The Dealer Impact Blog

Smartphone Use on the Web Goes ‘Mainstream’

More U.S. adults—particularly African Americans and Hispanics—are using smartphones to e-mail, network, surf, and send video, says Pew Research

Smartphone use is gathering steam in the U.S., new research shows. Forty percent of American adults use their cell phones to surf the Web, e-mail, or use instant messaging, according to a study from Pew Research Center in Washington.

That’s up from 32 percent a year ago, based on Pew’s survey of 2,252 adults ages 18 and older that was released on July 7. “The smartphone has really penetrated the mainstream of American society,” says Aaron Smith, a Pew research specialist. In the first quarter, smartphones accounted for 34 percent of all mobile handsets sold in the U.S., up from 31 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to consultant NPD Group.

Smartphone sales are getting a summer boost from last month’s introduction of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 4 from AT&T (T). Motorola’s (MOT) Droid X will be released through Verizon Wireless on July 15.

Via: Bloomberg Businessweek

If your dealership does not have a Mobile Website, now is the time. When a person types the dealer’s web address into a mobile browser, the technology automatically recognizes the phone and converts the site to a phone-friendly interface. The cutting-edge technology allows visitors to quickly navigate the site to find inventory, videos specials, and other information in seconds.

Call Dealer Impact at 877.334.9638 or email us at sales@dealerimpact.com.

Product Announcement: Facebook Video App

Add Inventory Videos to Facebook Fan Pages

Putting your inventory in front of 500 million prospects is a no-brainer. With Dealer Impact’s integrated inventory video tool, you can turn a Facebook fan page into a second website for your dealership.

Make a basic fan page more comprehensive by adding inventory videos using Dealer Impact’s easy-to-use plug-in tool. Available as part of our Facebook Inventory App or as a standalone product, the video tool is specifically designed to work with Facebook’s interface.

The tool automatically integrates videos under a separate tab on your fan page. Users can quickly browse your inventory and click on specific vehicles to watch video. Each video page includes vehicle information, contact details for your dealership, and a request-information form to help you capture qualified leads.

Dealerships also have access to viewer statistics, showing which videos were watched and when.

Now is the time to use the largest social network in the world to generate leads. Learn more about our Facebook Inventory App and video feature by calling us at 877-334-9638. For an example of our Facebook Video App feature please visit:

http://www.facebook.com/karlchevrolet

Post vehicle inventory out to Craigslist, get more links back to your site

Need more exposure for your inventory? Want more links pointing back to your site? Instead of just having one landing page (your website) why not have 10′s if not 100′s of landing pages? Social networking is making all of this possible and if you’re not participating then you’re falling behind.

In a recent blog post, we discussed the idea of putting your inventory videos out on YouTube. These videos each have their own URL with keywords which all link back to your dealer website. Along the same lines, Craigslist is another option for you to penetrate specific geographic markets. YouTube is an international sensation (as is Craigslist) but with Craigslist there are metropolitan networks where you can post an ad. Customers then search these listings by city/region to find local deals.

Dealer Impact has programmed the functionality to automatically generate a nicely formatted HTML ad with your vehicle’s information automatically populated into it – full of pictures, information, and links back to your site. Just like with YouTube, search engires are able to index each and every one of these pages for keywords. Even if a customer isn’t searching specifically on the Craigslist site, they could still find your ad by searching a specific enough phrase on a search engine such as Google.

For a sample Craigslist ad, visit: http://www.di-web2.net/craigslist/sample.html

From a marketing standpoint, notice how the branding of the dealer website is retained through to the ad. If you’re familiar with Craigslist, most ads you see have a plain white background, typically a lump of text that is hard to read, and some ads don’t even contain photos. With the thousands and thousands of ads posted on Craigslist, you only have those initial few seconds to grab their attention and get them to read on. We believe in branding your ads to your dealership, providing a professional looking landing page to convert more leads into sales.

For more information on listing your inventory on Craigslist, please call Sales at 877.334.9638

Do You Sayso?

A new mobile marketing service provides some interesting opportunities for dealerships to begin experimenting with mobile advertising.

Sayso, the “mobile marketing marketplace” allows dealerships and other advertisers to rent targeted lists of mobile phone owners and deliver marketing messages direct to their pocket. Sayso advertisers set the price they’re willing to pay to deliver each message, controlling the price of each campaign to fit any budget. Advertisers can begin using Sayso for as little as a few hundred dollars. One of Sayso’s founders is Drew Jones, a friend and marketing partner of Dealer Impact.

