A few days ago a friend of mine shared an article with me all about being busy. At first I thought, “I’m too busy to read this article, is there a 30 second video?” But, I was fresh off a lengthy conversation with him about being pulled in too many directions and the inability to simply say, “no”, so I read the article.

And, every word rang true.

Like you, I’m balancing too many balls in the air and hoping that I drop not one. While I will admit I haven’t actually implemented anything in that article I read regarding being pulled in too many directions, being too busy and simply saying no – I am a lot more aware of it and I would like to think that leads to change.

Turns out I’m not alone. According to Harvard Business Review this is called the More Bubble. The More Bubble is just what it sounds like – how much more can you pack into your life until it burts? For many of us, stuffing ourselves full is about bragging and not so much about busy.

We are more aware than at any time in history of what everyone else is doing and, therefore, what we “should” be doing. In the process, we have been sold a bill of goods: that success means being supermen and superwomen who can get it all done. Of course, we back-door-brag about being busy: it’s code for being successful and important.

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Whatever will save our poor souls? Essentialists, that’s who. It’s hard to spot them in the wild – but, they can be seen enjoying another person’s company sans smartphone. Instead of scheduling a meeting, they schedule “blocked off” and get essential work done.

How do you become an essentialist you ask? Here are 4 steps (according to Harvard):

1. Quarterly Strategic Offsite Meetings:
When’s the last time someone walked into your office and said, “you got a minute?” and you said, “no”. I’m guessing somewhere between never and no way. You need to take your team and get out of Dodge and plan. If you want to be Harvard about it – you will take 3 hours every 3 months and write down 3 things you will accomplish in the next 3 months.
2. Sleep:
That’s all. Just sleep. When’s the last time you were in a meeting, rubbed your eyes, yawned and then looked around the room asking for someone to get you some Starbucks because Good Lord you only got 4 hours of sleep last night working on that project? That’s called a humblebrag and it makes you go bald. Stop doing it.
3. Not every event is “your” event:
Traditions are in place for a reason, no one is arguing with that. However, if you go to a fun event and had a great time no one is looking to make it a monthly reoccurring thing. Smile, thank your host and go home to get that sleep you so desperately need (see above).
4. Say No to a good opportunity:
I’m not one to argue (bahahaha, sure I am) but this is a tough one to swallow. We have to learn to say no, simple as that. Maybe, you’re saying no to the lazy coworker who wants you to pick up her slack. Possibly, you’re saying no to your kids who want a reward for no hard work. Potentially, you’re saying no to the opportunity to play golf with the execs on the Saturday your kid has a big game. Pick your battles, but learn to say no.

Because after all, today when I was replying to a PTA mom’s email regarding a fundraiser I am chairing I caught myself adding, “we need to grab coffee while the boys have a play date.” To which she replied, “ The earliest I have open is the morning of Dec. 13th, how does that work?”

Maybe I should send her the article.

Latest HOT Topic in the Forums

Latest HOT Topic in the Forums

“Today, the fight to convince automotive shoppers to buy from you is won and lost on the digital battlefield.”

This is a statement frequently made by Mike Hills, General Manager at Acton Toyota of Littleton, one of the most successful and progressive Toyota dealerships in the country.

We hope and trust all of you out there reading are in full agreement with Mike’s belief. If not, please realize the only time Mike made a mistake was when he incorrectly thought he had made a mistake, but in reality, hadn’t. We’d also refer you to a recent study from DMEautomotive to convince you Mike’s right on the money.

The DMEautomotive study reveals that overall car buyers only visit 2.2 dealerships to make a purchase. This study confirms similar research from McKinsey which found car buyers visit just 1.6% dealerships before buying- plummeting from 5 just a decade ago. That’s right. In just 10 years the average number of dealership visits for a car purchase decreased by well over 50%.



Ultimately, if you’re not differentiating your store and your brand from your competition online you stand little chance of persuading a shopper to buy from you. And, please always remember- If you’re not a brand, you’re simply a commodity.

So, what’s the best way, then, to knock car shoppers flat with a great first impression of your dealership and Why Buy? The answer is video.

A recent eMarketer poll finds that shoppers themselves are very receptive, enthusiastic really, to branded videos. In fact, 59% of US adult internet users say they watched branded videos when they visited a brand’s website. 40% of respondents even favored watchingsuch content over reading the same information.

Click on the Why Buy logos below to view two highly successful videos for our clients, Acton Toyota of Littleton and Stadium Toyota in Tampa, FL.



Once you have a great Why Buy page supported by good customer testimonials you need to ensure both have a strong presence throughout your entire website, especially on your most highly visited pages.

All too often, both a dealership Why Buy message and customer testimonials are buried under the “About Us” tab where there’s little, to no traffic, on any given month. Doing this severely limits the likelihood you’ll successfully communicate your unique competitive advantage and persuade site visitors that you’re the right place to buy a car. Therefore, your Why Buy Message and customer testimonials demand prominent placement on your site’s most highly trafficked pages.

Perhaps the most effective and highly visible area to promote your Why Buy message and customer testimonials is on your VDPs. After experimenting and testing multiple locations for a Why Buy message on the VDP, we had the greatest success with placing the message in the area directly above the vehicle photographs.

 



 



 

A quick tip with customer testimonials. We’ve found by placing department specific testimonials on their respective pages, we were able to deliver the most relevant endorsement at the right time. For instance, if a customer is visiting your Service Department landing page, wouldn’t they be more inclined to choose your dealership for vehicle maintenance if they’re reading how exceptional your staff and facility is?

And, once that online car shopper decides to finally visit your dealership it’s essential you again reinforce your Why Buy message with prominent in-store signage and point of sale material. The moment that car shopper walks through your showroom doors it’s another opportunity for your dealership to make a great first impression. Make it really count and leave them little to no reason not to buy from you.

Having a coordinated and consistent Why Buy message across all marketing channels (traditional and digital) including in-store, builds trust, the critical element needed to make a sale. Do you have this in place?


 

 

At most dealerships in North America, there is a huge gap in the free time available to people in different roles. Some people such as General Managers and eCommerce Directors could probably count the free minutes they get in a day on one hand. Other roles seem to have a hard time staying busy at all.

When I sold cars, the salespeople often fell into the category of those who had plenty of free time. Many would sit around waiting for the next up. Things have changed and many dealerships keep their salespeople busy with follow-up, online prospecting, training, and logistic activities. That's not every dealership, but it should be. Before I get into the meat of this article, let me say that there is plenty to do in the digital age rather than waiting aimlessly for the next up over a cup of coffee and discussion about last night's game. If you still have idle salespeople, fixing that is the first step.

Now, let's talk about your time...If you're reading this, chances are you are an internet manager, sales manager, eCommerce director, GM, DP, or someone who has a vested interest in improving your dealership's profit and your own performance. If you're not in one of those roles and you're reading this, chances are you should be in one of those roles. Send this article to your GM and let them know that you're keeping up with the latest and greatest on Dealer Refresh. The promotion will be on its way.

At the dealership, I cherished my time. I protected it. I looked for any ways to make performing my responsibilities more efficient. There was always more to do and it was challenging to keep up with everything that was thrown at me. It's for this reason that I wonder why so many people, particularly internet managers and eCommerce directors, still tell vendors, "I can do that myself."

Of course you can. There are very few things that any vendor can offer that cannot be accomplished manually by a dealership employee. There are dealers who have built their own CRMs, website platforms, and PPC management tools. Just because you can doesn't mean that you should. Some things are better handled by people at the dealership. Other things are better handled through tools or services. When determining whether a tool or service is a good investment, you shouldn't just ask whether or not you can do it yourself. You should ask whether or not the investment into the tool or service is going to save you a sufficient amount of time to justify the cost.

Dealers are getting much better at looking at the return on investment of a product, but it's usually only viewed as a quotient of cost versus reward. A true calculation of ROI must include the time-saving factor of the product. Only then can you get a real understanding of whether or not the cost is worthwhile. Your time is valuable. Spend it wisely.

Let's take a look at some of the time-saving tools or services that I would invest in if I were at a dealership today.

PPC Advertising

In 2006, I opened my first Adwords account and started running search ads for my dealership. I was forced into the situation because the dealership had only allocated $300 per month. I had to dive in to make the most out of it if I had any chance of convincing the skeptical DP that Google could help us sell more cars.

I read blog posts, went through the tutorials (they were terrible back then but exceptional today), and experimented. By the end of it, I was competent at best.

Today, I have much more skill, understanding, and strategic grasp of Adwords and I would definitely outsource it to a specialist. As long as there's a decent budget involved, the cost to have a company like Dealer.com or Showroom Logic doing your PPC management is normally well-worth it. One needs to watch the management costs, of course, but if it's reasonable and associated with good customer service, it's much better than trying to do it manually.

Are there dealers who can manage it themselves? Absolutely! I know one in particular whose expertise makes them more effective than any vendor without much time spent on it. However, this particular dealer is the exception.

Craigslist

First and foremost, Craigslist is better today than it was when it was free. I'll have that debate with anyone who doesn't believe it. The reduction of automation spam and the longevity of the ads makes them better at $5.

Unfortunately, the cost has made many dealers determined to "save" money by posting to Craigslist manually. This is a bad idea. It's not consistent. Manual posts normally don't look as good. Most importantly, it can easily become a hassle to the point that it doesn't get done at all. With easy and inexpensive tools like LotVantage out there, dealers can get much more bang for their buck by saving time while still getting the posts out regularly.

Reputation Management

Now we're getting into some controversial territory. I could make a very valid argument for the fact that dealers should be handling their own reputation management. They should be contacting their customers, both sales and service, and discussing their experience. They should be encouraging them to leave reviews on the various review sites to help spread the word about their experience. It doesn't take much time, especially if everything is done through email and with scripts.

With that said, I would still encourage dealers to use reputation management solutions like Dominion. Just like with Craigslist, it's a consistency issue. This has to be done. It cannot be overlooked. You can't take a break. You can't get too busy to make it happen. Every customer's satisfaction must be checked and the most successful dealers in our industry take this issue very seriously. They want to know about every bad experience and they want to make sure their happy customers are posting publicly.

If your dealership has dedicated some BDC bandwidth to the process, then I can see a dealership doing it themselves. If it's someone in the internet department trying to remember to pull the emails from the day, week, or (gulp) month so they can send form emails and check off the box, then it's better to hire a company to do it.

Content Marketing

I wasn't going to include this since it's technically self-serving, but it's too important to leave out. I'll recuse my company from the recommendation and tell dealers that you should hire one or more content specialists for the dealership. They don't have to be full-time, though that would be nice. One might say, "but that's not outsourcing", and it's not. However, I want to make it clear that this role should not be someone at the dealership who has other duties. I'd rather see you pay a professional writer to post on your behalf regularly rather than having someone in the BDC write an occasional blog post or start posting a batch of 4 iPhone videos in between the 5-month lulls on your YouTube channel.

So many aspects of modern automotive digital marketing revolve around high-quality content. SEO, social media, PR, brand exposure - they're all tied directly into a dealership's ability to post high-quality content in abundance. I won't go into too much detail because most of you already know this and it would its own blog post to go over the specifics for those who do not.

Chat

More controversy. I'm ready for the hateful comments. Yes, I'm a proponent of managed chat. Even if you have the right people manning the chat for you during the day, it's important to have a backup chat operator at night.

Chat is not an art. It's not like speaking to someone face-to-face. The vast majority of chats revolve around the same basic topics and the science behind chat scripts makes me a firm believer that a good service like CarChat24 will yield better results than doing it yourself. Some say that chat is a waste, but with the rise of mobile and the necessity to communicate with potential buyers through the methods that they find most comfortable, I don't believe that anyone should dismiss it. Many do, even people here on Dealer Refresh, but to me it's something that plays an important role on your website.

Email Marketing

For once, I don't have a solution I would recommend. I do know this: dealers should not be doing their own email marketing, even if it's through their CRM.

This will probably be another one that ruffles feathers, but there are too many nuances surrounding proper email marketing that requires specialists. Wording, format, servers, targeting, appending, purging - it can be a mess if handled improperly. The biggest risk with email marketing that many dealers have had to deal with is getting blacklisted by the various spam filtering services out there. Believe it or not, it's much easier to get blacklisted than most people know and when it happens, it can affect the way you do operate your business.

Time is More Valuable than Money

Our industry is loaded with wasted talent. So many people at dealerships are not able to do the most productive activities that can benefit their dealerships the most because they have too much on their plate that could be handled by others. We all have to deal with budgets that are not what they should be. We all have to cover for people who get sick, go on vacation, or leave the company.

