Archive for February, 2010
February 11, 2010 (West Chester, PA) – HomeNet today announced the release of its 3rd generation, Automatic Comment Builder into the Inventory Online (IOL) Internet Marketing Suite, which now allows IOL users to auto-generate descriptive dealer comments for their online inventory. The new, “intelligent” Comment Builder augments vehicle-specific data down to the trim level, effortlessly elevating the quality of each vehicle display page as well as speeding its creation. It is included in HomeNet’s IOL Pro free of charge.
“We have released numerous studies which indicate that dealer vehicle ads that include price, a minimum of 12 photos, and descriptive vehicle comments turn their inventory up to 38% faster than those that do not,” said HomeNet’s Director of Sales, Tim James. “The key is listing inventory with all that rich content… but doing so quickly. Our new Automatic Comment Builder is a big step in helping dealers close the gap from the time a car is front-line ready to when it is being properly marketed on the Internet.”
Comment Builder is seamlessly integrated within IOL Pro and its suite of online vehicle marketing solutions such as Video Online, IOL Hosting, and IOL goText, allowing for quicker creation and (often real-time) display of the comments on a dealer’s inventory ads across the Internet. For instance, comments generated here are incorporated into automatically-generated TTS voiceovers in Video Online and automatically used in IOL goText mobile display pages.
The user has a choice of 3 different “voice style” libraries, or templates (Sophisticated, Conversational, and Just The Facts), to generate expressive comments appropriate for each vehicle’s target audience, which the user may then edit and save, if desired.
In addition to building upon the default templates, users may create their own templates to tailor the vocabulary, tone, excitement level, and color of any comments, while still automating the process of entering the comments for each vehicle. Users may also string together “snippets,” or partial comments, to make a full sentence.
“You need to appeal to a pickup driver a lot differently than you do the luxury sedan owner, and Comment Builder allows each dealer ad to speak most appropriately to the audience of that particular vehicle,” said Andy McBride, HomeNet’s VP of Business Development. “A good salesman certainly does that on the lot; now, you can do it online, too.”
The ability for the dealer to piece together snippets is a significant advantage because he can easily craft a targeted message for each vehicle without writing it all from scratch, saving time while increasing the appeal of each vehicle with its target market.
Comment Builder also automates the inclusion of detailed information about the vehicle as well as geographical and dealership information in each dealer comment section, which helps with SEO as well as legitimizes that page in the eyes of web crawlers to boost search engine results rankings.
About HomeNet
HomeNet Automotive helps the automobile industry save time and sell more vehicles and is proud to be recognized as a “Top 10 in 2010 Companies to Watch” by AutoSuccess Magazine. It is the leading provider of inventory merchandising, management and marketing services, led by its flagship product, Inventory Online (IOL) Internet Marketing Suite. IOL is a web-based vehicle marketing solution that helps tens of thousands of automotive dealers to engage buyers online and bring them into the showroom ready to buy by streamlining the process of converting raw vehicle data into consumer-friendly and emotional online ads. With 135 employees, HomeNet has garnered a spot on the "Inc. 1000" for the second year in a row, its third recognition by the prestigious magazine in as many years. HomeNet is a private company based in West Chester, PA, with offices across the U.S. For more information, please visit www.homenetauto.com or call 877-738-3313.
February 11th, 2010
WEST CHESTER, Pa. (February 8, 2010) – HomeNet Automotive has made more Carfax information available to users inside the automotive technology provider’s popular Inventory Online (IOL) Internet Marketing Suite. Users that purchase Carfax Vehicle History Reports see Carfax 1-Owner cars clearly identified in the HomeNet inventory management tool and can sort their inventory list by ownership history.
“It’s clear that the public loves having access to Carfax reports,” said Andy McBride, VP of Business Development for HomeNet Automotive. “For shoppers who express concerns about pre-owned vehicle histories, the dealer can easily find all the cars on the lot with 1-Owner reports and eliminate that objection.”
