Digital Dealer Conference – Final Day and Parting Thoughts
I was definitely dragging on the last day of Digital Dealer 8. Staying up late the last few nights to get work done and write these recaps finally caught up with me, and I’m embarrassed to say I was late to the first session.
At least I wasn’t alone – the early session was definitely not as packed as the early session on Day One of Digital Dealer 8 or Day Two of Digital Dealer 8. Here are my notes for day three, a general recap, and some blog post ideas for the future. Please be sure to comment if you’d like to suggest a blog post topic.
Session One: Marketing Excellence Scorecard
I was practically asleep, but two things stuck out:
1. Is it true that 20% of internet leads will never get a response? That seems really, really high. Did I misunderstand that stat – did it mean that 20% of leads will never get a quick response? Please let me know in the comments.
2. ISMs/BDC managers/Internet Directors sure do have a lot to do. One person has to write the perfect email in less than 10 minutes, make a phone call a few minutes later, then follow-up on that specific email for 90-180 days…then do it for 100+ emails a month. That sounds like a lot more work than I do.
Good work ISMs/BDCs/Internet managers, etc. – you guys are the hardest workers in the car business I think.
Session Two: Digital Photo Frames in Dealerships
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CxCZ5YhoXw[/youtube]
The guy giving the presentation spent the ENTIRE TIME pitching his service. Instead of telling us what types/brands of frames work best, what creative had the best impact, how the signage improved/changed/effected parts or accessories sales or F&I gross, or even something simple like the best formats (still photo vs. short video, sound vs. no sound, etc.), all the guy did was pitch the benefits of his company. When the presentation ended at 10:28, I got a little uppity and tried to find out some of these things with no success.
Fortunately another attendee Ted Riolo, Director of Marketing at Motorcars Honda Toyota Scion, saved this session for me. He told me HP and Sony brand picture frames work best, that simple static creative with 3-5 word messages had the best impact, and that it was a really good idea to pay for professional design.
Session Three: Dealer 2.0
This session focused on a proper email response strategy, going email-to-email with specific examples of both good emails and bad emails, and lots of interesting data. This stands in stark contrast to the previous session – my compliments to David Green of e-Pro Automotive. Here are two tips I liked:
- I need to stop sending the ‘just touching base’ emails…they add no value. Every email I send to potential clients should have a purpose and a value.
- Consumers are expecting that dealers will either make them work for a price or give them a price that’s higher than they’re actually willing to sell for. If dealers tell customers they’re going to give the best price up-front – and then stick to it – consumers will respond really well.
Final Session: Dealer Roundtable
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo-Ma_VdJLE[/youtube]
Not a lot of people here, but we had a great discussion. It was a nice way to end the conference.
Parting Thoughts
I need to focus more on networking. I missed out on some opportunities to connect with some Tweeps, and I feel bad about that.
There was a lot of emphasis on social media, but in my mind the pillars of Internet marketing are email and search, with video emerging to be the third pillar. Social media is probably the fourth pillar, but I’m not 100% convinced. I think a lot of successful social media falls under the guise of SEO and PR. I’m not saying social not important, but let’s not lose site of the big picture. If they can find your site, and if you have their email address with permission to mail, you’re doing great.
All of the ISMs/BDC Managers/Internet Managers are a lot smarter than they give themselves credit for. Sure, there are some gaps in knowledge here and there, but generally speaking these men and women “get” all the fundamentals. I have no doubt that these people are the GMs and owners of tomorrow.
Everyone at this conference who hasn’t gone to a major digital marketing conference outside the auto industry would be very wise to do so. I’ve been to a few SES and SMX conferences, plus a myriad of ad conferences in NYC and a few Affiliate Summits. These events aren’t industry specific, so when I go I hear concepts and ideas from other industries that are really eye-opening.
Often times, these conferences offer “newb” tracks that allow beginners to obtain a lot of background knowledge that’s missing at Digital Dealer. Also, you’re a lot less likely to see a sales pitch disguised as a ‘session’ at a real marketing conference…so check em’ out.
Upcoming Blog Posts
Here’s the list I’m working on – please feel free to suggest additions in the comments.
- Video SEO Basics Part 1 and Video SEO Basics Part 2
- How I Use Twitter – Tools, Tips, and Tactics
- Creating Your Own Facebook Business Page In Two Minutes
- Facebook Business Page Setup and Design Tips
- Google Analytics For Auto Dealers
- Evaluating Conversion Rates By Lead Source
- 10 Free Reputation Management Tools
- Personal Reputation Management Tips – Raise Your Personal Online Profile
- Dealership Facebook Marketing Best Practices
- Don’t Corrupt Your Website’s Google Analytics Data – Filter Your IP
Interesting People I Met Today
Ted Riolo – Thanks for introducing yourself and advising me on digital frames. Very kind of you.
Tom Mohr of Response Logix – Made some great points about the importance of managing leads correctly at the afternoon roundtable.
Kathleen Pirrone of George Wall FLM, a Monmouth County Ford dealership. I actually met Kathleen at the first roundtable, but I forgot to get her card then. I’ll never forget Kathleen because she works at a union store in NJ – if you think your salespeople are tough, imagine if they organized a union.
Shannon Laehn of Van Horn Chevrolet, an Internet Sales Manager at a Plymouth Wisconsin Chevy dealership. She’s a mom and a sales manager and really cranking out some cars.
James Stark of Davis-Moore Chevrolet in Wichita. Funny guy, very up-front about his work, great to be at the same table.
Kathleen Ryan of the Tilton Auto Group, New Jersey Chevrolet dealers. She’s good at working Internet leads – 2 years of follow-up to generate a sale.
Joe Sollaccio and Mike Flanagan of The Denver Post’s automotive advertising program.
