I can see where having a micro-site may help a dealer index additional pages in the SERPS, add a few extra incoming links and possibly grab a few extra leads.

My opinion is much like Alex's; its going to create a lot of extra work - especially for those who don't have an organized online strategy already in place. The micro-site is not going to be your panacea.

Lindsay - stay away from anyone pitching you a 2k/mo. micro-site. For that price, it should prospect, close & deliver the car for you. The whole site shouldn't cost you more than ~$2500 - and that includes design, 1yr. hosting and key word optimization.

Frank - are you actually getting clicks for that search phrase? I see so many dealers being shown how "successful" their site is for a particular phrase. Its great to be #1 for a search term - but only if that phrase is ever searched by more than the just the company optimizing for it...

If you're going to spend the $$, I suggest putting it back into your main site to improve the style, functionality & overall usability. I'm sure everyone can find at least one or two pages within their site that isn't as effective as it should be. (I know I've got 'em)

Alex, good post...way to get people thinking.

Eric

Wow... Micromedia Sites... Very cool. The URL and landing page you constructed remind me of some of the ones Alvin puts together based on video clips.

Use Micro Sites Combined with SEM For Best Results from Dollars Spent:

It is true these days with all the different car dealers using SEM as a way to advertise and drive more clicks to there websites is costing more and more every month. You have to be smart about the way you use your monthly budget for SEM.
Micro Sites and SEM combined, is What I find to work best at Courtesy Chevrolet in San Diego Ca. First of all having Micro Sites, and More Micro Sites is going to set you apart from the competition over a period of time. Where I am going with this is get into the idea of having Micro Sites to help generate more online leads, incoming phone calls, and walk-in traffic to your dealership. Micro Sites are all about branding your name and dealership. Micro Sites are very low over head, usally consits of a build fee, and yearly hosting cost. Once they are built they are yours and with good content, you well get good SEO over time and they will do the advertising for you with out any SEM.

SEM campaigns and Micro Sites are what I have been practicing for a couple of months now. For example GM came out with the GM Military Discount Program this month. I built a GM Military Discount Micro Site and used some of my SEM Budget to drive prospects to the site. From April 9th - April 23rd I Have received 46 leads from this use of SEM and Micro Site. Example of Micro Site: www.GMMilitary-Discount.com Out of the 46 leads we have made 3 deals, and 1 working with a closing ratio of 6.5%. We spent $748.00 on that campaign at an average of %16.00 per lead that we own and not a third party. Cost per unit sold was $249.00. To make this work you have to be on your game. Another campaign I do that works well for us is our Courtesy Tent Sale Micro Site. We have a tent sale once a month so the week of the tent sale I create an SEM campaign to that Micro Site tha generates 20-30 leads for the tent sale event. Example of Tent Sale Micro Site: www.CourtesyTentSale.com. Please feel free to contact me for more information on this result driven practice.

Micro Sites by NewtonDigitalMarketing.com

Special Pricing for ADM Members!!
e-mail me mailto:info@NewtonDigitalMarketing.com

Alex is right... The reality is that the most effective digital marketing strategies for dealers are those that balance a blend of many different types of online marketing, web sites and lead generation sources with the right processes and people. Today's role of "Digital Marketing Manager" is a new one in dealerships and will continue to evolve and take on different shapes and scope at each dealership. The managers who weave the best tapestry of strategy, processes and tactics within their given budgets will be the top performers that get promoted and become more successful in their automotive careers. I know it has worked well for me so far, and for many others who have embraced the willingness to experiment, measure, review, make adjustments and monitor so the process can be repeated as an onging management practice leading to continuous improvement... There is a minor player out there that for many years has used this exact "kaizen" strategy. I think their name begins with a T and they make a few cars and trucks.

quote of the day "ninja-level digital marketing management skills"
I would say I am about a yellow belt
great post by the way!

Ryan - I like Squidoo for doing stealthed stuff like you showed. We've got a few of those going on. Plus Seth Godin is behind Squidoo, and Seth is the marketing king!

Ralph - great comments, and they're so Ralphesque - lol. You had me laughing a few times. I think what you're trying to say is these micro-sites have been mishandled in some cases, but at the end of the day they're just a small part of the big puzzle. But, just like anything else, when they're not done right it can screw you up.

And Ralph - you never do anything small do you? ....I think you now hold the record for the longest Dealer Refresh post when adding up all the back-to-back comments you made....too funny. Thanks for posting, and I hope you stick around.

Jon - it was a good time and nice to meet you too.

