BLOG

Knowledge, news, and more about Automotive SEO, SEM, and dealership websites
In Awards, Press Release

DealerOn Receives Dealer Marketing Magazine’s Technology Leadership Award

DealerOn Presented with Best Website Design Award
DealerOn Inc. is the recipient of the Best Auto Dealer Website Design award as a part of Dealer Marketing Magazine’s Technology Leadership Awards. These awards will be presented during the 2013 National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Convention & Expo in Orlando, Florida.

“Winning this award is especially important and meaningful” said Ali Amirrezvani, CEO and Co-Founder.  “Dealer Marketing Magazine goes out of their way to make their evaluation process as objective and meaningful as possible by removing the ‘Pay to Play’ considerations that clearly sway some of the other industry awards.  Earning this type of recognition from noted industry experts like Joe Webb, Mark Boyd, Gary May, Ralph Paglia, and Michael Bowen makes this especially gratifying for DealerOn.  We’ve worked hard over the last few years to ensure that our website platform delivers the best results possible for our dealers.   We are continuing to innovate and improve our platform every day.  I’m excited and proud to announce that we are the first website provider to roll out an A/B Split Testing platform, which is currently in Beta and will be available to all of our customers by the end of the first quarter.  I hope that next year we will win this award again for the results that this revolutionary innovation delivers to our customers.”

DealerOn has become noted for documenting (through Google Analytics and 3rd party CRM reports) an average increase of over 200% in lead volume for their auto dealer clients.  They proudly offer their new customers a Lead Volume Increase, Money-back GUARANTEE.

The Dealer Marketing Magazine Technology Leadership Awards are unique because of multiple safeguards and a selection process designed to ensure objectivity. A supplier does not need to be an advertiser in Dealer Marketing Magazine in order to be considered or eligible for an award. Nominations are open to all vendors that have developed the most innovative products, tools, or services that benefit auto dealers across the country. Nominations and voting are open to all members of the automotive industry including auto dealers, vendors, auto manufacturers, and consumers. Vendors can be nominated for the award in any area of the dealership, from social media and service solutions to F&I tools. The only requirement is that the technology has benefited the dealership in some way.
The Technology Leadership Award winners have been announced in 11 categories by Dealer Marketing Magazine. Five judges voted on the awards based on technology information presented by the nominee companies. The judges were: Mark Boyd from Boyd Consulting, Joe Webb from DealerKnows Consulting, Gary May from Interactive Marketing and Consulting Services, Ralph Paglia from Automotive Digital Marketing (ADM), and Michael Bowen, Editor of Dealer Marketing Magazine. Each judge voted from the nominees in each category.

 


About DealerOn, Inc.

DealerOn, Inc. is the leading website provider and digital agency serving the retail automotive industry.  DealerOn was named to the 2012 Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies with a three-year sales growth of 195%.  DealerOn has pioneered the analytics-based marketing approach in the retail auto industry with their DealerOn Digital Marketing Dashboard.  The Digital Dashboard helps to document the precise impact of their services for every new customer.  Since creating this process in 2009, DealerOn has documented an average increase of over 200% in lead volume for their auto dealer clients.

About Dealer Marketing Magazine

When Dealer Marketing Magazine began in January of 2002, it was based on the idea that auto dealers could benefit from the experience and advice of expert marketers across the country. Since that time, Dealer Marketing Magazine has become the leader in automotive marketing information. Dealers from all parts of the United States have enjoyed and benefited from the content of the magazine each month.

Dealer Marketing Magazine was started by ad agency veteran, Brett Stevenson in Seattle, Washington. A team of auto marketing experts, led by Editor in Chief Michael Bowen, currently produce it. The Dealer Marketing Magazine staff is dedicated to providing auto dealers nationwide with a relevant one-stop resource for their advertising, marketing, sales, education, and business development needs.

Dealer Marketing Magazine and DealerMarketing.com are business tools designed to give dealers an edge over their competition. Our expert columnists educate dealers on how to create a compelling television advertising campaign, how to increase F&I penetration, how to market the parts and service department, and how to manage and monitor online dealership reputations, just to name a few.

 

DealerOn, Inc. Media Relations:
Chris Deringer (chris@dealeron.com), VP Marketing, 877-543-4200

 

Dealer Marketing Magazine Media Relations:
Michael Bowen (michaelb@DealerMarketing.com), Editor in Chief, 888-385-7526

In Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Google’s Major SEO Changes in 2012

Google is constantly evolving their algorithms and search engine focus, and 2012 was a year full of changes your dealership needed to be aware of.  Here are some of the major changes Google made this past year:

Increased Focus on Reputation & Trust

Google made algorithm changes to penalize sites that didn’t have credible and relevant content, design, and external links.  Over optimization became an issue, with Google recommending Webmasters focus on quality, relevant content that was regularly updated.

Algorithm Updates: Penguin and Panda

Penguin focused on penalizing websites with artificial external links, while Panda penalized sites for too much low-quality content. These updates were constantly being unrolled throughout the year; Panda had over 20 updates, and Penguin had over 10.  This shows that Google is not only updating their algorithms, but they are consistently fine tuning their updates to return the most accurate results to searchers.

Increased Communication

Typically, Google is pretty close-lipped about anything they do.  In 2012, however, they actually announced upcoming algorithm changes and sent messages to those sites with black hat webspam. This is a welcome change from years past where Google always kept Webmasters guessing.

