Monthly Archives: March 2014

The CraigsList reporting tool is now available in the website’s back end.

Log in your DealerLab.com account, click on the marketing tab then click on CragsList report.

The report also provides (not shown on screenshot) the phone call records and email transcript.

We also provide a link to the live ads or in case you work in multiple areas, links to the ads on these.

The Craigslist reporting is part of an effort to get as many systems integrated during 2014 and make dealer’s log ins easier then ever.

Interested in Craigslist for car dealers. Auto Classified Solutions has a posting platform that is integrated with our Dealer Lab back-end.

We finally finished our rebates tool for new cars.

The tool allows you to manage blocks of rebates, apply them to groups of cars selected, and the system will calculate the new price deduction from the MSRP. The system will also send all the rebate information to the website so it is displayed in the VDP.

The tool is FREE for customers using both PGI Data system and DealerLab.com websites. For more information please contact Steven.

We launched the Virtual Credit Consultant last year in an effort to create a better online financing application for the dealers.

The VCC is now FREE for all DealerLab.com customers.

The VCC can be installed in:

• The SRP–See top banner
• The VDP–See “Get Pre-Approved” to the right.
• The Home Page
• It is mobile responsive (See attached image)

The VCC doesn’t just work for special financing, the tool is just a credit application, the information around it in the page makes it look one way or another. That means that it is also useful for dealers not looking for special finance customers but just for customers to apply for credit via their website.

The VCC is also mobile adaptive, if your mobile traffic is right now 30% of your total traffic this represents a 30% increase on chances to get a credit application done for the dealership. We can add the VCC to both the mobile SRP and the mobile VDP as well as the banner on the mobile home page. It also works great in tablets.

You can access your current credit applications via the Dealerlab.com back end by going to Leads::Finance::Virtual Consultant. The system will display regular credit apps from the VCC, that way you can use them for different purposes, landing pages, etc and keep track of how they produce individually.

All the credit applications are also stored in the credit section of the website’s back end for quick and easy access.

If you are not getting enough credit applications this product will work for you and it is free for all DealerLab.com customers.

For more information or to install this product contact your DealerLab representative at 425.379.0483

Online content marketing is any marketing done online that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers.  This information can be presented in a variety of formats, including custom websites, custom webpages, blogs, review sites, social media, how-to guides, question and answer articles, photos, etc.

So basically, online content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and potential customers without selling.  It is a non-confrontational form of marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer smarter and increasing their interest in the product. The essence an online content strategy is the belief that if we deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward you with their business and returning loyalty.

 How does online content marketing create website traffic?

Traffic is received through search engines and social media.  Our content is written in a way that utilizes keywords that customers search for.  Most of our keywords are also accompanied with local cities and places near your potential customers.  Example: some one lives near Everett, WA and they are searching for a new Honda Fit.  Naturally that person may search for “New Honda Fit in Everett” or “New Honda Fit for Sale near Everett”.  If the correct keywords and locations are used, then your website traffic will increase. Along with these keywords, we also up-sell and educate your readers with our professionally written articles. Our articles are accompanied with call to action buttons and links, to retain the customer and keep them on your site. This leads to conversions and increased sales.

What are our content goals?

• Brand / Dealership Awareness
• Lead Conversion
• Customer Conversion
• Customer Service / Education
• Retention / Loyalty
• Up-Sell

Want to learn more about how Content Motive can help your dealership retain and get new customers? Click here for a free web presence evaluation.

Online content marketing is any marketing done online that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers.  This information can be presented in a variety of formats, including custom websites, custom webpages, blogs, review sites, social media, how-to guides, question and answer articles, photos, etc.

So basically, online content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and potential customers without selling.  It is a non-confrontational form of marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer smarter and increasing their interest in the product. The essence an online content strategy is the belief that if we deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward you with their business and returning loyalty.

 How does online content marketing create website traffic?

Traffic is received through search engines and social media.  Our content is written in a way that utilizes keywords that customers search for.  Most of our keywords are also accompanied with local cities and places near your potential customers.  Example: some one lives near Everett, WA and they are searching for a new Honda Fit.  Naturally that person may search for “New Honda Fit in Everett” or “New Honda Fit for Sale near Everett”.  If the correct keywords and locations are used, then your website traffic will increase. Along with these keywords, we also up-sell and educate your readers with our professionally written articles. Our articles are accompanied with call to action buttons and links, to retain the customer and keep them on your site. This leads to conversions and increased sales.

What are our content goals?

• Brand / Dealership Awareness
• Lead Conversion
• Customer Conversion
• Customer Service / Education
• Retention / Loyalty
• Up-Sell

Want to learn more about how Content Motive can help your dealership retain and get new customers? Click here for a free web presence evaluation.

The CraigsList posting report system, now integrated with your dealer website backend:

(AutoClassifiedSolutions.com) has been integrated with the back end of the DealerLab.com websites.

