There was a big splash in the automotive news world last week when we saw the first auto dealership Groupon offer. Twitter and blogs were all abuzz with industry experts, vendors, and dealers debating the deal, and offering opinions about whether it would work or not.  Now the deal has expired, and the minimum number of Groupon vouchers weren’t purchased, so the deal is null and void.

Of course, everyone is now jumping on the “here’s why it didn’t work” bandwagon… There’s a great post by Arnold Tijerina over at dealer-magazine.com called “Why the first car dealership Groupon failed” – give it a read, he’s got a few great points…

To summarize, he says the deal didn’t have value for the customer because customers EXPECT to negotiate with the dealer and bring the price down by at least $500 – so why would a Groupon be necessary?  Also, the dealer probably didn’t handle the Groupon correctly – as potential buyers were leaving comments debating the worth of the deal, the GM left a few comments of his own to try to prove to people how valuable the deal was:

VALUE GUARANTEE OFFER!!!!
In the unlikely event that we are unable to come to an agreement on a vehicle purchase/lease, for whatever reason, I will honor your voucher toward $199.00 in our service, parts or body shop departments. Purchase accessories, have routine maintenance done or have those annoying dings, dents and scratches repaired.

Seriously? If you don’t find a car, you can get $199 in credit in our service department… for the $199 coupon?  That’s not a deal, that’s just pre-paying for services… So instead of proving worth, he’s devaluing his own deal. And this comment makes even less sense:

William P visited our store yesterday. He selected and test drove the vehicle he was interested in. He worked out all of the pricing details with our sales staff until he was satisfied with the pricing. He THEN AND ONLY THEN explained he had purchased the Groupon voucher but needed a vehicle immediately. We reduced his amount due by $500.00 and honored the voucher in order to accommodate a customer. He took delivery today. We’re still confident that the sales requirement will be met.

He posted this before the minimum number of vouchers were purchased, and before the time limit had expired… so he’s working against his own deal by showing people that the coupon isn’t even necessary!

Those are great points… but here’s the real reason I think the Groupon deal failed:

People buy Groupon deals to save money and get a deal.

The way this deal was structured, you’re buying a $200 Groupon to save $500 on a vehicle purchase… So even if you bought a used car worth $6,000 (about the lowest priced vehicle they have in stock), you only end up saving $300 – only about 3%!!! Most Groupon deals tend to be at least 50% off the purchase price of whatever the voucher is for, and that’s all you have to pay.  In this case, your $200 Groupon is also a commitment to spend at least $6000 more… so it’s nowhere near the easy impulse buy like most Groupon vouchers.

Plus, you’re committing to buying a car from that specific dealership. So now, the dealership is targeting all Groupon users in the Detroit area who are also going to buy a car in the next year (and realistically, the only people who’d buy the Groupon are people who are already looking to buy a car now). That’s probably a pretty small slice of the Groupon user pie in Detroit… and since the Groupon buyer then HAS to buy from this specific dealership, the slice gets even smaller…

That’s why the Groupon deal didn’t work – it wasn’t an easy “wow, what a deal!” impulse buy – when all the successful Groupon deals give you huge discounts, saving such a tiny percentage on a high-dollar purchase just wasn’t valuable.

There was a big splash in the automotive news world last week when we saw the first auto dealership Groupon offer. Twitter and blogs were all abuzz with industry experts, vendors, and dealers debating the deal, and offering opinions about whether it would work or not.  Now the deal has expired, and the minimum number of Groupon vouchers weren’t purchased, so the deal is null and void.

Of course, everyone is now jumping on the “here’s why it didn’t work” bandwagon… There’s a great post by Arnold Tijerina over at dealer-magazine.com called “Why the first car dealership Groupon failed” – give it a read, he’s got a few great points…

To summarize, he says the deal didn’t have value for the customer because customers EXPECT to negotiate with the dealer and bring the price down by at least $500 – so why would a Groupon be necessary?  Also, the dealer probably didn’t handle the Groupon correctly – as potential buyers were leaving comments debating the worth of the deal, the GM left a few comments of his own to try to prove to people how valuable the deal was:

VALUE GUARANTEE OFFER!!!!
In the unlikely event that we are unable to come to an agreement on a vehicle purchase/lease, for whatever reason, I will honor your voucher toward $199.00 in our service, parts or body shop departments. Purchase accessories, have routine maintenance done or have those annoying dings, dents and scratches repaired.

