Lead forms are DEAD. Done. Finished. Gone. Expired. Deceased. 

I can probably come up with a few more synonyms for the word “dead,” but I think you get it already. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with static lead forms, they aren’t working nearly as well as they used to. So really, they’re not so much “dead” as they are dying. Still, it’s a slow, painful death that you & I just don’t wanna see. I’d rather watch cheap, store-brand paint dry for several hours than look at my analytics dashboard and wonder if I’ll get any friggin’ conversions from the static form on my dealership’s website. Think about it, unless you had finally reached the point that you HAD to talk to a dealer, how interested would you be in submitting your info into a static form black hole?

The point is that there are FAR better ways to engage with car buyers and obtain their information. If you’ve kept up with my posts on DrivingSales, you know that I've spoken quite extensively about what interactive lead capture is and how it can help drive conversions on and off your website to increase foot traffic in your dealership. That said, I’m not gonna go into great detail about interactive lead capture. Instead, I’m gonna explain why I think static lead forms are dead; and why you should honestly avoid them like the plague:

Static Lead Forms Don’t Provide Direct Value to Consumers

One of the biggest problems with static lead forms is that they don’t provide direct value to car shoppers. I mean, you can technically say that submitting a form will lead to a follow-up call for more information.. but is a follow-up call they requested really that valuable? Most consumers (or people, rather), like immediate satisfaction. If they’re requesting more information on a vehicle, an offer or a trade-in, they don’t want wait for answers. They want them right now. Static lead forms don’t do that. The sole purpose of static lead forms is to obtain information from consumers in order to collect a lead. They serve the dealership, and the dealership alone. Interactive experience platforms, on the other hand, provide on-the-spot calculations, offers, and discounts that enhance lead generation for car sales. The buyer is getting something that’ll ultimately help them move their purchase along. If it’s something they’ll still need to wait for a dealer rep to respond with, then that rep better have a high quality enough lead to start off where their website left off.

They’re Boring as Hell

It seems pretty obvious, but I feel like it’s worth mentioning. Static lead generation forms are typically pretty boring… even if there are some graphics and/or logos included. The majority of static forms include an area for consumers to put the following: Their name, phone number, e-mail and maaaaybe some kind of extra message. Outside of that, that’s basically it. I think the most exciting thing that static lead forms offer is that you might be taken to a “thank you for your submission” page. Unlike many forms of interactive lead capture, there are calculators, no independent data, no assessments, no incentives, and certainly responsiveness to how the consumer is engaging with your website. Not only do these forms not provide anything of value, but they’re not generating any excitement either. I wouldn’t be surprised if half the static forms on your dealership’s website (if you even have them), don’t get any sort of traction.

Your Dealership Receives Limited Information 

With interactive lead capture, your dealership has the opportunity capture valuable information from website visitors without even asking them. Simply observing the way a consumer engages with an interactive experience can build a robust profile of who they are and how you can help them. Further more you can collect customer-entered data in a lot more creative ways than free-from text fields and drop downs. The point is that dealerships (who leverage interactive lead capture) a TON of enhanced ability to collect the information they’d like to collect. Instead of collecting the standard contact information via static lead form, they can let customer naturally build a lead profile by simply letting them share their information in a way that serves them as well. Not only does this make car shoppers feel like they’re being listened to, but also it really does allow your dealership to LISTEN. You can easily learn more about your consumer base and provide a better, more personalized customer experience right from the get-go. You can’t do that with static lead capture forms. 

They Seem Like They’re Performing Better Than They Actually Are

Historically static lead form conversions have been slowly declining for a decade now. As content in general has evolved. Consumers expect much more personalized and enhanced online experiences. Calculators, assessments, multi-media and responsiveness are the new standard. If you don’t believe me just take a look at all of the best independent websites (Edmunds, KBB, CarGurus, ect.) and check out how much interactive content they offer visitors. Dealers are constantly battling to drive higher conversions and where static forms can still show value is with customers latest in the buying journey. If I were in a position where I HAVE to make contact with a dealership, of course I would still fill out a static form. If there was a better option they would take it and that’s why the best website products out right now are deeply interactive.

