Welcome to another week of great blog posts from around the automotive web. I found some great information and posts this week that I am [...]]]>

Welcome to another week of great blog posts from around the automotive web. I found some great information and posts this week that I am sure will help you sell more while making your life just a little better.

This week I found this heated discussion about Internet Price vs. Lot Price and found it interesting. Read the blog Click Here then let me know your opinion of what works for your dealership.

Is Social Media the next big thing, just another lead generator or worse just a big waste of time? Keith Shetterly posted a great blog that will really get you thinking. Click Here

Brian Pasch is always a great resource for SEO information and this blog post doesn’t disappoint. Link building is an often overlooked aspect of improving your search engine position. Click Here

Lost customers can be one of the great sources of improvement and sales for dealerships. This blog post by Jerry Thibeau really hits some great points. Click Here

Delivering the WOW factor at your dealership has continued to become more difficult as dealerships continue to raise the bar. This post is a great idea starter. Click Here

Kevin Root is a very smart person and has been a friend of mine for a long time. His blog really hits the right points about potential cracks in your Social Media strategies and how to overcome them. Click Here

I had the opportunity to have lunch with Jimmy Vee and his business partner Travis Miller a couple of weeks ago and these guys know marketing. Both Jimmy and Travis live for this stuff and it shows in everything they do. Here is a great blog post from Jimmy this week. Click Here

As it becomes even harder to get in contact with Internet shoppers through email or on the phone, texting might hold a sliver of opportunity to get through. Kathy Kimmel talks about just how to make that work in this quick video. Click Here

All this how-to information is great but we still need to know how to sell to get the job done. This website is a great resource for basic sales tactics and techniques it is called Just Sell and here is the link.

This week’s book review that has jumped to my must read list is The Time Paradox by Phillip Zimbardo. We live in a world of not enough time to accomplish our goals and this book challenges the very essence of time itself. It is deep but a fantastic read. Click Here

That wraps up another awesome week.

Happy Chatting,

Todd

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Welcome to another Top Ten blog posts from around the automotive industry. I hope you enjoy what I found interesting and I encourage you to [...]]]>

Welcome to another Top Ten blog posts from around the automotive industry. I hope you enjoy what I found interesting and I encourage you to submit posts that you found helpful to me at todd@activengage.com. I read a ton but the Internet is a large place so if you find a great post that you feel will help others send it to me.

I often find dealerships struggling to get a hold of Internet shoppers. It is highly competitive and difficult to stand out when most shoppers have contacted 3+ dealers. To me the achilles heel has always been the answering machine and what to leave on it. This week I found a post that is talking about that very critical point and makes some suggestions to improve your message leaving skills. Click Here

This week on ADM Ralph Paglia posted an interesting question about using an automated quote system for incoming sales leads. It drew a lot of comments and some interesting points were made that might be useful if you are considering this type of application for your own dealership. Click Here

This is a great question that was posted about pricing your vehicles online and Dale Pollack’s video response to it. Pricing vehicles online is an art that requires constant tweaking to ensure success. Click Here

Should you encourage or discourage your employees from using Social Media while at work in your dealership? Here is a great post about leveraging your employee’s FaceBook pages. Click Here

Alex Snyder just moved and in the process learned all about submitting a lead over the Internet and the consumer’s perspective. There is a lot we can learn from his experience that we should bring into our dealerships to improve our communication processes. Click Here

After just completing some research on the power of video and the growing importance of it to your online marketing, I came across this post by Jeff Kershner and I found it useful and interesting. Click Here

Here is a post this week about increasing lead conversion by understand the consumer’s persona. It is a good post and I am already looking forward to part 2. Click Here

Larry Bruce put together the Road to the Sale 2010 for the modern Internet shopper. This is a great starter conversation to help you re-envision how to handle Internet shoppers for maximum sales. Click Here

If you are not following Hubspot you are missing one of the greatest resources for inbound marketing content. This post got me thinking about blogging for dealerships. We can easily do everything mentioned here and it might serve you well to invest the time in creating your own blogging culture at your dealership. Click Here

I want to wrap up this weeks blog posts with something a little different, a book review. I just finished Free- The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson and I was blown away. You might remember Chris from The Long Tail, another book he authored. If you are trying to think outside the box and rebuild your business for the marketplace of tomorrow read this book. Click Here

Have a great week,

Todd Smith

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This week I found some great posts and articles that will help you move the needle at your dealership. I look forward to your feedback and [...]]]>

This week I found some great posts and articles that will help you move the needle at your dealership. I look forward to your feedback and remember to share this post with all your friends.

