In the past, anyone managing an Instagram account for a dealership, if they had a personal account, had to log out and log back in to switch accounts.

This was a tedious process. Now, that is no longer the case. Instagram announced that users can now quickly and easily switch between multiple accounts.

How to add multiple accounts

1.  Go to your profile and tap the settings button in hte top right

2.  Scorll down and tap Add Account

3.  Enter the username and password of the account you'd like to add 

To switch between accounts you've added:       

1.  Go to your profile

2.  Tap your username at the top of the screen

3.  Tap the account you would like to switch

You can add up to 5 accounts. 

In the past, anyone managing an Instagram account for a dealership, if they had a personal account, had to log out and log back in to switch accounts.

This was a tedious process. Now, that is no longer the case. Instagram announced that users can now quickly and easily switch between multiple accounts.

How to add multiple accounts

1.  Go to your profile and tap the settings button in hte top right

2.  Scorll down and tap Add Account

3.  Enter the username and password of the account you'd like to add 

To switch between accounts you've added:       

1.  Go to your profile

2.  Tap your username at the top of the screen

3.  Tap the account you would like to switch

You can add up to 5 accounts. 

Savvy dealers are turning to low cost alternatives like Facebook and Twitter and other social media outlets as their alternative. Not only is it free, but it can help you interact with your future and existing customers in real-time. It's no secret that Dealers will do just about anything to gain new customers by any means necessary. Radio, Print and TV ads can all have tremendous results but at what cost? Those traditional marketing mediums and budgets are dying. 

As we know, today’s consumer researches their next purchase online and wants to share their thoughts online to get their friends opinions before making the purchase. Why not help them by giving them all the information they are looking for and a way to communicate with you at the same time.

Social Media Grows Followers

This starts with your own staff.  Do they follow the dealership themselves?  Do they ask their friends to like their company?  Encourage the staff to talk about the company and tag the organization on Facebook and Twitter.  This is free advertising for the dealership.

Engage your Audience

This starts with posting relevant information to your Facebook fans and twitter followers.  Let them know about the upcoming specials or just reduced inventory.  What better way to do this then with photos and descriptions of the inventory?  Make the posts likeable, sharable, clickable and able to post comments.   When a consumer clicks on the inventory, bring them to your landing page inside the Facebook application.  Furthermore, utilizing the Inventory applet to display all dealership inventory on Facebook.

Convert

Once a consumer is interested in the vehicle, what are you doing to convert them into a lead?  Make sure your landing pages give multiple options to gather more information about the consumer including credit applications and appointment setting.  Connecting all of this back to your CRM gives you the ability to manage everything from start to finish.

Savvy dealers are turning to low cost alternatives like Facebook and Twitter and other social media outlets as their alternative. Not only is it free, but it can help you interact with your future and existing customers in real-time. It's no secret that Dealers will do just about anything to gain new customers by any means necessary. Radio, Print and TV ads can all have tremendous results but at what cost? Those traditional marketing mediums and budgets are dying. 

As we know, today’s consumer researches their next purchase online and wants to share their thoughts online to get their friends opinions before making the purchase. Why not help them by giving them all the information they are looking for and a way to communicate with you at the same time.

Social Media Grows Followers

This starts with your own staff.  Do they follow the dealership themselves?  Do they ask their friends to like their company?  Encourage the staff to talk about the company and tag the organization on Facebook and Twitter.  This is free advertising for the dealership.

Engage your Audience

This starts with posting relevant information to your Facebook fans and twitter followers.  Let them know about the upcoming specials or just reduced inventory.  What better way to do this then with photos and descriptions of the inventory?  Make the posts likeable, sharable, clickable and able to post comments.   When a consumer clicks on the inventory, bring them to your landing page inside the Facebook application.  Furthermore, utilizing the Inventory applet to display all dealership inventory on Facebook.

Convert

Once a consumer is interested in the vehicle, what are you doing to convert them into a lead?  Make sure your landing pages give multiple options to gather more information about the consumer including credit applications and appointment setting.  Connecting all of this back to your CRM gives you the ability to manage everything from start to finish.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  If that’s the case, what is a video worth?  46% of people say they’d be more likely to seek out information about a product or service after seeing it in an online video.  As an RV dealer, are you leveraging the use of video to help sell more vehicles each month and engage your customers?  Video marketing and YouTube in particular, can help bring your dealership to the next level in getting more customers and ultimately selling more inventory.   According to Alexa.com, YouTube is the #3 ranked website in the world.  The average user spends 18 minutes on the site.  It’s 20% easier to rank #1 with a video result as compared to a website. Video is a major influence on consumers making a purchase decision.

Drive More Traffic

If you want to drive more traffic to your dealership, utilize a software company that can take your dealership’s data, stitch together photos and descriptions while adding a Human Voiceover all in one video. Taking it to the next level and creating a YouTube channel with consistent brand imaging, a video library, and dealership information will give you even more exposure. 

Capture the lead! 

YouTube videos should engage the consumer to want more information. 

