Paragon Honda and Team Velocity Sit Down to Discuss Paragon’s Rise to #1
We sat down with Brian Benstock, Partner, VP, and General Manager at Paragon Honda, to dig into Paragon’s iconic rise to #1.
Team Velocity® Announced As Newest Genesis Certified Website Provider
Team Velocity’s Apollo® Sites technology is now available to all Genesis retailers nationwide through the Genesis Dealer Website Certification Program (DWCP).
WASHINGTON, D.C.; May 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ – Team Velocity has announced a strategic partnership with Genesis as the manufacturer’s newest website provider, giving retailers the opportunity to build a more connected and personalized vehicle ownership experience for their customers. Team Velocity developed the Apollo platform as the first all-inclusive automotive retail solution to enable the seamless integration of website, advertising, and retention strategies through a single vendor.
“Team Velocity is honored to have been named as the newest certified provider for Genesis,” said Justin Byrd, President at Team Velocity. “We are so excited that Genesis retailers nationwide can now offer their customers a personalized experience through our innovative Apollo platform. We are beyond committed to providing the best technology and customer experience in the industry and are thrilled to have the opportunity to expand on our offerings to Genesis retailers.”
Team Velocity pairs industry-leading automated technology with unmatched customer service, giving retailers the tools needed to exceed expectations. Retailers who make the switch to the Apollo Sites website platform gain access to unique technology advancements, including:
- Personal Websites: A personalized customer website that enables unique and relevant shopping experiences at every stage of the purchasing journey.
- Smart Communications: Keep customers coming back with automated, action-based emails designed to re-engage shoppers based on dozens of specific actions that result in more transactions.
- Command Center: Apollo includes a detailed snapshot of all your Perfect Prospects, including customers in equity, due for service, and active shoppers, giving dealers valuable insights in real time. The Command Center also includes a robust Customer Journey Report to view every engagement for deeper insights into shopping behavior, lead generation, and retention strategies.
“Team Velocity has been a valuable partner to our dealership,” said James Hayth, General Manager at Genesis of Austin. “Through Apollo, we can easily push out messaging that is consistent across all of our digital marketing channels. We can also personalize what we show to each customer based on their behavior and prior purchases, which gives us that much more control and insight.”
For more information or to schedule a demo, please visit www.teamvelocitymarketing.com/genesis.
About Team Velocity
Team Velocity is revolutionizing the automotive industry with technology that digitizes the car buying and vehicle ownership processes. Made by dealers for dealers, our Apollo Customer Experience Platform provides a suite of integrated applications that make, manage, and measure frictionless consumer experiences from the initial engagement to a final transaction. Apollo empowers dealers to own the entire customer journey by delivering hyper-personalized campaigns across every touchpoint, maximizing ROI and lifetime revenue.
For more information, please visit www.teamvelocitymarketing.com.
FordDirect Launches Team Velocity Platform Solution
Team Velocity’s Apollo® Customer Experience Platform (CXP) is now available to all Ford Dealers and Lincoln Retailers nationwide through the Platform Solution Program.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Team Velocity and FordDirect announced a strategic partnership at the NADA show in Dallas. The all-new Platform Solution Program offers Ford and Lincoln dealerships an integrated retailing solution powered by Apollo CXP, Team Velocity’s industry-leading customer experience platform, along with OEM data through FordDirect. Apollo seamlessly automates and personalizes the car buying and vehicle ownership experience, allowing more than 3,600 Ford and Lincoln dealerships to utilize intelligent marketing technology to grow their businesses. Designed to fulfill the vision of a more personalized and frictionless customer experience, the innovative program gives dealers and retailers a choice to work with a single provider to unify their website, advertising, and retention strategies.
“FordDirect hand-selects companies to help serve their dealerships nationwide,” says David Boice, Co-Founder and CEO of Team Velocity. “The Team Velocity Platform Solution Program uniquely integrates the customer journey through a single tech platform. We are honored that FordDirect selected us as their partner in delivering an integrated, personalized, and automated product that streamlines the customer journey. Customers long for seamless and connected experiences at scale from both online and offline channels. We created Apollo to provide just that.”
