A handful of photos taken at the time of your customers’ deliveries could help drive up your word-of-mouth leads and repeat service.
That’s the aim of Vboost’s recently improved “customercials,” which create a short photo package video for your customers that can be easily distributed and shared online and via social media.
The company says that the speed of delivery of these shareable videos has been improved, making it possible to send to customers via text or email within minutes of taking delivery of their vehicle. The company has also added instant-share capabilities, leading viewers back to the dealer’s social sites.
The Vboost solution has an app for both iOS and Android.
“The influence of social media on the car-buying process is exploding, which is why I am so excited to launch the next generation of Vboost,” said Paul Moran, Vboost’s chief executive officer.
“Vboost dealers enjoy outstanding share rates and video views through our proactive process," Moran continued. "We bring them more referral business by creating positive viral marketing from customer photos and videos at the time of vehicle delivery. These then get shared by the customer on social media. As our dealers see the huge value of video, they have been asking for more features and options.
"I think our dealers will be very happy with the all-new Vboost," he went on to say.
According to Vboost, up to 25 percent of photo packages convert into online traffic for the dealership.
Through the company’s Vboost Viral Marketing Platform, the company monitors and quantifies results from each viral marketing campaign and reports the info back to its dealers.
For more information about Vboost, you can check them out online here or at the Digital Dealer 19 Conference and Expo from Monday to Wednesday in Las Vegas.
If you’re a franchised dealer, there are four times more independent repair facilities competing for the same customers’ attentions when their vehicle needs service.
That’s according to Xtime’s president Neal East, who says his company’s Marketing 7 solution can help target “lost souls,” or customers who have visited the service department but have not returned in 15 months or more, and bring them back within your walls.
"Opportunities to win back customers are available – it's just a matter of embracing new technology concepts," East said. "At Xtime, we create products that give customers a reason to come back to the dealership for service. What unique differentiators are you offering defected vehicle owners compared to the competition? These are the types of questions dealerships should be asking when targeting lost souls."
According to Xtime, it utilized a six-month period in 2015 to analyze the performance of dealerships using Marketing 7, a component of its Xtime Retention System, to see what kind of effects it had. On average, the dealerships experienced the following, as listed by the company:
· $463 additional customer pay per vehicle
· $7.4 to $1 in customer pay ROI
· 20 recaptured customers per month
· 21 months since last visit
· 25 percent email open-rate
· 1.6 percent email-to-click rate
The Xtime Retention Systems suite of solutions also utilizes Scheduling 7 and Check-In 7, to obviously assist with both customer service scheduling and the check-in process, helping to deliver a consistent customer experience for customers who expect everything to be streamlined in this digital age.
"There are four times more independent repair facilities than there are franchise dealerships, so dealers need to highlight their key differentiators in order to improve customer retention and recapture rates," East said. "With targeted promotions, dealerships can remind vehicle owners that they are the experts on the vehicle, have specialized diagnostic equipment and use genuine parts – all reasons why customers should return to the dealership for maintenance and repair. By aligning marketing, scheduling and check-in together into a comprehensive platform that both customers and dealership personnel can use, Xtime is boosting retention by changing the way vehicle owners view the ownership experience."
For more information on the Xtime Retention System, click here.
While it may seem we’re swimming through a painfully large number of automotive recalls on a daily basis, that doesn’t change the fact that cars simply last longer, on average, than ever before.
This is reflected by the most recent U.S. vehicle registration data from IHS, which shows that the average length of vehicle ownership has hit another all-time high for both used vehicles (63 months) and new vehicles (78 months).
According to Brian Skutta, AutoAlert’s chief executive officer, how long a consumer holds onto their vehicle has a direct impact on the SAAR and is also a key performance indicator for the auto industry.
“To put this in context, the lengthening ownership lifecycle is resulting in consumers buying fewer vehicles over their lifetime, giving dealers fewer opportunities to sell them cars if you wait for them to come to you,” Skutta said.
Via an online survey of over 400 vehicle owners, AutoAlert reached out to get a better idea of where today’s customers could be swayed to get back in the market for a new or new-to-them vehicle.
Here are a few key findings of the study, according to AutoAlert:
- Seventy-five percent of consumers would be very likely or somewhat likely to trade-in their vehicle today if their monthly payment would remain about the same.
- Fourty-nine percent of survey respondents were not aware they were able to upgrade their current vehicle before their loan or lease is at end-of-term.
- Regardless of how long consumers have owned their current vehicle, 63 percent of them would like to upgrade their vehicles every three years or less.
- Dealerships that keep their service customers coming back are smart because 57 percent are very likely or somewhat likely to purchase a new car from the dealership where they service their car.
- Sixty-nine percent of consumer respondents felt it was very important or somewhat important for the place they bought their vehicle to proactively notify them when they are in a position to upgrade their vehicle if it doesn’t impact their monthly car payment.
