Modern Auto Marketing

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    PROFITCENTER: INTERNET MARKETINGQuestions orcomments about this cotiunn?Sm d us an e-mail at Dealers((ir wardsauto.com.

    Modern Auto Marketing 3.0A pro tells how to put your Internet efforts into overdriveB y L a r r y B r u c e(This is thefirstpart of a two part series)

    It has been about adecade sincethe automotive Internet revolu-tion started.

    Since then, we have run thegamut, starting w ith the Internetthreatening rodisplace sales peo -ple anddealerships. Then the

    Internet was deemed a "non event." Now,it is seen as doing what some of us saidit would do: Putting customers in charge of the

    transaaion. Making the dealerships' market-

    ing, communication and operationssmarter and more efTicient.

    After the non-event stage, the Internetenabled dealers to buy hundreds of leadsfrom where ever. The idea was to get lotsso you blow through them as fast as youcould to close as many aspossible.

    It made us inefficient faster than everbefore.

    In this new decade, our business ischanging yet once again. We are transi-tioning from the Internet driving trafficto your business to the Internet beingyotir business.

    Customers are transitioning from look-ing for things on the Web to doing thingsthere. It will take anetwork of Intemet-enabled and connected Web propertiesand applications to give customers whatthey want, when they want it and theway they want it.

    Let's begin at the beginning and alsoat the most operationally inefficient areaof every dealership; the advertising andmarketing budget.

    First up is demand generation or morecommonly referred to as leads or traffic.

    Yonr entire inventory needs to be

    W e a re t ransi t ioning f rom th eIn te rne t dr iv ing t raf fic t o y o u rh u s i n e s s to the In te rne t h e i ngy o u r h u s i n e s s .Craigslist and othere listing sites.

    People look for a car first. A dealershipis a distant second.

    Never use stock photos. Even for newvehicles, take pictures of the actual cars.Take these photos yourself Do not out-source. Pictures are critical to your suc-cess online. They are the main reason acustomer chooses a car online.

    For best practices on taking vehiclepictures go tomy blog www.pcmguy.com. Look under best practices

    You only need one set of pictures foreach mode l new car you sell in each color,then put the number ofthat model in thatcolor youhave in stock in the listing.

    Better yet, have amodel microsite foreach of these models built, and directthe customer from the listing site to themicrosite for more in-depth informationand engagement.

    By doing tliis, you are then able totrack and score the behavior of the cus-tomer. Taking acustomer from a listingsite to a microsite also pulls them furtherinto your brand. It allows you to directthe shopper to your inventory site.

    This isn't a reason toget rid of thehsting site from your budget, but it is abarometer toallow you to understand

    for a conversion of listing site should be30 % to 40% less than what you wouldnormally pay for an Internet lead.

    By linking all of these sites toyourmain website you are also creating greatoffsite search-engine optimization. Thebest platform I have seen for this is ww w.micrositesbyu.com.P a y - P e r - C l ic k C a m p a i g n s

    PPC is largely mistmderstood. It's rarelya good idea to send PPC traffic toyourmain website. Thebest place for PPC traf-fic to go is to a landing experience typi-cally a microsite or a conversion path. Themain reason for tliis is "message match."

    When you send respondents toyourmain random-access website there is adisconnect between what got the respon-dent tochck in the first place and themessage they get when they land on yoursite. The customers don't find what theyinstantly thought they were going to get,so they abandon the site.

    Also when the respondent lands onyour main website, they could get lostand abandon it. Or, as is often the case,your main website is so confusing thecustomer just stares at the home page fora few seconds and abandons your site,

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    else matters. If your PPC cam paigns aren 'tconverting (getting a lead) at between 8%and 15% something isn't right. Your key-words are too higli in the funnel or morelikely your landing experiences aren'tresonating with the respondents who areclicking on the ad,

    IAD3.0 PPC ke)'word huys are looked ata lot like you would look at generating alist for a direct mail or e-mail campaign.

    You .should segtnent and strata key-words and phrases by the respondent'smost likely position in the sales furmeland hy geograph)'.

    Stratify your keyword buys accordingto funnel position, geography and enoughconversion rate data. That will allow youto place the highest bids on keywords inthe right geography that have the highestpossibility for conversion.

