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I recently attended the 2011 Ignite Dealer Summit in Minnesota and was fortunate to hear a presentation by Jason Ezell, President and Co-Founder, Dataium LLC. 

Jason discussed the benefits that dealers can realize today from business intelligence tools based on consumer shopping behavior on the Internet.

The level of detail of each Internet consumer varies based on Dataium’s relationship with the websites the consumer visits.  Dataium has partnered with OEM’s, dealers, social media platforms, and automotive website providers to place their tracking code on their websites.  

Google on the other hand provides free data on “assisting websites” as part of Google Analytics Multi Channel Sales Funnels, which I will discuss in greater detail in a minute.   The data that Google Analytics would provide is at a basic level, like “consumer A” visited YouTube and then Craigslist prior to hitting a dealer website. The software can then help you define the top Conversion Paths taken by consumers which is very valuable information for prioritzing your advertising investments. 

The Dataium code is designed to identify and track consumer behavior at a higher level of detail.   Dataium tracking would know which specific pages on a website were viewed.  Tapping this data to create automated actionable business rules in a dealer’s CRM system will change the face of sale sales, service, and digital marketing.

Recovering Leads In Your CRM System 

One application of cloud based business intelligence tools I considered was helping dealers recover value in the thousands of leads that their sales staff have marked  “unworkable” or “dead” in their CRM system.  This ia a major CRM challenge for dealer principals since their BDC has such power over marking leads.

Each month dealers receive new leads to work directly from their website or through 3^rd party providers. I don’t have to remind dealers that sales professionals love to cherry pick leads. Consumer leads that are past their “prime” are left alone for more promising, current month leads. 

If human labor was not involved, wouldn’t it be powerful to be notified that when your “unworkable consumers” are back online shopping for a car somewhere else?

How Big Is The Potential Network?

Imagine if this network of websites included Autotrader.com, KBB.com, Cars.com, Ebay.com, Edmunds.com, Motortrend.com, OEM websites, automotive chat communities, and website that could provide actionable data like banking or credit websites.   

Imagine a day when your sales team is notified that former customer Ms. Jones, that was marked unworkable in your CRM, took 3 minutes to view the product pages for a 2012 Jeep Wrangler on Jeep.com today.  Imagine how the sales process will change if the notification also reported that Ms. Jones had also visited Autotrader.com today and viewed nine Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP) on 2010 and 2011 used Jeep Wrangler. 

What would your chance of reconnecting with this in-market shopper prior to this new type of automated tracking and business intelligence tools?  Slim to none. 

Imagine the power of a phone call that comes from your sales team, triggered by this data, that starts with, “Ms. Jones, I know you contacted our dealership a few months back about a Jeep and I was just calling you back to see if you are still in the market and if we can assist you?”

Smart Data Warehousing Powers Dataium Model

The key to making this concept work is to connect thousands of websites that collect consumer information.  As consumers submit lead forms, their IP address is associated with a data record.  Most lead forms have basic contact information, phone numbers and email addresses.

If you have access to enough consumer data you can start matching this data back to consumer records and activity on other websites.

In addition to lead forms, cookies left on the consumer’s browser can provide websites with a rich data stream of which websites the consumer previously visited.  This concept creates a data warehouse that will change the face of online sales.  Read ahead and let’s see how this may play out.

Changing The Costs Of Customer Engagement and Retention 

Dealers can’t afford to call their aged leads with the hope they will find the 2-3% of the list that are still in the market for a car.  Dealers can’t afford to call their existing customers back every month asking if they are in the market for a car.

The day is quickly coming when dealers will be notified when their customers and prospects are engaging in automotive shopping behavior. This alert will allow them to insert their business back into the sales cycle.

Automotive sales professionals attempt a timely and compelling response to a consumer who submits a lead form on their website.  Imagine the quality of initial engagement that could be achieved if the lead came with the consumer’s previous online shopping behavior. 

In the near future, a lead coming into the CRM system will include rich data.  For example, it could report that the consumer had visited Chevrolet.com and looked at a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado.  It could inform the dealer that the same consumer visited Kelly Blue Book and requested a trade-in estimate for a 2003 Silverado.

Would you change the way you initially greeted a consumer if a richer dataset was available?  I bet all dealers would shout affirmatively: yes!

To some degree it is here today and greater advances will be announced in the coming years.  Dataium co-founder Jason Ezell stated that approximately 5,000 dealers have their tracking code installed on their websites. 

Although he did not include all the data partners in the Dataium network, his model immediately triggered a thought about Autotrader.com and their recent acquisitions.  Could they build a powerful competing business intelligence model exclusive to their customers? 

The Future of Automotive Digital Marketing

As automotive websites become standardized and commoditized by OEM regulations, it will be more important for dealers to have a rich set of business intelligence tools and automated CRM that assist them with communicating with consumers more effectively.