Ralph, I am more convinced than ever that you never sleep, we were out late last night, I know you had an early flight, and yet here you are on dealer refresh posting. You've gotta tell me your secret!

Hi to Jeff and Alex, it was great meeting you at the AAISP conference, I always have to check in on dealer refresh and ADM before I go to bed at night, there is always great information.

Jon

Ryan's tactical application looks very interesting and may solve the maintenance and cost issues.

Here's a few microsites worth checking out:

www.ChevyPride.com - A good example of a microsite covering topics you may not want on your primary site.

www.WeBuyChevys.com - Branded buy back campaigns work very well.

www.PHXfinance.com - A secondary finance microsite, probably better kept off your primary site. Another SpiFi example: http://nationalcars.est3.bzresults.net/ou/bronx-finance/index.do

www.Chevy-Malibu.com - This domain is available and the microsite shown is simply an example. The concept, URL and a custom design is available to the right Chevy dealer that would be willing to engage in a digital marketing research partnership and case study.

www.Tahoe-Chevy.com - This domain is available and the microsite shown is simply an example. The concept, URL and a custom design is available to the right Chevy dealer that would be willing to engage in a digital marketing research partnership and case study.

www.ChevyPriceQuote.com - This domain is available and the microsite shown is simply an example. The concept, URL and a custom design is available to the right Chevy dealer that would be willing to engage in a digital marketing research partnership and case study.

www.ChevyGas.com - This domain is available and the microsite shown is simply an example. The concept, URL and a custom design is available to the right Chevy dealer that would be willing to engage in a digital marketing research partnership and case study.

www.Tucson-Chevy.com - This is an example of a stealth microsite used to aggressively go after another market.

www.Phoenix-Chevrolet-Dealers.com - This is another stealth site designed to take market share from third party lead providers.

If anyone wants to see an example of a microsite with model specific landing pages, here you go:

Microsite index page: www.Scott-Robinson-Honda.com
Model specific landing pages:
www.TorrnaceHondaAccord.com
www.TorranceHondaPilot.com
www.TorranceHondaCivic.com
www.TorranceHondaCivicGX.com
www.TorranceHondaCivicSI.com
www.TorranceHondaCRV.com
www.TorranceHondaElement.com
www.TorranceHondaFit.com
www.TorranceHondaOdyssey.com
www.TorranceHondaPilot.com
www.TorranceHondaS2000.com

All of the above cost Scott Robinson Honda a one time $1000 setup fee and $595 a month for full hosting, support, updates, daily inventory data pulls and having Omniture SiteCatalyst hooked up to the back end... And, I provide consulting services to them as well.

The context of micro-site being used here is that of your domain-based, static, generic, impersonal template-produced website that links or directs visitors to your website.

While the idea behind this has promise, the application of such micro-sites ignores an important ingredient in today's marketplace - Consumer Engagement.

Squidoo Lenses make for a good use of what these allured to "micro-sites" are out to accomplish. For example...


The page in and of itself is only a member to a greater message. For instance, the page that lens directs visitors...


Similar in concept to micro site, but applied in a way more in step with many of today's customers.

-Ryan

I have personally designed, deployed, managed and monitored ROI on well over 100 microsites and various other sites that may or may not fit everyone's definition of what a microsite is, or is not. I can personally attest that some of my microsites generated nothing more than a bunch of work getting them built and launched... followed by a big yawn and "so what" from any car buyers that found them. However, many other microsites I have produced have been huge ROI successes... Far beyond anything else I have seen in over 20 years of developing digital marketing tactics (yes, I was writing text ads on BBS's when most readers of this blog were still in diapers or grade school). I have enjoyed the same feeling that I imagine musicians get when they produce a hot record that becomes a runaway hit when a microsite gets indexed to the top organic position for search queries on a make and model, and then becomes the subject of viral marketing acceleration with what seems like unsolicited spontaneously induced links from blogs and enthusiast sites on a worldwide basis... And, THEN found out (like rockstars do the morning after) what a headache 100,000+ unique visitors and 1,200+ lead forms submitted monthly can be when they come in from 35 states and 4 countries! However, once you hit the jackpot with microsites they become like crack to an addict and you start scraping budgets and finding funding with creativity that makes a junky looking for money for his next fix seem less motivated... And then you have to deal with the pebble in the pond syndrome. Yes, you have to hire more Internet Sales Specialists (you think a web site is tough to manage?!?!?!), hire contractors to build more offices... Expand your BDC... Handle more heat and unwinds... Chase more stips... Do more dealer trades... Settle more commission disputes... Broker more split-deal and skating allegation dispute resolutions between your team and the salespeople on the floor... Yup, microsites can really suck! Heck, the microsites I conceived and produced white at Courtesy Chevrolet just about killed me! I was working on many days from 8AM till 11PM handling 5,000+ leads and phone calls each month and had to grow my staff to over 30 people on 5 teams, selling between 340 to 420 cars a month. Anyways... I am NOT BEING SARCASTIC! Be careful what you wish for and understand that out of every 10 microsites, 5 will probably be flops, 3 will generate a decent ROI and more than pay for the 5 duds, 1 will be notable and make you want to brag about it... And, if you are very lucky, brilliant or both, 1 will explode with traffic and leads beyond your ability to handle it and only then will you realize that chasing SEO stardom looks great until you get it!

