Loyalty marketing event company Shift Marketing Studio — which specializes in campaigns targeted to franchised dealers — announced it has expanded its portfolio with new marketing solutions.
The company said the enhanced version of its Upgrade Sale platform is available, as well as its new product, Community Countdown, a conquest marketing solution.
The new version of Upgrade Sale has been expanded to include more variable data and images, which the company says results in a more personalized customer experience.
Through the product, once a customer accesses the event registration using a unique promo code, the site will show the latest model of the shopper’s vehicle, in an effort to encourage an upgrade to the current year model.
The new product, Community Countdown, is a multi-channel conquest marketing product that works to combine digital and traditional marketing components, and aims to garner an increases number of impressions.
The company also pointed out that Community Countdown uses the same back-end functionality of the company’s other solutions, which makes it easier for customers to integrate the new offering into their sales process.
Community Countdown is a multi-channel conquest marketing product that marries digital marketing elements with traditional marketing components, resulting in an increased number of impressions. Furthermore, Community Countdown uses the same back end functionality of other Shift Marketing solutions, making it easy for customers to integrate this new offering into their sales process.
“Shift Marketing’s success can be attributed to our team of experts who have used their extensive experience and knowledge along with feedback from customers to create leading edge solutions for the automotive dealer franchise market,” stated David Briand, chief executive officer of Shift Marketing Studio. “As a customer focused company, these new loyalty marketing offerings combine our expertise with the valuable feedback we have received from our partner dealers.”
Scott Scobie, general manager of Airport Ford Lincoln, gave some insight into his experience with the Shift Marketing products.
“We’ve done a number of events with the team from Shift Marketing Studio. The Upgrade Sale has always generated a ton of great leads and has helped us sell more cars and trucks,” he said. “We’re really excited about the new product offerings like the ‘Ford Employee Pricing’ Loyalty Event! We are most definitely looking forward to our next campaign.”
The next version of the Upgrade Sale and the Community Countdown solution are available now. More information, can be found here.
Marketing and advertising solutions provider Jumpstart Automotive Group announced the official launch of its group in Canada on Wednesday.
Labeled as the Jumpstart Automotive Group Canada, the announcement coincided with the group’s further announcement of its exclusive advertising partnership with Canadian Black Book.
"We are thrilled to launch Jumpstart Automotive Group Canada,” said Choon Choi, senior vice president, strategy and business development at Jumpstart. “We see a tremendous opportunity to help automotive marketers connect with in-market car shoppers and to bring our portfolio of trusted brands to the second-largest audience in North America. We are proud to represent CanadianBlackBook.com, one of the most recognized and respected auto research sites in Canada."
Brad Rome, Canadian Black Book’s president, commented on the partnership.
"Jumpstart is an expert at developing innovative, high-performance marketing programs for automotive advertisers,” Rome said. “When this expertise and innovation is combined with our unique vehicle valuation offering, both consumers and advertisers will benefit. This will strengthen our mission to deliver the tools and information to help consumers make a smart and informed vehicle purchase decision."
Adding Canadian Black Book, Jumpstart's combined audience eclipses four million unique visitors. The Canadian group will be headquartered in Toronto with its new head of sales, Justin Oborne, who joins Jumpstart from TC Media, where he served as the director of business development.
"Based on my experience in both the U.S. and Canadian market, I'm excited – and honored – to take what is already a successful U.S. company and help Canadian marketers sell more cars," Oborne said.
A division of Hearst Magazines, Jumpstart’s scope includes names such as Car and Driver, Canadian Black Book, U.S. News Best Cars, NADAguides, J.D. Power Autos, Autobytel, Daily News Autos, CarGurus, LeftLane, CarSoup and CarBuzz.
For more information, visit the JAGC website here.
CarProof Corp., makers of vehicle history reports, announced Wednesday the addition of easy to read badges to its reports as an attempt to improve readability and simplify transparency.
The new badges aim to make it easy for car buyers to identify key attributes they may be looking for in a used vehicle, examples being accident free or one-owner vehicles.
“In numerous recent studies, consumers rated previous accident information as mission critical to the used-car research process,” said Ed Woiteshek, CarProof’s president and chief executive officer. “Used-car buyers want information they can digest in a single glance that is easy to understand. With these badges, shoppers can tell right away if the vehicle they’re looking at has the features that matter to them. Our hope is that this will change the way consumers use our reports and search for cars online.”
