A Simple, Ten Step eMarketing Strategy for Your Dealership

The maze of online marketing options facing RV Dealers today is daunting; SEO, Websites, eMarketing, AdWords, Banner Ads, Video, Features, Mobile (and these are just some of the top level categories) are topics that are typically way outside of most dealerships' comfort zones, let alone and area of expertise. 

But as more and more dealerships move their marketing dollars away from traditional advertising and into online marketing they are beginning to ask questions about where they are in comparison to other dealers, where they should be and most importantly; how to get there.  To help our customers navigate this maze of online marketing options (of which there are many), we’ve created a Simple, Ten Step eMarketing Strategy that literally any RV Dealership can use to determine where they are right now, where they want to be and how to get there from here.

Step One: Set Your Goals, Your Business Goals

With all of the reporting, statistics and numbers available in this new online marketing world it’s easy to get lost in the numbers and loose focus on what your real business goals are by replacing them with website metrics.  Goal setting for your online marketing should be no different than any other marketing goals you set.  It should be focused on real, meaningful business numbers instead of website hits, visitors and search rankings.  Too often, however, the two are easily confused.

As an illustration of the difference, think about your outdoor advertising.  You don’t pay for a billboard on a major highway because your goal is to have 30,000 cars a day drive by your sign, instead your real business goal for that sign is to increase awareness enough to move the needle on sales in the form of increased door traffic, demos & ultimately closed sales.  Your website is exactly the same.  Your business goal should not to be number one in a specific keyword or have your site viewed by 20,000 unique visitors a month (like cars on a highway), it should be more specific to the business, like selling 10 more units a month from internet generated leads.

Step Two: Establish Your Baseline

Before you can reach your business goals you need to know where you are right now.  Fortunately, online marketing is one of the most measurable and accountable forms of marketing a dealer can use.  Tools like Google Analytics (free) and AdWords can track just about everything you could want to know about your internet traffic and results such as overall traffic, times of day, location of your traffic and more.  You can even see how people are searching for you and what they’ve typed into a search engine when they find your website.  Clearly, very useful information.

The trouble is, it’s a ton of information and making sense out of it all requires a PhD in Googleatomy.   Fortunately, there are a few very specific metrics than can quickly give you an idea of where you are and how your website is performing. 

Overall Traffic.  This is simple enough, how much traffic (visitors not hits) does your website get each month?  This number shows you how well your website and eMarketing efforts have been a attracting visitors to your website.

Bounce Rate.  Your bounce rate tells you how many visitors landed on your homepage, but then immediately clicked away to another site.  You can think of it like a drive by at your lot.  You marketing worked and got someone to come check out your store, but when they got there they didn’t like what they saw, or couldn’t find what they were looking for and drive on by.  A healthy site has a bounce rate below 20%

Page per Visit.  This measures how many pages a person visits (on average) once they have found your site.  Like bounce rate, this is an excellent quality indicator of your sites layout, ease of use and interest or “stickiness”.  We typically like to see on average at least 5 Pages per Visit or better.

Engagements.  This measures how many visitors cross the line from anonymous visitors to actually contact.  Whenever a visitors fills out a “More Info”, “Make an Offer” or even just a “Contact Us” form (or in the case where you are using MyRVAdvantage Chat for Live Chat Support) online chats, then they have “Engaged” with your dealership.  Generally speaking we like to see engagements be 5% of traffic or better. 

Conversions.  Conversions represent those Engagements that actually turn into leads.  For example, someone might fill out a “Contact Us” form but they are asking about parts store hours, or someone wants “More Info” on an RV but gives you a bad email address.  So, the difference between filling out a form, having an online chat or any other form of engagement and those that actually become workable leads are considered Conversions.  We generally see about 10% of all Engagement become Conversions.

Closing Ratio. Finally, the percentage of Conversions that actually buy an RV is your closing ratio.  This is perhaps the hardest metric to measure since it depends on a tightly controlled sales system that ensures leads are coded correctly as Internet or Web leads and that the sales process has accountability and tracking throughout.

While most of these numbers are easily available from free online traffic reporting tools like Google Analytics, some (like your closing ratios) require a manual process that is built into the sale team’s daily process.   While it may require just a little more work to capture – the results can pay big dividends and are well worth the effort.

Step Three: Measure and Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses

The key to managing your website and eMarketing strategy is not as complex as you think.  As we just discussed, despite the overwhelming amount of data available to you, there are only a few key numbers that you need to pay attention to, well one actually which is your closing ratio, but like all other forms of advertising, all of your numbers are related to each other.  So understanding the relationships between these key numbers will help you make decisions about what is working and what needs fixing.