Just remember this... Mircosites should be as unique as people's ideas, desires, wants and needs. Otherwise, you are probably better off with landing pages, deep links and subdomains within your primary web sites.

Pricing? In my opinion a good single micro site with photo galleries, specification pages, news stories, reviews and plenty of links into your main site's inventory and form pages should cost no more than $1,000 up front for design and production and no more than $200 a month for hosting, maintenance and support that includes updating and revisions. Without any support, a microsite should be had for less than $100 a month. Or, simply build them yourself using 1and1.com, NetSol, Yahoo or any of the other cheapies and then frame in or link to your forms and inventory from your primary sites. It really is a question of how valuable your time is and how much money you can beg, borrow or steal from everybody else's budget in the dealership!

Lastly, if you are not creative and do not ENJOY coming up with marketing concepts, deploying them and then spending a LOT OF TIME monitoring the results and making countless changes and adjustments... Then a microsite strategy is probably not for you. In fact, microsites are simply not the right way to go for every dealership... You gotta want to be a Digital Marketing Rock Star with a BURNING FIRE IN YOUR BELLY! I lobe watching an expert use a chainsaw to create a sculpture out of the remains of a tree felled by lightning, but you won't see me with a chainsaw... I like keeping my legs and arms attached! Don't mess with microsites unless you know what your doing and are willing to commit to learning ninja-level digital marketing management skills.

Here's my contact information:

Ralph Paglia
Director - Digital Marketing
ADP Dealer Services
cell: 505-301-6369
email: ralph_paglia@adp.com

Also, there are many articles and forum posts on this subject at the professional community site www.AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com

The way we deal with this opportunity is by testing microsites success in generating leads as compared to the actual dealers pages, (A/B Testing) which ever one over time performs better gets the directed traffic. Microsites can be a very well targeted tool and can often perform better but only when alligned well with the search terms that lead the customers there. More on this later. Great topic.

Mark Bonfigli
President, CEO
Dealer.com, Inc
www.dealer.com

Joe - you always make a good argument. You're 100% absolutely right about having to do combat with the people who want our money. Micro-sites are a perfect weapon in the arsenal for that, until they start fighting back with their own Micro-sites. I'm not sure if they would or not, but it would certainly go hand in hand with some of the direct vehicle campaigning they're doing. If they were to start doing something like that (and charging us for it), I could see $1,000/mo. for a micro-site becoming a good deal....especially if AutoTrader.com does it!

@Lindsey
check under the about us tab then check out news.
We use grass roots events to market the web site.
Not as advanced as what I would like but I am a one man show and kinda of hard to manage prices, pics, comments, previous customers, carfax, autotrader, cars.com and taking care of the tech issuses that pop up from time to time, But hey never a dull moment and the days go by fast.

If you take all the above comments and place them in a blender, then copy n paste them here... that about nails my opinion on it.

Micro-sites
...w/o branding affiliation is a waste.
...Can be duplicated with landing pages.
...create more work
...SERPs can confuse a googler
...should have a unique tel# (more shopper confusion)
...have questionable ROI (gulp, $1k p/mo? I am in the wrong biz!)

All that being said...
I am a micro-site proponent. To me, the battle is for SERP dominance and micro sites help me get there. Allow me to explain.

To me, the center of all car buying is GOOG.
If you see an ad and you want to pursue it, you go to GOOG. If want more info on a hot lil' mini that just wizzed by you at lunch, you GOOG it. If your getting deeper into the process and you want to buy one, you GOOG it. Its HERE -at this search point- '[goog: make/Model/location] that Cars.com and AutoTrader.com STEAL your shoppers! That's right Cars.com and AutoTrader.com are your SERP competitors.