A well designed website with a compliant SEO structure and the ability to easily update photos, specials, and content will be the norm and no longer cutting edge.  This year, the number of website platforms that are Google SEO compliant have significantly increased.  Dealers have demanded better websites and the vendors have responded, but as you will read, that conversation is last year’s news.

Companies who offer only website platforms to dealers should take note of the massive changes that are coming.  I predict more consolidation will occur in 2012, which will narrow the field of companies providing websites to dealers.  Reason will be simple.  Data analytics and smarter CRM processes will be the key focus for car dealers and not the shiny object of a “compliant” website.

The Appeal of OEM Website Contracts

I finally understand why companies like Cobalt, ClickMotive, and Dealer.com are so motivated to obtain long term OEM website contracts that mandate their technology for franchise dealers.  

These contracts enabled the contracted companies to offer business intelligence tools that the OEM’s could use to measure and compare dealers and understand consumer online shopping behavior. 

The unique advantage that OEM platform providers have is that they can track on-site inventory searches, page views, and see which paths led to a form being submitted or a call being made.  The internal site data and lead tracking is not available to outside analytics companies like Google.

Having access to data across a network of thousands of individual OEM dealer websites is powerful. Access to OEM franchise data is not golden ticket it once was.  The real win for vendors and dealers will come from aggregated data from dealer websites and third party sites that influence automotive sales and service decisions.    

The automotive industry in the coming years will be extremely focused on developing alerts and CRM event triggers during the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).  Google defines ZMOT as any websites that consumers visit prior to contacting a dealer that influence their buying decision are included in the ZMOT.

The second part of this article will discuss the players that may be seeking to claim bragging rights to being the first to deliver a rich set of data and business processes for dealer CRM systems based on ZMOT behaviors. 

Is there a competitor lurking in the shadows that is ready to take a bit out of Dataium’s lunch?  Maybe…but that will have to wait for Part II of this article.

Brian

  

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences

Brian Pasch

PCG has a number of microsites optimized for the automotive industry on popular terms like “Automotive SEO“, “Automotive Advertising“, as well as “Automotive Social Media“.  I periodically check search results based on a list of key search phrases I want to target via our own SEO strategies.  We always want to practice what we preach!

What happened today created one of those “Ah Ha” moments that I wanted to share with car dealers and our industry.

You first have to know that Google changes the search engine results page (SERP) if you are logged into your Google account. While logged in, Google records your past activity with the goal of making sure that it can display the best search results for your online behavior.

So, with this in mind, have you asked what happens when you click on the +1 button next to a website you like, or own.

Automotive Social Media Searches

Here is the SERP for the search phrase “Automotive Social Media” when I am logged out of my Google Account:

Notice that TK Carsites website located at AutomotiveSocialMedia.com is ranking in position #1 over the PCG website at www.AutomotiveSocialMedia.org.   To clarify this screen capture, notice there are no “+1″ buttons or thumbnails of my friends since I am logged out of my Google account.

Now look at the same search result while I am logged into my Google Account:

Notice a few things.  First, Google PULLED from Page Two our Automotive Marketing Boot Camp website which has content optimized for “Automotive Social Media” into first position.  Secondly, it placed our microsite AutomotiveSocialMedia.org into position #2,  It also pushed up websites that I visited frequently or +1′d which in effect pushed the TK Carsites website into position #5.

Also see how the thumbnail effect colorized the SERP and reminds me that my friends ALSO liked certain pages or companies.

Identifying The Googlized Consumer

Now, think about what this means.  If your dealership is implementing a proactive reputation management process in your dealership which uses 3G iPads or iPhones to get “Googlized Consumers” to post a review from inside the store using the Google Places App, why stop there?

When they are done with their 60 second review posting using the Google Places App, why not setup a boomark on your browser for a search that shows your key website pages one the iPad?

Hand the iPad back to the consumer and ask the consumer to click on the +1 buttons next to your key pages or at least just your home page.  Here is what a Google search using the site command does, which in some cases is all you need to show for your dealership:

In this case, many key pages are displayed like the home page, service page, parts page, and used car pages.  So if this page was bookmarked, it would be a breeze to touch the +1 button next to the pages that the customer chooses to +1.

If your website has the +1 button on each page, most do not today, then you could also have them go to the page directly and click the button.

Now the bonus.  Since they are logged into their Google account, their +1 activity is recorded.

Since they are logged into their Google account, their +1 activity is recorded.  This means that when they search for car dealers in your area in the future from their home or mobile device, your website assets will get priority placement.

In this example, my +1 activity significantly changed my top SERP placements.  If you liked this article, please click on the +1 button on the top of this page and also share it with your network om Facebook.

Mmmmmm the benefits of connecting with your Googlized customers are getting better by the day.  If your dealership needs assistance with a comprehensive IRM, SEM, and SEO strategy, give us a call.
Brian

 

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

Scott Brinker, a columnist at SearchEngineLand.com recently posted an article that caught my attention.

