I was shopping in Target the other day with my 3 year old when a gentleman commented, “Wow, does she really know how to use that?” I looked down to see my daughter playing with “her” iPhone (ok technically it’s my old iPhone 3 that can still muster enough strength for some great apps, but I digress) and I was like, “oh… um… yeah, she can.”

My daughter can play with an iPhone because it’s easy to use; easy enough for a 3 year old, and if you want customers to download your app then you need to make it easy too. And part of making it easy is giving them functionality they trust, like Smart App Banners.

Now, my 3 year old doesn’t worry about clicking on a random pop-up that prompts her to download the $4.99 Disney Princess Royal Salon app because she is still trusting in nature (and desperate to be a princess), where as those of us over the age of 13 had our trusting nature shattered somewhere in middle school and only a few of us got to be princesses (damn you Kate Middleton!), but again, I digress. The point I’m trying to make (you thought I didn’t have one for a minute there didn’t you) is that consumers need to TRUST that what they click on is not a scam, and Smart App Banners are the best way to do that.

Smart App Banners are small rectangular banners that can display across the top of your mobile website that prompt a visitor to download your mobile app. The Banners are technically only an Apple functionality, however you can easily get similar functionality for Android devices with a slight variation of code. Smart App Banners greatly improve a user’s browsing experience compared to other promotional methods, as Apple has provided a consistent look and feel for these banners across the web, and users have come to trust that these banners will take them to the App Store and not a third-party site. Users appreciate that banners show up unobtrusively at the top of a webpage, instead of a full-screen ad interrupting the web content.

App Banners are super easy to add to your website. Your web admin just needs to add a small snippet of code (that can be found online) to your website and you’re good to go. And if the app is already installed on the user’s device, the Smart App Banner can intelligently change its action to open the app instead. Also if the device loading the banner does not support your app, or if your app is not available in the user's location, the banner will not display.

The bottom line is that Smart App Banners are one of the best ways to drive downloads for your mobile app. Now, you may run into a situation where your mobile website vendor (who created your mobile site and thinks it’s just the best thing ever) doesn’t want to drive traffic away from your mobile site to your mobile app vendor (who created your mobile app and thinks it’s just the best thing ever). Only you know why you have both and that’s to give your customers the experience that works best for them. So give them the choice right up front to continue to surf your site or download your app. If they trust in the functionality, which they will with the Smart App Banner, then you’ve given them an experience almost as great as the Disney Princess Royal Salon is to a 3-year old; an experience that’s easy, fun, and gets them that much closer to getting everything they want out of life… whether it’s a great mobile app or their handsome prince.

-Kelly Krause, Director of Customer Engagement, Driver Connect at DMEautomotive

I was shopping in Target the other day with my 3 year old when a gentleman commented, “Wow, does she really know how to use that?” I looked down to see my daughter playing with “her” iPhone (ok technically it’s my old iPhone 3 that can still muster enough strength for some great apps, but I digress) and I was like, “oh… um… yeah, she can.”

My daughter can play with an iPhone because it’s easy to use; easy enough for a 3 year old, and if you want customers to download your app then you need to make it easy too. And part of making it easy is giving them functionality they trust, like Smart App Banners.

Now, my 3 year old doesn’t worry about clicking on a random pop-up that prompts her to download the $4.99 Disney Princess Royal Salon app because she is still trusting in nature (and desperate to be a princess), where as those of us over the age of 13 had our trusting nature shattered somewhere in middle school and only a few of us got to be princesses (damn you Kate Middleton!), but again, I digress. The point I’m trying to make (you thought I didn’t have one for a minute there didn’t you) is that consumers need to TRUST that what they click on is not a scam, and Smart App Banners are the best way to do that.

Smart App Banners are small rectangular banners that can display across the top of your mobile website that prompt a visitor to download your mobile app. The Banners are technically only an Apple functionality, however you can easily get similar functionality for Android devices with a slight variation of code. Smart App Banners greatly improve a user’s browsing experience compared to other promotional methods, as Apple has provided a consistent look and feel for these banners across the web, and users have come to trust that these banners will take them to the App Store and not a third-party site. Users appreciate that banners show up unobtrusively at the top of a webpage, instead of a full-screen ad interrupting the web content.

App Banners are super easy to add to your website. Your web admin just needs to add a small snippet of code (that can be found online) to your website and you’re good to go. And if the app is already installed on the user’s device, the Smart App Banner can intelligently change its action to open the app instead. Also if the device loading the banner does not support your app, or if your app is not available in the user's location, the banner will not display.

