When I worked for a website provider, the hardest page to get good content on was the "About Us" page. It's been over three years since I worked in that space and things have improved in the interim, but one thing is certain: finding a properly built and maintained dealership story is still extremely rare.

With all of the data that's available to dealers and vendors, it's a wonder that this has never truly been addressed. You can look at your analytics today and see just how many visitors hit these pages. Are you satisfied with the message you're delivering to them?

Before we get into the proper way to build and maintain one of these pages, let's take a look at why it's so important.

When do people visit these pages?

It's natural for dealers and vendors to see these pages as relatively unimportant. We've been hammered over the years with the concept that the only important pages we need to track involve inventory and specials, so putting little effort into maximizing the quality of About Us pages is quite common.

Before we dismiss them, we have to remember the two times that people will visit this page. Based on analytics data, people visit the About Us page when they first get to the website or when they've already finished. It's either the first or the last page they check. Why? Because that's when people make decisions about their sentiment towards a dealership.

Some people like to know more about the dealership before they even look at inventory. These are the people who've probably had a bad experience in the past when buying a car. They could also be one of the emerging buyer types: millennials. They want to have a good feeling before even considering a dealership.

Others will check out a dealership after they've already landed on a vehicle. These are often the types of people who like to make lists of four or five dealerships they plan on visiting in their shopping adventure. Why are they checking up on the dealership at this point? They're likely choosing the order. Many people use maps and proximity to make their plans, but others like to prioritize dealerships they think they'll like the most.

Regardless of why they're visiting the About Us page, it's important to make sure you're making the right impression.

What should they be about?

This is a question whose answer eludes nearly everyone. By everyone, I mean dealers, marketers, vendors, and even your customers. What do they really want the page to be about?

The standard (and incorrect) answer can be found on nearly every About Us page in existence. Everyone likes to make the About Us page talk about the dealership's history. Some go so far as to make it talk about some of the people at the dealership. The advanced dealers will put in welcome videos and lots of pictures of the dealership to make it seem happy and inviting.

These are fine, but they're not the best answer.

The About Us page should be about your customers. Seriously.

This topic requires a blog post of its own to fully explain, but when an About Us page talks about how the customer benefits from shopping at the dealership, it's ideal. They couldn't care less that you've broken sales records or been in business for a century. They're not impressed by your Blahblah Certification or your President's Honor Club Award. They want to know what you'll do for them.

Translate any accolade into a benefit to the customer. Be humble and appreciative. If you've broken sales records, the credit should go to THEM, your customers, for being more discerning and selective than others in the local area. If you've been in business for a hundred years, talk about how humbled you are live and work side-by-side with them in your wonderful community for all that time.

Again, there's way too much to talk about to try to fit it all in here, but you get the general idea. Next, let's discuss page maintenance.

What does it take to "maintain" them?

Your About Us page should be a living page. It should get updated at least monthly. This can be done with links to recent blog posts. You can set up a feed (if you must, though manual is better) to items of particular interest to your customers such as upcoming events or new product launches.

Create an image stream with dates of those images. It would be great if you could have a collage of the month (or week) that shows your happy customers front and center on your page.

The important thing to remember is that if you're going to go down this road, do so with a commitment to always keep it updated. If you're going to have a _____ of the month image on your about us page that's six months old, it's better if you never put it up there at all. Commit to 20 minutes a month or more. Put it on your calendar. Make it happen.

Is this the only place to tell our story?

As is often the case, this post has given me more assignments to add future posts on specific subjects within it. One such new assignment is to describe why most of your pages should be, to some extent, an About Us page. At Dealer Authority, we've invoked a strategy to do just that.

If you have a page about Camaros, don't just tell them about horsepower and MPGs. Tell them why your dealership and your dealership's customers are the best Camaro people in the area. Make it personal. Remember, most of your website visitors have already done their research. By the time they're looking at product pages on your website, they already know just about everything they need to know about the car. What you should be really telling them at this point is why they should buy YOUR Camaros.

Remember the people who plan on visiting four or five dealerships? Do they? In most cases, no. At the first or second place they visit, they end up meeting a real salesperson. This is why it's so important to make your dealership stand out as the first place to call or visit.

If you're a Roush dealership, for example, don't try to tell people how awesome the Roush Mustang is. Tell them why your dealership is the best Roush dealership available to them. This Roush dealer page is a good example of how it works.

Putting the time and effort necessary to make an incredible About Us page is likely at the bottom of your priority list. Chances are your website vendor put up a good page and called it a day. It's time to make your dealership stand out. These important pages are a great place to start.

