Kelley Blue Book’s New York/New Jersey eNetwork Brunch

Where: Sheraton Suites on the Hudson
500 Harbor Boulevard
Weehawken, New Jersey 07086
201-617-5600

When: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
*Breakfast served at 8:30am – Lunch will also be provided

How Much: FREE

Who Should Attend:

Internet Managers
Used Car Managers
Marketing and Advertising Personnel
General Managers

SPACE IS LIMITED! GUARANTEE YOUR SPOT BY REGISTERING BY NOVEMBER 6th!

I would recommend NOT missing out on this FREE Webinar hosted by Avinash Kaushik on October 15, 2008 RSVP Today! Sorry about the short notice.

2008 has been a year of unprecedented change in the automotive industry: with declining new vehicle sales, tightened credit markets, and rapidly rising oil prices, it’s clear that consumer demand has shifted. These changes require a renewed focus on managing your marketing resources effectively – in particular, your media dollars – in order to maximize ROI.

In conjunction with Automotive News, Avinash Kaushik will lead a discussion on how to use Google Analytics to help address the fresh challenges facing automotive brand marketers. Learn how to improve marketing efficiency, drive insights into consumer behavior, and generate greater returns on your marketing investments.

Avinash Kaushik
Author, Blogger, Analytics Evangelist

Avinash Kaushik is the author of the recently published book Web Analytics: An Hour A Day. He is also the Analytics Evangelist for Google.

As a thought leader Avinash puts a common sense framework around the often frenetic world of web research and analytics, and combines that with this philosophy that investing in talented Analysts is the key to long term success. He is also a staunch advocate of listening to the consumer, and is committed to helping organizations unlock the value of web data. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences in the US and Europe, such as eMetrics, Ad-Tech, iCitizen, and SES. You’ll find Avinash’s web analytics blog, Occam’s Razor at http://www.kaushik.net/avinash

Update:
The original event was broadcast on:
Date: Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Time: 12:00 PM EDT
Duration: 60-minutes

You can view the event archive at the link provided below:

http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=119132&s=1&k=AEB6F2931B41F387B4F3AE3A240B53EA

After watching the archive webinar, feel free to take the survey. It takes only a few moments.
http://www.autonews.com/webinarsurvey

Guest Posting by Kevin Frye

“Sorry about how my hair looks this morning – I combed it with a porkchop”….

Could this be anyone else but Shaun Raines opening up his session on Video SEO?

Since Jeff was in Vegas with the J.D. Power Automotive Internet Roundtable this week, he asked if I would fill in with a review of the 5th Digital Dealer Conference and Exposition.  Located at the Gaylord Hotel in Dallas, we once again had a great venue where everything one could need was easily accessible.  My goals were to attend many of the sessions where “new and cool” issues were being addressed, as well as to network and meet some key people within our industry.

One of the highly anticipated sessions was lead by Shaun Raines, and was the first that I attended.  Shaun had a full house and a rapt audience for his presentation on “What You Should Know About Video and VSEO”.  It is readily apparent that video has caught the attention of many dealers now and with a slowing market and less dollars, many are looking to learn how to do their video “in-house”.  Shaun shared many of the inside “secrets” of how to do this on your own, and how to position your work at the top of the results for the search engines.  Several other sessions dealt with this same topic, with all showing good attendance and reinforcing that our market is moving in this direction.

Another great session was lead by Ralph Paglia and dealt with social networking and blogging.  Many of us already feel overwhelmed with the great amount of work we need to do to keep our dealerships in front of our customers.  Ralph asked “Why not let your customers do the work for you?”.  His session shared how to utilize social networking and blogging websites and allow your customers to generate positive content for you.  Many dealers are afraid to get into this online arena, as they are afraid that folks might leave negative reviews about them.  We need to get over this fear and work to encourage our satisfied customers to leave positive reviews for us, and to honestly deal with those who were not happy and work to solve any problems.

