Merry Christmas everybody! We've had a great year and we hope you have too. We are often asked about vehicle listings stats for AutoBase and Trade Me Motors, so for the end the year, here are a few stats that you might find of interest.
· This year's most popular make and model car is:
Toyota Corolla
· Most popular year of manufacture:
2002
· Average year of manufacture:
2003
· We had 149,811 listings added this year, of which 137,900 were cars
· Average kms for cars listed for the year:
88,138
· Of the cars - 72.8% were petrol, 12.9% diesel, 0.7% hybrid and 13.6% other
· At the beginning of the year we had 38,250 listings and now have 39,120
· Biggest engine car on AutoBase right now: Click Here
·Smallest engine car on AutoBase right now: Click Here
Wishing you a safe and happy holiday from all of us here at AutoBase. For help during the silly season (with your online listings, that is!), please contact us here.
We get a lot of questions from dealers wanting to know how their online performance stacks up with similar businesses, asking us for "Average" monthly stats on other dealers’ sales through put, number of enquiries etc. However, there is no ‘norm’. Variants like price, stock, lead management, marketing, promotions and social media all contribute to sales and leads which means you would be comparing apples to oranges.
While we will never publish a NBR style rich list, the top performers would be no surprise as these businesses standout by showing excellence in all areas - not just in their online marketing. Before getting into facts and figures, those at the top have a number of common traits worth exploring.
·They understand their market segment and customise their listings and marketing approach to suit.
·They have a tight lead management process.
·If the customers they are seeking come from a niche base and vehicles are the type that forms a following or community, the driver is to get them back to their own dealership website or Facebook page. From this point it is easy for them to keep an on-going engaging conversation alive.
There are number of motor dealers who do this very well. Those chasing the mass-market concentrate on higher listing visibility and first in category style features, generally supported by finance options and customer testimonials.
When comparing performance, the easiest place to start is the vehicle online daily views. Can you get access to this information from your online provider? Trending and tracking can be achieved by just running your eye over the data, or if you wish with limited excel knowledge it is easily graphed. If your vehicle views are low, the vehicle listed should be addressed.
A common reason for low vehicle views (despite poor use of images and little detail) is a lack of keywords within the description or not placing a model name variation within the text. If the listing is a Mazda CX-7Land Cruiser make sure you use the words CX7 or Landcruiser within the comments. Searching for your own listings is a great way of bench marking performance. Most vehicle browsers search for a keyword - hence the requirement to have relevant and high value keywords within a listing. One of the most popular key words is ‘Manual’ transmission. The quality and number of images have a large bearing on views and those listings with over 11 images attached attract more attention than those will less. And avoid place holder images if possible. or
Avoid placeholders where possible
Buying higher profile and larger real estate online works just like print advertising. Utilise any features of packages that your online provider offers to give your listings more exposure. If your goal is to also drive customers to your own dealership website, state in your listings that there is more information available to the customer if they go to your website. Some online providers offer hyperlinks directly through to your website from your listings. This additional information can be anything of value to the customer ranging from YouTube clips, finance options or other customer testimonials.
In summary, online media is accountable, with accessible performance. Time does need to be taken to track trends however the information is readily at hand and the payoff is immediate. Getting it right is what counts.
*For more information on Vehicle View Reporting and tools, please email us here.
The internet offers a huge range of opportunities to everyone and some people use it for good, some for bad. To say that there is a sucker born every minute is probably an understatement when it comes to the web as many, many people fall daily to internet based scams. For a company like us we spend hours and hours of time defending and countering internet-based attacks. Just this week, two scams were doing the rounds of classified based websites.
One of the tricks used is that the true victim is unaware of the scam right until the last minute, by which time it is generally too late. Many people are surprised by how organised and targeted internet-based scams are and think “ I’m so small, why would they attack me?” Like a few things in life as the scam unfolds you find that you are only part of a bigger and more complex picture. The timings used are very exact and ensure maximum impact on the intended targets and time periods -long weekends are favourites. During this time the scammers are banking on the fact that the targets are more relaxed and their system and web providers have less support available to manage or monitor events. From our point of view, we have support available in the AutoBase office during Saturday and have strict monitoring in place 24/7.