So great, you strong-armed the 3% of your traffic into the “mousetrap” of a static form. What about the other 97% of traffic? I’m guessing you put quite of bit of effort into generating that much traffic to let it all go with any meaningful engagment. Static forms only work with those in a position with no other alternative. There are tons of options for how you could be serving customers in the discovery and research phases of the process through interactive assessments, quizzes, calculators and more interactive experiences. Customers earlier in the buyer journey have other options, they can leave your website.

In an age where most car shoppers already have a concrete idea of what they want before setting foot into your dealership, it’s important for you to engage with them on a deeper level. Chances are, there are several very similar dealerships within a 5-10 mile radius of yours — and the eager, but cautious car shopper is going to go with dealership that makes the most sense to go to. If you wanna be the dealership that makes the most sense to reach out to — the one that’s most relatable, and has the best customer service, then you NEED to avoid static lead forms. There are WAY too many different ways to engage car shoppers at your dealership — and lead forms are NOT one of them. 

So, I’d like to know: what are your thoughts on static lead forms?

Update:

In effort to clear up any confusion in the difference among "interactive lead form" and "static lead form" I thought this image would be helpful. "Lead forms" will always be utilized, its the difference between being static and interacitve that make a dramatic difference. A classic example is when dealers collected trade-in information for appraisals with a "static form" that eventually turned interactive by evolving into a calculator that instantly presents an estimate value, among other interactive actions. I'm proposing that this same evolution has already began to take place with even the most basic of static forms like  check availability, eprice, test drive, promotion, special offer, ect. ect. 

As a dealer, you likely have a number of different tech providers (or vendors) that you work with to ensure operations run smoothly – all providing different types of technical services. There are automotive providers for marketing, finance, inventory, lead generation, print advertising, etc. The list goes on and on. You might not have digital tools for every aspect of your dealership, but you probably have vendors for some.

One thing that’s particularly common amongst dealerships is the use of month-to-month vendors. What this essentially means is that dealerships are signing up for tools and services that they can pay for on a monthly basis. If, for any reason, a dealership discovers that they don’t want to continue using a particular tool or service, they can cancel anytime. No questions asked. Many dealerships are given the opportunity to try out different vendors and experiment with different tools because of this. 

Nowadays though, dealerships are opting for a “new breed” of tech provider — one that allows them to work closely with account reps that can help them step-by-step with their new tools. Instead of opting for different vendors, dealerships are becoming more attracted to the concept of annual partnerships. Annual partnerships are simply where dealerships commit to a year or more of access to tools and services. However, instead of figuring it out on their own, dealers are assigned a knowledgeable account rep to help them every step of the way. Account reps will typically help you with setup and/or implementation, strategy and troubleshoot software issues — all things you wouldn’t normally get with a month-to-month contract. The ability to forge working relationships is what makes annual partnerships so unique.

Although month-to-month contracts are still popular among dealers, annual partnerships are quickly gaining traction. Here’s why annual partnerships have become more popular over the last year:

Assistance with Planning & Troubleshooting

As I mentioned before, when you sign up for an annual partnership, you’re typically assigned an account rep to help you throughout each and every aspect of implementation, planning and troubleshooting. What makes this so special is that, for dealers relying on month-to-month services and tools, they’re pretty much all on their own. Dealers that sign up for an annual partnership, on the other hand, have someone watching over them. They don’t have to go about anything on their own.

Let’s say you’ve just signed up for lead capture and engagement tool to integrate onto your dealership’s website. It’s a tool that basically has the same capabilities as Black Book, KBB, and Auto Trader. The difference is that tool is associated an annual partnership; which means there’s an account rep available to help with whatever it is your dealership needs. If you find that your dealership isn’t converting as quickly as expected, an account rep can make copy, design and software recommendations. Additionally, your account rep can troubleshoot issues you’re having; and help you install additional software. 

