Toiling in the trenches, way under the radar, a feisty little automotive internet startup is making all the right moves with its cross-hairs fixed on you, on me and all of us in our industry… the automotive internet/retail industry.

First, a little background...

I am constantly tinkering and improving our site, trying to improve our Google Search Results. 2-3 times a month, I'll do long tail keyword analysis on Google for phrases like "used Ford Taurus near Syracuse NY". I keep seeing this lil-start-up site popping up on Google everywhere and I mean everywhere! “So what!” I murmured to myself… “I see car classified-site wannabes scraping and puking out millions of pages of junk all the time. They appear... then disappear a week later.

But this lil' start-up looked different. This Classified ad site was amazingly thorough in its search results and its pages had depth and effort. Curious, I looked into it's About-Us Page where I found an eye-popping list of 21st century Internet Kingdom builders including the founders of eBay Motors and TripAdvisor! Woa! To say I was impressed was an understatement. From the Board of Directors on down, its pedigree drips with MBA’s and Computer Science engineers from Harvard, MIT, and on.

Then I looked in cities all over the USA and I saw their master plan...

What we have percolating under our feet, is the architecture of the most SEO friendly, robust automotive classified ads site that I’ve ever seen, run by experienced world class Internet entrepreneurs (not newspaper companies). It's time you get to know... www.CarGurus.com.

Let’s look deeper. Way off everyone’s radar, CarGurus.com is working hard to rank for phrases like:

• used Acura MDX near [city] [state]
  
• used Buick Lucerne near [city] [state]
  
• used Chevrolet Equinox near [city] [state]
  
• used Ford F-150 near [city] [state]

For my market, I ran 100 phrases & here is the Average Position SUMMARY:

1. Cars.com..........6.2
2. CarGurus.com......7.4
3. AutoTrader.com...86.0
4. UsedCars.com.....89.7

WOW! See for yourself, the 100 Google search results I ran are here.

Is CarGurus.com strong in your City? Simply add your city & state with your major market and see for yourself. In AutoTrader’s defense, they rank very well in major markets, but, CarGurus.com is still top 10 in these markets too.

CarGurus.com super dominates local search. Google sees what’s going on. But the "big prize" for CarGurus.com is ranking for a top 3 position for Google's HOT HI-VOLUME short tail terms like:

• cars used
  
• used cars
  
• cars for sale
  
• cars sale
  
• used car
  
• used cars sale
  
• used cars for sale
  
• used vehicles
  
• buy cars

On the national stage, CarGurus.com is way off the radar:

1. Cars.com……........13.4
2. AutoTrader.com...15.4
3. UsedCars.com.....23.3
4. CarGurus.com.....91.8

My report for this  is here.

Our business is automotive retail... its LOCAL retail and Google knows it. CarGurus.com is hitting on all cylinders and IMO, IT WON'T BE LONG before Google's quality team manually flags CarGurus.com as an "automotive shopping site of authority". If and when that happens, they'll catapult onto the national stage. If & when that happens, you best have your lead volume caps in place as CarGurus.com will hit critical mass and 3rd party lead counts will blow a hole in your bank account!

Can it happen? Absolutely.

No one knows what goes on behind closed doors at Google, but, in my exhaustive studies, Google's army of quality control people do oversee and manually override search results. You can bet that Google’s quality control executives personally know all about the stellar work of CEO Langley Steinert and the board members like Simon Rothman, Steve Kaufer and others. IMO, it's only logical for Google to flag CarGurus.com to rank higher for nation-wide terms like “Used Cars”, and when that happens, the shopper counts will go into the stratosphere over night. CarGurus.com is an all-star in the AAA minor leagues… looking to step up to the bigs. One stroke of a Google Keyboard is all it'll take.

It doesn’t end here...Retailers BEWARE! CarGurus.com leads are DANGEROUS.

Visit this CarGurus.com thread in our forum --  Used Cars - CarGurus.com - vAuto and the Travel Industry.  It details the CarGurus.com “marketing hook” where the shopper knows if your price is high or low and by how much. 3rd party resellers HIDE the lead source, so, your lead is a set up for a fire fight on the sales floor. You'll also see an open letter that I sent to Renee Porter, from the partnership division of Cars.com. I am trying to warn Cars.com that leads from CarGurus.com (a cars.com partner) need to be clearly identified as a cargurus.com shopper.  A very in-depth and interesting thread FYI.

