Does this scenario sound familiar? You coordinate with your marketing partner to develop a multifaceted strategy focused on delivering long-term ROI. Along the way, you hear unique feedback from a handful of consumers that makes you wonder, “If we tweak this approach a bit, could we immediately net more leads or revenue?”So you make a change in midstream, thinking you can get the best of both worlds: maximizing both a short-term opportunity and long-term growth and viability. You tweak more bits of new information, one-off responses, and statistical outliers continue coming in until you realize too late that you’ve sabotaged your marketing strategy chasing revenue phantoms and have nothing to show for it – not revenue&nbsp;or&nbsp;sustainability.What went wrong? To be clear, there are two things I’m definitely&nbsp;not&nbsp;saying here. First, I’m not saying you should never make adjustments to existing campaigns based on new information. Your marketing has to be quick on its feet to succeed, and responding to real changes in the market will often give you a distinct competitive advantage.I’m also not saying it’s inherently bad to prioritize goals with shorter timelines. Sometimes the near term&nbsp;should&nbsp;take precedence.What I&nbsp;am&nbsp;saying is if your marketing is consistently failing to deliver or seems to be stuck in some kind of a lose-lose gray area between short-term revenue and long-term growth, the problem likely stems from poorly defined motivations.<h3>Check Your Motivations</h3>That may sound a little strange. Unclear motivations? Isn’t every dealer’s motivation for advertising and marketing, increasing traffic, and making money?Well, it’s actually not that simple. The broad answer is yes; your marketing should ultimately be about driving more business. But the ways it can go about doing that are not only different in methodology; they’re different in how they even approach the question in the first place.Think of the contrast between a national-scale branding ad meant to boost general awareness versus a one-off mailer with an expiring offer meant to drive foot traffic&nbsp;right now. Conceptually they have the same goal – driving more business – but in reality, they couldn’t be more unalike.That’s the difference between a focus on short-term goals and long-term goals. Too often, advertisers either haven’t made a clear distinction between the two, or they think they can engineer a new strategy to attain both at once.But in many ways, these goals oppose each other, certainly in terms of the content of your messaging. On-the-fly marketing engenders feelings of urgency, of getting a great deal if the consumer acts quickly, of a&nbsp;fleeting opportunity. Marketing for the long haul, by contrast, should position your brand as steady, reliable, trustworthy – the traits of a business looking to build long-lasting relationships with repeat customers.So, what happens to businesses that fail to make that distinction ahead of time? Frequently, exactly what I described. They’ll be on board with a long-term strategy focused on growth at the outset but start changing course when one of two things happen:&nbsp;<figure class="ql-card-editable ql-card-figure"><img src="https://cdn1.dealermarketing.com/wp/2020/10/dreamstimemedium_50785579-1024x683.jpg?auto=format" style="display: block; margin: auto; user-select: auto;" alt="ROI return on investment" height="275" width="413"></figure> <ul><li>The anticipated ROI doesn’t materialize as quickly as hoped (which often happens, as it can take some time to nail down exactly what mix of channels and messaging works for a particular business);</li><li>Or, short-term revenue phantoms cause them to take their eyes off the ball.</li></ul>That kind of undisciplined tinkering almost never ends well. Typically, the campaign as a whole suffers, long-term ROI isn’t realized to the extent it could or should have been, and those revenue phantoms turn out to be illusions.What you’re left with is a wasted marketing budget and a growing sense that maybe marketing itself is the problem, rather than the approach, which could lead to slashed ad budgets in the future and, eventually, a downward spiral of ineffective marketing that can be hard to come back from.<h3>The Disciplined Approach</h3>The alternative to this grim scenario is to think very carefully about&nbsp;what, exactly, you want your marketing to achieve. The more specific and narrow the goal you set, whether it’s short-term or long-term, the less chance there is of getting pulled off-course.<figure class="ql-card-editable ql-card-figure"><img style="display: block; margin: auto; user-select: auto;"></figure><ol><li>Set success parameters - setting very specific parameters of success at the outset of your campaign.</li><li>Recognize the process - recognizing that achieving the desired ROI can be a lengthy and involved process.</li><li>Stay focused - being able to hold the line even when bright and shiny objects try to distract you.</li></ol>At the same time, not every message turns out to be the right one the first time around. How do you recognize when it is time to change course? This, in my opinion, is when it’s critical to partner with experts who know this industry inside and out. They can help you differentiate between statistical noise and actual warning signs that a course correction is warranted.Even if you get everything right, consistently successful marketing is a tricky business. To avoid sabotaging yourself down the line, take the time to set clear and limited goals ahead of time, and stick to that vision until you have solid evidence that a change is needed.Chasing revenue phantoms might be appealing in the short term, but discipline always pays off in the end.