Speaking of reviews, I met several times with the folks from dealerrater.com.  Chip Grueter (President), Matt Lamoureux, and Heather were working the floor of the exhibit hall and attending the sessions to network with the folks who are working on the front line.  I always look to find 1-2 new people that I can meet and work with in this fast-moving market that really understand where this market is going.  Chip Grueter really understands where the consumer side of our market is moving, and the Dealer Rater site is a great example of that.  Great job to the entire team at Dealer Rater!

Also presenting at the conference was Rafi Hamid, who is now working with vAuto.  When I asked what Rafi was doing with vAuto, he shared that he is now a “Value-added benefit” to vAuto’s current customers.  When I pressed him further on this, he shared that vAuto sends him out to current customers where he shares his expertise (learned by actual experience!) with working our internet market and helps each store to refine their process to become much better.  This impressed me that a vendor would bring someone like Rafi on to “complement” their service and truly offer a value-added benefit that all of us could use.

While I attended multiple sessions, the other key issue that stood out for me was Text Messaging.  When we consider the ramifications of the FTC CanSpam Act and the ongoing difficulties with email spam filters, etc, a solution is needed to optimally reach our customers.  I learned in more than one session some key statistics that showed that cell phone users of all age groups are now sending out more text messages than making actual cell calls.  If you are with a group of friends and you receive a call on your cell phone, do you always answer it?  If you get a text message, do you take a moment to look at it?  Receiving the call requires that you “engage” with the caller and interrupt your busy schedule.  Text is becoming more and more preferred with folks as a primary source of communication that fits their lifestyle, and we need to address that.  My prediction is that this subject will continue to gain more interest in the upcoming conferences.

I am always impressed with the approach to the exhibit hall at these conferences, as folks are always returning to the hall before, between, and after sessions to network and meet with the vendors.  Why?  Whether it is breakfast, refreshments, or drinks, there are always sponsors providing items to encourage folks to return to the exhibit hall – smart thinking, and it works!  (kudos to Mike Roscoe!).  Most of what I look forward to goes on the floor in the exhibit hall.  Alex Jefferson with Proctor Honda/Acura made the rounds with me as we met with multiple vendors and learned about new products and services available.  One of the event sponsors was
ClickMotive, who has built on their success with search engine marketing and entered the website hosting market with some cutting-edge, search-friendly sites.  SEM needs were another hot item this year, with several exhibitors.  Video services were also well represented by AutoMotion, Phil Sura and UnityWorks Media and more.

The best “give-away” was a close call. I came to the Reply!com booth where some of the Dallas Maverick dance team was present and signing photos.  Alex and I were surprised to find 4 of the dance team members huddled around the latest issue of Digital Dealer, where they were admiring the “hot” dealer on the cover – Alex Snyder of Checkered Flag.  Please take time to see the photo we took of the girls with Alex!  Great job to Kevin Stellbrink with Reply!com who helped us set this up, lol.

The highly coveted best give-away went to the folks at activeEngage where they were giving away a “flying-screaming monkey”.  Hard to describe, so I included a short video to try and show what this does.  You take the monkey, pull its body back (like you are shooting a rubber band), and let it fly (cape is included), at which point it begins to scream and holler.  I was asked if I would like to take some of these back to our dealership.  I had to immediately decline, could you imagine a floor full of car sales reps playing with these all day???  Great fun, creative give-away, and an enticing reason to see the new instant message services offered by ActivEngage (where their folks staff your instant messaging 24/7 to ensure prompt and professional response to your online customers’ inquiries.

As for the “word on the streets”, everyone was talking about our current market, and the slowdown we are seeing.  Many are currently in a spending freeze, and several are cutting back in their internet marketing efforts.  More than ever, it is important that our vendors can show measurable results (ROI…) to earn our dealers’ hard-earned dollars.  This market is also a great time to use creativity to keep your presence online extensively without spending massive amounts of money.  If you are going to spend money on something new in this market, you are going to have to cut back somewhere else.  Attending events like this allow each of us to get the information we need to succeed in difficult markets like the one we are now in…

Big Congrat to Mr. Alex Snyder for his cover shot and story in the latest issue of Digital Dealer Magazine.

