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bpulseadmin · Mar 14, 2011

DATE (Ann Arbor, MI): HookLogic will host “Lead-to-Show: One Strategy That WILL Improve It,” a complimentary webinar featuring Jeff Kershner of DealerRefresh.com. The live event will be held at 1:00 p.m. ET, 10:00 a.m. PT on March 23, 2011. Interested marketing and sales professionals in the automotive industry can register online at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/827738446. Registration is strictly limited to 100 participants.

The webinar is intended to assist marketers and sales professionals at automotive dealerships who face unique challenges in their sales and marketing efforts. Many are adept at generating leads through various online and offline tactics, but face tremendous obstacles – primarily dealership competition and shopper apathy – in getting those shoppers to come to their showrooms and test drive a vehicle.

This critical step in the marketing process, measured as a “Lead-to-Show” rate, is frequently underserved in the marketing process, but it could be the key to growing dealership sales.

Jeff Kershner, founder of DealerRefresh.com and a recognized expert on marketing in the automotive space, will share the one strategy that has worked for him: targeted incentives. “A well executed incentive program is a proven effective way to motivate shoppers to actually show up - and make a beeline for sales staff when they get to the dealership,” says Kershner. “Targeted incentives improve lead to show and drive sales. I use them, so I know they work.”

Mr. Kershner will share:

Why dealerships need to be thinking about lead-to-show as a key metric
The types of incentives that have worked for his dealerships – and how well they’ve worked
Actual metrics – exactly how effective targeted incentives have been

For more information and to register, please visit https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/827738446, or call or email Teresa Kruse of HookLogic at 646.467.8226.

About Jeff Kershner
Jeff Kershner is the founder of DealerRefresh, the leading resource for the car dealer Internet sales professional since its launch in 2007. Mr. Kershner is currently the director of marketing for Younger Motor cars, and was previously the Marketing Manager / Internet Sales Trainer for MileOne Automotive, where he oversaw 64 dealers.

About HookLogic’s Solutions for the Automotive Industry
HookLogic powers targeted incentive programs that drive in-market shoppers to auto dealerships and other lead-driven businesses. HookLogic solutions are easily implemented, work with nearly any marketing medium and enable end-to-end reporting and optimization. Headquartered in New York City, the company has offices in Ann Arbor, MI and Manchester, UK. Clients include MileOne Automotive, Suzuki, Lithia Motors, Suburban Collection, and AutoTrader.com. Learn more at www.hooklogic.com/automotive.

bpulseadmin · Mar 14, 2011

WALTHAM, MA & OAK BROOK, IL – March 14, 2011 – DealerRater and vAuto announced that eleven vAuto customers received DealerRater’s 2011 Dealer of the Year Awards. Of DealerRater’s total award recipients, vAuto customers represented one-third of the winners, which included the overall 2011 Dealer of the Year – Russell & Smith Honda of Houston, Texas. These results demonstrate a significant relationship between vAuto’s Velocity Method of Management and higher Customer Service Ratings on DealerRater.

DealerRater’s Dealer of the Year awards are given to car dealerships located throughout the United States and Canada that have the highest PowerScore™ in their brand category as well as one dealer who’s PowerScore outranks all others. The PowerScore is determined using a Bayesian algorithm that factors the dealership’s average DealerRater user rating and the total number of reviews written about the dealership on DealerRater’s web site during the previous calendar year.

“The significant overlap of this year’s award recipients with vAuto customers points to a relationship between vAuto users and customer service ratings on DealerRater.com,” said Chip Grueter, president of DealerRater. “Advertising a fair price from day one and reducing the typical adversarial negotiation process can result in happier customers and, therefore, higher service ratings on DealerRater.”

vAuto is the nation’s largest provider of Internet-based, used vehicle inventory management systems. The cornerstone of vAuto’s Velocity Method of Management is that decision makers know a used vehicle’s real-time supply, demand and price sensitivity metrics when making stocking, appraising, and pricing decisions in their local market. The vAuto system has evolved into a suite of solutions that increase transparency, including RealDeal, an innovative price validation and delivery system. RealDeal.com is the industry’s first live and objective price check on pre-owned vehicles.

