Well, it’s been another crazy year, so to wrap it up with our last blog of 2021, we are having some fun! We’ve compiled some great throwbacks from earlier in the year and years past. From old cars to automotive ads and even some blogs you might want to revisit, we hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane!

Classic Cars

Let’s start with the best part – cars! According to Autolist.com, the 1964 Pontiac GTO tops the list of the 15 Greatest American Classic Muscle Cars. According to the article “While the first true American muscle car is debatable, fingers often point to the Pontiac GTO. Pontiac’s performance car presented buyers with a big block V8 engine at an affordable price. Not only was the GTO affordable, but Pontiac successfully marketed it based on performance figures never before offered.”

Another classic that makes the list is the 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454. They write “The Chevelle offered distinct muscle car lines and was sleek with a slightly slanted back end and bulging hood to present the speed and power provided. The Chevy Chevelle looked like a sports car that would beat all newcomers, and it generally did. Even fifty years later, the Chevelle retains its iconic status as one of the most celebrated and collectible American muscle cars of all time.”

While there are so many great muscle cars on this list, the third one we are highlighting is the ever classic (and one of my favorites) Mustang. Making the list is the 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429. “The Ford Mustang Boss 429 is one of the most sought-after classic cars globally, with only 1,359 units being built throughout its two-year run between 1969 and 1970. The 1970 BOSS 429 saw only 499 units produced, making it a scarcity among collections.”

Automotive Ads

Of course, you cannot talk best cars ads of all time without mentioning VW. The “Think Small” campaign

that VW launched is one of the most iconic and even changed the way many cars were advertised adding a little personality with this campaign.

In 2020 when Covid changed the world as we know it, many manufacturers stood out for the advertising

they developed in uncertain times. Financialexpress.com put together a great compilation of these campaigns. One of these campaigns showcases KIA where the driver turns around and goes back home stating that “Going back does not mean we would never move ahead. As we pass through these tough times, let’s look for the silver lining

together.” The OEM definitely stood out for this heartfelt commercial promoting social distancing.

Lastly, when it comes to best automotive ads, we asked Kristen, our Art Director which ad created by our very own design team this year was her favorite! Kristen chose this ad, created for our Automotive Software client, WebBuy because it’s so modern looking!

Throwback Reading

If you’re new to our site or our blog, then this is a perfect throwback for you highlighting some of our most important blogs of 2021. We will start off with social media as this blog still holds very true. Catch up on this one to take your social media strategy to the next level. It’s no surprise this one is placed in the top of 2021. While more car buyers did venture out to buy cars than in 2020, home car buying is still on the rise and it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere anytime soon. Here’s our Car Buying From Home Experience Blog.  As an automotive marketing agency, we often get asked about hiring an agency like ours vs. spreading the advertising out across multiple vendors or using a large company like Dealer.com. We compare the options in this blog. Of course, to help prepare you for the upcoming year, you’ll definitely want to read this one: “Digital Marketing Trends 2022.”

While this blog was all in good fun, we are also here to help you get down to business in 2022. If you’re looking to stand out next year and do something different, Digital to Dealer Direct is the place to be. Contact us online today or call us at 877-958-4524.

Looking to get successful website conversion that converts visitors into leads? If so, you’ve some to the right place! Fortunately, it doesn’t take a mastermind to figure this out, only a few basic rules to follow. Lucky for you, we’ve put together some of the most important tips for you to follow!

Getting Started

To begin, you want to focus on the overall purpose of your landing page. What is the goal of your page and why do you want visitors to come there in the first place? Prospects only care about what you offer based on how it will benefit them. Once you understand and pinpoint what benefits you can offer, you can begin your foundation of creating an effective landing page.

An important concept to recognize, while developing your content, is to remain customer-centric in your messaging. It’s all about the customer and how you can pique their interest in what you have to offer.

The Three Ws

You’ve probably learned this in grade school writing class but while developing your landing page, remember the three Ws – Who. What. Why.

• • Who is your target audience?

  • What are you offering?

  • Why does this matter to the visitor?

As soon as the page loads, you want it to be able to answer those three questions, and fast!

