Wheel’s Automotive Dealer Supplies will award $500 gift cards to three lucky dealers during Used Car Week next month.
The gift cards are redeemable toward Wheel’s extensive line of custom, print-on-demand signs, banners, window stickers, hang tags, flags, and multi-dimensional merchandising solutions.
Visitors may enter the drawing by visiting booth No. 210 at Used Car Week, set for Nov. 14-18 at Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa in Las Vegas. All entrants will be registered to win an iPad AIR tablet computer. Entrants need not be present at drawings; winners will be notified by certified mail.
Wheel’s is a merchandising expert in certified pre-owned, and is partnered with 17 OEMs’ CPO programs.
“Dealers often fall back on familiar lot merchandising elements because it’s easy to redo what you already know, but stale merchandising may not pull in buyer interest that new ideas are more likely to do,” said Richard Ashworth, president, Wheel’s Automotive Dealer Supplies.
“Dealers who visit us at Used Car Week will clearly see how we partner to create the freshest, most innovative ideas in used-car merchandising signage — and three lucky dealers will enjoy these products drawing consumer eyes to their inventory at their dealership.”
The following tips can help dealers manage the cost of their merchandising investment while achieving the goal of getting shoppers’ attention:
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Think it The wrong or wrong number of signs, balloons, and pennants may be perceived as clutter or the wrong message.
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Be consistent. Mismatched merchandising creates an impression of imbalance, which can create an uncomfortable environment — not a prudent way to start a sale.
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Be legal. Check local signage laws before you order.
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Save: Coordinate purchases and consolidate shipping by using a single vendor where possible to save time and money.
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Get innovative. The same merchandising ideas you’ve used before may not delivery as well in today’s market, especially when marketing certified preowned vehicles. Source a creative supplier willing to work with you to create your ideas and make them reality.
For more information, contact Renee Perri, vice president of corporate division, at (800) 465-8831, ext. 105, or visit www.wheelsauto.com.
ELEAD1ONE plans to roll out a new cloud-based marketing hub later this year that it says will transform the way dealers connect with their customers across sales, service and marketing.
Using the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, the new Digital Marketing Hub will consolidate all data in a common view of the customer, allowing dealers to engage them with relevant, targeted messages in real time across all digital channels.
“To effectively engage customers with email, today’s marketers need to maintain a level of excellence by being more adaptable and accountable than ever. We are excited about this partnership, but more so, the enhanced email marketing capabilities/services it provides our clients,” stated Bill Wittenmyer, partner of ELEAD1ONE, a division of Data Software Services, L.L.C.
“The Digital Marketing Hub will help automotive retail marketers change the dynamics of how they approach business in the digital age,” he continued. “The result will be a greater reach and insight into the automotive consumer, and an improved end-to-end customer experience.”
The ELEAD1ONE Digital Marketing Hub includes:
— The ability to design the customer experience: Campaign strategy, planning, lifecycle management, personalization and customer experience design.
— The ability to build and execute the customer journey: Technical build and launch of campaigns, campaign management and optimization, CRM enablement, and data integration.
— Deliverability tools: List detective, content detective, receiver feedback loops, active volume and connection limits, domain monitoring, marketing cloud abuse desk, ISP remediation, dedicated IPs for large accounts, bounce log analysis, deliverability by domain report, private domain (optional), and sender authentication.
— Deliverability consulting services: Deliverability performance scorecard, sender score analysis per IP, Deliverability 101 Best Practices Workshop, ISP remediation services team, and deliverability audit assessment.
Click here to learn more about the ELEAD1ONE Digital Marketing Hub.
Dealers, take note: When it comes to the customer reviews you choose to feature online, words may matter more than stars.
CDK Global, as part of its The Language of Closers study, has identified the top words and phrases playing a role converting potential shoppers through dealership reviews.
“Dealers typically assume that positive, five-star reviews should be front and center on their homepage,” said Jason Kessler, lead data scientist at CDK Global. “However, we found that reviews using specific and relatable words, even if their overall star-ranking is lower, are more effective at converting shoppers.”
The research found that words such as “passing” (as in passing another vehicle on the road) were high predictors for conversion in sedan reviews. This word ranked at the top because it helps shoppers visualize and understand the power of a car by its passing ability. Terms such as “torque” and “horsepower,” on the other hand, are primarily meaningful to car enthusiasts.
“Quiet” and “comfortable” were other highly ranked words for all vehicle reviews.
