Smartphones and Tablets and Laptops, Oh My!

A Virtual Experience

A car shopping journey isn’t simple anymore, and consumers are using more devices and types of technology than ever to make their purchases. That means dealerships are striving to create the best cross-channel experiences for their consumers.

For consumers on car-buying journeys, devices and channels only continue to increase. This makes it more and more difficult to understand what exactly causes a customer to decide to buy from your dealership. While marketing and targeting significantly helps gain and keep customers, even more solutions exist to guide a consumer’s car-shopping journey to your dealership’s path to purchase.

Remember, a buyer’s shopping journey is done primarily online:

• 91% of consumers use a personal computer or laptop for research.
• 80% use their smartphone to shop or research.
• 47% use a tablet to do their shopping research.
• 70% of the buyer’s journey is complete before they even contact you.

If your dealership wants to strengthen its appeal to car shoppers, it’s important to take a buyer’s entire journey with them, and the best way to do that in today’s online research and shopping world is to reach out to shoppers—before they’ve reached out to you—through efficient, fast, multiple-device-friendly online outlets.

It’s a Winding Trail Toward Making a Purchase

A buyer’s shopping journey has several steps, or lifecycles, and it’s important your dealership is able to identify which part of the journey a buyer is in and use the correct approach. This way your dealership has the ability to approach a buyer before he or she even realizes your dealership has the solution to that’s being searched for.

Here are a few simple ways to appeal to the majority of consumers who are wrapped up in the cross-device shopping journey:

Be mobile-friendly. First and foremost, it’s key to make your website mobile-friendly and viewable on any and every device and browser. It’s also vital that your site loads quickly, or it will lose consumers even faster:

• 67% of consumers move between devices when they’re shopping online.
• 2 out of 3 smartphone users say mobile-friendly sites make them more likely to buy a business’s products or services.
• Sites with a response time of 1-5 seconds cause users to feel unsure and become distracted.

Reach out to consumers before they reach out to you. Make sure your general brand and your brand advocates are working for you. When branding is working well, consumers who are in market can easily run across your dealership and your website online during their research stage.

Know who’s really still car shopping. If you have the technology that provides you with the down-low on who’s looking for a vehicle, even if they haven’t reached out to you or are marked as an inactive lead in your CRM, it can help your dealership gain back the customers who would’ve fallen by the wayside otherwise.

Keep content flowing on a consistent schedule. Consumers like consistency. 61% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that delivers customized, real-time content. It makes them feel like they can count on you and trust your brand. It’s also key to make sure your content is helpful to consumers and that you’re not advertising throughout your content, aside from a call-to-action at the end. This will ensure your consumers continue reading your content and come back for more on a regular basis.

Interact. Today’s consumers love to interact. Make sure you’re responding online, whether that be via email, Facebook comments, reviews, or otherwise.

Be available online. Make sure your dealership knows where the majority of its consumers lurk. It’s generally beneficial to create accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn along with a blog to accompany your website. All of the social media sites listed are mobile-friendly, as well, which is great for your brand. Other social media platforms that are helpful to utilize include Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, Periscope, Flickr, and Tumblr.

To appeal to modern consumers, who are always switching between devices and do the majority of their shopping and research online, it’s important to make your dealership’s brand and website available to them via several outlets. Bridging the gap between your consumer and your dealership as quickly, efficiently, and readily as possible is the best way to ensure more customers choose your dealership.

The second image used in this post was provided by freedigitalphotos.net.

Smartphones and Tablets and Laptops, Oh My!

A Virtual Experience

A car shopping journey isn’t simple anymore, and consumers are using more devices and types of technology than ever to make their purchases. That means dealerships are striving to create the best cross-channel experiences for their consumers.

For consumers on car-buying journeys, devices and channels only continue to increase. This makes it more and more difficult to understand what exactly causes a customer to decide to buy from your dealership. While marketing and targeting significantly helps gain and keep customers, even more solutions exist to guide a consumer’s car-shopping journey to your dealership’s path to purchase.

Remember, a buyer’s shopping journey is done primarily online:

• 91% of consumers use a personal computer or laptop for research.
• 80% use their smartphone to shop or research.
• 47% use a tablet to do their shopping research.
• 70% of the buyer’s journey is complete before they even contact you.

If your dealership wants to strengthen its appeal to car shoppers, it’s important to take a buyer’s entire journey with them, and the best way to do that in today’s online research and shopping world is to reach out to shoppers—before they’ve reached out to you—through efficient, fast, multiple-device-friendly online outlets.

It’s a Winding Trail Toward Making a Purchase

A buyer’s shopping journey has several steps, or lifecycles, and it’s important your dealership is able to identify which part of the journey a buyer is in and use the correct approach. This way your dealership has the ability to approach a buyer before he or she even realizes your dealership has the solution to that’s being searched for.

Here are a few simple ways to appeal to the majority of consumers who are wrapped up in the cross-device shopping journey:

Be mobile-friendly. First and foremost, it’s key to make your website mobile-friendly and viewable on any and every device and browser. It’s also vital that your site loads quickly, or it will lose consumers even faster:

• 67% of consumers move between devices when they’re shopping online.
• 2 out of 3 smartphone users say mobile-friendly sites make them more likely to buy a business’s products or services.
• Sites with a response time of 1-5 seconds cause users to feel unsure and become distracted.

