Damn you 2008!

Real change is happening out there. It’s subtle and it’s taking years to play out so it’s hard to see, but it’s very real and it all traces back to 2008. Let’s go for a walk, turn over some stones and let’s find some ROI out here!

The financial crisis of 2008 caused a once in a generation event that’s now called “The Great Recession”. It impacted every country, every business and everyone on the planet (except for Jerry Thibeau & Brian Pasch .  The Go-go years are gone, we’re in a “new normal”, business is good…but different.  Your instincts tell you your customers are still feeling the effects. Has our customer changed?

What’s going on out there?

Google Trends

We all know damn near everything begins with Google, so let’s ask Google. It just so happens that Google has a free research tool that lets us look at what shoppers are doing, it’s called Google Trends.

Google collects billions of searches, categorizes them and puts them in buckets for us to look at. Take note! Google Trends is proven to be an accurate* tool that people are making money from, so let’s get to digging!

To give you a snapshot of how Google Trends works, here are Google searches for “Kentucky Derby” for the last 10 years.



Once a year, every year the Kentucky Derby runs and there it is.

Ok, What about Us?

Google Trends has a special bucket just for our industry, it’s called “vehicle shopping”. Here’s what automobile shoppers have been doing in Google over the last decade.



Woa!

Clearly a downtrend that breaks in 2008 and now vehicle shopping is in this sideways, not growing, business pattern. WTF is going on with vehicle shoppers? Business has rebounded, something has happened, where are they going?

They’re getting their car fixed!

Let’s look at Google Trends search Volume for phrases related to Vehicle Maintenance, from 2004 to date:



Clearly an epic shift in automobile owner behavior is going on under our feet. The 08-09 financial crisis looks to be the catalyst.  From this, we could conclude that folks are shoveling cash into their existing cars and stalling off the purchase of a new ride.  Let’s look around for validation!

A little bit of research validates this theory:

Schaumburg, Ill., June 27, 2012 — Experian Automotive today announced that there were 17.3 million more light-duty vehicles seven years and older on the road in the United States than there were three years ago. http://press.experian.com/United-Sta...e-than-17.aspx

A bit more validation:

Publically traded Auto Parts stores and Auto Service centers are all very busy. Stock prices for these companies reflect this theme, Since 2008:
AAP: Advanced Auto Parts, +150%

GPC: Genuine Auto Parts +75%

AZO: AutoZone +225%

ORLY: O’rilley +300%

MNRO: Monro Muffler +260%

So…before 2008, folks would trade-in a car rather than buy new tires. Post 2008, our customers are far more financially conservative.

The Best Leads Your Store Will Get Tomorrow Are Free

• Your Service Drive has never been more important for lead gen than RIGHT NOW.
  
• Consider campaigning to past svc customers, your ROs are the best business intelligence data you’ll ever see!!

Rev up your service lanes:

PEOPLE ARE FIXING THEIR CARS AT RECORD HIGHS

• Cars are getting older and older and…
  
• Your Service business has rarely seen had this much demand
  
• Service Promotion has never been easier because EVERYONE uses their mobile phone to look for service
  
• Service requests by smartphone is +74% in one year Cool [Link] to Google Auto Service infographic
  
• Get your digital mobile attack plan in HIGH GEAR
  
  • Service shoppers are all about a "loss leader", speed and convince.
    
  • They want a coupon and a promise to make this as fast and easy as possible.
    
    • Get creative with your service "Call To Actions" every where on the 'net (coupons, 24 hour discounts to those that fill out a form)
      
    • Get your service PPC dialed in and juiced!
      
    • Get your twitter scanner working over-time [Link]<--call out to Ryan & Eric
      
    • Get your road signage humming about service specials (consider hiring some spinning sign guys).

Google trends is showing us that Fixed Ops is where the growth is and you can go to the bank with this one. This "strong service" pattern sets up for as far as the eye can see. We'll see a hiccup in this pattern somewhere about 2020 when the supply of used cars will shrink from the 2008 financial crash.

