It’s make-or-break time for automotive retailers. U.S. automakers reported that the average selling price of a new car is increasing based on August auto sales, but the demand for passenger cars is dropping, and as the industry approaches the fourth quarter, clouds are on the horizon in the form of expected higher interest rates and the threat of tariffs on auto imports.[i] As auto manufacturers roll out their 2019 models in coming weeks, dealerships can end the year strong nevertheless by making your inventory shine. Here are a few ways:

Maximize the Value of Your Online Inventory

With digital being an integral part of the car shopper’s research, dealerships need to ensure that your digital vehicle detail pages (VDPs) on sites such as Cars.com tell the full story of your 2019 models. VDPs free dealerships from the constraints of a 30-second voiceover or column inches. Advertisers can ensure that their seller notes and feature listings paint the story of how each trim and style level differs, along with what aftermarket additions make the vehicle unique. The digital VDP is a competitive asset that drives customers to the lot. But like all assets, it requires care and feeding to bear fruit. In the age of Instagram and YouTube, your VDP needs to feature striking visuals (not boring stock photos) and video. Make sure the unique features of the car, whether they be a lift kit or chrome finish handles, appear early enough in the photo order to be featured in a stitch video. Impactful photos paired with well-written content that sells the vehicle — instead of listing features like a catalog — can really make the difference. Don’t count on your manufacturer alone to tell the story of the new model year: highlight key differences from the 2018s for the enthusiast buyer, while ensuring the best features stand out clearly for first-time new car shoppers.

Maximize the Power of Reviews

Our own research shows that about eight out of 10 shoppers rely on online reviews to purchase a car[ii]. Manage reviews of your vehicles carefully. Ask customers to review your inventory and use tools such as LotShots from DealerRater to make it easier for customers to post photos and reviews of their cars. Follow reviews from third-party sites such as Cars.com and share them on your site. (On Cars.com, we’re reviewing 2019 models via objective research.) You can leverage expert reviews to ensure the consumer feels comfortable on being an early adopter for the 2019 models, and dealer reviews to ensure the trust to buy from you and not visit a competitor.

Capture High-Quality Leads

Capitalize on every opportunity to attract high-quality leads. Of course, not all leads are the same. As we discussed in The Cars.com Guide to Converting Leads to Sales in the Digital Era, internet leads need to be treated differently than phone leads. With internet leads, dealers have access to tools that capture and direct online activity such as searches to qualified leads. For instance, the Cars.com NewLeadsPlus product connects you with ready-to-buy, new-car shoppers using top search engines and automotive destination websites on whatever device they choose — computer, tablet or smartphone. You can learn more about our NewLeadsPlus offering here.

In addition, it’s always a good practice to maximize the value of your digital brand to achieve maximum visibility, such as ensuring that you’re combining paid and organic media where shoppers are looking for you. I commented on these tactics in a recent post about Labor Day car sales – but they apply all-year round, too. (Go here for more.) Contact your Cars.com sales representative to learn more.

Is your digital brand ready for Labor Day weekend?

This year’s Labor Day sales might attract more shoppers than usual if the threat of auto tariffs creates a spike in searches for new cars to buy.1 As shoppers gear up for the big weekend, they’re visiting nearly 20 digital touchpoints,From Clicks to Sales: How Auto Leads Move through the Digital Car Sales Funnel,” May 9, 2017." title="">2 such as your website, digital ads, and third-party sites. Here are three simple steps to take to increase the chance that they will find you throughout their journey:

1) Do a Gut Check with Your Content and Data

First off, get the basics right: review all the touchpoints you manage, such as your website, Google My Business page, and Facebook page. Do a thorough audit, covering some essential requirements such as:

- Do you have the right data, such as accurate hours, location, and contact information? If you were a customer, could you easily find your dealership using your own location data?

- Does your content play up your Labor Day sale? Have you optimized your content for people searching for Labor Day car sales?

- Does your visual content make your Labor Day inventory shine? Are all your photos stellar, making your location look like a place people would want to visit?

- Do you have clear calls to action encouraging people to stop by your dealership?

 2) Rock Your Facebook Presence

Facebook has become a more popular destination for auto shoppers, with millions of Americans using Facebook Marketplace each day to look for cars.3 Here are the best ways to capitalize on Facebook ahead of Labor Day:

- Ensure that your inventory is findable on Facebook Marketplace. Tools such as Cars.com’s Social Sales Drive can help you by sharing your inventory on Marketplace and making it easy for shoppers to contact you via chat.

- Advertise, both inside Marketplace and across Facebook generally. Ads inside Marketplace will reach an audience with stronger purchase intent. Advertising on Facebook beyond Marketplace will reach a larger audience, and tools such as Cars Socialwill help you target your ads by sharing them with shoppers who have visited Cars.com and searched for vehicles.

- Prepare your dealership’s Facebook page. As noted above, make sure your content plays up your Labor Day sale. Update your photo gallery to make sure your Labor Day specials shine. If you are a DealerRater Connections customer, you can leverage LotShot® to load your business page with photos of happy customers. Also, be sure your contact information and hours are up to date on your business page before the sales weekend begins.

3) Empower Your People

Don’t underestimate the power of your own employees to bring in customers. A few tips include:

- Make sure your salespersons’ information is up to date both on your “About Us” page and also on your review pages.

- Create brief welcome videos for your most visible brand ambassadors and post them where your customers are, such as your Facebook page. You can create a 30-second video with a decent mobile device and upload it quickly so long as you think through your message and get the basic production values right.

- Encourage your team to mention your Labor Day sales on their personal socials. (The key is to ask, not mandate.) Employees also appreciate being given tips for what to say in their posts.

