Complete Dealer Solutions

If you’re not sure what an RSS feed is, please read our post “RSS Feeds”.

RSS feeds allow your customers to get the latest news and information in a single place — their RSS reader.  This prevents them from having to go to web page after web page each day.  It’s a way to consolidate information they view regularly.

For marketing, getting into your visitors RSS feeds is like striking gold.  This place is constantly visited, watched for changes, almost as much as their e-mail.  It can constantly be updated with new information and you don’t have to worry about spam folders or the customer not getting your message.

But it also comes with many responsibilities, since it is very easy to be removed from their eyes for abusing the relationship you’ve established.  So be careful what you post, but don’t pass up the opportunity.

So what are good ideas for RSS feeds?  We’ve come up with a few ideas:

• Your service specials.  Creating an RSS feed to showcase all your current specials provides benefits for the customer.  It reminds them their vehicle requires regular maintenance while showing your dealership is there to help them.  Once the oil change notification comes on, wouldn’t it be great to have your oil change special appear in their reader?  Now they don’t have to worry about calling around or finding a deal — you’re already providing one.  Another great way to get them to sign up for your RSS feed — offer RSS Only exclusive offers.  Using our web solution, it’s easy to setup a service special for RSS only.  It’s simply a check box away.
• Your New Arrivals.   If they are casual car shopping, this keeps them abreast of any new vehicles, in case they haven’t found what they were looking for yet.
• Cars matching their needs.  They can register their search options/request and once vehicles arrive, they can be notified through their feed.
• Keep them updated of specials, events and promotions coming to your dealership.

These are just a few of the possibilities with RSS feeds.  The main thing to start them, and keep working until you find what works.  And make it clear what the feeds are.  Many people are new to RSS feeds, but would love the benefit (imagine how happy they would be if you helped them discover it!).

- Aaron

First, the biggest question may be “What’s an RSS Feed?”.  The easiest way to think about it is that it’s like a news ticker, but anyone can publish anything using it.  It’s basically a text-based website, that is constantly updated with the latest information the publisher wants people to have access to.  Then, visitors subscribe to the feed (keep in mind that subscription doesn’t imply a cost — in fact most RSS feeds are free).  By subscribing, you tell your RSS Reader (more about this shortly) that you want to be kept up to date by that feed.

An RSS Reader is a program that will download the feed on a regular basis (usually every few hours, or when the feed tells it that the information will change.

A few examples:  A Large news corporation like CNN will have multiple RSS feeds for the interests of their varying readers.  They may have 1 feed with the latest money news, another feed for the top stories in the US, another for entertainment news, another with baseball highlights and so on.  You can subscribe to as many of the feeds you want.  So if you want info on your stocks and baseball scores, you would subscribe to their money feed and their baseball highlights feed.

Or, for example, if you want to stay up to date on this blog.  We post an RSS feed that will update with changes to the blog, such as new posts when they are added.

Now generally RSS feeds do not include the entire story.  They usually have a title, description and a link to view the whole article.

To view RSS feeds, simple do a Google search of RSS Readers.  Many sites, like Google’s iGoogle page, you can add an RSS feed directly to your portal page.  Or just use their reader at www.google.com/reader.  There are also window applications if you prefer those over web pages.

Stay tuned for more information on how to use the RSS feeds in your business marketing.

- Aaron

Video walkarounds, from most vendors, are simply the vehicle images doing a ‘Ken Burns’ effect.  That is, they zoom in and pan on existing images to give an illusion of a video.  Then combine a few of those together, add a voice over of someone reading off the options and voila, a video walkaround.  Actually, it’s more of a fake video/fancy picture slideshow.

Honestly, I don’t see the value in these videos.  Most visitors come to the internet to find out information quickly.  Sitting watching a video that has [the same] dealer intro, with someone [or synthesizer] just reading the options showing pictures already available seems a waste of time.  I [most people] can read a whole lot faster than listening to regurgitated info.

It’s a simple response to a growing trend — web video (ie: YouTube).  Yeah, appropriate video is great.  If you have video, actually walking around the car, showing the cool points, showing the great features, with enthusiasm, then you have what the hype is all about.  If you explain information not on the page, or show real video (not Ken Burns effects of already available images) with actual motion, then you have a potential winner.  But that takes time and video knowledge. (We have professional vehicle profile and information available for most new cars — just ask).  But instead of providing the means to do quality video, most providers just want to jump in on the hype of video (though the hyped video is not what they are providing) and make some money before it dies.  Reminds me of the talking animated face and the talking person who have faded as quickly as they came.

One site mentioned that video makes people stay on your site longer, which longer visits statistically equals more sales.  I don’t buy into that.  Yes, the longer someone is on your site, the better chances they find what they are looking for.  The better chance they will contact you.  But not longer visits simple because they watch a fake video.  Just not buying it. 