Reach out to consumers before they reach out to you. Make sure your general brand and your brand advocates are working for you. When branding is working well, consumers who are in market can easily run across your dealership and your website online during their research stage.

Know who’s really still car shopping. If you have the technology that provides you with the down-low on who’s looking for a vehicle, even if they haven’t reached out to you or are marked as an inactive lead in your CRM, it can help your dealership gain back the customers who would’ve fallen by the wayside otherwise.

Keep content flowing on a consistent schedule. Consumers like consistency. 61% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that delivers customized, real-time content. It makes them feel like they can count on you and trust your brand. It’s also key to make sure your content is helpful to consumers and that you’re not advertising throughout your content, aside from a call-to-action at the end. This will ensure your consumers continue reading your content and come back for more on a regular basis.

Interact. Today’s consumers love to interact. Make sure you’re responding online, whether that be via email, Facebook comments, reviews, or otherwise.

Be available online. Make sure your dealership knows where the majority of its consumers lurk. It’s generally beneficial to create accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn along with a blog to accompany your website. All of the social media sites listed are mobile-friendly, as well, which is great for your brand. Other social media platforms that are helpful to utilize include Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, Periscope, Flickr, and Tumblr.

To appeal to modern consumers, who are always switching between devices and do the majority of their shopping and research online, it’s important to make your dealership’s brand and website available to them via several outlets. Bridging the gap between your consumer and your dealership as quickly, efficiently, and readily as possible is the best way to ensure more customers choose your dealership.

The second image used in this post was provided by freedigitalphotos.net.

News for the Week of November 9

Buyable Pins for Android

While iPhone and iPad users have been enjoying buyable pins, the feature is now being offered to Android users. Pinterest lovers can now shop directly from the app and choose from over 60 million buyable pins. The blue ‘Buy it’ button indicates an item can be easily purchased in-app with only a few taps, and users can shop in confidence knowing Pinterest reviews and approves every seller, so they know they’re buying from trustworthy sources. In addition, Pinterest is introducing the new Pinterest Shop, which offers hand-picked collections that include everything from department store offerings to unique, one-of-a-kind products—all located in a centralized location users can access by tapping the ‘Shop’ icon. Dealerships can explore the advantages of broadening their online platforms and reaching a unique set of online consumers by taking advantage of the benefits offered by using Pinterest. Consider posting pins of your service offers and in-house product offerings to entice online customers to visit and shop at your dealership.

Pinterest Search for Similar Items

Continuing to add features users will love, Pinterest welcomed its newest enhancement, visual search. Now, shoppers can select a specific item pinned on a board and visually search for similar items throughout the site. Adding to its capabilities for users focused on shopping, this opens up a whole new level of possibilities and ideas. Shoppers can simply click the search button and zoom in on items of interest. Additionally, key words can be used to narrow down a specific shopping search. Dealerships should continue to pay attention to added Pinterest features and consider interacting more with users by offering things like oil changes and service offers via the shopping feature. Consumers are continuously looking for new and faster ways to shop and check things off their lists, so get in on the early stages of new technology to be seen as a leader by offering new and easier ways to access dealership offers.

Twitter and Vine Welcome Heart Icons

Gone are the days of stars; users are welcoming hearts in a big way and using them as the common language to signify online likes. Twitter and Vine are the latest to update their like icons and use the heart to indicate user likes. In an effort to make the sites “easier and more rewarding to use,” this change is seen as an expressive, universal symbol that will resonate across all cultures and languages. Dealerships should continue to make their Twitter presence known by providing quality content that educates consumers and links them back to dealership blogs or home pages for even more in-depth information. Consumers will place value on content that is engaging, unique, and full of useful and timely information.

Periscope on Apple TV

The popular live-streaming app is now coming to Apple TV, allowing Periscope users to stream broadcasts directly to consumer homes. Offering a genuine experience of what’s going on with friends, family, and acquaintances in an in-the-moment format, Periscope users can open the app to see a collection of live broadcasts from around the world, send hearts to the broadcaster, and read comments from other users. Once a broadcast ends, Periscope automatically takes users to the next broadcast. Dealerships that are already working to keep customers updated with videos and lot walk-throughs can take advantage of this app as it expands its reach even more. Get creative with your broadcasts and get your message to consumers via their Apple TVs to gain traction with a new and growing audience.

Instagram Curated Content Streams

Similar to Snapchat Live Stories, Instagram has hopped on the bandwagon and introduced its version of curated content streams. Offering curated content for events, like Halloween and other holidays, for example, allows users to select a specific feed, which will offer up videos that stand alone on their phone screens—without the standard border, text description, and Like count that would typically accompany an Instagram post. This will make it easier for users to find some of the most popular Instagram content and view it in a curated stream. Dealerships using Instagram can look forward to a more organized format, allowing users to more easily access content—including video. So keep posting and updating, as Instagram continues to enjoy impressive numbers when it comes to engagement and follower interaction.

