Daily Automotive eCommerce Success

Video on AutoTrader works!

AutoTrader performed a study of dealers who had videos on their site that they started June of 2008, and it showed that vehicles on AutoTrader with video receive 15% more emails, 3% more map look ups, 15% more printable vehicle details and 20% more vehicle details views.

Success story from a client of mine this week in Minnesota as they are just getting started with real video walk arounds pushing to AutoTrader......guy calls from NY and asks if a car is still available. Yes it is. So the guys says, I've watched your video over and over and this is definitely the car I am looking for and would like it shipped to NY. He also mentions that the video is an awesome idea and more dealers should do that because it gave him a chance to "see" it up close. SOLD.

They have had numerous people mention the videos and how much they like the videos.....the people are making it a point to mention the video which tells me that it is having a huge impact.

Needless to say the dealership is very excited as they are seeing direct results from the work they are putting forth recording video walk arounds. The extra 3 minutes per car is paying off and they haven't even begun to get started!

I also created this picture and uploaded it into their dealer merchandising to highlight the fact that they had video walk arounds:

Real VIDEO walk arounds of your inventory on AutoTrader

One of the other HUGE benefits of doing real video walk arounds is the capability of sending it to AutoTrader.  I'm sure that other inventory management systems do this but the example used below is using VinSolutions Inventory Management System.  Once you upload your video walk around using the VinCamera into the system, VinSolutions takes care of the rest!  VinSolutions will automatically send your video to AutoTrader just like it does to YouTube!

AutoTrader did a good job of displaying the video link on their site - its a tab right next to the Photos tab.  Because its a newer feature for consumers, the only thing better would be to have it flash, change colors or something to have it stick out just a little more.  Make it stand out until consumers are used to it.  That being said, I think it's awesome that AutoTrader allows an automatic feed of video from an inventory system that is FREE of charge for the dealer!

Once the consumer clicks on the video tab, it displays the video controls so they can click on play, pause, stop, forward, rewind and a volume control:

To read more on how to utilize video at your dealership, read this previous post:  Are you making the most of VIDEO with your dealership.

Are you making the most of VIDEO at your dealership?

Here are several ways to use VIDEO with your INVENTORY:

As visitors browse through your inventory, they will see a VIDEO link on the specific vehicles that you have videos for:  Real video walk-arounds are so much more engaging for the consumer than a slide show walk-around and also gives YOU the chance to introduce yourself and tell the consumer about this vehicle as if they were there right with you.

Once the person clicks on the vehicle, it displays the vehicle details, additional pictures and a video:  Being able to not only view additional pictures once they click on the vehicle details page but in this example using VinSolutions inventory management system, you can also have the video that you created, upfront and center for the consumer to click and watch.

Create a YouTube account:  Once you upload your pictures and video into VinSolutions, your videos will automatically be sent to your YouTube account with the correct info, links and tags.  Besides watching your videos, consumers can also Subscribe to your videos, read about your dealership and click directly to your website from your YouTube page.

 

Google Search Results:  By having video walk-arounds of not only your USED vehicles but also your NEW vehicles, when people search for vehicles, you will find that your YouTube videos will not only show up in the organic search results with a thumbnail of the video for people to click on but it also displays your dealerships information.

 

.....once they click on your video, it takes them to this page:

Selling Cars on eBay

Several ways to learn more about how to be successful selling cars on eBay:

eDealer Training Program
All Classes are 10am to 2pm
eBay Motors will be starting their eDealer Training Program starting February 5th in Atlanta and traveling through other cities. The focus will be starting with the basics of setting up an account, launching a car to showing dealers all of the possibilities and eBay Best Practices. It is geared toward upper management.

Download EBay Motors eDealer Training Program

eBay Motors University
This is a full day of training for new and experienced eBayers. Workshops will include how to leverage eBay, avoid wholesaling and make money selling trade-ins, learn how to sell everyday vehicles across town or across the country, make your eBay Store more visible on eBay, Yahoo and Google searches and learn how to protect your account.

Download EBay Motors University

Internet Sales Manager Certification Program
National Market 101, Local Market, Optimize your eBay Store and Trust and Safety.
This is something you can go through right from where you are:
http://v3.lightspeedvt.net/ebay_reg/register.cfm

After you go through it snag the certificate, make it a jpeg and upload it to your listings as it will show consumers your name, dealership and that you are eBay Certified.

ebay fees
If you haven't noticed, ebay has adjusted their fees for your benefit!