The bottom line is that Smart App Banners are one of the best ways to drive downloads for your mobile app. Now, you may run into a situation where your mobile website vendor (who created your mobile site and thinks it’s just the best thing ever) doesn’t want to drive traffic away from your mobile site to your mobile app vendor (who created your mobile app and thinks it’s just the best thing ever). Only you know why you have both and that’s to give your customers the experience that works best for them. So give them the choice right up front to continue to surf your site or download your app. If they trust in the functionality, which they will with the Smart App Banner, then you’ve given them an experience almost as great as the Disney Princess Royal Salon is to a 3-year old; an experience that’s easy, fun, and gets them that much closer to getting everything they want out of life… whether it’s a great mobile app or their handsome prince.

-Kelly Krause, Director of Customer Engagement, Driver Connect at DMEautomotive

A trend is developing in the used car industry: prices on used cars are up 30% since 2008 and they could go even higher. It’s not uncommon to see a 1999 Toyota Corolla on the road and it won’t be sputtering along covered in rust spots, either. Simply put, cars are being built better to last longer. If a car buyer can’t afford a new vehicle, they know they can put faith in a used car to last them longer than just the drive off the lot. With demand (and prices) on used vehicles growing higher every year, do you have the right stock of pre-owned vehicles? What’s your plan to get these on your lot?

Gas prices are at a similar high, so car buyers are looking at more fuel efficient options, like the Toyota Prius or Chevrolet Malibu. Car auctions may have been your go-to for a used Prius or Malibu in the past, but every other dealer will be there as well.

So how can you get the best deals? Your customers. Use your database to specifically target which pre-owned vehicles you’d like to stock up on and set into motion a buy back campaign. If you already know all of the individuals who bought a Toyota Camry from your dealership in the last four years, it will be easy to target these cars specifically to buy back. You don’t need to go to an auction, where the prices will go up and up as dealers try to outbid one another; just look at the cars you’ve already sold.

Get your salesman involved, too. If they see a 2007 Chevrolet Malibu drive on the lot, offer an incentive for every appraisal they can get for a potential buy back from the car’s owner. Who knows – your stock of pre-owned vehicles could literally drive themselves onto your lot.

As long as this trend in used cars keeps up, the demand amongst dealers to bolster their pre-owned inventory will be high. So where will you be getting yours from?

A trend is developing in the used car industry: prices on used cars are up 30% since 2008 and they could go even higher. It’s not uncommon to see a 1999 Toyota Corolla on the road and it won’t be sputtering along covered in rust spots, either. Simply put, cars are being built better to last longer. If a car buyer can’t afford a new vehicle, they know they can put faith in a used car to last them longer than just the drive off the lot. With demand (and prices) on used vehicles growing higher every year, do you have the right stock of pre-owned vehicles? What’s your plan to get these on your lot?

Gas prices are at a similar high, so car buyers are looking at more fuel efficient options, like the Toyota Prius or Chevrolet Malibu. Car auctions may have been your go-to for a used Prius or Malibu in the past, but every other dealer will be there as well.

So how can you get the best deals? Your customers. Use your database to specifically target which pre-owned vehicles you’d like to stock up on and set into motion a buy back campaign. If you already know all of the individuals who bought a Toyota Camry from your dealership in the last four years, it will be easy to target these cars specifically to buy back. You don’t need to go to an auction, where the prices will go up and up as dealers try to outbid one another; just look at the cars you’ve already sold.

Get your salesman involved, too. If they see a 2007 Chevrolet Malibu drive on the lot, offer an incentive for every appraisal they can get for a potential buy back from the car’s owner. Who knows – your stock of pre-owned vehicles could literally drive themselves onto your lot.

As long as this trend in used cars keeps up, the demand amongst dealers to bolster their pre-owned inventory will be high. So where will you be getting yours from?

By now, we all know the value of SEO, or “search engine optimization,” and we potentially use it in our arsenal of automotive marketing.  But to many of us, including those who work with it, SEO is a big mystery. According to Google, there are over 200 SEO factors that go into search results. No one individual can know all of these.

We all want our page to be at the top of the results whenever somebody does a Google search and we are likely to hire somebody in car dealer marketing to help do this. In the constantly evolving world of SEO, however, time passes a bit like dog years: a few months in SEO is more like a few years in the real world. It’s important to stay on top of the ever-changing trends.

