There’s No Such Thing As a Free Lunch… or Dealer Website!

We’ve heard this saying before.  In today’s tough economic climate it rings more true than ever.  Now it seems there’s no free breakfast or dinner either.  I got wind today that Cobalt is now charging dealers for their FREE web sites.  They had been promised that these sites would remain free at least until April when further negotiations would take place.  Some dealers have expressed frustration HERE.  Looks like they were billed starting in December of 2008.  I really can’t blame GM for doing this.  They have no money left and are giving close to 7K dealers a free service.  Assuming they got a great rate at $300 per month…it equates to $2,100,000 per month in savings.

Now where do GM dealers go from here?  Most already barely use their cobalt site and just keep it because its free and they are promised a few manufacturer leads here and there.  My advice is to get rid of the Cobalt site and use that $300 to add products to your current web provider.  Things like Live Chat or New Car Video Reviews are very cost effective ways to increase leads and customer time spent on your web site. You could also increase your spend on Paid Search to reach a few extra HUNDRED customers a month.  

When cutting costs for your dealership the internet should be the last thing you trim.  It’s the backbone of your digital marketing plan.  You need to make sure that you invest heavily in the right company with the right products that you can maximize your online potential.  The quantity of leads is definitely way down. It’s very important to make sure you can extract the ones you do have and turn prospects into buyers. Make sure your dealer web site has the right tools to do this.