Access to Advanced Tools & Services

The 2nd reason why dealerships have been signing up for annual partnerships is to gain exclusive access to advanced tools and services that they wouldn’t otherwise get in a month-to-month agreement. Now, you might be asking “Why can’t I simply get these tools in a month-to-month agreement?” Well, the reason why annual partners typically get access to these tools is because they’re in it “for the long haul.” Advanced tools, analytics dashboards and services need to be created by talented developers and engineers — all of which cost money. After all, there’s a lot that goes into analyzing and dissecting consumer car buying behavior. And in order to truly reap the benefits of these tools and services, they need to be utilized over a certain period of time. This allows for proper data collection, bug fixes, and so on. It wouldn’t make much sense for a dealer to sign up for a tool, leverage every aspect of that service (which took a tremendous amount of time and effort to develop), and then cancel it a month later. It doesn’t make much logical sense, and it certainly doesn’t make financial sense.

Now, when I say “advanced tools and services,” it’s exactly what it sounds like. These tools have been developed to help your dealership function and run at its absolute best. They provider dealers with the opportunity to further dissect future opportunities and help with troubleshooting. But the best part, of course, is that since you have your own individual account rep, you can reach out to them for guidance and assistance with all the advanced features you come across — and it’s completely customized to your dealership’s specific goals. 

Cost Effective.

One thing that you might find particularly surprising is that annual partnerships are quite cost effective. Not only are dealerships that sign up for such a partnership often provided with a significant discount (if you commit to a year, they’ll knock 25% to 30% off monthly price), but the additional time you spend with your account rep means a better developed strategy or better system of doing things.

Let’s use dealership website builders as an example, shall we? Your dealership signs up for a website building (and hosting) service; and you’re assigned an account rep that provides tips and tricks for how to make your site more maneuverable. They tell you what tools to use; what features to use; and to some extent, what copy to use. It’s because of this extra work that your site ends up generating a lot more leads, and scheduled appointments. More leads and scheduled appointments = more sales. That said, the extra time and effort spent with an annual partnership means a greater return on investment. 

And another reason why annual partnerships are cost effective? It basically eliminates the need to hop from service to service. When you start and stop using month-to-month tools and services, you often experience a lot of downtime on your campaigns and initiatives. You spend more time researching what tools and services to use, but not enough time developing strategies and implementing structure into something that can be made better with time. The more downtime you have between different tools and services (give or take a week or month), the less money your dealership will ultimately make.

It's not about trying to lock a dealership into a product they're not going to want in a couple of months or doesn't work. It's about looking at one can be accomplished between a tech provider and dealer client when they commit to working together for a longer period than just month by month. After all, both business's are working to generate revenue by selling vehicles. 

Just to be clear, I’m not saying you absolutely should go with an annual partnership. Honestly, annual partnerships aren’t for everyone. Some dealerships might actually thrive using month-to-month products; and that’s perfectly okay. However, there’s no denying that the majority of dealerships out there have at least dabbled with or thought about going with a annual partnership. Frankly, the ones that did experienced outrageously great results. The point here is that even if things are going well, you might actually discover that your results can be even better. Annual partnerships have proven value amongst dealerships; so, you might want to reconsider that "no contracts" policy. You might be suprised how much better your technology performs we your not starting over every month. 

Are you currently working with a tech provider? What has your experience been like so far? 

When it comes to successful lead generation on your dealership’s website, interactive experiences have a positive impact on the way those leads are captured. With more and more consumers becoming deterred by static forms (and the fear of getting bombarded with phone calls), dealerships need to leverage automotive website optimization, and come up with better, more engaging ways to reach those consumers, and obtain their information.

For Internet Managers, the biggest obstacle is simply coming up with better ways to engage with their consumers. Sure, the standard 3rd party lead capture tools do the job; but competition is fierce. Don’t you want to really “WOW” your consumers with an experience that can’t be beat? Here are a few types of engaging interactive experiences that you can integrate into your digital lead capture strategy: 

Evaluation Experiences

While this isn’t always the case, many consumers visit your website not knowing exactly what it is they want from your dealership. Many of them have an idea, but they haven’t made any concrete decisions. Setting up an evaluation experience on your website is a great way to help consumers figure out what it is they want. And the best part about evaluation experiences is that you can often customize the questions as much as you like. “What type of vehicle is best for your family?” or even “What financing option is best for you?” are great types of evaluations because they steer the customer closer to a purchasing decision.