Is Your Marketing Consistently Failing to Deliver? Check Your Motivations

For many automotive retailers, the importance of your website has never been clearer than during COVID-19. As economic shutdowns and social distancing measures prevented your customers from visiting the store in person, people turned in record numbers to the digital retail experience.Your website should function as your virtual showroom ─ the foundation of your dealership’s online presence. It’s where you direct every digital lead, whether you’re capturing them from paid ads or social media. Failure to deliver an appealing, easy-to-use, and informative website sends one message to your site visitors: lack of professionalism.Knowing all this, consider the implications of website downtime. Granted, this isn’t an area most dealers spend much time worrying about, and understandably so. You probably assume your provider can be trusted with keeping your site running close to 100 percent of the time, aside from scheduled maintenance, which always occurs at the lowest traffic times.But the reality is there are no guarantees, and even a small crash can have a shocking revenue impact when it comes to website downtime. We have plenty of examples of this, such as the infamous 2018 Amazon Prime Day crash that cost the e-commerce giant an estimated $100 million,1 or the Best Buy Black Friday outage a few years prior.2Your dealership probably isn’t positioned to lose money on&nbsp;that&nbsp;scale. However, suppose you have multiple stores utilizing the same provider. In that case, the hit from significant website downtime could still be very real, particularly as COVID-19 and social distancing have placed greater emphasis on your online business than ever before.So, what exactly are the revenue threats from website downtime, and what steps can you take to secure your business against them?<h3>The Threats</h3>Beyond the obvious loss of sales opportunities when potential customers can no longer access your inventory, there are other ways that website downtime can have serious negative, and long-lasting ripple effects on your operation, including:<figure class="ql-card-editable ql-card-figure"><img src="https://cdn1.dealermarketing.com/wp/2020/10/dreamstimemedium_115244549-1-1024x718.jpg?auto=format" style="display: block; margin: auto; user-select: auto;" height="348" width="498"></figure> <ul><li>Idle hands. With so much of your day-to-day workflows being digitized these days, it should come as no surprise that IT problems result in idle employees. A down website is no different, as those employees who manage site leads or other areas connected to the site will see a significant productivity downturn while you work to resolve the situation.</li><li>A hit to your reputation. Whether it’s customers who refuse to return to your site after a bad experience or your Google Search rankings taking a hit due to perceived unreliability, the reputational hit that results from website downtime also translates to an ongoing revenue hit you’ll be feeling for some time.</li><li>Wasted ad dollars.&nbsp;No matter your ad strategy or budget, when paid ads direct potential leads to a down site, it&nbsp;is&nbsp;100 percent wasted money – money going down the drain.</li></ul>This is still just scratching the surface of what website downtime can mean for your operation, but you get the idea. Add all these threat factors together, and a picture emerges of significant and possibly long-term revenue loss for your business.But thankfully, there&nbsp;are&nbsp;actions you can take to both reduce the risk and mitigate the effects of website downtime.<h3>Avoiding Website Downtime</h3>The most critical factor in avoiding website downtime is in your choice of provider, and this is one of those cases where you generally get what you pay for. Top-tier providers should be able to show evidence of site uptime in the 99-100 percent range, helping ensure that your site stays online as a vehicle sales engine. They should also offer ancillary services to protect against protracted downtime periods, such as 24/7 site monitoring and IT assistance.Another critical factor is understanding what elements of your site put it at risk of a malicious digital attack. Out-of-date themes or plug-ins can constitute security risks, while expired security certificates invalidate your site’s encryption. That means hackers could duplicate your site and wreak havoc on unsuspecting visitors ─ a reputational blow that your brand could struggle to recover from.Finally, in the unfortunate event that your site&nbsp;does&nbsp;go down for a significant amount of time, remember first and foremost&nbsp;not&nbsp;to panic. Upon verifying that your website is down, begin working to determine the cause and reach out to your provider for support and guidance. Also, the quicker you notify potential site visitors (think of your existing customer email lists and your social media audience), the better positioned you are to mitigate damage and control the narrative. Both of those are critical to keeping your reputation unscathed.Website downtime isn’t a top-of-mind concern for most dealers, but it can have a very real and lasting impact on store revenue in those rare cases when it does happen. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the potential threats and reevaluate your provider partnership to make sure you’re equipped to handle the worst when it comes. 1 Business Insider2 CNBC

What Does Website Downtime Actually Cost Your Dealership?

