Make no mistake about it, car dealers are always trying to get into their competitors' backyard. This has been going on for decades, and was usually accomplished by having the LARGEST TV spend. Thankfully, those days are over!

Have you ever heard of the title “content engineer”? Well, mark my words, in the next few years you will! Content engineers will be in great demand as dealers begin to understand the need for unique content for their website while incorporating a strategy tied to the performance of this individual.

I won’t bore you with all of the animal updates Google has had in the past few years, but I can tell you it was done with one purpose in mind: to provide the best experience possible for the consumer by awarding prime position on Google’s search engine to companies who provide the most useful and unique content at a given time. In the past, these same positions were awarded to the best manipulator of content, which didn’t provide the customer a great experience.

How have things changed? A content engineer understands how to write content unique to the dealership, provides value to the consumer, has SEO in mind, all while answering questions consumers may either speak into a phone or type into their browser. What do I mean? Take a look at the example below.

There are a few things to keep in mind to understand what you are looking at here:

• BMW of Orland Park is in Illinois (and IN ORLAND PARK)
• BMW Schererville is in Indiana (In Schererville)
• BMW Schererville takes the #1 & #2 spot organically DIRECTLY IN THE BACKYARD OF THEIR COMPETITOR
• Good luck trying to out SEO this page since it was “first to market” – Google loves this!

Now that’s a strategy!

Can you imagine having a content engineer produce this type of content on a daily basis? Imagine hundreds of pages blanketing your market!!!!! Think about how hard it is to get a bad review from the first page of Google and now imagine being a dealer trying to get your competitor off the first page of Google in your own backyard! Now that’s powerful.

There is one more trick to making this work for your dealership and it involves the menu of your website.  When Google crawls your website, particular attention is placed on the content that sits in the menu. Why? Google knows that if content is considered valuable, then it should be linked to from the menu because that’s where consumers navigate a website. Makes perfect sense right? It does until a dealer loads 100 pages into the menu and your website menu looks like this below.

Now there is a better way. Introducing Dealer e-Process Mega Menus! Designed for scale of content and consumer experience! See the screenshot below! This is how to power content the structured way.

Make no mistake about it, car dealers are always trying to get into their competitors' backyard. This has been going on for decades, and was usually accomplished by having the LARGEST TV spend. Thankfully, those days are over!

Have you ever heard of the title “content engineer”? Well, mark my words, in the next few years you will! Content engineers will be in great demand as dealers begin to understand the need for unique content for their website while incorporating a strategy tied to the performance of this individual.

I won’t bore you with all of the animal updates Google has had in the past few years, but I can tell you it was done with one purpose in mind: to provide the best experience possible for the consumer by awarding prime position on Google’s search engine to companies who provide the most useful and unique content at a given time. In the past, these same positions were awarded to the best manipulator of content, which didn’t provide the customer a great experience.

How have things changed? A content engineer understands how to write content unique to the dealership, provides value to the consumer, has SEO in mind, all while answering questions consumers may either speak into a phone or type into their browser. What do I mean? Take a look at the example below.

There are a few things to keep in mind to understand what you are looking at here:

• BMW of Orland Park is in Illinois (and IN ORLAND PARK)
• BMW Schererville is in Indiana (In Schererville)
• BMW Schererville takes the #1 & #2 spot organically DIRECTLY IN THE BACKYARD OF THEIR COMPETITOR
• Good luck trying to out SEO this page since it was “first to market” – Google loves this!

Now that’s a strategy!

Can you imagine having a content engineer produce this type of content on a daily basis? Imagine hundreds of pages blanketing your market!!!!! Think about how hard it is to get a bad review from the first page of Google and now imagine being a dealer trying to get your competitor off the first page of Google in your own backyard! Now that’s powerful.

There is one more trick to making this work for your dealership and it involves the menu of your website.  When Google crawls your website, particular attention is placed on the content that sits in the menu. Why? Google knows that if content is considered valuable, then it should be linked to from the menu because that’s where consumers navigate a website. Makes perfect sense right? It does until a dealer loads 100 pages into the menu and your website menu looks like this below.

Now there is a better way. Introducing Dealer e-Process Mega Menus! Designed for scale of content and consumer experience! See the screenshot below! This is how to power content the structured way.

Mobile is all around us, digital technologies are changing faster than we could ever imagine, and smart marketers are faced with the task of using this to our advantage!

Along with the rise of smartphone usage, GPS enabled devices and location based services, smarter apps, and our seemingly overwhelming desire to share every move publicly (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare) has resulted in a massive amount of behavior-based-geographical-data. Let it be known, wherever there is big data in play, it’s not too long before it’s leveraged using the latest technology for marketing!