According to the company, another aim of the badging is to make it as clear as possible to consumers that the dealers who use the history reports value transparency and deserve their trust. The badges began to appear on CarProof’s vehicle history reports on Wednesday, with the future option for opportunities to digitally integrate badges into online vehicle listings at a future date.
For more information about CarProof, visit its site here.
OMVIC announced today the beginning of its four-week campaign to spread awareness of all-in price advertising for car buyers in Ontario.
Terry O’Keefe, OMVIC’s director of communications and education, says there is a surprisingly low amount of awareness of the policy in the region.
“Only 29 percent of Ontarians know that if they see a dealer’s advertised price for a vehicle, that price must include all fees and charges the dealer intends to collect,” O’Keefe said. “This campaign is designed to further educate and inform, because better-educated consumers are better-protected consumers.”
As illustrated in the above video advertisement, OMVIC’s campaign message is “all-in pricing – it’s putting the fun and excitement back into buying a car … and, it’s the law!” OMVIC’s campaign includes online, radio and TV advertising across the entire province of Ontario, including all major television networks such as CBC, CityTV, CTV and Global.
O’Keefe, long an advocate for the policy, continues to explain the Ontarian policy as simply as possible.
“There should be no additional hidden fees or added surprise costs, with the exception of HST and licensing,” O’Keefe said.
For a complete explanation on Ontario’s all-in pricing protection legislation, check out OMVIC’s site here.
If done properly, email marketing is more effective than any other marketing channel available. And automotive dealers have the number one ingredient that makes email so effective at driving response — valuable information.
But it’s not enough to just provide information if you want to see real results. You must follow a few key best practices.
1. Build your permission-based list.
Effective email marketing starts with a great list — one garnered from people you know or have met and who have given you permission to send them emails. If you do not have permission from your existing contacts, make a concerted effort to get consent. The new Canada anti-spam law which went into effect in July 2014 requires it. But the issue of permission is more than a legal one — a permission based list produces results. It is better to have a list of 300 contacts who have given consent than a list of 20,000 who have not — the list of 300 will pull well for you. Counterintuitive, but true.
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2. Use the right tool.
If you are going to shift your results or effectively begin using email in your marketing toolkit, then you are going to need the right tool. Many people think they could just use their regular email program, such as Outlook, Gmail or whatever. You could; but you would be limiting the success of your email marketing campaigns. What you really need is an email service provider, which is designed for running email campaigns, not sending individual emails.
It will provide you with the ability to track your emails and see who opened them, who forwarded them, which links they clicked on, and whether they share your emails. So start out right with the right tools.
3. Plan your content – but watch regulations.
In your conversations with car shoppers, you get a sense of things that influences their purchasing decisions. For example, a growing family may be looking for a larger vehicle with more safety features, or a recent grad may be challenged with financial restrictions that influence their decision to buy new or used, or to buy or lease a vehicle.
You can address those needs in the articles and stories you write. But be careful about industry regulations or guidelines with the OEM/parent company you represent. If you cannot talk about specific scenarios, then touch on the concerns they have without offering advice. What is of value to potential clients is what you can do for them, so do what you can to ensure the content of your emails address those issues in some way.
4. Know what action you want your audience to take.
At its core, any marketing is about trying to drive a physical, measurable response. That might be a click, a reply, a call, a purchase, or even a referral – these are responses to your message. So in doing your email marketing campaigns, you need to think through what action you would like people to take.
Obviously you would like them to ultimately make an appointment and purchase a vehicle, but it won’t always happen that way, so think through interim steps in getting to the sale. If you could get someone to download information, for example, top 10 things to watch out for when buying a used vehicle, you could call them and book an appointment, knowing what they are interested in. So plan for the response you want.
5. Check your frequency.
Be careful about the frequency of the emails you send. No one wants to be continually hit with sales pitches, but a newsletter once a month is usually well received. Segment your list. Often dividing your list and sending different messages to different segments is the right way to reach the exact people you are interested in contacting, without over-communicating to your audience.