Many industry experts have talked about the importance of conversion but Scott’s article took it a step further and introduced a new acronym to me: ZMOT

You should read Scott’s entire post Conversion Optimization In The New Marketing Landscape and have I highlighted a section from his post for further discussion:

The Zero Moment Of Truth

The other “big picture” story is presented in Jim Lecinski’s book, ZMOT: Winning the Zero Moment of Truth. Published by Google and distributed for free, it passionately describes the new reality of marketing where consumers are always connected, both to each other and to huge repositories of information on potential purchases.

Procter & Gamble’s former CEO A.G. Lafley popularized the First Moment of Truth (FMOT), when a consumer looks at a shelf of products in the store and decides which brand to buy, and the Second Moment of Truth (SMOT), when that consumer actually uses the brand at home and decides if they like it or not.

Google makes that point that there is now a new Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT), where consumers explore and examine products and providers online — leveraging search and social media channels — to identify what’s most interesting to them before they ever go to the store. And this new ZMOT applies equally to B2B and considered purchases as it does to the consumer packaged goods where the FMOT was born.

Every touchpoint that a prospect has with you online contributes to their ZMOT decision.

An obvious example is when someone searches on a keyword, chooses to click your ad, and views your landing page. Their impression of you from that experience will impact their choices moving forward.

Conversion optimization is therefore critical in winning the ZMOT. Thinking of it this way frames the mission more broadly too — it’s not just about converting a visitor with one specific action in one particular context, but ultimately persuading them across a bevy of touch-points for the duration of their ZMOT deliberation. It’s customer experience management writ large, from the earliest moments of contact onward.

In fact, when you step back and view the ZMOT as emerging from the sum of all these digital interactions around your brand, you realize that the marketing technology landscape we discussed at the start is what enables and empowers your ZMOT strategy and tactics.

From both perspectives, conversion-oriented marketers are poised to take the lead.

Zero Moment of Truth

 

Take a moment to absorb this concept of Zero Moment of Truth.  You can download a free eBook from Google on this topic by visiting:  http://www.zeromomentoftruth.com.  You can also watch the book’s trailer video:  ZMOT Video

According to Google Blog on the subject of ZMOT:

Data from IRI’s latest Economic Longtitude 2009 study shows that 83% of shoppers make their purchase decisions prior to entering a store.

So, 83% of consumer goods shoppers make their purchase decisions PRIOR to entering a store.  Then think about Scott’s summary statement pulled from the text above:

 ”it’s not just about converting a visitor with one specific action in one particular context, but ultimately persuading them across a bevy of touchpoints for the duration of their ZMOT deliberation.”

After reading this statement, I asked myself a question. How do we leverage this short period of time where a consumer is researching cars and deciding which dealership to call and which model(s) to test drive?

The answer is to make sure that all our digital touchpoints are designed to work together and to convert.

So ask yourself this question: Do ALL your digital assets work in harmony to convert?

Industry conversion leaders like Larry Bruce have spent a good deal of time helping car dealers understand the importance of landing page design in the context of a Google Adwords campaign.  This is a great start for the auto industry that is wasting millions of dollars annually on poorly designed PPC campaigns.

Creating An Integrated ZMOT Marketing Strategy

But Scott is taking the discussion of conversion to an entirely new level when he says:

Every touchpoint that a prospect has with you online contributes to their ZMOT decision..

Are all your digital assets designed to convert and support our unique selling proposition during the ZMOT?

Is your website properly supported by carrying the creative design and call to action to your microsites, press releases, social media sites, and online brochures?

You get the idea, those companies that are conversion focused on ALL their digital assets will be pulling ahead of their competition.  The implication is clear: There is no room to be sloppy with your digital media investments.

Here is an except from Google Blog on ZMOT:

What does ZMOT mean for marketers? It means that marketers need to button up their pull marketing strategies, not only the push strategies, and find ways to connect the two. Marketers need to ensure that a consumer has a consistent and positive experience — from the Zero Moment of Truth to the point of purchase and beyond — by getting in front of a consumer with the right brand message early in the process of discovery, and staying there along the way.

PCG Develops Digital Marketing Strategies

 

PCG Digital Marketing is embracing the need of dealers to create a powerful set of conversion focused digital assets for the ZMOT decision.

Next month we will be announcing additional products and services to address the need for a integrated digital campaign that supports your brand during the brief ZMOT consumer timeline.

There is only a limited number of car dealers that will put in place the disciplines that will create a complete set of digital assets that work in harmony to convert.  This is not a project that a dealer can do without help from marketing professionals.

My hand is extended for those that want help creating a market dominating strategy that INCLUDES consistent messaging to address the ZMOT decision.

Keep in mind: “83% of consumer goods shoppers make their purchase decisions prior to entering a store” so do a AUDIT of ALL your current digital assets and decide if they ALL support your unique selling proposition. And of course, make sure you answer this question: Do they convert?

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences

Brian Pasch