Seriously? If you don’t find a car, you can get $199 in credit in our service department… for the $199 coupon?  That’s not a deal, that’s just pre-paying for services… So instead of proving worth, he’s devaluing his own deal. And this comment makes even less sense:

William P visited our store yesterday. He selected and test drove the vehicle he was interested in. He worked out all of the pricing details with our sales staff until he was satisfied with the pricing. He THEN AND ONLY THEN explained he had purchased the Groupon voucher but needed a vehicle immediately. We reduced his amount due by $500.00 and honored the voucher in order to accommodate a customer. He took delivery today. We’re still confident that the sales requirement will be met.

He posted this before the minimum number of vouchers were purchased, and before the time limit had expired… so he’s working against his own deal by showing people that the coupon isn’t even necessary!

Those are great points… but here’s the real reason I think the Groupon deal failed:

People buy Groupon deals to save money and get a deal.

The way this deal was structured, you’re buying a $200 Groupon to save $500 on a vehicle purchase… So even if you bought a used car worth $6,000 (about the lowest priced vehicle they have in stock), you only end up saving $300 – only about 3%!!! Most Groupon deals tend to be at least 50% off the purchase price of whatever the voucher is for, and that’s all you have to pay.  In this case, your $200 Groupon is also a commitment to spend at least $6000 more… so it’s nowhere near the easy impulse buy like most Groupon vouchers.

Plus, you’re committing to buying a car from that specific dealership. So now, the dealership is targeting all Groupon users in the Detroit area who are also going to buy a car in the next year (and realistically, the only people who’d buy the Groupon are people who are already looking to buy a car now). That’s probably a pretty small slice of the Groupon user pie in Detroit… and since the Groupon buyer then HAS to buy from this specific dealership, the slice gets even smaller…

That’s why the Groupon deal didn’t work – it wasn’t an easy “wow, what a deal!” impulse buy – when all the successful Groupon deals give you huge discounts, saving such a tiny percentage on a high-dollar purchase just wasn’t valuable.

The three largest search engines, Google, Yahoo, and Bing, all outline ways for web pages to rank well in their search results; however, they do not disclose the algorithms they use to rank web pages. As a result, the degree of influence that different factors have on rankings is much contested by SEO experts.

In a recent study conducted by SEOmoz, the importance of several on-page factors were rated by 72 SEO experts and then ranked based on the level of consensus/contention. The following ranking of factors is derived from this report, listed in descending order of importance. Below each factor, an explanation of its core concepts is provided.

1. Keyword use anywhere in the title tag.
   A keyword or key phrase is a word or phrase that a user enters into a search engine. A title tag is the meta tag of web pages that determines what text appears at the top of Internet browsers.
   

   EXAMPLE: “Lone Star Cars – Used Cars and Used Trucks in Dallas, Texas”

2. Keyword use as the first word(s) of the title tag
   According to the experts’ ratings, it is important for the first keyword(s) in your title tag to be keyword(s) that you would like your web page to show up for in search results.
   

   EXAMPLE: “Used Cars and Used Trucks in Dallas, Texas – Lone Star Cars”

3. Keyword use in the root domain name (e.g. keyword.com)
   A Root Domain is the starting point of the top level domain structure, for example, www.keywordHere.com.
   

   EXAMPLE: “www.trucksintexas.com”

4. Keyword use anywhere in the H1 headline tag
   A heading briefly describes the subject of the section it introduces. Heading elements go from H1 to H6, with the lower numbered headings (ex: H1) being considered most important.
   

   EXAMPLE: “Lone Star Cars – Your Source For Used Cars”

5. Keyword use in internal link anchor text on the page
   An internal link – a link from one website pointing to another web page on the same site. Anchor Text is the actual clickable text of a link. Search engines use anchor text to indicate the relevancy of the referring site and of the link to the content on the landing page.
   

