Social media marketing is already growing very quickly. How long before it replaces the traditional forms of dealer advertising? And if that sounds ridiculous, think how important the internet is for your business today and how that compares with your marketing 10 years ago.
Here's the question - how do bricks and mortar car dealers capitalise on social media; where to start, what needs to be done, and who does what to ensure success? How do you define success?
I ought to declare that we have a vested interest in exploiting social media marketing. Aside from being a company which does not have large advertising budgets and therefore relies on an alternative strategy. Our C It Now dealer base are also in the great position of being able to produce lots of new video content very quickly and easily. Which raises other questions; what sort of content should they be producing and how should they distribute it?
Social media marketing is about conversations. So one question I'd like to help answer is how to share this new content on social media platforms. I'd also like to explore what else could be done to help develop new conversations with dealer customers.
With that in mind, I'll be writing a series of blog posts exploring the answers to these questions, uncovering opportunities and how they can benefit your business.
Let's get started.
1. What is it?
Wikipedia has as a pretty useful definition for social media marketing. The aim is to create content that attracts attention, generates online conversations, and encourages the recipient to share it with their social networks.
Networks include Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, You Tube, Flickr, Bebo, MySpace and many more.
2. Relevance?
Facebook was the most visited site on the web for the week ending March 13, 2010, surpassing even Google in week-long stats for the first time in history.
There are 25 million active Facebook accounts in the UK (April 2010). Male/female split is nearly 50:50, slight female bias; the biggest age group is 20-29 (7.9M), then 30-39 (4.3m). The smallest group is 50+ but this is still north of 2m users.
34% of global internet users visited Facebook yesterday, 25.9% visited YouTube and 6.45% visited Twitter.
In terms of daily time spent by each visitor; Facebook users spend 31 minutes, You Tube 20 minutes and Twitter nearly 8 minutes.
Alexa traffic stats
Facebook and YouTube both rank higher than the BBC which is a staggering statistic when you think about the BBC's powerful position in UK culture.
3. Not a quick win
And there's the rub. I've contributed to various automotive discussions on Linkedin where 'experts' talk about the fact that social media is free. On the basis that you don't have to pay Autotrader a weekly media fee I guess it is. But this hides the true cost which is the time that the dealer needs to spend and the inconvenient truth that results take months, years, not days.
This type of marketing is a long way from the culture of paid for, short term tactical advertising which provides immediate results. Not really surprising that most dealers are simply ignoring the social media phenomenon.
4. Content
And here's the other rub; dealers need to create content that attracts attention, generates conversation and encourages people to share. That's hard enough to do if your job is developing content for a living. What's a car dealer supposed to do? Even those dealers with a marketing function are typically swamped with short term tactical activity because the pressure is on to make immediate impact to the sales figures in order to justfiy their cost on the business.
5. What are dealers already doing?
I've started by providing a snapshot on what UK car dealers are doing on Facebook.
My Facebook searches suggest that relatively few dealers have a presence. Those that do (and good on them) can be split into several different groups.
i) We're on Facebook but we don't do much with it. They have a presence but no one is updating it.
ii) Using Facebook specifically as an advertising platform. 'Save upto £5,000 on an XC90 Active' for example. It all tends to be offers and reminders that they're selling cars. Why not? Facebook provides another marketing outlet and offers more editorial freedom than the manufacturer's dealer web site will. What else could they be doing?
iii) A good example is Inchcape Mercedes-Benz who focus on news rather than advertising, sharing human interest stories within their business.
"Customer looks forward to blue sky thinking with new cabriolet"
"Couple flying high after a taste of the finer things at Mercedes-Benz of Leicester"
"Liverpool apprentice named among Britains best"
6. Do car manufacturers differ?
They certainly do. As a for instance, Audi has 738,915 followers, Mercedes-Benz, 374,466, and Vauxhall Corsa 21,578. This was a big difference from UK car dealers who have relatively few followers.
Jaguar also took my eye. At 83,262 followers they are serving a global community of enthusiasts.
Their editorial is also very different. The marque is less concerned with selling cars but keeping followers informed about events such as Le Mans with pictures and video of the Jaguar RSR; and the 75th anniversary of the E-Type. 'Jaguar' is very much a personality, a brand, not a sales house only focused on cars on their forecourt.
If I was a Jaguar dealer, I'd be investing some time on their discussion forum answering the questions that are posted and generally being a helpful dealer.
