Digital marketing is continuing to grow in all industries and now accounts for 1.5 out of every 4 dollars spent in the auto industry. That being said, we also know that 90% of all customers that enter dealerships have done some sort of browsing on the Internet before purchasing a car. Google is predicting that digital advertising in the auto industry will quadruple over the next few years.

Looking at the numbers, 50% of all visitors that come to ANY car dealer’s website from any source, click on the “Search Used Cars” button.  This is great information to know, but doesn't necessarily tell the complete story when it comes to helping customers find the right car they are searching for. The story and question I would like to discuss is this; what is your “used car digital strategy” to get customers' eyeballs on all of the different brands of inventory you carry? For example, when I look at most Chevrolet dealers' inventories, I see that at least 40 to 60% of the used cars on the ground are not Chevrolets! So again, my question is this; how do you plan on selling those 15 Fords, 9 Nissans, 8 GMCs, etc. from your inventory when most customers look at your dealership as a “Chevrolet Dealership? see the screenshot below for a typical dealership's used car inventory (Chevrolet Dealer)

Please don’t tell me you are hoping that the 50% of the customers clicking on your “Search Used Cars” button is your strategy? Or let me guess, you have “a guy” who does search engine marketing for your dealership?

This is where strategy comes into play, and where NO dealership can pull off the feat that DIGITAL AMMP can. If I were to tell you that I could write 10 different ads per used car unit, start and stop these ads when cars leave or enter your inventory (or when too much is being spent per car), while only showing these ads to consumers on Google when looking for that exact vehicle, would you be interested? Of course you would!

Let’s put in perspective what this does for your dealership on numerous levels.

• 122 used cars in stock = 1220 new ads written daily on Google based on the data
• Know the dollars spent per used car until sold
• Know how may VDP views per car as a result of digital marketing
• Know how many leads,  calls & chats were generated per car as a result of Digital AMMP
• Maximize budget – stretch your dollar further than ever before
• Landing pages determined by inventory make, model, price, inventory count, age of vehicle

Here’s the Tip:  If you want to move your used car inventory, let Digital AMMP do the heavy lifting. Displaying the right ad at the right time to the right person is the ONLY digital marketing used car strategy you should have! Your "guy" cant do that!

Digital marketing is continuing to grow in all industries and now accounts for 1.5 out of every 4 dollars spent in the auto industry. That being said, we also know that 90% of all customers that enter dealerships have done some sort of browsing on the Internet before purchasing a car. Google is predicting that digital advertising in the auto industry will quadruple over the next few years.

Looking at the numbers, 50% of all visitors that come to ANY car dealer’s website from any source, click on the “Search Used Cars” button.  This is great information to know, but doesn't necessarily tell the complete story when it comes to helping customers find the right car they are searching for. The story and question I would like to discuss is this; what is your “used car digital strategy” to get customers' eyeballs on all of the different brands of inventory you carry? For example, when I look at most Chevrolet dealers' inventories, I see that at least 40 to 60% of the used cars on the ground are not Chevrolets! So again, my question is this; how do you plan on selling those 15 Fords, 9 Nissans, 8 GMCs, etc. from your inventory when most customers look at your dealership as a “Chevrolet Dealership? see the screenshot below for a typical dealership's used car inventory (Chevrolet Dealer)

Please don’t tell me you are hoping that the 50% of the customers clicking on your “Search Used Cars” button is your strategy? Or let me guess, you have “a guy” who does search engine marketing for your dealership?

This is where strategy comes into play, and where NO dealership can pull off the feat that DIGITAL AMMP can. If I were to tell you that I could write 10 different ads per used car unit, start and stop these ads when cars leave or enter your inventory (or when too much is being spent per car), while only showing these ads to consumers on Google when looking for that exact vehicle, would you be interested? Of course you would!

Let’s put in perspective what this does for your dealership on numerous levels.

• 122 used cars in stock = 1220 new ads written daily on Google based on the data
• Know the dollars spent per used car until sold
• Know how may VDP views per car as a result of digital marketing
• Know how many leads,  calls & chats were generated per car as a result of Digital AMMP
• Maximize budget – stretch your dollar further than ever before
• Landing pages determined by inventory make, model, price, inventory count, age of vehicle

Here’s the Tip:  If you want to move your used car inventory, let Digital AMMP do the heavy lifting. Displaying the right ad at the right time to the right person is the ONLY digital marketing used car strategy you should have! Your "guy" cant do that!

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.

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 “played” well in a store, there is an appointment set by your Internet and/or BDC department. This appointment “shows” and the back nine of the game is played out. There is either a “score” (sale) or the brutal reality that you just played an expensive round and you are a shankapotomus. When you compare the cost of advertising and doing business with today’s green fees you can see that blowing a sale in your store on the back nine can cost more than a round of golf, and isn’t nearly as much fun.

 Here are 3 things to consider for increasing your stores likelihood of a playing a great back nine once the front nine has been completed:

 First impressions- you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Cliché I know, but so critical in this case. Do you know how many times I have walked into a store to find an antiquated “firing squad tower” of sales managers? To the average visitor this presentation is menacing to say the least, makes one feel as though they are approaching the Wizard of Oz.