Providing the consumer with an embedded phone number in the video and a link to a landing page with all the details about each vehicle will only increase the customer interaction. Each landing page should also contain additional calls-to-action ranging from financing options to trade in forms along with the dealership’s contact information.

Next Level

Taking it to the next level means ensuring everything you do is mobile.  40% of YouTube views are by mobile users.  Are you utilizing a mobile strategy to engage your customers or are you giving them a poor experience from their phone? 

There are many ways to spend an advertising budget today and a multitude of websites to advertise your inventory.  Making an investment into a video product should be one of these discussions for your dealership to give yourself the opportunity to convert more ads into leads and sell more vehicles. 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  If that’s the case, what is a video worth?  46% of people say they’d be more likely to seek out information about a product or service after seeing it in an online video.  As an RV dealer, are you leveraging the use of video to help sell more vehicles each month and engage your customers?  Video marketing and YouTube in particular, can help bring your dealership to the next level in getting more customers and ultimately selling more inventory.   According to Alexa.com, YouTube is the #3 ranked website in the world.  The average user spends 18 minutes on the site.  It’s 20% easier to rank #1 with a video result as compared to a website. Video is a major influence on consumers making a purchase decision.

Drive More Traffic

If you want to drive more traffic to your dealership, utilize a software company that can take your dealership’s data, stitch together photos and descriptions while adding a Human Voiceover all in one video. Taking it to the next level and creating a YouTube channel with consistent brand imaging, a video library, and dealership information will give you even more exposure. 

Capture the lead! 

YouTube videos should engage the consumer to want more information. 

Providing the consumer with an embedded phone number in the video and a link to a landing page with all the details about each vehicle will only increase the customer interaction. Each landing page should also contain additional calls-to-action ranging from financing options to trade in forms along with the dealership’s contact information.

Next Level

Taking it to the next level means ensuring everything you do is mobile.  40% of YouTube views are by mobile users.  Are you utilizing a mobile strategy to engage your customers or are you giving them a poor experience from their phone? 

There are many ways to spend an advertising budget today and a multitude of websites to advertise your inventory.  Making an investment into a video product should be one of these discussions for your dealership to give yourself the opportunity to convert more ads into leads and sell more vehicles. 

With any new product and marketplace there’s a learning curve and we’ve recently gained more knowledge about what it takes to manage the “art” of posting to eBay classifieds. We want to share the Top 5 Best Practices we’ve learned over the last few weeks with you:

1.)  New eBay accounts require some “Seasoning” similar to the historical craigslist landscape.
a.)  It’s best to start posting with 5 ads a day and work up to 25 or you may risk burning
your account.

2.)  Dealers with similar inventory need to ensure there is a sufficient vehicle description with enough unique content to differentiate each ad from anther. We’ve found some issues with dealers who have very similar inventory and unfortunately, our system can’t always trick eBay into thinking the ads are unique so they may get flagged.

3.)  Make sure you are not posting any duplicate ads. eBay specifically states you cannot post the same vehicle twice. If you do not want to wait until the 6 day listing period is up, you can delete old ads and re-post. Alternatively, if you want to post to separate cities/markets, then create another eBay Classifieds account.

Separate city, separate market = separate eBay classifieds account

4.)  Using multiple URL’s will contribute to flagging. Dealers should not include a link to their website in the vehicle description feed. eBay does not want to be utilized as a traffic converter, so we advise pulling this domain from the description if you want to have your account maintain in good standing.

5.)  Categorization: eBay has organized categories to guide consumers when looking for specific inventory. It’s important when posting ads to double check that you’re correctly listing inventory under the preferred category, or your ads will be subject to flagging. For example, do not list a motorcycle under the Car category. You can review this before you hit submit on your queue. Also note: Cars is a separate category than Trucks, Vans & SUVs. Listing a 2002 Jeep Cherokee in the Car category will likely not be an issue, but if you want to be specific about where the consumer is looking for your inventory, it’s a good thing to keep in mind.

If you have other best practices you would like to share, post them in the comments section below. if you would like to learn more about eBay Classifieds.

With any new product and marketplace there’s a learning curve and we’ve recently gained more knowledge about what it takes to manage the “art” of posting to eBay classifieds. We want to share the Top 5 Best Practices we’ve learned over the last few weeks with you:

1.)  New eBay accounts require some “Seasoning” similar to the historical craigslist landscape.
a.)  It’s best to start posting with 5 ads a day and work up to 25 or you may risk burning
your account.

2.)  Dealers with similar inventory need to ensure there is a sufficient vehicle description with enough unique content to differentiate each ad from anther. We’ve found some issues with dealers who have very similar inventory and unfortunately, our system can’t always trick eBay into thinking the ads are unique so they may get flagged.

3.)  Make sure you are not posting any duplicate ads. eBay specifically states you cannot post the same vehicle twice. If you do not want to wait until the 6 day listing period is up, you can delete old ads and re-post. Alternatively, if you want to post to separate cities/markets, then create another eBay Classifieds account.

Separate city, separate market = separate eBay classifieds account

4.)  Using multiple URL’s will contribute to flagging. Dealers should not include a link to their website in the vehicle description feed. eBay does not want to be utilized as a traffic converter, so we advise pulling this domain from the description if you want to have your account maintain in good standing.