A friend (who happens to also be a client) called me today hoping to pick my brain about his presentation at a conference. He's an experienced General Manager who has seen it all. Sometimes, seeing it all means it's difficult to pick out the gems that you've come across in your career.

In talking about customer retention, it's easy to see the importance of having a single customer type, of building true ambassadors rather than customers, and of establishing a company culture that permeates noticeably across the entire organization. However, the best presentations are ones that have true stories attached to them. One that I will always remember has guided my career for a couple of decades.

There was a customer in service that nobody liked. I was relatively new to selling cars and didn't really know not to talk to them. After all, they were our customers. They had purchased a new F-150 a few months before from someone else and they quickly became a problem in service. They were the type of customers who would come in demanding new tires if they ran over a nail.

The wife approached me and wanted to know if I could check on their truck. It had been in for more than two hours for an oil change. I had already heard of them and had no doubt that the service department was pushing their ticket back out of spite. They weren't very nice and were completely unreasonable with their expectations.

She mentioned that she needed to hurry because her husband was diabetic and needed food. I happened to have a sandwich that I hadn't even opened out of the vending machine and offered it to her. She latched onto me instantly and the next thing I knew I was showing them other vehicles on the lot while he ate my sandwich.

I came in for some keys to a used F-150. The manager gave me a look, rolled his eyes, stuck his finger in his mouth and made the "hooked" sign. I knew. It didn't matter. They wanted to look at trucks and I didn't have an appointment so I took them on a test drive.

Things went swimmingly. I learned about their laundry business. That's why they needed a truck. They pickup up laundry from the elderly and disabled and washed it for them for a minimal fee. As it turned out, they weren't unreasonable but really just needed a softer hand to guide them through the various processes. By the end of the test drive, they loved the truck and acknowledged that running over a nail wasn't grounds for making demands of the dealership.

We wrote up the deal. The manager was annoyed. Then, he pulled their credit report. As it turned out, they had recently mortgaged their home, paid off all of their bills, and had a $17,000 ACV on a free and clear trade. The truck I showed them was older but was a Lariat crew, better than their XLT supercab.

Over the next six months, I made seven referral sales and sold them another vehicle.

More importantly (for the dealership), they found a service writer they adored and brought cookies every time they had service. They literally brought cookies.

The story won't be used in the presentation for my friend but it did remind him of a similar incident at his dealership. That's the point. We aren't in the car business just for the money even if that's the primary motivation. There are very few professions that give us the opportunity to change someone's life every day that we work it.

One might read this and think that the lesson is to not prejudge or to treat everyone like they can buy. That's the business lesson. The real lesson that will always stick with me is that every car deal is a paycheck to us but it has a much bigger impact on the buyer. We must always remember that our daily activities. whether in sales or service, make a real difference.

It might just be a sale to someone on the floor. It's a unit to the bosses. It's a statistic to the manufacturer. To the customer, it's a profound moment that will be a part of their lives every day for years to come.

A friend (who happens to also be a client) called me today hoping to pick my brain about his presentation at a conference. He's an experienced General Manager who has seen it all. Sometimes, seeing it all means it's difficult to pick out the gems that you've come across in your career.

In talking about customer retention, it's easy to see the importance of having a single customer type, of building true ambassadors rather than customers, and of establishing a company culture that permeates noticeably across the entire organization. However, the best presentations are ones that have true stories attached to them. One that I will always remember has guided my career for a couple of decades.

There was a customer in service that nobody liked. I was relatively new to selling cars and didn't really know not to talk to them. After all, they were our customers. They had purchased a new F-150 a few months before from someone else and they quickly became a problem in service. They were the type of customers who would come in demanding new tires if they ran over a nail.

The wife approached me and wanted to know if I could check on their truck. It had been in for more than two hours for an oil change. I had already heard of them and had no doubt that the service department was pushing their ticket back out of spite. They weren't very nice and were completely unreasonable with their expectations.

She mentioned that she needed to hurry because her husband was diabetic and needed food. I happened to have a sandwich that I hadn't even opened out of the vending machine and offered it to her. She latched onto me instantly and the next thing I knew I was showing them other vehicles on the lot while he ate my sandwich.

I came in for some keys to a used F-150. The manager gave me a look, rolled his eyes, stuck his finger in his mouth and made the "hooked" sign. I knew. It didn't matter. They wanted to look at trucks and I didn't have an appointment so I took them on a test drive.

