Stephen Hill website a real Torque-ing point
Remember the days of spending weekends trawling through countless used-car yards, listening to endless tirades of why you want to upgrade to this model by slick salespeople? Thankfully, times have moved on, and today's well-informed car enthusiasts have infinite information at the end of their fingertips, spending countless hours researching their new ride and often making their purchase decisions without actually seeing the car in person they intend to buy.
Second-hand high-performance car specialists Stephen Hill, saw the rapidly evolving market, noting what was happening in Europe and the USA and wanted to be ahead of the curve. After 35+ years of building a flawless reputation selling spec'd-up performance cars, utility vehicles and much-loved powerhouse American models like Mustang, Stephen Hill was ready to amplify its online presence to appeal to the new generation of car owners.
Revving up Stephen Hill's online presence.
The Cohorts already had a successful, long-standing 15-year working relationship with owner Stephen Hill, supporting another of his successful businesses, Future Finance. So, they were the first choice to translate what they knew worked for the finance industry and apply it to a used-car audience.
Stephen Hill's Digital expert, Andy, deeply understood the car dealer's customers, with many 'window shopping' for vehicles online (up to 40+ hours) with 50 percent living outside of the Hawke's Bay region. These insights, along with representing Stephen Hill's honest and trustworthy reputation and showcasing their unbeatable range of quality-spec'd high-performance vehicles, defined the brief.
The next step was managing two separate businesses (one based in Napier and one in Hastings) under one Stephen Hill company brand. The Cohorts collaborated with local brand agency Band, who developed the new positioning and digital design, providing the content for the site. From here, The Cohorts expert team utilised industry-leading platforms with combined and individual pages for each branch, creating the 'go-to' destination for performance car enthusiasts leaving the competition eating their dust.
The Cohorts came highly recommended not only for the content they provided but for their ability to communicate clearly and concisely.
Owner
The magic under the hood.
While the customer-facing websites look spectacular, it's what's happening under the hood that makes the difference for Stephen Hill. The integration with the MotorCentral database for both inbound listings and sales enquiries used by every car dealer and bespoke lead tracking have allowed the car dealer to understand audience behaviours and connect with them. Andy worked closely with The Cohorts and MotorCentral over a series of months, developing a way to track how people interacted with the website with data feeding back to MotorCentral. This has consequently been rolled out across all car dealers' websites.
The Cohorts technical know-how is another huge plus for the Stephen Hill team, who rely on their expertise to stay ahead of the competitive market. Tracking leads to guide digital campaign spending, integrating website heat maps to see how customers are navigating the website and Google for easy-to-digest analytics are just some of the integrations elevating the customer experience and helping Stephen Hill have a better understanding of their potential car buyers and service them better.
The Cohorts are experts with their fingers on the pulse of tech. We have confidence that when we go to them with projects, they come back with fresh ideas and solutions.
Marketing Manager
Delivering a superior result for motor enthusiasts.
While the new websites have been a significant upfront investment for the group, owner Stephen Hill is quick to point out, "You can't go halfway in. The digital space for selling vehicles in New Zealand is growing, and Stephen Hill is leading the way in innovation and digital presence". Andy is also thrilled with the result, "Moving away from the standard online offering of our competitors and having a bespoke solution means we have more control over what we can implement, which is a lot more valuable to our business".
It's not only the Stephen Hill team that thinks their website is the slickest in the business. Standing apart from the crowd has caught everyone's attention, including a competitor who commented it was "the best car dealer website in New Zealand". And with 32,000 unique visitors last month alone, it's obviously revving the engines of the high-performing car-loving audience.
More of our work...