy is the ONLY one “selling cars.” Remember that. Everything along the way is just another step in the process; your website should be no different!

If you begin to see the obviousness of this it becomes much easier to value a prospect that is on your website, and therefore… possible to determine how useful a microsite can be in helping your store sell cars.

81% shop online before coming into the dealership. 24% use mobile phone, 19% use tablets

Back to the original question: “how can we use micro-sites to help dig for, and mine valuable appointments out of this section of the market?” – (the 81%)

(S.E.O.  police approved)

Enter – the micro site!  A tiny but powerful tool for building value online

.

Think of your website as it’s own dealership. It has a main entrance, just like your dealership. (www.yournamehere.com).  In business, it’s always location, location, location. How much traffic can you get to come acrossed that main road, right? To get the traffic acrossed this main entrance dealers have spent quite a bit of money on driving that traffic (advertising).

 In your store you would never spend money advertising if your salespeople weren’t trained to handle the traffic that resulted. Sadly many dealers are spending money to send traffic to websites that are woefully unprepared to handle this oppurtunity (remember $1,500 - $3,000 per appt) For the sake of this experiment let’s pretend that you have your MAIN website dialed in. You are ready to drive some traffic to your “internet store” and start counting the money. This is how to do that.

There are two sides to micro sites-

1. This first kind of Micro Site builds value in the “relevancy” of your main site for search engines. These sites link back to your main site, they also have their own relevant searchable content. The more relevant your Micro Site is, the more the “boost” will be to your main site when it receives traffic directed from that Micro Site.
2. The second kind builds value in your services and products in the customer’s mind. These sites can create a much more desirable “landing site” than your main page. Possibly just a simpler version of the main site, or one tilted towards special finance, or sports cars, a local sports team,  etc.  Once the prospect has “landed” at a site like this, the next step is the same as it is on the lot: “bring them inside”.  These sites “redirect” their traffic right back to your main site, or your contact forms, or whatever is next in your conversion process.

(keep in mind the only thing you are selling online, is an appointment!) 

...process (slow the customer down - give them content)

  These two benefits of micro sites are very different, yet are almost always achieved at the same time if applied correctly. The third benefit to properly using Micro Sites is the ability to better gauge “where” your customers are coming into your main store from. This is very important in effective advertising. The next time your dealership is involved in an outdoor truck rally, sponsor the event with your Micro Site and you can do two things:

1. Track how much traffic came in from that particular event, and gauge whether or not the interest dictates repeating your involvement the next year.
2. Give the customers that are generated with this “advertising” a landing site that will be something you know they will enjoy. Even include pictures and videos from the event.

  Remember, the trick to mastering Micro Sites is remembering what an appointment is truly worth, and setting them up so that all roads lead back to your dealership. Imagine if you could build an entrance to your dealership at the local mud race, or at the local parts store, or at the weekend stock car event. With Micro Sites you can have you virtual dealership connected all over the internet, and all roads lead back to your “main” store online. If your “main” site is designed to add value to your  actual location, your actual processes , and your actual products… then all those little fingers that micro sites help put out into the internet, eventually lead right back to your sales process*… and eventually all the way to your finance manager – so you can sell some cars!

* Sales Process = "Name of the Game" 

Andrew Myers - Co-founder What's Next Media

see more at: www.whatsnext.pro/blog