    Build four or more completely separatelanding experiences and let your respon-dents indicate which one resonates mostand converts the hest in real time.

    Then, to optimize the campaign, shuidown the other three and funnel all traf-fic to the winn ing landing experience.

    Do muhivariate testing on your win-ning landing experiences. That testing isthe process of changing button positions,colors, submission forms, headers and thelike. That gets you to the optimal conver-sion rate for each campaign.A f f i l i a t e M a r k e t i n g & B a n n e r A d s

    This medium is new to the auto worldand has evolved into a good traffic sourcewith the right partner. Again, this is allahout the conversion of the lead.

    Pay for CPC (cost-per-click) not CPM(cost-per-impression). There is no brand-ing when youre marketing through anaffiliate network. These banners are onother sites that people meant to go to

    Some aTiliates work on CPL (Cost-Per-Lead) basis even. IAD3,0 will track andanalyze everything with the conversionin mind. They know what banner sentthe click and what site it was on.

    Tracking the sites and banners that getthe most leads then doing multivariatetesting on those banners will get youthe return on investment you need fromaffiliate marketing.

    T u r n in g T r a d i ti o n a i D i g i t a lIf you are going to use radio, TV or

    newspapers, then make it event-driven.Have periodic events throughout the

    year. Coordinate this traditional mediaaromid these events and structure yourmedia buy on a vertical message strategy,

    A vertical strategy means that whenyou're buying a channel and a day, youneed to own that channel and tliat day.Every other spot needs to be your spot soback your budget into one or two chan-nels and a couple of days surrounding theevent and own them.

    If your spot owns a day, you will getthe largest amount of eyeballs or earswith more impression on them (reachand frequency). Send as tnuch of thistraffic as you can to a microslte landingexperience that is dedicated to this event.

    and ISPs have made it easy for them todo so. This is why it is so important toget the term "e-m ail blast" out of yourvocabulary.

    If you are blasting out an ad o r offer toeveryone with no regard to relevance tothe list you're sending to, you are turningpeople away from the best way you haveto talk with them and killing your brand.Keep it relevant a nd stop blasting.

    Images are your nemesis here. Youcannot be sure how the respondent willsee them and they serve little value. Donot make the image your offer, it maynot be seen.

    Do not fill e-mail with hnks ; it will beconsidered spa m. Keep your e-mails to aparagraph and be sure you have a clearcall to action. li nk the e-mail to a mic ro-site landing experience so the customers

    D o no t fi ll em aii w ith i inks ; it w iil he cons id -ered spam . Keep your em aiis to a paragraphand he sure you have a clear cal i to ac tion .The more you can generate digitally,the more you will engage the respon-

    dents, the easier it is for respondents toget all the information and do businesswith you, the more yoti will sell and thehigher your chances of conversion.

    Use SMS short codes to engage custom-ers via mobile. This is particularly effec-tive for radio. Short coding d one w ell willget you permission to text die customerupdates and will help you capture e-mailaddresses.O u t b o u n d D e m a n d G e n e r a t i o n

    This is the process of engaging cmtom-ers at a point when it is believed they aregetting ready to be in market.

    The market is now moving so fast, thebest practice here is now to stan three tosix months prior to there being in themarketing.

    The No,l way to communicate to thecustomer base is e-mail. Notice I said"communicate" not market.

    E-mail has turned into this personalspace that customers really do not share

    can get the info they want, when theywant it and the way they want it.This will increase conversion up to

    five times the normal 3% rate and allowyou to track, analyze and test each e-mailcampaign to get the best results.D i r e c t i V I a i l

    Highly targeted direct mail is still veryeffective, particularly when combinedwith digital supporting charmels. Thischannel relies heavily o n your relationalmarketing database (covered loler in port II ofthis column).

    W i t h a proper target hst, direct mailwill o n a volume level outperform e-mail.That's because your dealerships databasewill have more customer addresses thane-mails, an d also because customers reactbetter to direct mail fo r sales.

    Do bi-montiily or quarterly direct salescampaigns with service cross-promo-tions.

    (Next month: Social media and more)Marketinj) apert Larry Bruce is vice president-

    managed marketing solutions for Reynolds & Reynolds.

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