Dallas, Texas November 11, 2009 (reprint from official John Eagle press release)

The John Eagle Dealerships are pleased to introduce an all-new, fully integrated automotive shopping website at JohnEagle.com.

John Eagle, President and Chief Executive Officer of the John Eagle Dealerships said, “With more than 80% of car buyers starting their internet shopping experience online we wanted to make sure that our customers had real-time access to the latest and greatest information about each of our amazing products in real time.  We’re excited to bring more than 2,500 high quality vehicles into one website for customers to consider.”

The brand new website integrates virtual inventory from each of John Eagle’s 15 franchises and multiple locations to deliver quick-loading, visually appealing information that will help customers to make better purchase decisions.  The virtual showroom delivers a wide range of multimedia that includes, among other items, video displays for used inventory and 360 degree interior and exterior views for new inventory.

Rene’ Isip, Chief Operating Officer of John Eagle Dealerships and Dealer Principal of a Toyota and Honda dealership said, “Our goal is to be leaders in 21st Century Marketing and this website is focused on extending the positive experiences that our customers have at our dealerships into an online environment.  This website takes us to the next level by allowing customers to compare new and used vehicles from all of our makes and models and each of our locations.  At the end of the day it will help us reach more customers, secure more market share and sell more vehicles.”

The new website delivers access to credit applications and service appointments as well as details about store locations and contact phone numbers.  Customers will be able to take advantage of cutting-edge capabilities to quickly and intuitively submit leads and search inventory by body style, make, model, color, year, mpg and desired price range.

Len Critcher, President and CEO of eCarList, said, “The automotive marketing landscape is rapidly evolving.  John Eagle Dealerships are setting the benchmark for customer-centric online solutions.  We are honored to work with this group to provide our suite of integrated solutions and assist in growing their online presence.”
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FINALLY! For all you dealers fumbling around in the darkness that is Social Media integration, it seems like somebody may have found the light switch…or at least turned on a night light.

Yesterday bing announced they would integrate Twitter updates in their search results. And because search engine land is more competitive than the NFC East conference, Google announced the same day that they, too, would integrate Twitter into their search results.

All of this is in attempts for the search engines to move to more of a “real-time” display of search engine results. Meaning, instead of typing in “Malibu Surf Report” and getting a PDF from 2003, you’ll now get real-time results from Tweeters on the sand in Malibu putting on their rash guards (in theory). This is a huge movement in the Search world, which has been really floating by over the years tossing around ideas of local search, vertical search and real-time search. Finally.

So what does that mean for you as an automotive dealer? It means getting your inventory on Google and bing directly…and in real-time.

How does it work?  The engines are going to crawl Twitter data no older than a week and display them in order.  What order?  AHHH, therein lies the question of all questions.  How does any search engine rank results - relevance and popularity.  So if your Tweet is relevant to the keyword search, and Tom’s Ford has more Twitter followers than Bob’s Ford, Tom is going to get the ranking for “2010 ford mustang”.

I am very happy to see things come together considering my last post, “YouTwitFace”, had the theme of a big thumbs down to dealership Social Media integration.  So for now, what I would recommend is promoting Twitter on your websites.  Offer incentives, coupons, car washes..whatever to people who sign up to follow you on Twitter and also facebook, who’s integration with the engines is just around the corner.

We’ll do our part by getting your inventory to Twitter.

Stay tuned.

Tweet ya later.

We recently launched a remarkable new product that automatically keeps your website up-to-date with the latest new vehicle rebates and incentives from the manufacturer.

Check out my quick video demo….

Download PDF: eCarList Automated Incentives

Real-time rebate and incentive data automatically matched to your website inventory.

• eCarList automatically updates your website with comprehensive incentive information tied to specific vehicles in your inventory.
• Display all programs available in your region within hours of release by the manufacturer.
• Instantly upgrade your website content to correspond with manufacturer advertising.
• Incentive information is displayed directly on your inventory and vehicle pages without frame-ins or pop ups.

