Category: Websites

Want to buy something online? Great! Just make sure you see a little padlock icon next to the URL field of the web address from which you want to buy.

Never noticed that padlock? Try this: open up Chrome, Firefox, or Safari to name a few, go to Google and type “autotrader” in the search bar. When the search engine results page loads, you’ll see the padlock displayed next to the website URL.

What does the padlock mean? In a nutshell: security. In more technical terms, Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, or HTTPS. There’s a lot of buzz about HTTPS right now in both the automotive and search marketing industries, so let’s take some time to discuss what it is, why it’s important, and how you can get your site secured.

What is HTTPS?

First, to understand HTTPS, you need to know what HTTP is. HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol, is the foundation of communication on the internet. It’s the protocol that allows for the transfer of hypertext, or structured text that uses hyperlinks between data points on a network.

HTTPS (aka HTTP over SSL, Secure Sockets Layer, or HTTP Secure) takes that one step further, as it is a protocol used on the internet for secure communication between computer networks. HTTPS provides authentication of the website a user is trying to access and the server from which it is being served. With the addition of SSL to HTTP, the website and its users are protected from various malicious attacks and vulnerabilities, protecting the privacy and integrity of the data that is being exchanged between the user, the website, and the server.

Security and trust for an auto retail industry of online transactions.

There’s no doubt that the automotive retail industry is adopting a sales model built around online transacting. In order to protect the privacy and security of car shoppers and those online transactions, your website must have proper HTTPS configurations enabled. Without HTTPS in place, that data and those customers are vulnerable to identity theft and cyber attacks. To deliver an optimally secure digital shopping experience, a secure protocol isn’t an option; it’s a necessity.

More broadly, HTTPS helps nurture customer trust while shopping on your website. Users value their privacy and demand that websites protect their data, so having an HTTPS site will make it an easier decision for customers to interact with your online transacting tools.

More security, better search ranking.

HTTPS is quickly becoming the standard for the future of the web. Over 30 percent of web pages that show on the first page of organic search results are using HTTPS, an additional factor for search ranking on Google.

If your website isn’t HTTPS-protected, now is the time to upgrade. And it’s easier and more cost-effective than you might think. A secure website is an engaging website, optimized for today’s digitally savvy car shoppers that seek an online transacting experience.

Pete Bruhn is a website product manager at Dealer.com

            

Potential customers are looking at your dealership and your competition for reasons to pick one over the other, and they’re making those decisions quickly. According to J.D. Power, in-market shoppers are visiting fewer dealerships than ever (1.4 down from 5), and arrive on the lot more informed, thanks to extensive car shopping research online. This means that your website needs to be as engaging and informative as possible. Dealership-shot inventory video is one of the best digital tools you can use to increase shopper engagement on your website, as it serves as a bridge that moves potential customers from behind their screens and into your showroom.

Let’s learn how to construct your website’s inventory video experience, learn about your customers’ online needs, and leverage video’s capabilities to build time on site, nurture trust, and entrench itself as an integral part of your social media strategy. Here are six ways to get started:

1. Start with sound quality.

Just because you’re shooting video doesn’t mean you don’t have to consider how it sounds. Poor audio quality is going to cause your viewers to bounce – and probably discourage them from continuing down the road to the sale.

Focus on audio quality first before you begin with camera work. Decide if you are in the market for a wireless or a wired microphone – either will do. A smartphone-compatible microphone is best, since it integrates with your mobile device and all of the video editing tools available through it. Wired mics are great if you’re shooting video yourself, but the wireless variety is best if shooting as a team.

2. Keep it short, sweet, and pretty.

Start with a manageable scope to keep your video strategy achievable. Keep the videos on each of your vehicle models to less than two minutes. According to a 2015 Cox Automotive Consumer Video Research Study, you’ve lost your audience with anything over 180 seconds. Stay on point, keep it crisp and clear, and be professional. Practice these two-minutes-or-less “presentations” at least twice before recording. If the recording doesn’t meet your expectations, re-record.