When I debated Ralph Paglia at DSES last year, I knew I had no chance of winning. It wasn't because Ralph is such an incredible orator. It wasn't because I'm such a bad debater. I knew I would lose because I was tasked with arguing to a group of savvy dealers about why they should outsource a good chunk of their work rather than doing it all in-house. As dealers, we do not want to rely on anyone. We aren't the ones who want to watch from the sidelines. We want to be in the game and we better get handed the ball or we'll get mad. It's in our DNA to want to take charge of situations. That's what makes our industry so great.

Those who are able to put aside our type-A personalities for long enough to realize that there are better uses for our time than configuring email servers or manually inputting negative keywords into Adwords are the ones who can focus on the high-value activities that deserve our attention.

Money is important, but your time is precious. Don't let menial tasks take any of it away from you.

Do you feel there are other areas at the dealership that should be outsourced rather than done in-house?

Is it better to rely on yourself and others at the dealership rather than using vendor specialists?

Every work place has their own Halloween like scares. The dealership is no different. Here are just a few scary things at the dealership or in the dealer world. What's spooks you at your dealership?

The General Managers Desk, or there lack of...



Wearing the same clothes from the night before...



The Lot in the HOT Summer heat...



Dirty Diapers left in a Trade-in



Those wonderful heavy snow drifts...



What are the scariest things at your dealership? We want to see and hear all about it! Show and tell over in the forums!

I normally don't read a printed newspaper unless I'm traveling on the road and pickup a free copy at the United Club or at a hotel. I prefer to read my news online. I visit CNN.com, FoxNews.com, CNBC.com, or Yahoo.com to see what is happening around the globe. Regardless of which online news service you visit, have you noticed how many stories are exclusively video links on the home page?

Take a look at the FoxNews.com homepage below. I have added orange stars where a video story is displayed on their open page. There are 21 video stories on the home page for this day!



Video Wasn't Added By Accident

Websites like FoxNews.com generate revenue from advertising. News websites are keenly aware of their visitor metrics and user feedback. Videos would not have need added on Fox News, to such a high degree, if consumers were not playing and enjoying the videos. The videos would not have been added if they were not generating more advertising revenue for the website.

News websites have acknowledged and have created content for consumers who are auditory and visual learners. There are many consumers who would rather watch a video to get updated with the latest news rather than reading text. In fact, when a consumer is on the go, video makes it easy to catch news on a train, bus, or in the back of a cab.

What type of learner are you?

If you wanted to learn about the different types of home mortgages, that could save money, would you rather read an 800-word article or watch a 2 minute video?

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Are You Ignoring Auditory and Visual Learners?

If the top news websites cater to auditory and visual learners, why wouldn't car dealers? Unfortunately, most car dealer websites have all their primary selling messages, product presentations, and frequent services presented in text.

Google research has indicated that auto shoppers find video the MOST helpful type of media when shopping for a car.  Video drives consumers to take action, and in some cases, moves them to visit the dealer's showroom:



To be fair, stock vehicle videos, created by the manufacturer, can be found on some dealership websites.  However, I would rather see a video created by the dealership. Custom videos give a local auto shopper an opportunity to connect with the "passion" of the dealership about the cars that they sell.

Consumers come to a dealership's website for many reasons. Those visits could be enhanced with videos to cater to visual and auditory learners that want to learn about financing, leasing, your service process, extended warranty programs, your trade-in process, and why they should do business with you!

I have never found a sexy way to explain the benefits of an extended warranty plan, in text.  However, I could make a great video explaining the benefits of such a plan using visual aides and graphics in a video.

Service is a great area to add videos because most service pages have content that is boring. Imagine the value a dealer would be offering if their top 10 services were explained in separate videos and placed on attracting website pages. Not only would these separate pages be an opportunity for social media syndication, they would allow the dealership to create a nice video menu page explaining their services.

Video Marketing Is Not New

Video marketing discussions are not new on DealerRefresh. However, if dealers considered that their websites are NOT meeting the needs of auditory and visual learners, it might cause them to prioritize their marketing investments to move video higher on the list. Dealers wonder why only 2% of website visitors will submit a lead form.

Maybe another aspect of that low conversion is that dealers never thought about the possibility that a large percentage of consumers are not connecting with our "boring" text content.

Could the lack of video communication and education be one of the last big website blunders that auto automotive industry has yet to correct?

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What are the key "stories" you want local car shoppers to know about your dealership? Get those stories into video and place them on your website this month.

What are you waiting for?

Excitement filled the air as we boarded the plane for another trip to the strip for the Driving Sales Executive Summit.  This event continually amazes us each year with Driving Sales recruiting some of the most progressive speakers in the space coming out to reveal industry innovations and collaborate with a wide variety of outstanding peers on the future of the automotive industry. Primed and ready to learn, collaborate and have some fun we snaked through the immense halls of the Bellagio and DSES once again did not disappoint.

Written by Josh Knutson, AutoMotion


With re-nowned keynotes including Jared Hamilton, Brian Solis, Bryan Eisenberg, Rand Fishkin, Mike Hudson, Jack Simmons, Florian Zettelmeyer, Adam Justis and 30 break out speakers there was no shortage of quality content. The automotive industry is on the verge of some huge changes and DSES revealed some exceptional insights on where, why and how we are getting to the next level.

Mobile Is Taking Over Our Industry

As many of us know mobile is drastically changing our industry and DSES definitely spent a considerable amount of effort placing a strong importance on the topic. Login to view embedded media View: https://twitter.com/FisherBre/status/521696350250237952

"Consumers expect to be catered to via mobile, sometimes mobile is the only place they will find you." With, “25%of people using ONLY their Smartphone to conduct research prior to visiting a dealership” – Ben Anderson

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The relevance of being on the consumer's preferred device is drastically changing automotive marketing and shopping.Making mobile a priority within all dealership functions pre and post purchase, online and in-store is essential for staying progressive and prominent to our clients.

"More than half of shoppers who used their Smartphone for research on a dealer lot visited additional dealerships as a result of the information found on their device."

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It is not only how they are connecting with us but also how they are disconnecting with us. Making sure you have a strong mobile presence, strategy  and connection method in place to create lasting relationships pre and post sale is essential in your sales, service and marketing strategies.
Mobile Sessions Included:

• Ben Anderson: The Showrooming Customer: Mobile strategies to combat the effects of showrooming at your dealership

• Jeff Kershner: Mobile Workflow and the Showroom Process of the Future: Why and How This New Trend of Consumer Shopping is Affecting Your Sales Floor

• Adam Flegge: Modern Dialogue: An inside look at dealership texting strategies

• Eric Miltsch:How Wearable Tech Will Change The Way Dealers Market and Connect With Their Customers

"Mobile isn't a device, it's a mindset, a behavior." @emiltsch



And, where are the majority of consumers looking? Mobile Apps

Lets talk about that mobile app. DSES rolled out a fresh mobile app for this year's conference. We personally thought the app was well done and helped organize everything into a manageable platform to help ease the rapid pace many of us are moving at thorough-out the event.



DSES Conference Mobile App

What did you think of the app? Did you use it at the event and what aspect was most helpful?

Auto-Marketing Is Moving... FAST


Adam Justis from Adobe revealed some awesome insights on just how drastically marketing is changing; especially in our industry. The process and rate at which we now consume content is immense. The automotive shopper has access to huge amounts of product information, reviews and paths to purchase that overshadow many other industries. The rise of technology has created countless digital marketing outlets over the past few years with dealers having to satisfy a massive variety of people, platforms and devices.



Your Staff = Your Success

Employees make your business. Creating a great team with progressive practices creates strong business. Car salespeople have a renowned high turn-over rate, taking the time to create a culture that excites and motivates employees goes a long way to dealership wide retention and success. Customer experience is also more important than ever, with the average millennial now visiting an average 10.1 sites per search. When the consumer finally arrives at your dealership you have 1 shot to make a lasting impression. Giving your staff the tools, training and management needed to succeed directly correlates to your bottom line, if your staff isn't happy neither are you customers...


Karbaum Is Full Of Good Ideas

Robert Karbaum won his second DSES Best Idea Contest with his YouTube Postal Service Idea.Responding to clients using specific YouTube videos creates a whole new personalized method of communication; and in a world full of never ending emails this is something that will defintiley make you stand out from the competition.

AutoMotion and DealerRefresh Take Over the Vdara Penthouse:

Hosting a happy hour Monday night, a wide variety of industry professionals joined the AutoMotion and DealerRefresh teams at the beautiful Vdara penthouse suite. Overlooking the world renowned Las Vegas strip, the view was nothing short of amazing and is something that will be imprinted in our minds for some time to come.  We always love the ability to connect people from various parts of the industry and cohesively discuss the future of automotive. A great night was had and we would like to extend a huge thank you to all who attended! Overall this is hands down one of the best events of the year. The insights, connections and setting were all top notch and provided a wide range of inspiring ideas that spread cross industry. Thank you again to Jared Hamilton and the entire Driving Sales team for all their hard work and making the event one we will soon not forget. Can't wait till next year! Did you attend DSES? How did you feel the conference went overall? What was the best thing you took away?

For the first time in seven years, I'm walking away from the fall conference season with a feeling of complete and utter hope for our industry.

Never before have I seen so many dealers who were truly engaged with the speakers and each other. It's as if we've hit a turning point where skepticism and confusion have been replaced by knowledge and understanding. I learned more from exchanging ideas with dealers than with other vendors.

There was one negative component that still reared its ugly head as it seems to do every conference season. The fallacy of "secret sauce" getting peddled by vendors is still ever-present. This needs to change and dealers have the power to make it happen.

Today, there's really no such thing as secret sauce. Nobody has a magic incantation they can chant over their software that gives their dealers a competitive advantage. In this day and age, we must demand transparency in the what and the how. It's no longer acceptable to take someone's word on it as they hide behind the facade of "proprietary" this or "top secret" that.

I'm not suggesting that vendors need to open up their software code for others to duplicate. I simply want vendors to show their dealers what they're doing to achieve the desired results and how their actions are making it happen.

When a company says that they use proprietary technology to drive traffic, increase leads, or generate sales, it scares me. What could they possibly be doing that's so secret that if others knew about it their whole model would crumble?

Websites are websites. Some are better than others, but nobody has a hidden backdoor to drive more traffic to it from search engines. Nobody is generating more leads through a hypnotic set of flashes that forces people to leave their name and phone number. Nobody is using the magic code that projects inventory directly into people's brains.

There are only three reasons that any product or service would be so secretive that dealers need to simply accept that they'll work:

1. It's using techniques that are against someone's rules (Google, Facebook, OEM, FTC, etc)
   
2. It is completely commonplace and other vendors or even dealers themselves could duplicate what they're doing for at a much lower cost
   
3. It's snake oil

Thankfully, the majority of vendors who have pitched their product to me over the last year, over 70 of them for whom I've taken notes, have streamlined and opened up their presentations to be able to answer the hard questions about what they do. The most important question that I ask (and the one that dealers should always ask their vendors) is..."What is it about your product/service that would keep another vendor or a dealer from doing exactly what you're doing?"

Depending on the product or service, there are plenty of right answers to this question, including:

• "We've accumulated the data through testing that guides the decisions we've made about the direction of the product."
  
• "The software alone took over 6-months to build and we're constantly improving it."
  
• "Our experts have been performing these tasks constantly for a long time and their experience is worth the cost."
  
• "We support our dealers in ways that would be challenging for you to do on your own based upon your time constraints."
  
• "Nothing."

That last one is the one you'll rarely hear, but it's actually the most truthful in most situations.

Let's look at pay-per-click search advertising, for example. Anyone can do the online training and become an expert at Google Adwords relatively quickly and at a very low cost. They could manually manage their campaigns through the native Google Adwords software and achieve equal or better results than the PPC providers. However, it takes time and effort. In the vast majority of the circumstances at dealerships, the $1000 or so dollars spent on management and automation is worth the investment because of the time saved and consistency of automation, particularly with dynamic ads.

When something is considered so proprietary that the vendor cannot go into the details of what they do that's working and why it's so effective, I get worried. Expertise, quality of work, proper customer service, saving time or money - these are valid reasons to work with a vendor.

"Secret sauce" is not.

You say you want a revolution

Well, you know

We all want to change the world

You tell me that it's evolution

Well, you know

We all want to change the world

--Beatles

One Price...Is it Coming, or Not?

The short answer is yes, and it may not be as scary as you think.

It seems that we’ve been talking about a revolution in automotive retail for a long time. One-price car shopping. Salespeople as order-takers. Whole teams of dealership employees left to do little more than collect leads from a computer and process financing.

By some accounts, the revolution would be a total online shift to selling a car on a website or mobile device. In this vision, the future is as simple as point, click and drive.

Hmmm. But, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Maybe, the revolution is actually more an evolution, a progression of systems and processes driven by digital innovation. Consumers want a one-price scheme, make no mistake, but they also need that all-important human touch and dialogue about value, features and options. It would be hard to imagine making a $40,000 decision without it, right?

