The pandemic drastically changed the habits and expectations of car buyers. With shoppers spending more time online, it’s becoming harder to differentiate your business from the dealers down the street. To keep customers—and their dollars—coming your way, you’ll need to adapt and implement new digital shopping experiences that your competitors can’t match.
During this session, we’ll share key insights and best practices for creating easy, fast and frictionless car buying processes. You’ll also learn how to market and communicate those experiences with a multi-channel digital marketing strategy.
The “Cookiepocalypse” is coming, but is your dealership ready? The digital marketing landscape is about to turn the advertising landscape on its head—while eliminating the tools you’re using today to target customers online. Google and other web browsers have agreed to eliminate third-party cookies, or the little packets of data that websites deposit on your computer as you browse.
Join Noah Lee to learn everything you need to know to navigate the transition away from third-party cookies while thriving in a new era of online advertising.
Your customers’ relationship with your dealership shouldn’t end with the handoff of the keys to their new vehicle. Successful dealerships know how much value there is in maintaining customer relationships after the deal has closed.
With strong strategies and advanced technology, you can maintain customer relationships that last a lifetime—bringing more value and efficiency to your business. Consider these best practices for retaining and reselling your customers.
Track Customer Activity and Mine Behavioral Data Today’s most successful dealerships know that the key to retaining customers is proactively connecting with them, instead of waiting for the customer to reach out for information about a new vehicle. And while happy birthday and anniversary wishes are nice, they probably won’t cut it in the fierce competition for business today.
Your dealership probably already has the customer data you need to implement a proactive outreach strategy that provides value to your customers. Leveraging your dealership’s data and technology can help you identify in-market opportunities, including existing customers that may be ready for a vehicle upgrade.
Look for technology tools that integrate with your dealership website to aggregate data into insights. With VinSolutions, for example, your Dealer.com website data is integrated with your CRM to identify customers who are most likely to be ready to make another purchase.
Segment Communications and Automate Marketing Just as consumers expect a personalized experience when shopping for a vehicle, your customers expect a personalized experience later in their ownership experience with your dealership. But delivering the type of personalization your customers expect can be difficult without the right auto digital marketing solution.
Consider a multi-channel automated marketing solution, such as Automotive Marketing Platform powered by VinSolutions. This marketing tool enables you to deliver personalized marketing content by leveraging specific insights from customer behavior data.
Using existing customer data from your CRM, an automated marketing tool segments customers who are most likely to buy, including customers who may be interested in trading in for a newer vehicle. For another value-add, Automotive Marketing Platform can leverage artificial intelligence to identify vehicles of interest and automatically send personalized offers that let customers start the deal process from anywhere on any device.
By tracking customer online activity, mining CRM data, segmenting communications, and automating your marketing, you can leverage insights to create a car buying experience that builds brand loyalty and creates lifetime customers.
Competition for car buyers today is fierce, which means it is critical to keep your dealership top of mind at every phase of a consumer’s shopping and buying journey. But with so many possible paths to purchase, it can be challenging to effectively build and maintain brand awareness for your dealership.
With the right tools and best practices, however, you can maximize the return of your auto dealer marketing efforts and keep your dealership’s name on the mind of car shoppers throughout their buying journey.
Identify Shopper Preferences and Target Messaging
Today’s consumers are spending more time looking for cars online (more than 7 hours, according to Cox Automotive research) and less time at the dealership. Shoppers spend time on several websites, including your dealership website and third-party sites like Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book. With all that time spent online, reaching consumers with targeted digital advertising is critical to building brand awareness.
As shoppers browse online, they leave behind clues about their unique shopping preferences that your dealership can use to personalize your car dealership ads. These behavioral insights can help you reach shoppers with targeted, relevant messaging.
You can identify and activate these insights by aggregating customer data from your website and CRM to deliver personalized, one-to-one marketing messages relevant to each customer’s interests.
Use the Right Technology to See Real Results
In addition to telling you what a shopper’s preferences are, behavioral insights can also tell you when a shopper is ready to make a purchase. With this information, you can use advanced technology to deliver impactful messaging about your dealership at just the right time—as shoppers are forming important opinions about what and where to buy.
With the right digital marketing technology, you can automatically serve up personalized ads at the exact time a shopper is looking for a vehicle. You can also retarget customers that have visited your website with a relevant ad, and send personalized, targeted emails with automated workflows.
