–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!

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

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

UPDATE: Win a Free Trip to the Synergy Sessions

The Fourth Annual Synergy Sessions is in Atlanta at the Renaissance Hotel on October 5 and 6th, 2009.  Sean V. Bradley says this is going to be this years’ best training and networking event for the industry.

Training is critical for dealers and team members and this year’s theme is “Restructure to Maximize Performance.” Dealer Synergy is excited that the event is drawing speakers like Dale Pollak from vAuto, Sean Stapleton of Vin Solutions, Ken Potter from CarsDirect.com, and Ralph Paglia from ADP Dealer Services. Their participation shows in a tangible way that Synergy Sessions has become one of the industry’s “must events” of the year.”

This Synergy Sessions training and networking event focuses on helping auto retailers increase their performance levels, adopt powerful hiring practices and leverage technologies that consumers are utilizing during the vehicle shopping process.

The Keynote speaker will be John Ferber, who along with his brother Scott was the Co-Founder of Advertising.com, which was acquired by AOL in 2004. John and Scott were named in 2000 as Entrepreneurs of the Year by Ernst and Young LLP. John is currently the CEO of USO Networks, the premier Video Search Engine Optimization Company.

The Synergy Sessions will also offer as an option a full day of FranklinCovey training, led by certified Dealer Synergy trainers Sean V. Bradley and Karen Uriarte. This training will focus on time management and leadership skills and take the lessons from the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and apply various aspects to the issues faced everyday in the auto retailing arena. Dealer owners who have taken this course have shared that what they learned changed both their business and personal lives for the better.

Visit the SynergySessions.com for more information on this event and to register now.

On a side note, Myself and Brian Tucker (long time DealerRefresh contributor) attended the 2008 Synergy Session when DeVerl Austin from Franklin Covey presented “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and it was a top shelf presentation. Of course I’m always advocate for self motivation books and presentations. You can always read Brian’s review of the 2008 Synergy Sessions right here.

UPDATE: Win a Free Trip to the Synergy Sessions

Synergy Sessions is one of the premier events of the year. Top notch presentations, industry experts, networking, trade show booths, and information, insights and tips that will improve your dealerships’ performance and profits.

The Synergy Sessions Hosts are holding a contest to give away one free Trip to this year’s event. Included in the winning prize is FREE Registration to the Synergy Sessions Event, Airfare reimbursement (up to $300) and two nights Hotel at the Atlanta Marriott Renaissance where the event is being held. Admission to our VIP Networking Party is also included. All these add up to $1000 in total value for this event. You can enter this contest, right here on Dealer Refresh.

How to enter the contest:

1. Think of your best original idea on how a dealership increased their sales, and/or improved their productivity. This must have been an idea that you or another dealer has actually implemented.
2. Enter that information here on DealerRefresh in the comments area for the Synergy Sessions. Start the posting with the words: “Synergy Session Best Idea Contest”
3. If you submit your idea via a video on YouTube or other video site be sure to enter the ”Synergy Session Best Idea Contest” words as keyword tags with the video, and put a link to that video here on Dealer Refresh.
4. Entrants must be a current employee of an automotive dealership and submit their idea by midnight Pacific Time on September 14, 2009. Call us at 888-815-4417 if you have any questions regarding this event.

The winner will be chosen by the Synergy Sessions Hosts team and notified the following week. This contest is void where prohibited and winner is responsible for any and all fees not included in the prize.

Winner will book their own airfare (if flying) and Synergy Sessions will reimburse them up to $300.00. If the winner drives to the event or takes alternative transportation Synergy Sessions will reimburse at a level they determine.

Enter to WIN!

Date: Friday, August 14
Time: 12pm to 1 p.m. (Eastern)
Location: Your Computer
Cost: FREE – Register Here

As online communities grow in ever-increasing numbers, are you a part of the conversation or standing on the sidelines? Social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter allow you to engage your customers outside the store and develop relationships that drive repeat and referral business. This webinar examines the rules of engagement on these sites to help you understand the channels and how you can capitalize on them.

Kimmel will moderate this DealerADvantage Live session, which will include a panel of industry experts. She will be joined by: Rob Fontano, internet sales director for John Marazzi Nissan in Naples, Fla.; and the “one and only” Alex Snyder, ecommerce director for Checkered Flag Automotive Group in Virginia Beach, Va.

