a dealers guide to digital domination

HOW TO OWN YOUR MARKET AND BEYOND

DIGITALDOMINATION

A dealer s guide to

Before ever walking through your doors, 93% of your potential buyers have started shopping for a vehicle online.

That’s according to a survey conducted by global professional service company Accenture. Yet, a sizeable number of dealers — about 30%, according to a recent WardsAuto survey — cite attracting new customers as their biggest challenge. The reality is digital advertising needs to be the foundation of your overall marketing plans.

What does that mean for you and your dealership? While your physical space — which is likely clean, inviting, and designed to make a sale — will continue to be a factor in your success, your virtual showroom needs the same care and attention. This guide delves into the proven strategies and new techniques for generating digital traffic and maps out the experience that turns online shoppers into showroom buyers.

Summary

S U M M A R Y

The reality is digital advertising needs to be the foundation of your overall marketing plans.

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ContentsP A R T I T R A F F I C D R I V E R S : 3 T O O L S F O R F I L L I N G Y O U R D I G I T A L P I P E L I N E 2

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A D E A L E R ’ S G U I D E T O D I G I T A L D O M I N A T I O N

The road to digital domination

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T R A F F I C D R I V E R S : 3 T O O L S F O R F I L L I N G Y O U R D I G I T A L P I P E L I N E

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Traffic drivers:3 TOOLS FOR FILLING YOUR digital pipeline

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3 TRAFFIC DRIVERS:

Feeding your virtual showroom a balanced diet

And just like adjusting your diet based on your needs and goals, you’re going to adjust your digital strategy based on what delivers traffic that converts into showroom appointments and, if all goes well, sales. Let’s take a quick look at your website’s three food groups:

Fats, oils, and sweets(Least servings)

Proteins and dairy

Fruits and vegetables

Breads, rice, and pasta(Most servings)

• Search engine optimization (SEO): At the bottom of your pyramid are your carbs — your bread, rice, and pasta — that provide the energy to keep you going.

• Search engine marketing (SEM): Think fruits and veggies that strengthen your immunity and digital presence.

• Paid social: These are your proteins and dairy, providing the vitamins that serve as the building blocks of a solid digital presence. But be careful not to have too much.

Each tool is well-established at driving traffic to your site, but they need to be used carefully and require proper

planning to get the right traffic. Now let’s delve a little deeper into each traffic-driving tool.

Think of your digital showroom like a food pyramid; you need to feed it a balanced diet.

SEO + Google My BusinessSEO + Google My Business

SEM + Paid mediaSEM + Paid media

Paid socialPaid social

UXUX++

Conversion rate Conversion rate optimizationoptimization


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SEO is probably your best online marketing tool for driving organic traffic.

Search engine optimization

Again, SEO is probably your best online

marketing tool for driving organic traffic.

The focus of most SEO conversations

revolves around keywords and ranking.

While they continue to be critical to SEO

success, Google’s ongoing evolution

has made SEO much more nuanced

and effective.

Essentially, Google’s algorithm no longer looks for a site with the right

keywords; it looks for the most relevant, up-to-date, and informative

content to create a pleasant and delightful customer experience.

Accessibility also is critical. That means a site that touts mobile-first,

responsive capabilities and fast load times.

Now consider that 2020 was the first time more than 50% of Google

searches did not result in a click-through to a business’ site. The reason is

Google My Business, which kept searchers on Google’s site while delivering

the information they wanted. That’s why Google My Business represents your

dealership’s greatest weapon. Not only does it legitimatize your information,

its focus on reputation and reviews provides reassurance to consumers while

inviting them to start a conversation via your phone or email listing.

For dealers, Google My Business offers an effective way to advertise special

offers and promotions before a customer gets to your site, boost your

reputation with genuine customer reviews, and enhance the delightful

experience Google hopes to deliver.

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Search engine marketing

With SEM, keywords again become critical. Like SEO, however, it’s not enough to

throw every keyword against the proverbial wall to see what sticks. You need

to do your research and focus on what will drive that traffic.

Your research will also need to account for negative keywords, or search

terms that tend to generate the wrong type of traffic to your site. An example is

attracting someone looking for a Honda motorcycle or lawnmower while trying

to attract buyers for the latest Civic or CRV.

SEM is not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy; you need to

constantly evaluate how well you’re doing based on click-

through rates and content that generates the most views.

Your SEM campaign structure should consist of:

› Brand terms

› High- and low-volume vehicles you’re highlighting

› Service and parts programs you offer

Make sure you own your own AdWords account. Consider it

a business asset, as you’ll need to know your keywords

to evaluate what’s working. If your marketing partner

won’t share those words with you, it may be time to

reconsider that relationship.

Make sure you own your own AdWords account.


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Paid social

With paid social, you can get laser-focused when targeting an audience that

wants what you have. Targeting is based on an ad query and looks the most

like a traditional advertising platform.

The key here is to have crisp and useful creative that reflects your brand voice

and what you offer. You will likely need to experiment with multiple versions

of the copy, fine-tuning your message to determine what connects with your

intended audience. Just be careful not to over-test.

Carousel ads are the most effective ad types, driving

targeted buyers to your inventory. Dynamic ads highlighting

the exact vehicle customers are looking for (e.g., a black,

not red, Audi A5 at a specific price) will also pique

more interest than simply saying, “Our dealership

has many Audi A5s.”

With paid social ads, you can also employ retargeting

techniques to remind potential buyers about that vehicle

they were looking for two days before and that it’s still

available at the same reasonable price. The bottom line

is the more you cater to the specific needs and desires

of the customer, the closer you get to a conversion.

