While as of this blog entry, Google's social media site, Google Plus, is not open to public, Kristi Hines did this informative video, outlining how this tool may be used once become available to all of us.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-get-started-with-google-plus-your-complete-guide/

Excellent presentation by Rand Fishkin of SEO Moz. A must review slide show for all auto dealers.

http://www.slideshare.net/randfish/the-unfair-advantage-of-inbound-marketing

The issue isn’t about whether or not women are buying vehicles. They are. According to all the latest industry research, women even play a lead role in vehicles purchased by most men. And women are buying used vehicles as much as new ones. But, don’t presume that a woman’s expectations or process will change.

When it comes to a new or used vehicle, women’s expectations are pretty much the same. Just like men, women expect a newly purchased car to perform well. And like men, women search for the best quality that their money can buy when purchasing a used vehicle. So, where’s the difference?

Well, one fact you might first consider is that women do lots more homework and planning than men prior to a vehicle purchase. They may not be ready to purchase on the first visit. Consequently, you might want to practice patience when marketing to women. Here are 5 quick selling tips to help you market your vehicles to women:

1. Sell safety! Quality and performance are givens. But safety is still a priority and concern for women. Women are often thinking about their family members or their growing family when purchasing a vehicle. For a used vehicle, they will definitely ask questions about previous owners and will review Carfax report. Be sure you are ready to answer.

    

2. Sell space! Women don’t have to have big cars, but like closets and nooks in a home, women want spaces or places to put and tuck STUFF…sunglasses, coffee cups, luggage, shopping bags, snacks for the family, and more. So, seat pockets, compartments, and cup cubbies are a must.

    

3. Sell maintenance! Women want the convenience of service/maintenance options. Used vehicles do come with a certain amount of risk. Including service and maintenance plans in the purchase of a used vehicle enhances the one stop shopping deal that women look for.

    

4. Sell green! Not necessarily the color but the environmental friendliness. Women do look for unique colors in vehicles and these are getting easier to find. But for the most part, women are going green. Naturally nurturing, women are conscious of the changes in the environment and want to do their parts in keeping it clean and safe. Share knowledge about the used vehicle’s emission, miles per gallon, and more.

    

5. Be Patient! When a woman enters your site or lot, she is expecting to begin a mutual relationship with you, one of trust and loyalty. She wants your name, your attention, and her questions answered. She may need two or more visits before a decision is made. So get ready to treat her well. Hopefully she will buy and love her newly purchased vehicle. For added value, she’s going to remember the treatment and tell all of her friends.

These selling tips are by no means in any order of importance. They are all are equally important when marketing your vehicles to women.

About the Author: Syed Azam is the president of AutoJini.com, a leading provider of website solutions for auto dealers. He can be reached at syed@AutoJini.com or 515-232-2024.

R&B Auto Center in Fontana, CA has posted this video on their home page
to promote the mobile site AutoJini has implemented for them.

While having a dealership website is a must these days, it isn’t enough if you want to increase your customer base and even keep current customers. Let’s face it, the use of mobile phones is rising at an amazing pace, and it’s not just a fad for those who want to play games. Mobile technology is changing how customers research, review and ultimately purchase their vehicles. Here are 5 reasons why your dealership needs a mobile site.

• The Number of Mobile Users is Growing – In 2007, roughly 400 million users across the globe used mobile phones for accessing the internet vs. approximately 1.1 billion people who used desktops¹. The number are converging, with Mobile Media users forecasted to match Desktop users in 2013 at over 1.6 billion users each, and mobile media outgrowing desktop users in the years which follow.² Dealerships need to be prepared, to place their inventory and dealership information where the public is spending their time – on their mobile phones!

   

• Shopping Habits are Changing – In 2010, 33% of Mobile Phone owners used their mobile phones to access a retailer website.³ Being able to access and perform tasks on a retailer’s website is important to today’s consumers who want information and access to retailers’ information wherever they are. In 2010, ForeSee Results conducted a study of nearly 10,000 visitors to the biggest (as determined by revenue) e-retail websites in the U.S., examining their mobile shopping trends. Of the shoppers using mobile phones to access retailers’ sites, 56% compared prices, 46% compared products, 35% looked up product specifications, and 27% looked up product reviews⁴.

