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Dean Evans & Web Marketing

Web Marketing for Dealers

Return on Investment: First-Party Leads- Your Leads, Your Money

May 11th, 2009 by Dean Evans

A huge percentage of auto business (we’re not just talking vehicle sales) starts online. You already know how important it is to be available to potential customers in whatever capacity works for them. But it’s more than just being there.

Leads generated by your website have higher closing rates than third-party leads. Why? In part, this is because shoppers at third-party sites can submit leads to multiple dealers, so there can be more competition. With a first-party lead, a user actually went to your website and asked you to contact them about information they found at your site. Here’s a specific example: a consumer went to your website and found a particular piece of your inventory, they might have even have the specific VIN. They know what they want, they’re looking to buy and they’re looking to buy from you. Of course the closing rates are high. So now the question is, how are you going to increase your website leads?

The first, and most important, thing to look at is your web provider. Which vendor can generate the most leads? Not which vendor says they can generate the most leads, but which vendor can legitimately point to their customers and show you their lead history? Leads can be a difficult thing to “prove,” but you should be able to look at the trends and make an informed decision.

Of course, your website should be capable of converting visitors (through whatever communication channel), but it needs traffic sources as well. Your website provider should ensure SEO best practices, tools to help you develop PPC campaigns and offer creative ways to build up your email marketing as well.

Get visible, get leads, get sales.

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Posted in Web Marketing | 8 Comments »

Dealership Website Videos Bring Your Vehicles to Life

April 24th, 2009 by Dean Evans

It’s no secret that rich media is huge in the online world. The fast growing popularity of video is not to be ignored. Video is a powerful tool; when used correctly, it can help keep consumers engaged and interested.

The ways to incorporate video on your site are numerous and some ways are better than others. For instance, no dealership should be without videos of their cars. 360 degree views, virtual test drives—these are no brainers. It’s essential that you incorporate this kind of video in your site. Their main purpose is to establish emotional buy in and keep consumers engaged. Once a consumer has envisioned themselves behind the wheel, they’re much more likely to take the plunge and buy.

Video can also be used to build trust and establish relationships. Upload videos of your staff, ask satisfied customers for testimonials, etc. Get creative. The longer a customer is on your site the better. As they look around and get familiar with you and your business, they begin to feel more comfortable about setting an appointment.

Try a YouTube channel. Easy to embed and familiar to practically everyone, YouTube can be a great way to keep users engaged and give them the rich media experience they’ve grown to expect. Keep an archive of your TV commercials, take video of your sales people showing off your weekly specials. Give your customers a tour of the dealership and introduce them to your staff along the way.

When approaching video, make sure you have the user in mind. Don’t put a loud, messy video on your homepage that plays as soon as someone goes to your site. Always make sure that there’s an obvious way to control volume, pause, stop, etc. In addition, videos on your site should be high quality enough to enhance the user experience. Take care not to frustrate the user with bad sound or a picture they can’t follow.

Embracing video can be intimidating, but there is no excuse for avoiding it. Virtual test drives and other standard rich-media elements work for you to keep users on your site and coming back for another look. Your website is not a classic, it needs to maintain a state of modernization and grow and change with the world we’re living in. Keep your site relevant, keep it in front of the user, get consumers excited about your dealership.

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Posted in Web Marketing | 2 Comments »

What Dealership Website Providers Should Provide

April 17th, 2009 by Dean Evans

A good website vendor doesn’t wait for dealers or OEMs to request added features or capabilities. A good dealer website provider knows the industry, knows what works now, what won’t work and what is going to work in the future. A good vendor knows what you need for success and provides it.

Right now, you need consolidation and control of your web activities. In today’s economy, you can’t afford to spend time and money trying to manage and integrate potentially dozens of vendors to get your website to perform. You need a single web platform, built from scratch by professionals who know what works… from experience.

The benefits of a single platform go on and on, but they all boil down to reporting and results, which translate directly to your bottom line.

Without accurate, consolidated reporting, you can never get more than a vague idea of your return on investment. In today’s economic climate, you need more than that. You need to know the value of every move you make. Without a single platform, you will miss things- guaranteed. Reporting helps to increase results. You know what’s working for your dealership, what could be working better and you can perfect campaigns and practices to maximize ROI. Without knowing your ROI in the first place, there’s not a whole lot of streamlining that can be done.

Of course every dealer wants results. And every dealer website provider promises results. But, not every vendor can provide you with the results that can help your dealership thrive in the face of economic adversity. You need to run a tight ship, an integrated marketing machine. Your web sales should originate from traffic you’ve driven. You should be able to capture those leads, manage your operations and finally, PROVE results. You need a website provider that’s more than just talk.

If consolidation and control are foreign words to your website provider, it’s a safe bet that reporting and results are too.

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Posted in Web Marketing | 5 Comments »

You’ve Got a Website. So What?

April 9th, 2009 by Dean Evans

There is an unarguable difference between a Yugo and a Bugatti. It’s clear that there are levels of quality, performance and beauty to be accounted for when talking cars. The sentence, “I need a car” is never going to result immediately in the right kind of car. Where are you going to drive? What kind of performance do you want? How much do you want to pay? What do you want it to look like? What about mileage?

