FordDirect, a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and its franchise dealers, launched its new website solution for Ford and Lincoln Dealers, DealerConnection Elite. Developed by FordDirect with the Ford National Dealer Council, the Ford Dealer Advisory Board, and a group of more than 40 pilot dealers, DealerConnection Elite gives dealers more options to customize their websites based on the needs of potential and existing customers.
Ford and Lincoln dealers can upgrade to DealerConnection Elite, replace their current DealerConnection base website and access a wealth of new features including:
— More branding and custom content: Dealers now have the highest level of branding flexibility with fully customizable website content.
— More leads: Every design element of DealerConnection Elite has been built from the ground up to improve conversion. Pilot test results show that Dealer Connection Elite has an industry leading conversion rate of 13 percent.
— Enhanced SEO: Each DealerConnection Elite website utilizes optimization best practices for easy crawling, indexing and ranking by search engines.
— Full mobile website: DealerConnection Elite includes a customizable, mobile website at no additional charge.
— Inventory management: DealerConnection Elite has enhanced inventory management capabilities including the ability to update listings in real time.
— World class support: DealerConnection Elite provides a dedicated account manager that will provide recommendations, as well as implement custom branding and updates to the website. Technical support is available 24/7.
— Reporting and maintenance tool: Dealers have access to a real time analytics suite and an easy-to-use maintenance tool if they want to update the website on their own.
— Ford Motor Company integration: FordDirect integrates incentives and leverages Ford Motor Company next generation website assets to drive additional value for dealers.
— Increased ROI of Dealer’s investment in video: Available to DealerConnection Elite Dealers also enrolled in DealerConnection Premier Advanced Inventory Service, DealerConnection Video Showroom (VSR) enables customers to instantly search and view videos of new and used vehicle inventory through a Dealer’s Facebook page, YouTube channel and Dealer website. All inventory videos are based on updated inventory providing customers with a real-time video experience.
VSR includes unique interactive search functions, filtering and keywords search that provide the users with the desired selection in real time. Furthermore, unlike other video inventory tools, VSR switches automatically to an HTML 5.0 version for users who access it via an iPad or an iPhone maximizing the users’ experience and the dealer’s ROI.