Although navigating the world of car dealer marketing and SEO can be tricky, knowing some of the most recent changes can make SEO a bit more understandable:

• Backlinking isn’t worth its weight in gold anymore. In the past, a backlink from one site to your own could greatly help in rankings. Then people started buying backlinks; they were everywhere but worth nothing. To avoid this, you can produce high quality content to which people will actually organically link. Simply put- don’t put all your eggs in the backlink basket.
• “Spamming” doesn’t help. Not only has the glut of spam backlinks been caught on to by Google, but now they will punish it. If you have a single profile with which you comment on other blogs for backlinking and you use the same generic comment each time, Google will know. And they won’t be very happy. The same goes for duplicate content. If you have one well written blog with good keyword density and you just post it multiple times, it won’t help any.
• There is a “sweet spot” in keywords for a blog post. It is important to have a primary keyword that accurately describes your blog post and appears multiple times, but there is such a thing as using it too often. Google calls this “keyword stuffing.” How can you get keyword rich blogs without going over the top? Make sure when reading it that the placement of these words actually makes sense. If it’s used every other sentence, it’s probably too much.

You don’t have to be an SEO genius to know what works and what doesn’t. Don’t let your dealership’s blog be ruined by too much backlinking or overusing keywords.

By now, we all know the value of SEO, or “search engine optimization,” and we potentially use it in our arsenal of automotive marketing.  But to many of us, including those who work with it, SEO is a big mystery. According to Google, there are over 200 SEO factors that go into search results. No one individual can know all of these.

We all want our page to be at the top of the results whenever somebody does a Google search and we are likely to hire somebody in car dealer marketing to help do this. In the constantly evolving world of SEO, however, time passes a bit like dog years: a few months in SEO is more like a few years in the real world. It’s important to stay on top of the ever-changing trends.

Although navigating the world of car dealer marketing and SEO can be tricky, knowing some of the most recent changes can make SEO a bit more understandable:

• Backlinking isn’t worth its weight in gold anymore. In the past, a backlink from one site to your own could greatly help in rankings. Then people started buying backlinks; they were everywhere but worth nothing. To avoid this, you can produce high quality content to which people will actually organically link. Simply put- don’t put all your eggs in the backlink basket.
• “Spamming” doesn’t help. Not only has the glut of spam backlinks been caught on to by Google, but now they will punish it. If you have a single profile with which you comment on other blogs for backlinking and you use the same generic comment each time, Google will know. And they won’t be very happy. The same goes for duplicate content. If you have one well written blog with good keyword density and you just post it multiple times, it won’t help any.
• There is a “sweet spot” in keywords for a blog post. It is important to have a primary keyword that accurately describes your blog post and appears multiple times, but there is such a thing as using it too often. Google calls this “keyword stuffing.” How can you get keyword rich blogs without going over the top? Make sure when reading it that the placement of these words actually makes sense. If it’s used every other sentence, it’s probably too much.

You don’t have to be an SEO genius to know what works and what doesn’t. Don’t let your dealership’s blog be ruined by too much backlinking or overusing keywords.

75% of automotive customers use Facebook.  This should come as no surprise considering Facebook has more users than the population of almost every country in the world, including the United States.  But are these customers important for your business?  The answer is yes.  Not only are they important, but the future of your business depends on them.  In fact, active Facebook users represent your best customers – the ones who make up 60 to 80% of your revenue.   In a recent survey with U.S. automotive consumers, DMEa found that 57% of customers who spent at least $1,000 on automotive service in the past year visit Facebook at least once a day.  That is at least 27% more than lower spending groups.

Despite the high level of activity on Facebook, when we asked customers about the social site’s influence on where they chose to service their vehicle, only 12% thought it was important.  Things like their vehicle owner’s manual, service centers and automotive websites beat out the more popular networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn.  Twitter trailed in at 9%.  While it’s reassuring to know that traditional channels are effective, the gap between usage and influence of digital social channels represents a significant revenue opportunity.  Throw in the exponential growth of social media over time, and it becomes clear that social strategies have cemented themselves as key components of every CRM plan.

Contact DMEa for more insights from our National Consumer Study or to develop an interactive strategy designed for the unique needs of your business.

About DMEautomotive

DMEautomotive provides multi-channel, variable communications for automobile dealers and aftermarket franchises nationwide. Their robust product and service offering includes: data driven, multi-channel acquisition and retention marketing programs, best-in-class campaign reporting, data management and analytics via the Red Rocket Portal, Virtual BDC call applications, and complete on-site mail and email fulfillment services.  Headquartered in Daytona Beach, Fla., DMEautomotive also has major operations in Jacksonville, Fla.

