It's Not Rocket Science: Creating Internet Ads That Spark Emotion

   Cover Story Reprinted from Auto Success 10/09

By Tim James
Director of Sales
HomeNet, Inc.

Over the last couple of years, we have seen individuals — both those new to the auto industry and industry veterans alike — defy the conventional wisdom that “the best you can do is survive in this economy” and skyrocket their dealerships into top performers. So we’ve sat down with a few of these superstars and searched out some of the fundamentals that seemed to be common to each.

Start With the End in Mind
There are a lot of places and ways to list your cars online these days. There are so many cool gadgets out there to plug into your Web site for this, that or the other. The fact is that it is easy to lose track of what we are really trying to accomplish. The Internet, like television or radio, is simply another means of communication. People connect to the Internet looking for information or entertainment, just like they do when they turn on the TV or radio. This has created new media sources that provide consumers with the information or entertainment that they desire (some being more popular than others), and thus create the opportunity for you to advertise your inventory.

So where does that leave you? The same place you’ve always been. Your goal is to create ads for your inventory that get people to your lot. The great thing about it is that your own Web site and inventory display pages, if used properly, are also “media sources,” and can now be included in the “channel guide” (a.k.a. search engines) to drive even more people directly to them.

We know that the more information and emotion we have in our ads, the more likely it is they will rank high on the search engines, and the more likely it is that they will satisfy the consumer’s search for information. If this is the case, they will generate more emotional response from the consumer, and this will make your Web site a trusted source of information. The consumer will more likely come back to your Web site later in the buying cycle.

So before adding any new products or services, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

• Does this add (or make it easier to add) more information to my ads?

• Does this add (or make it easier to add) more emotion to my ads?

• Can I accomplish the same results with the resources and tools I already have?

“A couple of years ago, online advertising was a luxury; now it’s a necessity,” said David Metter, chief marketing officer of MileOne. “I think that everyone talks about online advertising being cheaper. Online advertising really is more efficient. It’s certainly more on-demand than anything else. With other media, you hope and pray that people see what you’re doing. Online is great because, whether it’s 2 a.m. or 6 p.m., you have the ability to be in front of the consumer when they want it.”

Joe Healy, the Internet director of Houston-based Lone Star Chevrolet, knows how important using effective online advertising can be. “We’ve moved up to be the No. 3 Chevy dealer in the nation, and part of it is we’ve changed our media mix,” he said. “We still do some branding with newspaper ads and television and a little bit of radio, but we’ve placed probably 300 percent more emphasis on the Internet. There’s no billboard department here. There’s no newspaper department here. But there is an Internet department. We’re able to measure those results very quickly. It’s grown for us rapidly; about 37 percent of our overall business is done through the Internet with only nine salespeople. I have about 18 percent of the sales force, and we’re doing 37 percent of the business.”

The ability to use a number of photos also is a huge selling tool, Healy said, and one that many dealerships don’t take advantage of. “Most of our competitors show nine or 10 photographs. We have a bare minimum of 36 photographs,” Healy said. “ On eBay, we’ll do up to 70 photographs. The customer likes full disclosure, especially because we may ship the car out of the country, so we’ll identify even a minor scratch. We’re proud of the product we put out there, so we’ll take the pictures. Basically, we’re selling the emotion. We want to put that customer in the car.”

Measure Twice, Cut Once
Starting with the end in mind, you now know that your goal is to create ads for the Internet that drive more traffi c to your Web site and more consumers to your lot. Once you invest your time in creating the best ad that you can create for each and every car, you can focus the majority of your time properly following up on leads and selling cars. This means the more you can automate the process for creating the information and emotion of your ads, the more time you have to sell.

Your goal should be to create business rules — the same business rules that are already in use at your dealership — into your inventory management system to automatically create information and emotion in your ads. The data for those ads can then be integrated throughout your online media and marketing partners’ platforms to create content-rich and highly emotional ads that you can incorporate into your vehicle display ads, manufacturer incentives, vehicle specials, parts and service specials, consumer reviews, video presentations, vehicle test drive videos, text marketing, mobile Web site displays, window stickers, online credit applications, CRM-driven follow-up and life cycle marketing campaigns and so on. Ideally, if you do the work one time, and do it correctly, you can let the technology do the rest for the best results.

“Having one message across your media just makes sense,” Metter said. “It makes it easier for the consumer to remember your brand name or whatever you’re pushing. It’s somewhat subliminal. They walk past the TV and they see your message. They go online and they see the same message. They’re listening to their radio and hear the same message. You can’t help but to be in their consideration when you do that and you do it well.”

Emotion Sells
It’s too easy to forget how emotional the auto purchase process is for the consumer. You sell hundreds of cars a month, but the average consumer will only purchase a handful of cars in their entire lifetime. It is equally easy to get caught up in “information overload” by repeating vehicle features over and over, and not create unique emotional content to sell the consumer.

To the consumer, every car is different. We must create ads that highlight (with photos and dealer comments) all that is unique and different about every car, thus increasing our ability to justify the value, create trust and urgency, and inspire mental ownership.

“Dealers have one of two choices,” Metter said. “Either we can treat our inventory as commodities, or we can really try to build emotion around the car. Customers, as a rule, are emotional about their car purchase. The car is an extension of a someone’s personality. If we really build the story around the car, and how that car might make someone’s life better — whether it’s work or family or whatever — I think certainly helps.”

Healy has seen what emotion can do to move specific vehicles. “I have a brilliant marketing guy, Stuart Russell, who uses a lot of emotional words in our advertising,” he said. “That’s what differentiates us from a lot of dealers. I look at dealers’ ads throughout the country, and a lot of people just use the basic descriptions. Stuart examines every car and personalizes each and every ad. He incorporates a lot of great words and phrases, like ‘exhilarating performance,’ or ‘ice-cold air conditioning,’ and that emotion gets a lot of people to read and look at all the details of that particular vehicle.”

Video can greatly increase the emotional response from the consumer by turning your static, site-based ad into a dynamic, visual ad, provided the video contains the same rich content and emotion needed to “sell” the car vs. “tell” about it. “Trying to ‘three dimensionalize’ the car for the customer makes it easier to make a decision on a certain vehicle,” Metter said. “Again, if that differentiates that car over a competitor’s car, that certainly gives us an advantage.”

Time Is Money
The world moves at supersonic speed today. You can create an ad for a vehicle and have that ad live on multiple Web sites (and in front of thousands of potential buyers) within minutes. More importantly, the data contained in that ad can be used to drive even more traffic to your Web site or any destination that you desire. You spend $5,000, $10,000, maybe even $100,000 per month to advertise on the Internet. Why would you let a car sit on the lot for even one day without being online, let alone a week to 10 days? Think of all the potential buyers who are searching the Web in your market every day, and how many you miss out on when you don’t have your ads online.

Healy said that his dealership makes sure a vehicle is put online as soon as it has been detailed and ready for sale. “Obviously, the quicker we can get it online, the quicker we can sell the vehicle through AutoTrader, Cars.com, the Lone Star Chevrolet web site, etc.,” he said. “It cuts down the number of days the car sits in inventory, plus obviously, the car is never going to look as good as it does right after it’s been detailed.”

Tim James is the director of sales with HomeNet Automotive, Inc. He can be contacted at 866.924.6573, or by e-mail at tjames@homenetinc.com.

 

Add comment November 30th, 2009