Introducing Google Plus Pages, Google Plus For Businesses & Brands Well, they said they were working on it, and now it's finally here. Google Plus for businesses and brands is now a reality with the introduction of Google Plus Pages. Pages is basically the Google Plus version of Facebook Fan Pages, and gives businesses a chance to claim a profile on the social network so they can interact with and engage their customers and fans. Google Plus Pages Will Continue The Service's Growth This is going to cause another gigantic swell in new member sign-ups for Google Plus... I mean, gigantic. The most recent numbers I've seen put the service at over 40 million users. Something like the introduction of Pages could see that number go up dramatically, maybe by as much as 50% or more. In fact, if there's one dominant thought I keep hearing about Google Plus over the last two months, it's "when are they going to open it up for businesses?" What Do...

PCG Digital Marketing today announced that Dealer e Process was chosen to receive a 2011 Automotive Website Award (AWA) in the Technology category for Best Fixed Ops Website Marketing Software. Dealer e Process is also a 2010 and 2011 Pinnacle Award winner, the highest level award in the AWA, for search marketing. The awards were presented to the leading automotive website companies and software vendors at the AWA ceremony that took place October 7th at Caesars Palace, just prior to the DrivingSales Executive Summit. The Technology category recognizes companies for excellence in website technology. This is a broader category that allows the AWA study team to adapt to changes in the marketplace and new solutions that may not have been on the radar screen the previous year. The Technology Awards also allows the AWA team to recognize products that have been road tested by dealers and have demonstrated outstanding value. Dealer e Process Software Increases Fixed Ops Revenue Car de...

Everyday I wake up and head into the offices of Dealer e Process, I am systematically doing searches on Google to see what has changed from 24 hours ago. And gues what - here we go again! Do a search on your dealer name and take a look at Google's latest change to the bread crumbs for your dealers website.   These links, Search Inventory, Used Specials, Hours & Directions, Used Specials, Parts Department, Certified Inventory,  were known as bread crumbs to a website. Now, Google has quadrupled the size of these bread crumbs including a description and link to the apporiate portion of the website resulting into a loaf of bread! Here is the golden question; What are your dealer website iis going to dictate which links Google decides to pull as a bread crumb? I would highly suggest that you make sure that all images and buttons on your website have the proper alt image tags in place, and every page of your website have unique meta data. How does this benefit...

For those of you who know me, you know how I love to keep an eye on others industries in hopes of bringing great technology and insight to the auto industry. That being said, I was doing some searches this morning as I was working on a new SEO strategy for the Fixed Ops side of the business for Dealer e Process and dealer websites, when I discovered something new AGAIN. Above the Place Page Listings, there is now Related Searches broken down by Brands, Stores, Types. How will Google eventually determine which car BRAND manufacturers to show, which dealership STORES, to show, and which vehicle TYPES to show is anyonees guess. Take a look at the screen shot below of a search for "Brakes". I'm sure it wont be long before we see this affecting your dealership, so stay tunned for more on this topic as I investigate further. I have performed numerous searches and at this point its hit or miss which searches pull this new special box. Here are a few examples;  ...

BMW Schererville was looking for ways to increase service RO revenue. They realized that the largest percentage of dealership expense absorption comes from fixed operations but the fixed operations gets the smallest percentage of real estate on the dealership website. To increase the service revenue, they decided to look for ways to boost their parts and service departments’ presence online and increase the conversion of the visitors that they were attracting.   Like many dealerships, their service department marketed through direct mail, email blasts and regular coupons. Each of these mediums was used to drive people to the service lane and the dealership web site where there was an option for the customers to schedule their appointment online. However the online scheduling simply consisted of a standard lead capture form that was not engaging enough and didn’t yield a good conversion.   The first step in boosting their service reven...

“I play a doctor on television”…………….. ……..would you let him operate on you? Probably not- yet we still see time and time again people holding “Internet Marketing, Management, Director and/or Guru” titles in dealerships who have absolutely no right being at the helm of the Internet Sales Department ship. He or she interviewed well for the job, threw around the right buzz words and was convincing enough to get an offer letter. He or she talked a good talk, but once on the job they struggle to walk the walk. Why is that? How does this happen and more importantly what can you do to make sure that when you are hiring for your Internet Department’s Manager you know what you are looking for? You need to know and document (job description) what experience and skills you need for the sales end of things within your internet department and then identify what experience and skill you need for the technical, op...

I had an epiphany the other day. The number one concern that people have when doing business with a dealership is that they are going to be taken advantage of. People are afraid of the car buying process and even more concerned when bringing their vehicle in for service. My epiphany concerns the later. Minimize the “fear” and uncertainty for a customer visiting a service department and you can only increase business. It’s that simple. Where do you start? With your website! With a few simple steps you can not only lead the horse to water (your website/service department) but you can also dramatically increase their likelihood of drinking (setting an appointment to visit your service department). Statistically 83% of customers who buy from a dealership do NOT return the vehicle to that dealerships service department after the sale. That is a lot of lost service opportunity for a store.  A sure fire way to increase service traffic off of your sold units and ...