HomeNet and Carfax-subscribing dealers add vehicle history highlights from Carfax – including the Carfax 1-Owner designation – to window stickers to improve consumer confidence and sell more cars. In addition, visitors to dealer Web sites powered by HomeNet can narrow their used car search to include only vehicles that are Carfax 1-Owner and come with a free Carfax Report. The enhancements help dealers to more effectively market their Carfax 1-Owner inventory and put wary shoppers at ease.
"HomeNet and Carfax are powerful tools for our used car operations,” said Will Green, General Sales Manager at Peach Motors in Roswell, Ga. “We know at a glance which vehicles in our inventory are Carfax 1-Owner and take advantage of all the valuable marketing tools HomeNet provides. The result is more sales, lower carrying costs and ultimately, higher profit for our store.”
"Dealers can now know–at a glance–which vehicles in their inventory are Carfax 1-Owner," adds HomeNet's McBride. "The result is more sales, lower carrying costs, and ultimately, higher profits.”
“Studies prove that Carfax 1-Owner cars sell faster and for more money,” said Larry Gamache, communications director at Carfax. “On average, more than half of a dealer’s inventory consists of Carfax 1-Owner cars. HomeNet’s enhanced IOL inventory management tool helps dealers easily identify these premium units and put more of them in their customers’ garages.”
About HomeNet (www.HomeNetAuto.com):
HomeNet Automotive helps the automobile industry save time and sell more vehicles and is proud to be recognized as a “Top 10 in 2010 Companies to Watch” by AutoSuccess Magazine.. It is the leading provider of inventory merchandising, management and marketing services, led by its flagship product, Inventory Online (IOL) Internet Marketing Suite. IOL is a web-based vehicle marketing solution that helps tens of thousands of automotive dealers to engage buyers online and bring them into the showroom ready to buy by streamlining the process of converting raw vehicle data into consumer-friendly and emotional online ads. With 135 employees, HomeNet has garnered a spot on the "Inc. 1000" for the second year in a row, its third recognition by the prestigious magazine in as many years. HomeNet is a private company based in West Chester, PA, with offices across the U.S. For more information, please visit www.homenetauto.com, call 877-738-3313, or email salesteam@homenetauto.com.
About Carfax (www.carfax.com):
Millions of used car buyers and sellers each year rely on Carfax, the most trusted provider of vehicle history information. Using the unique 17-character vehicle identification number (VIN) found on vehicle dashboards and title documents, Carfax instantly generates a detailed Vehicle History Report on any used car or light truck. Carfax Vehicle History Reports™ provide valuable information that helps used car buyers and sellers make better decisions. For more information, visit www.carfaxonline.com.
February 8th, 2010
February 5, 2010 (West Chester, PA) — HomeNet Automotive earned a coveted spot in the prestigious "Top 10 in 2010 Companies To Watch" from AutoSuccess Magazine. HomeNet CEO, Jesse Biter, will accept the trophy at the AutoSuccess Cocktail Reception (Booth #2307) at the 2010 NADA conference in Orlando, on Saturday, February 13.
"The winners are high growth organizations who have helped dealers dramatically improve their profitability during a difficult time in the automotive industry," according to the magazine.
HomeNet’s newly expanded Inventory Online (IOL) Marketing Suite brings automobile dealers the first total market solution, combining the power of HomeNet’s webIOL with best-in-class strategies and tools which, from one centralized location, allow the dealer to:
- Appraise prospective inventory purchases with local market, real time, and current pricing analytics
- Strategically price both New and Pre-Owned inventory across the Internet with live up-to-the-minute Internet price comparisons and actual transaction data
- Create Search Engine Optimized (SEO), emotional inventory ads that inspire mental ownership and drive traffic
- Distribute engaging, content-rich ads to an unlimited number of selected online media, including more than 250 online classified services
- Evaluate the quality and effectiveness of every ad listing down to the individual vehicle level
- Integrate and manage web-based lead applications like live and system-generated video, online trade appraisal tools, purchase and lease payment calculators, text and mobile marketing applications, and credit pre-qualification tools.
