“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.

"Dealers can now know–at a glance–which vehicles in their inventory are Carfax 1-Owner," adds 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 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:

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.    

Decisionlinks’ TeaLeades platform is seamlessly integrated into HomeNet’s Inventory Online (IOL) Analytics Suite, which facilitates the listing of inventory for over 15,000 automobile dealerships nationwide, delivering actionable analytics to automotive dealers and manufacturers.

“Profitability boils down to matching supply to demand. Our lead-centric solutions align early demand signals from the marketplace with the dealer’s actual inventory, helping dealers to find more quality leads, reduce vehicle-days supply, and ultimately convert more sales,” explains Decisionlinks’ President, David Bailey. “And on the supply side, HomeNet manages a very deep mine of rich vehicle data across its vast network of dealers. This new intersection of dealer sales, lead, and inventory data is a game changer for everyone in the auto business.”

Decisionlinks has linked relevant decisions for financial institutions, credit bureaus, and other data-driven industries. Decisionlinks systems have been supporting lead management and marketing automation solutions for over a decade.

“We’re excited to leverage our years of expertise and market-tested systems optimizing automotive business intelligence by connecting all data points for dealers,” adds DecisionLink’s CTO, Buddy Murphy.

Andy McBride, VP of Business Development for HomeNet, adds, “Partnering with DecisionLinks allows HomeNet customers to sharpen their understanding of each prospect beyond anything imaginable today. “With this depth of analytical sophistication, dealers can now manage their prospects with far more precision, selling more cars sooner while saving money and time as a result. I call it ‘instant data gratification.’”

About DecisionLinks: DecisionLinks delivers actionable intelligence from a sea of data providing automation for virtually all processing functions. DecisionLinks predictive lead intelligence system, TeaLeades, passively connect to customer transactional data. TeaLeades appends data, measures transactions, models all inputs, dynamically adjusting to market changes, in real-time. Deliverables include lead scoring/data enhancement for sales, targeted segmentation for advertisers, business insights for management, and lead buy optimization for operations. For more information visit www.decisionlinks.com or call 512-692-9482.

About HomeNet Automotive: HomeNet’s Inventory Online (IOL) Internet Marketing Suite is a vehicle marketing solution that helps thousands of automotive dealers to sell more cars online. IOL’s web-based applications streamline the process of converting raw DMS data into consumer-friendly and emotional online ads. IOL offers rich functionality for video, search engine optimized (SEO) vehicle display pages, price analysis, unlimited photos, text messaging, email ads, automated distribution to 3rd-party services like eBay, Craigslist, and Oodle, mobile lot management, and more. IOL quickly turns every vehicle on the lot into a compelling, online point-of-presence… and a gateway into the showroom. HomeNet is a private company based in West Chester, PA with offices across the U.S. For more information, visit www.homenetauto.com, emailsalesteam@homenetinc.com, or call 877-738-3313.

"Our pricing tools will help IOL users to price their new car inventory based on real market conditions, including what area dealers charged for a similar vehicle in the last 30 days," said Scott Painter, CEO of Santa Monica-based TrueCar. "We are excited to team up with HomeNet to bring dealers that level of market intelligence. The better dealers know how to buy and sell inventory, the better their competitive advantage."

Today, TrueCar captures full transaction details for 43% of all new vehicle sales across the country, and that figure is growing. Leveraging this wealth of data, IOL dealers will be able to balance margin retention with sales velocity.

Andy McBride, VP of Business Development at HomeNet, added, "HomeNet’s IOL platform continues to grow in user base, and we are again expanding our product suite to help our dealers sell more cars. TrueCar’s pricing data and analytical tools are impressive—a must-have for the savvy car dealer. In fact, we’re offering our customers free access to TrueCar within IOL until April 1."  

Following launch, TrueCar and HomeNet will add advanced analytical tools that combine automotive inventory, transaction, and production data to its IOL solution. Both companies will also explore ways through which IOL users can reach TrueCar’s vast audience of in-market buyers: more than 15,000 TrueCar Price Reports are generated daily on TrueCar.com and its network of syndication partners (such as Vehix and US News Autos).

HomeNet’s IOL Internet Marketing Suite is a vehicle marketing solution that helps thousands of automotive dealers to sell more cars online. IOL’s web-based applications streamline the process of converting raw DMS data into consumer-friendly and emotional online ads. IOL offers rich functionality for DMS polling, Premium VIN Enhancement, video, search engine optimized (SEO) vehicle display pages, price analysis, unlimited photos, text messaging, email ads, automated distribution to 3rd-party services like eBay, Craigslist, and Oodle, mobile lot management, and more. IOL solutions quickly turn every vehicle on the lot into a compelling, online point-of-presence… and a gateway into the showroom.