*There is growing evidence that the data from Google trends is real and very actionable. I am seeing studies where google trends data is being successfully used to anticipate shifting trends and people are profiting from Google Trends in stock markets.

P.S. For the record, you heard it here first in 2010 The Car Shopper on Your Website has Changed, Have You Noticed? – DealerRefresh

P.S.S. If you’re an AutoTrader/Cars.com hater, come back next week, I’ve got news for you and it’ll be gut check time.

 

Facebook Graph Search - How Should Your Dealership Prepare?

I’ve written in the past about optimizing your Facebook business page for Facebook Graph Search.

Graph Search is Facebook’s most recent search tool iteration, helping users make connections to existing people and places that were previously difficult to find. With a clean interface and natural search capabilities, Graph Search unlocks the massive amount of data logged into Facebook by individuals and businesses each day.

Even though Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has emphasized that Graph Search is "not Web search,” many would agree that this is Facebook’s attempt to compete with Google. Unlike Google’s current search algorithm, Graph Search relies on social interactions to build its search database.

Today, businesses can be optimized for the current Graph Search tool. For dealerships, this involves: listing the dealership as a business instead of a person and once listed as a Facebook business page, selecting relevant business categories. Since Graph Search currently only searches business names and categories, these two steps are the most critical today.
What about the next step?

How should dealerships prepare for the evolution of Graph Search in the future?

Over time, Facebook will index more than business names and categories. Instead, it will begin to index more of the content on dealership business pages. While Facebook needs to balance Graph Search with privacy concerns, publicly available information is fair game.

Make sure your dealership’s Facebook business page has relevant, keyword rich entries in both the “Short Description” and “Company Overview” sections. In the way websites are optimized for SEO, Facebook business pages should use words that the average consumer would use in search.



Dealer Page showing Description Fields

Since Facebook is using EdgeRank to prioritize search results, both dealership business pages and individual posts need plenty of likes. EdgeRank is Facebook’s proprietary algorithm for deciding which content will appear in people’s news feeds, and how it will be ranked.

EdgeRank examines the level of engagement for individual posts as well as the sources of that engagement. The more likes, shares, and comments a post receives, the higher it will rank. When consumers engage with a specific dealership, that dealership’s posts have a better chance of appearing in the news feeds of those car buyers.

For dealership business pages, the value of a Facebook like continues to grow. With Graph Search, places liked by your friends are weighted as more relevant than those liked by individuals you don’t know. Dealers should focus on not only growing the business page’s fan base, but generating an increasing number of likes from friends of fans.

There are many tried and tested ways to generate more fans and likes, including organic and paid promotional campaigns. Another great way to build your Facebook network as Graph Search evolves is to encourage more Facebook check-ins at your dealership. Visitors to your dealership end up notifying their social networks of your brand and physical location at no cost. Dealerships can encourage check-ins by building Facebook Offers that are redeemed with each check-in.

The goal for dealerships should be to drive your listing to the top of Graph Search. In order to do this, it helps to have increasing fans, likes and check-ins.



Visitors from Facebook Check-ins

Think strategically about how traditional website SEO, along with Graph Search optimization, can create a successful marketing loop for your dealership. Strong website SEO can feed people into your Facebook page and generate more likes. Additional Facebook likes improve Graph Search ranking, which then channels new traffic back to the dealership’s website. Google brings in likes for Facebook. Facebook drives new visitors to your site.

Images continue to grow in importance in Social Media, and Facebook is no different. Posts and pages with images generate more attention, likes, comments, and shares. Geo-tag all uploaded images with city and state information so they can be found in location-based searches on Graph Search.

Regardless of whether or not a consumer indicates a location in Graph Search, Facebook automatically prioritizes businesses that are closest to the user’s location. This is especially evident on mobile devices. If customers or employees are posting images to your business page, ask them to geo-tag those images as well.



Visitors from Facebook Check-ins

A potentially negative impact of Graph Search may lie within dealership employees. Specifically, current or former employees of your dealership, and what their individual online profiles reflect.

