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“Hope and Change’” was President Obama’s campaign slogan for the Presidency and it worked for him - twice. Regardless of your political views, this slogan doesn’t equate to a winning strategy for your used car operation.

I see too many dealerships use this strategy, and all it leads to is aged inventory and loss of gross. In this video I explain how “Hope and Change” doesn’t work for your used car operation.

You might be able to sell a car or two (20%) with this strategy with second chance buyers but overall I would the remaining 80% will bleed through and age. That 80% of inventory is costing dealerships from not achieving good gross margin spreads.

I would bet 90 plus percent of your current aged inventory, you knew were going to be problems from day 1. Get off the “Hope and Change” strategy, move that inventory quick and reinvest that money into something better.

Show Me The Money – such a 20th century way of thinking.

Millennials don’t think that way. True, price is important with every customer but for young car shoppers, apparently two things are more important:

1. Trusting the dealership
   
2. The overall experience

The good news is, you can make one simple change that will dramatically improve both of those. Send'm a video.

With a personalized video, you can create an amazing experience by engaging, informing and delighting your prospects. It’s not difficult, matter of fact it's quite easy to make a personalized video to send to your potential customers.  It can takes less than 2 minutes.



Why does video work so well with Millennials?

Because they're watching video, online. All the time! Ask the younger generation which channels they're spending the most time on; YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, Vine, Netflix (and chill), etc.  And much of this video consumption is on their mobile device.

Matter of fact, according to Animoto - 45 percent of millennials prefer to watch video on their mobile device rather than on a laptop or desktop.

With numbers like that, there is no reason to believe this behavior doesn't apply to when they are researching their next vehicle, OR even the dealership they plan to visit and purchase from. Millennials are spending a great amount of time researching online before visiting your dealership.

And get this...the younger generation is much more likely to trust dealerships that provide the information they're seeking. You mean Transparency?

With video, you are putting yourself out there as a trusted source of information. It's not viewed as selling. It shows you are interested in educating the buyer and building trust.

[Tweet "Rather “show me the money,” #millennial car buyers are saying, “Show me the video!”"]

Don’t think Millennial are a big enough customer segment to worry about? Think again. According to a recent study by DrivingSales, Millennials are now accounting for 27% of new car sales. “The buying power of this younger market represents a significant growing opportunity for dealerships,” the report states.

To serve this expanding market, remember, building trust and creating an amazing experience are most important. With video, it’s quick. It’s easy. It's works with the technology you ALREADY have.

Don't feel like you can get started on your own? There's a number of good companies out there providing mobile apps and dealership video services. Browse through the forums and you'll find some great discussions around it.

What are you doing to build trust with your younger customers?

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It’s time to get serious about video.

The writing is on the wall for the digital marketing industry as we know it. The true scale of the rampant and systemic fraud in the digital ad space is coming to light. Apple continues to annihilate online annoyances with their iOS ad blocker. With the introduction of Red, YouTube’s ad-free subscription service, even pre-roll best practices will soon be a thing of the past.

Communications giant Cisco has predicted that by 2019, 90% of all internet traffic will be video traffic, which means that video will not be just a mode of communicating online, but the primary method through which information is transmitted.

So, it’s time to learn how to make content that customers actually want to watch.

As car people, we prefer manual transmission whenever possible, and yet, we’re bombarded by industry messages that suggest we turn our marketing on automatic. Here’s the thing - There’s no automatic way to make great video. That’s what makes it great. That’s why it represents such a massive opportunity for your store in your market right now—Your competitors probably just don’t want to bother.

Great video is algorithm-proof. There is no gimmick or shortcut. By now, all of us can probably name some digital marketing investments we now regret, but I can’t think of a single video I’ve ever taken part in—behind the camera or in front—that I wish I hadn’t done. Video is always a good idea.

So what keeps us from shooting like rockstars at the dealership? Here are a few objections I commonly encounter.
Objection #1:  I’m not creative. It’s too bad that people in the “creative” industries go to great lengths to make the rest of us feel this way, and often times, these feelings are very deeply rooted in who we are. For me, it goes back to all those times in art class when I just couldn’t figure out why my drawings weren’t as good as everyone else’s. Good news, though—there’s no magic to video production. It’s just work like anything else.

Objection #2: Video is too expensive. So is a telephone system. So are computers. The truth is, high quality video equipment gets cheaper all the time and is worth the investment. Learn how to do it yourself with your own stuff, and you’ll save thousands of dollars.

Objection #3: We don’t have time to make video. We all get busy. Sometimes it’s a wonder how the dealership phone gets answered. However, we have all the time in the world for what we find important. Video is one of the things that separates the merely “good” from the “legendary,” a distinction that is more important than ever. Learn the fundamentals of production, and you might be shocked at how little time it takes.

For 2016, I’ve made it my personal goal to teach as many dealers about in-house video production as I can, to condense my years of trial and error into a streamlined, efficient learning system. Coming this spring, Dealerography will do just that. Dealerography is a training system that teaches the fundamentals of in-house video production in the dealership setting, so that you too can shoot like a rockstar.

I’d love to hear about your goals, challenges, and successes with dealership video. Sound off in the comments below!

SSL, or secure socket layers, is commonly misunderstood.

SSL is the technology to authenticate the connection between your browser and the server hosting a website. This usually happens through 3rd parties whose job is to gather proof of identification of the person or company who owns the domain for the website. You may have heard of a few of these companies. Some of the popular SSL providers are Geo-Trust, Norton, GoDaddy, Verisign and Comodo. If you haven't heard of them, you may recognize a couple of their logos below:



The system is based on a ‘circle of trust’.  The browsers ‘trust’ certificates from certain vendors, who in turn, ‘trust’ or ‘sign’ certificates for others, for whom they can validate identification. When a site is authenticated through an SSL certificate, the browser displays an HTTPS instead of an HTTP. HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. Notice the “secure,” which is the “S” in HTTPS. Traditionally, online banking, shopping websites, government websites, and any other website where there is an increased sensitivity of capturing personal information has utilized HTTPS.

Does SSL make my site safer or prevent hackers from obtaining my information?

The answer is yes and no. This is where the misunderstanding comes in. You would assume HTTPS by its own name would mean you are safe and secure. Unfortunately, you are not. If a website is compromised via a hack, having it reside on an SSL secured server would be like having an alarm system in your home when the burglar is already inside.

Phishing

SSL certificates are reasonably easy to obtain and a hack could redirect to you to a phishing page with a valid SSL certificate. This is an important point as the malicious website could easily reside on HTTPS because the domain name is registered to the hacker. I see mischievous stuff all the time, specifically websites pretending to be something they're not.

Have you ever seen the Facebook ad for the pill Limitless, which the movie was supposedly based on? If you click on the FB ad you will go to a page that surprisingly looks like NBC with logo and all. The domain is nbc.superyoutoday.com. The website is not owned by NBC but it uses NBC in the subdomain and it has an SSL certificate.

Why? Because the fraudsters own superyoutoday.com. Hopefully you know this is a phishing scheme or unethical way to sell a pill that's probably equally as tainted.

I am digressing so let me get to the point. Why would a dealer want SSL?



Why SSL?

SSL is better than no SSL. I would compare it to having an ID card or driver's license issued. Can you imagine the fraud if the DMV issued driver's licenses without proof of identification? Eek. We would be living in a world akin to Back to the Future 2 or Mad Max. As the web gets more cluttered and bad people try to find ways to take advantage of good, the problems that exist with identity theft and fraud can only expect to get worse. SSL will help.

Why should a dealership’s website use SSL?

This is what you've been waiting for, right? There are a few key reasons:

1. Browsers are demanding it
   
2. Analytics and SEO
   
3. You will have to read next article dedicated to #3 which will be big news

Browsers are demanding

Okay, so let's talk browsers. Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari are the most popular browsers. The main job of these browsers is to grab content from servers and deliver the content back via HTML so that we consumers can view and utilize websites or apps on our devices. During the process of delivering this content, the browser collects a lot of data about the user. This can include, but is not limited to, the user's IP address, geography, device type (user agent), timestamp, http referral, sound, and video.

With a little ingenuity it's feasible to collect enough information to identity visitors. Technology like fingerprint.js and the like help in these efforts. As the web develops more, data is becoming available via the browser and it could be used for malicious marketing and more. Therefore, in Q1 2016, many of the popular browsers will not allow websites to collect much of this data unless they reside on HTTPS.

That's right. Geolocation, video (webcam), audio, and more will not be available any longer to you if your website is on HTTP.  Just a quick audit of websites in our space revealed that nearly 100% are not using SSL. Therefore, this is a major problem and it is not isolated to our industry. Just as we marketers were starting to use geolocation data and video chatting, poof! It's gone.

Unless, of course, your website is on SSL.

Another problem with dealer websites is the use of 3rd-party plugins that are not using SSL. Even if your site is using SSL, you may still get left out of the party because your chat or trade-in provider is not using SSL. Browsers will block non-SSL content if the site is loaded via SSL; this could impact your analytics, remarketing, or other 3rd-party integrations.

Analytics and SEO

Raise your hand if you’re seeing an increase in direct traffic while reviewing your analytics data? Okay, put your hand down, this is an article, but I'm glad you're still with me. Did consumer behavior change so drastically that visitors research for website URLs and type those in direct? Sure, some of it is coming from the URL bar playing double duty as a search bar, but do you know the other part? It actually has to do with SSL. Generally, when a referral comes from an SSL website to a non-SSL website the http referral is omitted. The direct bucket in almost all analytics tools plays double duty too, like a lost and found area. In other words, if Google analytics doesn't know where the data should be placed, it goes in the direct bucket.



As many of you heard, Google announced a little over a year ago that sites using SSL may get preferential treatment in search rankings. After much analysis of websites rushing to make this change, the search results were not remarkably different. Therefore, the news faded and was quickly buried with another algorithm update and self-driving car announcement. My take on this is that Google couldn't deliver both the best search results and make a change this drastic. The reason is simple; just because a website is on SSL doesn't mean that website would provide the best answers for the user's search query while using Google's search engine. Therefore, Google would intentionally have to provide worse answers. That would never happen.

However, I do believe as more websites become enabled with SSL we will start to notice a difference. I also believe if Google had a choice to show two similar results today, they would rank a secured site higher. Therefore, while not an immediate cause for concern, it's with fair certainty if you want to stay on top of search engine rankings, start the move to HTTPS.

Please keep an eye out for my next article which will offer even more compelling reasons to use SSL.

(To be continued)

Take 19 years in the industry, 25+ weekly meetings, and nearly 1,500 price changes weekly and you learn a few lessons, understanding the pulse of the evolving retail market for used cars.

Low Mileage Budget Cars do not Work

 
Budget cars are typically rental cars priced to accommodate those seeking a vehicle based on price or a budget. Referring mainly to late model Malibu’s, Altima’s, Focus, Fusion’s, Chrysler 200’s, Accord’s, Camry’s and others . Some Managers will try and buy the above models with features and miles that make them stand out in their marketplace. The problem, however, is that the dealer tends to pay more for vehicles with lower miles and stand out features. Thus, the pricing for the car ends up being more than the average comparable vehicle, which ends up adding that vehicle to the aged units list.