Team Velocity pairs industry-leading automated technology with unmatched customer service, giving dealerships the tools needed to exceed expectations. Dealers who make the switch gain access to Apollo’s full suite of offerings, including:
- Apollo Sites: An intelligent website platform that seamlessly integrates with the DMS to provide personalized experiences at every touchpoint.
- Apollo Ads: Team Velocity’s industry-leading digital advertising technology uses artificial intelligence to create, deploy, and update payment-based ads from start to finish on every make, model, and trim available for purchase.
- Smart Communications: Designed to help you move more customers down the transaction funnel, Apollo is equipped with intelligent, action-based email technology that converts passive shoppers into active leads through personalized one-to-one communications for sales and service.
- Apollo Transact: Transact is a digital retailing solution built natively into the Apollo Sites platform, allowing customers to complete their vehicle purchase online and schedule delivery with ease.
- Perfect Prospect® Data Mining: Apollo takes traditional equity mining to the next level by identifying in-market customers who are ready to buy, lease, or service with your dealership now. Perfect Prospects are presented as scored opportunities and receive automated Smart Communications to drive conversions.
- Command Center: Apollo includes a detailed snapshot of all your Perfect Prospects, including customers in equity, due for service, and even active shoppers, giving dealers valuable insights in real time. The Command Center also includes a robust Customer Journey Report to view every engagement throughout the purchasing journey for deeper insights into shopping behavior, lead generation, and retention strategies.
In addition to Apollo’s advanced technology, Ford Dealers and Lincoln Retailers will have access to key integrations through FordDirect, including private offers, inventory feeds for new and used vehicles, national digital audiences, AXZ Plan pricing, dynamic image generator, OEM customer lists, and OEM incentives.
“We have been with Team Velocity since 2012 and we couldn’t be happier. They helped position our dealership with a unique differentiator that continues to set ourselves apart from our competitors. Their service is unmatched – they come prepared with innovative strategies and powerful messages that connect with prospective buyers,” said Jerry Arrowood, General Manager at Taylor Ford. “The entire Team Velocity team has become an extension of our team here at Taylor Ford. I highly recommend them to anyone.”
Dealer enrollment for the Team Velocity Platform Solution Program opens on March 1, 2023, through the FordDirect Dealer Center.
For more information about the Team Velocity Platform Solution Program or to schedule a demo, please visit www.teamvelocitymarketing.com/ford.
About FordDirect
FordDirect, headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, connects the worlds of data, analytics, and technology to provide best-in-class digital marketing and advertising solutions exclusively for Ford Dealers and Lincoln Retailers. FordDirect is a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and its franchised dealers with a mission of helping Ford and Lincoln dealerships sell more cars and trucks.
About Team Velocity
Team Velocity is revolutionizing the automotive industry with technology that digitizes the car buying and vehicle ownership processes. Made by dealers for dealers, our Apollo Customer Experience Platform provides a suite of integrated applications that make, manage, and measure frictionless consumer experiences from the initial engagement to a final transaction. Apollo empowers dealers to own the entire customer journey by delivering hyper-personalized campaigns across every touchpoint, maximizing ROI and lifetime revenue.
For more information, please visit www.teamvelocitymarketing.com.
Schedule Demo
Toyota Motor North America Selects Team Velocity® As the Newest Website Provider in Digital Solutions Program
Team Velocity is eligible to provide Toyota Motor North America dealers with the industry’s first fully integrated customer experience platform, Apollo®.
WASHINGTON, January 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ – Team Velocity has announced a strategic collaboration with Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) as an approved Toyota Dealer Digital Solutions provider, welcoming TMNA dealers to the future of automotive retailing and dealer websites. As the industry’s fastest-growing technology provider, Team Velocity developed the Apollo platform to empower dealers to grow their businesses with higher profits and increased transactions. TMNA’s 1,200+ U.S.-based retailers can now switch to Apollo to fully integrate and execute advertising and website strategies through a single vendor, delivering a seamless experience for customers at every stage of the purchasing journey.
“To our loyal Toyota Motor North America dealer partners, this win is for you. It is an honor to be selected as a certified website provider for TMNA,” says David Boice, CEO at Team Velocity. “Our website product, Apollo Sites, is the first to be integrated, personalized, and automated. A connected customer experience is the future of modern retailing. We are excited to equip TMNA dealers with our full Apollo customer experience platform and deliver an Amazon-like experience to their customers.”
Team Velocity and Apollo pair industry-leading marketing automation with unmatched customer service, giving retailers the tools needed to exceed customer expectations. Dealers who make the switch gain access to Apollo Sites, a core solution within the Apollo Customer Experience Platform, providing customers with a complete online retail experience. With a personal website dynamically customized based on shopping behavior, including vehicle history and service needs, upgrade offers, coupons, and more, Apollo Sites is a future-forward solution that makes the vehicle ownership lifecycle seamless for customers.
With Apollo Sites, TMNA dealers will gain access to powerful new features, including:
- DMS Integration: Apollo Sites seamlessly integrates with an existing DMS to identify repeat customers and collect unique customer data, such as equity, current financing, and service history, which is incorporated into the website to deliver a hyper-personalized experience.
- Customer Websites: Apollo Sites delivers dynamic, personalized websites for each customer, creating an Amazon-like experience that promotes more transactions.
- Command Center: Within a single dashboard, Apollo Sites provides a detailed snapshot of all your top prospects, including those in equity, those due for service, and even active shoppers, giving dealers valuable insights in real time.
- Customer Journey Tracking: Track active shoppers through all stages of the purchasing journey for deeper insights into shopping behavior, lead generation, and retention strategies.
- Smart Communications: Designed to help you move more customers down the sales funnel, Apollo Sites is equipped with intelligent action-based email technology to convert passive shoppers into active leads.
For more information about Team Velocity and Toyota Motor North America’s Dealer Digital Solutions Program, please visit www.teamvelocitymarketing.com/toyota.
About Team Velocity
Team Velocity is revolutionizing the automotive industry with technology that digitizes the car buying and vehicle ownership processes. Made by dealers for dealers, our Customer Experience Platform (CXP), Apollo, provides a suite of integrated applications that make, manage, and measure frictionless consumer experiences, from the initial engagement to the final transaction. Apollo empowers dealers to own the entire customer journey by delivering hyper-personalized campaigns across every touchpoint, maximizing ROI and lifetime revenue.
For more information, please visit www.teamvelocitymarketing.com.
Team Velocity® Announces New Certified Partnership with Mazda
WASHINGTON, April 26th, 2022 – Team Velocity® announced its selection as an official website and digital advertising provider in Mazda’s Digital Certified Program today. Effective April 26th, Team Velocity’s comprehensive digital retailing solution consisting of websites, digital advertising, and SEO, is now available to all Mazda Dealers across the nation.
Fueled by Apollo’s revolutionary technology platform, Team Velocity offers a highly personalized online customer experience like never before. Mazda dealers can now utilize the power of true performance, personalization, and integration with Apollo Sites. For the first time in automotive history, this website platform harnesses the data goldmines within your dealerships DMS to provide every customer a unique, personalized, Amazon Prime-like experience. In addition to a public-facing website, Apollo Sites creates a personal website for every customer, dynamically customized to their unique information, including vehicle history, equity position, and shopping activity. Apollo Sites even generates personalized upgrade offers, recommended vehicles, service coupons, and recall notices, all based on unique customer data.
These progressive sites are built to create a seamless and frictionless customer experience from beginning to end with fully built-in transactional features that facilitate both sales and service transactions. With no plug-ins required, these sites include virtual test drive features, at-home appraisals, buy-online applications, a full suite of service applications, including online service schedulers with built-in pickup and delivery, and more.
With Apollo, top-performing dealerships like Brickell of Mazda were able to increase sales by 25.54 percent YOY and rank 12th in the Top 100 Mazda Dealers in the nation.
“I made the switch to Apollo because it integrates with all my other marketing. For example, the offers I advertise on my website will match the offers I advertise in my digital ads, emails, videos, etc., on a one-to-one basis for every customer and their specific vehicle,” says Mario Murgado Jr., Director of Marketing for the Murgado Automotive Group. “This level of price transparency and consistency not only builds my credibility with customers but improves engagement rates and increases my ROI.”
Also included in Team Velocity’s Digital Consumer Package is Apollo Ads, the first digital advertising product that fully integrates with your website, for consistent ads across every customer touchpoint. Apollo Ads enables your dealership to advertise 100 percent of your inventory and your service department across every digital medium. It creates relevant and to-the-penny-based payment ads while reflecting both OEM incentives, rebates, and your dealer pricing. These ads are automatically updated daily to reflect any changes in inventory, pricing, incentives, and more to Google, Bing, and Facebook.
“We are pleased to have been selected as a new and approved digital certified partner of Mazda,” says David Boice, Co-Founder, and CEO of Team Velocity. With our Apollo® technology – the industry’s first-ever truly integrated customer experience platform, Mazda dealers nationwide can provide a truly seamless and highly personalized customer experience to their customers.”
With Apollo, all Mazda retailers can now exceed the demands of today’s customers with a fully integrated solution for customer retention, advertising, websites, and retailing.
For more information about Team Velocity and Mazda’s Digital Certified Program, please visit:
https://teamvelocitymarketing.com/mazda
About Team Velocity®
Team Velocity is revolutionizing the automotive industry with technology that digitizes the car buying and vehicle ownership processes. Made by dealers for dealers, our Customer Experience Platform (CXP), Apollo, provides a suite of integrated applications that make, manage and measure frictionless consumer experiences, from the initial engagement to a final transaction. Apollo empowers dealers to own the entire customer journey by delivering hyper-personalized campaigns across every touchpoint, maximizing ROI and lifetime revenue.
For more information, visit www.teamvelocitymarketing.com.
Team Velocity ® Announces All-New Certified Partnership with Volkswagen
WASHINGTON, April 1st, 2022 – Team Velocity® announced its selection as an official website and digital advertising provider in Volkswagen’s Dealer Digital Certified Program today. Effective April 1st, Team Velocity’s comprehensive digital retailing solution consisting of websites, digital advertising, and SEO, is now available to all Volkswagen Dealers across the nation. As a part of this announcement, Team Velocity offers new cutting-edge solutions guaranteed to meet the needs of consumers today.
Fueled by Apollo’s revolutionary technology platform, Team Velocity offers a highly personalized online customer experience like never before. Volkswagen dealers can now utilize the power of true performance, personalization, and integration with Apollo Sites. For the first time in automotive history, this website platform harnesses the data goldmines within your dealerships DMS to provide every customer a unique, personalized, Amazon Prime-like experience. In addition to a public-facing website, Apollo Sites creates a personal website for every customer, dynamically customized to their unique information, including vehicle history, equity position, and shopping activity. Apollo Sites even generates personalized upgrade offers, recommended vehicles, service coupons, and recall notices, all based on unique customer data.
These progressive sites are built to create a seamless and frictionless customer experience from beginning to end with fully built-in transactional features that facilitate both sales and service transactions. With no plug-ins required, these sites include virtual test drive features, at-home appraisals, buy-online applications, a full suite of service applications, including online service schedulers with built-in pickup and delivery, and more.