“Words that help a customer imagine what it might be like to drive the vehicle were consistently ranked at the top of the list,” continued Kessler. “While dealers can’t control what their customers say, they can highlight the reviews that will be most beneficial to their customers, and their business.”
To learn more about The Language of Closers, click here.
On Wednesday, Carvana launched in its 17th market: Cincinnati.
This is the eighth new market for the online car retailer this year, including the move to fellow Buckeye city Columbus late last month.
With the latest expansion, Carvana said it can now provide as-soon-as-next-day delivery to more than 118.3 million customers in the U.S. and 7.9 million in the Cincinnati area.
“We offer a unique, honest and transparent approach that gives customers a whole new way to buy a car and puts them back in control of their car-buying experience,” Carvana founder and chief executive officer Ernie Garcia said in a news release.
“Knowing that Cincinnati is a big driving area, we’re confident customers will appreciate the great experience Carvana offers over the traditional dealership model,” he said. “As the third-biggest city in Ohio, with proximity to Northern Kentucky as well, there is a high demand for used cars in this area, and we’re excited to bring the Carvana experience to this market.”
Carvana’s other markets include:
Atlanta
Austin, Texas
Birmingham, Ala.
Charlotte, N.C.
Columbus, Ohio
Dallas
Houston
Jacksonville, Fla.
Miami
Nashville, Tenn.
Orlando, Fla.
Raleigh, N.C.
San Antonio
Tampa
Richmond, Va.
Washington D.C.
As it has done with prior expansions, Carvana is providing a full refund of delivery fees paid to buyers in Cincinnati who bought before the expansion.
Auto Remarketing recently visited Carvana’s location in Nashville, Tenn., where we checked out the company’s vehicle “vending machine,” as seen in the video above.
“If I were school principal for a day …”
It’s a popular childhood meme.
But what if kids ran a dealership for a day?
That was the crux of Chrysler’s recent effort to drum up publicity for the 2017 Pacifica.
In essence it was business as usual at Southern California’s Victorville Motors on Sept. 14, except that the 12 families who came in to shop were catered to by Chrysler’s PacifiKids — Izzy (10), Miles (11), and Harper (8), and their young staff of eight.
Hidden cameras recorded the action as part of the digital and social media stunt.
“Kids today are influencing their parents’ purchasing decisions more than ever, from the clothes they buy, to the music they download, to even the cars they buy,” said Tim Kuniskis, head of passenger car brands — Dodge, SRT, Chrysler and FIAT, FCA – North America. “So we thought, why not let children, the ones who are informing those major family purchases and for whom the Chrysler Pacifica is built, take over a real FCA dealership for one day to show moms and dads why the all-new 2017 Chrysler Pacifica is the best vehicle for their family.”
Over the course of two-and-a-half days, the dealership was transformed into a work-meets-play environment, from colorful walls and toys on desks to beanbag chairs and a slide leading into a ball pit.
Each family who visited was given a hands-on tour of the Pacifica, with the PacifiKids highlighting the minivan’s features.
“It will completely park itself,” a young salesgirl tells a family of three — prompting the husband to tell his wife: “You need one of those!”
The hidden-camera stunt, viewable at the top of the page or by clicking here, was the kickoff to a six-week digital and social campaign for Chrysler.
Consumers in Dallas, Los Angeles and New York can fill out a “permission slip” that will make one family from each market eligible for a daylong “field trip” to videotape their experiences with the minivan. Entry ends Oct. 17.
The videos will be posted at www.thePacifiKids.com on Nov. 12, and customers throughout the U.S. cam vote for their favorite video. The family whose video gets the most votes will win a 2017 Pacifica.
And one person who votes for a video will be randomly selected to also receive a 2017 Pacifica.
Additionally, consumers in 10 markets — Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix and San Francisco — can also submit “permission slips” for a weeklong extended test drive in a 2017 Pacifica. Twenty-one families will be chosen. Enter until Oct. 26 at www.thepacifickids.com.
AutoPoint has announced a marketing solution called Sales Journey.
The company said Sales Journey addresses the challenge of attracting new customers and retaining existing customers as they prepare to buy or lease a new vehicle in a competitive dealer market. Its predictive targeting methods allow dealers to gain a marketing advantage at critical early stages in the sales process.
A data-driven approach such as this increases the dealer’s impact within the automotive sales sphere, allowing them to anticipate customers’ needs and co-opt competitors.
“Sales Journey creates an essential link between the service relationship and the sales lot,” said Mike Martinez, managing director of AutoPoint. “Smarter proactive marketing to the new-vehicle buyer eases the transition for existing service customers back to the sales lot, as well as engages new customers who subsequently join the retention cycle.
