Inside Scoop

Now Showing: Someone Who Does This Web Marketing Thing Right!

If you surf the Web for any amount of time, you've seen sites that run the gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous. Now, unlike some people, I don't have a problem with the personal obsession-type sites like Suck (worth seeing at www.suck.com), the fish tank, or the now-infamous toilet. Yeah, personal sites, many of which are pathetic attempts at writing by the uber-illiterate, slurp up bandwidth, but they're just somebody's attempt at self-expression. If Joe Computer Geek cannot tell the world what he thinks in person, I'm all in favor of his having his own Web forum rather than him shooting up the local Post Office.

However, the business sites that stink up the 'Net are another matter. When I come across a company site that's just badly written text or confusing interactivity or just zero creativity, I scream "Why? Why go to the time and expense to create an online marketing tool and then forget to pull your head out of your colon?" You'd think businesses would take the time and spend the money to do this sort of thing right. Unfortunately, that's rarely the case. But such intelligence and marketing savvy isn't impossible to find. I found it at the site called DealerNet (www.dealernet.com).

Sure, there are a lot of good marketing sites out there. We've heard all about Ragu, Cuervo, Levi's, Valvoline, etc. But I've yet to see a site that takes advantage of the Internet and database technology to give its customers what it wants as well as DealerNet. Yeah, it can be a little slow to load, but it's well worth the wait.

In essence, DealerNet is a site linking more than 130 new and used car dealers around the country. Designed and maintained by Reynolds & Reynolds Company in Seattle, the site links together more than 30,000 pages of information about more than 1,600 makes and models of virtually every foreign and domestic car make available. And that's not just 1996 models, but information on used cars all the way back to 1977. According to sources at Reynolds & Reynolds, the site is expected to grow by at least 60 dealers soon, and if it proves to increase sales, you can bet the growth will skyrocket.

What makes this site so great is that it offers the user something few other sites do: tons of customized, useful information. When you log onto the Index page, you can choose any of nine directions, and pull in data on automobile models, prices, colors, availability, and the dealers who can provide those cars. The choices are really amazing: you can do a dealer search based on name or car make; locate the new car of your choice based on type of auto and your preferred price range; search a database of used vehicles; learn about leasing and software that will allow you to check your own credit; get information on specialty vehicles, motor homes and boats; access a huge list of other links from other automotive Web sites to weather and shopping sites; and read reviews of a huge range of car makes. I found myself saying, "What does this site not have?"

Before I sound like too much of a shill, let me say that DealerNet is not perfect. Currently, the information on recreational vehicles and specialty vehicles is anorexic, and as I said, if you log on in the evening, you're in for a slow ride. Also, such reliance on databases tends to make for problems down the line. But these are minor protests. Overall, the DealerNet site is the best example I've seen of someone using the power of Web marketing.

Two factors make this site so powerful. First, it gives car buyers something they want: pressure-free shopping. They can search the databases, check options and compare prices without some greasy sales-vulture leaning over your shoulder and showing you the cute visor-mirrors (sound familiar, ladies?). Second, DealerNet gives dealers something they want: hot prospects. If somebody's searched the Web, found the car they want in the color they want at the price they want and found out your dealership carries it, they're going to come in not as browsers but as pre-qualified, ready-to-sign buyers. That's what dealers are looking for, which is why they pay up to $2,500 plus $500 a month to be part of the 'Net. Giving both customers and sellers what they want! Wow! What a brilliant idea!

The bottom line: DealerNet gets more than six million hits a month. There aren't any figures yet to tell if the use of the site has increased sales, but I'd hazard a guess that it will. So if you're a marketer or a business person, check out DealerNet before you set up your company's Web marketing presence. And take notes.

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