Car dealers are shifting more of their automotive advertising budgets to digital strategies and that include Google Adwords, Automotive SEO, blogging and social media. Third party websites and lead generation companies all help car dealers sell more cars. However, their best source for high quality leads is their own website.
With that in mind, car dealers must carefully evaluate the success of their current automotive website to ensure that their ROI is in line with their peers. Since automotive website contracts often run 1, 2 or 3 years, selecting any website platform can have long term financial obligations.
Car dealers should evaluate any website platform on its ability to integrate important business operation elements such as lead generations, lead management, customer relationship management (CRM), content generation and lead conversion. Integrated automotive website platforms can also save time and money by reducing the number of vendors that are required to operate their digital sales strategy.
As car dealers increase their digital automotive advertising budgets, website that assist them with Google Adwords campaign management will become more of a must have feature. Currently only a few website platforms innovate Google Adwords management for car dealers.
Automotive Website Awards
The most authoritative independent review of automotive websites is the ASMA Awards which are presented in the fall at the annual Digital Dealer Conference. The Automotive Search Marketing Architecture (ASMA) awards recognize the best automotive website platforms based on their search marketing authority and tools.
Car dealers looking to purchase a new automotive website technology can use the 2009 ASMA report to guide their purchase or wait until October 13, 2010 for the release of the 2010 report.
Ask Your Peers
Before car dealers purchase an automotive website platform, they can also participate in popular automotive forums like Dealerrefresh.com and Drivingsales.com to ask their peers what they consider may be best for their needs. Peer recommendations are often the best because they are not being compensated for their responses.
PCG Digital Marketing is a leader in digital marketing strategies for car dealers. PCG founder Brian Pasch is an active conference speaker on Automotive SEO, Social Media and Search Marketing Strategies.