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Which Classified Site Works Best to Sell Cars #8
Lead #10: It's been a while since I've updated this topic because the leads seem to have dropped off. The person in Lead #9 followed up with a couple of phone calls and set an appointment to come see the car but was a no-show. A lead came in today through the dealer's website from someone who found them in a Google search. No questions about the car, no phone calls, just submitted a credit app. Usually when customers submit an app and don't even ask about a vehicle, that tells me they're shopping around for someone who will approve them with bad credit. Seemed to be the case here, as the dealer told me they had a 380 beacon. Guess the car isn't getting sold today.
Autotrader.com - 1
CraigsList.org - 4
Cars.com - 2
AutoExtra.com - 0
Google Base - 0
A Dealership Website - 2
Kijiji - 1
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15 comments:
I'm not surprised that craigslist has produced the most leads.
Recently, I created a tool that helps our dealers post to craigslist. My detroit-metro posters tell me they get "3 calls a day" from craigslist alone.
Did you expect a different out come?
It really hasn't surprised me either. Craigs List seems to be gaining even more momentum. Our dealers ask all the time about it, and these are guys that normally don't want to think about anything "new". I'd be interested in taking a look at what you've developed.
I haven't been having any luck at all with Craigslist. Kijiji on the other hand has been doing really well.
James
Using the internet to qualify prospects is the future.
You should also try Text4cars.com. It is a very easy and effective way to sell your car. You sign up using your cell phone and only pay when you get a lead. I sold my car using the site. They are also a public company (EXTO) so I do not believe that they will be one of these fly by night companies.
To any one out side the Houston metro area, you might have good luck with craigslist. I have been using them for several years and had good results at first. What I want to share with you is recently by 6pm there is allmost 1000 new postings a day. You do the math, when your competition is only 135 other postings in a day you stand a much greater chance of being seen. This is a great place to pick up $2500.00 or less car buyers or finance customers at the high end. One other problem is that there seems to be a jealousy trip of some sort with people flagging the ads and I might be using the wrong term here but it is open to the public to delete the ads which is rather odd that C.L. does not have an internal auditor to help override melicious attacks on the dealers. Since C.L. has basically stolen the market on advertising here, the local papers have decreased its amount of normal classifieds, and this is what I am sharing , now I went back to the paper ads with less competition and my calls have increased. So you stay with C.L. and fight the monsters, I am going back to the manual way of making money and keep the calls coming in. Its like that story about the old bull and the young bull on top of the hill, walk down and kiss them all. thanks, Eddy with Motorama.
03-28-08 :
SAVE $$$ - Cancel Autotrader Now!!
Autotrader is strong arming dealers into massive price increases with no additional perks, just promises - it's a secret - "They can't tell you now" - but they say "It will be good".
$4500 per month is the current price for the Early Model Premium Dealership Program. The elite, best program.
Autotrader wants to raise it to $7,060 per month - even if you have a signed yearly contract with them.
They say they can and will find a clause in their contract that lets them do whatever the hell they want to do.
I think they are going to implode just like the original Internet Hitler: Autobytel - once powerful, now practically nonexistent.
Cars.com, on the other hand, only charges about $2,400. A much better value and we get the same amount of leads, calls, clicks, maps,etc.
Why the big difference?
To me = No Difference.
Maybe Cars.com is even better.
I believe the economy is in tough shape. ComScore just released data yesterday stating that Google's pay per click ads are down sharply - that means less clicks on the biggest search engine - which means less shoppers online.
Autotrader may be in trouble - they may have over committed on their ad budget - and now need more money from their dealer network to sustain themselves.
My suggestion:
Cancel your expensive Autotrader monthly bill.
Save half the money in the bank and possibly use the other half on different advertising.
There ar emany dealer out there in this industry and if you check the company profile and the age of the company along with reviews then you would be able to know what is what
Just my thoughts...
I've found that Facebook and Craigslist are quickly over taking eBay, AutoTrader, and Cars.com as my favorites to use for marketing. There is a shift in commerce online and I think that craigslist and facebook both better suite this shift where we are looking for a small town busines ethic on a global scale. AutoTrader and Cars.com are really just a waste of money at this point, where as eBay is not dead, but it's further efforts to remove any protection for it's sellers and expensive fees really are not helping it either.
Aaron Manley Smith
Owner
www.motorphilia.com
Craig list is such a huge thing!! not at all surprised!
I have seen your Blog... It’s too informative, spceially thist post. Useful for me. There are many posts which are really too Good and very useful.
Craigslist is becoming very powerful. Just be careful and do your research.
Craigslist will generate the most traffic for sure and by far for a car dealership, but the main issue revolves around posting on Craigslist. The founder of craigslist, Craig Newmark, built the security system for Bank of America and is committed to free Internet with NO SPAM. The problem for the car dealers is that when you post 40 cars in one day, it is 40 different cars, but to Craigslist and community, you are still posting more than you "should." You have to love Craigslist and the principles it has and was started by, but with their flagging, ghosting, ip conflictions, e-mail verifications-you really work to get the traffic that site generates.
Yes lots of leads after you WEED out all the morons, email spam from scammers and answer the phone to 300 not real buyers just professional craigslist surfers. I sell on Craigslist but slam my home-runs off Ebay and make way more money from Ebay beside the fact it is 1/10 the work and you get 98% qualified activity!!!!!
It really hasn't surprised me either. Craigs List seems to be gaining even more momentum.
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