By using Sayso, dealerships can tap the power of mobile marketing without an investment in building, managing or maintaining their own database. And because Sayso profiles all their subscribers, dealerships can target just the audience segment that matters to them. Want to promote a new mini-van? Sayso can target families. A new sports car? Sayso can help you reach out to middle-aged men. Used cars? Send your message to students.

Learn more about advertising with Sayso here >> http://www.saysomobile.com/advertiser/

Subscribe to Sayso here using the invite code IMPACT >> http://www.saysomobile.com

Read up on Sayso at their blog >> http://blog.saysomobile.com

D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC

Social Media Crosses into the Mainstream

By Rich Cherecwich

Social media, once a place for early adopters, curmudgeonly blog critics and college students, has officially entered the mainstream. According to a poll from Forrester Research, 75 percent of internet users participate in some form of social media, up from 56 percent in 2007.

One area where Forrester noticed large growth was in blogs and consumer-written product reviews. Participation grew from 48 percent of internet users to 69 percent, undoubtedly spurred by difficult economic times and consumers’ desire to research potential purchases before buying. The number of critics, or those who write the reviews, also grew from 25 percent to 37 percent.

Social networks increased in popularity as well with a 39 percent growth in new profiles. As more proof that social media has gone mainstream, Forrester noted that the age gap in social media is quickly closing. Although younger demographics still rate higher, the 35-44-year-old demographic saw considerable growth in writing reviews and joining social networks.

Source

Cloud Computing and Cars: A Web Services Primer

By Bridget Townsend

Keeping up with shifting technology is an uphill battle when marketing in the automotive vertical. See how web services can help you focus on promotion, rather than your infrastructure.

Web services are not a new invention, but only recently have we seen them gaining acceptance in many industries, including automotive. If you consider the nature of a vehicle, combined with the exploding number of consumers heading online to research and shop for vehicles, this makes sense. Because a vehicle can have over 10,000 options and pricing configurations, ensuring that an automotive selling site has the most up-to-date and accurate information, and that it has the tools that consumers demand (such as allowing consumers to build their own cars by adding options, colors, etc., and then comparing them to other models) is a monumental job. Enter web services. 

What web services can do
Before we delve deeper into how web services can benefit a wide range of industries, let’s step back and explain more concretely what they are and what they do. Web services are interfaces that exchange information between an application and a remote data source. They allow software applications to access and use functionality and data created by another provider, or multiple providers. This is an abstract concept, so let’s make it tangible with an example of web services, courtesy of the website XML.com: a music CD. If you want to play a CD, you put it into a CD player and the player plays it for you. The CD player offers a CD playing service. You can replace one CD with another, or take your CDs to a friend’s house and play them on their player. No matter what music is on the CD or what player you use, you can listen to it because the systems talk to each other. This works the same way as web services do. Without web services, every CD would come with its own player and the two would not be separated. This sounds odd, but it’s the way many software systems have been built. In effect, building a software system has been like re-inventing the wheel every time, with all the development time and costs that includes. With that basic definition, let’s circle back to how industries are using web services, and why they would want to. Let’s take Google as an example. Google has popularized web service utilities for businesses and for the general public. Groups ranging from non-profit organizations to book clubs use their Google Groups and Google Docs to share information and stay in touch. Another example is cdyne, which applies web services to a specific domain or demographic. Their demographics web service delivers enhanced census data, which their clients use to target customers or neighborhoods for their own services and products.

Web services for automotive
In the automotive industry, this same concept is applied to a vertical market. Online vehicle shoppers want quick and easy access to the most up-to-date and detailed vehicle data. A vehicle manufacturer or portal site could re-invent the wheel by developing its own configuration and comparison tool to combine raw data with available options, but the creation is time-consuming and requires sophisticated programming skills and constant data updates.  Using web services, they create a simple consumer-facing interface and flow data through it from a data provider. They don’t have to create an infrastructure or manage data updates; the provider takes care of that.  Every interface is customized for look and feel so every website retains individuality. Check out Vehix.com and Sam’s Club Auto Buying Program for examples. Both use web services to deliver vehicle data, but each interface is customized and unique. And neither company has to worry about updating the data or keeping the service running; the web service provider takes care of that.  They’ve increased their capability without having to invest in a new infrastructure, derail their development team or invest in new personnel. Why they work
To continue with the “why” of web services, reduced cost and development time are key. A basic example to illustrate this point: a Microsoft Word document. When you go to write a document, you would never dream of starting by developing your own word processor. Microsoft has already done that, and done it well.  They’ve provided the platform and they are responsible for managing it, updating it and releasing new versions. You only have to use it. 