Additionally, the CarGurus.com platform needs help with its price comparison tool. Our industry produces very poor used car details and this is the reason why no-one has been able to produce a true blue VIN to VIN shopping tool (GIGO: Garbage IN, Garbage Out).

So, from my seat, CarGurus.com has some internal marketing hooks to perfect, but, its site architecture has no equal. Top rankings on Google are a zero sum game. Look out AutoTrader.com, Cars.com. The Guru is building its empire, one city at a time and if they go national, your iron grip on our marketplace will diminish. CarGuru’s model forces shoppers into producing a lead, its “Marketing hook” helps reinforce the confidence needed to submit a lead. Your dealers will notice a “butt-load” of leads from CarGurus.com partners and comparatively little from you. To maintain share, you'll need to spend more on TV and tinker with new lead generating tools and wrestle with more dealer unrest as the new comer’s pay for performance model and its leads are eating into your dealer’s budgets.

2011 is going to be very interesting indeed.

A Great Way to Build Customer Retention and Loyalty

Dealer Advisory Boards are a regular tool used by Automotive Vendors to maintain relationships with their top clients and to keep them engaged in the service they provide. Autotrader.com, for instance, has a great Dealer Advisory forum that they use to gauge customer satisfaction and product effectiveness. It is also a launching point for new ideas and services. Generally if their top clients don’t like it, neither will the masses. Autotrader.com not only gains valuable feedback from the dealer perspective through these meetings, but also strengthens the relationship they have with their major client base; which builds loyalty and retention.

So why not extend this idea to your best dealership customers as well?

A Dealership Advisory Board is a “soft value” add-on that is beneficial to both your excellent clients and to you. Unlike giving away free oil changes (which we all know is no guarantee of future customer pay labor) this added value creates and strengthens the relationship you have with your most important commodity, your Regular Customers.

These meetings, held up to twice a year allow your customers to impact “their” dealership, especially when they enjoy the changes their feedback initiates. The “partnership” between the DAB and the Dealership becomes long lasting and you will be surprised at the level of ownership your customers will take of the dealership after participating.

The DAB is a win-win because not only do you gain valuable feedback to help you improve your process for all your customers, but you also gain the best advertising anywhere- REFERRALS!

The best customers to choose for your first DAB should be your most loyal ones. Avoid the negative customer at first; those can be folded into the mix later. Try to find customers who have prominent positions in the community if possible. One dealer advisory board I managed had the head of the Pilots Union on it. That one person had the potential to reach literally thousands of other pilots, flight attendants, luggage handlers, ect.

Be sure to create an environment that is enjoyable and make your best customers feel appreciated. Gift bags are a great way to end the meeting. You can fill them with coupons, branded give-aways and a special gift like an i-pod or planner. Remember this is only 2x per year- so make it impressive.

Always remember to keep it positive and accept the criticism well. Most importantly, act on the feedback you receive. All your customers will be thankful for it!

Have you ever considered having a Dealer to Customer Advisory Board at your dealership?

PCG Digital Marketing announced today the list of 45 companies that will be included in their research reports on automotive website technology.

The website platforms of all companies in this year's study will be put through a series of tests and the results compiled and published in a whitepaper for the automotive industry.

The automotive website platforms that excel in various categories will be recognized in the report as well as select companies being chosen to received the coveted ASMA award of excellence.

In 2009 35 website companies were reviewed and only 9 were selected to receive an ASMA award. Three of the nine companies had the distinction of being a dual award winner. Last year's dual award winners were Dealer.com, TKCarsites.com, and DealerTrend.com.

The 2010 ASMA awards ceremony will be held On Wednesday October 13, 2010 at the 9th Digital Dealer Convention & Exposition. PCG is sponsoring the conference cocktail reception where the awards will be presented to an audience of over 1,000 automotive professionals. The Digital Dealer Conference is the largest automotive conference and exhibition specifically focused on digital marketing and technology.

