Are incentives dead? How do we advertise now?

[Roland (blog)]

Email HAS HAS HAS to improve.

As a former ISM from the San Francisco bay area, I can tell you that I've seen a lot of dealerships ignore the wealth of opportunity that the internet provides.

Andrew and his dealership have the right idea spending most of their ad budget online.

What I was most intrigued about was Alex's reference to "spammy email."

Have any of your gone online and acted like an online shopper would? By that, I mean you go to one of the 3rd party sites to configure a car and contact dealers thru email?

I have - and boy, what a nightmare!

Try getting quotes from about 4-6 dealers and your email box is quickly filled to the brim with every gimmicky and poorly executed marketing pitch there is.

Dealers respond to often and 90% of the time, I didn't even get a hard price quote.

My opinion is to market to customers where they spend most of their time: social networks.

I know I'm in this market and am not pimping our biz, but this topic was too tempting.

By the way, Jeff, did you go to NADA 09? I've been here everyday looking for your review!

 

[robert craft]

I worked for a dealer in San Antonio who cut all sources of advertising off,liners,radio,display,tv,autotrader,cdm,etc...I had to put our used cars on the internet myself,then i had 10 salespeople who posted 15 cars each on 28 different free websites,we sold twice as many cars without zero dollars spent on advertising. So now I sit at home and put other dealerships new and used cars on those same websites for a consulting fee.I had a dealer in Greer,SC sell 14 cars in two days off one simple posting.

 

[bhoecht]

Fishing where the fish are...

If 80%+ of your consumers are online, how do you attract them to you?

With what message?

Where do you place it?

If they respond to it, what do you engage them with? Your home page? An email where they can "Send an email?"

Would that be what you wanted if you were an online car shopper?

These are just suggestions, but how about using a message of "A 100% online car shopping experience for your next ?"

Where would you place that?

Where would you land them if they clicked on the banner ad?

Could you devise a blogging strategy, search engine marketing campaigns and video channels with a similar call to action?

By all means, let them send you an email any time they want.

Consider letting them shop your vehicles online (price, credit, interest rates, taxes, payments) in such a way that they have to tell you who they are in order to do so.

The Internet is a new medium. What is your message?

Internet consumers don't have to do anything. How do you devise your messages and site interactivity so that they want to do what you want them to do?

If 98% of your visitors leave without engaging with you / telling you who they are, then the experience you have run them through has not met their needs and they've left rather than having to deal with you.

This isn't a rant and it isn't a commercial... just sharing some insight into the psychology behind the thinking that went in to the shopping cart and conversations we have with dealers about using it effectively. The shopping cart is only a tool in the greater context of how dealers advertise and then how consumers shop and buy from you.

To me one of the great game-changers beginning to happen to automotive is the shift away from physical premise to the virtual. Away from digital inquiries (leads) to being able to really shop online. From a hostage-taking approach over info such as price, credit, payments, to letting consumers realize for themselves that they want to speak to dealership staff (can you confirm my credit, firm up my trade valuation, do a bit better on interest rate, etc.)

What do you think?

 

[Stan Sher (blog)]

Incentives are great because everyone wants a deal all of the time. The problems with too many incentives is that it implants the craze into the customer's head. These rebates and special rates incentives have become ridiculous to the point that if Honda does not have special leasing or special financing, sales drop. Incentives are the reason why we are moving metal. This is wrong, it makes it hard for us to actually build value and sell the car. People do not lay down for us anymore. We need to get the public respecting car dealerships and start taking away from their minds that they need an incentive to make a purchase or a lease. At the end of the day, why should I pay you to buy my car? Incentives are great but should be use properly. I blame the incentive craze for making problems for the big three.