Is it really possible for a 21 year old kid to topple a company by leveraging FaceBook? I read this article and it really just goes to show the power and importance of managing your online reputation. Read the complete article here.

Marking to women has always been an afterthought for most dealerships. Jody DeVere has lead a one woman crusade to help educate and create female friendly automotive dealerships. Here is a great example of a dealership that is driving success with a focus on the female Internet buying process. Read the complete article.

Here are 55 strategies to improve your SEO. We all know the importance of using SEO but this article has some great tips and it is a quick read article.

What are you doing to convert more visitors on your website? Optimization is a great start and here is a great blog post and some good commentary that might get the ideas flowing in regard to your own website. Check it out here.

If you are not following Derek Sivers you are missing one of the smartest guys around. I first came upon Derek at Ted, the international speaking even,t and I can tell you this guy gets it. Here is a quick video and transcript that really helps to put leadership into perspective. Plus it is just fun to watch Click Here

If you are struggling with how to separate your business profile on FaceBook from your personal one you are not alone. I read this blog post by Jared Hamilton and thought it warranted a read. Click Here

Mobile web surfing is growing incredibly fast and the automotive industry needs to respond to embrace these shoppers. Jeff Kershner wrote this great blog post that got me thinking about how to improve my own mobile strategy. Click Here to read the full article.

Identifying your shopper’s personality can go a long way in helping you turn a maybe interested shopper into one that is ready to purchase. Glynn Rodean wrote this great post about learning to understand what motivates your shoppers. A good read. Click Here

Joe Webb wrote this post and I just had to share it. Are you sticking to your game plan month in and month out? It can pay off read the rest here.

This is a great mashup of social media marketing videos and charts. So if you are new to the concept or just looking for some additional education this is a great start. I think charts rock and there are plenty of them in this post. Click Here

This wraps up another great week of information. If you find a great posts as you are searching the web make sure you email me at todd@activengage.com.

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Technorati Tags: active engage, activengage, dealer chat, dealership internet marketing, todd smith

Dealership website traffic is very important and there are many articles and blog posts about driving more people to your site whether it is SEO, SEM, Social Media or any other online marketing techniques, [...]]]>

Dealership website traffic is very important and there are many articles and blog posts about driving more people to your site whether it is SEO, SEM, Social Media or any other online marketing techniques, but today I want to talk about something else that is just as important. In fact I think it is more important. Focusing on your dealership conversion and how to optimize it is the real half of the equation that you need to turn your site into a lead generation machine.

Online conversions are measured through a shopper taking one of the following actions.

• Dealership Live Chats
• Web Forms
• Phone Calls

You need to understand why most of your website visitors are leaving without taking any action. To accomplish this goal you will need to do some analysis.  Here are three tools that I suggest that might help you to better understand how people are using or in a lot of cases, not using your website.

Survey Monkey- Set up a quick survey that will ask shoppers 3-4 questions as they are exiting your site. You really never know until you ask. This is a great tool to accomplish that goal and to give you insight into your shopper’s behavior.

Click Tale- This program is awesome, it creates a video of shoppers using your site. You can watch their mouse movements just like you were standing over their shoulder. It is a great way to develop real life user data. They also have a cool feature that provides heat maps of user sessions.

Google Website Optimizer- Here is a great free tool to help you test different elements on your site using split a/b testing. For example, change the headline, website copy, picture, offer or anything and test it to improve it. To be successful you must continue to improve your site to push people deeper into the sales funnel.

Conversion rate optimization is the most important factor that will drive success for your Internet dealership in today’s increasing competitive marketplace. Today I challenge you to take the time and work on techniques and strategies to convert more traffic instead of just driving more traffic.

Step one is about measurement and learning what is working and what isn’t working on your website. These three tools will put you on the path of success. Next time we are going to cover another area of conversion rate optimization for your dealership website.

