I received this email from a very perceptive vendor:

I was wondering if you have ever done an article outlining the importance of good vehicle data on your website?  I have been building up my wish list for a new truck and consistently find a severe lack of option info on sites.  I know there is only so much info that can be had from VIN decoding, and that it becomes a manual chore to get really stellar info populated.  I just have to think that if you are spending all sorts of time adding content to other parts of your site to gain SEO value and sell your dealership, etc…  that spending the time to add options and details about the vehicle would also be beneficial.  This issue is probably more prevalent with trucks…I was curious to get your thoughts on it.

I figured this would be a good one for all of us to answer and discuss. Getting inventory to properly display is a very tough process; not only because of technology (mainly DMS difficulties), but also due to internal processes. This is all especially tedious when you are dealing with multiple stores.

How do you deal with things?

Does anyone have any comments on the effectiveness of online trade-in value tools?

As far as I know, there are only really 2 available.

Black Book Online (Activator)

vs

KBB Lead Driver

I’m sure at one point or another, almost every Internet sales manager has used one or even both of these online trade evaluation tools for your dealers website. I have read a few studies that show adding the an online trade appraisal tool to your dealers website could increase conversion rates another 1-2%.

We just started with one of the above trade tools, but it was a tough decision on which one to go with.

Kelly Blue Book has such a reputable name on the consumers eye BUT I always fear that the consumer has already been there. According to KBB and several other studies, it’s one of the most consumer visited websites. If the customer has already been there, than does my chances of converting lessen? OR since I have the KBB Trade-in value logo on my site, does that give our dealer more validity?

What about the actual car values? There are many times a large difference between the two companies values.

Are there other trade-in tools that I’m not aware of?

What has been your experience?

Stephanie Hudmeyer
Internet Sales Manager

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on a dealership hosting their own email server as opposed to having email hosted by a large ISP (like GoDaddy)?

The ability to maintain robust and reliable email communication is increasingly important in this time where few leads are walking in the front door of our dealerships. Each time our email “goes down” we experience a loss in productivity and therefore sales.

I am the CRM Administrator and also help design and maintain the web presence for a small dealer group in the Northeast. I am not network or exchange certified so we rely on the “expertise” of our IT consultants (an outside firm that we contract that specializes in Automobile Dealerships). We tend to do 3-4 email campaigns per month using our AutoBase CRM system. We host our own email through a MS Exchange 2003 Server and seem to run into problems that crash our mail system company-wide regularly. Our current Primary ISP (Paetec) is set up to relay the mail and they do not like to see more than 2,500 emails/hour send rate during an email “blast”. Paetec has “shut us down” temporarily because of exceeding that send rate. Our IT consultants tell us that we need to maintain a send level of under 2,000 emails/hour to stay active with our current Primary ISP and that, although AutoBase claims they “buffer” their email “blast” sends, from what our IT consultants can tell, these are not buffered enough to stay below our ISP’s max send rate. Our IT Consultants are constantly tweaking the firewalls and are planning to configure an automatic rerouting (to a back-up ISP – BandWave) when an email “blast” occurs.

In my opinion, hosting our own server seems to be not worth the trouble. I do not know if we would be losing any capabilities in going with hosted mail services though. Reliability and the ability to continue our email campaigning is very important to us. I am looking for expert opinions from people who have been in similar situations or who currently run frequent email campaigns through their ISP hosted email solution. With maintenance fees, equipment depreciation, email firewall tweaks and the servicing cost associated with fixing email server problems, the costs of hosting mail ourselves really adds up.

What are your thoughts and experiences?

Gene Smith
CRM Administrator

I would like to hear some thoughts and/or comments on Online Display advertising and Pay-Per-Click (SEM).  Who is doing this currently?

Who uses what company, and who is doing it themselves. At my dealer I have done some research on both PPC and Online Display Advertising. I currently have BZ Results managing my PPC Campaigns on Google and Yahoo.  I am very pleased with the results and the amount of leads I am getting directly from these campaigns. I recently have built up these campaigns to the point I am no longer relying on third-party lead providers, i.e. Dealix, Automotive.com, etc. Is this really a good idea, or should I still be buying those third-party leads?  Typically an internet lead from your dealer website will close at a higher rate than third-party leads.

Also, I’m looking to take this one step further and add some display advertising in conjunction with my PPC Campaigns. I’m told both work good separately but the impact of combining the two is greater than the sum of the effects of search and display individually. In other words the synergistic effect; add two and two and you get five.  What are your thoughts?