As lockdowns around the country ease and the economy begins its slow reopening, dealers everywhere are looking forward to a return to normalcy – or as close to normal as we can get. While it's true that some restrictions will likely be in place for a while (social distancing, face coverings, contactless purchases, and service, etc.), it's also true that as the economy gets going again and people return to work and play, the demand for vehicles will also return.That's good news for your business, but it also begs the question: If the worst of the crisis is, hopefully, in our rearview mirror, what did we learn? That may sound like a strange question to ask, but remember that the most successful dealers are those who look at every challenge as a growth opportunity.Specifically, when sales activity was close to nonexistent, and dealers' focus shifted to keeping customers engaged until their ability to buy returned, what did we learn about&nbsp;marketing&nbsp;during COVID-19 that we should carry forward?<h3>There's No Substitute for Knowing Your Customers</h3>I've said it before, and I'll repeat it: the only way to target and message your marketing effectively is to know your market and your customer base.<figure class="ql-card-editable ql-card-figure"><img src="https://cdn1.dealermarketing.com/wp/2020/09/dreamstimemedium_85709682-1024x708.jpg?auto=format" style="display: block; margin: auto; user-select: auto;" width="500"></figure> There are several ways to do this. You can leverage the existing customer data within your dealership management system (DMS) and compare it to broader demographic profiles to narrow down who's most likely to buy what vehicles. You can identify relevant search engine trends in your geographic region and tailor your content to match as much as possible, boosting your chances of a good organic search ranking. You can even get answers directly from your customer base via your social media presence and other community-facing initiatives.Knowing your customers doesn't just stop at figuring out who will buy what and when, though. The content of your targeted messaging needs to reflect an awareness of their needs and concerns. This situation was obvious when COVID-19 was in full swing, as everyone had genuine and pressing safety and wellness concerns.It continues to be critical even in more normal times, too. If you want your marketing to break through the noise, you need a message that resonates. The best way to do that is to let customers know that you understand and empathize with their struggles, concerns, and difficulties. Then, position your dealership and your product as a means to help make their day-to-day life easier or more enjoyable.<h3>Diversify and Balance Your Strategy</h3>When the lockdowns began, and vehicle sales plummeted seemingly overnight, dealers who had only invested in marketing for sales while neglecting service or customer retention had to scramble to rearrange their budgets. Every day it took to get brand new campaigns off the ground where none had been before was a day of lost opportunity – and a day of ceding "share of mind" to the competition.<figure class="ql-card-editable ql-card-figure"><img src="https://cdn1.dealermarketing.com/wp/2020/09/Jay-H-Tip.png?auto=format" style="display: block; margin: auto; user-select: auto;" height="151" width="453"></figure> This speaks to the need to maintain a diverse and balanced marketing approach at all times. I'm not saying either sales or service can't be your primary focus: I'm saying you should strive for a strategy that involves every customer-facing part of the dealership. As we've just seen, you never know when circumstances will change, and you'll suddenly be relying on another department to shoulder the revenue burden.This is especially relevant as many of the market shifts we saw as a result of COVID-19, such as the surge in e-commerce, are likely here to stay and will only accelerate going forward.<h3>Be Nimble</h3>Your marketing should be flexible and quick on its feet. Fitting responses to COVID-19 went through several distinct iterations over just a couple of months. If you weren't paying attention, you were likely to get something factually wrong, seem out of touch, or offend someone.That means you should be reevaluating and reassessing your content&nbsp;continuously&nbsp;to make sure what you're conveying to your customers is still relevant to them and their situation. That also means tracking your campaigns' results remains as essential as ever, as there's no better way to tell what's resonating and what isn't.Dealers have plenty of reasons for optimism as we move into post-lockdown. As customers return, so too will the demand for vehicles and the boost to your bottom line that the market demand represents.In your eagerness to get back to business as usual, don't let these valuable marketing lessons from COVID-19 pass you by. Know your customers, diversify and balance your approach, and keep your marketing quick on its feet, and you'll be far better positioned to maintain success now and in the future.

Did You Learn the Right Lessons From COVID19?