“Sales Journey gives dealers an effective way to reach those new customers before they’re lost to the competition,” he continued.
The way dealers used to work with car shoppers often made the latter feel prodded and herded like cattle, says DealerSocket chief executive officer Jonathan Ord.
Speaking at his company’s User Summit in Texas (and using regionally apt metaphors), Ord recommended dealers let consumers steer the purchase method decision-making, whether that’s online, in-store or a mix of both.
“We see this more as a great field for cows,” Ord said, extending the metaphor. “And some of these cows are coming up to each other and saying, ‘Hey, you know what? There is some great alfalfa over there in that corner. I know how you like alfalfa.’ … And your customers are bringing the other cows along.”
Point is, rather than forcing the customer to go the way the dealership wants him or her to go, the store must facilitate a process that lets the shopper choose.
And these days, the amount of choice is only increasing, as direct-to-consumer and peer-to-peer car-buying resources dot the landscape.
Or, to use parlance closer to DealerSocket’s home in Southern California, “I can tell you the wave is coming,” Ord said.
“And many of our dealers are not ready for the wave that is coming,” he said. “I mentioned Beepi and Carvana and Vroom. The next step of that is Amazon and Google Auto.”
And those players find auto retail to be a major opportunity, with a great deal of money being exchanged. After all, Ord said, it’s typically the second-largest purchase people make — and they make it several times throughout their lifetimes.
“The people that own the consumer relationship would love to have a piece of this business,” Ord said. “Now, it’s our responsibility to make sure that we make the transaction as easy as possible for the consumer, and let them do that transaction in any way that they want to.”
Whether that means the shopper wants to go the traditional route or, say, complete half the deal online then head to the store to work with a salesperson they trust, dealers should facilitate that, he said.
Or, if they want the transaction to be entirely online with the dealership delivering the car to their house, “Great, we want to be able to do that.”
‘More time focused on what customer wants’
The company’s new Blackbird platform that incorporates both CRM and DMS technology — unveiled at the User Summit — may help facilitate that process Ord describes.
Blackbird is an integrated technology platform that can be thought of as “an enabler” of various products, even beyond CRM, DMS or inventory management, DealerSocket vice president of product strategy Jennifer Lee said during a media roundtable at the event.
“We believe that less time in front of a keyboard and more time with the customer is most important,” Lee said.
“Consumers want a personalized experience. So we didn’t want a CRM that was going to tie them to their desktop in order to do their jobs,” she said. “Between the mobile changes that we’ve made in the last year and simplifying the process for them to do their work, we’re hoping to facilitate more time spent with their customer, more time focused on what the customer wants and how the customer wants to do business.”
And this launch was just the beginning. In fact, one of the additions for Blackbird that DealerSocket has planned is a digital retailing solution, set to launch in the first quarter. Lee said the company is currently in the engineering phase.
‘Make sure processes and trust are in place’
There is somewhat of a dichotomy between perceptions of auto ecommerce, DealerSocket director of business development Nathan Usher said during the roundtable, where he discussed the company’s latest Dealership Action Report.
Car shoppers certainly flock to the web. However, 67 percent of consumers still aren’t ready to finalize the transaction online, the report indicated.
Yet, dealers believe that 66 percent of consumers only want to buy online.
That lends itself to the notion that, perhaps, 100-percent online retail is “not a silver bullet,” Usher said.
“There’s still the human element, (where) they want a demo, they want to get access to the dealership and they want to get a fair price and customer service,” he said. “Now, is the industry going into a digital retail experience? Absolutely. There’s no question.”
Usher said the innovation of online car-buying is exciting, but emphasizes that the data shows the majority of consumers aren’t quite ready for buying a car completely online.
“We want to be there as well, but we’ve got to grow smart and effectively when it comes to the (digital) retail experience,” he said. “I’ll be the first to admit that I love that topic … but we still have to realize that there are still a lot of consumers out there that still are not ready, so it’s not a silver bullet there.
“We’re preparing for that, but we still have to make sure that the processes and the trust are in place, because unless you have the trust, they’re still not going to go to your dealership and buy online.”
And as Ord emphasized previously, it’s about allowing the customer to go as far as they would like online and facilitating that process by presenting them with the information and research, Usher said.
Dealers have seen the disruptors who have provided this to consumers and made moves to adapt; and who better to offer that to consumers than dealers?
“Dealers have the advantage. They have all the connections. They have all the inventory. They have all the processes,” Usher said. “We can enable them to have that (online retail) experience and have the traditional roots of the dealership process in place. It’s a win-win.”