Just like any other product, websites come in many different levels. Question: is your website a Yugo or a Bugatti? Might be time for an upgrade.

Your website has a look and feel, just like the body of a car. It needs to be structured in a user-friendly way, tested and fine tuned. It’s all about the flow- and that’s important. However, that appearance accounts for a meager percentage. The real worth of your website is the engine. What’s going on under the hood? The true value comes from your platform, your SEO, the integration of your inventory, etc. Your website should be a well-oiled machine. All of its components should be working together to push your dealership forward, to generate more high quality leads.

Don’t settle for an online business card when you can develop a powerful tool that generates more first-party leads. These leads have the highest closing rates. If your website isn’t a major source of your leads, there’s a good chance you’re tottering around on 4 cylinders.

There’s a difference between a Yugo and a Bugatti. And there’s a difference between a “website” and the website your dealership needs…the website you deserve.

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Posted in Web Marketing | 4 Comments »

Ad Agencies: Web Provider or Web Promoter?

April 2nd, 2009 by Dean Evans

Dealer-facing advertising agencies do their job well. They are partnering with you to develop you brand value propositions as a retailer and help buy channels you can use to get the message out and to your customer’s door.

You want a print ad, you got it. You want a radio spot, you got it. You want a billboard buy, you got it. You want a new dealership website. Stop. Do not let the agency convince you to do that. Why?

You might think that it makes a lot of sense. The company that is building the message, building out other channels, can also give you a simple website to match, correct? Wrong– in most cases.

For starters many dealers think they just need a website, and there lies the first problem. Dealers today need more than a mere website to be competitive. They need an Internet marketing platform that has integrated tools and powerful outbound email marketing tools to drive lower cost leads and phone calls to your dealership.

Many dealers still think that a website is just that. The front facing portion of the Internet property…. their dealership.com. But dealers and OEMs alike need a powerful web platform that caters to the industry—not just an attractive looking site. We’re in a very specialized niche and we need professionals who know that niche. A worthwhile web provider offers the tools you need to grow your business, increase usability, promote high-quality leads and turn leads into sales.

An ad agency can fit into the picture by helping you differentiate your dealership’s brand. It’s important to set yourself apart and create a distinctive, strong message for your dealership. An agency should promote your website. They should provide more opportunities for clients to come to your website.

So what should you be looking for in a website provider? Innovation. If you’re in the website business, you had better be at the forefront of technology. If your provider doesn’t have the best tools and proven results, it’s time to part company.

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First Party Leads: What are Your Values?

March 13th, 2009 by Dean Evans

Dealers have so many opportunities to spend their marketing budget. It seems like every week there’s another miracle product that will “turn sales around.” Unfortunately, reactionary spending or putting your budget in someone else’s hands doesn’t always work out the way we hope. Supplementing your marketing efforts with the latest/greatest technology is fine, and a good idea. Marketing is both a science and an art. It’s important to try new things and find that perfect marketing mix.

However, dealers need to recognize that the grass is not greener on the other side. The greenest pastures are right in your own backyard. Developing first party leads needs to be your first priority. Leads from you own website can cost as little as $3/lead. These leads have the lowest acquisition cost of any dealers can get today and they have the highest conversion rates. That is why generating first party leads needs to be the primary focus of your business. Max out this opportunity before worrying about billboards, balloons and blowing cash.

Your website should be the most efficient way to harvest leads. If it’s not, something needs to change. The very essence of your online efforts are SEO and SEM. Your site needs to be built on SEO best practices, should be informative, attention grabbing and easy to navigate. SEM is a long arm in the marketing realm and more customizable than any other advertising effort at this time. You control who sees your ads, you control your budget, you enjoy low-cost, high-value leads.

So before you empty your wallet on more 3rd party vendors, newspapers, TV, take a look at your website and your website provider. This is where you will get the best bang for your buck; this is where you reach your market.

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First Party- Looking Out for Number One

March 3rd, 2009 by Dean Evans

Third-party leads can have their place in the grand scheme of your dealership, but it’s pretty clear that not all third-party leads are created equal. Some third-party leads are worth their weight in gold and others are little better than a mirage. It’s important to have enough control over your leads to trim the fat.

In other words, you need to do more to develop first-party leads from your website.

First-party leads are becoming increasingly attainable and carry major benefits. First-party leads allow you to see every step of the process. With search engine optimization and marketing, segmented email lists and solid analytics, you can track your traffic sources, impressions, clicks, leads and conversions. This gives you the power to hone in on what works and the ability to nix what doesn’t.

Not only are you able to maximize your ROI by investing in proven processes, you can really see the data. You’re able to determine the costs associated with each click, lead and conversion. Transparency is power; you shouldn’t have to guess.

This doesn’t mean that you have to forget about third-party leads altogether. It just means that you now have more power to generate first-party leads from your website.

