From time to time I go to different dealers websites and submit leads because I'm curious about what ILM/CRM software they use and/or what they are doing for their lead follow up process. So I get random emails all the time.

Yesterday I got an email from a dealership in New York (screen shot of email at the bottom). It was just blank! Why? Because gmail and most email programs don't show images unless you click the "display images" button. (more about this below)

After I click the button to display the images it showed me one image that was 768 kilobytes. Yikes!

So there are some serious problems with taking your beautiful print ad and simply slapping it an email and blasting it to your entire customer base.

1. Email clients don't show images by default (more about why this is next)
2. If there are only images and they can't be seen, your email will look blank and quickly be discarded by the reader.
3. A lot of people check their email on their phones. So you need to send them something they can READ!
4. Emails with nothing but an image in them are more likely to be caught as SPAM!

OK, so why do email clients block images?

Whenever an image is loaded it has to be loaded from somewhere. That somewhere is almost always some company's web server. Because of that, they can track when you are downloading the images and therefore know you are reading the email and that your email address is good. Spammers use to these sort of techniques to email millions of people. Then, when they open the emails and view the images, BINGO!, they know your email address is real and that you enjoy reading spam!

Some CRM systems like ours also use this image trick to know when people read emails. So we can alert our CRM users that people are reading their emails. Odds are if they are online reading their email, they are sitting somewhere next to a phone as well... perfect time to call them when you know they just opened your email! It's also useful to see that people keep reading your emails but won't take your phone calls.

So keep this in mind as you send mass emails to your customer bases!

Matt Watson
Chief Technical Officer
VinSolutions
Automotive CRM Software provider

A sitemap is how you tell search engines what pages are available for crawling on your website. A sitemap is an XML file that lists all the urls for your website.

Sitemaps are not required, and search engines will spider your website with or without one. However, sitemaps allow you to tell search engines specific pages you want spidered that they perhaps couldn't find otherwise. This is very important, especially if your website uses a lot of Flash, Silverlight, javascript, or frames. Most dealer websites do use a lot of these technologies. Your sitemap can also tell the search engines how often to spider your website and when your website content has changed.

Sitemaps should also by dynamic (changed daily!), and not a static file created once in a while by your website or SEO provider. Your sitemap should include all the URLs to your inventory detail pages. This will allow search engines to spider your inventory detail pages which will help with your SEO on long tail search key phrases.

If setup properly, your website should have a robots.txt file with a reference in it to your sitemap file. This will allow ALL the search engines to automatically discover your sitemap and process it.

Here is an example:
http://www.garycrossleyford.com/robots.txt

Notice this line in the file:
http://www.garycrossleyford.com/sitemap.xml

The sad part is, VERY FEW website providers provide a robots file and dynamic XML sitemap!

Check with your website provider to make sure you have a dynamic XML sitemap.

Matt Watson
Chief Technical Officer
VinSolutions

Part 2 - "RSS & Data Syndication"

Perhaps one of the best technologies to become popular over the last few years is RSS feeds. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS provides a simple way to subscribe to information being syndicated. This provides a way to receive updates when new information is available without having to check a website over and over looking for new information. For example, if you wanted to be notified on a daily basis what the weather was going to be the next few days, you could subscribe to a RSS feed from Weather.com.

Ok, so RSS sounds useful, how do I subscribe to RSS news feeds?

There are a lot of programs available to subscribe to RSS news feeds. Here are some that I recommend:
Google Reader
Microsoft Outlook 2007
RSS Bandit

I personally use Google Reader and I highly recommend it. I currently subscribe to about 30 feeds with it.

Some example of common RSS feeds

CNN.com News
http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_topstories.rss

Weather .com
http://www.weather.com/weather/rss/subscription

Daily Dilbert Comic
http://www.dilbert.com/rss/

Craigslist – Looking for something on Craigslist? Stop checking everyday and just subscribe to an RSS feed! Scroll to the bottom of the page and there is a link for their subscriptions.
http://kansascity.craigslist.org/search/cta?query=ford+escape&minAsk=min&maxAsk=max&format=rss

What movies are coming out on BluRay next week? No problem.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/movieweb_hdthisweek

Just about anything you can think of is available in an RSS feed from somewhere.