A Great Headline

They say not to judge a book by it’s cover, yet, we all still do it. The same goes for a headline on a page. You want to grab someone’s attention and pull them in so they WANT to read more. Remember that you have a target audience, so when writing a headline, keep them in mind. You want to pinpoint a message that clearly resonates with them, just like a great cover would.

With a headline, you also want to keep it simple and to the point yet address how your product is beneficial. Don’t try to squeeze all your products benefits into a single headline. It comes off gimmicky and too good to be true. Use strong words but still be clear about what you’re offering. As an automotive digital marketing agency, we are lucky to have some great designers and team members who spend time coming up with great headlines, so if you need a little help, we’ve got you covered!

Keep their Attention

We’ve got a great headline and now you need the meat of your page. Sometimes that starts with a great sub-headline to further explain what you’re offering. It’s your extra chance to promote the value of what you’re offering. Your sub-head can serve as your body copy or it could just be a “subtitle” to your great headline. This is the perfect place to express the benefits that compliment your headline or to discuss an actual offer.

If you don’t include a sub-headline, that’s ok. If you need more than a sub-headline to describe your product, this where the body copy comes in. Just like everything else, you want to keep your message simple, explanatory, and clear. Remember, this is your chance for conversion so you want to explain how what you offer will benefit your visitors. Make sure it speaks directly to them and hits their pain points. It’s all about the benefits and how it can help your visitor.

Back Up Your Words

So you have all this great copy that includes everything you can offer. Great! However, do you have the statics and ratings to back it up? Visitors want to trust you and what you’re offering. Providing clear successful data helps build trust and shows that you have the information to backup your words. Testimonials, endorsements, and ratings are all successful ways to provide proof and reinforce your message.

Call-To-Action

You’ve got your striking headline, your stupendous body copy, all backed by some testimonials and reviews. Great! All you need now is a way to drive all that information home and close out with your call-to-action. Your entire page should be leading up to this point and your CTA is just as important, if not more so, than the rest of the copy on your page.

Just like all the other elements on the page, keep your visitor in mind. Be as specific as to what will happen next. Include some urgency and be action oriented. If your CTA is a form, don’t give the visitor more work than they need. Only ask for fields that are necessary. You also don’t want to be too salesy or pushy.

What’s Next?

When all is said and done the goal is to convert visitors and drive leads, and the words we chose to use, are the biggest impact on how a user behaves on your landing page. If a particular page isn’t converting well, it might be time to revisit that page and change it up. A good landing page is never complete. Do your research so that your message matches your target audience. Continue to update your success stories. Play around with wording to see what works best with your visitors. And remember, your pages will always be a work in progress and should never remain the same for TOO long, unless it’s working, of course.

These basic guidelines will certainly get you on your way to higher conversion on your landing pages. Our Website Watchdog program combines all of these tips to provide our dealers with the landing pages they need to do exactly that.

Still having trouble figuring out where to start? At Digital to Dealer Direct, we have a team of intelligent and diligent marketers who are learning and understanding the digital changes that are occurring in our world. We are on top of the 2022 digital marketing trends to provide you with the best advertising experience and success as possible. If you have any questions or would like to discuss how we can help YOU, contact us today at 877-958-4524.

It’s hard to believe another year has passed and we are starting to prep for the new year. With all of the obstacles thrown at us in these past few years, such as COVID and chip shortages, we are hopeful we’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel. The automotive industry as a whole has learned to adapt to these said obstacles, however, there are more changes headed our way. So, what is there to expect for 2022 and where do we go from here? Let’s dive into how to combat the new and existing challenges we are facing.

That’s The Way the Cookie Crumbles

The marketing world will now have to learn to live in a cookie-less world. Don’t worry, Oreos isn’t going anywhere! (Phew). The cookies I am referencing impact how you are able to effectively target your customers. Google will be following suit with Apple and Mozilla (Firefox) and will begin phasing out 3^rd party cookies. Without this 3^rd party data, it will make it harder, especially for local companies, to target their audience.

So now what? Our recommendation is to collect your own 1^st party data, which will of course have a higher R.O.I. opposed to any other data type. I am sure you’re now wondering how to accomplish that. As mentioned in our Digital Dealer Conference Recap blog, our ID Retargeting program will allow you to market to the people who are coming into your site in real time, opposed to marketing to 3^rd party data that could be dated or no longer accurate. Another option is partnering with another local company and purchasing their data, which would be labeled as 2^nd party data. I should also mention that most websites will still be collecting the 3^rd party data, but by asking the person browsing for permission to collect their data, which I am sure you have noticed on some sites already while shopping.