- Purchase high quality leads from top listing agents such as Edmunds.com and eBay, right from within webIOL
Some of the automotive industry’s top dealerships–including AutoSuccess' named "Dealer of the Year," Paragon Honda of Queens, NY–are utilizing the powerful components of HomeNet’s Inventory Online (IOL) Internet Marketing Suite to recreate the ‘on the lot’ experience on the web with emotional online advertisements for their inventory, delivering high-conversion leads and dramatically increasing sales.
HomeNet shares its top rankings with other innovative companies like Black Book, eXteresAuto, Car‐mercial, Team Velocity, CallRevu, Tier 10, Level 5 Marketing, VAuto, and Driving Sales.
About HomeNet: HomeNet Automotive helps the automobile industry save time and sell more vehicles and is proud to be recognized as a "Top 10 in 2010 Companies to Watch" by AutoSuccess Magazine.. It is the leading provider of inventory merchandising, management and marketing services, led by its flagship product, Inventory Online (IOL) Internet Marketing Suite. IOL is a web-based vehicle marketing solution that helps tens of thousands of automotive dealers to engage buyers online and bring them into the showroom ready to buy by streamlining the process of converting raw vehicle data into consumer-friendly and emotional online ads. With 135 employees, HomeNet has garnered a spot on the "Inc. 1000" for the second year in a row, its third recognition by the prestigious magazine in as many years. HomeNet is a private company based in West Chester, PA, with offices across the U.S. For more information, please visit http://www.homenetauto.com/ or call 877-738-3313.
February 5th, 2010
Online Vehicle Bookmarking, Tracking, and Comparison Tool To Improve Vehicle Turnover By Allowing Dealers Ongoing Insight Into Customers' Favorites
West Chester, PA - February 1, 2010 — HomeNet Automotive announced the inclusion of its new Virtual Garage in its IOL SEO Hosting service. Virtual Garage is a bookmarking application that allows consumers to bookmark and track vehicles directly on a dealership's website inventory and do side-by-side comparisons or view them later. Dealers, in turn, are able to track which cars that consumer is bookmarking. With Virtual Garage, more than 15,000 dealerships are able to now greatly increase the usability of their website as well as boost return visitors and website conversion rates.
Shoppers can also track bookmarking activity on their saved cars by other shoppers, so as the bookmarking activity goes up on one of their favorite vehicles, they will be more motivated to make a move. Bookmarked vehicles may be added to an RSS feed as well, allowing shoppers to be directly alerted of any new activity.
"By allowing online shoppers to bookmark cars in their inventory, the dealer can see all the cars a visitor has saved, so he can have more meaningful interactions with that shopper," says Tim James, HomeNet's Director of Sales. "And, should those saved vehicles sell, he can offer similar vehicles, ensuring everyone gets the car they want."
Also built in to Virtual Garage is the ability for side by side comparisons of any number of saved vehicles, particularly helpful for shoppers viewing several of the same model.Virtual Garage requires virtually no effort on the dealer’s part to maintain, as it is integrated with HomeNet’s IOL Hosting, which creates dynamically-generated, search engine optimized (SEO) vehicle display pages.
For more information regarding the Virtual Garage tool, dealers should contact the HomeNet Sales Team at salesteam@homenetinc.com, visit http://www.homenetauto.com, or call 877-738-3313.
About HomeNet: HomeNet Automotive helps the automobile industry save time and sell more vehicles. It is the leading provider of inventory merchandising, management and marketing services, led by its flagship product, Inventory Online (IOL) Internet Marketing Suite. IOL is a web-based vehicle marketing solution that helps tens of thousands of automotive dealers to engage buyers online and bring them into the showroom ready to buy by streamlining the process of converting raw vehicle data into consumer-friendly and emotional online ads. With 135 employees, HomeNet has garnered a spot on the "Inc. 1000" for the second year in a row, its third recognition by the prestigious magazine in as many years. HomeNet is a private company based in West Chester, PA, with offices across the U.S.
February 1st, 2010