75% of automotive customers use Facebook.  This should come as no surprise considering Facebook has more users than the population of almost every country in the world, including the United States.  But are these customers important for your business?  The answer is yes.  Not only are they important, but the future of your business depends on them.  In fact, active Facebook users represent your best customers – the ones who make up 60 to 80% of your revenue.   In a recent survey with U.S. automotive consumers, DMEa found that 57% of customers who spent at least $1,000 on automotive service in the past year visit Facebook at least once a day.  That is at least 27% more than lower spending groups.

Despite the high level of activity on Facebook, when we asked customers about the social site’s influence on where they chose to service their vehicle, only 12% thought it was important.  Things like their vehicle owner’s manual, service centers and automotive websites beat out the more popular networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn.  Twitter trailed in at 9%.  While it’s reassuring to know that traditional channels are effective, the gap between usage and influence of digital social channels represents a significant revenue opportunity.  Throw in the exponential growth of social media over time, and it becomes clear that social strategies have cemented themselves as key components of every CRM plan.

Contact DMEa for more insights from our National Consumer Study or to develop an interactive strategy designed for the unique needs of your business.

About DMEautomotive

DMEautomotive provides multi-channel, variable communications for automobile dealers and aftermarket franchises nationwide. Their robust product and service offering includes: data driven, multi-channel acquisition and retention marketing programs, best-in-class campaign reporting, data management and analytics via the Red Rocket Portal, Virtual BDC call applications, and complete on-site mail and email fulfillment services.  Headquartered in Daytona Beach, Fla., DMEautomotive also has major operations in Jacksonville, Fla.

After the creation of Facebook’s brand tagging feature, automotive marketing has a new tool at their disposal. Starting on May 11, Facebook users were able to tag more than just their friends in a picture – they could tag pages for brands, products and people. What does this mean for car dealer marketing?

Many dealerships already call for users and fans to submit pictures of their vehicle; brand tagging allows this without the call to action. After the purchase of a new car, the owner can take a picture, upload it, and instantly tag the dealership from which they bought it with a message about their new car. After giving their vehicle a wash, a user might be tempted to take a picture, show it off to friends on Facebook and then tag their dealership in it. Once tagged, this photo won’t just be shared with the dealership – it will be shared with all the other fans of the page and anybody who visits it.

GM has already embraced the feature, encouraging fans to upload photos and be the first to tag their brand in the image. Tagging a brand in a photo is a natural means of product placement. There is also a potential to reward brand loyalty and photo tagging, from a simple recognition on Facebook for uploading to giving a prize to the best picture.

When users tag a dealership in their photos, it won’t just provide name recognition: it will provide a direct link to the dealership’s page. Tagging a brand or dealership in a photo could greatly increase the traffic to the page as well as the fan base. If a friend of the user didn’t already know your dealership was on Facebook, they will now.

While this new feature could potentially result in spam photo submissions on a dealership’s page, these can be moderated by an administrator. The benefits of having users tag brands far outweigh the risks that spam poses. Facebook brand tagging holds the power of word of mouth meets the power of social media, and the results have great potential for car dealer marketing.

After the creation of Facebook’s brand tagging feature, automotive marketing has a new tool at their disposal. Starting on May 11, Facebook users were able to tag more than just their friends in a picture – they could tag pages for brands, products and people. What does this mean for car dealer marketing?

Many dealerships already call for users and fans to submit pictures of their vehicle; brand tagging allows this without the call to action. After the purchase of a new car, the owner can take a picture, upload it, and instantly tag the dealership from which they bought it with a message about their new car. After giving their vehicle a wash, a user might be tempted to take a picture, show it off to friends on Facebook and then tag their dealership in it. Once tagged, this photo won’t just be shared with the dealership – it will be shared with all the other fans of the page and anybody who visits it.

GM has already embraced the feature, encouraging fans to upload photos and be the first to tag their brand in the image. Tagging a brand in a photo is a natural means of product placement. There is also a potential to reward brand loyalty and photo tagging, from a simple recognition on Facebook for uploading to giving a prize to the best picture.

When users tag a dealership in their photos, it won’t just provide name recognition: it will provide a direct link to the dealership’s page. Tagging a brand or dealership in a photo could greatly increase the traffic to the page as well as the fan base. If a friend of the user didn’t already know your dealership was on Facebook, they will now.

While this new feature could potentially result in spam photo submissions on a dealership’s page, these can be moderated by an administrator. The benefits of having users tag brands far outweigh the risks that spam poses. Facebook brand tagging holds the power of word of mouth meets the power of social media, and the results have great potential for car dealer marketing.