Tip of the Week—Variety Is the Spice of Life

Even if you’re a content-creating machine, it’s important to keep in mind your consumers are rapidly taking in many different forms of content every time they access online media—so by changing things up and offering a variety of content options, you’ll be more likely to draw in more people and garner a higher level of interest. Think about the social media platforms available to your dealership today. If you’ve mastered two or three of them, consider adding an additional outlet in order to reach even more people. If you’re great at writing content for your blog, take some additional time to add visuals to up the appeal and reach more online users. Check out some of the following quick tips to help you as you spice things up on your social platforms:

• Offer valuable insights. Continue to offer valuable written insights through your website, blog, and other online platforms and educate consumers on current industry topics in order to position your dealership as a thought leader.
• Create infographics. Infographics are a fun and interesting way to spice up your posts and give readers a memorable visual guide to your topic. While you may not be able to include every in-depth detail in an infographic, hit the highlights and entice consumers to want more and seek out in-depth content via blog and website posts.
• Compile an ebook. Use your resources to offer consumers a compilation of valuable information in a longer ebook format. By creating a downloadable format, you are able to use this as a lead source, gaining valuable information about potential customers as you share information.
• Include customer testimonials. An excellent way to build your credibility, testimonials are a way to give potential customers insight into how previous customers have interacted with your brand.
• Create short video clips. Online consumers are drawn to video, and video advertising will hit somewhere near $7.8 billion this year. Furthermore, in a recent study, while only 14% of consumers remembered the last display ad they’d seen, a whopping 80% were able to recall online video ads that took place within the previous week. This makes video extremely important for your dealership when it comes to connecting with consumers and creating relationships.
• Add photos. Not only are 65% of humans visual learners, but according to eMarketer, 87% of shared Facebook posts contain photos. This is another reason to ensure your dealership is on the bandwagon when it comes to providing visual input for consumers. By offering up inviting visual content, you’ll be satisfying shoppers’ needs to see and more fully understand your products and updates.
• Start a contest. Gamification ranks high with consumers and is generally a successful marketing tactic if you’re looking for enhanced engagement, interaction, and even feedback. When consumers see the payoff that results from gamification, they are more likely to offer up their time, spread the word about your contest, and therefore, boost your dealership’s brand-building efforts.

Today’s consumers are bombarded with online marketing from the second they log on to their devices, so it’s essential you continually offer up content that’s original and helpful in order to catch their attention. By changing things up and offering a variety of formats, you’ll keep consumers on their toes and keep them interested in what you have to say. Be sure to take the time to sit down and devise a content plan that includes a wide range of topics and formats—and you’ll end up with consumers who continuously return to you for trusted updates and industry news.

The image used in this post was provided by freedigitalphotos.net.

News for the Week of November 9

Buyable Pins for Android

While iPhone and iPad users have been enjoying buyable pins, the feature is now being offered to Android users. Pinterest lovers can now shop directly from the app and choose from over 60 million buyable pins. The blue ‘Buy it’ button indicates an item can be easily purchased in-app with only a few taps, and users can shop in confidence knowing Pinterest reviews and approves every seller, so they know they’re buying from trustworthy sources. In addition, Pinterest is introducing the new Pinterest Shop, which offers hand-picked collections that include everything from department store offerings to unique, one-of-a-kind products—all located in a centralized location users can access by tapping the ‘Shop’ icon. Dealerships can explore the advantages of broadening their online platforms and reaching a unique set of online consumers by taking advantage of the benefits offered by using Pinterest. Consider posting pins of your service offers and in-house product offerings to entice online customers to visit and shop at your dealership.

Pinterest Search for Similar Items

Continuing to add features users will love, Pinterest welcomed its newest enhancement, visual search. Now, shoppers can select a specific item pinned on a board and visually search for similar items throughout the site. Adding to its capabilities for users focused on shopping, this opens up a whole new level of possibilities and ideas. Shoppers can simply click the search button and zoom in on items of interest. Additionally, key words can be used to narrow down a specific shopping search. Dealerships should continue to pay attention to added Pinterest features and consider interacting more with users by offering things like oil changes and service offers via the shopping feature. Consumers are continuously looking for new and faster ways to shop and check things off their lists, so get in on the early stages of new technology to be seen as a leader by offering new and easier ways to access dealership offers.

Twitter and Vine Welcome Heart Icons

Gone are the days of stars; users are welcoming hearts in a big way and using them as the common language to signify online likes. Twitter and Vine are the latest to update their like icons and use the heart to indicate user likes. In an effort to make the sites “easier and more rewarding to use,” this change is seen as an expressive, universal symbol that will resonate across all cultures and languages. Dealerships should continue to make their Twitter presence known by providing quality content that educates consumers and links them back to dealership blogs or home pages for even more in-depth information. Consumers will place value on content that is engaging, unique, and full of useful and timely information.

Periscope on Apple TV

The popular live-streaming app is now coming to Apple TV, allowing Periscope users to stream broadcasts directly to consumer homes. Offering a genuine experience of what’s going on with friends, family, and acquaintances in an in-the-moment format, Periscope users can open the app to see a collection of live broadcasts from around the world, send hearts to the broadcaster, and read comments from other users. Once a broadcast ends, Periscope automatically takes users to the next broadcast. Dealerships that are already working to keep customers updated with videos and lot walk-throughs can take advantage of this app as it expands its reach even more. Get creative with your broadcasts and get your message to consumers via their Apple TVs to gain traction with a new and growing audience.