Calculators are, arguably, one of the best types of evaluation tools that you can place on your website – the reason for that being that finances are almost always a major factor when it comes to vehicle purchases. If consumers can’t afford the down payment, the monthly payments or cost of mileage, it isn’t a wise decision to get the vehicle they’re looking at.

Once the evaluation is complete, those consumer preferences and contact info will be sent to your consumer database; and that’ll give your dealers the opportunity to provide inventory and service suggestions that are best suited for them. 

Assessments

Assessments can offer a way to help educate customers about your brand, product and major shopping decisions. Many dealership sites are just focused on the transaction phase of the buying journey – when they’re ready to buy. This could be a major reason consumers don’t’ spend as much time on dealers sites, in the early stages of process.

When someone begins shopping for a vehicle, everything is about assessment. They assess their current situation by finding out the value of their car and learning more about their financial situation. When the value of their car has been determined, they begin researching to assess the current market conditions and available options according to their needs and wants. What model is right for me? What can I afford? Should I lease or finance? Should I buy new or used?

All of these are examples of major decisions made while shopping for a vehicle. They all have a massive impact on what they’ll eventually purchase. If you can help a website visitor work through these decisions and put them on the right path, you’ll be making an emotional connection with them. These types of positive emotional interactions are what ultimately drive their opinion of you, and how fit you are to purchase a vehicle from.

Quiz (Testing Knowledge)

Quizzes are another type of great interactive experience that you can incorporate into your dealership’s website. Consumers love a bit of healthy competition; and they love seeing their name at the top of the leaderboards. Consumers especially like the concept of being able to share their winning results with their friends on social media. Although you might be racking your brain about what sorts of trivia questions you could ask, you can basically come up with questions about — well… anything! When conceptualizing your quiz, think about what consumers typically like to compete over — is it car knowledge, brand specific knowledge, hometown community knowledge? Make it unique, relevant and more importantly, fun!

One suggestion for a quiz would be to ask trivia questions pertaining to the history of your dealership — or perhaps statistics from your dealership. Doing this gives consumers the opportunity to learn more about your dealership before talking to any sales rep. 

Does your dealership’s website have its own interactive experiences? Tell us about them in the comments!

About 2 weeks ago, I discussed the major shift that was happening within the automotive industry in regards to their digital presence. In a nutshell, dealerships are adding significant upgrades to their websites in order to provide better resources, and impress consumers who are currently have lots of options in front of them. In addition to website alterations, dealers are also leveraging other online resources (like social media) in order to reach new consumers and keep loyal customers in the loop.

In that post, I didn’t really divulge into everything that dealerships were doing to evolve their digital presence. Sure, I discussed the concept of upgrading one’s website (and even named an example), but there are so many things that dealerships are doing to make sure their websites kick some serious butt. In fact, with all the new software for auto dealers coming out, there’s no excuse to not at least experiment a little. The same goes for off-website stuff too. That being said, what are some of the changes that dealerships are making? Let’s take a quick look:

Overall Website Design Changes

Remember how I mentioned that many dealership websites worked off a 3rd-party template? Well, dealers are still using those templates — but they’re coming up with some awesome ways to make those websites entirely their own. That, or they’re simply scrapping the 3rd party vendor to hire a website designer. Either way, dealers are quickly putting extensive focus on the overall look of their website.

Dealerships want to stand out, so they’re cleaning up their HTML, adding unique fonts and creating an experience that consumers don’t feel overwhelmed by. Dealerships websites are no longer cluttered by pop-ups, inventory (on the front page) and various calls-to-action.

Interactive Lead Capture Tool Customization

Most dealerships nowadays use some sort of Interactive Lead Capture tool (Think your Blackbooks, Auto Traders, and KBBs). However, like the websites I mentioned previously, a lot of those tools are also pretty template heavy. Instead of leveraging a generic template with generic questions and standard logos, dealerships are now attempting to personalize their tools in order to provide consumers with a smoother experience on their website. For consumers, landing on a dealership’s lead capture tool and discovering entirely different logos and rich media mentally skews the experience for them. It often times leaves consumers feeling confused.