Leave a Lasting Impression on Your Shoppers
Every car shopper’s journey is unique, but a few best practices can help you build and maintain brand awareness with the right shoppers. But with the right strategies and technology in place, you can deliver the right messages at the right time—and leave a lasting impression on each individual shopper.
Today’s car shoppers are getting to know dealers long before the in-person meet-and-greet and test drive. They are doing online research, trying to find the right car and the right car dealer to do business with. To succeed with modern shoppers, dealerships must be able to facilitate these digital introductions and engage customers on their terms.
Embrace Flexible Buying Experiences
Many customers will continue coming to your dealership the way they always have—through traditional in-person visits to your showroom or calls to your salespeople during normal business hours.
But more and more car shoppers are taking the car-buying process into their own hands. They are researching dealers and vehicles at all hours of the day and night, including times when your salespeople aren’t available.
To cater to these modern shoppers, it is important for today’s dealerships to implement flexible buying experiences. That means allowing shoppers to browse vehicles on your website, begin the car-buying process, and complete as many purchase steps online as they prefer.
These flexible buying experiences give your dealership a digital introduction to in-market shoppers and allow them to seamlessly proceed through the car-buying process on their terms and in their time.
Maintain a Strong Online Presence
There are more ways to introduce your dealership to modern customers than your website alone. Leverage the power of social media to make your dealership (and your flexible buying experience) known online so that you can grab the attention of in-market shoppers.
Partner with a competent internal marketing team or a trusted automotive digital advertising agency to keep your online presence strong and coordinated. This can ensure that your marketing stands out and provides customers with consistent price quotes and information across channels.
A good marketing and website partner can also help your dealership deliver dynamic content to each customer based on their past browsing behaviors, optimizing their experience and personalizing it to their interests every time they visit your site.
By offering flexible buying experiences and maintaining a strong online presence, you can introduce yourself to shoppers at the start of the car-buying journey and stand out from the competition.
By Nuan Openshaw-Dion, vice president operations, Dealer Marketing for Dealer.com
Personalization is at the core of the way we shop and buy. Whether consumers are online shopping for groceries or for cars, they want a convenient, streamlined experience that works for them and happens on their terms.
That means dealers must adapt and meet the customers wherever they are in their buying journey with relevance and personalization. A shopper who is exposed to personalized content during their visit views more VDPs, submits more lead forms and is more likely to start their deal online.1
Dealers must ensure that engagement is backed by rich data and tailored insights—powered by the right partnership with the right marketing experts to attract and retain the right customer. Personalization, intuitive search, aggregated research, and buyer reviews are all part of this new wave of digital marketing for the modern dealer-buyer experience.
Working with specialized, integrated marketing partners (especially under one roof) is a key driver to converting early-stage shoppers to loyal customers. These partners understand how to balance dealers’ needs to meet challenging, competitive sales goals with consumers’ needs for an intuitive, high-quality experience at every touchpoint.
A strong partnership between a dealership and their automotive digital marketing partner should do three things—elevate a dealer’s performance through cohesive activity across channels, eliminate the burden of juggling multiple vendors (and a barrage of viewpoints), and maximize their time spent on targeted digital campaigns delivered to the right consumer.
I’ve seen that the most successful dealers are choosing partners that have the right combination of people and technology across core expertise: automotive digital marketing, data analytics, and customer experience. As the only complete digital marketing provider for the automotive retail industry, Dealer.com has more than 20 years of experience understanding and shaping strategies amidst shifting market dynamics, shopping behaviors, and industry standards.
With vast amounts of data available around car-buying trends and shopper behavior, it’s imperative to look at customers not just quantitatively but also qualitatively. In each moment there is the right next step to take, and this is where the power of Cox Automotive data comes into play. Cox Automotive’s vast data network, which touches two out of every three car buyers in the U.S.,2 provides deep insights on when to deliver the right message to the right consumer.
Personalization is critical to the car shopping, buying, and ownership journey. That experience should be immersive, valuable, memorable, and relevant to a consumer. Working with a dedicated auto dealer marketing partner that sees and affects the total process—and that shares the goal of delivering a premium consumer experience—differentiates between dealers barely catching up to those trying to catch their breath.
A version of this article originally appeared in CBT News.