Generally speaking, more traffic is good.  The more traffic you get, the more opportunities you create to engage, convert and ultimately close new business from your website.  That said, more traffic doesn’t always equal more sales.  If your traffic is the wrong traffic (too far away from your store, you don’t carry what they are looking for, your website is confusing, etc) then a lot of that traffic will bounce.  (Again, the difference between your unique visitors and your “real” visitors is your bounce rate.  The lower the bounce rate you have the better job you are doing transitioning people from search engine to your website and dealership). 

To help you organize these numbers, review the screenshot of an Excel worksheet we use to measure the website performance of our customers below.  You can clearly see not only each key metric you need to track, but the relationship between each.  The screenshot is a made up example, but it illustrates the typical ratios we see across hundred of average RV dealerships.  What it also illustrates is how these website numbers relate to your bottom line.  Again, we’re going for business goals not website goals.

DOWNLOAD: You can download this worksheet for your own use by clicking here.

Plug in your numbers and see how you line up compared to these averages.  Depending on the results, you might be spot on, or you might need to fix some things.  For example, if you have low overall traffic, but a really low bounce race (10%) you could outperform a dealer with three times the traffic of your site, but their confusing homepage is causing a 40% bounce.  At the end of the day, while overall traffic is your starting number, all of the metrics in your website sales funnel need to line up in order for you to meet your business goals.

Step Four: Fix, Tweak & Correct

So, you’ve got your numbers, you know how your website is performing and which numbers are out of whack.  Now it’s time to figure out why they are out of whack and what you can do to fix it.  We run into all kinds of situations with dealers that cause numbers to be out of alignment with the averages, and while we occasionally run into some really strange situations that require a lot of trial and error but typically common problems have common cures.  

Let’s take a look at a few common problems and solutions:

Problem: High Bounce Rate

The single most important ratio you need to manage on your website is your bounce rate.  This ration will impact your ability to deliver results on all of the other steps and usually is the easiest to fix.  We like to see a bounce rate at or below 20%.  Anything above that and something is wrong. 

Typical Solution: Your homepage is either confusing, hard to navigate, loading slowly or doesn’t present what customers are expecting to see.  A General rule of thumb is to keep all of the relevant and more important information to your customers (which is not necessarily what is important to you) “above the fold” on your homepage.  Make sure your homepage loads quickly, includes links to important sections like inventory and brands and don’t fill up space with auto-playing videos or large graphics that people have to wait for to load.

Advanced Solution: Evaluate the layout of your homepage.  Be sure to measure click streams and traffic patterns using Google Analytics to “see” where people are clicking.  Make sure your homepage is designed to show the most important information in the top left corner and the least important in the lower right (North Americans read top left to bottom right).  Find out which pages have the highest abandonment rates and determine why people are leaving from those pages.

Problem: Low Engagement

Once visitors are finding your site, navigating around and finding what they are looking for you now need to encourage them to interact with you and ask for more information.  Your engagement ratio should be about 5% of real visitors or better.

Typical Solution: You would be surprised, but the best thing you can do to improve engagement is to make sure you provide plenty of photos and information about each and every unit on your lot….yes, even the lot lizards on the back 40.  Photos, a complete description and clearly displayed pricing information improve engagement dramatically.  If you are willing to give the customer what they want to know then they are more likely to ask for more information about something specific they are interested in.  Also make sure your online forms are easy to find, simple and only ask for the minimal amount of information required to begin a dialog.  This usually means name and email address.  Asking a visitor for a complete credit application invites abandonment.

Advanced Solution: One of the most effective engagement tools we use on our customers' websites is live chat.  This not only allows customers to click a link and ask for help, but our agents can monitor a website for visitors pausing on a page and “push” a chat to them asking if they need help.  While customers can always decline the chat, those that have real questions generally convert quickly and have a very positive experience with your dealership.

Problem: Low Conversion

Converting an engagement into a lead is very dependant on the type of engagement you have received, but it also is dependant on how quickly and how well your sales team responds to web leads, if at all.

Typical Solution:  Make sure all of your inbound leads & emails are sent to more than one person in your dealership including the sale manager and even the owner.  This can be as easy as setting up an “alias” inbox with your email system, something like “sales@mydealership.com” or “info@mydealership.com” and then subscribe a few people to receive these emails whenever one is sent to this inbox.  Make sure however that everyone knows who should respond and how quickly.  These leads should be treated like walk-ins and handled quickly and efficiently.