Some things to consider when shooting:

– Make sure to get some wide angle shots of the whole vehicle at the beginning or end of the video. Shoppers want to see the whole car.

– A little planning goes a long way, especially if you have a camera operator other than yourself. Known in the film and theater industry as ‘blocking’, decide on your positioning and movement throughout each video ahead of time to allow your camera operator to easily follow you when shooting. (i.e. start with the exterior front to back, then move to the interior).

– Keep the camera as steady as possible. You might even consider picking up a smartphone stabilizer.

– If it’s a sunny day, shoot in a shaded area or keep the sun to either side of you so you’re not shooting directly into the sun or you’re not seeing the camera operator’s shadow in the video.

Here’s how NOT to shoot:

BOO!

And here’s how to do it:

Clap, clap, clap!

3. Make a YouTube channel for your dealership.

It’s the easiest way to distribute your dealership videos. Since there are plenty of blogs and videos with instructions on creating a YouTube channel and uploading videos, we don’t need to go into detail here. But, basically, using YouTube to host your videos starts with a unique Google account for your business, an appropriately named channel, and an on-brand profile picture and channel art. Consider:

– Adding a quality image to the header, or channel art, of your YouTube profile.

– Including a relevant, on-brand profile image, or channel icon.

– Filling out any information about your dealership and why customers should view your videos.

– Incorporating your dealership’s value prop. Why should customers buy a car from you?

4. Add video to your Dealer.com Website.

Dealer.com clients are able to add video to their websites in a variety of ways. Using the YouTube widget in ControlCenter or creating a vehicle walk-around page that lives within your site navigation are two of the most common methods. Remember, videos should inform, but they can be highly engaging and trust-building, so put them to use. (For Dealer.com clients: check out our “Working with Social Widgets” tutorial, which, among other things, shows you how to add a video to a webpage by copying and pasting the YouTube video ID at the end of the URL string. See the video below:)

Your Dealer.com team is a great resource, too. Your Digital Advisor and Digital Specialist are here to talk strategy and help you make your digital presence as strong as it can be.

If you’re looking to replace your inventory videos on your vehicle listings (VLP) and details pages (VDP), Mobile Lot Capture can be a great solution. For Dealer.com customers, use the app from your smartphone to create dynamic videos that will auto populate on your VLP and VDP.

5. Use Analytics to evaluate your videos’ performance.

Video gives you loads of data that you can use to gauge your videos’ impact, including:

– Time on page, lead generation, phone calls, bounce rate, and exits.

– Overall website performance in terms of, time on site, average VDP views per visitor, and any other key metrics for your business.

– Style and length of video your viewers were most engaged with (for those dealers using YouTube and its audience retention reports).

Think about polling your customers to see where they’re getting their information. We know customers are arriving at dealerships “unannounced” – meaning no phone call or form submission. Odds are they are doing most of their research prior to their surprise arrival, most likely on your website. Ask them if they viewed the video walk-arounds, or the videos on the VDPs.

6. Review, rework, repeat.

If performance in key areas increased as a result of your videos, and your business saw a positive result, great! You are off to a solid start. If not, identify things to do differently next time. Use the feedback from your customers and performance data to fine tune your video strategy. After learning from your first videos, make a second round. You’ve learned what performs best, and if you’re featuring sales staff in your videos, they’ll have the experience of the first time to make their second video go ‘rounds more crisp, concise, and impactful. Make sure to promote the videos within your dealership as well as externally, to get everyone onboard the video strategy.

Brandon St. Cyr, Jillian Charest, and Patrick Wyld are all part of the Dealer.com Learning Solutions Team

Pop quiz: A woman walks into a dealership showroom. “Good afternoon! Welcome to ROI Motors,” says the salesperson as he offers his hand to her.

Should we consider this person a “Lead” or a “Customer?”

Want a hint? You can’t shake hands with a lead. This is an important distinction because the two terms – leads and customers – should not, and cannot, be interchangeable. Let’s further explore the differences:

A lead is just a starting point. It’s data crying out for meaning. It lacks height, weight, hair color, eye color, a voice, a personality, and life experience, to name just a few qualities. It’s an entity with unverified information and unverified intent that has purposefully contacted your dealership. In other words, leads are just words without context.

