I joined eCarList nearly three months ago and have yet to write a single blog post — a fact that our president reminds me of frequently.  So, here goes.

First, some background: I came to eCarList because I saw an amazing opportunity to transform the way the automotive industry markets itself online starting at the local dealer level.  The internet has matured greatly over the past 10 years, but quite frankly, car dealers have lagged behind.  There are a handful of companies that build websites for the industry and I think most are doing their clients a disservice.

I have directly been a part of the web transformation, having worked at internet giant Yahoo! since 1999.  My experiences in marketing, branding, website usability, and online consumer behavior have shaped the way I think about selling cars and promoting dealerships online.

eCarList is a rare find in the automotive space; it’s a company that gets it.  I am fortunate to now lead such a remarkable team of talented designers, front end engineers, and project managers.  They understand the automotive market, yet are light-years ahead of what the industry is accustomed to.

We recently expanded my department into new office space in the “penthouse” suite upstairs from our sales, account management, engineering, and media teams.  We essentially serve as a specialty boutique agency providing interactive and creative services — which is really just a fancy way of saying we design and build exceedingly functional and beautiful websites, create killer logos and brand identity, produce high-end video and motion graphics, and dynamic and interactive banner campaigns.

Despite my lack of blogging, my tenure at eCarList thus far has been extremely productive in establishing the interactive and creative services division and laying groundwork for the next generation of websites for our clients.  It sounds simple enough, but behind the scenes we are working to make our sites even more robust, more consumer focused, more customizable, and more accessible… and I’ll have more on that in a future blog.