Compared to the spring conference, attendance appeared to be down.  I would attribute much of this to the competing conference with J.D. Power in Vegas, as well as the recent slowdown in our market which means dealers are tightening up their budgets.  Overall I found the conference to be another great success, and I look forward to attending the next one in 2009.  Please share your comments and stories, and I apologize for not being able to mention everyone that I enjoyed meeting with in this quick review.  Cheers!

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

A quick reminder – I’ll be twittering from the 2008 J.D. Power Automotive Internet Roundtalble. If you are not already following DealerRefresh on Twitter, this would be a great time to start!!

Follow DealerRefresh on Twitter at  http://www.twitter.com/dealerrefresh

Which one are you going to?

As I’m sure everyone is already aware of by now, the 2008 J.D. Power Automotive Internet Roundtable and the 5th Digital Dealer Conference are being held at the same.

For myself it’s a clear choice on which one to attend, especially since the Digital Dealer conference is held twice a year and I had just attended the last one.

I’ve had a lot of industry friends and vendors ask me “which one should be go to?“. I recommend looking at the 2 agendas and decide which one you think you will get the most from. The 5th Digital Dealer Conference still encompasses a lot of basic 101 within the agenda while the J.P. Power Automotive Internet Roundtable usually skips pass the 101 and speaks on a larger scale to the marketing side of the business.

From my past experience with the J.D. Power Automotive Internet Roundtable, you’ll find more Tier 1 and 2 (manufacturers, OEM and marketing agencies) along with some big speakers from inside and outside the industry. You’ll often find some of the larger and more progressive dealer/s groups there as well.

The Digital Dealer Conference continues to tackle the basics and process of “Internet sales” (and I’m not saying this is a bad thing, it’s actually great, there are still many many dealers that need or are looking for the 101).

To sum it up…the Digital Dealer Conference speaks to the dealer and the J.D. Power Automotive Internet Roundtable speaks to the industry. Both very important and it’s a shame that they would be scheduled at the same time, thought I believe J.D. Power has been having it at this same date for awhile now.

It looks as if both have an impressive jammed packed agenda but at the end of the day..Which one have you decided to attend?

I have listed out some of the highlights for each session after the jump..

When First In Doesn’t Win: Driving Sales with a Quality Lead Response – Webinar

The old expression—Haste makes waste. — rings especially true with online car buyers. Fast response times contribute to Internet sales, but you’re just as likely to lose the deal with a rushed response that fails to answer the shopper’s questions. In this workshop, we’ll review tactics and tools you can use to consistently develop high-quality responses to inquiries that quickly get you in the game and moving toward your goal: the sale.

In this session led by Cars.com’s director of automotive consulting and dealer training, Ralph Ebersole, you’ll learn how to:

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

• Meet consumers expectations with quality email and phone response that directly answers their questions
• Effectively use your response to start a dialogue with the shopper and engage them in ongoing conversation
• Get the most out of your response by taking the opportunity to sell the value of doing business with your store
• Develop email templates and phone scripts that support your ability to
  consistently deliver quick, quality responses to customer inquiries
• Monitor lead response times and quality to make ongoing refinements

Date: Friday, September 12, 2008
Time: Noon to 1 p.m. (Eastern)
Location: Your Computer
Cost: FREE

This years Jumpstart Automotive Think Digital Roundtable 08 was held at the beautiful
Silverado Resort in Napa, California.

The weather was perfect and the resort was a gorgeous place to hold a Roundtable session.

The agenda was packed tight with great discussions about contextual, display and behavioral advertising.