Your business thrives on making that connection, and it also needs the more efficient approach made possible by digital retailing. Just think about how you sold cars in the “old days,” and ask yourself one question: In the here and now, could I still compete?

That answer is NO – not by a country mile.

The evolution of car buying is happening because online tools are critically important given the pace and complexity of today’s auto business. It’s more efficient to shift many research and buying tasks online. It costs less, results in better lead to sales conversion and arguably gives dealership sales teams more information about the car buyer.

And here’s an interesting bit of news: so far, many one-price strategies have increased transaction prices.

Today it’s more about finding the right type of digital tool to put in your dealership’s tool belt, one that gets the right car to the right buyer, at a fair price in through a pleasant experience. That’s an evolution of efficiency and improved business practices.

Indeed, think of the changes in automotive retailing by way of three segments:

1. Online Retailing: The consumer does most of the work around selecting a car, arranging financing and establishing a price.
   
2. Showroom Sales and Delivery: Dealership experts work with consumers to finalize their purchase and ensure a happy and friendly experience.
   
3. Service and Nurture: By extending the relationship into service, dealership employees create a personal relationship that leverages digital tools to deliver service and relationship management.

Buying a car is not the same as buying a washer. It will always be about creating an emotional connection to the brand, the dealership and even the car itself. Whether that experience comes about via “one price,” it’s the experience that matters – and consumers are asking that more of that experience happen via digital tools and at their convenience. It’s a win-win proposition because at the end of the day those digital tools are the very way sales and service professionals can continue to form those bonds of trust and credibility, long into the future.

Question(s)

What digital tools have you implemented at your dealership in order to help evolve and improve efficiencies and the consumer experience?

Do you think your sales price per car would increase or decrease with a one-price scheme?

In recent months there has been a renewed effort by some of the largest automotive software providers to entice dealers to sign enterprise business agreements. These contracts bundle products and services to offer considerable savings to dealers who are willing to standardize on the vendor’s product suite.

The largest software companies serving franchise automotive dealers include CDK Global, Cox Automotive, Dealertrack Technologies, Dominion Dealer Solutions, and Reynolds & Reynolds. Some of these companies offer dealers a complete operating platform that includes the DMS, CRM, Inventory Management, Websites, Desking, F&I, and Fixed Operations software while others have a few key software pieces to offer.

Is an enterprise software agreement practical for finicky auto dealers? Could forcing the dealer to abandon a “best of breed” solution from their current multi-vendor configuration negate any potential savings of an enterprise contract?

The answer will vary based on the dealership’s needs and their vendor partner. However, this is a conversation that dealers should be having with their management teams before signing enterprise or strategic marketing agreements.

The Software Is Not Ready

It is my position that our industry is not ready for enterprise software licenses. Let me build my case by first addressing the “stickiness” of popular software products used by franchise auto dealers. I will define stickiness to be the time any one software product stays in the dealership before it is replaced by a competing solution.

To simplify the discussion, I will focus on the three main pillars of the dealership’s sales and marketing automation: the DMS, CRM, and their dealership website software.

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Dealers rarely switch Dealer Management Software (DMS), which is a customized financial accounting system integrated with their manufacturer and service drive. If a dealer changes their DMS, it might be changed every 10 years. Dealers also hate to change their CRM software, because they have to retrain their staff.

If a dealer changes their CRM it might be considered every 3-5 years. It could be shorter if a new General Manager (GM) comes into the dealership with a specific CRM experience from their previous employer. In these cases, the decision to change CRM can happen on the first week that the new GM is in place.

Dealership websites have the least stickiness; influenced in part by exclusive OEM website requirements. Dealers have demonstrated their willingness to change their website platform every 1-2 years. These changes can based on quantitative data that reveals that they can do better with another website provider.

In many cases, changes to website provider occur from a 20 Group testimonial or just a great demo at a trade show. So much for website vendor loyalty!

The reason why dealers are so fickle with their websites is easy to understand. The cost of a dealership website, on a monthly basis, is really quite low. The average dealership website runs $1,200 a month. Since the cost of the website is so low, if a website provider is late to market with critical website technology, it is easy for a dealer to break an enterprise agreement. They will be quick to insert a more competitive website, and more than likely, an advertising technology package matched to the website platform.

To the software company, losing a website contract is not an insignificant matter. The profits of the website are not substantial in the bigger picture. The larger prize is the advertising revenue generated by integrated advertising packages that drive traffic to a dealership’s website.

With direct fees charged to the dealer and financial incentives from Google, the cash flow from digital advertising is at risk when a company loses control of the website platform.

Products Without Stickiness Will Not Stay Bundled

If the largest automotive software companies are serious about creating true enterprise value, the missing ingredient to their recipe is tighter integration between their own products. There is no downside for a dealer to change their website platform when integration with their CRM and DMS is weak and/or presents no real value.

In many cases, there is also no downside to changing their CRM platform. This fact speaks to the state of software integration in the auto industry.

If software companies presented true innovation across their interconnected software products for DMS, CRM, Inventory, and Websites, dealers would be reluctant to switch to competing solutions. If the enterprise software package was really helping a dealer sell more cars, then dealers would be reluctant to change. If there were significant time savings with an enterprise software solution, dealers would be more reluctant to change. Right now, dealers are not seeing a clear value proposition from enterprise software agreements.

So why are dealers signing enterprise software and services contracts?

Good sales presentations and the inability for dealers to evaluate the integration claims made by their vendor partners. This is where dealers need to invite neutral third parties into the discussion that can be a technical advocate for the dealership.

Enterprise agreements need to come with a clear list a Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and a roadmap of when they will be realized, who will inspect them, and a fallback plan when the KPIs fail to improve.

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I believe that automotive software companies have been so focused on building a large portfolio of products that they have delayed the integration to make them sticky. This is their Achilles heel. This is also the next battleground for software providers. The winner of the battle will be determined not by a shiny new feature. The victor will deliver attractive, exclusive, and powerful innovation that is woven between individual software products.

Enterprise agreements will not hold water if the sum of the parts is not greater than the whole. Each piece of a software vendor’s portfolio must be competitively strong but it must create a greater competitive edge when integrated into a larger vendor suite. Will this challenge the open architecture movement? It may but dealers need to consider the tradeoffs that impact the bottom line of their business.

Without the proper due diligence and proper technical knowledge, dealers who sign enterprise agreements will just be taking a step backward, not forward.

Community Feedback

One a scale of (1-10) with 10 being highly valuable to the business, how would you rate the value of the software integrations in your dealership across DMS, CRM, and Websites?

Is there a better solution on the market today?

For the past three years, Google’s Zero Moment of Truth has been a pillar of the automotive industry. Wedged into nearly ever conference workshop and lauded by trainers, vendors and dealers alike, the groundbreaking study shed light on the multi-faceted journey car shoppers take every day when purchasing vehicles.

With tangible proof of the importance of things like online research, reviews and excellent customer service, we were forced to take a step back and put our consumer hats on, to realize that many of our greatest marketing challenges were right in front us waiting to be solved.

But where ZMOT starts to answer the what, it stops short at the why – why do car shoppers use the tools they use to make decisions?With so many moving pieces, how do they all fit together in the minds of consumers?

This is to say that car shopping is not simply a summative equation; reaching a customer 18 or 24 times in various places does not equal a car deal. Repetition and consistency are essential – they’re the building blocks of marketing – but so are context, usefulness and trust. And that’s what our latest research digs into.

Rather than car shopping activities (e.g. seeing a printed ad, watching a video online), which can be done in multiple places, our new study, The Digital Influence: How online research puts auto shoppers in control, looks at the individual tools, platforms and real-life situations car shoppers use to inform and validate their purchases.

Fewer, more-relevant sources of information

Consumers are overwhelmed. From the time they open their computers to start the day to the time they get home and flip on the TV before heading to bed, they’re exposed to advertisements. And you are too.

How many commercials did you fast-forward last week? How many emails did you notice but scroll past?



The interesting finding is that we don’t tune out everything. Instead, we, as consumers, have become extremely skilled at passing by the information we don’t find relevant and grabbing the information we do. Our study shows that even though the average car shopper is exposed to dozens of sources, they’re actually only influenced by about six or seven, and that’s the reason why.

More importantly, of those six or seven influencing sources, only one or two sources (i.e., platforms, websites, experiences) are used as primary decision making tools. Meaning that when a consumer finds a tool that meets their needs for a specific task, they depend on it almost exclusively.

Trust, helpfulness and the automotive ecosystem

You’re probably thinking to yourself, “If shoppers only need to use one or two sources to make a decision, why can’t I just put my cars on those platforms and call it a day?”

If only it was that easy.



 

Our study shows us that shoppers view traditional advertising, dealership websites, research sites and other information sources very differently in terms of trust and helpfulness. While some platforms, like independent research sites, are more efficient than others, all sources play a unique role in helping consumers move from initial consideration to purchase. The reason is context.

What a shopper expects to learn from an OEM site is different from what they expect to learn from a dealership visit; what a consumer hopes to gain from speaking with a family member is different from what they expect to see in an expert review from an independent research site. The trick is for the central messages, regardless of who’s sharing them, to be as complementary and consistent as possible.

Let’s say you run a Chevy dealership and all of the manufacturer’s ads promote the new Malibu’s 4G LTE wifi feature. A potential customer visits Cars.com to read more, locates the highest-rated dealership within 20 miles and goes to test the signal first-hand, but your sales staff doesn’t have a clue about the technology. There’s a disconnect between what the consumer expects to gain from visiting the dealership and what they actually encounter. You’ve probably just lost a customer.

With influencing points throughout the shopping process, if any single step falters, it has the potential to drastically shift the path of the buyer.

Giving up the keys

We like control in our business.

From the colors on our website to the layout of our lot, we’ve spent decades building up our brands, cementing the idea that if we yell loud enough, shoppers will come in and buy a car from us, no one else. That if a prospect sends us an email or steps onto our lot, they’re ours. But it doesn’t work like that, and this research reinforces why.

To car shoppers, your dealership isn’t only your website or an email conversation or your OEM’s latest ad or your reviews on Cars.com. It’s a byproduct of all of these things and more.

Think about that.

Rather than kick the wind, be part of the conversation. Consumers are behind the wheel now, but you can ride shotgun if you do the right things online. Establish a strong presence on the sources that are most relevant and trustworthy, and match it with a great experience in the showroom. There’s not a single silver bullet, but if you put all the pieces together, you can make sure your dealership is on the offensive at decision time.

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3 things to do today

Match messages: The key to building trust with consumers is matching digital and analog marketing messages – they’ve got to be as complementary as possible. Take 30 minutes and put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Shop your dealership, or better yet shadow a friend. How does your traditional advertising, dealership website and in-store experience match up to your manufacturer’s key messages, as well as your presence on independent research and review sites?

Talk to your team: With smartphone in hand, shoppers at the dealership say, “I know as much you do. I can validate anything you tell me.” If you’re giving one message on the phone or online, and then a completely different message when a prospect steps on the lot, you’re setting your dealership up to fail. Talk to your sales team and make sure they’re consistent with the information they provide potential customers.

Get the word out: Do you share your dealership’s CSI scores or online reviews with customers? If not, start building trust by promoting them across every channel you can. Link to them from your website, share them on profile pages and put up POS materials that let customers know you’re proud to share your track record of excellent service.

Now that’s a lot to digest. If you want to learn more about our study, tune in to our recent webinar where Cars.com analyst Simon Tiffen and I break down the research even further. Listen here.

Questions:

If you're already performing the any of the recommended 3 thing to do today, what kind of results are you seeing from doing so?

You will get knocked out by this Digital Dealer 17 Review

Have you seen my Led Zeppelin sweater?  It’s made of Kashmir…  As I entered Digital Dealer 17 on day one, I was greeted with the sound of Zeppelin’s classic tune “Kashmir”. Ba na nah, ba na nah, nah nah nah! With music like that, I had to expect something grand at this fall's conference (and nice selection of tunes care of Pandora). Can you believe we are on our 17th Digital Dealer? Wow, we have come a long way since the earliest conference, and I looked forward to meeting great friends while learning great new content that could help me when I return.



We invited several great friends to our anniversary dinner...

Whoa! Hold on there ‘pardner…  I actually showed up on Sunday afternoon to enjoy some Vegas time with my lovely wife Julie. We always look to celebrate our anniversary with dinner and a show in the city that never sleeps, and Vegas did not disappoint. We spent some pool-time at the Mirage (and might I add – FIRST CLASS people watching…), enjoyed the Spa facilities, and then headed down to the Aria for a wonderful dinner at Jean George’s Steakhouse, followed by the Cirque du Soleil show “Zarkana”.  If you are only coming to Vegas for the conference, you are missing out on some of the best entertainment, food, and first class service that Las Vegas has to offer.