One of the newest forms of mobile digital marketing offered by Dealer e Process for the automotive industry is geo-fencing. Geo-fencing establishes a virtual perimeter around any real location, such as a 1 square mile around 10 competing dealerships.

When someone carrying a smartphone or tablet (everyone basically) enters the virtual perimeter, their enabled device sends out geo-location data that establishes the customers whereabouts. Because the geo location tracks the actual customer’s locations in real time, you have the ability to deliver a message to a customer that is sitting in a competitor’s showroom, virtually stealing a customer if the right message is delivered.

For example, a customer researches the new BMW 4 series via Google, social connections, videos reviews, and online consumer reports. He decides on the color and options of the vehicle, and then heads out to dealerships where he can perform a test drive and make his purchase.

As he walks into the store, he receives a push notification from one of his apps, informing him that he can get a better price on a BMW at another dealership if he takes action now! Powerful?

One of the newest forms of mobile digital marketing offered by Dealer e Process for the automotive industry is geo-fencing

Here’s the Tip: A key component for any successful business involves for any dealership today is to try and figure out a way to be different. There is no better way to do this than to “market” differently than your competitor. Mobile geo-fencing from Dealer e Process enables this.

Mobile is all around us, digital technologies are changing faster than we could ever imagine, and smart marketers are faced with the task of using this to our advantage!

Along with the rise of smartphone usage, GPS enabled devices and location based services, smarter apps, and our seemingly overwhelming desire to share every move publicly (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare) has resulted in a massive amount of behavior-based-geographical-data. Let it be known, wherever there is big data in play, it’s not too long before it’s leveraged using the latest technology for marketing!

One of the newest forms of mobile digital marketing offered by Dealer e Process for the automotive industry is geo-fencing. Geo-fencing establishes a virtual perimeter around any real location, such as a 1 square mile around 10 competing dealerships.

When someone carrying a smartphone or tablet (everyone basically) enters the virtual perimeter, their enabled device sends out geo-location data that establishes the customers whereabouts. Because the geo location tracks the actual customer’s locations in real time, you have the ability to deliver a message to a customer that is sitting in a competitor’s showroom, virtually stealing a customer if the right message is delivered.

For example, a customer researches the new BMW 4 series via Google, social connections, videos reviews, and online consumer reports. He decides on the color and options of the vehicle, and then heads out to dealerships where he can perform a test drive and make his purchase.

As he walks into the store, he receives a push notification from one of his apps, informing him that he can get a better price on a BMW at another dealership if he takes action now! Powerful?

One of the newest forms of mobile digital marketing offered by Dealer e Process for the automotive industry is geo-fencing

Here’s the Tip: A key component for any successful business involves for any dealership today is to try and figure out a way to be different. There is no better way to do this than to “market” differently than your competitor. Mobile geo-fencing from Dealer e Process enables this.

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 guess 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 appropriate portion of the website resulting into a loaf of bread!

Here is the golden question; How is your dealer website 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 the dealer? The great part of all about this change, is it pushes the majority of third party listing for your dealership name "under the scroll", where nobody looks!

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 guess 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 appropriate portion of the website resulting into a loaf of bread!

Here is the golden question; How is your dealer website 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 the dealer? The great part of all about this change, is it pushes the majority of third party listing for your dealership name "under the scroll", where nobody looks!

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 anyones 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 tuned 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; watches, tires.

Do some searches in your area, as this might be a market thing (I am doing searches from Chicago) and let's see if the results are the same.

Could you imagine what would happen if your searches the word "Cars" and the results for Brands, Stores, and Types left your dealership out of the mix? What is powering these results and when will it hit our industry?? Let's get in front of this change now.

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 anyones 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 tuned 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; watches, tires.

Do some searches in your area, as this might be a market thing (I am doing searches from Chicago) and let's see if the results are the same.

Could you imagine what would happen if your searches the word "Cars" and the results for Brands, Stores, and Types left your dealership out of the mix? What is powering these results and when will it hit our industry?? Let's get in front of this change now.

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 average of over 200 days in stock for well over 40% of their total inventory

 In tough times we are going to see these numbers increase- but what baffles me is the majority of stores do nothing to merchandize the aging inventory aggressively through their website capabilities or their inventory management tools. Plain and simple, they do very little if anything to get the word out to move the inventory. There is no excuse for inventory of this age in these numbers sitting on a retailer’s lot, especially in the age of the Internet.

