WebDeals Blog

I was talking with Tony Batarse the other day, about a new car store he has in a smallish town on a stretch of freeway between Sacramento and San Francisco. Mr Batarse is a personal hero of mine, and the man that gave me my first break in F&I years ago; he also happens to be one of the most powerful men in the automotive retail game.

At one point in the conversation, he told a great story about a store in which he had used some incredibly creative marketing techniques to turn the store itself into a destination. Mr Batarse had found a way to bring people -buyers- past other dealerships and out to his stores. His secret? The secret is that there is no secret. Tap into the community and create a destination. Is it that simple? Yes. In a country town? Get together with your surrounding stores and have a Hay-Ride Party with free BBQ. In the city? Have the local hip-hop radio station come out and visit each dealership to give away $100/hour. The idea is simple: be relevant and interesting to the community to attract the desired foot traffic.

We see rival dealers rally together in furtherance of business all the time: newspaper ads, television commercials, events like those listed above. So how does that synergy match up with the permanent reality of Internet advertising? Perfectly, actually…

Automall websites offer another portal from which local buyers emerge. They create an extended and relevant dealer presence, giving additional exposure to vehicle inventory and fixed ops, and lending reassuring credence during the customer shopping experience. As a unique site, it will be crawled by search engines and replace vendors in search returns (not to mention out-of-area competitors!), giving you an additional opportunity to capture the buyer before s/he becomes a $25 lead!

The Automall Website can funnel buyers to the individual dealers’ websites, but should also offer a rich experience for the users that choose to do their shopping right there. In addition to all of each dealers’ inventory, it must include a comparison feature. ~Wait a minute! What if they decide to buy a different make next door because of the comparison?!~ Sorry, but it’s going to happen. Fortunately, they will choose your brand sometimes. The point is by giving the shopper the choice, you empower them and remove the need for them to shop elsewhere.

The coding for the contact page can filter leads (quote requests, trade valuations, service and parts inquiries, etc) to the CRM of each dealers’ choice based upon the vehicle of interest. Of course links to dealer web sites can be scattered throughout. With proper Automotive SEO, the site will place high in search results pages and generate many leads – all of which are local, in-market buyers.

An Auto Mall website is your chance to make a professional, unified, and buyer-friendly environment to capture the attention of your local shoppers, and those that now view you as a destination!

UPDATE*** Here’s an additional thought: Some dealer groups “get it”. Take a look at RiversideAutoCenter.com, KelolandAutomall.com and RosevilleAutomall.com (shameless plug for a client).