Many brands spend lots of time and money on their brand site and leave their best dealers to fend for themselves when it comes to online content for their sites. Here is an interesting chart from an article on eMarketer.com that shows that consumers shopping for a car are as likely to be influenced by the dealer’s site as they are by the brand’s site.
In most industries local dealers are looking for great content to put on their site and are willing to even give up part of the control of their local site to a brand that is setup to protect them in the process. Think of it as adding a cul-de-sac on the dealer’s site that is loaded with brand information that is both personalized and customized by the dealer and doesn’t lead the consumer to the brand site (and via the dealer locator to another dealer).
When the brand hosts these pages they can track and react to consumer behavior on a local level. These cul-de-sacs are free of publication costs and can be easily and inexpensively monitored for brand compliance.
It may be time to rethink the way you support your local dealers.