Smart and Resourceful Dealers Sell More Cars!

A quick shout out to Mike at Park Auto Mall for his nice (and unsolicited) comments about AutoXloo on his blog, Show Room Logic.

Car dealerships have always prided themselves on being resourceful sales guys, always with new ideas on sales promotions to entice customers to their dealership.

Internet marketing offers endless opportunities for these smart and resourceful dealerships to stretch their sales skills online.  Low cost, immediate results, and measurable effects, and quality leads.  What could be more compelling? Every car guy’s dream.

Mike recognizes this utopic vision does require some nuts and bolts, roll up your sleeve work, determination, creativity, analysis and adjustment as he works to increase sales for ParkAutoMall.  AutoXloo is up to the challenge of going toe to toe with him and other dealers in helping them creatively leverage AutoXloo’s software solutions to support their local car sales.

ParkAutoMall.com does a great job of leveraging the AutoXloo technology to increase their local presence and connect with customers when they visit their website.  Look at the ParkAutoMall.com website and some of the proactive things they are doing:

• An active, engaging blog
• Pictures, video introductions, complete contact information of sales staff
• Detailed information about vehicles
• Customer testimonials
• Search friendly, relevant content
• Information to help car buyers make decisions

The time invested in their website pays off on a daily basis.  A large percentage of their floor traffic comes from their dealer website, and this number has been growing for several years.

The Power of Customer Testimonials

Customers trust the words of other customers.  More than they trust a company spokesman, owner, or salesperson.  We encourage you to use the words of your customers to help sell more cars.

Take a look at how some of our customers are using our tools:

Powerful Dealership Video and A ProActive Internet Team

ParkAutoMall.com has a proactive Internet team that engages before, during and after the sale.  Authentic video is an integral part of their customer connections and it is a regular part of their day-to-day activities.

http://www.parkautomall.com/customer-testimonials

Built In Tools for Success

AutoExpoStore.com is more systematic and strategic with their customer testimonials. They have a permanent camera set up in their dealership sales office to capture customer feedback at the point of sale.  Brilliant and easy.

http://www.autoexpostore.com/testimonials/

Long Term Trust, One Customer At A Time

ClassicMotorCars is systematic about how they handle testimonials.  This dealership has earned a trusted advisor status in the West Allis Wisconsin community, and regularly uses the automated tool built into their AutoXloo website to solicit customer feedback.  It’s easy to see they are a great company to do business with.

http://classicmotorcarsinc.net/index.php?pg=testimonials

Dealership Video 101

It’s no secret that the use of vehicle videos sells more cars. Consumers of today need to be informed as well as entertained when shopping for a new or used car. 

Here are some tips to successfully implementing video on your website:

Start with a system that has video capability built in on all pages and allows you to embed videos from third party sites (YouTube, Metacafe’). This has several advantages we will talk about in future articles, but for now suffice to say it is crucial for SEO that this feature is available with your Dealer Management System.

Now that you have the ability to record and upload videos to your site the question now becomes what to record and where to place the video? Let’s start with the homepage. There is a hierarchy to the homepage video playlist that varies depending on the type of car dealership  New car dealers should focus on the latest and greatest vehicles and concept cars being released by the manufacturer as their number one video. Number two and three on the list should include current specials only available at that dealership and as a last resort the nationwide video produced by the manufacturer.

Used car dealerships homepage video can vary greatly due to the type of car they sell and the clientele they service, but it should include a combination of ”universally” funny, informative and relevant videos. Make sure if you decide to go with “funny”, the video should be entertaining from the first second it plays and should not exceed 30 secs. Informative videos should include a brief intro explaining who you are and where you are located, then talk about the types of vehicles you offer then follow up with a call to action – “come down today for a test drive and receive a free xxxx” , “first 100 people to call in and mention this video will receive $500 off the purchase of any vehicle in stock” and so on.

Funny video basics:

• choose popular videos – search Youtube for “funny automotive videos”
• poll your staff to make sure the video chosen is actually funny
• rotate the videos daily

Informative video basics:

• length of video should not exceed 1 min (30-45 sec is optimal)
• first 7 sec must capture visitors attention (think good looking spokes person combined with best car on the lot)
• insert customer video testimonials (two or three at 5- 7 sec apiece)
• end the video with a call to action – incentives, discounts, freebies or special financing
• static image includes dealership phone number and address

Relevant video basics:

• choose an extreme video based on vehicle heritage
• Subaru = rally racing video
• Jeep = off road hill climb
• Range Rover = rock climbing or muddy river crossing
• BMW = road racing performance (track video)
• Camaro = 1/4 mile drag race (or should I say 1000 ft)

Look for more information and tips about video and audio production in future articles.

Live Chat Leads!

Live Chat is one of the most underutilized features car dealers have at their disposal. Live chat has been used for years in other industries with great success and it is only recently that the automotive industry has begun to embrace this simple, yet very effective technology.

What isn’t too surprising is that there is a whole market of people shopping for their next car during work hours.  Since they are unable to pick up the phone and call the dealership directly they look for other means of submitting a request or question. Unfortunately most dealers still only offer email as the only alternative.   Unfortunately due to poor response time, this method has become frustrating for both the consumer and dealer not to mention it’s a great way to lose a sale to another dealership who is utilizing live chat and is able to answer not only the customers initial question, but can keep that customer engaged in conversation long enough to get the sale!

To be truly effective Live Chat must be manned during normal business hours and the sales staff trained how to properly funnel the customer’s Q&A’s to capture the lead.  In doing so you will find that customers who utilize this technology are usually the ones who make a purchase.

At the end of the day it still comes down to….. the dealership who gets the most leads will sell the most cars. You don’t have to be the other guy – look into upgrading your current system today.

Convert Website Traffic to Solid Leads

Website traffic becomes solid leads when your customers KNOW – LIKE – TRUST your dealership.  On the Internet, KNOW – LIKE – and TRUST are established via:

• Customer friendly website
• Detailed vehicle desciptions
• Testimonials from satisfied csutomers
• Broad online presence, easy to find information

Attract Traffic to Your Website

There are three primary ways that people find automotive dealerships online. 

1. LOCAL REPUTATION – Your reputation has been built in your local community through advertising and one customer at a time, through your sales effort.  People may come directly to your website, because of the reputation you have built in the local community.

2. GOOGLE SEARCH – More and more customers find local businesses through a quick Google search. Online search has replaced most traditional Yellow Page listings.

3. ONLINE LISTING SERVICES – Posting your vehicles on online listing services, such as AutoTrader.com, Cars.com, craigslist and Oodle provides a steady stream of customers interested in a particular vehicle.

Google Search and craigslist offer low cost leads for dealerships!