Instagram Curated Content Streams

Similar to Snapchat Live Stories, Instagram has hopped on the bandwagon and introduced its version of curated content streams. Offering curated content for events, like Halloween and other holidays, for example, allows users to select a specific feed, which will offer up videos that stand alone on their phone screens—without the standard border, text description, and Like count that would typically accompany an Instagram post. This will make it easier for users to find some of the most popular Instagram content and view it in a curated stream. Dealerships using Instagram can look forward to a more organized format, allowing users to more easily access content—including video. So keep posting and updating, as Instagram continues to enjoy impressive numbers when it comes to engagement and follower interaction.

Tip of the Week—Variety Is the Spice of Life

Even if you’re a content-creating machine, it’s important to keep in mind your consumers are rapidly taking in many different forms of content every time they access online media—so by changing things up and offering a variety of content options, you’ll be more likely to draw in more people and garner a higher level of interest. Think about the social media platforms available to your dealership today. If you’ve mastered two or three of them, consider adding an additional outlet in order to reach even more people. If you’re great at writing content for your blog, take some additional time to add visuals to up the appeal and reach more online users. Check out some of the following quick tips to help you as you spice things up on your social platforms:

• Offer valuable insights. Continue to offer valuable written insights through your website, blog, and other online platforms and educate consumers on current industry topics in order to position your dealership as a thought leader.
• Create infographics. Infographics are a fun and interesting way to spice up your posts and give readers a memorable visual guide to your topic. While you may not be able to include every in-depth detail in an infographic, hit the highlights and entice consumers to want more and seek out in-depth content via blog and website posts.
• Compile an ebook. Use your resources to offer consumers a compilation of valuable information in a longer ebook format. By creating a downloadable format, you are able to use this as a lead source, gaining valuable information about potential customers as you share information.
• Include customer testimonials. An excellent way to build your credibility, testimonials are a way to give potential customers insight into how previous customers have interacted with your brand.
• Create short video clips. Online consumers are drawn to video, and video advertising will hit somewhere near $7.8 billion this year. Furthermore, in a recent study, while only 14% of consumers remembered the last display ad they’d seen, a whopping 80% were able to recall online video ads that took place within the previous week. This makes video extremely important for your dealership when it comes to connecting with consumers and creating relationships.
• Add photos. Not only are 65% of humans visual learners, but according to eMarketer, 87% of shared Facebook posts contain photos. This is another reason to ensure your dealership is on the bandwagon when it comes to providing visual input for consumers. By offering up inviting visual content, you’ll be satisfying shoppers’ needs to see and more fully understand your products and updates.
• Start a contest. Gamification ranks high with consumers and is generally a successful marketing tactic if you’re looking for enhanced engagement, interaction, and even feedback. When consumers see the payoff that results from gamification, they are more likely to offer up their time, spread the word about your contest, and therefore, boost your dealership’s brand-building efforts.

Today’s consumers are bombarded with online marketing from the second they log on to their devices, so it’s essential you continually offer up content that’s original and helpful in order to catch their attention. By changing things up and offering a variety of formats, you’ll keep consumers on their toes and keep them interested in what you have to say. Be sure to take the time to sit down and devise a content plan that includes a wide range of topics and formats—and you’ll end up with consumers who continuously return to you for trusted updates and industry news.

The image used in this post was provided by freedigitalphotos.net.

Stay Connected to Your Consumers

Are you mobile?

The mobile industry is not just booming; it’s taking over completely.

• 90% of smartphone users are online via their smartphone.
• 88% use social media on their smartphones.
• 80% of consumers use a smartphone to search the internet.
• Nearly 1/3 of consumers use a smartphone to conduct automotive research specifically.
• 63% of shoppers use their mobile devices for research while shopping on an auto lot.

Consumers are also using their smartphones to stay connected in various other, new ways—such as tweeting a pizza emoji to have their favorite pizza delivered to them, using Passbook to replace physical loyalty/credit cards and boarding passes, and controlling various electronics and services simply with an app and touch of their finger. Smartphones are becoming the key to doing just about anything. In short, you want to make sure you’re not missing out on the opportunity to bridge the gap between your consumers via the device that is almost constantly in their hands.

How Are Consumers Connecting With My Dealership?

Consumers are using various platforms and channels to connect with businesses. The options available to them seem never-ending, and because of this, it’s important to know where your audience is connecting. Nine out of ten consumers "almost always" have their mobile devices on them, which makes accessing information, apps, and social media outlets–to connect with you–constant and effortless. Some of the most popular social media outlets your consumers are utilizing day-in and day-out are as follows:

Facebook. Consumers say Facebook is the top tool for customer service. 82% favor Facebook as a social media channel for customer service. (ZDNet)

Twitter. This platform is particularly popular among those who are under 50 and the college-educated. Since 2013, Twitter has had significant increase among its number of users and their diversity. (PewResearchCenter)

LinkedIn. The greatest majority of small business owners agree LinkedIn is the best way to grow your business. It’s also the top channel to distribute content. 91% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to share content. (LinkedIn)