Managing Inventory Shortages

Unfortunately, it is forecasted that the inventory shortage issue will continue into early 2022. There are even some manufacturers that have promised inventory to dealers of vehicles that aren’t even built yet. Below is a list of the most popular workarounds we recommend your dealership to execute:  

1. Allow customers to custom order their vehicle

• • With the assistance of your agency, set up a custom landing page on your website that showcases the available models and options and how they can reserve their vehicle of interest.

2. Invest in a Digital Retailing Tool

• • Inventory issues aside, digital retailing is the new way of buying cars and it is here to stay. Did you know that 76% of people are open to completing their entire car buying process online?

  • A digital retailing tool also allows you to reach a wider net and not only sell more of the inventory you do have, but to acquire more pre-owned vehicles as well. (More on that next!)

3. Acquire pre-owned inventory

• • Since there is a halt on new car production, you will have to keep your inventory levels afloat with pre-owned. As mentioned above, a digital retailing tool will help you buy inventory from people in your market. Since it has been slim pickings, people are more willing to drive the extra mile for a car they need and as should your dealership.

  • If you do not have a DR tool, some examples that your dealership could promote are that you offer a pick-up and delivery service, offering above book value, and that you will buy their car even if they don’t buy from you.

While we are hopeful that we will fully recover from the COVID-19 crisis, chip shortages and everything in-between, there is unfortunately not a set date on when things will go back to “normal”. Although, there may be no returning from our “new normal”. The main topics we covered here are what your dealership should be focusing on when entering 2022, and even now. For more information on our ID Retargeting Program, or Digital Retailing options, please feel free to contact us today!

It’s that time of year again where it’s getting darker earlier, the days are shorter, and the temperatures are getting cooler in most places. Within a few short months we will be at the end of 2021 and welcoming 2022. Crazy, right?! With that being said now is the time to prepare your dealership for the holiday season. Granted this year doesn’t quite look like years passed with inventory shortages, but planning ahead makes all your marketing run smoothly, ensuring your website is loading and linking correctly makes it user friendly, and get ready to get festive! Within a blink of an eye the holidays will be here so don’t wait and start planning to get ahead of the game.

Preparing a Plan Early

Planning ahead is the main key factor to making an easy flowing, attention grabbing holiday season campaign. With so many holidays in the next couple months planning ahead makes all your marketing run effortlessly without a tight deadline as each holiday sneaks up one after another. First, you need to get a plan of what type of event your dealership wants to advertise for each upcoming holiday. Are you feeling in a bah humbug mood? No problem! Create a plan to be more season themed, i.e. autumn or winter, so you still are participating in the time of the year-end excitement without screaming Thanksgiving with a turkey. Planning ahead with also help you prepare for what you want to push – is it used cars given the lack of new inventory? Is it acquiring trade ins, or is it your service department? Whatever it is, it’s best to decide now so you can move forward.

Spreading Some Holiday Cheer

Having fun is what the holidays are all about, and customers love something exciting! This is the time of year to break your typical headlines and campaigns. Thanksgiving is a great universal holiday that can pull in wonderful fall colors while also being the broadest for brand compliance. Since fall colors can be more muted and toned down this becomes a great asset for those brands who are restrictive of bright and bold colors while also still pulling in the Thanksgiving feeling.

After Thanksgiving follows the Holiday Savings Event and Year End push. Depending on which way your dealership prefers to go it call pull more winter and holiday season or pull towards the year end and new year creative. If you like both ideas, you can even switch it up by starting with the holiday season for December and switching it to a campaign about New Years! This time of year, brands will also come out with their own campaigns so be sure to check with the manufacturers to see if there is a campaign that must be used. Even if there is a campaign that must be used you can still put your own personal twist with it by using different backgrounds while using the campaign logos the asset sites provide and pulling the colors for the campaign to creative a cohesive look.

Is Your Website Ready?