One of the biggest problems with this buying philosophy is that hundreds of vehicles nationwide end up sitting on the lot becoming aged inventory. The budget customer does not pay for the low miles if it does not fit their budget. There are also many banks that will not allow the customer to pay $20 more a month (or $1000 more) for 2014 with 21, XXX miles (low miles) than one with 35, XXX (market average miles) miles. Miles and Features do dictate the average pricing for the budget car. The manager has to price the car based on average market value.

The Online Black Hole in Exposing Higher priced High Volume Vehicles

 
Higher priced, high volume vehicles, for example, would be late model pickup trucks and SUV’s. When customers go online shopping for a Ford F150 putting in a budget of $35,000-$40,000 - there might be eight pages of listings. AutoTrader and Cars.com will default to sorting that list from highest price to lowest. So if you are priced at $40,000 or very close to 40k your truck gets exposure because you will be on the first page or two of the listings. But as this truck ages and you start dropping the price you start falling further and further down the page(s), which greatly reduces your exposure like this example below:

If you end up at a price of $37,500 on the F150, the truck is now in the black hole of exposure. You are on page 4 of the listings, and most customers will only look at the first page or 2 of listings. From low to high or high to low. So if you are close to the $40,000 or the $35,000 range you will get exposure. However, when you end up in the middle of the price band, the exposure is significantly reduced. This is where spotlight ads come in handy to increase exposure. This can also be said on high volume cars that fall in the middle of any popular price band search, example $10,000-$15,000.





Wholesaling an aged retail unit too soon

 
Countless times I have talked to a used car manager about an aged car. And as soon as I do, they tell me “I just wholesaled it.” To which I ask them how much they wholesaled it for, and they tell me something like “$14,500.” I would then see that their last asking price was $16,000 - asking them why would they wholesale it for $14,500 if their last asking price was $16,000?

They would then ask me “what else should I have done? It was 70 days old, and I was already #1 in the market at 85% for two weeks.” I would tell them that they need to throw away the market data, and start pricing it until it sells or until you can get more at the auction than your current asking price. I would have much rather priced it at $15,000 getting a ton of exposure on the price point, and then take $14,500 in the lane.

Better yet, I would have rather retailed it at $14,500 or even $14,000 before wholesaling it for $14,500 because at least I might have a shot at a trade-in and F&I. Do not wholesale an aged retail unit until you tried to sell it for wholesale values. I know pay plans sometimes drive these types of decisions, but that's another topic.

Ask yourself, are you wholesaling budget cars too soon? Are you taking advantage of price structuring for maximum exposure in the listing websites?

In the wake of the many recent rockstar deaths I felt it would be relevant to start a conversation on what Automotive Digital Marketing tools and strategies really should die this year.

It's time we take a hard look at these long time, waste of times, and begin a discussion on higher-level and higher-quality strategies and techniques to use in 2016.  Let's stop allowing these trends to dodge bullets like Google Analytics and Common Sense. Let's allow these 5 crappy strategies and tools to finally die.

R.I.P. Home Page Slideshow

2005 - 2016



I'm not sure who started it or how it became such a staple in the dealership digital strategy - but it needs to die and die quickly. A quality slideshow presentation only caters to a very small demographic frequenting your website. So let's identify them. They are the 5% or so that spends more than 45 seconds acquainting themselves with the contents of your homepage. They are the small remaining percentage of internet shoppers who have gobs of time on their hands, who are fearful of social media, and probably discovered your dealership originally via the print newspaper.

In short they are the dodo bird of the online shopper and would have a better experience and demonstrate a higher conversion possibility if they were better guided through your site.

Boys and Girls, it is time to ditch the slideshows and focus more attention on convenience, user experience, through the utilization of a streamlined digital strategy. Look at modern examples from Dealer Inspire, DealerOn, and even some more recent Dealer.com layout options to get ideas.

R.I.P. Display Marketing

2011 - 2016



For whatever reason there are certain digital marketing techniques that simply do not work in an automotive retail context, and display marketing is one of the top offenders. From insane bounce rates, little time on site to embarrassing pages per session metrics - display advertising campaigns are fueled by hundreds of thousands to perhaps millions of automotive advertising dollars each month with no real measurable or promising results - at least not that I have ever seen.

Low cost is never a great single reason to commit to an advertising medium. It needs to be Low Cost plus something. Low Cost + Many Pages Per Session, Low Cost + Lots of Leads. Stop allowing display ads to Turn your website into a "Bouncy House".

R.I.P. Low - Moderately Granular Inventory Automated Search Ads

2012 - 2016



I can understand why so many dealers bought into the idea of taking their entire used (and sometimes new) inventory and machining it into dynamic adwords search ads. It sounds so freaking cool and hyper effective - but it often isn't.

Let's picture that you have something super rare, highly desirable, and you're pretty much the show in town. Let's say you have a Used 2005 BMW 6 series Alpina B6 with 20,000 miles - sounds like the perfect candidate for a hyper-targeted, automated ad right? Wrong. Because of the tremendous gap in competitor SEM advertiser lack of competence, the effectiveness of your ads to deliver strong ROI and low cost per click will be disrupted by other advertisers who are not using proper keyword and negative keyword strategies. Because of this, your 2009 BMW Alpina B6 ad will likely be competing against other dealers bidding on "Used BMW", "2009 BMW Radiator", "2009 BMW recalls" etc.

Until PPC advertisers learn how to properly structure campaigns, use negative keywords, and improve location and keyword targeting, it will remain difficult for Inventory Fed Automated ads to demonstrate their true ROI potential. Also - most of these ads link directly to the VDP... I don't have the stomach for this kind of gamble. I feel it's a mistake. A better place to send search traffic would be a stable page that isn't 100% dependent on vehicle availability.

Also, what if you send them to a white B6 Alpina - but their heart is set on owning a black one? Too many variables, not enough ROI. I like the concept of this kind of Ad delivery and strategy but I personally have yet to be impressed with the results.

R.I.P. Image Only Email Marketing

2004 - 2016



Lazy. Pure and simple. That is the underlining reason why these companies and strategists continue to prevail in the dealer marketplace. Not only are the companies making these image-only email products lazy - but their customers are also equally lazy (which is even worse).

Image-only emails may be breathtaking to look at in Photoshop but keep in mind, not all email clients are going to auto download your images, not all wifi connections can handle giant image downloads, and many people are not email savvy enough to click the "Download Images" link.

Effective email marketing strategies cater to the lowest common denominator and are heavily tested to ensure they are deliverable, effective, and provide ROI - there really isn't a whole lot you can effectively track from image only emails.

If you want to UP your email marketing game, you need good content to give context to your customer that justifies why they should open your email. This is accomplished by proper list generation, data mining, customized subject lines, opening lines, as well as superior analytic tracking.

Stop working with email marketing services that just churn out the same image only email ad design being sold to countless dealers over and over.

R.I.P. Automotive Tools and Tech that Only Run Correctly on Old Versions of IE

Dawn of Time - 2016



I believe we can actually cross this one of the list. Hallelujah!

Please share your thoughts on these 2016 victims and feel welcomed to submit your additions. This is but a very small list of what needs to end/change this year.

Work smarter, not harder has become a well-known business axiom. But defining ‘smarter’ is often based on the industry and when it comes to selling cars, working smarter means working faster.

Once you buy a car, no matter what the price, the clock starts ticking. And with each passing moment, the potential profit on that car diminishes. A car you buy because it’s a great deal will only prove to be a good deal if you can get it sold quickly.

The key to a quick turn-around lies in marketing more effectively and reducing the time a car is processed and put on the lot.

Click to expand...

The first piece of that is simple enough – reduce the amount of time spend reconditioning the vehicle. Be willing to jump on a good deal that needs some TLC, but understand the amount of time you’ll need to get it into shape and factor that into the car’s true cost.

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Free eCourse - More Profitable Auto Buyers Handbook

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Pricing should also be reviewed regularly.

Jasen Rice, founder of the virtual management consultancy LotPop, reports that dealers who have their inventory flow down pat “enjoy a three-to-seven day turnaround time, have competitively and market priced inventory out the gate … while adjusting pricing every two weeks to get units sold.”

Revisiting pricing that often keeps you aware of exactly what’s happening in terms of sales and price fluctuations will create more interest in your lot with the public.

At the same time, you want to keep volume and turnover up. After all, if you’re aiming to have less than a 30-day turn around on at least half your inventory (as Dale Pollak, founder of vAuto, recommends) then you need to have a steady stream of cars that fit the bill. The best – and perhaps only – way to do that is to increase the overall number of cars you’re buying.

I can already hear you objecting – the more you buy, the more likely you’ll get stuck with something that falls short. And you’re right. But that doesn’t necessarily have to equal lower gross profits. Just ask the Sam Swope Auto Group*. They promise to buy just about any car from people who just show up at their dealership as well as those who book an appointment through their website. Staff members from the dealership will even scout out cars selling in parking lots during their off hours.

With so many channels for cars to come in from, you’d think they’d be stuck with tons of cars they simply can’t move. But that’s not the case. Instead, the dealership was one of only 13 dealerships that boasted used-vehicle sales that outpaced new-vehicle sales in 2014.

Their secret?

The company adheres to a quick turn-around time in reconditioning and they’re also willing to take a few hits. Essentially, they play with an eye on the big picture. "We play the averages," Cary Donovan, vice president of operations, explains, “If you get ten $200 cars, you'll get a few winners out of the bunch, and some will flat surprise you.”

Questions to Consider...

1. What percentage of used vehicles that you acquire do not come from a trade-in?
   
2. What is your average turn? How long will you sit on a vehicle before taking it to auction?
   
3. What tools do you use to source used vehicles, e.g. online auctions, Craigslist, classifieds, etc?
   
4. Does your dealership proactively seek out used vehicles from private sellers?

 

*Sam Swope Auto Group is now owned and operated by AMSI [Learn more]. The Sam Swope Buy Center is now owned and operated by Louisville Auto Buyers of Honda World [Learn more].

Another new year and even more new opportunities.

If you're not growing personally and professionally, irrelevance awaits you. I love pushing myself to continue learning more every year and if you're reading this, you probably do too. Here's my mental dump on the latest marketing strategies, technology trends and consumer behavior.

Let's see what's in store for 2016 in my annual DealerRefresh retail automotive predictions post.

Things are different compared to the last couple of years. We experienced a wave of new strategies and tactics, yet many are still puzzled about how everything fits together. Dealership GM's, sales manager and Internet managers should be expected to have an understanding of the processes, not necessarily an understanding of the intricate details of core strategies. Management should be focused on building their marketing stack.

This year's theme and general direction of things to come, is very simple:

• Frictionless, seamless experiences. For the dealer with regards to managing their activities, and for the buyer during their shopping. Not necessarily automatic, rather programmatic.
  
• Highly personalized, relevant interactions. Productivity will be based around tailored processes. Expect simpler experiences powered by more mouse clicks/screen taps and less keyboard strokes. Efficiency, time savings and answers to questions. The end result: greater productivity and results. These are the key ingredients which have been missing from creating the great experiences every one is promising - and expecting. This will apply to both dealers and to consumers.

