Articles for Internet Experts
Friday, July 09, 2010
Dealerships have been heeding the call to build an expansive online presence in order to sell used cars and hard-to-sell vehicles for some time now. However, as more dealers are realizing that other parts of the dealership, such as parts and accessories and new cars, have a viable and active market online, they begin to transform into virtual dealerships with all aspects of the sales floor available online.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
What if I told you that over 95 percent of your service and parts business comes from "traditional" marketing—word of mouth, past customers, location. Nearly everyone who spends time in your service or parts department got there because they already knew something about you.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Richard Valenta - Analysts and dealers alike are saying this spring will be great for business. Traffic to dealership Web sites is up across the country. During the past year, reduced expenses affected many dealers’ marketing and advertising efforts, including their Web sites.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Jim Rucker - Search engine optimization is both an art and a science. While there are factors that every professional in the industry agrees contribute to the success of an SEO campaign, the differences come in how much weight is given to each factor.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Todd Swickard - Is it the year for social networking in the car business, where we all connect to our customers and show them how good of a "friend" we are? Or is it the year that we make videos of everything? Why don’t we clog servers to show them video instead of pictures?
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Joe Turner - Few things have changed the way businesses advertise like social media. Of course, radio was a big change from print, and TV brought a whole new dynamic, but advertising was still a matter of pushing a message to the masses and hoping some got it.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Dean Evans - The war between the "old school" of marketing and the "new school" of marketing continues to rage, regardless of the gains the new school has made and the losses the old school continues to suffer in the marketplace. The Internet has the attention of the vast majority of consumers.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Jim Rucker - Credit is a big topic in the automotive industry, especially for car dealers struggling with slow, post-Clunkers sales. Selling the vehicle is difficult enough but once it gets to finance, an entire other world of concerns is present.??
Sunday, November 15, 2009
David Kain - For some dealers, the Web site remains the proverbial red-headed stepchild of their marketing efforts. Most people by now know they have to have one, so what they do is set it up, and put it in the hands of a low-level employee and hope for the best. After all, you and your sales team have more “important” things to do, like greet customers who ...
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Jim Rucker - It doesn't matter how much traffic you drive to a site or how big your Facebook fan page is if they aren't optimized for lead conversion. The process is very simple:
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
One of the biggest challenges for businesses entering into Web 2.0 and using social media to promote their products is finding the time to do it all. Every site has a different interface, a different user-base, and different ways they can be used to enhance your marketing.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Dealers have a sort of love/hate relationship with compliance, especially in terms of their Web sites. Before manufacturers implemented standards for dealer sites, there was a kind of “Wild West” feel to things ...
Friday, August 21, 2009
Jim Rucker - You have the cars. They want them. How do you bring them to you? How can you stand out from your competitors? With marketing budgets being cut, many dealers are looking to the Internet to “spend smarter.” There are still obstacles. With hundreds of vendors and marketing firms flaunting their products, it’s possible to spend more online than offline. Luckily, there are only three areas you have to cover to make sure you’re geared for success ...
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Jim Rucker - While it is possible to complete the details of a car deal through correspondence and ship it to the customer, for the most part a BDC is still shooting for the all-important kept appointment, whether for new customers or be-backs. The tools, however, have expanded tremendously. Every BDC should be taking advantage of the new ways ...
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Jason Ezell - If we can bring people in on pre-owned car deals, then we can show them the excellent deals we have on new vehicles and try to make that switch. Almost half of all people who submit a vehicle lead via the Internet will buy a different vehicle than the one they first inquired about, and over 42 percent of people who submitted a lead on a new vehicle ...
Friday, June 26, 2009
Jim Rucker - Social networks have been used as marketing tools since they started getting really hot a few years ago. Businesses have been using MySpace, Facebook and more recently, Twitter to get their message out to an online audience that is willing to listen. The problem that most businesses, including car dealerships, have with marketing through social networks is ...
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Jason Ezell - As dealer Web sites grew in number, popularity and robustness, Web space got crowded—especially on search engines. The solution for more visibility amidst the crowd was to buy your way in front of competitors to position yourself closest to the shopping audience.
It’s the ultimate auction with no ceiling on pricing, and the more you spend the ...
Friday, June 05, 2009
Howard Polirer - The goal of automotive Internet marketing is not to sell cars online; it’s to get potential customers to see your car, click on your car, come in to your store and ultimately purchase the vehicle. To get consumers to move through this process, your online presentation must create value ..
Monday, June 01, 2009
Jim Rucker - How often do you search Google and the other search engines for your dealership name? Weekly? Monthly? Rarely?
You should be doing it often. Your potential customers do. It's actually the most important ...
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Jason Ezell - Although OEM sites are still the most visited by online shoppers, third-party sites are no longer the second most visited sites. For the first time, dealership Web sites are the second most visited Web sites by online car shoppers! A reported 60 percent of these shoppers went to the ...