The morning started off with everyone’s favorite speechifier, the one and only Charlie Vogelheim of J.D. Power. As Charlie went through his slides and presentation, the one thing that stuck out was consumers are SLOWLY finding dealer websites to be more satisfying for their researching needs. Just think how effective we could be if the manufacturers would play nice and allow dealers to more easily use their content and model specific VIN decoding.

My favorite statistic and one that has not changed for over 3 years now; ONLY 20%  of online shoppers contact the dealer via online submission forms or by phone (give or take a few percentage points). Only 20%!

Steve Wilhite, President of Jumpstart Automotive was next onboard with his “uplifting” informative presentation “Marketing in a Down Economy – the Perfect Storm“. After the first new minutes of Steve’s presentation I wanted to pierce a dagger through my heart as he went through all the negative points of the current economy. I understand though, he wanted to start off strong by getting his point across in order to transition into why dealers AND manufacturers need to focus now more then ever on their marketing mix. It’s not just about the ad but about the message, and how you follow through with your message. What is the experience you’re offering the consumer once they click on your display ad? Does it flow into the next step OR is there a huge disconnect? After I wiped away my tears from the initial 5-10 minutes I was really intrigued with his presentation.

The morning quickly moved on to a panel discussion with David Metter (MileOne), Jeff Searcy (Gulf States Toyota) and David Rollo (22squared). Lots of topics covered here and if I had taken better notes, I would have shared them with you. Most of the conversation surrounded around a dealers “Marketing Mix” and why dealers have been so reluctant to get into digital advertising or what we like to call ‘New Marketing”.

Before lunch we had a breakout roundtable discussion. Our table was very interesting to say the least. I think we covered over 10 different subjects in a fast 45 minutes. One large topic of discussion was Reputation Management for dealers; where it’s heading and how dealers are going to handle it. I know for myself this has been my cool-aid for the last 12-15 months.

QUOTE of the DAY “Consumer Reports is the single most largest influencer on todays shopper” – Jack Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald Auto Malls. Yes, he actually said that!

Lunch was good (sorry no photo, maybe next time).

After lunch we gathered back for a presentation with Brett Rubio from
EyeWonder. I had never heard of eyewonder until then. “EyeWonder was one of the original pioneers in video and rich media
advertising, and is now the definitive leading provider of Interactive
Digital Advertising products and services” – taken from the “Company” page of their website.

Together Brett and Eve Maindenberg (Senior Director of Creative for JumpStart) went on to show off some impressive display advertising. Eve talked about “Best Practices for Digital Creative” and how to use creative to support your campaign. One statistic that Eve mentioned that stuck out, “Online Video Ads achieve a greater branding impact with fewer impressions“.  I hope to have Eve do a guest post for us here in the near future.

After a quick break, we then went back into another roundtable breakout discussion. For some reason I kept staring out the window at the awesome blue sky and lost track of the discussion. I can be such a day dreamer! I did find my way back into the talks towards the end as everyone at the table was discussing how to track the true cost of display advertising. Tracking the effectiveness of display ads or “banner ads” is usually a touchy subject. The traditionalist looks at the CPM and how many people they can reach with the ad, where as the Internet marketer looks at the CPC and actual conversion. I’ve never tried to argue one over the other since I believe they both have validity. So I shared my thoughts of a 70/30 split; thirty percent of the banner ad cost going towards branding and consumer reach while the other 70% goes towards actual conversion and ultimately, conversion to sale. I have no idea where I got the percentages, so don’t ask. And if you want to argue about it, don’t waste your time because I have no reasoning behind it…but everyone thought it was an interesting approach to help track the cost/effectiveness of your dealers online display ads.

The day sorta came to a close with Keynote speaker; Todd Stainbrook – Digital Integration Manager for Ford Motor Company. Hummmm what do I say??  Well, it was quick and very very very general. Until the questions started rolling in..but then most of the questions he was unable or not allowed to answer. Someone asked about manufacturers scoring leads and if it should/would ever come into play. Then “someone” else slapped lead scoring in the face. Very interesting, at least to me. Ha!

