The Ego....errrr....Dealership Home Page

[Joe Pistell]

Bruce writes: "Joe – I tried the passive “marketing” “branding” approach with our homepage and it got us nowhere in terms of leads."

Bruce,

1st the good news... Your "hook" on the front page is unique and has a call to action. I didn't get into the sloppy bait n switch stuff but I love the hook. You ALSO are wicked smart by littering the hook all about the site to re-enforce your home page promo. Smart, damn smart.

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Bruce - the way you worded your post it sure sounded like you were playing "bait and switch". It is quite the opposite of how the "Last Chance Deals" section of Checkered Flag.com works.

 

[Joe Pistell]

Well Bruce... now the bad news.

The reason you were getting "no where" with the leads is because your VDP merchandising sucks (VDP = Vehicle Detail Page).

Lets say I am 45 mins from you, shopping for a high end SUV. I've bought nothing but BMW's my whole life, but a gal I'm dating LOVES the Caddilac Escalade.

Your Caddy comes up in a search with a favorable price, so I look deeper: http://www.terryvillechevy.com/VehicleDetails/750...

Is there any warranty left on it?

Ah... what is that red specials box? It must not be a special price on this on. I don't get it.

Ok, I've had a I want a loaded up SUV to make my new gal all happy, skip the standard equipment, what it got for options????

Installed Options

* Air Conditioning

* Anti-Lock Brakes

* Automatic Transmission

* Power Brakes

* Power Steering

* Power Windows

What?? No options! No wonder it's cheap!

OUCH. (Ok, you lost a few shoppers here, lets continue)

You look at the standard options and the 1st one is...

Oh good!! I see it comes with 3 months of XM and 12 months of Onstar Directions & Connections plan.(TOTALLY WRONG! you can thank Chrome for that junk)

More Chrome JUNK:

Wheels, 4 - 18" x 8" (45.7 cm x 20.3 cm) 7-spoke aluminum (Requires (QXK) P265/65R18 all-season, blackwall, TL AL2 tires. Includes 17" spare. Not available with (ULT) Platinum Edition.)

ahh.... WTF is that crap?

Look at all the NOISE in there!

# Luggage rack center rails

# Fascia, front, body-color

# Fascia, rear, body-color

# Moldings, color-keyed bodyside with chrome accents

# Floor covering, color-keyed carpeting

# Floor mats, color-keyed carpeted first and second row (WARNING WARNING WARNING!)

Console, overhead deluxe, with reading lights and (UG1) Universal Home Remote (Includes sunroof controls when (CF5) power sunroof is ordered.)...Oh?!! Does it have a sunroof?

Throttle control, electronic

Bruce,

Your situation here is quite normal. But, I can tell you, your vehicle info is difficult and time consuming and you site does not help me shop faster and smarter. I am not sending you a lead and I am not coming back.

The VDP is where you put all your effort into. Its here, the VDP, this is where they're going. Give them your best effort on the VDP!!

 

[Ed Brooks]

I spent the first hour of my day watching a webinar from a year ago titled "The 7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design with Tim Ash" (search for it on YouTube). Tim is one of the real Thought Leaders on site design and testing. The 7 sins he enumerates are perfect for this conversation.

1. Unclear Call-To-Action

2. Too Many Choices

3. Asking For Too Much Information

4. Too Much Text

5. Not Keeping Your Promises

6. Visual Distractions

7. Lack of Credibility & Trust

So first, where do we want our visitors to go? For most of us there are only a few priorities: New Cars & Used Cars, maybe a Special Finance page or Parts page. This is our call-to-action: to get them to those pages. Joe and I see completely eye to eye on this - get them to a VDP quickly and easily and make that VDP stand tall!

Sin #3 is asking for too much information. But Tim goes on to state that the problem is when you ask before earning trust. That's the problem with the Cash for Clunkers offer above. It's teased on the home page and then we go right to a submission form. Sell me a little bit before you ask for my mothers maiden name.

Words like "bait and switch" have been tossed around here, but the key to avoiding Sin #5 is to deliver what you promise. If that's a $17,998 Malibu, give me $17,998 Malibu (you can always upsell later where it's appropriate). This plays to Sin #7 as well. We got 'em on the site so let's not screw it up.

Almost everyone has been guilty of Sin #6. Use restraint and testing to make sure you accomplish your goals and not just stroke your ego.

Tim Ash is a really smart, interesting guy. Watch the video of the webinar or grab his book "Landing Page Optimization" (it's the bible of this stuff).

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Ed - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for suggesting to watch that webinar! He is soooooo right.

 

[Joe Pistell]

My homepage heros:
Email & SMS Marketing Platform | Mailchimp iCloud

Balance that against the most powerful money making highly optimized system of our day
Amazon.com

Amazon design is not sophisticated, artistic, or pleasing to the eye. Yet, the design is wildly successful. Amazon's Design has one design goal... satisfying the shoppers needs.

 

[Joe Pistell]

Open Confessions of a closet HIPPO.

I create my designs, I build the photoshop layouts for my team to follow. I use instincts to tell me whats needed and getting my ego out of the way isn't easy. I must avoid altruistic design goals that are made to please to me (or my sophisticated peers). This is ego driven planning and that reeks of ikky HIPPO thinking.

I must design/build with one goal, to reward the shopper with an experience that helps them gather facts and dosen't get in the way of completing their task.

I use my instincts to design, but, the numbers are the boss. If I do it right, or, if I want to make it better, I'll see it in the traffic & conversion stats.

 

[Bruce Novicky]

Well with my hands tied by Cobalt I have not found a solution that makes sense time-wise for the VDP, just do not have the hours or man power to customize them deeply.

The $17,998 Malibu exists, no bait and switch the intention of not having one specific one on the site at that price is to get the phone call/email to inquire. Also it is there to build a price leader branding.

I understand the trust issue, but like I said before you might not want to fill out a form right away because you are not a "clunker" customer. It does not appeal to you, and that is fine but to many it is appealing and easy.

One thing I try to do when thinking up things like the "clunker" promo is get in the mind of the customer you are targeting. A clunker customer does not usually care what size wheels a certain vehicle might have or if we have the Cobalt 2LT in red with a roof. They want to know if I can give them $3,500 for their 89' Cavalier.

Also it blatantly says right on the image "click to see if you qualify" so most who are clicking that intend to fork over some info in order to qualify.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Joe, funny you mention MailChimp. I'm in design right now and using that sites homepage as reference. Too funny.

Although it will have some HIPPO elements.

 

[Joe Pistell]

To pull off a "mailchimp" layout, IMO, you need to NAIL the entrance buttons to perfection, plus, because we're more like a multi-product catalog than a single product offer, the navigation system needs to be more "robust".

That being said, my design thoughts are wrapped around a pyramid now. I can’t build it here, a graph will get the idea across:

Navigation/Content Map

....Home.Page

................Make Pages

…….................Class Pages

............................Make Model Pages

…...................................VDPs

Information----->

Time on Page------>

The deeper the shopper drills, the closer they are reaching to their target. They’ll be open to more “content” the deeper they get. At the top of the pyramid (chart), keep it clean and with every step closer to the VDP, get more aggressive with content and offers.

Looking at our tradein records, I see that people are much more likely to buy a similar class than the make/model they're trading in (e.g. sedan buyer buys another vs Ford Taurus buys another Taurus).

I am CONVINCED that web shoppers are very open to suggestion. Make EVERY EFFORT to serve up similar inventory that is in it's class

Oh... Don't forget I look at everything thru a used car prizm.