As we chase customers, we are starting to chase our tails.

Not smarter than the average pup or kitten that wants to catch up to a non-achievable experience. We want leads. We want form fills. And to be fair, unlike our animal brethren we think we know what we would do if we catch one.

However, it’s precisely the behavior that occurs when we land a lead that keeps pushing our customers further and further away. We follow with an instant e-mail which more than likely doesn’t answer the questions the consumer asked. It does, admittedly, stop the clock.

Then we follow with another e-mail from a BDC rep that’s a 50-50 jump ball on whether or not we answer the consumer's actual question. And then we just want to get the customer in. Don’t worry about the price—"We never lose a deal to price.”—or so the story goes.

In most cases, the consumer is accustomed to hitting submit and having Uber arrive 5 minutes later, or having Door Dash drop food off an hour later. Push the submit button on Amazon and the transaction is finalized with a clean receipt and an estimated time of arrival. Hit another app and you have your Fantasy Football score with a live feed of the game.

Is it any wonder consumers struggle with our clunky configurations of pricing, trade valuations, service schedulers, model types, and accessory additions?

The digital retailing technology is there, we just have to stop chasing our tails.

On a recent trip to NYC, I noticed Facebook had a Times Square advertisement—with an estimated annual cost of $1.5 million--that really wasn’t all that much about Facebook.

For a company with a market cap of well over $500 billion, it’s not a huge number, but not insignificant either.  

While intriguing financially, the real piece to consider is the strategy. It’s worth noting what a digital company is conveying--on a static billboard of all things--just off the edge of Times Square. 

In an era that will be remembered for how Facebook handles Trust and Privacy issues for their consumers and content creators--one in the same mind you--the answer can be found in Facebook Groups.

The next big thing--no doubt--is Groups. In the concrete jungle of NYC, Facebook advertises for people to join 35k other members in a group called “Big Tree Seekers”.

This move and the corresponding commercials for NYC minded “Dads and Daughters” helps out with the marketing side of privacy issues as people opt-in to different sections of Facebook with other, like-minded people. It helps us “trust” Facebook again in the safety of our carefully selected Groups.

It doesn’t solve for advertisers . . . yet. However, like most things Facebook it will monetize soon enough. So, marketers, agencies and dealers alike get ready, get set, and go ahead and create your Groups. Get people to join them. Then get ready to pay-to-play on the advertising front somewhere down the line.

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1. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/022315/high-cost-advertising-times-square.asp

Turning on and off. Starting and finishing. Each on your own terms. What’s not to like about that?

If you ever wonder where the appeal of Instant Gratification exists in the transportation industry, look no further than Uber. And then wonder whether your sales team would rather drive cars or sell them. How many of the below elements exist in your dealership.

(1)   An ability to turn on or turn off at your whim. Need a little extra cash to put someone through college or to pay for an engagement ring? Turn on your Uber sign. 

(2)   Make what you want. If you want to work all day Saturday and Sunday and in the evening you can. Or get to your hustle early in the morning. How about driving a little each morning or evening before or after you go to your day job?

(3)  You are your own boss. Start and end your day when you want to. Again, turn it on or off when you feel like it.

Despite recent notoriety for a poor culture in their corporate offices, the reality of Uber’s cultural impact is more positively engineered outside of those walls in today’s mainstream society. Uber delivers in an age of Instant Gratification on key freedoms that employees are looking for in today’s Gig Economy.

In this video blog, Jim Flint, CEO, and Founder of Local Search Group discusses the importance of implementing location extensions to advertising campaigns for more traffic.

Let’s cut to the chase. Digital Retailing is the next wave in the evolution of automotive marketing. If you want to get up to speed faster than your competition take to the fast track below for my Top Ten list of Digital Retailing articles. 