I liked the updating HD TV screens at the DD17 Conference - great job Joseph De Palma

Can you say “check-in while wearing a swimsuit?” – And that is exactly what I did on Monday afternoon. Wearing flip flops and the latest in Italian Speedo fashion, I stopped in for the early Digital Dealer registration. THANK YOU for putting this into place as I can quickly grab my conference badge and more in just a minute, and avoid any lines or waiting on the first day of the conference. Now maybe next year someone can personally deliver my registration badge while I sit poolside…



The 2 Lovely Ladies of Social Media & more - Kathi Kruse & Renee Stuart

You can’t lose with Kathi Kruse…  I kicked off Digital Dealer 17 with my first session “Ten Dynamite Ways to Generate Traffic, Leads & Sales on Social Media” with Kathi Kruse of Kruse Control Inc. David Letterman taught all of us that we love top ten lists and Kathi shared several great ideas that could be used back at the dealership. Some of my favorites included using “hyper-local” self-published stories in your social media efforts, to include stories that take place within your dealership, as well as building content about financing and bad credit (which just happen to be the top searched terms on Google when it comes to auto shopping…). We have found that any stories building upon our community involvement to be very successful with social media. Maybe the best answer is to focus on being social on social media sites? Hmmm…  Great job Kathi!



Mat Koenig gave a passionate presentation! Stan Sher enjoyed the presentation as well

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Maybe I should be asking myself – where in the world have I been that I have not seen Mat Koenig speak before? Next up was Mat's session “Mobile, Millennials & Minorities” and I was incredibly impressed with Mat’s energy and passion while speaking. Mat packed the room, and he shared that Millennials are the wake-up call our industry has needed to get us to going back to focusing on people when it comes to car sales. Mat summarized millennials this way – at the end of the day, they just want to be respected, and if we focus on doing that, we will do just fine working with millennials.



My wife Julie shares her secret recipe for "Vegas Coffee"

Me llamo Kevin…  Wow, the next “M” that Mat Koenig spoke about was minorities and in this case he was speaking about Spanish speaking car buyers. If you think putting “Se habla Espanol” on your ads means you have addressed this part of the market, Mat states you are entirely wrong. As the fastest growing segment of our market, Spanish speakers represent a huge opportunity for car dealers, and setting up a Spanish webpage and making sure to ROUTE any forms or phone calls from that directly to a Spanish speaker in your dealership is the right way to go. Mucho gracias Senor Koenig. And btw – as a speaker, I like that you offer to answer questions in the hallway after the session rather than run late for the next speaker…



A Kevin Frye presentation always features priceless give-aways

Up, up, and away!!!  And off I ran to setup for my session “Do You Need 3rd Party Leads – Using Google Analytics and Digital Attribution to Find the Answer”. Wow – packed room, and I know it wasn’t just to see me, but rather to hear me address what is an incredibly controversial topic in our industry. Rather than share traditional ROI measurements or gut feelings, I wanted to share the work I have put into answering this question myself using the advanced conversion tools available within Google Analytics - with conversion goals, multi-channel funnels, and then looking at assisted conversions.

What are assisted conversions? Simply put, the significant majority of dealers use “last click attribution” to give credit for sales for their vendor partners, which means that the last place most customers visit online is given full credit for the sale. The truth of the matter is that auto shoppers visit multiple sites before arriving at your dealership website, and savvy dealers want to make sure they have a presence on these sites that might “assist” in the conversion towards a sale.



My session "Do You Need 3rd Party Leads" likely felt like a kick in the gut for several folks...

This was certainly an advanced, step by step session filled with actual results for several websites which showed why it takes five to ten times more VDPs on AutoTrader and Cars.com to convert to a sale than your dealership website (hint – take a look at your VDP at this site and look at the huge amount of ads and links on your VDP which point to competitors or partners of Cars.com and AutoTrader which make money off of your vehicle). More important, I was able to show dealers how to setup their Google Analytics to find whether AutoTrader and Cars.com were providing any significant assist and value towards their conversions.

My goal from the beginning was to help find any additional value that I could add to AutoTrader or Cars.com that would improve their ROI, which is typically low to abysmal for most dealers. Further, I wanted to see if the “foot traffic” that always seems to be touted as coming from the primary aggregators (and not being measured by ourselves "correctly") was really part of the conversion process. Unfortunately, after almost 18 months of effort and several model iterations, I have not found any significant attributed value that would raise the ROI of these 2 providers in a large manner. At the end of the day each dealer needs to do this for themselves, as the markets vary for each provider. Simply put, without significant change to the current model, whether it be lowering of prices for being on the aggregator, or adjusting the design of each site to provide a much more efficient VDPs per sale model that benefits the dealer, I don’t see much improvement. Go ahead, love me or hate me, but as a dealer, we are paid on PROVEN performance, not "mystery sales", so why not ask for the same thing from our vendor partners. Perhaps a future article with more details of my efforts on DealerRefresh???



Mike Roscoe, Igor Kalassa, myself and Veronica Dunford enjoying the VinSolutions event

Filet Mignon and Lobster Tail for lunch! Not necessarily, but the food got high ratings this year from everyone I spoke to at Digital Dealer. Only complaint was needing some more tables to handle the large amount of folks that attended. Speaking of which…

What did the exhibitors think about the new layout? Typically the tables are mixed throughout the exhibit hall which helped encourage people to interact with the vendors while eating in the hall. This year all of the tables were over in the corner. I am curious as to everyone’s thoughts on this arrangement, good or bad. I kinda liked the old setup, less crowds funneling into one corner, but maybe I am wrong. It was a bit chaotic when the keynote speaker sessions ended and everyone tried to funnel through the one entrance back into the exhibit hall. Thoughts?



My cohort from the early days of Digital Dealer, Alex Jefferson

As an ex-Navy Man, I like a good pier…  In this case, that would be the Peer Networking Roundtables, which is usually my favorite part, BUT – this seemed to bomb this time. I saw very few folks at the roundtables this year, and I think I might have an idea why. Another part of the new exhibit hall layout was folks had to file through the exhibit hall to then gain access to the main ballroom where the peer network tables were. I heard several grumblings that folks were unsure of where to go. It could also be when they were scheduled (right after lunch). Needless to say our table had a spirited, fast-moving discussion covering multiple topics where several great ideas were exchanged.



Who's the monkey in the middle? With Brent Wees and Larry Bruce

And I thought I was going to see Jean Stapleton…  Turns out it was Sean Stapleton with “The Evolution of Relationship Marketing”, but since Sean is "All in the Family", all was OK. Sean shared that most dealers are not focusing on trust (which is the key concern for most auto shoppers), but rather on quick return from their customers. Kinda reminds me of the “Super Sale” mentality of using any gimmick to get folks in to buy a car for short term gain, but realizing long term pain as you destroy customer trust with shady sales practices and marketing. Sean also asked why dealers continue to fail to focus on marketing to their current customer base, which is much cheaper, more efficient, and builds the relationship we have with our current customers. Sounds like working your own database should be a priority.



Aw shucks, what do I know, I am just an eCommerce Director from the midwest

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?  From the likes of some social media posts in the previous months, it sounds like some Digital Dealer competitors were afraid of “The Wolf of Wall Street” keynote speaker Jordan Belfort - before I address that, I would share that almost everyone I spoke to said this was the BEST keynote speaker of any Digital Dealer conference yet, as well as many others. Without question, Jordan was an incredibly high-energy speaker that was engaging, educational and entertaining. Yes, I saw the movie, and if I was seeing Jordan sober with this much energy on stage, I am afraid to think of how much energy he would have had back in the day, wow! Jordan shared an incredibly inspiring story of how he achieved success, while also sharing remorse in how he lost ethics through his greed, and hurt others. Jordan has a contagious personality and charisma that engages folks, and his selling techniques are the foundation of almost every financial firm on Wall Street now. Jordan shared how those same selling techniques can help dealers like ourselves, while also warning us that the same pitfalls he fell into are areas we must be wary of as well.

Pot calling the kettle black???  Yes, I saw some of the social media posts, Youtube videos, and forum posts criticizing the keynote speaker selection for Digital Dealer 17. Something about looking at the "plank in your own eye" comes to mind when I look at some of the tasteless finger-pointing and banter I saw on this, and remember this is BEFORE anyone heard the keynote which was a story of remorse and redemption. Simply put, if you have to resort to this type of finger-pointing, then maybe the value of what you have cannot stand alone on its own merit. Let's ALL rise above this and respect each other for the benefit of the industry and our customers.



Jennifer Volz is fired up for "Rocktails" at Digital Dealer 17

Cocktails after the Wolf of Wall Street? Hell no, we were fired up and ready for Rocktails now. Our automotive family has grown leaps and bounds since the early Digital Dealer conferences, and it was great to see so many friends in the hall.

Who remembers those wax lips we used to buy as kids?  VinSolutions hosted another fantastic after-hours event at the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. What a great and creative idea for a party, and in today’s world of social media and sharing pictures, this was a huge hit. Is there anything more fun than posing with some of your favorite celebrities? Now mix in some drinks and some of the craziest friends you have (cough cough, that would be auto folks who are downright nuts), and you have the recipe for a GREAT time. Gotta share that some of the characters reminded me of a funeral visitation with that waxy look, ooohhhhhh.



Great to see Dennis Galbraith - smart, energetic,and giving back to our industry

(Sound of clanging bell) Come and get it!!!!  Day 2 started with a trip down to exhibit hall for breakfast – great selection of hot and cold breakfast items, I like it, great way to start the day. Even better, I was able to sit down with Dennis Galbraith to enjoy some breakfast and even better conversation. Soon Igor Kalassa joined us, and we were able to exchange some ideas of where the market is – and where the market is going. I always try to make it a point to ask folks what is on their mind at each conference, and Dennis shared a common theme that I heard from both vendors and dealers…

And the word on the street is “efficiency”…  Both dealers and vendors alike are looking for efficiencies wherever possible in our business, which is Economics 101 as the digital market grows. Readily available information on the Internet has made the old school way of making gross by withholding information an outdated and losing approach. The Internet has driven down gross/unit for most dealerships, what is the answer? Simply put, by identifying and applying efficiencies in our dealership practices and with our vendor partners, we can reduce cost, improve gross, and maximize profitabilities.

On the dealer side, we see a move towards shortening the car buying process in the dealership, and a movement towards providing shopping convenience for our buyers in return for a premium (kinda like how you pay extra for that gallon of milk if you go to the “convenience store” rather than the grocery store up the street). On the vendor side we see movement towards consolidation and integration of services which helps reduce our expenses, while also helping create a smoother consumer shopping experience with a simplified, integrated process. It’s as simple as looking around exhibit hall and seeing how many vendor solutions have partnered together via acquisition to provide an integrated suite of products. Efficiency is the right answer, how can you argue with Econ 101?



Many thanks to Ceren Isildak who helped coordinate speakers at DD17

My gut feeling is that you should make decisions with data, not your gut…  I started out the day with “Be a Data Driven Dealer” with Ken Kolodziej of String Auto. Ken shared why most of us make “gut decisions” – with a lack of time and an overwhelming amount of information to consider, we typically make a gut decision rather than one based on factual data. One of the tremendous benefits of our modern market is the amount of great data available that allows us to make the best decisions for our respective dealerships. Ken showed us several ways to better target our prospective shoppers by overlaying SEM and Polk data over our market area maps to best identify where to conquest future customers. My gut feeling is that this was a great session, thanks Ken.



Great spending time and getting help from Ali Mendiola with DealerTrack

The Hour of Power…  I have always encouraged setting aside some time during the conference to work the exhibit hall to meet with current vendor partners, while looking for new solutions. I used the second session (and more) to spend some time on the floor. I had a great meeting with longtime partner DealerTrack and Ali Mendiola. It is always refreshing to have a partner that listens to your needs as well as shows you some progressive solutions that can make you better. Ali listened as I shared some current concerns and gave me some great help. Why do I share this? You should be taking advantage of the conference to meet with your current partners for issues you need help with.

Ahhh, so what was new in exhibit hall? Couldn’t help but notice that some big players like Reynolds and Dominion did not have a booth this year. There was one new name that caught my attention though – “Hireology”, so I went over to learn a little bit more. Most every dealer has struggled to find good quality people. Hireology helps automotive dealerships to hire great employees by helping identify qualified candidates using their proprietary tools, providing custom behavioral guides for the interview process, and helping to verify the credentials for the prospective applicant. Sounds like an HR solution in a box that can help many dealerships find the great people they need.



