CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY ©2011 THE INTEGER GROUP Digital and Social Media Audits Presented July 13, 2011

CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY ©2011 THE INTEGER GROUP

Digital and Social Media AuditsPresented July 13, 2011


Digital Audit

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Colony Tire Digital Audit: Background

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Used for direction and analysis purposes only, we’re able to evaluate colonytire.com traffic relative to its competitors. Inconsistencies between 3rd-party services and site-side analysis tools can be attributed to the nature in which the 3rd parties retrieve and report on data.

Higher volumes of traffic to competitor sites can be attributed to a number of factors including that they serve a larger geographic area.

Using similar tools, we are able to determine which non-branded keywords are driving traffic to competitive sites. A carefully targeted competitive SEM program could pull valuable traffic to colonytire.com. The program would leverage geographic restriction to ensure we only received traffic from relevant areas.

Competitive SEM could be a way to pull new customers away from national competitors.

http://colonytire.com/



Colony Tire Digital Audit: ColonyTire.com Creative Audit

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Creative Audit Overview

Shopping for tires is about finding the proper tire for your vehicle and locating a dealer that has those tires in-stock. (Per Google Analytics, the “E-Quote” page is the most popular content page, with views four-fold of the homepage.) Secondarily relevant to this task would be offers, promotions, customer service, dealer information and tire education. (Traffic-driving tactics like Web Banners & E-Newsletters usually relate to current offers & direct users to the “Specials” page, which has significant page views.)

Currently, the site at shop.colonytire.com clearly acknowledges the primary task, however the site colonytire.com does not. As the latter is the site found in search results and home of the “Specials” page to which traffic is purposefully driven from E-Newsletters, etc., it is critical that this primary task be immediately and intuitively accessible.

http://shop.colonytire.com/




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Creative Audit Overview (Continued)

The E-Quote tool is not featured prominently on the homepage – as most dealers and manufacturers do – and it’s not user-friendly. The fields that appear only after user instruction are unexpected. Because they are not immediately visible, they do not encourage user interaction that is necessary to set quote results.

After completing the form and submitting it for results, the intermediate value proposition is disruptive to user expectations. Shoppers must click again for results previously anticipated – creating unnecessary complication and often abandonment. An “interstitial” such as those found on travel websites while results are loading might be a viable option to ensure important content is displayed without interrupting the shopper’s task.

Improving this primary task of finding the proper tire type and locating a dealer is imperative to the site’s success.



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The site’s overall aesthetic is consistent with branding elements (discoverable online); brand cues such as the checkered flag element of the logo are leveraged in the header, slideshow transition, left- and right-side modules, and background, effectively tying elements together. The colors found throughout the site, green as a hover state in the navigation aside, are also brand-appropriate.

Typography however, is inconsistent and is neither successful in establishing hierarchy nor communicating the brand. There are more than 20 styles, fonts, colors, weights, etc. represented on the homepage and even more introduced on interior pages that, when combined, create a haphazard and cluttered presentation.

Button styles are also inconsistent:



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Layout is consistent with sites designed up to five years ago. Text, form fields, buttons and photography are small, and hierarchy is lost due to the amount of information competing to remain above-the-fold. Prioritizing user tasks display those of most importance and establishing a clear hierarchy would improve the overall usability and aesthetic of the site.


Colony Tire Digital Audit: ColonyTire.com Functional Audit

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Functional Audit Overview

In television and other offline, traffic-driving mediums, a primary call-to-action is for consumers to visit the website. Users may possibly mistype the domain name as colonytires.com (with an ‘s’), which does not redirect to colonytire.com.

On shop.colonytire.com, when on a sub-page and selecting a different language, the user is redirected to the homepage in that new language, rather than maintaining the page they were on. If a user arrives on a page via search in one language, they likely desire to see the same content, but in the different language.

http://colonytires.com/



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Finding Colony Tire Stores

With a product that is almost always installed at a Colony Tire store, consumers must be able to quickly find the most convenient store location to shop at and bring their vehicle in for an appointment. ColonyTire.com’s store locator feature is accessible from the top of every page. The results page, after entering a Zip code, is less than ideal, however.

While the nearest stores are listed above the map, the map does not zoom in on the user’s search area, and markers on the map are not associated with the listed locations outside the map - as users are familiar.

Global Header with Store Locator Store

Store Locator Results Page



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Homepage Load Times

Page weight and page load time are important, primarily for user satisfaction, but also for search engines to crawl your pages faster and positively influence rank on search engine results pages.

The responsiveness of the website’s tools after initial load is also key, so users will not turn away. When a user clicks on either “Tire Lookup” or “E-Quote”, the page load time to “Select Store” is sometimes quite slow, as the main page must load, followed by the content within the “IFrame” which appears to pull in content from shop.colonytire.com.