YouTube. 72% of millennials, 58% of Gen X, and 43% of Baby Boomers use YouTube. Over 1 billion people use YouTube in general. (DMR)

Instagram. This platform contains over 300 million monthly active users—many of which use Instagram daily. 51% of Instagram’s audience is male and 49% female. It’s one of the few that currently has predominantly male users. (LinkedIn)

Pinterest. 75% of Pinterest usage takes place on a mobile device, and 93% of Pinterest users shopped online in the past six months. This platform is one of the hottest with shoppers and now even has the ability for its users to take advantage of an in-app purchase button (or buyable pins). (sproutsocial)

Snapchat. This app is purely mobile. It offers short-form video content from major outlets like CNN and ESPN. According to a recent estimate, a random user’s single clip received 25 million views, which is an engagement number any media or marketing department would do just about anything to have. According to FORTUNE, Snapchat is the app to interact on and watch now. (FORTUNE)

How Can I Engage Smartphone Users?

Connect. Throughout this article, words such as “links,” “connect,” and “bridge” appear often for a reason. It’s most important you provide the social media platforms and online foundations for your consumers to connect with you. Beyond your presence online, a key component of connection requires both parties interact. Provide content, respond to reviews and comments, and make sure your dealership’s employees are available online.

Rewards. Loyalty and rewards programs have been around since the early 80s. Currently, with mobile users having the option to control and keep their cards, rewards, programs, etc. with their smartphones, these programs are changing in a big way. This is good news for you; it gives you the chance to be creative and reach consumers in a way that will peak their interest. For example, you can send coupons and deals via text, offer rewards for following, checking-in, or sharing something about your dealership via social media, or shoot out a Snapchat with an expiring deal.

Mobile-friendliness. Perhaps one of the simplest yet most important things to remember can be easily overlooked. Make sure your website and features are mobile-friendly, or users will quickly leave and move to the next competitor.

Enable. Use consumers’ smartphones for good by offering solutions that help them minimize their time, cost, and effort. Your dealership could offer in-store maps, history logs for vehicles customers have viewed, price comparison features, search options for products and vehicles available, or an updating log of all vehicles currently sitting on your lot. The possibilities are endless as long as you’re finding new ways to make shopping fun and easy for your consumers.

Location. Remember to take advantage of local opportunities. Consumers connect to places and are generally even more interested when a business nearby gets involved in their community or offers local perks and partnerships.

Smartphones truly are becoming the strongest, quickest, and most efficient bridge between dealerships and consumers. More people than ever are using smartphones, and mobile is quickly becoming the main source of connection and online usage. Don't forget to make sure your dealership is present and mobile-friendly online and find creative ways to use apps, text, and smartphone features to connect with your audience.

The image used in this post was provided by freedigitalphotos.net.

Stay Connected to Your Consumers

Are you mobile?

The mobile industry is not just booming; it’s taking over completely.

• 90% of smartphone users are online via their smartphone.
• 88% use social media on their smartphones.
• 80% of consumers use a smartphone to search the internet.
• Nearly 1/3 of consumers use a smartphone to conduct automotive research specifically.
• 63% of shoppers use their mobile devices for research while shopping on an auto lot.

Consumers are also using their smartphones to stay connected in various other, new ways—such as tweeting a pizza emoji to have their favorite pizza delivered to them, using Passbook to replace physical loyalty/credit cards and boarding passes, and controlling various electronics and services simply with an app and touch of their finger. Smartphones are becoming the key to doing just about anything. In short, you want to make sure you’re not missing out on the opportunity to bridge the gap between your consumers via the device that is almost constantly in their hands.

How Are Consumers Connecting With My Dealership?

Consumers are using various platforms and channels to connect with businesses. The options available to them seem never-ending, and because of this, it’s important to know where your audience is connecting. Nine out of ten consumers "almost always" have their mobile devices on them, which makes accessing information, apps, and social media outlets–to connect with you–constant and effortless. Some of the most popular social media outlets your consumers are utilizing day-in and day-out are as follows:

Facebook. Consumers say Facebook is the top tool for customer service. 82% favor Facebook as a social media channel for customer service. (ZDNet)

Twitter. This platform is particularly popular among those who are under 50 and the college-educated. Since 2013, Twitter has had significant increase among its number of users and their diversity. (PewResearchCenter)

LinkedIn. The greatest majority of small business owners agree LinkedIn is the best way to grow your business. It’s also the top channel to distribute content. 91% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to share content. (LinkedIn)

YouTube. 72% of millennials, 58% of Gen X, and 43% of Baby Boomers use YouTube. Over 1 billion people use YouTube in general. (DMR)

Instagram. This platform contains over 300 million monthly active users—many of which use Instagram daily. 51% of Instagram’s audience is male and 49% female. It’s one of the few that currently has predominantly male users. (LinkedIn)

Pinterest. 75% of Pinterest usage takes place on a mobile device, and 93% of Pinterest users shopped online in the past six months. This platform is one of the hottest with shoppers and now even has the ability for its users to take advantage of an in-app purchase button (or buyable pins). (sproutsocial)

Snapchat. This app is purely mobile. It offers short-form video content from major outlets like CNN and ESPN. According to a recent estimate, a random user’s single clip received 25 million views, which is an engagement number any media or marketing department would do just about anything to have. According to FORTUNE, Snapchat is the app to interact on and watch now. (FORTUNE)

How Can I Engage Smartphone Users?