5.)  Categorization: eBay has organized categories to guide consumers when looking for specific inventory. It’s important when posting ads to double check that you’re correctly listing inventory under the preferred category, or your ads will be subject to flagging. For example, do not list a motorcycle under the Car category. You can review this before you hit submit on your queue. Also note: Cars is a separate category than Trucks, Vans & SUVs. Listing a 2002 Jeep Cherokee in the Car category will likely not be an issue, but if you want to be specific about where the consumer is looking for your inventory, it’s a good thing to keep in mind.

If you have other best practices you would like to share, post them in the comments section below. if you would like to learn more about eBay Classifieds.

Since the onset of the $5 charge on Craigslist, dealerships have taken on a multitude of approaches on how they not only understand this marketplace, but more importantly utilize this marketplace to attract customers to visit their dealerships.

The most important thing that we have learned is that dealerships not posting inventory are losing opportunities to gain qualified prospects and sell more vehicles.  Here are the results from dealerships posting in our software:

*March estimated through month end

Leads per ad continue to grow on a month over month basis, proving the importance of dealerships to leverage Craigslist as a market to advertise their pre-owned inventory.  If you have not budgeted for Craigslist ads and a software provider to post through, do so immediately!

Things to Consider

Other important factors to look at are your Craigslist ads.  Today, 50% of traffic on Craigslist is found on a mobile phone.  Are your ads and Vehicle Display Pages mobile ready?  Titles and content are searchable.  Ensuring your ads have a strong title, price, pictures and content is critical. Are you taking advantage of all 24 photos with photo overlay calls-to-action? How many ways are you connecting to your customers?  Having multiple calls-to-action, including phone number, email, and copy and paste links to VDPs only increase your chances of selling the vehicle.

We may all believe we know what sells on Craigslist and have our own theories, but only a select few can take years of past data and tell you which vehicles will generate the most leads and are priced closest to the market price.  Utilizing a partner that offers this level of sophistication will only help you achieve a higher percentage of leads per ad, increasing your ROI, and ultimately selling more cars.

Now for a Little Math.

Let’s assume you want to start with a $1000 monthly budget including $300 for a software provider.  This will allow for $700 in Craigslist posts.  This will get you 140 posts on Craigslist.  Considering an ad is good for 30 days, this should give you the ability to post most dealers inventory at least once per month.  Using the stats above, this will generate 154 leads for the month!  That is an average cost of $6.49 per lead.  If you can close 5% of your leads (a little below average), this equates to almost 8 vehicles sold.  Averaging $1200 on the front end, a $1000 budget will generate $8400 in profit!

Is Craigslist the only marketing site a dealership should use?  Absolutely not!  I feel that it’s a strong compliment and a necessity for all dealerships with any size budget to market their inventory.

If you are interested in learning more, send me a message.

Since the onset of the $5 charge on Craigslist, dealerships have taken on a multitude of approaches on how they not only understand this marketplace, but more importantly utilize this marketplace to attract customers to visit their dealerships.

The most important thing that we have learned is that dealerships not posting inventory are losing opportunities to gain qualified prospects and sell more vehicles.  Here are the results from dealerships posting in our software:

*March estimated through month end

Leads per ad continue to grow on a month over month basis, proving the importance of dealerships to leverage Craigslist as a market to advertise their pre-owned inventory.  If you have not budgeted for Craigslist ads and a software provider to post through, do so immediately!

Things to Consider

Other important factors to look at are your Craigslist ads.  Today, 50% of traffic on Craigslist is found on a mobile phone.  Are your ads and Vehicle Display Pages mobile ready?  Titles and content are searchable.  Ensuring your ads have a strong title, price, pictures and content is critical. Are you taking advantage of all 24 photos with photo overlay calls-to-action? How many ways are you connecting to your customers?  Having multiple calls-to-action, including phone number, email, and copy and paste links to VDPs only increase your chances of selling the vehicle.

We may all believe we know what sells on Craigslist and have our own theories, but only a select few can take years of past data and tell you which vehicles will generate the most leads and are priced closest to the market price.  Utilizing a partner that offers this level of sophistication will only help you achieve a higher percentage of leads per ad, increasing your ROI, and ultimately selling more cars.

Now for a Little Math.

Let’s assume you want to start with a $1000 monthly budget including $300 for a software provider.  This will allow for $700 in Craigslist posts.  This will get you 140 posts on Craigslist.  Considering an ad is good for 30 days, this should give you the ability to post most dealers inventory at least once per month.  Using the stats above, this will generate 154 leads for the month!  That is an average cost of $6.49 per lead.  If you can close 5% of your leads (a little below average), this equates to almost 8 vehicles sold.  Averaging $1200 on the front end, a $1000 budget will generate $8400 in profit!

Is Craigslist the only marketing site a dealership should use?  Absolutely not!  I feel that it’s a strong compliment and a necessity for all dealerships with any size budget to market their inventory.

If you are interested in learning more, send me a message.