They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but I feel that being imitated means the imitator lacks the creativity to come up with ideas on their own.

Virtual Sales Associates (VSA’s) has become a popular title in the chat industry lately. ActivEngage coined this term in 2007 and now other chat providers are using that same terminology to describe their chatting staff.

That’s okay though, because there’s something that ActivEngage’s Virtual Sales Associates have that no other chat provider can match - passion. Passion for the car industry, passion for the art of conversation, passion for creating that very special connection with YOUR customer. Passion that cannot be imitated no matter how hard others try.

Passion cannot be Imitated.
As many of you know, I was a VSA for six months before moving into our marketing department. I came here knowing not a single thing about cars, the automotive industry, or car lingo. I was hesitant in my first chat because everything was new to me. However, with training, encouragement, and a wonderful team structure that provided ongoing support, I made it through and I shined. I shined through the busiest chatting month of the year - December. In a single day, I took 70+ chats. I didn’t miss a detail and it was invigorating! During those days, I received recognition for taking on so many chats and having over 80% of my chats converting to leads for our dealers, over 75% phone numbers acquired, and over 10% appointments set. Passion.

Every Chat, Every Word, Every Time!
The environment I was in created passion. Our Virtual Sales Associates have a motto, Every Chat, Every Word...Every Time. It’s painted on a bright orange wall, to remind each and every VSA what we do and the passion with which we do it.

Although others are naming their chat staff VSA’s, we know who the real VSA’s are and you will too when you read our chats.

I’ll leave you all with a video to let this sink in just a little bit more:
Watch as our Virtual Sales Director, Carol Marshall, describe our Virtual Sales Associates, the training they receive, and what they provide YOUR dealership. No other chat provider does what our VSA’s can do.

What is your dealership passionate about? Let us know in the comments section below!

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but I feel that being imitated means the imitator lacks the creativity to come up with ideas on their own.

Virtual Sales Associates (VSA’s) has become a popular title in the chat industry lately. ActivEngage coined this term in 2007 and now other chat providers are using that same terminology to describe their chatting staff.

That’s okay though, because there’s something that ActivEngage’s Virtual Sales Associates have that no other chat provider can match - passion. Passion for the car industry, passion for the art of conversation, passion for creating that very special connection with YOUR customer. Passion that cannot be imitated no matter how hard others try.

Passion cannot be Imitated.
As many of you know, I was a VSA for six months before moving into our marketing department. I came here knowing not a single thing about cars, the automotive industry, or car lingo. I was hesitant in my first chat because everything was new to me. However, with training, encouragement, and a wonderful team structure that provided ongoing support, I made it through and I shined. I shined through the busiest chatting month of the year - December. In a single day, I took 70+ chats. I didn’t miss a detail and it was invigorating! During those days, I received recognition for taking on so many chats and having over 80% of my chats converting to leads for our dealers, over 75% phone numbers acquired, and over 10% appointments set. Passion.

Every Chat, Every Word, Every Time!
The environment I was in created passion. Our Virtual Sales Associates have a motto, Every Chat, Every Word...Every Time. It’s painted on a bright orange wall, to remind each and every VSA what we do and the passion with which we do it.

Although others are naming their chat staff VSA’s, we know who the real VSA’s are and you will too when you read our chats.

I’ll leave you all with a video to let this sink in just a little bit more:
Watch as our Virtual Sales Director, Carol Marshall, describe our Virtual Sales Associates, the training they receive, and what they provide YOUR dealership. No other chat provider does what our VSA’s can do.

What is your dealership passionate about? Let us know in the comments section below!

I've mentioned numerous times how having a Pinterest account is vital to your social media plan and makes your dealership more likeable as a whole. Well, I found a study online by EyeTrackShop which highlights where the user’s eye is drawn to on a Pinterest page. While most websites draw the users to the left side of the page, on Pinterest it is shifted from the top to bottom.

The study, used the webcams of 600 participants to track their eye movements as they looked at top category and brand Pinterest pages for 10-second intervals. They answered a quick survey about each page after viewing it.

