I’m not a fan of road pricing and don’t understand why we, as the automotive sector, seem to actively ask the government for it. Road pricing first appeared on the radar during the last Rutte cabinet. The plan was to implement it by 2030 as a replacement for vehicle ownership tax. However, the proposal has […]

A vast majority of American voters chose President Donald Trump this week. This might seem like a strange choice to us Europeans, but clearly not for many Americans. Look, I lean clearly to the right in the political spectrum, but I could never bring myself to vote for Donald Trump personally. However, for most of my friends and partners in America, it’s different. They see him as someone who recognizes, addresses, and offers solutions to the ‘kitchen table problems’ of the average citizen, whether those solutions work in practice or not.

In a few weeks, we will once again host our #DCDW Events, this time in Antwerp and Almere. Over ten years ago, we organized our first #DCDW event, naturally at Van der Valk in Almere. Since then, our mission has remained the same: to improve online automotive together! And this mission was born for a clear reason. At Nieuweautokopen.nl, we used to deliver qualified leads to dealers. We were only paid when a dealer sold a car based on our lead. So, there was a strong incentive to help dealers with lead follow-up.

I recently attended the Automotive Magazine marketing event in Rotterdam. I go to events often, but this gathering particularly caught my interest. I was curious to see what new marketing developments were happening in automotive. Perhaps because of the rise of AI, I was a bit too enthusiastic… Sure, the advancements in tools like AutoChat […]

Why You Shouldn’t Send Bulk Leads… What kind of leads did you say? Bulk leads, meaning a large quantity of leads that the dealer has to follow up on, but they all come in at the same time. These are bulk leads. What’s going on? Last month, I visited an importer of a European brand […]

Digital Dealer Conference & Expo in Las Vegas

Over the next few days, I will be attending the Digital Dealer Conference & Expo in Las Vegas. I know, it’s no hardship to be there, and this time I’m even speaking for the second time, and on the main stage no less! It’s a huge honor to be at the heart of the online automotive industry and to contribute to it.

My presentation is about selling our microcars and city cars via TikTok and why we have chosen an ‘online first, offline second’ experience. This approach wasn’t chosen out of convenience but because it’s the only way to launch a new dealership like Ligier Store Doesburg – Experience Center without an existing customer base, history, or anything like that. Online, you can ‘easily’ find and attract potential customers.

At Ligier Store Doesburg – Experience Center, our motto is ‘Online first, offline second!’ This means that, as a new dealer without a database, customer base, or history, we are fully aware that we need to actively seek out every new customer. We do this completely online! We use online marketing via Google Ads, TikTok Ads, portals like Marktplaats, and many more. We have to; we must be active online first to even get a chance offline.

I am not always right when it comes to following up on online leads. There are different ways and mindsets that can be successful when following up leads. Especially in recent years, when demand exceeded supply, you could sell cars with almost any approach.

There are few URL clicks as valuable as those coming from a portal. It is therefore striking that only Marktplaats and AutoTrack offer visitors the option to click directly from the VDP page to the advertiser’s website. On AutoScout24, the option exists but is hidden on the business page. On ViaBOVAG, the click-through option is entirely missing (see ViaBOVAG’s response later in this article).

You can only win offline if you first win online! As a Ligier dealer and owner of Ligier Store Doesburg – Experience Center, I can say from personal experience: if you don’t win online, you’ll never be successful offline. Our focus on a fully digital sales strategy has helped us reach the top, with no […]