New Handbook Offers Dealers Tips for Selling Cars Online

AutoTrader.com has released the Online Marketing Handbook, a guide designed to improve dealers' online advertising efforts in retailing new and used-vehicle inventory.

Available for free to auto dealers, the guide is broken down into four sections, with the first half of the book covering the basics dealers need to know about selling vehicles and services through the Internet.

Chapter 1 discusses the basics of why it is important to utilize the Internet as an integral part of sales and marketing efforts and how to integrate online listings into the culture of the sales staff.

Chapter 2 focuses on the specific techniques that the sales staff needs to know in order to craft strong online classifieds listings, including tips on how to create quality images and sales copy that entices customers into the showroom.

The second half of the Online Marketing Handbook provides a deeper dive into the more advanced techniques dealers need to know as they use the Internet.

Chapter 3 focuses on how dealers can develop strategies that best integrate a store's own web presence in with traditional offline marketing outlets.

Chapter 4 takes these concepts one step further, outlining ways to drive additional traffic to a dealership's web presence and giving information on how to measure that traffic against the advertising spend to ensure a dealer is getting the most for his or her investment.

The handbook helps dealers improve inventory listings and “also provides effective strategies on what a dealership needs to know about their own website,” says AutoTrader.com CEO and President Chip Perry.