If your dealership uses the standard template, it’s as if the consumer has left the website. If I’ve learned anything over the last few years of working in automotive marketing, consumers are much happier when their shopping experiences are seamless. Dealers are beginning to realize this too, as they're altering the tool’s color scheme and images; as well as adding rich media. More importantly, they're customizing the questions being asked on the form itself. They’re questions these consumers have likely never seen before, so that adds to the overall “uniqueness” of your dealership. 

Web Analytics

You’d be very surprised to learn that, at one point, many dealerships didn’t really keep very close tabs on the analytics of their website — mainly because they didn’t know such an option was available to them. Over the past few years, dealerships have become extremely aware of the power that comes from looking at platforms like Google Analytics to figure out more about what consumers are actually doing on their website. And yes, I added extra emphasis on the word “actually” for a good reason. When consumers fill out a form on your website, they’re basically telling you the truth (and why wouldn’t they? It’s in their best interest to do so). The problem is that a lot of consumers will do certain things without really giving it a second thought. For example: a consumer might visit your website knowing they want a sedan, but they keep eyeballing the “Trucks” section of your website. Subconscious behaviors like this can be tracked and leveraged for future marketing efforts (Promotions, Facebook/Twitter posts, messaging, etc.); or even retargeting — which is typically occurs automatically once results are captured! Basically, web analytics tools provide a completely unobscured view of your consumers.

As you can tell from the examples above, dealerships are paying very close attention to the new types of technology coming out. Because competition is so fierce between dealerships, investing in upgrades is a wise decision that’ll prove to be quite fruitful as time progresses. 

What sorts of new technology do you think we’ll see in the next few years? Tell us in the comments. 

Even though it’s obvious that I’m a huge advocate for interactive experiences, I can attest that it really is all the rage. Dealerships are lapping up interactive experiences like crazy because it allows consumers to easily interact with your dealership on a personal level. Everyday, consumers visit different dealership websites looking for all sorts of information: inventory, special offers, pricing, etc. That said, there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity for dealerships to leverage interactive content (or interactive experiences) to communicate with their consumers. And, yes -- I know what you’re probably thinking: “Customers won’t take the time to go all the way through that! I need a quick, static form!”

No. You do NOT jut need a static form. If you implement multi-stage conversion (meaning you collect information in different parts of the interactive experience), you won’t miss a single lead from a customer dropping off mid experience.

Whether you choose to go with a provider or develop your own tools, you can provide consumers with experiences that make it a treat to visit your dealership’s website – and maybe even improve your auto dealer digital marketing along the way. Here are some of the most common tools and services that you can turn into interactive experiences:

Trade Appraisals

One of the most popular dealership website tools is the “Trade Appraisal” tool. Most folks looking to purchase a vehicle want to give up what they already have, so finding a dealership that’ll provide the best price is ideal. Instead of having consumers fill out a static form, and providing consumers with a trade appraisal later on (via phone or e-mail), consumers would have the opportunity to get an immediate quote for their vehicle.

Along with their contact information, consumers would answer questions about their vehicle, and the tool would calculate the price based on weighted attributes (quality, brand, etc.). In addition to answering questions about your vehicle, your dealership can heighten the experience even further by asking questions about purchasing habits and intentions. Our own tool, Trade Appraisal Plus, offers dealers the opportunity to ask whatever questions they want, and it gives the consumer the impression that they’re “filling out a buyer profile” — which they actually are!

Instead of having a 3rd party branded tool, consumers want to know what your dealership is going to do about their trade. Providing a quote instead of a “instant cash offer” is more realistic to clients, and you can still capture that lead without having to make a low ball offer. Offer a quote online, and then build value into your process, brand and ‘why buy’ statement when they’re getting a quote from YOUR DEALERSHIP (dealer branded tool), and not a 3rd party tool like KBB.

