(Author: Edward Bowen)
Out and about every month I speak to a lot of people and find out how the web is helping their businesses. It never ceases to amaze me how many small and medium sized businesses have really understood the importance of the internet and embraced it.
This month I had an interesting chat with Mike Murphy, head of business at Reading Audi. The car market is huge, with big money up for grabs, but fiercely competitive. I was intrigued to find out how Reading Audi use the web to make themselves stand out from the crowd.
Mike explained that they now consider the web a critical marketing tool. I was surprised to hear that it plays an even more important part in the sale of used cars than new.
He told me “The web generates in the order of 65% of our used car enquiries. These either come through by email or as calls to the showroom, but they’re a result of potential customers doing their research on the web first and being able to find us. We have to be where our customers want to find us and as visible as possible”.
This means that it’s essential for Reading Audi to be high up in the results on search engines, particularly Google, for search terms like ‘used Audi Reading’. To maximise their exposure their cars can be found online various ways in addition to their own site - www.reading.audi.co.uk. They have listings on www.autotrader.co.uk and a number of other used car sites, plus they can be found at www.sytner.co.uk (their parent company) as well as the manufacturer’s main UK site, www.audi.co.uk.
This is a great example of how the web has changed the buying process for a product. To continue to thrive, businesses have to do like Reading Audi and adjust to the new threat, or opportunity, depending on how you see it.
Edward Bowen is Director of GUMPTION, a leading web agency. www.thegumption.com.
Using the web to drive sales - To learn more about this author, visit Edward Bowen's Website.
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Edward Bowen
(Visit Edward's Website)
Edward started his career working for the
world-renowned consultancy, The Henley
Centre, helping major blue chip clients
develop their web strategies. He then went
on to manage an e-commerce service for a
top UK retailer.
He has a BSc in Economics from Bath
University and an MSc (Eng) in Operations
from Birmingham University.
With this background he brings with him a
strong mix of business, marketing and
web-related knowledge and experience.
Personal interests: tennis, golf, surfing,
triathlons and art.
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