- More than half of consumers want to be notified about key points in their ownership lifecycle (e.g. warranty is expiring, trade-in value is about to decrease rapidly, before incurring mileage overages on lease, end of contract).
- The three highest motivating factors to buy or lease a new vehicle were:
- 83 percent better fuel-efficiency
- 68 percent too many repairs to be made on current vehicle
- 65 percent additional safety features
“Dealerships find better stewardship of their customer records through data mining, empowering them to disrupt longer trade cycles down to an average of 36 months – a dramatic increase in trade-cycle velocity,” Skutta said. “This type of data-driven engagement with consumers is where dealerships are finding a great return on investment.”
According to the company, out of the more than 400 survey participants, 35 percent were millennials, 31 percent were Generation X and 34 percent were baby boomers.
To check out the full white paper of the results, click here.
CarStory announced on Tuesday that Dealer Car Search has made the Inline CarStory Market Reports available to its dealer-customer subscribers.
According to CarStory, the reports embed important vehicle research directly into a vehicle’s detail page, aiming to keep customers engaged on a dealership’s website. The information in CarStory’s market reports include insights generated from real-time used-vehicle listings and data from over 8 million used-car searches each week.
“We know that time spent on VDPs is a top predictor of sales,” said Chad Bockius, CarStory’s chief marketing officer. “Simply put, the more time car shoppers spend with a dealer’s VDP, the faster a car will sell. This makes keeping consumers on a VDP a key goal for dealers. We are pleased to help Dealer Car Search partner dealerships provide their customers with the vehicle's whole story right on the VDP, keeping them solidly engaged with both vehicle and dealership.”
Rick Wilson, the chief executive officer of Dealer Car Search, says his company is happy to be partnering with CarStory.
“The CarStory reports are unique because they deliver all the data and research a consumer needs right from the VDP, helping increase the dealer’s time-on-site and conversion rate,” Wilson said.
For more information about CarStory, visit its site here.
Dodge, in partnership with the well-known actor Danny Trejo, have organized a campaign that not only aims to boost test drives at several of its southern California locations, but will also give back to a worthy cause fitting to the locale.
Via its “It’ll Test You” Hispanic marketing campaign, Dodge and Trejo have partnered with the A Walk On Water nonprofit organization, pledging up to $25,000 in donations, for the latter’s contributions of “surf therapy” for children with special needs.
Following Dodge’s $20,000 initial donation to AWOW last week, the automaker will contribute another $50 for each test drive taken, up to an additional $5,000, during its following events between Thursday and Tuesday.
"We always knew that Danny Trejo's tough persona, strong character and perfect mix of both muscle and fun made him the ideal spokesperson for Dodge's 'It'll Test You' campaign, as he epitomizes the irreverence and dare-to-be-different attitude of the Dodge brand," said Juan Torres, head of multicultural advertising, FCA US LLC. "We learned about the other side of Danny when we met him – his philanthropic work and his passion for A Walk on Water – which made it easy for Dodge and our dealers to support Danny in his efforts to generate awareness and funds for this wonderful organization."
Here’s the schedule for upcoming “It’ll Test You” test drives in southern California in the next week:
· 2-7 p.m., Thursday, September 24 at Champion Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram of Downey, 9655 Firestone Blvd.
· 3-8 p.m., Friday, September 25 at Premier Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram of West Covina, 298 N. Azusa Ave.
· 3-8 p.m., Monday, September 28 at Van Nuys Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram, 6110-6114 Van Nuys Blvd.
· 3-8 p.m., Tuesday, September 29 at Alhambra Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram, 1100 W. Main Street
Test-drive participants will also receive two free tickets to the Supersonico festival on October 3, which Dodge is a title sponsor, at the Hollywood Palladium in L.A.
For more information about A Walk On Water, visit its site here.
CarMax already has high-profile partnerships with a pair of professional football teams — the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos. On Monday, CarMax ventured in the college gridiron ranks with a new partnership with the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
As part of the multi-year sponsorship agreement through Learfield Sports' Gopher Sports Properties, CarMax is now the official used car retailer of the team. CarMax will receive extensive branding within TCF Bank Stadium and the surrounding footprint, as well as media, digital and social elements throughout the football and basketball seasons.
“The Minnesota Golden Gophers are an integral part of the community, and we are looking forward to a great partnership as we look to expand our overall presence in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area,” CarMax chief marketing officer Jim Lyski said.
“Our focus will be to use this partnership to better serve our customers and fans of the Golden Gophers,” Lyski said.
Like its partnerships with the professional teams, CarMax also is using its relationship with the Golden Gophers to conduct the promotion, the Bright Side of Game Day. The campaign will give fans the chance to win VIP packages to home games by sharing via Instagram how they are enjoying the Bright Side of Game Day using the #GophersBrightSide.