Dealerships Become Martech Companies

The platform providers will continue to integrate user data into the customer profiles to connect on levels never seen before. Market data around our inventory will flow faster and easier. vAuto's

new Stockwave platform is a nice example. Automotive platform companies are helping dealers evolve into a unique version of a Martech company. (Not familiar with the Martech movement? They even have their own conference.)

CRM's were merely acting as Customer Management tools. Expect to see an emphasis on the "R" - making it easier to enhance the Relationship.

Your platforms will tell you more about your customer, their journey and what means the most to them. Personalized data integration will help transform your CRM into a smart, contextual advertising platform rather than repetitive, broad-stroke actions. Larger companies have been plowing resources into acquiring data and additional platforms. (I mentioned DealerFire in a prediction for '15, they were acquired later in the year) Now it's time for the magic to happen.

Cheers to Sean Stapleton for being an early advocate of this philosophy: Focus on customer retention rather than solely on customer acquisition. It's safe to say we understand the secret sauce is providing relevant, personalized information. Unfortunately, the disconnect is knowing how to piece it all together. Savvy dealerships will have a well defined marketing stack of the solutions powering more seamless processes.

The marketing stack maps the customer's experience and creates consistency - here's an example of the stack I created. Our new dealership built a foundation around our processes with many of the same elements. It's an essential, continuous work in progress.

• Creating Customer Awareness - Organic search, paid search and social media marketing platforms
  
• Lead Management Tools: CRM, phone tracking, gateway lead CRM and lead processes improvement
  
• Improving Lead Conversion - Website data tracking, merchandising technology, integrated marketing platforms (disclosure: also my company) website experience elements and conversion optimization platforms
  
• Deal Conversion and Nurturing Customers Through The Funnel: Email campaigns, video email and retargeting solutions
  
• Data Collection and Analysis - Integrated ROI website data, analytics and social media tracking

Content Marketing Matures While Display Advertising Dies

I'll stop short of saying content marketing is dead. Many have lost sight of what content marketing's purpose is in the first place. Content becomes valuable once it moves the customer from a

shopping phase to a buying phase. It loses all value when positioned to the dealership as the magical cure for every ailment the dealership suffers from.

Dealers will move away from futile efforts of creating content which, in the end, their only result is time and resources being wasted. There will be an awakening of tremendous force; the content is simply not helping and no amount of creative data spinning will make a difference.

Content will be simpler, delivered in short form and be incredibly valuable. This points directly at messaging platforms or apps, custom notification and solutions focused around providing more context regarding their situation. Diving in deeper, user activities, behavior and general location now have the opportunity to be realistic examples of context. A significant factor contributing to this is the drastic change in mobile behaviors in all age groups. Younger professionals understand this; parents of teenagers definitely understand this. Hopefully you're seeing more of the reasons why Facebook spent $19 billion on WhatsApp.

Watch our interactions evolve. Each can provide a better understanding of what customers expect and even what annoys them:

• Smarter notifications and actions based on our activities, location and behaviors - Nest, Hue and other Internet of Things devices
  
• Usage of personal assistant solutions, such as Cortana, Facebook M, Google Now and Siri will create new search channels
  
• Smart objects such as Dash and Alexa will try to help simplify our lives while also changing how we search
  
• Interactions with connected cars will also help simplify our lives and data comes to us easier.
  
• Virtual Reality and immersive content - more on this below

People interact much differently with ad content - specifically display ads. Rather, they won't interact with them. The rise of ad blockers among younger users illustrates this trend. 27% of Internet users between 18-34 already use an ad blocker on their desktop.(The State of Ad Blocking 2015) Mobile ad blocking will help ruin this space. Display will become a wasted element of ad budgets going forward. Even more proof of how this ecosystem is evolving, Apple just announced they're getting out of the advertising-sales business. If Apple is quitting a segment, they see the handwriting on the wall. Facebook has 38% of the mobile ad revenue market while Apple only had 5%.

Standalone SEO Gets Assassinated


SEO dies a horrible death. If you are the person searching for an individual search engine optimization service, you are not the person who should be managing SEO. If you're selling a standalone SEO service, just stop.

Search is powered by the machine. Semantic technology and machine readable data are learning faster than ever and will never stop. The machines understand the content and can predict our intent. Mobile behavior and location is already connected with our desktop activity. Two worlds are colliding and the contextual explosion is happening right in front of us. There is talk of contextual elements within our mobile devices which lie dormant. Apple has said they will not turn it on yet, due to how much information it can provide will frighten us.

You don't need to hire an SEO professional, you need to hire a team of marketing professionals who also understand data science, shopping psychology and user intent.

Is This Real Life?

Towards the end of the year, we'll see the early stage of a massive transformation of consumer behavior. Users will interact in ways which are more acceptable and even expected in certain situations. Motion and gesture controls will be more familiar once devices such as the Oculus and HTC Vive quickly become the must have entertainment gadgets. This should also indicate how massive the divide will be, between old-school content creation and this new version of real life  - virtual reality.

The OEM's will be a leading indicator, creating incredible virtual reality experiences for new vehicles. I don't expect to see this hit the retail level. This will launch the most significant wave of content development and consumer interaction.

I do expect VR products to influence more video usage within dealerships and eventually we'll see 360 degree video used more frequently. Customers will expect more immersive video experiences. Dealers choosing these formats will change the minds of customers even quicker. A tip of the hat to Doug McIver and Andrew McIver for not wasting any time and shooting 360 video driving tours.
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What Do You See Happening?

As usual, you guys shared amazing thoughts, ideas and predictions for this year. Regardless of whether they're spot on or completely off-base, it's still great to see so many people share their vision for the industry.

Thanks for sharing. Keep the passion strong, push the needle and have an amazing 2016!

Andrew DiFeo More transactions, both sales and service, will take place at the consumer's home or office versus at the dealership.

Aaron Schinke Dealers will *hopefully* finally realize technology can't replace process and start to leverage their technology as part of a process. Or at least adopt processes to fully leverage technology. A man can dream, anyway.

Tom White Jr. whether you win or whether you lose, it is always "The Manager, Stupid." We win or lose (and serve customers well or don't) based on the quality of our managers. I'm on a mission to find, hire, train, and develop the next level... I'm hoping you will join me on this quest...

Alex Schoeneberger 1. Car vending machines and other novelties will continue to grow towards a market saturation point over the next few years, taking some market share and putting pressure on dealers to evaluate their processes. Everyone, industry-wide, will need to ensure the consumer experience they provide truly matches what consumers (or their niche of consumers) want.

2. Third party vendor revenue generated from dealers will begin (or continue in some cases) to shrink due to pressure from other channels, including those homegrown by large dealer groups.
3. As in-car tech evolves, the number of product experts at the dealership will need to increase.

Gary May Truth Alex, however dealers are massively underserved with the investments they make and lack of real guidance they undertake. Yes, the pressure from outside "vending" and growth of third-parties will continue because of the near-exhausting resistance to what consumers (read; US) want.

Most dealers continue to over-invest in high-cost areas that underserve them while underinvesting in the critical areas. Heard it again in Chicago last week, "we have that covered" when they, in fact, don''t. The moment you stop gaining insight form outside, you lose your edge. The moment you stop listening, investing, and measuring, you lose.
Love reading those articles about when dealers should and shouldn't see a n outside person. The smartest, most successful dealers I've met take the time whenever they need to in order to learn, evaluate their business and grow.
Yes, more pressure will come. The first pieces will come when the Fed lending rate goes up (maybe this week?), any downward pressure is applied (wall street, employment/unemployment figures, etc), incentive changes and the like halt people in their tracks.
And, just like with our clients in 2009 and 2010, those who are prepared will increase market share. 80%+ of the dealers aren't prepared for a more-integrated digital consumer or improving their digital performance.

Brad Hensley The most successful dealerships in 2016 begin to implement a "paperless, sign via email/phone/tablet at home, and an after hours delivery to the consumer's driveway" process.

Third party lead advertising such as Cars.com & Autotrader lose the most steam and merely hold onto relevance because we, dealers, aren't prepared to "cut the cord" yet. Without some major shifts this year they lose 50% of subscribed dealerships late in 2016. 

Will McGinnis Towards the end of 2016 we will start to see the trend move down on volume in Used and New vehicles. I'm with Brad Hensley on the way to be the one to capture the most market share. It has to be an easy, fast, and most importantly a quality experience for the consumers.

Joey Little Customer Experience Management will take over the old buzz words of Online Reputation Management.

Tom Gorham I predict that all of your predictions will come true to some degree. Customer experience will reign supreme and transparency will lead to more one-price shopping. Some smart OEM will provide dealers with in-store virtual reality stations that will provide how-to technology assistance for consumers and allow for the virtual test drive. Dealers will begin using more in-depth software to analyze, evaluate and improve their customer experience at any given time from their structure and processes down to individual employee level. Customer experience is still based on gut instinct rather than illuminating data. With the right data, dealers would find it easier to make intelligent choices. That doesn't mean they will necessarily be altruistic choices. But as customer experience becomes the essential competitive factor in customer acquisition, they will make changes based on success.

Daniel J. Mondello I predict that the oems will continue to push dealers to use sem solutions that benefit them not the dealer and continue to keep consumer reliance on quality digital low

Sean Williams Here's Why Cars Will be the Next Huge Platform

Jae Chang The traditional Used Car Manager will become less important. Sales Managers will assume additional roles. Sales Consultants will begin to present back end menus. Average transaction time will come down to 90 minutes.

Doug MacIver Small players will continue to vanish thus making medium players small.

Joe Chura HTTP2 will be something people start talking about but many won't really understand.

There will more platforms to help consumers buy a car online but adoption will be low, although intention will be high.

Given the estimated growing increase of connected devices, responsive and adaptive will be replaced with "are you online-or-offline"? (most consumers will be connected). Many more 3rd parties will make interesting products and solutions for vehicles to grow the connected consumer experience (auto segment is predicted to grow the fastest). These products will connect to interesting dashboards and push new interesting data to power websites, CRM's, etc.

More vendors will realize the customer journey is not linear and will make disrupting products to accommodate for that . At the end of the day process will become more important than ever and the new gadgets that could be powerful will not be utilized to the fullest. These new technologies will be akin to fitness trackers like Fitbit, Jawbone, etc which provides great data, but unfortunately don't make you lose weight (yet)...Dealers with the strongest processes will win. The minority that can introduce these new technologies while strengthening their processes will jump ahead even further.

Jeff Kershner NADA Predicts 17.6 million new car and light truck sales for 2017. That's a lot of vehicles. Meaning many lazy dealers will be allowed to be lazy and still sell a fair amount of vehicles. However, the dealers that that are getting their sh&t together will have an even greater opportunity to increase market share while increasing their opportunities for service rev. Mobile ad blockers - there was a small wave of these services 2014 early 2015 until they ran into some security issues. Will we see a return in these services as they improve?...especially since they're allowed on iOS9's playground. When and if we do, will it be something to consider? 