The natural language search function of Graph Search allows an endless number of combinations, meaning that employees of your store that like controversial interests, books, movies, etc, on Facebook could reflect back on your dealership.

A search like the one below reflects unfavorably on any store.



Possible HR Nightmare

This may call for future HR policies for your employees when it comes to tagging your dealership as their current or former employer.

While global adoption of Facebook Graph Search takes time, there are many who already find the tool extremely helpful. As with many other digital marketing strategies, the key is to focus on the low-hanging fruit; easy steps you can take to optimize your online presence.

The next step will be to create compelling strategies and campaigns to increase Graph Search engagement. To be successful with Graph Search, there’s no substitute for creating unique, engaging, and relevant content that will appeal to your current and future fans.

Are you ready for Facebook Graph Search?

 

How to track the influence of custom content

Last year I wrote a number of articles on how to setup Google Analytics Multi-Channel Sales Funnels (MCSF) to track assisted conversions. I was thinking about how dealers could use MCSF to show that their blogs and custom content helped in the lead submission process.

If we can show dealers that blog posts and customized content were part of the shopper’s journey PRIOR to submitting a lead, the content budget could be supported. There is always a struggle inside the dealership on the value of custom content despite numerous articles stating why unique content is important for search rankings and social citations.

The measurement system I am suggesting is not perfect because MCSF does not track phone calls. It can work well for tracking the influence of dealership generated custom content on form submissions. As quality content is indexed and read by consumers, I will tell you that it will show in the conversion path to the eventual triggering of a Google Analytics goal when a lead is submitted.

Here is the quick overview of what needs to be done:

1. Make sure you have Goals set in Google Analytics for all your form submissions, here are a few suggestions:
   
   • Contact Us
     
   • Request E-Price
     
   • Service Appointments
     
   • Finance Applications
     
   • Trade-In Price Quotes
2. Some website platforms have Goals preset. Dealer.com and KPA are two website platforms that have Analytics Events & Goals preloaded, so check with your website provider before you create goals.
   
3. Identify the “root” URL of your blog.  This is the common text that starts all blog posts.  For Dealer.com websites, that root can be: /blog/. You will need to see what other website vendors have for your blog, this was just one example.
   
4. Identify the “root” URL of all your custom content pages, if you have properly organized the pages in a single folder.
   
5. Go into “Conversion” > “Multi Channel Funnels” > “Assisted Conversions” and create a “Custom Channel Grouping”.
   
6. Setup a custom channel to identify blog content pages.
   
7. Setup another custom channel for custom landing pages.
   
8. Place your custom channels at the top of your channel grouping list.
   
9. Save your custom channel grouping and start collecting data.

Examples of customized channel:

In the example below, I created a custom channel called “Blog Content” that is triggered when a consumer lands on any page that starts with /blog/. For Hyundai of St Augustine, this is the root URL for all blog posts on their Dealer.com website.

Your dealership blog may reside on a sub-domain or it could also be in a directory folder like the example shown here. In any case, once you find the root domain pattern, you can setup a custom channel like the image shown below.



Place custom channels at the top of your channel grouping:

Then, you can place your custom channel in the top position to make sure that other channel rules don’t override the influence of your blog content. Of course you can create other custom channels for all customized sources of traffic to dealership websites. A blog is just one content example, but you can create custom channels for microsites, social media investments, etc.

If you are creating custom landing pages for your website, you can also track those content investments as well. If you can store all your custom pages in a folder such as /custom/, create another custom channel to track when consumers hit those custom pages. The idea is to track the impact of customized content you add to your website on form submissions.

In the list below, you can see that I dragged my “Blog Content” custom channel to the top position.  All custom channels you create should go before any stock channels that Google provides.



Once this is setup properly, you can see how many leads were submitted that had a custom page of content or a blog post triggered BEFORE the lead was submitted. In the fictitious example below, the custom channel for the dealership blog was called “Blog” and each line represents a lead form being submitted. You can see how the dealership blog influenced two leads:



Syndicating your great content is another step in understanding how consumers utilize your website and how relevant your content is to shoppers.