   

• Your Customer Base Can Expand – Dramatically! – Look around your dealership. How many of your current customers are on their mobile phones, making calls, looking up information? Perhaps 50%, 60%, even 70% are mobile phone users. Now, look at their children…. How many teens (and tweens) are texting or searching sites on their phones, glued to their devices like it’s the only source of information in their universe? The teens/tweens are your future (near future) customers. They’re the ones who will use their mobile phones to research cars, discuss vehicles with friends via Facebook and Twitter, send each other photos and links to their favorite cars and dealership. These are the soon-to-be young adults who will rely on what they find on their mobile phones. And if your dealership doesn’t have a mobile site when they’re searching for a vehicle, you will miss out on a generation of customers. These are the new buyers…for years to come.

   

• Your Customers Expect It– The mobile generation is just that, 'mobile' - on the go. They want to see, talk, discuss, review, make decisions wherever they are. That means they expect the ability to upload, download, research, access and discuss vehicle information with retailers and friends alike anytime, anywhere. If these consumers can’t find the information on their mobile phones (or can’t read the full ‘regular’ sites which are designed for desktops and not mobile phones), they’re likely to move on, literally and figuratively. Your mobile site (or lack thereof) molds the mobile phone customer’s expectations about your dealership… can your dealership give him what he wants, easily, quickly, without hassles? In other words, to these customers, your mobile site IS YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION.

   

• Your Dealership Isn’t As Accessible As You Think– Can customers find your dealership on the internet? Hopefully with the right SEO and SEM, your website is at the top of the search engines. But what about those customers who use a mobile phone? Mobile phones are not the same as desktop computers. Websites and searches do not work the same. If a customer stumbles across your website and he can’t navigate it or read the information, he’ll move on to another site. A mobile site makes your dealership accessible. The basic info is there, easy-to-see on a mobile site, giving customers what they needs to know about your dealership (e.g. About Us, Find Us, Call Us, Appointment Request, Coupons, Reviews, Photos, Vehicle Info.). Make your dealership easy to find /accessible for customers – all customers, not just those sitting at a desk top.

   

Capture a new generation of customers who are searching for a dealership that can meet their needs. Find out how easy (and inexpensive!) it is to have a mobile site, one that will keep you in touch with the Mobile Phone Generation.

²comScore: “The State of Mobile:  US Mobile Media Landscape and Trends”; author:  mark Donovan, SVP Mobile + Sr. Analyst.  June 8, 2010, p.7, Source of Graph: Morgan Stanley Research

³The ForeSee Results Report on Mobile Shopping (U.S. Edition 2010)
“Explosion in Mobile Retail Provides Opportunity for Retailers” January 10, 2011  by Kevin Ertell, Vice President, Retail Strategy, ForeSee Results, p.3

Simply stated, if you are looking for ideas on how to attract new customers and repeat visits to your dealership’s Facebook page, here are five quick tips. These marketing tips don’t have to be daunting tasks for the Internet Manager at your dealership. They can be fun, and everyone at your dealership can get involved.

• Invite fans to your next online event!
  Start with your current customer base. Invite them to your next event with a simple point and click. Most importantly, ask each fan to bring a friend. Facebook allows friends and fans to connect in many different ways. And everybody likes invitations to what’s happening next. Share a few pictures of your hottest vehicles and exciting highlights of your event. And watch your fan base increase!
• Offer coupons or other incentives to fans!
  Consumers love to save money and may not be looking at the Sunday paper. And if your dealership is slashing prices, be sure to mention it on your Facebook page. You want to stay ahead of prospective buyers while they are in the buying mode. So, publish your service department coupons on Facebook and share them with the whole world. Update incentives regularly. Give them one condition -- to LIKE (thumbs up) your Facebook page!
• Make leasing a vehicle and other purchasing options more simple!
  Finding good lease offers can be challenging. Understanding the processes can be even more daunting. Offer quick tips from start to finish on purchasing a vehicle. The more simple the process and brief your advice, the more often your friends will share the information with friends!
• Educate your fans about the best care for their vehicles!
  Help your fans with fun “How-to” and “Do-it-yourself” bulletins and safety tips. Offer smart moves in car care, and have your service department post regular Q & A’s sessions that fans can join like, “Will missing an oil change shorten the life of my vehicle?” Don’t’ be afraid to link a YouTube video illustrating step-by-step instructions. Your fans will appreciate you saving them a buck or two!
• Be a good Facebook community leader!
  Post articles and news links from other sites and blogs on your Facebook page. Some fans may be interested in automobile manufacturer websites, auto enthusiasts, and industry magazines. The links will keep fans up-to-date with what’s going on in the industry. The information can be opened on a new page. This way your fans won’t have to leave your Facebook page!

