This is the 3rd chapter of my "Diaries of an eCommerce Director", and the strategies and processes I am mentioning here are real life-time examples I did and implemented into my dealerships I had worked for.

I have visited hundreds and hundreds of dealerships over the past few years. Some of them were nice looking, some of them were elegant and others were just “awkward”. For example: Why would you as a GM or Owner love an idea during an upcoming Thanksgiving and Black Friday campaign and have your head lurking out of a turkey’s rear end – you want to be funny, alright, but do you think this idea brings you more customers during the holidays and want to buy a car from you because the idea is cute?

During my career I worked with several website providers and roughly 14 OEMs, and I discovered that website success relies on you - the eCommerce Director or Internet Manager and the support teams of the vendors working together. As so often in life, relationship is everything, and with a frequent exchange of ideas, suggestions and plans of these two parties, life should be getting easier when thinking about an ad campaign or message on your websites.

When you have an OEM endorsed website provider, I would invest in the endorsed solution first. Many shoppers are looking for that brand of car, not you, so make that “door” to the dealership as appealing and competitive as possible. It will help you as an Internet Manager to focus on the main duties of your job – processes, response time, coaching your crew, selling cars and reporting.

The other duties of creating specials, developing more content pages, graphic work are important as well, but let’s be clear here – how many of you are educated SEO specialists, graphic artists and writers – wouldn’t you rather leave it to a specialist? The good OEM programs even help you pay for these people to make your life easier. Some OEM endorsed providers will do a lot of the work of running their campaigns on your site for you. The advantage to a dealer is as clear as chicken broth, as we say in Germany. No delays to display your specials, the right numbers, the right models, the right small print. Campaigns like “Autobahn Event” or “Mr. Opportunity” are implemented right from the get-go compliant.

Be honest here, how often did you find yourself surfing hours for the right images on Google, only to create yourself an event on your website mirroring the national OEM campaign and then suddenly receiving an email of the OEM compliance department, stating that your “Civic special does show the wrong trim line and pricing”, and you need to take it down to get not flagged!

Do I hear “cookie-cutter” and “plainness” remarks? Remember what I wrote a few lines prior – you are responsible for success of your department and I expect from you to be pro-active to make your website stand out. If your site is “cookie cutter” it is because you didn’t invest to make it better. One of my sites was an OEM Cobalt site but I found out I had over 1700 design variations I could choose from.

You’ll be amazed at what you can do if you just work with your vendor.

Here are some ideas which helped me early on in my career to achieve my goal in having the best website in the city:

• Discuss with your website provider’s service person your creative ideas, and what restrictions the OEM. They look at other dealer’s sites – have them give you a tour of what they think is working well.

• Decide what keywords you want to add in the SEO of your website. Think about negative SEO keywords and competitor’s make and models to implement in your content.

• Make sure that each of the photos you want to have shown on specials, About Us and Direction pages are tagged with phrases, which are named after your models, dealership name and location. This will be easier to get picked up by our friends – the search engines.

• Develop with your service person additional pages of the models you are selling. Each model page needs to be created individual with some outbound links and cross links on some particular key phrases. Example: Model XYZ come with scheduled free maintenance for….” – scheduled free maintenance should be linked to your service page (service special, schedule service online or similar).

• DO NOT JUST COPY OEM content from the OEM website and say you have created a search engine relevant page inside your website. It actually will do nothing for you in regards to SEO. Written creative needs to be at least 70% unique in its content to be considered “worthwhile” for Google. So use the content of your OEM and just spice it up with your own words and messages, and do not forget to name your location in these model pages.

• Consider the OEM and website provider ad-packages, which will give you an entire array of digital online marketing tools. Retargeting, Mobile websites, designated phone numbers will bring you more traffic in form of phone calls. No doubt – no “yeah, but” – I am sticking to my statement, because I have had seen too often dealerships failing and to generate valuable leads, only to save a few bucks. It works, and it had worked always for me.

Last but not least – Let me reflect on the purpose of using an OEM endorsed website provider.

It is all about getting more sales by being consistent with the “personality” of the brand and leveraging the shoppers they are creating for you with their advertising.

For example, the OEM wants their customers finding a constant CI (corporate identity) and consistent message – from OEM website over to the franchise website – and so do many shoppers. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have an opportunity to convince shoppers that your store is better than the same franchise down the road. What happens when you don’t do this?

Volkswagen has a blue/white/gray scheme and I witnessed the following scenario. A dealer located in the Southwest thought it would be great to integrate a desert color palette of yellow, umbra, black and gold throughout the pages for their VW franchise. Not only was it hideous but totally denied the affiliation with the franchise. I actually listened to recorded phone calls generated from the website’s 1-800 numbers, where the customers were asking if they have VW Golf’s in their inventory! True story!

Do you think a McDonalds franchisee, who paid money, time and efforts to build his own burger restaurant and the brand in her city suddenly would come up with the idea to get rid of the branded yellow/red M and instead goes for a pink/purple expression?

Stick to the corporate identity and personality your OEM is providing to display and message your brand appropriately. You’ll get more sales.

This is the 3rd chapter of my "Diaries of an eCommerce Director", and the strategies and processes I am mentioning here are real life-time examples I did and implemented into my dealerships I had worked for.

