How to Adjust to the GDPR Changes

While the tidal wave of GDPR emails has subsided, we are not out of the woods just yet. The new data protection rules call for new, safer methods of handling customer information and retailers must adapt to accommodate this.

From a business perspective, you may view GDPR as a slight inconvenience, but as consumers, I’m sure we can all appreciate the move to protect our data, which is why your GDPR plans should revolve around your customers.

What Has Changed?

Since 25 May, when the Data Protection Regulation was implemented, a lot has changed. Primarily, to be able to process the personal data of a customer, you must now have their clear, freely-given consent, indicated by them ‘opting in’.

While there was mass concern about the loss of customers as a result of these new rules around consent, it seems that automotive retailers have not been severely affected. Statistics collated by Marketing Delivery show that 86% of customers provided an email address and 87% of these consented to being contacted.

There is also pressure on businesses to improve and clarify their processes and policies regarding lawful data handling and to update their current systems and documentation. This is requiring significant changes to be made.

Top Tips for Embracing GDPR
  1. Whether you like it or not, changes will need to be made. Taking a proactive approach to policy implementation will make the adjustment easier and faster.
  2. Promote the importance of consent within the business, putting yourself in your customers’ shoes.
  3. Be as transparent as possible when it comes to gaining consent from your customers. Honesty is key for customer retention.
  4. Train staff on the key aspects of the new regulation and how it will affect their roles and responsibilities.
  5. Have a clear out of your data. Think about what you really need to keep and how long you need to keep it for.

 

If you are feeling overwhelmed and are unsure about the changes you need to make, there are companies and organisations that can offer support. Click Dealer have also made significant changes to our DMS to assist your dealership with data cleansing and to give you a clear, convenient way to ask your customers for consent.

To find out more about our GDPR-friendly DMS, get in touch with Click Dealer today via [email protected], 01782 478220 or through our contact page!

Fingers Crossed for the Motor Trader Industry Awards 2018

Motor Trader Awards
We each have two sets of fingers crossed at Click Dealer HQ today, not only hoping for success against Croatia as a nation, but also hoping to win some awards as a business!

The Motor Trader Industry Awards 2018 will be taking place later this evening at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London’s West End. These awards celebrate the achievements and contributions of companies and individuals within the industry.

For the 28th year, the Motor Trader Industry Awards will bring recognition to suppliers, dealerships and individuals who have demonstrated excellence in their field, exceptional customer service or true innovation.

Entering the race for the first time ever, Click Dealer has been shortlisted for the IT Innovation of the Year Award, for our new, online retailing platform, ClickEngage™.

ClickEngage™ was developed in response to rising consumer expectations as a way for dealers to allow their customers to create their own deal any time of day entirely online, essentially enabling dealerships to remain open 24/7 in a virtual space. The product aims to increase the number of leads gained by dealers, while simultaneously improving the customer experience.

The winner of the Motor Trader IT Innovation of the Year Award will be a company whose product is cutting-edge, and we are up against tough competition from the likes of CitNOW, Codeweavers, Dealtrack and EnquiryMAX. To win this nationwide award would be a massive achievement for Click Dealer.

With a gala dinner and the football on the large screens, the night is sure to be one to remember and we are very much looking forward to it. Fingers crossed!

To find out more about Click Dealer’s award-winning online retailing platform ClickEngage™, or to book a free demo, get in touch via [email protected], 01782 478220 or through our contact page.

Revhead Ramblings: The Most Iconic British Cars

We’re in the midst of never ending sun, free-flowing beer and our best World Cup for decades.

It’s only right then that we look at the most iconic british cars that have made us who we are today!

Jaguar E-Type

Many cars can be described as beautiful, but when you have the title of ‘the most beautiful car ever’ placed upon your creation by none other than Enzo Ferrari, you know you’ve cracked vehicle design. It wasn’t all looks either, sophisticated independent suspension, a monocoque body, all-round disk brakes and a 3.8 litre engine producing 265bhp cemented this car in our hearts.

At a time when most cars struggled to top 60mph, the Jag could power on through to 150mph! This was all available for a smidge over two grand, about half the price of any Ferrari or Aston Martin with similar performance and roughly the same price as a BMW 5 Series today!

Land Rover Defender

Few cars inspire passion like the Land Rover Defender. Minor evolution in terms of styling from its production in 1948 shows the love we have for its boxy aesthetic and purposeful nature. A hero born from post-war ingenuity, Land Rover needed to build a car that required little rationed steel yet remained attractive to export markets. Original examples were crude and compromised but they were peerless off-road and competent on tarmac; a true dual-purpose workhorse. For a car to be in production for 67 years, virtually unchanged, is an extremely impressive feat.

Aston Martin DB5

It’s arguable that Aston Martin would have achieved nowhere near the level of fame and success they have now without the James Bond movies, which helped Aston attain the cool persona that sells so many of their cars. It also helped that the DB5 was a gorgeous car and was equipped with a potent 4 litre straight six good for 282bhp. Just 1059 cars were produced in the two years of production, making it extremely rare and desirable today.

McLaren F1

It was once the world’s fastest car; an impressive accolade. It’s even more impressive when you realise this was McLaren’s first road car. This car shaped the 1990s, leaving all other manufacturers in its wake. A three-seat driving position gave the driver a racing perspective of the road, this design will be seen once again in McLaren’s BP23.

Mini

There can’t be anyone in Britain whose can’t see the charm of a Mini. It was a fashion accessory, an iconic British innovation and an exceptional race car. It was made in response to the fuel crisis, designers were set the task of creating a car less than ten feet but could still carry a family of four. When it was first launched, the British public were slightly sceptical, but once they’d seen their favourite celebrities clambering out and racing drivers posting heroic times in them they really jumped on the bandwagon. The car lasted for decades with very few changes and has securely cemented itself in British culture for all of eternity.

Click Dealer’s Top Tips for Lowering Your Cost Per Click in Google AdWords

If you are running a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign, you will know that every click your advert receives comes at a cost.

The price you pay may seem minimal in comparison to the profit your adverts bring, but those pennies add up! To get the best possible ROI, here are our top tips for reducing your cost per click (CPC).

Tip the Scales

The ranking order of paid results is determined by two factors: cost per click (the maximum amount you are willing to spend for each click) and quality score. To lower your CPC, you will need to raise your quality score. This can be done by optimising your keywords and website landing pages.

Turn Negatives into Positives

Adwords allows you to add negative keywords when you create a PPC ad. These prevent your advert appearing when your selected terms are searched for. This helps to make sure you are not wasting money on irrelevant matches, which would decrease your click-through rate (CTR).

If you were bidding on the term “used Ford cars for sale”, you might want to add “new Ford cars” as a negative keyword, because if someone is searching for new Fords, they are unlikely to click on your advert for used ones, and a poor CTR can lower your quality score and increase your cost per click.

Be Specific

Generally, the most expensive keywords are those which are commonly searched for, so if you want to save money, try going for long-tail keywords, that is, more specific ones. For example, while the keyword “used cars for sale” may be pricey, “used Ford cars for sale” is less generic and is therefore likely to be cheaper.

It’s Not the Winning, But the Taking Part that Counts…

Not being in the top spot in the search results isn’t always a bad thing. It is true that people tend to click on the first result first, but studies have shown that positions two, three, four and five gain almost as many clicks as the number one spot and they are also less expensive. By aiming to place third or fourth, you could see a decent reduction in your CPC, without harming your visibility and CTR.

For more PPC tips from Click Dealer’s expert in-house automotive SEM team, get in touch today via [email protected], 01782 478220 or through our contact page!

The Importance of Website Tracking

sales
Website tracking can help you understand how your site is performing. It also offers insight into who your users are and how they are interacting with your site, which can be very valuable information if you know what to do with it.

Click Dealer aim to be transparent and we give our dealers who sign up for websites with us easy access to analytics tools, so that you have full visibility when it comes to your data. We recommend regular analysis of this data, as there are variety of ways in which website tracking can benefit you.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics provides dealers with a wealth of useful data in regard to their website. This tool will show you how many visitors your website is receiving and it will give you a clear indication of exactly where your traffic is coming from.

This information is valuable because it will give you an idea of which advertising channels are proving most effective for your dealership, and from this, you can make educated decisions about how to allocate your budget.

Google Search Console

Another useful tool that you will have access to when you sign up for a website with Click Dealer is Google Search Console. The Search Console allows you to monitor your presence in Google Search results, which can help you to understand how the search engine views your site so that you can optimise it using SEO strategies.

With Google Search Console you will also be able to identify any malware or spam issues that arise affecting your website, and rectify these problems so that your site stays clean.

Pixel Tracking

A tracking pixel is a piece of code used to track the activities of website users. From the insights gained, you can develop a more accurate picture of your target audience and create an appropriate customer persona to help you build effective adverts. This should lead to improvements in your business’s conversion rates.

