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Last week one of the Internet managers I work with called to make sure his inventory exports to the sites where he markets were going out properly, because his leads were down. Though that could be a possible reason why the leads were down (and I verified it wasn’t), there is so much more involved in lead generation than just having your vehicles online. The competition is stiff out there, so you better be on top of your game if you want your fair share of the pie. We’ve all heard it before, and I have certainly tried to beat it into my dealers’ heads, but you have got to show your shoppers why you are the one they should buy from. Aside from SEO (let’s just assume they got to your site – your website analytics will tell you if they did), showcasing your merchandise is so important. You can have the best SEO’d site, but if your site is not user friendly or your vehicles are not updated, shoppers will leave. I know, I am a shopper, and I’m gonna leave.
Going back to leads being down, if the shoppers are not shopping, there is not much you can do about that, but when they are shopping, and you have been fortunate enough for them to have chosen to see what you have, make sure you are giving them what they seek. We’ve said it over and over, 30+ pictures is a good number to give a decent walk around description of your vehicle. When taking the photos, act like you have the customer right there on the lot and you are walking around showing them how clean and nice the vehicle is. Build value for the car. Once they are done looking over the photos, shoppers will look to see what you have said about the car. Again, talk to them like you would if they are physically at the dealership. “This is a nice one owner vehicle just traded here at Liquid Motors. It comes with leather, navigation, and a sunroof. It is a non smoker and compares to the Toyota Camry, Ford Fusion, and Nissan Altima. This car drives great and won’t last. Please call me today for a test drive.” How hard is that? Apparently some think it is hard, because not all dealerships are telling shoppers why they should buy from them. Why should you expect they would if you are not even taking the time to tell them how excited you are to offer them such a nice vehicle? If you don’t care, they probably won’t either.
If you happen to be one of those dealers that does a great job with merchandising your inventory and are seeing a decline in leads, it may be a good time, to go to all the sites where you market and send some test leads. It never hurts to make sure you are getting the leads. Also, ask yourself if you are taking advantage of any free advertising. The main site that comes to mind is Craigslist. If you are not posting to Craigslist, you are missing leads. Try posting without price. Your phone will ring.
I feel like a broken record sometimes as I blog about these basics that should be a normal part of Internet advertising, but until I see that my dealers are all on top of it, I’m gonna nag. And remember, if you are not seeing the results you are expecting, it could be your fault. Check your process and reevaluate if necessary.
I really love my job at Liquid Motors. Not only am I an account manager working with a lot of fascinating dealerships, I serve as a consultant, therapist, mediator (this role is actually pretty funny..boy do I have some stories to tell), provide some comic relief, you name it. It’s quite interesting most days. But as I was playing therapist a few weeks back, one of my (once not so internet marketing savvy) dealers called to vent. She was telling me that she just realized that day how for the last 4 or 5 years she had not been getting any email leads from one of her main dealership websites. I know you might be thinking how ridiculous that is. How could this happen? Are you kidding me? Really? But, let’s face it. This is not uncommon. Hopefully the 4 or 5 years part is. But, going back to what I said before…the “not so internet marketing savvy” part, they simply did not realize they should be inspecting what they were expecting. As she spoke to the website vendor, they explained that a lead forwarding address was never set up when the website was created. OUCHY!! You know what really stinks about the whole thing? They missed a ton of leads because there was no competition for that brand within a 200 mile radius of them.
I blog about every other time I blog reminding dealers that they MUST send test leads from all sites where they market as well as phone verify all tracking numbers at least monthly. There should be a designated person that on the first of every month (or whatever time works best) sends out test leads and keeps a record of what has been tested. It can not be assumed that things always work like they are supposed to. Think about when a change is made in sales personnel, CRM company or inventory management system, there are a lot of vendors that need to be contacted. That is a lot of people updating information, and mistakes (typos, transposed #’s, etc.) can and will happen. Don’t tell anyone I said so, but I even make a mistake from time to time. WE ALL DO! So a second set of eyes looking out for your best interest is a MUST.