Bill Playford Sales will plateau on weaker demand, with only a slight uptick, if anything. The Fed will be forced to raise rates, which means there will be more pressure on captive financing. We'll see incentives close to pre-2008 levels to try to maintain the sales momentum from the previous two years. These three things combined will put pressure on overly-leveraged OEMs,

Dealer consolidation will continue at an even more torrid pace. Vendors will be forced to consolidate further to offer the required scale to service the larger dealer entities. Larger, vertically integrated vendors, will leverage their data gathering capabilities to strengthen OEM partnerships, filling the chasm between specialty consulting and existing preferred-partners. Traditional venture capital and private equity will be readily available to fuel the retail automotive growth, as tech-startup valuations soften dramatically. The big will get much BIGGER.

Consequently, the small will have to deliver tremendous value. Mom and pop stores will have to create a differentiated experience, or be forgotten. Those who strategically focus on a specific market segment will win big. The small providers on the vendor side will be collecting their last checks. The scale and complexity of today's business will wipe out the "generalist." Those who specialize, and can scale to the necessary level, will soldier on. It's the time in history to eat or be eaten. Boldest prediction: Despite record sales, FCA goes on life support.

Jason Stum I predict that Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be the #1 Movie of All Time! Oh wait...wrong thread...But seriously, I believe that this year progressive dealers will take this little stat from a recent Gartner Survey to heart: "By 2016, 89% of companies expect to compete mostly on the basis of customer experience, versus 36% four years ago."

Subi Fernando Ghosh I think in 2016, we will see more dealers actually, truly selling cars online... selling, paperwork, f&I via webcam... the whole 9. Consumer experience is becoming far more important and widely reaching if done correctly and hurting dealers significantly if done incorrectly.

We will also see Dealership Culture becoming more and more embraced by dealers looking to overcome price objections and looking to steal (or steal back) marketshare.

Glenn Pasch May more dealers invest in their education. Thanks Eric Miltsch as always

Owen Moon Mobile will continue to dominate shopper behavior. It's no longer a buzzword, but now a way of life. If you want to reach consumers you need to have a strategic mobile strategy in place in 2016 and beyond.

Mary Siobhan In-market, more brands will leverage facial recognition and eye tracking to analyze shopper reactions & digital content will become unlocked and flow from brand sites to showrooms; in-vehicle, improved natural language processing for voice commands.

 

For more of Eric's yearly predictions check out his previous posts:
2018 Automotive Marketing Predictions – DealerRefresh

5 Automotive Marketing Predictions For 2017 – DealerRefresh

4 Predictions in 2016 for Car Dealerships – DealerRefresh

4 Predictions That Will Affect Car Dealer Performance in 2015 – DealerRefresh

6 Predictions That Will Impact Automotive Retailing in 2014 – DealerRefresh

Automotive brands have embraced social media as a way to keep their brands in front of people. But auto dealers and service centers are not necessarily seeing the benefits. In fact, even the New York times highlighted this problem in an early 2015 article titled, "The Gap Between Auto Dealers and Social Media."

The gist of the article was that dealers don’t see enough return on their investment in social media.

Click to expand...

Why do you think this is?

Is this because people aren’t interested in their local dealers on social media, or is it because campaign effectiveness in social media lacks?

A 2014 survey of more than 10,000 active car buyers found that social media ranked far below dealer websites, web searching and the automotive news media as a source of information when they are shopping.

In the NY Times article, Hyundai of Huntsville General Manager Matt Howell is quoted as saying that personal relationships are more important than social media, and that he is yet to attribute any meaningful impact on his business to social media.

Could it be that this manager does not truly understand the role of social media, or is he simply taking the wrong approach?

In the aforementioned article, another dealer is quoted saying, “I don’t even bother wasting my people’s time posting all day.” By focusing on ads, including ones that target car buyers when they are near rival dealers, the dealer reported an increase in sales while cutting marketing expenses per car sold to $90 from $500.

Are Facebook Ads the answer to dealers’ woes with social media? What about producing quality content that engages people, like other brands do, which marketers continue to stress importance?

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What is “quality” dealer content anyway?

Is it happy customer videos? Is it warm fuzzy photos and videos that make people feel good?

When I encounter dealers producing this type of content, engagement is low, e.g. single digits. This is no way to market your dealership. Do you see other local retailers do this?

No!

Which brings me to my point…

Dealers are local multi-million dollar operations that are unique in the retail world. You can’t really equate franchise dealerships to any other entities in an apples-to-apples comparison. However, they are franchises, they are retailers, and they do thrive on repeat customer business much like other local franchises and retailers, so many of the same basic principles do apply:

1. Always strive to provide an exceptional customer experience that people will talk about
   
2. Provide useful informative information that your customers will appreciate
   
3. Offer your customers meaningful incentives and promotions
   
4. Make sure your dealership is easily accessible across multiple platforms, networks, and devices

While all four of these suggestions are equally important, each of them requires its own strategy to achieve.

1. Exceptional Customer Experience

The customer experience is a byproduct of the integrity of the dealership, which begins at the ownership level and works it way through the fabric of the organization. Most dealerships in my experience do provide a good customer experience, but no organization is perfect. There is always room for improvement. Without this, everything else is in vein. If your dealership isn't reaching or exceeding your standard on customer experience then you need to strive to be a change agent there or else move on.

2. Quality Relevant Content

This is a challenging objective, especially over time. My philosophy is that dealers need to lean on whatever resources they can to consistently provide quality relevant content. By “quality and relevant” I mean information that is published by the dealership on dealership resources, e.g. the dealership blog and social media profiles.

The information does not always have to be produced by the dealership, but the more that can be, the better.

Here’s a resource; check out Jason Stum’s Ultimate Blogger Resource Pack on his site MarketPunch. Here you will find multiple resources that Jason has produced to give dealers powerful useful resources for producing blog content which of course can then be used in social media. This could be a terrific starting point for you.

3. Meaningful Incentives and Promotions

Take my word for it, people aren’t interested in videos of your happy customers and they aren’t interested in gimmicky information such as cute pet videos. People want to know what’s in it for them and when you can save them time and money and give them a great value then you don’t want to be shy about letting them know that.

Put together exceptional offers, make them look and sound fantastic, and then let as many people know about them as possible. The great thing about digital media today is that it gives us insights as to who might want to know about what, and when, and how. Leverage today’s advanced tools and data and partners to execute smart and effective marketing and advertising campaigns.

4. Multi-Channel, Cross-Platform

As I just mentioned, leverage today’s advanced tools and data and technology. Dealers today have access to incredible resources, giving you the ability to reach people across multiple channels and different platforms and devices. But you need to harness these resources through key vendor relationships.

If you are tuning out vendors because you don’t want to be bothered by the noise then you are doing you and your dealership a disservice. If that’s the case then you might want to consider a vendor visit protocol.  You are not a data or computer technology company, you are a car dealership; you sell and service vehicles.

Questions:

1. Is your dealership incorporating Social Media in its marketing strategy and if so then how effectively?
   
2. If so, are you able to measure and/or justify the ROI accurately?
   
3. Is your Social Media strategy focused on sales, service, or both?

Facebook is not just for social conversations. It’s a social community with brands and storefronts, and for those that understand the power of Facebook and can harness it, a ton of possibilities exist. Dealers are looking for ways to promote their business and ultimately be profitable with Facebook, but so far, few are seeing the benefits.

More than 85% of U.S. consumers are on Facebook. Service customers average within a 5-7 radius of their dealer, while sales customers average up to 150 miles. Through Facebook advertising, dealers are able to target these folks with tremendous precision, and even upload their own customer information and target the ones Facebook can identify.



Some dealers are having ample success using Facebook Ads, but even this approach is limited. For the most part, all you are doing is driving click traffic to your website and hoping for a conversion that leads to a transaction.

This is a step in the right direction, but it does not create a unique customer experience, and it doesn’t produce a truly tangible return on investment. The evolution and realization that we need to work around people, and not around what we are attempting to sell them is paramount.

The Broken Engagement Funnel

As any honest media buyer or ad agency would attest, running paid ads on Facebook does not overcome the broken engagement funnel. The ads themselves are effective at increasing brand awareness, and even trigger action with consideration or purchase intent, but they do not engage the user to the point where conversion, let alone a transaction, can occur. To do this, the user has to leave Facebook and perform the action where the ad took them.

One company that believes it is changing this offers a program called HELIOS, which offers a turnkey solution that interfaces auto retailers with customers on Facebook. Through native Facebook services, the dealer, and real-time data integration, HELIOS is able to generate consumer-specific communications for brand awareness, car service, and sales leads.

Conversion rates and return on investment should be the main focus with additional interest on ‘softer’ metrics, for example brand awareness, however the ultimate goal for dealers should always be return on investment in both fixed and variable operations.



Social Activation Leads to ROI

Social activation is the act of transforming your social followers from voyeurs, into participants, and ultimately into evangelists. Social activation occurs when fans and followers directly participate in the activities you lay out, such as contests, coupon redemption, service and sales calls-to-action and experience sharing.

By providing users the ability to engage with their dealer in a transactional way without leaving Facebook, the customer is able to carry out their interests in a familiar environment with all the tools and information they need to complete their transactions. This includes everything from scheduling service appointments, reviewing repair and maintenance information, paying for their service visit, engaging with representatives at the dealership, researching vehicles with OEM information, vehicle trade, financing, and so on.



When you can do this on a regular or consistent basis with each customer throughout the lifecycle of their vehicle ownership with you, then you are realizing social ROI.

[highlight color="#CCE6FF" font="black"]

Free eCourse and eBook: Keys to Verifiable Social Media ROI

To assist with this, AutoConversion created a free 7-day e-course designed to explore the obstacles and causes behind why dealers and agencies are not able to produce a verifiable ROI with social media, and what it will take to do so (namely DMS and CRM integration with Facebook). The e-course is absolutely free and at the end of the course you will receive a free e-book that contains all the curriculum in the course, and more. It was designed for dealers, automotive marketing firms, and ad agencies alike. Please enjoy![/highlight]

DealerRefresh Welcomes Sponsor - HELIOS

DealerRefresh is happy to welcome HELIOS to the sponsor community. With this partnership we will continue to explore a multitude of topics, ideas, and best practices related to how HELIOS impacts dealers, not only about social media, but also profitability and return on investment in both fixed and variable ops, paid media, buying funnels, and more.

To learn more about HELIOS and how it works and see if it might be right for your dealership, click on the image below for an overview of features and benefits and show our sponsor a little love.

If you're active over in the Refresh forums, you know every so often we have a member that will post a new discussion in reference to pay plans. I feel for these guys and gals, having to figure out their "worth" and put together pay plans for positions that are new to their dealership(s).

Just the other day we had one of our members ask for help in coming up with a way to implement a bonus structure to their pay as a Digital Marketing Director. In addition, about a month a half ago there was also another question regarding compensation for a BDC Director for an auto group.

What I propose is a fresh way to incentivize these roles that doesn’t require the ridiculous tracking of metrics that may or may not directly relate to their performance. These two positions are some of the most valuable employees in your organization today so getting them right is really important. These plans inspire the right decision making, focusing each role into thinking like a true department head.