Enjoyed seeing Brian Skutta & Kendall Billman at a private villa event

See you later, I’m visiting DealerRater…  Lots of activity at the DealerRater booth where folks could get their pictures taken with Alan from Hangover, Mike Tyson, or Katie Perry (and thank for you for the great cover photo for this year’s review). I loved the new “LotShot” solution being introduced by DealerRater where your sales rep takes a photo of the customer with their new car after the purchase, and then the photo is shared with the customer via email as a fun memento of their car buying experience. This can be shared on social media, and even better, the email template sent to the customer with the photo encourages them to leave a review of their experience on DealerRater which can be attached with the photo. Simple and brilliant – great job by Chip Grueter and his team.

If I may, please let me say…  Chip Grueter is one of the unsung heroes of our business. Chip was not only an innovator with his DealerRater website, he has helped improve our entire industry by raising our standards of business to a higher level of integrity. I would also share that in the early days of eCommerce, Chip was of invaluable help to me and many others with helping solve problems each day. I distinctly remember calling Chip to help me solve problems with my CRM and other providers that Chip was not even associated with, but he would share his expertise to solve my issues. Thank you Chip for being a leader in our industry and making it better every day.



Nick Williams, Kevin Gordon, & Kiefer Bartel raising the bar at DD17

Wanna see something slick? Go see Kevin and Nick!  Kevin Gordon and Nick Williams presented “Run Your Dealership like a Startup”. Kevin and Nick packed the room as they shared how their initial days working at the Jim Pattison group were like running a startup company within a company as they developed their eCommerce department. With their new company “Convertus”, they are going through the startup experience again, but with greater wisdom to do it optimally. How can that experience help us?

Did you know that in ten years, 75% of our workforce will be from Generation Y? If dealers want to attract a high quality workforce from this generation, we need to better understand them. Most dealers hire “experience over talent” with our current approach, choosing the easier path of finding someone whom already has experience in the automotive industry. The more difficult path is to find and develop talented individuals who will help grow your dealership for the long run. With Generation Y, that means taking the role of a leader rather than a boss, and finding ways to motivate your people besides money (which is not the number one thing for Gen Y). Always insightful and helpful, Kevin Gordon and Nick Williams are rising stars in our industry. They are also marked men on my Hit List after the prank they pulled on me. If you were there, you know what I am talking about. Kudos Kevin and Nick, you got me, but make sure you are sleeping with one eye open moving forward…



First ever Digital Dealer proposal? Ian Mathews asked Lindsey Donges to marry him shortly before this pic - CONGRATS!

Is your business in the crapper? Try us!  Had to laugh when I saw that Digital Dealer 17 had a “bathroom sponsor” this year. Go ahead, you can make fun of how the conference is being monetized. Now take a close look in the mirror and keep laughing, don’t we also monetize the daylights out of everything we have at our dealerships? I love car guys…



Word leaked out there was a new bathroom sponsor at DD17 - wah wah wahhhhh

Not him again!  Just kidding, I started the afternoon with Dennis Galbraith’s session “Objective Based Budgeting”. Dennis becomes a new man while speaking – his passion and energy are uplifting, and I am glad he uses his great knowledge to  help fellow dealers to become better each day. My favorite part of the session was this – if 96% of our market is NOT in the market currently to buy a vehicle, why do we run advertising that focuses on a “buy now” message? That approach has no residual value – why not include a more brand oriented, long term value building message with each marketing campaign? I agree Dennis, and well done!



A few of these really makes networking fun and productive

Passionate plus Pretty equals Perfect!  I enjoyed Renee Stuart and Mike Fitzpatrick’s session “Salesperson Websites: Insider Secrets that will Leave Your Competition Behind”. Renee has a contagious enthusiasm and passion that gets other excited along with her. Their giveaway was a free consultation session to help identify your personal goals and to help you build your own website. I think Renee was more excited than the winners, and I like that. If someone is that passionate about their product, you know you are going to get first-class service. Key takeaway for me was this – your goal with your personal website is to create useful content that your readers will share. And one of the easiest forms of shareable content is having a FAQs section. LOTS of useful tips for all that attended. Hey, I just answered FAQ number one - where do I find useful content?

I scream, you scream, we all scream for Ice Cream!  Everyone joined for a quick “ice cream social” in exhibit hall before the next Keynote speaker, John Jantsch. Unfortunately, I missed this session as I completed several more demos in exhibit hall. I had an early morning Thursday flight this year and I was working to maximize my time on the floor where possible. However feedback was positive from others I spoke to.



Enjoying drinks with the first class Jeff Wyler Automotive Family

We are not a group, we are a FAMILY – that would be the Jeff Wyler Automotive Family. I joined some of our great folks from the Jeff Wyler Automotive Family for drinks and discussion at the Palazzo. One of the core values at the Wyler organization is that we value our employees like family members. Many of you know that my brother was diagnosed with leukemia this past July, and I have been incredibly fortunate to work for a family that has been both generous and supportive during this difficult time. I have seen this same wonderful generosity and compassion with many of my fellow employees in difficult times over the years, and this is the first time I have been in that same situation. Let me take a moment to thank the Jeff Wyler Automotive Family for their love and support in helping my brother, and for being a first class leader in our industry.



Love Amber & Marc McGurren - lovely couple and lots of fun

Bare naked ladies at the Mirage! Did you see the folks at DealerOn and Force Marketing bare it all??? Another great after-hours event was held at the “Bare” pool and lounge at the Mirage by the wonderful folks at Dealeron and Force Marketing. Well, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, so I cannot share all of my pictures, but Eliana is definitely my favorite! (kidding dear friend..). It was a beautiful evening with even more beautiful friends. I am so proud to have so many great friends in my autofamily (that would be #autofam), and for all of those that have helped me - I can only hope that I have helped many others. For those of you that attend these conferences – kudos to you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to try and make both yourselves and the organizations you work for better.



Fun filled event hosted by DealerOn & Force Marketing - great to see you Eliana Raggio

It’s all give and take you know…  Truth is, it is a lot of work putting this review together each conference, and I hope it helps each of you. If you have enjoyed this and found it beneficial over the years, then I have a favor to ask from you (this is your giving and my taking part…).

Now that Digital Dealer 17 is over, I have returned to the reality of an incredibly difficult situation at home. My brother Jon was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) in late July, and his chance for long term survival is minimal. His primary chance for a long term cure is a bone marrow transplant, and finding a match for the transplant is only found 30% of the time. Thank God (and I mean that literally) we were able to find that match, and it is a blessing for me that I am able to do this for my brother.

The bone marrow transplant surgery is on October 6th, and the following 100 days are critical for my brother. I am asking YOU for your prayers during this difficult time. That’s right, I am “pitching” in my review, and I am not ashamed of my faith, no matter how much I fall short each day, to ask for your prayers to help my brother during this difficult time. I hope and pray that in my next Digital Dealer review that I will be writing about the successful recovery of my brother.



Glad to give it my all for my brother Jon

Until then, I encourage you to leave your thoughts and comments below on what you thought of Digital Dealer 17. If you can handle my sarcastic and sometimes scathing commentary within the automotive sphere, give me a follow on Twitter at @kevinfrye1, and I look forward to seeing you at Digital Dealer 18 in Tampa next spring.

 

How far, on average, are your customers willing to travel to purchase their next vehicle from your dealership?

For those of you out there in digital dealership land looking for a way to get absolutely buried in insane data diving that provides easy, actionable, results, boy do I have your fix! Geo-coding.

Geo-coding is the practice of taking location data coordinates and mapping them, usually via CSV file, to a graphical map interface. Or in other words, pulling zip codes out of your CRM sales folder (again in CSV text tab-delimited) and uploading it to one of several Geo-coding web stations.

My personal favorite and easily the most convenient one out there for those running their own SEM campaigns in Adwords is, you guessed it, Google MapsEngine.

Sound Good? Let's Get Started...

Mapsengine is free to use providing the .csv file you upload contains fewer than 100 rows of data. However, if your intention is work smarter and not necessarily harder (and I certainly hope it is) you can get unlimited uploaded and file size by paying the very reasonable $5 fee per year. Do it this way, TRUST ME! The best way to use Maps Engine is to create an account using the Google account already associated to your Adwords, Analytics, etc accounts. It's very simple and only takes a few minutes to be up and running.

Before we start GEO-coding we'll need to get a useful file. You can really start anywhere New Sales, Used Sales, Fixed Ops, Lessees vs those who finance, and many, many more. My approach has always been, "Shoot first and if you miss simply shoot again", so we're going to just dive into an immediately useful GEO-coding activity.

Let's Begin...

First thing you have to do is fire up your CRM and pull a search that includes all of the following criteria and is exportable in CSV  comma-delimited format.

We want all New vehicles sold in the last 4 full months making sure that we include: Model | Zip Code as our two required fields.  What this will show us, once GEO-coded, is what models are selling in frequency and what towns they are most popular in. Once you've built this file the next step is to download it.

You can go ahead and remove every column leaving only Model & Zip Code untouched. The End Result should look something like this:



Model and Zip Code file

Tip Time (because your head is spinning): You probably aren't done and most likely you'll need to format the data in the zip code column (in my experience) it rarely comes out 100% usable. To fix the zip code column highlight the entire column and then...



Highlighted Zip code column

...with the zip code column selected click on the "Number" menu and once the formatting box opens click "Special" and highlight "Zip Code" then click "Ok".



Formatting your Zip Code

Next, SAVE the file again as a CSV text tab-delimited file to your desktop or whatever folder you deem fit. Normally, I will name this file in this way "DealershipName_NewSales_Model_Zip_TimePeriod.csv" so, that it is easy for me to later reference it and compare it to other files in the future.

Now, into the Deep Dive to get Results

With the file saved it's time to log into your newly created MapsEngine account and drop the file in. On the MapsEngine home screen click the blue button that says "Create a New Map". Next, click "import" on the left hand menu, select your file and finally select the zip code column to let Google know that you want to put placemarks on each matched zip. On the next screen where you're asked to choose the column you want to use for titles select, "Model" and, then click finished.

This should load a screen that looks something like this:



GEO-coded Sales Map

To make the data useful click "Style" on the menu panel located on the left hand side of your screen and change from the default "Uniform Style" to selecting "Model".  Instantly your map becomes useful showing you, in variety of colors, where (by zip code) you're selling New Models. As seen below:



GEO-coded and Color Coded

What Will You Do With This GREAT Data?

1.) Use the data to help better select advertising locations in your Adwords account. For example: "I've never sold a New VW Jetta in Framingham, MA so do I really need to be spending my Adwords budget to promote our New Jetta offers in Framingham?" At a minimum you should probably consider adjusting the bids.

2.) Compare segments "I seem to sell a lot of Crossovers in Weymouth, MA. Maybe, I could create a landing page on my website that showcases my best offers on all new VW Crossovers to target with Adwords in that area."

3.) This data should give you an idea of how far, in general, your customers are willing to travel - personally I find that very useful.

Enough brainstorming -- let's get our hands even dirtier!

In the search bar floating above the map you should see a little balloon that says "add marker" when you hover over it:



Add a Marker!

Search for all of your competitors using the search bar and I want you to add all that are inside, as well as, those 10 or so miles outside of your PMA to the map. You do this again by searching and then once MapsEngine drops the pin, click on it and click "Add to Map". For those ruthless Digital Marketers, you shouldn't have to go through this process one by one. You've already taken your premade CSV file containing all of your competitors Zip Codes | Store Name and added them as a "uniform" colored layer to your map.



Pin Drop where your competitor's are on the Map!

Doing this will help you better identify areas of opportunity including taking advantage of weaker dealerships, better segment market places, determining max radius to advertise in, and perhaps what areas and models are the best ones to focus on. Literally there are hundreds of ways to use GEO-coding to your advantage. I promise to go into even more depth with GEO-coding marketing advantages in a later tip.

A Few Pitfalls:

The accuracy of Geo-coded maps is dependent on the accuracy, as well as, the authenticity of the entry data. For example, if some of your staff desks deals calling it a "JETTA" and the other half desks it as "Jetta" then you will see two different models both called "Jetta". I recommend prior to upload trying to uniform the styling.

Also, you may notice vehicle markers all over the map even in territories you're positive you've never had a sale in. There's many ways this can happen ranging from incorrect data entry, changing CRM or DMS providers, ghosts in the machine, or even just customers who have moved and shared their new address with the dealership. The way to best use this data is to identify trends in the form of marker clumps that can help steer you to making better digital and traditional marketing efforts.

Now, go take a few aspirin and GET TO WORK!

[highlight color="#FCD770" font="black"]You're likely spending a decent chuck of change each month on PPC at your dealership. Wouldn't it be great to know you're doing it correctly? Of course, it would be. I'm extremely excited to welcome Michael Pistell as our newest contributor to DealerRefresh as he has awesome information to share with our community. - Kershner[/highlight]

How many features are you NOT taking advantage of with your dealers Paid Search / Adwords Account - that's COSTING YOU every day?