Do you consider yourself a progressive dealer?  Is it something innate, or learned?  I consider myself a pretty successful guy…or at least strive to be one, but I know people who still sit around watching COPS all day playing the lottery and eating Long John Silvers.  With major companies crumbling because of bureaucracy, stubbornness, fat-dumb-and-happy-syndrome…or all of the above , wouldn’t you assume that dealers more than ever would focus on bettering their processes to push themselves out in front for the new generation of car buyers?  You would assume.  As do I.

I want to talk about my favorite dealer to-date.  His name is Brian Hoskins…from Brian Hoskins Ford in Pennsylvania.  Why do I like Brian so much?  Aside from the fact he’s a super likable guy, Brian Hoskins is Brian Hoskins, yes the owner.  And he is INVOLVED.  Brian Hoskins cares about his store and shows concern about the future, and has genuine ambition to be the best regardless of how big or how small his store is.

Before Brian came to us, he had one of those OEM “Here, Use This”  Dealer Websites.  The site was convoluted, hard to navigate, outdated, mundane…and worst of all it had zero rankings on Google - even when you searched for “Brian Hoskins Ford”. (more…)

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. (more…)

It will happen to any car dealership eventually.  Search your dealership’s name (or worse) your own name… and the search engine returns a high-ranking “complaint” result.  This happened to me this past weekend and after my lawyers were called and my blood fell from a boil – I wanted to really look at this “plague” that looms for all businesses no matter the industry and/or size.

The “complaint” is designed to resolve a dispute.  Customer complains, company reviews, and resolution options are decided.  Should the company decide to not resolve the dispute, the customer can then choose legal action to have the dispute heard in a court of law.  That is how proper business resolution has always played out.

However, the Internet has changed everything.  Complaint websites are booming and the potential damage to businesses couldn’t be greater.  These websites fail in one critical area – this type of complaint is not designed to elicit an amicable resolution, the purpose of a “complaint website” post is strictly to cause reputable harm to a business – that’s it!

From rippoffreport.com’s homepage:
“Unlike the Better Business Bureau, Ripoff Report does not hide reports of “satisfied” complaints. ALL complaints remain public and unedited in order to create a working history on the company or individual in question… Your Ripoff Report will be discovered by millions of consumers! Search engines will automatically discover most reports, meaning that within just a few days or weeks, your report may be found on search engines when consumers search, using key words relating to your Ripoff Report.”

So here’s the skinny…  anyone can post anything for free, remain anonymous, post disparaging remarks against any person or business – and search engines will promote these to the tops of the results?  What’s to keep your competitor from posting remarks?  Nothing!  (more…)

I’m not here to preach one way or another about dealership microsites because if used correctly they can be very effective.  I’d rather tell you a story and let you decide for yourself on how best to apply them to your dealership (if at all).

I had a dealer in New York call me about two weeks ago inquiring into our dealer websites and SEO.  The first words out of his mouth were, “can you build me a bunch of microsites”?  My regretful response, “why”, led him into a 5 minute seminar on microsites helping with SEO, creating additional SEO rankings and hundreds of back-links to his website.   He also shared his theory on how automotive shoppers “hate dealers”, and that by taking the dealer’s brand away from a microsite makes the customer feel more comfortable to fill out a lead form.

My experience with microsites started in 2004 when I started an online marketing agency providing SEM/SEO services to Retail Automotive.  We were one of the first (if not the first) companies to market Search to car dealers.  Our core product was in-fact a microsite….we called it an “SEO sub-site”.  The SEO sub-site was born out of necessity because our first client’s website provider refused us access to the backend of the website where we needed upload our SEO code and content.  The client wanted SEO and we offered SEO.  Their website provider did not.  So we developed a work-around…

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DALLAS, Apr 01, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) –

Dave Hanson has been named vice president of Interactive and Creative Services at ecarlist, a leading software provider to the automotive industry.

Prior to joining ecarlist, Hanson was director of Brand Marketing at Yahoo! Inc., where he led partnership development and interactive engineering to produce marketing programs for the company and its top advertisers.

Hanson will be responsible for ecarlist’s full-service interactive and creative division, according to ecarlist CEO Len Critcher.