Every other manager’s compensation is primarily based on either gross or net profit, this creates a formula to replicate that method based on the variables they can truly control.

Pay plan for a BDC/Internet Director for an Auto Group

For a multi store director this is in my opinion the best way compensate. It gives them the freedom to try new products and tweak their staff – giving them ownership of the department. It also requires the dealer and BDC Director to communicate what is included and what’s not in the budget. This must be very clear.

• Base Salary
  
• Per unit bonus above agreed to floor: This is for the entire group’s sales - not just from the internet department. Say you set the floor at 300, it would be a specific dollar amount per car above that.

For example: the per unit is $20 and you sell 350, you get $1000

• Quarterly CSI: You should receive this bonus as the sales managers do. Say you have 3 stores, create a maximum payout and then take the percentage of the stores that are above their respective zone average.

For example: max payout is $1000 and 2 stores are above zone average, you get $666.67

• Budget Effectiveness: Set the per unit bonus floor (from the second section) at say 300. Establish a dollar amount per unit sold they can use to pay for the department (personal, digital advertising, training etc.) This also includes their pay. So say $75 a unit. That gives you a total Budget of $24,000. The per unit amount can increase over time as they take on more responsibility or portions of marketing. Take the actual sales at the EOM x the agreed upon per unit. The difference is how efficient they were. Determine how much they should retain of the difference or come up with agreed to tiers.

For example: Department cost was $23,000, Budget was $24,000, you get $1,000. Or, you came in at 95.8% of budget, you then review versus a set pay out per tier.

Pay Plan for a Digital Marketing Director

I honestly don't think this position needs to have a compensation plan based on metric level performance. To me the core elements of what defines an average, above average and great level of performance have more to do with you successfully implementing and continuing to take on new marketing responsibilities. Metrics can be skewed, from bot traffic, direct to VDP advertising (LotLinx) etc. This means they would first have to go through a, "How do we measure X and Y accurately over time to track your pay" conversation...and that gets annoying.

[Tweet "It is not marketing's job to sell cars. Short sighted campaigns for today, sacrifice the brand for tomorrow"]

It is not marketing's job to sell cars. Many organizations make the mistake of paying marketing directors based on sales. This leads to short sighted campaigns for today that sacrifice the brand for tomorrow. I would instead focus on their ability to manage the process of marketing the dealership and the variables that lead to successful marketing by managing the following:

1. Do we have a clear marketing budget and plan for the year?
   
2. Are we and our vendors done with each marketing asset at least 1 month in advance (with exception of new car incentives)?
   
3. How effective have we managed our contracts to reduce cost and stay flexible?
   
4. Did we ensure each customer facing employee was properly trained to execute the marketing plan?
   
5. Do we have a system of managing all of the metrics to convert our marketing into sales? Is it simple to use?

So here is the compensation plan:

 

• Base Salary

• Budget Effectiveness: Which should be based on the marketing budget vs total gross as a percentage. This can be split between fixed and variable or done as 1 total. You would need to define what is included obviously in the "marketing budget”

For Example:
Total Monthly Marketing Spend: $50,000
Total Store Gross: $375,000
= 13.3%
Then you bonus based on where this falls vs specific level, $ amount per point, etc.

In 2016 let’s refocus performance based compensation on the areas that truly drive results. And do yourself a favor, join in on this already happening discussion over in the dealer forums.

Like most new concepts and practices, it takes time for new ideas to be embraced. It takes even more time for dealers to implement them effectively and streamline their business processes around them.

I would argue for the 80/20 rule in our business when it comes to new ideas, that is, until at least 20% of dealers embrace an idea, the other 80%-plus will not. As we reach the 20% threshold, the remaining dealers begin to follow suit.

Generally speaking, it takes at least 2-3 years for new ideas to reach the 20% threshold, and then another 3-5 years for the industry as a whole to catch on. We’ve seen this with a several developments such websites, display, social media, live chat and mobile...

In the early 2,000’s, when the idea of dealership websites was new, most dealers dismissed the Web as a fad. By the time it was evident that the Web was here to stay and not a fad, the 20% that had embraced the idea of a website, and Internet customers, had a leaping head start on their competition.

The same happened with Social Media, specifically with Facebook and Facebook Ads. Five years ago, fewer than 20% of dealers were experimenting with Facebook. Today, most dealers deploy a Facebook strategy and leverage Facebook Ads. The ones that have been at it for a few years are almost assuredly reaping the rewards.

I know a dealer who now sees more website traffic come from Facebook than from Google.

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Mobile, of course, is not a fad

In a recent post on by Aimi Gundersen about the rapid pace of advancement with mobile, Aimi builds on the reality that mobile is not a fad and that dealers must be questioning their approach with mobile.

This is the right advice, but “mobile” is not a singular problem to solve either. There are multiple aspects to consider with mobile.

For the sake of conversation, let’s classify each into one of two distinctions: Business Problems and Technology Solutions.

Technology should always be solving or enhancing a business problem, so let’s begin with some of the business considerations where mobile is a factor:

• Customer Experience
  
• Customer Loyalty
  
• Lead Generation
  
• Sales Process
  
• Post-purchase
  
• Vehicle Ownership
  
• Marketing Strategy

Then there are the technological considerations:

• Responsive websites
  
• Mobile Apps
  
• SMS Communications & Compliancy
  
• SMS Lead Generation
  
• CRM Integration
  
• Third-party Listings
  
• Personnel & Training

The point here is that there is no one-to-one business-to-technology problem-to-solution dynamic. Practically every aspect of your dealership today is already impacted by mobile factors, and there is no single solution for addressing them all.

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Whether you are a Dealer Principal, a General Manager, a General Sales Manager, a Marketing Manager, a BDC or Internet Sales Manager, these “mobile” implications impact your ability to compete, thrive, and succeed.

The challenge that you have is less about where to begin and more about where you need to be. To determine this, you need a road map designed around your dealership’s goals and objectives. By identifying your business goals you can then begin to leverage existing technologies to help meet your objectives.

Let's Talk About it:

• Are you chasing mobile or are you leading the way? Is mobile at the forefront of your marketing strategy?
  
• Have you "checked off" the mobile box because you offer texting on your website?
  
• Is your dealership at risk of breaching any TCPA (compliancy) regulation?

IoT or the internet of things, is defined by Wikipedia as, “the network of physical objects or things embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity…creating opportunities for more direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems.”

IoT is a hot topic in retail, promising to transform how brick and mortar stores market and sell products to an increasingly smartphone-based shopper. As customers are using mobile to supplement the shopping experience, IoT is becoming the bridge between the mobile device and the retail object.

//fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/n4uveor4c8

Beacons

 
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has been at the forefront of retailing technology for its ability to provide micro-targeting smartphone experiences for the mobile shopper. More commonly known as “beacons,” these devices can be placed throughout a retail environment and trigger automatic actions on a nearby smartphone that shoppers can engage with.

Over 400 million beacons are estimated to be deployed in the next 4 years.

iBeacons, Eddystone

 
The most popular format, iBeacons, was pioneered by Apple and is compatible with modern iPhones and iPads. Thus far they have been exclusive to the Apple eco-system. iBeacons are designed to function as the micro-targeting component of a mobile app experience. iBeacons permit the app to display relevant content based on the product or service the shopper is physically in front of. Google introduced an alternate beacon technology, Eddystone, the summer of 2015. Eddystone seeks to broadcast a URL to a smartphone – aiming to bring beacon use outside the app ecosystem.



Beacons in Retail

 
Big retailers are taking action on the beacon trend. Macy’s, Target, Starwood Hotels, and Major League Baseball have all made major investments in retail IoT implementing beacons in retail environments across the country. ABI Research states that 1 million beacons exist in retail environments today. Over 400 million are estimated to be deployed in the next 4 years.

You may have experienced beacons while at your local Apple Store. Apple places beacons nearby product aggregates, providing shoppers with additional information. Shoppers near an Apple product on display are able to touch and feel the product, leading to next steps questions on specifications, rebates, or extended warrantee information. Through beacon technology, relevant information tied to that product appears automatically on the lock screen of the shopper’s iPhone. When the shopper physically moves to another Apple product in store, the app experience changes to focus on the product the shopper is standing in front of.

Beacons in Automotive Retail

 
Through beacon tech in each vehicle, a smartphone shopper can walk a dealer showroom and be offered a unique app experience tied to the vehicle nearby. As the shopper moves to a new vehicle, the app changes, showing manufacturer incentives and/or current inventory focused on the vehicle they are physically engaged with.

According to the recently released 2015 Google / TNS Auto Shopper study, “half of all car shoppers with mobile devices use their smartphones while at the dealership.” This represents a change in how customers are engaging a dealer while on the lot or in the showroom.



The smartphone has presented a shift in the way the customer progresses through the in-store shopping experience. For today’s mobile customer, the smartphone is one of the first tools used when stepping on the lot or showroom.

Because IoT devices, such as beacons, permit the connection of the smartphone with physical inventory, a unique opportunity is created for the smartphone shopper.

With beacons, retailers are creating an initial engagement point, a first-stage shopping assistant. Retailers are offering relevant information using the channel the shopper prefers. Additionally, beacons can reduce the effect of cross-shopping while in-store. Retailers are offering an alternate shopping experience on the device used to “showroom.” Finally, in the initial stage, many customers trust their mobile device more than a human sales person. This allows dealers to engage with shoppers who would otherwise avoid interaction with salespeople.

Beacons may be part of the game changer IoT promises in retail. The goal: deliver a better in-store shopping experience that places an emphasis on relevant content and messaging when the shopper needs it.

What ideas do you have for beacons in an automotive environment?

How would you use beacons in the sales process? How could they be used in service?

According to a recent Google study - "The Top 5 Auto Shopping Moments Every Brand Must Own", video is "playing. Playing a big part in the consumers shopping process.

Nearly 70% of people who used YouTube as part of their car buying process were influenced by what they watched

[Tweet "Nearly 70% of people who used YouTube as part of their car buying process were influenced by what they watched"]

Now pause for a second. Think of those seven out of ten motivated customers on YouTube as your prospects looking for information. Information this is specific to vehicles that you may have on the lot right now.

Videos equal visits.

 
Stats like this can help successful dealerships see exactly why marketing on YouTube is so powerful. At the very least, it is a viable way to grow your business. Used to its full potential, video can transform your dealership and make you extremely successful.

The study from Google comes on the heels of a study they did last year - Digital Drives Auto Shopping (Be sure to read it.) A study analyzed the actions taken by shoppers after watching video.

Google found that, about half the time, consumers went straight to the dealer after having watched a video.

So let’s do some math. If 70% of consumers on YouTube are influenced by the videos they see, and 50% go see a dealer after watching a video, how many consumers will visit your dealership when you have ZERO videos on YouTube?

Let's not make this difficult.

 
Knowing that video influences the buyer, why wouldn't we want to send more videos.? Ones that are personal. Setting you and your dealership even further apart from the competition.

“I don’t have time to learn something new” or “it’s too difficult” are common objections. Ironically, many of the same folks already spend quite a lot of time looking at pictures and videos on their own phone, which coincidentally HAS A CAMERA. I would even guess you're reading this article right now, from your phone.