List of Companies in the 2010 ASMA Study

The companies that will be included in this year's ASMA whitepaper , in alphabetical order, are:

All Auto Network
Dealer Peak
Nexteppe

Auto Fusion
Dealer Serve
Onten Design

Auto Jini
Dealer Skins
Oren USA

Auto Lot Manager
Dealer Trend
Portratz Partners

Auto Revo
Dealer.com
Promaxonline

Automotive Website Solutions
Dealeron
Pure Dealer

BZ Results
eBizAutos
Reynolds and Reynolds

Click Motive
eCarlist
Search Optics

Cobalt
eCarlist
SEO Sport

Dealer Connection
FZ Automotive
Smart Web Concepts

Dealer e-Process
Higher Turnover
TK Carsites

Dealer Fire
IZMO Cars
Vin Solutions

Dealer HD
Liquid Motors
Wilson Software Corp

Dealer Impact
MJMI
World Dealer

My Dealer Biz
XI Group

Xspond.com

For additional information on the 2010 ASMA visit: www.asmaawards.org or call Carrie Hemphill, ASMA Coordinator, at 732.450.8200.

Shoppers love car shopping on the ‘net.

For the last decade they’ve used the internet as their primary vehicle shopping tool.  Internet shoppers on your site right now are on their 2nd, 3rd or 4th “internet vehicle”… BUT, something has changed!  What’s different this time?

This is the 1st time your internet shopper has been in a recession while shopping for a car.

Never before have your Internet Marketing efforts been more important to you, your store and to your very cautious car shopper.  News of the Recession is everywhere (and so is the evidence) so it's no surprise our car shopper in 2010 is very cautious and is taking their time.  I can confirm this “cautious shopper” observation via our post sale survey we do at delivery. This year’s results clearly show that impulse buying is down dramatically and cautious shopping has grown in its place. (e.g. shopping under 2 weeks is way down and shopping more than 2 months is up).

Here’s some more proof, compare the 2 Google charts below…

Google stats:

• June “Vehicle Shopping” searches at 6 year low
  
• June “Vehicle Maintenance” searches at 6 year high

---I’ve put a circle over June on each year so you can easily compare year over year changes---

Recession's traditionally create strong used car markets as the New car buyer steps down to a used vehicle to find more value,  but, the recession of 2010 is different, used cars are very rare and so expensive that the price gap between new and used are at historical lows. What's that mean?  The "Used Vehicle vs. New Vehicle Value Equation" sucks!  You can see the all time high prices for used cars in the Manheim Used Vehicle index chart below.




What's that mean? The "Used Vehicle vs. New Vehicle Value Equation" sucks!  The cautious shopper wants to replace his tired car and buy a newer used car yet all he finds is... really expensive used cars!!  Ohoh... not good. Mr Cautious shopper is forced into sucking it up and getting his car fixed instead of replacing it (or, he lives with the rattle and he does nothing).

Ok… so where’s the opportunity?

Right now, like no time before, your dealership web site is a gigantic magnet for your service and maintenience business as car buyers are crawling around your site looking to trade-in their clunker, but market conditions have them in decision paralysis.  Tensions build as each week passes, Mr Cautious shopper still has to get to work and that noise is getting louder and louder. You can see how service demand gets stronger and stronger as each week passes.

Now more than ever, your service business is an outstanding gateway to your sales floor. Your site is rich with pent up demand,  visitors know they’re trapped and have got to spend money, either by service or in sales.  This shopper behavior observation is confirmed in the 2 Google charts above.  Everyone knows they’d prefer to buy new than repair, so, if you want to sell more cars, use your service drive as a gateway and market your service business hard!

In your new service marketing efforts, offer all the service coupons and free "squeak advice" that you can, think of all of the ailments a common aging car has and use it as Internet Marketing honey. Get your service department on a Google Pay Per Click ad campaign RIGHT NOW.

Consider every single up in the service bay as a reluctant buyer that is deferring a replacement purchase. Bird dog your writers handsomely to get referrals on any high RO.

Speaking of right now, It's time to be working those trade-in opportunities HARD.

What buyers don't know is trade-in valuations are at record highs.  Have your webmaster add trade-in forms to invite shoppers to discover how surprisingly affordable a new cars are due to temporarily record high kelly blue book prices. Get the dialogue going, There is plenty to talk about that the shopper is unaware of.

Let’s build on these ideas.

Bring your ideas and best practices to the DealerRefresh community. I am looking for marketing ideas and incentives to help us get “Mr Cautious Shopper” into service bay and let’s talk about some best practices and new ideas on how to help Mr Cautious shopper out of an RO and into a new car (you’re going to want to watch for Jerry Thibeau’s “service drive to sales” comments, they work!)

This post is a spin off from a interesting topic at Dale Pollak’s place The path to profitability: A call to action for all dealers

What are you doing to drive your service customers over to the sales floor?