Advanced Solution: Employ a dedicated Business Development person to handle all of the inbound leads, sorting out the good from the bad then actively working with the sales team to transition them to a meeting and ultimately a sale.  This ensures that leads are handled quickly and efficiently and the sales team is present with not only the best of the best leads, but is typically presented with face-to-face meetings instead of emails.

Problem: Low Closing Ratios

The sales process itself defines your closing ratio more than your website.  But, it’s important to make sure your sales team is coding leads correctly and that closed deals are credited to the website in order to get an accurate perspective on web-to-close ratios.

Typical Solution: Use a simple system to capture and track the original leads.  Don’t just rely on a single “lead source” as salespeople may simply write in the most recent source like “walk in”.  Instead, include questions about how the customer first heard about the dealership, etc.

Advanced Solution:  Leverage a business development person to properly capture, code and then measure closing rations on inbound web leads separate from the sales process.  Additionally, implement a structured lead management system that’s connected to your website to ensure that leads are not only coded correctly but managed throughout the process in a timely manner. 

If you have questions about specific issues you can’t seem to solve on your website you can post question in our public forum at: http://www.myrvadvantage.com/Support/CommunityForum.aspx and we’ll be happy to post up suggestions.

Step Five: Grow SEO, The Right Way

 
Search Engine Optimization is one of the most commonly misunderstood concepts when it comes to website promotion in the RV Industry.  There are so many companies out there today trying to sell SEO to dealers that it can be very hard to separate the truth from fiction.  In a nutshell this is the definition of SEO (from Wikipedia):

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of maximizing the volume or quality of traffic to a web site (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to other forms of search engine marketing ("SEM") which may deal with paid inclusion. The theory is that the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.

The straight story is simply this:  You can get something for nothing with SEO.  It’s cheap advertising, but it doesn’t always last for long (someone else is always trying to knock your site off the SEO mountain) and too often doesn’t result in achieving real business goals for a dealership – like a sale. 

Really good SEO, on the other hand, the kind that keeps you at the top of the search engines for terms that generate business for your dealership over the long term takes a little planning and management. 

A few of the key concepts for smart SEO are listed below:

Be Relevant.  Sure it’s cool to be page one number one for the search term “RV Dealer”.  But so what?  Are people who are planning to buy a used Winnebago Class C and live near Cincinnati really going to type that into Google?  Perhaps, but a more relevant approach would be to emphasis that you are a Winnebago dealer near Cincinnati. 

Leverage Your Assets.  Taking the same example from above, let’s say you have two used Winnebago Class C’s on your lot right now.  Are those specific units are getting good SEO?  Good website software can automate a lot of this process by leveraging your inventory to create “pages” that are setup for good indexing by Google and the other major search engines.  Now when that Cincinnati couple searches for “Used Winnebago Class C in Cincinnati” they skip your homepage and land right on those units within your website.  We've saved clicks and delivered the potential customer right on information that’s relevant to them, and we used your inventory to do it.

Good vs. Bad Traffic.  Just like you can have good walk in traffic and bad walk in traffic the web opens the doors to the world.  Many of our dealers who start an SEO campaign generate interest and leads from prospects who live outside their traditional trade area.  While this exists and offers immediate confirmation that your SEO campaign is working, it often produces customers who are finding you to simply “shop” their local dealer.  Yes, you can get new business this way – but be smart about where you spend your time.  There is no need to chase low margin (or no margin) business just because someone 2,500 miles away is interested.

Sales vs. Traffic.  Like all of your business goals, a good SEO campaign remains focused on sales goals and how they relate to traffic goals.  Driving a lot of traffic gives you more opportunity to engage prospects through your website, but useless unless those leads turn into sales at a good rate of return.

Search Engine Optimization is still marketing and while the tools and terms are new, the concepts are the same.  SEO will allow you to tap into the web and drive more traffic to your store – Smart SEO will drive relevant traffic that is looking for what you have on your lot and will help convert that traffic into leads and finally sales.  The difference between the two plays a large part in the success or failure of the online marketing of your dealership.

For more information on practical SEO strategies check our article: Reality Check- Practical Tips for Separating the Truth from Sales Fiction with Search Engine Optimization.

Step Six: Supplement with Online and Offline Advertising

While organic SEO can get your website found very inexpensively, there are other ways to promote and advertise your dealership’s website, both online and offline.  SEO should be just one part of your overall marketing strategy.  Tools like Google AdWords, Banners placed on RV and camping related websites and even the standard classifieds ads on the big classified website can help drive interest in your dealership. 

Classified Ads.  Sites like RVTraderOnline and others can quickly and easily deliver exposure and deliver leads based on the shear number of visits they get each year.  But don’t rule out other non-traditional classified ads like Craig’s List, eBay and even small local free classified sites. 