By combining paid and organic tactics such as these, you’ll be ready to capture your share of shoppers during their journey to the lot on Labor Day Weekend.

1. CBS News, “As Auto Tariffs Loom, Is Now the Time to Buy a New Car?” July 27, 2018.

2. 9Clouds, “From Clicks to Sales: How Auto Leads Move through the Digital Car Sales Funnel,” May 9, 2017.

3. Facebook, “Marketplace Adds More Options For US Car Shoppers,” October 26, 2017.

Facebook has always been a platform for auto dealerships to raise awareness through advertising and to create customer engagement through the dealership’s Facebook page. It’s also becoming a stronger platform for customer acquisition, and the growth of Facebook Marketplace is one big reason why.

The Evolution of Marketplace

Facebook launched Marketplace back in 2007 to give people a platform to advertise job listings and houses for sale, similar to Craigslist. For seven years, Facebook kept Marketplace open until closing it down in 2014. In 2016, Facebook reintroduced Marketplace with a new focus: buying and selling locally. The feature quickly gained a reputation for being a massive garage sale, positioning Facebook as a competitor to sites such as eBay and NextDoor. Within a few years,  550 million people across 51 countries were using Marketplace each month (compared to 55 million people who visit Craigslist monthly).[i]

As it turns out, that activity included a healthy amount of automotive shopping. As Facebook Product Manager Bowen Pan told CBT News, “We noticed that autos is one of the most popular categories on Marketplace with millions of Americans looking at cars and vehicle listings every day.”

People were not necessarily conducting general searches on Facebook – but Facebook noticed that they’d been searching within smaller special interest groups. The relaunch of Marketplace capitalized on those narrower searches occurring in Facebook groups.

An Opportunity for Dealerships

Facebook saw an opportunity: make Marketplace an attractive destination for dealerships. So in October 2017, Facebook announced a collaboration with Cars.com and other third-party marketplaces to list their inventory on Facebook Marketplace as part of an effort to make Marketplace a destination for consumers to find vehicles from dealerships. Facebook also improved its search filters to help shoppers do more intelligent local searches for vehicles and dealerships nearby.

The relationship with Cars.com provided Facebook a number of important benefits. For starters, Facebook could not make Marketplace a magnet for car shoppers without Cars.com’s deep relationships with dealerships. Those relationships gave Facebook a way to vet dealerships’ inventory for listing on Marketplace. In due course, the partnership began to pay off, resulting in a 27-percent increase in consumer connections with Cars.com dealers to date.[ii]

Facebook and Cars.com Strengthen Marketplace for Dealerships

Since then, both Facebook and Cars.com have made some major moves to make Marketplace a stronger destination for automotive shoppers and sellers. On June 4, Facebook announced that businesses can advertise on Marketplace, thus turning Marketplace into a platform for businesses, including automotive retailers, to leverage one of Facebook’s traditional strengths, its advertising tools. Facebook Marketplace advertising reaches a smaller audience than general Facebook advertising, but that audience likely has stronger purchase intent.

In addition, Cars.com has launched a new product, Social Sales Drive™, that is helping dealerships connect more effectively with people on Marketplace. The launch of Social Sales Drive is part of a broader initiative that strengthens Cars.com’s position as the leader in automotive industry social selling.

Social Sales Drive uses proprietary artificial intelligence chatbot technology to power conversations with consumers and capitalize on off-hour shopping via Facebook Messenger. The product addresses a previously unmet need: it’s not always been easy for dealerships to communicate with potential customers on Facebook via Messenger. Social Sales Drive’s chat functionality addresses this need by managing queries from shoppers after they find a dealership’s vehicle on Marketplace. Here’s how the product works:

• Cars.com feeds a dealership’s used car inventory to Facebook Marketplace.

• A consumer visits Marketplace and searches for a car.

• The shopper reaches out to the dealership via Facebook Messenger or click-to-call from the vehicle’s VDP.

• “Ana Bot,” a proprietary AI-powered chatbot and 24/7 managed-chat support, gives shoppers real-time answers to their vehicle inquiries. Consequently, dealers do not miss an opportunity to connect with consumers after hours to sell more cars.

The product brings several benefits to dealerships as we discussed in a recent news announcement. For instance, Social Sales Drive extends a dealership’s hours. More than 50 percent of Facebook Marketplace car shoppers are connecting with dealerships during off-hours between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m.[iii] The new tool offers 24/7 managed-chat support, providing consumers with real-time answers to their questions about vehicle.

Early adopters of this new solution are seeing very favorable feedback. For example, Kevin Jamiel, sales manager at Chuck Nicholson Mazda, said,

I’ve wanted to take advantage of Facebook Marketplace for some time, so when Cars.com offered to get all our inventory up and manage chats on our behalf, I was very interested. The managed chat functionality does an amazing job of getting shoppers’ basic information and then handing them off to us, so we don’t have to sit in front of a computer answering Facebook messages all day. We sold 10 cars in the first six weeks using this product. We love it!

Social Sales Drive is one more way Cars.com is extending the value of our two-sided marketplace on to social platforms. It’s the fourth social-media centric product launched by Cars.com in 2018 alone. For example, earlier this year, Cars.com launched Cars Social, an advertising product that enables automotive dealers to reach a new and unique audience of in-market Cars.com shoppers on Facebook and Instagram.

With Marketplace, dealerships are now in a better position to adapt to changing consumer behavior on the world’s largest social network. Facebook is no longer a passive platform for consumers – it’s evolving a stronger way for shoppers to find automotive retailers.

Are you ready?