Vcars, a network of award-winning used car websites, has launched an incentivized dealer sign up campaign for Toyota dealers in the UK for the month of November. Used Toyota car dealers are now offered a subscription to Vcars’ service for under £30 per week instead of the usual £55 per week. Franchised Toyota dealers who signed up to Vcars service on Used Toyota Cars (http://www.used-toyotacars.co.uk), on recommendation from Toyota (GB) PLC via a newsletter, have experienced increase in sales enquiries this year. Vcars also send all online enquiries received by the dealer to their fax number(without any additional charge).This allows salesmen who are not near a computer to respond immediately to the fax enquiry and get in touch with prospective buyers.
More car dealers are realising the importance of online advertising to their marketing communications and recognise that while Internet is cheaper than all other advertising media, Internet advertising results can be tracked to a greater degree due to advanced web metrics now available. The latest survey published by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers and WARC, suggests that on-line advertising market is growing at more than 40% and is expected to be bigger than national press by the end of 2006. This confirms the confidence that advertisers hold in the Internet’s ability to deliver on their marketing objectives.
The Vcars network of sites lead the way in online automotive classifieds by providing innovative and extra features for the car dealers and providing a refreshing experience to users wanting to buy a car. While a dealer can list only a few cars in their local newspaper, Used Toyota Cars (http://www.used-toyotacars.co.uk) allows dealers to display all their stock with multiple images for each car. The car dealer can also offer special incentives via a printable voucher to buyers like a ‘free tank of fuel’ or ‘10% off next service’. Each car has a ‘print details’ page which lists the car dealer’s contact details, information about the car, a map of dealer’s location, a list of various services offered by the dealer such as servicing, insurance & finance, and a list of similar cars.
Darren Preston, IT Director of Vcars, commented: “Vcars provides live statistics on the number of times each car was viewed and printed and the number of enquiries generated for each dealer by phone and fax. We are currently investing heavily into research and development to provide a better car search experience for users.”
The Institute of Transport Management recognised Vcars’ success in establishing itself as a serious player and awarded the ‘Automotive Online Innovation Award 2006’ to Vcars earlier this year (http://www.itmworld.com/subcategory_detail.php?iResearchId=5474&iCategoryId=67). Vcars was also short-listed for Motor Trader’s Marketing Award for 2006.