Google AdWords.  An “AdWord” is simply a link with a short amount of text advertising your dealership placed on other people’s websites.  The beauty of AdWords, however, is in their relevance to consumers based on what they are reading.  Let’s say you place an AdWord for “The Best Prices on Winnebago’s in Cincinnati” (AdWords are placed through Google.com) and I’m reading a blog post from one of my favorite bloggers who posts funny stories about their family camping trips in their Winnebago in and around Southern Ohio.  Let’s also say that blogger wants to show AdWords on their blog (Google shares some of the revenue is gets for clicks on AdWords with the people who will show their ads).  All of a sudden a link for your dealership shows up on the blog I read all the time.  Instant relevance and often very effective.

Banner Ads.  Banner Ads are still the backbone of online advertising.  A simple banner placed on local, regional and even national websites can raise awareness of your dealership and generate clicks to your homepage.  When you design your banner keep it simple and focus the message on something basic but relevant.  Also try to place banners ads on local sites like newspapers and campground directories whenever possible.  Typically these generate better results and are less expensive than using a big Ad Network like DoubleClick and others.

Traditional Advertising.  One of the most often overlooked aspects of online advertising is your traditional offline advertising.  Everything you do, from your TV and Radio spots to your business cards to print ads and flyers should include your web address.  Even the signature line of every email coming our of the dealership should have a link back to your site (check out an easy way to do this with your email using a free tool call WiseStamp here: http://www.myrvadvantage.com/Blog/tabid/75/ID/356/Promoting-Your-Dealership-20-ndash-Modern-Social-Networking-using-Old-School-Email.aspx)  Why?  Because typically it’s the name of your store and people are far more likely to remember the name of your dealership than your 800 number.  

As with everything you do as part of your online marketing strategy, you can easily measure the results of your advertising campaigns and determine the effectiveness of not only each approach – but even specific websites.  So, if you don’t get leads from specific classifieds site then drop them and move that budget into something more effective for your store.  Each store is different so managing this can be complex.  Fortunately, Google Analytics can again help you keep things in check and measure referrals and even the effectiveness of your AdWord campaigns.

Step Seven: Going Social; Making Friends and Gaining Followers

 
Facebook, Twitter and blogs are here to stay.  Facebook alone has more members than some countries.  Having a presence on Facebook and and a Twitter account for your dealership is another way to connect to your existing customers and reach new ones.  The power of social networking lies in the network of “friends” or “followers” themselves to promote your business for you and develop a sort of loyalty around your business. 

The trick here is to remember that this is social media and not plug everything on my lot media so what you post and how often you post it has an effect on your membership on Facebook and your followers on Twitter.  Remember, people opt in to either “friend” or “fan” you on Facebook and “Follow” you on Twitter.  If they don’t like what you post they can leave just as easily.  And no one wants to be “un-friended”, not even RV Dealerships.

• Create a Facebook and Twitter Account.  Build these around real people, perhaps even the owner of the dealership.  Again, this is about “real” social networks and sometimes people want to connect on that level with your store.
• Post daily.  Try to make is simple and fun.  Again, the focus is on the relationship and valuable inforamtion not sale plugs.  Which type of post would you rather receive every day?  “Sale! Sale! Sale! on a 2009 Winnebago View, Only $89,667!"  Hurry, This won’t last!” or this one? “Just heard that a new campground is opening down the street from the dealership.  I’ll try and get some sneak peek pictures over the weekend”.
• Save time by connecting your Twitter account to your Facebook page.  Post on Twitter and it will flow over to Facebook automatically.
• Download and install the Facebook and Twitter apps for you phone.  These allow you to post and stay connected whenever you think of something to post.  The Facebook app even allows you to take and post pictures from anywhere.
• Connect your website articles and blog posts to you facebook page using RSS feeds.  Every time you publish a new post on your website it will automatically generate a link on your facebook page.
• Download and install TweeDeck to manage your Twitter account.  It makes posting easy but also allows you to track and see when other people post about you or re-post your posts, giving you a global perspective on your global Twitter activity
• Make friends on Facebook and encourage them to invite their friends to become your friends.  Again, Facebook is a social network based on real “friend” connections between people.  This takes time, but an investment in this area can generate thousands of “friends” and “fans” for your page.
• Publish events on a regular basis.  Both yours and others of interest.  Invite people to them.

For more information on using Twitter successfully within your dealership: http://www.myrvadvantage.com/Blog/tabid/75/ID/181/categoryId/4/To-Tweet-or-not-to-Tweet-What-is-Twitter-Anyway.aspx 

Step Eight: Add a Greeter to Your Website

Can you imagine customers walking all over your lot with no one ever asking them if they needed some help?  Isn’t the ideal dealership situation to have a friendly and personable greeter invite people into the store, make sure they are getting what they need and if they need help connecting them with the perfect person to answer their questions?

