2. Introduction 2011
How important is Digital Marketing?
Why is YOUR website important?
What are the main things that should be on your website?
Did you know there is a Digital Marketing Toolkit on the
Suzuki Dealer Portal?
3. Agenda 2011
Websites
Best practices
Assessment of actual dealer websites
Social Media
Hands-on Training
Q&A / Discussion
5. AUTO SHOPPING BEHAVIOR –
SEARCH 2011
Car shoppers are qualifying dealers Facebook is the #1 most visited site by
by researching online & using auto shoppers
search for vehicle dealership
research
6. The Basics 2011
A website is often the first impression of a
business for consumers
Four key user experience elements:
Overall Design (the Look & Feel)
Navigation
Ease of use
Content
If a website does not impress the customer and match
Best Practices in the above areas, the rest of the site
won’t matter!
6
8. Design Basics 2011
Clean, consistent appearance
No visual mess -- consistent layout and colors throughout
Keep the Home Page focused (an invitation to learn more)
Large primary visual
Key info in logical easy to notice positions
Let customers dig into site for details
Keep the look current
Like an outdated promo, dated style/colors turn off consumers
8
9. Navigation Basics 2011
Navigation links should be easy to locate
Effective top and left-side navigation
Best to follow established standards, as seen in OEM sites
Left Side
Navigation
9
10. Navigation Basics 2011
Consistent positioning of links throughout
Consistent appearance/fonts throughout
Large and clear enough for easy reading
Top
Navigation
10
11. Navigation Basics 2011
Make it easy for customers to shop
Vehicle info easy to find and use
Shopping tools easy to find and use
Easy-access inventory search functions
“Get an Internet Price” form accessible in several places
11
12. Content Basics 2011
What Content is Key? What Makes Content Compelling?
Pay special attention to the following:
Vehicle information
Quality images, features, specs and prices
Price Quote / Contact Us
Easy to access from key shopping pages –always answered quickly
Ensure all content is current:
No expired specials
Contact info, hours, etc for Sales, Parts & Service
Payment calculator & finance application
Site map
Once You’ve Covered the Basics, You’re Ready to Focus on…
12
13. The Big Five 2011
Dealer Specials
Current and Enticing deals
New Car Inventory
Clear layout with lot quality images and pricing
Pre-Owned Inventory
Clear layout including MY, quality images, and pricing
Parts & Accessories
Inquiry form and hours of operation essential
Also consider e-commerce
Service
Service inquiry form and key info essential
Also consider real-time appointments
14. Home Page Best Practices
2011
Custom
Unique
Slidesho
Videos
w specific
to the
dealer
Unique
characteristics
Branded of buttons
Custom
images
featured
vehicles
15. Model Specific Landing Pages
2011
Model Specific
Landing pages
convert at a
higher level.
Direct
interested
buyers to entire
inventory
16. Service Marketing
2011
Personalized
Service
Marketing
Customers
can Manage
their vehicle
profiles
18. Strong Mobile Presence 2011
1/3 of US mobile
phone owners
have a smart
Group functionality on Mobile site phone as of
December 2010,
by 2015 they will
50% of market.
Source: Nielson
Sales of smart
phones will exceed
Includes parts and service locations those of PC’s by
end of 2012.
Source:
Morgan Stanley
19. Landing Pages for Lease Specials
2011
Full page
with all lease
specials
20. Landing Pages for a Unique Purpose
2011
Multiple
Language
Selection
Tool
22. Your Website Assessment 2011
Five Steps to the Ensure Your Website is Up to Speed
Suzuki Brand focus
No non-Suzuki models
No non-Suzuki specials
Content is current
Featured model’s on Home Page and in Showrooms
Specials
Logo’s
22
23. Your Website Assessment 2011
Ensure “The Big Five" are promoted throughout site
Dealer Specials
New car inventory
Used car inventory
Parts
Service
Monitor search results
Search Dealership name and city in major search engines.
If results don't show very high on first page, your site needs to
be optimized
23
24. Reminder: Your Website and SEO 2011
Just because you build it…does
not guarantee they will come!
