7:18 am, October 1, 2013
ADVERTISING. It’s a necessary part of selling cars and to make a success of it you need a great marketing partner. But let’s go back to step one.
Before you have great stock and a winning advert, first you need a brilliant website, and there are few others as professional in this field as Bluesky Interactive. ‘In order to be successful at online advertising, dealers need a good-looking and integrated website,’ says Bluesky Interactive’s marketing manager Lauren Cooke.
‘Dealers need to have a website that essentially is designed to achieve their business objectives — and the same goes for marketing as well.
‘It is necessary to have an integrated space for dealers’ customers, their brand and their customers’ needs that works hand-in-hand with their marketing — otherwise there is not much point.’
Bluesky Interactive is a specialist creator of stunning websites for car dealers, and is one of the UK’s leading full-service digital marketing agencies. Whether it’s designing a website or running a PPC campaign, Bluesky has it covered.
‘We started off as a website company always focusing on the needs of car dealers,’ explains Cooke. ‘But over time we have expanded to be both a specialist in web design and marketing.
‘We focus on all aspects of digital marketing — SEO, email marketing, SMS, pay-per- click, social media and much, much more.’
Bluesky’s business is founded on the internet — but why should the online medium play an important role in a dealer’s life?
‘Dealers should be paying close attention to the internet because of how much it has grown and how much it is going to grow,’
says Cooke.
‘Recent research shows that nearly one- third of under-35-year-olds in the UK would buy a new car directly via the internet.
‘The importance of the internet is undeniable now — whether it is at the research stage or the buying stage people are using the internet in every phase of the car-buying process.
‘Quite often the only time a customer will come into the showroom is when they are ready to buy, after they have done all their homework. If a dealer is not in the arena early, they essentially will not get a look-in.’
But how can dealers get a great-looking website? What are the key ingredients? ‘While the website’s design, the use of high-quality pictures and video are all very important,’ says Cooke, ‘I would actually say the most important element of a website is user experience. A dealer’s website needs to be geared up to make the customer experience as easy as possible — whether inquiring about a car or even buying one. It needs to be focused on the customer journey.’
And an easy way to make sure you’re giving your customers the right experience is to have a fully- responsive website — or, in other words, a website that can be experienced on a mobile, a tablet or a desktop computer. Down the line, it will even
need to work on interactive TVs and any other new media that emerge.
‘We still often create mobile websites for dealers,’ says Cooke, ‘but the real key to customer satisfaction is a fully-responsive website. Your customer will have the same experience on any device they intend to look at your website with, and one that is fully-tailored to their device. It’s integral to make the customer experience as seamless as possible.’
Bluesky Interactive is not only an expert in making websites look great, but it is pretty skilled at making them actually work. ‘Our websites generate and convert leads, and help car dealers sell cars,’ says Cooke.
‘Each of our clients is assigned an account manager and an account executive to make the process of creating the best website as straightforward as possible — it’s a real one-on-one experience and something traditionally reserved for the wealthiest of franchised dealer groups.’
Another area Bluesky Interactive is very active in is going beyond the realms of only website building — by actually connecting customers to dealers. Along with building websites that generate traffic, Bluesky can introduce a dealer to Google+ Places and 360-degree interior showroom and car tours, aiming to impress potential customers before they reach your dealership, or even your website.
‘Getting the basics right can ensure more cars will be sold — and a dealer’s website is an excellent place to start,’ concludes Cooke.
‘A great website and getting traffic to it is the key to selling a greater number of cars.’
