NEW YORK—Tireweb Marketing Inc., a New York digital media agency, recently launched TirewebLocal, a subscription-based Web directory and reviews management service designed for tire dealers and auto repair shops.
Tireweb Marketing, which focuses on the automotive, tire and wheel industry, said TirewebLocal helps retail tire dealerships create and manage their Web presence across more than 250 online directories, review websites, search engines and mapping services.
“We started working on our Ezy-tire product in 2007,” said Matthew Walker, Tireweb Marketing president.
“At the time, we focused on the technology behind the website—integrating with vendors and suppliers for inventory, pricing, check out.”
Then in 2012, Tireweb changed its business model, Mr. Walker said, to also focus on Internet marketing, design and how the websites worked, and launched Tireweb Marketing Inc.
“At this time, we recognized that many tire dealers did not spend much time on Internet marketing, SEO and keeping their website directories and information up to date,” Mr. Walker told Tire Business.
“We started researching and building our own platform to help our customers to manage their Web presence online.”
The Ezytire tool—www.ezytire-.com—is a website platform for tire dealerships that allows them to have a website presence and not have to worry about managing or marketing the site.
“We take care of everything,” he said.
“It's a fully managed service; we have a team behind the websites to keep the website up to date. We manage manufacturer coupons, online reviews, video content for tires, all tire information and images and social media presence.”
Mr. Walker added that dealers can control the site if they want to. Tireweb has a content management system that sits behind the website, allowing them to make changes.
The Ezytire website integrates with more than 600 tire and wheel distributors across the country and major point-of-sale systems. Mr. Walker said dealers using Ezytire can show their own inventory or their supplier's inventory—with their pricing/markups—and all the tire features, benefits, specifications and images.
“There's no need to worry about uploading spreadsheets, manually controlling inventory or having tires or wheels on the website that dealers don't stock.”
Additionally, Tireweb takes care of the Internet marketing for dealers, including search engine optimization, social media profiles, website directories and Internet advertising (pay per click, etc), Mr. Walker said.
An additional feature for online users is that Tire-webLocal also monitors online reviews and discussions about tire dealers.
“We offer a free scan on our website at www.tireweblocal.com,” Mr. Walker said.
“The scan will check the major 50 website directories for the dealers' information and give them a report of how their business is listed. We find the majority of dealers have out-of-date information or contact details.
Even if they are listed, it's often a basic listing and doesn't contain important items like opening hours, website address and contact details.”
He added that more than 220 million consumers in the U.S. use these Internet directories to find local businesses. These directories, such as Yelp, Merchant Circle, Google Plus Local, etc., also appear highly in search engine results.
“If a dealer has out-of-date information or doesn't appear, then they'll be losing business to their competitors,” Mr. Walker said. “Our service fixes this quickly. We have direct connections with these major directories and can have everything up to date within 24 hours.”
Tireweb Marketing claims tire dealers using TirewebLocal have reported an immediate increase in leads, phone calls and sales, citing one unnamed example where a dealer received 188 appointments for auto services and tire sales from these local searches alone. That led to an estimated revenue increase of $21,735 in one month, according to Tireweb.
“We've had some great feedback from users of the Ezytire platform and Tireweb-Local,” Mr. Walker said.
“Our customers are often impressed and amazed at how quickly TirewebLocal and Ezytire can improve their business. They tell us that they notice a significant increase in calls and quote requests coming from their website.”
Mr. Walker said the company uses LogMyCalls tracking on many of its customers so it can track how many leads the customer is getting from the service. The phone number only appears on these pages, so the client can see a direct return on investment.
He also said the TirewebLocal product is “scalable,” having a variety of businesses using it from single-location tire dealers, e-Commerce websites and multiple location custom websites. There is no ongoing commitment to be a part of the site.
TirewebLocal is a monthly subscription-based service. Businesses can perform a free online scan to check their listings on major Web directories. To perform a free scan or to sign up, visit the TirewebLocal website.
The subscription cost for TirewebLocal is $49 a month per location, Mr. Walker said. There are no set-up fees or contract commitments. For Ezytire, websites start from $275/month for the company's standard website package. The Ezytire subscription includes TirewebLocal for one location.
Among Tireweb Marketing's capabilities, according to its Facebook page, are creating tire retailer and/or corporate websites, mobile apps, digital kiosks and business intelligence applications for tire retailers, distributors and manufacturers. It also has clients in Canada, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Mr. Walker holds director and management roles in a number of businesses, including e-commerce, advertising, manufacturing and credit management companies in Australia, Asia and the U.S., according to his LinkedIn page.
To reach this reporter: jkarpus@ crain.com; 330-865-6143.