eZ Publish gives power to PerformanceCars

Jan. 28, 2008 - PRLog -- Source: http://ez.no/company/news

A little over three years ago, PerformanceCars started a re-branding initiative from its previous Performance Group name. The PerformanceCars brand needed to be strongly associated with the group’s knowledge, experience and customer care. However, its website was not a key focus and was built entirely in Flash, making it mostly inaccessible to search engines. In an effort to better promote its brand, PerformanceCars approached Internet marketing firm Site Position in February 2007. Its two main goals were to increase the visibility of its website and the activity around pre-owned vehicles. Achieving these two goals would help to capture more of a market that is increasingly looking to online media. This led to a technical partnership with Blend Interactive, an eZ Partner.

The website was given a complete makeover, including both content and design, and was also structurally re-built to run on eZ Publish. Among other reasons, eZ Publish was chosen for its power, flexibility and ease of use; its ability to generate sites optimized for search engines; and its native support for seamlessly embedding rich media with text and images. As Roseanne Morissette, Director of Marketing & Communications for PerformanceCars explains, most of the development was done within a 45-day period. A clean and functional design enables visitors to quickly locate the information that they need. Each franchise in the dealer group has a customized portal, although the entire site has a consistent look and feel. Videos enhance the interactivity of the website and rotating banners highlight customer testimonials. The wealth of information available about the cars, the franchises and even the staff help to solidify the PerformanceCars brand. Previously, Morissette had to ask their design agency to make any website changes. After some basic training from Site Position and the help of the eZ Publish Content Management Basics book, Morissette was able to quickly learn how to edit and create pages. She is particularly pleased with how easy it is to combine the text, photos, Flash elements and videos from external sources (such as YouTube and Google Video) that make up a page.

One of the challenges is to rate the level of success of the website, since PerformanceCars has few previous website metrics with which to compare current results. However, Morissette is pleased with the outcome so far, with a more relevant site, reduced costs, and a steady stream of website leads. After an encouraging start to the new online strategy, future goals include: the development of an automotive club; improving the site’s appeal to women buyers; and optimizing the structure of the site to reduce the number of required clicks for visitors.

For more information on PerformanceCars, please visit: http://www.performancecars.ca/

For more information on eZ Publish, please visit: http://ez.no/ezpublish

About eZ Publish
eZ Publish is an award-winning, enterprise-grade Open Source Content Management System and development framework with functionality for web publishing, media portals, intranets, e-commerce and extranets. eZ Publish helps all kinds of organizations – including multinational corporations, humanitarian organizations and educational institutions – succeed at sharing their information.

About eZ Systems
Founded in 1999, eZ Systems is the world's largest Open Source Content Management software company with offices in Norway, Denmark, Germany, Ukraine, Belgium, France and North America. With customers such as the United States Navy, Oslo University, Telemark University, Swissfirst, Massachusetts Insitute of Technology, Elle, Vogue and Norwegian Telecom, eZ Systems is the creator of eZ Publish, an award winning Open Source Content Management System with more 2 million downloads, more than 150,000 installations and registered users in more than 130 countries. The eZ philosophy of openness and information sharing is still the basic guideline for the company and the eZ Ecosystem.

Website: www.ez.no