Follow website development
best practices
ensure the web crawlers can find your
site / recognize it as relevant to the users
key search words
Delivers your website listing higher in the
SERP (Search Engine Results Page)
Continually optimize (refine web
content/functionality) to sustain or
improve SERP listing position
26. Other Considerations 2011
Multiple URLs / Advanced SEO Enhancements
Written and/or Video Testimonials
E-Commerce
Microsites
Social Media
26
28. Why Social Media? 2011
The top most trusted sources for products/services:
Friends/Acquaintances
Third party review: TV, NSP, Magazine
Manufacturers website
Known expert review
Consumers Reviews on Retailer’s site
Importance of “friends” will increase with growth of
Social Media networks
It’s a conversation and relationship, not a “get ‘em
done” – high ROI once trust is created. 28
29. Why This Matters to You 2011
Social Media can help your dealership:
Reach consumers and create loyalty
Enhance/improve customer service (address issues (flames) quickly
and turn critics into advocates)
Distribute information and content (news articles, photos, videos,
etc.) to interested consumers
Open up new and sustainable channels of communication with
potential customers
Create Brand awareness
Manage your Online reputation
Recruit talent
Generate high quality leads that are more value and less price based
30. Social Media Channels 2011
• Consumers opt-in to updates by “liking” a page
• Connects to other social media channels and allows you to
share multi-media updates
• Can act as a more personalized extension of your website
• Limited to 140 characters in each post
• Two-way conversation: Share your information and interact
with others. Others help to share your message.
• Can be used as a customer service tool and gauge
consumer perception.
• Not to “sell” and promote deals / specials.
• Video branding platform
• Videos are very popular and easy to share via links and
other social media channels
• Give a human face to your business
31. Facebook: The World Has Gone Social 2011
500 Million users worldwide/120M in the US
50M+ users in the US each day
Average of 7 hours/month spent on Facebook
#1 Site to reach New Car Shoppers:
Facebook now reaches 60% of all people in the US 18+
shopping in the next 6 months for a new or used vehicle
32. Facebook: Tips for Building a Social Media Strategy 2011
Build a Page
Advertise to increase connections
Publish to your network
Use Facebook Tools such as Photos
and Events to invite your “friends”
to your dealerships
Develop deep relationships with
your clients locally
- Connections
- Brand Voice
- Viral Distribution
33. Facebook: Tips for Building a Social Media Strategy 2011
Advertise to increase connections –
target your audience locally
• Geo: State, City (10, 25, 50 Mile Radius)
• Demographic: Age, Gender
• Likes & Interests
34. Facebook: Who’s doing things right? 2011
An Example: Suzuki of Wichita
• Actively engaged
• Link to their inventory
• Reviews
• Apex + EcoCharge Concepts
• Community events
• 1,551 fans
38. Other Channels to Watch 2011
• Allows consumers to “hear” what others
have to say about a company, brand or
service
• Can help, or hurt, the reputation of the
business – helps if actively managed by
fixing complaints and turning critics into
advocate.
• Mobile internet use will surpass that of
desktop internet use by 2015.
Mobile • Consumers are utilizing mobile devices to
access social media channels and interact
with brands
40. Engaging the Customer Once They Reach Out to the
Dealership based on your SM efforts. 2011
Consumers expect an almost instant response with exact details
about their specific model request
Just being first is not enough – must engage and compel
customer either with phone call or tailored e-mail with specifics
- Do Not Use Auto Responders
Use proven and engaging phone scripts, and well-constructed
e-mails as follow-up “drip campaign”
Do a quick quote request yourself and see what kind of
response you get – would that satisfy you if you were about to
spend money on a brand new car? 40
41. Making Your Social Media Mark 2011
Determine and Establish Develop
create relevant listening process conversation
social media and trainstaff on calendar and
channels how to use it definehow you
will engage
Make time to
study and
Attach refine– but give
measurable it time to start
goals to the working – it is
tactics relationship and
loyalty building
44. Closing Remarks 2011
Monitor and Optimize on an on-going basis.
Digital Marketing requires daily focus monitoring and management
Dynamic, driven by technological progress - maintain relevance
Stay informed, engaged and connected with the customer of today
and the core customer of the future – the internet customer.
45. Closing Remarks 2011
Thank you!