I hope every dealership I know reads this blog. Hopefully it will be an eye opener for those that just assume everything is happening as it should. Do you know who’s looking out for you?
eBay is still a great place to sell your vehicles. At this moment there are just under 54,000 vehicles listed there. What should you do to maximize your efforts to be successful on eBay? Below are a few tips to consider:
1. Picking the right vehicles. What are the right vehicles? The answer is simple – any vehicle. I’ll explain in a subsequent tip.
2. Properly showcase your vehicles.
a. Photos: eBay will tell you the more photos, the better. 40+ photos gives you a 75% higher chance of success than having less than 40 photos. Obviously, lots of photos are key. Be sure to take pictures of any issues the vehicle has including small dents and paint scratches. The more you tell someone about the vehicle, the more trust you will build. Let’s face it…buying a car you can see can be scary…buying one sight unseen is very scary.
b. Description notes: The more you tell, the more you sell. Again, build that bidder trust with good description notes describing the qualities of the vehicle including any issues. A good way to earn BAD feedback is to not describe a vehicle properly and have someone fly in to drive it home or have it delivered to them, and it is not what they expected. Disclose everything!
c. Customize your title: eBay gives you an additional 55 characters for a subtitle to include key search terms shoppers may use to find your vehicle. You should use every space. The default search on eBay is the title, so this is important. If you have space left over after the key search terms, include things like one owner, clean Carfax, certified, etc. to draw attention to your listing and to help justify price. Before listing your vehicle, go to eBay and see what your competition is doing. Then do BETTER.
3. Choose your listing type (auction, fixed price, etc.): Here’s the tip I mentioned in tip #1. Consider eBay just another site where you market. What you want is someone to contact you about the vehicle they see, and if it turns out that it is not the vehicle for them, cross-sell them on something else. All kinds of vehicles sell on eBay, so it does not matter what you list. eBay shoppers are not any different than any other shopper. They certainly will attempt to get a deal that makes sense since they will probably incur some extra costs in order to get the vehicle if they are not local, but they are JUST shoppers. Speak to every customer with the intent of selling them A vehicle. When customers walk on your showroom floor interested in a vehicle you do not have, you do not simply say, “Good luck”. You actually find out why they are wanting that particular vehicle so you can determine what you have that may work just as well if not better. We know a large percentage of people end up buying a different vehicle than the one they initially inquired about. To use eBay as a lead generator, you should try a RESERVE/NO BUY IT NOW auction and start your bidding low. Yes, $100 low. Bids on your listings help you more than you think. When someone bids, you do get their contact information so you can do that cross-selling I mentioned if you need to. But, also, the more bids you get, the quicker you get better placement on eBay. There are several factors that dictate your placement, and bids are one of them. Take advantage of this. Keep in mind if you are doing a fixed price listing, you are probably only going to get the opportunity to sell that one vehicle. If someone sees your price and you are out of their range, they are not even going to give you a shot. What they do not know is you may have a vehicle that is similar but cheaper that they could consider. The average hits on an eBay listing are 350 so if you are not seeing this #, you are missing opportunities.
4. Create some sense of urgency: Consider a 5 or 7 day length for your listings. This will let buyers who are very interested know that they must act fast or they could miss out. Also, include some verbiage in your listings that the vehicle is available for sale locally, and the auction could end early if sold. Let them know as well, that you are willing to add a “buy it now” at any time and end the auction early. This will let those people who do not want to wait and do not like the bidding game know that they can buy at any time.
5. Call all bidders: If you are not going to work every lead you get on eBay, you should not do eBay. You are spending a minimum of $50 per listing, so you should maximize your efforts. Again, it’s the cross-selling that you will find aids in your success. Also, respond to all inquiries, ie. questions and emails as quickly as possible.
I hope you find these tips helpful. I cannot tell you how many times I have been called and thanked for the advice above because a dealership is increasing sales due to eBay. I have been told more than once that dealers are finding that their success is because of eBay but not necessarily on eBay as they are cross-selling potential customers when necessary. When you think about it, the above just makes sense and when we do what makes sense, success will come.
Good luck and happy eBaying!!