I have visited hundreds and hundreds of dealerships over the past few years. Some of them were nice looking, some of them were elegant and others were just “awkward”. For example: Why would you as a GM or Owner love an idea during an upcoming Thanksgiving and Black Friday campaign and have your head lurking out of a turkey’s rear end – you want to be funny, alright, but do you think this idea brings you more customers during the holidays and want to buy a car from you because the idea is cute?

During my career I worked with several website providers and roughly 14 OEMs, and I discovered that website success relies on you - the eCommerce Director or Internet Manager and the support teams of the vendors working together. As so often in life, relationship is everything, and with a frequent exchange of ideas, suggestions and plans of these two parties, life should be getting easier when thinking about an ad campaign or message on your websites.

When you have an OEM endorsed website provider, I would invest in the endorsed solution first. Many shoppers are looking for that brand of car, not you, so make that “door” to the dealership as appealing and competitive as possible. It will help you as an Internet Manager to focus on the main duties of your job – processes, response time, coaching your crew, selling cars and reporting.

The other duties of creating specials, developing more content pages, graphic work are important as well, but let’s be clear here – how many of you are educated SEO specialists, graphic artists and writers – wouldn’t you rather leave it to a specialist? The good OEM programs even help you pay for these people to make your life easier. Some OEM endorsed providers will do a lot of the work of running their campaigns on your site for you. The advantage to a dealer is as clear as chicken broth, as we say in Germany. No delays to display your specials, the right numbers, the right models, the right small print. Campaigns like “Autobahn Event” or “Mr. Opportunity” are implemented right from the get-go compliant.

Be honest here, how often did you find yourself surfing hours for the right images on Google, only to create yourself an event on your website mirroring the national OEM campaign and then suddenly receiving an email of the OEM compliance department, stating that your “Civic special does show the wrong trim line and pricing”, and you need to take it down to get not flagged!

Do I hear “cookie-cutter” and “plainness” remarks? Remember what I wrote a few lines prior – you are responsible for success of your department and I expect from you to be pro-active to make your website stand out. If your site is “cookie cutter” it is because you didn’t invest to make it better. One of my sites was an OEM Cobalt site but I found out I had over 1700 design variations I could choose from.

You’ll be amazed at what you can do if you just work with your vendor.

Here are some ideas which helped me early on in my career to achieve my goal in having the best website in the city:

• Discuss with your website provider’s service person your creative ideas, and what restrictions the OEM. They look at other dealer’s sites – have them give you a tour of what they think is working well.

• Decide what keywords you want to add in the SEO of your website. Think about negative SEO keywords and competitor’s make and models to implement in your content.

• Make sure that each of the photos you want to have shown on specials, About Us and Direction pages are tagged with phrases, which are named after your models, dealership name and location. This will be easier to get picked up by our friends – the search engines.

• Develop with your service person additional pages of the models you are selling. Each model page needs to be created individual with some outbound links and cross links on some particular key phrases. Example: Model XYZ come with scheduled free maintenance for….” – scheduled free maintenance should be linked to your service page (service special, schedule service online or similar).

• DO NOT JUST COPY OEM content from the OEM website and say you have created a search engine relevant page inside your website. It actually will do nothing for you in regards to SEO. Written creative needs to be at least 70% unique in its content to be considered “worthwhile” for Google. So use the content of your OEM and just spice it up with your own words and messages, and do not forget to name your location in these model pages.

• Consider the OEM and website provider ad-packages, which will give you an entire array of digital online marketing tools. Retargeting, Mobile websites, designated phone numbers will bring you more traffic in form of phone calls. No doubt – no “yeah, but” – I am sticking to my statement, because I have had seen too often dealerships failing and to generate valuable leads, only to save a few bucks. It works, and it had worked always for me.

Last but not least – Let me reflect on the purpose of using an OEM endorsed website provider.

It is all about getting more sales by being consistent with the “personality” of the brand and leveraging the shoppers they are creating for you with their advertising.

For example, the OEM wants their customers finding a constant CI (corporate identity) and consistent message – from OEM website over to the franchise website – and so do many shoppers. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have an opportunity to convince shoppers that your store is better than the same franchise down the road. What happens when you don’t do this?

Volkswagen has a blue/white/gray scheme and I witnessed the following scenario. A dealer located in the Southwest thought it would be great to integrate a desert color palette of yellow, umbra, black and gold throughout the pages for their VW franchise. Not only was it hideous but totally denied the affiliation with the franchise. I actually listened to recorded phone calls generated from the website’s 1-800 numbers, where the customers were asking if they have VW Golf’s in their inventory! True story!

Do you think a McDonalds franchisee, who paid money, time and efforts to build his own burger restaurant and the brand in her city suddenly would come up with the idea to get rid of the branded yellow/red M and instead goes for a pink/purple expression?

Stick to the corporate identity and personality your OEM is providing to display and message your brand appropriately. You’ll get more sales.

I can stand up now but only with a helping hand from my team - Chapter II "Diaries of an eCommerce Director"

So I got that squared away right from the get-go…my website looks good; First to Second grade content (I will explain it further down what means) is in place, but what do I do with all the leads generated via my website, website forms, 3^rd party leads and so on.

