Which comes first...the VDP or your dealership's overall marketing?

Ever since the rise of dealership websites as a virtual showroom rather than the online billboards they started as in the beginning of the digital age, there has been a correlation between the number of people viewing vehicle details pages (or in some cases, inventory search results pages) and the number of vehicles that a dealership sells. Marketers have been attempting to crack the code of the correlation and usually come to the conclusion that if you get more people to view a dealership's inventory, you'll sell more cars and therefore the goal should be to drive people to these pages.

The question that has been coming to mind for a while now but that I've never voiced in a blog post is whether driving VDP views is improving marketing or whether better marketing is driving VDP views. It may sound like a silly question to ask; who cares as long as it sells more cars, right? In reality, it is the type of answer that can help dealers and marketers better position their efforts and focus solely on what is important, what is truly helping to generate more sales.

It's important to keep in mind that the products that my company sells are geared toward driving VDP views through search, social, and third party sites, so even bringing up the question at all could be detrimental to business. However, it's important for us and the rest of the industry to know how this dynamic works in order to market smarter and get the highest ROI.

One thing is clear...this isn't a black and white issue. Even the extensive testing that we've done has only been focused on the components that we control, which means that there are other arenas in which we have no data. That's the point of this post. I want to hear from both dealers and vendors about their experiences, data points, and opinions surrounding this important topic.

I'll hold on giving my direct opinion in the article and save that for the comments as they come through. I'll leave it with my current perception only. In other words, I'll post which direction I'm leaning - direct VDP is better or not better than other options - without stating why or how adamant I am about it.

In lieu of opinions, I'll simply lay out the various ways that dealers and vendors are driving more VDP and SRP views and wait for the DealerRefresh community to supply more data. Once we have all of the opinions collected, we'll follow this story up with further findings of our own. It's important that this is collaborative; no company is in a position to answer the question from every angle definitively.

Let's take a look at the different ways to drive people to the inventory.

PPC

This is the most obvious example since the majority of major search pay-per-click companies in our industry have as part of their offering dynamic ads that tie into the DMS and create ads to drive people into the inventory. It definitely makes for a great talking point, but is it truly more effective than driving people to model-specific landing pages or top-level used car search results pages?

My Leaning: PPC direct to VDP is not better

Social Media

Of all of the things on this list, social media advertising using buyer-intent data is the least utilized. Blame that on Facebook if you'd like. Point your fingers at the vendors who still focus on "branding" as the primary benefit of social media. Regardless of who's to blame for not taking advantage of unpublished posts and hyper-targeting, it's an untouched arena in most markets. That doesn't mean that it's not effective, but should traffic go into the inventory or is there a better location?

My Leaning: Social Media direct to VDP is not better

3rd Party Sites

The continued success of companies like Autotrader and Cars.com as well as the rise of companies like LotLinx and LotVantage makes a pretty compelling case for the perceived success of the direct-to-VDP model, but is the success real? Are dealers selling more cars as a result of more people seeing their inventory? Would they have found the inventory anyway had they been taken elsewhere?

My Leaning: 3rd Party Sites direct to VDP is better

SEO

This is the toughest on the list. We have seen great success with multiple target strategies - vehicle details pages, landing pages, and even the homepage. Unlike PPC and other forms of advertising, getting a VDP ranked can take time, during which the vehicle can be sold. Unlike the other forms, you can't easily turn the SEO off on a page once it's optimized even if it disappears from the inventory listing.

My Leaning: SEO direct to VDP is not better

Display Advertising

The concept of sending people from display ads directly into VDPs is a relatively new one, but it seems to make a ton of sense on the surface. In essence, you're putting an ad out there that doesn't get a ton of clicks relative to PPC or social media, so every click counts. People won't click on these ads without a real interest, so is it better to take them all the way in or simply bring them to the door? Between dynamic ads through companies like Dealer.com and pure display ads through companies like Dominion, there is no shortage of data and successes to report.

My Leaning: Display Advertising direct to VDP is better

Mobile Marketing

Like display advertising, this is relatively new. Like social media, it's also limited in its usage. This is somewhat of a different beast because there's a better chance of getting low-funnel buyers (perhaps even those roaming a competitor's showroom at that moment) to click through to the website. In that moment of truth, would you want them to get to the point and hit your inventory immediately?

My Leaning: Mobile Marketing direct to VDP is better

Final Note

I know that there are vendors and perhaps even some dealers that are getting ready to lambast me in my own words while they're reading this. I cannot stress enough that I am putting out these concepts in an effort to generate discussion. I'm only convinced about one of the venues listed above. The others are completely up for debate and I would love to have my perspective either validated or refuted. Either way, we'll all learn more as a result.

Getting a better return on investment with any marketing or advertising effort requires the best data possible. With companies like ROI BOT and String Automotive out there gathering such data, I would definitely love to hear about what they've learned in their travels.

Is the direct-to-VDP model better or do the number simply mean that more serious buyers end up on the VDPs at some point regardless of where they land?

What experiences have you had with driving more VDP views that either helped increase sales or produced equivalent (or worse) results when compared to driving traffic to other pages?

Are there any other forms of VDP traffic-generating strategies that I missed?

Please leave your comments below. Together, we can start finding answers to these important questions.

The challenge of Paid Search/Adwords can be quickly dismissed once one realizes the incredible possibility of impressive results.

There are many educational resources for "would-be Adwords experts" along with plenty of tutorials, agencies, and expert-trainers who can be hired. However, in my experience, the only real way to master Adwords is to dive right in and start building campaigns yourself.



 

This tutorial isn't going to teach you the basics of Adwords, SEM, or any other entry-level approach to Paid Search Marketing. Instead I'm going to focus on the area of Adwords that in my opinion is the most overlooked and can really be the deciding factor between relevancy and completely unrelated traffic.

It can be the difference between generating a lead or generating a bounce. It affects your quality score, ad relevancy, the frequency your ads are shown and perhaps most importantly YOUR WALLET.

That's right boys and girls today we're going to learn about Negative Keywords. How to find'm, how to select'm, and how you can use them to avoid gaining the attention of those who have no intention of buying your products, using your services, or even interacting with you in any way.

The methods I am going to reveal to you are unquestionably Best Practices. Let's begin!

For this example, I am going to use a brand that in my opinion poses one of the most difficult challenges to use SEM advertising effectively on. The brand... Mazda. Zoom! Zoom!

The route of problems with SEM and the Mazda brand are directly correlated to the fact that half of the vehicles this particular OEM sells carry the brand name "MAZDA" in the model name(s) - Mazda2, Mazda3, Mazda5, Mazda6. So, if you have any intention of displaying model-specific ads based on Search queries to your target audience, negative keyword selection needs to rank high on your list of priorities. This is especially true when you consider that no one is seriously considering the purchase of a "New Mazda 3" is searching for the number "3" and if they are and you're bidding on it... shame on you!

**Check Point** This is information Dan could send a bill for, but hey - we're feeling generous today because Jeff took a tumble on the bike trail and hit his head.

This is the process I strongly recommend that you start on a Campaigns that already exists. This logic stems from my belief that in order to create a truly kick ass adwords account you must start with untamed Advertising blocks and slowly methodically whittle them down (over time) into heavily optimized Campaigns > Adgroups > Keywords > Ads.

Keyword Selection

In order to get the full benefit, it's essential that you separate your desired model keywords from your suppressed model keywords correctly.

In the case of Mazda, I recommend using broad match modifiers for the desired keyword list as much as possible. For example, if you are running ads for the New 2014 Mazda3, break this keyword phrase out into a few variations +New +Mazda +3; +New +2014 +Mazda +3 ; +New +Mazda3; +New +2014 +Mazda3. This will really hone in your traffic and increase the likelihood that your ads are only being displayed to people who:

1. Are really, and truly interested in the Mazda3 vs. other Mazda models.
   
2. The traffic is comprised more heavily of in market shoppers.

At the end of the day who really cares how many eyeballs see your ad? I'm more concerned with relevant eyeballs with their heart and wallet dead set on purchasing the models I offer.

Negative Keyword Selection

Now this is where your advertising chisel comes out, especially in the case of SEM. For a Mazda dealership you're going to want to make sure you reduce the amount of Model Marketing Overlap. To do this you must, in addition to selecting negative keywords to suppress your ads from searches like  'Mazda +service', 'Mazda +repairs', and 'Mazda +history', supply keywords that block all non-Mazda3 ads from being triggered without fully suppressing ads for the Mazda3. Believe me this is harder than it may seem.
First, I recommend blocking exact matches for [Mazda] as it's way too vague. The searcher could be looking for practically anything.

Next, you need to be sure to include broad match-modified keywords and their variations for example: +Mazda +2; and +Mazda2, you'll want to do this for every non-Mazda3 model.

[highlight color="#F0F0F0" font="black"]HINT: Using Excel spreadsheets with Find and Replace or (even better) Adwords Editor can really help you speed up this process.[/highlight]

Use the Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool

I can not stress the importance of this powerful tool enough! After going through and doing your best to eliminate all irrelevant queries from showing your ads the only true test (really the only intelligent way to perform a true test) is to use Ad Preview and Diagnosis found under the tools tab in the navigation.
First, set your location to where you want to show up for the model your looking to test ad relevancy on.

Next, plug in several different searches and see if any of them spark the incorrect ads or less-relevant ads to fire.

Make any and all adjustments and continue to test throughout the month not just on the day you added your new Negative keywords. Otherwise you will not know if you took your Adwords negativity too far!

Use the "Search Terms & Auction Insights' Report

If you're looking for one of the best ways to better understand how well you've optimized your Adgroups and all elements that make them up, look no further than the Search Terms report found in the keywords section under 'Details'. No where else will you find exactly what searches generated your ads to show, how many clicks those searches provided, and if set them up correctly, how many conversions these searches provided. From this screen you can also add searches you don't find to be in keeping with your advertising goals to your negative keyword lists, as well as, add keywords that hadn't occurred to you to your desired keyword lists. Pretty Sweet, Huh? 

You can use the Auction Insights report to help you determine whether or not the cost of a certain keyword or advertising approach is worthwhile based on what it costs, how many times your ads show up and at what percentage. It also gives you the ability to see if your competition is trying to be a player for that keyword.

I can't stress this enough. If you're using a "set it and forget it" Adwords approach or just "leaving it up to your agency and or vendor to handle"- YOU ARE MISSING OPPORTUNITIES, WASTING MONEY, and LETTING YOUR BETTER SEM-VERSED COMPETITION WALK ALL OVER YOU!

Smart dealerships get involved in their SEM efforts. They're asking questions, self training, and getting better results.

My only questions is why haven't you joined the party? 

As larger dealer groups allocate more internal resources to manage their digital marketing investments, our industry needs to discuss roles and responsibilities for digital marketing execution.

In the graphic above, I started a conversation in my latest book, using this chart, on how a dealer group could organize their marketing team or employees who are performing marketing tasks.

Most active members and readers of DealerRefresh know that dealerships are normally under staffed in regards to their online presence. The roles (Entry Level, Associate, Senior, Manager, CMO) that I use in the chart do not have to be full-time positions; they are roles that are normally shared. However, since dealers are in the e-commerce business, they need to have an internal discussion on how to organize the dealership's staff based on knowledge and skills.

The responsibilities (tasks) I list under each role are not to imply that that person has to do the work. These roles have to be able to competently manage the implementation of each task and inspect the reports from each marketing investment.

For example, the Associate Level role does not have to do the SEO work but rather has to guide the SEO strategy and be able to inspect the progress from their SEO vendor partner. If SEO is done internally, then this role may have additional responsibilities.

I invite members of the DealerRefresh.com community as well as automotive professionals to chime in here and help build a more complete matrix that can help guide forward thinking dealers about the structure and responsibilities of their marketing department.

Dealers are spending more and more money each year on Google AdWords campaigns.

AdWords can be a very effective way to connect dealers with in-market shoppers.  With budgets increasing, I want to encourage dealers to demand more transparent reporting from their AdWords management agencies.

In particular, I would like dealers to request that each AdWords campaign to have additional metrics documented so that some specific campaigns can be better optimized.  In the example below, adding three columns to standard AdWords reports can be very helpful in campaign optimization for online advertising strategies that are designed to connect consumers with in-stock cars.

Not all campaigns are designed to drive consumers to look at in-stock vehicles. However, campaigns like a dynamic inventory campaign based on in-stock VINs, should be driving a high percentage of clicks your dealership website's most important page(s) - the Vehicle Detail Page (VDP).

The data shown above is from actual dealer campaigns that I recently audited.

In the case of the “Dynamic Cars” campaign, only 14.93% of the clicks are looking at VDPs and the cost per VDP is extremely high at $12.55. The Cost per VDP View (CVV) on dynamic used car campaigns should be under $2.50, and under $3.50 for new car campaigns which are designed to drive consumers to look at specific inventory.