I have been asked a lot lately, “do I need a mobile website?” I don’t need to tell you how our mobile devices have become one of the main ways we communicate, surf the net, manage our Facebook accounts, and do our jobs. You are probably reading this blog from your phone. So, you might think that you need a site that is designed to be navigated easily via a mobile device. When I am approached with the question, I recommend the following to help you decide whether or not you should invest in a mobile website. You should take a look at your website analytics first. The analytics are important as you can see how many visitors are coming to your website, how they are getting there, what is their behavior on the site, and even how long they are hanging out. There is even an area to see how much mobile traffic you are receiving. If you are seeing 10% to 15% of your traffic from mobile devices, you should start to consider it’s time to make the investment. You definitely do not want to make a decision based on the fact that everyone is doing it, so you want to jump on the bandwagon. It may be better to reallocate those resources that can yield a better result elsewhere until which time your traffic does increase from mobile devices. If you are seeing that the traffic is low and decide not to invest in the site, be sure to check your analytics regularly to reevaluate.
Mobile websites can definitely enhance a shopper’s experience. A mobile site has most of the functions of a normal website but is formatted with a better view from the mobile device. Even though Oprah tells us not to do it, people are still driving and using their phones. Maybe they are just browsing while stuck in traffic or while at a red light, but having a mobile website can help them get where they want to go quicker and easier so less time is spent looking at the phone and more time on the road. Not only that, we are browsing the Internet via our phones while waiting in lines, sitting on our couches watching tv, at dinner, sporting events, you name it. We are always on our phones. What your main concern should be is the experience someone has on your website regardless of how they got there. Can they find what they want, and can they contact you to get it?
There is a new Google feature out called +1 
that is similar to the “like” feature on Facebook. If you have not seen it yet, you should definitely check it out. You can get the info you need at http://bit.ly/qUxNQo You place the code on your website so that someone who likes your content can recommend it on Google search. As Google crawls the pages on your website, the +1 information can be picked up. Then when someone is searching on Google and find your page, they will see how many recommendations you have. This can visually make you stand out and possibly lead to click through to your site. I would definitely recommend placing the +1 feature on the home page of your website as well as the vehicle details pages. Who knows where this will go, but if it will ultimately give your website more relevance in searches, then it’s time to jump on the bandwagon.
Where are your pictures? I hate stock photos! I read a blog recently about whether or not it is beneficial to have new car photos online. It wasn’t the article itself that really struck a cord with me, but it was some comments that were made to the blog.
We know it is very important to have photos for your used vehicles. You want to build value and piece of mind that the vehicle is nice and clean. The photos also show all the bells and whistles which is great for building value. But, the idea of having photos for new vehicles has not caught on quite as well. In this day and age, I am still surprised to see so many dealerships not buying into the “new car photos” hype. For some reason they must believe that their cars are new and therefore customers are not interested in seeing them. That can be the only reason I would think as to why they would not want to show them. Heck, new cars sell themselves, right?
Going back to the comments to the blog I mentioned a second ago, the point was brought up that you do not take photos trying to get someone to buy the car, but you want to take photos to get them to buy it from YOU. He mentioned too that having an actual photo shows the person looking at your vehicle that you do actually have that car in stock. Sometimes I tend to look at the big picture and do not take the time to focus in, but this guy was exactly right to his point about why you should have pictures. Have you looked at new vehicles on a website lately and the info you are given. I know that if you do not give those vehicles the “personal touch”, ie. add the actual options in notes that the vehicle has, there can be some confusion as the vin explosion info only gives all the features that the vehicle COULD have had when manufactured. But this in no way tells someone what yours really has. Having actual photos clears up the confusion and lets the shopper see the features.
I personally think my online shopping habits cannot be too far from the norm, and I know personally that if I cannot see it, I am not interested. Now, I am an impulse buyer so, as I shop online, I want what I want NOW in most cases. Or at least I am trying to make some kind of decision to purchase at that moment whether I pull the trigger or not. If I am not given enough info to make a decision, I’ve got to move on. If you have the luxury of having someone hit your listing (because you have spent a ton of money and effort working on your SEO), then why not give yourself every opportunity to make the sale.
I think everyone will agree that it is important to use 800 tracking #’s for any advertising you do. This will ensure that you know what efforts are working and which are not. This is handy information when trying to decide where to allocate your advertising dollars. In addition, having 800 #’s that can easily be forwarded to different #’s can help you in a situation where there is turnover and a # needs to be changed quickly. I cannot tell you how many times we see where a cell phone # is being used in advertising and the person who owns it leaves the dealership. Now, there are vehicles being marketed online with a contact # to someone no longer at the dealership! How convenient would it be to just flip the switch and transfer an 800 # to the new contact at the dealership?
