5 Simple Tips to Help Manage Your In-House CRM

Picture this: it’s a busy Friday morning during car shopping season, and you’re flustered with calls, emails and customers visiting your showroom. On the one hand your sales team is working toward success, and on the other hand you have sales leads with varying levels of urgency coming from different sources. When you’re juggling between managing your team and keeping track of leads, it’s easy to get distracted and lose balance. That’s why many auto dealers turn to an in-house CRM system to help monitor their leads.

But simply having a CRM isn’t enough. You have to be careful and conscious about keeping your leads organized within the CRM. Think about it like your computer: your desktop PC helps you store and organize information, but if you have a lot of disorganized files and folders, it’ll be hard to find anything or do work efficiently. Just as your desktop can get cluttered and messy, so can your CRM. Here are 5 simple tips you can follow to help manage and organize your in-house CRM.

1: Create and Use Precise Categories
Listing leads in categories not only helps you organize them, but also gives your sales team the information they need to convert them into sales. Leads from telephone calls are different from internet inquiries, and it helps to know what kind of leads you’re working with. You can also categorize leads based on when you receive the request, so your sales people can work on the more urgent leads that require a quick response. Read More →

How a Company Blog Can Help Your Site’s SEO

Published On: November 15, 2011

Google’s updating its algorithm. What are you doing to stay on top of search results?

A Quick Review of Recent Google Algorithm Updates

With all the updates Google has made to its search algorithm this year, it’s hard to keep track of what’s new and how to stay on top of search result pages. From back to back Panda updates to the new Caffeine Web indexing system released in June, Google has made significant changes to how it displays SERPs. Recent comments made by Google’s Amit Singhal reveal that the company is aiming to deliver search rankings based on “freshness”. In other words, Google ranks websites according to timeliness, and not just keyword relevance. Websites with the most up to date information provide a better user experience, and thus gain relevancy on Google and other search engines. You might think the change only affects websites about news, hot topics and regularly recurring events, but as Singhal points out in the Official Google Blog, this “freshness” algorithm change will also impact websites about products such as new cars. Read More →

Google+ Pages Now Available For Businesses

Published On: November 9, 2011

The wait is over! Google+ Pages are now available for businesses. Launched on November 7th, companies can now establish and expand their brand marketing efforts on the new Google+ social network. Google+ Pages offer a seamless integration into the world’s most popular search engine and the rapidly-growing population of G+ users. With a G+ Page for your business, you can instantly stream relevant info, pictures and videos about your company to your circles. The Direct Connect feature also lets people find your page when they add a “+” before a brand. For example, type “+pepsi” into the search bar on Google.com, and you’ll see the new Pepsi page.

Google+ Pages gives car dealerships another way to engage potential customers by sharing helpful information and interesting media like pictures and video clips. G+ users can also add your dealership's Page to their circle to receive updates about your business. Having a G+ Page is definitely beneficial for auto dealers who want to broaden the reach of their brand marketing using the latest in social media technology. Sure, you can do many of the same things on a Facebook page as you would on a spiffy new Google+ page, but the key is creating more online venues where you can interact with your current and potential customers. Set up your Google+ Page here and get started today! Read More →

5 Strategies to Prevent Getting Flagged on Craigslist

Published On: November 4, 2011

The Costs & Benefits of Craigslist Advertising

There’s no question that car dealers see huge benefits from advertising their inventory on Craigslist. Dealers who post their new and used cars on Craigslist can successfully drive direct traffic to their website and gain leads from telephone calls and online contact forms. But Craigslist marketing can also cost you: dealers have to find time to manually post their cars and optimize how regularly they re-post. Preventing listings from getting flagged is another major problem for many managers, and it becomes costly for dealerships to repost ads on a daily basis. On top of getting your posts flagged and removed by random Craigslist users, you also have to be wary of competitors who may use black hat tactics like a program to automatically flag Craigslist posts. To avoid having your Craigslist posts flagged, follow these best practice strategies.

