Archive for May, 2009

1.11 Update

Sunday, May 31st, 2009
In our 1.11 update we brought in features to keep you in touch with savvy socialites. We’re introducing social media, social book marking, YouTube integration and a few other features that will keep you in touch and save you time. Below is a list of everything included in our recent update. As always, new features have been turned off by default. Your account manager will be getting in touch with you regarding the new features and a walk through on how everything works.
  • Live View

    Ever wonder what people are looking at when they’re on your website? Live View will ease your curiosities – it will show you how many sessions are taking place and where each visitor is on your site – all in real time! A quick snapshot will tell you if they’ve viewed coupons, vehicles or submitted leads.

  • YouTube Integration

    Add video to vehicles in your inventory via the admin! Our vehicle details pages can now host video from You Tube! Upload videos to YouTube through the admin or add videos to your inventory by copying and pasting a link.

  • Fresh Auto Responder Content

    We’ve re-written our default auto responders to give your customers a more personal response. Each auto response now uses dynamic information to address the customer by name. Vehicle lead auto responses even refer to the vehicle that is inquired about.

  • AutoTweet

    Is your dealership on Twitter? AutoTweet tweets new additions to your inventory daily. It’s a great addition to posts you’re already making for the store. Not on Twitter yet? Get there: twitter.com – it’s free, easy and will get you and your inventory exposed to a different audience.

  • Search By Payment

    Help customers find vehicles at a price they can afford before they get to the dealership. Implementing Search By Payment calculates and displays payments for your inventory based on a default interest rate, term and down payment. If a customer wants to adjust from the default, it’s no problem. Changing the numbers will change all of the payments so they can shop for what works with their budget.

  • Social Media

    Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, YouTube, Flickr? If you’re on it, flaunt it. We can now link to any of these social media sites for each of your employee’s profiles or add icons to the bottom of your home page to direct customers to check them out. We just need a link to the profile!

  • Social Bookmarking

    Make it easy for customers to view vehicles they’re interested in no matter where they are. Social Bookmarking allows visitors to add a link to the vehicle they’re looking at. This will allow you to access it at a later date from a different location or even share with friends. We have over 10 book marking sites that you can make available to customers. Let us know the ones you’d like to display and let the sharing begin.

  • Click To Add Specials

    Marking specials in the admin is just one click away. Now you can mark vehicles specials the same way you feature them. Just highlight the vehicle(s) you want to mark as specials and click the new specials icon! It’s so easy, we’re not sure why we didn’t think of it before!

  • Category Search

    A new way to search! Our category search does away with the dropdowns and allows visitors to search by criteria. When mousing over each category, Type/Make/Model/Color/Transmission, it presents them with a list of options to choose from. Once they’ve narrowed their search by one criterion they can narrow their search even further once they arrive at the line listing.

  • Web Clips

    Get a custom web clip for your site to be used on the iPhone and iPod touch. Just a little something to differentiate you from the next guy.

  • Custom Options

    Adding options by hand? We’ve added a custom category option. If you have options that don’t fit into our pre-determined categories, no problem. Just create your own category, and it will be there for you to use every time.

  • Notifications

    Know the second a lead is received, we now have real time notifications – if you’re in the admin you’ll receive a notification that lets you know someone is interested in learning more.

  • Aging Inventory Specials

    We’ve added a new automated special. Now we can set your vehicles to be marked as ‘Special’ depending on their age. You name the number of days in stock and never have to worry about marking specials again.

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Tweeting Your Inventory While Being Socially Responsible

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Yesterday, Bruce Etzcorn discussed a feature we’re adding to our 1.11 Service Update that allows Dealer HD customers to tweet your inventory for free. Today I’d like to dicsuss it a bit further and tell you a few more reasons you need to be using this service.  I also want to go over some social networking “Best Practices”.

We discussed that Twitter is a search engine.  You can’t afford to be missing from a search engine.  Customers have the ability to search twitter for content that interests them.  Let’s take a look at a quick real world example.

I want to buy a 2005 Mustang because I know that this was the first year of the new body style and I feel I can get the most for my money by picking the oldest “updated model” available.