That was the end of the Jumpstart Automotive Think Digital Rountable. Next Up..Dinner and Wine at
Pine Ridge Winery. Dinner was excellent and the jokes at the table were like no other. Sorry I had to cut my trip short and catch the red eye back to Bmore.

A big Props to the
Jumpstart Automotive crew (Steve, Rob, Jeff, Aaron, Dillon, Mitch, Eve, Lindsey and Laura and anyone else I missed) for putting on a great Think Digital Roundtable this year. As always, thanks for the invite!

Here are a
few more photos if you’re interested.

Workshop – Online Reputation Management

I’m always looking for different workshops and seminars to attend and I purposely look outside of the automotive industry. Whether its search engine marketing, New marketing, self improvement, motivational or whatever..we all need a boost of energy every now and then and attending a seminar or workshop always gets the blood flowing again.

It’s easy to exhaust yourself with the dealers conferences, NADA, and the many workshops within the automotive industry. They’re usually full of the same information, the same speakers with the same sales pitch. I found out a long time ago, if you want to stay at the forefront of what is really happening, especially with Internet/new marketing trends, look outside our industry.

Well I did just that this week. With all the hype and buzz around dealer rating websites and dealer reputation management within the dealer industry, I decided to attend a workshop on online reputation management. I’ve been following Andy Beal and his blog Marketing Pilgrim has been a favorite of mine for sometime now. Andy has no doubt been at the forefront of online reputation management before most of us even knew what ORM stood for.

Props to Mr. Beal for putting on an excellent and informative workshop!

From sending out an effective press releases, to managing your company brand and personal name in Google to having a Blueprint for fighting a reputation attack, the information he provided was immeasurable for managing and monitoring your dealers online reputation.

The class was closed to less than 20 attendees so it was very open and social. Andy knew I was from the automotive industry; a big thanks to him for tailoring some of his examples around my industry. This was straight up exciting for me; it’s great to step outside the dealer box and converse with other companies that have the same challenges that we have.

Online reputation management is something that I personally have had a strong focus on and been practicing for almost 2 years now. Heck, exactly 1 year ago I put together a video showing dealers how to use RSS feeds and keyword searches to “help” track your dealers online reputation.

I know many of us are still uncertain to whether or not the dealer rating websites will ever have a huge influence on our industry but either way, taking a pro-active stance and securing a positive online reputation will only pay off in the end. Don’t sit around and wait for a crisis.

And if you get the chance to attend Andy Beals workshop, I wouldn’t even think twice about it. Pony up and go!

Oh too, thanks for the beer Andy!

On the Line: Phone Skills Set the Stage for Winning the Deal – Webinar

While email response often takes center stage in the world of internet sales, don’t forget the phone. Consider this: the most effective form of response to an email lead is often a phone call. Also, online shoppers are three times more likely to call your store than they are to send an email lead, making phone skills an essential qualification for internet sales managers. Is your dealership making the most of telephone opportunities or are sales left hanging on the line?

Join Kathy Kimmel, Cars.com’s manager of automotive consulting and dealer training, as she leads a discussion on phone techniques that drive sales.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

• Identify and groom salespeople with excellent telephone communication skills
• Use the phone to effectively follow-up with email lead senders
• Engage callers in meaningful dialogue
• Use the phone to set appointments and move closer to a sale
• Monitor and evaluate the quality of your calls to ensure ongoing sales success

Date: Thursday, August 7, 2008
Time: Noon to 1 p.m. (Eastern)
Location: Your Computer
Cost: FREE

Please note that the August Webinar is on a Thursday instead of the usual Friday.

Monday, May 12, 2008, I departed for New Orleans to get my fix of DGI, I canceled the Google alert after Jeff Kershner filled me in, thanks Alex for hours of endless search trying to figure that one out!