What is here the status quo on response, follow up and long-term usage of these valuable leads, email addresses and phone numbers? I am getting with my team with purpose of finding out what they love and hate currently in their daily tasks. And “No”, I do not think that I always just have a typical “bitch session” occurring out of these meetings. It gives me more likely a 360 degree view of who in your team is “who”. Who is doing what? Who is “a sleeping” star? Who is “all words no action”, and so on…?

 It further allows me to guide particular leads to the right team members in place. Like the ZAG leads. These particular customers, who do not like the hassle and haggle, and want to receive a more “exclusivity club member” handling of their inquiry, requiring a sales person with great customer follow up skills and soft, courteous manners.

Almost like the proverb – It fits like a Glove.

Next…and I am sure I do not have to stretch this one any longer – Look at your response times of your crew. There can be no excuse for any sales person in the Internet world having response times of >55 minutes and letting the incoming lead sitting there until the next stone age.

Come on, everybody should know by now, the early bird will catch the worm and with research showing a 50% higher chance closing the lead into a sale, when having contact with the prospect first, your action should be clear with no questions to ask.

Last but not least during my transition from crawling and staying up to the walking phase one immense important question comes next. How do we handle our phone calls? First at all make sure that you have dedicated phone numbers for each individual lead provider and website, so you can track your ROI and conversion much easier. The most important feature these numbers should include is the “recording” function, which will allow you and the other members of your dealership management team to listen to the calls and how they were handled by the crew. I know we as dealers spending a lot of money on training and other ideas, but phone training is in my opinion the most essential training part you should allocate money to.

Listen to your sales people and service advisors phone calls – you will have a pretty good idea why your closing ratio and conversion rate is where it is – Good or Bad!

I saw during my digital marketing career that most of the Internet people love to email, even so that the phone should be their desired tool to get the customer in. As I discovered in my analytics backend tool of my website providers – >80% off the generated website leads were coming in via phone calls and not just by form submission.

Eighty plus percent – and I still hear sometimes my peers complaining about their “website is not performing”, I would have to ask “what do you mean?” – “Is it your form submissions?” “You’re not getting enough phone calls?”

Really, what do you mean?

Is it really the website? Or is it the response how we handle incoming leads not captured correctly and not crediting our web platform for incoming calls?

Nevertheless I would love to share one particular observation I made after a Manager decided to cancel a digital marketing package in one of my stores, which I had assured him provided excellent digital online exposure … retargeting, display ads, banner ads, PPC, SEM, designated landing pages, mobile, designated phone numbers – you name it.

The argument made for the cancellation was “it looks like that it is not doing anything for us and we did not receive any more leads through it”. We Internet Pro’s know that these statements can be “smokescreens”, the real reasons are almost always the same – budget cutting or some salesperson has sold them some new “shiny object”. But I knew this was the wrong decision for the store and I had to prove it.

I received a chart with numbers on leads, visits, etc. provided by my OEM, showing my competition and their (as well mine) lead counts during national ad campaigns - painting a clear picture. Every dealership in this chart, which had stuck with the Dealer Advertising Package during the national ad campaigns, had more than three times more incoming phone calls than my “sorry ass” store, with no ad package.

I reviewed the same charts from a quarter back, and when we had signed up for the OEM ad package we were in a very different position: phone calls up, new car sales up, more 3^rd party website referrals were all much higher! I figured out if we would have stayed with the package we would have sold 10-18 cars off the OEM campaign, not the 4 we did.

Cancelling it was just ”a bad business decision” or should I call it plain and simple "dumb"? So I am asking now, why would a dealership take money out of a proven program like that to save a buck or buy leads from 3^rd parties, that close at 6% when everybody in the dealership world knows, that phone calls and website leads have 2-3 times the closing rate?

When we as eCommerce Directors or Internet Sales Managers know about these scenarios, we need to open up our mouth and discuss that with the executive leaders in the dealership. When she or he is giving you an ear and the time, I guarantee you will have success to close more deals when implementing the sources I just discussed. It is on you to be an advocate for these stats and to take your time to explain the findings to your GM or President, in case he is not digital marketing savvy.

When you find too much of road blocks and the same old same old in your dealership, find a partner who will trust your expertise and that you can deliver a turn around.

I can stand up now but only with a helping hand from my team - Chapter II "Diaries of an eCommerce Director"

So I got that squared away right from the get-go…my website looks good; First to Second grade content (I will explain it further down what means) is in place, but what do I do with all the leads generated via my website, website forms, 3^rd party leads and so on.

What is here the status quo on response, follow up and long-term usage of these valuable leads, email addresses and phone numbers? I am getting with my team with purpose of finding out what they love and hate currently in their daily tasks. And “No”, I do not think that I always just have a typical “bitch session” occurring out of these meetings. It gives me more likely a 360 degree view of who in your team is “who”. Who is doing what? Who is “a sleeping” star? Who is “all words no action”, and so on…?

 It further allows me to guide particular leads to the right team members in place. Like the ZAG leads. These particular customers, who do not like the hassle and haggle, and want to receive a more “exclusivity club member” handling of their inquiry, requiring a sales person with great customer follow up skills and soft, courteous manners.