The vast majority of consumers start online- don’t you want a bigger piece of that pie?

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Posted in Web Marketing | 2 Comments »

Service, Sales and the Slump

February 25th, 2009 by Dean Evans

Your website is (or should be) fluid in a way that no other marketing tool can approach. We already know that turning your focus online will help you reduce advertising costs and focus in on trackable traffic and legitimate leads. In addition, your web presence can be adapted to any economic situation.

It may be tougher to sell new cars right now, but you can bank on parts and service. When times are tough, patching rough spots can make a lot more sense than purchasing replacement vehicles…and your customers know that.

So turn some focus on your parts and service department. A good website will allow you to collect leads for all of your various profit centers. You should also be able to email coupons and offers to an integrated list of customers. With the right website, you can take all of the tools that help you sell cars and turn them toward selling service. There is no reason you can’t buffer this slump with a rise in service traffic.

Your website should be well equipped to handle the leads you get and help you determine what works and what doesn’t—without the “ifs and maybes” of television and print. Make sure you are using tracking numbers on your website, get specific with your search marketing ads, communicate with current clients and be sure to know where your traffic is being generated.

It’s a great benefit if you can integrate all of your tracking/analytics/email/calls, etc. into one web vendor. You’ll save money and time with an all-inclusive package. If your website can’t support this kind of flexibility, do your research and find one that can.

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Let’s Talk about SEO

February 19th, 2009 by Dean Evans

So you want to cut your marketing budget. Cutting the budget often means spending less money on marketing. Let’s look at SEO, Search Engine Optimization, as an inexpensive way to increase the worth of every dollar.

You don’t pay for SEO. You may pay someone to optimize your site, but no amount of money will automatically launch you high into the organic search results in any search engine. There are a number of best practices to adhere to that will help your site to naturally rise in search engine results.

Links
Make sure you link to appropriate and helpful content when you link off your site. If you link to a partner site, ask your partner site to link back to you (reciprocal linking). Be sure none of the links on your site are broken. Both external and internal links should take the user to the specified website or webpage. Also, name your links with keywords (i.e. NOT “click here,” but “Read more about getting better mileage”)

Keywords
Do your research! Why use “car sales” if you can use “hybrid car sales?” You need to know what specific keywords are most often searched and most applicable to your specific niche. Make sure that you, or your SEO provider knows what keywords are working and can help you apply the right keywords to your website.

Content
Write good content that includes keywords, related terms, links to sources and valuable, relevant information. Not only will this help you optimize your site, but when consumers find you, they will appreciate your helpfulness and begin to trust you.
If you do choose to outsource your optimization, or just get help optimizing your site, make sure that your source has some proof of their ability. It’s easy to pretend to be an expert at SEO; look for companies that can provide some real data and point to success stories. Transparency in the process is always a good sign as well.

A pitfall to avoid is canned content. If you pay for SEO, make sure you’re getting CUSTOM content. This will help you to rank well in your specific niche and create a better relationship with users.

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Posted in Web Marketing | 1 Comment »

Email Marketing: Go Pro or Don’t Go

January 23rd, 2009 by Dean Evans

You may think sending an email is easy, and it is. However, sending hundreds or thousands of emails to clients using a wide array of email providers is not simple- it’s a science. To ensure that your email gets to the ever-allusive inboxes in your client database, go with a pro.

There are a number of things a professional will be able to help you with that would otherwise frustrate and annoy- not to mention consume an incredible amount of time. Testing, list segmentation and design are among the top reasons to look to the professionals.

Choose an email service provider that has already gone through rigorous testing and can guarantee that your messages will be visible across the board, regardless of the browser type or email provider your clients use. It’s imperative that your emails show up the way you intend them to. An email may look good in one inbox, but in another it may include broken links, skewed images or any number of other damaging inconsistencies. It goes without saying that your clients will not appreciate an embarrassing, poorly executed email. Without proper testing, half of your clients will probably never see your email, whether or not it looks good.

The ability to customize your client list is gold. Your clients are not all the same. Categorize them based on the kind of cars they bought, when they bought, etc. for better, more effective communication. Wouldn’t it be nice to send everyone who bought a vehicle in December a coupon for 25% off a maintenance service six months down the road?

Finally, design can make or break your email blasts. Different email providers allow different types of emails to go through. The design of your emails should not hinder the delivery or appearance of your emails regardless of the type of provider you’re sending to. This, again, is a matter for professionals.

As long as you’re going with a professional email solution, make sure that your provider is able to integrate your emails with your website. You should be able to send messages to your customers that tie directly to pages/images on your website. You want to drive traffic to your site, where you can collect leads efficiently. The best email solution is the solution most able to integrate with your website effectively.

You should also be familiar with FCC standards regarding mass email. The last thing you want is to be blacklisted. Any professional solution you go to should both know and adhere to those standards- protecting you from blacklisting, etc.

Unless you’re planning on doing the kind of research required to really do email right, pay someone to do it for you. The cost of getting it right will pale in comparison to the increase in leads you receive and the positive impression you leave on your customers.

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