About TrueCar: TrueCar (www.truecar.com/) is the authority in new car pricing. TrueCar aggregates data from multiple sources to show car buyers and dealers how much people actually paid for a particular car in their geographic area. TrueCar is offered online, free of charge — so anyone can know at any time what is considered a good or great price. Consumers no longer need to walk into the dealership only partially informed and fully suspicious: with TrueCar they can walk in knowing the price of a fair deal. Dealers also benefit by gaining real-time, unbiased information about marketplace pricing, helping them price their cars to increase volume of sales and gain market share from other dealers. Led by a highly experienced team from the automotive and technology industries, TrueCar is based in Santa Monica, California.

About HomeNet:  HomeNet Automotive (www.homenetauto.com) is a privately owned automotive technology provider. Founded in 1996, HomeNet's core focus is providing innovative technology solutions to help automotive dealers increase online sales. HomeNet offers its products to a variety of customers including dealers, OEMs, website providers, CRM providers, digital lot management companies, finance/leasing agents, auction agents, and more. The company is headquartered in West Chester, PA, with satellite offices in FL, GA, TX, TN, CA, IL, IA, MI, NC, OR and UT. For more information, please visit www.homenetinc.com. For more information, dealers should contact the HomeNet Sales Team at salesteam@homenetinc.com or 877-738-3313.    

January 11, 2010 (West Chester, PA) - HomeNet Automotive, the leading online inventory solutions provider for auto dealerships, and Edmunds.com today announced a partnership that allows dealers to list their inventory on Edmunds.com and receive high quality leads in return from consumers visiting Edmunds.com. HomeNet is offering this lead program to users of its Inventory Online (IOL) Internet Marketing Suite customers, which facilitates the listing of inventory online for over 15,000 automobile dealerships nationwide.

Dealers who participate will be able to sell more cars with less effort, according to HomeNet’s Neal Gann, Vice President of Strategic Relations. "It is well known in the industry that Edmunds is one of the premier auto shopping sites and that Edmunds leads have among the highest closing ratios," says Gann. "Consumers who visit Edmunds.com are affluent and educated, and they have great credit. These are every dealer’s dream buyers."

In fact, Edmunds.com indicates that of the 15.8 million unique visitors to its site each month, 80% own their home, and 70% are married. In addition, Edmunds.com is the most visited automotive site for consumers earning over $100,000 as well as for people with investment portfolios of $250,000 or more.

"HomeNet continues find ways to help our dealers get the most from our online inventory marketing solutions, and so we’re always looking for best-in-class marketing opportunities for them to get their inventory in front of more buyers. This is definitely one of those opportunities," adds Gann.

With the Edmunds.com inventory-based lead program, dealers only pay for the leads they receive, so it is a self-sustaining arrangement, according to Sean Peoples of Edmunds.com. "Dealers have nothing to lose with a per-lead revenue model, and they gain free exposure with Edmunds’ nearly 16 million monthly visitors to boot," says Peoples. "Unlike sites that charge a flat monthly subscription, even with no lead activity, HomeNet is only charging dealers based on that dealer’s success, so the dealers can’t lose."

HomeNet’s Inventory Online (IOL) Internet Marketing Suite is a vehicle marketing solution that helps thousands of automotive dealers to sell more cars online. IOL’s web-based applications streamline the process of converting raw DMS data into consumer-friendly and emotional online ads. IOL offers rich functionality for DMS polling, Premium VIN Enhancement, video, search engine optimized (SEO) vehicle display pages, price analysis, unlimited photos, text messaging, email ads, automated distribution to hundreds of 3rd-party services like eBay, Craigslist, and Oodle, mobile lot management, and more. IOL solutions quickly turn every vehicle on the lot into a compelling, online point-of-presence… and a gateway into the showroom.

About HomeNet Automotive: HomeNet is a privately owned automotive technology provider. Founded in 1996, HomeNet's core focus is providing innovative technology solutions to help automotive dealers increase online sales. HomeNet offers its products to a variety of customers including dealers, OEMs, website providers, CRM providers, digital lot management companies, finance/leasing agents, auction agents, and more. The company is based on Christian principles and is headquartered in West Chester, PA, with satellite offices in FL, GA, TX, TN, CA, IL, IA, MI, NC, OR and UT. For more information, please visit www.homenetinc.com. For more information regarding Edmunds.com inventory lead program, dealers should contact the HomeNet Sales Team at salesteam@homenetauto.com or 877-738-3313.