Attendees will get advice on how to:

• Identify which social media sites connect your store with in-market shoppers.
• Incorporate social media sites into your sales process.
• Develop site-specific tactics that help you engage car buyers and encourage open communication.
• Determine who should manage your social media presence.

Be sure to attend and give Alex a hard time. Have your questions queued up!

Date: Friday, July 10, 2009
Time: 12pm to 1 p.m. (Eastern)
Location: Your Computer
Cost: FREE – Register Here

Already we’re hearing from car buyers who plan to make a purchase when CARS goes into effect in late July,” Ebersole said. “We encourage dealers to register for the program and make the necessary changes to their merchandising and sales processes now so they can hit the ground running to win new car business.

Description: The “Cash for Clunkers” program is bringing new-car shoppers back to market. Are you ready to capitalize on this initiative and win more than your fair share of the business? Join Cars.com and a panel of industry experts as we discuss how federal government incentives such as the Car Allowance Rebate System and sales tax deductions position you to jumpstart new-car sales.

Ralph Ebersole will moderate the DealerADvantage Live session, which will include a panel of industry experts. Attendees will get advice on how to:

• Implement the CARS program at your store.
• Reach prospects with “clunkers” and bring them into your dealership.
• Build an effective online marketing strategy to reach in-market shoppers.
• Leverage incentives within your processes to close new-car deals.

J.D. Power and Associates’ Web Intelligence Division utilizes social media to help the auto industry gain consumer insights, mining the blogosphere for unvarnished insight and unbiased opinion.

We invite you to join us for a webinar to discover how J.D. Power Web Intelligence can take the blogosphere beyond monitoring and turn social media information into action.

This webinar delves into the opinions found social media on topics like the following:

• What are short- and long-term auto industry trends, such as consumer purchase intent?
• How are consumers responding to recent OEM incentive and marketing programs such as job-loss insurance?
• How can automakers more successfully approach Gen Yers?
• How has J.D. Power’s newest spin on segmentation – Tribe ReportsTM – helped other companies gauge marketing effectiveness?

DATE: Thursday, May 28, 2009
TIME: 2 pm Eastern
SPEAKER: Chance Parker, Vice President & General Manager
J.D. Power Web Intelligence

Be sure to check back here for the full recording and posting of the webinar.

Until then, be sure to check out the ALL NEW DealerRefresh Dealer Technology Forum for best practices with dealer technology.

DealerRefresh has been around for almost 5 YEARS and there is a ton of information on here. Choose a category on the left or use the search feature in the top right to find HUNDREDS of articles about Internet Marketing and Best Practices.

**Below are transcripts from the from Jeff and Alexs’ presentations**

Jeff Kershner – The Changing Digital Landscape… As you know, progressive dealerships are spending more money on digital media.  Judging from your experience, how can they best be distributing those ad dollars?

So.. if a dealer is going to spend more money with online marketing, where do I think they should spend it?

That’s a big question and the answer could range from spending money on websites that convert better to classifieds sites, like AutoTrader.com and Cars.com. But since this session is about 1st Party Leads I’ll stick to the core subject and talk about 7 areas of online marketing that have HAD and STILL HAVE a direct impact on your dealers 1st Party Leads.

Many of these areas are the same ones we’ve been talking about for years, BUT I still see dealers making the same mistakes or still opting out of transitioning their budget into these powerful areas of online marketing.

ALRIGHT..I have a ton of information here so I’ll get started and hope I don’t get cut off.

1. SEO/Search Engine Optimization

Dealers continue to really miss the mark with SEO. And I’m not talking about a simple change of your meta tags and stuffing your homepage with keywords, I’m talking about having a true strategy around Natural Search, one that yields excellent residual results.

If you don’t already have an SEO strategy, GET ONE!!
If you already have an SEO strategy..be sure to ask yourself a few questions:

1. Are you adding content to your dealer website or blog – frequently?
2. Do you have a strategy for link building
3. Are you tracking keyword effectiveness?

The ISSUE with natural search with dealers; IS what I like to call the “Shiny Rock Syndrome“.
Can I see it?
Is it shiny?
AND will it sell me more cars this month?

SEO needs to be nurtured, it’s not always immediate but once you get it dialed in..it WILL bring you great residual results which will no doubt equate into increased 1st party leads.