Along with timing, a scam will normally build in a number of stages that do not seem to link until the very last minute. The first step is to always gain access to user accounts. As there are many complex tools in place to stop the scammer hacking the user information directly, the easiest way is to just ask the users for their login information directly. Surprising, this does work with the old ‘click on this link to update your information’ trick. The user is further fooled as the site mirrors the expected interface, as it is a direct copy of the legitimate website. An extra step used to stop the user thinking something is wrong is when after the first attempt to enter your username and password , the second attempt works and redirects you back to the legitimate website.
With this user information, and generally before a weekend, the user information is used to change the following. The price is reduced only enough to make the items look attractive, but not enough to raise the suspicion of the purchaser. This leaves the purchaser with a sense of urgency around closing the deal. What makes the pricing look even more legitimate is the adding of comments stating that the company is running some type of sale before re-locating or closing down. Finally, the contact details have been updated to redirect enquires back to the scammer. Now the spider web is set.
As the purchasers start to make contact, the scammer feeds off the urgency of the buyer and states that they have had a number of enquires and to hold or secure the item a holding fee or deposit is required to be paid immediately. Stung! By the time it has come to the surface of what is happening, it is too late for some. Nowadays the scammers are heading back for a second go and enquiring about the vehicles that they have changed and updated. By doing this they then see when they have been sprung, as they are notified along with the other buyers that they have been involved in a scam.
The golden rule is to never reply to an email or click on a link requesting your username and details. No online trader or bank will ever ask you to do this and if you have any doubt call the company requesting the information directly. If it is found to be a scam, this kicks off a number of processes around getting the website removed and efforts in locating where the scammer operating from. This also allows any other users who could have been impacted to be contacted.
How do I identify a phishing scam?
·You receive an email from a company that you currently do business with and they are requesting you username and password
·The email could state your name or company. However generally they state Sir or Madam
·The email warns that you have been a victim of fraud
·The email says that you need to confirm or enter a new password
·The HTML tags behind the links on the email will reveal that the underlying URL usually does not link to a page within the authentic domain
·You did not initiate contact with the sender or may not have expected to receive it
·The email contains grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.
Always be on your guard.
For more tips and information, check out the Scambusters NZ website here
SEO is an acronym for "Search Engine Optimisation" or "Search Engine Optimiser". SEOs are a way to drive more online traffic to your website, therefore optimizing your website.
SEOs provide useful services for website owners, including:
* The ability to review your site content or structure
* Management of online business development campaign
* Keyword research
* Expertise in specific markets and geographical areas
Meta tags are codes that are inserted into your web page headers and provide information to search engines. Meta tags provide information such as:
* Who created the page?
* How often it is updated?
* What the page is about?
* Which keywords represent the page's content.
You can make a meta tag for the Title, Description and Keywords that Google will pick up when people search the Internet. It is a bit like the way you use keywords in your Trade Me Motors listings for Internet browsers (such as Google) to pick up in search results. Meta tags are a great way to control to some degree how your website is being picked up by Search Engines.
Most search engines do their text query and retrieval using keywords. So what is a keyword, exactly? It is like keywords that you would put in, E. g. a Trade me listing, to draw traffic and browsers to that listing. i.e: "Leather seats", "sale", "used", "manual", "AA accredited", "alarm", "CD player" etc. A keyword can simply be any word on a webpage. For example, If you page is a list of benefits of buying from your dealership, you need to think to yourself, “what 10 or 15 words or phrases is this page MOST about?” Just because your page mentions trade-ins in the text doesn’t mean that the page is about trade-ins. If you want to attract buyers by promoting the fact that you offer warranties, create a page about warranties.
If you have a website hosted by AutoBase and your website is configured with the SEO you can manipulate the Title and Meta Tags as required on a per page basis. Contact us HEREto find out more. We'll leave the last word to the 'SEO Rapper':
For more information, check out this article from Google here.