Decreased Organic Search Listings per Page

As Google finds more ways to make money (Local Listings, Paid Search, etc), the amount of space on search results pages dedicated to organic listings keeps decreasing. Make sure you’re keeping an eye on the results in your area to make sure you’re still appearing where you want to.

If any of these were news to you, or you are unfamiliar with the updates, make sure you to talk your auto dealership website or SEO provider to help you understand and stay up to date with the world of search engine optimization.

In Lead Conversion, Mobile

Automotive Mobile Searchers Convert…Fast

Earlier this year, Nielsen, xAd, and Telmetrics conducted a survey on the “mobile path to purchase” in three industries: restaurants, travel, and automotive.  The latest part of the study released pertains to the automotive category.

One of the most important things found in this study, in my opinion, is that roughly half of the mobile automotive searchers were “looking to make a purchase within the day.”  36% of this group converted “within the hour.”  This means that almost half of those searching for your dealership on their mobile devices want to purchase a vehicle on the same day. Over 1/3 of those will purchase a vehicle within an hour.

The study also found that there is a difference between the behavior of those using a smartphone and those using a tablet.  Tablet users spent more time doing price research and looking at reviews. They were also more likely to be influenced by positive reviews.  Smartphone users were more likely to search from their car (42%) and tended to convert more quickly than tablet users.

So what are these auto shoppers searching for? 44% are looking for your dealership location, 43% are comparing prices and 36% are looking for a phone number.

When was the last time you tested your mobile website?  Do you have your dealership’s location (with directions), prices on your inventory, and the phone number (click to call is HUGE here).  What does your mobile website look like?  Make sure you talk with your auto dealership website provider if you aren’t happy with what you find.

In

Tips for Auto Dealerships Using Facebook Paid Ads

Facebook has been working hard to come up with a reliable, profitable revenue stream for a while now, and part of that effort is their Paid Ad program. For dealerships that use them well, paid ads on Facebook can be a great addition to your dealership’s online marketing program. Here are some tips:

Target Well: Users provide so much personal information to Facebook that it is a great way to drill down to find the right people to show your ads to. Facebook allows you to target by Interest, Family Status, Activities, Workplaces, etc. This allows your dealership to target users more specifically.

Grab Attention: Since most people aren’t coming to Facebook to view ads, it’s important that they are designed to be noticed. Try a colored border, a bold, eye-catching design, and always include a call to action – you could even put this call to action in the image, but try to keep it under four words to avoid taking over the entire image.

Vary Ads: Users that see your ads often may start to tune them out, so freshen them up. Try changing the colors/thickness of the border, changing the image completely, or if you’re using text on the image, change the message used.

If your dealership isn’t advertising on Facebook, talk to your online marketing provider if you need help getting started. It can be very effective when done correctly, so take these tips into consideration, and start testing Facebook Paid Ads.

In DealerOn

DealerOn Operations Smooth Despite Sandy

This weekend, along with much of the Eastern Seaboard, DealerOn prepared for an onslaught as weather and media reports warned of potentially devastating force from Hurricane Sandy.

Making the safety of our employees our number one priority, we still wanted to live up to our commitment to deliver industry-leading customer service, and did not want to let the hurricane close us down if we could do so safely. In the DC area, where DealerOn HQ is located, power has traditionally been volatile to impactful storms such as this one. Bracing for a week of outages, account management and production staff took their phones home with them on Friday afternoon. On Sunday afternoon, one of our operations team members happened to be driving home from a wedding in Michigan, and we had him stop and buy an 8,000-watt, 250-pound power generator as we feared all the local stores would be sold out.

Sunday night starting at 2AM, operations staff loaded several desktops, laptops, phones, network switches, and wires galore into a car, along with the power generator, three five-gallon canisters of gasoline, and 4G internet modems from both Verizon and AT&T. Having a mini-corporate office on wheels enough for the entire account management staff to work from, we felt confident that we could run customer service from anywhere, even from the side of the highway.

As it turns out, several key account management staff happen to live within one mile of Ali Amirrezvani, DealerOn’s CEO. Early Monday morning, we decided to set up shop at Ali’s house with local staff, and had the rest of our team work remotely; not wanting them to drive through any part of the storm. We set up our generator, hooked up four computer and phone stations on the dining room table, and also two stations in the kitchen. Also having staff in Michigan safely away from the storm and not in danger of power outage, we felt confident in running smoothly.

By 930AM, the whole staff was ready to rumble. The power generator was ready to take over, including to power our internet – but just in case, we had our 4G modems ready to plug in and take over as well. An overall calm day for Support, we had a relaxed call volume (between the hurricane, and end of the month for our dealers). Even Maksym, Ali’s younger son, joined in on our party.

 

Running smoothly and with power until 7PM, we closed up shop and ate dinner together. Bracing for the worst of the impact on Monday night, we woke up to the entire team and our office with power, and only light rain conditions. We all felt lucky having been able to avoid the brunt of the storm. Our hearts go out to those who lost their lives in the storm, as well as to the millions of people still without power throughout the Mid-Atlantic and New England.

The whole team is back in the office today, and we are gathering for a big lunch – on the company tab. After a successful 48 hours for DealerOn, we’d like to congratulate the entire team for their dedication and their ability to operate effectively and successfully under a very stressful situation. Cheers!

 

Call support
(877) 543-4200
Call Sales
(877) 543-6321