Dianne Meloy
Advertising Manager - Automotive
Dianne.Meloy@suz.com
O 714.99.7040, x2449
C 949.400.9248
48. Consumer Trust Then 2011
How much online North American consumers trust sources of
information about products or services 2006
Opinion of a friend or acquaintance who has used the service before 83%
A review of the product or service in a newspaper, magazine or TV 75%
Information on a manufacturer’s Web site 69%
A review by a known expert 63%
Consumer reviews on a retailer’s site 60%
Consumer reviews by users of a content site 52%
Information at online consumer opinion sites 50%
An online review by the editors of a content site 49%
Information in online chat rooms or discussion boards 37%
An online review by a blogger 30%
Source: Forrester, NACTAS Q3 2006 Media & Marketing Online Survey
49. Significant Shift in Consumer Trust 2011
How much online North American consumers trust sources of 2009
information about products or services
Consumer reviews and ratings 50%
Print newspaper 43%
Blog written by someone you know 42%
Social networking site profile from someone you know 39%
Print magazines 39%
Radio 37%
TV 32%
Source: Forrester, North American Technographics Interactive Marketing Online Survey, Q2 2009 (US)
50. The Future of Social Engagement PR 2011
Identify and
lead trends
and innovations
Value-added/
created media Local/grassroots
partnerships relationship-
building
Critical
Micro-Influencer INFLUENCER Jointly-branded
Recommend- & TARGET communication
ations & partnerships
Mobile/shareable
communication Citizen journalism
platforms on steroids
24/7 reputation &
community
management
51. Social Engagement Heirarchy 2011
Maximum
Influence
The Wired &
Connected
Prominent bloggers,
online influencers,
Moderate tastemakers
Influence&Rea
ch The Connected
Consumer
bloggers, individuals with
established networks
Local Markets –
Maximum Dealers Driving
The Wired
Reach General consumers who use social interest/purchase
networking and consume blog content; the through social media
Long Tail, value online/offline relationships
52. Yelp Examples – New York 2011
KG Suzuki- Rated 5 stars
Frankie G.
ASTORIA, NY
5/2/2011
I've bought a lot of cars and this was without a
doubt the easiest purchase I ever had. I saw it
online, asked a few questions of Alex the Internet
Sales manager, came in to see it (these guys are
ten blocks from my house). The car was like
brand new: clean inside and out, as well as under
the hood. There was a "check engine" light on it
that I questioned but Mario, the Service manager
explained that they were waiting for a sensor
which was coming the next day. They asked if I
wanted to wait to make the purchase, purchase
and take it that day, or purchase and take it after
the problem was fixed. I liked the no-pressure
experience. I took it that day, brought it back the
next day to be fixed. So far so good. Love the car,
loved the price.
52
53. Yelp Examples – New York 2011
Here’s where the dealer
should step in and comment
to turn a negative into a
positive.
KG Suzuki- Rated 1 star
Stopped by KG Suzuki today looking for a
used car. We had scouted out the website
the day before and found two that we
were interested in, as well as a new Suzuki
that was in our budget. After wandering
through the lot aimlessly for a while, we
get approached by a nice sales guy who
spent a good amount of time talking to us,
let us test drive the cars we were
interested in, and wasn't overly pushy.
HOWEVER (there's always a however or a
but, right?), …
53
54. Yelp Examples – Denver 2011
Denver Suzuki - Rated 5
stars
Joe H.
Westminster, CO
I went to quite a few dealers before coming to the
Suzuki dealer in North Denver. This is one of the few
dealers where I did not have to look for a
salesperson, they did not make me wait for hours for
while they (supposedly) completed their credit
checks (dealers make you wait on purpose as a sales
tactic), and I was able to look check out a series of
cars without the salesperson constantly steering me
to specific models.
I was also impressed by their service department. I
was recently rear-ended and needed a mechanic to
check the rear bumper for any damage. This dealer
did it for free (I kept asking them what I owed them
for taking the time and they just kept saying 'no
charge').
I like how this place does business. This will be the
first place I go when I need a new car. Not because I
like the car (which I do), but because I like the 54
people.
55. Yelp Examples – Chicago 2011
Bill Kay Suzuki - Rated 5 stars
I spent the last week looking for a Suzuki SX4 to buy
my Mother. We wanted her to have a safe, small
4WD car and there was a really good financing deal.
After getting the hard sell and not finding what we
wanted at 2 other dealers, these guys immediately
told us they'd give us the price we wanted and let
me take the car to my mother's house (50 miles
round trip) for the afternoon for her to see it.
I ended up buying the car for under invoice before
rebates and 0% financing and they worked hard to
get us out the door quickly. They agreed to my price
in 15 min. The last two dealers kept us there for
hours and misled us about the options on the cars,
etc.
I used to be in the car sales buisness. I own a
business now that is 100% customer support
driven. These guys were so good I'd gladly go there
again and buy another car. Why can't more car
dealers be professional and honest?
55
56. Yelp Examples – Chicago 2011
Here’s where the dealer
should step in and comment
to turn a negative into a
positive.
Bill Kay Suzuki – Rated 2
stars
Recently bought a used car from Bill Kay
Suzuki. The car that I bought had to go back for
repairs which were covered under warranty. I
was told the car was inspected but I put it in park
and it rolled away. Door locks not working, not
getting 2 keys, etc. With that being said, they did
their best to resolve issues. My hope was I
would not have to keep going back to the dealer.