Don’t forget to get everyone at the dealership involved. Simply add your Facebook link to everyone’s email signature and remind them to check out the site daily!

The mobile phone generation conducts as much business, if not more, from their mobile phones than from their desktop/laptop computers. Think about people's texting habits, especially those of young adults. They use any and every spare moment to stay in touch with family, friends and yes, even products. Many are watching the auto market, waiting for the arrival of that new or used car they plan to buy. And many of these customers are prepared to act on what happens, then and there. Businesses have to move with this new generation of customers, literally.

Mobile Site vs. "Regular" Website
This new generation of tech-savvy adults is constantly online, reading the news, watching for something to go on sale, or checking out the latest and greatest products. They tweet, blog and update their status online. They want the ability to purchase, inquire and share information, as it happens – now, not later. That means while they’re standing in line for coffee, riding a bus to work, walking down a street, or hanging with friends at bar. These customers don’t wait until they’re at a computer... they conduct business when and wherever they are.

The dealer may think, "Hey, that's great! They'll check the cars on my website while they're waiting in line somewhere." To a certain extent, this is true. A car buyer can search for the right key words or even type in a dealership's URL and find the dealership's website then and there on his mobile phone. The problem is if the dealership doesn't have a mobile site. The mobile phone user will still access all the information from the dealership's "regular" website, but it won't be easy to view or navigate that website from his/her mobile phone. In this case, the customer may forgo looking up the information, or move on to another dealership, one that is designed for mobile viewing. If that dealership has a mobile site, however, the customer will see all of the dealership's information - formatted for the mobile screen and designed in a way that encourages exploring the site, calling the dealership (with the simple touch of a speed-dial link), and even purchasing a vehicle.

Take advantage of your customers impulses to call, request a quote, make an appointment or purchase. Don't give them a reason to put off contacting your dealership. Let them do it then and there, wherever they happen to be when they're thinking about purchasing that next car.

Power of Social Media on Mobile Sites
Are you leveraging the power of the social media networking? Just one customer wants to say something to his network of friends/associates about a car he/she found on your site. He clicks the SHARE media button on his/her choice, makes a comment, and touches 'send'. A second later, posted on his/her social media site, connected to potentially hundreds of his/her friends, is a comment about your dealership, or your car, with the links (and a photo!) to your website. And it doesn't matter whether his friends are using mobile phones or computers… they link to your site regardless.

The good news here is that you don't need to have accounts with Facebook, YouTube or Twitter to leverage the power of social media networking (though doing so has other advantages that are best reviewed in another article). You can use share-links to further your branding and business goals from your ‘regular’ and mobile websites.

But again, if you only have a 'regular' website, then that is what the social network of dozens/hundreds of friends will see, including those viewing your site from a mobile phone. You should give the entire group, the dozens/hundreds of potential customers, the chance to view your cars or website in the best format possible, one which encourages them to view, search, contact and buy. You don’t want 80%, 90%, or even more of these potential customers to ignore your dealership because your 'regular' website is too hard to view from a mobile phone.

Conclusion
You know your customers. Are they the mobile phone generation or the computer generation? Most likely they’re both. But what are their research and purchasing habits? By neglecting to have a mobile site, you may well be sending your customers and potential customers to the next dealership on their list, one that has a mobile phone and does business in a way that fits your customers' on-the-go lifestyle. Dealers must change with technology, and reach out to customers through the technology they are using, or dealerships will limit their sales potential with the technology-savvy adults of today - and tomorrow.

[Learn more about mobile phone website or try our demo]

In the mad rush to increase traffic to our websites, we often lose sight of the ultimate goal... converting traffic into leads. Our basic internet strategy should be two-fold: 1) Drive traffic to the site 2) Once the viewers arrive at the site, don’t let them leave... keep them on the site as long as possible to increase the likelihood of turning a casual visitor into a lead.