The promotion will also come to life through a fireworks display, a first for the Gophers, following a home game this season.
Additionally, CarMax will partner with the Gophers on their Military Appreciation Day on Oct. 17 to honor local members of the military.
“This partnership and consumer activation is just one way CarMax is hoping to connect more with our consumers and share our stress-free, transparent and fun process with them,” Lyski said.
Minnesota director of athletics Beth Goetz added, “We are pleased to welcome CarMax as the official used car retailer of Golden Gopher athletics,”
“This partnership offers us another vehicle through which to serve local Minnesota communities as well as fun promotional opportunities for our fans through a new consumer promotion, The Bright Side of Game Day,” Goetz went on to say.
CarMax recently signed marketing partnership with Tom Brady’s football team, the New England Patriots. Now the company expanded its relationship with Peyton Manning’s gridiron squad, the Denver Broncos.
CarMax highlighted the enhanced partnership with the Denver Broncos now includes extensive branding presence within Sports Authority Field at Mile High as well as media, digital and social elements.
"Denver is an important market for CarMax and partnering with the hometown Denver Broncos will allow us to provide added value to our customers and jointly drive brand awareness for both entities,” CarMax chief marketing officer Jim Lyski said.
“As a proud partner of the Denver Broncos, our focus will be to use this partnership to better serve fans by adding value to their relationship with the team,” Lyski contined.
CarMax has had a presence in the Denver market since 2012 and now has a total of four locations: Loveland, Parker, Littleton, and Federal Heights.
Like its marketing plan with the Patriots, CarMax will bring a new consumer promotion to Broncos fans this year called The Bright Side of Game Day. Fans are encouraged to post photos on Instagram of how they are enjoying the Bright Side of Game Day using the #BroncosBrightSide for a chance to win a VIP package to a Broncos home game.
Last year, the CarMax Foundation and the Broncos worked together to build a playground at the Rocky Mountain Communities at Garden Court to help bring more than 400 kids in the Denver neighborhood one step closer to having the playful childhood they deserve.
On Tuesday, the Broncos will join the CarMax Foundation to build a second KaBOOM playground to replace 20-year-old play structures at the Tennyson Center for Children, bringing a safe place to play for kids who are survivors of abuse or neglect, or have significant mental health or developmental issues.
“At CarMax, we pride ourselves on giving back to the communities where we live and work,” Lyski said. “Partnering with the Denver Broncos on community efforts is just one way our associates are able to continue making a positive difference in the community.”
Derek Thomas is director of corporate partnerships for Denver Broncos.
“We are happy to announce our expanded partnership with CarMax for the upcoming season,” Thomas said. “CarMax shares our focus on providing fans and customers a first-class experience, whether it be at Sports Authority Field at Mile High or at a CarMax store here in the Denver area.
“We look forward to joining forces on community initiatives to help give back to the Denver community,” he added.
DealerRater.com broke its monthly record in August, reporting nearly 60,000 consumer review submissions to the site last month.
The total number of reviews for August, coming in at 59,814, represented a 69-percent increase over August 2014’s results.
“August was our biggest month ever for submitted reviews,” said Gary Tucker, the company’s chief executive officer. “The dramatic increase in reviews submitted to DealerRater.com reflects how consumers are embracing third-party reviews during the shopping process and sharing their experiences afterwards. DealerRater is meeting a consumer need, not unlike how Twitter and Facebook have shaped the way people share information with one another.”
According to the company, the sharp increase in submitted reviews is partly due to products like ReviewBuilder, which is part of its DealerRater Certified Dealer Program suite, and LotShot, a photo review application. DealerRater’s partnership with Autotrader also allows site visitors the ability to read and write DealerRater reviews.
The company also recently announced a partnership (coined as the Hyundai Advantage Program) between J.D. Power, DealerRater and Hyundai North America, that invites new Hyundai owners to review their dealer on the site. According to the company, the program has delivered its dealers a 366-percent increase in submitted reviews since January.
According to Tucker, every review is reviewed to be certain it’s been submitted by an actual person.
“Our reviews average more than 100 words, so people are telling a story that will help interested shoppers make a connection with a dealer and an employee at that dealership, and select the best dealership and salesperson for them,” Tucker said. “DealerRater.com specializes in one industry — automotive — making for an exceptional customer experience for those writing and reading reviews about car dealers. We recently surpassed 2 million reviews and expect to reach 3 million sometime next year.”
Going by DealerRater’s numbers, the site averages 2,000 reviews a day. For more information, visit the company’s site here.
There’s a growing understanding within the dealer community that social media advertising is a worthwhile endeavor with benefits to reap. Unfortunately, the social media ad space can be a bit tricky to navigate for many just starting out.
Dominion Dealer Solutions, however, says its new tool can help facilitate those social media vehicle sales.
