Date: Friday, July 9th
Time: 12pm to 1 p.m. (Eastern)
Location: Your Computer
Cost: FREE – Register Here

With your online listings, video helps to bring the car to life and lets shoppers take a virtual test drive. Customers can verify the vehicle’s condition and determine if it offers the passenger and cargo capacity they need. This webinar brings together a panel of video experts to share practical tips for developing clips you can leverage with third-party listings, your dealership site, email follow-up and social media campaigns. In this session, the panel will discuss:

• What car buyers want to see in online video.
• How to produce a walk-around demonstration or personal introduction video.
• Where to share your videos to increase exposure and generate traffic.

Will you be attending?

Small Screen, Big Sales – Cars.com Webinar is a post from: Car Dealer Internet Sales

Our Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools Webinar has come to a close and despite some early technical issues (sorry about that), the feedback was very positive.

LOTS of great information along with many questions were being asked.

Brian was just scraping the surface of Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools and how dealers can leverage these 2 awesome tools.

Several topics were covered, including..

We hope everyone gathered with some great information today. Even if you can’t apply everything you learned today, it’s great to have this knowledge so you can hold your website providers and SEO consultants accountable!

Thanks to everyone that supported and attended!

Let us know you thought?

Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools Webinar – What did you think? is a post from: Car Dealer Internet Sales

If you feel uncomfortable reading Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools reports, the good news is you can join me for a DealerRefresh webinar on Tuesday June 22, 2010 on this very topic.

You can get more information on the webinar on this link: Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools Webinar

Webmaster Tools Tip #1

If you can’t make it, here is a great starting point to see how Google Webmaster Tools can help your digital marketing success.

Now of course, I am sure that you will clear your schedule if I told you that by attending the DealerRefresh webinar you will have more knowledge and data to improve your digital marketing success.

So, Tip #1 from the upcoming webinar will see if your website complies with one of the basic rules of Automotive SEO:

Create website pages with unique  page titles and META descriptions.

Some people have dismissed this scoring as important for car dealer search results. I think this is because their website technology is flawed.

My argument is simple. If Google includes the tracking of duplicate page titles and META descriptions in their HTML diagnostic tools, it is important.

Here is Google’s exact wording in their diagnostic page on duplicate titles and META descriptions:

When Googlebot crawled your site, it found some issues with your content. These issues won’t prevent your site from appearing in Google search results, but addressing them may help your site’s user experience and performance.

This is an interesting choice of words but the reality is more harsh. If you have dozens or hundreds of duplicate Page Titles and META descriptions, it will hurt your ability to appear on Google Page One for searches on the content found on the page.

If you don’t believe that statement, congratulations. You make an excellent competitor for online marketing; you’ll be the easiest to roll-over when someone works for your competitors.

Google Webmaster Tools Screens

When you login to Webmaster Tools, you would click on the website you want to see and then you will come to a dashboard screen. On the left hand side you will see the diagnostic link, as shown below in red:

Click on the “Diagnostics” links and you will see the menu expand. Click on the “HTML Suggestions” link and you will be greeted with a screen that will look one of two ways.

The first way will show you just how many errors are on your website or you will find Google Webmaster Tools “Nirvana”.

Do you know where you are at?

Here is what the error screen will show. You should try to reduce the number of duplicate  or missing Titles and META descriptions on your website. You may be shocked to see that many car dealer website platforms ignore Google’s advice.

Google Nirvana

If your website has no errors, you will get this message:

The text reads:

We didn’t detect any content issues with your site. As we crawl your site, we check it to detect any potential issues with content on your pages, including duplicate, missing, or problematic title tags or meta descriptions. These issues won’t prevent your site from appearing in Google search results, but paying attention to them can provide Google with more information and even help drive traffic to your site. For example, title and meta description text can appear in search results, and useful, descriptive text is more likely to be clicked on by users.

So, please check your Webmaster Tools Account or setup it up and if you wants TONS of great marketing data, make sure you setup Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools Webinar.

The webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, June 22, 2010 from 10:00 am – 12:00 noon. Cost is $25 per dealership.

Sign-up Here

Webmaster Tools Webinar Tip #1 is a post from: Car Dealer Internet Sales

DealerRefresh and Brian Pasch are teaming up to offer dealers an invaluable webinar on how to utilize Google Webmaster Tools.