2. SEM/Paid Search

I would eventually say most of the dealers on this call are CURRENTLY or have PLAYED on the Paid Search field. Unfortunately, I would venture to say most are failing or have failed and not even known it. Maybe you’ve brought it in house or have outsourced it to a company that takes a “one size fits all” approach.

I believe Paid Search has a lot of opportunity when done RIGHT and should be apart of your dealers online marketing mix. If you’re doing paid search whether in-house or outsourced..take a moment and revisit your paid search campaign TODAY!

6 common mistakes dealers make with paid search…

1. Bidding on your own dealers name – be careful with this as it can be a quick waste of your budget (if you are going to do this..there are a few best practices)
2. Bidding on the competition – from my experiences this is usually a waste of money as well and can offer an irrelevant experience for the customer
3. Top Spot is not always NUMBER 1 – depending on the keywords phrase, being in the 3-4th position can actually yield better results.
4. Don’t ignore the Longtail – general keywords can have you blowing though your budget fast but dialing in on longtail specific keyword phrases can no doubt produce more 1st party leads.
5. Don’t ignore your analytics - the numbers never lie. Just because the reports are showing you a high CTR, doesn’t mean these are converting keywords.
6. Local vs National Campaigns (ONE of the MOST IMPORTANT) -PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK THIS and do it today because I see this happening all the time. Be sure your running a geo-targeted/local paid search campaign and NOT a national campaign. I just logged into my Gmail account this morning and again took notice to a paid search ad for a BMW dealer in CA, I’m in Maryland. That’s a WASTE!!

Find a company that’s very transparent with their reporting and are willing to build a relationship with you while helping you optimize your paid search efforts.

3. EMAIL MARKETING/CAMPAIGNING

It amazes me that many dealers still do not have email marketing dialed in. Email is a strong marketing tool for 1st party leads but it goes a lot deeper then just hitting the send button.

If you’re building email templates in your CRM tool, batching customers together and BLASTING out emails..your doing ALL WRONG!!

What are your your customers doing after they open your email?
Are they even getting your emails?
Are your emails permission based – opted in/opted out?
What do your emails look like on mobile devices?
Are your email campaigns timely and relevant to that customer?

Targeted and Segmented email campaigns can be a huge WIN for your dealer! Take some of your budget and get your email marketing dialed in and you’ll start seeing results!

4. VIDEO

Americans watched a record 14.3 billion videos online during the month December of 2008. eMarketer estimates that spending on online video advertising will grow to $4.6 billion in 2013

There are SO MANY avenues for video and figuring out where it belongs in your dealers online marketing landscape can be a challenge. Either Way, you need to figure it out. Video can be engaging, great for banding, increases time on your dealer website while increasing your chances of conversion – more 1st Party Leads.

Of course video can also be used across other video distribution channels like YouTube, MetaCafe, Truveo, Vimeo, just to name a few. It’s an effective avenue to not only drive traffic to your dealer website but also helping to brand your dealership while having a positive impact on your paid and natural search efforts as well.

5. DISPLAY ADVERTISING (Banner Ads)

Display advertising is something dealers are going to start hearing more about. Many of the larger players in this medium (like the manufactures) are cutting back on their advertising budgets, in return loosening up the availability of inventory within the ad networks. This is allowing dealers the opportunity to play in this field.

There can be a win here for dealers BUT before jumping into display advertising, be sure to educate yourself so you have an understanding what you’re getting into.

Know the lingo and the different ways of purchasing ad display:

CPM – Cost per thousand impressions
CPC – Cost Per Click
CPA – Cost per Action

You will also want to understand BT – Behavioral Targeting and Site Retargeting.

6. ONLINE EVIDENCE MANUAL

According to a recent Yahoo/Cobalt study 21% of car shoppers changed their dealership selection based on an dealer review.

Dealers, WE need to be aware of these new waive of websites that allow consumers to rate and comment on their experience they had at your dealership. Not only do you need to be aware of these sites but it’s also a great avenue to produce MORE 1st Party Leads.

Remember that “evidence manual” with customer testimonial letters you were supposed to have at your desk for your customers to read? The problem with that was…only the customers that ever read it were the lucky ones you go back to your desk!

Why NOT take your evidence manual online for EVERYONE to read??