With Apollo, dealerships like Lia VW of Enfield were able to reduce vendors, cut costs and get better results. “We made the switch to Apollo sites for several reasons… we wanted to work with a company that can do everything. They produce a seamless customer-centric shopping experience without the use of multiple layers of code from multiple vendors. Apollo Sites push a consistent message to every marketing channel every day, leading to more credible messaging,” says Nathan Rodriquez, Director of Marketing for Lia VW of Enfield. “The Apollo Sites also gives our consumers a unique experience that is FAR better than the other website companies in the automotive space. These sites are the only ones that give every consumer their own experience, know them by name, makes behavioral-based recommendations, just like the big box companies do.”
Also included in Team Velocity’s Digital Consumer Package is Apollo Ads, the first digital advertising product that fully integrates with your website, for consistent ads across every customer touchpoint. Apollo Ads enables your dealership to advertise 100 percent of your inventory and your service department across every digital medium. It creates relevant and to-the-penny-based payment ads while reflecting both OEM incentives, rebates, and your dealer pricing. These ads are automatically updated daily to reflect any changes in inventory, pricing, incentives, and more to Google, Bing, Facebook, and YouTube.
With Apollo Video powered by Advid, your dealership can also possess a one-of-a-kind video advertising product that enables unlimited and payment-based videos for every Volkswagen model you sell. These video ads are automated from creation to distribution to management and are updated nightly to YouTube for complete accuracy. Apollo Video fully integrates with Apollo Ads, boosting performance and ensuring consistency across every digital medium.
“We are incredibly honored to be selected as one of the new and approved vendors for Volkswagen’s Dealer Digital Program,” says David Boice, Co-Founder, and CEO of Team Velocity. Over the last couple of years, we have seen a tremendous success rate for our current Volkswagen dealers. With our Apollo® technology, we only hope to extend these achievements to Volkswagen dealers nationwide and provide truly frictionless customer experiences, from beginning to end.”
With Apollo, all Volkswagen retailers can now exceed the demands of today’s customers with a fully integrated solution for customer retention, advertising, websites, and retailing.
For more information about Team Velocity and Volkswagen’s Dealer Digital Program, please visit:
https://teamvelocitymarketing.com/volkswagen
About Team Velocity®
Team Velocity is revolutionizing the automotive industry with technology that digitizes the car buying and vehicle ownership processes. Made by dealers for dealers, our Customer Experience Platform (CXP), Apollo, provides a suite of integrated applications that make, manage and measure frictionless consumer experiences, from the initial engagement to a final transaction. Apollo empowers dealers to own the entire customer journey by delivering hyper-personalized campaigns across every touchpoint, maximizing ROI and lifetime revenue.
For more information, visit www.teamvelocitymarketing.com.
Microsoft Advertising Channel Partner of the Year
Team Velocity® Awarded Microsoft Advertising Channel Partner of the Year
WASHINGTON D.C., February 16th, 2022 – Team Velocity. Microsoft Advertising has awarded customer experience marketing leader, Team Velocity, Channel Partner of the Year for outstanding performance in digital advertising. Working closely with Microsoft Advertising over the last 24 months, Team Velocity achieved a 40% increase in YOY ad spend, resulting in increased traffic and conversions for their clients. “If you know the automotive industry, you know there are no cars to sell right now, but our technology and the tools that Microsoft provides, came through big time for us in 2021,” says Joe High, Vice President at Team Velocity.
Team Velocity offers a comprehensive digital advertising solution backed by its customer experience platform, Apollo®. Designed to support the automotive retail industry, Apollo creates and delivers dynamic, automated, omni-channel marketing campaigns to in-market audiences based on behavior prediction analytics and a consumer’s propensity to make a transaction. What sets Team Velocity’s digital advertising apart is a unique integration with a dealership’s DMS system, allowing the dealership to advertise real inventory. Supported by Apollo’s marketing automation technology, their ability to dynamically advertise inventory drastically improves ad relevance and in turn, increases engagement.
“With Apollo Ads, we have created a scalable and consistent advertising solution that ensures the way a dealer advertises on platforms like Microsoft, Google, Facebook and YouTube, matches the way they advertise on their website. For every new and pre-owned car on the lot,, Apollo creates relevant, payment-driven ads across every digital medium. These ads include vehicle payments, factor in OEM and dealer incentives, meet compliance requirements and have the same message and offer across search, social, display, video and even email and targeted mail campaigns,” says David Boice, Co-Founder and CEO of Team Velocity.