   EXAMPLE: “learn more about our extended warranty”

6. Keyword use in external link anchor text on the page
   An external link (a.k.a. back link) is any link into a page or site from any other website.
   

   EXAMPLE: another website links to your site with “Used cars in Dallas”

7. Keyword use as the first word(s) in the H1 tag
   According to the experts, it is important for the first keyword(s) in your H1 tag to be your targeted keyword(s) for the page.
   

   EXAMPLE: “Used Cars Like You’ve Never Seen Before”

8. Keyword use in the first 50-100 words in HTML on the page
   According to the experts, it is important for keyword(s) you’re targeting be located in the top section of your page’s body text. You don’t want to be “spammy” and just list a bunch of keywords – your text needs to read naturally, but you need to be sure you’re using your keyword in the first 50-100 words.  
    
9. Keyword use in the page name URL
   Page name URL is the name of the web page URL. It is used to locate a specific page on a domain.
   

   EXAMPLE: “www.lonestarcars.com/financing”

10. Keyword use in image alt text
    An alt tag is the HTML text that appears when an image doesn’t load, or when images are turned off. Alt text is useful in SEO because it can include keywords that a search engine looks for in response to a query.
    

    EXAMPLE: “Lone Star Cars is Dallas’ premier used car dealer”

The best news of the day – AutoRevo’s system allows you to have control over every single one of these ranking factors.

Take some time to go through your dealer website and see how your current site content matches up to these ten ranking factors. It might take a few days, but it will be worth the effort to go through your site and update your custom pages to adhere to these guidelines. Not only will your site be more user-friendly and informative, it will rank better in the search engines.

The three largest search engines, Google, Yahoo, and Bing, all outline ways for web pages to rank well in their search results; however, they do not disclose the algorithms they use to rank web pages. As a result, the degree of influence that different factors have on rankings is much contested by SEO experts.

In a recent study conducted by SEOmoz, the importance of several on-page factors were rated by 72 SEO experts and then ranked based on the level of consensus/contention. The following ranking of factors is derived from this report, listed in descending order of importance. Below each factor, an explanation of its core concepts is provided.

1. Keyword use anywhere in the title tag.
   A keyword or key phrase is a word or phrase that a user enters into a search engine. A title tag is the meta tag of web pages that determines what text appears at the top of Internet browsers.
   

   EXAMPLE: “Lone Star Cars – Used Cars and Used Trucks in Dallas, Texas”

2. Keyword use as the first word(s) of the title tag
   According to the experts’ ratings, it is important for the first keyword(s) in your title tag to be keyword(s) that you would like your web page to show up for in search results.
   

   EXAMPLE: “Used Cars and Used Trucks in Dallas, Texas – Lone Star Cars”

3. Keyword use in the root domain name (e.g. keyword.com)
   A Root Domain is the starting point of the top level domain structure, for example, www.keywordHere.com.
   

   EXAMPLE: “www.trucksintexas.com”

4. Keyword use anywhere in the H1 headline tag
   A heading briefly describes the subject of the section it introduces. Heading elements go from H1 to H6, with the lower numbered headings (ex: H1) being considered most important.
   

   EXAMPLE: “Lone Star Cars – Your Source For Used Cars”

5. Keyword use in internal link anchor text on the page
   An internal link – a link from one website pointing to another web page on the same site. Anchor Text is the actual clickable text of a link. Search engines use anchor text to indicate the relevancy of the referring site and of the link to the content on the landing page.
   

   EXAMPLE: “learn more about our extended warranty”

6. Keyword use in external link anchor text on the page
   An external link (a.k.a. back link) is any link into a page or site from any other website.
   

   EXAMPLE: another website links to your site with “Used cars in Dallas”

7. Keyword use as the first word(s) in the H1 tag
   According to the experts, it is important for the first keyword(s) in your H1 tag to be your targeted keyword(s) for the page.
   

   EXAMPLE: “Used Cars Like You’ve Never Seen Before”

8. Keyword use in the first 50-100 words in HTML on the page
   According to the experts, it is important for keyword(s) you’re targeting be located in the top section of your page’s body text. You don’t want to be “spammy” and just list a bunch of keywords – your text needs to read naturally, but you need to be sure you’re using your keyword in the first 50-100 words.  
    
