5 Takeaways from Orlando's Digital Marketing Strategies Conference 2013

whitehat three60° is a social media & reputation management company out of tampa, fl

5 Takeaways from Orlando's Digital Marketing Strategies Conference 2013

1) Google Cars Beta

It's Not "Pay Per Click" it's "Pay Per Lead" for Google Cars 

Google is essentially an aggregator of data. The only thing is they do it better than say 90% of anyone who plays in that space so it makes sense they would be wanting to tie into a Dealership's DMS

They are currently beta testing in the San Francisco market and by the time the product gets to you a Google Cars lead will cost "lower than $20 but higher than $10" per lead depending on the brand represented. The interface is clean and shows up similar to Google "new" or "images" might in a related search. Here is a god awful picture from Michael Rose's presentation from Google. 

Another couple of quick takeaways from the Cars Beta. For one Reputation Management Reviews will be not be integrated into the inventory search. Only dealerships within a 25 mile radius of the customer will be shown but customers will not be able to see the Zagat score of that specific dealership. A dealer will also be able to set a cap each day of daily leads accepted after which a customer will have to "Click to Call" if they want to contact a dealer with specific inventory. 

Also for the first time Google is actually going to deliver first name and last name into our DMS. A dealership will also be limited in the amount of times they can contact a customer (by phone through Google voice & e-mail). The system will only reset when a customer actually replies to dealership correspondence. 

2) In 2013 Mobile Search will actually eclipse traditional Desktop Search with Google 

Enough said. This is huge. Naturally these are separately built campaigns and frankly they behave inversely. Meaning a landing page a mobile customer is delivered to needs to be different than one a desktop campaign would deliver. Forms are killers for mobile lead conversion and click to call is preferred. So if your house isn't right in the world of mobile (think your VDP's, your mobile website, your lead conversion pages) you could be in real trouble. 

3) True Digital E-Commerce is Coming to the Car Business

For the first time ever consumers are stating the OEM's website and the dealership website are more important factors in the car buying experience than the PHYSICAL TEST DRIVE. Now, now...don't freak out! But what this could mean is we are one step closer to living in a world where one should be able to, could and just might purchase a vehicle online conducting almost 100% of the process online. 

4) Why do some of our customers hate us? 

Customers told Google the biggest think they disliked about attempting to get a price online was that they felt the Dealership didn't listen. Meaning a customer asked for a singular price and you either didn't respond, asked them to come in to get the same information or you served them with 4 unrelated auto-responders. One west-coast dealership delivered a Google lead with 14 e-mails in one day before the customer had even responded at all. 14!!! WHAT!!! 

90% of the time people abandon lead forms. 57% of Generation Y would avoid contact with a dealership if they could. They also hate surprises! At some point we must build for the future and realize that younger consumers want a different experience and different ways to communicate with the dealership. If your own children don't call you back but text shouldn't we be ready to deliver the same experience to future consumers? 

5) There is a disconnect in your IT / Software / CRM setup. 

Why do consumers need a dealership anyway? Well for one it's where the physical car is. Secondly they need a price and trade value information and lastly they may need the dealer to explore financing options. 

It's a wonder why there isn't a better solution but have you ever thought how poorly your CRM communicates with your e-price feature and then how poorly that information moves into your Finance submission software? It's kind of a joke actually. In some of our clients stores they are inputting the same customer information three or four different times separately! 

whitehat three60°'s brett morgan can be found on twitter at @brettamorgan or @whitehatthree60