Blogging For The UK Automotive Industry Takes On A New Dimension

Online, April 8, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Leading Automotive Industry blog Motor-Trade-Insider.com has highlighted how far the UK Automotive Industry is behind the US in the utilization of the internet to drive sales.

According to industry experts less than 10 percent of the UK's top 200 car dealers are represented on social networking sites*. It is also widely acknowledged that social media and blogs are destined to take over from static and basic stock listing websites because of the immediacy of the information flow.
In most car businesses the need to have a good, engaging website that represents the company in the very best light is well understood. Most also realise that their cars must look fantastic and have plenty of high quality images to appeal to their potential customers, but not all have the expertise or "know how" to embrace the seemingly ever changing ways of communicating with prospective car buyers.
Social media entities like Twitter and Facebook are rapidly expanding networks with millions of participants, with a huge number of potential car buyers and businesses and social media can, at the very least, help a car dealer raise their profile and get their name "out there". At best blogging and social media networks could enable dealers to market themselves and their products to a massive audience for a relatively small amount of investment.
It's a form of low cost targeted mass marketing that car dealer's from twenty years ago could only dream of.
The Motor Trade Insider site has often commented on the rise of the internet and social media in particular and why perhaps companies in the automotive sector have been slow to participate.
During the last year they have been working on the best ways of introducing car dealers and manufacturers to the "new age" and as the Motor Trade Insider team is a mixture of automotive industry professionals and IT specialists, they are perfectly placed to offer bespoke services solely to car retailing businesses.
Spotting a gap in the market and seeing a way that the expertise gained launching, maintaining and building a successful blog can help many businesses in the automotive sector; the team behind Motor Trade Insider has launched a new agency called Motoblog to do just that.
They understand that with so much time spent trying to do the things car dealers are good at, selling and fixing cars, there is often neither the time, expertise or resources present within a business to maintain an engaging web presence.
Iain Ronayne Director of Motoblog and Editor of Motor Trade Insider is excited by the prospect of helping automotive businesses engage with their existing customers and prospects;
"I wouldn't mind betting that in every car showroom a high proportion of the people employed there will have a Facebook account or be active on twitter which would indicate that if there are employees who are familiar with it why not utilise them to engage with the network and get your message out there?"
"From a customer perspective, as we are always alluding to, very few people will make a decision about buying anything these days without first carrying out at least some research on the net. This means that engaging with them would and should be a relatively simple process. Being able to get specific details of promotions or special offers that can be changed and updated regularly and very inexpensively is a Godsend to businesses."
"To have the ability to talk directly to as many potential customers as this can really only do the business good and with offers on servicing and MOT's for example it is a simple and efficient way of keeping in touch with drivers and ultimately maximising the opportunities to sell more products."
MotoBlog will offer social media and blogging services which they believe are both very relevant and absolutely necessary to all businesses in the automotive sector.
By offering these bespoke packages to individual companies, which fit both their budget and their ambitions, Motoblog are convinced that businesses within the motor trade will very quickly see the benefit of being able to interact with potential new customers whilst building their brand at the same time.
So as far as Motoblog are concerned it won't be a question of whether car dealers can afford to do it, but whether they can afford not to.

Motor-Trade-Insider.com was launched in 2008 as a blog and car buying guide by a team of motor trade and IT professionals and since this time has grown into an authority site, fulfilling the original aims of "building a bridge" between the motor trade and the car buying public. The site provides advice, information, trends, current events, news, views, opinions, debate on all aspects of the motor trade from car manufacturers to used car prices.
Motoblog.co.uk is a brand new agency created by the team behind successful blog Motor Trade Insider to deliver blogging and social media services to the automotive industry.
*Car Dealer Magazine \ GForces