If you had a chance to tune in for the Cox Automotive Forward Focus session Breaking Down the Online and In-store Divide, then you would have heard Wayne Pastore, General Manager of Dealer.com, and Bob George, AVP Product Management for Dealer.com, discuss the changes that this year has brought to automotive digital retailing. While some aspects of the automotive industry began to slow down in March 2020, the need to connect the in-store and online buying experience was accelerated. Read on to learn how data and insights gathered during the consumer’s path to purchase can help you guide your customers through a more personalized and meaningful online buying experience.
Retailing Everywhere
The automotive shopping experience is evolving. While the end goal for the consumer remains the same – to buy a car that meets their needs and budget – the process by which they reach this decision is streamlining with better data and technology. In years past and till recently, a dealership website was used more for vehicle research, while the automobile leads were generated inside the dealership’s walls. Fast forward to present day, and new digital products and processes make it easier than ever for a shopper to purchase a vehicle without stepping inside a dealership showroom.
Considering recent digital advancements, is there a way to bridge the online and in-store experiences that would benefit both the dealer and consumer? This brings us to Retailing Everywhere, a singular, multi-channel consumer retailing experience designed to drive profitable transactions and customer loyalty. Let’s look at the key components that make up this type of experience:
Automated marketing and advertising
Guided 1:1 consumer experience
Advanced communication
Deal connectivity across CRM and web
When a consumer encounters a seamless digital experience, they stay on the website longer and go deeper into buying process. Keep reading to learn about innovations that support the Retailing Everywhere experience.
Automated Marketing and Advertising
Many consumers are spending less time on the road, for both professional and personal reasons. With more people staying home, what tools and tactics should you use to reach the right audience? If there is one thing most consumers are doing these days, and possibly more than a year ago, it is watching TV.
Consumers are increasingly “cutting the cord” to cable programming in favor of Connected TV options, such as HULU and Netflix. This trend, combined with consistently positive performance in video advertising, has led to the expansion of our video advertising services on Connected TV channels. Placement is driven by the same data that powers Dealer.com display advertising, Facebook targeting, and other services. And since traditional TV does not offer the flexibility to target specific audiences, we can spend more effectively in this space. Robust reporting is available, so you know when and where your video ad is being shown, and to whom.
Guided 1:1 Consumer Experience
When a shopper lands on your Digital Storefront and begins to move through the site, either to view inventory or explore fixed ops deals from your automotive service marketing, the platform responds with a highly targeted, personalized experience. Our Experience Optimization product uses data from past shopping behavior to inform and customize experiences throughout the website. This includes slides, specials, banners, content. The goal is to introduce the most relevant offers and content to consumers on the first visit.
Once the shopper has found the perfect vehicle, they will likely explore the digital retailing tools. Modeled after tax software, our brand-new Digital Retailing experience takes a complex process and breaks it down into small and simple steps. It’s a flexible, consumer-driven process, as shoppers can jump in and out of the pieces as needed to learn more about the deal. As a bonus, we’re finding people are using more of the tools and engaging more because it’s not a one-way street.
Advanced communication
The goal with shopper communication is to enable 1:1 conversation and offer a guided experience, and there are several ways to do this. Two examples include video chat and co-browse in Digital Retailing. Explore these services to see which ones would be the best fit for your Digital Storefront.
Deal connectivity across CRM and Web
Your dealership CRM plays an important role in moving the retail experience forward to a transaction. The reason is this platform provides visibility and understanding into consumer intent, and both of these inputs may be used by sales to deliver a personalized sales experience.
With our latest offering, a deal can cross both your CRM and website, and it can originate in either space. Choose to review a deal in your CRM, and you’ll find a clean, simple view of the customer’s online deal activity that is accessed by a link. With CRM integration, leads fed directly into your CRM under one customer record update automatically every time the shopper changes their deal structure
Driving interactions is essential in the Retailing Everywhere model. The technology you employ should support your activity instead of just replacing it, like talking across a table inside your showroom. The easier that information passes between the shopper and your dealership team, the better the shopping experience. Let our team help you to put the right message and interaction out to the consumer, regardless of where they are in the process.
Keep reading to get the highlights from this discussion between Wayne Pastore, General Manager of Dealer.com and Vice President of Operations Dealer Marketing, Cox Automotive Dealer Software Solutions, and Jeff Ramsey, eCommerce & Marketing Director at Jones Junction. Learn how Shifting Consumer Preferences influence how your dealership operates, and how to exceed customer expectations to close the deal.