'What do you think about the 2010 Jags?' had 31 posts for instance and some of those posts are from Jaguar owners.
Vauxhall is also interesting because it's a Facebook product page designed for a UK audience. The content is heavily focused on the World Cup - I wonder if they have a 'plan B'.
That aside they encourage participation - 'win a team shirt' by sending in your photos when you're celebrating with your mates, enter the Pop Art Idol competition (now closed). They also couldn't resist adding a product announcement on their discussion page where they showcase the new black and white limited edition Corsa; the two posts on this subject were both from Vauxhall Corsa with no reply from their 20,000 plus followers.
It's clear from the better Facebook examples mentioned above that some dealers and manufacturers offer engagement opportunities. Part of this is as simple as providing regular updated content; even better if the content goes beyond a straight sales pitch. Of course, if you're a C It Now dealer, able to publish regular video sales presentations of cars on your forecourt, you're already providing a higher level of entertainment and engagement than most customers are likely to find elsewhere.
The start point with Facebook, aside from setting up a Facebook page is to research your market. What are other dealers already doing, how active are they, what sort of content do they currently publish? If you're a franchised dealer, what content does the manufacturer publish and are there opportunities for you to engage with their follower base? Do current customers have Facebook accounts? What about a mailshot to your customer base to find out what sort of content would potentially interest them?
Once you have a better idea, the next step is to decide how often you will publish and who is responsible?
For the C It Now dealer the burden of content responsibility can be spread across the salesforce who should all be capable of presenting a car using the new video archive service. For some C It Now dealer's this also extends into the service department where they can use video to help explain the C It Now video service. Highlighting the fact that your dealer salespeople can offer live video presentation on any car is a benefit that won't go unnoticed on Facebook. Giving the opportunity for your potential customers to meet your sales team virtually is also a good way to start breaking down any barriers that might exist.
What else should dealers be doing on Facebook? Are there some simple, quick wins which can help to create more conversation and engagement? What do you think? Do you have any good examples that you'd like to share?
I received the following e-mail from Ken Potter, Brand Manager at VW Crewe who has been using C It Now for 2 weeks.
I’m getting bored of telling you how good the system is working for us. We put an Eos on the web yesterday afternoon with no pictures and received an enquiry this morning. Ash showed the car to the customer who was 200 miles away and took a deposit!
Ken is a great advocate. No excuses, no lazy sales people, no lack of stock, in fact no negatives at all, just positives.
But Ken's smart. He'd already worked out that pre-recorded video was working for his business. Being able to offer a live video presentation was simply the next step to providing an extra level of service and engagement. If a customer is on your dealer web site and keen enough to call you, what a great opportunity to show the car, live, now, and then take a deposit.
There are a couple of interesting points about Ken's C It Now sale. Firstly, it happened mid week. This is a great time to make additional sales when you won't find 'walk-ins' for love nor money.
Secondly, he sold it without a photograph.
I'm not denying that photographs help, they do. But they don't provide a detailed condition report. A live video presentation where the customer can direct the sales person to what they want to see is far more effective and helps the customer make a decision.
What do you think? Is Ken right to embrace a live video tour?
I'll be talking to Ken in person again soon when I hope to share his views on the subject.
Here at C It Now we're always delighted by a consumer's reaction to a live video presentation of a used car. The fact that they can view the car live from the comfort of their home or office with the help of the dealer salesperson is a great benefit. No wasted journeys, no hidden surprises, lots of detail inside and out; far more useful than the photographs we're all used to. It's no surprise that the C It Now service is yet to score less than 9 out of 10 on any exit questionnaire.
But it's not all been plain sailing. One of our dealers, Rybrook Jaguar in Warrington has been very smart solving some customer reaction. It appears that not everyone is always comfortable with the idea of a live video presentation service. So much so that the sales guys no longer use words like 'live', 'video' and 'presentation'; instead they focus on 'more information'. It seems that some buyers feel that accepting a presentation is a sign of increased commitment and is not the right signal to be giving off at that point.
By only making an offer of 'more information', the buyer feels more comfortable that this is still part of the fact finding mission and not a sign that they are ready to purchase.
The sales guys like it because it enables 5 minute conversations to develop into longer video based conversations; valuable time to build up some rapport with the buyer.
It also appears to be working as Rybrook's sales figures for September show a 42% conversion to sale.