A customer is an actual person or business with verified and sufficient information that has purposely been in contact with your dealership. To communicate effectively with customers is to work with nuance, to listen, and to fulfill the unique give-and-take of any two-way conversation. A customer is not simply a faceless name, email address, and phone number on paper. He or she is a real-life person with a personality, a story, and the potential to connect with your dealership in a financially intimate way.

While leads are immutable, rigid bits of data from a particular point in time (that are usually sandwiched between tags in ADF/XML format and sent to a dealership’s CRM), customers, on the other hand, are alive. They call you on the phone, chat with you over the computer, and, yes, come in to your showroom in person. Once we begin to understand the differences, and how to communicate effectively with customers, the business of car dealerships evolves rapidly for the better.

Consider the woman above walking into your dealership. How does your system qualify her?  Does it matter? Your sales team might refer to her as an “Up.” But who is this person? Is she a lead? Is she a customer?

If you’ve ever attempted to produce lead ROI reporting, generate customer lists for targeted campaigns, or just generally tried to make sense of your data, then yes, it matters a lot.

The word “verify” appears in both definitions above. And that’s because verification logic is a key to determining the maturation path of a lead.  Is there enough data to verify that the words (a lead) reasonably represent an identity (a customer)? Or are the words without any identity behind them, in which case you’d need further information to make sense of them? If we’re shaking hands, it’s pretty easy to verify that there’s an identity. CRMs are not so fortunate. Verification logic, therefore, is put in place to start separating the wheat from the chaff: the maturation of a lead.

This maturation path is what it’s all about — commonly referred to as “The Road to the Sale.” In the old days, The Road generally started when a customer walked through the door. Today, that door is no longer the glass rectangle hanging on the front of the building, and very often our digital presence is performing the first meet and greet.

As the digital landscape evolves and matures, so must the notions of what constitutes effective measurements for returns on investment. For many years, dealers and vendors have focused on what we effectively labeled as a lead: attract traffic to sites that are geared toward “converting” to a form submission. But the best sites aren’t necessarily focused on this immediate conversion. Combined that with the automotive industry’s tendency to, in general, miss opportunities to truly handle leads effectively, and it’s no wonder that shoppers are skipping the Send button. The customers are still there, however; we just need to learn how to talk about them.

John Quinn is a consultant at Dealer.com

Everyone likes to save money. And doing so at the dealership is no exception. Whether a customer is researching the purchase of a new or used car or is looking for routine oil change service, saving money is, of course, a top consideration. There are myriad reasons for financial considerations, obviously, but it must be said that there is simply a strong sense of satisfaction that comes from getting a good deal.

One of the most effective strategies for promoting “good deals” is by offering dealership specials – a win-win for both dealer and customer. For the dealer, specials are essentially an advertisement, and are one of the most effective strategies for generating business for your dealership. And for customers, specials help save them money. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, specials help create and solidify a long-term relationship between dealer and customer.

Using specials, you can:

-Separate yourself from those competitors with similar vehicles or services.
When deciding between two similar products or services, more often than not a customer will choose the option that has a coupon or special offer tied to it.

-Create happy customers who are excited to share their savings with friends and family.
Customers who feel like they’ve gotten a great deal on a product or service are more likely to share that with family and friends, increasing the visibility for your dealership and your offers.

-Increase shopper website engagement.
An Autotrader study showed new vehicles connected to a special had 116 percent more vehicle details page views than those without.¹  Use vehicle specials to encourage vehicle engagement, and parts and service specials to drum up business at your service and parts centers.

-Influence shopper behavior based on your goals.
Are you trying to generate new car sales for a specific model? Perhaps you have a few specific vehicles that have been on your lot longer than you would like. Does your fixed operations team have goals they’re trying to hit for the month? Strategically crafted specials can help your customers see the value in your products and services.

