| If you are a proud owner of a small to medium sized | | | | category of having a hefty setup fee and they are |
| used car dealership, you understand the difficulties you | | | | completely web based portals, rather than a full, |
| are facing due to lack of funds and budget to stay | | | | independent desktop application. For Dealer Template |
| competitive with your bigger neighbors. Many small | | | | they are integrated with a service also found in |
| dealerships can't imagine there are options out there | | | | Canada called Dealer Elite CRM you can find them |
| for them to be visible on Google, and to manage their | | | | online at a surprisingly low cost CRM solution that is |
| daily tasks effectively without paying the big price tag. | | | | desktop based for added security. The purpose of |
| Let's look into some of the areas the small guys need | | | | having a CRM solution is to effectively manage your |
| help on, website is the first stepping stone for you to | | | | incoming leads, update your vehicle inventory, produce |
| have Internet customers and Google exposure. For | | | | real time reports, and of course manage and monitor |
| one many small dealerships today are stuck using a | | | | your sales staff. A CRM system is important enough |
| poorly developed system, or worse rely on services | | | | for the big dealerships to invest tens of thousands of |
| from the bigger portals to offer them a complete | | | | dollars every month because it works. But for the |
| cookie cutter "web site" that doesn't offer anything | | | | smaller guys it is virtually impossible to have that kind |
| else other than hosting their inventory online. There is | | | | of investment upfront. Therefore a cost effective |
| virtually no customization and virtually no SEO, but wait | | | | CRM is so important to complete your web solution |
| a second if it is a poorly developed template, wouldn't | | | | suite. The next logical step is for you to invest in some |
| this service be free? The answer is "No", these big | | | | SEO work or search engine optimization. With proper |
| name portals are charging surprisingly high hosting fees, | | | | SEO as your backing your web ranking and inbound |
| just to offer these smaller dealers a subdomain. It is | | | | Internet traffic will grow with time. Pretty soon you will |
| important for you as a dealership to have your very | | | | be able to take a big slice of the business out of your |
| own business branding and your own domain name. | | | | competitor's market share. |
| To have an independent domain name is the first step | | | | Having these tools ready at your disposal is one thing, |
| of getting exposure on Google and other search | | | | and using them correctly is another. Don't be fooled |
| engines. Otherwise all the hard earned money you | | | | into thinking your competitor will stand still and wait for |
| spent on advertising is driving traffic to somewhere | | | | you to take away their market share. You should find |
| else. There are solutions out there for you today, one | | | | a competitive web development firm that offers |
| Canadian company is called Dealer Template, you can | | | | quality SEO services to boost your web ranking. If you |
| find them online at they offer pre-designed automotive | | | | are like me and located in the Toronto area I |
| specific template including hosting and setup for as little | | | | recommend Digital Media Advertising or they specialize |
| as $79 per month. That is lower than many other big | | | | in automotive SEO services for the surrounding GTA |
| names out there and you will get a complete | | | | area. Try the SEO for few months, and monitor your |
| customized website that will suit your business needs. | | | | progress, a reputable SEO firm will send you a daily |
| There is $0 setup and up front fees, and all cost are | | | | report on the inbound links they are building for you. |
| included within the subscription fees. It is a great | | | | Pick your keywords wisely and selectively, don't go |
| solution for a business that needs a website in a hurry. | | | | after the difficult keywords right away, wait until your |
| The flip side to the coin would be finding a suitable | | | | website has some steady traffic from the lesser |
| CRM solution that can be completely integrated with | | | | competitive keywords first before making the heavy |
| your website for less. There are few big name CRM | | | | investment. |
| solutions out there, but they typically fall into the | | | | |