According to an interesting study by Forrester Research, many businesses fail to communicate in a way that enhances and solidifies the business-customer relationship. The same can be said for some…

When your customers decide to trade in their current vehicle, you know exactly what to do first: make sure they get an appraisal as quickly as possible, since that’s the number one priority for most buyers. Right?

Not so fast.

AutoLoop recently surveyed 1,000 recent car buyers and analyzed over 100,000 leads from various…

Conference season is upon us. As dealers go from seminar to seminar and presentation after presentation, it can cause mass confusion about what data really matters. As a dealer, you may well be asking yourself, “what data should I really be watching at my dealership?”

Well, let’s keep it simple! Over the years I have found it boils down to two…

Have you ever eagerly awaited the release of a great new movie? Anticipation mounts as release day approaches. Then you go and see it, only to leave disappointed. I’m sure I can name plenty of box office bombs which were initially hyped up and expected to be box office blockbusters. If you look at the factors involved in what makes a “bomb” versus a…

Search engine optimization can be a confusing thing. As search engine algorithms frequently change many find it hard to keep up with the latest trends and best-practices in order to maintain high website rankings.

Well, the 800-pound gorilla in the room is Google which, according to the 2018 Search Market Share report by SparkToro, commands…

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calf., November 5, 2018 - fusionZONE Automotive, LLC, the automotive industry’s highest-performing dealer website solution, today announced that company founder and popular speaker, Brett Sutherlin, will present a session titled, Increasing Online Conversion is not as Hard as You Think!”  at the upcoming…

In our industry, conversion rates are horrible. A great dealer “might” convert at a higher rate, but many are missing the boat on the majority of their website visitors. There are many reasons why this is true. However, the sad fact remains that it is.

Imagine making some simple tweaks to your website which produce an immediate increase in the number of…

There are a plethora of training programs and trainers in the automotive industry many of which have different styles, advice, and opinions. Often, those opinions vary widely. While training is indeed something I advocate in dealerships both as an ongoing initiative and for new-to-the-industry employees (no matter which department), no business can function as a…

Dealerships spend a lot of money on leads. The bigger the store, the more money spent. And, added to that expense are staffing costs and the time and effort involved in trying to engage with consumers who submit the leads.

In the car shopping process consumers conduct a considerable amount of research and visit many different touch points. A major goal of any…

Tim James shares the importance of quality videos and tips on ways that dealers can make their videos more appealing to customers.

When it comes to earning business, the customer experience has become a key differentiator. These days, sales and service customers tend to choose convenience and experience over pricing. In fact, dealers that consistently provide an excellent customer experience, make it convenient for the customer to interact with them, and broadly promote this, are thriving, while others…

Nowadays, the competition for consumer attention is fierce. Many dealers focus on attempting to do a better job than their competition when it comes to ads. But, the truth is, you aren’t only competing with other dealerships, but with every retail business which does digital marketing.

Think about it. Those consumers you send your messages to aren’t in an…

Assuming your dealership has a video marketing strategy in place and that you’re getting good results, you may be ready to take your video marketing to another level.

To quickly review, the fundamental basic blocks of a video marketing strategy include:

• Content. Start with what you sell…your inventory.  Next sell them on your…

As I have mentioned in past blogs, few customers complete lead forms, making it very difficult for dealers to track the source of their sales. Without this information, it’s virtually impossible to make educated decisions about how to spend your marketing dollars. It’s time to build a better mousetrap so that dealers get insight into the behavior of online shoppers, even those…