Leverage and be proactive with the consumer rating sites like Yelp, Yahoo Local, DealerRater, end even Edmunds is now allowing consumers to “rate” their experience.

Word of mouth has been one of the strongest forms of advertising since the beginning of time. Get your customers to share their experiences they’ve had at your dealership (don’t be afraid of a bad review).
Many of these sites ranks very well in the Search Engines have can drive traffic to your dealer website.

The great part; doing this takes little to NONE of your online marketing budget. It’s just a just a matter changing your philosophy, be willing to become more transparent and adding to your follow-up process.
Not only is this a great source for 1st Party SALES LEADS but also a great way to increase 1st party SERVICE LEADS!

7. INTERNAL TRAINING

You spend thousands and thousands a month in getting customers into our virtual showroom but once they convert and allow you the opportunity to earn their business..

• Are you following up in time?
• Are your sales people trained on how to answer the customer with the right relevant message?
• Are your sales people trained on how to transition the customer to the phone quickly?
• And once they have them on the phone, are they trained on how to handle the objections and ask for the appointment?

Don’t make the transition from your dealer website to the showroom a huge Meatball Sundae. We have 2 of TOP consultant/trainers on the phone here today, and I’m sure they would attest that there is NO excuse for not allocating some of your budget to training

In closing…

7 areas of your dealers online marketing mix to generate more 1st Party Leads
SEO
SEM
EMAIL MARKETING
DISPLAY ADVERTISING
VIDEO
ONLINE EVIDENCE MANUAL
TRAINING

Alex Snyder – Traffic is Important, but so is Conversion…Your website at checkeredflag.com continues to be a force in your market. You see huge traffic, but what have you done with your website to maximize conversion and what additions have you made that you feel has made it so effective?

Slide 1

And for my first attempt at butt kissing, I have to acknowledge simply being on a Dealer.com website.  Dealer.com goes out of their way to mesh the fancy stuff we car dealers want to see on our websites with great optimization and simple conversion points. Outside of just having a Dealer.com website, and various home-grown efforts, we have made Checkered Flag.com the place where customers find all specials from Checkered Flag through traditional media. We don’t do price-an-item ads on television, we barely advertise in the newspaper, and we occasionally do some special events on the radio – but – everything is designed to push a customer back to Checkered Flag.com. Our owners and executive management would not feel comfortable spending the traditional media money in this way if they weren’t convinced we couldn’t convert customers on the website.

Slide 2

The first thing we try to do is make information accurate.  We slip in this area from time to time.  We just switched inventory aggregators from HomeNet to iMagicLab and had quite a few “irritations” online; which is natural for this kind of change.  For example:  we had Toyota Camry’s showing manual transmissions instead of automatics and during that period our email leads dropped, but our phone calls and instant chats spiked because customers wanted to know if the information on our site was right.  However, the phone calls and instant chat increases didn’t make up for the loss of email leads, so accurate information is key.

Another thing you’ll notice on the current version of Checkered Flag.com is content that is worded for a search engine and quite meaningless to a consumer.  I’ve done my best to bury this stuff in places people don’t look, but use our example as a way to not do it in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, having that content there is good stuff, but you have to play a fine balancing act between what is SEO content and what is for a consumer. Finding that middle ground is tough, but crucial.

In today’s marketing, you have to earn a consumer’s trust – just being somewhere isn’t good enough anymore, and accurate information helps them to save time and helps earn that trust.

Slide 3

The second thing we do is show that we are transparent – we try to show our personality and character online.  We accomplish this through the blog and videos. We have a host for our online videos named Christine who is also in our television ads.  And she also writes the blog articles with me. She’s a real person who really works for the dealership, and has a personality customers like.
We also have her on our after-hours voicemail and we have customers leaving voicemails saying – is this the Christine I saw on TV? But the key is that she actually works in the dealership and bumps into customers all the time, so it is all a true story!  If you know Seth Godin, you know he’d be so proud! …and if you’re wondering who Christine is, you’ll just have to visit our website.

Slide 4

Another thing we try to deliver on is giving a consumer options to get where they want to be quickly. There are some navigation routes on our site that are a little difficult for the first time visitor, but by watching the reports in the back-end I can tell the customers are getting where they want to go and coming back for additional visits – they’re much more comfortable on the second and third visit.  I also interview customers who used our website to see what they liked and didn’t like. We will be doing some new things with the navigation on the next version of Checkered Flag.com and I’m hoping we are heading in the right direction…we are definitely taking a departure from the usual dealership website.