 Your website is the place to feature the inventory that is costing you money with every day that it sits there-SPECIALS.  With the features available to you through your website provider and/or inventory management systems you are only (or should be) a click away from pushing the old stuff to the front of the line so your store can wave it’s arms alerting shoppers of your eagerness to deal on these units. There are no excuses anymore for not advertising specials because it has never been easier. A well managed website, with a constant eye on inventory is all you need to tackle this problem.

 Well Managed Website

This means make sure you have someone who really knows how to navigate and maximize your website from the back end and utilizing all features. This doesn’t mean that just because your cousin’s brothers girlfriend is out of a job and “is really good on the computer” she is a “really good” candidate for the job of your ecommerce. Neither is an existing porter who “wants to move up and is good on the computer”. Make sure you have the right person and then turn to your web provider to provide training and support for this person. Use this aspect of their services- it is there (or should be) and it is invaluable to you.

 (Make sure that who ever is going to be responsible for the management of your website has examples through references of his or her work and involvement with past employers eCommerce and webmaster tasks.)

Quite often dealerships throw the responsibility of managing their website into the job description of their Internet or BDC Manager. Quite often these people are not qualified in the areas that one needs to be qualified in order to effectively manage a stores marketing through the website. Most of the time a good Internet and or BDC Managers area of expertise is process management and people skills (or that is where it should be). That is where their efforts need to remain. Outsourcing for the management of the website from a merchandizing and marketing standpoint quite often is the most effective approach. Allow your Internet and/or BDC Managers to do what they do- manage the various sales opportunities you hired them to manage.

I am not saying here that there aren’t people out there who possess the skill sets required to be successful Internet/BDC Managers AND eCommerce webmaster experts who merchandize and market your inventory effectively- but there are two opposite skill sets required for these jobs that are not usually found in the same person. Personality competencies alone for these two job types are typically opposite ends of the charts- so it is hard to find a person who possesses both. Not impossible, but unlikely.

 Constant Inventory Management

It needs to be part of your stores daily process to review your inventory through your inventory management system. This needs to be done by sales management FIRST, with instruction to the eCommerce webmaster SECONDLY as to what needs to be moved and at what price. If you coordinate sales management (new and used) to work with your Website manager (master, administrator etc.) daily at the beginning of each shift the process will take less than 15 minutes per day once you have dialed into having specials managed effectively.

 Your inventory control system should provide you with all that you need to monitor and track every aspect of your inventory. Reports are but a click away as is the ability to feature inventory that needs to move. If everyone is doing their jobs correctly, all data is being entered as it should be, every shift should be looking at real time available inventory and specials that are designed to get the inventory off the lot. Once a week a queue can be done to run a report to see what worked as far as how things were “specialized” and what didn’t work. Moving forward, you will have a plan with proven successes behind you to put into place each time a vehicle hits that “dinosaur” status.

 Incentivizing your sales, BDC and Internet personnel is also an effective way to move old product. Spiffs that make it worth while for a rep to “feature” a special when talking to a customer will dramatically shorten a vehicles shelf life. If you have a sea of vehicles on the lot and no one knows what is 200 days old- then how can you expect people to emphasize a “special”.

 An Internet shopper can more easily be appointed if during communication with him/her your people are able to stress to them that the “special” advertised on the website is on the lot ready for them to see. Then make sure you have a sign on that “special” vehicle coordinating with what was said about the vehicle on your website. The days of mystic secrecy of “Internet Deals” need to come to an end. They are confusing to your staff, the customer and counter productive for your store as a whole. How many times have you heard either a client OR one of your employees say “I didn’t know that this vehicle was offered as a special on the Internet?” If you are going to advertise specials then advertise specials- so everyone knows, not just the Internet shopper and the Internet department. Lack of communication is what causes discrepancy within a dealership with both disappointed shoppers and employees. Loose loose.

  To sum this all up, a bit of familiarizing or re-familiarizing yourself as well as your sales employees with your websites capabilities in merchandizing and inventory control through the help of your website provider is key to moving old inventory.

Committing to a 15 minute daily regime with the joint involvement of your Webmaster, Internet/BDC and Sales Management staff will allow you to create the consistency required to manage inventory and greatly reduce the problem. Using the features of your webs eCommerce capabilities, along with pulling your staff together you can painlessly correct this problem with resources you have available to you at no additional cost.

