Automotive Internet Sales: Website, SEO, & Digital Retailing

The up bus is no longer pulling up to your dealership.  Today, your automotive website is the new showroom.  While there are many ways to approach automotive internet sales, your website is most important.  Northtown Lexus understands this.  As such, they use Dealer eProcess, a fully customizable website provider with a large focus on SEO and digital retailing.

The Internet is the new showroom.  Words spoken so many times by Sean V. Bradley, CSP and L.A. Williams.  Today they dive deep into the world of automotive internet sales.  More specifically, car dealership websites.

Their guest, David DiPasquale, is the GM of Northtown Lexus.  Their website is powered by Dealer eProcess and is a powerful tool for the dealership.  Exploring the site, Sean praises Dave and Dealer eProcess for the customized site and advanced SEO practices.

About David DiPasquale

David DiPasquale has been in the automotive industry for 34 years.  For the past 25 years, he has been the General Manager at Northtown Lexus.  Located in upstate NY, just outside of Buffalo, NY, Northtown Lexus is a single point location that is a part of a large automotive group.

Dave started working for his automotive group 34 years ago at their Lexus Dealership. Shortly after he transitioned to a sales associate, he became a top producer.  

David was hesitant to move to the management side of the business, as is the case with most top producers.  Eventually, he became a sales manager.  This was followed with becoming a used car sales manager, which ultimately led to his position of GM.

Show Notes: Find Out Why Most Automotive Dealership Websites Are Underperforming & Have Bad SEO

Automotive Internet Sales Training

Training and self-education is vital to the success of automotive sales professionals.  Over the years, David has taken many different automotive sales training courses.  Additionally, he joined 20 groups to further train and develop.  Most notably, however, Dave’s automotive group has a corporate psychologist.

Automotive Internet Sales Mindset

The corporate psychologist works with every manager at his auto group.  The psychologist not only helps with communication, but also helps with intensity and control.  Dave and the team really enjoy their time working with the corporate psychologist.  They attribute it to opening the lines of communication.

“You have to keep moving forward or you’re going to lose your seat.” – David DiPasquale

Automotive Internet Sales: Website & SEO

Your Dealership Is Your Showroom

The Internet is the new showroom and is significantly important to a dealership’s business.  More importantly, the dealership’s website is the new showroom.  Not only is it the main lead generation tool, it is only the highest converting.

David’s website is powered by Dealer eProcess.  Dealer eProcess is more of a boutique provider.  Noteably, Dave really enjoys that he knows everyone on a first name basis.  Additionally, he knows their phone numbers and doesn’t need to use a 1-800 number. 

Automotive Internet Sales: Your Website Should Not Be A Cookie Cutter Approach

One of the things Dave really enjoys about Dealer eProcess is the performance.  Dave averages 12,000 unique visitors per month during peak times.  Additionally, he has a low bounce rate.  Most impressive, however, is how long visitors are on his site.  The average visitor is on his website for four minutes and 20 seconds.

This is because Dealer eProcess does not use a cookie cutter approach.  This is the problem with most OEM websites.  They use a cookie cutter approach with the same content.  As a result, dealerships experience a high bounce rate.

High Bounce Rate Equals Wasted Money

A high bounce rate is never good.  It is even worse when PPC is a part of your strategy.  For example, if you had a $10,000 PPC budget and a 50% bounce rate, you would be hemorrhaging $5,000 in budget spend.

This is why Dave spends so much time on his website.  He knows there are 2 showrooms, the physical and the digital.  While many dealers spend so much time on the customers at the store, Dave balances his approach.  

He realizes that the backend of his website is the equivalent to his physical showroom.  While the customers in the showroom are important, so are the visitors to his website.

Organic Listings Are Important

Many car dealerships try to sell more cars online through PPC campaigns, but they completely ignore their SEO.  However, with the help of Dealer eProcess, Northtown Lexus owns their space organically.  In fact, they own more than just their space organically.

While searching for Lexus vehicles in a town over 60 miles away, Northtown Lexus shows organically on the first page.  More importantly, they are the second dealership to rank organically in the sixth position.