Things went swimmingly. I learned about their laundry business. That's why they needed a truck. They pickup up laundry from the elderly and disabled and washed it for them for a minimal fee. As it turned out, they weren't unreasonable but really just needed a softer hand to guide them through the various processes. By the end of the test drive, they loved the truck and acknowledged that running over a nail wasn't grounds for making demands of the dealership.

We wrote up the deal. The manager was annoyed. Then, he pulled their credit report. As it turned out, they had recently mortgaged their home, paid off all of their bills, and had a $17,000 ACV on a free and clear trade. The truck I showed them was older but was a Lariat crew, better than their XLT supercab.

Over the next six months, I made seven referral sales and sold them another vehicle.

More importantly (for the dealership), they found a service writer they adored and brought cookies every time they had service. They literally brought cookies.

The story won't be used in the presentation for my friend but it did remind him of a similar incident at his dealership. That's the point. We aren't in the car business just for the money even if that's the primary motivation. There are very few professions that give us the opportunity to change someone's life every day that we work it.

One might read this and think that the lesson is to not prejudge or to treat everyone like they can buy. That's the business lesson. The real lesson that will always stick with me is that every car deal is a paycheck to us but it has a much bigger impact on the buyer. We must always remember that our daily activities. whether in sales or service, make a real difference.

It might just be a sale to someone on the floor. It's a unit to the bosses. It's a statistic to the manufacturer. To the customer, it's a profound moment that will be a part of their lives every day for years to come.

There are currently hundreds of major digital marketing companies in the automotive industry calling, emailing, and sending smoke signals to influencers and decision-makers at dealerships across the country. I say "hundreds" because I don't want to count them up, but it could actually be thousands. The point is that there are a ton.

It can be challenging to make a decision about who to use for this, that, or the other because a few things are universal. They all claim to be the best at what they do. They all claim to help you sell more cars. They all claim to have X years of automotive experience.

How do dealers get through it all and make sense of the rhetoric? To answer this, we should pretend like the rhetoric is secondary and cut to the chase. Here are three questions you should ask. Some of the questions are obvious, but the desired answers may surprise you.

1. "Do you have binding contracts and if so, why?"

The first thing you'll notice is that you aren't asking how long the contracts are. This is important because at the end of the day you'll be able to negotiate any contract to an acceptable level with most companies. The reason you want to know "why" they have contracts is to gain an understanding of how their products operate. The standard answer is that there are upfront costs that need to be protected or that there's no way to get a full picture of the product in a short period of time. Both of these answers are garbage.

The only valid answer (other than, "no contracts") is that their business model requires a certain level of guaranteed profit per client. This is an answer for investors, but it's the real reason for holding the vast majority of contracts. If they have investors to cater to or future investors to impress, I can understand the need for contracts. Otherwise, "not enough time" or "too much upfront cost" are copouts.

I'm a big fan of having enough confidence in your product that you're willing to live or die by the results. Vendors shouldn't have to ask dealers to take the risk if it doesn't work as expected. Vendors should be the ones taking the risk if it doesn't deliver as promised.

2. "What is your policy on future upgrades?"

This is a question that's asked in a particular way for an important reason. By using the word "upgrades" you're really asking about add-on products or products in development. There are certain products that should incur additional cost, especially if they're truly add-ons. However, a vendor shouldn't charge a client to improve on what they're buying today.

The point of this question (and you'll probably be asked to elaborate once you ask it) is to establish that you want the latest and greatest advancements when they are developed. Unofficial standard operating procedures at most vendors will be to build improvements and then sell them to new clients. Later, they're rolled out to existing ones... if they're lucky. In some cases, they're either never rolled out or they are charged a fee to get on the latest and greatest. This is crap. If you're a client and they build something better than what you currently have, you should be the first to get it, not the last.

3. "Who are your biggest competitors?"

For some products, the answers are obvious. There are plenty of website providers out there, for example, so asking any of them about their competitors should yield a decent list. For other products, there are only a handful of players and asking this question will likely make the salesperson squirm.

The answer you definitely don't want to hear is "nobody." That's not true in most cases. Even something as obscure as gift card appointment programs have three or four players. If they tell you they don't have any competitors, they really just don't want to tip you off about who to call next and that's understandable. However, they should still be willing to tell you.