Driving Traffic To a Website
There are three essential elements for driving traffic to your dealership website: 1) the website must be fully optimized for target keywords 2) social media sites are up-to-date and 3) blog entries are interesting. These three facets work alone and together to attract your potential customers and draw them onto your website. Once viewers find their way to your site, the next step is converting those visitors into leads. If the website fails to leverage its traffic, then employing the best SEO techniques and writing the most engaging social media and blog content in the world won’t be worth a penny.

How 'Sticky' is Your Site?
What is a Sticky Site? A sticky site is a website that is rich in content, easy to navigate, and provides information with few key strokes, it makes a visitor wants to stay. Sites which are hard to navigate, visitors find hard to communicate with the dealership, and information is hard to access are not sticky sites. These sites drive viewers away.

Making your Dealership Website 'Stickier'
In addition to reviewing the number of unique visitors to your site in a given month, you must review the number of leads your dealership site generates. In other words, what is your conversion rate? If your rate is low, the first thing you must consider/assess is how long you are able to keep a viewer on your site. If they viewer stays a second or two and then leaves, that’s a good indication that your site isn’t sticky. That's when you know it's time to review your site with a critical eye and make the necessary changes to retain these viewers and turn them into leads. The longer a viewer stays on your site, the more likely your site will convert that viewer to a lead. Discuss with your website provider what you can do to increase the 'stickiness' of your site.

Converting Traffic to Leads
There a few basics items you need on your dealership website to increase the number of leads from your dealership website. On your website, you should:

• Prominently display your dealership’s phone number (having a toll free number that is exclusive to your website will help you track the leads which come from your website).
• If majority of viewers are leaving the site in less than 20 seconds, use a different home page with a different strategy or ‘look’.
• Offer ‘vehicle search’ on every page (making the vehicle search available from any page increases the chance that sooner or later the viewer will perform a search).
• Allow a one-click or no-click Contact form (the less the clicks, the easier it is for a customer to contact the dealership).
• Emphasize your strengths (if your dealership specializes in selling mini-vans, highlight this fact on the site. Make sure your testimonial section highlights this specialty too).

Work with your website provider, making simple changes such as those listed above should not cost you an arm and a leg, but a few percentage point increase in your number of leads will greatly improve your bottom line.

Feel free to email or call me with any questions. Best of luck to you in your traffic conversion efforts!

Syed Azam
AutoJini.com
syed@autojini.com
515-232-2024

Most dealers prefer to hire a third party to optimize their websites for search engines. While this is usually the best way to optimize the website, this does not mean the dealer should forego tracking his website's performance. After all, no one knows more about the dealership than you and your staff.

The following three tools are free, easy to use, and are recommended for anyone who wants to assess how well a site is doing in the search engine rankings. Whether you are an SEO expert or a first-timer, take a few minutes to log onto these sites and get established… you'll find the data helpful when planning and implementing SEO for your dealership.

1 - Website Grader http://www.websitegrader.com
Powered by HubSpot, Website Grader is the simplest of the three SEO tools discussed here today. Enter your website's URL (example: www.yourcompany.com) on websitegrader.com and press the "Generate Report" button. While this tool gives your site a grade (HubSpot uses its own criteria to evaluate your website), the value-added service here is the detailed analysis provided in the report.

The easy-to-read report breaks down the analysis by the quality and quantity of items such as content, inbound links, social media, forms and tags. Website Grader provides a powerful snapshot of your dealership website’s SEO performance, both on-page and off-site optimization, giving you insight into which SEO techniques you are utilizing well and where you still need to improve.

2 - Google Analytics https://www.google.com/analytics
Google Analytics is one of the best tools available for analyzing a dealership’s website traffic. Remember, if you cannot measure your site's performance, you cannot improve it!

Google Analytics allow you to review four important metrics:

• Website Visitors
• Traffic Sources
• Keyword Referrals
• Performance of Goals (goals that you set up)

To review the data, create an account on Google Analytics (go to the above link, click on the “Sign Up Now” box, then use your email to set up the account). Next, if your SEO specialist has already added Google Analytics to your dealership’s website, ask him/her to add your email account (this will allow you to see the same report and data that he/she sees). If your SEO specialist has not already added Google Analytics to your dealership’s website, ask him/her to do so.

Review your website data every Monday for the previous week’s performance. Similarly, on the first day of every month, print the previous month’s report. Set up an appointment with your SEO specialist to review the report together. You will be amazed at how much you will learn about the activity on your site in just a few months.