About Edmunds Inc.: Edmunds Inc. publishes four Web sites that empower, engage and educate automotive consumers, enthusiasts and insiders. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive consumer information, launched in 1995 as the first automotive information Web site. Inside Line launched in 2005 and is the most-read automotive enthusiast Web site. CarSpace launched in 2006 and is an automotive social networking Web site. AutoObserver.com launched in 2007 and provides insightful automotive industry commentary and analysis. Edmunds Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and maintains a satellite office in suburban Detroit.   

By Tim James
Director of Sales
HomeNet Automotive 

When faced with a problem that only an expert can fix, everyone feels vulnerable if we don’t know a trustworthy expert to call upon, someone responsive, experienced, and reliable who we know will give us a fair price in exchange for quality service that they stand behind. Without such an expert in our phone directory, a small matter can become a big source of worry.

Let’s say your family doctor says you need a knee replacement. Unless it’s an emergency, it’s not likely that you would drive to the local hospital and ask for the next available orthopedic surgeon. You would probably spend a few months getting mentally ready, unsure how to research surgery options, surgeons, and facilities. Feel the anxiety?

Many people feel the same way when buying a car.

Now, suppose a colleague had a knee replaced last summer. She can’t stop telling people about how wonderful her new knee feels. She talks about her doctor like he’s a god (regardless of the actual qualifications of the surgeon). She tells you about how the physical therapy facility sent a van, so her husband didn’t have to take off from work three times a week to drive her. And, when you share that you need your knee replaced, your colleague earnestly responds, "You need a knee replacement? I’ve got a guy who’ll fix you right up. Just look at me! I’m walking three miles a day! You really need to call my guy. Here’s the number. Call him now."

Ah, you're saved!   Someone’s got a guy! 

They’re everywhere, these "guys." You need concrete poured? I’ve got a guy. Need your pants taken in? I’ve got a guy for that, too.

I’m sure you know a "guy" in the car business, too, the industry veteran who seems to have a lock on your local community. Everybody in town, maybe even your uncle, buys their car from this guy. He knows everyone by name, their kids, too. Forget "taking ups" or prospecting using the CRM, he has a large book of customers that he sends birthday cards to and always seems to have people referring him business. Yeah, you know the guy.

Wouldn’t you LOVE to be the "guy" to your customers?

What does the guy know that you don’t? What every guy knows how to do is create what marketers call an evangelical client, a customer who enthusiastically promotes their "guy’s" business, product, or service through word-of-mouth without solicitation. Evangelical customers feel great reward from helping both the person in need and the business they are promoting. They enjoy the fact that because of them others are having the same successful experience they did. They believe in a better world and this is one way they actively contribute to it; in essence, they feel their community worth is enhanced with every "convert."

An evangelical client is the ideal customer for several key reasons:

1. He genuinely likes you and wants you to do well.

2. He is willing to pay more because you offer the whole package (decent product, fair price, you’re here to stay, and that certain "guy"-ness).

3. He wants to help others, and that motivates him to tell others about you (that also makes him credible).

4. He is a not just a happy, repeat customer, he is a walking testimonial, working for you without compensation.

5. He refers "softened" customers to you, meaning they’re already sold on essential intangibles like trust, reputation, and fairness before they walk into the showroom.

6. He offers you solid suggestions on how to improve your business.

7. He sends you more business than your brother-in-law.

Priceless, right?  You bet.  We should all be so lucky… and we can.

How do you create evangelical clients?

1. Be trustworthy. Even if you have fierce sales skills, if your mentality is that every deal is a notch on your quota bedpost, customers’ radar will go up, and they will get a sense that they mean nothing more to you than cash. The only customers you will attract in that case are the ones looking for the best deal… in other words, they’ll be using you, too. Worse, without solid referrals to carry you through times of lean advertising budgets, you’ll go hungry. You also won’t last long in any one dealership, which makes it impossible to build an evangelical client base. Voluntarily ensuring transparent, win-win transactions will build trust and pay out far more in the long run.

2. Treat every customer right. Listen, put yourself in their shoes, and do whatever you can to meet their needs. Every once in a while, exceed their expectations, like the van that shuttled your colleague to physical therapy appointments.