Of course, branding campaigns, service campaigns, or promotional sales will all have higher Cost per VDP View (CVV) metrics so you would not use that metric for optimization. When dealers start to look at this data, amazing things can happen. They can optimize their campaigns and drive more shoppers to their in-stock inventory at a lower CVV.

To lower the Cost per VDP View (CVV) on AdWords campaigns I have found two strategies that are a good starting point. First, look at keywords inside the campaign Ad Groups that have a very low VDP penetration and also a low lead conversion ratio.  By removing poor performing keywords, based on VDP activity, you will lower the CVV.

The second strategy is the test reducing the marketing radius of your campaigns. Keep in mind that shoppers will click on ads they think will help them find a car but there is a limit on how far they will drive.  For example, although the Brooklyn is geographically close to Rumson as the crow flies, I will never buy a car from Brooklyn.

When you start decreasing the marketing radius an interesting thing happens; VDP visits increase and so do the VDP views per visit. Dealers should be optimizing their Google AdWords campaigns to first maximize local shopper activity before spreading their marketing budget too thin in cities outside of their primary markets.

So, reach out to your AdWords agency today and get your monthly reports modified to include KPIs that give you actionable insights and new ways to optimize your AdWords campaigns.

How are your AdWord Campaigns performance measure up?

Do you have a strategy around reducing your cost per VDP view?

If you had to guess, how big would you say your dealership’s showroom is?

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 15,000 or 18,000 square feet, maybe bigger? The front façade is probably in tip-top shape, the last of the 2014s are glistening, perfectly detailed and merchandised online. And I bet it’s full of amenities – lounge areas, a coffee bar, flat-screen TVs, WiFi –  all of which help your customers feel at home when they come visit. But that’s not entirely accurate.

The truth is that for one out of every four of your customers, your dealership is far smaller. In fact, it lives on a screen that’s only about five inches wide – a smartphone. I sure hope the espresso maker fits.

Understanding Mobile-Only Shoppers

Earlier this year, we commissioned a study with the research firm Placed Inc. to better understand how car shoppers use their mobile devices during the shopping process, and to learn how mobile affects consumer decisions on dealership lots. What we found is that an astounding 25% of consumers used only a smartphone to do automotive research before visiting a dealership.

Now that’s a radical concept...

Think about it in terms of your own dealership. Say 800 total shoppers visit your store in a given month. Without using a desktop or laptop computer, 200 of them will (hopefully) have come through your doors because of information they found using only a mobile device. They might have read a review, visited your website or found a specific vehicle using an independent research site like Cars.com, but they won’t have arrived because they found you “online” in the traditional sense.

Once they’re there, they may speak with your sales team or test drive a few vehicles, and at some point you can bet they’ll dig into their pocket to verify everything you’ve just told them. But the important takeaway is this: If your dealership doesn’t have a strong mobile presence, those 200 mobile-only shoppers will never walk through your doors in the first place. To them, you won’t exist.

There are more than 167 million smartphone subscribers in the United States today, and it’s largely because smartphones have evolved. They’re not just a fancy way to check email and look up sports scores anymore, they’re a consumer necessity. In just a few short years, they’ve become utility devices, capable of offering a shopping experience that’s as good (or better) than traditional computers.

The Rising Millennial Tide

Millennial car buyers use mobile more than any other demographic. They use their devices to research before they visit, while they’re on the lot to comparison shop, and after they sign their deal to share the experience. Big surprise, right?

All jokes aside, the average Millennial uses his or her smartphone more than 65 hours a month. That’s equivalent to having a part-time job.

Let that sink in.

As you might expect, our research shows that Millennial shoppers do more comprehensive mobile research than older consumers and are more likely to visit additional dealerships because of information gleaned on a mobile device. Though many stores have started to make changes to their sales and follow up process to be more mobile-friendly, there’s still a huge gap in the way most organize their marketing strategy to reach the growing audience of mobile-only shoppers. Few do it from the outset.

Don’t be fooled, this generation is still very much about buying cars, they’re just doing it in ways we aren’t quite as used to. Millennial shoppers simply care about convenience and transparency, and they use mobile as way to get both.



Taking the First Step Forward

It’s hard to change tactics that have worked in the past, but by focusing only on the past you miss out on the future. Check your own site analytics for a year-over-year increase in mobile traffic, read the consumer trends stories, ask your friends and family – mobile is here and growing faster than most can keep up with.

So what can you do about it? Having a mobile-optimized website is a given, but that only scratches the surface in terms of reaching mobile shoppers. Similar to the way display advertising, marketplace sites, search and other digital channels connect your dealership to car shoppers on a desktop, mobile can directly influence consumer decisions and raise awareness for your store. It’s a new frontier, so whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just getting started, always keep these basic questions in mind as you shift new resources to mobile:

• Consistency – Is my marketing message consistent across desktop, mobile and traditional channels? Are vehicles priced differently online compared to what’s on the lot?

While a quarter of consumers are mobile-only, the majority still research on a variety of devices. They expect to have a seamless experience regardless of the platform they are on, so make sure content is consistent, and that landing pages, contact information and creative assets are device-appropriate.

• Audience – How many mobile car shoppers does my dealership currently reach? How do my current marketing channels stack up on mobile? Can I reach more shoppers in my market by leveraging new advertising channels?

Not all audiences are the same, so when making decisions about which mobile channels to prioritize, look to understand the volume and quality of the mobile traffic your dealership is getting from each. As mobile evolves, it’s smart to always be testing new channels.

• Conversion – Are the consumers I’m reaching on mobile in-market to buy a car? How can I influence their decisions?

While consumers can do a lot of things on a smartphone, generally speaking, physically buying a car isn’t one of them yet; shoppers still need to visit the dealership. If the mobile media your dealership invests in doesn’t reach shoppers when they’re closest to the finish line – when they’re shopping on the lot – you’re missing a major opportunity to have a voice in the final step of the buying process, and you’re setting yourself up to get showroomed.

Once you start to answer these questions, put yourself in the shoes of a typical customer. See how your dealership’s advertising looks on an iPhone, Android and a selection of tablets – not just your own website, but everywhere you’re investing resources in mobile. If you can’t find yourself, you can bet your customers won’t either.

3 Quick Things to Do Today

1. Verify that vehicle pricing and merchandising information is consistent across all mobile advertising channels. Confirm that the prices you have listed online are the same as what you’re displaying on the lot.
   
2. Test your display ads and phone numbers. Display ads should always click-through to mobile landing pages when viewed on a smartphone or tablet, phone numbers should always be click-to-call without having to pinch to adjust the screen size.
   
3. Look for similar trends in your own web analytics. Pull the “Mobile Overview” report under the “Audience” tab in Google Analytics for a quick snapshot.

Want to learn more about mobile shoppers? Watch the archive of my Navigating Mobile Marketing webinar and take your dealership to the next level with mobile.

What kind of mobile trends are you seeing at your dealership?

 

Email isn’t easy; you have less than 30 seconds.

We all know it’s not easy to build a relationship with prospective customers through email. Especially when you consider that on average readers spend only 15 to 20 seconds on any email they open (studies indicate the average English reader takes 20 seconds to scan about 50 words).

So, you have less than 30 seconds and just a few sentences in any one email to communicate your message, gain trust, and convince your prospective customers that you’re the right dealer to sell them their next vehicle. Pretty challenging, right?

But wait, it gets better.

To further compound the issue, more and more folks are reading (and deleting) emails on mobile devices, specifically smartphones. In fact, Return Path states that over 48% of retail email opens are now happening on a mobile device. I’m sure you’re like me and believe this percentage will only continue to increase. And, we all know we all have the attention span of a gnat when a smartphone is in our hands.

So given all this, what can you do with your automated emails to build a relationship with your prospective customers so that when they decide to purchase they choose your dealership? 

In a recent marketingsherpa study, 38% of marketers cited video content as “very effective” for mobile tactics.  We couldn’t agree more as video has moving pictures, audio and it is dynamic and compelling; it can also be dramatic, comedic or informative.  Ultimately, video is able to compete with the short attention spans and mobile device usage of your prospective customers.

Here are 4 ways we’ve found video within email to be highly effective:

Introductory email from sales consultant





First impression with Video

A first impression is most often a lasting impression. There’s no better way to make an introduction and great first impression than to send an email with a personalized video answering the customer’s questions and providing a face with the salesperson’s name. As we know, the Internet can often times be a faceless place.

CoVideo and Authntk WalkAround Video both offer mobile apps for your IOS and Android phones that are a convenient, and quick way for sales consultants to record these introductions.

As an added benefit, Authntk WalkAround allows you to brand your dealership and sales or service professional with a customized video landing page.

Video walk-around



Effective Video Walkaround

 Creating a video walk-around, particularly for pre-owned vehicle inquiries, is another quick and easy way to personalize the customer experience.  Beyond reviewing the vehicle itself (interior and exterior), take a moment to introduce yourself, your dealership, and communicate to the customer what differentiates you from the competition.

Explanation of your unique Why Buy Message



The Acton Promise video

 Few prospective customers are going to take the time to read your Why Buy message regardless of how well you might have written it. Sending an email that includes an engaging video increases the likelihood you’re successfully able to communicate your unique value proposition to your prospects. Here’s an example (Click To View Video) of a Why Buy video we created for our own dealership, Acton Toyota of Littleton.

Promotion of your special offers



Incorporate your specials / email into Video

 Video works very well for your new car special offers, especially when it comes to promoting the concept of your offers like $0 down lease deals.  Beyond introducing the offers themselves, the video can and should explain why your advertised promotions would be attractive to a shopper. In Acton Toyota’s case, the leases are “simple, honest, and guaranteed” without any hidden fees or fine print.  Here’s the video (Click To View Video) as part of the email promoting these exclusive REAL $0 Down Leases.

Ultimately, adding video to your email messages will help you stand out in a “sea of sameness” to quote Jennifer Blackmon, Corporate Director for Ritz-Carlton, who spoke at Digital Dealer 16 in Atlantic City about creating “memorable experiences” for customers.

Questions:

Are you promoting video messages within your action emails?

If you are, what success have you measured from it?

Fire away in the comments

Although most dealers don’t perform formal market segmentation analysis, the vast majority understand and use some form of segmentation.

While there is value in a more formal practice, changes in consumer behavior are causing us to take a fresh look at the broader subject and rethink our approach to segmentation. Regardless of the dealership’s desire, or even tolerance for formal marketing practice, this new wave of change merits understanding. It brings opportunity and consequences to dealership website design and other communication challenges.

The formal study of market segmentation has been around since the 1950s. However, there is evidence that the practice of segmentation was being executed in some areas even 200 years ago.

Over the past six decades, marketers have used cluster analysis (when the data is available) or segmentation trees to divide markets along the following criteria:

• Homogeneous – Members of customer segments have similar characteristics related to product/service needs
  
• Heterogeneous – Each segment is different from the other segments
  
• Measurable – It is possible to measure the size of each segment
  
• Substantial – Individual segments are large enough in terms of sales and profitability to justify the effort associated with meeting their individual needs
  
• Accessible – Each segment can be reasonably reached with promotions and distribution
  
• Actionable – It is possible to assemble a distinctive marketing mix for each segment
  
• Responsive – Each market segment responds better to its unique marketing mix than it would have responded to a general offering

Car dealers rarely conduct formal market segmentation analysis but recognize there are a variety of segments among car shoppers. Here are a few potential segments that transcend vehicle type:

• Shoppers who are somewhat credit challenged or worried they may be embarrassed by their credit
  
• Severely credit challenged shoppers (e.g. buy here pay here customers)
  
• Payment or lease rate shoppers who are more interested in getting something new they can afford than getting the ideal vehicle
  
• Aspirational shoppers who want a specific vehicle or they will wait until they can afford it
  
• Shoppers who are loyal to the manufacturer brand and/or the store constrain their consideration set of vehicles based on the franchise or the individual store.

Twenty years ago it bothered me when dealers said things like “Don’t you think shoppers just want to see the payment.” On the surface, it sounds like the dealer is aggregating all shoppers into the same category. In reality, this is usually just a difference in communication styles.

Dealers are often negotiators and state their points in absolute terms. Market research experts make a living by using precise language to explain quantitative realities. Both know payment shoppers are but a segment of the market. The dealer is really expressing a preference for that segment or a belief that segment is extremely large and lucrative.

Deep down, marketers always knew there was a flaw to segmentation. It did not account for time, place, and attitude shift. Those of us who sold cars know shoppers sometimes change their attitude even while they are in the store.
They came in with a strict budget of $20,000 but left with a $26,000 vehicle.
They came in looking for a new truck for him and left with a new convertible for her instead.
They came in with a payment cap of $400 but left with F&I products that helped them justify a higher monthly payment and financial protection.

Segment shoppers fall into varies based on when you ask the question and where they are when you ask it.

Of course, marketers always understood this, but it didn’t matter much when formulating a communications strategy. Sales people dealt with attitude changes and even worked to stimulate them, but we had a pretty good idea of the customer’s frame of mind when we placed the media.