The Channel Partner of the Year award comes on the tails of Google recently awarding Team Velocity a 2022 Premier Partner.
“Congratulations to our Premier Partners for being among the top 3% of Google Partners in the United States. These companies stand out based on their commitment to developing product expertise, building new client relationships, and helping their current clients grow. We look forward to supporting them as they help their customers succeed online.” says Davang Shah, Senior Director of Google Ads Marketing.
Microsoft announced its award winners on Thursday, February 10th, with an exclusive virtual video award. Microsoft Advertising Partner Awards recognizes elite and select partners for their work across multiple categories in 2021. The Channel Partner of the Year award embodies a company that focuses on volume, business scale, innovation, and creativity at the highest partnership level.
For more information about the Microsoft Advertising Partner Awards, please visit this link.
For more information about Google Premier Partners and their requirements, please visit this link.
About Team Velocity
Team Velocity is revolutionizing the automotive industry with technology that digitizes the car buying and vehicle ownership processes. Made by dealers for dealers, our Customer Experience Platform (CXP), Apollo, provides a suite of integrated applications that make, manage and measure frictionless consumer experiences, from the initial engagement to a final transaction. Apollo empowers dealers to own the entire customer journey by delivering hyper-personalized campaigns across every touchpoint, maximizing ROI and lifetime revenue.
For more information, visit TeamVelocityMarketing.com
Team Velocity Unveils Highly Anticipated Website Platform, Apollo Sites
Team Velocity® is proud to announce the release of its powerful new website platform, Apollo Sites. Fueled by the Apollo Technology Platform®, Apollo Sites is the first website to fully integrate with dealer DMS systems to deliver an unparalleled, personalized customer experience online.
Team Velocity first debuted Apollo Sites at NADA with the launch of longtime client Paragon Honda’s website, ParagonHonda.com.
“I wanted to have a website that would be unique to Paragon’s customers to give them a more personalized experience, and Team Velocity got it right. For the first time ever, our website is sitting on top of our DMS, making use of the first-party data to serve our customers better. It’s taking the friction out of scheduling service and car buying because it’s easier than ever for our customers to transact. It’s like we gave our customers each an Amazon Prime account for their car, and they love it,” says Brian Benstock, VP and General Manager of Paragon Honda and Paragon Acura.
Thanks to companies like Amazon and Netflix, consumers are demanding highly personalized online shopping experiences. However, automotive websites have been slow to adapt to meet the customer’s expectations.
“Personalization is no longer a ‘nice-to-have,’ it’s a must-have. Amazon’s model works because Amazon knows its customers,” says David Boice, CEO of Team Velocity®. “Dealers need to look at their website the same way. Customers don’t want to go through the hassle of filling out a form to schedule a service appointment because they expect you to already have all their information. If they are shopping for a new car, they expect to easily find out what upgrade options they have and what their payment would be. The data is there, it just hasn’t been used in automotive websites until now.”
Apollo Sites harnesses the data goldmines within the dealer’s DMS to provide every customer a unique, personalized, Amazon Prime-like experience. In addition to a public-facing website, Apollo Sites creates a personal website for every customer, dynamically customized to their unique information, including vehicle history, equity position, and shopping activity. Apollo Sites even generates personalized upgrade offers, recommended vehicles, service coupons, and recall notices, all based on unique customer data. These progressive sites also include interactive features like texting and service scheduling, and in the very near future, will offer the ability to complete the entire vehicle purchase process online.