DDS, the creators of Prime Response, a social media and reputation management platform, announced Monday the launch of its Social Ad Management (SAM) solution for dealers across the country.
“Dominion’s Social Ad Management attracts non-declared shoppers in the same way as TV and radio, but with the hyper-targeting and measurable ROI that only Facebook can offer,” said Michael Sos, DDS’ program manager. “Dealers have accepted the need for social media but have begged for a way to monetize it – to truly sell cars with it. That day has come.”
The goal of SAM is to drive non-declared shopper traffic to the vehicle description pages on a dealer’s website.
SAM automatically catalogs a dealer’s inventory information from its website and combines it with Facebook advertising with streamlining the entire ad process in mind.
According to the company, SAM uses SiteLink to automatically pull all VDP and associated metadata from a dealership’s website. The solution catalogs each unique VIN image and subheader from every VDP within the Prime Response content library to form potential ad posts.
Via direct integration, SAM manages social ads and their associated ad spend directly from the Primary Response platform. The program measures consumer activity in a variety of metrics, including social-to-site traffic all the way down to the VDP.
For more information on what DDS calls a “one-stop shop” for social media ad management, visit its site here.
It appears as though OEMs and dealers may be missing some potential co-op marketing opportunities to reach the same potential customers.
That’s according to Netsertive’s recent survey findings in “Kick Automotive Co-Op Into High Gear: Optimizing OEM Dollars for Video and Mobile Marketing,” which shows the discrepancy where dealers and OEMs prefer to spend their advertising dollars.
“While the automotive industry is known as an early adopter of leading-edge digital marketing trends, our research found that many manufacturers and their local dealers aren’t fully utilizing today’s most impactful online media — mobile and digital video,” said Brendan Morrissey, Netsertive’s chief executive officer and co-founder. “Despite the fact that dealers depend on these channels to drive customers through their doors, the majority of manufacturers’ co-op programs don’t fully support them, representing a huge missed opportunity for automotive brands.”
That research developed in partnership with Borrell Associates, based on insight gathered from automotive manufacturers and over 50 of the top franchised automotive dealers nationwide, points to the opportunity for all parties involved to learn from one another and save some coin.
“There’s a clear opportunity for OEMs to learn from dealers, and vice-versa, to strengthen marketing plans,” said Gordon Borrell, the chief executive officer of Borrell Associates. “What surprised me — and I’m sure will surprise OEMs — is that more dealers now view TV commercials as less effective than digital video advertising or TV and digital combined. I think it’s curious that 90 percent of Tier II dollars continue to be spent with traditional media, which is wildly out of step with where car buyers are looking.”
Here are a few more key findings from the report, as listed by Netsertive in the report:
- Automotive co-op advertising is thriving – accounting for more than 50 percent of dealer marketing budgets – but most aren’t satisfied with these programs. While automotive co-op advertising programs boast almost 100 percent utilization by dealers, 65 percent describe their relationship with manufacturers as “complex,” while 43 percent consider it “frustrating.” Too many rules and restrictions and too much paperwork are dealers’ chief gripes.
- Dealers are driving the automotive industry’s digital transformation. A full 90 percent of dealers buy online media via co-op programs, focusing primarily on paid search (77 percent), search and display/targeted display (54 percent) and search re-targeting (52 percent). Conversely, automotive manufacturers report that they still favor traditional media for promoting their brands – television, in particular – over digital channels.
- Mobile advertising is underutilized in automotive co-op programs. While two-thirds (74 percent) of dealers feel mobile advertising is important to their co-op marketing efforts and 57 percent place mobile media among their top three most effective marketing strategies, less than a third (29 percent) of manufacturers provide co-op support of mobile.
- Mobile adoption is high among dealers, but strategic understanding is needed. A full 65 percent of dealers currently utilize mobile marketing, mostly in the form of mobile-optimized websites and mobile search advertising (57 percent). Still, 68 percent of dealers consider their use and knowledge of mobile advertising to be competent or neutral, signaling a need for further education.
- Auto manufacturers are missing an opportunity in digital video. While 61 percent of dealers use video in online advertisements, only 34 percent of manufacturers support the use of digital video with co-op funds.
- Traditional broadcast spend is declining in favor of digital video. One-third of dealers (31 percent) expect to decrease their spend on traditional television advertising in favor of digital video, while only 15 percent expect to spend more on broadcast television next year.
- Manufacturers are missing a major Millennial targeting opportunity in local markets. While 52 percent of dealers report that sales to Millennials comprised up to 40 percent of 2015 sales, an increase over the previous year, only 20 percent of manufacturers currently offer co-op advertising aimed at targeting this group.
A copy of the full report can be viewed here. Stay tuned for future print and digital editions of Auto Remarketing as we delve further into this topic with the digital marketing experts at Netsertive.