In short: Now you can access all your CL posting budget, expense, call reports, email reports, etc from the website’s back end.

“I know that what we did here looks easy but these systems are completely different. A lot of work went into this and I want to that Dustin Moore–lead programer in the Seattle office and Dan Whiten–lead programer in the Chicago office for putting their teams together and get this done for our dealers”

– Yago Paramo, CEO of PGI Digital.

Our goal with this integration is to have more and better systems integration so dealers can access information faster and from one point of log in.

We have not linked the new reporting system to the back end yet! so there is no direct access until we test it for a few days. If you want to take an “early pick” you can log in your DealerLab.com account and you will see something like: http://dashboard.dealereprocess.com/site-[ unique number]/craigslist

For any questions about CL integrations and reporting please call Jim Gillen at 425.379.0483

Dealer Lab and Dealer e-Process’ rolled out its newest feature “mobile menu” across all of its mobile sites. The mobile menu provides easy navigation and access for the customer on-the-go.

Mobile Menu Grid

The grid displays on every mobile page so customers can access different areas of the site faster as opposed to pressing the “back arrow” multiple times.

Menu Tabs

When you select the menu grid, the menu expands to show all department/category tabs.

Expandable Menu Tabs

The menu tab expands to display all menu links so customers can quickly get where they need to go.

Dealer Lab and Dealer e-Process’ rolled out its newest feature “mobile menu” across all of its mobile sites. The mobile menu provides easy navigation and access for the customer on-the-go.

Mobile Menu Grid

The grid displays on every mobile page so customers can access different areas of the site faster as opposed to pressing the “back arrow” multiple times.

Menu Tabs

When you select the menu grid, the menu expands to show all department/category tabs.

Expandable Menu Tabs

The menu tab expands to display all menu links so customers can quickly get where they need to go.

When managing a campaign, you usually only find out about a problem after it’s too late. If you’re watching accounts closely you should be able to minimize the damage though. It’s all about having a plan based on what indicator tells you there’s a problem.

For instance, if you suddenly see a dip in traffic, here are some thing to investigate:

• Has something fundamentally changed in the site structure? if landing page URLs have changed and the ads have not been updated, your quality score will take a hit, reducing your ad exposure.
• Check recent keyword changes. Sometimes if someone added the wrong negative keyword, it can suddenly prevent your ads from showing at all.
• Are you making first page bids? Ensure all of your bids are high enough to show up on the first page of search results. There’s a good SEO joke that says “Where’s the best place to hide a dead body? Page 2 of Google.”
• Does your landing page content match your ads? This is a factor in determining quality score, and if that score is too low, the ad might not show.

If your ad spend is too high:

• Review the daily budget. First and foremost, bust out the calculator and make sure the campaign wasn’t already setup to spend more than you intended.

If CPC is too high:

• What kind of bid management do you have set? If you’re using enhanced CPC, your CPC may be getting bumped up over time and you might want to switch over to manual bidding.
• What is the competition like on your keywords? If you’re going after highly competitive keywords, you might have a hard time keeping up with the average CPC.
• Does your landing page content match your ads? Again, if your quality score is low, you may have to pay more per click to have a decent ad position.

If leads aren’t coming in:

• Are you advertising anything out of stock? If someone clicks on an ad for a vacuum cleaner and you don’t have one to sell them, they’re sure not going to buy something else, they’re going to bounce.
• Are sales historically down this time of year? If sales are usually down in January, it may not the fault of PPC. Consider lowering spend until your busy months.
• What is the competition offering? If your competitors are offering lower prices or nicer incentives, you might need to evaluate what you offer to stay in the game.

PPC can be very confusing, so why not let our professionals take over your existing Google Adwords account.  Our PPC and car dealer industry experts can dramatically improve your ROI.

Kevin Drongowski
PPC Manager
[email protected]

Adding Google+ Authorship to your custom pages is becoming a vital process for search engine results. This simple process, which adds a simple line of code to your pages (much like a byline on any article), creates a “rich snippet” in Google’s search results that comes complete with the contributor/writer’s name and photo.

Google Authorship is important for several reasons. The first is that these “rich snippets” pop visually next to untagged search results. With a photo and accreditation, these search results stand out from the crowd in a search and generate more visits as a result. Another reason G+ Authorship has been gaining traction in search results is that these “rich snippets” also allow browsers to search for more pages by a listed author.

Having Google Authorship integrated into your pages is a first step toward verified identity and helps establish what Google has termed “Author Rank” (which is not a replacement for page ranking, but a separate system with ties into page rankings).

Because Google Authorship is based on the Author’s validity and reputation, along with deep ties into general page ranking, “rich snippet” author tags may not show up in search results on every single page they’re integrated into, but instead those that Google deems the most authoritative. But they do give a page added validity with the search engine and if the content is unique enough, having an author tag also lends itself to the reputation of the tagged author as well.

Looking for help with your dealership’s search engine marketing and content marketing?  Content Motive has a wide variety of products to improve your websites visits and leads.