E-Price

As you’re aware, E-Price offers upfront, the lowest possible vehicle price to consumers online for vehicles they’re researching. Because it saves an immediate trip to the dealership, it’s often the most ideal pricing option for consumers. E-Price has existed for quite some time now, but typically in a static form. Because so many consumers look for e-prices, it would practically be a crime to miss out on turning this tool into an interactive experience.

E-Price has long received the best click-through rate. You could always change it to "ABC Motors Pricing" and insert something more unique as well. Remember, with an interactive experience everything is customizable to your dealership. Unfortunately, there’s room for customers to interpret this CTA as “I can get a better price online”. With an interactive experience, however, you can clearly define exactly what “E-Price” is at your dealership. You can inform customers that the price already listed online is the BEST price, and the market based pricing strategy that was used behind it. Their interaction of interest around a specific vehicle and its price is the perfect time to take a website visitor through an interactive experience. It’s the best of both worlds, the best click-through rate without sacrificing lead quality or consumer experience.

Here’s an example of a plausible experience: Along with collecting contact information (in exchange for the e-price), consumers could answer other questions about their purchasing intentions and then learn about other vehicles in their inventory that match their buyer profile. 

Test Drive Scheduling

Another thing consumers often do on dealership websites is schedule test drives. This is, yet again, another wonderful opportunity to turn this simple static form into a full-on experience — for more reasons than one. Even more than the trade appraisal experience, your test drive scheduling experience should collect as much information from the consumer as humanly possible. Why? Well, when a consumer requests to schedule a test drive, they plan on coming to see you face-to-face. That said, customizing the questions you want to ask (in the experience) is crucial. That way, when you (the dealer), receive that information, you’re able to help the consumer in the dealership. You’ll be able to answer questions before they’re even asked… or before the consumer even thinks to ask them. And again, because you’re asking questions that make sense to your dealership, the consumer will feel more inclined to answer them because they feel more engaged.

Now, did you know how many customers click “Test Drive” but never actually schedule one? You may be surprised just how many opportunities you’re missing because customers are unsure of the process and whether its right for them. You can use interactive lead capture, put consumers in control and let them learn and select the test drive experience they want. You may be surprised just how much more often a customer will actually submit a test drive appointment, if they felt confident about what kind of a test drive experience they would have.

There are lots of ways to turn boring, everyday tools and static forms into interactive experiences. You just need to think about the type interaction you want to see between your dealership and the consumer. The three experiences mentioned before only just scratch the surface of what can be done with your dealership’s website. 

If you have any ideas for an interactive lead capture experience or question about your website, please share in the comments section below. 

Hello again friends, its been a while but yet again I need your help. I've been trying to crunch down on the details of my site and how well it is optimized with correct descriptions, keywords, and meta-tags. The problem is we have a portal website that represents 5 locations and in a couple of weeks a new location that is in a different state. I want to properly represent each dealers location with keywords that include the city as well as other keywords that differ from location to the next. For example one location is primarily trucks/diesels and another is luxury vehicles. I'm having trouble coming up with a solid strategy on how best to optimize the site and specifically the portal page to reach its potential on search engines without exceeding the recommended character count for descriptions and headers. Is this just going to be the downfall to having a portal site? Our website looks great and we are doing a lot with blogging, SEO pages, and content marketing to improve our rankings with Google. I just want to ensure our keywords, headers, page descriptions, are correctly optimized. If anyone could help or give reference to a similar situation with a portal site that has it done right I would appreciate it. 

http://www.bartscarstore.com

Hello again friends, its been a while but yet again I need your help. I've been trying to crunch down on the details of my site and how well it is optimized with correct descriptions, keywords, and meta-tags. The problem is we have a portal website that represents 5 locations and in a couple of weeks a new location that is in a different state. I want to properly represent each dealers location with keywords that include the city as well as other keywords that differ from location to the next. For example one location is primarily trucks/diesels and another is luxury vehicles. I'm having trouble coming up with a solid strategy on how best to optimize the site and specifically the portal page to reach its potential on search engines without exceeding the recommended character count for descriptions and headers. Is this just going to be the downfall to having a portal site? Our website looks great and we are doing a lot with blogging, SEO pages, and content marketing to improve our rankings with Google. I just want to ensure our keywords, headers, page descriptions, are correctly optimized. If anyone could help or give reference to a similar situation with a portal site that has it done right I would appreciate it. 