Recently I had a candid conversation with a dealer regarding his “weathering” of our recent economic storm. He emphasized that he was able to keep his stress level to a minimum due to his experience and forward thinking and execution of a sound plan in good times. He shared with me that the 5 years prior to this recession he put his past experiences to work and created a plan to cultivate and maintain a strong service department. As he put it “I had seen as a young professional in this industry the power of a strong service department in tough economic times and its ability to carry a store until the storm had passed. I took that first-hand experience and when I obtained my own store made that part of my long term business plan and it worked again, just as it had in the past” As I listened to his strategy in a nutshell; marketing, advertising, appreciation of solid service employees and follow up along with his monetary investment in building...

Does your store play the sales game with a style similar to Tiger Woods? Does your store “appear” to be a great professional, ethical and respectful player at first only to prove otherwise once a customer sets foot in your store? Let me ask it another way; does your Internet and/BDC department perform  like a competitive “pro” on your first nine holes of the sales game, getting them in the door- only to find your sales department causes the game to fall apart with a weak and cheap approach on the back nine of the sales round? Does a less than satisfactory number make you feel like you were chased and beat with a 9 iron?  Automotive sales are much like the game of golf: there is a front nine and a back nine to the “game”. 80%+ of the time the front nine of the game, generating and cultivating of the sales leads, takes place in an Internet and/or BDC department through an Internet lead or phone up.  When the front nine is “play...

Writ FINE WINE Is your inventory like a fine wine aging to “perfection?” The word “age” and the word “inventory” used in the same sentence in our industry spells COST- to you!   My job is to go through dealer’s websites and analyze their web presence, the “stickiness” of its visitors and the websites general effectiveness as it relates to ecommerce efficiency and inventory management.   I have noticed over the last 2 months a phenomenon as I visit hundreds of dealer websites a week- less than 20% have advertized updated specials for their aging inventory- and typically the ones that DON’T have the oldest inventory. As a matter of fact over 50% of the sites visited had NO advertised specials at all. I found quite a few dealer sites that had large amounts of inventory that had been sitting on their lots for two, three and four hundred plus days! Yes you read that right. One particular site showed an ave...

A poorly executed live chat solution plus a non existent or weak visitor engagement plan will take potentially one of your most powerful Internet sales tools, live chat, and turn it into a disappointing expense very quickly. We have seen these committed time and time again so here they are: SIN #1 WAITING FOR THE VISITOR TO APPROACH Keeping in mind that proactive chat produces 500% the visitor engagement and therefore opportunity for your department to build rapport and cultivate a true sales lead- use a proactive approach to engaging with your Internet shoppers. Do not wait for the “WebUp” to approach your representative. SIN #2 NOT HAVING COVERAGE TO GREET VISITORS- If you do not have a dedicated representative to engage in your live chats then why do you have live chat? Statistically 27% of Internet shoppers are online shopping during your off hours (after 9 pm and before 8 am)…that is a lot of opportunity to miss! If in fact this is a...

Would you feel comfortable letting shoppers mull around your lot or your showroom without ever being greeted, welcomed or offered assistance? What would the impact be to your bottom line if your sales people took such an approach with your walk in traffic and waited for the customer to approach them?  As disturbing as this is, this is exactly how most stores handle their web traffic. According to Google Analytics, if you do not take the opportunity to engage with your Internet visitor within the first two minutes they are on your site, 98% of the time you are missing the opportunity to capture and convert these shoppers to sales. This means that your website becomes nothing more than an “informational site”.   As a retailer you invest in building the best website you can afford, pump large sums of money into advertising and marketing it in order to drive traffic to it. What is your current website doing to engage visitors within the first tw...

My first experience with auto incentive buying was in August of 1986.  It was my first year in the business and General Motors announced 2.9% financing for a 36-month loan.  In today’s era of 0% loans being commonplace it may not seem to be that revolutionary but in the mid 80’s double digit rates were the norm.  Ford and Chrysler soon matched the rates and the war was on.  There was a hysteria created and I believe it changed the way consumers shop for cars.

Fast-forward to the mid 90’s and the “Slasher” era.  We trained the public to wait for the next big sale.  We offered trips, hot dogs, cash and everything but eternal life to get visitors to our showrooms.  Once there, they negotiated away most of the gross profit, serviced their vehicles themselves or at a local discount shop, and probably were not our best ambassadors in our local communities.  We did it because the pressure has always been there to sell more cars regardless of the long-term effect.

We ha...