The Situation: UsedCars.com was a first generation portal with good organic site traffic. Site conversion was good, but not great. Competitors included AutoTrader and Cars.com- both had more consumer users and dealer customers. UsedCars.com monetizes leads that they sell to dealers.
The Problem: UsedCars.com lacked a market position both with dealers and consumers; it did not stand for anything with either group that could not be obtained from competitors. We needed a unique value proposition for both consumers and dealers, the main source of growth for the pay per lead model.
The Solution: Based on research, I developed the portal positioning:
"Used Cars.com: the right car, for the right price, from the right dealer." This addressed the three common problems shared by all used car shoppers: " Can I find the right car?", " Am I getting a good deal?" and " Is this a dealer I can trust?" .
The value proposition was delivered by improving the search paths to find "the right car". You can see UsedCars.com home page strategy and search path details here outlining how vehicle search was created to address the two kinds of shoppers and reinforce "the right car" consumer value proposition.
All shoppers want a good price, but most don't know if the price on the car is a good price or not. I suggested we highlight every retail listing on the site that had a price that was lower than Kelley Blue Book's suggested retail price. Put the three best examples on the home page and use those to draw people into a new area of UsedCars.com called "Best Values". This supported "the Right Price" value proposition. My original UsedCars.com "Best Values" concept sketch is posted here.
The third element of positioning was designed to address the universal fear of having a really bad dealership buying experience. This part of the solution is not yet released, so I have to be purposely vague as to protect confidentiality. This element of the solution and value proposition will leverage social networking trends of dealership ratings by consumers.
The Results: Version 2.0 of UsedCars.com was released in January of 2009. Site traffic and conversion increased by over 25%. Dealers and consumers alike were delighted with the new look, feel and functionality. Dealer enrollment is increasing and the relaunch was deemed successful by all. This was a wonderful example of teamwork by many talented people.
My original UsedCars.com "key pages" schematic is posted here. It was used early on to help the team visualize the key pages and more importantly to help keep the focus on the paths to the lead submission forms.