DealerRefresh

Obstacles, Observations and Opinions of an Automotive Internet Sales & Marketing Manager

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Dear Toyota: Here’s $108 Million to Spend in Your Fight for Share Against Ford

As the Toyota brand works to replace Ford in the top spot for US vehicle sales in 2018 (as of this writing, the Ford brand holds roughly a 14% share of the US Market to Toyota’s 12.4%; source here), you have to wonder how much of a difference an extra $108,000,000 to spend on targeted advertising would make.

I suspect it would make a difference.

By the way, you can replace Toyota and Ford in the headline with any two OEMs you’d like. The bottom line is that the average dealer I encounter today is wasting about $6,000 every month just on fraudulent/wasted SEM (primarily display and pay-per-click advertising).

Here’s my math: [Read more…]

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Digital Dealer 24 Review with Kevin Frye #DD24

It’s Five AM on Monday morning when I get up. Between the cat meowing to be fed and the dog whining to go out, it’s time to start the day. It has been a long, cold winter, but it’s April, it can’t be that chilly outside, right? Wait, GREAT GLOBAL WARMING! I just looked out the window and there is SNOW on my truck? It’s time for me to get on a plane and head as far south as I can go in search of warmth and sunshine. Digital Dealer 24 in Orlando, here I come!

Digital Dealer 24 at the Orlando Convention Center

Orlando, home of the adult Disneyland…  Wait, am I getting confused with Las Vegas? Maybe, though after multiple WestPac tours with the US Navy, I think that might be found in either Thailand or the Phillipines. I was excited to return to Orlando which has hosted the east coast Digital Dealer show many times. All prior conferences had been hosted at the Rosen Shingle resort, while DD24 was going to be located at the Orlando Convention Center. How did that work out? [Read more…]

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JP Ostiguy of Zanchin Auto & John Colban on RefreshFriday – April 13th 18 (Friday)

Join us on this RefreshFriday (Friday April 13th at 1:00 PM EST) as we dive into VIDEO with JP Ostiguy.

If you don’t know JP, you really should! He’s the Manager of Operations for the Zanchin Automotive Group and has tremendous results with utilizing video with HUGE increases in Sales. And he’s now moving video into the service department (we’ll be touching on that.)

Also with us – John Colban of Authntk WalkAroundVideo. John has been behind video technology for several years. I know this, because I’ve personally worked with John over the years and consulted with WalkAround since the beginning.

This is gonna be AWESOME!!

Look.. if you’ve been waiting to implement B2C video at your dealership, this is one RefreshFriday you DO NOT WANT TO MISS!!

Join us live on facebook this Friday at 1PM EST – https://www.facebook.com/events/854758751379264/

Catch up on previous DealerRefresh RefreshFriday’s by following our YouTube Channel.

Latest Hot Topic in Forums

Cars.com launches AI Chat (Conversations Starter Package)

Jeff Kershner Founder

First Name:
Jeff
Company:
DealerRefresh & Mercedes-Benz of Hagerstown
Location:
Maryland

This just released from Cars.com – wasting no time since the acquisition of DealerInspire.

We are excited to announce that the Conversations Starter™ Package will launch on Cars.com for your dealership the week of 4/16. Conversations Starter™ Package is built on the Dealer Inspire messaging platform that can connect you with in-market consumers as they are researching on Cars.com. Chats initiated on Cars.com will be answered by an AI chatbot and transferred to managed chat agents who convert the chats to leads which are sent directly to your CRM.

Conversations Starter™ Package helps you to:

  • Drive Incremental Connections: Turn chats into conversations that convert to sales.
  • Never Miss an Opportunity: Connect with consumers any day or time.
  • Future-Proof Your Dealership: Move the modern consumer closer to purchase.

My first question was; what if ANA can’t answer the question?? Cars.com has an answer…

“If Ana cannot answer a question, she passes it off to a team of managed chat experts to continue the conversation before converting it to a lead on behalf of your dealership and routing it through to your team.”