Google provides a number of free tools that provide a wealth of information to anyone seeking to increase traffic, leads and sales to their website. Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics and Google Insights for Search are three tools that are under utilized for Internet Sales Managers.

If you haven’t looked at these tools in the past six months, you will be surprised at the number of new data points that are being collected and measured from your website.

If you are serious about learning more about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), traffic generation strategies, and improving website conversion you need to understand that great data that these tools provide.

This is the first time that Brian has offered to conduct a webinar workshop on these very important tools.

The webinar will be held on Tuesday June 22, 2010 from 10:00 am – 12:00 noon EST.

The cost is $25 per dealership rooftop login. This is a tremendous opportunity to unlock the mysteries of these tools and improve your digital marketing strategies.

To sign up:  http://www.dealer-seo.com/20100603-google-analytics-webinar

OR

Dealership name Contact Name & Phone

Register Today

Since we expect this event to sell-out quickly, we encourage you to sign-up today. You can also send this page link to people in your 20 group and invite them to attend.

Once we receive your payment, you will be added to the list and your webinar link will be emailed 2 days before the event.

The information and training that you will obtain from this webinar will be priceless because it will show you how your website is “respected” by Google and how to create a more effective digital marketing strategy.

IF you have any questions before the webinar – use the comments form for this this post and ask away. We will do our best to answer your questions throughout the webinar.

Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools Webinar with Brian Pasch is a post from: Car Dealer Internet Sales

Can Foursquare be an effective social media communications tool for retail car dealers?

If you not sure what Foursquare is yet, it’s a location-based social networking site which requires the use of your mobile phone or mobile device to check in to venues/businesses.

To “check in” requires you log in to Foursquare, pull up a list of places or venues that have been added to foursquare.com by other users and use the Check In button. If the venue doesn’t exist you can add it by entering the name and address. Beyond the individual aspect lies an intriguing marketing opportunity.

Get it for your iPhone, Blackberry or Andriod

During this webinar; the one and only Mr. Eric Miltsch will be sharing some of the activities used within the Auction Direct USA Foursquare Venue during the next AC Social webinar Thursday May 13 at 11:30am EST.

Some of the topics covered will be:

• New-school engagement using “location-based marketing” concepts
• Creating memorable, interactive experiences for guests
• Leveraging our networks w/regards to surrounding businesses for promotions & the breadth of our personal networks
• Improving brand recognition
• Driving traffic
• Creating sales opportunities

Join Eric on Thursday May 13 at 11:30am.  The presentation will last around 30-40 minutes.

To register for this event use the link below. If you are already registered with the AC Social webinar series then there is no need to re-register. Likewise if you have an interest in this topic but can not make this particular webinar, click here to view our schedule of events or sign up to receive email and text alerts for all upcoming webinars.

Click here to register for the AC Foursquare Video Webinar Series

Foursquare for Car Dealers Webinar is a post from: Car Dealer Internet Sales

Isn’t she ‘tweet? It’s that time again – the semi-annual Digital Dealer conference, and of course the infamous review care of DealerRefresh. Jeff Kershner was unable to attend, I think he was attending the Cannes Film Festival or receiving the Nobel Prize for Automotive Excellence or something, so that leaves the flunkies like myself and Alex Jefferson with The Proctor Dealerships to pick up the slack…

So what kind of healthy food do automotive professionals eat? For the first official meeting of the “Automotive Industry Knights of the Round Table”, we chose to meet at the Rosen Shingle resort, which coincidentally was also the location for the 8th Digital Dealer Conference held in Orlando, Florida. Ok, so the table was not round, and most of these guys are not Knights, or even someone I might want to even run into at night, but great fun was had by all as we gathered together to share what is working well for each of us in this rapid-paced market, as well as looking for new ideas for where things are going.

Is it legal to give away alcohol? I am not sure, but Joe Webb (President of DealerKnows Consulting) sure knows how to encourage audience participation, and his session “It’s the Lead to Appointment Show” was a great example of how to do well with your presentation. Joe did a great job using game show analogies to teach his points, and getting folks involved. What was his secret? When he first asked for a volunteer, he had one hand go up. After the participant finished, Joe awarded him a bottle of wine. When Joe asked for the next volunteer, 40 hands shot up! Audience input, humor, video clips, and outstanding material make for a superior session, great job Joe!

