Trials and Tribulations of a Car Leasing Company

Almost no business had adequate insurance to protect them against the pandemic, so it was time for everyone to test their never, tread water and rely on the Chancellor until we could re-open our doors to trade again.

Great; we operate online - we can open again!  You'd think that this would be the end and we could begin to rebuild from here, but we were met with a flurry of cancellations; customers circumstances had changed, people were extending their car lease.  Other customers were managing with just the one car as they were working from home.  

At this stage stock wasn't an issue, no-one had been in the Dealerships to sell it.  Cars were built and stuck at Port, there was a massive backlog getting stock from Ports delivered to PDI centres and Dealerships.

Tech giants seized the opportunity to build more products and ordered vast quantities of semi-conductor chips.  You see that tiny little chip is so important to so many devices.  As a chip requires more advanced technology for gaming, phones and computers; the cost the suppliers charge for these chips is much higher than the cost they charge to the automotive industry, so large contracts were agreed and signed.

A semi-conductor chip on a car will control the automatic locking, automatic boot lid closure and folding door mirrors for example.  Car manufacturers don't need as much technology on the chip so only pay a fraction of the cost that Microsoft would pay for the Xbox or what Sony would pay for the PlayStation or what Apple would pay for the i-phone, you get my drift; right?

That's right most car manufacturers hit the snooze button and ran out of the semi-conductor chips to build their cars.  Except one manufacturer interestingly enough, Toyota. 

They'd suffered a major fire at one of their factories a few years back which halted production on many models due to part shortages, so since then they've always massively overstocked 

According to SMMT for March 2022 Toyota registered 16,112 new vehicles

You can just imagine Toyota's smug faces knowing that they were the only Motor company globally that had a strategy to overcome the issue that car manufacturers faced.

New car stock issues hit the industry 3 to 4 months after first re-opening their trading doors.  Try explaining to a customer that their cars estimated build week has been pushed back by 30 weeks and you've absolutely no idea why.  You see, the supply chain is quite long, there's multiple languages, cultures, Countries and companies involved.  Trying to obtain the exact reason, can sometimes feel nigh on impossible, especially when your contact is through 3rd parties.

Cancellations were fast and furious, new sales were in decline as the media continuously reported doom and gloom with negative stats.

Most of our business came from special offers and batch deals.  We'd agree to purchase a set amount of vehicles from the manufacturer in return for additional discounts, passing much of these savings onto our customers.  Our customers were then able to drive a car heavily discounted for a fraction of the cost it would cost to drive that motor via a Hire Purchase route.

How can we supply the product with lead times of up to 12 months on some models, let alone the pickle?

People (or men should I say), often say that women are hard to understand, well they clearly haven't entered the world of SEO, trying to understand google is like talking Swahili to me. 

Getting back to my first point about a business owner, knowing what to outsource and what to manage in house.  This is absolutely something that you'd ordinarily outsource to the experts and even then it's a minefield over who to trust and establish what long term benefits they can offer. 

But after you've spent the best part of 2 years treading water, then just as lead times start to improve with the supply of semi-conductor chips, Putin decides to kick you further by declaring war.  Can we just catch a break already?!

Unless you have thousands to spend each month outsourcing, you're not going to see dramatic results.

To get instant results you would pay per click with google or run a sponsored listing with Facebook, these are great for instant results, but you also need to focus on the long term strategy.  That marketing budget has to be split, where do you need the focus?  Can you afford to play the long game or do you need results instantly?

So here I am, I'm coherent - yeah I might waffle on, but mostly you catch my drift.  My marketing budget is mainly being spent on short term leads and sales, which means I had to try and decipher the jargon, research strategies, try and understand something that I know absolutely nothing about.  To put my lack of understanding and knowledge into context, I had to google what a "do follow" link was and what "white hat" means. 

To help a novice get started, we had to start with the platform first, we needed a better CRM system, we'd threatened for years that we'd invest to build one and never did, there was always something else that was more important. 

When researching systems, we found a managed system, where we could update the website too, whilst our older site was mobile and SEO friendly, it was built on a very old platform so SEO header titles, including attributes couldn't be changed by us.  This was going to be a key requirement if we were going to try and organically increase our traffic.

Ultimately what I wanted to know was, what do I need to do to rank better on google?  I wanted a simple answer, but quite frankly there isn't one.

Google will penalise you if they find you carrying out black hat tactics, to manipulate organic page rankings, however a quick google search will bring up a vast list of SEO companies that use this tactic.

Trying to appeal to Outreach Bloggers

You reach out to Outreach Bloggers, trying desperately to seek their help without coming across as desperate, lazy or selfish and are told that there's a cost to a link on their blog.  You're told that EVERYONE does it, but you're a chicken and frightened that Google will blacklist you.  After all, lets face it, we haven't had the best 2 years have we?  

There's lots of theories, lots of different ways that SEO companies work, but which is the right way?  Where should I focus my long term strategies?

I've learned that off page and on page SEO are equally important.  If your audience find themselves submerged deep in a blog, they should be able to navigate back to your home page with one click.  Off page anchor links with a "do follow" link are important, so long as it;s been acquired via a white hat tactic and not black or grey.  Some SEO companies will tell you that they use black hat, others will promote white when really they're acquiring links through payment.  One company even told me that I could add links for a monthly fee and if I cancel the service they remove the links.  How are we even able to build a white hat network when no-one knows who you are?

How can you create engaging new content, when you're not offering a new concept, you offer a service that's been around for years.  How do you keep it fresh?

I've never been very creative, so trying to see the wood through the trees is pretty difficult.  I have a few theories having researched it but would need multiple platforms, IP addresses and companies to test it out, so do I take the plunge and go with my gut and just trial it anyway without testing it?

Organic links, engaging material and relevant content.  If only keeping it simple, really was as simple as that though. 

I knew it would be hard when I started, but I didn't think that it would difficult just to understand the rules.  Those that speak Googles language keep the information close to their chest. 

Why a group of like minded businesses in the same industry, don't just come together and help one another by permitted guest blogs without the need for payment is beyond me.  After all a community is a great platform to build a business.

Sorry if I've ranted and my frustrations have came across, but actually it's been good to talk so great for my mental health; so thanks!