 

Creating Effective Specials

Now that we’ve explored the reasons why employing a specials strategy is beneficial to your business, let’s take a look at five tips to keep in mind as you’re creating the offers:

 

1. Be strategic yet transparent.
If  everything is special, nothing is special. Adding too many specials degrades the value of all of the strategy overall. At the same time, having an offer available at the dealership that wasn’t listed on the site is detrimental to customer sentiment as well. For service, consider adding a service menu to the site with a list of all services and prices. Use specials to highlight your best 3-5 offers. For vehicle sales, use your website solution’s incentives program (link to Incentives Manager) to show all offers but build specials to highlight the 3-5 model or vehicle-specific offers.

2. Build specials for your brand and your market.
As a luxury dealer your specials should have a different look and feel than a dealer selling economy vehicles. They should be more refined and aesthetically in line with your brand’s image. Be sure to make the look and feel of your coupons consistent across your brand to ensure you’re best resonating with your target customers.

3. Plan ahead and schedule your specials.
Scheduling specials ahead of time ensures you always have an offer posted. Customers are less likely to return to a page that consistently displays a “specials unavailable” message. Be sure to include end dates to add an increased sense of urgency and encourage customers to act quickly.

4. Make sure your offers are seasonally relevant.
Choose vehicles and services that are seasonally appropriate for your region. In the summer, consider featuring an air conditioning performance check special when temperatures start to heat up. Think about posting specials about SUVs and trucks when colder months are on the horizon.

5. Include the savings percentage or dollar amount in the title of your special.
Whether you’re offering $500 off a new vehicle or 15 percent off a customer’s next service bill, be sure to include this in the title. Offers that begin with the amount of savings capture attention.

At the end of the day, take a look at your specials from the point of view of the customer. Imagine you’re in-market for a new or used car or trying to find the best deal on an oil change for your current vehicle. If you would choose your dealership based on the specials and offers you’re posting, customers are likely to do the same.

Jessica Lunau is a lead Digital Advisor at Dealer.com

¹  AutoTrader Site Data, March 2015. https://dealerlearningcenter.com/insights/view/influence-shopper-decisions-with-special-offers

Experimentation and testing are nothing new for the digital dealership.

For example, sales managers often tweak e-mail templates and measure changes in response rates to work toward maximal impact. Digital directors for large groups fine tune their dealership’s inventory photo process and monitor the results to continuously improve performance. Internet Managers calibrate their digital advertising systems routinely in order to ensure optimal reach. Digital adjustment is commonplace throughout the modern dealership, and that same level of technical tweaking should be applied to the pages of your website.

But how do you know what kinds of adjustments to perform? The tests you conduct need to consider the inherent differences between each of your specific markets, target audiences, and on what devices people are shopping for cars. Keep in mind that successful tests will vary from dealership to dealership, and, more importantly, that digital experimentation is an ever-evolving process. A template that worked well for six months may not continue to perform going forward.

With that in mind, these six steps will help you get your webpage testing strategy started, and a more engaging digital shopping experience for your customers underway:

1. Identify your goals.

Of course you want to sell more cars. But what analytical improvements are you making to help you achieve that? Do you want to increase form conversions, time on site, page views per visit, or drive down bounce rate? Think of these measures as incremental improvements that collectively will help you sell more cars.

Review your Webstats detailed report to find your opportunity areas and choose a goal (Dealer.com customers have access to this report, as well as training on how to find it, in the Tutorials section of ControlCenter. Digital Advisors are also a great strategic sounding board for this decision).

2. Identify your change factor.

What features of your webpages can be changed to drive you closer to your goals? Some areas to consider include:

• Adding video to a key content page and identifying whether video has a positive impact.
• Adjusting the order of content to see if the placement of information drives your dealership in a positive direction.
• Adding text content explaining the value proposition of your dealership to the vehicle listings page.
• Streamlining your text on key mobile pages to quantify the impact of an enhanced mobile experience.

Remember, in order for your experiment to be valid, choose only one change at a time.

