The premise behind this video is about how auto dealer websites consistently underwhelm visitors and what is required to change that. While preparing for the web cast we ran to record this, I found myself disagreeing with some of Brian’s position about car dealer websites.

“Not all dealer websites are inadequate,” I would argue. But Brian would kindly and firmly say, “yes they are”. “Some do a good job,” I would continue. “No they don’t,” he would say.

But now I agree with Brian. What literally just about every car dealer website lacks today is online work flow, which is a common characteristic of the big e-commerce sites out there such as Amazon.com and eBay. By online work flow, Hoecht means that there is no total online experience for visitors on a dealer site. You can’t actually shop like you can on true e-commerce sites.

Here is an example…
Today I was on Flavia.com ordering coffee. I logged in to my account, browsed the selection, placed items into my shopping cart, mistakenly moved some items from my shopping cart to my favorites list, then put them back into my shopping cart after I realized what I did. When I went to check out I didn’t like the idea of paying $9 shipping for one month supply of coffee so I added more to my cart to stretch that shipping expense out across more time. But my shipping only increased so I called to see why shipping was so expensive.

While the customer service rep on the phone was explaining that there is a per-item charge for shipping I had another call come in so I told the rep I had to go and would deal with this later. I closed my browser and took the other call. Then when I came back later in the day, everything was right where I had left it, e.g. in my shopping cart awaiting me to purchase.

Now this was a true shopping experience. Despite not buying the coffee on my first visit, the fact that I could return later and pick up where I left off was clutch. This is not something you can do on any car dealer website I know of.

So Brian is right. Dealer sites do underwhelm because you can’t do anything on them but get to the end of a cul de sac and then ask for assistance or more information. There is no true e-commerce on most auto dealer sites which typically want to “marry you on your first date.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do you see the disconnect?

People aren’t going to your website to become a lead. They want information to help them make an informed buying decision on such an important purchase. Yet dealers often limit the information they display so that visitors must INQUIRE to get what they want.

In other industries, people can go online to shop for almost any product out there. They can do their research and make an informed decision, be it online or off. However, with auto shopping they can only go online and inquire with dealers to obtain the information they need to complete their purchase. Lack of pricing isn’t always the missing nugget here, but items such as vehicle equipment upgrades and accurate monthly payments by credit tier certainly aren’t part of very many structured processes on many dealer’s sites.

This week we are pleased to welcome Brian Hoecht from Ai-Dealer who about 5 years ago set out to change this with the auto industry’s first true shopping cart for car dealers. His shopping cart gives auto dealers the ability to share 100% of each vehicle’s information and pricing to customers that create a log in, thus pre-qualifying visitors for dealers while giving buyers what they want.

Hoecht wrote about this recently on DealerRefresh.com in his post about best uses of dealership websites. Hoecht will be our guest presenter in this week’s AC Spotlight series which begins at 2:00pm EST on Thursday May 6. In this webinar we will look at…

• What auto shoppers really want
• What your typical dealership website is willing to give
• What a true automotive online shopping experience offers
• Ways that dealers can foster trust online

To attend this free GoToWebinar simply click the Register Now button below and fill in the required information. You will receive your very own log in to the webinar. If you are not able to make the webinar but are interested in receiving information such as this from our site then you can sign up to receive email and text alerts each week when we host a new session. It’s free and you may cancel your subscription at any time. Additionally you can follow us on Twitter @blogproautomo where we announce these webinars as well.

The popular seminar, hosted by AutoUpLinkUSA of Philadelphia, is an Internet inventory marketing seminar for new and used auto dealership professionals.

The event brings auto dealership professionals together with some of the industry’s most well-known providers of leading-edge Internet inventory marketing tools.

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Time: 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Place: Radisson Hotel, Valley Forge, 1160 1st Avenue, King of Prussia, PA

This seminar is free, and breakfast will be served. Handout materials will be provided for all attendees.

Featured Speakers and topics Include:

AutoConversion: Bridging the gap between dealership and shoppers using blogs, email marketing and video

All Auto Network: Design and develop a website that generates excitement and results.

CARFAX: Vehicle History, Inventory Management, Online Marketing and maximizing your ROI using vehicle history from wholesale to retail.

Liquidus Video: Creating a complete automotive video marketing strategy

E-Auto Business: Best practices for dealerships to ensure that their CRM dollars are spent wisely

Registration closes October 9.

To register, simply download the registration form here or click the image below. Space is limited! Fax in your registration today!

Click here to view the embedded video.

First you log in to your WordPress site. BlogPro Automotive runs on WordPress so if you are in the auto industry and would like a free account on our system please sign up to receive your free account. If you are not in the auto industry you can visit our other WordPress system at www.autoburstwebs.com to to do the same.

Once you are logged in you will be at what is called the Dashboard. From there, select the blog you wish to work in by choosing the “My Blogs” link in the Dashboard menu section at the top left of your screen. Now you should see a list of all blogs to which you have access. On BlogPro, you can run as many blogs or sites that you wish with your same user account.

Now that you have select the blog on which you wish to work, look for the Pages menu section on the left side of your screen. Here you have two options – Edit or Add New.

To create a new page simply click Add New and to modify an existing one click Edit.

By clicking Edit you will see a list of all your pages on that blog. From here choose the page on which you wish to work and it will open up permitting you to make modifications.

If you want to create a new page then click the Add New link and you will load a blank page where you can insert a title and the contents of the page along with other parameters and settings related to pages. For an explanation of these things please reference the video.

Once you have completed your changes then click on the Publish or Update button to the right of your screen. You will see Publish if the page is new or saved as a draft. You will see Update if it is already published.

This pretty much covers it. Creating and modifying pages is literally that simple. For assistance with this please contact us on AC Assist. We are happy to help.

This technique is not limited to the use of iFrames as you can and probably should use Hana Code Insert to display any large amount of HTML, but this is a good use for Hana Code Insert. You will probably need to watch the video in addition to reading the instructions below so you have a visual reference.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To begin, look for the Hana Code Insert plug-in which is accessible from the Settings tab in your WP Dashboard. There you will see space for a “New Entry” where you can copy/paste your HTML code and label the insert. Then press SAVE or UPDATE which will create the instance of this Hana Code Insert and displays it at the bottom of all other Hana Code Inserts you have created. Now grab (copy to clipboard) the Hana Code Insert from bracket to bracket which should include the words “hana-code-insert” plus your label and looks like this:

[ hana-code-insert name='YOUR LABEL' / ]

Next you go to the Page or Post you wish to create or edit and paste the code from bracket to bracket into your entry. You can paste this code in the Visual editor or the HTML editor. Doesn’t matter. You can also insert text, images, and other copy as necessary above or below your insert.

Now press PUBLISH or UPDATE or SAVE DRAFT to finalize this entry and when you preview it you should see your code appear just like normal. It’s that simple.

1. The first step is to obtain the URL to your RSS feed. In this case, we went to a Nissan dealer on web2carz.com and obtained their URL.
2. The next step is to log in to your Wordpress site and go to the Widgets section under the Appearance tab.
3. Then, while in Widgets, add the widget for RSS feeds and click on the “Edit” link. Be sure to add the widget to the desired sidebar if you have more than one sidebar.
4. Now paste the URL feed in the appropriate field, give your widget a title if desired, and set any of the optional parameters. Most importantly set the number of items you wish to display.
5. Finally, press “Save” and your new widget is live.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you have any questions regarding this you may leave your comments below. Alternatively if you require assistance or wish to schedule one-on-one training then please contact us.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.