The 2006 AAISP Annual Conference will be held in Nashville, TN April 3-6, 2006.

I hate to say this but I will NOT be attending the AAISP conference this year (I was actually asked to speak..sorry Dean I would have loved to!!). I have a good friends wedding to attend, it’s out of town and the time frame would be cutting it too close. I have several people I was hoping to meet up with but I guess it will have to wait until another conference. Let me know how it goes though. I’ll be curious to know how it all comes together.

Please, when you return…share your COMMENTS, likes, dislikes and anything else you would like to talk about.

Below is more information on the AAISP conference taken from their website.

Autotrader has introduced their 2006 Market Adjustment pricing and I personally think they are getting ahead of themselves. On average they have hiked their rates anywhere from $800 to $1500 over the 2005 pricing depending on what market you’re located in or what package you sign up for. With the new inflated pricing, they are trying to convince us that their “enhanced products” are worth the extra money. But I don’t think so!

They’re pushing their new “Find Your Dealer”,a dealer search tool found on the homepage providing easy access for consumers to find your “enhanced dealer information” pages. Basically allowing consumers to search by dealer rather then my make and model. These dealer pages will allow you to add Specials, a photo of your dealership, services provided (Spanish speaking, incentives, rebates, etc.) and a few other small additions. About the only enhancement that I find of any value is the ability to list 27 photos. But then again… 9 photos is a decent number to generate a lead, plus it’s always an easy excuse for me to get the customers email address so I can send them a link to more photos and drive them to my website.

Here is my thinking…consumers go to AutoTrader to shop for vehicles, NOT to find a dealer. If they want to find a dealer they will google it or go directly to the dealers website. I’m sorry but I do not see the benefit in the new product enhancements especially for the additional money they are charging. Are you really going to sell anymore cars with a Dealer Search feature? Maybe having the ability to add some new and used car specials to a “Specials Page” can have a small benefit, but let’s face it…how many dealers update their specials page on their own dealer website?

They’re also offering 360 degree video tour? Come one…most of these programs suck up bandwith and are slow to load. Why do you need a 360 degree virtual tour when you get 27 photos anyways? I’m thinking this is nothing more then a way for allowing DealerSpecialites to charge for an additional 360 video shoot service.

Don’t get me wrong, I like AutoTrader and am very effective with it, usually selling 15-20% of our used car inventory a month with it. Though if I jumped up to the 2006 pricing, I truly do not think I would sell anymore cars. The only thing that is going to be affected is my cost per sale…and in a bad way.

None of this even takes into account that they want to charge the same amount for their New Car inventory search (being enhanced)! So go ahead and double that price for listing your New inventory on AutoTrader as well.

Sorry Chip Perry but this had to be said!

Any way…I could be totally wrong about this..it’s just my opinion what’s yours?

Many cookie cutter dealership website vendors don’t allow for additional wording on your Homepage and sub-pages other then the usual default generic text they supply. And if they do, most dealers never take advantage of having the power to change or add text. Below is an example of a generic writing that I copied from a another dealerships websites credit application page.

“For information on your personal financing options, please fill out the information requested below, and then click on the “Submit” button.”

BORING!! There’s nothing persuasive about this. Not to mention that the dealership website that I just copied this from used a size 8 font, too small for most people to even read.

Here is what I would suggest:

“We here at ABC Motors offer the Best financing options available for our customers. Our team of in house financial consultants work EXTRA hard, hand in hand with the largest and most competitive banks to be sure you receive the truly competitive rate. So before you visit your local bank LET US WORK FOR YOU!

Take a few seconds and fill our Secure Online Credit Application. We’ll have you an answer in less then 1 hour! -during business hours of course.

Come ‘on…does this really makes a difference you ask? Of course it does! It can and does effect your websites overall conversion.

Another area that copy makes a HUGE difference is in your vehicles description page. This can be a tough and overwhelming task for larger dealers but if you have the ability to do so…take the time to write a descriptive paragraph about the vehicle you have for sale.

Example:

We are confident that you are going to love this Honda S2000 Convertible. You’ll be taking the long way home to experience its razor sharp cornering, high revving VTEC engine producing 200HP, world class gear box with F1 inspired racing cockpit and one of the shortest gear ratios on the market. Excellent power to weight ratio, excellent acceleration, excellent chassis stiffness and balance, excellent suspension, everything about this car is EXCELLENT!!

