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The Basics for Establishing an Internet Strategy
By Phil Sura, VP of Automotive Sales
As seen in Dealer Magazine: http://www.dealer-magazine.com/index.asp?article=1374

For years the traditional dealership advertising model was focused on print, direct mail, radio and network/cable spots. The Internet has forced most metro dealers to migrate a percentage of their ad dollars to online initiatives. I know of a number of GMs who have cancelled 100 percent of their print because of a poor ROI. The stories are similar in different towns. A GM/GSM runs a half-page ad with a ridiculous low price on a specific unit that is a popular seller and doesn't receive one call or inquiry. The OEMs have been preaching the power and influence of the Internet for years since 80 percent of the customers use the Internet as a means of doing research when they purchase an automobile. If Goggle and Yahoo are successful, the web will continue to become a more powerful force for marketers to promote their products. What are the basic steps for a dealer to take to make this transition and gain market share from the Internet?

80% of the customers use the Internet as a means of doing research when they purchase an automobile.

People: Make certain that you have a capable point person held accountable for identifying ways to harness the Internet. If you have a smaller dealership, assign the task to a sales manager who feels comfortable with online strategies and is a committed believer. If you have a larger store, recruit someone who has worked with online sales to drive this part of the business.

Measurements: Measure the number of unique visitors hitting your web site, the number of leads coming from the various providers and the success of these leads (ROI). Measure and track the number of minutes that the customers stay on your site and each page. Measure the results of every person touching online leads. How many e-mail/phone exchanges (client reach outs – CROs) are involved to get the average customer to respond back (client reach back – CRBs)? Avoid sales spillage by having a clear plan with this strategy.

Training: Expose your entire management team to the world of the Internet. Subscribe to magazines such as Wired or Advertising Age to learn what the Fortune 100 companies are doing. Attend the national conferences such as AAISP to learn from the leaders in the industry. Request that the local rep for your web company provide a one- hour training session for all management tied to how dealers are using the Internet to drive sales. Have a vendor day for any group bolting onto your web site (give them time to speak to the team and have them explain what they do to support sales).

Budget: Carve out a percentage of the ad budget to test new concepts such as a pay-per-click strategy, video streaming, creating micro sites and e-mail campaigns. Be bold and be willing to let your people fail. If the GM is afraid to spend $5,000 to take the dealership into a new online initiative, the entire dealership will suffer. Look at video streaming as a way to enhance your web site. Add videos to the responses that you send to the customer inquiries. Add video content to the pay-per-click strategy, your CarSoup and/or the AutoTrader site (they just announced this option at NADA) and add video to your e-mail campaigns.

SEO/SEM: Understand what these terms mean. The organic search (search engine optimization) is critical and ongoing to ensure that your dealership is on the top to the middle of the search results page. If you are in a large market with a number of similar types of dealerships, the debate revolves around being the very first listing with the Goggle or Yahoo search. The key is being listed somewhere on the top half of the first page of listings when a shopper types keywords into a search engine. After you have worked through the SEO, test a “pay-per-click” (search engine marketing) initiative.

Focus on your website: This is the first impression of your operation. Are customers inspired when they visit your site? Are you telling your story of how you are different? Do you have multiple pictures, market prices (price fairly and don't blow smoke) and video content of every used car? Can people easily navigate the site for information? Does it tell your story? Do you have testimonials on your site?

Effectively use a CRM tool: Are you separating leads based on the type of lead (model and source of lead)? Is the response to the customer personal and sincere or is it a generic response that the customer will not respond to? Do you have a plan on how to connect with the customers through the year (contacting all customers that purchased a vehicle more than two years ago with a new car launch or inviting all customers in for a service campaign or segmented marketing)?

Response with Internet leads: Do you have a goal to touch every Internet lead within one hour (some stores have a goal of touching a customer within 10 minutes)? What type of responses do you give your customer? Does the Internet team have a strategy with response time?

Collect and use e-mail addresses: These are worth a tremendous amount of money since they are your customers. It allows you to communicate with your customers about service campaigns, sales events or dealership communications. An e-mail is the least expensive way to talk to your customers. If you don't have a customer base of e-mail addresses, have your finance managers, salespeople, cashiers and service advisors start the process today. Don't wear your customers out with two many e-mail campaigns. This is the fear of every customer.

Career path: For years the path to the GM's seat was finance, desk, and used car manager. I would suggest that the new path should include time as the Internet director. I know a GM in San Francisco who has successfully taken his Honda dealership to a new sales level by focusing aggressively on e-commerce initiatives. Let your people know that the Internet is critical and if they want to go through the steps, the Internet director's position is a promotion.

http://www.dealer-magazine.com/index.asp?article=1374