Popular Automotive RSS feeds

AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com
http://www.automotivedigitalmarketing.com/profiles/blog/feed?xn_auth=no

DrivingSales.com
http://drivingsales.com/blog/?wpmu-feed=posts

DealerRefresh.com
http://feeds.feedburner.com/dealerrefresh

Automotive News
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=rss01&mime=xml

So how can I leverage RSS technology for my dealership?

Of course if your dealership has a blog, your customers can subscribe to your blog via RSS.

I would also recommend working with your dealer website provider to integrate RSS content right in to your website. Display news from your manufacturer, local news, local weather, or display the news feed from your own dealership blog. Showing content like this on your website keeps your website fresh with ever changing dynamic content. Content that can help your SEO efforts and make your website more useful for your customers.

Some website providers also provide RSS feeds of your inventory. Potential customers can subscribe to your inventory data feeds and be notified any time you add a new vehicle or modify a vehicle in your inventory. Some search engines will allow you to submit your inventory RSS feeds to them as a form of an XML sitemap. This would allow the search engines to easily spider and keep up to date on your inventory pages.

Inventory RSS examples:
http://www.garycrossleyford.com/RSS-Inventory-Used.aspx
http://www.garycrossleyford.com/RSS-Inventory-New.aspx

How do I know if a website has RSS capabilities?

Subscription/RSS Icon:

When visiting a website, look at the address bar in your browser for the RSS icon. Also look for the RSS icon on the website itself. Sometimes it can be found at the very bottom of the page.

“Web 2.0” is a buzzword used all over the place these days. So what does it mean? Web 2.0 simply describes the changing trends in the use of the Internet and web design. Web 2.0 is not a new version of the World Wide Web. Instead, it reflects the changes in the way that end users and software developers use the web. This article is part of a multi-part series attempting to help educate and define what Web 2.0 means.

Matt Watson
Chief Technical Officer
VinSolutions

Follow my blog at http://www.drivingsales.com/blog/mwatson/

“Web 2.0” is a buzzword used all over the place these days. So what does it mean? Web 2.0 actually means a lot of different things and it means different things to different people. This is the first of a multi-part series attempting to define Web 2.0. Follow my blog at
http://www.drivingsales.com/blog/mwatson/ for future posts.

Part 1 - “We're Talking Back”

One definition of Web 2.0 is the ability for everyday people to change the Internet.

A few years ago the Internet was mostly created by businesses for shopping, news, travel, research, forums and other important things. The Internet was largely a “read only” collection of information where everyday people had no input.

Today, a very large percentage of the content on the Internet is created by everyday people. Wikipedia, blogs, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and dozens of other websites are all based on content created by every day people. We now have the ability to create our own web pages (ex. MySpace & blogs) and make our mark on the Internet. You could say that Web 2.0 gave us our freedom of speech online.

So how did we get here? Well... it didn't happen over night.

In 1996 web communities like Geocities became common. They allowed users to create their own websites. By the end of 1997 Geocities had 1 million users and was the 5th most popular website on the Internet. Geocities was eventually purchased by Yahoo and still lives on today as a simple way to create your own website, including a blog.

Blogs aren't really that new either. A web blog, as a concept of online commentary or online diaries started in 1993. Although the term “blog” didn't come around until 1999. However, blogging didn't become mainstream until 2004. I created my first blog in 2003... and it still exists today.

Web 2.0 can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. To me, one of the things it means is we have the ability to create the content of the Internet.

We're Talking Back.

Matt Watson

Chief Technical Officer

http://www.VinSolutions.com

Anyone who uses a CRM system that prints on plain paper via a laser printer can probably already create digital documents today. Most people probably just don't know how to.

If you're using pre-printed forms, then you can't create digital docs from those of course. (As a side note, you might consider switching to forms printed via a laser printer to save yourself some money.)

So how do you use your current CRM to create "digital documents" you can email to a customer?

Easily! If you can print the form, you can create a digital copy. If your CRM exports the forms to a PDF to print, well then simply click the save button and email the files. If not, then you can install a utility like Adobe (not reader edition) or dopdf (there are other products like this) to print to a PDF that can then be saved and emailed.

So the key is... any document that can be printed on a laser printer can be printed to a PDF and emailed, even if it isn't a PDF (using programs like Adobe, MS Office, dopdf and others). Now of course that involves more steps than maybe just a "email to customer" button.