Connect. Throughout this article, words such as “links,” “connect,” and “bridge” appear often for a reason. It’s most important you provide the social media platforms and online foundations for your consumers to connect with you. Beyond your presence online, a key component of connection requires both parties interact. Provide content, respond to reviews and comments, and make sure your dealership’s employees are available online.

Rewards. Loyalty and rewards programs have been around since the early 80s. Currently, with mobile users having the option to control and keep their cards, rewards, programs, etc. with their smartphones, these programs are changing in a big way. This is good news for you; it gives you the chance to be creative and reach consumers in a way that will peak their interest. For example, you can send coupons and deals via text, offer rewards for following, checking-in, or sharing something about your dealership via social media, or shoot out a Snapchat with an expiring deal.

Mobile-friendliness. Perhaps one of the simplest yet most important things to remember can be easily overlooked. Make sure your website and features are mobile-friendly, or users will quickly leave and move to the next competitor.

Enable. Use consumers’ smartphones for good by offering solutions that help them minimize their time, cost, and effort. Your dealership could offer in-store maps, history logs for vehicles customers have viewed, price comparison features, search options for products and vehicles available, or an updating log of all vehicles currently sitting on your lot. The possibilities are endless as long as you’re finding new ways to make shopping fun and easy for your consumers.

Location. Remember to take advantage of local opportunities. Consumers connect to places and are generally even more interested when a business nearby gets involved in their community or offers local perks and partnerships.

Smartphones truly are becoming the strongest, quickest, and most efficient bridge between dealerships and consumers. More people than ever are using smartphones, and mobile is quickly becoming the main source of connection and online usage. Don't forget to make sure your dealership is present and mobile-friendly online and find creative ways to use apps, text, and smartphone features to connect with your audience.

The image used in this post was provided by freedigitalphotos.net.

What Is Showrooming?

Showrooming, according to businessdictionary.com, is purchasing an item online, or elsewhere, after looking at and inspecting the item in-store.

In other words, consumers will come into your dealership to look at and test out features, services, tires, upgrades, or vehicles available but then research online and purchase it elsewhere because they’ve found a better deal.

It’s shown that 63% of car shoppers engage in showrooming while physically shopping on your auto lot. And of those shoppers who use their mobile devices while on your lot, 72% are more likely to visit other dealerships, and 62% visit other dealerships within the day.

Here’s what’s persuading car shoppers to visit other dealerships:

• Better prices—57%
• Vehicle available at other dealership(s)—42%
• Ad for nearby dealership—33%
• Better reviews about other dealership or vehicle—24%
• Saw a nearby dealership on a map—22%
• Compared vehicle specs—14%

How Your Dealership Can Dominate Showrooming

Reverse Showrooming. This, also referred to as “webrooming,” is when consumers do their research online and then come into a specific store or dealership to make their purchase due to their research. Many dealerships are now turning the tables and grabbing people via webrooming by appealing to them online and offering the best branding, deals, advocates, and persona marketing to pull in shoppers.

Have Your Salespeople Armed and Ready. Don’t run from showrooming; embrace it. The General Manager of Magic Toyota-Scion in Edmonds, Washington, makes sure each salesperson has an iPad mini in hopes a shopper will bust out a mobile device. This way, each salesperson can sync up with the shoppers to view and compare the competition and modify their sales pitch to focus on how their vehicle, value, deal, and overall offer is better.

Offer a Distraction. An idea that comes from Internet and Marketing Director for Sellers Auto Group is to provide a screen (or screens) to shoppers that informs them about your products and keeps them occupied and off their own devices during downtime in the sales process.

Believe it or not, Snapchat. Several ideas are available to step up your showrooming game when it comes to Snapchat. Its perishable nature is key in helping:

1. Your dealership can use Snapchat to send in-store only coupons with a surprise offer. The snap could be for 10%, 20%, or 100% off an item or service—the amount unknown to the user—and the disappearing nature of the Snapchat requires the user wait to open the snap at your dealership.
2. Start a scavenger hunt on Snapchat by sending snaps of an item or upgrade available hidden at landmarks in the area or noticeable spots around your dealership’s lot.
3. Take advantage of Bluetooth to know when a consumer is within distance of your dealership and send over a snap offer valid for one day only.
4. Lastly, simply snap new arrivals within your dealership or have your customers snap their friends to receive a discount or coupon.

Showrooming may be seen as an unfair advantage to car shoppers on your auto lot, but in reality, advantages are available for your dealership to step up its game and take advantage of showrooming. Instead of fighting it, know it’s not going to go away, embrace it, and use it to your dealership’s advantage.

The image used in this post was provided by freedigitalphotos.net.

What Is Showrooming?

Showrooming, according to businessdictionary.com, is purchasing an item online, or elsewhere, after looking at and inspecting the item in-store.

In other words, consumers will come into your dealership to look at and test out features, services, tires, upgrades, or vehicles available but then research online and purchase it elsewhere because they’ve found a better deal.