Richard Klepach
Business Development Director

How do I grow and evolve my dealers Internet sales department from 10-15 trackable sales a month to 20, 30 and more?

I know people are going to the site and looking, then just coming to the dealership and not asking for me. I am still paid based on the cars I sell vs a salary job, which I’m OK with but if I’m doing this amount of work I need people to understand and use me vs other salespeople.

I’m wondering what suggestions you may have for me as well as anyone else, on what I can do to get this thing jump started.

Reis Hauser
Internet Sales Manager
Dubuque Autoplaza

This is a question many dealers and Internet Sales Managers have. If anyone has some great advise to offer Reis, let’s not hold back.

Brian Tucker (Internet Director at Swope Toyota) and I (Alex Snyder) had a long conversation about this the other evening and we wanted to hear what you guys have to say.  This is the email Brian sent that sparked the conversation:

I would like to hear some feedback on what is considered “best practice” on listing your inventory with third party sites such as AutoTrader.com or Cars.com. When is the best time to release inventory and what processes do you guys
and gals have in place to ensure that it is done correctly?

1. DMS sends the inventory live without any prices or info and use default stock images until the proper photos and comments can be placed?
2. Send inventory live after initial quick review and use a place holder such as a “out for bath” icon in place of the stock images until photos and info are ready?
3. Do not release inventory till it is completely web ready and all pictures, custom comments and service inspections have been completed.

I have tried variations of all three and have some different opinions on each but would love to hear some feedback from the PROS!

For quite awhile now, many dealerships and trainers have been promoting the benefits of special internet pricing. I am having trouble convincing my GM’s and owner that our department would benefit from having a set price. They are afraid that they will sell a car to a
walk-in and then the customer will go home and see it online for a
lower price.

How are other dealerships handling this objection to
internet pricing?

The way I see it, every other type of major
retailer Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart etc. specifically state on their
website and in the store that the online pricing may not be available
at the physical store. Why is that ok for them, but when we try it we
are scamming the public?

Amanda Marsal
Internet Manager

I have noticed that my emails are not being read or viewed when I send them through my CRM tool. I have heard of programs that can check your email for content that may mark it as spam or junk. I have also heard there are a few CRM programs that let you know of your customer have opened their emails. However when I asked my CRM provider, they said they couldn’t implement that into their program. I want to capture my audience but I can’t do that if I can’t get to them. Any suggestions?

Internet Sales Manager
Robert Fritscher

I am a pretty successful ISM at a Volvo store in an area that is very competitive. A 1200 or even 2000 dollar loser is not unheard of in my area.

My problem is my owner is very conservative and will not allow me to send ANY quotes out. He wants me to only set appointments. I do understand what he is trying to do. I also understand that it is my job not to provide too much information and to set an appointment. However, consumers shopping on the internet expect a quote and can get one within an hour.

Do you have any ideas as to how I should approach getting a customer in the door without using any numbers?

Thanks for your help guys.

Best Regards,
Johnny Swartz
Internet &
Fleet Manager

The dealer was going to shut down their autotrader and cars.com accounts.

The best part of running DealerRefresh is that I hear from and get to met so many interesting people. From newbie ISM’s to veterans getting back into the business and taking over a dealers Internet Department. Sometimes keeping up with all the emails is like a part-time job!

Last week I received an email from Paul Rushing. He has returned to the car business after a 9 year absence and was given to the opportunity to take over an internet marketing for a Chrysler Dodge and Hyundai dealer.

He had a question for DealerRefresh readers..

“Paul Rushing here in Brunswick, GA.  I have returned to the car business after a nine year absence.  I was given to the opportunity to take over the internet marketing for this store.

The dealer was going to shut down their autotrader and cars.com accounts and rely on the poorly designed Reynolds sites. The dealer was very negative about internet marketing and had a manager that was sharing a dual responsibility of internet marketing and as the Hyundai manager.

I took over the role of ISM and receive all leads from our sites and AT and Cars.com as well as the number on the sites are forwarded to my cell. I am paid as a salesperson.

I am an experienced online marketer selling affiliate products and generating leads for merchants. Applying those skill sets to marketing cars online is not an issue.  However generating support for new ideas is. The dealer principal is a die hard old used car guy. The answer I receive from his maximize what you have then we can open up further negotiations.

We have the minimal AT package however the most leads are generated from them. My suggestion is to kill cars.com and use that money to enhance our AT package. Is this advisable?