6. Review the results — analytics provide real sales information.
Email works best over time, but it requires that you look at the analytics on each campaign. From a marketing perspective, use the information to evolve the content, calls-to-action, and layout in subsequent campaigns based on response. But when you put your sales hat on, you can use the same metrics for different reasons; email open rates and frequency of opens are possible indications of level of interest and email clickthroughs show what their needs may be. It might be worth a conversation with them.
Lisa Kember is the regional development director for Constant Contact in Canada East. She and her team teach best practices for engagement marketing using email, social media and online marketing.
Lisa is featured in the latest episode of Pistons & Pixels, the digital marketing Web series for automotive dealers. In this 4-minute episode, Lisa discusses how an effective email marketing program can help dealers target customers, increase their brand awareness and gain a competitive edge. To watch this episode and to learn more, visit www.pistonsandpixels.com.
Dealertrack Technologies’ TradeTracker Used Vehicle Market Report reflected another solid month for trucks in Canada for the month of May, with the Ford F-150 continuing to top the charts as the vehicle most appraised overall at dealerships across the country, perpetuating three-month and year-long trends.
Another interesting angle, from that of the report’s brand of the month – Chrysler – is the vehicle most looked at by trade-in customers at Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealerships in Canada: the RAM 1500.
So what’s the deal with trucks? Auto Remarketing Canada reached out to a few Canadian dealers to see if they could provide some context.
Jim Williamson, the general manager and dealer principle for Williamson Chrysler in Uxbridge, Ontario, shed some light on the situation.
“It’s been a strong trend over the last few consecutive years of year-over-year growth in the truck segment,” Williamson said. “If you look back over the past 10 plus years, trucks have come a long way in technology, comfort, fuel economy and consumer acceptance.”
Williamson — a member of Auto Remarketing Canada's inaugural 40 Under 40 class — also says that part of the growth in the truck market comes from the increased stabilization of the Canadian economy. While many trucks are sought after for business use, the Uxbridge native says that the appeal is for more than just work.
“The other 85 percent of this market swing to trucks is the culture factor. More and more people are driving trucks because they fit all levels of lifestyles, from young families buying crew cabs and young buyers buying these trucks to lift and accessorize to baby boomers who are retired and driving trucks due to the level of utility it gives them,” Williamson said. “The typical truck of today is what a car was 15 years ago, good on fuel, provides great comfort and the doors are wide open for what you can use it for.”
As far as the used market is concerned, Williamson says his dealership sees quite a few trucks come back as trade-ins and that their demand remains strong.
“From the dealer side they are a very easy vehicle to convince your customer to trade due to the strong value they hold,” Williamson said. “I don’t know the statistics, but I believe trucks are usually some of the best product we have as used-car dealers. What I mean by that is the market seems to have a shorter trade-in cycle on used trucks, giving them lower mileage and better condition.”
There does appear to be one limitation to truck sales, though: they tend to sell primarily to customers in rural areas of the country.
“I believe the large number are from rural areas,” Williamson said. “I think as our urban areas grow and extra stress is put onto these major areas they are not designed for the truck lifestyle. Parking is an issue as well (as) the high traffic levels. It forces people to look past the truck to something that is easier to operate in those areas.”
That trend is reflected in May’s TradeTracker report, as the F-150 is followed by a host of smaller vehicles, including the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic sedan, Mazda Mazda3 and Ford Escape as the most-appraised vehicles in Canada.
Following year-long trends, the F-150 remained the domestic vehicle most appraised by domestic dealers, the Corolla held its spot as the import vehicle most appraised by import dealers, the Escape maintained its position as the domestic vehicle most appraised by import dealers, while the Mazda3 continued to be the import vehicle most appraised by domestic dealers.
As for Chrysler, the TradeTracker brand of the month, the off-make vehicle most appraised at Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge stores for the month of May, continuing a year-long trend, was — surprise — the F-150.
In a two-part series, Auto Remarketing Canada covers the impact millennials are having on the automotive marketing landscape. What has changed? What still rings true?
Digital marketing experts, dealers and industry analysts discuss how best to reach and engage with a younger audience. Part I covered changes in motives for car purchases as well as meeting millennials where they are on the Web.
The second portion of the feature focuses on the importance of transparency to the younger generations, as well as what in-car technology is most attractive to millennials.