3. Care about your customers. Keep notes on every one of them, including the names of their spouse and kids, birthday, anniversary, hobbies, etc. Take a photo of them with their new car and create a scrapbook with their testimonials for prospects to flip through on your desk.

4. Be human. Show your personality. Create a photo montage screensaver of your family. Whatever your hobbies, put evidence of them on your desk to help you connect with your customers on a personal level. That emotional connection is imperative for the evangelical customer.

5. Be personal. Today, technology is widening the gap between consumers and the car sales professional by providing all of the information the consumer needs online and removing all personal interaction until the customer finally shows up on the lot after weeks of research. If technology is removing so much communication throughout the buying cycle, how can an auto sales professional become the "guy?" The exact same way the "guy" became the "guy" before all of this wonderful technology. Take the time to truly get to know your prospects and communicate with them (utilizing technology) throughout the buying cycle and beyond, even if they do not buy from you. Let your CRM do the work of the follow up, but know what "work" it is doing. Know what each email says, and follow up with your own personalized emails and phone calls. Get out and become a positive part of your community. If you want to be the "guy," you have to invest the effort necessary to cultivate meaningful interactions with your customers in all stages of their buying cycle.

6. Be grateful. Stop and appreciate what they’re doing for you and actively thank them. Write thank you notes after every referral, whether the deal closes or not. After they’ve sent you a few customers, send them a small but highly meaningful gift, like if your customer likes to fly fish, send them a dozen hand-tied flies. The point is not the expense, it's to show that they mattered enough for you to remember something important to them.

7. Be humble. Ask them how you can improve and listen carefully to their ideas. These people like to feel needed and helpful. They will appreciate the opportunity to better the world. Even if their suggestion is something you already do, don’t dismiss the idea (instead, look at how you can better create consumer awareness around that service since your best customers don’t know about it). Appreciate that they took the time to think of an idea and be honest with you.

8. Be responsive. When an evangelical customer calls, answer the phone. It’s usually important. In fact, it’s usually a lead or a complaint. In either case, it’s important that you’re on top of it. Most amazing about evangelical customers is that they are so loyal, they will excuse the occasional poor experience, even going so far as to rationalize a bad experience had by a convert with a stream of logical reasons ("Maybe their website was down…" "Maybe there was an emergency in the family…" "Maybe it was defective. It happens. Mine still works great. Call my guy, he’ll take care of you," etc.). The evangelical client doesn’t want to be wrong about you.

And you don’t want the evangelical client to be wrong about you.

As passionately as the evangelical client sings your praises, he can also ruin your name in his circle of influence… and do so with that same passion. Remember, he’s out to create a better world, and if that means people should avoid your business, he’ll freely tell them to do so. To him, spreading a cautionary word is just as helpful as a recommendation.

The good news is evangelical customers are naturally forgiving people. Should something happen that causes your customer to slip out of evangelism or flip alliances, go back to #1 and work toward renewing your relationship. They’re worth it. Just ask any guy.

For more information and resources on creating evangelical clients, please check out these sources:

Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba (Kaplan Business, 2002)

There's a Customer Born Every Minute: P.T. Barnum's Amazing 10 "Rings of Power" for Creating Fame, Fortune, and a Business Empire Today - Guaranteed! by Joe Vitale and Jeffrey Gitomer (Wiley, 2006)

Managing the Customer Experience: Turning Customers Into Advocates By Shaun Smith and Joe Wheeler (FT Press, 2002)

The Brand Who Cried Wolf: Deliver on Your Company's Promise and Create Customers for Life by Scott Deming (Wiley , 2007)

Exceptional Selling: How the Best Connect and Win in High Stakes Sales by Jeff Thull (Wiley, 2006)

HomeNet Autmotive makes Inventory Online (IOL) solution helps automotive dealers sell more cars and save time by converting DMS data into emotional online ads with compelling descriptions, video, SEO display pages, price analysis, automated distribution, and more. Visit HomeNet at www.homenetinc.com.      

   Reprinted from 12/09 AutoSuccess Magazine, p 28

By Tim James
Director of Sales
HomeNet Automotive, Inc.

Everyone wants to come up at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), but the truth is, in this industry there are millions of pages sharing similar content and most of your keywords.  The search engine optimization (SEO) tricks of the yesteryear no longer work well, and many will get you penalized, some so badly you’d be better off with a new domain name and website.