9. Keyword use in the page name URL
   Page name URL is the name of the web page URL. It is used to locate a specific page on a domain.
   

   EXAMPLE: “www.lonestarcars.com/financing”

10. Keyword use in image alt text
    An alt tag is the HTML text that appears when an image doesn’t load, or when images are turned off. Alt text is useful in SEO because it can include keywords that a search engine looks for in response to a query.
    

    EXAMPLE: “Lone Star Cars is Dallas’ premier used car dealer”

The best news of the day – AutoRevo’s system allows you to have control over every single one of these ranking factors.

Take some time to go through your dealer website and see how your current site content matches up to these ten ranking factors. It might take a few days, but it will be worth the effort to go through your site and update your custom pages to adhere to these guidelines. Not only will your site be more user-friendly and informative, it will rank better in the search engines.

Other vendors think we're crazy for giving this info away for free... but we think it's basic information that every dealer should know.

The US auto dealer market is fiercely competitive... so we've put this checklist together to help your dealership succeed! Our free Internet Marketing Checklist is full of tips and action items that you can use to help make yourself a better digital marketer. It's clearly written and easy to follow, so you can implement the tips without having to spend a ton of time on them. It's broken up into several sections, so you can implement the different sections as time allows.

Here's what's inside:

• On-page Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your dealer website - We'll walk you through several elements that you can update yourself (without relying on your provider to make the changes) that can have a positive effect on your rankings in the search engines.
• Mobile Dealer Website - 88% of US mobile phone users are more likely to buy from a dealer who has a mobile website. We'll walk you through the 7 important factors that your mobile website MUST have to be competitive in the mobile website arena.
• Local Search - Local results are becoming increasingly important in the search engine results pages. We'll show you how to claim your Google Places listing and then optimize it so your listing will perform better than your competitors down the street.
• Website Video - Video has become vital for auto dealer websites. We'll show you how to take advantage of video if you're not using it, and how to get an extra boost from video if you've already got it on your site.
• Social Media - We give you a checklist that shows how to use Facebook and Twitter correctly (most dealers are doing it wrong), and we'll show you how to take advantage of the growing power of Foursquare. We also provide tips on how to track your various social media properties with one easy-to-use free application.
• QR Codes - We'll walk you through the steps for creating trackable QR codes that you can use to digitize all non-digital media. Now, you'll be able to track actual conversions from newspaper ads and any other print media your dealership uses.
• Reporting and Pricing - Amazingly enough, there are still a ton of dealers out there who are using "gut feelings" to price their vehicles or to figure out what to buy at auction. We show you how to use pricing tools to pick what really works for your dealership, and how to stay on top of your prices using reports and analytics so you'll turn vehicles faster, for higher profits.

Even if you think you're ahead of the game and your dealership's Internet marketing efforts are blowing your competition away, you should download the checklist - you'll be sure to find a few tips you didn't know about.

Other vendors think we're crazy for giving this info away for free... but we think it's basic information that every dealer should know.

The US auto dealer market is fiercely competitive... so we've put this checklist together to help your dealership succeed! Our free Internet Marketing Checklist is full of tips and action items that you can use to help make yourself a better digital marketer. It's clearly written and easy to follow, so you can implement the tips without having to spend a ton of time on them. It's broken up into several sections, so you can implement the different sections as time allows.

Here's what's inside:

• On-page Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your dealer website - We'll walk you through several elements that you can update yourself (without relying on your provider to make the changes) that can have a positive effect on your rankings in the search engines.
• Mobile Dealer Website - 88% of US mobile phone users are more likely to buy from a dealer who has a mobile website. We'll walk you through the 7 important factors that your mobile website MUST have to be competitive in the mobile website arena.
• Local Search - Local results are becoming increasingly important in the search engine results pages. We'll show you how to claim your Google Places listing and then optimize it so your listing will perform better than your competitors down the street.
• Website Video - Video has become vital for auto dealer websites. We'll show you how to take advantage of video if you're not using it, and how to get an extra boost from video if you've already got it on your site.
• Social Media - We give you a checklist that shows how to use Facebook and Twitter correctly (most dealers are doing it wrong), and we'll show you how to take advantage of the growing power of Foursquare. We also provide tips on how to track your various social media properties with one easy-to-use free application.
• QR Codes - We'll walk you through the steps for creating trackable QR codes that you can use to digitize all non-digital media. Now, you'll be able to track actual conversions from newspaper ads and any other print media your dealership uses.
• Reporting and Pricing - Amazingly enough, there are still a ton of dealers out there who are using "gut feelings" to price their vehicles or to figure out what to buy at auction. We show you how to use pricing tools to pick what really works for your dealership, and how to stay on top of your prices using reports and analytics so you'll turn vehicles faster, for higher profits.

Even if you think you're ahead of the game and your dealership's Internet marketing efforts are blowing your competition away, you should download the checklist - you'll be sure to find a few tips you didn't know about.

We work with multiple dealer groups, and they all have their own preferences on how inventory and leads are routed.  Some have 2 OEM flags under 1 roof and share a DMS, others have multiple rooftops and 1 pre-owned lot with each running their own DMS, and some even have multiple pre-owned lots with one OEM rooftop.  The point is that the multiple rooftop configurations of dealer groups have no end.

Just recently, we brought on a new franchise OEM dealer group that had 2 OEM rooftops and 1 pre-owned rooftop.  Simple enough, right?  Here was the rub:  The pre-owned lot was 40 miles away from the OEM rooftops, they had 1 dealer group website that only displayed phone number and contacts for the new car stores, and all new car and pre-owned car leads went to the new car sales reps!  You see where this is going…

New car sales reps were selling the pre-owned vehicles on a lot 40 miles away to leads that came through the dealership’s website.  Consequently, the pre-owned sales reps only handled walk-ins and phone ups (that didn’t call the phone number on the website).  The Pre-Owned Manager had talked with the General Manager on several occasions about this issue, but the answer was always “I don’t care who sells the car, as long as the car is sold.” When we brought them on board, the 4 pre-owned sales reps were ready to bolt…

Not only is this a morale killer for the pre-owned sales reps to have their inventory sold out from under them to their own leads, but it was extremely inefficient for customers as well.  When a customer would call in asking about a pre-owned vehicle, the new car sales rep hasn’t even seen the vehicle, so he has to look it up.   The rep then informs the customer that he can show the vehicle but it is 40 miles away (or that he can show the vehicle at a later time, when someone’s had enough time to drive over and bring the vehicle back to the new car lot).  Really?  What if a customer just walks on the lot looking for the pre-owned vehicle they saw on the website?  I couldn’t imagine running a dealership group in this way.

To make a long story short, we had conversations with the GM of the new dealership and convinced him that new car leads should be routed to new car sales reps and pre-owned leads should be routed to pre-owned sales reps, no matter what channel the customer came in through.

There is definitely power in a dealer group’s online presence, but our clients need to understand the fundamental foundation of the online display of their group brand online.

So, I wanted to list 5 fundamentals of a dealer group website:

1. Home page – Home pages are intended to cast a broad digital marketing net.  You do not know what the consumer is coming to your homepage to find, so you should have every department represented. We believe the pre-owned inventory on a dealer group’s home page should get top left screen real estate.  Top left is the hottest visual section of an online display.  Consumers are drawn to your dealer group pre-owned inventory because of the large selection.  Let them search all pre-owned inventory regardless of location.  Don’t make them go to each location’s website to find their desired vehicle.On the new car side, consumers are coming to your website to look at a specific brand, so having new inventory separated by brand makes a lot of sense.
2. Inventory list - Enabling the search of all pre-owned inventory from one list is key.  You can either separate the inventory list by location, or once the customer is on the vehicle details page, the location can be displayed.
3. Search, Filter, and Sort – Does your dealer website have the “old school” search? Usability of this old school search functionality is poor at best.  Words that come to mind are clunky, frustrating, and unintuitive; especially if your customers are searching large sets of inventory.  Dealer groups should be using the modern user-friendly search filters that are available from the advanced website providers.  Google-style search boxes are key as well.  Many customers, especially ones who are later in the buying cycle, will prefer to just type in what they’re looking for.
4. Vehicle Details Page - Once a consumer lands on a vehicle, the contact phone number (and in some cases, the actual sales rep’s name) must be displayed.  The provider’s system must be able to display phone numbers by location and by vehicle.
5. Lead routing by location -When a lead is submitted through your dealer website, is it routed to the correct location or does it go to the Internet ringmaster who “passes out the leads”?  Please – stop the one-person-passing-out-leads business.  It doesn’t scale, it’s a single point of failure, and it causes constant conflict among teams.  Route the lead directly to the location and representative that is vested in responding to that lead.

Does your dealer website have these 5 fundamentals in place?

Skip the internal conflict over who can steal cars out from under another group location.  If a sister store has an existing client interested in inventory on another location’s lot, that’s different than routing pre-owned leads to the new car location.  Dealer group websites are a vital piece of the marketing puzzle, but nothing is going to fit together correctly unless the vehicles are clearly assigned to the correct physical location.

We work with multiple dealer groups, and they all have their own preferences on how inventory and leads are routed.  Some have 2 OEM flags under 1 roof and share a DMS, others have multiple rooftops and 1 pre-owned lot with each running their own DMS, and some even have multiple pre-owned lots with one OEM rooftop.  The point is that the multiple rooftop configurations of dealer groups have no end.

Just recently, we brought on a new franchise OEM dealer group that had 2 OEM rooftops and 1 pre-owned rooftop.  Simple enough, right?  Here was the rub:  The pre-owned lot was 40 miles away from the OEM rooftops, they had 1 dealer group website that only displayed phone number and contacts for the new car stores, and all new car and pre-owned car leads went to the new car sales reps!  You see where this is going…

New car sales reps were selling the pre-owned vehicles on a lot 40 miles away to leads that came through the dealership’s website.  Consequently, the pre-owned sales reps only handled walk-ins and phone ups (that didn’t call the phone number on the website).  The Pre-Owned Manager had talked with the General Manager on several occasions about this issue, but the answer was always “I don’t care who sells the car, as long as the car is sold.” When we brought them on board, the 4 pre-owned sales reps were ready to bolt…

Not only is this a morale killer for the pre-owned sales reps to have their inventory sold out from under them to their own leads, but it was extremely inefficient for customers as well.  When a customer would call in asking about a pre-owned vehicle, the new car sales rep hasn’t even seen the vehicle, so he has to look it up.   The rep then informs the customer that he can show the vehicle but it is 40 miles away (or that he can show the vehicle at a later time, when someone’s had enough time to drive over and bring the vehicle back to the new car lot).  Really?  What if a customer just walks on the lot looking for the pre-owned vehicle they saw on the website?  I couldn’t imagine running a dealership group in this way.

To make a long story short, we had conversations with the GM of the new dealership and convinced him that new car leads should be routed to new car sales reps and pre-owned leads should be routed to pre-owned sales reps, no matter what channel the customer came in through.

There is definitely power in a dealer group’s online presence, but our clients need to understand the fundamental foundation of the online display of their group brand online.

So, I wanted to list 5 fundamentals of a dealer group website:

1. Home page – Home pages are intended to cast a broad digital marketing net.  You do not know what the consumer is coming to your homepage to find, so you should have every department represented. We believe the pre-owned inventory on a dealer group’s home page should get top left screen real estate.  Top left is the hottest visual section of an online display.  Consumers are drawn to your dealer group pre-owned inventory because of the large selection.  Let them search all pre-owned inventory regardless of location.  Don’t make them go to each location’s website to find their desired vehicle.On the new car side, consumers are coming to your website to look at a specific brand, so having new inventory separated by brand makes a lot of sense.
2. Inventory list - Enabling the search of all pre-owned inventory from one list is key.  You can either separate the inventory list by location, or once the customer is on the vehicle details page, the location can be displayed.
3. Search, Filter, and Sort – Does your dealer website have the “old school” search? Usability of this old school search functionality is poor at best.  Words that come to mind are clunky, frustrating, and unintuitive; especially if your customers are searching large sets of inventory.  Dealer groups should be using the modern user-friendly search filters that are available from the advanced website providers.  Google-style search boxes are key as well.  Many customers, especially ones who are later in the buying cycle, will prefer to just type in what they’re looking for.
4. Vehicle Details Page - Once a consumer lands on a vehicle, the contact phone number (and in some cases, the actual sales rep’s name) must be displayed.  The provider’s system must be able to display phone numbers by location and by vehicle.
5. Lead routing by location -When a lead is submitted through your dealer website, is it routed to the correct location or does it go to the Internet ringmaster who “passes out the leads”?  Please – stop the one-person-passing-out-leads business.  It doesn’t scale, it’s a single point of failure, and it causes constant conflict among teams.  Route the lead directly to the location and representative that is vested in responding to that lead.

Does your dealer website have these 5 fundamentals in place?

Skip the internal conflict over who can steal cars out from under another group location.  If a sister store has an existing client interested in inventory on another location’s lot, that’s different than routing pre-owned leads to the new car location.  Dealer group websites are a vital piece of the marketing puzzle, but nothing is going to fit together correctly unless the vehicles are clearly assigned to the correct physical location.

(written by AutoRevo CEO Chad Polk)

Invest in mobile and be ready for your shoppers

If you haven’t yet heard of the 3-screen lifestyle, you’ll soon become very aware of it.  It’s the ever-growing lifestyle of consumers with a TV, Computer, and now s Smartphone.  Modern marketers are finding creative ways to reach these consumers who are riding the growing wave of always on instant availability.  Recent research finds that U.S. mobile Internet users are engaging in shopping-related activities at a rate that exceeds desktop usage.

Any way you look at mobile, it is transforming the way your customers shop and interact with your dealership.  Dealerships that are not investing in mobile shopping technology are at risk of getting left behind.  The good news for mobile initiative dealers is that mobile-optimized websites can raise engagement as much as 85%.

This isn’t meant to scare anyone.  Mobile websites are just another marketing channel to reach prospective customers.  What better gift could a customer give you than to have your dealership available in their pocket 24/7? You’re probably a smartphone user, right?  At any given time, how far away is your phone?  Personally, I know the farthest my phone ever gets from me is my nightstand.

In a recent study done by Adobe, I found some statistics that will get your attention:

• 53% of mobile shoppers rated product and pricing information as most important
• 66% of mobile shoppers prefer shopping via mobile browser vs. in an app
• 46% of first time mobile shoppers access a retailer’s site is by typing the website into the browser
• For consumer researching and browsing product information, 81% prefer mobile browser and 19% prefer mobile app
• 71% of consumers prefer a mobile browser over a mobile app when comparing products and prices.
• 53% of consumers spend 1-5 hours per week shopping mobile websites

Auto dealers have gone through the TV phase, are living in the computer phase, and have now been given a new frontier for marketing: the smartphone era.  For dealers, mobile can be a highly influential marketing channel.  For automotive retailers, it provides the unprecedented immediacy of shopping your store when the need strikes the consumer.  Think of mobile not strictly as a purchase channel, but more as a marketing channel to drive consumers to an action (lead conversion) and to serve them information whenever they’re ready to buy.

Mobile shopping is still in its early days, but auto dealers absolutely need a mobile presence to begin testing and measuring what works for their store, clients, and region.  Mobile will continue to evolve as user experiences catch up to the fast pace of smartphone technology.

So, you ask, “What should I consider when setting up my mobile website?”  Here’s a list of 5 areas to consider when you’re getting started with mobile (or to evaluate your current mobile site).

1. Minimalist approach to the user interface (UI), with a focus on uncluttered shopping experience.  An example of poor UI would be putting too much information on the inventory list.
2. Your mobile website must convert leads.  Do you have consistent easy-to-navigate lead forms, touch-to-call, or SMS functionality?
3. High quality imagery.  Touch screen smart phones have made incredible strides in displays.  Does your mobile website deliver rich media to the mobile browser?
4. Deep product details.  There are several great ways to display as much vehicle data on a smartphone screen as there is on desktop browsers.  Provide your consumers with as much information as you do on the desktop.
5. Robust search.  Searching, sorting, and filtering inventory could not be more important on a mobile website.  Customers are usually looking for a finite inventory set or a specific vehicle when searching on mobile.

Google recently stated that mobile searches have increased by 500% from 2008 to 2010, and according to recent projections published by Nielson Co., 1 in 2 Americans will own a smartphone by the end of 2011. It’s time to take notice that the “must have a website” era in our industry has now become the “must have a mobile website” era! 

(source: Adobe Scene7 Mobile Commerce Survey: Mobile Shopper Insights for 2011)

(written by AutoRevo CEO Chad Polk)

Invest in mobile and be ready for your shoppers

If you haven’t yet heard of the 3-screen lifestyle, you’ll soon become very aware of it.  It’s the ever-growing lifestyle of consumers with a TV, Computer, and now s Smartphone.  Modern marketers are finding creative ways to reach these consumers who are riding the growing wave of always on instant availability.  Recent research finds that U.S. mobile Internet users are engaging in shopping-related activities at a rate that exceeds desktop usage.

Any way you look at mobile, it is transforming the way your customers shop and interact with your dealership.  Dealerships that are not investing in mobile shopping technology are at risk of getting left behind.  The good news for mobile initiative dealers is that mobile-optimized websites can raise engagement as much as 85%.

This isn’t meant to scare anyone.  Mobile websites are just another marketing channel to reach prospective customers.  What better gift could a customer give you than to have your dealership available in their pocket 24/7? You’re probably a smartphone user, right?  At any given time, how far away is your phone?  Personally, I know the farthest my phone ever gets from me is my nightstand.

In a recent study done by Adobe, I found some statistics that will get your attention:

• 53% of mobile shoppers rated product and pricing information as most important
• 66% of mobile shoppers prefer shopping via mobile browser vs. in an app
• 46% of first time mobile shoppers access a retailer’s site is by typing the website into the browser
• For consumer researching and browsing product information, 81% prefer mobile browser and 19% prefer mobile app
• 71% of consumers prefer a mobile browser over a mobile app when comparing products and prices.
• 53% of consumers spend 1-5 hours per week shopping mobile websites

Auto dealers have gone through the TV phase, are living in the computer phase, and have now been given a new frontier for marketing: the smartphone era.  For dealers, mobile can be a highly influential marketing channel.  For automotive retailers, it provides the unprecedented immediacy of shopping your store when the need strikes the consumer.  Think of mobile not strictly as a purchase channel, but more as a marketing channel to drive consumers to an action (lead conversion) and to serve them information whenever they’re ready to buy.

Mobile shopping is still in its early days, but auto dealers absolutely need a mobile presence to begin testing and measuring what works for their store, clients, and region.  Mobile will continue to evolve as user experiences catch up to the fast pace of smartphone technology.

So, you ask, “What should I consider when setting up my mobile website?”  Here’s a list of 5 areas to consider when you’re getting started with mobile (or to evaluate your current mobile site).

1. Minimalist approach to the user interface (UI), with a focus on uncluttered shopping experience.  An example of poor UI would be putting too much information on the inventory list.
2. Your mobile website must convert leads.  Do you have consistent easy-to-navigate lead forms, touch-to-call, or SMS functionality?
3. High quality imagery.  Touch screen smart phones have made incredible strides in displays.  Does your mobile website deliver rich media to the mobile browser?
4. Deep product details.  There are several great ways to display as much vehicle data on a smartphone screen as there is on desktop browsers.  Provide your consumers with as much information as you do on the desktop.
5. Robust search.  Searching, sorting, and filtering inventory could not be more important on a mobile website.  Customers are usually looking for a finite inventory set or a specific vehicle when searching on mobile.

Google recently stated that mobile searches have increased by 500% from 2008 to 2010, and according to recent projections published by Nielson Co., 1 in 2 Americans will own a smartphone by the end of 2011. It’s time to take notice that the “must have a website” era in our industry has now become the “must have a mobile website” era! 

(source: Adobe Scene7 Mobile Commerce Survey: Mobile Shopper Insights for 2011)