Here are some more interesting results from the study:

• Top pins pop. Pins that were front and center were seen by the highest percentage of viewers.
• Faces attract attention. As with most social media sites, respondents looked at faces on Pinterest at more than objects.
• Profile information isn’t always as noticeable as profile content. Profile image and information may dominate attention on Facebook, but on Pinterest fewer people noticed it than those who noticed content.
• The percentage of people who looked at profile information at the top of brand pages in the study was the same or lower than that of the pages’ most-looked-at pins. On average, this info was looked at second, not first.
• Brand pages are just as popular as category pages. Participants were slightly more likely to say brand pages made them want to repin stuff, recommend the page to friends and tell their friends about it. More of them also said the pages were definitely inspiring and had good pieces of advice.
• People like brands better after viewing their Pinterest pages. The majority of participants said that viewing a brand’s page improved their opinion about the brand and said they were more likely to purchase something from it.

What do you think? Do you have a Pinterest account for your dealership? If not, why? If yes, share your Pinterest link below and ActivEngage will follow your boards! =) 

I've mentioned numerous times how having a Pinterest account is vital to your social media plan and makes your dealership more likeable as a whole. Well, I found a study online by EyeTrackShop which highlights where the user’s eye is drawn to on a Pinterest page. While most websites draw the users to the left side of the page, on Pinterest it is shifted from the top to bottom.

The study, used the webcams of 600 participants to track their eye movements as they looked at top category and brand Pinterest pages for 10-second intervals. They answered a quick survey about each page after viewing it.

Here are some more interesting results from the study:

• Top pins pop. Pins that were front and center were seen by the highest percentage of viewers.
• Faces attract attention. As with most social media sites, respondents looked at faces on Pinterest at more than objects.
• Profile information isn’t always as noticeable as profile content. Profile image and information may dominate attention on Facebook, but on Pinterest fewer people noticed it than those who noticed content.
• The percentage of people who looked at profile information at the top of brand pages in the study was the same or lower than that of the pages’ most-looked-at pins. On average, this info was looked at second, not first.
• Brand pages are just as popular as category pages. Participants were slightly more likely to say brand pages made them want to repin stuff, recommend the page to friends and tell their friends about it. More of them also said the pages were definitely inspiring and had good pieces of advice.
• People like brands better after viewing their Pinterest pages. The majority of participants said that viewing a brand’s page improved their opinion about the brand and said they were more likely to purchase something from it.

What do you think? Do you have a Pinterest account for your dealership? If not, why? If yes, share your Pinterest link below and ActivEngage will follow your boards! =) 

In a recent blog post of mine, I highlighted some research done on mobile ads and if it is worth a dealership to spend money on it. Today, I am here to tell you why you should have a mobile site for your dealership (if you don’t already). Some 12.6% of total website traffic was generated via mobile device in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 102% from the 6.3% recorded a year earlier, according to the Walker Sands Quarterly Web Traffic Report.  Additionally, according to AD:60, having a mobile site is a must and they have compiled an infographic that lists 10 Reasons Why You Need a Mobile Site. “The list should obliterate any reasons against putting mobile at the top of your digital must-haves,” Alex Matjanec said, partner and CMO of AD:60.

So here are the top 10 Reasons you need a mobile site:

1. 8% of all digital traffic comes from smartphones and tablets

2. Most mobile phones in America will be smartphones by the end of 2012

   3.    More and more users are making purchases on their phones

4. The proportion of mobile-only users is even higher in developing countries

5. Mobile commerce is growing fast

6. Smartphone users cover a wide range of demographics

7. Couch Commerce is rising

8. Smartphone users have a higher than average income

9. Mobile sites are important for both physical and digital stores

10. Your normal site is not  thumb friendly!

Still not interested? Well, mobile search queries already account for roughly 15% of all Google search volume across categories, according to Google.
So what are you waiting for? By creating experiences that connect, convert, and engage your audiences you will be sure to attract your tech savvy shoppers as well as provide better services to existing customers. Therefore, in saying that, set up a user-friendly mobile website ASAP! Thumbs are the new fingers!