Lastly, Auto Remarketing Canada takes a look at how millennials are shifting marketing strategies for dealers and OEMs.
The Importance of Transparency
For millennials, the old adage, “If you always tell the truth, you never have to be afraid of getting caught in a lie,” rings particularly true.
That’s according to Michael Wyant, general sales manager at Vaughn Wyant Automotive Group and Auto Remarketing Canada dealer of the year, who said he uses that phrase often with his staff in regards to marketing.
“When you are selling a used vehicle, for example, there is no hiding anything. If it’s been in an accident, it’s been in an accident. And if you don’t disclose it and they find out, they (millennials) will absolutely scorch you in the social media world,” said Wyant.
Dealerships now have to be more upfront, which means everything from sharpening internal appraisal logistics, to marketing vehicles.
“Working with millennials requires 100-percent disclosure, and insuring that if you have an angry customer that contacts your or they do slash you online, in any sort of medium, you have to solve the problem,” Wyant said. “Some problems can’t be solved, but most problems can, and we have to make sure that we immediately put forth the effort to solve the problem to get a more positive outcome and review online.”
Many shoppers rely completely on referrals these days, which has changed the marketing game and shifted the social media tide.
Norman Hebert, vice president of corporate development at Groupe Park Avenue, contends millennials simply do not want to deal with negotiation — which ties into price transparency, as well.
“That is just something that has been easily taken out of their everyday life, just because of access to information,” he said. “And coming into a car dealership and having all this confusion around where a car could be priced at, it’s a bit confusing for them,” said Hebert.
“More transparency on the showroom floor is going to be really, really important,” Hebert said.
Hebert explained transparency on dealership websites is particularly important, and tricky calls-to-action can deter millennials.
“When a millennial clicks on check availability on your website, he or she expects not to see a form where they have to put in their name, they expect to see yes or no and how many,” said Hebert. “So, I think we need to be a bit cautious in what we are asking people to convert on.”
Remember those old contact form leads that had over 10 fields to fill out? Scrap those, or don’t make all questions required information.
And above all, don’t request information the millennial shopper hasn’t volunteered.
For example, if a millennial-age shopper submits a contact form and doesn’t give a phone number, it makes little to no sense to email them asking for their phone number.
“I don’t care if the communication is a Facebook message, an email, a Twitter message, or whatever, you just have to provide what the customer wants; because if you don’t provide it, you are not satisfying the customer experience and what their current expectations are,” said Wyant. “They have changed a lot, even in the last two or three years. It is dramatically different, and we have to accommodate people. Otherwise, they aren’t going to buy anything from us.”
Technology, Value Top of Mind
With the millennial generation, there are features that go far beyond racing to the bottom of the price barrel that will attract a potential sale.
Now, it’s more about why the product is better, said Wyant, and it revolves primarily around the demographic of vehicle buyers.
“The new Mercedes CLA buyer is going to respond a lot to that technological value-driven proposition a lot, where for people leaning toward a Mercedes ML, it’s a different message that you put out there,” said Wyant. “You really gear your marketing tactics toward that specific vehicle’s demographics, and you look at any of the stuff that appeals to the millennial demographic.”
For example, focusing on the technology side of the value proposition, rather than a more conventional price-based, conventional approach.
“This has been particularly popular with younger shoppers,” Wyant added.
Hebert proposed dealers focus on content regarding total cost-of-ownership and sales transparency in the car-selling process for this age group.
And when it comes to vehicle features, technology is always a draw for the younger crowd.
“They are interested in whether their smartphones connect well with their vehicles,” said Hebert. “And if you touch on this on-the-go lifestyle in some of your marketing videos, you will get some good hits with that kind of content.”
And millennials’ obsession with tech doesn’t fade away when they enter the dealership.
Initiatives from manufacturers to aid in ramping up tech in-stores, such as tablets for salespeople, have grown considerably over the last few years.
And at VWAG dealerships, Wyant said all sales staff have tablets, and Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Porsche, offer applications for the customers to use.
VWAG dealerships also tout flat-screen TVs that run a similar type of application, but through what Wyant called a “customer build center.”
“There is a customer lounger where you can build your vehicle on a big-screen TV, as opposed to even sitting at a desk an doing it on a computer with a salesperson. So it is a lot more interactive, 360-degree views of vehicles, changing colors, everything is real time, and the experience for the customer has been fantastic,” said Wyant.