3 - Google Webmaster Tools
Website indexing by Search Engines is a crucial part of SEO. Google Webmaster Tools allows webmasters to check their sites’ indexing and thereby optimize their sites’ visibility/accessibility to the search engines. The most basic, and perhaps important, of all the webmaster tools provided by Google is allowing webmasters to submit their site maps to ensure that all the site’s pages are getting indexed by the search engines.

To sign up with Google Webmaster Tools, use can use your Google Analytics account. After logging in, select the option to add a site. Google will give you a code, also called a Meta Tag. Ask your SEO specialist to insert the Meta Tag on your website, to allow Google to verify that you are the owner of the website. If your SEO specialist already has an account with Google Webmaster Tools, ask him/her to share the login and password with you so you can review how Google is indexing the site.

Once you log in, you can review:

• Crawl Errors (you can see the details of the pages Google couldn’t access on your site)
• Top Search Queries in which your website showed up (and the number of clicks your site received)
• The List of External Pages Linking to your site (The more external pages linking to your site, the better)
• How Fast Your Site Loads

This simple tool offers a wealth of data that is often not available in one location. Review your website’s indexing status using Google Webmaster Tools to gain valuable insight into just how well-optimized your website is for the search engines.

Conclusion
While dozens of websites promise to give you the ultimate tool and strategy for search engine optimization, together, these three tools provide a good starting point for anyone analyzing a website’s SEO 'health'. They are free, easy-to-use, and will allow you to focus on key areas of website analytics when making SEO decisions for your dealership.

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About the Author: Syed Azam is the president of AutoJini.com, a leading provider of website solutions for auto dealers. He can be reached at syed@AutoJini.com or 515-232-2024.

How many Customers would you GAIN by having a Professionally Developed Website?

The fact is, dealerships who have websites take customers from dealers who don't have a website (or have a weak one). You're losing customers every day to dealerships that have professionally developed websites. Professionally developed websites expand a dealership's customer base and advertise inventory in ways conventional advertising can't.

Top 6 Reasons Dealers Need a Website:

1- Capture New Customers: Many prospects begin their search online (the point where they're most impressionable). If they find the right vehicle, they're more likely to visit that dealership. But even if they don't find that perfect vehicle at first glance, a well-designed site draws them in. Customers see the large inventory, the well-organized display of vehicles and information, and the wealth of information that will help them choose a vehicle… they see a dealership that “has its act together” and will help them find what they're looking for.

2 - Convey Credibility - Build Trust: Show prospects that you're not just another small dealership… give them the tools to shop in the way that they want to shop. With every page of your site, inspire confidence in your customers. Show them that you know what you're doing, and that they can trust you. Testimonials alone can draw customers to a dealership by telling them what their peers think about your dealership and its salespeople. Testimonials convey confidence and trust in a way that makes them want to approach your dealership.

3 - Allow Prospects to "Test the Waters" and Build Confidence: New prospects often want to know more about your dealership before they approach a salesperson. This gives them a comfort level, and more willing to speak face-to-face. Through your website, you let your customers know everything they want… you start building your rapport in a way that makes them feel safe and secure.

4 - Decrease Advertising Costs while Expanding your Reach: Calculate the cost of just one opportunity lost per month. You can have a professional Web site for much less than that! But why lose even a single customer to insufficient advertising? Consider how easy (and inexpensive) it is for customers to find you with a simple online search. They type in their city, and type of car, and your site comes up among only a few others… you've already weeded out more than half of the competition! The same can't be said for advertisements in the local paper.

5 - Provider More Details Than Newspaper and Magazine Ads: List hundreds of vehicles, with dozens of photos and details about each one (transmission, mileage, color, price, features and more). Update your inventory instantly, not once per week as with printed ads. Feature EVERY vehicle in your lot, not just a few at a time.

6 - Promote Up-Selling: Hook customers with your full array of services. From repairs to warranty plans, your dealership can up-sell additional services before your customers even step onto your lot.

The ultimate purpose of a website is simple: to get customers to buy your vehicles and services.

A professionally built and maintained site generates a fantastic return on investment. If you would like to discuss how we can develop your dealership website in a way that will improve your business and push you ahead of the competition, please contact us at your convenience!