Craigslist is constantly updating their ghosting protocol.  If your ad is similar to other ads or if you post too often then your ads may become ghosted.  This becomes very frustrating.  To find a successful formula for posting can take a lot of time.  Craigslist likes unique ads, but to create a unique ad for the same vehicle will also take time.  This is exactly why we created a solution for this problem.  Our solution allows you to successfully post your vehicles within craigslist terms of use.

Our new module allows you to post your vehicles directly from the DMS to craigslist.  There are also new features like Custom Random Text.

This feature stores a list of random phrases that you provide and then uses them randomly in the body of your ads.  This way your ads will always be different.

The random title phrases feature makes your titles different for each ad.  It stores phrases that you added and uses them randomly.  This will help make sure that your ads are always unique.

These are just a few of the features that are offered with this module.  You can fully customize your entire template.  This includes the title, body, different colors, different layouts, gallery and much more.  Our goal is to help you take advantage of craigslist’s massive traffic.  Just because its not easy to make your ads stay on craigslist doesn’t mean you cant do it.  Call AutoXloo today and get your ads to stay.

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

AutoXloo continues to evolve our website architecture to be search friendly. Our detailed vehicle descriptions are structured to be relevant to search engines, and helpful to car shoppers. For car shoppers using Google and Bing to search for vehicles locally, our dealer websites naturally provide excellent search relevancy. And car shoppers love our vehicle description reports, available on all AutoXloo websites. AutoXloo’s technology can help dealerships make giant strides in achieving good search results without having to spend thousands of dollars on SEO consultants.

The “up and coming” online opportunity for dealers is the mobile market.  Mobile is big and will be bigger than most of us imagine. It is the fastest growing Internet platform in the market today. Smartphones represent 50% of all phones sold, and represent a fast growing and evolving platform.  Coupled with GPS pinpointing of location, the opportunities presented by barcode scanning of QR codes, there are interesting possibilities for strategically driving qualified leads and  customer engagement.  Talk to AutoXloo about the products we offer that support mobile initiatives by dealerships.

The most underused and most cost effective search tool available to all car dealerships is Google Places (previously Google Local).  A complete profile built here can improve Google Maps visibility (1^st page search results), provide better organic search results, and relevant information to your customers.  Google Places supports customer feedback (testimonials), which are viewed as more credible and trustworthy than any other information you can provide.  Integrating a proactive solicitation of customer feedback from happy customers at the point of sale, is the most effective and cost effective thing you can do.  This single action improves Google search ranking and provides helpful information that other prospective customers WILL read.

When we work with dealerships, we encourage an attitude of “decide, implement, adjust”.  There is no magic bullet online – it’s an iterative process and there is no one size fits all. Choosing what’s right for your dealership and trying and measuring different tactics helps in developing an effective long term strategy.

Let’s list the six pieces of technologies here. First is Real-Time Search, for example, Google, Bing, Twitter, Facebook. Customers benefit is having access to real-time content which will help shoppers confirm a smart decision much faster.  Second, Geolocation Service which is GPS- style functions within mobile phones, social channels, and smart phone apps. Customers will benefit because they will have an opportunity to create better relationships with dealerships while having fun.  Third, Mobile Video, customers will benefit because it is very convenient. Shopping is what they want and where they want it. Forth, HTML5. Gives opportunity to improve online experiences, adding rich applications, video, animation, Flash, and Silverlight.  Customers will experience shopping online more robust as new content delivery methods emerge.  Fifth, Social centralization, direction of car dealer social networks and the value-added services they will provide automotive professionals.  Customers will benefit from the rapid increase in the sharing of best practices which is about to overcome the retail industry. Competition will increase as the bar is raised to prove a better, more impressive shopping experience. Last, Number six, is Social CRM.

The entire CRM segment will be shaken up in 2010.  Customer benefit will be greater communication and information flow with regards to items such as vehicle service and care care will become more important as ownership continues to increase.

On the other hand, when I speak with independent dealers who have been in business for awhile, their advertising budget is typically spread more broadly across classifieds, print, and some online.  The question here is, are they doing this because they get a good return on investment from each of the different media, or because it used to work, so the assumption is that it must still work in 2009.  Most of the stats tell me this can’t be true.  Newspaper readership is down significantly, 80% of customers start their search online for a vehicle, and craigslist is hugely popular in local communities. 