1. Good content should be easily found on your website navigation.
   
2. Good content should be shared and optimized to be found on social networks and in organic search.
   
3. Good content should differentiate your dealership and build value with local consumers.
   
4. Good content should be posted on a regular basis.

Questions:

Are you a believer in custom content and it's influence on conversion and lead generation? 

 

[highlight color="#F7D358" font="black"]If you believe in creating high quality content for your car shoppers, and would like to learn more about setting up Google Analytics to show the INFLUENCE of that content on lead submissions then be sure to attend Brian's Google Analytics workshop at the 4th Annual Automotive Boot Camp.

The event will be held on May 14th, 15th and 16th at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel. For more information, visit www.automotivebootcamp.com or contact Carrie Hemphill at 908-601-6475.[/highlight]

Four-year-old Martina is about to teach you a lesson.

[highlight color="#F0F0F0" font="black"]You: Martina, it's time for bed, sweetie.
Martina: Why?
You: Because you've had a long day and you're going to be getting sleepy soon.
Martina: Why?
You: Well, because you played outside and ran around the house all day.
Martina: Why?
You: Because you're four!
Martina: Why?
You: [Sigh][/highlight]

If you've ever worked a gig as a parent (or babysitter, for that matter), you know about the "Why Game." Even though it originates with kids, it can also be heard played out in conversations in your dealership too. My buddy Brian Pasch warns us about avoiding what he calls “white noise" when playing the "Why Game."

What's white noise? Here are some examples...
[highlight color="#F0F0F0" font="black"]You: Why should someone buy from us?
Eddie: Because we're the best dealership in the area. (WHITE NOISE!)
You: Why?
Eddie: Um, because we sell in a consultative manner, effectively helping people buy and not selling them.
You: Better! Why?
Eddie: We work on salary and bonuses, not commission, so we deliver a no-pressure sales experience.
You: Ha – that's what I’m looking for![/highlight]

Or...
[highlight color="#F0F0F0" font="black"]You: Why should someone buy from us?
Angela: Because we take care of our customers. (WHITE NOISE!)
You: Why?
Angela: Well, because we don't just want them to do business with us one time. We want customers for life!
You: Better!
Angela: That's why employees get a Hawaiian vacation when they reach ten years. We just think there's something nice about the same person who sold you your first "married couple" car also selling you your first minivan when junior comes along... knowing that you'll see the same friendly face through life's biggest changes.
You: Perfecto![/highlight]

Drilling down to define your dealership's unique "why buy" message can help you win the "Why Game" and stand out from the white noise that's constantly competing for the attention of your prospective customers.

The new eBook by Cobalt, Defining Your Dealership Why, helps explain how you can answer the "why buy" question, and how doing so can help you attract and retain like-minded customers.

Does "why buy" messaging still feel warm and fuzzy, but not practical for your bottom line?
Do you still think you don't need to bother differentiating because the OEM does it for you?

Check out these startling stats from our automotive-shopping activity study:

• The study shows that shoppers visit a minimum of eight dealer websites. That’s the minimum! Your “why buy” messaging is the key to separating your dealership from the competition.
  
• The same study tracked the purchase journey of one family and revealed that they had been exposed to a total of 329 dealership ads over their 90 day shopping journey. Injecting your advertising with a healthy dose of your “why buy” messaging can differentiate your impression from the hundreds of others competing for that family’s attention.

• It also tracked the online activity of one brand loyal shopper who shopped his favorite brand exclusively, but did not show loyalty to any one dealership. In fact, he shopped his brand across 20 dealership websites in a single day!

His journey illustrates that brand alignment is the baseline, but it's not the full equation. This is further supported by the fact that of the 75% of shoppers who visited OEM websites, most of those visited the OEM website and the dealer website within the same 30 minutes.

Moral of the story: The OEM only starts the “why buy” equity; it's your job to finish it.

 



"Why" is the reason they buy

What's YOUR dealership why? Learn how answering the "Why Buy?" question can transform your dealership today.
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