What exactly do they mean by “routing it through to your team?” Does the dealership need to be with Dealer Inspire?

More importantly, is this a game changer in the vehicle listings/marketplace landscape??

Join in on the discussion in the dealer forums

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4 Reasons Your Videos Are Not Driving Sales

In 2017, CISCO reported that video will make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2021. If video is a part of your sales and marketing strategy, allow this piece of data to validate all of your efforts. As we move past the era of INTRODUCING and INSERTING video, we can begin to focus on perfecting the actual content and craft of our videos. 

How can we use video to sell cars?  [Read more…]

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Are Your Boring Emails Sabotaging Your Sales?

If your follow-up emails read like form letters, it’s hard to get customers to respond. The secret to a higher response rate is simply to add a little personality, warmth, and humor.
Here’s how…

These five easy interventions will give dull copy a little KAPOW. These aren’t touchy-feely exercises, but rather more like structural changes that will humanize your writing. And while these tips won’t win you any gold stars from English teachers, they will help you personalize the tone of your emails. [Read more…]

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Don’t Catch Digital Chlamydia

“Is that vendor fine or what? Maybe I’ll bring it back to my place.”

“I’d like to get my hands on that software and take it for a ride.”

“I think what I have works, but it seems like experimenting with a new partner may be fun.”

Many dealers are returning from NADA (or Digital Dealer, IDS, Dealer Huddle or any of the other dozen conferences that seem to be going on every month) having reviewed countless vendors that caught their eye. Now comes the question as to whether to pull the trigger on a new digital solution. [Read more…]

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Digital and Customer Experience: Where are we going wrong?

If you spend any time reading industry articles, going to conferences like NADA, or studying automotive, you know that digital drives sales. The online marketplace and frictionless sales process has disrupted the old school sales cycle and empowered the consumer to own the purchasing experience.

This is where we need to be and this is how we need to operate.

Google realizes the struggle for automotive to keep up with the fast paced changes and has created a playbook for dealers to help guide them through the most important elements to stay relevant and optimized on search and display. This guidebook highlights why digital is so important: [Read more…]

Latest Hot Topic in Forums

Will dealers approve of Cox Automotive – Shift Partnership ?

Cullen C Getting Refreshed

First Name:
Cullen
Company:
Carvana
Location:
Atlanta

The recent announcement by Cox Automotive to partner with Shift by essentially becoming the physical infrastructure for the startup makes me wonder how the rest of their dealer “partners” will respond:

http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/san-francisco-startup-shift-and-cox-automotive-launch-national-partnership-1020466298

“Digital retailers need to recondition cars, store or marshal inventory and address other physical needs. “They want to do this with minimal investment in assets,” Liniado explains, “and partnering with us helps them diminish their logistical overhead.”

The article also explains that the partnership will not be limited to reconditioning and storage of vehicles but will extend to imaging and personnel needs as well.

Interesting times.

What do you think?

Comment in the dealer forums!

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Matt Murray joins Jeff & Alex on RefreshFriday

April 6th at 1:00 PM EST Matt Murray will be joining us on this week’s RefreshFriday. Tune-in on the DealerRefresh Facebook page for the live broadcast.

Matt Murray is the GM of Automotive for Podium, an online review and communications engine, that spans far further than just the car business. Prior to Podium, Matt worked for Cox Automotive overseeing OEM relationships.  He was a big part of Dealer.com’s wide array of OEM partnerships.

The topic of conversation is week with Matt will mostly be around Reputation Management…

  • Reviews latest impact on SEO
  • Top sites to get reviews on
  • When does a dealer have enough reviews?
  • OEM’s now mandating reputation management…
  • The difference between exclusive OEM programs vs preferred partner programs
  • Should you respond to reviews, good and/or bad? Some interesting stats around this.

Join the fun.

If you can’t make it the video will be available on Facebook and later on the DealerRefresh YouTube channel.