We covered the “M” in MARK, now it’s time for the “A”: affordability. Affordability is about demonstrating that your vehicle’s price is fair. Most car shoppers have a fear of getting ripped off, so providing evidence that your car is a great value at a fair price is crucial. Many dealers miss an easy way […] [Read More]

Dealers looking to shorten the process from initial ad view to auto sale have a new, unified tool at their disposal, as Dealer.com announces the enhancement of its family of digital advertising products. Offering new features, capabilities and services designed to work together, the tool is called the Unified Advertising Exchange (UAX). Dealer.com says the […] [Read More]

Technology meets marketing in a new joint venture announced this week by AutoAlert Inc. and The Ready Group. Boyd Warner, chief executive officer of AutoAlert, made the partnership announcement, noting a joint venture with Boston-based strategic automotive marketing agency The Ready Group LLC. The new entity is called DirectAlert LLC, which company officials said will […] [Read More]

Late last week, Chrysler Group revealed a group of dealers the company is honoring for their eco-friendly operations, in an effort to share some of the stores’ energy-efficient best practices across its dealer network. This is Chrysler’s second annual Dealer Enviromentally Councious Operations (ECO) program, which recognizes 30 Chrysler Group dealerships in the U.S. each […] [Read More]

Many dealers are familiar with Edmunds.com’s car appraisal tool that many customers use to check the value of their current vehicle on the site. But now, dealers can utilize the tool on their own websites. Edmunds revealed Monday that its True Market Value Trade-in Tool is now available for dealer websites and allows shoppers to […] [Read More]

New tools and tutorials aimed at building auto dealers’ efforts at online reputation management are part of a product launch by dealer review website DealerRater. On Monday, DealerRater introduced a Dealer Panel account management hub, which the company says will provide its Certified Dealer partners with immediate access to a full suite of tools included […] [Read More]

Ever wonder how many customers are out there “on the fence,” or on the verge of buying from your dealership? According to Paul Potratz, chief operating officer of Potratz Partners Advertising, one of the keys to securing these leads is website chat. In the latest edition of Think Tank Tuesday — Portratz’ weekly video featuring […] [Read More]

Dealers looking to obtain higher quality used-car inventory could benefit from a new product announced this week by auto website MaxTradeIn. The new service allows participating dealerships to make “nearly-instant” offers for consumer trade-ins, rather than just estimates, the company said. Called MaxTradeIn DealerDirect, the service asks consumers visiting a dealership’s website to enter their […] [Read More]

On Tuesday, DealerSocket launched a solution the company calls Smart Reply, a tool that allows dealerships to send intelligent emails to customers with concise and accurate content tailored to their specific vehicle interests. “We’re really fired up about launching Smart Reply because this technology surpasses traditional CRM solutions that simply send a text heavy email […] [Read More]

As we covered in our last post, following the components of MARK in your listings creates maximum consumer relevance. The first element of this is “mission.” Mission lets the consumer know if your vehicle meets their needs. If a consumer is looking for a family vehicle, which vehicle attributes make it a great choice for […] [Read More]