“Throughout the past two decades, dealers have been plagued by ‘Mission Improbable’ – the impossible task of creating a seamless, personalized, omni-channel customer experience across every marketing channel – due to the numerous vendors and technologies on the market that simply do not integrate,” says Boice. “The vast majority of all consumers visit a dealership’s website before they purchase or lease a vehicle but are immediately put off by the huge discrepancies between the offers they receive via mail, email, or even what they see on Google, and what they see on the dealership’s website. Apollo® was designed to solve these integration challenges and make it easier for the dealer to provide the best consumer experience possible. The evolution of Apollo to include websites has brought that vision full-circle.”
Apollo Sites unlocks the unbridled power of true performance, personalization, and integration. Paired with other products like Apollo Ads, Video, Email, Mail, and Text, Team Velocity now offers a one-of-a-kind, fully integrated solution for customer retention, advertising, websites, and retailing.
Recently, OEMs – most specifically, Mitsubishi – have overhauled their current website and digital marketing programs to focus on the power of consistency through integration. In a recent interview with Automotive News, David Baum, Jr., General Manager of Lewisville Autoplex, discussed his store’s success with Apollo Sites, noting the unique ability to track customer activity and interaction on his website in real time, allowing his team to tailor their engagement with the customer to drive a service visit or sale.*
“In the past, I always had service coupons on my website, but I can think of only a handful that were ever presented. With digital coupons pushed to customers through their accounts and through email, just last month, we had 286 coupons redeemed from service customers,” David Baum, Jr., General Manager of Lewisville Autoplex.
Apollo is the only integrated platform that makes, manages, and measures all your automotive marketing. With its unique offer management system, dealers can price out all vehicles on lease, buy, and finance options daily and deliver those offers across all mediums. This includes websites, email, mail, search, video, social, and more.
“We are so excited and grateful for the abundance of momentum we are having with dealers and OEMs who are signing up and endorsing our platform. It is proof positive that our industry understands the demands of the customer and is rapidly moving forward with companies like ours who are helping to fulfill that frictionless and personalized customer experience,” says Justin Byrd, President of Team Velocity.
Original Source: PR Newswire
Mitsubishi Offers Dealers Choice of New Digital Tools
But Mitsubishi has big plans as it adds franchises every month, revamps its facilities program and works with alliance partner Nissan on new generations of its crossovers.
A critical part of rebuilding the brand is the new “Small Batch” marketing initiative designed to reach customers through digital-first advertising. And now, Mitsubishi is making it easier for dealers to access modern ad tools in their local markets and bring that more-for-less approach to chasing after customers online.
The Mi Digital Solutions program, or MiDS for short, was launched in November and allows dealers to choose from five curated providers offering prenegotiated rates and 100 percent reimbursement through Mitsubishi’s co-op ad program.
The goal is to strip away some of the vendor clutter and allow dealers to join the cutting edge of digital retailing in an affordable and manageable way.
“Prior to this program launching, we were really only focused on what I would call the traditional elements of the Tier 3 program, which are leads and websites. So, it was pretty basic,” Kimberley Gardiner, chief marketing officer for Mitsubishi Motors North America, told Automotive News.
Gardiner took over as Mitsubishi’s CMO in January of last year after high-level marketing jobs at Kia Motors America and Toyota Motor Sales USA. She rolled out the initial Small Batch campaign for the brand nationally in June, starting with digital ads before expanding to video and broadcast. That same challenger spirit led to the development of the MiDS program at the local level.
Retailers now have Mitsubishi-supported providers offering website management, digital chat, text, data mining, lead generation and other services that are tied together rather than spreading them out across multiple vendors, sometimes with little accountability.
“We really wanted to help our dealers take their digital marketing and digital programming to the next level and couple that with Small Batch thinking, which is: You can be a small organization or a small dealer, but the things we can do can have a big impact,” Gardiner said. “They realize they want to make a change but don’t know where to begin.”
Early Returns
Early results are positive. About two-thirds of the brand’s U.S. dealers have signed up, page views at dealer websites are up by 30 percent, and the conversion rate on digital advertising has risen from 0.9 percent to 1.5 percent. That latter number looks small but marks significant progress, Gardiner said.
