Internet Marketing Solutions For Automotive Dealers

Internet marketing solutions for automotive dealers are a little bit different than Internet marketing for an Online store because auto dealers require foot traffic.

Because automotive dealers require foot traffic, the solution is to generate GEO-Targeted local leads. But how is this done with Internet Marketing?

Firstly, we need to figure out where the prospects are going to look, no I mean find information about the vehicle they want to purchase.

People usually don't find lots of useful information on some hard-to-navigate automotive dealers web site which contains listings of cars that are already sold and jingle music which cannot be turned off.

Many of these sites contain little real information while the actual listings descriptions are written in the same style as a newspaper classified - designed to get the phone to ring. Well guys and gals, the Internet is not a newspaper classified!

Smart car dealers know that car buyers hang-out at their favorite car forum. They ask questions from other people who already own the type of cars that they themselves want to purchase.

For example, I think I have seen auto dealers hanging out at our local XR6 Turbo Forum answering questions, offering advice and linking back to their own web site. They are establishing relationships by being helpful. If people feel that somebody has helped them, the natural thing to do is like them and trust them.

I am certain that even a dealer who is not a "top closer" would make much more money by establishing relationships before they try and close the deal by "overcomming objections" Tom Hopkins style.

Wouldn't you agree?

The Foundation

You Need More Than One Main Web Site

Don't waste your money on PPC (Pay-Per-Click) or banner advertising if you are sending un-trackable traffic to your auto-listings web site. This is not a formula because you do not know which keyword made the sale! Instead, make a sticky web site that people can visit to get information as in the XR6 Forum example above.

Three Sites Automotive Dealers Should Consider Building

• A Blog
• An Article Site
• A Forum

A Blog - Offer industry news, reviews and tips which will help a prospective vehicle buyer stay informed. Update the blog a minimum of one to three times a week. One of the secrets to a successful blog is to keep posting on a regular basis, so get all your team involved in order to share the work load.

An Article Site - Set up web site with a CMS (Content Management System) and write original articles about specific autos and how to take care of them, do maintinence etc. Ideas for these types of articles are often found in car user manuals and magazines. Add new article/s at least every 1 - 2 weeks.

A Forum - Setup a forum so that people can ask specific questions about your blog posts and articles. Moderate the forum by not allowing other auto dealers to post links back to their web sites.

As was stated earlier, Internet marketing solutions for automotive dealers are a little bit different because of the GEO traffic requirement, therefore, your blog, forum and article web site should contain many localized terms on all the pages.

Localized terms such as the town and surrounding suburbs in the titles, descriptions and body of all the content will have the effect of driving search engine traffic as long as you can get some other sites to link to yours. Keep the sites free of obvious advertising and this will not be hard at all.

Tip - Register domain names which contain your industry and/or GEO keywords.

Tip - You can build these web sites yourself. Remember, the end user does not want fancy graphics and flash animations. They want information!

Conclusion

This article is just one of the Internet marketing solutions for automotive dealers. Use it as a foundation for a long term objective. The more pages your web sites have, the more traffic they will bring.

Final Tip - If you sell cars going from dealership to dealership every few years, this idea is also good for you because you can put your own web sites on your business cards! This way you are promoting yourself, not your boss. Here's 250 Free business cards to get you started.