Let’s start with body language- smiles are usually at a premium in stores that have less than stellar closing ratios. I once visited 17 stores in one day and made a note of the number of stores where I was greeted by a warm friendly face. Three (3), that’s right THREE stores used smiles as part of their sales process. Not surprising to me, these were the only 3 stores out of the 17 that had sales activity underway. Coincidence? The other 14 stores sales people all looked as if they were fed the same Ex-Lax frosted brownies.

If you cannot be a welcoming environment in the first 30 seconds of a prospects visit- you substantially lower your likelihood of a sale. (Regardless of how wonderful the appointment setter is). Remembering here that a customer can drive 10 miles in either direction of your store and most likely find a like or exact vehicle to the one that brought them into your store. Customers are looking for a SALESPERSON first- car second.

 Transition from Internet/BDC sales lead to sales floor opportunity- make the appointed prospect feel “expected” and special- you and I know just how “special” they are (it’s what we are all working so hard for right? The appointment?)….let them know how “special” they are, give the impression you have been waiting for them when they arrive. Appointment boards where the prospect can see it is a huge tool for this effect. A store I worked in Seattle made sure that every appointment whenever possible was posted on the managers appointment board and the vehicle of interest was prepped and sitting ready for a test drive in a designated “holding” area- cleaned, warmed up or cooled off.

 Communication- Make sure the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. This is a leading factor of a debacle in a store that has an Internet/BDC department which creates appointments for sales people. Your departments have to be on the same page ALL the time. This starts with how you present your store, inventory and specials on your website and in your advertising.  Once a prospect gets ONE piece of information different from what he or she received from the Internet/BDC department- your credibility has taken a hit and you will spend a significant amount of time having to rebuild it in order to move the prospect along in the process. Once you have created this shake in credibility- it is very hard- if not impossible to regain control and rapport with the prospect. A critical factor; sharing of correspondence and ALL information that the prospect has received from your store prior to their visit making sure that there is consistency in your communications with the prospects across the board.

 By making sure you have these few consistent policies in place you can greatly improve your likelihood of closing those much cherished Internet and/or BDC appointments. Play the whole game with professionalism, integrity and respect towards your prospects- remembering they can “play around” at dozens of other courses but they chose yours- Show em that you are truly the Jack Nicklaus of the game.

Dealer E Process

For more information on Internet/BDC Consulting, Contact Dealer e Process at 877-551-2555

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 “played” well in a store, there is an appointment set by your Internet and/or BDC department. This appointment “shows” and the back nine of the game is played out. There is either a “score” (sale) or the brutal reality that you just played an expensive round and you are a shankapotomus. When you compare the cost of advertising and doing business with today’s green fees you can see that blowing a sale in your store on the back nine can cost more than a round of golf, and isn’t nearly as much fun.

 Here are 3 things to consider for increasing your stores likelihood of a playing a great back nine once the front nine has been completed:

 First impressions- you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Cliché I know, but so critical in this case. Do you know how many times I have walked into a store to find an antiquated “firing squad tower” of sales managers? To the average visitor this presentation is menacing to say the least, makes one feel as though they are approaching the Wizard of Oz.

Let’s start with body language- smiles are usually at a premium in stores that have less than stellar closing ratios. I once visited 17 stores in one day and made a note of the number of stores where I was greeted by a warm friendly face. Three (3), that’s right THREE stores used smiles as part of their sales process. Not surprising to me, these were the only 3 stores out of the 17 that had sales activity underway. Coincidence? The other 14 stores sales people all looked as if they were fed the same Ex-Lax frosted brownies.

If you cannot be a welcoming environment in the first 30 seconds of a prospects visit- you substantially lower your likelihood of a sale. (Regardless of how wonderful the appointment setter is). Remembering here that a customer can drive 10 miles in either direction of your store and most likely find a like or exact vehicle to the one that brought them into your store. Customers are looking for a SALESPERSON first- car second.

 Transition from Internet/BDC sales lead to sales floor opportunity- make the appointed prospect feel “expected” and special- you and I know just how “special” they are (it’s what we are all working so hard for right? The appointment?)….let them know how “special” they are, give the impression you have been waiting for them when they arrive. Appointment boards where the prospect can see it is a huge tool for this effect. A store I worked in Seattle made sure that every appointment whenever possible was posted on the managers appointment board and the vehicle of interest was prepped and sitting ready for a test drive in a designated “holding” area- cleaned, warmed up or cooled off.

 Communication- Make sure the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. This is a leading factor of a debacle in a store that has an Internet/BDC department which creates appointments for sales people. Your departments have to be on the same page ALL the time. This starts with how you present your store, inventory and specials on your website and in your advertising.  Once a prospect gets ONE piece of information different from what he or she received from the Internet/BDC department- your credibility has taken a hit and you will spend a significant amount of time having to rebuild it in order to move the prospect along in the process. Once you have created this shake in credibility- it is very hard- if not impossible to regain control and rapport with the prospect. A critical factor; sharing of correspondence and ALL information that the prospect has received from your store prior to their visit making sure that there is consistency in your communications with the prospects across the board.

 By making sure you have these few consistent policies in place you can greatly improve your likelihood of closing those much cherished Internet and/or BDC appointments. Play the whole game with professionalism, integrity and respect towards your prospects- remembering they can “play around” at dozens of other courses but they chose yours- Show em that you are truly the Jack Nicklaus of the game.

Dealer E Process

For more information on Internet/BDC Consulting, Contact Dealer e Process at 877-551-2555