There is no "right" answer to the question. You're wanting to hear how they handle it. Are they extremely confident about what they're offering? Do they truly believe in their product above any of the competitors? Those are the real questions but you can't ask them directly. You'll need to ask them who they compete against and judge through their response if they're really worried about them. Just because they sound worried isn't necessarily bad because sometimes vendors worry about their competitors' pitch rather than their product. However, you're looking for one thing in this line of questioning: passion. If they're passionate about what they're selling, it will show when you bring up the competition.

A bonus answer to this particular question would be, "Our biggest competitors are your competitors. That's how we roll."

There are currently hundreds of major digital marketing companies in the automotive industry calling, emailing, and sending smoke signals to influencers and decision-makers at dealerships across the country. I say "hundreds" because I don't want to count them up, but it could actually be thousands. The point is that there are a ton.

It can be challenging to make a decision about who to use for this, that, or the other because a few things are universal. They all claim to be the best at what they do. They all claim to help you sell more cars. They all claim to have X years of automotive experience.

How do dealers get through it all and make sense of the rhetoric? To answer this, we should pretend like the rhetoric is secondary and cut to the chase. Here are three questions you should ask. Some of the questions are obvious, but the desired answers may surprise you.

1. "Do you have binding contracts and if so, why?"

The first thing you'll notice is that you aren't asking how long the contracts are. This is important because at the end of the day you'll be able to negotiate any contract to an acceptable level with most companies. The reason you want to know "why" they have contracts is to gain an understanding of how their products operate. The standard answer is that there are upfront costs that need to be protected or that there's no way to get a full picture of the product in a short period of time. Both of these answers are garbage.

The only valid answer (other than, "no contracts") is that their business model requires a certain level of guaranteed profit per client. This is an answer for investors, but it's the real reason for holding the vast majority of contracts. If they have investors to cater to or future investors to impress, I can understand the need for contracts. Otherwise, "not enough time" or "too much upfront cost" are copouts.

I'm a big fan of having enough confidence in your product that you're willing to live or die by the results. Vendors shouldn't have to ask dealers to take the risk if it doesn't work as expected. Vendors should be the ones taking the risk if it doesn't deliver as promised.

2. "What is your policy on future upgrades?"

This is a question that's asked in a particular way for an important reason. By using the word "upgrades" you're really asking about add-on products or products in development. There are certain products that should incur additional cost, especially if they're truly add-ons. However, a vendor shouldn't charge a client to improve on what they're buying today.

The point of this question (and you'll probably be asked to elaborate once you ask it) is to establish that you want the latest and greatest advancements when they are developed. Unofficial standard operating procedures at most vendors will be to build improvements and then sell them to new clients. Later, they're rolled out to existing ones... if they're lucky. In some cases, they're either never rolled out or they are charged a fee to get on the latest and greatest. This is crap. If you're a client and they build something better than what you currently have, you should be the first to get it, not the last.

3. "Who are your biggest competitors?"

For some products, the answers are obvious. There are plenty of website providers out there, for example, so asking any of them about their competitors should yield a decent list. For other products, there are only a handful of players and asking this question will likely make the salesperson squirm.

The answer you definitely don't want to hear is "nobody." That's not true in most cases. Even something as obscure as gift card appointment programs have three or four players. If they tell you they don't have any competitors, they really just don't want to tip you off about who to call next and that's understandable. However, they should still be willing to tell you.

There is no "right" answer to the question. You're wanting to hear how they handle it. Are they extremely confident about what they're offering? Do they truly believe in their product above any of the competitors? Those are the real questions but you can't ask them directly. You'll need to ask them who they compete against and judge through their response if they're really worried about them. Just because they sound worried isn't necessarily bad because sometimes vendors worry about their competitors' pitch rather than their product. However, you're looking for one thing in this line of questioning: passion. If they're passionate about what they're selling, it will show when you bring up the competition.

A bonus answer to this particular question would be, "Our biggest competitors are your competitors. That's how we roll."

Sales are down... for many vendors. That's the scuttlebutt on the street and it usually means one thing: sales are up at dealerships. Looking at the headlines on automotive journals, it's clear to see that we are indeed in a general upswing in the industry.

As a result, this is the most dangerous time to be running a marketing department in the car business. It's also the most crucial time for dealers and general managers to act.

It's dangerous for the marketing/internet manager because it's very hard to tell what's working and what's not. You can look at the numbers for your SEO company, for example, and see upticks in traffic. Are their efforts making the difference or does it simply mean that more people are searching?

It's crucial for dealers and general managers because you have to keep the wave of enthusiasm high while looking towards the future with bold determination. There's a saying that goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." This is incorrect in our industry. The reality is this:

• If it's broken, fix it.
• If it isn't broken, make it even better to prevent it from breaking in the future.