Getting started with video is often the hardest part. That said, start small. Choose a tool that’s simple and allows you to streamline the process - from recording to delivering. Encourage everyone to get involved and be diligent in making it part of your daily routine.

Here are some other impressive stats around the reach of video:

• 110 million people watch at least one video per month on mobile (eMarketer)
  
• Shoppers on mobile watch video 3x more than laptop/desktop users (Invodo)
  
• 92% of mobile video viewers share videos with others (Invodo)

Question:

What level of success are you having with your video strategy?

Share your video over in the forums and let us know what kind of success you're having...

Conversion rate: this is not a new buzzword. It's a long-lived metric that requires attention.

With that being said, it's a very difficult metric to compare side by side with other dealerships. In simplest terms, the reason why conversion rate is so difficult to compare is because most dealerships are not measuring the same conversions.

If your conversion data set is not exactly the same as the dealer in your 20 group, then you will be either fictitiously confident or sulking in data disappointment for no good reason. In some cases you may not even be able to compare your own conversion rate on a year over year basis.

Let me first properly define what a conversion is for the context of this article: a conversion is an action that is completed on your website, whether it be a form submission, page visited, phone call, or other action. These can also be called goals.

There is not typically a right or wrong goal to measure. Because of that, dealerships very rarely compare the same goals. There is also NO industry standard, and by default, each provider will track different goals.

Let's look at an example of conversion rate results:

• Dealership A has a conversion rate of 3%
  
• Dealership B has a conversion rate of 20%

Which dealership is performing better?

This is an illogical question. Why? Because you cannot possibly know unless you ask a few more questions.

Login to view embedded media View: https://youtu.be/GPxEoBf-xJI


There are three main questions that need to be answered before you can attempt to compare properly.

1. What conversions/goals are the dealerships measuring?

If Dealer A is measuring form leads only and Dealer B is measuring form leads, phone calls, VDP views, SRP views, maps and directions, and more, then clearly an overall conversion rate is not helpful.

2. What 3rd party plugins does the dealership use?

This scenario very often gets overlooked, especially when comparing dealership stats year over year. Here's an example: let's say that your dealership used the native website providers credit application in 2014. In 2015, the dealership installed DealerTrack's iframe app. Looking at the conversion rate for credit applications will require more digging than a basic Google analytics review.

Why?

Chances are in 2014 the website company counted credit application leads as a goal conversion. (This makes perfect sense and any company should use this as a conversion.) However, when the DealerTrack application was installed, any future conversion on that same page would not be counted. This is because 3rd parties operate outside of the dealership's website. Even if the application looks like the dealership's website, if the widget is from a 3rd party it will most likely NOT count in your Google Analytics account. Therefore, in this example it would appear the goal conversions and conversion rate have decreased year over year. But has it really?

You need to look at more than Google Analytics to find out. Let me state this again: you will NOT be able to tell from Google Analytics. As more and more digital retailing solutions (DRS) are added to the dealership’s website arsenal, the problem can only be expected to get worse.

Another popular digital retailing solution is "MakeMyDeal". This DRS  is a lead-generation widget that houses a large CTA (call-to-action) which is typically pretty dramatic on a dealership's VDP page. Any consumer engaging with this tool will also not count towards the dealership's conversions in Google Analytics. Therefore, if you have 1000 visitors and 100 of them submit a lead through MakeMyDeal, the conversion rate would still be 0% according to Google Analytics.

Going back to comparing year over year data or comparing against another dealer in a 20 group would prove fruitless. Before pointing out a couple of examples where dealers have goal conversions set-up for DRS I will tell you most (~99%) do not.

3. What is your marketing strategy?

Yes! Your conversion rate is correlated to your advertising. I hope this point causes debate but no matter which stance you take, the fact is that conversion rate is defined as website leads/website visits. Whether you count unique or all visitors in the equation is semantics at this point. What you do need to look at is earned vs. unearned media. Earned media is simply website visitors you didn't directly pay for (SEO, traditional marketing, etc). Unearned media consists of visits you did “directly” pay for. This can be paid social, PPC, etc. These need to be separated out to truly understand the effectiveness of your conversion rate. You may have a much lower conversion rate with earned media and still be out performing all of your competitors combined.

Let's unwrap that statement.

Imagine a scenario where your dealership's website magically ranks #1 in Google for the keywords "2015 Kia Soul". You discover that MotorTrend's online magazine links to your dealership's website because your content is among the first source of information online about the 2015 Kia Soul. This drives thousands of visits, increases your website's authority, and earns you several conversions. However, given the fact that "2015 Kia Soul" is so broad, chances are much of your traffic will not be relevant to your immediate business. In other words, the visitors may not ever become a potential customer.

Would you still want this "earned" traffic?

If the answer is yes then you understand the importance of authority (and the big picture.) A scenario like this is not uncommon. In fact, I have seen many dealers rank for national keywords while doubling their organic traffic YOY. Unfortunately, the drawback to this earned traffic is a lower conversion rate.

Please pay attention to that last word as it's important to understand the difference. I am NOT advocating for lower conversions in exchange for traffic. In fact, in every case where organic traffic increases, total conversions should also increase.  However, expect your conversion rate to decrease. There are a dozen more scenarios that can decrease conversion rate while increasing total conversions. Display and “push” advertising is one of many more examples.

So, then what do I measure?

My advice is to pay attention to your store. If you are in a 20 group and your conversion rate is lower than your peers I would not sweat it. Look at your total conversions and the % of increase or decrease over time. Since you may have 3rd party applications running on your website, the best place to analyze these numbers is within your CRM. Google Analytics is solid for conversion rate measurement when you know what you're looking for and can ensure that you're comparing apples to apples.

Google Analytics is the "Up Log" for your virtual showroom. It is critical for dealers to develop the skills needed to inspect the website traffic that they are generating through their marketing efforts. Every dealer has their own unique online marketing strategy. However, there are a set of tasks that must be integrated into monthly inspection of campaign performance at the dealership.

Recently, I have been writing about my concerns regarding email conquest campaigns. You can read the entire series of articles by visiting my LinkedIn profile.  In this blog post I will outline how dealers can create a Google Analytics segment to identify suspicious website traffic. I will define suspicious as a high number of clicks to pages that consumers normally do not visit.

Even though dealers see hundreds of thousands of visitors to their website each year, only a very small percentage of the visitors will click on the dealership's privacy page, copyright page, or sitemap. These pages appear at the bottom of each website page and are often referred to as footer links.

If any paid marketing campaign has a high spike in footer link clicks, it should setoff an alarm at the dealership. It could be an indication that paid advertising traffic is not coming from real consumers but rather the traffic is being generated by automated "bots."

One Year Of Traffic

In the image below, I have displayed the traffic to a Nissan dealership's website over the course of one year. You will see that I applied a segment called "Footer-Links-Inspection-DealerOn" because they have a DealerOn website.  I created this segment to show visits to specific pages that only appear at the bottom of each website page; footer links. The total visitors to this dealership's website in this time period were 152,000.

You will notice that the spikes in traffic are associated with email marketing campaigns. One is from a Conquest Email Company and the other, a campaign being resold by their local cable company.

With 152,000 annual website visitors coming from AdWords, YouTube, Social Media, Direct, and Organic channels, why would only these two sources have an interest in these obscure pages?

Click to expand...

How did I create this segment? Here is what the segment definition looks like in Google Analytics. When you create the segment you will want to use the "Page" field and the "starts with" modifier. Don't forget to start each page with a "/" and if you do it correctly, you will see user traffic calculated. For example, 1,016 people clicked these pages, which is high but you will learn why.



The key to making these segments work is to ONLY use pages that appear in the footer of each page that are NOT in the main navigation. You will often see "Contact Us" or "Directions" links in the footer but these pages are also in the main navigation. In the example above, this dealer had a specific Nissan Copyright page, so that may not appear on your DealerOn website.

To make it easy for readers, I have compiled a list of pages that appear in the footer of common website platforms. These pages can be used to create a segment for your own website platform.



Last Step

After you create this segment, you will want to change the secondary dimension to "Source/Medium" as shown below. This will organize the traffic by company or by source, whichever is marked in your Google Analytics account by the supplier. When you inspect your traffic, you MAY NOT see any large spikes in traffic and that is a good result.

However, if you find large spikes, then please reach out to me so I can help you understand and resolve your traffic concerns.  You can email me at [email protected].

GOALS ARE NOT FORECASTS!
“It’s a new month, and a redemption month! To hit our forecast, everybody should sell at least 2 more cars than they did last month!”

How about this one:
“We just hired 2 new sales people and they are both rockstars, ya know, great ‘car guys’. They should bring 15 more cars apiece this month! Our forecast just went up 30 cars!”

This one seems much more solid:
“In order to get an idea of our sales next month, let’s take a poll of the sales team and have each individual guess how many cars they will sell. Then we add these up and try to beat the total forecasted.”

Or this:

“How many cars did we sell last December? Let’s sell 10% more this December.”

…these are all examples of goals.

A monthly sales goal can be used as a great motivational tool for the sales team, but upper management should never use such an anecdotal and archaic method to properly plan for their next month.

When establishing a realistic plan for the future, these “what does your gut tell you” sessions at the beginning of the month need to end. Immediately.

These goals are nothing more than unsubstantiated numbers plucked out of thin air. So why do we do this each month?

It is a feel good method. We pump ourselves full of piss and vinegar and lies at the beginning of the month only to be let down by month’s end.

When was the last time every single sales person met their monthly goal?

Such an absurd process often results in negativity from not achieving the goal, and/or tension between management and sales personnel, and/or animosity among the sales team.

Goals are NOT forecasts. Stop using this terminology incorrectly. A sales forecast is only as good as its accuracy. In other words, can you trust the prediction?

[Tweet "Goals are NOT forecasts. A sales forecast is only as good as its accuracy. #dealershiptoday @jon_berna"]

Forecasting methods can be as simple or as complicated as you want, but there is not a single correct method. Each dealership is unique and each one should be treated as such. One forecasting technique is not always appropriate for all stores.

The essential factor to consider is the accuracy of the forecast. As with forecasting processes, there are various methods to calculate how right, or rather, how wrong a forecast was. MAPE (Mean Absolute Percent Error) is the most ubiquitous form of measuring forecast accuracy. The following is a briefing on the basics of what your forecast should entail.



A dealership forecast should consist of 3 very basic elements:

1. A seasonal index
   
2. Current trends
   
3. Historical accuracy check

A basic seasonal index

A basic seasonal can be established by looking at past data. Historical sales numbers will give insight into how seasonality affects sales. At Driven Data Consulting, we use a Centered Moving Average (CMA) in order to establish a seasonal index.

Current trends

Current tends is a running total of monthly sales. Once the seasonality is normalized by month, a Weighted Moving Average (WMA) of the actual sales numbers is established, and this becomes the basis for the forecast. Of the variations of WMA technique, choose the one which yields the most accurate results.

Historical accuracy check or MAPE (Mean Absolute Percentage Error)

MAPE is a common form of accuracy measurement. First we find the error, or the difference between the actual and forecasted sales for each month divided by the actual. Use the absolute value of each error, then sum all periods for which there is a forecast.