However, he added, “they still have to adopt it” and understand that the digital retail experience and customer service experience must be combined. In other words, you can’t neglect what happens at the dealership level, Usher said.
“If I couple both of them together,” he said, “then it’s a successful dealership.”
If you’re unfamiliar, Waze is the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation app. You can join other drivers in your area who share real-time traffic and road info, saving everyone time and gas money on their daily commute.
In this post we’ll show you how to create a Waze ad for your dealership and dive a little deeper into why you should consider it as a place to advertise.
Your potential customers are driving by your dealership every day, but what are you doing to make them drive into your dealership instead of past it?
Giant inflatable gorillas, sign-spinners and dancing flags are one way to do it; another way is to purchase a Waze ad. Waze is a smartphone GPS app with many features that drivers love: traffic reporting, turn-by-turn navigation, accident reporting by severity and many more features. It even features celebrity voice navigation.
Not only do drivers love Waze, but advertisers should love it, too. Now you can advertise your dealership to those driving by for as little as $60 a month. If you already use Waze, you may have seen ads pop up on the screen while you’re at a complete stop. Your dealership will also appear in local searches and you will have access to reporting as well.
Download Waze for iPhone or Android to see why it’s so popular.
Steps to create a waze add for your dealership
1. Go to biz.waze.com.
2. Hit the "get started" button.
3. Create a Waze account.
4. Enter your business name. Hit next.
5. Add an 80-character business description.
6. Search for the name of your business (it should auto-fill). Hit next.
7. Choose your business type. Hit next.
8. Choose your budget (the minimum is $2/day). Hit next.
9. Enter your credit card information. Hit "verify payment."
10. Accept the terms of service. Hit "create account."
You’re now on your way to driving more people to your dealership. Waze can take up to 48 hours to review your account and you will receive an email once your account is approved. Once your account is approved, it will automatically go live and Wazers will be able to see your ads on the map.
Creating an offer for your dealership using Waze
Waze wants you to think of its ads as “virtual neon signs.” Drivers will see a virtual pin on their map. Pins expand to show business information, deals and more. Ads also appear when driving naturally stops, which means potential customers are one tap away from driving to your dealership.
Waze reporting dashboard
Once you have finished creating your account, you can view your dashboard. You should see a Go To Dashboard button on your screen.
Here is what you can expect to see in your Waze dashboard:
—Views: How many people viewed your ad.
—Engagements: How many people engaged with your ad.
—Effective Cost/Action: The cost per action.
Waze is used by many locations across the country to drive more people to their business. Are you using Waze for dealership now, or strongly considering it?
If you are already a LotVantage customer and would like help experimenting with Waze, contact us, and we’ll happily walk you through it.
Adam Goldberg is the marketing manager at LotVantage, a provider of digital marketing solutions for automotive, marine, powersports, RV, trailer and outdoor power equipment dealerships. He can be reached at agoldberg@thatus.com. You can also access more social media tips at motors.lotvantage.com/blog.
This week, Flick Fusion introduced what it’s calling FlickWidget, which is being touted as a responsive video display tool proven to increase the number of video views on dealers' websites.
In a pilot trial conducted with website and digital marketing vendor Dealer E-Process, the company highlighted FlickWidget was installed on the home page of seven dealership websites. That group included three Toyota stores, a Honda store, a Buick, Chevy and GMC dealer, one Ford and one BMW dealership.
Over a period of five months, the company determined FlickWidget increased the number of video views on each website by a mean average of 155 percent.
Dealer E-Process featured one of the dealership's websites in a recent case study. The addition of FlickWidget to a Toyota store’s website increased monthly video views from 237 per month to 877 per month for a 271-percent increase.
Additionally, Dealer E-Process saw similar results with other customers. The Honda dealership saw an increase from 464 video views per month to 1,616 video views per month for a 248-percent increase.
“We’ve always known that dynamic video outperforms static pictures of vehicles on a website, but the results of this trial really showcase the power of video as a website conversion tool,” Flick Fusion chief operating officer Tim James said.
“Car shoppers prefer watching videos to reading text, and the longer a customer engages with videos the more emotionally invested they become in your dealership’s inventory and brand,” James continued.
FlickWidget can offer each vehicle shopper a personalized experience based on his or her individual viewing behavior. When a customer visits a dealership's website, they immediately see an attractive display tool featuring several inventory videos, with suggestions based on that person's browsing behavior.
With each returning visit, the customer will see a reminder of the videos they viewed last time along with suggestions for new videos to watch based on their individual interests and viewing history.