Of course there are some CRM vendors that have the nifty "email to customer" functionality built in. I have also seen some companies that tout "digital documents" as a product. To me it just seems like a basic ILM/CRM/Desking function, not really a product in itself... maybe I'm wrong on that point?

You could also use the email functionality to email the documents to someone within the dealership or to a 3rd party vendor. Like emailing a book out sheet to the bank, or a desk manager emailing a salesperson a purchase proposal.

Matt Watson
VinSolutions

The problem with most software in the automotive industry is the lack of integration between products. Products that if used together, could do very intelligent things.

Dealers purchase what I call “singular” solutions from vendors that only do one thing and doesn't integrate with anything else.

I hear it from managers and salespeople all the time. “We have all these different passwords to get into different systems just so we can sell a car. Don’t get me wrong, we need all of these systems, we just wish it could be easier. We login to the CRM to add a customer, than login to our trade appraisal system, then login to another system to desk a deal, then another to pull credit, it just doesn’t stop.”

Think about your website and CRM for a second. Every dealer wants the pictures of their salespeople and managers on their website. Well, most dealers put those pictures in their CRM to email in the signature of their emails.

Wouldn't it be nice to add salespeople to your CRM and have them instantly show up on your website? What is one of the first things you do when you hire a new salesperson? Give them a login to the CRM so they can start adding customers. Wouldn’t it be nice if they would then show up on the website as soon as you did that? And what is one of the first things you do when a salesperson leaves? Transfer the customer and take them out of the CRM. Wouldn’t it be great if once you did that, they didn’t show up on your website?

Now you could hire and fire people and your website is always up to date. I couldn't tell you how many times I've seen dealer websites with names and phone numbers on them of people who don't work there anymore...

Are you using a separate ILM and CRM system?

What happens when your showroom lead goes home and submits an Internet lead? What happens when your Internet lead decides to drive up to the lot without scheduling an appointment? Are your salespeople always fighting over skating? If you were using one good system, the Internet and showroom salespeople could be guarded from skating each other.

Don't even get me started on how much harder it is to do proper reporting and management across separate ILM/CRM systems.

Let's think about your inventory integration

Do you have all the pictures, vehicle options, and comments for your vehicles in your CRM? Sure would make it easier to sell and email vehicle details to your customers.

If your inventory management system was integrated with your CRM and website, you could know how many leads and website hits you've received on every vehicle in inventory.

OK, so maybe you’re not getting a lot of interest on a specific vehicle?

Well, if the same system had an integrated market pricing tool, you could quickly see how your price compares to vehicles exactly like yours available for sale in your area. You could also book out your vehicle with NADA, KBB, or Black book. You could quickly fix the pricing problem.

Think about that for a second... Instantly you could jump from seeing the vehicle isn't getting any interest to fixing the problem in the same program.

Here are some questions to think about

1. What other unique functionality could you gain by having more integrated solutions?

2. How much easier would your life be if you had fewer vendors to deal with?

3. How much money could you save by having fewer vendors to deal with?

Matt Watson
Chief Technical Officer
VinSolutions

Users can now customize their own search results on Google. Select what they think was most relevant and remove listings they thought weren't useful. I can only imagine how google will track and use this in their ranking algorithms. If more people vote your listing up then down and that ratio is more positive compared to other listings, you may find your listing above everyone else in the near future.


Copied from Google's blog post:

Have you ever wanted to mark up Google search results? Maybe you're an avid hiker and the trail map site you always go to is in the 4th or 5th position and you want to move it to the top. Or perhaps it's not there at all and you'd like to add it. Or maybe you'd like to add some notes about what you found on that site and why you thought it was useful. Starting today you can do all this and tailor Google search results to best meet your needs.

Today we're launching SearchWiki, a way for you to customize search by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results. With just a single click you can move the results you like to the top or add a new site. You can also write notes attached to a particular site and remove results that you don't feel belong. These modifications will be shown to you every time you do the same search in the future. SearchWiki is available to signed-in Google users. We store your changes in your Google Account. If you are wondering if you are signed in, you can always check by noting if your username appears in the upper right-hand side of the page.

The changes you make only affect your own searches. But SearchWiki also is a great way to share your insights with other searchers. You can see how the community has collectively edited the search results by clicking on the "See all notes for this SearchWiki" link.