Lastly, divide by the total number of periods and multiply your answer by 100 so you end up with a percent error. There are different industry standards for MAPE, but generally speaking, MAPE < 30% is considered appropriate.

In a growing industry where there exists intense performance pressure, let’s not place undue strain on ourselves by setting unrealistic or totally speculative goals. Let’s begin looking into the past in order to accurately plan for the future.

Establishing a monthly forecasting process at your dealership based on data is an excellent way to plan ahead and focus your efforts. Start with a basic forecast, measure your accuracy, then improve it over time.
Does your dealership throw unsubstantiated numbers out and call it forecasting?

How are you (your dealership) currently forecasting for Sales and/or Service?

We have an open discussion in the dealer forums - please comment over there!

 

[highlight color="#CCE6FF" font="black"]Let’s give Jon and Steven Buesink (Co-author) a nice welcome. This is Jon and Steve's first article here on the blog, however Jon has been an active DealerRefresh community member for several years now. Jon had been working hard over the last few years as a consultant focused on results through analytics. He’s a smart whip! Welcome Jon (to the Blog). Looking forward to your future articles. – Kershner[/highlight]

With 2016 right around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about your dealership's staffing needs in the coming year.

As manager, you're used to living in the daily "my hair's on fire" reality of running a sales and service team.  There isn't a day that goes by where something unexpected, unexplained, or you've-got-to-be-kidding-me happens.

I get it, I've been there. Heck, I'm there today.

One of the common occurrences at dealerships that causes major heartburn is what I call “I’ll worry about recruiting when I need to fill jobs."

If you're like most of your dealer peers you wait until the last possible moment to spend any amount of time proactively filling a talent bench. Instead, you wait until you have open spots, slap together a job description, put up a posting on Craigslist or still the local newspaper, and hope for results (aka “post and pray”).

You schedule interviews with the best applicants. None of them are good fits. 

Only 15 days left to hit your volume target. Something not unlike panic starts to churn in your gut.

"Hey", you say to yourself, your spouse, or your dog, "I’m down four heads on the sales floor and need to hire four people in 5 days. I’ll take anyone who can pass a drug test and speak English. Drug test optional.

Two days later, you have your four people. Two of them you aren't crazy about. One of them has some potential. One of them didn’t show up on the second day. A week later, two of them quit. You’re still down three, and now you’re really in danger of missing your number.

Are you laughing right now because you've gone through this scenario once or twice? Crying, because you go through it month after month?

How do you avoid this situation?

It's called Workforce Planning.

Workforce Planning is, simply put, planning for the number of people you'll need in order to run your store in order to hit your financial plan.  Meaning, it’s figuring out how many people you need to plan to recruit if your business grows as you've outlined (you do do business forecasting, right?). There are a number of ways for a manager to draft their Workforce Plan.

The 8-Step Workforce Planning Process

 

Step 1: Write down the number of employees you currently have on your team.

For this example, let’s say it’s 10.

Step 2: Write down your average annual turnover rate, expressed as a percentage.

If you started last year with 10 employees, and 3 quit (or whatever), that's a 30% attrition rate.

Step 3: Multiply your attrition rate by the number of employees you currently have.  The answer is the minimum number of employees you'll need to replace the ones who, based on last year's number, will quit this year. These hires are easiest to plan for, because you know they're going to happen.  If you had no attrition last year, great, but you're not off the hook just yet.

In this example, that means 10 people times 30% = 3 hires you’ll need to make.

Step 4: Write down the number of people who work for you who you'd like to fire because they continuously fail to meet your expectations.  Let’s say that’s two people. (See, I know you have staff that you'd like to fire.  But you don't, because you're either too nice or too chickenshit. ‘But I’m already down four heads, and you’re telling me to fire people?!’ This is another topic, and I'm not going there today.)

Add two more people to your number, which is now a total of 5 (3 turnover + 2 fired).

Step 5: Take a look at your growth plan.  What unit sales growth targets are you planning to hit in 2016?  Now, how many people do you think will need to be hired in order to deliver on these new growth numbers? Write that number down.

Keep it Simple example – you want to increase sales by at least 200 cars, and your average rep does 12 cars a month. That’s two new reps to sell at least 200 more cars.

Step 6:  Add together the number you wrote down in steps three, four, and five.

That’s 3 + 2 + 2. If you need a calculator for that math, consider a career change to F&I.

Step 7: Divide Step 6 by 12. The result is the number of hires per month you need to make to meet your Workforce Plan.

In this example, it’s 7/12 = .58 people per month, or one hire every two months.

Step 8: Say to yourself, "Whoa. That was easy. Okay, now what?" (my favorite question)

With a completed Workforce Plan, you're looking at a reasonable estimate of your store’s recruiting needs over the coming months.  What does this plan tell you?

Newsflash #1:  You're going to have to hire people this year.
Newsflash #2:  You’re pretty sure how many you’ll need each month.
Newsflash #3:  You just realized that you're not currently doing anything to ensure that you have the right people in place at the right time.

You know that you have to hire people next year, so why was any of this a surprise?

It's time to treat hiring and recruiting like the core, critical operational process that it is.

Questions:

What's your excuse for not allocating at least an hour a day to recruiting and hiring?

 

When it comes to stocking used vehicles at your dealership, dealers today have multiple options. But one option seems to be underutilized by a majority of dealers - acquiring vehicles from private sellers.

Of course all dealers take trade-ins, but that is not a proactive strategy. That is a conversion strategy.

Traditionally dealers have relied on auctions to acquire used vehicles at wholesale rates where they know they can sell and turn a profit, and since the dawn of the Web online auctions have become popular.

Problem is, auctions can be time consuming and expensive.

Likewise, proactively seeking used vehicles from private sellers can be time consuming too, unless you have a good strategy and the right tools...

Profit Begins with Acquisition, Not Vehicle Sales

While our minds might be trained to believe that dealers turn a profit when they sell a vehicle, a trained mind understands that profit occurs at acquisition when you have the right tools, the right information, and a good acquisition strategy.

It is with this thinking and these ideas that the founders of the Vehicle Acquisition Network got together to introduce a solution that can give dealers the right information and the right tools to streamline their used vehicle acquisition process and be more profitable.

[highlight color="#CCE6FF" font="#000000"]
>> Free Download - More Profitable Auto Buyers Handbook <<

[/highlight]

An Innovative Approach

Innovative dealers today already embrace the idea of seeking used vehicles from private seller markets, after all, auctions are not the only place to acquire used vehicles and depending on vehicle trades does not necessarily get you the vehicles you need. These dealers are checking third-party sites for vehicles listed by private parties. By seeking out these sellers, dealers can obtain more vehicles they need and can turn for a profit.

The Right Information - The Right Tools

It goes without saying that having the right tools for the job is important. Anything a dealer can do to reduce the amount of time he spends searching private seller listings for vehicles he needs will free up his time to work on actual deals.

With the Vehicle Acquisition Network, dealers benefit in several ways:
Local Private Party Listings

The Vehicle Acquisition Network automatically locates vehicles listed on the web by private parties in each dealer’s local area. These vehicles are then revealed to users on a daily basis for swift action to be taken. In most cases there is no shortage of vehicles for sale by private parties in a dealer’s immediate area.
Only the Vehicles You Want

The tool of course is designed for dealers to specify the criteria they require in vehicles. This may include ranges of years for certain models, selling prices, mileage, condition, type, etc. By tailoring the criteria, dealers can easily filter their selection to only the vehicles they want.
Creates Inbound Leads

One of the more useful features of the tool is that it sends text messages to the sellers of the vehicles you choose, generating inbound responses from private parties looking to sell their vehicle. These text messages can be sent manually or automatically and even be customized on the fly to include specific vehicle information. So long as a consumer is advertising a vehicle for sale, dealers can legally text the seller about their vehicle.

Not For the Average Dealer

You might think that a tool like the Vehicle Acquisition Network would be useful for the majority of dealers, but it’s not. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of vehicles listed for sale online by private parties in any given area, and since the tool is designed to reach out to these folks via text message, the sheer volume of inbound inquiries that can results must be sustainable for a dealer benefitting from the tool.

Likewise, you can’t just pipe these leads into your BDC. Most business development centers are equipped to handle sales and service calls, and vehicle trades. The inbound inquiries that result from this tool require a seasoned used car manager to facilitate the inquiries and ensure profitable deals.

Do You Have What it Takes?

If you think your dealership could benefit from a tool like the Vehicle Acquisition Network, and you have the resources to handle these kinds of leads, please do not hesitate to click on the image below and request a free online demo. DealerRefresh is committed to providing a great value to our sponsors and nothing demonstrates this more than engaged dealers expressing interest in what a sponsor like the Vehicle Acquisition Network can do for your dealership.



 

There's an old Chinese proverb that reads "Give a man a fish and you feed him a for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." This is true of dealers who are looking to dominate their primary market area, however - I'll reword it slightly...

Do the marketing for a dealership and they'll sell cars for a day; Teach a dealership how to market and they'll sell cars forever. I firmly believe this to be the honest truth.

Dealers who largely outsource their marketing whether it be traditional, digital, or a combination of both will forever be at the performance mercy of the agency. There isn't a single agency or vendor out there that can be 100% effective 100% of the time. There are too many staff, technology AND time limitations.

How can a dealership become proficient when they outsource all of their marketing? What incentive does an agency or vendor have to perform the best possible job, performed at the most efficient level?

Your hired agency or vendor doesn't feel the excitement of a barn burner month nor the disappointment of a failed month. That's a feeling shared only by you and your peers at the dealership. And maybe that is a good thing - at least I think it is.

The purpose of this blog is not to shit on vendors and agencies. No. Instead it is to preach the tried and true benefits of what is possible when a dealership decides to get off the bench and into the game.

This is a call to arms for all of you dealers out there who are not taking an active role in the success of your dealership. Dealers - [Tweet "we need to stop looking to outsource our marketing and begin devising long term strategies to successfully in-source it"]. Let me describe what I believe will be a familiar scenario (especially, for you Nissan folk out there).
It's the 15th day of the month.
Sales have been slow, but steady.
Your Nissan rep sends you an early morning email which you read right after the sales meeting concludes.
The subject line is as follows: Just Announced! $500 dollar last week of the month only rebates on New 15' Altima and Sentra models.
What is your next move?

If you're like some, you start calling your marketing people to let them know that they need edit or build a new Adwords campaign, update the website banners that compliment the need to send email campaign. For most dealers - I doubt this is one call. Very few agencies offer a 360 degree approach to digital marketing. If they do, it's not likely they are strong across all channels.  And if you're on the other side of the fence, you most likely call your BDC manager and ask him or her to update the home page slideshow.

Neither of these approaches are going to get the urgent results you are seeking. This is why education NOW is mission critical to your dealerships' future success.

Here are 5 ways to get proficient at dealer digital marketing on the cheap and quick:



1. Find Partners, Not Solutions or Providers

You need to work with agencies and vendors that educate you, not just give you fish. You need to learn to fish for yourself. They should be working with you - not for you. You need to understand what they are doing. Why they are doing it. And, most importantly what is it doing for you.