http://www.bartscarstore.com

6 months ago I partnered with www.BizProps.com to bring an idea for a online promotion to life. The thought started during a "Super Sale" when I wondered with all the exposure and traditional strategy, how to take it online. With an ancient strategy that has stood so strong against time I assumed someone had already brought it online. To my amazement there was very little even coming close to the idea and those who were catching on were doing on a very small scale. 

24 hours ago we officially went live with the first version of "Spin2Win" an online promotional game that offers up prizes up to $10,000 and grantees' $1000 per month given away. To play you must register some basic information(including email/phone) and answer a few basic related questions. Each action rewards you with a spin including the opportunity to share on Facebook. A few of those actions are designed to help identify whether the participant is an "in-market" customer or not. Another question asks what you are currently driving and in return their given a estimated trade-in value, up to 125% of NADA trade-in value. 

Being the first version of the game their are a bundle of immediate features that will be coming along as well as several revisions we have already started into. We have only promoted the game via website banners and our Facebook page. We will be launching an email campaign, blog posts, 3rd party banners, and partner promotions with local large online community. In the first 24 hours we received 54 Facebook  shares, 40 Facebook page likes, 175 registrants, and over 100 website visits(76%New, 2:34time on site). We definitely plan on adding other social networks and rewarding customers 

for other actions like uploading contacts for referrals, and writing reviews.

It would be great if you could click the link below and see it for yourself. I would love any feedback at all so please post some comments. CLICK HERE>>>>  http://www.bartscarstore.com/web/spin2win

6 months ago I partnered with www.BizProps.com to bring an idea for a online promotion to life. The thought started during a "Super Sale" when I wondered with all the exposure and traditional strategy, how to take it online. With an ancient strategy that has stood so strong against time I assumed someone had already brought it online. To my amazement there was very little even coming close to the idea and those who were catching on were doing on a very small scale. 

24 hours ago we officially went live with the first version of "Spin2Win" an online promotional game that offers up prizes up to $10,000 and grantees' $1000 per month given away. To play you must register some basic information(including email/phone) and answer a few basic related questions. Each action rewards you with a spin including the opportunity to share on Facebook. A few of those actions are designed to help identify whether the participant is an "in-market" customer or not. Another question asks what you are currently driving and in return their given a estimated trade-in value, up to 125% of NADA trade-in value. 

Being the first version of the game their are a bundle of immediate features that will be coming along as well as several revisions we have already started into. We have only promoted the game via website banners and our Facebook page. We will be launching an email campaign, blog posts, 3rd party banners, and partner promotions with local large online community. In the first 24 hours we received 54 Facebook  shares, 40 Facebook page likes, 175 registrants, and over 100 website visits(76%New, 2:34time on site). We definitely plan on adding other social networks and rewarding customers 

for other actions like uploading contacts for referrals, and writing reviews.

It would be great if you could click the link below and see it for yourself. I would love any feedback at all so please post some comments. CLICK HERE>>>>  http://www.bartscarstore.com/web/spin2win

Recently I've taken a fresh new look at your classic "Super Sale" and thanks to Tri-Auto I liked what I saw. There's nothing new about a 5 day dealership event where you send out 40k direct mail pieces luring customers in to claim their prize. With people waiting to register, balloons, and of course wonderful prizes, these extremely successful sales were just what the doctor ordered for many dealerships in low times and for some a regular form of advertising.

One obstacle of these sales is the loads of customers coming in without any interest in buying car. It's up to the dealership to convert these customers into buyers and energize them with why now is a great time to buy a car. The successful sales are full of these conversions and most of the time you can easily see without these conversions a sale can come up very short. So how do you increase this conversion rate while also bringing additional value to the sale? One way to do this is registering customers, mandate all sale participants be registered for the sale giving your salesman an opening to speak to the customer and investigate their situation. Gaining their information is also valuable being you can later contact these locals for a 2nd or 3rd chance to earn their business. This is all pretty standard for most business's promoting these sales but today’s market is in need for something bigger and better.