When it comes to flow and working around a site, we try to put logical buttons in certain places. So if a consumer is looking at a page designed around a video called “What happens in the finance office” we have buttons on that page for getting approved now or to watch a video about leasing vs. buying or another one explaining the processing fee.

By the way, for my second shameless suck up, I need to thank Dean Evans for some of these video ideas – this is how you get a cool website from Dealer.com by the way.  Well….that and a big check!

On our About Us page we have a button linking them to an employment application.  Little things like that help someone move deeper into the site and also increases their time on the site. And we all know the longer someone spends on a site the more trust they have, and the more trust they have the more likely they are to submit an email lead, pick up the phone, or drive right into the dealership.

By the way, a good indicator of whether a page is effective or not is through the bounce rate – which you should have in any analytics report. If the bounce rate is high, then the page isn’t engaging enough.  Ask your site host what a good rate is and how they measure it – everyone seems to measure this differently.

Slide 5

All of these elements are the forerunners for the conversion. A conversion being a phone call, form submission (aka an email lead), live chat, or in AutoTrader.com terms – everyone skips the call or lead and just goes straight to the dealership.  Obvious things we do are the instant chat, dressing up the finance application, and putting our phone numbers right in your face…..but not in a screaming fashion.  At the end of the day a conversion only happens if you’ve earned the trust!

Slide 6

The not so obvious, is offering people special perks for using our online service scheduling. The idea behind this is to get people accustomed to coming back to our website after they purchased a vehicle, and it helps keep the load off our service BDC so we don’t have to staff it with a million people.  If they’re coming back to the site, we can do a much better job of consistently delivering an ad message over relying on service writers to do it when the car is leaving.  This way our service writers can concentrate on upselling RO’s and we get to serve an ad message to a customer when they’re more apt to receive it – which is before they drop the car off. Anytime I can get the technology to do it instead of the people, I’m all over the technology!

By helping the service department we are able to keep the same customers coming back to Checkered Flag.com over and over again…thus increasing our 1st Party leads even more.

Slide 7

Look at this slide. It says you have to work hard and, you do!  Nothing is easy or everyone would do it.  There is no such thing as a Silver Bullet, and if you signed up for this webinar thinking that was what you were going to get, I’m truly sorry…but I’d be happy to sell you a mirror because you’re going to need it to see where it all starts.

And as an even bigger downer, I have to tell you that everything I’ve said here is nothing new. You already knew it all!

Located at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, this year’s spring conference promised some great entertainment combined with a strong agenda of current issues within our fast-moving market.  I teamed up with Alex Jefferson of Proctor Honda and Acura to attend multiple sessions, as well as to meet with several vendors to share some useful information with our DealerRefresh readers (please note the well-coached GQ pose that Alex prompted me to take…).

Kevin Frye and Alex Jefferson

“Please God, what does it take to sell a car?” That is certainly a strong opening statement, and this session led by Gil Chavez, Joe Webb, and Kim Clouse reviewed some strong fundamentals to what it takes to utilize the Internet successfully to sell cars. This was a great session for the first day as it reminded everyone of the skills that build a strong foundation for your Internet strategy. With such a challenging market, and with so many things to do, Gil, Joe and Kim emphasized that today’s Internet manager must be “God-like” – which begs the question “What type of pay plan does a God-like Internet manager deserve…”

Joe Webb and Gil Chavez

Video is still a hot topic, and has been building interest at these conferences since it first hit our market.  Sean Bradley gave a great seminar that shared the benefits of video for your dealership, as well as several useful tips.  Some things that caught my attention included NOT using TubeMogul to distribute your videos – but rather taking the time to distribute unique content, and to mix up your titles and descriptions rather than just creating duplicate content.  There was also some discussion regarding using recycled content that everyone else is using (OEM videos) vs. creating unique content.  I learned about some technology developments in this arena from Sean that I think could provide some very interesting changes within our Video SEO strategies, to include pixel, voice, and face recognition technology within the search engines.  Google is concerned about content, and does your video content have audio that is saying the keywords you are targeting?  And in a side- note, if you are making video testimonials of your customers – are you getting a signed release to publish them online???