Millennials Shifting Dealership Marketing Strategies
Many analysts agree that these days, marketing to millennials should be focused on the tier-one manufacturer level.
According to Wyant, most Gen Y shoppers have most likely already selected the vehicle they want before leaving the house, mostly via perusing OEM websites and automaker advertising and information.
Gone are the days of running newspaper ads and slashing your prices for Saturday-only sales.
“We haven’t been in the newspaper for over a year, and our business has not been affected in a negative way whatsoever except reducing our budget,” said Wyant. “You really have to look at what consumers want today. They want value, and they want to associate with a brand that they can relate to. That’s the responsibility on a tier one level.”
According to Wyant, the responsibility on a tier-three dealer level is to make sure dealerships have the right inventory marketed online.
“When the customer gets to the dealership website in that particular part of the purchase funnel, and they find the dealership has an optimal online experience, then they will be much more likely to connect directly with the store,” Wyant said.
“A responsive, optimized website saves customers time; that’s the most important thing these days. They walk into your dealership, and they know what they want,” Wyant continued. “There is no point in putting them through your typical eight-step selling process that we might have done 10 years ago.”
Millennials expect the process to be sped up, and this shift has changed dealership marketing tactics dramatically.
“Make sure the content on the website is current and detailed and relevant. So that when somebody does find you, they have a great experience online, which would then convert them into a showroom prospect and hopefully a sale,” Wyant concluded.
It goes without saying these days, the millennial shopper is searching for an optimal digital experience, which is important across all channels.
Hebert said dealerships also have to ensure the transition for shoppers from mobile to desktop must be smooth and fluid.
For example, millennial consumers expect to be able to save information and vehicles on their mobile and be able to transfer that information over to their desktop browser.
Hebert noted another important piece of the marketing puzzle for millennial shoppers is word-of-mouth.
“And word-of-mouth can come through channels like Facebook or online reviews, or simply through the traditional form of vocal communication,” said Hebert.
There is no disputing millennials are primarily searching for vehicles in the digital space. And transparency both in-store and online will continue to become more and more important as the generation continues to change the automotive buying and selling landscape.
In a two-part series, Auto Remarketing Canada covers the impact millennials are having on the automotive marketing landscape. What has changed? What still rings true?
Digital marketing experts, dealers and industry analysts discuss how best to reach and engage with a younger audience. Part I will cover changes in motives for car purchases as well as meeting millennials where they are on the Web.
When asked how the millennial generation has changed the game for automotive dealers, Michael Wyant — general sales manager at Vaughn Wyant Automotive Group and Auto Remarketing Canada's 2015 Dealer of the Year — said dealers are basically playing a whole different sport.
“There are so many ways to reach out to these people. I think the biggest thing for us is whatever medium you find effective in driving traffic to our site, you must make sure that the site itself is user-friendly, it’s optimized, and it’s self-responsive, so that when somebody goes onto it they have a great experience,” said Wyant. “There are thousands of ways to drive traffic to your site, but the challenge is once they get there, do they want to stay there?”
According to research shared with Auto Remarketing Canada by Kevin Gordon, co-founder and managing partner at Convertus, by the year 2025, generation Y is expected to account for 75 percent of all vehicles purchased.
“The question is, will they purchase from you?” asks Gordon.
Times Change, And So Do Motives
Times change, and so do shoppers’ reasons for making large purchases — including that of buying their first vehicle.
Norman Hebert, vice president of corporate development at Groupe Park Avenue, said one of the first things his dealer group noticed about millennials is they certainly may not want to buy a car the same way their parents did — or for the same reasons.
For example, the classic parent of a millennial may have been quick to get their driver’s license when they turned 16, so they could purchase a car, and in doing so, their freedom.
On the other hand, “when we think about millennials, we think of them looking at the car as perhaps more of a utility tool rather than that purely emotional, ‘I can’t wait to have a car feeling,’” Hebert said.
Since these purchases are more often logical than emotional, Herbert said price begins to come into play, as well.
“I think we see that millennials may have a budget to buy a new car, especially with interesting prices in some of the entry-level cars, like the Nissan Micra, etc. However, they may not want to allocate that much into buying cars. Therefore, the pre-owned space becomes even more important,” said Hebert.