“Dave combines strong creative and interactive leadership with great expertise in online consumer experience,” said Critcher. “I am thrilled to add him to our executive team. With Dave leading our interactive group, ecarlist will be positioned to grow its online product offerings and provide unparalleled creative services to our increasing dealership base.”

Hanson noted that ecarlist is considered to be one of the most innovative companies in the industry.

“I am very excited to join a team that is already producing such dynamic and visually stunning websites,” Hanson added. “I look forward to bringing an even higher level of functionality and usability, while streamlining operations to support the company’s rapid growth.”

The Interactive and Creative Services division will serve as an in-house agency offering custom website design, video production, online-media-campaign creative services, search engine optimization, automated specials integration, interactive lead capture and a full suite of online website capabilities tied to ecarlist’s inventory management software.

“Consumers today turn to the web as their primary source for research,” explained Hanson. “As a part of that process, their impression of your company is determined almost immediately. We will produce websites that are effective in converting web traffic to qualified leads, while building trust in the dealership’s brand, which in turn drives revenue for the dealership.”

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I think I’ve been here long enough to post a disgruntled little blog.  During my time here at ecarlist over the past 4-ish months, I’ve spoken to a lot of dealers.  Many of them are engaging in SEO and/or SEM and many are not.  Usually I wouldn’t bash on the dealers who are proactively invovled with Search, but it seems that there is a major disconnect in regards to their spending.

I conducted my own little experiement in which I surveyed dealers who were using some of the more well-known SEM management firms which will remain un-named…uhhhreachlocaluhhhnmm.   Now this study was put together by a huge team of one with an enormous panel of 10.  Here are the results….

10 out of 10 dealers who were spending money on SEM with their “SEM Agency”  had no knowledge of  how much money was going to Google, Yahoo and/or MSN and how much was going into the pocket of their agency who was charging a percentage of the dealer’s gross monthly spend (usually with minimum spending requirements).

Does that concern anyone?  Apparantly not.  Because these firms are sending their weekly home-made Excel spreadsheets that show the dealer is getting “clicks” and apparantly that’s all that matters to the dealer.  They send nothing from the Engines themselves who have great reporting systems that show the actual spend, average Cost Per Click and Click Through Rates.

I’ve heard from some dealers who actually took the time to analyze their SEM campaigns directly with Google that the percentages their Agencies were taking were sometimes as high as 40%.   That means for every $1.00 you spend on Google, it’s actually costing you $1.40…assuming you are getting information on how much you’re spending per-click.

So anyway, for the dealer that cares about what you are spending these days I recommend going with an SEM management firm that either charges you a flat rate (i.e. ecarlist) or a  reasonable percentage with complete transparency.  In fact, I would call your SEM firm today and ask them if you can get a cost breakdown from Google - which they have readily available.  If they aren’t interested in showing it to you, you may want to reconsider who you are spending money with.

What is SERM?  Sounds like a bad case of the flu, but it’s actually a serious and rapidly growing segment of Search Engine Marketing.  SERM stands for Search Engine Reputation Management, and any company who struggles with negative PR online should get to know it well.

North Texas Nissan runs a very successful operation and uses ecarlist for Inventory Management and recently a premium website with SEM and SEO.   

Let’s just say the old management didn’t focus heavily on customer service.   North Texas Nissan suffers from serious negative online public relations just like many other dealers and companies online who may or may not be aware of it.

A Google search for “North Texas Nissan” brings up first page results for RipoffReport.com and Complaints.com that were posted by consumers (or bashing competitors)  from years ago during the previous management.

Many brand name companies suffer this same fate - Pay Pal, Bosley Medical, and countless dealers are losing an unforeseen amount of business from negative postings that appear in the search results.  And the worst part is that it’s near impossible to get these negative postings removed since they are protected under the 1st Amendment.

SERM is the process of achieving additional rankings for certain keywords in efforts to push down any negative PR websites “below the fold” or to the 2nd or 3rd page of the search results - or at least out of the way of it interfering.

As ecarlist strives to bring our dealers cutting edge online technology,  we are proud to launch a SERM program for North Texas Nissan and will be posting the results soon.