The publications and programs were designed to attract an audience looking to be in a particular mood. If we were after credit challenged shoppers, we picked a publication or program that fostered the desire for more or at least didn’t put the shopper in a poor mood. We sent them a positive message about being able to obtain even more than they imagined. The solution and information about it were always accessible at the store.

Today, this information NEEDS to be on the dealership VDP website . Fourteen years ago we knew the website was going to be viewed at work or at the one computer in the house. Today, your website may be visited by the same shopper in a wide variety of places and circumstances. This is where efforts to customize the site to the consumer’s past behavior tend to run into problems.

That customer looking at your VDP in the bar with his buddies may be completely different than he was when browsing at home alone or with his spouse.

Stores still need to know what they stand for, and thousands of them do a poor job of establishing a unique positioning statement designed to capitalize on their targeted segment(s). But there will always be a desire to serve a wide range of segments at the same time.

Franchises like Chevrolet, Toyota, and Ford are designed for a wide approach. That means we must make it possible for shoppers to quickly and easily find what they are looking for on the site. We have the technology to customize the site to the individual, but we lack the information to know which version of that individual we are dealing with at the time. Our customizations could be completely wrong for him or her at that time and place.

There will never be a substitute for heavy content websites with great navigation. Allowing shoppers to get what they want when they want it will always be fundamental to dealership websites, and the industry must do a better job of it.

The future challenge will be to understand which site customizations are safest for each segment. It may be that those who are interested in towing capacity almost always care about towing capacity.  Maybe those who insist on a cold-weather package want to be sure every vehicle they consider has the cold-weather package. Making this information more prominent for shoppers once they’ve shown a preference may be of value. Making it possible for anyone to quickly and easily find a wide variety of information on any relevant vehicle will always be essential.

Marketers can no longer guess at the time, place, and attitude the shopper is in when we communicate with them. Even if we know where they are geographically, it may not be safe to speculate on the circumstances and mindset.

Customization of the website is a logical tool in the effort to send the right message to the right consumer. However, we need to understand its limits and execute on its benefits without diminishing the shopper’s ability to find what they want and when they want from a heavily contented site with great navigation.

Website design is but one area where the variability in circumstance will impact our use of segmentation strategy. In October 2005, I called on manufacturers and dealers to begin targeting at the level of one, the single individual. Even then, the technology was developing to allow us to inexpensively meet the needs of smaller and smaller segments, theoretically even a segment of one. At that time, I could not have imagined the implications mobility would have on that kind of approach.

People have always been variable, and now they consume marketing information across virtually all the profiles exhibited by a single individual.

Have you begun to think about segmentation?
Where else do you think consumer segmentation could have a large impact?

 

While it would be great to have an official list of everything that helps and hinders a website's ranking, Google doesn't exactly give out that information, "officially".

But, look at what I found today showing an almost official list of Google's 200 Ranking Factors.

Mobile continues to take over the world. Here are some recent stats on email marketingand how you can apply them to improve your marketing results.

Litmus.com reported that the percentage of emails opened on a mobile device reached a new high of 51%last year. For webmail users such as Aol, Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail, the mobile open rate bumps to 61%.

Have you looked at how your emails render on a smart phone? How much do people have to manipulate your content to be able to easily read it?

A study from Acxiom last year analyzed what people do if an email doesn't look good on their phone:

- 70% delete it

- 28% use a computer

- 16% unsubscribe

- 9% try to read it

If you're not taking advantage of a responsive design that displays your content based on the device it is being viewed on, you're hurting your results.

Last year we switched our newsletter format to a responsive design. This means if you look at the newsletter on a desktop, you'll see a two-column version. If you look at it on a smartphone, the left column is automatically suppressed so only the column with the stories displays which makes it much easier to read on a mobile device. Our internal study showed the average click through rate for the non-responsive design was 28.5% versus 31.3% for the responsive design.

How does that number translate into customers?

If you email 5000 newsletters and have a 25% open rate, the responsive design is helping an additional 35 people click through which can add up over time.

Some resources to help you with mobile email design:

1. See how your email looks on different devices



2. How-To Guide to Responsive Email Design:


3. Free email templates:


4. Responsive Email Design


What do you think about these stats?

What have you noticed at your dealership?

In my years working for a dealer website provider, I was often tasked with keeping up with the latest trends in website design, particularly how they pertained to their value from a traffic and lead-generation perspective. Google was always my beat. It wasn't an easy task since they put out about as much content in the form of blog posts, videos, and patents as any other non-news publication out there, but I enjoyed it because they rarely delivered messages that were crystal clear. It gave me the challenge of being an interpreter and the turmoil of the possible consequences if I was wrong. Call me a geek, but in many ways working the "Google beat" was exhilarating.

The search giant has been more forthcoming in recent years. One of their first very straight-forward recommendations was for responsive website design. They published many things about it back in 2012, including an article on their Webmaster Central blog titled "Responsive design - harnessing the power of media queries". They reiterated it a couple of months later in their recommendations for smartphone-optimized websites.

At the time, my direction was clear. I recommended that my former company build responsive websites. It was the future, the near future in my opinion, and we needed to be early to the game. There were already a handful of companies going into the responsive realm in the automotive industry and I didn't want us to be left behind.

Thankfully, we didn't hop on the early bandwagon. There were challenges with responsive design that I didn't anticipate. A car dealer's website is different from most websites - heavy in images, loaded with plugins that may or may not be responsive, and generally slow. These were things that were not conducive to responsive websites and the early adopters did for responsive automotive websites what MySpace did for social media. They paved a path and stepped on the landmines. They showed that even as late as 2013, the challenges associated with switching to responsive were bigger than many had realized.

Today, things are better. After reviewing several responsive website options in our industry, I can say that one is rock-solid, one is pretty close to being there as well, and two are strong enough to be definitely better than their adaptive counterparts. It isn't that our industry caught up to responsive technology. It's that responsive technology, mobile internet speeds, and improved devices have finally caught up with what our industry needs for strong responsive websites.

Unfortunately, there are those who still trumpet the cause of adaptive over responsive. Whether it's because they are too embedded in the adaptive model to switch or if they, like a couple of major website players that we all know and love, went into development, only to realize that it added costs that weren't worth a wholesale switch, they've chosen to stay with adaptive for now and the foreseeable future. I've heard of companies that have it on their product roadmaps in 2015 or 2016 and at least one big one that has no plans of ever developing responsive websites. In all of these cases, it's a mistake. Responsive is not just a buzzword. It's where we are today. It's where Google wants us to be. More importantly, it's where your customers want you to be.

There was a time when I had to make the argument for flash websites. You remember those, right? Back in 2007, when I first came to the vendor side of the industry, I had to figure out how to properly optimize flash websites while maintaining the attractiveness they provided. I did this because I needed to; we were months away from developing a platform that wasn't built on flash and we couldn't wait around, so I needed a solution. Today, adaptive websites are in the same boat. Can they be optimized? Yes. Can they be effective for lead generation? Yes. Less than a year ago, the numbers were actually leaning in favor of adaptive websites over responsive when it came to lead generation and phone calls, but those numbers have reversed in recent months. Today, there is no excuse to avoid responsive other than cost. That's really the best thing they have going for them. They're cheaper.

If cost is an issue at your dealership, it's understandable to go with a lower solution for now. However, at some point in the near future, the cost of saving money will be higher than the benefits that come with being frugal. Sooner or later, the majority of automotive websites will be responsive and they will be preferred over adaptive websites by your visitors. They are already converting better today.

Questions:

Can you afford to think that it's just a buzzword?

What are some of the drawbacks that you've seen on your website or a competitor's responsive website?

Should we even allow Google to determine how we will market to our customers?

Subaru of Wichita has been in the news a lot lately, and each encounter has reinforced the importance of our state of media readiness as a dealership. So, now that we have a moment to breathe, I'd like to reflect on what I've learned.

But first, let's take a step out of the dealership for a moment and talk about the best example of a "Media Ready" organization I can think of--The Kansas Humane Society. My visit to KHS last year made a lasting impression on me. Everyone I encountered at KHS was ready to speak on camera without hesitation, which really made walking around the campus with a camera and tripod fun. Adrian, the gentleman that spoke on camera was very practiced, and only required one take—Practice really does make perfect. The KHS goes on the 10 o’clock news every week to raise awareness about their adoption efforts. Also, they are a wonder to behold on social media, and much of their job is done for them. I mean, really—they get to post pictures of cute dogs, cats, and rodents—and in this case, it actually counts as relevant content. Lucky ducks! Also notice the lovely Sue K—wasn’t she great? She volunteered to be on camera—or rather, she told me the dog wanted to be on camera so she would speak for him. Clearly, the staff at KHS knows that media exposure helps the animals get adopted, so they all pitch in.

Just say yes. During our “Shame On Subaru of Wichita” ordeal, I drove to Oklahoma City—twice—to appear on Fox & Friends and Neil Cavuto’s show on FOXBusiness. Something about the local broadcast equipment being tied up for March Madness was keeping me from just using the local affiliate.



Of course, I could have said no, but the loss would have been mine. Remember—Media attention gravitates not to the best, brightest, or most talented, but to those who can be relied upon to consistently produce on camera. Grant Cardone describes this principle in great detail in his book The 10X Rule, which is well worth the read.

On a happier note, Kyle Taylor, a Subaru of Wichita service technician, recently appeared on FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance. The segment was actually filmed earlier this year, and while he could tell us the basic details of what happened, he had to mostly keep quiet about it until it aired.  Kyle was incredible, and got the opportunity to battle three of the show’s most popular alums. Our local media, however, had no knowledge of his performance, and so with his permission, we set out to help brighten his moment in the spotlight by giving a heads up to our contacts in the media.



Photo Courtesy of Travis Heying, the Wichita Eagle

I alerted our local newspaper, who agreed to cover the story, and a photographer visited the dealership, wanting to not only take stills but video as well. Kyle didn’t come to work that day expecting to dance in the service bay, but he did, and the video helped to propel his storyto the #1 most read article on kansas.com for the weekend. Ready for the spotlight? You bet.

TNT Amusements provides a nice outside perspective on how video content creation is an integral part of a retail arcade machine business. In this video, Todd Tuckey demonstrates a pinball machine he’s sending to a customer in Australia, and his expertise makes it immediately clear why someone would trust him enough to ship a machine that far. Their videos are far from perfect, but they provide a great example of how a lack of professional video polish can actually add to their charm.

While other arcade game vendors are going out of business, TNT seems to be doing just fine. If arcades have a special place in your memory like they do in mine, you’ll love looking inside the guts of the games that used to unburden your pockets of all those hard-earned quarters.

Media Readiness--Where to begin?

1. Start by identifying where the disconnects that might exist between the digital best practices and what your salespeople perceive throughout their respective days. I’d be surprised to find someone on DealerRefresh that argues the value of video, but on the sales floor, you might be amazed at how much perspectives vary.

2. Develop your list of traditional media contacts who you can trust to help you break a story quickly and accurately. Having their contact information at the ready when something big breaks will save you those crucial minutes when you need them most.

3. Expensive camera equipment is great, but you don’t have to wait until everything on your B&H Wish List has been ordered. Expensive equipment will not redeem uninteresting content.
On the other hand, if social media is the telephone of the future, then the camera is the handset through which you speak. Would your dealership settle for a tin can phone system instead of a telephone? If not, why not invest in a decent camera to help set your content apart?

4. Address the issue of Camera Shyness and its causes directly. I still maintain that camera shyness is largely driven by the fear of humiliation, so be constantly on the lookout for instances of people using cameras to humiliate one another and address that behavior immediately and consistently.

Being in a state of media readiness is an ongoing effort, but the effort is worth it. Whether the spotlight finds you by happy accident or through deliberate manufacture, make the most out of your shining moments by being fully prepared.

 

At one point, I was J. Jonah Jameson. When I left the dealership world and hit the vendor side over seven years ago, I learned from necessity that website add-ons were not a good idea. At the time, many were flash, most made the website load slowly, and few did much more than cannibalize leads that the website would have provided anyway had the add-on not been in play.

Fast forward to the last couple of years and things have changed. Websites are, for the most part, better now than they were just a short time ago to the point that they have become commodities. An argument can be made between adaptive and responsive, but otherwise the debates about proper lead-generation are pretty much behind us. That's not to say that the website providers in our industry are doing it right. They're just doing less wrong at equal degrees.

Over the last few months, I've been digging deeper into ways to improve website performance. Since my company does not build software, I've had to explore dozens of products in order to present to my clients ways that they can improve their website experience. At the end of the day, that's what it really comes down to: experience. Shooting for pure "lead generation" is no longer reasonable. Yes, websites generate leads, but people are more skeptical today about leaving their information through the various online forms. It's for this reason that improved experience will generate stronger appeal, more phone calls, and more showroom visits rather than just more lead form submissions.