After watching 1 of these fake videos, I won’t watch anymore.  Will I leave the site? No, I just won’t watch any more videos.  Is it a show stopper?  Absolutely not, people will continue looking at your site and your vehicles.  Is it a waste of money? I think very much so.

- Aaron

Effective mass mailing takes planning.  What?  I can’t just e-mail my entire customer list?

Not if you want it to be effective.  There are steps involved, that many people skip either because they don’t have the ability to do it, never thought of it, or are just lazy.

Most common method:

1. Generate list of customers.
2. Generate generic e-mail message to send
3. Send e-mail to everyone and hope for high responses and low opt-outs.

Better method:

1. Think about your message.  What do you want to convey? For a good example, lets say you’ve just slashed your prices and anyone coming in will get an additional $1000 over their trade.
2. Now, think about your customers, and who would be most interested?  Then limit the e-mail.  If someone just purchased a vehicle from your dealership in the last few days, would they want to hear, straight from you, about missing the great deal by a few days?  Kind of salting the wound isn’t it?  Why didn’t you tell them about this great deal?  Maybe it would be best to leave them off of this mailing.
3. Now think about all the customers on that list.  With each e-mail you have a single opportunity to reach a customer with something beneficial to them, otherwise you risk the dreaded opt-out request.  This request will put you into a legal position to stop sending them the cheapest, most effective form of communication until they request it again.  There is a lot on the line.  Do you feel your simple promotion will be useful enough to prevent people from clicking that opt-out link? I doubt it.  Not everyone is in the market for a new/used car.  Constant bombardment of sales isn’t going to change that.  While it may plant a seed, or someone may tell a friend about it, most people will delete the message.  After enough (and sometimes that’s just 1), many people will just opt out.

   How do you prevent this?  Broaden your e-mail message.  Convert it from a large advertisement to a functional newsletter.  Take the time to add one or two articles that pertain to general car maintenance, how to save gas, other items that people would be interested in hearing about, that isn’t trying to sell them something.  Then, when possible, give them a great deal they can use, even if they aren’t shopping for a car.  A coupon for a discounted oil change.  Even better, if you run an article about the benefits of flushing your coolant system before summer, then offer a discount to do the service (but do not place the discount in the article, it will cheapen the effect and turn it into an advertisement.

4. Now, think back to step 2.  With the new format, it may not be so bad to e-mail those customers.  But you’ll have to make that judgement call based on your offer.
5. Now think about the entire process.  Would it be more beneficial to schedule a bi-weekly/quarterly/monthly newsletter that provides this great information, instead of a hit and miss approach only when you have something special going on?  Absolutely.

So ultimately it comes down to some planning.  Think about your message.  Is it just a large advertisement, or is it something that your customers will truly get something from, and decide they want to continue to hear more.

I highly recommend the book “Permission Marketing” by Seth Godin.  And join is blog/mailing list at www.sethgodin.com.

- Aaron

So, does bigger = better?  Even though I’m a bit biased, I have to say no.  Actually, for web providers, I’d say the opposite is more true.

Case in point:

A client just switched over to ADP CRM.  (This isn’t a bash against ADP, they were just unfortunate to be the latest example proving my point).  Our client thought they had an issue with the software not parsing a lead properly.  ADP support sends an e-mail back to them stating the lead was not in the proper ADF format, which was then forwarded to me.

Looking at the e-mail, sure enough, it wasn’t the ADF Format, but HTML.  But none of our leads are sent with HTML, all are correctly sent as ADF.  After a quick glance, even I could see that this wasn’t a lead, but actually a message generated BY ADP software!

Now this begs the question about bigger being better?  Sure, they offer 24/7/365 support, but honestly what kind of support are you getting?  The representative didn’t even recognize their own system’s message.  They also jumped to look at just the last message, and not follow the trail back to the source.  The lead parsed just fine, but our client wasn’t used to seeing it where it was.  When dealing with smaller companies (such as us) we are more intimate with our software and can easily update, fix, whatever.  The others, it may take days to find someone who knows what they are doing to help fix it.

Food for though.

- Aaron

Here’s is a great reason why small companies such as Interlink Computing has a definite advantage.  We don’t have entry level web designers hacking away unmercifully at your biggest advertising asset: your inventory list.

Some larger providers (I will leave them unnamed, but check your website to see if it’s them), have decided to only show a vehicle’s thumbnail when the user hovers over the listing.

Now, this really bothers me.  (Yes it’s great for my business, but it’s extremely basic.)  Why on earth would you make the customer work like that to see a picture of your inventory?  It’s like going to the grocery store and having every item on the shelf covered with a black box that only has it’s name, ingredients, and price.  I don’t think you’ll be selling much there.

Even 3rd party portal sites know better.  More pictures are proving to sell more cars, and yet these sites are hiding even the most basic image from their customer.

Not only can they not see it, and you’ve frustrated them by making them hover over the images, but they also now have no point of reference to compare multiple vehicles.

Sorry for the rant, but some things are just inexcusable.  And the person hurt is the unknowing dealership who isn’t web savvy, but still runs an honest business.

