(This is an updated and edited version of my two-part series originally posted on the 3 Birds Marketing blog.) Before we dive into why Carvana will fail (and how it might succeed), I want to make sure we’re all up to speed on the used car market, in general. Unless you just don’t pay […]
As we learned in the last lesson in this series, there are essentially three primary things you can control that will influence those vehicle buyers who make no contact with you before they buy; those are pricing, reputation and messaging. (As DrivingSales tells us, those unwilling to connect in advance of purchase comprise 61% […]
…oh, and for car dealers, chatbots are moving metal! Time for some quick level-setting with the car dealer readers out there: Facebook is not going away; Most of your customers are already there; Your kitten pictures and inventory vomits aren’t being read; and Facebook Ads work, but you need to start communicating with these […]
Let’s quickly agree on two truths about the Internet and car sales: Everyone is online; and Not everyone is willing to submit a lead, call you or text you in advance of their visit. Can we agree on these two? Great! Now, DrivingSales puts the percentage of buyers who make no contact with your […]
Online chat. I know that when some of you hear that you’re thinking “Steve, we tried chat at our dealership, and it didn’t work.” Or, “We’re doing chat right now, but it doesn’t really move any metal.” To me, these thoughts sound like: “We tried having phones in the dealership, and they didn’t work;” […]
Hey Car Dealer: Stop Letting Carvana (and Everyone Else) Define You! If you believe the corporate manifestos and marketing pitches of every automotive retail-related startup for the last twenty years, then you’d think America’s car dealerships are staffed by a bunch of puppy-kicking thieves providing zero value as they work overtime to deliver the absolute […]
I can hear the Digital Marketing Snob in charge of your dealership’s or group’s websites now: “We don’t use pop-ups!” It’s so forceful – yet so completely naïve – that it makes me smile. What sort of precious little darling is making your marketing decisions today? If they’re shouting that “We don’t use pop-ups” […]
If we agree your website has just two primary goals (attract visitors and convert those visitors into buyers), then you need to ensure you’re giving every visitor lots of chances to convert with you. As we learned in an earlier part of this series, visitors don’t really know what you want them to do […]
You’ve told your site visitors “what” to do – that is, you need them to “complete this quick form,” “call now,” “click here,” etc., and this is good. Being direct with a website visitor will generate far more leads and calls than hoping they figure it all out on their own. Now you need […]
A major rule of website design is to understand that the website visitor is not you. They are not your team. They don’t visit your website multiple times a day. And unlike you, they never think your website is “stale.” Understanding this simple fact will keep you from making unnecessary changes that reduce conversions […]
While only a tiny percentage of your website visitors submit e-leads from your website, these leads are gold to dealerships with solid processes in place. In fact, for the average dealer, just 5 website leads equals 1 vehicle sold; making generating these leads a top priority for successful dealers. Unfortunately, many dealers are unintentionally […]
As we learned from two great studies produced recently by AutoTrader and DrivingSales, 39% of today’s buyers make some contact with the dealership prior to arriving. This means they submit an e-lead, pick up the phone, start a chat or complete some other connection activity before walking on your lot. In this part, we’re […]
Everywhere you turn in business today someone is squawking about ‘Millennial Buyers’ – as if Millennials were somehow that different or more important than the generations that preceded them. Certainly, 20-year-olds are different from 60-year-olds in many ways, but when it comes to website conversions, we need to agree that Millennial studies are stupid. […]
When you’re planning to make website changes to improve your conversion rate, it’s important to make sure everyone involved can answer the question: What is a conversion? There are a lot of opinions about what constitutes a website conversion – especially from the classified listing sites – and the problem for you is that […]
(This is the first part in a multi-part blog series that will explore virtually everything car dealers and other sales-focused businesses need to know to drive the maximum amount of leads, calls and sales from their existing website traffic.) Car dealers and other businesses looking to dramatically grow their e-leads, their phone calls and even […]
Stop Overthinking Your Emails! Between prepping for 20-Group presentations to serving our regular clients, we mystery shop scores of dealers each month – reading their emails and texts, and listening to their voicemails – and while we’ve seen definite overall improvement over the years, one aspect of the internet sales process that is beginning […]
Haven’t you heard? The Leads Are Dead! According to those who struggle to generate consumer sales leads for businesses, “Sales leads are dead.” Furthermore, these (interestingly, mostly digital) marketers claim that today’s connected consumers are simply unwilling to trade their personal information online in exchange for some promise of pricing or other product data. What? […]
Car Dealers Want to Know How to Attract and Sell the Millennial Buyer In 2015, I attended a meeting where I observed an “expert” on Millennial Buyers as he addressed a gathering of dealer principals. This “expert” was himself a Millennial, so the OEM who paid five figures to arrange for this “training” felt as […]
Attention All Digital Marketing Snobs: local newspapers are still doing a good job of driving value for local businesses looking to get their messages in front of local consumers. Yes, ad revenue is down, but so are ad rates. And it’s these lower rates that now make it attractive for everyone from car dealers […]
Ha, just kidding… There are no viable Pokemon GO marketing strategies for car dealers to employ in 2017 that will provide them with any kind of advantage or genuine ROI. STOP CHASING SHINY OBJECTS! If you’d like to make a difference with today’s connected customers, you should check out the recording from the Undeniable […]