CarMax reveals top searched used vehicles for 2008

Reported by Dealer Pre-Owned:

CarMax, Inc.,  the nation's largest retailer of used cars, reports the top 10 searched vehicles on carmax.com for 2008. The Honda Accord retains the top spot for the third consecutive year. For the past year, carmax.com averaged more than five million visits per month.

The top 10 searched vehicles on carmax.com for 2008 are: 
Honda Accord 
Honda Civic 
Toyota Camry 
Ford Mustang 
Nissan Altima 
Chevrolet Tahoe 
Ford F-150 
Toyota Corolla 
Toyota Tacoma 
Nissan Maxima

 

Writing on photos to sell your car faster by making them stand out

One great way to get your photo to stand out and get noticed is writing on the photo.  Write something that is not standard equipment for that model but you know people want, like a sunroof, leather, Low miles, One Owner, Certified, etc. 

Below is a great example of an AutoTrader ad and how it stands out.  With this example I would say the one with a sunroof would get clicked on first about every time. 

Writing on the photo can be done in a couple of minutes using a free download on faststone.com or you can use Snagit which is only $40 (you aren't going to use this for "snagging" but rather using it for the editing feature that it has.

Note:  If your website is a Cobalt site, the best thing to do is write on the photo and upload the same day instead of doing it the next day of later after it has already been uploaded to your Cobalt website because it will not refresh it right away.  I think some other sites are like this too. AutoTrader will refresh it along with many others.

Here is another great idea from Matt Watson from VinSolutions:

The other useful thing about overlays is making your vehicles stand out from everyone else. Add a red border to your pictures or something. I did this via Pant.net just as an example.

 

Top 10 Reasons to take your own pictures

If you want it done right, do it yourself and save money while you’re at it!

1) Control.  Having the control of your inventory what and when you want.  No more calling to find out when someone is coming to take pictures, having them retake them because they didn’t turn out good, having to wait until next week to get new trades and program cars online, etc, etc.  Now you can take pictures that are tailored to your specific vehicle that focus on what is special about your car and have them online today.  You will find when you take your own pictures it’s a whole new World with much better results.  It’s time to take control.

2) Quality.  I am not going to pick on any "on the lot service" but the fact is, when salespeople are trained on how to take pictures and they are the ones selling the cars - they know what are the advantages of taking QUALITY pictures, LOTS of pictures, what attention to detail means and will make sure it’s done right.   Or if you choose to train someone at the dealership that doesn't sell to take the pictures, you can train them, continue to train them and make sure the pictures are being done just how you want them done. Nothing is better than pride of ownership.  No crooked steering wheels, crooked floor mats, stickers from the dealership the car came from, blurry pictures, etc, etc, etc.

HOT TIP:  Writing out a process for how you want pictures taken is a must: Background, angles, straight steering wheel, what pictures to take, how many pictures, etc.  If you would like to see the process I created for the dealer groups I was over just email me and I would be glad to share it with you.

3) Post inventory to online - NOW.  As soon as the car is cleaned up (or even before if it’s already clean), you can take pictures and upload into your inventory management system.  If you have the inventory management system plugged into your website, your pictures will show up instantly.  If your inventory management system sends them to your website company, they will show up that evening!  Not a single day wasted.  No waiting two, three days or more for the “on-the-lot” service to show up.  Your inventory will be posted on your OEM website and all third party websites that evening when they receive the feed from your inventory management system.  And if it’s a Friday, you can always get your pictures up for the weekend instead of waiting until Monday or later.

HOT TIP:  Write down a process on how pictures are to be taken at your dealership.  Cover everything, every step the car goes through.  Clean up, service, etc.  Write it down and give copies to managers and everyone involved in the picture taking process.  Once again, if you would like to see mine, just send me an email.

4) Take more photos – No Charge.  Forget the standard 6 to 12 pictures that the “on the lot” service would take and having to worry about the cost of having them take more.  Take 20+ pictures and the cost stays the same.  When you are taking pictures of highline cars with lots of options, 30+ is necessary.  If you are selling on eBay, 30+ is a must.

5) Show me the money!  Cutting expenses is top of mind lately and taking your own pictures will not only save you money but also make you more money by having awesome, quality pictures and getting them online more quickly and the sooner they are online, the sooner they sell.   Turn.  How many things are out there, where you can pick the better way to do it, the better product and have it cost less and make more money?? 

