Internet marketing is essential and the most effective avenue of reaching customers online is Facebook. The social media site is too powerful to ignore with statistics like these:

—It is now the second-most visited web site in the U.S. after Google

—With 400 million users, it is the most popular social network in the world

—100 million people use Facebook on their mobile devices every month

—There are 5.3 billion fans of nearly 3 million Facebook fan pages

—A recent study found that Facebook pages create more loyal customers

Tapping into the vast Facebook network is easy with Dealer Impact’s new Facebook Inventory App, a dynamic program specifically designed to integrate with Facebook’s interface. The innovative program functions like a second web site for a dealership. The app helps dealers display current inventory on a Facebook fan page, generate and capture qualified leads, and much more.

To see an example of our Facebook Inventory App visit www.facebook.com/karlchevrolet

To learn more about Facebook Inventory App and how you can use it to boost sales, contact Dealer Impact at 877-334-9638.

Dealer Impact can now optimize a dealership’s web site for use on iPhone, Blackberry, Android, or Palm Pre. There are many benefits of these mobile web sites, including:

• They look and function like the apps that smart-phone users are accustomed to. 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.

• Car buyers do not need to download anything or pay to use the service.

• They are simplified and load quickly, allowing customers to navigate the site to find inventory, specials, and other information in seconds.

• Clickable contact information allows a user to immediately call the dealership or pull up a map with driving directions.

To stay ahead of the competition in the expanding mobile market, add phone-friendly features to your site today. Learn more by contacting Dealer Impact at 877/334-9638.

1. Less is More

Websites are for the user, not the designer. Adding a lot of bells and whistles to a site is meaningless if the user can’t find what he/she wants. Keep your site clean and simple, with the most important information front and center. Customers don’t want to jump around a site to find current inventory or dig through several layers to locate contact information, specials and inventory.

2. Search-Engine Friendly

Clean, uncluttered sites not only appeal to users, they are more likely to be indexed by the major search engines (sites that use Flash design can’t be read well by search-engine spiders). If you want users to find you first, be sure to incorporate common SEO (search engine optimization) elements, including tags, keywords, fresh content, and shortened URLs for optimized inventory links.

3. Support Systems

Attracting customers to your web site takes more than good design. You must be ubiquitous on the Internet, with multiple points of presence. To do this, build a trail of breadcrumbs that leads back to your site using such tools as satellite videos, blogs, Youtube, Facebook, and other social media

Every web site Dealer Impact designs follows these best-practice principles. If you are interested in having us create or improve your dealership’s site, call our sales reps at 877-334-9638.

1. The future is now

The statistics on mobile web use are astounding. One-fifth of Americans already access the mobile web everyday. In less than a decade, half of all web searches will happen from a mobile device. The mobile generation is already here and it includes your customers.

2. A regular site isn’t enough

Traditional web sites are designed for people surfing from the comfort of home using a full-size computer. Mobile users are on-the-go and limited by small screens; they are looking for specific information and they want it quickly. To satisfy these users, dealers need simplified sites designed specifically for the smart phone platform.

3. The competition is already there

Picture this scenario: A consumer is driving around looking for a new car. As he drives by dealers’ lots, he uses his smart phone to search inventories before deciding where to stop. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile web, he’s likely to move on to the next lot. Can you afford to lose out?

To simplify the process of making and distributing videos, Dealer Impact offers the Video Generation System (VGS), which automatically produces inventory-specific videos and integrates them into a dealer’s website. VGS uses a flash player to create a mini portable web site for each vehicle, complete with video, audio, photos, features, options, and pricing. 

And now VGS is even better, with the addition of several recent upgrades: 

Carfax Integration: Participating CarFax dealerships can now add reports using special banners that appear across the top of VGS videos. Users can click the banners to view vehicle-specific information.

Sliding Presentation: VGS can now highlight an array of inventory at once using a rolling filmstrip. Users simply click on any vehicle in the slider to watch a video.

Starburst Callouts: A bold graphic can be added to the corner of any video to highlight specific features about the vehicle or to advertise a special promotion.

As always, VGS presentations can be quickly added to any website and can be easily exported to blogs, forums, YouTube, or nearly any third-party site that accepts video. 

If you’re ready to test drive VGS and its new features, visit http://www.dealerimpact.com/vgs or call a sales rep at 877-334-9638.