Here are some of the things that I've explored. Rather than direct endorsements of the individual products that I like, this is going to be a general explanation of a handful of add-ons that I would have on my website if I were still running an internet department. If you want specific recommendations, you'll have to contact me directly. A DealerRefresh blog post is not the place for specific recommendations.

Merchandising and Information Widgets

This is one that doesn't really have a specific solution, but the need is there. Most dealer websites do a poor job of providing real answers to their visitors when it comes to giving the real details about inventory, specials, financing options, or even service. That's not a knock on the website providers; they do what they can with the resources available but having a specialist in mind to highlight the information is a better solution.

It goes beyond just having attractive buttons. It's more than just a list of current incentives. When people go to a dealer website, they want to be able to plug in criteria and receive tangible data that they can utilize.

It's more than having a list of vehicle features. What makes vehicle A different from seemingly-identical vehicle B? They know that they're different because they have different prices. Don't make them play Where's Waldo with the heated seats.

Lastly, it goes beyond just having a specials builder. Make them come alive. We merchandize the heck out of our vehicles at the dealership. The same needs to be done on websites, perhaps more so than in real life.

Appointment Incentives

For those who have not seen them in action, the various incentive programs out there that give people reasons to show up for an appointment that they make are strong plays. Whether it's a gift card or something else, they do work to collect better information before they come to the dealership and they increase the volume of people that actually do show up.

There are two primary arguments against these by most dealers who have either never tried them or who have tried and stopped. First, there are people who come in just to get the gift card. This is true and no dealer likes to give away something without a chance of turning it into business. However, the number of "freeloaders" is likely much smaller than most dealers believe.

Second and arguably more importantly is that people would have come into the dealership anyway. Why pay to have them come in?

My counter-argument here is simple: order of importance. Car shoppers will often select three or four dealers that they intend to visit. The thinking is always the same: "We'll go out looking today, gather information from a handful of dealers, and then make our decision at home so we can make the right choice."

That's the intention. The reality is that they will likely meet a real salesperson at the first or second dealership they visit. These incentives will help to move your dealership up in the priority list. Are you seeing a 95% or better show-rate for your appointments set? The reason that you're not isn't because half of the people who call to set up an appointment are just prank callers. It's not because your BDC or internet team are making fake appointments. In many cases, it's because you were the second dealer they were going to visit and they met a salesperson at the first place they stopped.

Managed Chat

This is the one that will get me in the most trouble. Those who manage their own chat often do so because they feel they can do it better being at the dealership than someone away from the store. In some cases, this is true, but not most. The negatives associated with having the staff manage chat usually outweigh the benefits of having someone there at the dealership to "wing it".

The benefit of self-managed chat comes down to one distinction:

• Self-Managed: "I do believe we still have that vehicle. Let me put my hands on it and I'll email or call you. What is your contact information?"
  
• 3rd-Party-Managed: "I do believe we still have that vehicle. Please give me your email and phone number and we will have someone verify that it's still here for you."

Both are just as effective. It's a minor distinction.

The negatives to self-managed chat are numerous. First and foremost is the timing factor. If the person managing chat for the dealership is on a test drive, in the restroom, out to lunch, or even on another chat, then having a chat presence becomes a detriment. People chat as an alternative to instant information collected over the phone. They have a question and they want an answer. They won't wait 30 seconds, let along 5 minutes as is often the case with self-managed chat.

Other Plugins and Add-Ons

I'll admit it. This was a self-serving blog post. I wrote this in hopes that you would help me to identify other add-ons and plugins that I can explore. There are so many out there that it's hard to know where to start.

What plugins have worked for your dealership?

What add-ons would you like to see someone build?

For Part 2 of this Tip You'll need to have the Internet Lead Provider Report with the Values Per Lead source handy in addition you should be logged into the Store's Google Analytics Account under the Admin > Goals section and also have a browser open to the Dealership Website. You might want go through the process of putting a test lead through the page to ensure that  a.) the Goal has at least one recent Completion and b.) That you grab the correct URL for both the Destination Page as well as the Funnel Step 1 page.

• Part 1 How To Find Your Lead Source Values in Your CRM
  
• Part 2 Installing CRM Lead Source Values into Google Analytics

PART II: Getting your lead source values from your CRM Internet Lead Provider report into Google Anayltics.

One question you might ask yourself before diving into this tip is, "why is it important to plug my CRM lead source values into my Analytics"? It is not only important, but pretty much crucial to have these values plugged into GA and monitored. It is very helpful in predicting showroom traffic, as well as, giving you a reasonable estimate as to how much profit your internet leads will bring you in any given month.

Again it is important to have the Lead Source YTD report we created in my last tip in front of you when starting this project. Here's the one we built in the last tip:


 

For the sake of time we'll only focus on one lead source (Contact Us), but take note that the process is the same for all lead sources on your website with the exception of chat and lead sources - such as, Blackbook or KBB which are iframed into the site and lack a unique Thank You Page.

Toggle over to your GA accounts Goals setup page and locate your "Contact Us Form Submission" goal.

1.) Add a new Goal and name it something like "Contact Us Completion" or "Contact Us Form Submission"



Click on the link to the 'Contact Us Form Submission' goal or add a new goal if you haven't already created one. You should designate this goal as a "Custom" goal as most traditional eCommerce goals in GA by default will not accurately describe a dealership website conversion. Next, in the Goal description section Name the goal appropriately so you won't have to guess what it is later. I recommend something completely straightforward like well, "Contact Us Form Submission"! Make sure you define the Type as Destination at this point, as well.



Once you've named your goal and defined it as a "Destination" goal the next step is to define what page a website will be on when they've completed the goal. This page is often referred to as the "Thank You page". For information on creating a truly Kick-ass "Thank You page" I refer you to Brian Pasch's tip on this topic from a few years back Are You Missing A Marketing Opportunity On Your Website?

To find your website providers "Thank You page" you should go to your Website's 'Contact Us' page and submit a test lead. The page you end up on after completed the form submission is the Thank You page as well as the Destination page for our goal. Copy the URL suffix (everything starting from where ".com/" to the end) See example below:



With the URL suffix copied to your clipboard toggle back to GA and paste it in the "Destination" form. At this time also make sure that you select "Begins with" as your default destination setting.



You'll see two options below 1.) Value  2.) Funnel both of these are switched off by default. Turn on Value and insert the 'Contact Us' value from our Internet Lead Provider report in this situation it is $70.33.



Next, Name Step one as "Contact Us Page" and add the URL suffix for the contact us page in the "Screen/Page" section


Afterwards turn on Funnel and make Funnel Step 1 required. See example below:



The last step is to Verify the goal. Do this by clicking on the link below that reads: "Verify This Goal" if this goal has been completed in the past 7 days you should see a conversion rating provided. Hint: If there is a value of 0% either no one has ever used your contact us form (unlikely) or you did something wrong in setting the goal up.



Congrats! You've setup your first Conversion Goal with Value Tracking. Now, it's time to Rinse and Repeat for your other lead sources. Overtime you should make reviewing Goal Conversions in GA a part of a weekly routine. Knowing how many goals have been completed with average profit values installed can help you predict the success of your marketing and estimate your total internet ROI. Good Luck!

Most dealerships are actively trying to collect email addresses from their prospects and customers because email marketing continues to be one of the most cost-effective marketing options there is.

But, as your email list grows, it is important to know that bigger isn't better.

In Acxiom's report: "Email Marketing and Mobile Devices: A Survey of Consumer Habits and Perceptions - 2013," they found:

- Nearly 49% of respondents have email accounts for messages they rarely intend to open.

- 38% have two personal email accounts

- 21% have three accounts

You obviously want to be offering email content that justifies people giving you their primary email address, but even then, as your list grows your open rates will decrease as you inevitably add inactive email addresses. While having inactive email accounts on your list wasn't a big deal 10 years ago, now it is a game changer. These days you need to be actively managing your email list.

Email companies such as Yahoo, Gmail, etc., are looking at your list's engagement rate when trying to determine whether or not to deliver your email to the inbox or the spam folder. If people aren't opening and clicking on your email, you may find your emails getting delivered to the spam folder rather than the inbox.

Here's an example of the impact cleaning out inactive subscribers can have:

We had a newsletter client with a low open rate. Typically, we like to see an open rate of at least 25%. We did a list analysis of their database which had about 13,000 contacts. It turned out that almost a third of the list were prospects (we usually email just customers, not prospects). The prospects on the list were pretty easy to identify, not just because they were missing a customer number, etc., but because their open rate was so low.

We sent a re-engagement email to the inactive prospects and moved the non-responders off the list. Here's a comparison of what happened.

- Initially emailed 13178 newsletters with 1976 unique opens which is a 15% open rate.

- After removing the inactive prospects, we emailed 9548 newsletters with 2504 unique opens which is a 26% open rate.

The important metric in this example is not just that the open rate went up, but that the number of actual opens increased by more than 500 while sending 3630 fewer emails. As an added bonus, the client also reduced their newsletter fee since we bill by the number of emails sent.

Here are a few implementation ideas:

1. Keep prospecting emails in your prospecting campaigns.

2. Keep customer emails in your customer retention / newsletter campaigns.

3. For both lists, if a person hasn't opened an email in 6 months, they probably are not going to. Try sending a re-engagement campaign or contact them by phone for an updated email address and if that doesn't work, move them off the list.

I was relocated several years ago and made countless drives back and forth from Atlanta to St. Louis for the holidays to see family. My favorite part of the drive was Hwy 24 about an hour West of Chattanooga, TN through the Southern tip of the Appalachian Mountains. The scenery is breathtaking, but something else always took my breath away at this part of the drive, too. I’m convinced that it is something that every dealership should pattern their Consumer Experience process and procedure after.

Recently, a dealership made the forums “wall of shame” by suing a consumer for damages resulting from a video they’d loaded on Youtube. The consumer questioned some CP charges on their invoice after reviewing footage from a dashcam that was conveniently recording the entire time that the vehicle was in the dealership’s possession. The consumer made a montage of recorded phone calls with the Service Advisor overlayed with text explaining the perceived inconsistency of the invoice’s billable hours with the footage. They included the elapsed time the Techs spent under the hood and even some difficult to explain conversation about errors made in a previous service visit for the same reported failure.

Now, this article could easily take a left turn and focus on the new normal that technology is ushering into every process and procedure at the dealership, but I want to focus on the old normal. How did we get from the consumer questioning billable hours to the dealer suing a consumer for defamation? My best guess is that there are no “Runaway Truck Ramps” in this dealer’s Consumer Experience process.

Imagine 80,000lbs of 18-wheeler hurtling down a 6% grade mountain pass unable to stop under its own power. The momentum is carrying it toward certain catastrophe without an external intervention. This is the perfect analogy for the consumer experience described above. How many opportunities were missed along the way to redirect the path of this consumer experience death spiral in order to regain control? I can only imagine that it is a jarring and uncomfortable experience for the driver of an 18-wheeler to ditch their rig into an inclined sandbar, but the realization that this is the only option to avoid catastrophe is ingrained in their training. When they are no longer in control of the load they are in charge of delivering they make the decision to use the runaway truck ramp because they know it is the only option. The service advisor knew they had a potential consumer experience catastrophe on their hands, but they either weren’t trained or weren’t afforded the runaway truck ramp they needed to regain control of this situation effectively.

Ask yourself:

Is every member of your team trained to recognize a consumer experience catastrophe in the making?

Have they been trained to know when and where, or in this case who, represents the runaway truck ramp in their department?

Is that runaway truck ramp in your organization available 24-7-365?

Do you have an active plan to rapidly decelerate consumer experience catastrophes and recognize the individual efforts required to avoid them?

Last thought: You’ll probably never see a news story about a heroic driver of an 18-wheeler who uses a runaway truck ramp to regain control, but you will certainly see plenty of coverage of the driver that causes a pileup because they weren’t trained or willfully ignored processes designed to mitigate risk.

 

[highlight color="#F0F0F0" font="black"]In part 1 of this 2 part series, Dealership Staff learn how they can use their CRM to understand the Value of Each Internet lead. This helps dealers better align their digital marketing efforts and hold their lead providers and hold your BDC more accountable. In Part 2, dealers will be shown how to take the Lead Value Calculations from this tip and add them to their Google Analytics for better total ROI estimates before the month even ends. But first, part 1![/highlight]

• Part 1 How To Find Your Lead Source Values in Your CRM
  
• Part 2 Installing CRM Lead Source Values into Google Analytics

PART I

There's nothing worse than focusing dealership dollars and staff attention on digital dead ends and yet we do it all the time. Many times we over invest in goofy lead providers and tools that don't bring us any measurable value or ROI... until now!  Here's how you can use your dealership's CRM and some fairly basic math calculations to help guide your digital marketing efforts in more profitable directions.