From my seat, if my site and my little army of micro sites can rank 3 of the top10 for "used ford 500 dealer near [city, state]" then thats 3 less spots for dealerrater.com, autotrader.com and the rest.

Because GOOG will only give one URL 2 links for a search, then that means the most your site will see with Landing pages are 2 results per search request. It is possible to have 2 results from your Microsites PLUS your home site, all on the TOP10 (1st Page).

BONUS:
Sometimes, you're going to want microsites just to protect yourself. Want proof?
See position #2.

The best offense is rooted in superior defense. Your turn is coming.

just my $0.02 from your ol pal,
Joe

We have built a few micro sites this year with awesome results. Type into Google "special financing tulsa" you will see that my micro site is #1 and my website is #2 before the micro site we did not show up at all for that search term. For 400.00 and no monthly fees (includes URL and hosting) I am #3 or better for all the search terms I choose. These sites provide me with everything I wanted and a little more with no up keep and no headaches, just more clicks.

Lindsay, $1,000/mo for a microsite? Wow.

There's obviously value in microsites and landing pages, but It all depends on the content and how it relates to the goal of the promotion.

Obviously the overall goal is to generate a lead, but more specifically, you might want to lure customers away from a competitor, or push some SEO, or improve your online reputation. You're going to do something different for all of those cases, so buying a plug-and-play microsite from some vendor isn't always the way to go... especially if they're charging a g-note for the site. It's like anything else on the net - the best solutions are basically free, as long as you have the expertise to get it done yourself.

Brian - that is a nice site. What kind of online or offline marketing campaigns do you use to promote the Tundra coupon page?

Well I have some ideas on this when working within a budget.
Check out my site and see what I have done with a Mountain bike race
we sponsor every year. Doesn't cost anything other then time.
100% increase in traffic to the Tundras since going live with the coupon sale and popup.

I've looked into micro-sites from several different vendors. I have not been able to justify the cost of another $1,000 per month for a website that is only focused on one vehicle model, and no other links to your actual dealer website. Does anyone know of a website company that has landing pages within your dealer website for each model?

Right now, we have landing pages for each make, and individual vehicle pages for each VIN - which is great for SEO. I just wish we had landing pages for the models - it would be great for PPC campaigns!

I agree with Alex about confusing customers when a dealer has too many websites. We have one for each make we carry, plus a splash page that links all the sites together. We also have "Cobalt" sites as part of the GM requirement. All in all, for three dealerships, we have 10 websites!

Depends whether it's branded or not Eric. Brand recognition is going to payoff for those that have a good one. Those that do not have something else to address prior to Micro-Site marketing.

Dead on Alex. I have yet to bring any stats to the table but most shoppers are looking for some sort of reassurance before they send in their personal info. Microsites do not provide that.

Good for you and us.Thanks for saying this in such an eloquent and approachable way

I used to run one of the main branches of eBay Motors (2000-2002) when it was first getting started. I am still very thankful that they gave me that opportunity.

Back then we were focused on proving the viability of the Internet as a whole as a remarketing or retail venue. We didn't have access to template companies that allowed the ease of listing vehicles that is available now. In other words, it was a pain.

We were experimenting a lot and signed pilots with major leasing companies and banks to remarket their vehicles online. We would do so under the premise that we would sell the vehicle quicker and bring the same or more than Black Book Wholesale Average. At that time, most of these companies would sell these vehicles for around 95-97% of BBWA. Our goal was to get more and do it quicker than typical "auction" means.

We did just that! We were selling vehicles that we never seen, started or inspected for just over BBWA, with no information and some pictures taken in the dark. Seriously.

The reason I mention this is because I feel that I can harness the power of eBay about as good as anyone. After I left, I tried it in multiple applications over multiple companies and the results where o.k. in that it generated a lot of traffic but the results as a "retailer" were difficult to substantiate.

eBay is the best online "auction" out there. People go to auctions to find those rare gems and/or to get a deal. Our goal was to get BBWA and I am sure most dealers want closer to retail.

Plus, to add to that, the fees and time invested to do it right can kill you. In addition to this there is arbitration, seller mis-representations, non paying bidders, scams and challenges when people want to use Paypal.

So, I am very happy for eBay and this milestone. eBay will continue to dominate in regards to unique, exotic, hard to find vehicles and to the eBay addicts.

They will also do well with the sub $5k vehicles and the bargains.

Listing all your Tauruses, G6's and Sonatas, unless you are a price leader will result in my opinion in poor ROI.

BTW, Rob Chesney is a great guy and always seems willing to listen to suggestions as to how to get better. Give him your feedback if it isn't working for you or your model.