Friday, January 21, 2005
An Open Offer to All Vancouver Island Auto Dealerships
On our website we have links to the websites of over 40 Vancouver Island dealerships. Our website provides an opportunity for those shopping for used vehicles to have a look at what's available without leaving the comfort of their homes.
This saves them time and money from having to travel up and down the Island checking car lots. It's much easier to locate interesting vehicles through some type of advertising medium and then visit the car lots that have used vehicles that interest them.
Our website has recently incorportated new technology which takes marketing on the web to new heights. We all know what's happened with email and most people now totally ignore what has been sent to their inboxes.
We know from past research that car dealerships spend a tremendous amount of money for advertising. It's very important to the health of their businesses. But if your dealership is spending any money for your online advertising, you are spending too much. There is no need to charge for online advertising.
I can see it in print or television, but online it's a whole different story. Most dealerships and many small businesses now have websites, but we know from talking to them most aren't happy with the results from these websites. The problem lies with how most web developers approach their web design.
They try to bring an offline advertising mentality to the web. The strategies for having a successful website have nothing to do with the strategies involved in marketing offline.
Most web developers are really graphic designers or artists and most don't have a clue about marketing websites. They usually just deliver a finished website to a customer, in most cases for thousands of dollars, and then walk away to the next sucker.
These websites sure do look pretty. But if you check your log files, who is seeing them? Maybe you'll drive some traffic to your site through your offline advertising, but what have you really succeeded in doing? The customer has only found your website through a relationship you've previously developed. All you really have is a very, very expensive brochure about your business. And believe me NO ONE CARES. All they're really interested in, is finding out if you have the car they want.
The real reason for a website should be to draw people who have never heard of you or your website before. You can only do this with a website that works. To be honest, not one of the Vancouver Island dealership sites listed here works properly. Your money is totally wasted.
Then, many of you turn to others to list your vehicles on other sites which have too wide of a focus. Do you really need to have your vehicles shown to someone in Waterloo? Not really. In some cases with specialty vehicles you may need to reach a wider audience, but for most Vancouver Island dealerships, you only need to reach those locally.
But a website still has to be designed to draw locally. In most cases the functionality of drawing relevant traffic is totally left out of your website. But now VanIsle Trader.com is coming to your rescue.
Over the past 3 years with your passive help, we have been able to get our website listed with all the major search engines. We have established ourselves as a website that offers listings of used vehicles for all of Vancouver Island.
We have been waiting for the right opportunity to take it to the next level. With recent developments in new technology, we now have the means to distribute information like never before. And the beauty of it is, it won't cost you one penny.
Over the coming days I'll be setting up new feeds for all of the dealerships listed on this site. We have the first one set up here for Pacific Mazda of Victoria. They got the first one because they are at the top of the list.
The rest will be will added as we get them set up. We will be sending one email to each dealership informing them of this opportunity. It's up to you to let us know if it's something you want to do. We have 15 prime spots available. Five each for used cars, used trucks and used RVs.
First ones onboard get these spots. Then it will be up to you to keep them. The only way to keep them is to send good ad copy at a nice, steady, even pace. Once things are rolling, those spots will be filled by those who cooperate the best. Others will be relegated to the dealers page with everyone else.
If you have a dealership and it's not listed here, that's no problem. Just give us a shout and we'll set you up. We want to make this as easy on ourselves as we can. So a shotgun announcement with a race to sign up is the way we'll do it. We don't mind taking the easy route. It's always worked for us in the past.
The only requirement to getting your own page with your own feed is to be able to list a minimum of 10 used vehicles per month. You can list more but we want a minimum of ten per month for your own page.
If you move less than 10 vehicles per month, then just submit them through the link on the sellers page.
Click here to see more about how this will all work...
This saves them time and money from having to travel up and down the Island checking car lots. It's much easier to locate interesting vehicles through some type of advertising medium and then visit the car lots that have used vehicles that interest them.
Our website has recently incorportated new technology which takes marketing on the web to new heights. We all know what's happened with email and most people now totally ignore what has been sent to their inboxes.
An Affordable Means of Advertising
We know from past research that car dealerships spend a tremendous amount of money for advertising. It's very important to the health of their businesses. But if your dealership is spending any money for your online advertising, you are spending too much. There is no need to charge for online advertising.
I can see it in print or television, but online it's a whole different story. Most dealerships and many small businesses now have websites, but we know from talking to them most aren't happy with the results from these websites. The problem lies with how most web developers approach their web design.
They try to bring an offline advertising mentality to the web. The strategies for having a successful website have nothing to do with the strategies involved in marketing offline.
Most web developers are really graphic designers or artists and most don't have a clue about marketing websites. They usually just deliver a finished website to a customer, in most cases for thousands of dollars, and then walk away to the next sucker.
These websites sure do look pretty. But if you check your log files, who is seeing them? Maybe you'll drive some traffic to your site through your offline advertising, but what have you really succeeded in doing? The customer has only found your website through a relationship you've previously developed. All you really have is a very, very expensive brochure about your business. And believe me NO ONE CARES. All they're really interested in, is finding out if you have the car they want.
Attract New Customers
The real reason for a website should be to draw people who have never heard of you or your website before. You can only do this with a website that works. To be honest, not one of the Vancouver Island dealership sites listed here works properly. Your money is totally wasted.
Then, many of you turn to others to list your vehicles on other sites which have too wide of a focus. Do you really need to have your vehicles shown to someone in Waterloo? Not really. In some cases with specialty vehicles you may need to reach a wider audience, but for most Vancouver Island dealerships, you only need to reach those locally.
But a website still has to be designed to draw locally. In most cases the functionality of drawing relevant traffic is totally left out of your website. But now VanIsle Trader.com is coming to your rescue.
Over the past 3 years with your passive help, we have been able to get our website listed with all the major search engines. We have established ourselves as a website that offers listings of used vehicles for all of Vancouver Island.
New Technology Makes This All Possible
We have been waiting for the right opportunity to take it to the next level. With recent developments in new technology, we now have the means to distribute information like never before. And the beauty of it is, it won't cost you one penny.
Over the coming days I'll be setting up new feeds for all of the dealerships listed on this site. We have the first one set up here for Pacific Mazda of Victoria. They got the first one because they are at the top of the list.
The rest will be will added as we get them set up. We will be sending one email to each dealership informing them of this opportunity. It's up to you to let us know if it's something you want to do. We have 15 prime spots available. Five each for used cars, used trucks and used RVs.
First ones onboard get these spots. Then it will be up to you to keep them. The only way to keep them is to send good ad copy at a nice, steady, even pace. Once things are rolling, those spots will be filled by those who cooperate the best. Others will be relegated to the dealers page with everyone else.
Not Listed Here? Not a Problem.
If you have a dealership and it's not listed here, that's no problem. Just give us a shout and we'll set you up. We want to make this as easy on ourselves as we can. So a shotgun announcement with a race to sign up is the way we'll do it. We don't mind taking the easy route. It's always worked for us in the past.
The only requirement to getting your own page with your own feed is to be able to list a minimum of 10 used vehicles per month. You can list more but we want a minimum of ten per month for your own page.
If you move less than 10 vehicles per month, then just submit them through the link on the sellers page.
Click here to see more about how this will all work...