It’s shown that 63% of car shoppers engage in showrooming while physically shopping on your auto lot. And of those shoppers who use their mobile devices while on your lot, 72% are more likely to visit other dealerships, and 62% visit other dealerships within the day.

Here’s what’s persuading car shoppers to visit other dealerships:

• Better prices—57%
• Vehicle available at other dealership(s)—42%
• Ad for nearby dealership—33%
• Better reviews about other dealership or vehicle—24%
• Saw a nearby dealership on a map—22%
• Compared vehicle specs—14%

How Your Dealership Can Dominate Showrooming

Reverse Showrooming. This, also referred to as “webrooming,” is when consumers do their research online and then come into a specific store or dealership to make their purchase due to their research. Many dealerships are now turning the tables and grabbing people via webrooming by appealing to them online and offering the best branding, deals, advocates, and persona marketing to pull in shoppers.

Have Your Salespeople Armed and Ready. Don’t run from showrooming; embrace it. The General Manager of Magic Toyota-Scion in Edmonds, Washington, makes sure each salesperson has an iPad mini in hopes a shopper will bust out a mobile device. This way, each salesperson can sync up with the shoppers to view and compare the competition and modify their sales pitch to focus on how their vehicle, value, deal, and overall offer is better.

Offer a Distraction. An idea that comes from Internet and Marketing Director for Sellers Auto Group is to provide a screen (or screens) to shoppers that informs them about your products and keeps them occupied and off their own devices during downtime in the sales process.

Believe it or not, Snapchat. Several ideas are available to step up your showrooming game when it comes to Snapchat. Its perishable nature is key in helping:

1. Your dealership can use Snapchat to send in-store only coupons with a surprise offer. The snap could be for 10%, 20%, or 100% off an item or service—the amount unknown to the user—and the disappearing nature of the Snapchat requires the user wait to open the snap at your dealership.
2. Start a scavenger hunt on Snapchat by sending snaps of an item or upgrade available hidden at landmarks in the area or noticeable spots around your dealership’s lot.
3. Take advantage of Bluetooth to know when a consumer is within distance of your dealership and send over a snap offer valid for one day only.
4. Lastly, simply snap new arrivals within your dealership or have your customers snap their friends to receive a discount or coupon.

Showrooming may be seen as an unfair advantage to car shoppers on your auto lot, but in reality, advantages are available for your dealership to step up its game and take advantage of showrooming. Instead of fighting it, know it’s not going to go away, embrace it, and use it to your dealership’s advantage.

The image used in this post was provided by freedigitalphotos.net.

Personalizing Customer Experience with Intelligent Advertising

Get to Know Your Customer

Consumers put an endless amount of information online about themselves, often daily. However, several marketing strategies don’t use that information to their advantage. If online users are taking the time to educate brands about their behavior, likes, dislikes, wants, habits, etc., it only makes sense that your dealership could filter personable, targeted online messages to fit its consumers and gain more satisfied customers. Recently, Microsoft revealed that 39% of consumers are open to sharing their data with brands in exchange for better experiences. This is great news for your dealership, because it means your marketing strategy doesn’t necessarily have to work harder, just smarter. Consumers want and expect you to take advantage of the data they provide in order to nix the vague, every-man messages and instead, replace them with messages that cater to the consumer and the personal information they’ve made available, whether publicly or specifically to your brand.

Personalization Is Essential

In a 2014 study by Econsultancy and RedEye, it was shown that 95% of global company marketers reported an increase in search engine marketing conversion rates after they began personalization. 32% of those marketers reported the increase as a “major lift.” It is, of course, important to focus on persona basics, but there are also helpful ways to go above and beyond to personalize your consumers’ experience that are simple, out-of-the-box, and beneficial for your dealership, your marketing, and your online presence. Though they may be easy for your dealership to implement, these personalization strategies can have a major impact on your marketing and sales:

Time of day. Pay attention to what time of day your ads and posts get the most interaction, or take advantage of a marketing calendar that tracks your traffic. Posting when your consumers are most active and available online is key to grabbing their attention and personalizing your messages to cater to them, and it takes next to no effort on your part to schedule posts at a specific time. It’s an ideal win-win scenario.

Mobile. It’s important that your marketing and advertising is mobile-friendly because mobile media usage is now significantly higher in 2015, and the majority of consumers use a smartphone to search the internet. Personalize your consumers’ experience and make it effortless for them to view your content and even purchase from their mobile devices.

• Mobile media usage has increased by 51% in 2015.
• 80% of people use a smartphone to search the internet.
• 42% of consumers use their mobile device to do automotive research, specifically.
• 27% of consumers start on your dealership’s website or an automotive branded website to do their research.
• Both men and women spend over 29 hours a month on a mobile app or mobile web.

Be specific. If your consumer has provided specific feedback, reviews, or information to your dealership, use it. Follow up on a review, good or bad, and if it’s a frustrated customer, ask what you can do to help or improve. If a consumer provides you with specific wants or needs in a vehicle, don’t advertise sales or vehicles to them that don’t fit their criteria. Consumers are frustrated with messages that aren’t personalized, so make it a priority to focus on the information available in your consumer messages.