Most competing dealerships are heavily if not completely involved online. Websites, social networks, email marketing, and Google are all a huge parts of just about every dealership and for some a real struggle. Many dealerships are so focused on these “front line” marketing efforts they don't even consider direct mail a valuable source of marketing anymore. I don't really blame them either; most direct mail marketing doesn't do much more then list a website when it comes to including the online dynamic. Customers want more than just a flier to keep them interested and finally someone decided to do something about this and developed a way of incorporating not just the internet but the whole process of how most customers are used to shopping for a car these days.

Tri-Auto took the lead with direct-mail advertising introducing us to Market Vision 7 software a data collecting and showroom traffic controlling machine. Market Vision 7 utilizes a microsite and in-showroom kiosk to create an efficient way of recording and controlling all the sale participates. Let’s take a look at their process and the strategy behind it. 

·         Attract

Tri-Auto’s direct mail pieces elicit consumer attention because they’ve been developed through years of testing.

·         Engage

Market Vision 7™ microsites feature multiple points of engagement that generate qualified leads to fill your pipeline.

·         Amplify

Social Share motivates users to share your event across their social network to amplify your marketing message and enhance its response.

·         Convert

The Market Vision 7™ in-showroom kiosk tracks responders and includes tools to help your salespeople close more deals.

·         Analyze

Real-time reporting provides actionable data during your sale and post-sale data allows you to benchmark and leverage information to improve future sales.

Sound familiar? One thing that makes me such a fan of this program is it fits today’s customer and the process they are used to using to purchase and applies it to direct-mail advertising. A whole separate category of ROI that otherwise would not be utilized or considered for ROI. A dealership looking for the classic production of foot traffic to the show-room but wants to include the rest of their marketing efforts online is the perfect type of client for this program. Whether you have a strong social presence or need a quick way to catch up, the microsite will not only get you Likes and Tweets but will actually encourage customers to share and engage your brand socially. You are still registering customers but not on a stack of unorganized registration forms. Instead customers are walked to a kiosk and assisted while they go through the registration process with the salesman. This gives your sales staff ample opportunity to convert non-buyers to buyers while collecting key information to qualify the customer. During the registration process customers are asked about their currently vehicle offering them a predetermined percentage of NADA value as well as trigger questions you train your guys to ask sparking purchasing signals. When all else fails they are presented with a friendly roulette wheel that they can physically spin to see what they have won. This takes the pressure and responsibility of the prize off the salesman and allows them to do their job.

 While the activity in the showroom is producing sales you can manage all the data being collecting through the microsite and kiosk live through Market Vision 7's online dashboard. Here you can contact leads generated from the microsite, pull credit from online credit apps, monitor salesman performance, and even collect appointment information made by microsite visitors. This would be a great time to also reflect you’re in showroom promotion on your social networks and collect even more participants. You can easily collect dozens of likes and shares throughout a 5 day event as well as begin marketing via email to your sale database. Tri-Auto has done a fantastic job of revamping direct mail advertising with a one of a kind process that includes every dynamic offered in today’s market. 

In my experience with Tri-Auto this program has been just what we were looking for when connecting with customers we weren’t currently touching with are online only marketing strategy. The bonus for us is we didn’t have to miss out on internet customers either. It allowed us to leverage our online presence and capability with customers that weren’t already aware of us online.  The fact we can continue to reap the benefits of the sale weeks later was more than enough ROI to make it a solid investment.  If your already running direct mail promotions you have to give this a try and if you’re not  I suggest you give an old but now new strategy another shot. 

I would like to offer everyone everyone Special Program Pricing and Free Market Analysis-

Mention this post and please contact:

Tonya Ingram 

317.644.5711

tingram@triauto.com

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I would be interested in any other similar advancements anyone has seen with direct-mail. Anyone else use a similar system before? 

Thank you,

--

Russ Chandler

russ58@hotmail.com

@russchandler2