Alex Jefferson, Sean Bradley, Karen Uriarte, Karry Moore

How about “Getting Social” online? Jesse Biter of Homenet led an excellent session on how to utilize social networking tools as part of your Internet solution. Jesse had a full-house of attendees, and this was definitely a hot topic for this conference.  I think Jesse summed this up quite well with telling us that social networking is just “word-of-mouth” online.  What is your dealership’s best closing source?  Referrals!  Social networking provides the tool to utilize “word-of-mouth” online to create referrals to your dealership.  I found 2 very useful recommendations from Jesse to include TweetBeep (which is very similar to Google Alerts, but allows you to keep track of any conversations about you and your dealership online), as well as to include your Facebook info in your signature fields for your emails as a great way to personalize yourself to your customer.

Jesse Biter

Do you know what your customers are saying about you? Are you managing your online reputation, or just burying your head in the sand and hoping that everything goes ok?  Matt Lamoureux of DealerRater gave an outstanding presentation that addressed all areas of online reputation management.  He also shared how to share positive reviews online with your Facebook friends, which is a great way to build up more of those online referrals.  I think more than half of the sessions I attended brought up DealerRater as a “must” if you are serious about your Internet strategy, and I am strongly encouraged to see Chip Grueter and his team being incredibly aggressive in keeping their product on the cutting edge.

Matt Lamoureux

I know that it is hard to rate a “best” seminar with so many great speakers and presentations, but I have to say that Brian Pasch hit a home-run with his “SEO Survival Toolkit”. Let’s face it – the battleground of our market is on the search engines, and Brian showed us several useful tips on how to better search engine optimize our sites.  What really aggravates me is that what Brian is showing us (e.g. having duplicate titles and duplicate meta descriptions on our website pages is not good) should be common sense for SEO, yet why do our automotive website vendors still make these common mistakes? When we are paying thousands of dollars a month to our website vendors, why do we have to pay additional money to make their sites perform optimally in the search engine results?  Brian also shared great tips on using blogs, press releases, Google Map listings, and much more to better optimize your sites.

Brian Pasch

The exhibitor hall was huge, and unfortunately, not very full.  Our slow market was reflected in less vendors being present, as well as in where the vendors were. Several vendors are taking an alternative approach to these conferences, and are choosing to work the floor and the sessions aggressively with networking rather than have an exhibit. Depending on what service or product they provide, this can be a very effective approach. I tried to visit most of the exhibitors and learn what was hot, and what was new. vAuto has been upgrading their tool, and now has a new module where you can view a graph of where the inflection point is for your inventory pricing – or more simply – at what point of pricing does your online views suddenly jump!  eBay Motors is taking a more aggressive approach now in better training dealers on how to use their tool effectively.  More dealers are now looking to Live Chat to improve their website conversion rates, and ActivEngage was seeing a lot of traffic.  While speaking with Homenet, I learned about several new features that I was unaware of, but that have been available to me at no additional cost for some time.  This was a great wake-up call for me (and I hope for others) that all of us need to go back to our current vendors on a regular basis to train on their tools and ensure that we are using them 100% to our advantage.  It is also encouraging to me to see vendors that are constantly improving and upgrading their tools on their own initiative to help us in our business – that is the kind of partnership that my group looks for and is most beneficial for us. And before you ask, the “give-aways” were quite minimal this year, so Alex and I chose not to give a best give-away prize this year.  I am not mad at any of the vendors for this, in fact, this is a good sign, as when times are bad, ALL of us need to cut back on unnecessary expenses.

Very interesting concept – what happens when several different vendors are trying to sell their service, but find other areas that their prospects are struggling with, and are making it difficult for the vendor to close their deals?  Three proactive vendors decided to address this and banded together to provide a combined solution to best meet their customers’ needs.  Dealer 212 is a consortium of 3 vendors, Su-Lin Jasicki with CarSoup, Tanesha Bennett with ADTraffic, and Katie Jackson-Richter with Cuneo Advertising.  What impressed me about this approach was that they were willing to think “outside of the box” and put their heads together to find a solution that worked best for the dealer, rather than compete with each other for the best solution for themselves.  I am looking forward to seeing how this works out at the next session…