56
Hinweis der Redaktion
Warm up the audience, gage their understanding of Digital Marketing – specifically websites and social media. Segue“today we’re going to focus on best practices for dealer websites and social media” Key talking points are:We’ll briefly review fundamentals and best practices In the process, we’ll evaluate/assess real websites together so you’ll have actionable items for your dealership
Your website is designed to sell. Your showrooms and inventory should always be kept current, so visiting customer can browse exactly what you have in stock. Making Quick Quotes links available throughout the navigation of the website enables customers to check prices throughout their visit. Active links to your current specials connect your visitors and to your Dealership’s offerings.
Never forget The Big Five: The five most crucial elements of any Dealer site - Dealer specials, New and Used Inventory, Parts and Service!
Facebook Places provides a presence for your business’s physical store locations- encouraging your customers to share that they’ve visited your business by “checking in” to your Place. When your customer checks into your Place, these check-in stories can generate powerful, organic impressions in friends’ News Feeds, extending your brand’s reach to new customers. Best of all, it’s free.
Enhance your website (optimizing) by including urls linking to you dealer website: Shopping sites etcs
Address issues quickly and turn critics into advocates
Stats:FacebookFacebook is the single largest repository for user-generated content such as pics, videos, links and comments. (Morgan Stanley)Connects all forms of social media and allows company and consumers to participate on one platform.Consumers can post (photos, videos, comments/questions/concerns/complaints) to your Facebook wall.TwitterFollow users that are of interest to you and/or your company.Share company information but also engage with others and re-share what they have to say. If Twitter is utilized too much as a one-way street, people will either unfollow or lose interest in what is being said.Twitter allows others to help share your message to their followers. Easily searchable to gauge what is being said/what people are interested in.YouTubeVideo sharing platform that helps with online branding. YouTube captures between five-and-nine percent of time spent online. (Morgan Stanley)Video accounts for 69% of mobile data traffic.
6.4m Illinois, 5.3m Chicago, 870k in Elmhurst, IL.
Most recently, Wichita posted the all new concept vehicles shown for the first time at the NY Auto Show including the Suzuki EcoCharge.
Contact info, store hours, website, directions/maps are all prominently displayed.Example of Community Outreach
Take pictures of new car owners and post to your dealer brand Page
Shows their address, store hours and directions/map.
Helps if actively manaeing by fixing problems and turning critics into advocates
Remind audience to refer to Dealer portal and preferred vendors
Remind audience to refer to Dealer portal and preferred vendors
ForresterTechnographics data from 2006 shows consumer trust in various sources of information online spread fairly uniformly across channels and content types.
In the latest data from Forrester, we can see there has been a significant shift in trust among consumers. The categories here don’t match up exactly with the earlier Forrester data, so we don’t have a direct 1:1 comparison for each of the categories. Alarmingly, print radio and TV are down from 75% to under 40% trust. Sources of consumer-driven content – ratings and reviews, blogs, social network updates (which is new for the 2009 study) – indicate a huge shift and for ER professionals, this is where we need to be headed and where we need to be focusing energy.
What exactly is social media and how is it going to drive your business? For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll focus on the engagement aspect of social media – that is, the components that exist independent of the technologies that enable them. Generally the approach focuses on developing a tiered approach to engagement consumers and influencers through social engagement experiences and content. Most of this is done for you nationally by the Suzuki team which is why some of this pyramid is grayed out, but you have a lot of opportunities as independent dealers in reaching the broad consumer at the bottom of this pyramid.The top tier – those who have maximum influence and include prominent tastemakers and bloggers – involve direct 1:1 relationship-building between the brand and the influencer, engaging them through in-person and high-touch experiences such as Blogger Days, 1:1 time with the brand, exclusive content and availability. This feels much like traditional media relations in many ways but reflects the changing dynamics of the media landscape and involves content-rich outreach. The goal: Shape the story by giving these influentials something to talk about, and a reason to be our advocate. We do this through ride & drives, influencer promotions, etc.The second tier – those with moderate influence – targets those more mainstream consumers who have active and robust social networks of their own but may not be major first-run content publishers or creators. These are consumers who will engage with the brand and consume content, then share it – and we develop creative ways to achieve that action. The goal: get them to help tell the brand’s story by enabling creative content sharing. We do this through national Suzuki WOM campaigns and the Suzuki Facebook/Twitter assets.The last tier – the broadest mainstream consumer – are those who don’t actively share a lot of content and aren’t content creators but they do consume content online and make a lot of their purchase decisions based on those findings. We reach these consumers holistically within the marketing mix through brand communities (our own or leveraging an existing), brand dialogue with one or more community managers and long-term planning within the marketing team to ensure all of the brand’s efforts are more social. The goal: when this consumer goes online to research information in the category, the see the brand and its attributes reflected wherever they go influencing their trial/purchase decisions. This is where your opportunity lies.