Automotive marketing

My 3 favorite NIADA web pages

Auto — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 01:26:42 +0000

NIADA is really stepping up their web presence. Although I could do without the sounds and commercials on their home page, the organization has a lot of great resources available for free online. Here is a list of my favorites NIADA web pages.

The Ultimate Vendor Guide : Directory of software and technology service providers
Publications : Including the monthly UCDM, PDF documents, IRS help
State Association contact list : With website URLs where applicable

Out of these resources, the State Association list is the one that I refer dealers to most often.

Welcome to TacticalTechnique.com

Auto — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 06:00:44 +0000

Phase one complete! This website is now located at TacticalTechnique.com. You have likely been redirected here via http://automotivemarketing.wordpress.com/, and that is just fine for a while.

WordPress offers a domain redirection service that makes a move to a new datacenter a breeze. I started a decent discussion about this process, and the wp community stepped right up to help.

I want to improve this website. I found myself restricted on wordpress.com, although it’s so easy to start a new website there. The minute I considered using the tag line I made up for this blog, tactical technique, I scrambled to check its availability. I got the .net, too.

There’s an article in the May edition Used Car Dealer Magazine that I’m going to write about. That magazine just so happens to be online and downloadable for free.

Yahoo! Autos caught cloaking

Auto — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:13:16 +0000

The page has clearly been edited since this has gone public, but this is silly. A search engine cloaking pages to rank better in search engines. What gives?

So, they are clearly serving different content to their users and to the search engines. The pages they’re serving to the bots are heavily keyword stuffed. I honestly don’t know where they could cram the word “used cars” on the page again. It’s everywhere.

http://www.agerhart.com/seo-rankings/yahoo-caught-cloaking-will-they-ban-themselves/

Update: Laura Lippay, Yahoo’s SEO Program Manager responds.

Car dealer directories

Auto — Mon, 21 May 2007 23:58:21 +0000

Jennifer:

I have added the keywords you requested. There seems to a large number of dealerships in America with names that are similar to yours. To get some more web exposure, try submitting your site (free) at these directories:

http://www.autodealerfinders.net/

http://www.autoguide.net/

http://www.cardealersnearyou.com/

http://www.cardealersusa.com/

http://www.carsearch.com/

http://carsforsale.classifieds1000.com/links/used_car_dealers/

http://www.motoverse.com/directory/

http://www.mvdn.com/

http://www.simplemotors.com/

http://www.wheelsdirectory.com/

Thank you very much!

Regards,

Jennifer

Vehix farms out inventory to HomeNet

Auto — Mon, 21 May 2007 17:46:54 +0000

Dear Vehix Inventory Provider:

We are pleased to announce that Vehix has selected HomeNet, Inc. to consolidate inventory polling services for our website. Vehix will utilize HomeNet’s Inventory Online (IOL) technology to upload new and used vehicle inventory data for the Vehix.com site.

HomeNet is a leading provider of vehicle inventory data solutions and has been serving the automotive industry for over ten years. They presently poll inventory for over 6,800 dealers and have more than 1.6 million vehicles in their daily inventory upload. HomeNet’s IOL software is compatible with all DMS types such as ADP, Reynolds & Reynolds, Auto/Mate, UCS, Karpower, PBS, Arkona, EDS, and more. They also are capable of receiving inventory from most third party aggregators. HomeNet will also be handling vehicle photographs as part of the Vehix process.

We will be collecting and sending inventory information to HomeNet throughout May and June with the target to switch over live on July 1. This letter serves as our authorization for you to also forward inventory for Vehix dealers to HomeNet. Please continue to also send inventory to your current Vehix address until we notify you that the transition is complete.

We appreciate and respect the trust you place in us when you provide inventory information. You can be assured that HomeNet will also respect the integrity of your dealers’ data. To learn more about HomeNet, please visit their website at www.homenetinc.com.

Again, the plan is to switch over to HomeNet on July 1. If you have any questions about the transition process, please contact me.

Thank you,

Travis Janiszewski

Manager, Dealer Services

Vehix, Inc.

(801) 401-6063

DealerRefresh encourages bait and switch

Auto — Mon, 21 May 2007 01:33:18 +0000

Jeff Kershner confesses to using his dealership website to bait and switch customers by keeping inventory online for weeks after it has been sold.

Bait and Switch: The Oldest Trick in the Book

CARFAX raises prices

Auto — Fri, 18 May 2007 15:47:19 +0000

CARFAX has changed the pricing of its vehicle history reports. A single CARFAX Vehicle History Report now sells for $24.99 and unlimited reports sell for $29.99.

If you post CARFAX pricing on your Web site, please update your Web site as soon as possible to reflect the new pricing.

Note that only thing changing is our pricing; your commission percentage will not change.

Feel free to contact us here with any questions or comments.

CARFAX Affiliate Marketing Team
affiliate@carfax.com

Accountability: what a great idea!

Auto — Wed, 16 May 2007 02:37:51 +0000

Recently, a big shot dealership from Harrisburg, PA contracted me to handle all their third party data feeds. Autotrader, Cars.com and Vehix all get fat files full of vehicle data and pictures at least once a day to populate this dealer’s accounts. While this process is largely a set-it-and-forget-it, it could hardly be as easy.

The Car Lot Camera Guy

Big shot dealership doesn’t take hundreds of photos of all the cars they sell. Instead, they pay some guy with a digital camera and a barcode VIN scanner to do it for them. Great! The more nerds the better, right? I feel that any opportunity to bring more computer people into the dealership is a good one. Man am I wrong.

For the past six months of our relationship, I’ve battled countless “where’s my car” arguments with our transmission logs and carbon copied emails. Since I’m not shooting the shit at the dealership all morning like Car Lot Camera Guy, I’m the first to blame. The data distribution service I provide has never been disrupted throughout our entire contract, and I’ve been able to consistently back that up with evidence.

Car Lot Camera Guy has, well, a camera and a barcode reader. Each time there is a problem I ask for the stock numbers in question and report back within the hour with what happened. Car Lot Camera Guy thinks he uploaded the pictures on the 13th.

DealerRefresh verifies car lead reselling

Auto — Wed, 09 May 2007 05:24:15 +0000

Jeff Kershner has verified that AutoUSA resells the same car leads to dealers after 30 day intervals. Read about it at DealerRefresh, Jeff’s marketing blog.

Create a Google Local business listing

Auto — Thu, 03 May 2007 04:28:48 +0000

Google Local is spreading. Recent updates to search results pages at Google can change the way that customers reach your dealership homepage and vehicle classifieds online. Try a search like mine using your own address: cars for sale in wilmington, north carolina.

You looked at the map picture first didn’t you? What an eye-catcher. Those dealers to the right of the map are surely going to get more visitors than the first natural results below.

To become one of those dealers, you have to create a Google local business listing. How do you do that? Follow these simple steps:

Create a Google local account
Read this entire article at Search Engine Land

This process is extremely easy to do, but it will take hours to complete. It’s worth it. Head over to the Google local page in step 1 and follow the instructions to login with (or create) your Google account.