Almost like the proverb – It fits like a Glove.

Next…and I am sure I do not have to stretch this one any longer – Look at your response times of your crew. There can be no excuse for any sales person in the Internet world having response times of >55 minutes and letting the incoming lead sitting there until the next stone age.

Come on, everybody should know by now, the early bird will catch the worm and with research showing a 50% higher chance closing the lead into a sale, when having contact with the prospect first, your action should be clear with no questions to ask.

Last but not least during my transition from crawling and staying up to the walking phase one immense important question comes next. How do we handle our phone calls? First at all make sure that you have dedicated phone numbers for each individual lead provider and website, so you can track your ROI and conversion much easier. The most important feature these numbers should include is the “recording” function, which will allow you and the other members of your dealership management team to listen to the calls and how they were handled by the crew. I know we as dealers spending a lot of money on training and other ideas, but phone training is in my opinion the most essential training part you should allocate money to.

Listen to your sales people and service advisors phone calls – you will have a pretty good idea why your closing ratio and conversion rate is where it is – Good or Bad!

I saw during my digital marketing career that most of the Internet people love to email, even so that the phone should be their desired tool to get the customer in. As I discovered in my analytics backend tool of my website providers – >80% off the generated website leads were coming in via phone calls and not just by form submission.

Eighty plus percent – and I still hear sometimes my peers complaining about their “website is not performing”, I would have to ask “what do you mean?” – “Is it your form submissions?” “You’re not getting enough phone calls?”

Really, what do you mean?

Is it really the website? Or is it the response how we handle incoming leads not captured correctly and not crediting our web platform for incoming calls?

Nevertheless I would love to share one particular observation I made after a Manager decided to cancel a digital marketing package in one of my stores, which I had assured him provided excellent digital online exposure … retargeting, display ads, banner ads, PPC, SEM, designated landing pages, mobile, designated phone numbers – you name it.

The argument made for the cancellation was “it looks like that it is not doing anything for us and we did not receive any more leads through it”. We Internet Pro’s know that these statements can be “smokescreens”, the real reasons are almost always the same – budget cutting or some salesperson has sold them some new “shiny object”. But I knew this was the wrong decision for the store and I had to prove it.

I received a chart with numbers on leads, visits, etc. provided by my OEM, showing my competition and their (as well mine) lead counts during national ad campaigns - painting a clear picture. Every dealership in this chart, which had stuck with the Dealer Advertising Package during the national ad campaigns, had more than three times more incoming phone calls than my “sorry ass” store, with no ad package.

I reviewed the same charts from a quarter back, and when we had signed up for the OEM ad package we were in a very different position: phone calls up, new car sales up, more 3^rd party website referrals were all much higher! I figured out if we would have stayed with the package we would have sold 10-18 cars off the OEM campaign, not the 4 we did.

Cancelling it was just ”a bad business decision” or should I call it plain and simple "dumb"? So I am asking now, why would a dealership take money out of a proven program like that to save a buck or buy leads from 3^rd parties, that close at 6% when everybody in the dealership world knows, that phone calls and website leads have 2-3 times the closing rate?

When we as eCommerce Directors or Internet Sales Managers know about these scenarios, we need to open up our mouth and discuss that with the executive leaders in the dealership. When she or he is giving you an ear and the time, I guarantee you will have success to close more deals when implementing the sources I just discussed. It is on you to be an advocate for these stats and to take your time to explain the findings to your GM or President, in case he is not digital marketing savvy.

When you find too much of road blocks and the same old same old in your dealership, find a partner who will trust your expertise and that you can deliver a turn around.

Preface

After almost a couple of  years of working with a leading internet marketing vendor and working the speaking circuit Volker Jaeckel (aka “@VJnator”) returns to the dealership world as an Internet Sales Director.  “Here is my story of rejoining the store and the steps I took that made my website the best performing in my group and achieved “#1 CPO Dealer in the state” status six months in a row.  Let me share how I believe a new Internet Manager can quickly make their store a success as well.” (Stay tuned for my  upcoming workshop “Internet Marketing Cliff Notes -short, sweet and successful.”)

Chapter I - It hurts to crawl on my knees again. Luckily it is only temporary.

That is it….I am back into the dealership world. I missed you, the world of shiny showrooms, the smell of rubber and the so-distinctive new car smell. And yes, I missed the challenge of helping a store achieve its full potential as a 21^st century dealership embracing the Internet.

Tip #1: View your site through your customer’s eyes

Where do I start? Personnel? Process? Lead Providers? – No, I decided that shouldn’t be priority #1.  What is most important is getting an idea of how your dealership appears to your prospects. I needed to first put on my “consumer-glasses” to understand what they are seeing, and then I can determine the path forward that will get the consumer to buy at my store. What did I do? Let’s crawl and see.

All of us in the dealership should know by now that at least 90% of all car shopping starts somewhere and somehow online. Shoppers “Google or Bing around” search phrases related to the model desired and the city they live in. This initial search generally leads to reviewing 3^rd parties like Edmunds or AOL.Autos for test results and independent car experts’ advice. After that, they most likely end up on the OEM’s manufacturer website, lured by whatever seasonal offers or events are taking place right now. From the OEM website, the customer drills down to find which dealership is closest to their zip code. 