Over the last few years, I have worked with hundreds of dealers that are sabotaging their own Paid Search. Here are 5 Best Practices you NEED to employ right away to maximize your campaigns...

#5 Your Display ads annoy your potential customers

Limiting the amount of impressions a users sees per day will keep your CTR under control and your targeted audience happy.

Have you ever been browsing the internet and noticed the same graphic ad being shown to you many times per day across multiple sites? That’s a Re-marketing campaign created by a PPC manager who forgot to set frequency capping. While being shown an ad multiple times per day does have an effect, there’s a diminishing return with each impression you serve to the same user. Those diminishing returns will inflate your impression count and cost you money at the end of the day.

Frequency capping should be done on all campaigns running in the Display network, here’s how we fix this:

1. Select the settings tab at the top.
   
2. Select the Display campaign you want to affect.
   
3. Scroll to the bottom and select “Ad delivery: Ad rotation, frequency capping”
   
4. Hit “Edit” on the Frequency capping” subsetting.
   
5. Enter in the maximum amount of impressions you want a potential customer to see per day, week, or month.

#4 You let your text ads go unnoticed

Using Call, Sitelink, and Location extensions will increase the size of your ad text real-estate and distinguish you from the competition.

AdWords allows you to choose from five different extensions to supplement your text ads and increase your ad space real estate on Google search. You should be using at least three of the five extensions: call, location, and sitelinks. These will be especially useful on your dealership name campaign where clicks are cheap and competition is minimal.  Google gives individual statistics on how each of your extensions are performing so you can make strategic choices with confidence.

Sitelink extensions displays additional links that you choose beneath the text ad to the potential customer. Call extensions displays your store number below the ad, and users on mobile devices can 1-click to call. Location extensions gives the address of your store below the ad, and users have the option to click on to get a detailed map of the store.

For all their usefulness, I've found a majority of dealerships rarely employe a single extension on any of their campaigns. Here’s how we fix this:

1. Select the Ad extensions tab at the top.
   
2. Select the type of extension that you want to add or modify.
   
3. Click the red “+ Extension” button and select the campaign you want to add extensions to.
   
4. If you haven’t created any yet, you can add and edit any extension to the campaign you selected.

#3 Your AdWords and Analytics don’t talk to each other

Linking AdWords and Analytics together will help you make more informed decisions about about your digital marketing efforts.

I’ve managed hundreds of dealership accounts over the last four years and this situation happens a lot more than it should. It’s often overlooked because many think that by setting up AdWords the data will automatically be linked in Google Analytics. Not so. Then when they check their Analytics to see how their paid visitors are behaving they end up with a big ugly “(not set)” in their AdWords tab. Without this simple link pairing you won’t have any actionable intelligence on your AdWords traffic.

Your Internet Marketing Manager is a numbers guy, they can’t make a good decision based on (not set), they need numbers, and here’s how you get that:

1. Log into your Analytics account.
   
2. Select the property you would like to link to AdWords
   
3. Click “Admin” at the top
   
4. Select “AdWords Linking” under the Property column
   
5. Select the checkbox next to any AdWords accounts you want to link with your Analytics property.
   
6. Click Continue.
   
7. In the Link configuration section, select the Analytics views in which you want the AdWords data to be available.
   
8. Click Link accounts.

Next, you should import Analytics metrics into AdWords to gain a better understanding of how users behave on your site after they've clicked your ad:

1. Go into your AdWords account and click on the gear icon next to your Manager ID.
   
2. Select Account Settings.
   
3. Select “Linked Accounts” in the sidebar.
   
4. Select the “Google Analytics” subcategory.
   
5. Add your linked Analytics account and hit save

#2 Your “one size fits all” bidding strategy is costing you money

Different days of the week yield different results. Bid accordingly to save money and win more customers.

Your AdWords account will tell you how your campaigns perform by hour of day or by day of the week. People behave differently and have different goals on, for example, Mondays and Saturdays, and your bidding on those days should reflect that.

After your account has ran for a few months, you’ll begin to notice patterns. You might notice the days that you had your best conversion-rates, CTRs, and CPCs were on Fridays and Sundays. Knowing that you could choose to bid higher with confidence on those days because you statistically have a better chance at a conversion. Similarly, you could choose to decrease your bids on days that have low conversion rates and low CTRs to save money that would be better spent on another day.

Here’s how you find that information in AdWords:

1. Go to the AdWords account you want to investigate.
   
2. Select the “Dimensions” tab up top.
   
3. Click the View subcategory and mouseover Time.
   
4. Select “Day of the week”.

From here you can see which days of the week are, on average, the best performing. A good PPC manager will use this to determine how they will bid on each day.

After running this report for one of my campaigns I was able to determine that my best days for conversion rate, CTR, and CPC were on Friday and Sunday, and my worst days were Thursday and Wednesday. I took this information and used it to my advantage by bidding higher on Fridays and Sunday and also bidding lower on Thursdays and Wednesdays.

#1 You don’t pay enough attention to customers on mobile

Targeting the research driven mobile device users will assist more conversions down the funnel.

I’ll admit that I haven’t appreciated the power of mobile advertisements until recently. It’s no secret that mobile devices across the board will have lower conversion rates than tablets or desktops, and being a conversion-minded PPC manager I all but wrote it off. For too long I thought mobile’s lack of muscle in the conversion game was a fault of technology, whether in the device itself or landing page, and that we’d have to wait a few more years until we saw mobile’s conversion rates catch up to the desktop and tablets.

Mobile devices were an unfortunate casualty of my conversion-rate tunnel vision, and it took a phone call from a Google account manager to help me see its power. He explained that mobile devices will usually have a lower conversion rate, especially in the car industry, because mobile visitors are often doing research and are not yet ready to make a conversion. In other words, a good portion of mobile visitors are at the top of the shopping funnel.

These mobile visitors are in the information gathering phase, and once they get access to their desktop they’ll be even more likely to make a conversion. Simply put, mobile assist conversions that happen later in the day on desktops.

Last year Google rolled out Enhanced Campaigns which automatically opts you into bidding on mobile devices. But, if you’re like me and want to bid differently on mobile to boost your clicks or conversions, then follow these steps:

Go into your AdWords account and select the campaign you’d like to affect.

1. Click the “Settings” tab.
   
2. Click the “Devices” subcategory.
   
3. Go to the “Mobile devices [...]” field and select the “--” in the Bid Adjustment column.

From there you can choose to increase or decrease your mobile bids based on a percentage. Use your Google Analytics to see how mobile visitors react on your site before you modify your bid.

Now, get to work!

[highlight color="#FCD770" font="black"]Let's give Mike a BIG WELCOME to the DealerRefresh community. If you've found Mikes list useful, bookmark it, share it, and use the "print" feature while giving him a shout-out in the comments below![/highlight]

Last month the DealerRefresh community lost a member to an unfortunate accident. Not only a good member, but a freaking great member. Sean Woodruff passed away August 21, 2014.

Originally, I planned on listing out a few contributions here and there, a few pics - but, after I started looking through his posts and threads I realized just how much of a hole he's left behind here at DealerRefresh.

The threads and posts are just so many...many of you have been touched, taught and conversed with Sean. I'm sure you've even implemented a tid bit you've learned from him. I know I have.

Months and months ago I had reached out to Sean to have him do a DealerRefresh Dealer Spotlight.  He was ecstatic to be a part of a dealer spotlight and quickly returned everything I asked of him. And, then like many things in life and business, I got busy and distracted and the dealer spotlight didn't get published. And, Sean followed up with me like any car dude would. I regret jerking on publishing what I should have published a long ass time ago.

Late, but always a spotlight to Jeff and I - here are a few excerpts from the unfortunately unpublished Sean Woodruff Dealer Spotlight:

Sean, describe your typical day and what is your favorite part of the day?

My days are quite busy! My typical day involves first and foremost getting my BDC department headed in the right direction and making sure it’s staffed, equipped for success, and driven. I have to give a big shout out to my Assistant Manager Lynda Mathieu, and my reps Amanda Poirier, Julie Woodside, and Holley Gleason. They are my rocks. Then for me it’s usually meetings, webinars, conference calls, and of course managing, training, tracking, and execution. I think in all honesty my favorite part of the day is making the decisions and overcoming the challenges that keep our business ahead of the curve, on the cutting-edge, and meeting our goals. I truly think the AutoFair Group is one of the most forward-thinking and competitive dealer groups in the U.S., and the people that make up our management and executive team are some of the most driven and intelligent professionals in the business.

If you could invent one product that would make your workday easier – what would it be?

Honestly? A self-autonomous robot that can answer all my BDC reps’, salespeople’s, and fellow manager’s questions.

It’d also be nice if it could dish out every word track in the book to my staff, skillfully handle every customer call whether good or bad, reply tactfully to online reviews, inspect what I expect in our CRM, and do it all while having a battery that lasts the WHOLE day (unlike my smartphone). Oh, and that can also somehow watch my 10-month old dog while I’m at work. That way I can just stick to the innovating and improving! Unfortunately, I think they could pay me a lot less if I had one of those….

I would be lost each day without….

Definitely the world wide web, my smartphone, my computer, and my staff. Oh and the ability to multitask, analyze, create, and problem-solve in new ways and at a high level.

Sean - you called it like it was in the forums and found friends who valued your opinions, experience and insight. Jeff and I thank you for every second you spent with DealerRefresh.

God Bless

The Connected Car movement continues it's rapid expansion. Our connected lifestyles have changed our personal activities tremendously and the next wave of connectivity will involve the vehicles we cherish so dearly. The Internet of Things will deliver an entirely new layer of efficient and helpful solutions to drivers. DealerRefresh was fortunate to have an exclusive Q&A opportunity with INRIX Vice President, Jon Maron due to the announcement of a $55M investment by Porsche S.E.

While this is a significant event for the connected car segment, this should also be an important signal to the retail automotive community regarding the changing consumer behaviors and the features available within vehicles. This is a wonderful opportunity for dealers to understand this shift and provide even more valuable content to car buyers and help educate them on the newest technology changes available in their vehicles.

1. Today, INRIX, Inc. announced Porsche SE is investing $55M in INRIX. Can you tell me more about that?

JM: Absolutely. Today is a very exciting day here at INRIX, as Porsche Automobile Holding SE (Porsche S.E.), the holding company with a controlling interest in the Volkswagen Group, has invested around $55 million for approximately a 10 percent ownership stake in INRIX, Inc. through purchasing both primary and secondary shares. This is Porsche SE’s very first investment transaction, and they chose INRIX as the platform they believe will have the most impact in the connected car race.

1. Is this the first investment from a larger organization that INRIX has received?

JM: It’s certainly the most publicized one. Porsche SE joins Kleiner Perkins, August Capital, and Bain Capital as one of our top investors.

1. There seems to be quite a bit of buzz lately around the idea of the “connected car,” with Intel, Qualcomm, Nokia and Google investing $100MM+ in developing connected car technologies that pave the way to smarter cities, Porsche S.E.’s investment furthers the great dashboard debate. What made INRIX stand out for Porsche SE?

JM: Until now, we’ve always been on of tech’s best kept secrets. In fact, INRIX holds more patents in traffic science and transportation data analytics than any other company. We also have more than 300 customers ranging from leading automakers like Audi, JMW and Ford to more than 60 departments of transportation around the world. Collectively, we think it’s the combination of our sophisticated approach, proprietary technology and market momentum across the connected car and smart cities markets that makes us an attractive investment.

The bottom line is that Big Data and the Internet of Things is changing everything from where people go and what they do, to how they get from place to place. In that context, INRIX is at the forefront of connecting cars to smarter cities. Porsche S.E. and INRIX share a vision and strategic commitment to advancing intelligent mobility. Both companies recognize the need and value for smarter cities to address the individual, economic and environmental challenges of urbanization worldwide.

1. Where is the greatest growth potential in this market (these markets)?

JM: In the billion dollar battle with Google and Apple for control of the dashboard in the connected car, INRIX and Porsche S.E see an enormous growth opportunity. Unlike these much larger competitors, our independence and our patented technologies is one of the things that makes us attractive to investors like Porsche and the preferred partner to automakers, governments and our many other customers worldwide.

ABI Research estimates that by 2017 80 percent of all vehicles on the road will be connected cars. In that time, IDC Research has stated that the market for Big Data technologies and services is expected to grow 27 percent annually to reach $32.4 billion led by the immense amount of data coming from connected devices, including the automobile.

The connected car holds the key to providing insight that makes navigation easier for drivers and helps our cities make our transportation networks work smarter. Today, congestion places an enormous burden on our economy and environment and it’s only expected to get worse. Innovations such as the connected car can help us turn this around.

1. So who is INRIX? You guys have managed to float under the radar for quite some time, are you considering this your coming out party?

JM: I don’t think we consider this as a coming out party at all, but more of an opportunity to continue focusing on innovation, which has driven us to be a leader in the space today, and bring us that much closer to the reality of the connected car.