Facebook have made the setup of business pages very simple and easy. Here are a few tips to guide you through.
Tip 1
A business page is different from a personal page. If you set up personal page advertising or representing your business, Facebook will remove it.
Make sure that you have completely logged out of your personal page back to the Facebook home page http://www.facebook.com/.
Under ‘Sign Up’ you will see a link to ‘Create a Page for celebrity, business etc… This link http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php will open an easy step by step process to create your business page.
Tip 2
A business page must be associated with personal page. Facebook and done this for many reasons and it does confuse people when creating a page. Do not try and setup a dummy personal account as Facebook can track the address, email and phone numbers used and you risk having your page removed. This personal page becomes the owner of the business page.
Tip 3
There is no public link between your business page and personal page. Making yourself the owner allows you to create other personal Facebook page users the right to be an administrator on your business page.
Tip 4
Any business page administrators and you can have more than one, must have a personal Facebook page.
Tip 5
You ‘Like’ a business page and have ‘Friends’ on your personal page.
Tip 6
A personal page is limited to 5000 'Friends', whereas a business page has unlimited 'Likes'.
Once your business page is set up, you can access it through your personal page under the ‘Home’ tab. Select ‘Use Facebook as Page’.
Tip 8
Use the ‘Switch’ button to access your business page as the administrator. It you click on the Facebook page number you will display the page as the public would have no access to the ‘Edit’ functions.
Sharing a Vehicle Listing
Tip 9
There are two options to allow the sharing of your vehicle listings onto your business Facebook page.
Option A
Ensure that you have ‘Switched’ from your private Facebook page to your business page. Find your listings on www.AutoBase.co.nz. Open the listing you wish to share and click the Facebook icon above the image. A box with ‘Share this link’ will be displayed containing the vehicle details.
Make sure that the icon displayed in your business page icon not your personal profile picture. If you’re personal profile picture is showing you have not switched pages correctly and the share will be on your personal page. Now type ant additional comments you wish to make into the ‘Write Something’ box. Then press the ‘Share Link’ button.
Option B
From with the DealerBase Manage Stock menu select ‘Advertising Twitter/Facebook’. Select the vehicle listings you wish to share.
Tip 10
Pressing the Facebook icon will share the listing on your personal page; pressing the Facebook business icon will share the vehicle onto your business page. You may also be asked to allow this application to have access.
For more information, check out Facebook's instructions here.
The growth in people using Smartphones over desktop and laptop computers is mind boggling and growing exponentially by the day. Consider this - in 2013, 50% of web traffic will come from mobile devices as more people will use their Smartphones (eg. iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows mobile, Palm Pre) rather than computers for surfing the internet.
Check out the latest stats:
19% of all phones sold worldwide are now Smartphones
Over 70% of the world’s population now have a mobile phone
The total numbers of iPhones sold worldview is over 60 million
Approximately 35% of all mobiles in NZ are smart phones, and expected to increase to 50% by 2014
What is a mobile website?
Simply put, a mobile website is a website that has been formatted to fit a mobile phone screen with it’s content optimized for viewing and interacting using a Smartphone. This enables your company website, to work more easily and efficiently with the smaller screen of a Smartphone or iPad.
Why is this relevant to me?
More and more people on the move require fast and easy access to websites and data. Google found that 1 in 3 customers use their Smartphone throughout the buying process. Mobile websites deliver a better experience to your customers. If you don’t have this functionality, you could be losing out on sales.