Why should your website be any different?

Modern technology allows you to literally monitor your website live and in real time push an invite “Can I help you find something?” chat to your visitors.  You can answer questions, re-direct them to pages on your site, perform searches for them and ultimately build rapport and even offer to have someone who knows more about a specific RV they are interested in call them back in a few minutes.

This “Virtual Greeter” can extend the hours of your dealership, improve the visitor’s experience on your website, get them the information they need quickly (or connect them with someone else who can) and most importantly convert an anonymous visitor into a warm lead in just a few minutes.

Step Nine: Go Outbound with Email Marketing

Regular email communication is the least expensive way to keep your dealership in front of customers and prospects.

Ad Hoc Announcements.  Sometimes you just need to get the word out about something big.  Let’s say you’re having a big event next weekend and you want to let all of your customers know about it quickly.  With an Ad Hoc email you can easily create a message, add some graphics, link back to more information on your website and maybe even a “registration form” and send it out within minutes. 

Monthly Newsletters.  Keeping your customers connected to your store long after the sale takes effort.  By setting up a monthly email campaign you can automatically send out a dealership newsletter every month to all of your customers and prospects.  You can even include posts and information from your Facebook and Twitter pages, upcoming sales and specials and articles and blog posts you’ve written or found that you think might be interesting to your readers. 

Inventory Updates.  Early in the buying process customers are inventory focused.  Sending out “latest arrivals” emails shows prospects what’s new on your lot on a regular basis.  This information can also be combined with newsletters and even ad hoc emails when appropriate.

One-to-one marketing campaigns.  Managing ongoing, long-term communications with customers and prospects on a one-to-one basis can be achieved using one-to-one campaigns.  Targeted email campaigns with specific emails and steps scheduled out years in advance can keep customers connected to the dealership and help them progress through the ownership (or buying) process with very little work from the sales team. 

Automated Opt In Compliance.  There are strict rules in place for managing emails.  Make sure you automate the process for people to “opt in” or “opt out” of email campaigns. 

Like all systems, email campaign management tracks everything from bad email addresses to opened emails to link clicks and percentage responses.  These tools allow you to constantly monitor and adjust your campaigns to help you ensure success.

Step Ten: It’s All About Engagement

Engaging your customers in your dealership starts when they drive into the parking lot of your dealership.  Engaging them online starts when they find you on Google, or read a tweet or get an email from your store or a friend recommends that they become a fan of your Facebook page.  The process of “engaging” a customer starts with “Hello” and ends with a sale.  The process of managing that entire process is called Web Engagement Management or WEM.

Web Engagement Management is a composite concept. These are the 5 parts we consider its core (based on CMSWire):

Content Optimization
This includes native or tightly integrated analytics, content and experience personalization, multi-variate testing and optimization and SEO.

Multi-channel Management
Consistency is important and WEM maintains it by delivering the same message/experience to customers across devices and channels both online and offline.

Conversational Engagement
WEM supports this through communities, user generated content, commenting, trackbacks, micro-blogging, social media integration, analytics, social media monitoring and sentiment analysis.

Demand Generation
Targeted marketing is huge. With an overall goal of increasing the number and quality of relationships, WEM comes to the aid of demand generators through need recognition, relevancy enhancements and engagement triggers.

Sales Automation
Love isn't the only two-way street, and as social media analyst Jeremiah Owyang put it, "real-time isn't fast enough." This idea is manifest in WEM in areas like two-way CRM integration, social CRM and e-mail or other campaign integration with the content platform.

For more information about WEP read this article from CMSWire: For http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-engagement/what-is-web-engagement-management-wem-007400.php

How to Get It All Done

As you can see an Online Marketing Strategy and can be as simple or comprehensive as you want to make it.   But with 90% of your customers using the web to start their buying process and more and more people relying on email, text, Facebook and social networks to communicate a comprehensive WEP program is critical to your dealership’s success.

If you're just starting out, many of the initial steps can be handled by you or your sales and marketing team.  As things progress, either hiring a dedicated web marketing manager or outsourcing the job to your ad agency or a company like MyRVAdvantage might make more financial sense. 

Either way, when you begin the process, make sure the people you work with on this understand not only the technology and tools available to manage your strategy, but that they really understand your industry and your dealership’s specific business goals.  Because, at the end of the day the focus should remain fixed on sales and the bottom line, not the latest technology.