View the full article from Google here:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/searchwiki-make-search-your-own.html

Since 1954, American automobile manufacturers have used a vehicle identification number (V.I.N.) to describe and identify motor vehicles. The early VINs came in a wide array of configurations and variations, depending on the individual manufacturer. Beginning with model year (MY)1981, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration required that all over-the-road-vehicles sold must contain a 17-character VIN. This standard established a fixed VIN format.

So let's dissect a VIN

The first 3 digits define the manufacturer. The first of these digits is usually the country of origin. For example, all VINs that start with J are producted in Japan and those that stat with W are Germany. Characters 4 through 8 are specific to that manufacturer's model for a given model year. The 9th digit is a check digit. VINs can actually be validated through a mathematical formula to ensure they are valid. The 10th digit is a year. For example, an 8 is for 2008, 7 is for 2007 The 11th digit is for the plant that manufactured the vehicle, in coordination with the manufacturer The remaining 12th through 17th digits are more or less the serial number of that particular vehicle for the specified make/model as defined by the VIN.

So how does it work?

VIN decoding works based off "VIN prefixes" or "Squish VINs" which are basically the first 11 digits of the VIN less the 9th digit which is a check digit. VIN Decoding providers have large databases of all the VIN Prefixes available and the vehicle data that links to them, thus providing a "VIN Decoder" or "VIN Exploder". There are about tens of thousands of unique combinations of VIN prefixes from 1981 to today.

So what can be decoded?

The year, make, model, engine, vehicle type and vehicle bodystyle can be decoded about 99% of the time. In some rare instances the year has been half model years or other goofy things. For example, the 2009 Kia Borrego actually has an 8 (2008) for the year digit but it is a 2009 model!

Can you decode the trim level?

Yes, but only about 30% of the time.

Can you decode the Transmission?

Yes, but only about 25% of the time

Can you decode the Drive Line Type? (4WD, AWD, etc)

Yes, about 80% of the time

Can you decode colors?

Nope, unless it is an Econoline van and everyone of them is probably white... :-)

For new cars a lot of dealers input the manufacturers model code and paint/option color codes in the DMS. These codes can be used in combinationo with VIN decoding to decode trim levels more often and lookup the manufacturer color names.

For some reason people always think VinSolutions is a VIN decoding company... we aren't.

See http://vinpower.com/VINInformation.aspx for more information and contact ESP Data Solutions about VINPOWER if you need a VIN Decoder for your automotive software.

At VinSolutions we use two VIN decoders. VINPOWER for basic VIN decoding since they also cover motorcycles, heavy trucks and other vehicles, and AutoData for our extended vehicle data and as a backup to VINPOWER. We actually apply a lot of custom rules to the data to perfect it for our dealers.

What is Video SEO?
Google ranks video content from YouTube, AOL and others very high in their rankings. By posting videos on YouTube, you can easily gain additional exposure for your dealership, at NO COST!

How about some examples?
Search Google for "2009 Buick LaCrosse Roxboro". The top 6 rankings are all from a video posted on YouTube that was the re-published to additional websites by YouTube as well.
Search Google for "2004 Dodge Durango Indianapolis". Top ranking is a YouTube video on Aol Autos.
You can use your pre-owned inventory to compete for dozens of keywords that you would normally not be able to compete for.

So how do I do it?
Sign up for a free Youtube account and start uploading videos. The trick though comes with the proper titles, descriptions, and keywords of your videos. (VinSolutions software will automatically optimize that for you.). You can record digital video with most any snapshot or video camera these days.

What is the easiest way to take videos of vehicles?
VinSolutions VinCamera is the only solution available to easily capture videos and upload them to the Internet. Simple select the stock # within the camera's software and take your video. Connect it to your PC and let our software take care of the tedious resizing & uploading.

What else can I do with videos?
VinSolutions can also help you send your videos to your website, Cars.com, AutoTrader.com and more. Upload videos of your staff, dealership, TV commercials and more. Via our ILM and CRM, you can also easily email these videos to your prospects.

Microsoft announced today (October 13th) that Silverlight 2.0 would be officially released to the world tomorrow (October 14th).

Take a minute tomorrow and visit http://www.silverlight.net to install it!

Fore more information check out my last post:

http://www.drivingsales.com/blog/mwatson/2008/10/10/silverlight-the-next-generation-of-automotive-software/

In the next 60 days we will be releasing major enhanacements to our automotive CRM system that were developed in Silverlight from the ground up to take advantage of what it can do.