 So, taking this roadmap of typical automotive buying behavior, my first action should be clear: “CHECK YOUR DEALER WEBSITE(s)”. The things I will be looking for are pretty straightforward.

Does my website has the same advertising messaging my OEM is portraying on their site? For me as an eCom Director it is mandatory to have events like “Autobahn for all” or “Sign then drive” event on all my dealership websites. I am not speaking just about having the graphics but also written content of these national campaigns on my site(s).

Tip #2: Make sure shoppers responding to OEM advertising and programs find them on your site.

Adding OEM promotional content assures that local prospects looking for those campaign deals will find familiar territory and verbiage on my site. They know immediately that “VJ Motors” is participating in these well-known manufacturer deals seen on TV, Radio, Off- and Online. As a dealer, doing this will guarantee me a fraction of the millions and millions of dollars spent by my OEM. I get my piece of the huge advertising campaign pie – and everybody knows….I love pie.

Here was my first plan of action:

• Determine my OEM’s current ad campaign (In this case the “Going Going Gone Event”)
• Update all new car specials shown in the website with the particular “Going Going Gone” phrase
• Main URL page showed as first slider Going Going Gone event participation, linked to the New Car Special page
• SEO Content was modified and “Going Going Gone Event” as well “Autobahn for All” slogans were weaved in on homepage, New Car inventory page, New Car Special page and various model pages.

Because we all know that SEO results do not show up overnight, the written content placed on the described pages is here for the long run and should be not taken down when the OEM campaign stops – most likely you will see the same named event taking place again a few months down the road and in the meantime your content pages hopefully left some impactful results in the SERP.

Tip #3: Leverage all your content in social media and see SEO results soar

Post promotional content in your social media, such as a photo montage on your blog captioned “VJ Motors in Motorville enjoys the hundreds of customers stopping by customers during the VW Going Going Gone event.” The reason for doing this is that search engines love news updates through social media streams. By optimizing these channels with your dealership name and the event name in the post, you are supporting your organic SEO piece by piece. Try it – it has worked for me! 

Tip #4: “But I have no time to do any of this”

As a busy dealer, aligning with OEM’s may sound like a lot of work and too much of a hassle. I felt this way too.

There are two main ways I’ve found to alleviate the hassle issue: Choose an endorsed website provider and work with their professional account strategist. 

If your dealership has an endorsed website provider with OEM-coordinated advertising campaigns, the work you need to perform on your end will be a little bit less, thanks to perfectly timed and “ready-to-go” websites and landing pages at the start of the national campaigns.

Another thing that helped me was that I could speak to my account advocate at the website provider to assist me in my efforts to tweak my messaging to my taste. So, if you’ve signed up for this type of service – use it, bring up your ideas, and let them do the main frame work. That way you can focus on the other things you need to do, making a dealership or dealer group successful – as I will show you in my next chapter.

Preface

After almost a couple of  years of working with a leading internet marketing vendor and working the speaking circuit Volker Jaeckel (aka “@VJnator”) returns to the dealership world as an Internet Sales Director.  “Here is my story of rejoining the store and the steps I took that made my website the best performing in my group and achieved “#1 CPO Dealer in the state” status six months in a row.  Let me share how I believe a new Internet Manager can quickly make their store a success as well.” (Stay tuned for my  upcoming workshop “Internet Marketing Cliff Notes -short, sweet and successful.”)

Chapter I - It hurts to crawl on my knees again. Luckily it is only temporary.

That is it….I am back into the dealership world. I missed you, the world of shiny showrooms, the smell of rubber and the so-distinctive new car smell. And yes, I missed the challenge of helping a store achieve its full potential as a 21^st century dealership embracing the Internet.

Tip #1: View your site through your customer’s eyes

Where do I start? Personnel? Process? Lead Providers? – No, I decided that shouldn’t be priority #1.  What is most important is getting an idea of how your dealership appears to your prospects. I needed to first put on my “consumer-glasses” to understand what they are seeing, and then I can determine the path forward that will get the consumer to buy at my store. What did I do? Let’s crawl and see.

All of us in the dealership should know by now that at least 90% of all car shopping starts somewhere and somehow online. Shoppers “Google or Bing around” search phrases related to the model desired and the city they live in. This initial search generally leads to reviewing 3^rd parties like Edmunds or AOL.Autos for test results and independent car experts’ advice. After that, they most likely end up on the OEM’s manufacturer website, lured by whatever seasonal offers or events are taking place right now. From the OEM website, the customer drills down to find which dealership is closest to their zip code. 

 So, taking this roadmap of typical automotive buying behavior, my first action should be clear: “CHECK YOUR DEALER WEBSITE(s)”. The things I will be looking for are pretty straightforward.

Does my website has the same advertising messaging my OEM is portraying on their site? For me as an eCom Director it is mandatory to have events like “Autobahn for all” or “Sign then drive” event on all my dealership websites. I am not speaking just about having the graphics but also written content of these national campaigns on my site(s).