Happy Chatting

Todd Smith

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Here is the inaugural list and corresponding links to the top ten blog posts this week from across the Internet. Each week on Friday afternoon we compile the [...]]]>

Here is the inaugural list and corresponding links to the top ten blog posts this week from across the Internet. Each week on Friday afternoon we compile the best automotive marketing information all in one place.

We have taken the time to make sure you read the most important posts to help you grow your dealership’s Internet business without having to check 25 websites. Each week we will search out the most relevant and useful information and bring it direct to you right here.

This was a must read post by Ralph Paglia about how to create and leverage a press release marketing strategy for your dealership. http://bit.ly/d3j9gn

I have always been big about reporting and Joe Pistell wrote up this great article about how you can now create a cool visual display of your shoppers http://bit.ly/ciwtuR

If you missed Joe Webb at Digital Dealer you missed one great workshop. Joe’s highly interactive workshop was full of great information surrounded by humor. Here is just one of the videos he showed during the workshop. http://bit.ly/8Z01w4

After reading this blog by Larry Bruce it really got me thinking so I definitely wanted to share it. http://bit.ly/cA1NH3

David Page who is actually a competitor of mine wrote this piece about dealer chat that I felt I should share. It has a couple good points that are worth mentioning especially if you are still considering using chat in general. http://bit.ly/aUxQiN

This blog post by Jeff Kershner was a stand out this week. http://bit.ly/d3CrbK

I met Larry Barditch at the most recent Digital Dealer show. He has only been in the car business for less than a year but is really doing something down there in Kendall. We can all learn something from Larry who is thinking outside the box. http://bit.ly/dnDj5J

Are you smarter than the Internet? Keith Shetterly lays down a great analogy http://bit.ly/bkEaTb

David Kain spent a little time at the ActivEngage booth at Digital Dealer 8 learning about our live analytics and talks about how dealerships can leverage this to sell more vehicles. http://bit.ly/aBqkLA

If you are not following Tony H from Zappos you are missing one of the smartest guys on the planet right now. Here is a link to his blog. http://bit.ly/98LWRX

Ok here is my wrap up for the week. I will continue to try to bring you links to the most important and relevant links for the week.

Todd

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Using the rule of three for your marketing is a powerful way to increase sales. With a little research you will see that this rule of marketing has [...]]]>

Using the rule of three for your marketing is a powerful way to increase sales. With a little research you will see that this rule of marketing has surrounded you for your entire life. Think back to your childhood and storytelling and you will see the rule of three in action. Remember the stories when you were a child: the three little pigs, Goldilocks and the three bears, three blind mice, the three musketeers. And, then there is my favorite, the Three Stooges. This rule of three has been implanted into our subconscious since a very early age. In fact, the dominate form of filmmaking involves the use of a three part act.

Why is the power of three so “powerful” you might ask? Simple, it allows us to compare just enough stuff that it satisfies without overwhelming our brains. In most instances two is not enough and four is way too much. Three is the magical number.

Three also allows a flow to happen in our speech patterns. “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” “Friends, Romans, Countryman,” “Blood, Sweat, and Tears,” and one of my favorites “Location, Location, Location.” You will notice all these sayings and many others just like them have a rhythmic flow when we say them out loud making them easy to remember. The question is how can you use this language pattern in your dealership sales process?

First, prioritize the three most important points you want to communicate about the vehicle the shopper is interested in. Even better is to have the shopper tell you what those three points are and use them in your communication whether on the phone, in an email or by a dealership chat conversation. Second, relate each point to something familiar to your shopper and capture their interest and attention. This is using benefits instead of features in how you communicate with the shopper. Third, be consistent and repeat the three points to reinforce your message.

Remember this rule of three works with everyone and has been wired into how we receive and process information. Start putting it to work in your communication and watch how many more leads turn into dealership Internet sales.

Happy Chatting,

Todd Smith

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In today’s tough automotive environment every website shopper is an opportunity to turn a browser into a buyer. Your website alone won’t do it. You need a way to put [...]]]>

In today’s tough automotive environment every website shopper is an opportunity to turn a browser into a buyer. Your website alone won’t do it. You need a way to put yourself between your website and your shoppers. It is sales 101 to put a product professional in place to explain your vehicles and the services you offer. You do it in your showroom now so you need to do it on your virtual dealership too.

