mobile app madness

5 Ways to Promote Your Dealers Mobile App

Mobile app promotion was easy in 2008. App developers could submit their application to Apple app store and compete amongst the thousands of other apps for user's attention. "Thousands" being 10,000. End of 2008 - five months after the mobile app store launch only 10,000 total iPhone apps existed. If an applilcation was popular, it would make the top 25 list in multiple categories and enjoy front row promotion to users around the world.

Today, over 500,000 apps exist on Apple's store alone. Complex and large dollar promotional strategies back new attempts to crack the top 25 category - even for a day. Companies pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for faux downloads, contracting "incentivized install" companies that use virtual and real currency to pay users a fee to download the app. If enough downloads can be driven for a particular app, it has a chance to crack the top 25 of a given category.

This leaves a hole for quality mobile applications targeted at a smaller audience. How do we compete with the launch strategy for the next Angry Birds release? How will our customer find us amongst a sea of "other apps"? The answer is they won't. Not in the app store.

Dealer mobile app promotion "for the rest of us" centers outside the app store. Creating an effective strategy requires leveraging many of your existing channels and creating new ones.

Top 5 ways to get your app into customer’s hands...



1. App Option Code

This is the #1 way your customer should find your app. You spend thousands each month promoting your URL, driving your customers to your website. A simple install of detect code will allow any customer on a smartphone visiting your site the option of downloading your dealer app.

No searching through an app store. Visit your site. Click OK. Download app.

Try it here by visiting http://rosevilletoyota.com on your iPhone or Android.



2. QR Codes


A quick scan of a QR code by your customer gives them access to your dealer’s mobile app. Despite the controversy - Use QR codes on window stickers, print brochures, and marketing materials to get the app to your customer fast. Use the digital QR code version for newsletters, email signatures, and online banner advertising.

Click here to view an example of a dealer using QR codes on print brochures



3. Post-sale Install

Make sure your mobile app is installed on your customer’s phone after the sale. Show them how quickly they can access roadside assistance, schedule service, and get contact information for the dealership.

RO’s are a great place to feature your app’s QR code. Train your staff to suggest an install after the sale.





4. Facebook Promotion

Let your customers know you’re mobile friendly. Use links, images, and video to get your app to your network quickly. Promote on a recurring basis. Some of our most successful dealers tie facebook promotions, such as giveaways or specials, with their mobile app launch.

Click here to see a great facebook giveaway example.



5. On-site Advertising

Use links, images, and video on your standard HTML and mobile sites to let your customer know they can communicate with you on the go. Place QR codes on your standard HTML site (they can be scanned on screen with a mobile device) and direct links on your mobi site.

Click here to see an example

Questions: What are you doing to effectively promote your dealer mobile app? What’s worked? What hasn’t?

Did your mobile app developer help you launch and promote your dealer app?

Tracking your new-car internet advertising performance

We've gotten great feedback on our site changes and enhancements to our franchise ad package so far (although more feedback, pro or con, is always appreciated). The new-car shopping experience on the site will continue to evolve through the rest of the year and into 2013, but in the meantime, we're focusing on our reporting, particularly when it comes to the new vs. used shopping and selling experiences.

Before we get too far into this, everyone - do me a favor. If you work at a franchise dealership, open up your email and find your last email from [email protected]. If it’s not there in your Inbox, check your Spam folder. I’ll check for new #WWE #RAW1000 tweets while I wait.

Ok – assuming you found something, you’re looking at the Market Intelligence Report. If you didn’t find it and you’re a dealer that lists new cars on Cars.com, please contact your Cars.com rep right away.

Now, let me pose a hypothesis: for the dealers reading this who sell both new cars and used cars, I would guess that you run these two aspects of your business very differently. You acquire new cars differently from used, price them differently and manage your floor plan differently. You probably also merchandise them differently, and I suspect that your strategies for marketing them and maximizing profit per vehicle differ between the two as well. Your dealership’s location, value story and reputation also matter more – I’m sure many of you would tell me that your new-car shoppers care a lot more about your service department than customers shopping used.

So I ask you, in today's online world, why are we still using used-car metrics, like SRPs and VDPs, as the primary method of measuring new-car advertising performance when the way you measure success overall is more about your make, your market and your share in that market? Why does our industry focus so intently on metrics specific to an individual vehicle on your lot when car shoppers – new-car shoppers especially – are also basing their decisions on your dealership’s brand and reputation?

We here at Cars.com wanted to find a better approach, so we set out to create a report just for new cars – one that is specific to the way you sell them, and one that offers more insight into how your prospective customers are shopping for them. The result is our new Market Intelligence Report.

Let’s break things down and take a look.

Shopper activity

Shopper activity provides insight into new car market trends for a particular make, which can be influenced by national or local advertising by the manufacturer. By including information about search volume specific to the manufacturer brand both nationally and locally, we hope to provide info that can help fuel conversations with your OEMs. Knowing that 6% of the local search activity on Cars.com focused on your brand when it received a 10% share nationally could be a good reason to talk to your OEM rep about incentives and other marketing support locally, for example.

 

Exposure and engagement

The metrics here represent a focus on your dealership’s overall exposure to Cars.com shoppers, as well as those shoppers’ interactions with your dealership’s information compared to the rest of the marketplace. Roughly speaking, this gives a dealer insight into how often their dealership’s brand and inventory is seen on Cars.com, as well as the level of interest their store generates with those shoppers. The idea here is that as dealers market and merchandise their store’s brand and reputation more progressively, such as by actively managing their Dealer Reviews and creating a pretty awesome Dealer Profile, their overall share of exposure and engagement will climb higher.

