digital marketing
HomeNet Powers Dealer Impact’s Proactive and Plug-In Technologies
Press Release
WEST CHESTER, PA – March 17, 2008 – Automotive technology provider HomeNet, Inc. announced today that its system plays a powerful role in Dealer Impact’s newly released Proactive marketing tools, as well as its Plug-In Technology.
“We rely on partners like HomeNet to power the back-end technologies that allow our front-end strategies and tactics to reap huge rewards for our dealerships,” commented Brian Cox, Dealer Impact CEO.
Dealer Impact’s new Plug-In Technologies use HomeNet’s Inventory Online (IOL) marketing suite to edit and deliver inventory information. “This data makes it possible for us to deliver timely, relevant marketing messages to our dealerships’ customers,” says Cox. “And because HomeNet has such a well engineered product, we have been able to build tools and technologies that will plug and play with any dealership’s web system.”
Dealer Impact’s Plug-In Technology tools are modules specifically designed to work with whatever web system a dealership may be using. These powerful, easy-to-integrate tools can “plug in” to a dealership’s existing site to add a variety of functionality. Dealer Impact’s Autopilot e-Marketing, Video Generation System, Virtual Notification System and Rank King Search Engine Marketing & Optimization are among the “plug and play” tools that Dealer Impact is now offering.
HomeNet’s Inventory Online (IOL) is a vehicle inventory management and marketing system, designed to help automotive dealers sell more cars online. IOL’s suite of web-based software applications streamline the process of converting raw vehicle data from the DMS (dealer management system) into consumer-friendly virtual advertisements anywhere on the Web. Complete with DMS polling, Premium VIN Enhancement, an intuitive online interface, automated distribution to 3rd-party services, and much more, IOL is the most comprehensive solution serving the automotive industry.
Dealer Impact Systems assists automotive dealerships nationwide to attract, close and retain more customers through a variety of innovative digital marketing technologies and strategies. These tools and strategies are combined in Dealer Impact’s iDeal Digital Marketing System, a comprehensive suite of digital marketing tools.
HomeNet, Inc. is a privately owned automotive technology provider. Founded in 1996, HomeNet’s core focus is providing innovative technology solutions to help automotive dealers increase online sales. HomeNet offers its products to a variety of customers including dealers, OEMs, website providers, CRM providers, digital lot management firms, finance/leasing agents, auction agents, and more. The company is based on Christian principles and is headquartered in West Chester, PA, with satellite offices in FL, GA, IA, TN, TX, and UT. For more information, please visit www.HomeNetinc.com.
The Hidden Costs of Doing It Yourself
Dealerships around the country, from rural farm communities to the big city big boys, handle their websites in a variety of ways. Some outsource it all, others try to “save money” by handling it in-house with a 19 year old computer whiz.
• Dealership Digital Marketing specialists know the business inside and out… they’re specialists in selling cars online – not just in building websites.
• By outsourcing, you eliminate the cost of that dedicated staff.
• You’re unable to tap into various data sources that can keep inventory and other information on your site as up to date as possible.
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC
Your Ad Agency (probably) HATES the Internet
As we all know, the Internet has drastically changed the way companies of all makes and models go to market. But what is often overlooked is how the Internet has undermined one of the key players in many marketing circles – the advertising agency.
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC
4 Factors Stunting Online Growth
By Steve Latham
From iMedia Connection
March 3, 2008
Marketers are still spending just 7.5 percent of their budgets on a medium consuming 30 percent of their audiences’ time. Find out why and how to raise that ratio.
When was the last time you made a considered purchase (airline, hotel, rental car, jewelry, clothing, electronics, gifts, automobile, etc.) without doing online research before you bought? Even if you prefer to buy offline, would you make a big purchase without pre-shopping on the web? While some still like to do things the old-fashioned way, the vast majority of consumers rely on the web to do research and price comparisons before they make a purchase.
Every marketing, advertising and communications professional is aware of how the web has changed our daily lives. Media consumption has changed dramatically over the past 10 years, with the web now a close second behind TV in terms of daily media consumption. A recent study published by IBM showed that people spend almost as much time online as they do watching TV. Credit Suisse reported that only TV accounted for a higher share of daily media consumption (measured by time) than the web.
But if you think about the quality of that consumption (passive TV viewing vs. active online engagement) it’s not hard to argue that interactive may be the single most important medium for reaching and engaging consumers. By 2011, online consumption will surpass TV as the number one medium worldwide. The trends are unmistakable — media consumption has become very fragmented in recent years, and it’s never going to return to the way it used to be.
Despite this, some industries have been slow to adapt to changing consumer trends. Overall, marketers invest only 7.5 percent of their advertising / marketing budget for online initiatives. If consumers spend 30 percent of their media time online, why has allocation of media budget not caught up?