Here’s an example from the customer’s side. Recently I was out and about in Auckland looking for a used car. My friend was driving while I used my iPhone to search dealer websites to look for stock and yard addresses, then go into Google Maps to get directions. Then after I viewed vehicles onsite at physical yards, I’d go into their website to look at further details or to forward that listings to friends for their opinions.Dealers with non-mobile websites meant I had to enlarge each page which took longer to download, then fiddle about searching for cars and squinting at my screen at tiny links. Then I had to find their address, go from their website into Google maps, find out and type in exactly where I was, then type in their address and work out the most efficient route to go, all while trying to relay that to the driver - who was getting very frustrated with my stop-start navigating! The dealers who had mobile websites made it 100x easier to find out what I needed to know. I could search their stock more easily, and access their contact details faster. In a few clicks I could find what I was looking for on pages that fit clearly onto my iPhone. Dealers without mobile websites meant a lot of mucking about on my iPhone to find the information that I needed. Now you can get directions to dealerships built into your mobile website. It’s also easier to contact dealers using features like click-to-call, where their Smartphone will bring up your website, easily find your number, press and call!
What kind of devices use mobile websites?
Smartphones use mobile websites, eg. iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows mobile, Palm Pre – basically any phone that has access to the internet. This includes iPads, whose uptake in New Zealand has soared. iPads (and tablets – the non-Apple versions) are also great to use on the go. iPads are not only popular with Gen Y - People over the age of 45 now account for 37% of the iPad and tablet market according to Nielsen. And why not – they are lighter and more mobile than lugging around a laptop, and easier to see than a Smartphone!
How do I get a mobile website?
There are many website design companies who mobilise websites. Speak to your website host about this. There are also many types of mobile websites – some are better than others, so make sure that when you are investigating mobile websites, you know how it will get and display your stock and existing data? Can they host your mobile website? How much will hosting cost? Can they provide you with stats on how many leads are coming from the mobile website? Will it be accessible across different platforms? 60% of mobile browsing is done via the iPhone, so you need your mobile site to be ‘iPhone friendly’.
Those of you with AutoBase-hosted websites, call your Account Manager now and ask them about mobilising your website!
Remember - within 2 years 50% of web traffic will come from mobile devices. Stay ahead of the game and ensure that your dealership is keeping up with the technology that your customers are using. Mobilising your website will make it easier for customers to search your stock, find your yard and make contact.
More internet sources = more eyes on your stock = more leads = more sales.
Here at AutoBase we like to pick the brains of Trade Me Motor's IT department. We like statistics and data that helps us to ensure our products are giving our Clients maximum benefits and online exposure. Knowing how people search on Trade Me Motors goes a long way to improving your listings to attract more views and then, more leads - and more sales! Lately we have had a lot of questions about KEYWORDS. This is what we know:
Keywords are searched from the top to bottom of your listing on Trade Me Motors - therefore a key word in the features list OR comments 'free flow' section will be picked up in a browser's search. All the keywords below in yellow will be picked up in search results.
I did a search today for "leather interior" and the following listings popped up - some with the keywords in the title, some not.
*The top listing here has been Super Featured. To find out more about Super Featured Listings which can get up to 10x more views and enquiries, email us here.
* 90% of searches for cars are done in the side-bar search box:
* 80% of searches include 1 to 3 filters
* The most popular filters used when searching Trade Me Motors are: 1. Make 2. A keyword 3. Body style, Price or Year
* Almost 50% of searches include a keyword
* The most popular keyword for searches is MANUAL - as in the transmission, not the book! The other most popular keywords include:
Hilux
Corolla
Automatic
Turbo
Diesel
4wd
4x4
v8
Evo
Commodore
* 49% of viewers search for a car make
* Around 41% of searches include a price option.
Here’s a trick a lot of dealers don’t know about. When someone searches for a vehicle, what they see first is a list of vehicles that match what they’ve searched for. Every vehicle displayed has next to the picture in bold and underlined is the Make, Model, Model Detail and Year. You can use the Model Detail field to promote any special offers for your vehicles.
In the example above, instead of just having the Model Detail, this dealer has added *REDUCED* to draw attention to the listing. You can see for yourself how effective it is at getting attention. You get 25 characters to play with, and they all show up within the search results headline for that vehicle, e.g: ** NZ NEW **, **SPECIAL** or ** Drive Away Price **. Use this information wisely - don't say anything in the headline unless it’s true and relevant to the vehicle being advertised.
