In this era of transparency, consumers can gather more information than ever before. In the past, they relied upon the dealer to provide it to them. Now, however, they can visit multiple websites in order to gain the information they need before even contacting a dealership. Once the consumer decides they are ready to buy (or close to it) and start to take…

Customer experience can make or break a dealership. It is a term often used when making marketing strategy plans, but is it front of mind for every dealership employee; especially those who communicate with customers directly? If your sales and BDC staff are relying on old school phone and internet techniques, it’s not. The language salespeople use with…

Today's environment:

Sometimes when I look at an auto dealer website I sit back, scratch my head, and wonder if they have ever scheduled an appointment for dealer service on their website? Not to mention all the bots that pop, and all the flashing offers! It is the farthest from the basic tenets of what makes anything usable today on…

As the automotive lead process is not a new thing. It has become obvious there is a collision between the dealership’s automated systems and human engagement. If you missed our previous post click here

Today, we will focus on the first two steps in the lead development process. The autoresponder…

What are your marketing goals in 2020? One of the biggest pain points for dealers is deciding where to spend their marketing dollars to get the results they want. Many dealers feel like their marketing strategies don’t perform as well as they used to, which, when combined with declining sales profitability, puts extra pressure on marketers to up their…

Are you ever frustrated by the inaccurate sourcing of sales? I'm sure that most of you do everything in your power to track (as accurately as possible) the customer car buying journey from the beginning to the actual sale.

However, there are so many variables along the way that dealers often either get confused or simply give up and assign credit to the "auto…

In our fast-paced society, some of the things done just a short time ago to impress and retain customers no longer work. Today, business owners can’t always keep on top of the latest and greatest ways to keep their customers loyal.  However, there is one thing that hasn’t changed much over the years – personal interaction without expecting immediate returns: a friendship of…

Lately there have been some pretty hip writers talking down the old, dusty website lead as if dealers should forego this antique in favor of the more Avant-garde “engagement” or the equally vaporous “VDP views.” Their argument – when they bother to attempt one – basically boils down to “consumers don’t submit leads; they engage.”

Okay. Great. But, um,…

Transparency

In an era where transparency is the cornerstone of any successful digital marketing campaign, the opaque tactics used by car dealers to convert Internet leads into appointments astonish me.

Mystery Shop 100 Dealers

In order to better understand of our industries lead conversion culture, my team and I mystery shopped 100 randomly selected dealerships from across the country and compared the results.

Best Price

We went to…

April offers a month of renewed optimism for car dealers everywhere as spring comes into fruition and pockets become heavier with a little cash back from Uncle Sam. Tax refund season has arrived, and with it, infinite profit opportunities for…

It’s time for a reality check. I’d like to begin with pointing out the fact that more often than we realize, the correct solution to a problem is both obvious and…

How Dealers Can Eliminate Deficiencies with More Accurate Attribution Tracking

Through endless digital and…

Take your service department, auto body, used car, and new car sales to a whole new level. Want your best month ever? Read more: Making Your BEST Month EVER!…

Behind every screen, device, or smartphone in today’s consumer economy resides something that has perhaps gotten lost in the unstoppable avalanche of digital noise. Are we as an industry starting to focus too much on the device, and not enough on the person behind it? All we hear today is ways we can target better on mobile and that we need to use…

Most dealers close between twenty to thirty percent of the leads submitted through their own website. With that kind of close rate, its no wonder the prevailing wisdom is the more leads you can get, the better. To a certain extent this is true, but the quality of your leads is even more important than the quantity of leads. The more high-quality leads you get,…

In a nutshell, the best auto leads are contacts for a high profit, high conversion vehicle shopper, with the highest profit margin. Part of defining the best car leads for dealerships, however, is also determining what they are not.

Quality Auto Leads Are Productive…

If you’re in business, I’m sure you’ve been introduced to the concept of content marketing. Experts have advised businesses to produce content for quite some time now for search engine optimization, branding, lead generation and engagement, to name just a few of the many reasons.

Content marketing can be powerful, if done properly. It is more than simply…

The Importance of Building an Email List

If you are business owner, then you know that the number one thing required for a successful…