Every CRM provider includes some version of the Internet Lead Provider report (if yours doesn't, it might be time to switch CRMs). The Internet Lead Provider report shows all of your lead sources, the number of leads accumulated, the number of appointments set by your BDC, the number of appointments shown, how many sales were generated, and lastly how much Gross Profit the lead source was responsible in providing.

An Example of a typical Internet Lead Provider Report:



Once you've located this report, set the reporting time period to Year To Date (YTD) to see the statistics for each lead source YTD. To calculate the Value Per Lead (VPL) go through each lead source one-by-one and taking the total gross profit and dividing it by the number of leads the Source generated. Note: Most modern CRMs should provide the ability to export this report into an Excel .CSV file which can be  a little easier to work with if you know how to run basic formulas in Excel. 

Here is what my Value/Lead looks like by Lead Source YTD:



 

You see that although the 'Dealer Website Form' lead source provides the most leads by far and that the Value Per Lead is very high, falling second only to Edmunds.com and Car Chat 24. But, consider this - although Edmunds leads in this example have the highest Value Per Lead the source itself only provided 18 total email leads of which 2 sales were generated. Think about how much you pay per month for this service before declaring it your best lead source.

Let's chat about 'Car Chat' and 'Dealer Website Form' lead sources. You shouldn't be surprised to find that both of these sources not only provide high Values, but that each of these also generate a ton of leads. You'll probably want to take a look at another common CRM report, "Closing Percentage By Lead Source" or if this reporting feature is not available, I recommend using one of several free Online Calculator application like PercentageCalculator.net. In this situation this Dealership is closing Car Chat leads at about 8.2% and they're closing Dealer Website Forms at about 7.2%, so clearly there's much room for improvement at this store.



If for some reason your CRM isn't equipped with a Internet Lead Source Closing report you can use any of several Free Online Calculators or the one on your phone.

Car Chat and Dealer Website Form leads (in my opinion) should be closing at a 10% or higher, so it might be time to have a discussion with the BDC department to go over inherent challenges posed by these sources and assess our workflow. These reports truly speak for themselves and provide excellent insight into numerous aspects of Dealer Website and Dealership operation - many great discussions can be had when reviewing these reports.

OK! Now that you know how to calculate Value per Lead it's time to fire up Google Analytics and Plug-in some of these values And In Part 2 we'll do just that!

You should be warned that any Third-Party lead provider will not be able to have goal conversions setup in GA but fret not - you now know exactly what your paying for with the provider and you now have more firepower to hold them accountable and to determine the True ROI and whether or not you should keep the lead source.

If you followed my last tip on Dealer Refresh, 5 Dealership Website Conversion Goals You NEED, you should already know how to access Goals in Google Analytics and if you do a little digging it should be fairly obvious how you can insert the Value Per Lead numbers into those Goals which I strongly encourage you to do. If you didn't read my last tip, well I guess now's your chance.
Meet The Author

Relevance is one of the key reasons people subscribe to emails from you or your dealership.

People want information that is going to be specific to them and their situation. If you are sending mass email blasts to everyone about the same thing, then check out these 5 ways to get a little more personal:

1. Personalize subject lines with their name

This is an easy one. Personalized subject lines generally deliver higher open rates.

2. Personalize based on their vehicle

Truck month tips can go to truck owners. Summer traveling tips with kids could go to minivan owners. You probably won't have time to come up with custom content for each type of vehicle, each month - but even if you do it once or twice a year, it can make a nice impression.

3. Personalize by date

If they bought a car from you, you have their birth date so why not send a birthday email? You also have the date of their vehicle purchase which could make for a fun car birthday email: "Happy 1st Birthday to Your Honda Accord!"

4. Personalize by contract

Is their lease expiring? Warranty expiring? These emails can let them know what their options are.

5. Personalize by activity

Has it been over a year since their last vehicle service? Why not send a special offer with a "We Miss You Message." Or, if they've never missed an oil change, how about a thank you with a free car wash offer?

What ways are you personalizing your emails?

[highlight color="#F0F0F0" font="black"]This post was originally written by Bill Havican, on his blog.  Bill, thank you for sharing your experiences with the DealerRefresh community! - The Dealer ThinkTank Team.[/highlight]

I recently had the pleasure of attending a Dealer ThinkTank Chicago last week, here are my thoughts:

Dennis Galbraith

I arrived a little late (thanks Chicago traffic) but just in time for the start of Dennis’ presentation. Not that I was happy about Allan Cooper being unable to attend but I was thrilled being able to hear from Dennis. I recently attended Digital Dealer’s Chicago workshop but unwisely went to see a different presenter. I heard awesome things from others about Dennis and was happy I had the second chance to hear from him.

While I forget the name of Dennis’s presentation it covered a lot of little things that dealers could work on right away to improve their website experience. What I understood was that the idea is to optimize every little thing you can to get an advantage over your competition. This was great and sort of an overall theme of the workshop in that each presenter gave us a number of ideas that we could implement right away.

Dennis presented us with a few good stats that surprised me a bit like how phone research is now greater than desktop research. He also shared with us how our sites are now being looked at as authorities and let us know that about 85% of people visit a dealership’s site before visiting the dealership. With that he suggested that we provide as much info as possible but make it easy to navigate with tabs and more tabs on the VDP rather than just paragraphs of info with computer generated buzzword filled sentences.

In addition, as someone that’s just starting to delve into analytics, I appreciated the info he provided about setting up conversion goals and page load target times. All in all I was able to come away with a full notebook page full of actionable items which is exactly the type of thing you want at an event like this.

Eric Miltsch

Eric told us about the 6 things we need to do in 2014 in regards to our digital marketing strategy. What I loved about Eric’s presentation was that it was very technical but not over our heads. I’ve been on webinars or read blogs from other experts that seem as though they’re tailored for other experts and not for the people that really desire the information.

A few of the main points that I took away included using autofill and trends to develop content, Google Authorship on blog posts, and Facebook dark posts. I had no idea what dark posts were or how to create them but Eric was kind enough to take the time to show me one-on-one how to do them during one of the breaks. Thanks Eric!

All of the info was great but it paled in comparison to the “selfie stick.” This wonderful contraption allows the user to extend the distance between yourself and camera phone. There were a couple of people at the event with Google Glass and let people try it out, but in my humble opinion the Selfie Stick stole the show.

Selfieception - pic of everyone taking their own selfie @dealerthinktank #dttchicago http://t.co/L7PR9gTUwo pic.twitter.com/bMyIAaNYrr

— Eric Miltsch (@emiltsch) May 15, 2014

Click to expand...

Jerry Thibeau

The man, the myth, the legend. I wear a lot of hats at our auto group but my main priority is managing our BDC. I fundamentally believe in continuing education and am in constant search of books, blogs, webinars, and forums where I can learn from others. Of all the experts out there that are kind enough to share their wisdom I keep coming back to Jerry and learn something new each time. In fact, the first thing I do when training a new rep is make them listen to Jerry’s “7 Phone Skills Guaranteed to Make You $$$” webinar. So it was fun for me to attend a live presentation and meet him.

As always Jerry’s presentation was entertaining and thought provoking. I feel our team does a very good job at how we handle leads and I wish I would have gotten in on the mystery shop so I could see how we stacked up to other dealers. That said while the large concepts of what he spoke about weren’t new to me I was able to find all sorts of great little things our team can to do tweak our processes a bit. For example, rather than asking “does today work good for you or is tomorrow better” we can ask “when are you more available, today or tomorrow.” I could probably write an entire post on what I gathered from Jerry’s talk but instead I’ll just say that if you’re looking for help with follow up and phone skills he’s the man to go to.

Breakout

This was an opportunity to gather at different tables and engage in discussions with colleagues about anything and everything. The panelists all sat at different tables but our table was left out. It wasn’t all that bad for me though because I had the pleasure of sitting next to Chad Sabatka. Our group is considering building our own website from the ground up and I think you’d be hard pressed to find a greater success story than Chad’s. He was kind enough to listen to my questions and concerns about the idea and offer a lot of great feedback. So the breakout session was exactly what I was hoping for.

Cars.com

Since the focus of my job is managing a sales BDC fixed ops can be an afterthought. Cars.com, the event’s sponsor, was there to talk about their new service offerings. I’ve helped previous service managers out in the past but I still have a lot to learn so I thought this went well. It seems like this new program they offer is going to be pretty good and will help break down customers’ misconceptions about dealership service drives as well as help market to them. Best of all, there really was no sales pitch. It was more of this is a program that we gave all our members and here’s how to maximize results with it. Much respect to them for that.

Jeff Kershner

Jeff gave a very entertaining talk on “Showrooming” and not really how to avoid it but how to use it to your advantage. He told us about a recent buying experience where he showroomed a salesperson then went and bought somewhere else. Basically the salesperson spent too much time at the tower and left him alone long enough to find the exact car he wanted at a competitors dealership. Oops. With that as a lead in he gave us some great ways to implement the use of tablets in the dealership.

An old traditional way of selling is to withhold as much information as possible to keep the customer in the dark and while Jeff’s presentation included being more transparent and earning the customer’s trust, giving them a pre-loaded tablet also can be used to help control the information that they look at. So if Bob and Betty are given a tablet with an engaging video about Chevy’s MyLink system maybe the salesperson will be back before they can look up KBB values, TrueCar, etc.

He gave us a lot of great ideas but I think the best one involved implementing it in F&I. Interestingly enough there was a gentleman from a Benz store I think (I’m sorry I forgot his name) that did this with his store and saw an incredible bump in back end gross. F&I doesn’t necessarily affect my department directly but you can be sure this is something I’m going to explore immediately with our group.

Joe Webb

After having the pleasure of sitting near him and listening to all his quips during everyone’s presentations I expected his talk to be fun as well. He delivered on that end and hit it out of the park with great content. I’ve worked for a GM store for the past couple years now and have been beaten over the head with the Disney experience so I’ll admit that I wasn’t very enthused when Joe starting speaking about Disney; but that attitude was quickly deterred. Joe managed to take the ideas from Disney, throw in some quotes from Walt, and tie it all into how we should manage our digital presence. The entire presentation was insightful and entertaining. GM could learn a few things in how to seamlessly blend the two worlds. 

Rather than list the many calls to action Joe gave us it can be summed up in a quote he gave us from Walt Disney (and forgive me if I wrote it down incorrectly), “You don’t build it for yourself. You build for what the customer wants.” I can’t speak for everyone, but there are many times when discussing digital strategies with my group that I forget the customers’ point of view. It was a perfect note to close on as it indirectly summarized the previous speakers themes which all had the end user in mind.

Joe closed out his time by sharing a touching and personal story about a Disney trip he planned. It was made even more memorable with his dad in the room and hearing how Disney went so above and beyond makes me want to plan a trip next year for my family. Really, that’s the point of everything we do, isn’t it? We should be creating experiences for our guests that are so memorable they get emotional (in a good way) retelling it to friends and family.

Conclusion

After Joe’s presentation there was a Q&A session where the panel of presenters fielded any questions we could come up with, many of which are similar to the recent discussions on this forum. At it’s conclusion Marni and Kelly, the hostesses for the event from ActiveEngage, were kind enough to invite me and others upstairs to have a soda and talk shop. This type of stuff made the time spent well worth it, and not just because they picked up the tab, but because it gave me an opportunity to pick the brains of experts in our field.

When I first started out on the floor I had the wherewithal to befriend the successful salespeople at our group and learn from them. Then when promoted to ISM I basically had to learn on the fly, I was great at follow up but I knew nothing about SEO, PPC, or any other acronym that you could throw out there. I didn’t have that 25 year vet to talk with but I was fortunate enough to discover communities like this and others to learn from. So an opportunity like I had at Dealer ThinkTank to learn from all the extremely intelligent members of this community, both presenters and attendees, it was incredible.

If you’re somewhat new to this world or someone who is always hungry for new ideas, I highly recommend attending a DTT. If nothing else, you’ll get to be involved in a group selfie with Eric or see Jeff do a runway strut.

It’s not just about branding. It's about FOOT traffic!

This is the last part in a 4 part series about automotive social media strategies that are emerging to help car dealers get true benefit.

It’s not just about branding. It’s not about auto-feeding marketing content. With the right strategies in a place, dealers can drive foot traffic and website visitors in a way that can help them sell more vehicles and drive more service customers.

Over the last few months as we've explored some best practices surrounding social media marketing for the automotive industry, we've learned that there are three stages to a strong presence, that its goal should be to drive more business, and that the data is the key to taking full advantage of the platforms. Now, we're going to finish it up by discussing the easiest way get the value out of social media: using your dealership staff to take your presence up a few notches.

By "easiest", I'm not saying that it's easy to get the buy-in necessary to make it effective. That's the hardest part. Thankfully, it only takes a handful of employees, particularly in sales and the service drive, to make a huge impact. If you can get a few people to start participating (and sharing this article with them can be a great first step) then the success you are able to generate as a result will get more people to want to be involved.

Let's start with the village... I mean dealership.