Showcased in the Beautiful Grand Prix White on Black Leather. This S2000 comes equipped with the standard features along with the optional 8 Disc CD Changer, XM Satellite Radio and Security System. This 1 owner, Garage Kept and Dealer Maintained S2000 has a clean CarFax to back it up!

Confidence is your end RESULT when you purchase from ABC Motors. Don’t let this one slip by! Give us a call at 1-800-ABC-1234.

It’s a great idea to have every page on your dealership website with wording that is personal and enticing. Be creative and distinguish your dealership website from all the other run of the mill dealership websites.

I keep hearing a rumors that BZ Results have been bought by ADP? Is this true? Does anyone have any inside information on this? What would this mean for BZ Productions and ADP? Share your Comments with the "comments" link below.

UPDATE:

Here is an new article taken from WardsAuto;

What are your thoughts?

How will BZ or ADP change with this
acquisition?

Leave your COMMENTS!

Here is an interesting survey by BIG research. By their studies, MSN has the largest influence on consumers for vehicle purchase decisions.

As many dealers focus efforts into buying keywords on Google and Yahoo, MSN is about to introduce their own keyword purchasing/bidding program. "MSN adCenter". I’ve been closely working with Chad at AutoOptimize getting my current dealer set up for the new MSN adCenter program. It will be interesting to see if our visitors from MSN have a higher CTR and conversion ratio then our Yahoo or Google traffic.

I’ll keep you posted!

Click here for the Full Article

I just got back from lunch with my AutoTrader Rep. and we were on a conversation of inventory photos. The conversation prompted me to write about the process that I take or an ideal process for taking photos for your dealers website and other 3rd party websites like AutoTrader.

What Camera should you use? I recommend and use the Canon Powershot A series. The older A60, A65, A70 and A80 and now the newer A95. I choose these models for several reasons.

With all of these mentioned models you can set the resolution to “VGA” (640 x 480 pixels). The larger mega pixels are not necessary. Your photos are going to be resized and compressed by your 3rd party advertising vendor anyways. When you compress a larger mega pixel photo the quality of the photos is going to suffer (this does depend on the software the vendor is using for photo compression). Using a high quality VGA photo is your best bet.

The quality of the lens is the important factor! I’ve had smaller pixel cameras out-perform the larger mega pixels cameras due to the quality of the lens alone. Canon has been producing cameras way before digitals were introduced, so they offer some of the best lens available in the market. Canon also offers JPEG Compression Mode so you can set your camera to take a VGA sized photo with super fine clarity.

The price is right too! You can find the older A series models on eBay from $75.00 to $150.00. You can even find the newer A95 for a little over 200.00 (retail). Plus, the older A series and the newer A95 use a CF (CompactFlash) Card. 512 MB CF Card run for less then $50.00, that’s a lot of photo storage.

Ideally you want to take your photos at the same spot with every car. Inside works best so you’re not at the weathers’ mercy. A white background (with your dealers Logo and URL) so all the attention is on the car! Of course, many times this is wishful thinking and we are forced to take our photos outside. If this is the case, try to find a well lit area where you can get the name of your dealer in the photos as well. Try and get a process set up so you can take your photos right after the car has been detailed. No one wants to see photos of a dirty car!

Do a full walk around of the vehicle, catching every exterior and interior panel. If the vehicle has a special feature like a CD changer, heated seats or navigation, take a close up shot of these accessories. I usually end up with 20 plus photos of every car. Might sound like overkill since many of the websites only allow 5-10 photos but I tend to use eBay often and it’s a great idea to display as many photos of the vehicle as possible. Either way, try to be consistent with your photos. *If you get a second, visit www.ebaymotors.com and search for some high-end luxury pre-owned vehicles like Mercedes, Lexus or BMW’s and you find some smaller independent dealers that are doing things right!

I recommend having your photos taken in house where you have control over the quality of the photos. Many dealers use Dealer Specialties, or other local window sticker companies to take their photos. I have found most of these companies take no real pride in your photos. They don’t understand the relevance of a nice clean, well-taken photo and the impact is has on your dealers over all sales.