Keep communication seamless.
Consumers today expect to have digital retailing options when they go to buy a vehicle. The enduring question here is how far each customer will want to remain online through the purchase process. For instance, some may prefer to “Get Today’s Price” online and visit the dealership to complete all other steps, while others may not want to leave the comfort of their home at all.
The dealership sales process and staff need to be organized and equipped to handle the full range of consumer digital preferences. One essential factor is seamless communication. The better your team communicates, the greater success you will have with your automobile leads solution, resulting in the progression of more leads. Sales managers, internet managers, the service team, and others need to be comfortable with processing customer information that was shared through digital forms and using this data to inform future interactions.
Acknowledge the shopper’s digital effort.
Shoppers submit a wide variety of information through the forms on your Digital Storefront. Think of all the fields available for them to complete, from the Finance and Lease sections on the Vehicle Deal Page, to the details required for your automotive service appointment scheduling software. The good news is you can easily score customer service points by acknowledging all the work that they’ve done.
Make it a habit to thank shoppers for investing time to share down payment, trade in value, and other details. Some may expect this show of appreciation from your team, which means there may be more at stake from not doing this than just hurt feelings. If you inadvertently “break” the customer experience, there is a risk you may be punished with lower gross or even a lost sale.
Adjust your channels and messaging to stay relevant.
Are you familiar with the term “cord cutting?” This is a topic that deserves its own article, but it refers to the trend of traditional Cable TV subscribers who are ending their contracts (i.e. “cutting the cable cord”) and moving to Connected TV offerings, such as Netflix, HULU, and more. The key here is that what consumers watch and where they watch it is dynamic, and so your advertising strategy should be too.
Be willing to explore new online channels, including social, and update your messaging on a regular basis. For instance, do your Ads show people standing close together in a dealership and giving high-fives? This image is now outdated due to social distancing guidelines. Demonstrate through words and images to your shoppers that you are paying attention and acting accordingly.
Above all, keep in mind that your online experience is the store experience. With all of your dealership departments becoming more reliant on digital retailing and scheduling, you need everyone bought in and taking full advantage of what these experiences have to offer. As always, Dealer.com and your performance manager are available to help you explore products and strategies to grow from shifting consumer preferences.
Make Intentional Changes to Make the Most of Digital Retailing
While sales and service activity are beginning to bounce back to normal rates for approximately 70% of franchise dealerships, according to the 2020 Cox Automotive COVID-19 Consumer & Dealer Impact Study, many of the changes implemented in dealerships appear to be here to stay. One of the most rapid and critical shifts in automotive digital marketing and operations is the rise of digital retailing.
According to the same Cox Automotive study, 61% of shoppers want to do more of the purchase steps online compared to the last time they purchased a vehicle. In addition, 74% of franchise dealers have a digital retailing solution in place—a percentage that has remained steady since April.
The ability to make virtual car sales may have once been a nice to have, but dealerships who have embraced digital retailing are proving how critical it now is to success.
According to the latest research from Cox Automotive, dealerships whose staff have successfully embraced working in a digital environment are faring much better than others when it comes to generating automobile leads. Among dealerships who staff have not successfully adapted to a more digital environment, 60% are experiencing a sales decline and 50% are concerned about going out of business. Compare that to dealerships with a staff that has successfully adapted to a more digital environment; only 39% are experiencing a sales decline and 18% are concerned about going out of business.
Dealers who have adapted to an online environment are experiencing higher performance. But adapting means more than buying a digital retailing solution; it requires meaningful, intentional change on dealers’ part. Here are a few key changes our team of experts recommend to make the most of digital retailing.
Keep new customer preferences top of mind.
“Consumers don’t want to go to a bunch of different spots online and have a disjointed experience. They want one connected experience. Today’s consumers want to feel in control of their car buying process, and they also want to know how to get help from a dealer without going into the showroom. That is a big shift in preferences.”
-Wayne Pastore, Vice President of Operations, Dealer Marketing, Cox Automotive Dealer Software Solutions
Market your offerings consistently.
“Make sure you offer a consistent digital shopping experience across channels: your dealership website, third-party listings, both traditional and mobile. Allowing a customer to continue an experience, rather than start over, offers significant advantages and is a better experience overall.”