It Takes a Dealership

In 2007, Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said, "I still believe it takes a village to raise a child." She was referring to the book she published a decade early as First Lady titled It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us. I didn't read the book. I don't necessarily agree with the concept. I do, however, believe that the premise holds true for building up a powerful presence for a dealership on social media.

Chances are there is one person at your dealership or a couple of people at your dealer group that handles all of your social media. Having people at the point to keep it organized is important, but there is so much that can be done when multiple people at each store participate in making your social media sing.

We'll discuss what they can be doing later in the article, but the first step is getting them interested and involved. It starts by involving them in the profiles directly. Most in our industry enjoy publicity. We enjoy being in the spotlight and having others see us and talk about us. In fact, those who are shy and trying to find success on the sales side of the business are probably not positioned properly. If they don't like being in front of the camera and having their face plastered in front of thousands of people on automotive social media, they might want to consider a career change.

Take pictures. Shoot videos. Post about your staff on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram. Get a salesperson to do a quick walkaround of a car and post it up there. Shoot a Vine of the finance manager explaining in a few seconds that taking GAP insurance protects the huge investment that buying a car represents. Grab a picture of the used car manager tossing a Nerf football around the showroom floor, mentioning how his college quarterback form was still intact. Mix all of this in on your Facebook page and now they're already participating without putting in much effort.

It doesn't matter how much they deny it. They like it. They're checking it. They're seeing how many people like their post and are reading every comment. This is the seed. Plant it. From there, you need to keep on them and see who is willing to step up and participate even more.

Let's face it - they probably have the time available to help. They just need some guidance.

The Basics

This part should all go without saying, but just in case...

Active participants in the various social networks should be helping to promote your posts at the very least. Not everyone will and it's difficult to make them. There are "purists" on your team who feel that their social profiles are completely personal and who are unwilling to pollute any of it with work-related activities. That's fine. It's their prerogative.

For those who are active and willing, the simplest way for them to get involved is simply to support what your dealership is doing on social media. That means liking the Facebook page, following the dealership on Twitter, and doing the same for all other relevant accounts on which they're active. If they're not active on a particular social platform, you do not want them following/liking your pages. This is important. We're not looking for fluff. On Facebook in particular, having an employee like your page when they're not regularly active on the network can do more harm than good. If they're just liking their page because they're told to and they only visit Facebook when the reminder goes out to like some posts on the page, they are not helping at all. You want active users only.

Make sure that everyone knows that liking, sharing, and commenting is most beneficial when it happens from the Facebook news feed. If they visit the page and just bulk-like a bunch of things once or twice a month, it's not helping. It might be hurting. If they like a few things in the beginning to get the algorithm to recognize their preference for your page's content, then it should start appearing more in their news feed. Those engagements are much more beneficial than the ones that happen on the page level.

Lastly, make sure their engagement is meaningful. This isn't about inflating numbers. It's about adding value to the conversation. If they're going to comment, make sure their comment is appropriate.

Getting them involved might take a few emails and perhaps some coaxing from the top, but a handful of active employees can help increase the exposure of your message.

The Advanced

Those who rise to the challenge and ask how they can help have all the tools they need in their pocket. That smartphone that they're on throughout the day can shoot the videos and take the pictures you need to get a real story going on your social media presence.

Some dealerships do a good job of getting pictures of smiling, happy customers in front of their cars. Others do not. Either way, take it up a few notches with better shots. The standard images are relatively worthless. People who see the posts are less likely to interact with them when they're the boring images that everyone takes. Add some spice. If your salespeople are in control of the situation (and they should always strive to be in control of the situation) then they should be able to do much better than pictures of people standing in front of their car.

I remember a spiff that a sales manager used to offer us when I first started selling cars in the 90s. The first sales person of the day who could get a customer to climb into the trunk of the car got $100. It was all about control. It was about building a strong enough relationship and having enough control over the situation to get someone to do something that they would normally never do.

No, I'm not suggesting that you should be taking pictures of people in the trunks of their new cars and posting them on Facebook. The point is that your team should be able to get better pictures than people standing there smiling. Get pictures of them jumping up in excitement. Get them in their car sticking their head out of the moon roof. Get them to hold a sign that says something fun like, "I bought this from Brad at XYZ Motors and I loved the experience."

Get them to talk about their trade. We see videos all the time talking about how they enjoyed buying a car from the dealership, but where are the videos about the trade in? If there's a compelling story, it's something that can generate interest in a particular vehicle. "I bought this car four years ago at XYZ Motors and it's been incredible. I've had it services here religiously and it's in amazing shape. I would drive it for at least another four years but as you can see (points to belly) we have another child on the way, so we traded our Camry for this new Sienna."

There are so many ways that your team can participate and give the dealership the personal touch it needs to stand out on social media. I could dedicate a whole blog post on that topic alone.

The Goods

All of those things are relatively easy and getting involvement won't be too hard if you're diligent. The hard part is getting "The Goods".

A dealership that wants to really succeed on social media must be asking nearly every person that buys a car or gets their car serviced to participate with the dealership online. This is hard. It takes a process. It's so hard that we don't even offer it to our own clients until we've worked with them for a few months and have confidence that they we can make it happen with them (notice I didn't say for them).

This part can take more than a blog post to get the full details out there, so I'm going to shorten it to the bullet points. These are the things that you'll need in order to take your social media presence up exponentially through your dealership staff:

• Social Media Exit Interview: You probably have a sentence that every sales person is taught regarding CSI. It's probably a line on your delivery checklist that may or may not actually happen. If the dealership is bought into using social media to promote the dealership, then it goes beyond a sentence. It's an interview. You want to know if they're active on Facebook, Yelp, Google+, Twitter, or any of the other social networks. From there, you'll want to give them a reason to do things without incentives. I am horrified when I hear of dealerships asking for Yelp reviews in exchange for a free oil change. If they write a review without disclosing that they received something for the endorsement, you and they are committing a federal violation. However, a simple incentive such as, "Please like our Facebook page. We occasionally post Facebook-only service specials there as well as useful information to help our customers enjoy their cars even more."
  
• Non-Annoying Follow Up: A great sales person who wants to use social media for networking their business will soon find the value of becoming friends with their customers on Facebook. These friends should be grouped together so that messages intended for them alone (bird dogs, customer appreciation posts, etc.) won't pollute their standard Facebook presence. It's also a great way to stay connected long-term. Sending them a birthday message or congratulating them on their new job, for example, is an easy way for a sales person to remain engaged with their customers months or even years down the road. When it's time for them to trade in the car they just bought, chances are they don't have their salesperson's business card.
  
• Promotion of Events: The Facebook algorithm gives preference to user posts over page posts. Since 80% of an employee's Facebook friends are within driving distance to the dealership, having them mention the big sale this weekend or the March of Dimes walk your dealership is sponsoring will reach people more effectively when sent from a friend rather than a page. This isn't just about sharing a post from a page. It's as simple as a short personalized message. "I can't wait until the sale at XYZ Motors this weekend because Shelly is working the grill and her burgers are out of this world."
  
• Building Influencers: The biggest risk with getting members of your team to post a lot about your cars, the store, and their own experiences is that they can truly generate their own business following. People like Ralph Paglia, Robert "Your Huyndai Guy" Wiesman, and Jeff Kershner were able to build incredible followings locally and nationally through their prowess on social media. They, of course, have left the retail side. It's always a risk. You may have the next Kershner at your store ready to be unleashed. You may be the next Kershner yourself. The dealerships that they helped to grow all wish they never lost them, but they benefited from them while they were there. Building influencers has risks, but being there for the ride while they're at the store will drive more business.

These and other techniques you can use in your strategy can make a huge impact on your dealership's exposure and help to drive more sales. I know it's very slanted towards Facebook, but at the end of the day the network accounts for 90% or more of the juice available in the wild world of social media.

This long article is, unfortunately, just a quick overview. There are so many more details that could be discussed regarding the involvement of your team and their ability to help the dealership's (and their own) bottom line. Getting buy-in is the toughest part. Having the commitment necessary to make it happen is the key to success. Think about it all. Make a decision about whether or not you can make it happen. If you can do it and if you stick with it, your dealership will sell more cars as a result.

The most important part is to share ideas. This is far from comprehensive. Think of it as a spark to the conversation. What have you done at your dealership to drive more sales through social media?

Do not stop. Do not pass Go. Do not collect two hundred dollars. Go directly to Digital Dealer 16 in Atlantic City!



Kevin Frye, Mike Roscoe, and Alex Jefferson

That's right, many of us in the industry headed to the new location of the spring Digital Dealer conference to learn about new industry trends, to see great friends, and to gather with a lot of old people wearing Depends (ok - that is a dig at the common age of most of the folks gambling in Harrahs, but more about that later...).

A bit silly flying into Philly? Perhaps, but that was the closest airport to Atlantic City, and there were a lot of complaints that the new venue was not simple to reach. Once you landed in Philadelphia, it was another hour and fifteen minute drive to Atlantic City.

While many of us rented cars, Digital Dealer was running a shuttle bus (thank you!). There was a direct flight on Spirit airlines flying into Atlantic City airport, but some of my friends who took that cheap flight had a 4 hour delay and a none to pleasant flight. Now that's the Spirit! Oh, wait, I don't think that's what they meant...



Ryan Leslie, Megan Barto, Jeff Glackin, AJ Maida, Subi Ghosh, and Tyson Madliger

May I help you sir? Check in at Harrah's was simple, and the folks were very friendly and polite. The room? The view was great (as seen in my video), but the room was outdated, and there were stains. Umm, how do I say this - there were STAINS of a genetic nature, a bathtub that would barely drain, and more.

I hate to open with this, but outside of the initial check-in, the service and facilities were lacking. We had a room service cart with bacon and eggs in the hall when we left in the morning, which was still there that night, which was still there the next morning. I was tempted to roll it into the elevator, but my wife discouraged me. Back to Harrahs later...

Pick up Community Chest card - you have won a Spa day! After recently racing a half-marathon in Nashville, a massage made a lot of sense, and the lovely wife and I used the spa facility at Harrahs to start the conference. Smart move, in fact I think I will start every future Digital Dealer conference that way. Speaking of which, are you allowed to expense a massage? I hope my dealer principal doesn't read this.



Ultra cool 007 Agent Arnold Tijerina with my lovely wife, aka "Bond Girl", Julie Frye

Where do the cool kids meet in Happy Days? At Arnold's of course. IMPORTANT announcement here, major kudos to Arnold Tijerina who has turned himself into the social master at these conferences. Arnold became the primary person for me to follow at NADA this year with his relevant tweets throughout the conference - and into the afterhours, and he picked up where he left off with Digital Dealer 16. He is a must follow at @arnoldtijerina and I encourage you to follow him at DD17 and more.

Many folks came in on Monday, and thanks to Arnold's heads up, I joined Larry Bruce and Showroom Magnet as they hosted dinner and a party at our hotel. Say what you want, the BEST folks work in automotive, and they know how to monkey around. Speaking of which, hotel security had to corral the Dynamite Monkey (and I thought Jerry Thibeau had knocked him out at the last conference) after some "inappropriate behavior".

Something tells me that the same thing in Vegas would not even have batted an eye. Speaking of which, question for Larry Bruce - who in the hell did you hire to be the sock monkey? Is that Ron Jeremy behind that costume?



Wine? Candlelight?

It's gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiney day!!! Tuesday morning started bright and early with a shuttle bus ride to the convention center to pick up our registration badge and attend our first sessions. Yikes, little airport shuttle buses to haul a thousand folks to the convention center all at the same time. Lots of waiting time, and then when you got to the convention center, it was even more lines. Definitely need some more improvement here.

Larger sized buses like they use at NADA would have worked better during peak times, and being able to pick up registration packets the night before at the hotel would have helped make this much simpler. To be fair, after that first morning, the shuttle buses did well, though it still backed up at peak arrival and departure times. Some of those Jitney buses smelled like they did double time as Escort limos in the late hours, zowie...

Nice and easy folks... It was easy to get to and from rooms and the exhibit hall, and I started my day with "Is Social Media BS?"  Now didn't I have that same title in Digital Dealer 10? Damn I am ahead of my time!

I was certainly curious to see what Brandon Mendelson had to share about the best use of Social Media for dealers. Brandon shared several good points, including some guidance that dealers should not worry about being active on twenty plus social media sites, and would do better to focus on working well with a few.

He encouraged dealers to follow adage and adweek online for some great info regarding social media and marketing. Overall I was a bit concerned and disappointed though. Several broad statements were made such as "social media is BS", "SEO is BS", and more without much supporting data. Several folks walked out, not a very impressive session unfortunately.



Megan Barto and Ryan Leslie

Joan Jett - Don't give a damn 'bout my reputation.... Next up, "Motivation by Reputation" with Ryan Leslie of DealerRater and Megan Barto of Ciocca Honda (Megan is another must-follow for me on Twitter). Megan shared how she uses digital photo frames at her dealership to feature positive DealerRater reviews of each sales rep at their desk. GREAT IDEA!

