Scott Pechstein, Vice President of Sales at Autobytel, Inc., talks about the buzzword of the moment: "digital retail."

Digital marketing in the dealership often is viewed and conducted solely from a sales perspective. But the service department, often called the "backbone of the dealership", is just as important as far as preparing and executing a digital marketing strategy. Check out this video and infographic to learn more about digital marketing's impact and importance for any dealership's service department.

We asked Dave Spannhake, founder and CEO of Reunion Marketing, what makes for an effective "Meet the Staff" page. Check out the video to hear what he had to say!

We all know by now that reviews are important. VERY important. They're more than important -- they're downright powerful in their ability to affect a brand, whether for good or for bad. This infographic reiterates just how powerful they can be. But what do we do with this information? Keep reading for some best practices on how to take these statistics from a survey of more than 14,000 consumers and apply in concrete ways to help grow your dealership's brand.

Now Now that you've looked over these staggering numbers, let's talk application. Power Reviews provides these best practices for leveraging the weight of user-generated reviews:

• It's Not a Scavenger Hunt. Make sure the content is clearly displayed on your website's product pages. Don't make visitors search for the information (they won't). Also, make sure it's clearly accessible across all types of devices.
• Keep Them Around. Once a customer lands on your site, entice them to stay by featuring user-generated ratings and reviews on your home page.
• Add to Ads. Add user review snippets and star ratings to your digital advertisements.
• Bring Them In-House. Include star ratings and review snippets in the physical signage within your dealership.

How else do you leverage the power of user-generated reviews at your dealership to increase traffic and, ultimately, business?

Do you agree with these numbers? Do your traffic numbers tend to be proportional to these, or different? 

Weigh in on the discussion here.

Michael King, founder of iPullRank, tells us how to get more visitors, both to the dealership and to the website.

Jenny Vance, PERQ's Executive Vice President of Sales, shares some top tips for dealerships looking  to improve and increase their online consumer engagement.

Best-selling author and marketing guru Andrew Davis tells you how to make your dealership rise above the "noise" and stand out to customers. 

At DSES 2017, we interviewed Mark Conner, Senior VP of Channel Strategy at LotLinx, on the top challenges dealers face (and the most common mistakes they make) when it comes to their data.

What are you biggest data challenges right now?

Do your customers' experiences match your brand standards?

Consumers are continuing to buy more products online – we know that. Does that mean retail experiences are becoming less important? The short answer is a resounding NO. In fact, for dealerships that want to set their brand apart from the competition and develop superior customer relationships, the retail experience is now more important than ever before. In the same way, as e-commerce continues to grow, it is important to create great customer experiences when selling cars online. In short, a customer who wants to come to the dealership should have a very similar experience to a customer who wants to do everything online. If done correctly, all parties in automotive retail – dealerships, customers and vendors – can benefit from this kind of streamlining.

Dealerships should be able to accommodate all types of customers; another word for this capability is responsive selling. Processes need to be in place both for customers who want to buy online without ever setting foot inside a dealership, customers who want to test-drive every car on the lot, and everything idiosyncratic customer in between.

Dealerships should optimize their technology and adjust their processes to sell in all settings to all types of consumer behavior. Your dealership’s brand and “why buy here” message should be portrayed consistently throughout every type of transaction, including online purchases. Consumers expect businesses to adapt to their buying style. The more dealerships can meet those expectations, the happier their customers will be.

Selling a car 100% online doesn’t excuse your dealership from providing an outstanding customer experience. Your brand is still represented online, and the customer will still remember where they bought their car, whether they remember it as an amazing experience or a terrible one. There’s a difference between buying something from Amazon versus buying it off eBay. Both are e-commerce giants, but consumers can have a different, unique experience interacting with each brand. For example, how quickly and easily were they able to complete their transaction? How much information was available to the customer? What is the return policy? The list goes on, and the considerations are every bit as important for your dealership as they are for any e-commerce provider. 

In that vein, the online buying experience you provide should match the in-store process as much as possible. Consistency is key for a streamlined brand experience. If you do something unique to celebrate with a customer who buys a new car in your store, it’s important to find an equally exciting way to celebrate with a customer who purchases their vehicle from your website. Similarly, be sure that your salespeople and BDC reps are cognizant that how they converse with a prospect via chat or email matches the way they’d converse with an up who walked into the dealership – responding in a timely, professional manner, and following a solid, well thought out process.

A better, faster, experience is what today’s customers are looking for, but they’re also seeking out consistency: whether the experience your provide measures up to the brand standards you profess.