Accessibility. In a 2013 survey done by Google Mobile Planet, data shows that several consumers don’t purchase via smartphone simply because it’s too complicated. However, data shows significantly more consumers use their mobile devices to search. So, there’s obviously a disconnect, and complicated purchases via mobile phone is it. This is where buy buttons come in handy for your dealership—available on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google—to make purchasing what consumers are researching, literally, one click away.

Security. One of the main reasons consumers didn’t purchase an item on a mobile site is simply because they didn’t feel it was secure. Realize that’s a personal complaint from the majority of consumers and put your consumers’ minds at ease in this scenario. It’s so simple yet so paramount to gaining more sales via your site, mobile or otherwise. Use encryption technology, so your consumers can see “https” or a closed padlock displayed in the address bar. It’s also helpful to make your contact information—phone number and address—available up front for people to see or possibly contact to verify your website’s legitimacy. Finally, consider having a privacy statement or security policies listed on your website to further solidify your website’s security for consumers. 

It’s important that your dealership continues to listen to what consumers are saying and that you’re able to personalize your approach to cater to the information consumers provide. Paying attention to the time consumers like to interact, their devices of choice, feedback, ease of access, and promise of privacy are strong yet simple foundational ways to personalize the consumer experience with your dealership online.

The image used in this post was provided by freedigitalphotos.net.

Personalizing Customer Experience with Intelligent Advertising

Get to Know Your Customer

Consumers put an endless amount of information online about themselves, often daily. However, several marketing strategies don’t use that information to their advantage. If online users are taking the time to educate brands about their behavior, likes, dislikes, wants, habits, etc., it only makes sense that your dealership could filter personable, targeted online messages to fit its consumers and gain more satisfied customers. Recently, Microsoft revealed that 39% of consumers are open to sharing their data with brands in exchange for better experiences. This is great news for your dealership, because it means your marketing strategy doesn’t necessarily have to work harder, just smarter. Consumers want and expect you to take advantage of the data they provide in order to nix the vague, every-man messages and instead, replace them with messages that cater to the consumer and the personal information they’ve made available, whether publicly or specifically to your brand.

Personalization Is Essential

In a 2014 study by Econsultancy and RedEye, it was shown that 95% of global company marketers reported an increase in search engine marketing conversion rates after they began personalization. 32% of those marketers reported the increase as a “major lift.” It is, of course, important to focus on persona basics, but there are also helpful ways to go above and beyond to personalize your consumers’ experience that are simple, out-of-the-box, and beneficial for your dealership, your marketing, and your online presence. Though they may be easy for your dealership to implement, these personalization strategies can have a major impact on your marketing and sales:

Time of day. Pay attention to what time of day your ads and posts get the most interaction, or take advantage of a marketing calendar that tracks your traffic. Posting when your consumers are most active and available online is key to grabbing their attention and personalizing your messages to cater to them, and it takes next to no effort on your part to schedule posts at a specific time. It’s an ideal win-win scenario.

Mobile. It’s important that your marketing and advertising is mobile-friendly because mobile media usage is now significantly higher in 2015, and the majority of consumers use a smartphone to search the internet. Personalize your consumers’ experience and make it effortless for them to view your content and even purchase from their mobile devices.

• Mobile media usage has increased by 51% in 2015.
• 80% of people use a smartphone to search the internet.
• 42% of consumers use their mobile device to do automotive research, specifically.
• 27% of consumers start on your dealership’s website or an automotive branded website to do their research.
• Both men and women spend over 29 hours a month on a mobile app or mobile web.

Be specific. If your consumer has provided specific feedback, reviews, or information to your dealership, use it. Follow up on a review, good or bad, and if it’s a frustrated customer, ask what you can do to help or improve. If a consumer provides you with specific wants or needs in a vehicle, don’t advertise sales or vehicles to them that don’t fit their criteria. Consumers are frustrated with messages that aren’t personalized, so make it a priority to focus on the information available in your consumer messages.

Accessibility. In a 2013 survey done by Google Mobile Planet, data shows that several consumers don’t purchase via smartphone simply because it’s too complicated. However, data shows significantly more consumers use their mobile devices to search. So, there’s obviously a disconnect, and complicated purchases via mobile phone is it. This is where buy buttons come in handy for your dealership—available on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google—to make purchasing what consumers are researching, literally, one click away.

Security. One of the main reasons consumers didn’t purchase an item on a mobile site is simply because they didn’t feel it was secure. Realize that’s a personal complaint from the majority of consumers and put your consumers’ minds at ease in this scenario. It’s so simple yet so paramount to gaining more sales via your site, mobile or otherwise. Use encryption technology, so your consumers can see “https” or a closed padlock displayed in the address bar. It’s also helpful to make your contact information—phone number and address—available up front for people to see or possibly contact to verify your website’s legitimacy. Finally, consider having a privacy statement or security policies listed on your website to further solidify your website’s security for consumers. 

It’s important that your dealership continues to listen to what consumers are saying and that you’re able to personalize your approach to cater to the information consumers provide. Paying attention to the time consumers like to interact, their devices of choice, feedback, ease of access, and promise of privacy are strong yet simple foundational ways to personalize the consumer experience with your dealership online.

The image used in this post was provided by freedigitalphotos.net.