With the company’s announcement in January that it plans to eliminate the third-party cookie from its browser by 2022, Google has now joined the ranks of Mozilla and Apple in charting a new course for consumer security and privacy standards moving into the future.Now, depending on who you ask, this is either catastrophic news or a big “meh.” As a refresher, remember that cookies are simply bits of data that track a user’s activity online. Third-party cookies, specifically, allow websites that a user has not necessarily visited to track their movements online for retargeting purposes.So, is this a big deal? What does it mean for advertising in automotive retail?<h3>A Mixed Bag</h3>From a consumer privacy standpoint, this is a positive development. When used responsibly and ethically, data on consumer behavior online is a very powerful targeting tool and can provide value to the consumer. But, it’s possible for this data to be used inappropriately, especially when gathered without consent from the consumer. In short, a bit more privacy and security isn’t going to hurt anyone.In terms of the impact on your advertising, the answer is: it depends. First-party cookies – the cookies your website creates for on-site users that work to improve your site’s user interface (and, by extension, the user experience) – will remain functional. That’s good news because it means you can continue to leverage important data and insights gleaned from monitoring visitors’ activity on-site.However, ad retargeting will be completely disrupted because retargeting relies on third-party cookies following users from site to site. That’s why Google estimated in 2019 that removing third-party cookies&nbsp;from its browser could initially reduce publisher ad revenue by up to 52 percent.1This, obviously, is a very big deal, particularly for industries that lean heavily on digital advertising and eCommerce – including automotive retail. So, what steps can you take to mitigate any potential downturn in ad performance?<h3>The Bottom Line for Dealers</h3>Fortunately, Google seems to have been paying attention to the rollout of third-party cookie elimination at Mozilla and Apple, both of which experienced issues that put consumer data at increased risk. In conjunction with dropping third-party cookies, Google is releasing “Google Privacy Sandbox,” an interface that presents advertisers with aggregated data derived from anonymized consumer activity online.This alternative attempts to split the difference, shielding Chrome users from explicit identification and monitoring via third-party cookies while still providing advertisers with enough data to derive insights and make useful judgments regarding consumer behavior.Still, the future of retargeting as we know it remains uncertain. Ultimately, it means some reallocation of your advertising budgets will be in order in the next 18 months.There are other ways to derive contextually relevant messaging from consumer activity online, whether it’s through keyword targeting or unique identifiers for site visitors (such as user profiles). It’s also worth remembering that first-party cookies will still provide you with the most relevant data to carry out targeted advertising campaigns.What’s the takeaway, then? If you start gradually shifting your focus to first-party rather than third-party data and begin beefing up your budget allocation in alternative areas of contextual advertising, Google’s elimination of third-party cookies might just turn out to be a big “meh” for your dealership after all.1 Ad Age

What Does Google’s Elimination of Third-Party Cookies Mean for Your Advertising?

Amid the COVID-19 situation, we’re seeing a downturn in key metrics across the automotive retailing industry. Leads generated, vehicles sold, and everything in between is suffering as customers and dealers alike adhere to social distancing guidelines and best practices for disease prevention.One area that has proven resilient, however, is website traffic. The “quarantine life” has forced most of us to live more of our lives in the digital space than ever before, and that includes time spent researching long-term needs, such as a new vehicle or vehicle maintenance. Our current economic and social lockdown won’t last forever, and when restrictions do lift, customers want to be prepared for important purchasing decisions.That means now is a critical time to make the most of your web traffic. Now, you may think you’ve already optimized your site to perform like the virtual showroom it ought to be. Still, it’s always worth revisiting some fundamental concepts to make sure you’re not making easily preventable mistakes or missing out on critical revenue opportunities.<h3>Understand Customer Intent</h3>Before you can leverage site traffic into something more, it pays to understand what’s bringing potential customers to your site to begin with.What are they searching for? However web traffic reaches you (paid ads, organic search, targeted marketing, etc.), understanding intent provides a foundation for every subsequent interaction.Why? Because once you understand customer intent, you can strategically customize your website with a response that will move visitors toward a desired action.In the age of COVID-19, that response starts simply: Are you open? Specifically, are your service and sales departments operating? For the potential buyers who are out there, are you putting current incentives and promotional offers front and center? For those looking for service work, are your most up-to-date hours clearly communicated in the heavy traffic areas of your site?In fact, it’s generally a good practice to be as informative and transparent as possible wherever feasible on your site. Under COVID-19, that includes stating how you’re implementing social distancing and how your staff has been trained to maximize customer safety in every interaction.There are more spots where the current circumstances will affect your operation in ways that must be communicated ahead of time, such as pickup and delivery in service or remote delivery in sales. A thorough review of your site’s content is the only way to ensure there are no outstanding problem areas.<figure class="ql-card-editable ql-card-figure"><img src="https://cdn1.dealermarketing.com/wp/2020/05/dreamstimemedium_118817560-630x350.jpg?auto=format" style="display: block; margin: auto; user-select: auto;"></figure> <h3>Audit Your Vehicle Details Pages</h3>I mentioned that vehicle sales are down across the board, but the fact remains that there are still people out there looking to buy, either because they’re in desperate need of a vehicle or because they’re aware that this may be the time to get a favorable deal.If someone makes it as far as the vehicle details page on your site, it’s imperative to make it crystal clear what incentives are available to induce them to buy. In fact, now’s the perfect time to review your vehicle details pages to make sure you’re always presenting desired information as clearly and concisely as possible.Specifically, no vehicle details page should be without the following six points:<ul><li>Pictures</li><li>Videos</li><li>Basic vehicle information, emphasizing the five or six most noteworthy technology or safety features</li><li>Price</li><li>Incentives or promotional offers (do not redirect customers to another page with any “click here to see offer” links)</li><li>Tools that make it simple to interact with your dealership, such as a chat feature</li></ul>Finally, remember that crisp, clear, high-level information is what converts site visitors into customers.<h3>Use Your Site to Connect with People</h3>One thing COVID-19 has done a good job of is reminding us all of the importance of human connection. That applies to your relationship with your customers, as well.Even if it’s as simple as making a short video to share your concerns and talk in-depth about how your business is faring, what steps you’re taking to help ensure public safety, or how you’re giving back to the community, the point is establishing that human connection.That type of content is a natural fit for your business’s social feeds as well, providing another avenue to direct potential customers to your site.There’s an old saying that success comes to those who can make the most out of a bad situation, and in no time in recent history has that been truer for dealers than now. One action you can take to offset depressed revenue is to make the most out of web traffic and leverage your site as the top-tier virtual showroom you know it can be.

