Dealerfire Blog

Sign of the Times: Googling Baby Names

This information may not help you sell more cars online but it should give you a chuckle and that's almost as good. This snippet on Boston.com refers to an article in the Wall Street Journal, which you have to pay to read. The gist of it is that people are starting to Google prospective baby names to see how they might rank. Gotta love it...

Best practices for marketing vehicles online

I was speaking with a dealer today, and they are completely new to the arena of online marketing. They were asking a lot of questions about best practices, and one of the tools I provided for their education was a presentation developed by Autotrader.com. If you're new to selling/promoting vehicles online, or even if you'd just like a brief refresher course, this tutorial should be well worth your while. It discusses everything from the importance of writing good descriptions to taking appropriate photos.

Tips II: Return of the corporate gift card

The information regarding the Apple iTunes&174; was so popular that we went back to the web for some follow up information. We have links for you to corporate rewards programs for Best Buy&174; and Blockbuster&174; . These gifts cards make nice tie for vehicles with Rear-seat DVD Vehicle Entertainment Systems. While these cards can be a great incentive to book the test drive or close the sale, they can have an additional buzz factor as well. That is the "found money factor" of sending a card unannounced to a customer who recently purchased a vehicle. It can help in two ways:

• "WOW" effect can generate word-of-mouth and build customer referrals
• Helps lessen the negative aspect of post purchase behaviour that most customers feel after making a big ticket purchase

Best Buy Gift Cards for Business


Blockbuster corporate Incentives Store

Customer Targeting

Got good gas mileage? Gas prices are climbing faster than a NASA rocket and who knows how hign they will go before they stop. That means potential customers will be searching for vehicles with the best gas mileage. You want to make sure that they find those models as quickly and as easily as possible. A landing page dedicated to your best mileage cars can shorten the customer buying experience and generate quality leads. A landing page in conjunction with a keyword campaign can do that for you by directing the customer directly to specific models they want to buy. A landing page can be created for any situation; Annual, Inventory Clearance or New Model Sales Events. Check out more information here...

Growing Influence

DoubleClick, a digital advertising and research firm recently purchased by Google for 3.1 billion, recently released their Touchpoint IV survey subtitled "How Digital Media Fits into Customer Purchase Decisions" and it reaffirmed trends spotted in their Touchpoint III survey from July of 2006 regarding the influence of paid search along with other digital advertising.

Touchpoint III

• Nearly 20% of respondents turn to search to further learn about a product/service
• 11 percent of respondents listed search as valued touchpoint in the "influence purchase" stage

Touchpoint IV

• 67% of respondents notice a web ad then check out the product product later at a physical store
• 61% of respondents notice a web ad, do not click but visit the advertisded site late

Some of your website visitors and leads that show up in the stats as "organic" were actually induced by paid search. The added benefit is that you do not have to pay for the click, lowering customer acquisition costs. These touchpoints highlight the ever growing influence of paid search, and search in general, in marketing campaigns.