373.4 KB http://www.colonytire.com/ 1.88 seconds

590.8 KB http://www.ntb.com/ 2.71 seconds

438.2 KB http://www.firestonecompleteautocare.com/ 2.74 seconds

199.8 KB http://www.geminicarcare.com/ 5.97 seconds

244.5 KB http://www.discounttire.com/ 1.65 seconds

708.1 KB http://www.justtires.com/ 3.34 seconds

http://www.colonytire.com/

http://www.ntb.com/

http://www.firestonecompleteautocare.com/

http://www.geminicarcare.com/

http://www.discounttire.com/

http://www.justtires.com/



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Visitors’ Web Browsers

Current Site does not appear to be mobile optimized. Trends suggest that a mobile optimized site should be considered. Mobile users are already visiting colonytire.com:

While ColonyTire.com’s homepage loads on modern mobile devices, the key tasks a customer on-the-go may need are difficult, if not impossible, to perform.

The use of “IFrames” within the site makes it quite difficult to navigate using any touchscreen interface, including the iPad or other popular tablets.

Device Visits

Android 3350

iPhone 1640

iPad 496

Blackberry 496

Source: Google Analytics Jan 01, 2011 – Jun 25, 2011



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Visitors’ Web Browsers (Continued)

Google Analytics data trended suggests that more users will be visting the site via mobile platforms. An optimized site or specific app will be imperative to retain customers and attract younger Gen Y customers who have grown accustomed to the mobile web.

Source: Google Analytics Jan 01, 2011 – May 31, 2011



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Visitors’ Web Browsers (Continued)

Source: Google Analytics Jan 01, 2011 – May 31, 2011


Colony Tire Digital Audit: ColonyTire.com Content Audit

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Content Audit Overview (SEO Focus)

Most people start the product-shopping journey in search engines. This holds true for the tire category. As such, we regularly evaluate our clients’ websites to determine how effective they are at attracting visitors using popular traffic driving keywords.

While results need to be verified, it does not appear the www.colonytire.com is ranking for expected keywords in natural search. Content organization, keyword density and long-form content could have a substantial impact on rankings. The national players are dominating local search. This represents an opportunity.


Colony Tire Digital Audit: ColonyTire.com Content Audit

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Social Dialogue

Colony Tire has engaged consumers using Facebook. Regular updates and public responses will help Colony Tire establish a position in the community. In many cases, user dialogue can help improve site experience.

Additional social integration on www.colonytire.com could help increase user-generated content (UGC) and sharing of valuable information such as coupons. Cross-linking to optimize earned media will only help Colony Tire. The Michelin “Be Tire Smart” content is valuable, but pulls users away after selecting “Tire Selector.” Integration into Colony Tire tools would be ideal.

http://www.colonytire.com/


Colony Tire Digital Audit: Discount Tire

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Discount Tire Usability and Functionality

Discount Tire’s website puts heavy emphasis on sales and promotions. There are seven instances on the homepage, one having the most prominent placement. Secondary to this is a “Shop” band of content, one module is a tire-finding tool and the other two are navigation.

The “Shop for Your Vehicle” tool doesn’t collect all the necessary information to display results. Instead it is an unnecessary and complicated four-step interaction.

The site is difficult to navigate because buttons are very small. Text is also small and difficult to read. Content is not easily scanned and the layout is indicative of a site designed 5-10 years ago.

No buttons, links or content display hover state names, further decreasing usability.


Colony Tire Digital Audit: Discount Tire

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Discount Tire Usability and Functionality (Continued)

A key feature on each of the reviewed websites is the Store Locator. Consumers want to quickly find the most convenient store location to schedule an appointment. As with the rest of Discount Tire’s website, the discovering-the-store-locator feature is less than ideal, but the search results appear to be relevant and clear:


Colony Tire Digital Audit: Merchant’s (TBC)

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NTB/Tire Kingdom/Big O/Merchant’s Usability and Functionality

Although the aesthetic is not refined, it is simple and direct. The overall impression is of a site recently redesigned. The site has prioritized content with “Find Tires” and “Find Locations” being prominent and accessible. These two tasks are grouped with “Services” and “Latest Deals” in an easy-to-digest manner. Form fields, drop-downs and buttons are large and user-friendly.

Secondary content is divided from this primary grouping and accessible by clear global navigation.

In addition to having extremely clear primary actions on the homepage, the Store Locations page is user-friendly, and allows users to save a default store for future visits to the website:


Colony Tire Digital Audit: Firestone Complete Auto Care

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Firestone Complete Auto Care Usability and Functionality

While the overall aesthetic is pleasant and speaks to a recent redesign, this site, similar to Discount Tire’s, places heavy emphasis on the discount. This seems to have been a business decision, not design, as the original design utilized this area for photography. The “Search for Tires” tool is relegated to the right rail and not given prominence, though the design would indicate that this is intentional. Uniquely, body content is relatively robust and prominent, secondary only to the space now utilized for promotion, and may speak to a strategy more oriented toward SEO and traffic generation.