Thanks to everyone I met, the organizers of DD8, and my pal Mark for letting me tag along. Take care!
Comments
Juan Lulli Apr 23rd, 2010
One point in your blog caught my attention. I was following #DD8 from the event-related Twitter stream, as I was not in attendance. Noticed an underlying trend that was picked up in the last DealerRefresh blog of impatience from the dealer community of the ceaseless buzz in the mention of “social media.” Unless vendors move beyond the Why and explain the How, the term feels like a headache. Thoughts?
admin Apr 26th, 2010
Juan – I hear you. I think that “social media” is a fancy way of talking about blogs, forums, social networks, major websites with social network features, and then maybe some odd little networks like Jim Ziegler’s AdultFriendFinder.com. As far as dealers are concerned, if I managed a dealership’s social marketing efforts, I would hit the obvious networks (YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter), and then I would focus on having my more outgoing employees work the networks they already have a personal interest in. Like a formal salesperson who was a big time sailing enthusiast, he used his personal network in Colorado to make a few car deals. Or a guy I know who’s selling cars as an aside to his participation in a snowmobiling forum. I could turn this into a post – would you find that useful or interesting?
Juan Lulli Apr 26th, 2010
Agreed — Unless social media is discussed within an auto dealer’s sales and marketing context or process, it remains gobblygook. Nice work!
admin Apr 26th, 2010
Juan – Thank you. I’ll work on that one as well.
Ralph Paglia May 2nd, 2010
Jason, Just like your coverage of days 1 and 2, thank you for some fresh perspective and a nice balance of details, facts and opinions published in your post on Day 3… In regards to your comment about 20% of leads not getting responded to… I have to LAUGH OUT LOUD at your surprise! It has taken our industry 15 years to go from 20% of Leads Getting ANY RESPONSE, to 20% of leads NOT GETTING ANY RESPONSE… In fact, you might be even further shocked if you saw some of the confidential reports from specific car companies where up to 45% of the leads the OEM sends to Dealers are never responded to with an email, nor a call recorded in the lead management tools that their dealers use.
Response Rates and Quality of Response vary from one extreme to the other in automotive retail… Some brands of dealers seem to be consistently worse than other make franchises, as a group. For example, Ford Motor Company has invested millions, and I mean a LOT of millions, of dollars into teaching, guiding, cajoling and generally hounding their dealers over the past 11 years on Internet Lead Response process and execution of those processes…. And, it shows up when you mystery shop enough dealers across all brands, the Ford stores consistently do a better job than other brands. This is not some quality imbued upon the brand, it is simply the result of a lot of people at Ford, and the team of Digital Marketing Consultants that Ford has under contract to provide dealership training, mentoring, coaching and guidance. Other car companies could learn a lot just by observing Ford’s persistent and consistent approach to dealership staff training and coaching.
NOTE: I should disclose that my personal involvement with the Ford programs over the past 11 years has been very high, but I have also helped design and implement programs for several other car companies as well, and work with dealers that have all other USA franchises as well…
Ralph Paglia May 2nd, 2010
BTW, all 23 Ford Regional Digital Marketing Consultants were brought to orlando by Ford Motor Company and between the 23 of them, they attended every single workshop and general session at Digital Dealer 8… Ford also invested the money to have them attend Digital Dealer 7 and 6… Ford’s strategy is to have a “Digital Marketing Go To” resource locally based in every Ford Region so that dealers have a resource available that is up to date on the best practices that sell more cars, and who is available to come into their dealerships and help them at no extra cost to the dealer… This is unique to the industry.
admin May 2nd, 2010
Ralph – So I’m guessing that the 20% number is industry wide rather than dealer specific, correct? Are there dealers who are only answering 80% of their leads? I started a BDC at a Ford store in 2001, and we didn’t get to 100% of our leads responded to in 20 minutes or less…but every lead got a response (OK, a few probably slipped through the cracks, but I can’t imagine more than 5%).
I guess my question is: Is the 20% not answered at the individual dealer level, or does it just represent an industry average that includes some really poor performing dealers?
admin May 2nd, 2010
Ralph – Make that 2003 (I was doing F&I in 2001).
Ralph Paglia May 3rd, 2010
Jason – The sad reality is that there has always been a gap between what the dealers and their staff show as leads responded to, and the number of consumers who report getting a response… Lots of reasons for that gap, but one of the big ones is the prevalence of SMTP server based Spam Filters that block a good portion of the emails that dealers send to consumers in response to their lead inquiries.
The whole “Form Based” Internet Lead Business model is far less effective than it was ten years ago because of Spam Filters. Since the consumer has never sent an email to the dealership, the ISP servers will spot emails coming from the dealership to the consumer as being sent from an unrecognized email server, so the message will be scanned by the system’s various implementations of Spam Filters. In many cases the words that dealers put into their emails and templates will trip the Spam Filters and the message, or lead response never gets to the consumer’s inbox…
If the lead has no phone number, then this is the end of the road for that lead… Even if the phone number is sent by the consumer, often times they will not return voice mails because they want to see those price quotes they were promised by email.
This does not mean we should not be doing everything possible to follow up on leads, but it does beg the question; How do we get the consumer to send an email to the dealer after they submit a lead form so the the dealer’s email back to the consumer has a better chance of getting through?
admin May 4th, 2010
Ralph – If you’ve got a white listed email server, you shouldn’t have too much trouble with deliverability (although your point about spammy email content is well taken).
My opinion about the forms? The issue is that many dealers hammer their email database too hard, prompting consumers to mark dealer email as spam. If dealers invested in a 3rd-party email provider, they would have some guarantees that their messages would be delivered.
As for your point about leads without a phone number, I suppose a lot of dealership personnel will ignore those opportunities. It’s shocking to me that performance is so poor…but that’s the car business, right?
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