How To Be A Car Dealer.
Part 8: Advertising and building a website
O
nce upon a time, advertising a car was about writing a good classified with a half-decent picture. And that’s OK if you’re selling one privately. But what if you’re shifting 10, 20 or 50 cars a month? People expect way more. Do you really need to tell them about split-fold
seats when you could give them a 360-degree video with engine sounds and more? Advertising is one of your biggest costs, and in a cut-throat world, getting it right is the difference between life and death – in business terms at least. But fear not, we’re here to help, so check out Part 8 of this invaluable publication!
WHAT’S THE FIRST STEP?
HOW DO I MAKE A SITE LIKE THAT?
Well, you could spend your days uploading ads to a million classified sites, from Auto Trader to Exchange & Mart, eBay and CarGurus or wherever. But think about it – let’s say you’re selling 20 or more cars a month. Doing separate uploads to the five big sites alone would mean writing 100 individual classifieds every month, along with all the images and admin. There’d be no time left to actually sell the cars. That’s why, for the most successful dealers, advertising starts with your website. But it’s no good making a cheapo DIY site on GoDaddy and sitting back, waiting for clicks. The best car sales sites are actually made for car dealers and use lots of online voodoo to get your stock seen. Most importantly, your site should link to the classified providers, meaning you upload one advert to your site, which is automatically pinged to Auto Trader and others – saving you hours of mouse-work. Chris Roach of Chequers Cars in Surrey knows a thing or two about all this. ‘Having a website without third-party exports would be like having a shop window with nothing behind it,’ he says. ‘And make sure you get a site that lets you export your ads to where you want, not where someone tells you to.’ Think of your website as a hub for all your operations. Not only is it a place to show off your stock, with images and videos and even live chat (which we’ll come to later), but it’s also your advertising base station. It could even be a place for online transactions, and for customers to apply for finance, again through an embedded third-party source. 18 | HowToBeACarDealer
Fear not – someone has already done it for you. There are several companies that make sites specifically for car dealers, with all the behindthe-screens functionality built in. Most let you choose from standard templates, to which they add your branding, so nobody notices it’s an off-the-shelf design. Different providers offer different services and pricing plans – have a look at the products from Auto Trader, AutoWeb, Click Dealer and Spidersnet – though one of the most popular and affordable is Car Dealer 5. David Cox, the Car Dealer 5 sales manager, says: ‘We offer a suite of templated websites to car dealers. From the most basic option to a responsive, mobile-ready website, dealers can pick a template to suit their budget, their customers’ requirements and the type of stock they sell. Our website designs will be fully branded to the dealer and generally ready to go within 24 hours.’ And what about those third-party feeds? Over to Cox again... ‘All of our templates feed directly into 15 of the main car sales websites, including eBay, Auto Trader, PistonHeads, CarGurus, Motors, AA Cars, Carfinance247, Gumtree and the RAC. As well as a Facebook showroom feed, we also offer additional services such as finance calculators, video showcases and live chat, depending on the dealer’s requirements.’ How much are we talking for this sort of site? ‘A fully responsive Car Dealer 5 website can cost as little as £450 +VAT per year,’ says Cox. ‘Our Elite package is £1,050 +VAT per year, which
includes many extras such as social media posting and monthly prices when finance integration is applied. With all of our sites, you can edit your content on the fly, whenever you like, even via mobile.’
DO I STILL HAVE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE CLASSIFIEDS? Yes. Sounds obvious, but even if you’re managing ads through your own site, you’ll still need accounts with any of the classified providers you use. Like it or not, Auto Trader is the most tempting, given how many people it reaches, but it’s also the most expensive, so be wary. ‘When starting from scratch, and assuming you’re not selling 50 cars a month, you could get on the Auto Trader bus, and although it probably is the best way to get started, it’s expensive, so try to get off as soon as possible,’ says Roach. ‘You can become very reliant on it, and in the long term you’ll be tied to their price increases. We have a 50-car package, which costs around £41,000 per year…’ That’s an awful lot of cash to spend on one classified provider. OK, so as a newcomer it’s unlikely you’ll be advertising 50 cars at a time, but even the smaller packages aren’t cheap. Some dealers we asked pay around £470+VAT for a seven-car package on Auto Trader, whereas you could advertise 100 cars on motors.co.uk for about half that. ‘I’m very much a spread-bet advertiser,’ says Roach. ‘AA Cars, Exchange & Mart, Gumtree – I export to them all. ‘Consumers look at more than one platform, so spread your budget.’