To quote the fictional Don Draper from Mad Men, "You don't want some of it. You want all of it and I won't stop until you get all of it."

Success can breed complacency. While few would classify themselves in the category of foolishly letting their guard down when things are good, it happens to most. With the incredible month that the industry just had, I can already see dealers letting their guard down. Requests for consultation calls are getting replies to the effect of "keep up the great work and we'll meet next month." Fewer leads came in over the last two weeks for us. Virtual high fives are being flung all across Facebook groups. This is a bad thing.

The demon that everyone in this industry must fight is the lingering joy of success. When we feel like we're on top of the world setting records and busting quotas, it's easy to think that everything is running on all 12 cylinders. This is the time more than any that you, as savvy DrivingSales-reading dealers and marketing managers, must fight the demon by recognizing that now is the perfect time to make things better. You don't wait for the holes to become obvious. You need to seek them out and quash them before they become more evident.

Here are a few reasons that you should start looking at changes now despite the good series of months:

• Vendors are Hungry: We were on the phone with a dealership who had been paying an insane percentage to one of their advertising firms. After attempting to cancel several times during a single call, the agency relented to drop their service charge by over 70%. It begs the question: are they desperate to keep clients or are they really making that much extra on their services? My guess is both.
• Good isn't Good Enough: So, you beat your quota. I've spoken to five clients in the last few days who broke company records. If you didn't do the same, you're not taking full advantage of this buying trend.
• Gas is Dropping Again: Consumers are predictable. With gas down, higher-profit trucks and SUVs are in play once again. This probably won't last long. Can you afford to miss out?
• The Money is There: Over the last year and a half, I've heard many dealers tell me they want to work with us or other premium vendors but they need to wait until they can increase their budget. Now's the time to increase the budget. Some of your competitors are. Again, just because it's working doesn't mean that it can't be made better.

Those are the reasons off the top of my head. There are others, of course, but you get the picture. Fight this demon. Complacency kills. Take something great and make it spectacular. Some will ride the wave all the way through. Others will drown just trying to stay on it. The few who beat their demon will rise above the wave to make a new source of success that only they can ride.

No matter how big the wave is, it eventually crashes down.

Legends and fools are both born more often during times of prosperity than times of despair. The difference is in how they handle the good times, never settling for "good enough."

Sales are down... for many vendors. That's the scuttlebutt on the street and it usually means one thing: sales are up at dealerships. Looking at the headlines on automotive journals, it's clear to see that we are indeed in a general upswing in the industry.

As a result, this is the most dangerous time to be running a marketing department in the car business. It's also the most crucial time for dealers and general managers to act.

It's dangerous for the marketing/internet manager because it's very hard to tell what's working and what's not. You can look at the numbers for your SEO company, for example, and see upticks in traffic. Are their efforts making the difference or does it simply mean that more people are searching?

It's crucial for dealers and general managers because you have to keep the wave of enthusiasm high while looking towards the future with bold determination. There's a saying that goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." This is incorrect in our industry. The reality is this:

• If it's broken, fix it.
• If it isn't broken, make it even better to prevent it from breaking in the future.

To quote the fictional Don Draper from Mad Men, "You don't want some of it. You want all of it and I won't stop until you get all of it."

Success can breed complacency. While few would classify themselves in the category of foolishly letting their guard down when things are good, it happens to most. With the incredible month that the industry just had, I can already see dealers letting their guard down. Requests for consultation calls are getting replies to the effect of "keep up the great work and we'll meet next month." Fewer leads came in over the last two weeks for us. Virtual high fives are being flung all across Facebook groups. This is a bad thing.

The demon that everyone in this industry must fight is the lingering joy of success. When we feel like we're on top of the world setting records and busting quotas, it's easy to think that everything is running on all 12 cylinders. This is the time more than any that you, as savvy DrivingSales-reading dealers and marketing managers, must fight the demon by recognizing that now is the perfect time to make things better. You don't wait for the holes to become obvious. You need to seek them out and quash them before they become more evident.