 

Turn, days’ supply and share of inventory

These stats are likely ones you measure in “real life” and inform pretty important decisions around everything from inventory management to marketing budget allocation. Our goal is to share how these stats translate on Cars.com with one key difference: we’re able to benchmark these stats against the rest of your market and nationally, which we feel is even more valuable than the numbers on their own.

 

Trend activity

You’ll also note new, forward-looking and actionable information about key new-car market trends. To get this information, we’ve partnered with Dataium, a leading aggregator of online shopping behavior and a pretty darn good predictor of consumer demand, as many of you who work with them are aware. The data in this section includes predicted consumer demand and trend forecasts for selected makes and models, provided at the national, regional and DMA levels. Our goal is to give dealers the ability to plan marketing decisions, such as incentives, promotions, merchandising and other elements, based on forward-looking data.

One thing you see repeated often in my explanation above is that the stats provided in the Market Intelligence Report include comparative information at the national and DMA levels. Ultimately, this is where we hope the Market Intelligence Report will shine. We want to provide a report that can not only tell you how you’re doing on Cars.com, but also tell you how you’re doing compared to other dealers who sell the same cars, both locally and nationally. We do realize there’s room for improvement, however, so before I return to tweeting about Zach Ryder...

I'll pose this question:

What metrics should Cars.com be providing both to communicate advertising performance and also to help dealers make more informed new-car business decisions?

I’ll also share that we’re working on revamping our used- car metrics as well – any suggestions there?

Have a Tracking Cookie

Dealership websites that track online shopping behavior

If you have purchased goods on Amazon.com recently, take a minute to go back to their website. Did you notice that it recognized who you were and even made recommendations for you to consider purchasing today?

If you book travel online, sites like Expedia and Travelocity are designed to use your shopping behavior to trigger special promotions and offers. Would it surprise you that travel sites mighty offer you a $20 a night room rate discount on the third visit to a particular hotels reservation page?

Personalization of website pages by online shopping behavior is common practice in the larger ecommerce industry so it begs the question, why should dealership website be a “one size fits all” design? Would conversion and engagement INCREASE if automotive web designers used online consumer shopper behavior and cookie data to personalize the shopping experience?

The answer is simply yes. A personalized website experience has proven to be effective in other verticals yet the automotive industry has just scratched the surface in personalization. The first vendor to knock personalization out of the park will gain significant market share.

Personalized Dealer Websites

TK Carsites a few years back introduced a website feature that changed the home page banner based on the search keywords used to land on the dealer’s home page. This feature was slick but the rest of the website shopping experience was “one size fits all”.

Today, the opportunities for personalization are endless. Let’s say a consumer visits a Chevrolet dealer’s website for the first time and clicks on the used car inventory search page. During their first visit the consumer searches exclusively for used Chevrolet Silverados. The consumer leaves the dealer’s website without submitting a lead or calling.

On this consumer’s second visit to the dealers website personalization could present a home page with three used Silverado’s featured and/or on sale. It could change the used car search page to default initially to display Silverados. Personalization could also change the home page banner to include a slide on new Silverado lease specials.

I use this simple example as a means to illustrate the potential of personalization. Of course consumers will search for a variety of used car models on a dealer’s website, but patterns can be distilled from the consumer’s click activity. If it is determined that the consumer is looking at cars under $13,000 then on a return visit, the dealership website can morph to showcase cars in that price range.

Taking personalization to the next level would be to integrate off-site consumer shopping behavior. Dataium introduced a data model that would capture consumer shopping data and search history that could be used by dealers and industry vendors to personalize CRM systems, website design, and engagement tools.

Dataium is not the only player in the market that has vital shopper data. VinSolutions for example, could be in a unique situation to benefit from consumer shopping behavior on KBB.com and Autotrader.com. I wrote about this potential back in September of 2011 on DealerRefresh.com: “Will Autotrader Build An Exclusive ZMOT Data Network?”

For example, a consumer searches for a used Ford F-150 on Autotrader.com and then decides to open another browser tab to visit the local ford dealer listed on the Autotrader.com Vehicle Detail Page (VDP). If this dealers was using a VinSolutions website, in the future the site might “morph” on the FIRST visit to showcase Ford F150 trucks on the home page, truck incentives, or trucks on sale.

This functionality does not exist today for VinSolutions customers but the potential is there based on VinSolutions being part of the Autotrader Companies. As an industry watcher and commentator, I see many exciting possibilities in the years ahead.

Another example would be Cobalt’s website platform leveraging shopping behavior on General Motors OEM websites. A consumer visiting www.Chevrolet.com and searching for information on the 2013 Chevrolet Impalas could be presented with a “Impala” morphed website when they visit a local dealer the following day that had the Cobalt platform. Again, this functionality on Cobalt websites is not publically available to dealers but could be a personalization outcome.

Personalization is the next big step for automotive retailing. After that would come better CRM integration with the shopper’s online search history. You get the idea, the degree of information that is available could dramatically improve the customer experience and I believe increase conversion.

Question:

Do you agree that personalization and data integration will be a game changer for the automotive retail website experience?