In a recent blog post of mine, I highlighted some research done on mobile ads and if it is worth a dealership to spend money on it. Today, I am here to tell you why you should have a mobile site for your dealership (if you don’t already). Some 12.6% of total website traffic was generated via mobile device in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 102% from the 6.3% recorded a year earlier, according to the Walker Sands Quarterly Web Traffic Report.  Additionally, according to AD:60, having a mobile site is a must and they have compiled an infographic that lists 10 Reasons Why You Need a Mobile Site. “The list should obliterate any reasons against putting mobile at the top of your digital must-haves,” Alex Matjanec said, partner and CMO of AD:60.

So here are the top 10 Reasons you need a mobile site:

1. 8% of all digital traffic comes from smartphones and tablets

2. Most mobile phones in America will be smartphones by the end of 2012

   3.    More and more users are making purchases on their phones

4. The proportion of mobile-only users is even higher in developing countries

5. Mobile commerce is growing fast

6. Smartphone users cover a wide range of demographics

7. Couch Commerce is rising

8. Smartphone users have a higher than average income

9. Mobile sites are important for both physical and digital stores

10. Your normal site is not  thumb friendly!

Still not interested? Well, mobile search queries already account for roughly 15% of all Google search volume across categories, according to Google.
So what are you waiting for? By creating experiences that connect, convert, and engage your audiences you will be sure to attract your tech savvy shoppers as well as provide better services to existing customers. Therefore, in saying that, set up a user-friendly mobile website ASAP! Thumbs are the new fingers!

Pinterest is a pretty easy thing to grasp, right? You just pin pictures and hope that someone likes them or comments on them. We all know that Pinterest is quickly becoming the go-to social media site and if you have a Pinterest account and a decent amount of followers/likes, you may be asking yourself, now what? You think you might have mastered the art of the pin, but have you thought about making words pinnable? Let’s say you have a great blog you want to share on Pinterest. Take a simple quote from the blog and use Share As Image to transform your text into a pinnable photo!

Share As Image allows you to highlight text anywhere on a website and instantly convert that text into an image. Just grab the bookmarklet from the Share As Image website, and you're ready to pin the text. Here is an example of one I made:

In order to pin text, highlight the words or paragraphs that you wish to pin and hit the "Share As Image" button on your browser. The bookmarklet will then generate a pinnable image containing the text you highlighted. For $2.99, you can buy the pro version of this app in which you can customize your text pin.

Ever wondered which of your pins on Pinterest were the most popular? Or did you want to know how your board on Pinterest was doing? With PinReach you can access all that data and more! PinReach also assigns a PR score to your Pinterest account to give you an overview of how popular you are on the site. The higher your score, the better you're doing. Here is an example of ActivEngage’s data:

Wouldn’t it be great to pin your tweets on Pinterest? With Pinsmatic you can! You can also add locations, music, quotes, and websites. Pinsmatic even has an automatic post-it generator that's perfect for pinning clever quotes or lines from your blog posts. Using the quote part of Pinsmatic would be a great way to showcase customer recommendations:

Hopefully, after reading this blog you’ve gained more valuable tips to master your Pinterest board and to capture more followers, likes, and repins. You can even pin our blog!

To align with the photogenic theme, tomorrow I will have a blog post on Instagram for beginners so be sure to check it out as well. And, as always, Happy Pinning! =)

Pinterest is a pretty easy thing to grasp, right? You just pin pictures and hope that someone likes them or comments on them. We all know that Pinterest is quickly becoming the go-to social media site and if you have a Pinterest account and a decent amount of followers/likes, you may be asking yourself, now what? You think you might have mastered the art of the pin, but have you thought about making words pinnable? Let’s say you have a great blog you want to share on Pinterest. Take a simple quote from the blog and use Share As Image to transform your text into a pinnable photo!

Share As Image allows you to highlight text anywhere on a website and instantly convert that text into an image. Just grab the bookmarklet from the Share As Image website, and you're ready to pin the text. Here is an example of one I made:

In order to pin text, highlight the words or paragraphs that you wish to pin and hit the "Share As Image" button on your browser. The bookmarklet will then generate a pinnable image containing the text you highlighted. For $2.99, you can buy the pro version of this app in which you can customize your text pin.

