DealerRefresh

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

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LotLinx Integrates with VistaDash, a Premier Marketing Analytics Tool

Strengthens TURN and Gives Dealers More Efficiency in Tracking and Measuring Results

CHICAGO, August 17, 2017 — LotLinx, the leading VIN-specific digital marketing solution for the auto industry, today announced its collaboration and mission with VistaDash to give dealers unbiased marketing metrics and greater insight into how to better achieve their business goals. VistaDash is a platform developed with the understanding that dealerships need a better, more efficient way to track and measure their marketing efforts, and is the result of research from PCG’s Brian Pasch and is now fully linked to LotLinx TURN™, a platform that gives dealers valuable metrics on shoppers targeted, total spend, sold VINS, conversions, and engagements on VDPs. LotLinx customers can seamlessly access VistaDash metrics from their TURN dashboard, and now have an enhanced ability to make better marketing decisions to improve their ROI and digital ad spend.

VistaDash is the brainchild of automotive digital marketing expert Brian Pasch, whose book “Swimming with the Digital Sharks” has been hailed the auto industry for its research on digital advertising inefficiencies and dealers’ inability to obtain actionable marketing metrics. VistaDash’s metrics that inspect ad traffic quality allow dealership managers to quickly inspect and identify ways to increase their Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). VistaDash was developed by PCG Companies, an industry leader in online marketing strategies and education for the automotive community.

[Read more…]

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5 Shocking Stats That Will Change The Way You Sell


Reality check. We’re not living in the Information Age anymore.

Newspaper and banner ads have long been forgotten across sales & marketing meetings around the world. Our most basic vehicle for communicating and information gathering, text, is now being replaced with video, emojis, GIF’s, augmented reality, and voice assistants.

1. Consumers will purchase an average of $2,276 over the vehicle base price to get the tech features they want.

Here are a few of the latest tech features that are steering purchasing decisions: V2V Communication, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, 360-Degree Cameras, Bluetooth Connectivity, Mobile Wifi, Blind Spot Awareness, Wireless Device Charging, Autonomous Vehicles, Heads-Up Display, Keyless Entry, and Forward Collision Avoidance. [Read more…]

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VIDEO: Choosing a Chat Provider for Your Website – A Refresh Friday Webinar

The majority of dealer websites have some kind of chat provider, whether it’s in-house, fully managed, or automated. The reason for having chat may seem obvious – to help conversions.

Ninety-eight percent of visitors leave the dealership site without submitting any kind of information. If you can improve that tiny number, great, but it must be done correctly.

Improving the Customer Experience

[Read more…]

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For Car Dealers: All Search Is Local

All Search Is Local

SponsoredLet’s be clear: for car dealers, all search is local.

If you’re a dealer, it does no good for you to rank high nationally for obscure keywords if you’re not also ranking in the first spot for core searches like “ford dealer near me” or simply “ford dealer.” Moreover, because most searches are now conducted via a mobile device, search engines (like Google) can deliver hyper-local search results (because they know the user’s exact latitude and longitude).

Hint: This means that any search results reporting using just ZIP Code as a qualifier cannot possibly capture where you rank when someone is sitting somewhere in your PMA, but not smack dab in the middle of your ZIP Code. Couple this with the skewed results your SEO shows you when they include your city and state name in every keyword (like “ford dealer meridian idaho”) and you’ve got an inaccurate picture of the true strength of your SEO.

All Search Is Competitive

Now that we agree that all search is local, let’s also agree that all search is competitive.

Plainly stated: If you had no competitors, you wouldn’t need great Search Engine Optimization services, as there would be no one trying to outrank you for your core keywords. No competition? No worries about who shows up first in a Google search, right?

Competition is the only reason you need great SEO!

Unfortunately, if you’re a typical car dealer, your SEO is not great. In fact, it probably does a poor job at helping you drive in-market shoppers to your website. (Which, by the way, should be the only goal of your SEO.)

Great SEO Means Less Reliance On SEM

Let’s also agree that the better your SEO, the less you need to spend on expensive Search Engine Marketing (SEM), right?