Making the Most of Web Traffic During COVID-19

I can’t stress enough the importance of a clean, up-to-date marketing database. Data inaccuracy harms your efficiency and effectiveness and makes you look like an amateur– no trait any potential customer is looking for.This problem isn’t unique to dealerships, but as other industries adapt and change with consumer expectations, automotive retailers are falling behind.<h3>Adapt and Attract</h3>Take online retail, for example. Amazon adapted to contemporary consumer expectations of convenience and transparency by offering all the info a customer might want on one page: customer reviews, costs and discounts, product details and images, and more. By offering this information upfront, customers don’t need to leave the site to learn about the product.What does that mean for your dealership? Within your dealership management system (DMS) and customer relationship management system (CRM), your customer and vehicle information are continuously updated. That information should be unified so it is the same no matter where you or your customer access it. As a simple example, your digital ads (Google, Facebook, etc.) should showcase exactly what’s on the lot.Additionally, leverage that unified information by allowing customers to create a profile or account on your website to customize their experience. You can suggest recommended vehicles or services (think Amazon’s “additional items you might like” feature) while echoing messaging you’ve delivered via other channels, keeping your brand presentation consistent.However, just having a firm foundation to work from is barely scratching the surface of what accurate data means for your business. It’s possible, via predictive analytics, to take a proactive approach and create brand-new revenue opportunities.Consider the well-known case from several years ago in which Target inadvertently outed a pregnant teenager to her parents with marketing derived from her buying history.This is an unfortunate (for her) but effective example. Target was able to identify a potential buyer based on past behavior, using predictive analytics to correlate hundreds of more variables than any one person ever could. In short, that’s the power to nudge potential buyers in the right direction before they even know they’re in-market.<figure class="ql-card-editable ql-card-figure"><img src="https://cdn1.dealermarketing.com/wp/2020/05/dreamstimemedium_30880479-630x350.jpg?auto=format" style="display: block; margin: auto; user-select: auto;"></figure> For your dealership, predictive analytics helps you identify customer needs before even they are aware of them, disrupting the usual buying cycle to put customers back into the sales funnel quicker and keep your dealership top of mind.Of course, much of this hinges on your ability to engage and convert at a meaningful rate online. Walmart and other retail giants often achieve conversion rates of over 40 percent thanks to their mobile-first web mentality and their strength in transitioning customers from online to in-store.To that effect, here are a few best practices to keep in mind:<ul><li>Always optimize for mobile, both to maximize your Google search result ranking and to capture customers using their phones.</li><li>Keep customers engaged on your website, such as with prepopulated lead forms and relevant content.</li><li>Keep in mind that, in an age where customers visit the minimum number of dealerships possible to buy their vehicle, your job is to stand out from the competition by offering something unique, advertising it clearly and effectively, and meeting customer needs.</li></ul><h3>Clean up Your Data – Then Act on What It’s Telling You</h3>Maintaining clean and accurate data puts your dealership in a great position to succeed day in and day out, from meeting customer expectations to creating brand-new revenue opportunities by implementing predictive analytics.Back this strategy up with engaging web optimization choices to make sure you can convert those potential customers you do attract, and you’ll have built an operation that competes aggressively for every last revenue opportunity.

Articles by:JAY HARPER