So how can you persuade your dealership shoppers to engage in chat? When they do engage what do you do next? This blog will lay out the basic fundamentals to get started turning your anonymous website visitors into leads and more importantly sales opportunities. People on your website need answers and direction just like the people that visit your dealership showroom.

First step of a great chat conversation is your opening message. How are you addressing your shoppers? One size fits all or a more personalized message meant just for them based on their click path on your website and their geographical location. Pre-chat intelligence allows for personalization so start using it to your selling advantage today.

The second step to increasing dealership chats is to leverage a proactive invitation, which will actively invite every one of your shoppers to engage in a chat conversation. Statistics prove that automotive shoppers are four times more likely to click on a proactive invitation than the standard passive button.

And finally to really turn your website into a lead generation machine utilizing chat for your dealership here is the most powerful thing you can do. Be available.  As simple as it sounds, to effectively use dealer chat you need to make a time commitment. Having someone available every minute that your dealership is open will drive a measureable increase of chat conversations for your dealership.

Happy Chatting,

Todd Smith

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Technorati Tags: activengage, automotive chat software, Automotive Internet Marketing, dealer chat, dealership marketing, todd smith

101 Ways To Boost Your Internet Sales

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101 Ways To Boost Your Internet Sales

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Technorati Tags: activengage, automotive internet sales, dealer chat, digital dealer conference

]]> http://www.activengageblog.com/index.php/digital-dealer-8-presentation/feed/ 0 http://www.activengageblog.com/index.php/boost-dealership-internet-sales-this-month-with-these-7-tips/ http://www.activengageblog.com/index.php/boost-dealership-internet-sales-this-month-with-these-7-tips/#comments Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:40:42 +0000 admin http://www.activengageblog.com/?p=573

This week I was thinking about what I would do if times were tough and I was still on the retail side of the business? What changes would I make [...]]]>

This week I was thinking about what I would do if times were tough and I was still on the retail side of the business? What changes would I make in my Internet sales department? So, I decided to put together a list of seven easy to do things at your dealership that will absolutely have an impact on your Internet sales and productivity. This list is compiled to get you thinking about things you can do right now without adding to your budget.

1. Redesign your autoresponder for shoppers- I have always found that autoresponders are a terrific place to make a great first impression and set the tone of how the Internet sales process will unfold at your dealership. Most autoresponders I see only state that the lead has been received and someone will get back to them ASAP. But, this is such a great place to do so much more. While I know that Internet shoppers may not read all the emails you send them, this one will not only set the tone but could establish if the shopper will even open up any of your additional emails. Take the time and rewrite your autoresponder or better yet make it a video and send the Internet shopper a link. Include specials’ highlight events going on at the store, post the latest rebates and incentive. Video it hot right now so leverage it and get personal.
2. Create an email offers to previous prospects- a monthly personalized offer to your shoppers is a great way to stay connected.  Continued follow up even with your nonresponsive shoppers can yield results. Stores that I work with that consistently send email marketing offers always result in at least a couple opportunities that bubble to the surface and at least one sale. This sometimes is completely overlooked at dealerships but always produces results. Put a combination of new and used in the offer to give your email maximum penetration for your Internet sales.
3. Make two extra calls per prospect- A major point of poor Internet sales results in falling short on follow up process. Just when you think you have made enough attempts to contact a shopper add two more attempts to the schedule. Another key piece of this is also calling at different times. Try first thing in the morning or later in the evening. Mix it up and try to find the sweet spot to make contact. Just two extra attempts will absolutely connect you with more shoppers this month. Calling more will get you a couple more appointments and in this economy that is exactly what you need.
4. Send one additional email per prospect- I refer to this email as the last man standing offer, to try to break through the clutter and get your shoppers attention. This email must be text only without any graphics. The goal is to make it through any potential spam filter roadblocks. Ever wonder why almost all spam you receive is text based? Simple, it gets through to people’s inbox. Create your most powerful email offer and deliver it in text only form. Make sure you have a powerful call to action at the beginning, middle and end of the email. Just sending an offer is not enough. Explain to your prospects what to do next.
5. Update your website specials weekly- I visit so many dealership website and their special page is blank or hasn’t been updated in forever. We all forget but statistically I can say that the specials page on your website is one of the most looked at pages on almost every single dealership website I have visited. Take the time keep it updated and watch your Internet sales grow. Here is a good example just click here.
6. Ask for an appointment at least three times for each call- asking for the appointment is critical. Just listen to some of the phone ups at your dealership and you will see huge opportunities. Salespeople just don’t ask for the appointment enough during the call. I found that setting a minimum of three attempts ensures we have made every attempt to move a phone-up from interest into an actual desire to come into the dealership and purchase a vehicle. Here is another article to increase test drives for your dealership.
7. Email all new car leads a pre-owned vehicle offer after 30 days- Cobalt, Yahoo & Polk did a industry study a while back that documented that shoppers will switch from a new vehicle to a pre-owned after the first 30 days. It might be due to the realization that they can’t afford a new vehicle and now they need another option. The key to this is to make sure your marketing doesn’t pigeon hole shoppers into what they originally sent their lead form in on. After 30 days expand the options for shoppers.