Imagine for a moment that you had Perfect SEO. That is, you showed up in the first three spots organically for all the keywords important to your dealership. If this was the case, by how much could you reduce your PPC (Pay-Per-Click) budget? 50%? 80%? 100%?

It’s precisely because you do not have great SEO that you’re spending so much on PPC!

Oh, your SEO vendor is also your PPC/SEM vendor… Hmmm… No comment.

[Read more…]

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Drive Motors Raises $5.2 Million, Expands Online Checkout for Automotive Dealerships

SAN FRANCISCO (August 2, 2017) — Drive Motors, which builds ecommerce solutions for the largest car dealerships in the country, officially announced today that it has raised $5.2 million in total funding with the completion of its seed round, led by Bullpen Capital, with participation from existing investors: Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, Perkins Coie LLP, Emagen Entertainment Group, and others. Drive Motors transforms car-dealership websites and showrooms into ecommerce destinations, and, since completing Y Combinator’s incubator program in 2016, has grown to over 1,000 car orders per month.

“We are excited to back Drive Motors as they have captured the elusive Millennial car buyer for dealers, by selling cars the way Millennials like to buy — online with full information — and yet delivering twice the profit to dealers for the convenience,” said Duncan Davidson, a general partner of Bullpen Capital, who will join Drive Motors’ board as part of his company’s investment. “It’s a great example of thinking outside the bubble, and leveraging the existing value of brick- and-mortar businesses, rather than being disruptive for the sake of it.”

Since launching online checkout for car dealers in 2016, Drive Motors has surpassed 1,000 car orders per month, and $250 million in annual order volume for its dealership customers. Current customers include top-grossing dealerships from the largest dealership groups in the country, including Atlanta-based Fortune 500 company Asbury Automotive Group, which was one of Drive Motors’ first customers and has since rolled out online checkout across their entire group of stores.

[Read more…]

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The Enormous Untapped Potential of Live Chat for Service – Part 2

Your service department is integral to the success of your dealership. Service brings in vital revenue and often accounts for the majority of a dealership’s profit. Yet, it’s highly likely that your service department’s manpower and resources are already stretched to the max, limiting the number of service leads and appointments your dealership is able to generate.Scheduling Service visit Dealership

In Part 1 of this article, I explained how live chat benefits your service customers. But, have you thought about what automotive live chat can do for your service department’s processes? [Read more…]

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The Enormous Untapped Potential of Live Chat for Service – Part I

New vehicle sales in the US came in below Spring’s market expectations, evidence the industry is starting to experience the decline analysts have been expecting despite new vehicle incentives. As new car sales flatten, the service drive will play a critical part in dealership revenue. Not that it hasn’t in the past:

Total profit-for-average-US-dealers-light-vehicles

According to recent NADA data, fixed operations account for nearly 50% of dealership revenue. But for some reason, dealers still don’t give the service drive any digital love. In fact, a recent study by the National Automobile Dealers Association indicated that dealers are only leveraging 3% of their digital marketing to optimize service drive performance. Fortunately, you probably already have the tools available to vastly improve your service department’s digital presence and your bottom line. One of those powerful tools is live chat.

Before I get into the ways your service drive can utilize chat to boost ROI (I’ll save those tips for another article), let’s go into WHY chat is the untapped potential of your digital fixed ops and, specifically, service. [Read more…]

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VIDEO: How to Turn Customers’ Phones Into Cash Registers

You know that thing that the Internet is really good at, buying stuff? Let’s apply that to the most expensive stuff anyone wants to buy…new cars. -Aaron Krane, Drive Motors.

This is not only the viewpoint of Drive Motors Founder and CEO, Aaron Krane, but also what inspired him to form the San Francisco based company in 2015. And it’s this simplicity that is so infectious with franchise dealers.

During my recent interview with Aaron, our second in the last 12 months, one thing was particularly clear to me – Aaron isn’t bent on being disruptive to the vehicle transaction process. Quite the opposite. He’s seeking to enhance it, for dealers and consumers.