Here are a few reasons that you should start looking at changes now despite the good series of months:

• Vendors are Hungry: We were on the phone with a dealership who had been paying an insane percentage to one of their advertising firms. After attempting to cancel several times during a single call, the agency relented to drop their service charge by over 70%. It begs the question: are they desperate to keep clients or are they really making that much extra on their services? My guess is both.
• Good isn't Good Enough: So, you beat your quota. I've spoken to five clients in the last few days who broke company records. If you didn't do the same, you're not taking full advantage of this buying trend.
• Gas is Dropping Again: Consumers are predictable. With gas down, higher-profit trucks and SUVs are in play once again. This probably won't last long. Can you afford to miss out?
• The Money is There: Over the last year and a half, I've heard many dealers tell me they want to work with us or other premium vendors but they need to wait until they can increase their budget. Now's the time to increase the budget. Some of your competitors are. Again, just because it's working doesn't mean that it can't be made better.

Those are the reasons off the top of my head. There are others, of course, but you get the picture. Fight this demon. Complacency kills. Take something great and make it spectacular. Some will ride the wave all the way through. Others will drown just trying to stay on it. The few who beat their demon will rise above the wave to make a new source of success that only they can ride.

No matter how big the wave is, it eventually crashes down.

Legends and fools are both born more often during times of prosperity than times of despair. The difference is in how they handle the good times, never settling for "good enough."

Pointing fingers. It's something that everyone at the dealership who has dealt with vendors over the years has experienced from time to time. The website provider to the inventory provider. The Inventory provider points to the pricing tool. The pricing tool points to the DMS. The DMS points to the website provider. Can't someone just fix it?

I'm going to keep this short so my day doesn't start off in anger. Vendors need to stop pointing fingers and start fixing things. That doesn't mean pointing fingers at the perceived source of the problem. That means making calls, sending emails, and using smoke signals if necessary to bring everything together the way it should be rather than waiting for the dealer to call these guys so those other guys can do something that allows this guy to help that guy.

It means communication.

We require communication directly with other vendors that service our clients. It's the way it should be. We can often get things done much more quickly. There's no reason why anyone at the dealership should be the middleman for all communications. Copied on the communication - yes. There's a difference.

With so many amazing marketing products out there, it's amazing that vendors aren't talking to each other on behalf of their shared clients rather than pointing fingers to assign blame and check off a box.

Pointing fingers. It's something that everyone at the dealership who has dealt with vendors over the years has experienced from time to time. The website provider to the inventory provider. The Inventory provider points to the pricing tool. The pricing tool points to the DMS. The DMS points to the website provider. Can't someone just fix it?

I'm going to keep this short so my day doesn't start off in anger. Vendors need to stop pointing fingers and start fixing things. That doesn't mean pointing fingers at the perceived source of the problem. That means making calls, sending emails, and using smoke signals if necessary to bring everything together the way it should be rather than waiting for the dealer to call these guys so those other guys can do something that allows this guy to help that guy.

It means communication.

We require communication directly with other vendors that service our clients. It's the way it should be. We can often get things done much more quickly. There's no reason why anyone at the dealership should be the middleman for all communications. Copied on the communication - yes. There's a difference.

With so many amazing marketing products out there, it's amazing that vendors aren't talking to each other on behalf of their shared clients rather than pointing fingers to assign blame and check off a box.

One of the things that I do now more than ever is listen to other vendors pitch their products. I hope this post doesn't scare any of them from reaching out to us; don't worry, I'm not naming names. I'm focused on a particular practice, not the practitioners.

The practice I'm talking about has many faces. Some present it with fear by telling dealers that if they're not participating in the latest fad or growing trend that they're missing out on business. Others put on the face of trickiness and present their products as a way of getting around this system or that roadblock in a slick manner. The most common face they put on their product is one of simplicity as they demonstrate how their service magically gets them in front of billions of local car shoppers.

They're all talking about presence. Being present on a network, website, device type, ad platform, or vertical search property is great, but the one thing that I don't hear nearly enough is about how the dealership is portrayed. A dealer shouldn't strive to be present on any particular platform. They need to know how to stand out on these platforms.

The thing that's missing from the vast majority of products and services I see every week is representation. Don't just show me that a dealer is present. Show me how our dealers will be presented. The messaging is often more important than the presence itself.

We've seen this in its simplest form through search and social. I have seen dealers improve their performance for particular search terms without having to move up in the rankings (though moving up is obviously important as well). If the messaging is unique and speaks about the dealership to the searchers, they're much more likely to click the link even if they're not at the very top. The same holds true for social. Reaching more people is fine. Getting them to click to the website isn't a matter of mastering an algorithm or adjusting the ad spend as much as it's about putting the right message in front of the right people.

A dealership's web presence is, by its very nature, one that needs to be bigger, but don't let size be the primary focus. You can have the loudest bullhorn in the world but if your message isn't interesting, the audience will still ignore you.