This would be my first trip to New Orleans and my first attendance to an event of this magnitude. My endless e-mails to Jeff and Sean V. Bradley begging to go finally paid off in a big way! The W Hotel was a great location for the event, and I really dug the contemporary décor of my room. I had Jeff convinced that Sean reserved me a Penthouse Suite on the top floor. All joking aside, Sean, AutoSuccess Magazine, DealerRefresh and Dealer Synergy went above and beyond putting this together for me. Sean, I will be reporting back to you as I build my library of videos with my new Flip Video Camera and utilize some of the tips you presented on Video Search Engine Optimization (No worries — I will keep the end result in mind).

There was so much info presented at this event — I took close to 20 pages of notes — I will have a hard time recapping everything that I found useful in this post, but as Deverl from Franklin Covey put it, I’ll try to give you a drink of water from a fire hose.

One of the speakers from the first day that I thought brought their “A” game would include the people from Dealer.com, I thought that Dean Evans and Mike DeCecco put together a classy presentation that touched on many thought-provoking topics such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) defined within the guidelines of Google Webmaster, content organization, used-car brochures and robust sitemaps.

Sean Bradley and his presentation on Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO) rocked! I’ll touch on one of the most impressive stats he brought to our attention: Online video reached an astronomical number in March, to the tune of 11.5 billion videos viewed in the U.S.! It’s not the next big thing — it’s already a very big thing!

The tricky part is coming up with content that will have the viral effect, such as those Badger commercials we have all come to love. I have some video ideas I have been kicking around and I’m very excited to get them into production — thanks for the tips, Sean!

Ken Potter from CarsDirect had a unique style to his presentation — laid back but very informative. One of the points he made, and I am guilty of it myself, is that we are in an industry of copycats (I sometimes refer to myself as the “The King of Copy and Paste”). I liked his suggestion to include a search bar on your homepage to track what is relevant to your customers. I also liked his suggestion to become a servant to your customers and employees, and finding out why your customers did not buy from you via e-mail was a point well-taken by me — I plan on getting that e-mail together very soon.

I will let Kershner comment on the VIP party at the House of Blues, as someone spiked my tonic water with Grey Goose. I will tell you that the party was off the hook and no expense was spared! The Hummer Limo at our beck and call was a nice touch.

The second day at Synergy Sessions was even more impressive then the first day, with high-energy speakers clearing the fog in my head rather quickly (was it the jet lag or the spiked drinks?).

Howard Polirer from Autotrader.com spoke on bridging the gap with Internet customers and brought up so many relevant topics that I found so useful I could write five pages on his presentation. I will just recommend catching this presentation at the next Synergy Session.

DeVerl Austin from Franklin Covey presented “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and did a great job breaking down the process using the formula in the book. I have found this very helpful as I read through the book; needless to say DeVerl is a true professional and a great presenter.

Sean Bradley spun his version of the process, implementing a plan for building a rock-solid Internet Department using the core fundamentals found in the Covey book. I am currently building my action plan for my dealership based on the info that Sean presented.

The last presenter that I really got to interact with the second day because of work commitments was Mark Dubis from Carfolks. Mark had a very compelling presentation, spun off some of the recent hiccups we have seen lately with dealers managing their online reputations. I have spent many hours myself on Google trying to make sure we address those stealth posts that can silently damage sales. We as auto industry professionals must realize that customer concerns must be addressed at quantum speeds – not in days or hours. The old adage about disgruntled customers telling 10 people has been magnified to the beat of about 1 million views on the last PR disaster that I followed involving a dealership and one upset customer. Looks like we will all need to step it up on the customer satisfaction side of things and make sure we are in tune with what is being posted about our dealerships.

In closing, I would just like to thank everyone for the knowledge I gained from the two days in New Orleans, and I apologize in advance for not naming everyone that contributed to my successful trip.

Guest Posting by: Brian Tucker
Internet Sales Director for Swope Toyota