So I start at Google and do a quick search.  I don’t really find any specific cars.  One or two yes, but most of the results are for review sites.  Great if I’m in the research phase but what if I want to know what inventory is out there and at what price.

Next I perform a twitter search (Your results may be different because twitter is a time based search)  and my first result is an actual vehicle with pricing and photos.  I can scroll down and find similar links to compare a few different vehicles on Twitter.  Cool so I’ve done a search on my own terms and found exactly what I was looking for.

Twitter is NOT a classified service so I will see a mix of results, which is great.  I may find another person talking about the 2005 mustang and befriend them.  Now I’ve got a buddy to chat about cars with.  I may see a customer who says “Looking for a Red 2005 Mustang GT with black leather”.  As a dealer, it just happens that I have that car in stock.  I send a message to that customer letting him know I have it with a link back to my dealer website.  The customer then follows my dealership on twitter and I gain a little additional exposure.

This is the Lewis and Clark phase of Twitter.  It’s very experimental.  Dealer HD realizes the enormous potential that Twitter brings to the automotive marketplace and has integrated twitter into your dealer websites so you can market to your customers on their terms.

Tweeting inventory is very important and it needs to be done the RIGHT way.  Alter the message so that you aren’t spamming customers with 10 identical phrases.  Tweeting your inventory should only be one component of your social stream.  Try and make sure to post as many, if not more posts related to your dealership and who you are.  Make it personal.  You need to also communicate news, events, sales information, incentives and other relavant information to your followers.  Leave the tweeting your inventory to us. It’s already built in to your Dealer HD web site.   Get invovled on a personal level.  Focus more on the relationship building and the customer service end, rather than trying to make a quick sale.  The sales will come, but they shouldn’t be the driving focus behind your twitter identity.  Keep it real and connect with the world.  We’re all getting a little more social every day.

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DHD Update: Tweet your Inventory

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Tweet your inventory with Dealer HD

Call me impatient, but I can’t wait for the 1.11 Service Update we’re performing on May 31, 2009. We’ve been working hard here at Dealer HD to provide some great new features to help your dealership build stronger relationships with your customers and we’re really excited to get these out to you. We’ll be discussing these in more detail very soon. Right now, I’m going introduce…

Dealer HD & Twitter

If your dealership has a twitter account and a dealer website by Dealer HD you’re already a person in the know. Now, wouldn’t it be great if you could somehow merge these two great services and do some really great things? Now you can.

Tweeting Your Inventory.

By registering your Twitter account in the Dealer HD Admin we will automatically send your newly added inventory to your Twitter account. Each morning your followers will view the latest additions to your inventory complete with a link to visit the vehicle on your website. If they see a vehicle that interests them, they can simply click the link, review the details and request a test drive.

Your inventory. Everywhere. Anytime. On any device.

Tweeting your inventory is a great way to expose the vehicles on your lot to everyone with a Twitter account and those people who are interested in your products simultaneously. Each “tweet” gets placed on the public timeline of twitter and everyone who has requested to “follow” your dealership gets notified of your update as well. They see your message instantly. The potential exposure this gives your inventory is enormous and makes your inventory travel to your audience faster than ever.

Once your inventory is on Twitter, your inventory can be viewed on almost any device that has an internet connection. In fact, there are so many Twitter applications built that your tweets can be viewed on an iPhone, a Blackberry, via text message, your desktop, your browser’s address bar and twitter.com of course. There are more built everyday and that makes your inventory more portable than ever. Your customers can get your message how they want it.

Twitter is a Search Engine

Twitter is a search engine of real-time messages by real people. People use Twitter to say what’s on their mind. Businesses use Twitter to monitor customer satisfaction. Your dealership needs to be here and be part of the conversation. When someone is searching for Camaro and you’ve got two in stock you have to be listed. Your customers, young and old are using this service and it becomes more popular everyday.

For Free!

Did I mention that this is free? There are other companies out there that are offering a similar service but none are integrated seamlessly into your existing content management system. Dealer HD provides this service free to all our customers because this is a necessity. There’s no reason not to have it and we’re a company that prides itself in customer service. So we like to provide you with the latest innovative ways to help you sell more cars and connect with your customers. You’re going to love this. If you haven’t signed up for a free Twitter account, do it before June 1st.

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