Tip #2: Make sure shoppers responding to OEM advertising and programs find them on your site.

Adding OEM promotional content assures that local prospects looking for those campaign deals will find familiar territory and verbiage on my site. They know immediately that “VJ Motors” is participating in these well-known manufacturer deals seen on TV, Radio, Off- and Online. As a dealer, doing this will guarantee me a fraction of the millions and millions of dollars spent by my OEM. I get my piece of the huge advertising campaign pie – and everybody knows….I love pie.

Here was my first plan of action:

• Determine my OEM’s current ad campaign (In this case the “Going Going Gone Event”)
• Update all new car specials shown in the website with the particular “Going Going Gone” phrase
• Main URL page showed as first slider Going Going Gone event participation, linked to the New Car Special page
• SEO Content was modified and “Going Going Gone Event” as well “Autobahn for All” slogans were weaved in on homepage, New Car inventory page, New Car Special page and various model pages.

Because we all know that SEO results do not show up overnight, the written content placed on the described pages is here for the long run and should be not taken down when the OEM campaign stops – most likely you will see the same named event taking place again a few months down the road and in the meantime your content pages hopefully left some impactful results in the SERP.

Tip #3: Leverage all your content in social media and see SEO results soar

Post promotional content in your social media, such as a photo montage on your blog captioned “VJ Motors in Motorville enjoys the hundreds of customers stopping by customers during the VW Going Going Gone event.” The reason for doing this is that search engines love news updates through social media streams. By optimizing these channels with your dealership name and the event name in the post, you are supporting your organic SEO piece by piece. Try it – it has worked for me! 

Tip #4: “But I have no time to do any of this”

As a busy dealer, aligning with OEM’s may sound like a lot of work and too much of a hassle. I felt this way too.

There are two main ways I’ve found to alleviate the hassle issue: Choose an endorsed website provider and work with their professional account strategist. 

If your dealership has an endorsed website provider with OEM-coordinated advertising campaigns, the work you need to perform on your end will be a little bit less, thanks to perfectly timed and “ready-to-go” websites and landing pages at the start of the national campaigns.

Another thing that helped me was that I could speak to my account advocate at the website provider to assist me in my efforts to tweak my messaging to my taste. So, if you’ve signed up for this type of service – use it, bring up your ideas, and let them do the main frame work. That way you can focus on the other things you need to do, making a dealership or dealer group successful – as I will show you in my next chapter.

Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov famously tantalized his dogs by ringing a bell to alert them that food was about to be served. The dogs, soon wise enough to associate the sound of a tinkling bell with a big juicy steak, began to salivate each time the bell tolled.

This associated behavior is known as “classical conditioning,” and the parallel between the doghouse and the dealership cannot be clearer. Obviously, the incoming lead is the “ringing bell” in your dealership, and the dealers are the hungry dogs pouncing on the lead.

Right? Wrong.

Instead, what I hear all too often in my visits around the nation’s dealerships are lackluster lead responses like “Ahh, that can wait a little bit.” or “Somebody else can take the phone call.” Over the past four or five months, I’ve noticed this non-responsive attitude toward leads becoming more common than ever.

What happened to the urgency? Shouldn’t every Internet sales person know by now that the first fifteen minutes are the most critical when it comes to new automotive leads? Why are all the Internet sales processes taught in OEM seminars and Dealer Group guidelines going out the window?

To understand this seemingly irrational behavior, we must return to Pavlov’s dogs.

In the same experiment, Pavlov began ringing the bell WITHOUT providing food, to see if the dogs would still respond with salivating and pouncing. Result: Without the food (stimuli), the bell elicited less and less “drooling” and, after a while, the behavior became extinct.

The moral of the story? For a variety of reasons, Internet Sales Managers have stopped associating leads with sales. As a result, sales urgency is out and “lead lethargy” is in. In order to understand why, we must identify the reasons and establish best practices around digital automotive lead management.

Why Automotive Leads “Overflow” is Turning Alpha Dogs into Lapdogs

Why have so many dealers stopped associating leads with sales? Believe it or not, one key reason is the sheer abundance of leads. Digital automotive marketing has done its job almost too well, and as a result, there is an unprecedented flow of leads and lead sources. Like Pavlov’s ringing bell,today’s Internet Managers are inundated with nonstop chimes, buzzers, pages and calls, all alerting them that leads are pouring in.

With “too many” leads for one Internet Salesperson to handle; the reward for selling a car will be still there, but the closing ratio will drop. This drop will probably defeat company’s policies (closing ration >10% and so on). If a dealership has an average of 200 leads coming in per month, even if an Internet Salesperson sells 18 cars a month, they will still not be able to make a dent. Realizing this, the salesperson begins “cherry picking,” handling the lower hanging fruit (e.g the rare used car in inventory with tons of inquiries), and neglecting the fresh 3rd party leads, most likely the leads w/ the highest cost per sale ratio.

How to Yank the Leash on Automotive Lead Management Apathy

1.Staff up. Many managers hear this story and think the answer is to decrease leads. Instead of canceling leads, I suggest converting one or more salesperson into your Internet team and supplying them with the lead “overflow.” By sharing the wealth, you get to keep all your leads and still make sure each one gets the attention it deserves.