For instance, it used to be popular to add blocks of keywords at the bottom of pages in the same color as the page’s background, making those words invisible to visitors but indexed by search engines.  Such practices littered search results with worthless and unrelated pages, and the public abandoned those search engines (remember Alta Vista?).  In order to make money, search engines depend on ad revenue, which depends on quality search results, so search engines are always honing their ranking algorithms and methodology.

Here are some SEO recommendations that you can employ now to pull more traffic to your site, rank higher in SERPs, and increase conversions (visitors taking some action indicating interest in your site, like clicking on a link to go further into your site, watching a video, or contacting you):

    Know the goal for each page of your site, and create its page title, URL, keywords, alt tags, etc. accordingly.  Is your aim for vehicle display pages to direct traffic to your showroom?  Then your site should include a landing page for every car in your inventory, and the configuration of those pages should be individually search engine optimized to appeal to the person who is searching for that vehicle.  Alternatively, there may be sections of your site where your goal is to build community, your brand, and customer loyalty.  Not everyone who visits your site is a solid prospect at that moment, but that is no reason to ignore them.  Woo future buyers by presenting them with compelling content, an engaging community, and keywords specific to what they may be searching for.

   Content is king, queen, and pied piper.  No matter what other SEO tricks you use, the fact remains that high quality, relevant content is still your number one tool to not only interest your visitors but ensure that search engines deem you—and your web pages—credible.  According to Edmunds.com, 85% of all prospective buyers search online first before buying a car.  Think of it as having one chance for you to establish credibility and trust, as well as to get them to happily follow you into the showroom. 

   Place the most important content “above the fold,” which means readily visible in the standard browser window without scrolling down.  Search engines consider this your most essential information, and it earns higher ranking stature than content residing “below the scroll line.”  Not to mention, what greets people once your page loads had better be your most relevant information!  Rather than have long pages that incorporate disparate information, you’re better off with shorter, highly focused pages.

   How-to articles and blog posts are good content for SEO as well as informative and entertaining for your prospective customers.  Imagine how both will love your glossary page entitled, “Automobile Service Terminology for the Automotive-Challenged“ or a blog post called, “66 Winterizing Tips for Every Rochester Car Owner,” or a weekly Q&A from your service manager.  From within your blog posts, link to deeper pages on your site, as cross-linking adds SEO reliability to your deeper pages, especially if those links are followed.   While you’re at it, be sure to include service coupons, pictures, and videos on those blog pages.

   A picture is worth 1,000 words—and many clicks, particularly when you use page-relevant alt tags on all your photos. In addition, the more photos you have, the more consumers will perceive your operation as transparent and, therefore, trustworthy.  On vehicle landing pages, I recommend no less than 24 pictures of any one car, and even then, I would go for 30 or more, particularly for pre-owned vehicles.  What shoppers can see with their own eyes, they feel more secure—and passionate—about.  Along those lines, be forthright and include photographs of anything out of the ordinary on the vehicle to avoid accusations of non-disclosure (if there is any body damage, even a scratch, post a close-up of it). 

   Video is the new darling with sales managers because it creates tremendous emotion with shoppers.   It’s the new darling of SEO experts, too, because video causes clicks as well as visitors to linger on your page.  Videos (and photos) also ensure you get into blended search results (blended search results include related news, images, videos, books, maps, dictionary listings, etc., in addition to the standard blue text listings).  Optimize videos using branded and non-branded alt tag phrases.

    Analytics: Make it a goal to understand the numbers behind the traffic coming to your site from search engines.  If your numbers are declining, why?  There are many places to do keyword research (check out Google Insights) to test the value of your keywords. To avoid mixing oranges in with your apples, it’s best to measure brand engagement (the percentage of visitors who searched for you or your product by name) separately from traffic that used some of your top 10 keywords in their search.  Regularly evaluate low-ranking pages, and don’t hesitate to change your keywords, title, URL, content positioning, add video, etc. on poor performers.

    Bounce rate is a single page visit that results in the visitor leaving your site altogether.  To a search engine, a high bounce rate means the content on that page is unrelated to its title, keywords, alt tags, etc., and it penalizes that page.  Generally speaking, a bounce rate of >30% is good, 50% is concerning, but any pages near 70% should be immediately reworked. 

   Site maps help search engines easily index your site and find all those pesky internal pages.  For instance, the Googlebot crawls the web by following links from one page to another, so if your site is new or isn't well linked, it may be hard for search engines—and prospects—to discover it.

    Page load time may be coming soon to Google’s search ranking methodology.  That said, slow page load times won't negatively impact your rankings, but fast load times may have a positive effect.  Search engines want to ensure a quality experience for browsers, and next to content, fast load times are a big part of that.  People today are used to broadband speed, and if they aren’t getting it, they’ll bounce (see #8).