Regards,

Aaron

If you haven’t read my previous post on “Give them what they want.”   you should take a minute to read that.  Don’t worry, we’ll wait here for you to catch up.

 Since we know that customer’s have not come to your site to be entertained or have their time wasted, we should take a closer look at what they customer came for.  Each site will be different, based on your offerings.  Do you sell new and used cars? How about a service center?  Quick Lane?  Collision? Parts? Accessories?

These are the areas you should focus on.  But also, look at your supplemental information.  Why you stand out.  These items are very important (once you’ve cleared the path for the main selling features.)  These are great to have along the site of your site, or anywhere it’s relevant but unobtrusive.

Designing a clear cut navigation system it important to allow the customer quick access to what they want.  A site with a navigation button ‘Vehicles’ that goes to a page with two choices ‘New’ and ‘Used’ is wasteful.  Two buttons, available anywhere a customer is on the site ‘New Inventory’ and ‘Used Inventory’ makes a more susinct path to exactly what they want.  This should be unclutters, susinct.

Next, make sure your links describe the page you are taking them to.  Say for example you are listing 20 vehicles, next to each is a ‘Schedule a test drive’ button.  When the visitor clicks that button, if you just take them to the vehicle page, they will be confused.  If you take them to the vehicle page, and jump the page to the schedule form (or better, have the schedule form appear large and infront of them) you’ve satisfied their request without making them jump through hoops. 

ALWAYS, BOTH IN PERSON AND ONLINE, GIVE YOUR CUSTOMERS WHAT YOU SAY YOU WILL.  That means if you give them a button that says they can schedule a test drive, then make sure when they click it, it does just that.

Regards,

Aaron

What does a customer want when they visit your website? 

They are looking for information.  They are looking for a new car or ways service their current car.  They are looking for a dealership. 

They are not looking for a good time.  They are not looking for you to entertain them with games.  They are not looking to waste their time.

If you do not satisfy the general need they came looking for, everything else is irrelevant.  If they do not see the path to their needs, they will leave.  IF someone comes looking for a used car, and cannot see how to find the used cars, your big article boasting your community service event is irrelevant.  If it takes more than 3 clicks to start seeing vehicles, they will stop looking.  They don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, and decide to try the next one.

Now when you’ve satisfied their search, then everything else become relevant.  Now they see your a community sponsor, and feel better spending their money with you.

So what’s it all mean?  Realize what you visitors are coming to your site for.  Then provide the easiest way to get there, with your other information playing the supporting role.

Regards,

Aaron

SEO, Search Engine Optimization, I want it!  I have to have it! It will make me millions and sell a ton more cars! ha!

The fact of the matter is most visitor that want to look through your site will find you in the search engines by your dealership name or city/market area.  These should readily appear based on your website’s basic content, if designed properly.  (IE: You cannot have your dealership name only appear in graphics.)

And even then about half will probably direct type-thrus, if you have your domain name properly marketed in your community.

The biggest problem I’ve noticed is when you begin to shift your focus away from your customers and onto search engine spiders, who won’t ever buy a car.  Too much keyword stuffing or poor human navigation will cause your visitors to turn and run.  So even if you attract 10% more visitors, they won’t stay. 

Over stuffing pages with content irrelevant or constantly repeated will desensitize your visitors who may end up missing information you truly want them to see.

If you have a highly optimized website, be sure you get the whole picture.  Increases in unique visitors doesn’t tell the entire story.  Look at their depth of visit (how many pages to they look at before leaving?).  Check the bounce rates on your optimized homepage.  Do you scare your customers away?

I have seen some dealerships who have a bounce rate of near 40% on the homepage because of over optimized SEO.  They have less than 6% making it through 20 or more pages.  They get roughly 20 leads a month.

On the other hand, another site we tailor to visitors with basic optimizations in place (every website should have the basics) as well as general techniques that do not draw too far away from the optimal experience.  They average over 160 leads a month and average 168 credit apps a month.  They have over 20% of their visitors staying through at least 20 pages.  Most of their visits are direct address or searches based on their name.

While some other factors do play into getting those number of leads, the % of bounces and page depth are main indicators of the website’s performance.

Regards,

 - Aaron

Welcome to my new Blog.  My name is Aaron Hergenreder, owner of Interlink Computing, LLC and creator of our Complete Dealer Solution system.  While I don’t like to think of my company and just another web provider.  There are too many of those.  We are more web consultants. 

This means we don’t just provide your business with a website, instead we help you maximize your website, through experience and understanding of both technology and behavior.  We’ve seen many things come and go, many ‘hotest and latest widgets’ fall flat on their face.  Many were promoted by faulty or biased statistics that just do not work.

I will have quite a few post appear over the next few days to get caught up, as well as a steady stream as time progresses.

If you have any question or concerns, please leave your comments on the board or feel free to send them to me.

Regards,

Aaron Hergenreder