Strategy #1: Spread Out Your Craigslist Posting Over Several Days

Depending on your target area, every one of your posts stays live between 7-45 days. For dealerships with a large inventory of cars, it’s best to set up a schedule to spread out your Craigslist posting over several days. This practice regulates the frequency of posting, and prevents flooding Craigslist with your posts, which is often the key reason why listings are flagged for removal or “ghosted”. When a post is ghosted, it means Craigslist receives the listing but does not post it live on the website. A post can also get flagged or ghosted if you list a car that already has a live ad, so it’s best to keep track of your vehicles over a period of time before you post it. Read More →

Why Online Chat is Essential for Dealer Websites

Published On: October 26th, 2011

What Is Online Chat and How Is It Helpful to Visitors?

Your dealership’s website has a contact form and phone number, but does it have an online chat function? If it doesn’t, then you’re missing out on the newest way to engage online car buyers. Since people visit your website at different times during the day, they’re not always ready to call or submit information through the contact form. Many visitors prefer immediate attention when they have a question, and that’s exactly what they get if your site has an online chat service.

How Can It Help You Generate More Leads?

You might be wondering, “How does online chat generate leads if the visitor does not have to give any personal contact information?” Well, let’s compare online chat with telephone calls. When customers call the phone number on your dealer website, they may ask a quick question and then end the conversation, or give more information that becomes a sales lead. The same is true with online chat: not all conversations result in a full-fledged lead, but it’s better to have it than to rely only on phone calls and contact forms. Read More →

How Car Dealers Can Benefit from SEO

Published On: October 12th, 2011

What is SEO and How Does it Boost Website Visibility?

Search engine optimization is arguably the single most important aspect of website-based Internet marketing. Many if not most people start their searches online with popular and relevant keywords. The higher and more frequently your website ranks on search engines for these keywords, the more visitors your site will receive. SEO is the practice of improving your website’s ranking by optimizing it for both visitors and search engine algorithms. Succeeding at search engine optimization requires a deep understanding of how people interact with your website. There are several factors that determine whether a website is optimized for search engines, and these are the main areas where you can improve your site’s SEO: content, link relationships, social media, and website infrastructure.

How SEO Works for Car Dealer Websites

When search engines crawl or index your dealer website, they look at the quality and quantity of the content you have to offer. The quality of your website’s content is measured by factors such as relevance, timeliness and uniqueness. Content that is updated, relevant and unique is deemed more valuable to users, so it is always better to tailor your content towards specific, targeted topics and avoid anything overly broad or ambiguous. Additionally, if you have highly ranked websites linking to your website’s pages, your site will subsequently rank higher in search results. Google uses its ‘PageRank’ scoring system to weigh the importance of websites, and achieving a high PageRank requires establishing more links from other websites that also have high PageRank scores. Getting more links back to your website can be accomplished when you provide quality content. Read More →

Yelp Best Practices for Car Dealers

Published On: September 28th, 2011

Yelp.com is growing to be the most popular local business review website today, with new reviews constantly added by its active and dedicated user base. Tech-savvy consumers young and old turn to Yelp to check reviews on everything from dentists to hair salons before they decide on where to shop. But Yelp is more than just a review website: it’s a profoundly social online destination that acts as both a local business directory and a forum for real customer input. An overwhelmingly high number of 4 and 5 star reviews can result in remarkable success for a local shop, and negative reviews can cause the opposite. With more people turning to review websites like Yelp to browse and decide where to make their next purchase, car dealerships must take a proactive approach towards managing their online reputation.

Online reputation management begins offline, at your store’s location. You and the members of your sales team need to be conscious of the fact that customer dissatisfaction on your showroom floor can now translate to a negative review on widely popular websites like Yelp. Stay mindful of this connection between the offline and online world by giving customers an outlet to voice their complaints directly to a sales manager. The more you do to resolve an issue at your dealership, the less likely a customer will take to the Internet to voice their complaint for all to see. To manage your Yelp business listing, first claim your business owner’s account at biz.yelp.com. By verifying your business listing on Yelp, you can post diplomatic messages in reply to any negative or critical remarks left by previous customers. This practice of responding to reviews shows that you care about customer feedback, and that you’re doing your best to help correct or resolve a past case of dissatisfaction. You can also engage positive reviews and thank customers for their business. Read More →

11th Digital Dealer Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas

Published On: September 21, 2011

The 11th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition is coming to Las Vegas, NV, with a full schedule of speakers and sessions starting Wednesday, October 5th all through Friday, October 7th, 2011. Hosted at the Mirage Resort, the Digital Dealer conference will feature keynote speaker Erik Qualman, author of the Amazon.com #1 best selling book “Socialnomics,” along with speakers presenting on a range of Internet marketing and technology related topics. The theme for this upcoming conference is “Your Best Bet for Success!” and offers 83 sessions led by experts in technology, social media and online marketing. As the biggest gathering for auto dealers interested in new technology and Internet advertising, the Digital Dealer conference brings together thousands of GMs, sales managers, Internet sales managers and e-commerce directors.

At the exposition, you’ll get to meet exhibitors from national companies like eBay Motors, and network with leading Internet-based firms such as AutoTrader and DealerRater. Our executive team from Autofusion will be in attendance throughout the conference to answer questions and demonstrate our newest services: Social Media Sign-In, Reputation Management, and Live Text Search. Social Media Sign-In is a new feature that will allow customers to log into a dealership’s website using their social media ID such as their Facebook or Gmail account. This function will help deepen the interaction of customers with dealership websites by helping users send their information to dealers with one simple click. Our new reputation management services will also benefit dealers who want to strengthen their presence on business review websites such as Yelp and DealerRater. And with our latest Live Text Search function, customers can search for cars on dealer websites using keywords such as a model name or vehicle color. If you’re going to be at this year’s Digital Dealer 11, come by booth 1117 to talk to us about how you can benefit from Autofusion’s full suite of Internet marketing solutions. Read More →

Promotional Code for Driving Sales Executive Summit

The DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES) is an exclusive conference committed to serving like-minded professionals from the automotive industry. Dealership executive teams will discover effective strategies to maximize dealership operations from reputable speakers and the industry's most successful dealership operators. DSES attendees will leave the conference inspired and educated, with a strategic business plan in mind to produce optimal results at the store level.

To receive $100 off the Driving Sales Executive Summit registration fee, just use the exclusive Autofusion promo code FZN11 at http://drivingsalesexecutivesummit.com/2011_registration. Read More →

Are Car Dealers Spending Enough on Internet Marketing?

Published On: September 6th, 2011

Internet Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

When it comes to making the most out of your advertising budget, there is one key metric to look at: return on investment (ROI). ROI is a direct performance measurement of your advertising budget in terms of sales generated from various advertising media. Advertising on the Internet using a dealer website, Google Adwords, Craigslist and email marketing gives you a higher ROI on your advertising budget. These forms of marketing have low costs, are performance based, and come with powerful analytics to help you fine-tune your strategy. It also allows customers to interact with your online ads at any time of the day, so you can reach more people at a lower cost, compared to traditional media, which often requires higher costs to advertise at fixed intervals of time. With 90% of car buyers now turning to the Internet first to search for a car, it’s shocking that the average car dealer allocated only 24% of their advertising budget for online marketing in 2010.

Measurable Performance: Get Powerful Metrics and Analytics Data

The main advantage of Internet advertising is the availability of measurable performance metrics and analytics data. Google Adwords, for example, gives you objective data on how well your search engine marketing campaigns are performing across different time scales and targeted locations. With Adwords, you only pay a “cost per click” when a person clicks on your ad displayed on the Google search network. You have complete control over how much you want to pay per click, and you can generate a lead for as low as $1. Listing cars on Craigslist and sending out emails to potential car buyers are two other advertising channels that cost nothing, yet come with precise analytics data to help you understand what works and what doesn’t so you can tweak the way you advertise to car buyers online. Read More →