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In the last couple of articles, we talked about getting Gen X and Y consumers to pull the trigger — visiting your lot and buying a vehicle. In this chapter, we’ll delve a little deeper into the science of winning these consumers online.

As we’ve already covered, the Internet has fundamentally altered the way younger consumers buy cars. To connect with Gen X and Y consumers and convince them to click through to your ads, you need to transform into an Internet-driven dealership, rather than just a dealership with an Internet department. You also need to start treating your online inventory advertising as you would any other aspect of your business: as a science rather than an art.

We talked about Google, now let’s turn to another leading Internet retailer: Amazon.

When you shop at Amazon, you get recommendations for “more items to consider” based on your past purchases and other items you’ve viewed. These recommendations are based on scientific, data-driven history and facts. This science-based approach has worked very well for Amazon: it’s America’s largest online retailer, with almost three times the Internet sales revenue as the second largest company.

Amazon’s success has much to do with that of Google. In its 15-year existence, Google has dominated Internet search, capturing 65 percent of all Internet searches. (By comparison, GM at its height had a 50-percent market share, while the Model-T had about a 52-percent market share in its heyday.) As we discussed, Google has become so dominant thanks to one simple yet powerful concept: maximizing consumer relevance.

Google’s results and ads are as relevant to the consumer as possible. It’s an important lesson every business must take to heart in developing its own Internet strategy, yet few focus on relevance the way they should.

Next, we’ll continue to explore consumer relevance, and how you can achieve it.

Patrick McMullen is vice president of sales at MAX Systems. This blog entry and others can be found at www.getrelevantordie.com.