The modern day sales rep should not only consider their smart phone an invaluable tool, but should also invest ~$40 to buy a digital photo frame to promote themselves with their customers. Ryan and Megan encouraged dealers to share and discuss their reviews at their daily meetings as a learning tool, as well as an opportunity to praise excellent service.

Another great tactic is where the GM of the dealership emails EVERYONE at the dealership with a copy of a recent great review to praise that sales rep. I always love an opportunity to praise awesome work by one of our sales reps, and this is a great opportunity. Congrats to Megan and Ryan on a session that was well done (unlike my steak at McCormick and Schmick steak house later...)

Puting on the Ritz...  The first keynote of the conference was Jennifer Blackmon with Ritz Carlton presenting "Creating a Service Culture". Superior service is a key component of our culture at the Jeff Wyler Automotive Family, and we actually have Ritz Carlton present to our group each year and we have implemented several of their practices. With that said, superior service is a universal concept, and this was a phenomenal session with lots of great feedback on Twitter and more.

Oh mighty Isis - Crisis! Sadly I had to step out to deal with an immediate concern back home and I missed one of my favorite parts of the Digital Dealer conferences, which is the Peer Networking  Roundtables. The folks I spoke to enjoyed lunch and the following roundtables, which left me to do my catching up between sessions and in the evenings.



AJ Maida gets a front row seat for Alex Jefferson's presentation

A star is born...  Alex Jefferson spoke for the first time at Digital Dealer with "The Secret Facebook Recipe" to a standing room only audience. I cannot begin to share how impressed I was with the energy level Alex brought to the room. He kept everyone engaged with a combination of relevant material shared in a simple way that dealers could utilize when they return, while keeping everyone smiling with his positive personality. The only question was - WHY hasn't Alex been speaking earlier?

I liked how Alex shared that with Facebook, you can create your own "TV channel", with customized and targeted content for the people you are trying to reach. Even better, Alex shared how he tested several marketing approaches on Facebook to see what worked best for him as a dealer. Key findings shared included that he saw a ten to fifty times increase in performance in ads he ran in the newsfeed as compared to the right rail, as well as finding that putting a clear call to action IN the graphic significantly improved performance.

He also encouraged dealers to use the Google URL creator when marketing on Facebook to make it easy to measure performance in  Google Analytics. Congrats Alex, you not only shared the secret Facebook recipe, you also showed the secret presentation recipe, Educational, Engaging, and Entertaining.



Alex Jefferson, Tony Rhoades, Julie Frye, Anissa Collins and Arnold Tijerina at VIN Bash

Can you say BOOM!  Seth Godin presented "Invisible or Remarkable" as the ending keynote for Tuesday and he did not disappoint. First, do you have 30 seconds a day to become smarter? That's how easy it is to read Seth's blog, which is usually a paragraph each day - do it.

For me, the biggest takeaway from Seth was to LISTEN to our consumers, and then give them what they need. Become an invaluable resource for what they are looking for from a car dealer. Give each customer an experience so superior that your customers are selling for you. First class keynote speaker. The only downside is that one of my friends asked for an autograph and Seth refused because they did not have one of his books to sign. Really?

Um, walk the walk Seth, did you just impress the hell out of one of your customers? Sorry, some humility goes a long way as well.



Rick Chavoustie, Glen Garvin, and Jeff Glackin

Logical logistics! Ah, pretty impressed. The keynote room empties into the exhibit hall, so folks walk right from the keynote into the exhibit hall for our first cocktail hour. Both vendors and dealers were happy with this convenient arrangement, and an ice cold beer sounded pretty good after a long day of learning.

After making a quick round of the room to see which exhibits were there, I spent some time catching up with friends, including Rick Chavoustie whom I finally met in person. Speaking of which, am I the only person who has a lot of social media friends that I have not met in person? Many times the first time I see some of my great online friends is at these shows.



Look who I ran into - Tim Jackson

Wake up, you lazy head, and get your hiney out of bed!  I was up bright and early to have some breakfast at exhibit hall (no wait on the shuttle bus!) and start the day with "Outrank Your Competition" with Vipin Singh.

Vipin did a nice job clearly showing dealers how to use Google Webmaster tools to look at common search queries for their website, and then optimize for keywords that had high impressions, but low click and low average position. That's right, sounds confusing. If there is a search query with high impressions, but you are showing up in a low position and getting few clicks, then that is an opportunity for a query to optimize for in your website to attract more traffic. Who said "SEO is BS"?  Another standing room only session - dealers like this.

Who remembers that show "Kids in the Hall"? Well, I was in the hall the following hour, though I am many years from being a "Kid", lol. As a dealer, looking for new opportunities in the exhibit hall is an integral part of my conference visit. First up was a meeting with Tim Lage of RepairRep. Tim is a longtime friend and someone a dealer can trust. He has put together a great solution for dealers looking to simplify their brand presence online with directory listings to all of the major players. Having this done correctly and consistently is very important to your local SEO efforts. RepairRep combines several different areas into one solution for dealers - I recommend you take a look.



Igor Kalassa and Alvin Ortega

Speaking of which...  I sat down and spoke with Igor Kalassa from Brazil, and Alvin Ortega from the Dominican Republic. Remember when Digital Dealer started in Nashville?  Now it has expanded to include an international audience. Great discussion with Igor and Alvin, where I learned that they while they have a lot in common with US dealers with what they learn at these conferences, but they also face many other challenges selling cars online in their respective countries. I am impressed with each of them, as they are leaders in automotive overseas.

Love stinks! Yeah yeah...  How about "LotLinx", yeah - yeah, which was my next visit. Let's face it, there is a big uproar in the industry about whether dealers need to use third party leads, and if so, are there some alternatives to sending your inventory to one of the big aggregators for a very expensive cost. I'm here to tell you, LotLinx is a solution you need to look at. Why not aggregate your inventory to over 130 sites, and when the customer click on the vehicle, it goes DIRECTLY to your OWN website's vehicle detail page (VDP), and at a cost of less than $4 for a unique shopper. Compared to a VDP cost of a major aggregator that is often $15 plus per VDP? Love me or hate me, and think I know which...



Kim Depalma and Julie Frye

Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto...  Biggest thing that caught my attention at Digital Dealer? Bot fraud - did you know that perhaps up to one third of the traffic on your website is fake? Why would that be? Let me do my best to explain it simply...

If the primary way you make money hosting a website it to have ads displayed on your site, what if you setup hundreds of bogus websites that you host, and then you setup fake "bots" that visit multiple automotive websites, including yours. Your website "cookies" that bot as you think it is a real customer, and then you follow that "customer" around the web with your retargeting ads. Hmmm, where do you think that bot goes? Perhaps back to the hundreds of bogus websites hosted by the person who is fraudulently trying to make money by having you post retargeting ads chasing the bot back to their sites.

I spoke to Jeffery Tognetti with DealerX  for some time about this and look to revisit this in the upcoming weeks. DealerX claims to help dealers identify these bots so that you can block that fake traffic, and to help dealers better target shoppers by using their digital marketing technology. Did I find it interesting? Absolutely, I will be doing my homework and get back to you with a future post.



Chris Fousek, Mike Schultheis, and Subi Ghosh win the best prizes at my session

Have you kept your privates private? I took on the challenge of taking perhaps the driest of subjects - privacy, and used that as the subject of my presentation "Keeping Your Privates Private - Protecting Your Dealership and Yourself". Simply put, there is no subject that has had my attention more now than this. Suffice it to say, privacy laws are rapidly changing overseas, and even here in California, that will continue to spread and will affect EVERY dealer in the US, and will radically change many of our digital marketing practices and website tactics.

One of the useful tools I shared with attendees is some free shareware called disconnect.me which allows you to see every site your info is being shared with when you visit a website. Go ahead, install it, and then put YOUR dealership website in your browser. I think you will be incredibly surprised as to where you are sharing your shoppers' data.

I also scared quite a few people when I showed them how much Big Brother is watching them with their everyday behavior online, AND offline.

Did you miss my presentation? No problem, I am giving an encore presentation care at the weekly DealerOn webinars on May 22nd at noon, register here, and also get a chance to win one of 3 great prizes (disclaimer, the word "great" is per my unique interpretation...).



Caption contest? The three stooges?

Tattle tattle tattle! AJ Maida pulled the fire alarm! Perhaps the lasting memory of Digital Dealer 16 will be the fire evacuation during the conference (there was an actual fire - microwave...). No problems for AJ Maida who just continued his session "Socially Acceptable" outside. AJ shared something that certainly caught my attention. He found that when he manually posted items on Facebook rather than using a scheduling tool, he saw better perfomance. Hmmm, so it sounds like Facebook is watching HOW you post as well. Nice tip AJ!



Ladies and gentlemen - April Rain!

Time to Party Hearty! Or is that hardy? Hell, I don't know, let's have a drink friends! The night life was rather subdued in my humble opinion. Very few parties to attend, not a lot of excitement, just kinda quiet compared to previous shows.

As always, I enjoyed the VIN bash which was held poolside at Harrahs, and featured some wonderful food and drinks. The following night I had dinner with the VinSolutions crew at McCormack and Schmicks that unfortunately will go down in Vin Dinner history for some incredibly poor service. I am actually laughing as I write this and remember getting my steak about 20 minutes after everyone else (along with Shawn Morse) and it could have been confused with sushi as it was so rare. No worries, we had plenty of wine and my friends that were there made it a fun time. Hell we could have had some Kentucky roundsteak (that would be fried bologna for my Yankee friends) and Kool Aid and we could make it a great time  :-P



I have a new "wingman" for Alex

Hasta la Vista baby... Several folks were already leaving on Thursday morning to catch flights out of Philadelphia. My flight was later and I caught a nice panel session in the morning sharing a data review regarding inventory photos and more. Have the first picture of your vehicle photos point to the right - that would be toward your ad - per Glen Garvin of Dominion Inventory Solutions. Simple advice that reminds me to keep on top of our folks to do the same thing.

I went back to exhibit hall to speak to some more vendors, and then wrapped up the conference with "How New & Improved Analytics will Help you Sell Cars". First - it was another standing room session, but several of us were a bit disappointed in the content. If you are going to tell people to do stuff, take the time to clearly show them HOW to do it. Dealers want to be shown where exactly you are going in Google Analytics, and then how you implement your strategy step by step so that they can use that same skill when they return. I guess you could say I am a fan of the KISS concept...



Barry Hilllier, Brent Wees, Kevin Frye, and Cecil Bolling

Hurrah for Harrahs! Well, maybe not. As I wrap up the recap for DD16, many folks want to know how Atlantic City was as a venue. First and foremost, the PEOPLE were great as always. I thoroughly enjoyed networking and learning from the awesome folks in automotive, and I found the content of the show to be very good. The convention center was convenient and worked fine for me, though some of the rooms could have been a bit larger for sessions.

Wah, wahh, wahhhhhh...  As per the hotel, I don't think I spoke to anyone who was very impressed. I saw one negative Yelp review, and multiple negative comments on Twitter, FB, and more. I think this Facebook post pretty much sums it up (name protected...)  "Atlantic City is easy to get to, the average age of casino patrons there is under 60, and the service at McCormick and Schmicks is awesome. What percentage of this statement is true?"

That about sums it up. Atlantic City is a pain to get to compared to alternative places, Harrahs is an outdated hotel with an older clientele, and the service was fair to poor in many cases. We did venture down to the infamous Boardwalk on the final day, which was pretty, but whoa! I would not walk through a lot of the neighborhoods leading up to the Boardwalk, most everywhere looked like Baltic and Mediterranean if you know what I mean.

I know how much work goes into planning something this book and I sincerely appreciate it, but my honest opinion is that Atlantic City is not necessarily a venue I would like to return to - and I think that is the consensus of most folks I spoke to and the comments I read online.



Atlantic City Boardwalk

Opinions are like a$$holes, everyone has one...  I am a firm believer that if you are going to criticize, you should have some positive alternatives. The great news with this forum on  DealerRefresh is that each of YOU can share your insight. Where is a great venue located in the eastern half of the US that you think would be great for Digital Dealer? What would you suggest for improvement?

Please share your comments below, and I look forward to seeing you at Digital Dealer 17 in Las Vegas on September 23-25th. (and if you can brave my sarcasm, give me a follow @kevinfrye1 on Twitter, cheers!)

 

5 Key Google Analytics Goals you NEED to set up - NOW!

As Automotive Digital Marketing professionals we are constantly subjected to distractions from our real marketing goal Selling More Cars!

With all the information Adwords, Google Analytics, the CRM, and our website providers bombard us with we run the risk of forever burying ourselves in the data. It's easy for us to get fixated on the 1-3% of our online shoppers who actually fill out forms or call our dealership but these consumers represent a very small minority of  the thousands of users who interact with your dealership website.

What are we doing about the 98% who shop our websites and never contact us?

What are we doing to better cater to them?

This tip provides 5 Key Google Analytics Goals you should set up that don't rely on form submissions or phone calls to track. These unsung goals highlight key metrics that you can use to measure your marketing effectiveness and better predict possible showroom traffic.

HINT: If you are the admin on your GA account these Goals should only take you a few minutes to setup and should be very straightforward. If you are not the admin on your GA account (you should be) it should be equally easy for your agency or specialist to set them up. If it isn't you might want to take a second look at your agency or if you're the admin a mirror.

1.) Time On-site
This one may seem pretty obvious but the longer your customers are on your website the more interested they likely are in doing business with you. For this reason I highly recommend that you constantly monitor the average time on site per session (Avg. Session Duration) your website is getting (this can be found in the Audience overview report). Once you've established the avg time on site for the last four months, I recommend creating a goal for anyone who stays on your site incrementally longer than your average user.

If 5 mins is your AVG time on site than set your conversion goal to be triggered for everyone who spends 7 minutes or more on your website. You can create this Goal in GA by selecting the goal Type "Duration" and then setting the time in how many Hours, Minutes, or Seconds you want to pass before your goal is achieved.

2.) Hours and Directions page view
Try as I might I could not come up with a single reason why anyone would visit this page if they were not interested in either contacting you or dropping by your showroom. This is nothing new. Several experts have suggested tracking people who come to the hours and directions page long before this article was published but it is an important page to have analytics on and an important one to optimize and maintain.
Create this goal as a "Destination" goal in Google Analytics for a basic understanding of how many people are touching the page.

3.) People who viewed 7 or More pages
This is another one many industry experts have been speaking on "More VDP views = More Possibility of Seeing Users in your Showroom". You should build this concept into a goal in GA if you haven't already. I recommend referring back to the Audience > Overview report and setting a date range the covers about 4 months time. Observe what your website is currently producing with respect to Pages / Session. Use this number and create a standard deviation from it as a goal.

Example: If one of your dealership website produces about 5.50 Pages / Session on average you should create a goal to be triggered by anyone who views anywhere between 7-10 pages. Create your Pages / Session Goal in GA by using goal Type "Pages/Screens per session" and just determine how many pages you'd like to consider for your goal.

4.) People who viewed your Reviews or Staff page(s)
Okay this one is a little less "out of the box". If you have a page dedicated to your dealerships' reviews (and I strongly urge you to build one if you don't have on already) than this is a great place to setup a goal. It is reasonable to assume that anyone who is checking out your reviews page is at the point where they are deciding whether or not they would like to work with you. It's called "Social Validation" and any good salesperson will tell you that social signals are very persuasive. "If everyone else bought from them and had a great experience, I will as well." 

This can also be said for the staff page. If they want to know who you are that means they are considering whether or not they want to do business with you. People who view your onsite reviews and or staff page are probably deeper in the sales funnel and you need to be tracking them.
Create this Goal in GA by going into the Goals section under Admin and selecting goal Type "Destination" from there it is as simple as putting your staff or reviews page url suffix in the "Begins With" section.

5.) People who viewed your Trade-in page
Whether you’re using KBB, Pure Cars, or Black Book I'm sure you know as well as I do that these are some of the best homegrown leads a dealership could ask for. The problem with these applications is that on most if not all dealer websites they are Iframed-in and therefore do not have a unique "Thank You" page. This is why many dealers neglect applying some form of tracking to their Value-Your-Trade page.

In addition to heavy promotion of this page throughout your website, I recommend setting up a destination goal for your Trade-in page. After setting up the goal I recommend comparing your goal number to your trade in lead number. In my experience about 1/3 of people who view this page usually carry out the appraisal process.
Create this goal by going into admin section of GA, selecting "Goals" and then select goal Type Destination.

 

The average consumer is now spending a staggering 18.9 hours per week on a mobile device.

New data reveals:

1. Your customer is on a smartphone.
   
2. They are primarily using apps.

Time Consumption

Mobile Apps now control 86% of the total time consumers spend on mobile.

Mobile: 73% Growth in Automotive Shopping

2013 saw a 73% growth in the amount of consumers using automotive apps and mobile websites in their vehicle shopping process according to J.D.Power...



The New Mobile Marketing Strategy

As apps have gained traction, brands have already established new priorities for how their mobile marketing strategy is structured. Mobile web, mobile paid search, mobile retargeting, paid app installs, mobile social marketing, and mobile messaging now function as gateways to an app install.

More and more brands are utilizing these advertising channels to encourage an app install. This is not a minor advertising push. Brands are using strong tactics to promote app installs.

The goal of these marketing efforts? Be present on the consumer’s mobile device. Being present on the smartphone now means apps.

Mobile apps now account for 2.31 hours of the consumer’s total daily spend vs. 22 minutes on mobile web.

 



Apps: Center Of The New Eco-System:

Mobile apps are becoming the central gateway for a host of future technology.

• Wearable Tech
  
  • Nike Fuel (Wristwear), Google Glass (Headwear), Galaxy Gear (Smartwatch) all utilize apps as their center point.
• In-car Technology
  
  • Apple’s Car Play, recently announced Google and Microsoft in-car systems are using apps to provide the next generation of features.
• Location Based Technology
  
  • Major retailers, airlines, and even coffee houses like Starbucks are powering their location based services via apps. At the gate? Your airline ticket automatically pulls up. Arrived at Starbucks? Your scannable card is ready.

All of these features utilize apps at the center of the eco-system.

Are Mobile Apps Tomorrow’s Website?

Today, as mobile becomes the dominate platform, apps are evolving as the primary smartphone medium. As future tech continues to utilize apps as the central gateway, major brands are focusing their mobile marketing strategies around the app install.

Question:

Do you think apps are the future website? Why or why not?

Do you remember the last time you were at a business and really had the warm and fuzzies, and a faith in humanity restored moment?

Maybe it was at your kid's last birthday party, recent dinner out or when you finally found that tool at the local hardware store. Whatever it was, I hope it wasn't too long ago.

For me, it was when I recently switched pharmacies.

We used to hit up the Target pharmacy to fill my asthmatic son's prescriptions. For me it was purely based on convenience - close to home, and who doesn't love grabbing socks, toilet paper and an inhaler in one trip?

My love affair with Target pharmacy died a slow death - and, the sickness began when someone there didn't listen effectively and filled a prescription for my son under the wrong name.

Ouch - filling an asthmatic's medicine under the wrong name (they switched his first and last name around) and thus preventing me from picking it up. I couldn't help but ask, and ask over and over, how could that happen?

The root of the problem was someone made an assumption and the mistake snowballed from there. Was someone too concerned with getting the prescriptions filled quickly? (How many phone callscan you make in a day?) Are pharmacy employees' success measured by how quickly they can fill a prescription and how many per day can be filled? (What's your monthly quota?)

When we switched pharmacies I was in la la land.  I found what I was looking for - someone who listened.

Listening 1,2,3

• Be Reasonable

• Listen without an agenda

• Ask lots of (relevant and open ended) questions

What would it mean:

If there was a personal touch made right off the bat?

Example: "I see you’re looking at a Honda Odyssey. I’ve had one for 4 years – great asset with soccer games for my son Anderson."

"I can completely relate to the appeal to the new Explorer – I’ve always wanted a Land Rover, but these really cover everything I’ve ever wanted in a vehicle.  Last weekend, I took my son and his friends snowboarding and fit everything in back. Hard to do with teens, right?"

THEN, take that further.

Follow up can take a whole new direction when the right foundation is laid.

Listen, listen and then listen again.


Just like you, the person on the phone or reading the email has something to do next, something that is begging for attention - like running to the pharmacy quick.

Latest HOT Discussion in the Forums



Car Dealer Sues Customer Over YouTube Repair Video 

Unhappy customers with a platform can create challenges for any business.

Unhappy customers with cameras and YouTube access can create a few more challenges.  For example, what happened between this unhappy customer who is being sued by the dealership that performed his repairs.

Car dealer sues Fenton man over repair YouTube video

What would you do in a situation like this? Has this ever happened to you?

Join this conversation in the forums!

[highlight color="#F0F0F0" font="black"]This is part 3 in a 4 part series about automotive social media strategies that are emerging to help car dealers get true benefit. It’s not just about branding. It’s not about auto-feeding marketing content. With the right strategies in a place, dealers can drive foot traffic and website visitors in a way that can help them sell more vehicles and drive more service customers.[/highlight]

Who Knows More: Google or Facebook?

We know a few things about automotive social media. We know that there are three stages and we know that it should drive business. Now, let's discuss how to position its best asset.

Whenever I speak to dealers about the various digital marketing venues, there is one response that is certain and another that is hit or miss. When I mention the word, "Google", it has been about four or five years since I've heard a dealer tell me that their presence there isn't important. On the other hand, when I mention the word, "Facebook", I get equally passionate responses from both sides of the spectrum.

Some see it as an important component that rests somewhere between Google and Bing on the value scale. Others see it as a complete waste of time for their dealership.

The funny part is that they're both right. When Facebook is used in a way that takes advantage of its most important asset, it can be extremely useful in driving buyers to your website and/or showroom floor. When that asset isn't used, Facebook can be much less effective, bordering on worthless.

Facebook's most important asset is Google's most important asset: data. While Google has replaced the phone book, the encyclopedia, the map, and just about every other bit of knowledge in the world, Facebook has embraced the personal data in a way that even Google cannot. They know all about the ultimate product: us.

It's through Facebook's amazing advertising targeting data that dealers can really have an impact. Facebook knows how old we are. They know roughly how much money we make. They know what cars we currently drive. They even know when we're in the market for a car and which one we're most likely to buy. It's this data that a savvy dealer can really use Facebook to get in front of the right people at the right time.

They might not know more than Google, but they know more about us than Google does and that makes their advertising valuable.

Three Types of Targeting

This is really more than should be plugged into a single blog post but we're going to try. There are hundreds of combinations of targeting options that dealers can use on Facebook. We're going to focus on the three that have shown the most success for our clients.

First and foremost, there's Polk data. Before anyone hops in and says, "been there, done that, didn't see anything from it," I would contend that most dealers and even vendors who are trying to use it aren't really taking advantage of it properly. Through Polk data on Facebook, dealers can identify people within driving distance who own a particular vehicle for service targeting or who are wanting to buy a particular vehicle, new or used, for sales targeting.

The key is in the message and this is where many dealers and vendors fail. It's about serendipity. People do not go to Facebook to buy a car any more than they go to the television to buy a car, but we know that both are effective. The reason is that the message can be seen by the right people at the right time. The difference between them is that with Facebook, you can know that the target audience is most likely in the market for what you're presenting them.

The message that you put in front of them needs to ring a bell. This isn't the actual message that you would want to post, but it makes the point:

"Surfing Facebook is fun, but shouldn't you be looking at some new Nissan inventory in the St Louis area right about now?"

[Picture of a Nissan]

[Link to the Search Results Page]

"We have an incredible selection of new Nissan vehicles in stock. Take a moment and find yours today!"

Click to expand...

The average Facebook user doesn't realize how easy it is to target them. When they see ads like this in their Facebook news feed, they can have that "what a coincidence" moment and obey the message of the ad. "Hmmm, I really should be looking at cars right now rather than Facebook."

The second strong type of targeting is with your current customer base. By using email addresses or phone numbers, you can target people based upon the message that will resonate the most. For example, one of our most successful service campaigns was a "Customer appreciation" oil change special that went out to a database of people who had done service in the dealership before but who had not been back in over 365 days. The week that we ran the campaign, we had nine of them return for service. More importantly, five of them got more than an oil change. The best part is that the campaign cost $14.

Lastly, there's the creative campaign through targeting. This is where you take advantage of some of the other interesting targeting data that Facebook has. For example, we ran a campaign targeting people within 50 miles of the dealership who were graduating from college in 2014. What did we hit them with? A link to the College Grad Program, of course.

Tip of the Iceberg

Again, there are hundreds of ways to slice the data. These campaigns don't "pollute" your Facebook page, either, as they can run as unpublished posts. In other words, you don't have to put them on your page in order for them to appear in the news feeds of your target audience. You can continue to keep everything on your page clean and community focused while putting the strong message ads in front of just the right people.

The biggest advantage Refreshers have is that Facebook has not done a great job at getting this information out there or making it easy to apply it. Sure, the "Boost" buttons and "Promote this Page" buttons are easy, but they're also several degrees below the true advertising capabilities of Facebook. For the real juice, you have to spend more time learning the capabilities of Power Editor, targeting behavior, and targeting interests, but this is a good thing. The less your competitors know about how this works, the easier it will be for you to be the only one in your market addressing a captive audience.

Yes, Facebook holds many people captive. They check it multiple times per day. Shouldn't they be seeing your messages and acting upon them?

In the final of this series, we will go over utilizing your own dealership's team to make social media as powerful as it can possibly be. Until then, please feel free to comment here or contact me directly if you have any questions.