NADA Tag

Auto dealers utilize dozens (OK, probably hundreds) of vendors in order to operate.  From their DMS, CRM, web provider and digital vendor, to their advertiser, lead provider and vehicle image database – the list goes on and on. One of the more difficult tasks to accomplish is measuring the success of any given vendor. When I was on the retail side, my web provider would tout, “Look at all the sales calls that came from the website.” They would measure this by how many times people dialed the ‘sales’ phone number, but 80% of those calls were NOT fresh phone-ups or even...

08 August, 2016

As with all marketing, dealerships are forced to wait for Buyers to contact them.  They advertise on TV, Radio, Bill Boards, Internet and more. This is like throwing darts at the wall and hope that more stick than fall to the floor. This is time and money consumed and not knowing the actual results. Suppose there was a way to actually have the list of Opt-In Buyers that are coming off a lease or in their buying cycle in your hand. With this opportunity you would actually same time and money, because you would be contacting buyers directly instead of waiting...

28 June, 2016

Take your head out of the clouds. How can any company guarantee a specific amount of car sales? Let’s be realistic, that is not truly possible. There are too many factors that prove this wrong (The salesperson has a bad day, weather, lack of inventory, the customer cannot get financed) just name a few. There are companies that do guarantee sales. I have found that these companies suppress everyone who is in the dealerships database from their list of what they call prospects or potential buyers. These companies will then take claim to every sale from there on. That is absolutely absurd....

23 June, 2016

Your DMS is one place to look, but not the ONLY place! New vehicle sales national growth is predicted to level off in the near future (we are seeing it as EARLY is May 2016!).  This means that the natural growth that dealerships have enjoyed over the last 5 or 6 years will also fade.  This begs the question – how can I continue my store’s sales growth amid a cooling market? The answer is conquest!  Buyers who’ve NEVER purchased at your dealership before, and maybe haven’t even looked at your BRAND in the past. As ALL manufacturers step up their games –...

27 May, 2016

Brian Pasch discusses telltale signs of abnormal traffic in Conquest Email Marketing. He calls them "Red Flags", I call them the "Fake 5". Below are the 5 factors to look for to determine for yourself if you consider them Fake Traffic. Percentage of Out of Market Visitors – If the majority of visits to the dealership’s website were outside of the dealership’s primary market area (PMA), it is characterized as abnormal traffic. Percentage of Desktop to Mobile Devices – If the percentage of visits to the dealership’s website from desktop devices is higher than 90%, it is characterized as abnormal...

15 April, 2016

I had an interesting conversation with a client today regarding attribution of sales in regards to marketing efforts. We all know dealerships want to attribute sales to a marketing effort in order to determine a return on their marketing investment. I do feel based on KPI's and sales reports dealers can get an idea of whether or not a marketing campaign is providing a "healthy," return, or if it simply is not working for them. My definition of ROI is simple, as I learned studying Finance in college, divide your net profit by your net assets, and you have your return....

18 February, 2016

Having the right expectations is critical when launching a new digital marketing campaign at your dealership. As most General Managers, e-commerce directors, and BDC directors know, they need to use Google Analytics in order to analyze the traffic to their website. But does Google Analytics tell the full story? It is critical when analyzing digital marketing that you look at more than just the cost per click, the time spent on your site from the clicks, and the bounce rate. How many total eyeballs were there on one of the ads delivered? How many people opened your email? How many people...

25 January, 2016