Automotive Internet Sales SEO: Own Your Market Organically

Adding to this, Northtown Lexus owns the first page of Google in their own market.  On several searches in their backyard, they were the first organic listing.  Additionally, for many searches, they owned the first page.  Oftentimes, Northtown Lexus ranked for the first four positions.

With the help of Dealer eProcess, Northtown Lexus has custom content and advanced SEO.  Simply put, basic SEO won’t cut it. As Sean Bradley puts it, “Its not just about who you can outspend, its out strategize.”  

Advanced product pages, set up like landing pages, is one of the many ways Dave and Dealer eProcess accomplish this. While it changes from time to time, the strategy is to not spend a lot of money on PPC.  Rather, the strategy is to spend money on organic.

Automotive Internet Sales Experience

Video Content

Dave mentions that you have to make the digital experience as close as possible to the in person experience.  One of the ways he accomplishes this is through video.  Northtown Lexus has a giant video library for each model they sell.

The videos touch on everything they would show a customer in person.  One of their videos, How to Program Your Garage to Your Lexus has almost 100,000 views on YouTube.  These videos not only create a better customer experience, but also helps with organic rankings.

Automotive Internet Sales Starts With The VDP

When diving deeper, Dave has one of the nicest VDP’s on the Internet.  Since Dealer eProcess is not a cookie cutter website provider, everything can be customized.  Dave took this to hear with his VDP page.

Dave’s VDP includes many different aspects.  First, there are two videos on every VDP.  Next are the vehicle awards and safety ratings.  Additionally, his VDP’s are integrated with the dealership’s Google reviews.  These are just a few of the custom items on his VDPs.

Digital Retailing

At Northtown Lexus, 20% of finance or leased deals use digital retailing.  As such, Dave worked with Dealer eProcess to create their digital retailing presence.  Their VDPs include not only the price, but also the payments.  From there, the customer can customize their payments to their needs.

The process is quick and easy.  More importantly, it provides the consumer with the information they want and need.  The customer typically visits the dealership once.  If they want to test drive the vehicle first, two short visits is all it takes for them to purchase the vehicle.

Automotive Internet Sales Resources 

Dealer Synergy & Bradley On Demand: The Automotive Industry’s #1 Training, Tracking, Testing, and Certification Platform and Consulting & Accountability Firm. 

Additionally, The Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast: is the #1 Resource for Automotive Sales Professionals, Managers, and Owners.  Also, join The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group today!

Also, The Against All Odds Radio Show: Hosting guests that have started from the bottom and rose to the top.  But, don’t forget to join The Against All Odds Radio Show Guests & Listeners Facebook Group for the podcasted episodes.

Next, join The Millionaire Car Salesman Club: on Clubhouse.

Last, be sure to read Win the Game of Googleopoly: Unlocking the Secret Strategy of Search Engines.

VinCue: In addition to be built by dealers for dealers, VinCue is an All-In-One Digital Platform.  At the end of the day, it can help your Dealership!

AutoWeb: Visit AutoWeb.com/dealers for help in revolutionizing your business to help you sell more cars.

Dealer eProcess: Specializing in responsive websites.  Without a doubt, DealereProcess.com is the auto industry’s leading custom website provider.

CarNow: Sell more cars now!  Not only is CarNow.com. the market leader in tailored digital solutions, but they are built to help dealers sell more cars.

Be Sure To Listen To Last Week’s Episode of the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast

Last week, Sean V Bradley and L.A. Williams dove deep into used car sales.  Tips On How To Sell More Used Cars At A Car Dealership touched many different topics.  Their guest, John H. Wilson, shared the tips and secrets on how he sold 59 used cars in one month.

The Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast

The Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast has a new episode every Tuesday at 4:00 PM EST.  So, be sure to tune in next week. Also, check out all of the previous episodes of the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast.

Likewise, join the Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group and The Millionaire Car Salesman Club on Clubhouse today!

Additionally, The Against All Odds Radio Show broadcasts nationwide each weekend and has a podcast released each Monday.  Finally, listen in for tips from billionaires and multi-millionaires.