If you know the name and address of the guy who runs Google Maps, please let me know… I and many others would like to see this fellow get “beat up from the feet up” as Google Maps can be a colossal nightmare to manage, especially for large auto groups with multiple locations. Getting your maps info accurate can be a real aggravation. However – having correct information on your Google Map listings, and following the analytics for that site is very important as we learned in Brian Pasch’s (PCG Digital Marketing) session on Automotive Internet Reputation. The mysterious Google search algorithm finds reviews of your dealership and attaches them to your Google Map listing. When you consider how many folks view your Map listing every day, shouldn’t you worry about the reviews they will see there as well? Brian made a couple suggestions that I thought were very good, to include having some links point from your website and/or blog directly to your Map listing, and creating a portal page for all of the review sites about your dealership. Of note, Brian’s brother Glenn (with Improved Performance Solutions) also attended and presented at this conference. Glenn shared with me that he was actually Brian’s body double, used for all of his bare-chest shots…

You dropped a bomb on me – baby… My favorite one-liner from the conference is awarded to Patrick Workman with Dealer.com, who was showing me how to “drop a search-bomb” on my competition with the Dealer.com search engine marketing tool, where I could pinpoint a campaign right on top of another dealership’s location. Can you feel the love? Dealer.com continues to excel with great SEO, but I was also impressed with how they are starting to closely work with automotive ad agencies like Moore and Scarry where the ad agency is coordinating the dealership’s traditional and digital marketing efforts directly with the dealership’s website. This is tremendously important in our efforts, as we need to ensure that we are presenting one message across all marketing mediums. When you are pushing a special in your latest TV or radio commercial, or print ad, will your customer find that same special/message at your website???

I love it when vendors push stuff… Well – maybe not all the time, but in this situation, I liked what I saw. Todd Smith with ActivEngage shared a new feature that they are using within their chat tool where they can “push” a video to your website shopper. If your shopper is looking at a new model on your website and asking questions about that vehicle, the ActivEngage rep can push over a video of that vehicle to the customer via Live Chat. I like it – a lot. We need to present compelling, exciting information to our customers to keep them engaged with our online dealership showrooms, and keeping these shoppers engaged and converting them to actual phone calls, email leads, or showroom visits is key to our success.

And then a fight broke out… Well, a beat-down did appear imminent during the Wednesday morning panel discussion “The Price is Right”. A “spirited discussion” took place on the panel between Dale Pollak of vAuto and Pat Ryan Jr. of FirstLook that kept folks on the edge of their seats as each shared their philosophies on how their respective tools can best help us as dealers in selecting, marketing, and pricing our vehicles in our respective markets. Mike Waterman of DealerTrack, Jim Flint from the John Eagle Family of Dealerships and myself (with Jeff Wyler) also participated, and each of us shared our thoughts and approaches with pricing strategies. Truth is – there was great value in everything said, whether one agreed with all of it or not, and I was glad to see some sparks fly from people who truly believe in their products. Great job to all, and on a side note, my money was on Pat, as he is a former Chicago Policeman (Blues Brothers flashback!)

My secret temptation… Sometimes I bring some of my competitors’ business cards with me and hand them out while walking through the exhibit area, with a “Please call me on Monday as I am very interested in your product/service, and do NOT stop calling me if you cannot reach me”… Wouldn’t that be fun? While tempting, I have not followed up on that idea thought it would be great fun. Every conference I see more and more folks, including more of the local dealers in my area. Great to see past participant Andy Warner of the Lormar group, and first-time attendees Sarah Sweeney and Robert Sabbaugh of the Jake Sweeney Automotive Family. More and more, dealerships are understanding how important eCommerce is to our industry, and that they must excel at it.

