Ben Keating owns several dealerships in Texas, and as one of the most progressive-thinking dealer principals, was looking for new and progressive web solutions. Ben contacted iMOS in January 2012, Frank Balistreri, CEO of iMOS, met with Ben and his management team in Las Vegas at NADA and formed a partnership that would soon lead to Ben’s Tomball Ford Store being awarded the title “The Best Website in Texas”.
Soon after meeting in Las Vegas, Mr. Keating and company engaged iMOS to help transform their web sites. Frank was hired to evaluate various web development platforms and make a recommendation on the best options for the websites. After reviewing the different platforms, Frank recommended switching to a company that would produce a site in HTML 5, a superior programming version of HTML. HTML 5 allows animation without using flash, which is advantageous since flash is not compatible with any Apple mobile devices. It is also the current standard in HTML.
Frank presented a variety of different options to use for their websites. Based on a few key criteria, and iMOS’s evaluation, The Auto Group decided to rebuild all of their websites on the HTML 5.0 platform. Throughout the transformation iMOS worked closely with Scott Wideman, Principal of Tropacaval Media, who handles all The Auto Group’s media needs. Scott played a critical role in site content and structure. He reviewed and approved the design, content, and functionality for all of The Auto Group's websites.
iMOS was in charge of 100% of the project, from the original content to forms and photographs. iMOS also worked with the web provider to optimize the inventory pages and customize their standard layout design. iMOS worked with each of the dealerships and strived to make each of the websites unique to their specific dealership. Although the eight dealerships are in the same family, they all have slightly different cultures. It was important to highlight their distinct differences.
Lauren, Creative Director at iMOS, was responsible for the new design of the websites. The previous sites were overwhelming and cluttered, so Lauren’s goal was to come up with something that had a clear and strong navigation. In order to do this, Lauren looked to other websites outside of the car industry for inspiration. She wanted to promote straightforward navigation and drive traffic to the inventory pages and felt that one way to do this was to eliminate the slide show typically found on dealership websites. While attractive, slide shows are often relied on to circumvent cluttered and confusing navigation, and it was her goal to eliminate that inefficient style. Lauren determined that this basic layout would most efficiently allow customers to find the information that they were looking for when visiting the website.
Michael, VP of Technical Services at iMOS, became involved after the initial design process, customizing the sites, and ensuring that they were also keyword loaded for optimal SEO. In addition, Michael also created original pages such as the popular "Community" and "Texas Trivia" pages. These pages add personality for the customer to experience through the website and can attract search engines. The sites now contains pages like “Wit and Wisdom of Texas” and “News of the Weird”
After many months of hard work, the new websites launched in August 2012, and in January 2013 the Tomball Ford site won the title of “The Best Automotive Website in Texas”. The award was presented by The Search Marketing Group; fifteen judges chose the website due to its usability and unique visual representation. Tomball Ford’s website was nominated either by a customer or another vendor, the person who entered the website into the contest is still unknown. The Auto Group’s websites continue to be user friendly as the web traffic has increased up to 25-40% since 2012. Scott Wideman, Manager at Keating Auto Group said, “iMOS is very knowledgeable. We haven’t always been successful before iMOS, we tried vendors that didn’t work for us... We are very pleased that they are part of our team”.
"iMOS consulting has increased our website efficiency and digital marketing efforts. From vetting new vendors, optimizing current spending strategies, and improving graphics and goals within campaigns, iMOS gets it done. A focused staff with diverse capabilities insure that if they don't know the answer, they can get it quickly. I can go on vacation now and not worry that someone isn't monitoring the lifeblood of our business. They can interact with the big vendors that the manufacturers have signed up with, but those companies are trying to keep Tier 1 happy and not as concerned with one dealership. They can also work with your vendors and help make their product work better on your website. iMOS makes your dealership their focus and they aren't so big that one client isn't important. Big issues, little issues, aggressive growth or just making your digital ad dollars more efficient, iMOS is the place." —Scott Wideman, Keating Auto Group