Marketers can reach a specific audience faster and drive better engagement by segmenting and targeting ads. In the examples shown here, Ad A target a contractor who enjoys fishing, while ad B targets a soccer mom who enjoys the great outdoors.

A B

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How to createA PROFITABLE USER EXPERIENCE

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While Google My Business and paid social may be less about getting eyes on your website — at least initially — that doesn’t mean you should ignore your website, which is critical to moving the conversation to conversion.

How to create a profitableuser experience

And there are a number of best practices you should be following to achieve that outcome; the first among them is to ask less of your potential customer.

The mistake many dealerships make is using their website to highlight everything they have to offer. Treating your website like an endless menu of services overloads and confuses shoppers. Instead, be purposeful. What do you want customers to do? Do you want them to sign up for a test drive, call the dealership, or something else? Whatever you want them to do, create a single call to action (CTA) that drives site visitors to take that action. Again, asking less gets you more.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t use multiple CTAs as the customer moves deeper into your website. For example, layering your CTAs on your inventory or photo pages with “Schedule a Test Drive” or “Get Answers About Financing” options.

Completing this excellent user experience you’ve created is integration between your website and CRM. This connection represents an opportunity for your team to deepen the conversation by allowing you to capture the shopper’s information once their device pings your website. This critical component ensures you have the information you need to move the customer to a buying decision.


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Transparency of payment, price and F&I

Speed of lead response time, showroom experience, and F&I

Control through digital retailing and a mobile-friendly experience

3 RULES TO CREATING A MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE

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Key tactics ForA SMOOTH TRANSITIONTO SALE

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With the emphasis on new techniques and tools, it’s one of modern sales’ oldest tools — the telephone — that often determines the outcome of each opportunity your digital strategies generate.

Key tactics for a smooth transition to sales

The question is, do you have a way of determining where those calls originate and what motivated them? You’ll also need to log those calls and have a way to optimize and track them. If you can’t, you could be sabotaging your team’s ability to convert those opportunities into sales.

Imagine a shopper reaches your website, which you’ve optimized and connected to your CRM, and clicks on your “Call the Dealership” CTA. The moment the customer gets connected to a salesperson, he or she gets grilled about information that should be readily available through the CRM. The customer abandons the call, and the opportunity is lost. The good news is this is an easy problem to fix.

Take texting, which has become a primary means for many dealerships to initiate a conversation with an inquiring customer. When integrated into the CRM, texting can be used as a highly personalized cultivation tool under a strategy that includes:

• Leading with an initial text message and a customized opt-in

• Employing pictures, videos, and emojis to improve engagement

• Utilizing messaging templates


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The mistake many dealerships make is allowing these valuable conversations to happen on a salesperson’s mobile device. Not only are managers unaware of what transpired during those exchanges, your dealership risks losing that customer if and when the salesperson leaves for another job. The right texting strategy ensures that a departing salesperson’s customer contacts roll over to his or her replacement.

Not having those conversations happening within the CRM also prevents your dealership from taking advantage of new personalization techniques like “geofencing,” which involves interactions that occur based on the customer’s location and behavioral traits. No matter the method used, the more personalized the exchange, the more conversions you can expect.

One thing that remains constant, however, is lead management. Remember, every lead has a shelf life. Without timely follow-up managed through the CRM, you’ll likely lose that relationship to a competitor.

Remember, every lead has a shelf life.

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Checklist ForUNIFYING THECLICKS-TO-BRICKSCONSUMER EXPERIENCE

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Checklist for unifyingthe clicks-to-bricks consumer experience

Having your CRM deeply integrated with your dealership’s other retail solutions is essential to your click-to-bricks strategy, allowing you to unify all customer outreach, lead generation, sales accountability management, data analytics, and budding omnichannel retail experience from within this critical front-end tool. Here are the must-have features when it comes to your digital-selling strategies:

Real-time inventory sync with Facebook

A CRM integrated with your inventory tool and website that offers a one-time setup of product catalog with an inventory export allows you to sync your real-time inventory with Facebook automatically. The result is automotive inventory ads served up to Facebook users based on availability, pricing, and consumer intent.

Consumer listening tools

Full platform providers offering a unified experience between their retail solutions typically provide applications that allow dealers to tap their website’s behavior analytics so sales teams can monitor, track, and convert shoppers from the CRM. That same integration will likely offer the ability to push text conversations and opt-ins initiated by shoppers through the website into the CRM, where they can be tracked and managed using the tool’s marketing and lead-management features.

Shoppervisits website

Shoppersubmit form

CRM recordcreated,

sale rep notified


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Lead management

As previously noted, all the opportunities your digital marketing efforts generate won’t mean a thing if they don’t convert. Having your website and social channels funneling leads into your CRM means automated follow-up, customized lead routing, and customer and sales team alerts when leads are received, emails are opened, and prices are reduced. It also means choosing your messaging channels (e.g., email or text) and automatically reassigning and escalating untouched leads.

Trafficking metrics and reporting

Your CRM should allow you to attach unique tracking codes to email campaigns that allow you to track leads when they arrive on a landing page you’ve created as part of your promotion. The CRM should also make available a host of reports that track lead conversion, new prospects, appointments generated, cost per lead, cost per sold lead, and return on investment by source and marketing channel. These analytics help validate your marketing spend and provide insights on where to focus future marketing investments.

Learn more at dealerf ire.com or cal l 833-873-5624

http://dealerfire.com/

a dealers guide to digital domination

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