Can I be honest for a moment? Enough already with the barrage of social media propaganda! Ok, I realize that I am being harsh here – and when I spoke to Alex Snyder at the conference he concurred and told me he was going to write about this as well. Social media was the “buzz” at DD8 and there were multiple sessions dealing with this topic, and a large amount of the exhibitors were promoting their new social media/networking tools. As I worked the exhibition hall, I asked many of these same vendors what they thought about the huge emphasis on “How are we going to get onboard with all of these social networking sites, and how are we going to sell cars there?” Truth is, many of them don’t even believe that social networking sites are the place to “sell cars”, but they are only delivering what dealers want. Let’s face it, I guarantee that there were many attendees who showed up at this conference with instructions from their GM to jump onboard this Social Networking wagon (eg. “Johnny, go down to the show and buy us some of that Social Networking stuff!”). Is this topic important? Certainly! I believe we should have a presence where we can share our online reviews, encourage our satisfied customers to interact with us, and also share relevant information and specials with our friends. BUT – let me ask you this? What did you used to think of your friends who called you about their new venture with Amway??? Hello – can we say avoid them like the plague? The same idea carries over to your Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites. If you are trying to blatantly sell on these sites, you will turn off your “friends”. My advice is this. Yes, social networking is important, pick some of the top sites and provide relevant information on those. Do you want to know how to do it best? Take a close look at the folks on Facebook or Twitter that you love to follow. Ask yourself why – there is your likely answer… Balance your time and efforts into focusing on other areas of your business that deserve your highest attention, such as inventory photos and descriptions, improving your website engagement and conversion, etc, rather than on feeding 200+ social networking sites with your latest Nissan special. I think a lot of dealers have got their priorities out of balance and need to keep this area in perspective…. (wow – now I am going to be like the Google Maps guy, where everyone will want my address to pay me a special visit…).

Whose map is that? Why, that would be Ron’s map of course! Many folks were telling me to stop by the booth for a new vendor, ronsmap, whom were launching their new site that is designed for consumers, but is looking for dealer participation. Want to learn more? Visit their website (Hey Ron Morrison – how is that for driving folks to your website!)

What is Jim Ziegler’s favorite website? I am not sure, but I can guarantee that his mention of adultfriendfinder.com (uh – link omitted intentionally) as one of the top social networking sites during his presentation of “How to use online social communities and Technology-enabled Marketing” kept folks interested, and also wondering if their dealership firewall would allow that site through their local network. I guess the burning question that follows-up from this is whether this same site also deals with your online reputation???

Yo! Word-up! Ahhh – the “word on the street”… Yes, I always try to spend time meeting with folks during the mixers and during the breaks between sessions to see what they are thinking, find out about what sessions they liked, and what vendors have caught their attention. Unfortunately, I found many folks that felt like many of the sessions seemed like a repeat of the previous conference in Nashville. Perhaps this is not a fair statement, but maybe there is some truth (isn’t that always found in perception?) that it seems like the same folks presenting, and there did not seem to be a lot of exciting new material. This also might be a reflection of our current market. I can share what I felt I missed, and that is – Where are we going with mobile technology and how are we going to work with our customers on this platform? I am a firm proponent of common sense, and all you had to do if you attended ANY session was stand in the back and look at the folks in the crowd. During every presentation I would see folks using their smart phones to text, check and respond to emails, or surf the web. No, it’s not just the “young folks” who are doing this, it’s all of us. I do believe the reason we don’t see many sessions or vendor solutions to this area is that we don’t know the answers yet in how to best adapt and grow with this shift in consumer behavior. I hope to see more of this in the next conference.

I love the nightlife… Of course everyone knows that all of the big rock stars and socialites hit the Orlando scene (except for Kershner..) As always, much fun had by everyone, though I have a sneaky suspicion that Brian Hannan with Cars.com took myself and the rest of the “Price is Right” panel out to dinner the night before to babysit us before our early morning presentation. I had a great time meeting Jack Simmons who is the dealer training manager at Cars.com who shared his favorite closing line with me, which I have promised to keep a secret… Pat Ryan Jr. also kept me entertained with some great stories from his earlier days as a Chicago Police detective. The gang at Clickmotive generously took me out the following night and kept me laughing as well (many thanks!). A large group of us headed out to The Blue Martini for drinks and fun on Wednesday night, where I ran into Todd Smith who had set aside some tables for all of us, and kept us entertained for the evening (thanks Todd!). I was able to run into Andrew Difeo who is now running a dealership in Florida (congrats Andrew), as well as catch up with lots of other folks including Stan Sher, Katie Richter and April Rain of Cuneo Advertising, Cliff Banks, and of course my great friend Alex Jefferson. Kudos to Cliff Banks who was up with me bright and early the following morning and helping me show the young folks that some of these old guys can still have a good time (though I suspect each of us was in bed by 8 the following evening, lol…).

Everyone else that I photographed is somewhere in this shot – is everyone happy now? Whew!