Providers in the new program offer a variety of options — such as “good, better, best” tiers — which makes it work for smaller retailers. It’s relatively affordable for the industry, and easy to pay for through co-op dollars, Gardiner said.
The solutions are also tailored for Mitsubishi stores rather than just copying other automakers’ programs. The Mitsubishi National Advisory Board helped shape the program.
“Especially with a challenger brand like ours, we need to really work hard on consistency,” Gardiner said. “At any moment in time, a consumer can have a really great experience or have a less than great experience that could really make or break as to whether they would even consider our brand.”
Gardiner’s team vetted multiple providers and negotiated rates directly, so dealers don’t have to. Mitsubishi chose Dealer.com, Dealer eProcess, Dealer Inspire, DealerOn and Team Velocity to start. Gardiner said additional vendors could be added as needed.
One satisfied subscriber to the Mitsubishi program is David Baum Jr., general manager of Lewisville Autoplex near Dallas. Baum added a provider for his Mitsubishi store — Team Velocity — that has brought several new tools for consumer engagement.
Baum and his team can now see users interacting with the website in real time, and tailor engagement to drive a service visit or a vehicle sale. Customers are given individual accounts and can receive digital coupons they can load onto their smartphones.
“In the past, I always had service coupons on my website,” Baum said. “But I can think of only a handful that were ever presented.” With digital coupons pushed to customers through their accounts and through email, “just last month, we had 286 coupons redeemed from service customers, and those were all Mitsubishis.”
Having Team Velocity within the MiDS program made it easier for Baum to pull the trigger on more digital engagement. Part of the reason is the packaging of several services handled by one vendor, and payment through the Mitsubishi co-op program.
‘Point and click’
“I’m always being pitched from different digital marketing companies, but the pricing is always through the roof, so we don’t even consider it,” he said. With his new Team Velocity account through Mitsubishi, “it’s point and click, and they’re paid and we’re done.”
One of Gardiner’s goals as marketing head is to align advertising with media use by consumers, meaning that as people spend more time online, retailers should shift their mix. Digital also allows for visibility on what’s working and what isn’t by tracking engagement.
Toward that end, Mitsubishi added digital consultants for the first time as part of the MiDS program.
They interact directly with dealers, giving them a digital assessment and action plan on how best to use limited advertising dollars and troubleshoot problems.
“I think you’ll see more stories about efficiency, more stories about better meeting customer expectations, and certainly with those things will come more interest in terms of sales,” Gardiner said.
Original Source: Automotive News https://www.autonews.com/dealers/mitsubishi-offers-dealers-choice-new-digital-tools
Marketing Exec Says Dealers are Missing a Golden Opportunity
In an interview with reporter Sarah Kominek, Boice said dealerships’ returning customers should have online experiences that are relevant to their personal details and the cars they’re driving. Here are edited excerpts.
Q: Why do you think dealerships should use customers’ data to serve them online?
A: These are very common data points that every franchised dealership has securely stored in their accounting systems: The customer’s name, address, phone number and email. Their vehicle’s year, make, model, trim, VIN and estimated mileage. Its service history, any recalls, services due, last service and recommended services. The customer’s sales info — the payment type, down payment, term, payoff, trade value, equity, likely upgrade options, next service visit, preferences and their shopping history. These data points are easily accessible to create a personal online experience for their customers.
A: People want personalized service coupons that need to be specific to the car they’re driving. People really like to know their service history: Does the dealership have all the services that have been performed on record and are they accurate? People also expect you to give them a warning if their vehicle just went under recall. Without filling out any forms, they want to be able to schedule service and incorporate the coupons they’re entitled to. You know my name, you know my car and its VIN. I’m not going to fill out a form with the 14 pieces of information you normally ask me for, because I’ve signed in and I expect you to make scheduling a service appointment easy.
Q: What would the experience be like for a returning customer looking to purchase or lease another vehicle?
Original Source: Automotive News https://www.autonews.com/shift/marketing-exec-says-dealers-are-missing-golden-opportunity