Navigation is user-centric, and speaks to the concerns a visitor may have when visiting like searching for “Tires,” general “Maintenance” or “Repairs”.


Colony Tire Digital Audit: Firestone Complete Auto Care

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Firestone Complete Auto Care Usability and Functionality (Continued)

A usable mobile site is also available at http://m.fcacmobile.com/, which again speaks to Firestone’s concern with accessibility and an optimal user experience. This site is clearly designed to locate the store nearest to the user, either by zip or GPS proximity.


Colony Tire Digital Audit: Gemini

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Goodyear Gemini Usability and Functionality

The Gemini website gives the breadth of automotive services – even representation with their tire sales. Their car care tip videos are likely to grab users’ attention on the homepage.

In a tire search results page, tires are grouped into user-friendly needs-based categories, for example: “Sport Performance Tires”, “SUV/Truck Tires” and “Winter Tires” for a search for a SUV. There are sometimes several products within each category, giving users an option to compare. Offers and mail-in rebates are in line with the products before prices are shown.

Gemini’s Store Location feature is also user-friendly, with its simple form on every page (which accepts just zip code or a city and state input), seen in the upper-right of the sidebar.


Colony Tire Digital Audit: Just Tires

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Just Tires Usability and Functionality

Also from Goodyear, JustTires.com provides a very clear search form, followed by clear search results, ordered from lowest price to highest, but easily reordered by the user. The sidebar of the search results page promotes their additional service offerings.

Unlike ColonyTire.com, users are not required to select a store location before obtaining product recommendations for their vehicle or even a price.


Colony Tire Digital Audit: Just Tires

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Just Tires Usability and Functionality (Continued)

If locating a store is the objective, JustTires.com follows convention with a “Store Locator” option at the top of each page. Store Locator search results (based on zip code) are clear and include hours, as well as plainly worded driving directions such as “one mile east of 540, corner of Village Park & US Business 64 East” to help people drive to their stores:


Colony Tire Digital Audit: Summary

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Summary

The Colony Tire website offers users valuable tools and information. Implementation of those tools could be optimized to leverage current web design standards and trends associated with mobile and specific function mobile apps.

While not detrimental to functionality, design inconsistencies can ultimately confuse users and detract from brand strength. Repositioning critical tools and streamlining workflows would improve overall site experience. Other sites have implemented better workflows. Along these same lines, many competitive sites have been updated and are easier to use. Colony Tire would benefit from an update that helps users curate content to find tires that fit their needs.

A strong emphasis on SEO techniques could help attract additional organic search from keywords known to be high value in the industry. This requires reorganization of existing content and development of new content with the appropriate level of keywords. Combined with a more aggressive social strategy, Colony could see significant bumps in traffic coming from organic search.

The Colony Tire website fares well against its competition for having the tools users need to shop for tires, but learnings from competing websites can help Colony Tire make improvements to its site’s usability and features to make it a best-of-class website.


Social Media Audit

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Process

1. Examined a 30-day Radian6 snapshot of Colony Tire and its competitors’ presence in public social media channels

Competitors include: Costco, Discount Tire, Firestone Complete Auto Care Centers, Goodyear (Gemini) Car Care Centers, Just Tires, Merchant’s Tire, Sam’s Club, Sears and Tire King.

General keywords used: tire rotation, buy new car tires, Raleigh Tires, Raleigh car service

2. Conducted a CisionPoint search to track media mentions of Colony Tires for the past 90 days

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Key Takeaways

Neither Colony Tire competitors or general tire search terms are trending high in the social media space.

Colony Tire’s social media presence is non-existent compared to key competitors.

Discount Tire accounts for a majority of mentions.

Conversation is about “tire maintenance” in general instead of store names.

When engaging online about tire purchases, consumers want to find the best deal.

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30-Day Word Cloud

These are the words consumers are using when discussing tires on the social web – again, very little discussion is happening.

“Discount” and “tire” are the two words mentioned the most in the audit.

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Percentage Breakdown of Posts

Discount Tire accounts for almost all of the posts on the web within the last 30 days (this could be attributed to being a nationally known brand).

Just Tires comes in second place with 81 posts (0.8%).

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30-Day Trend for Colony Tire

Colony Tire saw no mentions besides one mention on July 1, 2011

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• Colony Tire was mentioned once on July 2, 2011


30-Day General Tire Mentions

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• The general conversation online tends to be about flat tires and tire rotations.


Summary of Media Coverage in the Last 90 Days

Colony Tire had 13 mentions in the news media.

The majority of the articles mentioned Colony Tire as an event sponsor.

Trucks Parts & Service posted an article titled, “Colony Tire now a Michelin Retread Technologies franchisee”.

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Documents

CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY ©2011 THE INTEGER GROUP Digital and Social Media Audits Presented July 13, 2011