Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Is your dealership Mobile Ready?

Digital Dealer Magazine
by Rich Abronson

The mobile phone as a mass medium has finally come into its own as a viable marketing channel for automotive dealers. Today, dealers across the U.S. are integrating the car buyer’s mobile phone into the marketing mix by launching mobile versions of their dealership Web sites and formatting their inventory for display on the mobile screen. With the introduction of the “mobile call-to-action” (think American Idol text message voting), traditional dealership advertising becomes virtually “clickable.” In other words, when a car buyer encounters a newspaper ad, lot sign, TV commercial or radio spot that interests him, he can access more information about the dealership or vehicle immediately on his mobile phone. The “on-the-go” consumer no longer needs to be in front of a computer screen or remember a Web address, but the modern mobile phone is always on, always present and outfitted with SMS text messaging and a Mobile Web browser.

It works like this: A dealership engages a mobile marketing provider to generate a Mobile Web site and mobile vehicle inventory listings. Specialized, textable keywords are created that point to a mobile homepage, mobile landing pages, or vehicle listings. Dealers then place these keywords into traditional advertising to create mobile calls-to-action that might look something like, “See our inventory on your mobile phone now, text FREDAUTO to 48696.” A text message is returned to the car buyer with dealer, vehicle, or promotional information along with a link that launches the phone’s Web browser.

In much the same way that dealers needed to become “Internet-ready” several years ago when the Web matured as a mass medium, so too the dealers (and related vendors) need to become “mobile-ready.” What does this mean?

Firstly, it starts with the dealer getting a mobile Web site and mobilizing the on-lot inventory, and this is easily enough accomplished by engaging a mobile marketing provider as mentioned above. However, a Mobile Web site is definitely not a case of “build it and they will come.” In fact, just like a dealership Web site, a dealer’s mobile presence is most effective when it properly integrates three key areas: Marketing and advertising, CRM, and Inventory Management.

Mobile-Ready Marketing and Advertising
A mobile-ready dealership engages it’s marketing department or outsourced marketing agency to integrate mobile into the mix. At its simplest level, this means regularly including mobile calls-to-action into all traditional advertising in much the same way as toll-free numbers and Web addresses. In order to get maximum benefit, a dealer’s marketing department or agency should be coordinating creative artwork, headlines, promotions, and campaigns with Mobile Web pages and outgoing text messages. In effect, this coordination bridges the gap between the traditional and online marketing efforts.

For example, if there’s a special financing promotion being advertised in the newspaper, then the dealer should include a mobile call-to-action in the newspaper ad artwork that will open a Mobile Web page with more information. In turn, the results need to be measured and the creative needs to be tested and refined to maximize results.

According to Dave Burrell, Automotive Director at The King Partnership, a Raleigh, North Carolina Automotive Advertising Agency, “By incorporating Mobile Marketing into our clients’ advertising plans, we have been able to view the effectiveness of each clients’ traditional advertising campaigns in real time. This has enabled us to maximize our dealer’s advertising dollars and to help generate quality leads for them.”

Because marketing people do this for a living, it’s important that they be up-to-speed with regard to tactics and strategies unique to the mobile channel. Fortunately, a good mobile marketing platform provider can generally train and certify marketing and advertising professionals to effectively make use of the medium.

Mobile-Ready CRM—Mobile Leads are HOT
Leads generated from on-the-go consumers should be considered hot and treated with a greater sense of urgency than Internet leads. In fact, a lead generated from the Mobile Web or as a reply to a text message should really be treated like a phone-up. Because mobile calls-to-action are placed in local advertising that is focused on down-funnel activities like sourcing pricing and availability, it can be assumed that the buyer is pretty close to a purchase. At the very least, the lead is coming from someone who is, at that very moment, engaged with a dealer’s advertising. What better moment than to engage a customer who is having an emotional response to a dealer’s offering.

Important to remember as well: Mobile-generated leads are much less complete than an Internet lead and dealers need to be prepared for that. The car buyer who contacts the dealer through a traditional Web site has a full-sized Web browser and keyboard with which it is easy to submit a fair amount of personal contact information. In contrast, some mobile leads may include nothing but a mobile phone number. With this said, a mobile-ready dealership will ensure that its lead response process reflects the urgency of the mobile phone.

Mobile-Ready Content and Inventory Management
For any dealership it makes little sense to implement a mobile marketing strategy if it doesn’t include up-to-date vehicle inventory. Separate or manual vehicle data entry doesn’t make sense for the busy dealership so it is imperative that the mobile marketing solution integrates with a dealer’s inventory management solution.

In practice, a store will advertise specific used or new vehicles in newspapers, classifieds, TV commercials or other local venues. Accompanying those ads are mobile calls-to-action enabling a car buyer to immediately pull up more photos and information of specific vehicle on his cell phone. Consequently, vehicle information should be accurate and in sync with the dealer’s Web site and the various third party sites like cars.com or autotrader.com. In addition, Laws regulating how long a sold vehicle may remain online apply to the mobile space as well.

When researching a mobile solution, dealers should ensure that their data feeds will seamlessly “plug” into it. In fact, it should take little more than a phone call for the dealer to get his inventory activated for display on mobile phone.

In addition to vehicle specifications and photos, there is a variety of other content that should also be considered. For instance, dealers should inquire about mobile video, 3rd party content and reviews. As a dealer you don’t need to be managing two Web sites. In fact, most of the content on a dealership Web site is automatically generated and published to the Web site by a 3rd party provider. Luckily, the same can be done for the mobile space thus negating the need for the Web site vendor to provide a mobile solution.

Mobile-Ready easier to achieve than Internet-ready—and easier to manage
Several years ago, there was a constant buzz in the air about dealerships getting Internet-ready. Making that move to the Internet involved a lot of moving parts, required hiring and training of dedicated staff, and introduced a slew of technical issues. As such, it took quite a bit of prodding but most dealerships today have implemented sophisticated Internet marketing strategies that integrate various (if not all) aspects of the car sales and marketing process. It’s paid off handsomely. Those dealerships that didn’t get online probably went out of business or were purchased.

Today, mobile is the next big wave but compared to the Internet, mobile is a snap. A number of lessons learned on the Internet can be repurposed to the mobile space, and implementing a mobile strategy can be relatively painless with the help of the right mobile solution vendor.

The existing Internet staff at a dealership should be able to easily manage the addition of a mobile presence. Adjustments to creative advertising involve little more than the ink required to include a mobile call-to-action. In fact, the biggest challenge is for the marketing department to get used to the mobile call-to-action in the same way it got used to including toll-free numbers and Web addresses on everything. Considering what the modern retail dealership has accomplished online, getting mobile-ready is a cakewalk.

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