Why companies don’t invest online
McKinsey recently published a study of 410 marketing executives in retail, telecomm, technology, business services and energy. McKinsey reported that the primary barriers to online investment were as follows:
- Insufficient metrics to measure impact: 52 percent
- Insufficient in-house capabilities: 41 percent
- Difficulty of convincing upper management: 33 percent
- Limited reach of digital tools: 24 percent
- Insufficient capabilities at agency: 18 percent
Combined, insufficient capabilities (in-house and agency) is the leading (59 percent) deterrent to investing online. This is not a surprise as online marketing is still relatively new, somewhat complex and changing rapidly. Most companies are still trying to make sense of new media and develop strategies to utilize it. After years of one-off efforts, many are taking time to define their key objectives, strategies, tactics and requirements for achieving them.
The tight supply of talent is also a problem. For both brands and agencies, finding skilled people to execute digital strategies is also a significant challenge.
The second leading hurdle (insufficient metrics to measure impact) is a bit mystifying, as online marketing is much more measurable compared to traditional media. I believe this sentiment stems from translating clicks and page views to metrics a CFO will understand (e.g. revenue, profit).
The economics of online marketing are still challenging for many, which leads to the number three barrier, which is the ability to convince upper management. Only a small subset of marketers can develop a compelling business case (supported by numbers) to convince upper management to invest in new media. But even with a solid business case, it’s still difficult sometimes to convince upper managers to invest in a medium they don’t fully understand.
So far, there should be no surprises. However, the McKinsey study doesn’t tell the whole story. Over the last five years, we’ve worked with dozens of companies with $1 million+ marketing budgets. During that time, we have found several other lesser known reasons that prevent companies from investing online. Several of these are not going to show up in a survey.
1. Misperception that online marketing is only needed if you have ecommerce. Only a small percentage of companies who advertise online actually sell online. In fact, some of the biggest online advertisers do not sell online. But they understand that most consumers use the web to do research before they go to the store. Shop.org reported that more than 70 percent of online searchers make offline purchases. For every person who buys online, three are buying offline. And since people tend to spend more and shop more frequently in-store than they do online, the value of an in-store customer is relatively higher. So traditional retailers, suppliers and service companies should be willing to spend even more to reach customers than their online competitors. Yet, this misperception still persists.
2. Status quo mentality. Many are uncomfortable with change or learning new things and instead prefer to maintain the status quo, doing what they’ve always done. They are more concerned about rocking the boat or putting themselves at risk than they are motivated to achieve great results. The truth is that few will actually get fired for doing what they’ve always done. But this may change when senior managers start asking why they don’t show up on Google, why their competitors are being marketed on Facebook or why their competitors are gaining share at their expense. C-level executives are demanding more from their marketing teams. Those that want to stay ahead of the curve need to realize that if they are not effectively using the web, they are falling behind the competition.
3. Accountability. Some marketers have had the luxury of not being accountable for results. Faced with new technologies and programs that measure results and quantify the impact of impressions, engagements or transactions, these people are threatened. Over the years we’ve heard several times, “I get paid to place the ads (or send the email); whether or not they work is not my concern.” We expect this will change as more executives realize marketing can be measurable, and marketers should be accountable. Again, those who are looking ahead will take action before it is mandated to them. By then it may be too late.
4. Changes to business processes. Online marketing is not just another channel; it often requires a change in how you do business. It first requires alignment between marketing and the IT department; while marketing “owns” the website, the department often relies on IT to make things happen. Second, it poses new challenges for decentralized organizations. If your marketing organization is segmented by brands, product lines or geographic regions, you’ll find it’s a challenge to meet the needs of each stakeholder. For most companies, inter-departmental cooperation and new business processes are required to fully utilize the web to reach and engage each of your target audiences in an efficient, profitable and brand-enhancing way.
Regardless of the health of the economy, the trends are unmistakable. Digital will continue to take share from traditional media, and marketers must adapt to the changing times. Savvy marketers will take advantage of the opportunities in online and mobile marketing; those who drag their feet are in for an uphill struggle.
It Won’t Be Long…
As wireless Internet access proliferates through our society (some cities are even experimenting with free city-wide access), it won’t be long before most U.S. consumers have high-speed internet access everywhere and always.
What will that mean to your dealership? What will it mean when someone who is cruising by your dealership on a Sunday afternoon can check your website from their car? What will it mean when a customer has real-time access to your competitions’ web sites from inside your showroom – even while they’re negotiating with you on price? If these things haven’t already happened to you (likely via handheld internet devices), it won’t be long.
Is your dealership ready to handle a consumer with this much information at their fingertips? How will it change the way you do business? How will it change the way you communicate with customers and prospects?