What was the “word on the streets?”  Was it text messaging?  Twitter?  Facebook?  Community Pages?  Video inventory?  Online pricing tools?  Best SEO tactics?  The “word” was OVERWHELMING. Listening to people in the sessions or at the exhibit hall showed me that attendees are struggling with how to manage everything that this job entails.  How do you manage 17 different social networking sites, 8 blogs, 4 community pages, Live Chat, inventory, video SEO, Tweeting all day, and 1001 other items every week when you are already pressed for time?  And on top of that, we are still fighting internal politics on getting the culture at our dealerships to change with this market. My advice is to choose your battles. You cannot do everything yourself. Prioritize what you need to do, and then do that as well as you can. Then choose to LEAD your people to take ownership of the Internet as well, and to help you with other areas that you cannot manage directly.

Patrick Workman, Kevin Frye

Another great benefit of attending these conferences is seeing opportunities for new businesses to serve our fellow dealers. With that in mind, Alex Jefferson and I are starting a new company called “BS Statistics”.  Our company will provide any statistics you need to sell your product or service, and we can show you how our service will help increase your sales by 43.7%.  Further, with our help, ANYONE can become the “expert” in their field, using our BS statistics to provide the credibility you need in pushing the product or service you are selling.  Don’t believe us?  87% of the speakers at Digital Dealer are recognized experts in their field, thanks to our BS statistics…I hope this is taken in good form, as after attending countless sessions and product demos, we were beginning to question where so many often quoted “stats” come from…

Ah – the “after-hours” section of the review.  Hey, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? All kidding aside, the entertainment available in Vegas is unmatched.  Many thanks to Ruanne Varden and Stuart Lloyd at Clickmotive for a great dinner and a ticket to the Cirque de Soleil Beatles Love show (absolutely incredible, has my highest recommendation, and anyone going to Vegas without seeing a show is missing the best part).  Chip Grueter and the DealerRater team hosted a fantastic dinner and drinks session at Stacks (fantastic restaurant at The Mirage) that was well attended and lots of fun.  Whew – and then Jesse Biter and the HomeNet team kept me out the entire night at the exclusive nightclub Jet. No, I didn’t see Brittney Spears there (it is one of her places to go) but I did see Mike Roscoe, Patrick Workman, Phil Penton, and many others living it up. Thanks Jesse for your hospitality!

Su-Lin Velin Jasicki, Kevin Frye, Tanesha Bennett, Alex Jefferson, Katie Jackson-Richter

With all that said, here is my concluding sermon. There is no “school” for what we do. And if some university started a degree for “Automotive Internet Professional”, the day you graduated with your degree, the information would likely already be outdated. These Digital Dealer conferences are invaluable – and they are the only “school” available to us that are up to date and are moving as fast as the market (hence 2 sessions per year). Even with the Las Vegas nightlife and some very late nights for all, the sessions were still highly attended. The people attending these conferences are serious and are not only attending the sessions, but are working the exhibit hall to network with others that can teach them more. My overall summary is that this was another outstanding conference, I came away with a lot of great ideas that can make our group better, and I would highly encourage everyone to attend the next one. Cheers to all (and I apologize if I could not mention all of the great folks I met with)!  And if you missed it, here is a short video clip of the Mirage volcano eruption.

About the Arthor: Kevin Frye is the eCommerce Director
for the Jeff Wyler Automotive

The 6th Digital Dealer Conference will be held on April 19-21, 2009

I’m not going, are you?

The agenda looks jammed packed, and If I were going…here are the a few of the speakers I would go see:

Increase Your Web Traffic 30 Percent in Just 30 Days
Over a dozen real-world ways to immediately increase your web traffic and build a strong foundation for the future will be discussed. Even if you are having great success with your current tactics – learn more to add to your arsenal. – Duncan Scarry (I’ve never seen this dude nor heard of his company, it’s always interesting to see someone you have never heard of before.)

Please, God, What Does It Take to Sell a Car? General Session
Personalizing the process with the newest technology and putting the prospect’s desires before your own will lead to higher closing ratios, stronger profits, happier sold customers, and enlightenment – Gilbert Chavez, Joe Webb, and Kim Clouse (I’d have to go support Gilbert, Joe, and Kim – what a great group of guys!)

How to Avoid the Five Foolish Mistakes Leaders Make in a Recession – KEYNOTE SPEAKER
This program will cover five common and devastating missteps leaders make during the tough times and present strategies for overcoming them. It will also provide tactics for reversing the errors you may have already committed so that you can jumpstart growth and accelerate momentum in your department – Dave Anderson (Agreed – In a recession, you simply must move farther and faster in order to thrive)

How to Use Video Search Engine Optimization to Drive More Business to Every Department in the Dealership
Marketing dollars are becoming scarce in the dealership, but using a video strategy to leverage the most advanced tactics and technology will help you build web traffic to your site, and bring in more customers to your store - Sean V. Bradley (Sean is always a dynamic speaker and video continues to grow, dealers need to have a plan around video)

Keywords That Convert: Leveraging Chat and Google for Explosive Results
Building great online marketing, one chat conversation at a time – Todd Smith (who could deny a face like that? And..He’s a really smart dude too )

The Dealer’s Evolution – From Internet Department to an Internet Dealer
Yes, we can! It’s absolutely to move your dealership toward being an Internet dealer, in order to thrive, not just survive – Rafi Hamid (Rafi Hamid has been doing this for a long time and offers some great knowledge)

How to Build, Manage, and Leverage a Positive Online Reputation
No cost tips to increase your store’s revenue and market share. To survive in this economic climate, dealers must transform their practices and embrace new reputation management tools – Matt Lamoureux with DealerRater.com. (If you really follow me, you’ll know that I’m all about online reputation management)

How to Use the Internet as the Most Cost Effective Advertising Medium Ever Created, including Actionable Steps to Add Dollars to the Bottom Line and Become a Hero in a Down Economy
Now is a critical time to change how your dealership thinks and spends advertising dollars – and you are in a unique position to point it in a new direction – Christy Roman. (With a title like that..how could you NOT attend?)

Internet Driven Accessories Sales – Strategies and Best Practices for Success in a Down Economy
Tips and practices to generate additional profits with Internet driven accessories sales.As unit vehicle sales continue to decline in 2009, accessories represent a path to additional profits – profits that a dealership can no longer ignore – Amit Maheshwar (I have a secret to online accessories sales that I have shared with only a few..yes it really works!)

Deep Dive Into your Current Lead Process
For Ford Lincoln Mercury dealership attendees only!! – Douglas Mitchell (WTF? Oh well…my dealer group has a Ford dealer so I guess I’d be privy to all the Ford Secrets to Lead Process!!..wonder how that’s working out for them?)

How to Use Web 2.0 in a High Powered Guerrilla Marketing Strategy
Leverage Web 2.0 sites using OEM supplied content and your customer lists to create business opportunities that will help you sell cars and prosper at a time when dealers are cutting expenses – Ralph Paglia (Nothing but respect for Ralph, always guaranteed to get something from the Automotive Genius)

E-mail is Killing You!
Type one wrong word and you’re dead… you will laugh when you recognize the real world examples of the good, the bad and the ugly sides of e-mail – Ralph Paglia (yeah I have Ralph in here twice, but if you would only see the emails that go out from dealers every day..you would understand why I would recommend sitting through this session)

Technology Driven Sales & Marketing…
Stuff that Really Works for Real Dealers, with Real Customers, in the Real World – James A. Ziegler (for shitz and gigglz)

Video Walk-Arounds: The Only Way to be First in Search
This in-depth session will explain how creating video walk-arounds will not only increase lead conversion on your dealer web but learn how to use video to drive leads from Google. – John Lilly (auggghhhh.. maybe if you live in the town of Sleepy Hollow)

Newbie Training Session: Internet Automotive Sales 101 – a Primer
HEY…It’s a FREE BONUS SECTION!! Geesh…thanks Mr. Roscoe, you’re such a nice guy!!

This session serves as an introduction to Internet/technology-related sales. Either way, you’re getting in front of 2 great speakers/consultants and friends of mine, David Kain and Todd Smith. If you’re new to Internet marketing and sales, give these 2 gentlemen the opportunity to teach you some core processes you need to know to be successful at the dealership.

I’m sure I missed a few good speakers here and there but these are the ones that stuck out the most to me.

I’m not going, are you?

If you’re going to the Digital Dealer Conference, feel free to post your comments and reviews here…we would love to hear’m!