Owner: Next-Level Automotive Marketing URL:http://next-levelautomotive.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 18:59:01 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Eric Gidney, President of Next-Level Automotive, offers his views and opinions about the world of internet marketing for automobile dealerships. Discussions include the complex worlds of inventory management, autoresponders and customer relations tools a Site statistics:Click here
Where is the Auto Marketing Industry Headed? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Reposted with permission by Higher Turnover Inc. Original Posting can be found at http://onlineautodealer.blogspot.com/2006/12/where-is-auto-marketing-industry.htmlSeveral calls and emails over the last week have really got me thinking about where the industry is headed for auto dealer marketing. One word comes to mind for me: saturation. Look at one part of our particular product offerings for example: website solutions for independent dealers. A quick search of dealers in your local area is sure to pop up at least a few horrible websites. Some have been designed by the dealers themselves, and some have been designed by a local company for that dealer. I use the term company loosely, because most of these "companies" are nothing more than a computer and some local kid whose dad knows the dealer. I'm not knocking this situation, because sometimes it does work, but more times than not it ends up hurting the dealership with an unprofessional image. Dealers need to take online mark Read more:Marketing
So Whatever Happened To That Lead? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I've done a lot of mystery shopping, emailing and calling hundreds of automobile dealers on a consistent basis just to discover more about their process. In my findings, over 70% of my email leads were answered by an auto-responder. Personally, this drives me crazy. I don't need an instant response. I need a response with value…not one that tells me how great you are, and where you are, and when you are there. Besides, 8 out of 10 of those auto-responders went right to my junk mail box anyway. If I wouldn't have specifically hunted for them, I would have never seen them at all. In my opinion, if you're auto-responder is going to prospects junk mail folders then you are probably better off anyway.Take the time to write a quick, yet personal email. Add a photo of yourself, add a photo of the car they inquired about (not a stock image), and also put a coupon in there. Be creative…you'll stand out from the 8 other dealerships that have to email that prospect back as well. Las
A Quick Boost in your Internet Lead Activity 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Lately I've been hearing things are slow online. Real slow. I worked for AutoTrader.com for years. On occasion you would hear now and then that things are slow on the site, and generally with all of their traffic. Odd thing was, whenever a dealer informed me that AutoTrader.com was slow, Cars.com was doing well for them...or vice-versa. Now I hear its slow everywhere, and I have to say I'm not surprised.There is a bit of a growth curve when it comes to the Internet
for car dealers. There are twice as many dealers online today on sites like AutoTrader.com, Cars.com, Vehix and Dealix etc. as there were 5 years ago. I remember back in 2002 I had about 22 clients in my area with AutoTrader.com. If I had to guess, there are about 225 in that same area today. Now in that same area, I would have to guess you probably wont find almost 10 times the amount of car buyers. When I would perform a typical search on almost any used car site 5 years ago, you might find about 48 Ford Mustangs within Read more:Activity
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How To Get More Traffic To Your Dealership Website 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Customers won't just show up on your website. We all know by now we have to get them there. Think of your website as your actual dealership. What if your dealership had no windows, doors, or signs and was set far off the road with no sidewalks or way in? How would any customers get there? How would anyone know that your dealership even existed?There are quite a few ways to get these customers there:1- Just tell them where to go! Are you putting your website on all your ads? I don't mean just tucked away somewhere as an afterthought either. Give it some prominence. Do you have it on your business cards? I know this one sounds silly…but I can show you over 500 business cards I have from car dealers…and almost 200 of them have no website mentioned on them at all! Make sure you have it on all your stationary, brochures, flyers, and signs. Get it on your invoices and receipts too. Did you know that nearly 60% of customers who shop the Yellow Pages only call those ad Read more:Dealership
Too Price...or Not Too Price? Should Your Vehicles Have A Price On The Internet? 2007-06-05 21:10:00 The debate on this will always continue. Sometimes I am surprised that it is even still a question. I have a pretty strong opinion about this one. I know there are some arguments for and against. I am a firm believer that you need to have a price. Most, if not all of the third party inventory sites (AutoTrader.com, Cars.com, etc.) have a default set from highest to lowest price. I'm sure there a plenty of consumers that flip the default around and have it rank lowest to highest price. However it is not a majority. It's not even close actually. So when a consumer performs a vehicle search on a site such as AutoTrader.com, if your inventory has no price you will always appear dead last. In some searches, this could mean being buried 4 pages deep or more. Obviously this greatly lowers your chances of having your inventory ever even seen.Then there is the consumer that puts in a price range, let's say we are looking for a Ford Escape between $14000 and $17000. Now you might h Read more:Internet
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Internet Specials- Online Print Ads 2007-06-29 08:32:00 As I scanned through my local Sunday paper (yes I am one of the few remaining newspaper readers) I decided to hit the automotive section. It sure was thin compared to what it used to be. I remember in 1996 when I first got into the automotive business it would be at least 5-6 sections...some almost 18 pages thick...filled with ads. Today it was 2 sections, maybe 6 pages each. But I didnt bring this topic up to discuss dwindling readership and the decline of the automotive newspaper ad. What I did want to bring up was the ads themselves. Not one ad in the newspaper read "Currently there are no specials available, please check back later."It really is a shame that too many dealer websites are guilty of this. I think back to that Sunday paper and the hundreds of inserts and coupons that are in there (really its the only reason we even get the newspaper). All those specials...just an incentive to get us the consumer to purchase or at least consider their products. Internet
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