10. Dale Pollak’s NADA Day Two View

Dale’s quick take on VDP’s and Digital Retailing? Digital Retailing doesn’t replace VDP’s. Read More

9. Gregory Arroyo’s Take on Digital Retail

Gregory, Senior Manager of Strategic Content for Dealer Socket, deep dives on Digital Dealer and tackles tough issues like --Should I allow customers to self-desk? Read More

8. DDC’s Digital Retailing pitch

It’s a form fill for DDC’s Digital Retailing presentation—nicely done. Read More

7. Bill Wittenmeyer on the Impact of Digital Retailing

A video where Bill, VP of ELEADs CRM, discusses shortening the buying process. Tune to  6:52 to catch his smart view to Digital Retailing. Read More

6. Joe Webb’s Lyrical Poem on Digital Retailing

Can you see the “Night Before Christmas” in your mind’s eye as you read this? President of Dealer Knows, Joe, showcases his creative contributions and they are well worth seeing for those in the auto industry. Check out some of his videos here. Moreover, his operational expertise is appreciated by all that know him. 

5. How to Outperform Your Digital Retailing Competition
Tim Cox, Co-Founder at Car Now, and Jim Fitzpatrick, Co-Founder of CBT Automotive News speak to the differences between Digital Retailing “buzzwords” and the actuality of what consumers want. Carvana may hold a few keys. Read More

4. A Pasch-ian Panel

Brian, a huge content contributor in the space, takes to the floor of NADA and leads a thought-provoking panel about Digital Retailing. 

He’s joined by Michael Eggerling, Product Marketer for CDK Global, Amit Chandarana the Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Roadster, and the aforementioned Tim Cox, Co-founder of CarNow. Read More

Check out some of Brian’s additional Digital Retailing insight on his Digital Retailing podcast as well.

3. MIT’s Take on Five Keys to Digital Retailing

An hour-long webinar with a classic academic approach. You wouldn’t expect any less from MIT! Two straightforward takeaways – Use data to measure the processes. Get ready for disruptive technologies. Read More

2. Digital Retailing Grabs Automakers Attention

Automotive News gets in the game via OEM and vendor views. We’re not buying a pair of shoes . . . or so we’re told. Details are delivered as automakers discuss the challenges of ramping into the space with retail partners. Read More

1. Consumer Reactions to Digital Retailing

Denise Chudy, GM for ContactAtOnce, drives the concept of conversational commerce for cars. She may already be at the next level of digital retailing.

Therese Aleman, Sr. Director Marketing, clarifies consumer pain points and paints the picture of the proper path to transaction.

After listening to the dynamic duo, you start (1) thinking like a consumer and (2) wanting to buy your car via a mobile phone.

Hey, there’s a reason it’s number one! Skip at your own risk. Read More

If you like what you see – like it or share this Digital Retailing blog with others.

Before we speak to 20/20 vision, let’s discuss 5 Google Trends for 2019 that have implications for Advertisers, Consumers and Dealers alike.

1.Assisted Experiences

Immersive technologies are starting to integrate. TV’s, OTT, thermostats, fridges and Fit Bits-- work in synch to deliver interesting data points for advertisers like Google. To think most of this intelligence is connected via your Phone—the certain center of the marketing universe is not only scary- it’s exciting.

2.Machine Learning

Humans are still needed, but the iterations and intelligence machine learning provides is remarkably FAST!  We are well past computers that play Chess and now into facial and voice recognition technologies. The detection of diseases is starting to play in this space as algorithms identify common patterns. The same of course holds true for purchasing patterns. There aren’t perfect predictors to speak of, but the iterations will come faster and faster than ever before.

3. Personal Digitization--broad demos and after the click issues

Relevance matters.

If the advertisement doesn’t connect after the click, then we have issues—most notably lower relevance and subsequently higher costs. The experts in advertising understand just how important the after the click experience is for prospective buyers. Building pages that pay off for the consumer will pay off for the advertising agency and their clients.

4.More video than ever before

YouTube continues to deliver better solutions for Video and OTT for advertisers.

People are taking to telling stories via video. While Google may not lead in this space--YouTube (a Google company), SnapChat, Facebook Stories and Instagram TV continue to cater to consumers and play smartly. 

All of these elements are coming into play for consumers to use the ubiquity of their smartphones to share their lives at unprecedented levels. How will advertisers and businesses capitalize?