Once you approve of a creative plan for the holiday season, you want to make sure that your website is ready to handle the traffic. This can include that all links, tabs and images are clicking and linking to correct pages. Nothing is more frustrating when you click a tab that leads you the wrong page! Since most dealerships are focusing on used car inventory, you’ll want to take a look at your used car photos. Are they high quality detailed images with consistency? This is something that is often overlooked.

Contact your automotive digital marketing agency  and inquire about a website maintenance program like D2D’s Website Watchdog! This ensures that your website is running smoothly, stays compliant and you are using the most out of your co-op dollars for your holiday campaigns.

Get Ready for Holiday Cheer!

There are several holidays to work with between November and January, this is also the time where business may boom a bit! Who doesn’t love a little gift to themselves with a big red bow in their driveway?! Create a plan of action ahead of time, have fun with the creative, and make sure your website is ready to handle all the business that may be coming your way! D2D has managed everything from websites, digital marketing, and email campaigns. If you need on getting ready for the holidays ahead, contact us today!

In the digital age, having a central hub to find all of your brand’s content is so important and can help you stay ahead of the curve with events, vehicle launches, social media and more! Luckily for you, most brands have an asset website to help you stay on brand in your advertising! See how you can utilize your manufacture’s asset website to make the most out of your advertising!

How To Get An Account

All asset websites require you to create an account to access their assets. Since these assets can be confidential, they don’t just allow anyone to log-in. Brands like GM and Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep & Ram will require you to prove that you are associated with a dealership. It’s not as difficult as it sounds, and once you’re in, you’re all set!

Navigating

Each asset site runs a little differently. Some will post their events and most recently posted assets to their homepage, while other will require you to search a bit more in different sections within the site. Most sites will allow you to search for specific items, like a logo or event that you know is running. Once you know where to look, assets are usually easy to find. If you are having difficulty, ask your automotive digital marketing agency if they have experience using an asset site, or they might be pulling the assets for you.

What Can the Asset Site Provide?

The asset sites host everything from vehicle brand programs, campaigns and events to brand essentials and guides. Some sites will even post running footage and social medial content that could be downloaded for your advertising. At Digital to Dealer Direct, our in-house design team researches each brand to stay up to date on events and any changes that might be posted on the asset websites. The design team will also use the asset site to ensure monthly campaigns remain on brand for any events that might be posted. Some other logos that can be found would be certified pre-owned, service and any brand essential logos your brand might have.

In addition to branding and campaign logos, the asset websites are a great place to find images of vehicles, whether it be lifestyle imagery with a background or cut-out vehicle images, or what we call, “jellybeans images”. This feature where you can find a particular vehicle with a certain trim or an image in a particular location. Most asset sites will even allow you to search for keywords like “snow” “mountains” “lake” “city” etc. to help stay consistent to your dealership’s location.

Staying on Brand

One of the most important things to remember in automotive advertising is staying in brand, not only for your dealership, but for your manufacturer. Each manufacturer has a particular set of standards for their logos, fonts, and even color pallets and will post guides to follow. The asset site is the best place to find all the information you’ll need regarding these standards and they will usually provide all the information and files you may need to do so. Most brands will require you to stay within these particular style guides to be approved for co-op reimbursement, so this section of the website it key!

Downloading Assets

Once you find what you’re looking for, obtaining your assets is just a click and download away. Some sites have you download assets individually while others allow you to add to a “cart” and download multiple items at once. Depending on the site, you will often have the chance to choose the file type you need for creative. I.E. Logos can be downloaded in a vector file or a plain .png file, depending on your needs.

What They Don’t Have

Although an asset site is the best place to find almost everything you could need for your advertising, they don’t always offer EVERYTHING. Sometimes you find a lack of variety when it comes to lifestyle imagery locations or even a particular photo you see in advertising, won’t be posted for download. Another asset that can be difficult to find is vehicle images with a particular trim level, especially in lifestyle vehicle images.

Manufacture websites are the go-to place in automotive adverting, with almost everything you could need, just a download away. Here at D2D, as an automotive marketing company, we have experience with several different manufacturers and the related asset sites. Our experienced graphic design department stays up to date with most manufacture’s campaigns, brand guidelines and more! Want to ensure your dealership has all the right assets in your advertising? Contact us today, directly at info@digital2dealer.com.