If you are already using tracking #’s be sure to call and check them monthly to make sure they are working and ringing to the appropriate person. I think sometimes we take for granted that if there is no change in the forwarding of the #’s that they are simply working. You should consider having a list of all your 800 #’s in the hands of your receptionist, or someone at the dealership, and have him/her call them on a monthly basis to verify.
Yeah, I said big bucks because that is what you pay for your internet marketing. Oh, who am I talking to? You know what you pay and will agree it’s not cheap to have all your vehicles listed on the most popular automobile websites. Hey, it’s worth it, right? The customers are there. You want to be as well. Then I have to ask why on earth you would not take advantage of your advertising dollars and showcase all your vehicles with photos and notes? Also if you are paying for a pricing tool, your vehicles should be competitively priced from day 1 online. Even if you are pricing your vehicles by the “I think, I feel” method, getting a price online will certainly help you on sites like Autotrader where you lose in both the high to low (which is the default search) or the low to high (which is probably the most common search) if they are not priced. If your vehicle does not have a price, you are at the bottom of the list either way. We all know the goal is to sell your vehicles as quickly as possible since the longer they sit on your lot, the less profit you will make as they depreciate and your cost of owning them rises. Remember 80+% of shoppers start online. You have got to get it right if you expect to get the most for your advertising buck.
I challenge you to inspect your inventory and see what percentage of vehicles are being advertised without photos, notes and pricing. I am not just guessing that many dealers have high percentages in these areas, I know they do. I review our dealers’ accounts monthly and send them a report so they can see where they can improve. There really are no excuses for neglecting these areas. With all the cool internet marketing tools out there, including ours, you can upload photos, use a description builder tool if description writing is not your thing, and price your vehicles without having to check several sites to see what vehicles are retailing for all in a snap.
A common excuse I have heard for not having pictures is the weather. If you live in an area that has a long messy winter, you may consider investing in a photo booth out of the weather or just reserving a service bay just for photos. If you do not have a photo booth, then you should have plenty of time to sit in the nice warm dealership and get your notes updated. If it takes a while to get photos, you can at least give a potential customer some good info on the vehicle to let them know why they should consider yours. Another common excuse for no photos is that the lot service company only comes by a few days a week. Everyone has a camera, so why not take a photo or 2 of the vehicle as soon as it is traded in and upload them into your inventory management tool so that photos are online until a complete set can be taken. At least you’ll show the potential customers that the car is in good shape and worthy of a call. No picture showing means I am moving on.
Really I could go on and on, but I will give you a moment to chew on this. If you do a great job (and there are many who have mastered this), you are probably too busy to read this blog (unless you are making time since you think I am really cool and just enjoy my rant 
) On the other hand, if you are a dealer not getting the lead return you expect from the sites where you market, then you should evaluate whether or not you are doing the things that have been proven to be effective. Internet Marketing 101: Show more, Tell more, Sell more. If you master it, you will get the best bang for your big bucks.
I hear this question all the time, and I answer it with another question, “What do you consider success on eBay?” I find that the answer is typically, “Selling my vehicle on eBay.” I agree that selling your vehicle on eBay is one way of measuring your success, but you should consider this, eBay is just another online site where you market your vehicles. eBay should be thought of as another way to generate leads with the intention of selling any vehicle in your inventory. I am going to explain how this can work with some proven make-sense tips.
First of all, you have to consider the vehicles that you are going to list. Granted, you probably will not have much luck selling those mainstream vehicles that everyone can find in their own market, but listing some of those vehicles that you know are very popular can get you some leads. What you should consider is vehicles that are unique. Under $10k vehicles sell well on eBay, so you should consider some vehicles that you typically would wholesale. Other vehicles to consider are late models with low miles, those with aftermarket adds like lift kits, and those vehicles that are common in your market, but are not common in other markets.
Here is list of the top vehicles sold on eBay in the last 30 days.
