Showroomless Car Buying

It happens all the time. Your ad interests a car shopper enough to visit. They may click around, look at the inventory, check out a vehicle details page and then, without even a goodbye, they’re gone. They left and you have no idea who they are, how far away they are, or how to get in touch with them. It’s over.

Or is it?

Digital marketing surveys have shown that 85% of visitors to your website leave it in this manner. It’s not your fault, it is just the way it goes. In the past, we would just accept it and move on but, with today’s technology, we no longer have to. We can now identify 40 to 50% of lost prospects and reconnect with them by the next day. This is the genius of tracking pixel technology.

Have you ever been scrolling through Facebook and see an ad for something you were just talking about a few minutes ago? Creepy, huh? That is the work of a tracking pixel which is simply a line of code that collects user data and allows innovative marketers to target just the right people with ads for things they are actually interested it. That technology can also be used to identify website visitors that leave without submitting a lead so that they can be “retargeted” with ads or emails that remind them why they visited in the first place.

Now there is a much better chance that “the one that got away” becomes the one that buys a vehicle.

Today is the future we used to hear about when we were kids. Sure, we don't have flying cars yet (which kind of bums me out), but almost everyone you know has a computer in their pocket that is digitally connected to a vast network of information that ranges from scientific journals on quantum cryptography to videos of cats being afraid of cucumbers. This digital connection is also a treasure-trove of opportunity in marketing. Every time someone browses on a laptop, Googles on their phone or argues politics with total strangers on Facebook, they become an audience to be enticed by marketers.

Many people think of digital marketing like "real world" marketing. They see it as simple as taking out an ad in the paper, putting up a billboard, or playing a commercial on TV , hoping the right people see it. It can be that, but it can also be so much more because, on the internet, the information flows both ways. When a person is in the market for a new vehicle, some internet companies remember that. They know what the person is looking for; Is it a car or a truck? A Chevy or a Nissan? Do they want to lease or purchase? In what area are they looking?

It sounds creepy, right? But all of that information comes in handy when you have cars collecting dust on your lot and paper ads, your website, and that giant inflatable gorilla on the roof aren't bringing in the customer like you'd hoped. So how do you apply this vast pool of knowledge to your dealership's marketing? How do you get your marketing campaigns to reach the right people at the right time with the right message? How do you bring your marketing out of the old days and into the future?

Delete…delete…delete…delete… it’s the same thing every day. Your email in-box fills up with spam and advertisements you have absolutely no interest in. Insurance, cosmetics, diet pills, cat toys, diapers- You wonder, “How did I even get on this mailing list? I don’t have a baby or a cat. And I am not fat… am I?” And as you sit there deleting all those emails you start to wonder how many people out there, right now, are deleting the emails your dealership sent out yesterday. According to recent studies, people delete about 48% of the emails they receive so the possibility is pretty high. But don’t worry, there are ways to avoid being on of the 48.

Here’s what you need to know:

•  People are more likely to read email ads before work. In fact, the optimal time is between 5:00 am and 6:00 am. Scheduling your email blasts to go out early may very well increase your open rate.
  
• Your subject line is key. It is the first thing the prospect sees so It needs to be engaging enough to grab attention, but not so pushy it turns people off. The following are lists of words that can pique their interest or make them roll their eyes and hit “delete”:
  

• Do use words like:
• Demo
• Connect
• Cancellation
• Apply
• Opportunity
• Payments
• Do NOT use words like:
• Assistance
• Press
• Social
• Invite
• Join
• Confirm
• NO YELLING! An all-caps subject line increases the chance it will be rejected by 30%.
  
• Subject lines with three to four words have a better chance of being opened than shorter or longer ones, so don’t be too wordy.
  
• That goes for the body of the email as well. If you try to cram too much into it, people will stop reading. Between 50 and 125 words is best.
  
• Also, don’t talk over people’s heads. According to a Boomerang email marketing study, the most effective email copy for garnering response is at a 3rd grade level. So it’s probably best to avoid words like “garnering”.
  
• Be positive. Be thoughtful, excited, bold. Don’t be afraid to get emotional or boastful. You want the reader to feel a tug of excitement in your email because, even if they don’t engage right then, that same tug will flow into other avenues of your marketing as they see your social media ads, your mailers, and your TV spots.
  
• Know your prospects. This one can’t be stressed enough. Mailing to the right audience assures you aren’t just throwing your emails into the wind. Internet giants like Facebook and Google have real-time data to help you target specific demographics at exactly the time when they are in the market for a new vehicle. If you don’t know how to access this technology, find a marketing company that can. Only then will your mass emails reach exactly the right prospect at the right time and really make your email marketing strategy fool proof.
  

For more information on how to get the most out of your mass emails, feel free to contact us at Magnet.Digital.

 

His ability to retain loyal customers is what made Carl Stidgeon the star salesman at his Nissan dealership for four years in a row. His charming demeanor worked like magic. "I used to say that Carl could sell a Sentra to a family of ten," joked his sales manager, Kurt Vernon, "Now he just mopes around all day, talking to himself and eating all the complimentary doughnuts."

Carl is not alone. He is the victim of a condition that affects car salesman in dealerships all across the country - Sad Dealer Face (SDF). SDF is caused by seeing regularly loyal customers suddenly take their business to a competing dealership without so much as a "later, dude".

“When commericals are only in English, ... they are targeting other people, not me. When they are in Spanish, I say, 'Well, they are targeting a latino audience.' ”

The internet is a fast-paced world of continuous movement and distraction. It is where we get news, chat with friends, argue ideas, shop, research, watch movies and television, listen to music, get educated, and probably another hundred things I can't think of right now. There are literally millions of pieces of information vying for our attention every minute we're online

We can't possibly see it all, but that doesn't mean we don't try. I can't count the number of times I sat down to research a vehicle only to come to my senses, hours later, laughing at videos of cats being afraid of cucumbers (don't judge me). Human beings have short attention spans to begin with and the internet only makes it shorter. And studies have shown that the younger your audience, the worst the attention span.

With dealers spending more and more money on internet advertising, targeted marketing is the smartest marketing.

• "Hoo-Ahh" is when your ads automatically appears to car shoppers whenever they are online.
  
• "Hoo-Ahh" is when your competitor's customers get to read about your five-star reviews when they are ready to buy.
  
• "Hoo-Ahh" is when a customer who usually purchases from your fiercest competitor leaves YOUR dealership in a new car.
  

Crawling, indexing, and ranking systems have typically used the desktop version of a page's content, but Google has begun to roll out mobile-first indexing for those who follow the best practices. Marketers will find the information in its platform called Search Console.

For those using separate URL for desktop and mobile, Google cautions marketers and webmasters to verify both versions of the site in Search Console, check URL links, and ensure that servers have enough capacity to handle potential increases in crawl rates, since both will be crawled.

For the mobile sites only, owners will see a significantly increase in crawl rates from the Smartphone Googlebot.

Google says it is not creating a separate mobile-first index, and will continue to use only one index. This means Googlebots will primarily crawl and index pages with the smartphone code, related to browsers like Mozilla, Chrome, Safari and other mobile browsers.

The best practices for dynamic serving and separate desktop and mobile URL are a little different. For example, the mobile site should contain the same content as the desktop site. So if the mobile site has less content, Google suggests updating it to bring it up data, including text, images and videos.

So, are you mobile ready? Have you addressed these changes in your SEM campaigns?
If the answer is No, Magnet Digital can help you to navigate the new Google Indexing waters.