[Read more…]

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Can a $100 Chatbot Really Replace 2 BDC Agents?

 

SponsoredCan a $100 Chatbot Really Replace 2 BDC Agents?

Before I answer the question posed in the title, let’s agree on a few things:

  1. Facebook is not going away;
  2. Most of your customers are already there;
  3. Your kitten pictures and inventory vomits aren’t being read; and
  4. Facebook Ads work, but you need to start communicating with these prospects!

Because you have a dealership Facebook page, you already have Facebook Messenger – that’s a given. Every Facebook account has access to Messenger and everyone on Facebook can and many of them want to communicate with car dealers and other businesses via this application.

You do understand that, right? Many people on Facebook (and on your website) want to communicate with you via Messenger!

But I Already Have Online Chat & Text, Why Do I Need Messenger?

Your online chat is fine; and as I’ve written before, online chat is no longer an option on your dealership website. But, with all of chat’s pluses, it’s not Facebook Messenger. Unlike online chat, which allows the prospect to remain virtually anonymous, Facebook Messenger gives your team instant access to all of the prospect’s publicly available Facebook information as soon as they start communicating with you!

Yes, this means you get ALL OF THE PROSPECT’S PUBLIC INFORMATION AS SOON AS THEY INITIATE A MESSENGER CHAT!

With Facebook Messenger, you can actually answer your prospects’ questions and begin to build rapport, since you don’t have to get personal with them in order to create a lead in the CRM. Oh, and with the right partner, your chatbot actually does nearly all this work.

Okay, But Can a $100 Chatbot Really Replace Two BDC Agents?

Sort of…

The truth is that while a $100 Car Dealer Chatbot can do the work of an infinite number of BDC Agents, for some dealers this means they might actually need to add BDC Agents.

This happens because their Facebook Ads, Facebook Posts and even their own websites begin generating hundreds of new chats each week via Messenger with each one of these chats turning into a real sales lead! (Because none of these Messenger chats is EVER anonymous!)

Chatbots can not only answer your Facebook Messenger communications instantly and correctly, but they can do so 24/7/365. Chatbots never get sick, they’re never late to work, and they can handle a nearly infinite number of conversations simultaneously.

Oh, and chatbots cost you a whole lot less than a single BDC agent. (Great car dealer chatbots can cost as little as $100 per month for round-the-clock coverage.)

Wait, What’s a Chabot?

A chatbot is like an answering service that works with virtually any major provider of chat-like applications and/or products (Facebook Messenger is the most famous of these). Chatbots are most often driven by rules and scripts, though sometimes can be powered by artificial intelligence.

Just like an answering service, the best car dealer chatbots act like an extension of your team. The only difference is that the chatbots do all or most of the work that a human would normally do when communicating with a prospect or customer.

In fact, great chatbots are basically decision trees that can answer customer questions faster and with more accuracy than an expensive salesperson or live BDC agent. When necessary, based on the rules created, chatbots can even “warm transfer” a customer to a live agent who can assist with anything requiring human intervention.

Car dealer chatbots provide instant two-way communications between your dealership and your customers. They help you build trust while maintaining a single communication thread that includes the lifetime history of messages. Facebook Messenger chats become sales leads your team can follow up with, because you’ll immediately have access to your customer’s Facebook public profile information.

Moreover, with the right Chatbot partner, you’ll even answer Messenger chats on your own dealer website!

Okay, I’m Ready to Learn More, Now What?

Just a few steps and you’ll be going strong with the one chatbot partner I recommend in automotive; one with no contract and no commitment:

  1. Start with this link.
  2. Watch the quick 88-second video on that page.
  3. Click “SIGN UP” on the link to the right of the video (also on the bottom of the page).

That’s it. They do all the work; but understand that at $100 per month and no contracts, this is not a “high-touch product” many dealers are used to overpaying for. In other words, this does not require a 5-hour meeting followed by seven demos and a final okay from your group’s CEO.

Be ready to buy and start generating real leads really freaking fast!

Good selling!