D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC
How to Improve Used-Vehicle Internet Sales
From AutoRemarketing
February 25, 2008
By John Avery
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — We get asked a lot about how to sell more pre-owned vehicles on the Internet. The best way is to make sure that you are doing all you can do to market your vehicles the right way.
There are a several ways that you can accomplish this, and here are a few basic things that you can do.
One of the most basic practices that will help you is to make sure that you have good quality photos on each vehicle.
Prospective customers like to see the details on the vehicle and the condition of the vehicle before they come in. Having photos on your pre-owned vehicles really helps build the trust with your customer and builds value into the vehicle.
The only thing that is worse than not having pictures on the vehicles is having poor photos on your vehicles. Here are a few tips that you can use to improve your online photos:
—Be mindful of your background. I would suggest using the same background for all of your pictures. It doesn’t take that much more effort to pull the vehicles to a common point to take pictures of it. Some dealerships have actually set up a “studio” to take their pictures.
This is as simple as hanging a curtain in the background so the focus is on the vehicle. You can also take the pictures that will be positioned so that your dealership name is in the background. This will help them remember your dealership name and will keep another dealer from trying to sell your vehicle to their customer.
—I tried to make sure that the pictures were in the same basic order for each vehicle as well. This will give the customer consistency and will give them a sense that you genuinely care about earning their business.
—Take your exterior pictures from the corners of the vehicle. Taking these angles gets two sides of the vehicle and shows the customer more than pictures straight on from the back and the front.
—Take a picture of the odometer, this verifies the information that you have listed with the vehicle. Customers do not like it when they come in and the mileage is a misprint on the Web.
—Make sure that you have pictures of the seat condition, especially the driver’s seat. This is one of the first things that customers look at because comfort is so important.
The other big factor is something that most dealerships don’t take the time to bother with. Take the time to write a description for your pre-owned vehicles. It doesn’t need to very elaborate, but having a paragraph about the vehicle does build value into the vehicle and shows the customer that you don’t have anything to hide.
Here are a few tips that will help you with your descriptions:
—Make sure that whoever is writing them knows how to write with good grammar and that the spelling is checked and double-checked.
—The best way to write a description is to write what you think that you would tell a customer if they were in front of you. What qualities of the vehicle would you most want to deliver to your customer?
Here are a few items that you will want to include in your description:
—Let them know if the vehicle was a trade-in or not. Also include anything that you learned from the previous owners (i.e., one owner, mostly highway miles, traded for a newer model, needed a larger vehicle, etc.).
—Let them know about any certifications the vehicle has gone through in your service department.
—Let them know if there is still a manufacturer’s warranty left on the vehicle or if your dealership has put a warranty on it.
—Mention any equipment the vehicle has that will add value to the vehicle.
—I also added a sentence letting them know that we had checked the Carfax history and that they would be eligible for the Carfax money-back guarantee.
These ideas seem very simple, but many dealerships do not pay attention to these details and will give the customer a reason to eliminate you from their search.
How to Ensure ROI with Internet Advertising
From Digital Dealer Feb. 12, 2008
by : John Federman
According to the National Automobile Dealers Association, in just 10 years, Internet advertising for automobile companies has gone from a fraction of a percent to 11.5 percent of total advertising spend. That’s nearly $680 million a year spent on online advertising.
Why the increasing emphasis on online advertising? Because it engages prospective buyers at the moment they’re most likely to be interested…just after conducting research online about a particular vehicle. Today, more than 80 percent of shoppers turn to the web first when researching automotive purchases, according to another study by Capgemini. Not surprisingly, the ad dollars are following the consumers. However, while you may already be investing in online advertising, it is imperative that you take a step back and set goals for your online campaigns, and implement measurement techniques that will help you assess the success of your online spending.
When considering your options, it is imperative that your dealership considers exactly how online customers will interact with your brand.
Organizations that spend in search engine advertising will pay a premium for popular terms such as “Ford” or “sedan.” With web site tracking and analytics tools, it’s easy to see which keywords are generating the most traffic for your site. However, as effective as search marketing may be in delivering eyeballs, the reality is that most car purchases happen offline. For that reason, it’s imperative to track how your advertising is performing across channels.
Think beyond the click
Studies show that live customer service remains the best way to close online sales leads for complex purchases, such as automobiles. The Capgemini study report referenced earlier also found that:
• 34 percent of consumers said they expect to receive a response to a web inquiry within four hours.
• Half of the respondents say they would look for a new dealer if they don’t get their response fast enough.
• 25 percent say they would look for a new manufacturer or both a new dealer and a new manufacturer.
This means the goal of most dealer advertising initiatives should be to get customers on the phone and into the dealership as soon as possible. This means dealers must have the ability to track which ads are delivering phone calls and not just clicks to their web site.
Call tracking and click-to-call technology gives customers browsing online auto listings the option to connect with local dealerships via telephone, and gives dealers the ability to track which ads and keywords are generating phone calls.