Meeting Millennials Where They Are
There are still a variety of opinions spanning the gamut on dealership involvement in social media. That said, Wyant said there is one thing for sure: you must have a presence on social media and maintain a good reputation.
The most important thing on social media — well, being social, of course.
Wyant said the focus should be on relevant and entertaining content — not on selling cars and posting inventory — and the content you are pushing out on Facebook or Instagram has to be into people are interested in and connect with emotionally.
Dealers have the option of utilizing an emotional approach, but they also can employ their connection to their communities.
“On social media, you are going to be planting seeds in people’s minds as to why you are a good business to buy a car from, and hopefully sometime, when they get to the right phase of the purchase funnel, you are going to pop up in their brains because of something you have done in the social digital world as opposed to an ad that you put in the newspaper,” Wyant explained.
For millennials, their purchases often reflect their images, and this includes vehicles.
“Millennial buyers want to be able to relate to the person they will eventually be doing business with, and they would probably rather do business with someone who has similar values that are aligned with theirs,” Hebert said.
At Groupe Park Avenue, the dealer group uses its social media platforms to not only share relevant content about the industry or about vehicles and remodels, but also as a great avenue to share community involvement and charitable work, and as a way to get some of the more relational content in front of shoppers.
Gordon also pointed out millennial shoppers rely heavily on third-party review websites to help them make educated purchasing decisions — in other words, online reputation is key.
Do you know how many reviews your dealership has on Google? Have you taken the time to respond to each review, whether it is positive or negative?
“If you have negative reviews on any of these sites, it’s important to respond to those people and show them you not only hear them, but that you care about them,” said Gordon. “It’s also equally important for you to show the rest of the world that you stand care about your customers and are willing do what it takes to turn negative experiences into positive ones.”
Which review sites are most important? In priority order: Google, Yelp, Facebook and DealerRater, according to Gordon.
One way Wyant says his dealership grows their online reputation is through store promotions — but the dealer group enlists outside help, as well.
When VWAG does promotions that are geared toward the millennial generation, the dealer group utilizes connections with local media companies that can help get the message out to a broader audience, and this includes social media in a big way, Wyant said.
While as the dealer group may have a couple thousand likes on Facebook or a couple hundred Twitter followers, Wyant says that’s not enough to get your message out there.
“We have done promotions combined with local radio stations that have reach in our marketplace and that gets the word out there to potential customers, and to people following the promotions on your social media platforms,” said Wyant.
“Because we don’t have the cool factor that a pop radio station might have, we have had success doing promotions in partnerships with other local companies, such as radio, that would have a further reach,” Wyant concluded.
Stay tuned to Auto Remarketing Canada for Part II of our marketing to millennials feature series.
Dealertrack Technologies’ TradeTracker Used Vehicle Market Report for the month of April was recently released, reflecting another month of trade-in consistency for Canadian dealers.
The Ford F-150 was once again the overall most-appraised vehicle in Canada, followed by the Toyota Corolla and the Honda Civic sedan, all following three-month and year-long trends. The Ford Escape and Mazda Mazda3 rounded out the top five.
The F-150 remains the domestic vehicle most appraised by domestic dealers. The Corolla was the top import vehicle most appraised by import dealers while the Escape was the domestic vehicle most appraised by import dealers. The Mazda3 also remained in its place as the top import vehicle appraised by domestic dealers. All four of these vehicles repeated three-month and year-long trends.
As for vehicles most looked at by trade-in owners, the Escape reclaimed its position as the domestic vehicle most looked at by import owners. The rest of the stats mirrored last-month's results.
The TradeTracker brand of the month, Hyundai, reflected many of these consistencies. The Mazda3 was the off-make vehicle most appraised by Hyundai dealers, followed by the Ford Focus and the Civic sedan. Trade-in customers visiting Hyundai dealers in Canada were most interested in Hyundai’s Elantra, Tuscon, and Santa Fe, respectively.
As more and more car shoppers turn to the Web for their car-shopping needs — on a myriad of mobile devices — consumer data is becoming increasingly more important to successfully target and attract these potential customers.
Robert Rath, vice president of dealership products and business development at TRADER Corp., touched on this very issue at last week’s Auto Remarketing Canada Conference.