Web services follow the same logic. An expert in the space has already developed the platform; customizing it is much cheaper and faster than developing it all over again. Consider the example of cloud computing, which allows developers to exploit functionality without having to implement a full-blown application. Because this practice is cheaper, and because the internet is increasingly more reliable, more companies are adopting this approach. Early adoption within a handful of Fortune 500 companies, including Proctor & Gamble and General Electric, sets the stage for cloud computing to go mainstream. This “cloud” allows companies to more efficiently and cost-effectively store, manage and share data without any hardware or software to download, install or maintain. Their customers can focus on their core competencies, not the infrastructure.

Another benefit of using an existing web service is access to the innovations of that implementation. As we all know, technology is never static; changes are happening every day and trying to keep up with new functionality can derail a development team from focusing on the core competencies that result in immediate revenue. 

As an example from the automotive industry, many companies need to be able to decode vehicle identification numbers (VINs), but they generate revenue by creating consumer-facing websites that help consumers find the their perfect vehicle. They don’t need to build a VIN decoder, they need to buy one. What they’re presenting to the consumer is key, not what is happening on the back-end. 

Conclusion
If you are developing websites for your clients, or are tasked with bringing all the providers together who are essential for functionality and deployment, you should consider taking a closer look at web services. By using an off-the-shelf solution and then building on that platform, you can save your clients time to market and significant funds and give them access to groundbreaking innovations. As a result, you have more money left in your budget for marketing and promotion, and your clients can get a head start on generating more revenue. 

Bridget Townsend is director of engineering, product and client services for Chrome Systems, Inc.

Source: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/20362.asp

Better Place?

I’m going to take a break from my normal market-centric rants to call attention to this fascinating article about a new company called Better Place. The company’s basic premise… mash together automotive and cell phone business models to create the infrastructure and consumer demand necessary for the mass-scale adoption of electric cars — and the elimination of the oil-based economy.

Crazy? It’ll never happen? Read the article from Wired and judge for yourself.

Video Has Officially Arrived

Nothing has changed the way consumers use the Internet quite like video. Youtube.com and its brethren have fulfilled the true multi-media promise that was made back when we were all still on dial-up. We knew the day would come… and it has arrived.

So what’s made it happen? Well first of all, well over 50% of all internet users in the United States now have high-speed internet access. Secondly, simpler video editing software and less expensive video cameras have made user-created video affordable to middle America.

Video and multi-media are no longer nice-to-haves for dealership websites… it’s a must have to remain competitive. In fact, video has been shown to increase click rates and the time a user spends on your site.

In short… It’s time to make video a part of your dealership’s web system.

D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC

Web Marketing Grows, but How Much?

JULY 3, 2008

A Look Behind the Numbers

“More than one-half of the average marketer’s budget is now spent online,” according to a press release from lead generation company Clash-Media. The firm conducted its “Online Lead Generation (B2C) Report 2008″ in May with E-consultancy.

But the press release may be a misreading of the report. According to respondents, a greater proportion of lead generation budgets is being spent online (on average, 53%) than offline (44%).

The survey’s methodology seems to confirm the point.

Of those polled, 73% said their channels to market were “online or multichannel,” and 23% said “online only.” Only about 4% said they were “offline only.”

So respondents were focused largely on online approaches. The rest of the summary issued with the report was more accurate. Among the findings:

• Seven out of 10 responding marketers said their companies used search engine optimization, paid search and e-mail marketing to in-house lists.
• Offline marketing methods largely decreased, with only press and television advertising growing. Over 90% of marketers saw online lead generation as a growth area.
• Print media was still the most commonly used offline method to generate consumer leads (65% of organizations).
• Natural search (79% of respondents), e-mail marketing to in-house lists (75%) and paid search (71%) were the three most commonly used online methods for lead generation.

Without question, online ad spending in the US is rising quickly. eMarketer predicts double-digit growth will continue for the next several years.

Source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006376

The Internet Never Forgets

One of the oft overlooked aspects of our digital world is that is has a near-flawless memory. Unlike the paper, ink and magnetic tape of the old analog world, the ones and zeros of digital information never deteriorate. That, of course, means that the digital information you push out into the world (i.e. your website, email, digitized television and radio spots, banner ads, blog posts, press releases, etc.) never go away.

If you’ve changed the design and content of your website 3 times in the past 10 years, don’t think that those old designs aren’t still floating around out there in cyberspace. They may not be as easy to access, but they’re there. When Google crawls the web, a snapshot of your site is taken at that moment in time and archived. Even if you deleted that email from your inbox, there are still copies in the recipient’s inbox as well as on the servers in between. And those servers are often backed up daily and the copies sent off site.

The lesson, in short, is be careful. There’s no way to burn the evidence of your old website or sweep away that email you fired off in a moment of anger. Customers and the media will find these things, eventually. And if they have good reason, they’ll use them against you.

D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC