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| As selected by Activengage |
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What's even more important than driving traffic to your site? Focusing on your dealership conversion and how to optimize it. That's the half of the equation that you need to turn your site into a lead generation machine. Click to learn more...
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Should you encourage or discourage your employees from using Social Media while at work in your dealership? The truth is that - when given direction and incentive - employees can serve as your best marketers! This is a great post about leveraging your employees' Facebook pages.
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This post asks whether dealers are still doing a 2-tier pricing system (lot & Internet) and which they think is better, and why. And it's drawing some heated discussion ... click to learn more.
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| How-to’s by industry experts |
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 The 4 Keys to Successful Indexed Inventory
Most automotive website design firms promote the idea that indexed inventory is a valid SEO tool with no side-effects. It's important to understand that there is good and bad with having your inventory indexed - if done wrong, it can actually hurt the SEO of a site. The inventory pages, the listings, the calls to action -- all play a role in the success of an inventory module. Here, we will focus on the SEO aspects of indexed inventory. • Write 'em Like a Newspaper LinerWhile many car dealers are not SEO experts, most are experts at writing the all-important "liner". It's a trait that comes with experience and an understanding that you often have 5 seconds to grab the customer's attention. • Proper URL StructureIndexed inventory is often generated dynamically and with "unfriendly URLs". A proper URL structure on each individual inventory items is enticing for both the search engines as well as the consumers. • Enticing Title TagsTitle Tags are extremely important for SEO, but they serve a dual purpose. The title tag is displayed as the link on search results, so it must help the page rank as well as encourage people to click on the link. • After They're Sold...This is the biggest problem with indexed inventory if not done properly. Ideally, a page that is listed in searches will remain as an active, content-rich page even after a vehicle is sold. Visitors should then be given "Similar Vehicles" options so that they can find the vehicle that they were looking for even if the initially clicked vehicle is sold.
To view JD Rucker's blog in Auto Dealer People, click here.
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Jerry has personally trained well over 10,000 dealership personnel during the last seven years. While visiting dealerships, Jerry will often get on the phone and start scheduling appointments with customers, thus earning him the nickname, "The Phone Ninja."
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what’s significant this week in the news
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 Chevrolet's New Advertising Agency Strikes First With Corvette Ad The first work from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners' new client, General Motors' Chevrolet, is out, and it's a testosterone-filled, 45-second TV spot for the 2011 Corvette. The ad, which aired for the first time on ESPN, marks GM's return to TV advertising for the Corvette after a five-year absence.
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 Kontos: Used-Vehicle Retail Prices Reach Critical Juncture ADESA economist Tom Kontos says used vehicles financed in April had an average retail price over $19,400, which was 61.7% of the average new-vehicle price financed that month. Kontos says 60% is the threshold that may turn used-vehicle shoppers into new-vehicle shoppers.
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 Online Video Ad Segment Poised to Explode The research firm, eMarketer estimates online video advertising spending will grow more than 48 percent this year, reaching $1.5 billion. By 2014, it predicts the video ad market will top $5.5 billion.
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Daily clicks to increasing dealer revenue & profits
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 ShipCarsNow Helps Keep Dealer Costs Down The weak economy and tight credit of 2009 left new car sales and auto production at lowest level in 27years, resulting in fewer used car trade-ins. In 2010, with low supply, wholesale prices for used cars are up. Car hauler like ShipCarsNow is working with used car dealers, remarketers and Internet auto auctions to offer affordable, reliable multimodal auto transportation services that include both truck and rail options. For solid, affordable car hauling solutions visit www.ShipCarsNow.com.
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 Get Red Flags Compliant -- It's the Law! Simplify compliance with Red Flag Manager from Credco Services. Powered by Compli in consultation with Hudson Cook, LLP, RFM is an easy-to-use, online compliance application for drafting, rolling out, training, and monitoring your dealership’s Red Flag Program. You'll want to use Red Flag Viewpoint, an integrated online reporting dashboard that combines, summarizes and delivers easy-to-read reporting on your Red Flags compliance efforts. Visit CredcoServices for more info.
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 Compli Presents FREE Webinar on Avoiding Litigation The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) are the source of confusion and increased litigation around the country. Join Compli and Guest Speakers: Talar Herculian and Sean Kundu, Partner and Associate at Fisher & Phillips, LLP, on August 4, 1 p.m. Eastern, to recognize and avoid potential pitfalls that exist within your business. Click here (not a toll-free number) to register and obtain Webinar information. Live Q & A at end of session.
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| How-to’s by industry experts |
 Auto Transportation: The New Hot Spot for New/Used Car Dealers
Dealers are beginning to understand that auto transportation is a critical component, especially for the wholesale used car industry. ShipCarsNow, formed in 2006 to provide the used car industry with affordable multi-modal auto shipping services, has conducted its second annual Dealer Survey, and the answers supplied by dealers will interest – and probably surprise – you! Click here or click on the image for some fascinating insight into dealer responses to questions related to auto transportation in these challenging times!
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| auto dealer sales & marketing |
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 Leave it All on the Playing FieldBy Todd SmithLet me share with you one of the most powerful words that is necessary to be successful in automotive Internet sales. The word is “effort,” defined in Webster’s as “hard work” or “the total work done to achieve a particular end.” This word may not mean too much to you right now, but let's add a few examples of effort in action. Take the PGA tour. From 2000-2006 The PGA Championship winner took home an average of $1,060,714 in winnings. Second place took home an average of $460,657 less in winnings. That is almost a 50% drop from first place to second in what the player made during the Championship. Now for the crazy part of this equation, the difference between first and second place was 1.71 strokes on average. That is less than ½ stroke per day during the tournament. Turn your attention to the Olympics. In many events the difference between a gold metal and bronze metal is a split second. Case in point was during the 2004 Woman’s 200M Freestyle. That race came down to .43 seconds between the gold metal and nothing. Less than half a second separated a winner and someone who went home with nothing. Here's the point: Are you giving a 100% effort each and every day? You are responsible for the results of your life and your business. With awareness comes responsibility. Will you now take every day and apply that little bit of extra effort to succeed? I will leave you with the great words of Vince Lombardi -- “Inches Make The Champion”. Todd Smith, president and co-founder of ActivEngage, can be reached at todd@activengage.com. Read this article in its entirety by visiting Todd at his blog.
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| bringing sales into service and service into sales |
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 Service Upgrades Done in the Field
All it takes is a tiny little memory chip, with wireless programming, to allow technicians to upgrade the functionality of a vehicle from somewhere other than the service bay at your dealership. It's a whole new world -- a new way of looking at servicing vehicles with drivers in the fast lane of society. So along comes a memory chip capable of holding the serial number, customer information, board revision and other pertinent information which allows the technician to access the file even when there is no power. Click here or click on the image for a look at future fascination that is here today!
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| driving technology in and around the VEHICLE |
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 Consumers Want Current Road Information -- and They Want it NowMore consumers seek information in their GPS device
NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world, reports that 70% of U.S. drivers indicate a desire to have the most current road information in their devices at all times - up 22 percentage points from 2008. For in-vehicle navigation system owners, a map update was especially important to their vehicle satisfaction - 92% up from 61% in 2008. READ MORE...
NAVTEQ reports indicate that increased demand for purchasing an updated map is driven by: • A need for improved ability in performing address searches (43%) • An out of date map e.g. Points of Interests (39%) • A desire to obtain better map coverage (33%)
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| how to make & keep your DEALERSHIP environmentally responsible |
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 Today's Complex Transmission Systems Get More Complex
The Chevy Volt is a horse of a different color
Hybrid electric vehicle transmissions generally fall into two categories: the "parallel" hybrid or the "series" hybrid. The former blends the power from the electric motor and the internal combustion engine, while the latter keeps the two separate. But along comes the Chevy Volt, with a 53kW gas engine generator and a 16kWh lithium ion battery pack. It appears to fall under the category of being a "series" hybrid, but that may not necessarily be so. From the beginning, GM has insisted that the drive system in the Volt is...different.
So what can we come to expect of the Chevy Volt Voltec drive? Probably almost anything, when it hits the market later this year. But it does appear that this "series" hybrid has a bit of "parallel" in its bones -- and this can make a big difference in mileage, so it seems.Yes, you'll want to READ MORE... It also appears that Chevy Volt owners are going to have the ability to "fill up" in their own garages. At least 4,400 Chevy Volt owners will get a free home charger. Others will have to pay about $2,000 for one. Exactly how will that work? Click here. And if you'd like to see the upcoming Chevy Volt in action (video) click here or on the image!
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