(FRANKFORT, Ill.) – February 23, 2010 – Dealer HD is now offering a Dealer texting program that allows dealers to provide vehicle information, promotional and service updates directly to customer’s mobile phones.

The Dealer HD 1.13 service update included website features like Pretty URLs and products like the Lead Central ILM, Dealer HD’s texting program is yet another strong addition from the quarterly update.

The texting platform is versatile and unique to Dealer HD.  One of its differentiators is that Dealer HD allows customers to get information on every vehicle on the dealer’s lot.  Texting an assigned number will text back Year/Make/Model, mileage, body, engine information and dealer notes, as well as a link directly to the vehicle where customers can view photos and schedule a test drive.  The platform is not limited to just vehicle texting – it has promotional and service capabilities as well.  Text-to-win contests and service coupons or notifications can also easily be set-up using the Texting admin.

“Having your inventory text-ready allows your dealership to send vehicle details to customers instantly – while they’re interested and on a platform they prefer,” says Bruce Etzcorn, Director of Product Development at Dealer HD. “With text messaging use rising year after year, you cannot ignore SMS as a valid communication channel any longer.”

Dealer HD’s 1.13 service update focused on SEO improvement and Dealership communication capabilities.  For more information on the texting and Dealer HD’s Automotive Website services visit dealerhd.com

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Dealer HD is an Automotive Website and Solutions Provider serving clients Nationwide. Located in the southern suburbs of Chicago, the Dealer HD team has over 100 years of combined automotive experience.  Dealer HD provides customizable dealer web sites with a comprehensive admin tool that collects dealer leads, allows the quick and easy editing of website content, inventory modification and more.  Dealer HD makes sure your dealer website is ready for mobile applications, social networking, and all future web innovations

(FRANKFORT, Ill.) – September 29, 2009 - Dealer HD announced their mobile platform for clients, giving dealership customers handheld access 24/7 with the release of their 1.12 update. Each mobile site has new and used inventory browsing capabilities and specials along with a quick and easy contact lead form.  All vehicles in the inventory display photos, so customers know exactly what they’re looking at.

Dealer HD built two versions of mobile sites allowing everyone with mobile phone access to browse sites.  One version built specifically for iPhone users looks and works just like an iPhone application.  The second version was built to be compatible for all other mobile browsers.

Photos are available on every vehicle in the inventory, a feature Dealer HD is excited to share with customers. “Our mobile platform offers real photos of  vehicles, something not all our competitors have implemented yet.  We don’t want customers to guess which vehicle they are looking at, so we created one of the easiest to use and most efficient mobile services available,” said Justin Duff, Dealer HD’s National Sales Director.

The leap into the mobile and handheld market is one step in the Dealer HD expansion.  The recent 1.12 update was focused on improving the online shopping experience for all customers.  Additional features were made available in the update as well.  For more information on the 1.12 update and Dealer HD’s Automotive Website services visit dealerhd.com

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Dealer HD is an Automotive Web Solution serving clients Nationwide. Located in the southern suburbs of Chicago, the Dealer HD team has over 100 years of combined automotive experience.  Dealer HD provides customizable dealer web solutions with a comprehensive Admin tool that collects dealer leads, allows the quick and easy editing of website content, inventory modification and more.

The majority of automotive websites are optimized for the most popular version of Internet Explorer and rarely take into consideration Safari, a browser that represents less than 10% of the web browser market and 71% of mobile browsing.

With aggressively growing iPhone sales in the Smart Phone market, you have an entire audience of potential customers on the go and connected to the Internet. All you need to do to bring your dealership’s website to them is to make sure your website functions in Safari. As mentioned above, most companies who build web applications and websites build for the masses, which means Internet Explorer. The iPhone uses Safari as the default browser (and only browser at the time of this writing) to display your dealership’s website. If your site looks good and functions correctly in Safari for the desktop, you’re on your way to iPhone ready.

If you’re a DHD customer, grab an iPhone and look at your Dealer HD website, you’ll notice that everything functions as it normally would in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. Mobile visitors from iPhones can access every page of your website, zoom into into content areas, submit forms, view vehicle photos, specials and coupons. I’ve taken a few screen shots from my iPhone to illustrate some of the points above. As you can see, everything is highly visible, clean and organized. iPhone users can double tap, pinch zoom and scroll to the information areas easily.

While there are many other mobile devices that connect to the Internet it’s important to recognize Safari as a major player in the mobile space and making sure that your website functions in an iPhone is critical to your mobile marketing strategy.

Click for actual iPhone screen shot.

Click for actual iPhone screen shot.

Click for actual iPhone screen shot.

Click for actual iPhone screen shot.

Click for actual iPhone screen shot.

Click for actual iPhone screen shot.