Finding the millions of online browsers who will be buying a car in the next twelve months is an ongoing challenge.  By implementing these ten suggestions in 2010, however, you can increase your chances that they’ll find you.  

About HomeNet:  HomeNet’s Inventory Online (IOL) Internet Marketing Suite is a vehicle marketing solution that helps thousands of automotive dealers to sell more cars online.  IOL’s web-based applications streamline the process of converting raw DMS data into consumer-friendly and emotional online ads.  IOL offers rich functionality for video, search engine optimized (SEO) vehicle display pages, price analysis, unlimited photos, text messaging, email ads, automated distribution to 3rd-party services  like eBay, Craiglist, and Oodle, mobile lot management (IOL2Go), and more.   IOL quickly turns every vehicle on the lot into a compelling, online point-of-presence… and a gateway into the showroom. 

Visit HomeNet at www.homenetinc.com.  For more information, contact HomeNet at salesteam@homenetinc.com or 866-738-3313.

© 2009 HomeNet Automotive, Inc.

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.

Consumers may also upload unlimited photos and videos of their trade-in, which guarantees a stronger conversation between the dealership and the buyer, according to Barry Brodsky of GetAutoAppraise.com. "The quality of these leads is excellent because shoppers who go through the trade-in valuation exercise are ready to buy. In fact, if a shopper on your site is sending you pictures of their trade-in, what they’re really saying is, ‘You have a car on your lot that I want. Here’s my old car. How do we make this happen?’"

With the GetAutoAppraise functionality, available for a monthly fee to dealers using HomeNet’s Inventory Online (IOL) Internet Marketing Suite of solutions, dealers may also add their own, custom rebates, coupons, and other incentives, so as shoppers complete the valuation process, they are presented with compelling reasons to visit that dealer now.In addition, when buyers indicate what type of vehicle they’re interested in, they are presented with actual inventory options from the dealer to peruse, and they may then make an appointment with a salesperson to visit the showroom.

"We believe dealers who add this feature to their Web IOL subscription will close more deals more quickly because customers trust dealers who provide this level of transparency," says Neal Gann, Director of Development at HomeNet, Inc. "And we’re excited that GetAutoAppraise uses the highly regarded NADAguides as their valuation tool."

HomeNet’s Inventory Online (IOL) Internet Marketing Suite is a vehicle inventory management and marketing system, designed to help automotive dealers sell more cars online. IOL’s suite of web-based software applications streamlines the process of converting raw vehicle data from the DMS (dealer management system) into consumer-friendly emotional online advertisements. Complete with DMS polling, Premium VIN Enhancement, an intuitive online interface, automated distribution to 3rd-party services, and much more, IOL is the most comprehensive solution serving the automotive industry.

HomeNet, Inc., the leading online inventory solutions provider for auto dealerships, and GetAutoAppraise.com today announced a partnership that allows consumers who are shopping online for a new car to get an instant appraisal on the trade-in value of their old vehicle. Valuations are based on dealer-determined attached to vehicle data from NADAguides, the oldest trade valuation tool in the industry. HomeNet is integrating the GetAutoAppraise features with its Web IOL software, which facilitates the listing of inventory online for over 15,000 automobile dealerships nationwide.

About HomeNet, Inc.:  HomeNet is a privately owned automotive technology provider. Founded in 1996, HomeNet's core focus is innovative technology solutions that help automotive dealers increase online sales. HomeNet offers its products to a variety of customers including dealers, OEMs, website providers, CRM providers, digital lot management companies, finance/leasing agents, auction agents, and more. The company is based on Christian principles and is headquartered in West Chester, PA, with satellite offices in FL, GA, TX, TN, CA, IL, IA, MI, NC, OR and UT. For more information, please visit http://www.homenetinc.com/

About GetAutoAppraise.com:Based in Phoenix, AZ, the company has secured an exclusive license from NADAguides, the leading industry provider of automobile information. The product provides automobile website users with a trade-in value range for their car. The product is unique for car-buying prospects because it provides a narrow value range that is current to the day of the inquiry. It is unique for dealers because it captures complete prospect contact information. NADAguides has developed a technique that enables them to install their product in any URL in less than 15 minutes.

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Press Contact:
Gretchen Kennedy
Marketing Director
610-738-3313, x882

HomeNet, Inc. and GetAutoAppraise.com Announce Strategic Partnership