When Cars.com decided to create a website focused on supporting their outside dealer sales team, they turned to Direct Response Web Solutions for our web development expertise.

Cars.com provides consumers with an easy-to-use website where they can research a vehicle, find a dealer with their dream car, and in some many instances buy the car online. On the other end of that fantastic consumer user experience are the franchise and independent car dealers who utilize the Cars.com platform and it’s products to sell their new and used cars.

DRWS created an easy-to-maintain custom content management system that dynamically displays dealer resources, sales tips and tools, based on what the user is reading on every page of the website.

Cars.com marketing staffers could enter a dealer tip, webinar, press release or news item into the system and through a set of simple checkboxes connect that piece of content to specific product offerings for franchise or independent dealers.

Dealers who were then researching the latest Cars.com products or services online would be provided with contextual information about upcoming webinars, related news, or other resources that would help them validate whether the Cars.com offering was right for their business.

The site was very successful in publicizing the value added to the dealer’s operation once they began using the Cars.com products. The website was also important in the outside sales process, as sales professionals would be able to refer dealers to a content rich resource for increasing sales and maximizing their online marketing dollars.

Direct Response Web Solutions continued to support the dealer marketing website through regular maintenance updates and functional enhancements. The website was easy to use, maintain, and proved a very successful online marketing platform.