Ever wondered which of your pins on Pinterest were the most popular? Or did you want to know how your board on Pinterest was doing? With PinReach you can access all that data and more! PinReach also assigns a PR score to your Pinterest account to give you an overview of how popular you are on the site. The higher your score, the better you're doing. Here is an example of ActivEngage’s data:

Wouldn’t it be great to pin your tweets on Pinterest? With Pinsmatic you can! You can also add locations, music, quotes, and websites. Pinsmatic even has an automatic post-it generator that's perfect for pinning clever quotes or lines from your blog posts. Using the quote part of Pinsmatic would be a great way to showcase customer recommendations:

Hopefully, after reading this blog you’ve gained more valuable tips to master your Pinterest board and to capture more followers, likes, and repins. You can even pin our blog!

To align with the photogenic theme, tomorrow I will have a blog post on Instagram for beginners so be sure to check it out as well. And, as always, Happy Pinning! =)

More and more automotive brands are recognizing the value of live chat and OEMs such as Nissan and GM are suggesting that their dealerships use allocated funds towards chat. At ActivEngage, we are our own largest customer.  We use the very same live chat and real-time analytics reporting software we sell to dealers every day to engage visitors on our own website and to provide the managed live chat service for which we are so respected.

The analysis of more than one million live chat conversations allowed us to develop the following live chat deployment best practices. These are the same strategies that we employ on our website and recommend to our clients for the greatest success:

1) Avoid chat graphic styles and designs that blend in with the content and background of the webpage.
Chat graphics should be eye-catching and pop from the page so consumers take note of their location and availability. These graphics can help promote your brand, but should be quickly noticeable too!

2) Place chat buttons on the header of each web page.
If chat buttons are placed at the top of the page, they are more quickly and easily recognized by consumers. Our data shows the higher the button’s placement on the page, the higher the conversion rate of visitors to chats for your website.

3) Make sure the placement and design of chat graphics are consistent on all pages.  

Consistency allows users to easily recall chat button locations and readily engage in chat without having to search the website.

4) Keep visitors on your site while they engage with your social media.
A connectivity toolbar on each web-page will created an integrated social shopping experience for website visitors by allowing them to engage with your social content without leaving your site.  When used in conjunction with “forced” proactive invitations, connectivity toolbars achieve the highest conversion rate on non-inventory pages.

If you find that your website is lacking these strategies to great success, call your website/chat provider and they should be able to handle it. 

Heads up! Todd is doing a webinar this Thursday, June 7th on Digital Dealer: Check it out!

More and more automotive brands are recognizing the value of live chat and OEMs such as Nissan and GM are suggesting that their dealerships use allocated funds towards chat. At ActivEngage, we are our own largest customer.  We use the very same live chat and real-time analytics reporting software we sell to dealers every day to engage visitors on our own website and to provide the managed live chat service for which we are so respected.

The analysis of more than one million live chat conversations allowed us to develop the following live chat deployment best practices. These are the same strategies that we employ on our website and recommend to our clients for the greatest success:

1) Avoid chat graphic styles and designs that blend in with the content and background of the webpage.
Chat graphics should be eye-catching and pop from the page so consumers take note of their location and availability. These graphics can help promote your brand, but should be quickly noticeable too!

2) Place chat buttons on the header of each web page.
If chat buttons are placed at the top of the page, they are more quickly and easily recognized by consumers. Our data shows the higher the button’s placement on the page, the higher the conversion rate of visitors to chats for your website.

3) Make sure the placement and design of chat graphics are consistent on all pages.  

Consistency allows users to easily recall chat button locations and readily engage in chat without having to search the website.

4) Keep visitors on your site while they engage with your social media.
A connectivity toolbar on each web-page will created an integrated social shopping experience for website visitors by allowing them to engage with your social content without leaving your site.  When used in conjunction with “forced” proactive invitations, connectivity toolbars achieve the highest conversion rate on non-inventory pages.

If you find that your website is lacking these strategies to great success, call your website/chat provider and they should be able to handle it. 

Heads up! Todd is doing a webinar this Thursday, June 7th on Digital Dealer: Check it out!