Car Dealers and Web 2.0
There is a lot of talk these days about blogging and Web 2.0 for car dealers. But when you cut through the fluff of what is discussed on these topics what you will find is that there is an abundance of “dealers should use Web 2.0″ proclamations and not much in the way of how, i.e. REAL SOLUTIONS.
Over the past couple weeks I have come across emails from companies touting messages to car dealers on the use of blogging and social media, driving high-quality or residual site traffic, and building long-term relationships with customers. While these topics alone are not particularly new for dealers, they do signify to me a new era in Automotive Internet Marketing because of the source of these marketing messages and their timing and context.
While there certainly is value in blogging and social media, this is still uncharted territory for car dealers. Primarily because these forms of marketing, these “tools” so to say, do not in-and-of themselves produce results. Rather it is in how these tools are utilized throughout your dealership that will make a difference in your business.
A good analogy to contrast the use of Web 2.0 as part of your marketing strategy is to consider your DMS and your CRM. Dealers typically make a pretty hefty up front investment to implement such systems into their business and then spend months training and learning the systems before they really experience the full benefits, sometimes even a good year or so.
With Web 2.0 dealers can expect to spend several months building what we call their virtual infrastructure just to have a chance at cultivating a truly engaged customer audience fit for doing business in your interactive marketing arena. All things considered, I suggest writing off the first 6-9 months as R&D versus marketing and advertising.
I am weary of venturing into the early web days of the auto industry where dealers were battered into making web investments because “they should” that not only didn’t prove fruitful but also that created a rift between car dealers and the “Internet Customer” that dealers are still paying for today.
If you want to get in to Web 2.0, start by defining what you want to see it accomplish and then work with your providers to obtain those objectives. This will prove more beneficial than throwing money at it and waiting around for something to happen because someone suggested to “just get into it”.
Comments
4 Comments on Car Dealers and Web 2.0
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Automotive CRM Guy on
Mon, 5th Jan 2009 9:08 pm
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yhurg on
Mon, 5th Jan 2009 11:20 pm
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Auto Forum and Community on
Wed, 25th Feb 2009 10:52 am
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used car dealers on
Thu, 26th Feb 2009 3:50 am
Web 2.0 is just a buzzword. Or it is just a way to say companies keeping up with technology are web 2.0 when those who are behind the times aren’t.
Yes it is a buzzword which I think is finally buzzed out. For me, “Web 2.0″ will always define the period in the life of WWW where websites became relational meaning that they offered more than just browsing and converting. Like the bulletin system back in the day. The days before my time on computers.
Good posting.Do u want to see Auto Forum and Community ? u can visit my blog friend :D.ow yeah your blog has alread bookmarked by me
there is good relationship you mention here to car dealers and web 2.0, one is software and another one automotive, good article here i read it and i like your creativity i didn’t get this type of web blog still now, this is first time i seen thank you for sharing the information.
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