-Mo Zahabi, Senior Director of Product Consulting, Dealer.com, Cox Automotive Digital Retailing, and VinSolutions
Implement flexible processes.
“As expected, consumer engagement with digital retailing has skyrocketed since March. Going forward, though, we have to realize though that there are different levels of digital retailing adoption, and today’s dealers need to be able to accommodate uber progressive customers as well as traditionalists.”
-Chase Abbott, Senior Vice President of Sales, Dealer.com, Cox Automotive Digital Retailing, and VinSolutions
Think about digital retailing beyond your website.
“An interesting trend we’re seeing of late is an increased use of digital retailing tools for normal walk-in and lead traffic. As these tools become better and better and more integrated with all your dealerships sales and marketing tools, we’re seeing some dealerships use digital retailing for every deal—even if an old school customer walks in the door, the salesperson still puts that customer into the DR process themselves. Of course, you have some customers who will never go online only, but recent Cox Automotive research has shown us that a lot of more customers are considering it.”
-Chase Abbott, Senior Vice President of Sales, Dealer.com, Cox Automotive Digital Retailing, and VinSolutions
To learn more about how to move your dealership forward, download the Digital Marketing Playbook or contact your team of Cox Automotive Performance Managers.
Today, almost all roads lead to a dealer’s website, even (and sometimes especially) when a customer might prefer to come into the showroom. In fact, 83% of customers want to do at least one step of the car-buying journey online, according to the 2019 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey Study.
Customers are bound to have a lot of questions, especially amid all the recent changes and phased reopening across the country. To give customers the information they need to move forward in their buying journey, every car dealer websiteshould answer these questions.
1. Is the dealership open, and if so, what safety precautions are being taken?
The most helpful thing a dealership can do for shoppers is to provide accurate information and communicate frequently. This can be done in a few key places with highly visible website messaging, such as on slides, banners, and landing pages. Also include it in social media and email. Place this information prominently so customers looking to visit in person know their options.
Quick and simple access to information is the best way to let customers know a dealership is open and eager to do business.
2. Can I get my car serviced or repaired?
Leverage service department marketing to let customers know what measures are being taken to ensure safety during service appointments. Outline it simply on the website, whether it is offering no-contact car services, a delivery and pickup option, videos showing the disinfection process, or variable service hours to reduce the number of technicians in the dealership at a given time.
Dealership advertising campaigns promoting these new service processes can create added awareness as consumers explore their options for getting their cars serviced.
3. What is the best way to reach a dealer if I don’t want to visit a dealership in person?
Many customers may want to avoid visiting the dealership in person for a while, and virtual interactions are the next best thing to keeping dealership operations moving. Let customers know on the website that they can connect with staff virtually, and make shoppers feel as though you’re in the same room when you do connect virtually. Video chat enriches the digital shopping experience and gives dealers a direct and real-time opportunity to talk to customers. Video chats and other virtual communication channels also build trust with customers and keep deals moving quickly.
4. How much of the car buying process can be done online?
More customers are looking to digitally complete their car shopping process online. Clearly explaining the virtual car sales process on the website will help capture those customers, turning them into automobile leads. These digital retailing shoppers should be treated as much farther along in the buying process, especially if they are using online tools in lieu of an in-store visit. Consumers are investing time in the process online and should be rewarded for that with personalized, relevant follow-up communications. Leverage digital tools to help make the car-buying experience from home easier.
5. Is the dealership offering home vehicle delivery, test drives, or other social distancing options?
With shoppers still taking precautions, offering convenient, at-home options for them can lead to more potential buyers for a dealer. Simple messaging explaining new options and processes via landing pages, advertising, and website slides or banners go a long way.
Consumers will inevitably have questions and want to call, email, or text the dealership for more information. Make sure the contact information needed to get those questions answered is clear and readily available. It’s important to nurture every lead and ensure your response is timely.
This is a new experience for all of us, and we’re all navigating this together. Dedicate online real estate to explain what you’re doing to protect employees and customers.
One silver lining of COVID-19 is that online shopping has provided an alternative location for business to take place. It also accelerated the adoption of technology that many consumers desired before the pandemic deemed it necessary. Now, more dealers are ready to take on the next era of auto retailing where their web experience is the customer gateway to their business.