We currently have over 300 customers and partners that we provide real-time traffic information, transportation analytics and connected driver services across six industries – automotive, fleet, public sector, mobile, media and real estate. Porsche’s investment will just fuel our momentum.

Jon - DealerRefresh appreciates you sharing this information with the automotive community, best of luck to you and everyone involved with the new ventures.

Find Jon on LinkedIn and Twitter.

To learn about INRIX and its mission to making the connected car a reality, please visit www.Inrix.com.

Latest HOT Discussion in the Forums





Skip the Dealership. Buy Online!

Saw a TV ad for a new online vehicle buying service called Carvana. Anyone know anything about them?

Join this INCREDIBLE discussion in the forums!

 

[highlight color="#fad155" font="black"]Don't miss out on the latest topic![/highlight]

Today Apple announced a watch and a new iPhone 6. Most of the headlines you read will be centered around these devices. However, a much bigger focus for the retail industry was sandwiched somewhere in the middle of Apple’s keynote.

Today Apple announced “Apple Pay” – a mobile payments solution designed into the new iOS 8 mobile operating system.

Apple has jumped into the mobile payments foray in an effort to make plastic credit cards a thing of the past. The concept is simple. Use your phone and your fingerprint to buy anything – in person or online.

While a simple concept, many have tried - none have succeeded. Apple's system differs from failed past attempts in a few key areas.

Apple is using a combination of NFC, iTunes accounts, and a secure element chip to complete the transaction. The key for Apple is its enormous collection of customer credit cards. According to Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, over 800 million iTunes accounts exist, with the majority having credit cards tied to them.

Each transaction will be authorized with a one-time, unique number. The process prevents a store clerk from seeing any of your private financial information. Further, Apple made it clear they don’t collect this data.

Your purchases are confirmed and verified simply using your fingerprint.

In order for mobile payments to catch on in a big way it needs to “just work”. Apple possesses the hardware, software, and now the credit cards to change the game in payments.

Apple is launching with a host of retailers including Macy’s, Whole Foods, Walgreens, and Disney stores, with more to come. MasterCard, Visa, and American Express are on board, as well.

How does Apple’s Pay system fit into automotive retail?

With any new technology comes industry application. It’s our job to find the best fit for mobile payments in automotive. Can Apple Pay increase service revenue? How does it fit into the mobile shopping experience?

Today’s mobile customer is using their smartphone to redeem service coupons, schedule service, and get directions to the store. Why not complete the process with a one-touch checkout?

 



 

How else do you see mobile payments in automotive?

Does customer experience increase when offering a simplified, quicker payment structure?

How will linking dealership promotions to a touch-to-pay mobile model affect the number of consumers who redeem your offers?

The best way to change long-term behavior is with short-term feedback.
- Seth Godin

Click to expand...

Government officials have tried long and hard to make streets around schools safer for pedestrians. In particular, for pedestrian children coming to and from school. We've all driven through one, yet it's easy to take them for granted.

The idea of a school zone is simple: "We want you to slow down in these parts because we value our pedestrian children and parents".

What's interesting is how many ideas there are to encourage driver obedience in school zones that simply haven't worked. Pasting a neon strip on a standard speed limit sign didn't help. Adding a flashing light didn't help. Using a police officer to monitor every school zone in America equates to panicked drivers and a huge tax bill.

Then a school district tried this:


These dynamic Your Speed signs have had a big impact on driver behavior. Suddenly, people slowed down. They complied with the speed limits. They became more alert and safer drivers.

Isn't that weird? You already have a useful Your Speed sign included in your automobile called a speedometer. There isn't a penalty for driving too fast either. It's not like the digital sign tracks your identity and sends you a citation.

Why do we slow down then?

The sign is a brilliant example of an effective feedback loop. What's a feedback loop? Put simply:

Gives people immediate feedback on their actions --> Creates an opportunity to adjust those actions --> Guides them toward a desired behavior.

Let's take a closer look at the Your Speed sign. It displays several elements of a feedback loop:

Step 1: The current behavior must be measured, captured and stored.

The radar does this by capturing your speed.

Step 2: The collected data is then instantly shared with you.

The sign does this with an immediate representation of your speed.

Step 3: The information should illuminate a desired path.

The Your Speed sign makes this obvious by stacking your speed below the posted limit. It provides context for your speed and desired speed.

Step 4: The action becomes a new habit.

If you drive through a school zone every morning, there is a good chance you will naturally slow down subconsciously, even on a Saturday.

Who else?

Everyone from sales teams, to Fortune 500 mega companies, to technology startups are using feedback loops to sell more, market better and build better products.

You don't need to look very far for other good instances of feedback loops. For one, try your phone or tablet. Have any of those crazy addicting Zynga games on there? What about Candy Crush? Or Words with Friends?

One my favorite examples is the Nike FuelBand, along with many other wearable fitness technologies. My behavior is measured and collected. It’s immediately accessible. My path to goal completion is clearly illuminated. I’m even benchmarked against others. I build habits based on collecting these Fuel Points. I subconsciously choose the stairs over the elevator. I park my car further away. My work breaks are full of steps.

Here is a little secret: The FuelBand didn't teach me how to exercise. I knew how to walk, jog and play before wearing it. But all of the sudden, when a tight feedback loop serves me interesting and relevant data, I’m pressing on to gain Fuel Points.

So what?

That's a fair question. A sound perspective on technology and software development is asking what impact it has on creating an ideal end user. Good feedback loops help us get there. They provide incredible insight into human behavior and how we can motivate people to do good things in our jobs and personal lives.

Look at the four steps above and ask yourself if you exhibit any of those in your sales efforts or product development. Ask yourself these questions:

* Are you providing relevant data to your employees or end users?

* Are you using benchmarks to provide context for success?

* Are you not only collecting data, but giving it back to employees or users in a meaningful way?

* Are you consistent and timely with your feedback?

* Do you truly understand what the desired action of your end user is?

As Seth Godin says, ""The best way to change long-term behavior is with short-term feedback."

Jeff Kershner and I were having a great conversation the other day about why dealers don't have a blog on their dealership's website and for the dealers who do, how can they make the blog posts even more effective. We came up with a number of ideas and good shortcuts I wanted to share with the community.

Myth #1: Blogs won't help my site performance.

Properly constructed blogs can help you incredibly with a number of factors on your site.

Tip #1: The trick is to blog well and blog often. Best practices suggest that 2 properly written blog posts be posted each week and be a minimum of 250-300 words with a good sized quality picture. (don't forget the alt-text for the picture). We have seen the following metrics increase dramatically when blogs are employed; time on site, page views and an increase in conversions. It really works, but it takes time for it to develop. There is a saying I have heard, "most people stop blogging right before the real magic happens".

Myth #2: I can just take information from the OEM and publish it to save time.

Don't cut and paste information on your blog from other sites. You do not want duplicate content from another site anywhere on your site, period. It must be original.

Tip #2: Content for your blog is literally everywhere. Use the OEM site for motivation. Wouldn't someone want to know that the 2015 make/model has 10 airbags? Or, that there is an an optional panoramic roof to enjoy the skies? You can simply pick 5 features about a car and write a great blog titled, The Top 5 Features of the 2015 (make/model). Then, list them 1-5. You'll have 250-300 words in no time. Ok, you say I'm not a writer. Fair enough. I have to give Jeff credit for this amazing idea, Invest in a dictation program for your computer. Grab an OEM brochure and read it into the microphone. This content generally is not online and you can write 10 blogs in less than 20 minutes.

Myth #3: You can have a blog on a stand alone website.

I see this all of the time. If you do not have the blog hosted your website then you get no SEO value to your website. So, all of those blogs you write do not count toward additional pages on your website. The value to you organic SEO strategy is huge if it is on your site.

Tip #3: That being said, there are a number of web providers who do not have the ability to incorporate a blog into their platform. Optimally, your web provider should integrate Wordpress into the site as WordPress is very easy to use and you can schedule posts to automatically populate on specific dates and times.

Myth #4: Blogs don't convert or generate leads, so I don't have the time to write them.

Properly written blogs do generate leads and convert, but they will not do so unless you are placing links in the blog to allow the customer to click on it. In my opinion, every blog should have at least three opportunities to have the customer click deeper into the site and hopefully into inventory, because the inventory is what we can sell them.

Tip #4: Let's say you are writing a blog about the Toyota Camry. In the blog you can hyperlink key terms to get the customer to where you want them to be, for example, a simple statement saying view our Camry inventory, hyperlinked to your inventory takes them to the Camry's.
Try to always put calls to action in your blogs.

Myth #5: I would blog, but it doesn't get me an email address to market to.

If you are using WordPress or have an email program like Mail Chimp, you can easily insert a button or hyperlink to a question.

Tip #5: They have to give you an email to sign up if you're encouraging them to sign up for your newsletter. Be sure that you have content to send to them monthly so that you can fulfill the promise and don't make that content a heavy sales push. Keep it transparent and informative to separate you from the competition. View this as your lead nurturing bucket. You have a much higher likelihood of getting this person to engage with you when they are ready to buy if you have been offering them value for a period of time.

What are you doing these days with your blog?

You gotta be familiar with the concept of Occam’s Razor…

...it’s something I quote often here at String whenever we’re faced with a problem whose solution isn’t immediately obvious.

Occam’s Razor is attributed to William of Ockham, a 14th-century philosopher of sorts who is best known for his thoughts on probability. In its modern form, his “razor” theory states that the simplest explanation to a problem is usually the right one. In other words, if you don’t know all the facts, and you’re trying to figure something out, stick with the simplest explanation.

Occam’s Razor typically holds true because the more variables you involve in a decision-making process, the more opportunities you have for things to go wrong. In other words, all else being equal, the probability of two things happening is higher than the probability of three things happening.

Is it more likely that a driver got into an accident because he was texting, or because he was texting and a deer ran across the road and he swerved to avoid it? Even though the deer makes for a more interesting story, throwing another element into the mix makes that story less probable.

You’re Wrong

This way of thinking about the world is called a “heuristic.” Heuristics help our minds make sense of the world around us by simplifying our surroundings through mental “rules.” Heuristics are so ingrained in us as humans that we might not even know we’re applying them. They can be very helpful, but they can also mislead us in making decisions if we’re not aware we’re using them.

Another heuristic at odds with Occam’s Razor is something that we all fall prey to periodically: It’s called the “availability bias.”

Think of it this way: If you don’t know the answer to a question, but need to come up with an explanation, you might think of the most immediate examples that come to mind as reference points. For example, if I asked you what percentage of car salespeople were female, you would probably be able to venture a decent guess based on your own observations within your own dealership or market.

Let’s look at another somewhat morbid example that you probably don’t have as much experience with.  Are you more likely to be killed by a shark attack, or by falling airplane parts?

In fact, you are 30 times more likely to be killed by falling airplane parts than by a shark (1 in 10 million vs. 1 in 300 million). Why might this seem untrue? Part of the explanation involves the availability heuristic, meaning that it’s easier for most people to recall shark attacks (think news stories) than it is to think of incidents involving falling plane parts (generally not reported as much).

Don’t Be Fooled

Why is all of this significant?

Because it’s really, really important to recognize when you might be falling victim to a heuristic like the availability bias, and, in such situations, to use a principle like Occam’s Razor to help you make a decision. In the face of incomplete information, instead of going with what’s most familiar [your “gut”], take a few seconds to think about the logic around what might be the most probable explanation [your “head”].

There are lots of tools out there that we use to make this sort of decision-making process easier. Whether or not you’re a user of vAuto or other pricing / stocking tools, those apps do a good job of helping you make critical data-based decisions and avoid getting mislead by heuristics (“I feel like used SUVs are hot right now…” vs. “I know that used SUVs are hot right now…”).

The same concept holds true with lead scoring, market share data, sales heat-mapping, website conversion optimization, gross margin reports, customer profiling, and on and on and on.

Digitally-Speaking…

To speak to a topic that should be familiar to everyone, back when I was starting out in the industry about ten years ago, dealers wanted websites that packed as much information onto the homepage as possible, like this [circa 2003…and this isn’t even a terrible example]:



Crazy Homepage

We look back on that now and think that viewpoint was a bit naïve, but at the time, to many people, it seemed like a logical path to take. Why? Of course, technology on both the client side (browsers, devices, screen resolutions, bandwidth) and server side was a lot more limited. Search engines were also not quite as robust or as ingrained in our lives as they are now, so getting exposure for pages deep within a site was more difficult, making the homepage vitally important as “the” catch-all for every web visitor.

But I’d also venture that acceptance of the web was not as mature as it is today, and most dealers were applying the availability bias to this new technology: They were taking what they knew well [i.e. newspaper / traditional advertising] and transplanting that knowledge and comfort to a totally new medium.

