Top technology CEOs debate social media, mobile marketing and the changing Gen Y car buyers at a digital marketing summit
The leaders of the top technology firms that serve dealers took the stage at the Driving Sales Executive Summit and offered their views on the year ahead and how technology would shape the future of the automotive retail business.
The panelists each took a turn offering their overviews and then fielded questions from moderator Jared Hamilton, CEO of DrivingSales.com before more than 450 delegates at the Las Vegas, Nev. event.
First up to speak was the colourful Mark Bonfigli, Founder, President and CEO of Dealer.com. In his unscripted presentation, Bonfigli gave the dealers a few facts to chew on then urged them to consider how they will impact their businesses. “I think there are a few numbers we need to look ahead to help us pay attention to where social media is, and where it’s going,” says Bonfigli.
The numbers to consider:
- 800 million: the number of Facebook users worldwide;
- 58%; the number of car buyers that post on Facebook about a vehicle they purchase;
- 40%: the percentage of car buyers that will post about a positive or negative review about an experience with a brand or a dealership.
He says the sheer scope of that Facebook community, and their tremendous potential influence over perceptions of brands and dealerships offers a big opportunity and a big risk if dealers don’t respond accordingly.
Mark Bonfigli, President & CEO, Dealer.com
Jonika Hoomes, Google’s head of Automotive Sales Partnerships
Reward your loyal customers
Dealers, he says, have a great opportunity to reach out to their most loyal customers, and to recruit them as brand ambassadors. That goes well beyond just sending them a happy birthday card. “What I’m talking about is actually taking a budget, and actually investing in them,” he says. “Do something special. View each of those people as a tiny marketing firm or agency with an antenna and the ability to broadcast.”
Before you weren’t too worried about what any particular customer might say about your dealership, because it only reached their circle of friends and family. Now, he says, they can broadcast to hundreds and thousands of others.
“If I had a dealership today I’d take $5,000 a month and I’d invest in those people every time I can,” he says. “Keep them loyal and jazzed and pumped up about your local brand. Your local brand equity is more important than ever. I think 2012 is going to be filled with that.”
Master the basics
Chip Perry, President, CEO of AutoTrader.com, said the new marketing tools are exciting, but dealers still have a long way to go to master the basics. “I think that 2012 is going to be a year in which, in addition to more adoption and engagement with various social media tools, there will be continued emphasis on more and more dealers becoming excellent in the basics around Internet marketing and advertising,” says Perry.
Perry says many dealers aren’t fully capitalizing on the opportunities to bring online shoppers to their dealerships. Perry says research data shows that 70% of car buyers contact dealers for the first time when they walk through the doors of the dealership. “That means is the Internet is fundamentally an influencing medium,” says Perry. “Many dealers today are still looking at the Internet as a tool to shovel data at.”
Gen Y shoppers are coming
For his comments, Mark O’Neill, Chairman and CEO of DealerTrack, said he wanted to look out a bit beyond just 2012.
“The consumer is as well equipped as the team inside the dealership store. You have to be prepared for that,” says O’Neill. “It’s going to cost you margin on new cars and you are not going to be able to steal the trade. You will have a narrower range of profitability on cars and you’ll have to do it on volume.”
The old lead-generation model will go also away. There will no longer be value in selling leads two and three times, he says. “The lead of the future will be a very well qualified intender ready to purchase, not someone just shopping,” he says.
He says online purchasing is coming. “Two years from now, 75 million Gen Y shoppers are going to be in the market,” says O’Neill. “They are going to be the largest population of car buyers and I don’t have to tell you how technology savvy they are. They are used to buying everything over the Internet.”
Explosive mobile growth
Mitch Golub, President of Cars.com, touched on the growth in mobile communications, and on social media and reputation management.
Golub says they launched the first mobile site on Cars.com about four years ago. “Today we are getting 3.75 million visits per month to our mobile site,” says Golub, and he expects that number to be up sharply again next year.
He says the mobile users are on average: 6 years younger, wealthier, and 23% more likely to buy a car within 60 days, than the visitors to their desktop site.
Golub says there are three things he would advise dealers to consider regarding mobile:
- Find a developer that specializes in mobile website development. “You must optimize your mobile websites for all platforms,” he says.
- Mobile shoppers want to communicate with you on mobile. Your staff need to be ready to engage with them via mobile.
- Set aside some of your advertising budget for mobile sites.
Fix your fixed ops
John Holt, Senior Vice President, ADP Digital Marketing Group, said he didn’t understand why the software tools available for fixed operations aren’t more popular — because they generate great ROI.
“I’ve never understood why we didn’t pay more attention to it because it’s so much easier to keep a customer you already have,” says Holt.
He says so many dealers only focus on how many cars they sell each day instead of how much fixed ops business they are driving. Holt says there are good software tools out there — including those offered by his company — and they can make dealerships lots of money.
To kick off what is now emerging as the leading event on digital marketing in North America, the event creator took the stage and delivered a rapid fire assault on advanced digital marketing.
Jared Hamilton, CEO of DrivingSales.com set the table for what would follow in the next three days, as thought leaders took the stage one after another and challenged assumptions and shook the foundations of what has been conventional wisdom in digital and Internet marketing trends at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas, Nev. in October.
The conference showcased some of the biggest names that serve the automotive industry, but it also brought in others from outside the industry to offer a fresh perspective on marketing and social media trends.
“Marketing is a verb, not a noun,” said Hamilton as he paced across the stage, offering up stats and thought provoking ideas faster than a speeding bullet. “2012 has to be the year of execution.”
The DSES event featured keynote speeches and then delegates broke up into streams where they could learn from case studies, expert presentations, and some controversial panel sessions where the experts were far from in agreement about the best approaches to digital marketing, mastering Google, and what to do with digital media.
Some of the speakers worth noting included: Jason Falls, CEO Exploring Social Media & Social Media Explorer; Paul Potratz, owner, Potratz Partners Advertising; JD Rucker, Director of New Media, TK Carsites; Aaron Strout, CMO, Powered, Inc.; Kevin Root, Chief Product Officer, Dealer.com; Gary Vaynerchuk, Host, winelibrarytv.com, co-founder Vayner Media; Jonika Hoomes, Head of Automotive Channel Sales Partnerships, Google; Brian Pasch, Owner PCG Digital Marketing;
For more event coverage, visit: www.drivingsales.com.