Once you have the right inventory, you have to choose a listing style that will generate the most leads, because we all know that you typically talk to an average of 9 people before you find a buyer. This is why I recommend you use a Reserve/No Buy It Now auction and start your bidding very low. Once you have bidders, you have contact information. I get a lot of resistance when I tell a dealer he should start the bidding low. For some reason they do not want someone who is online, shopping for a vehicle, making them a “ridiculous offer” on their vehicle. I will explain in my next point why that is not the best attitude. For some reason, I find that dealers expect a different customer online than they do in their dealership. Hasn’t there always been those customers, even those that visit your dealership, that make you a ridiculous offer? Are you never able to sell those people a vehicle? They are probably driving something, so someone has. It may be how that other dealer handled the customer that made the difference.
That leads me to my third point–how to manage the leads. You have to assume that every bid you get on your vehicle is from a serious buyer, after all they did make a cash offer to purchase your vehicle. Though the bid may be low, you have no idea what their proxy bid is. You may be looking for $20k on a vehicle, received a $1500 bid, but the proxy bid is actually $15k. This bidder only has $15k to spend, so they are hopeful. But, it is your job, to communicate with that person to find out what they are thinking, what they are needing, and then cross-selling them on another vehicle in your inventory that better suits their needs and their budget. Yes, you will encounter those people that are not realistic, but if you think everyone who bids low on your vehicles is not a buyer, you will miss opportunities. I was asking one of my dealers recently if he was having much luck on eBay, and he told me that he was not selling any cars that he was listing, but because he started calling all the bidders, he was actually able to sell other vehicles. He knew what he should be doing all along, but he made an assumption in the beginning that these low bidders were not buyers.
It all comes down to what makes sense. The right inventory, the listing style you choose, and the way you handle your leads can all determine your success on eBay. I do not believe that anything I have mentioned in this blog is a revelation. It is really just common sense, and I believe that anyone who takes this approach with eBay, will be successful. The reason I believe it is because I work with many dealers that are selling cars on eBay. Just remember, too, that if you do what you always did, you will get what you always got. If you are not selling any vehicles on eBay, why not try the above. Who knows, you might sell a car or ten.
Please be sure to leave your comments, feedback, re-tweet or just add valuable information to this blog as our goal is to educate car dealers so they can be better today than they were yesterday. Make sure you follow Liquid Motors on Facebook, Twitter and our blog for a variety of information for car dealers.
When it comes to internet marketing, the main concern is driving traffic to your website, and ultimately to your showroom. A lot of time is spent on search engine optimization of your website, making sure it is user friendly, and has the most up to date inventory at all times. This is great, because you want someone to find you first of all, but then when they do, you want to make sure they can find what they are looking for. Beyond this, a lot of money and effort is spent on getting and maintaining a lead handling process whether it be with a CRM tool or some other process. Either way, the lead is what you hope to get and should be handled as quickly as possible. I am shocked to see that with the effort, money spent, etc that goes into getting a lead in the first place, there are some that go unanswered. I cannot tell you how many times I see as I am reviewing a dealer’s account that a customer has sent a 2nd or 3rd request for information citing that no one ever answered their first request(s). I have also seen where dealers have received messages from customers through eBay where the only way you can respond is through eBay, and it is evident that the customer was not responded to. How can this happen? Salesmen are sitting by the computer waiting to pounce on the next lead that comes in, right? That’s at least what I see them doing at the dealership for their walk up traffic. Hardly anyone walks on an auto dealer’s parking lot, that they are not greeted immediately by someone. The internet customer should be treated the same way.
Someone at the dealership should monitor the internet leads to ensure they are handled properly. Periodically, test leads should be sent from the various sites where you market your inventory using unidentifiable emails, so you can see how leads are being answered. Be sure to call the phone numbers in your listings as well to make sure the phones are being answered promptly and are being routed properly. A while back we did some secret shopping of some of our dealers and were shocked by the results. Over 50% of the leads we sent were never responded to, and we made sure to send requests that would certainly seem that we were very interested in purchasing a vehicle. Why did they never respond? Did they even get the lead? These are things you will know if you are sending test leads periodically.
Again, a lot of money and time is spent on getting those leads. Will they be handled properly at your dealership, and will you even know if they were?
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