Pub. 6 2016 Issue 2

21 Start by sending one version to customers and prospective customers. You might want to think about tailoring newsletters as well, however, so that people get something that is personalized to their own needs. If someone is clearly interested in a wagon, for example, it would work well for that customer to get a newsletter with articles and ads about wagons. You need to use every opportunity given to you to connect po- tential customers with the right message, regardless of the digi- tal platforms they use. That customer who likes wagons should probably get emails aimed at her specific interest, too, and your website should reflect her interest in wagons as well. It’s likely that anyone who uses an online chat feature is really pretty serious about getting a car; these potential customers are the equivalent of someone who has actually driven to your showroom and come in to talk to a salesperson. If someone chats online, therefore, maybe it’s time for an online coupon offer. Online chat can be handled by a service or by your dealership. Outsourcing online chat is somewhat like having an answering service. The difficulty with outsourcing it is that a third party may not be able to do as good a job answering questions as someone who actually works for you. You might want to consider having people work shifts where they focus on monitoring and answer- ing chat messages. How can you tailor information so your sales efforts are a good match for potential customers? You need to collect information about your customers while they make their digital search. What is the purpose of collecting this information? The information can give you some insight into who your potential customer is, and that makes it possible for you to respond creatively and intel- ligently to the customer’s search. The only way to be sure you are meeting a customer’s needs is by developing your understanding of the customer’s needs, wants, and expectations. A key part of your analysis ought to be deciding how engaged a customer is with the car brand and the dealership brand. An engagement score is more useful than conventional web metrics, such as how long someone spends on a page, because it tells you how efficient your marketing is. Make sure people have a reason to visit your website regularly. Websites should not be static, and they should also be optimized so that they work correctly on every platform someone might use. People will usually visit the website several times before actually showing up in your showroom, so consider the website to be a place where many potential customers will form their first impression of your business. Your biggest selling opportunities are on smart phones. Almost half of the automobile searches being done are being on a phone instead of a computer, but most people usually buy something other than the car they first started researching. You might be interested to know that the conversion rate for the average PPC is 3.7 percent. The conversion rate for a mobile PPC ad is 5.3 percent. People who have smart phones bring them almost every- where, including to the car lot. According to a Cars.com survey, 43 percent of your potential customers will use a smart phone while on your lot to do some online research at the same time as they are looking at your selection. They will visit your website, look up prices, and research features. Smart phones can increase your ability to track and influence potential customers: • Smart phones have functions that use GPS to find out where someone is. • You can track calls or conversions on a keyword level be- cause of the click button on Google pay per click (PPC) ads. • An AdWords account can tell you the duration of a call. Be careful about text messages. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has some strict rules about who you can and can’t text when marketing something. Customers have to specifically opt-in to get them. If they have opted in, though, it’s a great way to com- municate with people. The read rate is 99 percent, and 90 percent of those who receive them will open and read them within three minutes. The response rate is 31 percent (a much better rate than for email messages). Make sure you keep text messages relevant; you don’t want to send spam to people, because people hate spam. It’s a good way to lose their attention. To tailor the online shopping experience to each potential cus- tomer’s previous behaviors, use Search and Geo IP data to per- sonalize what each person sees on the website’s home page. That allows you to make sure potential customers see information tailored personally to them so you can help themmake a decision about what they really want, both while they are on the website and later on as well.  The difficulty with outsourcing it is that a third party may not be able to do as good a job answering questions as someone who actually works for you. You might want to consider having people work shifts where they focus on monitoring and answering chat messages.