6) More Traffic.  With awesome pictures, come more phone calls and emails.  When someone is looking a car with 20+ awesome photos and another one with 10 photos and both are in the same price range, they will call on the one with 20+.  Every time I have gone with taking pictures in-house, we get more phone calls, we set more appointments and more people show up at the front door.  It always drives more traffic for the Internet Department and the Floor.

 
7) Customer Feedback.  WOW!  Take awesome pictures and you will hear over and over from customers that the reason they called you, the reason they stopped by your place first, was because of the awesome pictures you took.  Trust me when I tell you this.  Customers love this.  It lets them see everything about the car.  Customer Confidence.  They don’t want to call you to ask you about the side of the car you didn’t take or the condition of the tires.  Besides, they don’t trust you - yet, (you’re a salesperson) so seeing is believing.  Pictures gives them confidence!

8) Salespeople will KNOW the cars.  ISM's that take pictures, know the cars.  After they take 20+ pictures of a car, they will know it inside and out.  When someone calls on a car they will not only know the one they are calling about but also the one that would be a perfect alternative.  And when their appointments show, they can easily switch people to a different car if need be because they know the cars.  

9) Take pictures of your New Cars.  As customer demands grow and you’re looking for ways to get an edge on your competitors, taking pictures of your New Car Inventory is one area you will want to add.  Now you can take pictures of some of your New Cars or better yet, ALL of your new cars without adding a dollar to your expense report. 

10) Custom Comments.  Writing custom comments for your used car inventory sells more cars and it is a lot easier to write custom comments when you are looking at 20+ pictures than when you are looking at only 6 to 10 pictures.  If the person writing custom comments is also taking the pictures, you can bet they will know the car enough to write custom comments after taking 20+ pictures.

Writing comments sells cars!

Are you doing everything you can to have your cars noticed on Autotrader.com, Cars.com and other websites where your cars can get lost in the mix? 

Notice with the two ads below, one has custom comments and one has default comments.  See how "One of a kind spec B!" catches your eye on the top ad.  The bottom one has standard  comments that just repeats the make and model and some basic info. 

People want to know if its a One Owner, Local Trade, Balance of Factory Warranty, Newer Tires, Super Clean and in the case of the top car, performance!  Tell the cars story.  Seeing that it has 27 photos is also a big plus.  The person looking at this ad knows they will be able to get a good look at it.

The difference between your car getting clicked on and looked at has to do with a lot more than just the price.

What you want to do is go to AutoTrader.com, Cars.com and any other site you have your inventory on and look through the listings.  Compare your cars with the other cars.  What do you see?  You will find that very few salespeople will take the time to do this so its a great way to SEPARATE yourself from the competition.

   

The pictures of your used cars should tell all!

Go to your website and look through your used car inventory, click on some cars and look at all the pictures.  Try this with at least a half a dozen cars.  When you look at the pictures are you thinking to yourself, wow! these are really nice pictures! ??  This is a great looking car!  You're not?  Why??  Who takes your pictures?  If you have someone else take them, do you rely on them to do it right or do you let them know how you want them done and regularly look at your pictures to make sure they look great?  There is a lot of money tied up in those pictures.  Money to make or money to lose.

We take all of our pictures in-house and its the responsibility of the ISM's to take turns taking them.  Yes, it keeps them very busy but they take pride in the pictures so they look good.  When someone calls on a car there is a good chance they took the pictures so they know all about the vehicle and can answer questions with confidence.

If you're not getting the phone calls like you think you should on your used cars, my guess is your pictures are crappy. 

Ive had a person or two tell me " I don't take too many pictures because then they won't call me, they'll know everything about it".  Well, I'm here to tell you that just the opposite happens, as they look through the pictures, the only thing left is they want to drive it!  Call in to see if its still available and if so, make an appointment to drive it.  In fact, I will go head to head with anyone on this.  My 20-30 pictures against your 8-10 pictures and I will win every time!  Wanna try me?

When you have 20-30+ pictures with all the details people know you are not hiding anything.  Do you know how many dealerships don't take pictures of the big dent, dirty interior and then tell the customer when they call in, "yeah, its a very nice, clean car" only to find out when they get there that its trashed?!  I would say more people than not have experienced that before.

Remember Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google?.........."The past few years have taught us that business models based on controlling consumers or content don’t work"

As far as looking through the pictures on your website, I have a Word of Caution:  If you have never looked closely at your pictures, it can be a scary experience.