“With our customers’ websites we find that sometimes there is so much information and so many vehicles to choose from that customers can get overwhelmed," said Dave Page, owner of Dealer E-Process.
“FlickWidget draws the focal point on each page to the videos, which are naturally more interactive and give customers specific suggestions, helping them to narrow their choice and bring them down the purchasing funnel,” Page went on to say.
FlickWidget is a visual tool that can be featured on the homepage of a dealership’s website or on other pages, including vehicle details pages (VDPs). FlickWidget can also be used as a banner ad on any website where the dealership advertises, effectively increasing click-through rates.
FlickWidget can display several videos at a time in a series of sliding windows that are completely customizable. The sliders can be any size or dimension, horizontal or vertical, and the dealership can choose which videos to display in the windows, including inventory videos, test-drive videos, customer testimonial videos, service department videos and more.
Officials added that Flick Widget is fully responsive, making it easy for shoppers to view videos on their mobile devices.
“More than 50 percent of car shoppers use mobile devices to conduct research prior to a purchase, and more than half of auto shoppers watch at least 30 minutes of video during the purchasing process,” the company said.
For a limited time, dealers can try FlickWidget for free. Any dealership that signs up for FlickWidget can get the first 60 days free with no further obligation required.
Dealers can find out who their Flick Fusion reseller is by calling (800) 247-2502.
For more information, visit www.flickfusion.com.
Cars.com chief executive officer and president Alex Vetter called it an “exciting week” as the company announced it would be spun off as a separate, publicly traded entity through a process expected to be finalized during the first half of next year.
For dealers who list their inventory on Cars.com, perhaps they should be excited, too, since Vetter described the company’s future by emphasizing one of the most intriguing segments of the spin-off announcement. It’s the part that stated, “As an independent company, Cars.com will be able to focus more sharply on its key strategic priorities, including rapid innovation within a growing marketplace and active evaluation and pursuit of acquisitions to open up new, adjacent opportunities.”
During an exclusive conversation with Auto Remarketing, Vetter began by highlighting the resources Cars.com already possesses, which includes DealerRater that was acquired earlier this summer.
“I think days like (this past Wednesday and Thursday) are really a testament to our employees and all they’ve done past and present to build this business into what it’s become. It’s also a testament to all of our customers and partners. We work with over 20,000 dealers and every OEM. It’s their partnership that drives us on a daily basis. It’s really a celebratory time for our young company,” Vetter said.
“Over the last two years as part of being singular ownership, we’ve really been investing in the business and preparing the business for continued growth,” he continued. “We’ve done that by largely investing in product, technology and innovation. Much of that will benefit our customers directly. As a distinct, independent company, we’re going to be much more positioned to focus on distinct strategic priorities, which will be great news for our users and business partners.”
The business progression Cars.com gets to develop as a publicly traded company is to establish a new leadership structure as well as roll out an initial public offering. Vetter again reflected on what Cars.com’s accomplishments have been and how they've set the foundation for what might happen next year and beyond.
“It’s great validation to all of the hard work that has taken place over the years to get Cars.com ready. I think it increases our focus on our mission and strategy. It allows us to bring more talent on board to help pursue strategic priorities,” Vetter said.
“For example, one of the things we’re excited about is forming our own board of directors that will be exclusively focused on helping Cars.com realize its strategy,” he continued. “In addition, it will give us higher evaluations for the business because we know both automotive and technology companies tend to trade at higher multiples, which gives the ability to access more capital to be able to strategically invest in the growth of the business.
“It will take us several months to finalize the board. But clearly we’ll be adding people who can bring strategic and industry insights as well as rich and diverse narratives to the business that helps us look broadly at the opportunities that are in front of us,” Vetter went on to say.
While Cars.com has at least the remainder of the third quarter as well as the fourth quarter of this year to navigate before the ticker symbol CARS appears on Wall Street, Vetter emphasized what’s now directly in front of the company, including expanding on the recently launched enhancements to its mobile platform.
“We’ve been very focused on innovating on the mobile front. We continue to innovate there at a faster clip,” Vetter said.
“We have a number of product and technology investments that we’ve been aggressively pursuing to grow our overall site experience. And we’ve also been deploying new solutions for our business partners as well as operationalizing our newest acquisition, DealerRater,” he continued.
“We have a number of key initiatives that we’re pursuing as a business. In addition we’ll be adding more talent and growing our workforce to better prepare us for the growth that we anticipate on happening in 2017,” Vetter concluded.