His presentation, titled, “Beating the Odds: How to Win with Consumers in the Digital Age,” focused on how consumer data can help you better connect with future buyers and figure out what consumers are looking for.
Auto Remarketing Canada caught up with Rath after his presentation at last week’s event, for a little more insight into why live market data is one of the “keys” for dealers looking to configure the right lot stock in relation to seasonality, geography and more.
Rath said compiling and studying consumer data or “big data” helps dealers figure out “what is going on in there market and helps to make sure they are pricing in line with their particular locale.”
Consumer data also comes into play when in merchandising and can help you figure out what cars shoppers are looking for in your area. But the work doesn’t end there.
“We know that good photos, good descriptions, and good video drive consumer conversion. Really, it’s a discipline thing — you have to do it for every car, not just half the cars,” Rath said.
Lastly, consumer data tells you where consumers are and what devices they are using.
“So, if you’re not in a mobile ready website, consumers are not going to find you when they are out and about,” Rath added.
Rising Above Competition
Another key element from Rath’s presentation was how to “beat the odds,” or rise above competition online.
In this market, digital marketing can help dealers of all sizes — Rath likened it to a “David and Goliath analogy” — regardless of size, dealerships can stand out if they play their digital cards right.
“So, the trick is how you make your message relevant to the consumer, and how you make sure your website and digital marketing efforts stand out,” said Rath.
He explained it’s all about using those digital marketing tools, and using them right.
“A consumer will respond to a well-timed offer or a well-timed point-of entry message, regardless of whether it’s from a small or large dealership,” Rath said.
“What does that mean to me? It means that in terms of beating the odds, it’s about recognizing that big data is there, and it’s not going away; recognizing that you have the tools and capability to deal with it,” said Rath.
But if you are a smaller dealership, consumer data may be a hard beast to tackle, because you may not have a full-time marketing manager.
Then, “beating the odds” might be more about choosing partners.
“Same as you wouldn’t design a house without an architect, because it’s complicated. Digital marketing is in some degrees very similar. It is about what channel to use in a fragmented market, and which message should go to the consumer, and partners can help with that,” Rath said. “It’s about the tools you use, the support you have for those tools, and which partners you use.”
Coming ‘Back to the Basics’
Dealers can make the Internet work in their favor, but to do so as successfully as possible, dealers need to come back to the digital marketing basics.
“Use the information and consumer data available to make sure you have got the cars you need. Make sure you price the cars correctly for your market, but also merchandise them properly,” Rath said. “So, this comes back to the discipline … making sure you have 10 to 14 photos for every car on your lot, making sure you have got good descriptions, and maybe putting a video up. Those these sound mundane, consumers respond very well to good merchandizing.”
Dealers can waste money very quickly with large search engine marketing campaigns, especially if when the consumer actually comes to your website, they can’t find the car they need, or there aren’t any pictures or full descriptions.
“So, to some degree, content is key,” Rath said.
And another simple way to gain traction on the Web is dealer reviews, especially in a market increasingly dominated by millennials.
“We know that dealer reviews on your site is a great search engine optimization tool. And that Gen Y will actively seek out dealers that have reviews on their site,” Rath said. “So, it’s really simple, doesn’t cost you a lot of money, and it is a great service from your existing customers, as well as your future customers. So, if there are two dealers in similar geography with similar inventory, Gen Y will go to the one with reviews.”
It’s about online reputation, and how consumers perceive your store’s image on the Web.
And part of fostering that reputation is ensuring consistency and communication across all Web channels, as well as in your physical store, or as Rath puts it, “you have to line up your digital lot with your physical lot.”
“Again, it’s about linking your digital presence with your physical presence and making sure that if you make an offer to the consumer, you deliver on that offer,” Rath added.
For example, there is no point spending a lot of money on a website that has an instant chat capability or a referral capability if there is no one on the other end of the chat, or there is no one responding to email.
“If you offer the service, you have to deliver it. We know that the conversion rate to sale is much higher the faster you respond to a consumer lead. So, the longer you let the lead go cold, the consumer has grown impatient and has gone to the dealer down the road,” Rath concluded.
For more insight on digital marketing trends, see the most recent edition of the Auto Remarketing Canada Digital Magazine.