And the $1,000,000 dollar answer is… Keep your focus! Be candid and honest at where your dealership is in its online efforts. If you are just starting, or are doing very poorly, focus on the fundamentals. Work with your website and inventory presentation and work on answering your leads quickly, and on providing proper follow-up to these leads (sales AND service). If you are doing these things well, then you can start worrying about peak search engine optimization, social networking, mining your database, playing with video, and all of the other great areas that help us reach our highest levels of performance. I speak with too many folks who are overwhelmed and are worrying about not Tweeting every day or creating their next micro-site when their most pressing concern should be worrying about having someone answer the leads they are currently receiving and doing it well.

I believe the conference was a success, with increased attendance, full sessions, and lots of dealers who are excited as they feel the market is bouncing back. I enjoyed meeting so many great friends during the conference and apologize for not being able to mention everyone. We did receive the exciting announcement that Digital Dealer 9 will be in Las Vegas this fall. Upon hearing this news, I immediately starting putting together my Digital Dealer 9 conditioning program to build up my “tolerance” and learning how to live with sleep deprivation! I look forward to seeing everyone there.

Cheers!

Kevin Frye’s Annual Digital Dealer Conference Review is a post from: Car Dealer Internet Sales

“Perfecting the Lead Mix: the Key to Growing Sales in Your Dealership”

Registration:
Topic: Dealix Presents: “Perfecting the Lead Mix: the Key to Growing Sales in Your Dealership ” Webinar
Date: Monday, April 26, 2010
Time: 11:00 am, PST
Register Here

Event Description:

Dealix presents “Perfecting the Lead Mix: the Key to Growing Sales in Your Dealership” webinar.

During this session, a panel of automotive experts will discuss the value of consumer leads from three key sources – dealer websites, OEM websites, and independent Internet sites – and the role each plays in creating sales and growing market share for dealerships.

Over the course of an hour, the panel will examine:

• Value each lead type delivers to your dealership and what constitutes the ‘right’ mix
• How to measure performance and ROI for each lead source
• Lead handling tactics and best practices for optimal results
• And much more!

The session will be moderated by Kevin Hunt, Vice President of Sales at Dealix and will feature the following panelists:

David Kain, President of Kain Automotive, will focus on leads from OEM sites.
Brian Pasch, Owner of Pasch Consulting, will argue the merits of leads from the Dealer Sites.
Anna Zornosa, General Manager of Dealix – a Division of Cobalt – will advocate the contribution of leads from independent sites.

Don’t miss out.

Date: Monday, April 26, 2010
Time: 11:00 am, PST
Register Here

Perfecting Your Lead Mix – Dealix Webinar is a post from: Car Dealer Internet Sales

–This is a dual post by myself and Alex. Mine is the following and Alex’s is below.

Attendance this year was low – - dealers and vendors.

Parties were at a minimum

The sessions were good, the ones that I was able to attend (not many). The dealers attending this year seem to be more in tune; not just looking for new shiny objects but also looking for some substance. Looking for features and benefits of a solution/vendor can provide.

This is a quick review on what myself and Alex had seen on the floor in regards to different/new products and solutions.

Cars.com was very proud of their new Cars.com Mobile iPhone App.  2 Thumbs up!!

One of the newest players that was on the  innovative side this year was DealerMouth. DealerMouth wants to help dealers  maximize their online visibility while building ongoing rapport directly between the salesperson and the customer with the use of individual sales and service personnel micro-sites. This could be a great employee retention tool for dealers!

Elead CRM has been on a roll with encompassing several (inventory management, market analysis, CRM, Service Marketing, Direct Mail, Desking, Call Center) solutions under one central roof. I was toying around with their mobile lead management – no real time to dig into it but first impressions were positive.

Homenet was talking up their new pay by lead with ebay local. Get your entire inventory onto ebay local and only pay $25.00 a lead (email and over 30 second phone call). They are also providing pay per lead from Edmunds, $35.00 will get you a “qualified”, high closing lead directly from Edmunds.com. Hopefully those leads are closing at a 30-40% clip

Clickmotive was proudly showing off their FusionMobile websites. Offering custom header graphics, splash pages and navigation icons. What impressed me most was how fast the sites where and the fact that they also offer a dealer Group mobile portal. ClickMotive claims that their FusionMobile suite is averaging a 30%-50% conversion rate.

The showcase of mobile apps were on the rise this year. Premier netcomm solutions – DealerApp was just one vendors showing off their iphone app for dealers. I liked the fact that they offered a one time price that included 1 year of any available upgrades while getting your app into the iTunes store.

DealerApp makes it easy to access any part of your website (mobile or not). Inventory listings, coupons/specials, announcements, directions while sending leads and inquiries straight to your CRM.

Autotrader was showing off their NEW dealer scorecard reports. Find out how your dealer stacks up again the competition in your local and national market.

Polk was introducing their automotive lists online -  http://automotivelists.polk.com/. Dealers can now quickly jump online and order their targeted automotive marketing lists. Reach profitable prospects for new vehicle, used vehicle, and parts & service campaigns.

I’m sure by now, everyone has seen or at least heard of GOSO — GOSO offers web and social media marketing suite for dealers. Not only do they have a slick inventory module for your dealers facebook fanpage but they have a reputation management piece, custom landing pages, testimonial management and inventory broadcasting. It’s worth taking a look at.

Car-Research was introducing their completely revamped modulated CRM. Another CRM vendor bringing several solutions under one “roof”. Their Dashboard and Enterprise Reporting was looking impressive. This company seems to fly under the radar but should be given consideration if you’re in the market for a CRM.
———

This portion is By Alex (excuse his laziness and forgetting his camera )

I was on a mission to meet with some very specific vendors and make sure certain folks from Checkered Flag got to speak with the right people.  In sitting down with Dealer.com I think we came up with a good way to keep our Dealer Principle engaged with the continuing push toward online advertising.  What does that mean to an Internet Sales Person/Manager/Director?

We are developing a report that compares Internet leads to sold DMS data and then backs those sold records into some very comprehensive details showing advertising sources and click-paths.  To take it a step further, this will be followed-up by a formula that can show what kind of money needs to be spent to achieve certain results.  This will be fantastic for dealers who have been on Dealer.com for a while and have a good history of data to show these results.  For the Dealer Principle it simply says “spend this much more and you’ll get this much more traffic”.  I personally think it is going to take us a few months to get things very straight, but the vision and data is right.  It all makes sense and should provide some unbelievable insight!

Secondly, I was on the hunt for something that would bring my DMS parts inventory to my website without too much fuss on our parts departments’ manual labor time.  WHI Solutions seems to be on track to do that.  There is still a lot of polishing they need to do to make their customer portal look and act more modern, but they have the feeds and are definitely heading in the right direction.  I’d love to see a partnership between them and some of the site hosting companies.  The site hosting companies can build the customer and dealer interfaces, while WHI supplies the data.

Thirdly, I wanted to take a look at DealerTrack’s AAX.  In my market I am getting concerned that there are too many dealers using Pre-Owned Pricing software and we’re just pricing ourselves against one another driving the market down.  It is one thing to have only a handful of dealers on these products, but it is another when almost every dealer is on it.  I’m not saying that AAX is any better than vAuto or First Look, but I wanted to see if they had anything that might help some of the pain we’re feeling in my market.  The discussion was not concluded at the show and I think there is still a lot of debate circulating over this genre of dealership software.

Overall, the floor at NADA 2010 was very manageable in a single day.  Although I wished I was there for a second day, I still feel that what I got accomplished was very productive.  I’m leaving quite a few other products out that deserve mention, but I must say that the newest player who was truly innovative this year is DealerMouth.  They provide a solution for sales agents that could start a whole new generation in dealership social media!

2010 NADA Expo Walk & Review – #2010NADA is a post from: Car Dealer Internet Sales

Date: Friday, Feb, 2010
Time: 12pm to 1 p.m. (Eastern)
Location: Your Computer
Cost: FREE – Register Here

With the new year underway, are you working your plan for a profitable 2010?

Do you know how current industry trends and emerging technology will drive your business and fuel your success? Each year, the NADA convention is a hub for new ideas, tools and tactics that can help drive your business. Join Cars.com and a panel of industry experts as we recap the hot topics and trends raised at this year’s show and discuss how they can boost sales and the bottom line at your store.

In this session, we’ll discuss:

• The state of the new- and used-car marketplace and sales projections for the year ahead
• Emerging technologies that help you reach internet shoppers and fully merchandise your inventory
• New sales processes that engage car buyers and encourage them to purchase from you

Panelists:

Steve Finlay
Editor of Ward’s Dealer Business

Jeff Kershner
Founder of DealerRefresh.com

Ralph Ebersole
Cars.com Automotive Consultant

NADA 2010 and What’s New to Help You Fuel Sales – Cars.com Webinar is a post from: Car Dealer Internet Sales

I must state that I’m writing the rest of this from a dealer’s stand-point (mine in particular), so this might not be the same perspective an OEM or vendor would have…

With the economy being what it is, representation by the dealer body was low. This was no surprise, but the sad part was it didn’t set the stage for great debate on the dealer’s behalf. A few of us tried to push things through twitter, but I think we just disturbed people. So when you have a bunch of vendors and manufacturers, many have a tendency to play things safe. There were a few people who pushed the envelope on stage (Larry Bruce from Reynolds & Reynolds and David Metter from MileOne), but these were few and far between…I’ll write a bit about what they did a little further in.Due to my flight schedule I virtually missed the entire first day, and arrived just in time for the cocktail hour. I heard I only missed one good session though. The beginning of the second day started with Jim Farley of Ford who gave an incredible presentation of what Ford is doing in the digital space. I was very impressed!

I may not have these numbers perfectly correct, but from the graph Farley showed, this looks like Ford’s media buy:  50% TV, 25% Digital, 15% Experimental, and 10% paper/magazines. He also said that

all of Ford’s advertising is now derived from things learned in social media and they encourage all departments to participate and learn. He also stated that social media is such a strong influence on Ford that it actually plays a huge role in product and aftermarket development.

Their advertising strategy is simply to “get people talking about us, not us talking about us.” He made me wish, more than ever, that we carried Ford.

After Farley Ralph Paglia, Jared Hamilton, Eric Miltsch, Christopher Barger, and Tom Chisholm’s panel (pictured) was on social media. They each did a great job on explaining the fundamentals of how a business should approach these different communication pieces. I got to spend some time talking to Eric Miltsch and if you’re not watching what he is doing at Auction Direct you should! You can view the slideshow from their presentation here – thanks Mary! Ralph has also posted about his experience on the panel on ADM.

As for some debate…

1. Larry Bruce from Reynolds & Reynolds brought up the age-old argument that a dealership should not move onto the next big thing until they’ve got the basics covered. I agree with that argument on some levels, but he got a little extreme with it, and obviously hasn’t thought about things from the perspective of pushing the core through new dealership processes that I proposed last week. I at least applaud Larry for stirring up some debate!
2. There was a lot of talk about the buying funnel through Tier 1,2, & 3 advertising. I think everyone agreed that Tier 1 should be done by OEM’s and Tier 3 should be done by dealers, but what about Tier 2? Tier 2 is regional dealership/OEM advertising done through ad agencies that is usually paid for on dealer invoices. The argument for Tier 2 was not very strong. However, I think some of the ad agencies who handle Tier 2 stuff, like Pivec/Pivnet, do a lot to push dealers and OEM’s. Is there a value in that alone? There is definitely a lot more to debate on this subject.
3. David Metter did a great job of not only entertaining the audience in a panel about what Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 advertising should be doing, but he also got some good digs in on OEM digital advertising policies toward dealers. He made quite a few points that had me saying AMEN and wishing that VW, Honda, MINI, Scion, GM, and Cobalt were in the room. I can’t quote David exactly, but here are two things he said in a nutshell:

Why do OEM’s approve almost all traditional co-op, while asking us to do more digital, but give us such a hard time approving the digital?

I don’t want my dealership website to look like my manufacturer’s website.

AMEN brother!

I had some great conversations outside of the conference, and that is more what attending these things is all about.  Overall, I found this JD Power Automotive Internet Roundtable to be a graduation to Internet 201, but nothing that really pushed the envelope. Would I call it a waste of my boss’ money? – No, I got a few nuggets and ideas to make some money with. Am I going to think twice about attending next year – yes.  I want more debate!  As Shaun Raines noted in the #JDPAIRT twitter stream, too many of the panelists and moderators had business ties.

—————

As more is written on the event, I’ll try to keep posting links here:

Gary May’s take on his week in Vegas
Jay Friedman’s account of JD Power << good listing of stats from the conference
JD Power’s Own Review by Amit Aggarwal

2009 JD Power Automotive Internet Roundtable Review – Red Rock, Vegas is a post from: Car Dealer Internet Sales