Click-to-call allows online buyers to transition seamlessly into immediate telephone or PC-based voice contact with businesses from any online medium, including web sites, e-mails or directory listings. Call tracking technology allows dealers to assign unique local or toll-free telephone numbers to individual ads to track inbound phone response to online and offline campaigns, directory listings and advertisements, and provides a 360-view of call detail that offers more data on callers that can be used to supplement additional marketing efforts.
These two technologies also form the backbone of pay-per-call advertising where advertisers are charged by publishers on a per-call basis, rather than a per-click basis like other online advertising models.
What most advertisers find is that callers typically convert at a much higher rate, and have a much shorter sales cycle compared to standard web site contacts.
Drive offline leads
Research shows that consumers typically begin researching a vehicle purchase online and can take anywhere from 30 to 45 days to make their decision, which is why it’s critical to capture that last mile from initial contact to conversion.
One emerging trend is the use of save and send features on dealer listings. These services allow consumers to save or send information about an automobile in the electronic format of their choice – on the desktop, the web or mobile device – predisposing to return to that listing.
Save and send tools extend the shelf life of automobile listings by encouraging consumers to save data from their preferred dealers. Visitors can return to the information at their leisure and can even share attractive offers with friends and family members who may be looking to purchase an automobile. Online browsers can use a variety of information delivery methods including SMS, Skype, e-mail or fax leading you to potentially net two reservations using just one listing and transferable data. Dealers can even track online leads that come into the dealership if consumers decide to print out their stored listing, or if they’ve stored it to their mobile device.
The majority of consumers that conduct local searches transact offline, and most car buyers buy from dealers in their immediate area. Therefore, the ability to convert local online traffic to a phone call or a visit to a dealership is vital as consumers are shopping on the Internet. With technology, tracking phone calls can measure the quality of a lead and making sure that advertisers are able to convert online traffic into valuable leads.
Dealers are leveraging call tracking and monitoring programs to improve performance across channels and help close in on that “last mile” to conversion by extending the utility of online ads through services like click-to-call and save and send. More importantly, these services provide granular ROI data that helps prove performance to advertisers.
The online influence of offline automobile purchase is indisputable. Consumers have already made the transition and now rely on the Internet as their primary research vehicle for these kinds of purchase. As online automotive buyers become more sophisticated and begin to use a variety of online sources to research their purchases, dealers must be able to quantify every advertising channel to guarantee they don’t lose potential leads.
http://www.digitaldealer-magazine.com/index.asp?article=1749
Plays Nicely With Others?
Take a minute to check out your dealerships website. Go ahead, we’ll wait.
Okay… Now take a look at your newspaper, television and outdoor advertising.
Now ask yourself, does your web presence play nicely with your other materials? Does it look and feel the same? Are the same offers available in both places? If so, congratulations, you’ve effectively integrated your website into your marketing mix. If not, we’ve got some work to do.
As your website become a larger and larger part of the way your dealership operates, it is essential that it gets the same, if not more, attention as the rest of your marketing. After all, how many other marketing tools do you have that allow people to shop your inventory, make an offer, get financing, watch videos and more?
What’s that you say? Your site doesn’t do all of those things? Oh boy… we need to talk.
D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC
Study: Web Is Fastest Growing Auto Information Source For Moms
From Digital Dealer, Thursday, January 31, 2008
Volume 3, issue 5
According to Experian Research Services, a market research company, a four year trend among automotive buyers suggests that the Web is the fastest growing source of vehicle information prior to buying a vehicle. This growth is contrary to other resources like word-of-mouth, television and automotive magazines, which have remained sluggish over the last four years. Additionally, moms were among consumers with the highest intent to purchase a vehicle in the next two years and most likely to rely on the Internet as part of their decision to purchase or lease.“If your audience is changing media sources and buying behaviors, you need to change your tactics to complement theirs,” explains Chris Wilson, president, Experian Research Services.“It (Experian automotive data) condenses a vast amount of information into orderly reports that are easy to manipulate, use and share,” said Mario Murgado, president and CEO, Miami Automotive Retail.http://www.imakenews.com/digital1/e_article001003637.cfm?x=bc4lSD0,b4TSprpk
Everything Is Marketing
Chances are when your team sits down to discuss your marketing plan, the conversation centers around newspaper ads, television spots, outdoor boards and your latest radio campaign. Maybe you talk direct mail a little bit and have a quick check on the website. But do you discuss the sign out front? Or the cleanliness of the service department waiting room? How about the dress code of your sales team or the recording on your voice mail system?
Why are those things important? Because every customer communication – everything that sends a message to your customers – is marketing. And all those things send a message. Positive or negative. They can affect the way a customer reacts, remembers and positions your organization in their mind.
So just remember when your look around your dealership… it’s all marketing.
D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC
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