Car Dealers and Web 2.0
There is a lot of talk these days about blogging and Web 2.0 for car dealers. But when you cut through the fluff of what is discussed on these topics what you will find is that there is an abundance of “dealers should use Web 2.0″ proclamations and not much in the way of how, i.e. REAL SOLUTIONS.
Over the past couple weeks I have come across emails from companies touting messages to car dealers on the use of blogging and social media, driving high-quality or residual site traffic, and building long-term relationships with customers. While these topics alone are not particularly new for dealers, they do signify to me a new era in Automotive Internet Marketing because of the source of these marketing messages and their timing and context.
While there certainly is value in blogging and social media, this is still uncharted territory for car dealers. Primarily because these forms of marketing, these “tools” so to say, do not in-and-of themselves produce results. Rather it is in how these tools are utilized throughout your dealership that will make a difference in your business.
A good analogy to contrast the use of Web 2.0 as part of your marketing strategy is to consider your DMS and your CRM. Dealers typically make a pretty hefty up front investment to implement such systems into their business and then spend months training and learning the systems before they really experience the full benefits, sometimes even a good year or so.
With Web 2.0 dealers can expect to spend several months building what we call their virtual infrastructure just to have a chance at cultivating a truly engaged customer audience fit for doing business in your interactive marketing arena. All things considered, I suggest writing off the first 6-9 months as R&D versus marketing and advertising.
I am weary of venturing into the early web days of the auto industry where dealers were battered into making web investments because “they should” that not only didn’t prove fruitful but also that created a rift between car dealers and the “Internet Customer” that dealers are still paying for today.
If you want to get in to Web 2.0, start by defining what you want to see it accomplish and then work with your providers to obtain those objectives. This will prove more beneficial than throwing money at it and waiting around for something to happen because someone suggested to “just get into it”.
Facebook Ideas for Car Dealers
With the growing awareness and interest in “Web 2.0″ for car dealers, the pressure is on to conceive truly impacting ways for dealers to sell more cars with today’s web technologies. I for one have no doubt that Web 2.0 is key to the success of car dealers, but I also realize the climb has hardly begun.
It’s important to consider proven marketing practices and techniques when leveraging technology. Often people shift towards tools and technology because they are new and then try to find clever ways to make them viable. Take something like Facebook for instance. It’s free and available to everyone so dealers are signing up for it and then wondering how they can put it to good use.
Facebook is a sophisticated application and there are numerous ways to utilize it for sales and marketing purposes, but its not going to be easy. First you have to develop an audience which takes time, commitment, and creativity. You don’t develop an audience in social networks by advertising and soliciting to people. You develop it by observing your connections, interacting with them, and creating interest in them for you. Not realistic if you have an ulterior motive. But that’s the reality of social media networking.
So what can dealers do with Facebook? Well, I think a good start would be to keep it simple by using the Events functionality. Let’s say you are having a tent sale in a few weeks. First you would create an event on your Facebook to announce the event. Then you would blast an email to your permission-based email audience about the event, maybe using a short video to introduce it and invite people to connect with you on Facebook.
Then, at the event, set up a table with a Facebook banner and some materials to educate people at the event about your efforts on Facebook. Take lots of pictures, some videos, maybe even get some written testimonials. Essentially, document the event with multi-media. Heck you might even consider hiring a professionals to do this like you would for your wedding.
After the event, update your Facebook with all the pictures and videos and such, like a journal entry. Make it look sharp, fun, and appealing. Now shoot out another email to your list thanking them for attending and encouraging those that weren’t there to make a check out the pics and stuff anyway.
Hopefully you get the idea. This is no easy task but you want to start somewhere. To pull this off you need buy-in from staff and possibly professional help from select partners, and of course an audience interested in your efforts. But it’s these sorts of efforts that will allow you to build trust with your audience, evolve your dealership, and selling more cars (and service them too). Do this regularly and you could be on to something.
Auto dealers embracing innovation with Web Marketing 2.0
For decades, our car-buying decisions have been based primarily on what our friends tell us, what we read in consumer reports, and the advertising in radio and in television. But the buying world is changing across the board, virtualizing and socializing, and progressive dealerships are getting in to the action. A new survey by The Kelsey Group suggests a warm welcome by car dealers when it comes to today’s Web 2.0 marketing.
According to the survey, 62 percent of those dealers who responded planned to increase their online media spending this year, and 33 percent said they would be using social media, up from 15 percent. At the same time, only 8 percent of respondents said they would be cutting their online spending, as compared to 46 percent who will be cutting their spending in more traditional media outlets.
“These findings point to a significant disruption in the auto dealer advertising space,” says Neal Polachek, chief executive officer of The Kelsey Group. This isn’t your grandfather’s marketing campaign.
Whenever technology changes — whether it’s the newest gadget or the newest form of marketing –there is always a group of individuals and businesses who are quick to get involved. These early adopters who are more willing to try new things before the rest of the industry does have a chance at new and exciting success. The last few years have been groundbreaking in online technology and social media marketing, and other dealers are catching on after seeing the unprecedented success of their peers who have been quick to adopt the new technology.
There is a growing awareness among automobile dealers that online brand marketing is a vital piece of the marketing puzzle. This includes forms of Organic Search Marketing, Blog Marketing, and online Social Network Marketing. Buyers have not only turned to the Internet with shocking speed and in amazing numbers, but also they are demanding more from their suppliers, and automobile retailers are no exception. The smart dealers are getting on board, capitalizing on this new breed of web savvy customers.
There’s no doubt about it — the world has changed beyond recognition, and it continues to change every day. Dealers across the country and the globe have come to realize that online brand marketing and social media are powerful and cost-effective means for making customers more aware of what they have to offer. It’s an exciting time to be a car dealership, and the future is looking brighter and brighter every day.
The parallels of Web 2.0 and real life
Do you ever consider what makes Web 2.0-minded systems like MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia, and LinkedIn so popular?
The obvious answer is because the users control their own experience and influence that of others. When you join these online communities you are able to present a compartmentalized version of who you are and network with everyone else in the system.
Kind of like real life, wouldn’t you say?
This is just how the real world works. We are all in a system (society) with rules and guidelines, or protocols to which we adhere to create a persona of our selves that we share with others and network. Naturally, any system that can mimic this sort of creativity and liberty in our online experience is going to win over some users.
When you look around you, one thing you see everywhere is advertising and it is usually loud, big, and bold. Take a drive down the highway to a metropolitan area and tell me what you see. Billboards, billboards, billboards. You see ads on bus stops and on buildings. You hear ads on radio, TV, and let’s not forget magazines. The point is, ads are everywhere and they are typically geared towards a particular audience that is likely to be viewing them.
The same goes for online advertising, but with the Internet, advertising can be taken a step further. There is a level of precision and reporting that go along with online advertising. So why, according to The Wall Street Journal, was only 5% of money spent on advertising done online?
I think it might have something to do with price. A quick analysis of advertising with The Wall Street Journal shows that a full page color ad for the US circulation would cost about $254,000. With 1.7M readers the advertiser is paying $0.15 an “impression”. Step down to a 1/7 page ad the advertiser cost would be about $28,400, or $0.016 per impression. A typical banner ad on the Web costs advertisers now about $20 CPM (cost per thousand impressions). This equates to about $0.02 per impression.
This is a very rough calculation but you get the point. The cost for advertising on the Web can be and typically is significantly less expensive which I think is the reason why 95% more money is spent in off-line advertising. This will change in time, and probably not too far off. There are companies out there getting a jump on this and with behavioral advertising hitting the scene, the cost for online advertising will rise steadily and quickly, possibly some day surpassing print and television advertising.