5.Voice Recognition

Did we mention your phone is with you all the time? Moreover, did you know your phone is listening? Google Home, Alexa and the like are, of course, also listening. These elements will work to serve us with better, more meaningful Ads at just the right time. 

Ready for Voice Search Bidding anyone?

The future is now. 

At Local Search Group, we pride ourselves on knowing that, “We are the now part of a now business.” 

So, let’s take a look behind the curtain of where Google’s going Right Now.

With the mobile phone at the center of the marketing universe, a key goal of progressive automotive entities would be to integrate Five of Google’s “planets” that orbit around the consumer “Sun” via their mobile phone “moon.”

Google Display, Google Search, Google’s YouTube, Google Maps, and Google My Business are platforms that in this case, represent planets. Google then uses these planets to orbit the phone, acting as the main reflective device in which the consumer serves as the center of our economic solar system.

Take a look at the integrated marketing of each of the Google touchpoints and know that it serves to cumulatively drive store traffic. Right now.

Predictively speaking we’re already working on Google’s next level–via predictive voice capabilities. Without knowing more than the market knows, it’s in the works!

The power of the pixel is immeasurable. It’s why CEOs of digital powerhouses are being summoned to testify in Washington, DC.

Congressional testimony aside, companies use pixels to track consumer behavior throughout their web journey in order to understand, advertise and monetize.

Facebook and Google tracking don’t stop with their own sites. They along with AT&T, for example, are along for the ENTIRE consumer journey via smartphones.

Pixels help advertisers reach the people at the right places and at the right times.

It’s one thing to show up on the Google Display network and quite another to show up – specifically so – on the local ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates websites. It’s still another to show up on ESPN.com as well as the local college scoreboard for your customer’s favorite team.

Use the power of the pixel for good via a full disclosure of your use of cookies at your earliest convenience. It will help you be in front of the right people at the right times more frequently.

Change matters. The speed of change matters. Don’t change for change’s sake.  How to sort through it all?

Change matters and can be successfully and intelligently integrated into your lifestyle and work habits by answering three quick questions:

   *Do you know your peak performance times?
   *Are you prototyping for progress?
   *Will you pilot the change?

Knowing your personal peak performance times is HUGE.  You should know this for yourself and your team. You can time your day to optimize your performance and introduce change intelligently to you and your organization. For example, if you know that your least favorite task is number-crunching, do your administrative tasks earlier in the day when you are fresh and less likely to make mistakes.  Daniel Pink has written a wonderful book on the topic, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.

Next, proactively allocate some time, energy and resources to prototyping technologies. Most of the advances in productivity in the last 50 years have come from technological innovation.  What new app or device is out there that can help speed you through your day?

Third, pilot the change. Don’t look to change things for everybody just because you tested that cool new app or you heard a cool, new sound bite at a conference. Slow down to gain speed later, and make sure that the something is scalable and useful beyond just your personal ideation.

Piloting for success requires you to go with one test pilot, and self-pilots don’t count.  That will ensure that you secure the necessary feedback loop to make the change right by the customer or the client. Then add a second. At this point you’ll be much more prepared to scale the change to 10, 100 or even a 1,000 cars or customers.

A decade ago we fought through an economic recession that drove an automotive depression. Dealers across the nation refashioned their business models as Internet departments developed into Internet dealerships.

Much time, energy, and teeth-gnashing abounded as old-school met new-school and an industry that can be decades behind in technology (CRM’s anyone?) came crashing into a brave new world of smart phones and instant information.

Back then dealers moved monies from newspaper and magazines into digital very slowly and very cautiously until they realized it worked. Then the monies moved fast and furious as dealers sought to exploit a competitive, albeit temporary, advantage.

I now hear stories of dealers claiming to be “100% digital.” It’s a good sound bite; however, it may miss the mark.

TV, radio and billboards are critical. Good creative matters. Retail messaging and integrated marketing helps consumers to flip the switch from off to on in the buying cycle.

Working with OEM’s and associations to know where Tier 1 and Tier 2 dollars are being spent can help insure that your advertising dollars are either supplementing or complementing those buys and maximizing your ROI-oriented spend for your makes, your models, and your markets.

At the end of the day, 100% digital does not equal 100% coverage.