Nice InformationWeek story on Penske Truck Leasing as they moved to selling used vehicles to consumers, not just to resellers
“The Penske team knew it needed the right terminology and keywords to get the attention of shoppers and search engines, so IT and marketing did customer interviews to get it right. "We say 'cargo van,' but some people refer to it as a high cube or a box truck," says Stobbart. After the added keywords and cross-referencing, "we went from having a keyword base of about 100 vehicle names to 2,200," he says. Another problem was something Stobbart says he and the team took for granted in the planning stages: collecting and organizing photos. "Getting images on the site wouldn't seem like a challenge," he says, "but we don't have a centralized truck lot. Our total fleet runs out of 2,500 locations nationwide." The fix required reengineering Penske's fleet management system and requiring that whenever the company lists a new vehicle for sale on the site, five images must come with it. Having a good product and building a useful website are table stakes these days. Attracting customers takes an aggressive search engine optimization and social media strategy.”
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