Consumers are expecting to see more and better local information online every day.
Here’s a very recent study that shows how car buyers are as influenced by what they see on a local dealer’s site as they are on what they find on the brand site.
As a brand manager you should be very nervous about the state of your dealers’ sites. Most are out of date and loaded with bad information. Almost none protect your brand message, let alone build upon it.
The reason, in most cases, is because the brands don’t offer much help when it comes to providing dealers with the online tools they need to build a website. The quickest way to solve the problem is to create microsites for each of your best dealers. Load them with great content (that you already have) and allow the dealers to localize the site with their story, prices and promotions.
Then link to these microsites in your dealer locator. Encourage dealers to use this microsite on their site as your brand section. And, use them as landing pages in their local Google campaigns, to mention just a few ideas.
It’s not good enough anymore to have a good brand site that leads consumers to a tombstone style dealer site or worse.