2. Find a Mentor(s)!

I can not preach enough the benefits of knowing and befriending a subject matter authority in progressing your understanding and eventual expertise in regards to digital marketing. In fact I am going to use this opportunity to thank a few of the many great resources that have helped me on my career/ professional journey.

Thank you Justin Brun, Brian Pasch, Glenn Pasch, Renee Stuart and, of course, Jeff Kershner... I guess he's ok too...



3. Get Edu-MUH-Cated

There are many great non-automotive specific online resources out there. Like: Lynda.com, W3.org, and even reddit can supply a wealth of great info about HTML, CSS, JS, and even Adwords. Or you could use the already great resource you're using, like right here - DEALERREFRESH.

A lot of great take aways can be found in the leagues of content produced by subject matter experts. Brian Pasch's company PCG offers online training for dealers on topics and technologies in high demand.



4. Build an Internal Team

There is so much good that can come from building and managing a team of professional marketers. For one, you can open up the eyes of a recent college grad or even high school intern to the very misunderstood, lucrative, and fun business of car dealerships. But this doesn't mean you should simply put up help wanted posters on school bulletin board. Take them time to interview, screen, hire, and most importantly train and mentor anyone you intend to rely on for your digital or even traditional marketing efforts of the future.



5. Test and Scrutinize Everything

Dealers need to be taught to QA (quality assure) everything they do. Whether it's an Adwords ad, email campaign, even website graphics. Just because "it's done, doesn't mean it's done right"!

Have a second set of eyes look over everything - you could even post an email campaign idea on the dealerrefresh forum - this is a great way to improve your efforts and learn from the trials of other dealers around the country. Use tools like Adword's Ad preview and diagnosis to see how your SEM ads look in context with other dealers' ads and to confirm you show for the terms you're most focused on.

However you start, and those five items were listed in no real order, get in gear. You need to come off of the bench and get into the game. Stop being reliant and become resourceful. Start in-sourcing. Ask questions. And, always QA.

As my youngest son’s school Halloween Harvest event is this week I thought it only natural to buy the costume Monday evening. Turns out Target didn’t have his Avengers Ultron costume size M, but what they did have that caught my eye was a bright yellow round smiley face Emoji costume.

Turns out Emojis don’t just catch my eye they catch, nearly everyone’s eye. You have to admit you’re guilty of adding a or a here and there. Maybe you even extend into more. I often send my son running emojis #truth.

I didn’t think there would be a time when there would marketing success data around emojis, but who am I kidding - of course there is. We are working, playing and thriving in a mobile first world. According to recent reports Emojis are not only used by us in daily conversations in text messages and emails, but also in professional settings.



Emogi found that more than seven in 10 said they used them because they helped users to accurately express what they were thinking. Nearly 65% said emojis also made it easier for people to understand them.

Benefits of using Emojis:

Connect on an Emotional Level:
Statistics can’t lie. This is how people are communicating.  When surveyed 9 in 10 people said they used Emojis.

Email Subject Line Success:
What do a school bus, a snowflake and a dollar sign have in common? Only insane open rates, that’s what! Just be sure you test it first to be sure to works on your email list.

Ease of Communication:
Sing it!- “If you wanna be passive aggressive you can be passive aggressive….”
Nothing makes it easier to ask a customer to come in before you leave for the night than adding an emoji at the end of a sentence

My happened shortly after I couldn’t find an Avengers Ultron costume size M. It was no worries, though, because I ordered it off Amazon as I was standing in Target convincing my kid to put down the large axe and move on.

At 9:15 am on Tuesday morning, join Jeff Kershner and a panel of leading industry greats as moderator Joe Webb takes us through today's hot topics.

Set up like a political debate, but less crying in the back alleys, and one of the highlights of the entire conference, the DrivingSales Executive Summit Digital Debates bring in top experts in the field to spit fire and expound entertainingly on topics such as websites, process, marketing, and dealership operations.

Luckily, Joe knows how to handle these folks and will hit all the hard questions and keep things on track.

This is a can not miss.

What digital debate questions would you have Joe ask the panel? If you tweet me I have the secret ability to get those questions answered. As of today. Right now, in fact.

Be sure to sit up front.

If you agree that Tesla Motors is a smart company, like'm or not.. keep reading. If not, I doubt you get too excited about this.  

Have you recently been on teslamotors? I was and I took notice to something. Simplicity. An image, 4 calls to action (CTA), one promotional statement, and a few navigation links at the top.

4 CTA:

• Order
  
• Test Drive
  
• Apply for Leasing
  
• Value My Trade-In

1 Promotional:

• $575/mo after gas savings

No pop-ups. No drop-down menus. Nothing. Can this actually work? Count and compare the number, types of CTAs and promotional statements on an average dealership website. How does that compare to Tesla?

Tesla has distilled their customer's online experience down to provide the most important answers to their customers most important questions. If you think about it, there really aren't a lot of questions.

So, I took it one step further and in the annual update to our own Google Consumer Survey, we asked consumers quite simply, “When visiting an auto dealership’s website, what services would you value?”

See below for our most recent results…



Fortunately, all that time and effort putting inventory online is appreciated by a majority of our survey audience. Similar to last year's results, other options break-down.

So, the question here is: how efficient is your website at providing the answers to these questions? Or is your website causing potential issues in matching your in-store processes to what you represent on your website?

No one wants to book a service appointment online, only to show up and find that you're appointment was never placed on the schedule. Or the cost for the 40k mile service is $60.00 more than what's listed online. Even worse is when you try to book your service appointment online and it takes you over 5 minutes to get half way through the online process. You get to the final confirmation page and there's a conflict with mobile browsers, sending you back to the beginning to start all over again.

Use that same logic when considering and adding a new tool to your website... like an online appraisal tool. The trade appraisal process always ends with an in-store conversation. Is your online trade appraisal process setting the stage for that conversation or is it inviting an unnecessary debate over a value and credibility of its source?

In the end we’ve all seen the trend of simple is better and that is what Tesla is showing us.  They are certainly a different car company but their customers are very much the same as ours. I’m also here to tell you that Tesla has room to improve. I clicked on their trade-in valuation CTA, only supported by a form fill which was rather disappointing, and then received a call telling me “it’s best to do this at the store”.

Yes, I’ve put a call in to Tesla to improve that .

As we see online retail processes/systems/tools emerging on the market today and certainly part of our future, what things are you doing on your website or in the store to support the inevitable in-store conversation.

Is this simple approach the way to go? Or, the pop ups, chats and 17 clicks to a VDP have numbed our consumers to accept that in the dealership world?

[highlight color="#CCE6FF" font="black"]I challenge you to stop and have this conversation with Brice in StartUp Alley at DSES. If you do, Brice will hand you one of his sweeeet TRADEPENDING Tshirt's (it fits in all the right places). Then, throw that bad boy on and get your picture taken with it on. After DSES we'll be showcasing all these pics on the blog. - Kershner[/highlight]

You’re cordially invited to my Driving Sales Executive Summit 2015 breakout presentation, entitled...Haters Gonna Hate: When Reputation Management Gets Personal.

It will take place this coming Monday at 10:05-10:45 AM, and I’ll be opening my personal playbook to show what I’ve learned in my 2.5 years as Wichita’s most recognizable commercial personality.

I will absolutely cram the session with as many case studies and actionable information as the allotted 35 minutes will allow, but felt it would be helpful to help you come prepared to the session by showing you some videos and links that we won’t have time to examine in-depth.

Super Car Guys advertising sticks out. A lot. Ask anyone in the lower half of Kansas who we are and you’ll get a strong reaction one way or the other. Not much in between. In the formative 2.5 years we’ve been doing this, we’ve had the good kinds of challenges—the challenges that explosive growth brings. Finding the right hires for the new locations we’ve opened, keeping our lots stocked with top quality inventory, that sort of thing.

Here’s a recent example of one of our ads:

[youtube id="f3fw_m9GxD0"]

As you can imagine, these ads are a lot of fun to make. My wife helps me construct the props out of styrofoam, spray paint, and gorilla glue (there isn’t much you can’t make out of those three things), and the hundreds of customers who honor us with their business each month are able to recall many months’ worth of campaigns, oftentimes word for word.

But here’s a Shocker (Wichita State pun intended): not everyone likes our advertising. Sometimes they even express their often strong dislike of our advertising on social media.

Sometimes the language even looks like this:



Yep. Be still, my millennial feelings.

I’d be lying to you if I said this never bothered me, and I’d be lying even more if I tried to convince you that I’ve somehow “arrived” at the place where words like this don’t affect me at all. I’ve come a long way, mind you, but the truth is—words can hurt. In the case above, I couldn’t help but stop what I was doing and think about the safety of my family. Wouldn’t you?

On the internet, there seems to be an unspoken competition to see who can “out-nasty” one another. I get it—sentiments of mild irritation rarely inspire retweets. However—it is a mistake to treat feedback of this nature as “the public telling you what they want.” Instead, I’ve chosen to use this as an opportunity to establish myself as a local authority on reputation management and to do some good. You could say I’m uniquely qualified. There is only one “Super Car Guy” in Wichita, after all.



I regularly speak around town about marketing and reputation management, which is something I’ve been encouraging dealers to do for years. Instead of dumping all of your ideas into the national dealer blog scene, where none of your potential customers are looking, why not fertilize your local community with the marketing knowledge your position entitles you to? Naturally, no one in your community will go to a breakfast networking mixer to listen to you talk about cars, but they will beat down the door to hear you talk about digital marketing, social media, and reputation management. Give it a try sometime.

We’ve recently had the honor of partnering with musician Jenny Wood to create a music video and anti-bullying PSA campaign using her song “Don’t Let Them Get in Your Head,” as the anthem. Check out the video—we’re all very proud of it:

[youtube id="onenDhQ-LS4"]

We’re also running this TV spot to encourage people to sign an anti-bullying pledge, which over 1500 people have done. Once the pledge has been signed, we send them a free wristband:

[youtube id="LGprlnpqMHw"]

Naturally, making this video allowed us to get out in the community and make new friends. The folks at Valley Center Intermediate School agreed to let us use their buildings and entire student body, which made for a meaningful experience for all of them. See this news segment about the day we took a drone into the school gym:

Jenny Wood / Super Car Guys team up to send anti-bullying message to Kansas kids from Douglas Hahn on Vimeo.

The positive press continued after we launched the campaign, as well, which afforded me an opportunity to get my personal message out on the airwaves:



High-energy advertising is a high-stakes proposition which has paid off BIG for us, and now, because of our prominence in the community, I’m proud to help use that influence for good.

Leave a comment below and let’s connect at DSES on Monday, October 19th. I’d love to hear your story.

[highlight color="#FFD699" font="black"]With so many great speakers and session at his years (2015) DSES, it's difficult to decide on which ones to attend. Well, if you've never had the opportunity watch Aaron and you're looking to dial in on your dealers branding, become memorable and conquer your market, DO NOT MISS Aaron's session. 

Monday, October 19th from 10:05-10:45AM 

You going to DSES? Let us know!! - Kershner[/highlight]