CANADIAN AUTO DEALER TALKS TO KEY PLAYERS IN THE INDUSTRY AND GETS THE LATEST WORD ON THE STREET AS IT RELATES TO THE AUTO BUSINESS.
If there’s one thing you can say about the auto business, it is the fact that it is constantly changing, there’s always news, ideas and concepts emerging. Being involved with the industry means staying connected and covering the beat. Scene and Heard brings you exclusive interviews and quotes from major players in the industry along with highlights from industry events.
With digital strategies such a hot topic, and with dealers looking for ways to embrace this brave new world, we talked with experts and pioneers in the digital sphere at the TADA’s Digital Dealer event in Toronto. They shared their thoughts and tips for engaging with consumers online and enabling successful auto retailing in the 21st century.
We hope you enjoy their insights and stay tuned for more in-depth video interviews coming soon!
TODD SMITH
CEO ActivEngage, on live chat
“Our goal is to help connect dealers to consumers and put information in the dealers’ hands. In the same way as when a customer walks into the store, and from watching what cars they look at or what car they drove in, you already have relevant conversation information before engaging with them. We want to provide that same type of information online. What keywords did they type in? What website were they on? Are they a first time or repeat visitor? All these things help craft the conversation. The real goal of live chat isn’t to sell the car but sell the dealership and the opportunity to do business with the consumer. You have to take off your sales hat and put on your customer service hat and go from ‘I have a question about this car to I want to come into the dealership.’ I think that is where live chat really takes hold and becomes a powerful tool for the dealer to use.”
SEAN WOLFINGTON
Chairman and CEO, The Wolfington Companies, on digital marketing
“If marketing is fishing where the fish are, they have migrated to this digital pond. Those dealers that are able to get the equipment they need to fish in this pond are going to be able to track and service customers for a lot less than with traditional advertising. These days, mass market mediums aren’t as cost effective as digital mediums like search and social media. Dealers that go to school and learn new ways to reach customers for less cost are going to be able to grow market share and grow it a lot more profitably.”
BILL TIGHE
Client Partner, Facebook Canada, on social media
“There are two camps to this, there is social and then there’s media. If you have just started a Facebook page and you figured you have a lot of work to do, don’t worry about it. Your ability to target people is incredible. People who are engaged, people who have moved house, people who are having a baby. These are big car buying signals. ‘I’m about to have a baby and my life is about to change, I need something different that is relevant to my life’ — the small sports car or the minivan? That is the power [of social media],you can slice and dice and really target people, giving them what they are most likely to need at that moment in their life instead of some general offer that may not be useful.”
ALI AMIRREZVANI
President and CEO, DealerOn, on advanced SEO
“It is important for dealers to understand what has worked in the past couple of years doesn’t work well anymore. When it comes to SEO, dealers should really focus their time on looking at their website platform and getting a website that converts well. The average conversion rate in the U.S. and Canada is 1.7 per cent, so for every 1,000 visitors you are generating 17 leads. If you can change that up and increase your lead volume five or six per cent you can put your time and energy into SEO to increase traffic. If you are converting at three or four times the level before, you are going to get a lot more out of SEM. If you want a competitive advantage, look outside the industry, we are five to 10 years behind the rest of the world. Go to conferences, learn about search engine strategies, conversion and different testing platforms. You can even find [future] employees at these events, people who really get it. It is no longer about optimizing the website it is about creating content that wows the user
so that they will want to share it.”