2.Limit leads per person. Even a dog faced with 2,000 juicy steaks can’t eat them all. Sharpen sales concentration by limiting the number of start-to-finish leads to 80-90 per person/month.  If they are an absolute pro, 120 start-to-finish leads may be doable, but don’t risk it unless you are sure this person is well-versed in your internal process.

3.Correlate effort and reward. To keep that urgency going, you have to make sure the stimulus is there. Let your team know “This next incoming lead will be the only one for today.” Limiting leads will stretch the necessity to handle each lead with thoroughness, according to your automotive  lead management process. Needless to say, it was also increase staff motivation. All of a sudden the dog who was sitting with his tail between his legs will be streaking after the tennis ball.
 

These lead management practices work, I can assure you. I have turned around 3 franchises in the last 6 months to #1 CPO in state, #2 CPO in the country, and #1 New Car dealer objective, and so on. By integrating these practices, I have helped dealership realize the most Internet department sales ever, not by minimizing lead count, but by allocating the right resources in my eCommerce departments.

In conclusion, while I do not expect Internet Sales people to start drooling and pawing when an Internet Sales phone page comes across, these lead management practices should urge them to get out of their chair and “take care about business” right away.

And? Did this post ring a bell?

VJ - The Social Media Buzzer

PHOENIX  -  ATLANTA

Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov famously tantalized his dogs by ringing a bell to alert them that food was about to be served. The dogs, soon wise enough to associate the sound of a tinkling bell with a big juicy steak, began to salivate each time the bell tolled.

This associated behavior is known as “classical conditioning,” and the parallel between the doghouse and the dealership cannot be clearer. Obviously, the incoming lead is the “ringing bell” in your dealership, and the dealers are the hungry dogs pouncing on the lead.

Right? Wrong.

Instead, what I hear all too often in my visits around the nation’s dealerships are lackluster lead responses like “Ahh, that can wait a little bit.” or “Somebody else can take the phone call.” Over the past four or five months, I’ve noticed this non-responsive attitude toward leads becoming more common than ever.

What happened to the urgency? Shouldn’t every Internet sales person know by now that the first fifteen minutes are the most critical when it comes to new automotive leads? Why are all the Internet sales processes taught in OEM seminars and Dealer Group guidelines going out the window?

To understand this seemingly irrational behavior, we must return to Pavlov’s dogs.

In the same experiment, Pavlov began ringing the bell WITHOUT providing food, to see if the dogs would still respond with salivating and pouncing. Result: Without the food (stimuli), the bell elicited less and less “drooling” and, after a while, the behavior became extinct.

The moral of the story? For a variety of reasons, Internet Sales Managers have stopped associating leads with sales. As a result, sales urgency is out and “lead lethargy” is in. In order to understand why, we must identify the reasons and establish best practices around digital automotive lead management.

Why Automotive Leads “Overflow” is Turning Alpha Dogs into Lapdogs

Why have so many dealers stopped associating leads with sales? Believe it or not, one key reason is the sheer abundance of leads. Digital automotive marketing has done its job almost too well, and as a result, there is an unprecedented flow of leads and lead sources. Like Pavlov’s ringing bell,today’s Internet Managers are inundated with nonstop chimes, buzzers, pages and calls, all alerting them that leads are pouring in.

With “too many” leads for one Internet Salesperson to handle; the reward for selling a car will be still there, but the closing ratio will drop. This drop will probably defeat company’s policies (closing ration >10% and so on). If a dealership has an average of 200 leads coming in per month, even if an Internet Salesperson sells 18 cars a month, they will still not be able to make a dent. Realizing this, the salesperson begins “cherry picking,” handling the lower hanging fruit (e.g the rare used car in inventory with tons of inquiries), and neglecting the fresh 3rd party leads, most likely the leads w/ the highest cost per sale ratio.

How to Yank the Leash on Automotive Lead Management Apathy

1.Staff up. Many managers hear this story and think the answer is to decrease leads. Instead of canceling leads, I suggest converting one or more salesperson into your Internet team and supplying them with the lead “overflow.” By sharing the wealth, you get to keep all your leads and still make sure each one gets the attention it deserves.

2.Limit leads per person. Even a dog faced with 2,000 juicy steaks can’t eat them all. Sharpen sales concentration by limiting the number of start-to-finish leads to 80-90 per person/month.  If they are an absolute pro, 120 start-to-finish leads may be doable, but don’t risk it unless you are sure this person is well-versed in your internal process.

3.Correlate effort and reward. To keep that urgency going, you have to make sure the stimulus is there. Let your team know “This next incoming lead will be the only one for today.” Limiting leads will stretch the necessity to handle each lead with thoroughness, according to your automotive  lead management process. Needless to say, it was also increase staff motivation. All of a sudden the dog who was sitting with his tail between his legs will be streaking after the tennis ball.
 

These lead management practices work, I can assure you. I have turned around 3 franchises in the last 6 months to #1 CPO in state, #2 CPO in the country, and #1 New Car dealer objective, and so on. By integrating these practices, I have helped dealership realize the most Internet department sales ever, not by minimizing lead count, but by allocating the right resources in my eCommerce departments.

