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    Online Negotiation

    I shopped a dealer - Tonkin Honda - who was using the Widestorm online negotiation tool. From the consumer perspective, the process was overly complicated and cumbersome. I had to set up an account with a password, and the negotiation was not done live, it was done via email or done via this...
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    Creating email campaigns

    I :heart: Mail Chimp. I use Mail Chimp as the backbone of my business - I do all the heavy lifting for the dealer when it comes to content, design, and list management. I have yet to need something that mail chimp does not provide. If you dig into it there are some pretty incredible tools.
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    Spam testers

    I use mailchimp as my esp and they offer an inbox inspector. It costs $14 to test three seperate emails, they show you how your design renders in different ISP's and let you know if you are triggering any spam filters including Cloudmark, Barracuda, and Postini. Get more info: Inbox Inspector...
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    TV and Radio Ads by Google

    I'm not one to argue with Search Engine Watch, their info is usually pretty good but this article from the most recent issue of Inc. Magazine seems to contradict that Google TV is no more. Run Cheap TV Commercials with Google TV Ads, Public Relations/Publicity Article - Inc. Article At the...
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    Inventory Sites to consider?

    I have just started looking into a site for a client, www.vast.com. At this point I don't know a whole lot about how they operate but I do know they post to numerous sites including AOL autos and that they offer most of their services for free. I'd love to get some feedback if anyone out there...
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    Google Local updated business listings is a PAIN!

    Google local listings may still need help staying accurate, but they have just launched a new tracking tool. You can see how much traffic your google local listing is receiving. Just one more way to measure your web presence. Google Analytics Blog: Web Analytics Tips & Tricks: Announcing the...
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    Using "similar vehicles" to sell more cars

    Some best practices with images and deliverability: Don't use a free hosting site like flickr or photobucket - instead upload the images to your own server or your web hosts server. Do balance your message with text and images. If you have a healthy ratio - no worse than 60% text - your...
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    How not to send bulk emails

    Another tip on how not to send bulk emails --- is not to send bulk emails. May seem like strange advice from somebody who creates and sends email for a living but it's the truth. Personalized and segmented email will get you a much better response rate than a generic "bulk email". I recommend...
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    CoTwitter

    Twitter has something new on the horizon - they are currently testing it in a private beta - called CoTwitter. This could be something that actually makes Twitter a manegable and practical application for dealerships. It allows mutiple users to login to the account and everyone can see who is...
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    DealerRefresh forum logs me off WAY too quickly.

    I've had the same issue with Firefox at home and with Explorer at work ... a few minutes of inactivity and all of a sudden I'm anonymous again. :( Not a big issue as it seems to remember which posts I have already read for the day.
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    Google Local updated business listings is a PAIN!

    Check out this article on how Google Map's internal system merges listings that have similar content - leaving you with what you have - a frankenstein assortion of your properties. If nothing else - at least you know you're not the only one. Is It Time To Send Google Maps Back To The Drawing...
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    Taking videos of your vehicles

    Link your youtube videos Just found this on damniwish.com - first I had heard of it and I thought you guys might find it useful. Here's the quote from Andy Sernovitz: Did you know you can easily add links to your YouTube clips? LinkedTube is a simple website that allows you to add a button to...
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    Decent E-Commerce Parts Store

    For your specific situation Mitch - I go back to my original recommendation - build your own eCommerce store online. Upload pictures of whatever is in your flyer for that month with the specials along with your watches, t-shirts, and key chains. If it's 10 - 15 items per month, it won't cost...
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    Decent E-Commerce Parts Store

    :thinker: I find it very interesting there isn't a solution out there for this. Out of curiousity, can a DMS (in general) push the parts data out as XML? Somebody mentioned building a CRM from scratch on another thread - that seems like a big job - but this one seems a little more attainable...
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    Decent E-Commerce Parts Store

    Have you tried trademotion? I know they provide free parts catalogs but I'm not sure if they use paypal or just credit cards? :( Could be worth looking into if you havn't already.
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    Decent E-Commerce Parts Store

    You could build your own pretty easily through something like Go Daddy's quick shopping cart. I havn't used that feature myself but Go Daddy's other design tools are pretty simple and the price seems right, only $50 a month for listing unlimited products. They offer paypal, credit cards, and...
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    I need a new keyboard!

    LOL :lol: That IS an ugly mouse!
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    Taking videos of your vehicles

    Kevin - I was wondering how you include the videos in your emails and if you see a higher click through rate for these templates. Do you post a text link to the video or do you include an image (for example a still from the video with a play button)? This is something that we have been...
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    Email Deliverability - Are Your Emails Making it to the Inbox?

    @Andrew - If you know the IP address that your email comes from you can check it though a number of places on line. One I recommend is Email Blacklist Check - See if your server is blacklisted?. If you don't know the IP address, many times it is included in the "delivery failed" email you will...
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    I am seeking best practices for collecting email addresses from existing customers

    As Matt said above, a big key is explaining how their email address will be used and getting the customers buy-in (read:permission). There is a big differance between transactional email and promotional email. Sending non permission based email can quickly get you labeled as SPAM and - if you...
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