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.

And that sounds great, but let’s looks at what you might be giving up by adopting the latter school of thought…• When you’re building and managing the site on your own, or with a small local shop, you can’t capitalize on all there is to learn from other dealerships using a common system or provider.
• 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.These are only a few of the hidden costs you incur when building and maintaining your web system “the cheap way.” Remember, just like you tell your customers, you get what you pay for.D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC

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. 

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/18504.asp

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.

http://www.autoremarketing.com/ar/news/story.html?id=7481