In conclusion, while I do not expect Internet Sales people to start drooling and pawing when an Internet Sales phone page comes across, these lead management practices should urge them to get out of their chair and “take care about business” right away.

And? Did this post ring a bell?

VJ - The Social Media Buzzer

PHOENIX  -  ATLANTA

Good news for early adapters in our so beloved automobile industry. When you are one of the pioneers using in your ads, Maroni stickers, or even on Business cards the two-dimensional barcode like images – a.k.a. quick-response codes or in short QR-Codes – you past the stage of  prior “thinking out of  the box” with flying colors.

As you know adaptable smartphone apps are able to scan and then convert the code into a picture ad or other information you would love to share with your potential clients.

Advantage for the consumer: Recalling “what was shown or said in an ad” with a push of a button.

Advantage for us dealerships: Unlimited "air" time - 24/7/365

The MGH group conducted a survey to see how consumers are adapting to the “new” technology, which is actually now out for more than a year. Here is the great news and opportunity for us dealers:

• Almost 75% of smartphone users are very likely or at least somewhat intrigued to recall   advertising and marketing messages with QR codes
• Awareness among smartphone users rose to 65% (have seen a QR Code)
• 56% recognized the two-dimensional images on product packaging
• 45% recalled to have seen them on magazines and (ATTENTION PLEASE) on coupons
• And more than a quarter of the users saw the QR’s in newspaper ads (is your dealership still doing off-line advertising in your local newspaper? If so “jam” a QR code into your ads!)

So, the question here is “what did the smartphone users use their code for?”

The top-3 contenders are:

• 53% want to find coupons or discounts on their products or services they want to obtain from a business
• 52% want more product or service information (did your OEM already convert their new car price stickers and show the QR code? You should check because it is on almost every manufacturers agenda to “put it out there”)
• 33% just scanning it to have the opportunity to win in sweepstakes

The rest of usage reasons are: accessing videos, making actually purchases, signing up to receive more information and last but not least interacting with social media networks.

One of the more important reflections of the survey (especially from the business owner standpoint), which was held in February 2010 via the Vision Critical America panel, is showing an indisputable fact and a huge opportunity for everyone who wants to play in this “QR league”.

70% of the first time QR code users and those who used it already having following motivation to do so:

• They want to find deals and/or discounts (87% !!!)
• They want to play and enter into sweepstakes (64%)
• They want to have access to more information (63%)
• They actually are ready to purchase right away (60%)
• They enter their information into your database to receive more information from you on the products or services you offer (53% - here comes the good old permission based email marketing in my mind)

So, I hope I provided you with some brain teasers to make you even more think if and when you should join the “QR-force” and get your business another (two-dimensional) platform. In my opinion, this should be a no-brainer for you.

Good news for early adapters in our so beloved automobile industry. When you are one of the pioneers using in your ads, Maroni stickers, or even on Business cards the two-dimensional barcode like images – a.k.a. quick-response codes or in short QR-Codes – you past the stage of  prior “thinking out of  the box” with flying colors.

As you know adaptable smartphone apps are able to scan and then convert the code into a picture ad or other information you would love to share with your potential clients.

Advantage for the consumer: Recalling “what was shown or said in an ad” with a push of a button.

Advantage for us dealerships: Unlimited "air" time - 24/7/365

The MGH group conducted a survey to see how consumers are adapting to the “new” technology, which is actually now out for more than a year. Here is the great news and opportunity for us dealers:

• Almost 75% of smartphone users are very likely or at least somewhat intrigued to recall   advertising and marketing messages with QR codes
• Awareness among smartphone users rose to 65% (have seen a QR Code)
• 56% recognized the two-dimensional images on product packaging
• 45% recalled to have seen them on magazines and (ATTENTION PLEASE) on coupons
• And more than a quarter of the users saw the QR’s in newspaper ads (is your dealership still doing off-line advertising in your local newspaper? If so “jam” a QR code into your ads!)

So, the question here is “what did the smartphone users use their code for?”

The top-3 contenders are:

• 53% want to find coupons or discounts on their products or services they want to obtain from a business
• 52% want more product or service information (did your OEM already convert their new car price stickers and show the QR code? You should check because it is on almost every manufacturers agenda to “put it out there”)
• 33% just scanning it to have the opportunity to win in sweepstakes

The rest of usage reasons are: accessing videos, making actually purchases, signing up to receive more information and last but not least interacting with social media networks.

One of the more important reflections of the survey (especially from the business owner standpoint), which was held in February 2010 via the Vision Critical America panel, is showing an indisputable fact and a huge opportunity for everyone who wants to play in this “QR league”.

70% of the first time QR code users and those who used it already having following motivation to do so:

• They want to find deals and/or discounts (87% !!!)
• They want to play and enter into sweepstakes (64%)
• They want to have access to more information (63%)
• They actually are ready to purchase right away (60%)
• They enter their information into your database to receive more information from you on the products or services you offer (53% - here comes the good old permission based email marketing in my mind)

So, I hope I provided you with some brain teasers to make you even more think if and when you should join the “QR-force” and get your business another (two-dimensional) platform. In my opinion, this should be a no-brainer for you.