“There is a new way to be successful in the used car marketplace based on Velocity,” says Keith Jezek, vAuto’s president. “The superior scores for vAuto dealers supports that the Velocity strategy achieves both profitability and customer satisfaction. RealDeal also gives dealers a powerful way to prove their pricing to shoppers, and when shoppers feel confident with their price, more deals are closed. Increased transparency is a key success factor in driving customer ratings.”

About DealerRater
DealerRater was founded in 2002 as the first car dealer review website worldwide. With more than 300,000 people joining the DealerRater user community each month, DealerRater is fast becoming the world’s #1 online resource for anyone seeking third-party information on automobile dealerships. DealerRater features more than 38,000 U.S. and International car dealers, 270,000 user reviews and over 1,000,000 classified ads. DealerRater attracts more than 3 million consumers every year who visit the site to search for car dealerships, read current reviews, write their own descriptive reviews, and find car deals – all for free. Car dealers are rated on the criteria of customer service, quality of work, friendliness, price and overall experience. In addition, DealerRater offers qualified car dealers a Certified Dealer Program as a reputation management tool to help them grow their online presence and achieve higher SEO rankings across the Web. Today, over 3,000 dealers are members of DealerRater’s Certification Program. For more information, visit www.DealerRater.com or call 800-266-9455.

About vAuto
Headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, IL, vAuto also maintains a research and development center in Austin, TX. vAuto’s innovative “Live Market View” technology allows dealers to manage their used-vehicle inventories based on actual supply-and-demand for their specific market. Today, more than 3,000 dealerships across the country use vAuto’s pricing, appraisal, stocking and merchandising systems. Dale Pollak, vAuto’s founder, is the author of two books featuring best practices and strategies for the used car department, Velocity: From the Front Line to the Bottom Line and Velocity 2.0: Paint, Pixels & Profitability. vAuto is a wholly owned subsidiary of AutoTrader.com. Additional information about vAuto is available at www.vauto.com or call 877-828-8614.

Mar 25, 2011

Ed .. I guess what we do is redefine "marketing." I once heard Phil Kotler speak and what he said has colored my perspective of marketing "meeting the needs of your customer at a profit." So if that's true a customer's Twitter need differs from her need to "play with the brand" in terms of gaming social promotions.

The other question that begs for an answer is what you alluded to .. How should social be structured w/in an enterprise esp one as large as a Chrysler? Is it a across functional activity led by a team? Does Marketing hold the keys but other areas execute? Should there be a Chief of Social Media? For each organization the answer will be different. What I do know is that social media impacts every single aspect of the enterprise and esp so those that have direct customer contact. To make it work silos have to be opened. And that my friend, is not as easy as it seems.

Will get off my soap box

Mar 25, 2011

Great question Toby; "...why would a brand, any brand, willing to give up that critical customer face time?" I have another question; why would any company put their Twitter account solely in the hands of Marketing - in-house or subbed out? For most big companies Marketing handles the long-term messaging, creates campaigns, devises promotions, etc. Whereas Communications handles the immediate; company news, public relations, crisis communications, etc.

The immediacy of Twitter lends itself to being much more a Communications tool than a Marketing tool. That said, the occasional marketing message about a promotion may very well be in order. So doesn't it make sense to give both departments access to the account?

Mar 24, 2011

Ed - Thanks for the shout out about Ed Garsten's interview on Diva Marketing. What I continue to find ironic is that if we agree that "the person who holds the conversation holds the relationship" why would a brand, any brand, willing to give up that critical customer face time? To say it "costs too much" is a cop out. What a huge missed opportunity .. reinforces that agencies and so many clients don't get social media. Why not just put up a web page or another ad?

Mar 17, 2011

Ed Garsten gave an interview to Diva Marketing Blog yesterday. Mr. Garsten confirmed that their (now ex) agency was hired be Chrysler's voice on Twitter. There was apparently a bit of a struggle between Communications and Marketing. Marketing won and contracted out the twitter account to an agency. Mr. Garsten sounds none too happy about that.

Conversely, tweets from @Ford are generated mostly by two folks, @ScottMonty Digital Communications & @AHall32 Technology Communications, with occasional help from their agency team.

Is there a lesson here about keeping a tight rein on your digital voice? I think there is.

You can find the interview here: http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com...ntry-or-unplugged-from-social-media-dur.html?

Mar 13, 2011

Could it be as simple as an Old Media background verses a New Media background? Look at the three heads of Social Media at the 'Big 3'. Scott Monty at Ford, Chris Barger at GM and Ed Garsten at Chrysler. Monty and Barger are Social Media Rockstars that have spent much of their careers immersed in New Media. Garsten has had a long career, mostly spent in television and print. He's no doubt been an innovator (he was one of the ten founding producers at CNN Headline News), but he certainly comes from an Old Media background.

Was this Garsten's fault? It's clear it was a simple mistake by what, in effect, was a subcontractor - an agency employee. That said, Monty and Barger also appear to be much more comfortable and hands-on with Social Media. Ford also employs an agency, The Social Media Group and while GM had been in house, they have recently hired Big Fuel, a New York based agency to assist. A sign that Barger and Monty are more hands-on and comfortable: Barger has 7,600 Twitter followers, Monty has a whopping 51,000. Garston has a mere 150.

Is it possible that the substantially higher level of engagement on Social Media by the heads of GM's and Ford's Social Media help them avoid such a catastrophe? My guess is yes. Could it have happened at Ford or GM? Sure it could, but it seems more likely that the more responsibility placed in the hands of those outside the company, the higher the likelihood of mistakes happening.

This lesson translates to the dealer level as well. Does it mean there is no place for agencies or PR firms? Not at all. But it does mean that dealer management should have a high level engagement and involvement.

Laurie; Would you rather work with a company where top management has a blog and an active Twitter account or one where they ask about how to get on "The Twitter Machine"?

Mar 12, 2011

Strong image? Hardly. Chrysler's response shows they have no idea how to spell social media. What a great oppty to turn a big problem into a cool social media move (ie red cross). Thus, the brand will never get off life support acting like a manufacturer circa 1980.

Mar 11, 2011

It is certainly a "zero-tolerance" society today, I hope that neither of you have someone do this accidentally with your agency as you will be fired immediately (and with your endorsement!)

Mar 11, 2011

The agency's only job is to ensure Chrysler is represented optimally in social forums, this post is not only negative but attacks the very roots which Chrysler touts, and from their own Twitter account.

The individual meant to post this on his own Twitter account which probably has privacy settings or doesn't matter because the individual is basically anonymous, unlike Eminem.

When they signed Eminem as a spokesperson I bet the pitch was that Eminem is a well known Detroit native who fought from the bottom to get to the top; something hard working Americans can identify with. So they knew what they were getting into from the start there.

*removes Don Draper cap

Mar 11, 2011

And the more I think about it, if Chrysler has zero room for an error like this, have they checked Eminem's twitter's??? Something tells me he might have an F-bomb in there as well and isn't he considered the face of their new campaign???

Mar 11, 2011

The agency immediately fired the person that made the mistake, but Chrysler still fired the agency. Scary - what if this happened at your dealership when someone that managed your account was fired and decided to pay retribution???

Mar 10, 2011

In yet another show of why brand management is so important and content is key, Chrysler has fired its agency, New Media Strategies, due to an errant tweet sent yesterday. The tweet, meant to be sent from the strategists personal account but mistakenly sent from the @ChryslerAutos handle, read "I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to fucking drive.”

Chrysler immediately jumped into action and sacked the agency, issuing this statement on their blog today, "So why were we so sensitive? That commercial featuring the Chrysler 200, Eminem and the City of Detroit wasn’t just an act of salesmanship. This company is committed to promoting Detroit and its hard-working people. The reaction to that commercial, the catchphrase 'imported from Detroit,' and the overall positive messages it sent has been volcanic."

Good for Chrysler for jumping into action after narrowly avoiding a serious brand mistake.

Lesson of the day? Ensure the people around you and working for you believe strongly in your brand and what it represents. Everybody needs to take up the call when it comes to your messaging and identity.

How many people at your dealer have access to tweet on behalf of your dealerships twitter account?

Mar 11, 2011

Congrats Steve, long time coming. Keep up the great work.

bpulseadmin · Mar 10, 2011

Fairhope, AL, March 9, 2011 — ScreenCrafters, a top provider of First Party Leads for automotive dealers and many other industries, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) awarded the veteran, boutique technology firm a patent for their highly successful lead generation and delivery system. The system, sometimes called SiteEncore™ or Last Man Standing, often doubles or even triples the number of sales leads clients generate from their own websites.

The USPTO patent, number 7,904,335 titled “Web Site Lead Generator,” covers virtually all uses of undefeatable pop-ups and pop-unders to generate sales leads or gather consumer information from client websites. ScreenCrafters has been providing this technology to automotive dealers since 2006 and currently drives First Party Leads for nearly 2,000 websites.

Unlike traditional pop-ups, the ScreenCrafters Web Site Lead Generators are designed to create sellable leads where most pop-ups just deliver advertising that has little or nothing to do with the host website. Additionally, ScreenCrafters Web Site Lead Generators are virtually never blocked by traditional pop-up blockers; this often makes them the most effective lead providing vendor for their clients.

“We have used ScreenCrafters lead generation system on our websites for over five years.” Stated Mark Burshears, Technology Director for the O’Brien Auto Group. “ScreenCrafters regularly generates about 40% of all email leads from our website and we consistently close 18% of those leads. Our results have been outstanding.”

In addition to offering their product directly to car dealers and other website owners, ScreenCrafters also licenses their technology to a number of companies to use in creating their own lead-generating systems. Currently, ScreenCrafters is evaluating further licensing opportunities for their newly patented technology, including helping large classified advertising websites drive additional leads, as well as powering daily deal offers that deliver incremental revenue for a number of verticals.

“As you can imagine, since the official announcement that the ScreenCrafters patent would be awarded back in December, many companies have inquired about both exclusive and non-exclusive licensing opportunities of this technology.” Disclosed Steve Stauning, founder of pladoogle, LLC, the company managing the licensing relationships for ScreenCrafters. “It’s great to see ScreenCrafters go from this sort of obscure company built from the ground up by Steve and Cindy Crim to become one of the
hottest topics in digital marketing circles.”

About ScreenCrafters:
CandSNet, Inc. dba ScreenCrafters, based in Fairhope, AL, was founded in 1998 by Steve and Cindy Crim and is the leading provider of first party leads to the automotive industry and the developer of the newly patented Web Site Lead Generator technology used by numerous verticals to enhance their digital marketing efforts. Contact Information: [email protected].

About pladoogle:
pladoogle, LLC, based in Coeur d’Alene, ID, was founded in 2009 by Steve Stauning with the goal of leveraging underutilized ecommerce technology solutions from boutique firms, including the lead-generating technologies perfected by ScreenCrafters. pladoogle is the exclusive licensor of ScreenCrafters patented technology to enterprise users and resellers.

bpulseadmin · Mar 10, 2011

Hybrids gain share among online consumer auto shopping online as SUVs decline

Nashville, TN —03/09/2011— Was $3.40 the magic gas price for Hybrids? Though gas prices have been increasing steadily over the past 6 months, hybrids until recently, have not benefited as consumers continued to shop for less fuel efficient cars, SUVs, and trucks. However, once the national average for gasoline broke $3.40 per gallon, the trends began to reverse.

"Typically gas prices have not impacted auto shopping behavior, however recent increases have begun to change online auto shopping behavior," stated Jason Ezell, President of Dataium. He added, "Consumers have generally only responded to long sustained periods of gas price increases, and then reverted back to prior behavior once they got use to the higher prices. That said, recent rapid increases combined with news of unrest in the Middle East has clearly turned the tide."

During the month of February, hybrid inventory searches as a share of all auto searches demonstrated a trend line that was nearly identical to trends in gas prices. Interest in hybrids increased 10% as gas prices increased by 5%. Still, inventory searches for hybrids represent only 1.5% of all inventory searches by prospective auto buyers. Historically, once gas prices reverse course, the American consumers' search behavior changes course just as quickly. It remains to be seen whether such a reverse in trend will occur after this gas price spike subsides as well, or will the continued political instability in the Middle East motivate consumers to hedge their bets.

For more information and analysis, Dataium has posted its inventory search and gas price metrics at www.gaspriceaffect.com.

About Dataium, LLC
Dataium is the largest aggregator of Internet automotive shopping activity. The company collects, analyzes, and indexes billions of online automotive shopping events. Dataium supports patented data collection and reporting technology; VisiCogn® Collection Utility, VisiCogn® Knowledge Center, VisiCogn® INSITE, and is also known for its ASI™ index. For more information, visit www.dataium.com, email: [email protected], or call 877-896-DATA (3282).

# # #

Nov 14, 2011

I'm thinking about purchasing a smart car simply for the "green aspect." However, I'm not sure that it is entirely safe. Is there anyone who owns a smart car that can give me some insight?

Joe Hobbs · Aug 4, 2011

Sorry Jeff,
Cars.com is not Google. I get hundreds if not thousands more leads from Google. I pay Cars.com thousands more than Google. These reviews are in cars.com interset not the dealers. The third party & invetory sites are losing the internet battle. Our dealer & OEM sites are controling the market at least for our dealerships.

Joe Hobbs · Jul 29, 2011

After asking not to have our dealerships on Cars.com review site, Cars.com have told that they cannot, all dealers are on it like it or not. No dealerships asked to sign up, so they signed up everyone. I was told that “THERE” customers are wanting the reviews. We are there customers, the car buyers are our customers. They do not see that... so I we not be a customer of cars.com!

Jun 9, 2011

I think this is an excellent idea. If you can't stand the heat......

dboismier · Mar 9, 2011

I see some pitfalls for Cars.com in making this move. First it means dealers have one more review site to manage, especially if Google picks it up.

However I think the biggest danger (speaking from our experience) is that unless you proactively maange this process you end up with mediocre reviews at best. In the end Cars.com could be a site that only has mediocre or bad dealers, which would not be good for their brand.

@Brian · Mar 8, 2011

@Brian Sounds like a great idea.

Brian Pasch · Mar 8, 2011

Laurie

Thank you for reminding everyone to use ALL channels of communication for personal branding or business marketing. I'm excited by the power of our current media and communication channels and the Sheen story is the super-amplification of what can be achieved.

If car dealers should just step outside of the norm and engage in a true, multi-pronged digital marketing and branding strategy, the results would be equally as impressive, just at a smaller scale.

Rob, you are a master of video marketing and you dominate your market, so the question is what other channels should you dominate? Let's brainstorm on that in Orlando!

Mar 8, 2011

Correction, "Social Media" is redundant not an oxymoron.

Mar 8, 2011

We now live in a world where you can be thrown off of a top rated network television show, get lambasted by mainstream media, crucified by Dr Phil and invited over by Dr Drew and still manage to gain an audience. "Social Media" is an oxymoron, this is simply Media 2.0. #media2.0 My condolences go out to all those who now own websites and consulting companies based on the term "Social Media" #planbetter

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