We had a dealer from a yard call us recently wondering why his vehicle had not sold – he told us about the vehicle on the phone that this car was a bargain, good nick, the price was reduced for a quick sale and basically he wanted to shift it fast - yet NONE of this information was in his listing??? These points would encourage a bargain hunter to enquire about that vehicle!
For more info on making sure your listings are easy for viewers to find and search for, check out our Dealer Tips Resources here.
What are the current internet trends and how are they impacting my business?
Understanding the internet and its changing direction is relatively easy. The biggest barrier is the time required to search and read through the mountains of articles, papers and comments. While the internet is huge, within itself it is mainly dominated in the west by a few key and very large players. When on the net you think you are master of your own destination, but behind the scenes the likes of Google and Facebook have a lot to say about what you see and how you find it. In a micro way, Trade Me operates the same way with the presentation of listings based on featuring, listing order and user profile. This being said, the easiest way to spot trends is to follow the major players and their moves.
Presence is a much overused word when discussing the internet, however the reason why is due to the fact that it is very important and the key step to being found. Without a well thought-out strategy on gaining a high profile presence, any online expenditure is wasted. A balance needs to be found between finding the right mass of prospects within a marketplace and then standing out from your competition. This is where we face the first trend within the internet which is driven by two factors:
1. Companies marketing on the internet understanding the value of guaranteed product placement within the first page of a users search
2. Search engine providers being able to value the first page real estate higher than subsequent results
Users are under the impression that when they ‘search’ they are searching the entire web, when the reality is that they are searching an indexed database of the search engine provider they have chosen. From this point the results are displayed based on the highest paid bid to the search engine provider and the quality of clicks. If you Google “Auckland Bars” for example, you will see what I mean. All those bars that have paid Google for advertising are displayed first and down the right hand side. Next are the bars that have registered with Google Places and last, but not least are the non-paid-for listings which are termed “organic”. This trend is growing throughout the web and online market places and to be on the first page you need to pay more, however the positive side of this is that it guarantees you high quality presence.
Community is nothing new as a concept and as humans we love to feel that we belong. In a setting that we belong to, we feel trusted, share advice and are comfortable in promoting our products and services. Understanding Facebook for most of us is an easy task as it just takes what we know in the real world and moves it into the online world where time and distance become far less challenging. Trend two is the collection and use of this personal data and behaviour for targeted sales. We see this emerging in a number of ways from the rapid growth of one day deal sites through to the business offerings from Facebook and Google+. For years companies large and small have invested heavily into customer databases and Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM) and nowadays, done correctly you can create your own community of customers encouraging interaction and information sharing. Now this can be implemented with very little or no direct cost. We spend a lot of our time with customers helping them to understand this concept and the opportunities it provides.
Trend three is easy if you learned to type at school. I sit here typing with my two figures as my time at school was Tech Drawing and Wood Work while the girls learned to type. Our Gen Y friends want more and more of any transaction completed online; in practice this means that any online interaction counts and the rules of first impressions are just as important online as face to face. The visit to the dealership is being pushed further down the sales cycle and our research shows that prospects may have been researching their purchase for up to 6 months before approaching the dealer directly. That first email or online enquiry really counts and may lose the prospect if not handled correctly. Another fact to consider is that just fewer than 49% of the prospects who visit your dealership could have traveled over an hour to get there after online research and interaction. Not only has online research grown, Gen Y are also quick to jump online to rate and comment on their purchased experiences; have a look at dealer rater.com for the shape of things to come. Remember that this is nothing new for most industries like restaurants where sites like MenuMania have been well established for a long time.
Mobile internet access is growing at a rate faster than the adoption of any other technology or service in history, with Apple raining supreme with the iPhone. Microsoft, and Google with the purchase of Motorola want to become major players within this growing trend. Ubiquitous and mobile access to the internet allowing users to spend more time online brings new value to all the current internet offerings and spends. If you do not have a smart phone you need one as they are easy to use and allow instant and quick access to your Gen Y customers and it has to be said that this is a winning trend for us all!
*AutoBase provide Mobile websites for AutoBase dealer websites. Email us here for more information.
