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.

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

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.

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.

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

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!

AutoXloo sees this as a four-step process in order for your dealership to have a profitable website.

1. Attract traffic to your website

2. Convert the traffic to solid leads.

3. Turn leads into sales.

4. Leverage current happy customers to generate referrals.

And the flip side is, there are many success stories on the Internet. Having easy access to a national or international market, allows dealerships to do things on the Internet which would not be successful locally. There are dealerships who have eBay auctions down to an art, providing detailed information to buyers so they are comfortable completing the transaction even if they are thousands of miles away. Online car listings are easy and ubiquitous, and there are many free sites available to dealerships including craigslist, Google Base, oodle and VAST.

Your dealer website provides a springboard to a whole new world of Internet marketing for car dealers. We invite you to take a look at the different tools that we offer to increase your online presence.

So what kinds of emails do your customers find valuable and look forward to receiving from you?

Service reminders, coupons and new model unveiling are well received and very effective methods to improve your relationship and increased traffic to your dealership and your dealership website. Make customers feel important by remembering their birthday. Track lease anniversary dates and start a conversation with them about their next vehicle several months before their lease expires. How about doing a targeted emailing to your customers on Christmas specials, back to school sales and tax return blowout sales to generate greater interest in your dealership.

A commitment to having an ongoing conversation with your current customers is easier today than ever before. And can be critical to the ongoing success of your dealership. This ongoing conversation can be done through a combination of email, direct mail, and phone calls and probably should be a blend of the three. And cost is no reason not to have regular contact with your customers. With today’s inexpensive online email campaign tools and automotive crm software choices, coupled with a creative approach to implementing campaigns, you can nurture existing client relationships, build trust, and generate additional revenue for the dealership.