These are just a few easy to do things that can have a sales impact in your Internet department immediately. I always found that by just looking around you can find many unique ways to increase your business without it costing you a dollar. Here is one more bonus idea to increase website sales.

Happy Chatting,

Todd Smith

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Technorati Tags: activengage, Automotive Internet Marketing, dealership autoresponder, dealership phone ups, Internet sales, todd smith

Dealer chat is moving from the early adopter stage into the mainstream as more and more dealerships look for ways [...]]]>

Dealer chat is moving from the early adopter stage into the mainstream as more and more dealerships look for ways to increase internet sales and reduce costs to acquire new dealership customers. The dealership’s website has the highest potential for increased results and should be the focus of your dealership if you are looking to boost your online internet sales. Here are five areas of concern and some good questions you might want to ask your dealer chat vendor before you buy any dealership chat solution.

Functionality- What are the capabilities of the dealer chat system and what will you actually use on a daily/weekly basis? What new features are planned over the next 6 months to a year for the chat vendor? Does the company own the technology or are they licensing a third party solution? Obviously this will greatly impede any ability to customize the chat software for your dealership’s needs. It will also affect what new features get released. It is important to remember that making sure whatever dealer chat software you purchase will easily communicate with your existing dealership technology.

Scale-ability- How will it work for multiple dealership websites? Will you need a log-in for each dealership URL or does the software offer one enterprise log-in that will allow you to review and interact with all your dealerships from one place? Can you place chat across all areas a consumer might want to engage your dealership (i.e. facebook, eBay, Craigslist, email, newsletters, microsites, landing pages, blogs, etc.)?

Userability- Is it easy to use? Does it help you to run your dealership Internet department or is it just another tool? Can you be up and running quickly using the dealer tool? What level of training and support comes after you purchase the automotive chat solution? Training and support are critical for the success of your deployment and continued used. I often see many technologies and services sitting idle at dealerships. Make sure you have access to continuous training and improvement from your solution provider.

Integration- What type of proactive invitations can you choose from and what level of customization is possible for your dealership? Can you generate and deliver a custom message on the fly or does it just happen automatically? Does the proactive chat engine have business intelligence built into it so the message consumers see is relevant to the dealership web page they are on and what they are looking at? How does the information go from the dealer’s chat conversation into the CRM/ILM? How much information is transferred over?

Reporting- What type of reporting is offered and how useful is the information to help you make better dealer business decisions? Nobody in the automotive industry has time to look at useless information. Today’s dealerships demand information that will help them to make better decisions about marketing, SEO, SEM and how effectively their social media plan is being executed for the dealership. Web analytics and individual user click path information is only as good as it can be analyzed and interpreted.

In too many dealerships cost is the main driving force for how we select our dealer chat solution only to regret it later, or worse, we have to change out the solution because it didn’t meet the needs of the dealership as expected. Remember the old carpenter’s saying, “Measure twice, cut once.” Change in dealerships is usually painful and slows down sales productivity so take the time and select the right chat solution for the long term. Technology might be changing all the time but with the right dealership chat vendor you will always be one step ahead of the dealer competition.

Happy  Chatting,

Todd Smith

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