3. Sketch out your plan.

With goals established and a program for adjusting components of your webpages, you can now draw the blueprint for your testing plan. Here’s how:

• Clearly identify exactly what change you are going to make.
• Identify the page that you are going to change, and confirm that it gets traffic to support your experiment.
• If this change creates positive movement toward your goal, is it scalable, or have you just created an experiment that will only impact one spot on your website?
• Ensure that you have any approvals needed.

4. Initiate your experiment.

Make the adjustments you laid out in steps two and three to test your webpages’ optimal layout. (Again, Dealer.com customers have access to training tutorials in ControlCenter to show you how to do this).

5. Let your test run until you have significant results.

Your experiment will be running 24/7 serving two different versions of your page to the traffic that lands on it, tracking differences in behavior and alignment with your goals. Depending on the page, its quantity of views, and the experiment itself, it can take as long as a week to get clear results.

6. Always be improving

Test, test, test. Don’t assume that your site couldn’t be even better. Consider new ways to test the features of your webpages. Look at competitors’ sites and see what you think is working for them.

The business of automotive retail in the digital age is always changing. Which is why it is always necessary to have your eye on your website and potential changes you might consider making. Small tweaks in layout or the addition or subtraction of features can make big impacts on your site. Test to see which ones yield the biggest improvements.

Patrick Wyld is Learning Solutions Manager at Dealer.com

As car shoppers continue to prioritize shopping online as the first step in their car buying experience, it’s more important than ever for dealers to leverage Digital Retailing in their workflow solutions to generate more automobile leads. Today’s digital car shoppers demand transparency and consistency, which is why an online showroom is just as critical as the one at the dealership. In 2014, dealers who invested in Digital Retailing, advertising, and mobile technologies achieved new levels of customer engagement and dealership profitability.

When implementing emerging technologies into a dealership’s digital strategy, there are three key factors that should be top of mind: minimizing compliance risk, eliminating complexity, and increasing exposure of F&I products.

1. Minimizing Compliance Risk

Compliance has become one of the most complex and serious challenges dealers face today. Dealerships should be up-to-date with ever-changing regulatory rules and federal mandates.

Due to the large amount of customer information dealerships gather, there’s a high risk of data security breaches. Do you have digital storage for deal documents? Are you monitoring and tracking compliance activity online? If not, the industry’s latest technology defends against potential loss, protects customers’ information, and complies with federal and state regulations. Dealers should always make sure they have updated software guards to block potential fraud.

2. Simplifying the Process, from Shopping to Payments

Paper methods are rapidly becoming inefficient and outdated. With one click, car shoppers can find out almost anything online. They want and expect full accessibility to dealerships, and have little patience for uninformative and hard to navigate sites.

The easiest way to reduce transaction time and simplify the car shopping experience is through advanced technologies. Dealerships should allow customers to fill out credit applications, explore financing options and even put down deposits before visiting the showroom. The longer a customer spends getting a deal done, the lower a dealer’s CSI score sinks. The good news is that Digital Retailing simplifies the car-buying process, resulting in increased leads, website traffic, and vehicle details page views.

3. Increasing Exposure of Finance and Insurance Products

Dealers are constantly asking how they can get more exposure for their insurance products. To achieve this, dealers must have a completely transparent online presence. Before even seeing inventory, shoppers want to know what cars they can afford and what their F&I options are.

In a study released by MTV, 71 percent of millennials (those born between the early 1980s and early 2000s) surveyed reported that they found ratings and comparisons among different vehicles unclear. Furthermore, 83 percent said they wish car brands would explain how vehicle prices are set. With Millennials becoming an increasingly larger segment of car shoppers, dealers should make sure their sites are catering to this demographic: by leveraging the technology that satisfies the needs and shopping habits of this generation.

Many dealerships are already embracing this technology, and are seeing great results. Port City Nissan in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for example, experienced a 69 percent new vehicle gross profit increase with Digital Retailing tools.

Has your dealership adopted these new technologies? If so, tell us what your business experienced as a result in the comments below.