It’s hard to know who to trust sometimes. One of the biggest challenges for car dealers and businesses in general is that the Internet is the perfect venue for finding both information and disinformation. If someone wants to get the message out that they’re the best at something, they can often “prove” it through data that is made so easy to find online.
In other words, it’s easy to be “slick” with a company’s online marketing efforts.
TK Carsites is heading in a different direction with our own marketing. In a recent analysis performed by a marketing firm, we were told that our research and development was “too geared towards automotive consumer research.” When we create new products or improve on existing ones, we focus on the question, “Will this increase leads for our clients?”
According to the analysis, this is the wrong way to do it. We were told to “follow the lead of others in the automotive website industry and first determine if something will easily sell to car dealers.” The report said we should focus more on the “sizzle rather than the steak.”
With due respect to the marketing firm who performed the analysis, this just isn’t the way we want to do business. Our goal is to offer the most effective products on the market. Selling the products is important, of course, but if they don’t work as promised, we aren’t interested in producing it.
Going forward, we will be bucking the trend within the automotive vendor industry. We want to sell our products and services, but it’s more important to us that the products and services are the best available. If we miss a few sales because our marketing or sales pitch isn’t as slick as the next vendor, so be it. TK products work. Period.
Over the next few months, we are going to be taking a risk. Despite what we were consulted to do, we will not taint our product base by jumping on trends that dealers seem to like. We will continue to put out top-quality services, then figure out how to sell them. The idea of making a “sexy product” that isn’t effective just isn’t part of what we do.
Result-based marketing has never been as effective as “sizzle”, but it’s the only way we know. If a product is great, people will buy it. We will accumulate the data, make changes that improve it, and post the results for people to see. Case studies, testimonials, statistics – that is how we want to promote our products. It’s in the best interest of our clients, which means it’s in our best interest as a company.
Most companies, including TK Carsites, has 2 or more departments to handle marketing: one for the clients and one for the company itself. Starting this week, the departments will merge. Improving the marketing and exposure of our dealers will become OUR marketing as a company. The concept of results-based marketing is that we will make our dealers successful first and draw our marketing from those results. More steak, less sizzle.
As many have proven, it may not be the most effective way to market, but it’s definitely the most ethical. Dealers first, TK second. That’s how it has to be.
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Read more about TK Carsites on this blog.