At the end of the summer I went to visit some friends in Aarhus, Denmark with my three kids. It’s a great holiday for lots of reasons. The most important from my kids point of view, was the lack of queueing for rides at Djurs Sommerland, Denmark’s answer to Disneyland. Danish and German school holidays are well and truly over which means we can give Thors Hammer a good hammering.
I’m truly glad to get back to the car by the end of the day.
In this case we'd hired a Sixt hire car, a very pleasant Honda Civic. I hired it from Aarhus Airport booking it online when I’d arrived in Denmark the previous day. I have to say, the Sixt experience was far and away the best car hire experience I’ve ever had.
In fairness location did help as the airport is small and also empty when I turned up at midday to collect my car, so no queueing again. There was only one Sixt person to sort out the paperwork which was all done very quickly and efficiently. It was the way that he did it that was really good.
There was no mention of extra insurance; my driving licence was only needed for a moment and there was no discussion about the paper bit which was neatly filed back in the UK. Because I had purchased the car hire from a Danish IP address I was not offered unlimited mileage which he corrected once the contract was printed. He also upgraded my car; okay, probably because he didn’t have anything else, but it all added to my experience. He was a very personable guy who during the admin process talked about his school days in England and how much he’d enjoyed it.
By the end I felt like I was borrowing a car from him, not hiring from an anonymous car hire company.
The product was great and totally exceeded any expectation that had been created by a really good online booking process.
This had expectation levels similar to C It Now, our live video presentation tool. We consistently score at least 9 out of 10 on our exit questionnaire once car purchasers have had a live video demo.
What a nerdy subject to be writing about!
I'm actually doing this because here at C It Now we're interested in a 'common sense marketing' approach to business.
I recently upgraded my Mac’s OS to Snow Leopard. For you deprived folk still struggling with Vista and XP, Snow Leopard is a major upgrade for Apple. Unlike a major Windows upgrade, with significant compatability issues with basic functionality like printing, I’ve had no problems to report. Until last week, that is, when I tried to use my 3G dongle from BT which is part of my business broadband package (and the reason why I decided to use their over priced under powered service in the first place).
It doesn’t work. After 4 re-directed phone calls I was given the news that BT’s Access Point software does not support Snow Leopard and there are no intentions to do so.
Given that I’m in a 24 month contract, this is not good news.
I’m now going through a complaints procedure with BT and have been told to expect a call on Monday or Tuesday. Given the lack of support for Apple’s latest OS I believe my contract is now non and void; I want out.
What do you think my chances are? I can’t be the only person who has bumped into this problem, although I do accept that BT and Apple probably aren’t great bedfellows.
Will common sense marketing prevail or will BT look to the small print?
C It Now is a start-up with a great product - a live video presentation tool.
Like most start-ups we don't have enough time to do all the stuff that we need to do. Take a look at this blog for instance - starved of fresh interesting content, even though we have plenty that we'd like to share.
We are a UK company whose focus is the automotive sector. This is going well and we now have dealers using C It Now to sell Volvo, Honda, Jaguar, Audi, Peugeot, Alfa and Mercedes cars. Our first bike dealer comes online on Monday and we'll soon be adding Saab to our list of car dealers.
We are looking to increase sales to UK car dealers and explore other vertical markets. We need help.
If you're looking for real responsibility in a start-up organisation that is making sales and has masses of opportunity for personal development, we'd like to hear from you.
There are no preconditions here. We'd be delighted to hear from experienced, seasoned professionals, semi-retired as well as students/graduates who potentially have something to offer our business.
We're looking for a diverse range of skills from copywriting and digital marketing to telephone sales activity.
There are no salaried positions at this time. Remuneration is based on results and we pay expenses.
If this sounds interesting we'd like to hear from you. In the first instance send us a one pager explaining what you can offer to donna.barradale@zype.co.uk.
Part of what we do is record what C It Now customers think of our service. It's an absolute privilege to meet and talk with real customers who have as a result of C It Now, purchased a car.
Thanks to Steve Holleran at Holdcroft Honda, who again was responsible for creating this extraordinary experience for our buyer, Robert on this occasion.
Much as we'd like to brag on about how great our live video presentation technology is, it's only as good the salesperson who believes in it, and as a result offers it to potential customers like Robert.
We're looking forward to interviewing more customers who have experienced the power of C It
Now as part of the decision making process, but before we do that, we're going to talk to Steve to get his
side of the story.