The most successful independent dealers that we work with are aggressively and proactively leveraging many Internet tools to sell cars.  Not all of them use the same tools – some rely on enhanced vehicle pictures, others aggressively list vehicles online using craigslist, AutoTrader, oodle, Google, cars.com, and even international listings, while some find a competitive edge through SEO, vehicle video, blogging, and “puff” vehicle descriptions. 

The important points:

1. Decide what tools work best for you and use them to their full capacity.
2. Test the different tools available to you.  Most are very low cost, low risk and can be hugely effective in online lead generation.
3. Whatever you do, do it 100%, because if you don’t someone else in your area will. 
4. DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS – Internet shoppers want complete information available online, with just a few mouse clicks. 

When dealers had to pay “real money” for classified ads, they invested the time and effort to make the ad appealing, interesting, and added a “hook” to entice customers to call.  What I see many times is the same care is not paid to online listings because so many of the tools are very low cost or free.  You’re missing a HUGE opportunity here.  We encourage our customers to be more aggressive in using the tools we make available to them – they are affordable AND effective.  To find more information about how we can help you cost effectively leverage the Internet to sell more cars, I’ve provided links to some popular tools:

Etch-A-Word – text annotation for vehicle pictures – great merchandising tool!

International Online Listing Sites – broaden your reach and sell more cars

Video Customer Testimonials – the most effective advertising

Google Search Marketing – Patented search technology from AutoXloo

Live Chat – Connect with your customers instantly on your website

Dealer Community Network – online dealer to dealer trading community

AutoXloo offers their Multimedia (Web 2.0) Tools, which gives you several opportunities to create KNOW-LIKE-and TRUST connections with customers as soon as they hit your website. We tend to talk about the features/benefits of the technology that we offer and forget that really the most important consideration is the establishment of trust, communication, that leads to more sales.

Establishing KNOW-LIKE and TRUST on your website:

KNOW

• Live Chat –supports instant online chat between your customers and sales team.
• Enhanced “About Us” Section – take the time to craft a story about how and why your dealership is different from others, the care you take in deciding what inventory to carry, the awards your dealership has won, how you’re involved in the local community. Many customers will never read this section – but some will. And it matters very much to these people what you have to say.
• Current Commercials – if you run TV and radio spots in your local market, be sure to include these on your website.

 LIKE

• Video Introductions of Sales Team – video communicates “likeability” better than any medium on the Internet today. A friendly introduction, connecting on a human level can go a long way towards establishing a collaborative vs confrontational sale.
• Video Introduction of your Service Department – this is a great way to promote the most profitable department at your dealership.

TRUST

• Dealership Blog – gives you the opportunity to build trust with the local community.  It’s an expanded and more personal “about us” section that a customer can review to get a sense of your trustworthiness and likeability as a dealer.
• Service Blog – think of the potential here. Build a library of service preventative maintenance tips and WHY it is important to have your vehicle serviced on a regular basis.  Position your service team as a group who is a “trusted authority” available to help customers, not to upsell them based on quotas. Building a service business from a position of “trusted authority” can go a long way towards profitably building your service business.
• Video Testimonials – Besides a personal individual referral, customer testimonials, captured on video, is the most powerful method of building trust with your customers.  Across all industries, and all sales professionals, is the core knowledge that a referral from one customer to another is gold in trying to develop new business.
• Vehicle Video – When a customer is on your lot, considering a vehicle, one of the first things they do is a “walkaround”, checking out the overall condition and styling of the car they are considering.  Vehicle video can capture this same experience and allow customers to shop from the convenience of their home.
• DETAILS – DETAILS – DETAILS – Internet shoppers are used to having information available with a few mouse clicks.  Make sure you have tons of information about your dealership, your vehicles, financing options, warranties, and other information that customers consider before buying a car.  Even if your customer doesn’t read the details line by line, which dealer will they trust more – the one that gives basic vehicle information or those that provide detailed information about the vehicle and the dealership? Details can be provided via descriptive text, interesting pictures, and video.

 None of this has to be a full time job. There is lots of new technology that simplifies producing this information and much of the information can be reused and repurposed.

The important thing to remember is that the multimedia tools available for your website today give you the opportunity to more actively and immediately engage your customers on your website and can convert web traffic to solid sales leads.

Digital Images for Automobile Dealers

The SlingShot, ties several innovative technology tools into one device to deliver an easy-to-use and quick solution for taking pictures of a constantly changing inventory.  With fully enabled VIN explosion and data collection services, the SlingShot, using a single interface, gathers the information for each vehicle and can attach 60 pictures to upload directly to your website.  Check out a demo at our website, SLINGSHOT DEMO.

This is a great tool to get a few vehicles listed quickly.