Digital Overload? Do Few Things But Do Them Well!

For the automotive dealer principal, it has been a rough twenty years.  For the longest time, the secrets to success in automotive retail involved getting the right piece of real estate, the best placement in the Sunday paper, and holding on to the very best closers you could on your sales floor.  Then along came the Internet.  Now I won't bore the gentle reader with endless cliches, the changes and necessary adaptations have been well chronicled.  For the established dealer, though, what should be the focus of their adaptive efforts?  The website? Vehicle listings? Conventional advertising messages?  Sales Training? For all the gigabytes of research data on the topic of automotive digital marketing, there still exists no single magical formula. 

The industry is constantly quoting a new favorite study with some stat demanding immediate attention.  Typically third party vendors seize on this new stat and storm dealer principals and managers with explanations of how their product perfectly addresses the issue.  If one looks at these innumerable studies over the past several years in their totality though one finds among the many flash points behavioral trends that can help identify the most important digital priorities for dealers.

Before you begin: Get to know your ZMOT. 

Years ago Google identified the concept of the Zero Moment of Truth, that magical moment that a consumer you may not even be aware of discovers you online.  What do they see?  What do they learn?  What is their all important first zero impression?  No dealer should start any discussion on its digital marketing strategy without first objectively discovering what their ZMOT looks like.

Six years ago people spent almost twenty hours online to shop for a vehicle and identified 4-5 dealers that they intended to visit.  Fast forward to now and they spend fifteen hours to find the 1.4 dealers that they intend to visit.  The number of online shoppers who showed up without contacting a dealer first used to be 20% (the old "stealth customer").  Now that number is nearly 70%.  What does one do?  What does it mean?  It means that Internet research is easier to do, people are better at it, and the quality of online merchandising is allowing them to eliminate dealers from their consideration that are not worth the time to visit.  

An automotive dealer must be able to put ego aside and give a critical, objective look at what the consumer finds when they find the dealer.  This means not only looking at their website but at all their online presences (Organic search, OEM sites, 3rd party listing sites, directory listings, etc.).  Next they must acknowledge that shoppers likely don't shop as they would.  With an objective eye, a dealers should ask:

• What does the online shopper see when they discover the dealer online?  
• How does what they see impact the online shopper's goals or intentions?
• What impression(s) is made?

Step One.  Showcase your wares.

You sell cars, remember?  The seminars have been replete with dire warnings:  Google likes content!  Write blogs or else!  Video is king nowadays!  Get reviews, people want reviews! You need Facebook content!  All of these are great suggestions in and of themselves, but just as you wouldn't want the ER doctor to stop CPR because he sees you could use a quick procedure to eliminate an ingrown toenail, don't chase extras until your primary source of revenue is presented in the very best way possible.

Take any dealer website and measure the click through rates of their calls to action and you will see almost without exception that the top three will be:

• New Inventory, 
• Used Inventory
• Specials.  

Most of your visitors are on your site to shop for cars.  Let them find cars!  The quality of your inventory listings - including NEW cars - should be impeccable.  Think like a shopper.  Will the shopper find clear, accurate and even candid (don't hide damage your aren't fixing) photos with informative -- not cheesey and industry banter filled -- descriptions?  People spend several minutes on average looking at Vehicle Detail Pages.  Dealers who make that stay worth while have taken an important first step in building trust and rapport with this unknown web visitor, which happens to be the next important step.

"...but just as you wouldn't want the ER doctor to stop CPR because he sees you could use a quick procedure to eliminate an ingrown toenail, don't chase extras until your primary source of revenue is presented in the very best way possible. "

Step Two.  Build trust.

If after reviewing the inventory a shopper is still on the dealer website where does he/she go next?  The research and interviews overwhelmingly indicate that they either want to know where you are or who you are.  Make sure your website answers both questions in the most favorable light.  This is where consumer reviews, community involvement, good staff pages, easy directions, and an idea of what to do when one arrives at the dealership come together to create the perfect "why buy" impression.  

(For the love of all things digital, if you have a page called "Why Buy" with a bullet list of things car buyers get please replace it with something a little more subtle and inviting.)  

While specialty pages and content help, in the short run make sure that every page -- including hours and directions -- instruct, welcome, and invite. 

• Keep your staff page up to date and looking good.  Faces make an emotional connection.  Let your shoppers connect with your staff and lower their apprehension. 
• Don't just show a map.  Describe how to get to you and where to park/stop once there.
• If your social media is real and organic (not "car spam") make sure there are links to it.
• Have tools on your site to help people plan their shopping strategy like trade estimators, payment calculators, and easy online finance applications.

In addition to building sufficient trust and rapport with the anonymous online shopper to convince them to include you in the 1.4 dealers they intend to visit, find every reason to softly encourage a more direct engagement.  Getting a web shopper to call or email increases the likelihood that they will visit exponentially.  For this no long term studies are needed.  Ask the most grizzled old school sales manager the key to winning a face to face encounter with a car shopper and he will grunt almost without fail, "you gotta get 'em on the phone."

Step Three:  Don't set up a disconnect.

A dealer's web presence should sync perfectly with the consumer experience.  Don't publish pricing that reflects razor thin margins if you plan on starting with an arbitrary price on the first pencil.  If there were conditions for loaner vehicles in service don't let the consumer discover that while dropping off their vehicle before work.  If you offer special incentives to buyers (car washes, first oil change free, etc.) don't make them ask for it.  These perks should be part of the overall presentation.  Finally, avoid "getting them in" on falsehoods.  If a vehicle is no longer available say so.  Work on pivoting the shopper to a different vehicle rather than risking the harshly negative experience of coming to the dealership for nothing.

The worst thing a dealer can do is to present a progressive, customer oriented online face only to have the consumer arrive on the set of the 1970's movie "Used Cars".  Hell hath no fury like an angry online reviewer and with so many possible sites for an enraged car shopper to "flame" a dealer online, it will be nearly impossible to keep a good positive/negative review balance everywhere.  Make sure your team knows the message you are projecting and manage the showroom experience accordingly.  It's that simple.

The Action Plan

Though each of these steps can be subdivided into any number of far reaching projects one cannot plug every hole or address every deficiency at once.  Content for Google search engine, engaging social media fodder, cool ascetic website enhancements can all come later.  For now, do few things and do them well.

•  The inventory feed should be able to addressed with existing staff.  It is already being published, so make sure the effort spent publishing it is worthwhile.
• The website can be cleaned up in a matter of days with a decent support staff from one's site provider.  Clear off distractions and only keep and enhance for now those things that help the consumer shop the vehicle and get to know the dealership.
• Finally your sales managers should already be managing the staff to be in conformity with online messaging as they work to change the culture of the dealership to meet the challenges of the informed consumer.  If you have a cult of personality as opposed to a process driven culture, then this will be a lot more difficult.  (That should become the next challenge a dealer takes on.)

Attention paid to these three simple actions should begin to pay immediate dividends.

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Want an objective opinion about your efforts so far?  Ask Jeff to take a look at your online presence.   You can contact him via LinkedIn.