How many times have you experienced a fire drill on a Friday where you had to get a massive, paper-sized image of your newspaper ad up on your site before the weekend?

As an industry, we now know from crunching lots of website engagement and conversion data, performing countless usability studies, and so forth, that more is not always more: It can often be much less from a user experience – and therefore sales – standpoint.

To illustrate the points above, here are links to articles citing research on four common web-related concepts:

“Below the fold” is still no-man’s land, so simple, relevant, interesting content above the fold is key:
Life Above and Beyond the Fold

Keep your content short, because nobody really reads it (typically only 20-28% of the on-page text!):
How Little Do Users Read?

Use concise, relevant, original images if you want people to pause while skimming:
Photos as Web Content

Clear calls to action are a must to maximize your landing pages:
http://stringautomotive.com/effective-mobile-landing-page-anatomy

Our own data mining, heat-mapping and usability studies back these claims up as well.

I’d say that we’re right in the thick of the same sort of debate today around responsive sites vs. adaptive sites vs. dedicated mobile sites: We’re trying to figure out the best path forward in the face of incomplete and subjective information. Exciting, terrifying, but always spirited.

Data and tools, of course, are important, but they’re only part of the story. The other key factor is the human being making the decisions, which is why I spent this post writing about a couple of guidelines that can be applied to help influence your thinking.

There is certainly a place for “gut” or instinct in our lives, but it’s important to remember the lessons of our good friend William of Ockham, to slow things down a bit, think them through, and keep your reasoning simple. Your top – and bottom – lines will thank you as a result.

 

Google uses over 200 factors to determine website relevancy, and now HTTPS has been thrown into the mix, with a rule that Google is calling "HTTPS Everywhere."

From keyword relevance and backlinks to social shares and web page loading time, Google uses its ranking signals to determine which websites rise up and which fall in the search results. Some signals carry more weight than others, and Google has hinted that HTTPS may become stronger than it is now...

HTTPS Will Soon be Everywhere - are you going to be ready?


HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure and is a communications protocol for secure communication over a computer network. Websites that use HTTPS transport data by means of the SSL/TSLprotocol. These protocols encrypt data that is transported between a user and a website, and protect against common types of security breaches, such as man-in-the-middle attacks.

Earlier this year, Google called for worldwide adoption of HTTPS as the new web protocol standard. The search giant has long been a supporter of HTTPS, which is implemented by default for Gmail and Google Docs. Perhaps in an effort to further their agenda for a secure web, Google began testing HTTPS in their search ranking algorithms.

Tests were encouraging, so Google decided to go ahead and make the move.

HTTPS now plays a role in search rankings



Google states that “security is a top priority” and while currently HTTPS is only a “lightweight” signal that affects less than 1% of queries, “over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.”

Most major websites support HTTPS, from Facebook to Twitter, Paypal, Amazon, and Wikipedia, which enables HTTPS by default. There is even a web browser extension called HTTPS Everywhere, developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Tor project. This extension forces HTTPS implementation on websites that support the protocol.

Given the widespread push for this encryption protocol, it seems pretty clear that HTTPS is on its way to becoming the norm. If, or when it does, this will mean that your dealership website will probably have to adjust and adopt HTTPS to secure its ranking position against other competitor's sites that use HTTPS.

What Could HTTPS Everywhere Mean for Your Dealership's Search Rankings?

How seriously do you take your SEO? As a dealer, I expect that it is VERY important to you.

Let's look at what happens when you run a standard SSL test on a website without SSL as an emulation of how Google might view non-SSL sites. At random, I picked a well known franchise dealer – which shall remain nameless – and first tried connecting with the HTTPS protocol. Firefox informed me that the certificate was untrusted, so I clicked the “Get me out of here!” button. I then did an SSL test using Qualys Labs' SSL Test, a tool which runs a deep analysis of a site's security. The news was not good. If this had been your dealership's site, you would have discovered that the certificate was untrusted, mismatched, and your site was using SSL 2, which is obsolete. Overall rating: “F.”

When Google strengthens HTTPS Everywhere as a ranking signal, it could knock this dealer below a competitor that uses up-to-date security protocols.

Google will be publishing HTTPS Everywhere best practices in the coming weeks, but, among other things, I encourage the following:

• 2048-bit key encryption
  
• Not blocking crawlers with robots.txt
  
• Avoidance of the no index meta tag
  
• Using relative URLs for resources on the same domain
  
• Using protocol-relative URLs for other domains

Some webmasters may be concerned about performance, since encryption introduces additional computational costs. These, in turn, can affect the website's performance and usability, which adds an entirely new dimension to the problem.

There are also administrative hassles of setting up SSL. The widespread effort to increase web security is commendable, but how will it affect your dealership website and your ranking?

Fortunately, you still have time to prepare for HTTPS Everywhere since it’s not yet a major ranking signal. We may see a gradual increase in the signal’s strength in the coming months and years, until eventually HTTPS Everywhere sits alongside more important ranking factors, such as quality content and social sharing.

My advice?



Don't panic. Just keep an eye peeled, talk to your website provider, and adapt as things move forward.

Questions:

Have you already had this conversation with your website provider?
If so - what actions are going into place for a smooth transition?
Is your SEO team onboard and being educated on this impactful change?

 

They say that if you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything. In the case of AutoTrader's recent "study" about car shopping habits, it's not just a matter of torturing the data. It's about coercing the study to produce a result that puts into a negative light the biggest threat to their core business model.

In a recent post on Automotive News, the advertising giant determined that a mere "1 percent of car buyers use social sites to shop for a vehicle." Seriously? You needed to pay for a study to determine that Americans are not complete morons? I'm actually pretty shocked that as many as 1% of people would go to social media sites with the intention of shopping for a car there. It's more likely that a handful of the 1900 people surveyed either misread the question or filled out a false response in order to be obtuse. Nobody goes to social media sites to shop for a vehicle.

That's not the point of social media marketing. It's much more like television - people go to social media sites when they're in entertainment mode. If you were to survey the same people and ask them whether they turn on the television to shop for a vehicle, the numbers would probably be about the same. Nobody says, "Hmmm, we really need to shop for a vehicle today. Let's turn on the television!" By AutoTrader's reckoning, social media and television are worthless when it comes to advertising vehicles.

Of course, their actions do not match their study. They spend a ton of money on television, NASCAR sponsorships, and yes, even social media. Their recent MyCarMyWay campaign was advertised heavily on social media and even starred "Overly Attached Girlfriend", a young lady whose meme turned her into a social media celebrity.

Social media marketing, just like television, is all about reaching people intending to buy a vehicle with a message that can compel them to visit the dealership online or in person. Nobody shops on social media. They go there to be entertained, to see what's happening in the lives of their friends and family, and to share their own experiences. However, the cost to advertise on social media is extremely low while the hyper-targeting abilities of the medium allow dealers to focus their budget specifically on people who want to buy a particular make or model in the near future.

Look, I totally understand why AutoTrader is doing this. They have seen savvy dealers shifting their budgets away from the extremely pricy advertising methods that they sell (presumably at a nice margin considering how much money they sink into social media, television, NASCAR promotions, and dozens of other forms of advertising that they consider to be worthless) and pointing those dollars to social media campaigns that yield a higher return on investment. However, if they had put the same time and effort into developing a strong social media solution that they put into their bogus study, they would have been in a better place than trying to defend themselves in comments across the web from people who saw through their subterfuge.

Questions:

How are you using SM to incorporate and push your inventory?

How open is your GM and DP to using SM to brand your dealership - not, think it will instantly sell 10 more vehicles per month?

I found myself squinting at the letter "N".

That’s all I could see after I pinched and zoomed in on one guitar after another on the musicians’ gear website that appeared on my smartphone. I zoomed out a little so I could read a little more of the text, but I had to keep scrolling right and left and up and down to get the gist of the message. Do you know what I did? I exited the site... probably never to return. And I really loved one of the Gibsons, too!



I’m sure you’ve experienced the joy of viewing a full website on a cell phone, or even a tablet. At last check, 31% of website traffic on the Cobalt networks is now coming from tablets and mobile devices. And that percentage is NOT trending downward. So it’s vitally important to have a clear multi-screen strategy in place for your dealership.

Let’s begin with your shoppers. An understanding of why consumers shop the way they do is central to delivering a good experience, no matter how they encounter you. As consumers ourselves, we know the operative word is convenience, and in this case that means they must be able to access your site (i.e., inventory, hours & directions page, why buy messaging, etc.) no matter what device they have at their disposal at any given time. And, when I say ‘access,’ I mean they must not only be able to get to it; they also have to be able to actually gather information and navigate successfully.

91% of those surveyed in the 2014 Salesforce Mobile Behavior Report said being able to access information however they choose was important to their shopping experience. The other 9% are apparently rife with spare time.

Speaking of spare time, today’s shoppers don’t have much, so many regularly engage in something we would’ve thought incredible just a few short years ago: dual screening. As the term implies, this enigma involves someone utilizing multiple devices simultaneously and staying somewhat connected on each.

Studies have found that 78% of dual screening is multitasking. For example, you might be watching golf on your flat screen TV while surfing baseball scores on your tablet. It’s not as crazy as it sounds, is it?

Mobile automotive consumers may very well be watching a ballgame while looking at Buicks. With your shopper’s attention spread so thin across so many screens, it’s critical we deliver the kind of experience capable of keeping and piquing what little attention we already have, regardless of the device he’s utilizing.

 

So, let’s differentiate devices a bit.

First, desktop use is traditionally focused on productivity-related activities. For car shoppers, that includes research, payment calculators, email and scheduling forms, and credit requests.

Tablets encourage behavior that’s more casual and consumptive, with not as much input from the user. They’re more likely to be used to view inventory and read reviews.

Finally, mobile devices bring a completely different experience to the user. Because smartphones are so personal, the smartphone experience is about feeling connected and in control. For example, according to the 2013 Mobile Path to Purchase study, 42% of smartphone users search in their cars, and 36% of them convert within an hour of their initial inquiry.

Responsive vs. Adaptive Design 

The tasks for a desktop user are often very different from those of a smartphone user looking for directions to your dealership. The challenge for car dealers is to shift your strategy to be more device-centric in your design and content delivery – something much easier written than done. Multi-screen design should cater to task driven experiences.

Another of the challenges revolves around the debate between responsive and adaptive design. Responsive utilizes a single design that reflows across multiple displays, while adaptive design
assigns templates that are optimal and unique for each device class.



Responsive vs. Adaptive Design - do you know the difference?

Good news – Google has endorsed both, so either path is fundamentally capable of supporting your SEO requirements. But, frankly, when it comes to crafting your multi-screen strategy, this choice is not what’s at the heart. It’s just a part. It’s not the end of the discussion. It’s just the beginning.

Design is only one facet of successful cross-device content delivery. There are actually four main components that need to be considered--- Design, Content, Device & Technology. Let’s
stay with Design for now.

Visual design plays a huge role in brand perception. Data suggests that old and outdated design can have a strong influence on negative brand perception and design requirements vary across screens.

These three examples will help make the challenges of cross-device design more tangible:

Example 1 



 

In our first example, look at the differences between screen views. The hero image is inviting, clear and concise. Unfortunately, the text is where the problem lies – both in terms of size and contrast ratio. It’s hard enough to read the model name on the desktop, harder still on smaller screens.

Example 2



In spite of the great vehicle image and legible headline in Example 2, the ‘read the small print’ disclaimer gives the viewer a less-than-engaging experience when you downsize it to tablet or mobile size. A font size that’s barely large enough for desktop shoppers is far too small for smartphone browsing. A quick 3-second scan is often the best way to determine how a page will be viewed, especially on a smaller device. And this one doesn’t pass the test.

Example 3



Example 3 shows pretty clearly what to do. The vehicle image and complementary visuals are compelling. The text-to-image contrast is strong. And font type and size is appropriate for all
screens. When you’re working to deliver an effective multi-screen user experience, dealers
need to use attractive imagery that scales appropriately and easily legible fonts that maintain
their readability no matter what device is used to access your site.

Don't Shut the Screen Door

We’ve all visited sites that weren’t optimized for mobile. Pinch-zoom navigation simply doesn’t work. Visual assets that don’t align with click and touch events frustrate mobile users. Your site might be responsive. Or it might be adaptive. It doesn’t matter if it can’t support a fat finger tap!

Just remember, even with so many things to consider, your ultimate goal should be to create and deliver meaningful and informative experiences for your consumers. Don’t make them squint, figuratively OR literally, to see your message!

What’s your biggest pinch and zoom pet peeve? What other obstacles do we face in designing cross-device experiences?

For more on the responsive vs. adaptive debate and the other pillars of multi-screen strategy, check out our on-demand webinar, So Many Screens, So Little Time – Reaching Car Shoppers Across Devices.