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 average of over 200 days in stock for well over 40% of their total inventory

 In tough times we are going to see these numbers increase- but what baffles me is the majority of stores do nothing to merchandize the aging inventory aggressively through their website capabilities or their inventory management tools. Plain and simple, they do very little if anything to get the word out to move the inventory. There is no excuse for inventory of this age in these numbers sitting on a retailer’s lot, especially in the age of the Internet.

 Your website is the place to feature the inventory that is costing you money with every day that it sits there-SPECIALS.  With the features available to you through your website provider and/or inventory management systems you are only (or should be) a click away from pushing the old stuff to the front of the line so your store can wave it’s arms alerting shoppers of your eagerness to deal on these units. There are no excuses anymore for not advertising specials because it has never been easier. A well managed website, with a constant eye on inventory is all you need to tackle this problem.

 Well Managed Website

This means make sure you have someone who really knows how to navigate and maximize your website from the back end and utilizing all features. This doesn’t mean that just because your cousin’s brothers girlfriend is out of a job and “is really good on the computer” she is a “really good” candidate for the job of your ecommerce. Neither is an existing porter who “wants to move up and is good on the computer”. Make sure you have the right person and then turn to your web provider to provide training and support for this person. Use this aspect of their services- it is there (or should be) and it is invaluable to you.

 (Make sure that who ever is going to be responsible for the management of your website has examples through references of his or her work and involvement with past employers eCommerce and webmaster tasks.)

Quite often dealerships throw the responsibility of managing their website into the job description of their Internet or BDC Manager. Quite often these people are not qualified in the areas that one needs to be qualified in order to effectively manage a stores marketing through the website. Most of the time a good Internet and or BDC Managers area of expertise is process management and people skills (or that is where it should be). That is where their efforts need to remain. Outsourcing for the management of the website from a merchandizing and marketing standpoint quite often is the most effective approach. Allow your Internet and/or BDC Managers to do what they do- manage the various sales opportunities you hired them to manage.

I am not saying here that there aren’t people out there who possess the skill sets required to be successful Internet/BDC Managers AND eCommerce webmaster experts who merchandize and market your inventory effectively- but there are two opposite skill sets required for these jobs that are not usually found in the same person. Personality competencies alone for these two job types are typically opposite ends of the charts- so it is hard to find a person who possesses both. Not impossible, but unlikely.

 Constant Inventory Management

It needs to be part of your stores daily process to review your inventory through your inventory management system. This needs to be done by sales management FIRST, with instruction to the eCommerce webmaster SECONDLY as to what needs to be moved and at what price. If you coordinate sales management (new and used) to work with your Website manager (master, administrator etc.) daily at the beginning of each shift the process will take less than 15 minutes per day once you have dialed into having specials managed effectively.

 Your inventory control system should provide you with all that you need to monitor and track every aspect of your inventory. Reports are but a click away as is the ability to feature inventory that needs to move. If everyone is doing their jobs correctly, all data is being entered as it should be, every shift should be looking at real time available inventory and specials that are designed to get the inventory off the lot. Once a week a queue can be done to run a report to see what worked as far as how things were “specialized” and what didn’t work. Moving forward, you will have a plan with proven successes behind you to put into place each time a vehicle hits that “dinosaur” status.

 Incentivizing your sales, BDC and Internet personnel is also an effective way to move old product. Spiffs that make it worth while for a rep to “feature” a special when talking to a customer will dramatically shorten a vehicles shelf life. If you have a sea of vehicles on the lot and no one knows what is 200 days old- then how can you expect people to emphasize a “special”.

 An Internet shopper can more easily be appointed if during communication with him/her your people are able to stress to them that the “special” advertised on the website is on the lot ready for them to see. Then make sure you have a sign on that “special” vehicle coordinating with what was said about the vehicle on your website. The days of mystic secrecy of “Internet Deals” need to come to an end. They are confusing to your staff, the customer and counter productive for your store as a whole. How many times have you heard either a client OR one of your employees say “I didn’t know that this vehicle was offered as a special on the Internet?” If you are going to advertise specials then advertise specials- so everyone knows, not just the Internet shopper and the Internet department. Lack of communication is what causes discrepancy within a dealership with both disappointed shoppers and employees. Loose loose.

  To sum this all up, a bit of familiarizing or re-familiarizing yourself as well as your sales employees with your websites capabilities in merchandizing and inventory control through the help of your website provider is key to moving old inventory.

Committing to a 15 minute daily regime with the joint involvement of your Webmaster, Internet/BDC and Sales Management staff will allow you to create the consistency required to manage inventory and greatly reduce the problem. Using the features of your webs eCommerce capabilities, along with pulling your staff together you can painlessly correct this problem with resources you have available to you at no additional cost.