Click Dealer are able to embed any conversion codes and pixel tracking numbers on your website, including Facebook pixels.

For more information about our leading automotive websites with tracking features, email [email protected], call us on 01782 904 715, or alternatively, message us via our contact page.

How to Perform on Facebook Despite the Latest News Feed Algorithm

Facebook algorithm
Earlier this year, Facebook began changing the news feed so that it focuses more on content from friends and family, leaving less room for public posts.

As the news of this began to spread around the marketing world, social media managers scrambled for higher ground on other platforms.

Pages that haven’t adapted to the changes have seen a dramatic drop in organic reach, while those that have embraced it and worked around it (read this to find out how) have seen much better results.

So, before you lose hope and give up on the world’s largest social network, consider introducing some of the following best practices into your approach.

Humanise Your Brand

Facebook’s latest changes are an effort to re-align the platform with what Zuckerberg’s vision has been all along, to bring people together. And, over the last few years, Facebook has been slated for clogging up people’s feeds with clickbait and ads.

Therefore, to survive the new Facebook era, your dealership need to embrace its humanity.

You need to find your dealership’s voice and use it consistently to engage with fans, almost like you would with friends and family.

Think – who would your dealership be if it was a person? What would they be like.

Then, define your tone of voice and how you will be perceived online.

For inspiration, look at MoonPie, a brand that has skyrocketed their social following and brand presence worldwide through simply being human.

In 2018, with the current social media algorithms, you will not be getting anywhere near that kind of growth, engagement or response from people by allowing your dealership to appear dull and corporate.

Engage Your Inner Circle onto Your News Feed

Engaging your dealership’s inner circle is key to surviving the Facebook changes.

Identify the people that are deeply invested in your dealership and your products and encourage them to channel their passion by engaging with your social media content.

It is important to remember that your audience is unlikely to be marketing experts, so to inspire meaningful, sustainable engagement, and help them understand the impact of their efforts for your brand awareness. A conversation between you and your ‘inner circle’ could be something as simple as asking them to invite their friends to like your page.

Doing this could get the same amount of page likes in 12 hours as you may have gained organically in a week or even a month.

Build Relationships with Your Audience

No matter how many best practices you implement, you will inevitably experience lower reach on your page due to the algorithm.

But, rather than letting the numbers drive you crazy and waste valuable time and effort trying to fix something that you can’t change, shift your attention to building meaningful relationships with your fans.

Through doing that, not only will our audience feel close to your newly-humanised brand, but they will be more interested and keen to engage with you and your posts, so take a break from the data and spend more time in the comment sections making your fans feel valued.

To talk with Ronnie about the social media services Click Dealer offers its dealership clients and how we can help improve your engagement, reach, brand recognition and social leads, get in touch today via[email protected] , 01782 478220 or via our contact page.

 

Click Dealer Hoping for a Clean Sweep at the Staffordshire Chambers Business Awards 2018

Staffordshire Chambers Business Awards Finalist 2018
Tomorrow evening, the Staffordshire Chambers Business Awards 2018 will be taking place at the Staffordshire County Showground. Click Dealer are finalists in three separate categories.

Held annually, the Chambers Business Awards, shine a light on the achievements and successes of Staffordshire’s best businesses. This year, there have been hundreds of entries from across the county, and Click Dealer are lucky enough to be finalists for three prestigious awards.

We have already announced our nominations for the Digital Award and the Science, Technology and Innovation Award, but since then, we have also been put forward in the Business of the Year category, which is a huge honour.

Click Dealer, along with all of the other finalists, have met with the judges to talk about our business and our online vehicle retailing software, ClickEngage™, which we are hoping will help us to secure the Digital Award and the Science, Technology and Innovation Award.

We are up against a lot of tough competition, but we are hoping to add more awards to the collection we have acquired this year, which already includes the Entrepreneur of the Year Sentinel Award, the Business Innovation Sentinel Award and, most recently, the Dealer Management System of the Year Car Dealer Power Award.

Ollie Moxham Car Dealer Power Awards Rebecca Chaplin

Sara Williams, Staffordshire Chambers Chief Executive said: “It is great to see how the entries have developed and by far exceeded previous year’s in terms of quality. We see this as a testimony to the healthy state and award-winning potential of businesses within Staffordshire.

I would like to thank the judges for their dedication to the task and the businesses who took the time to enter. Many congratulations to all of our finalists and commended businesses.”

The winners of the Staffordshire Chambers Business Awards will be announced at the gala evening tomorrow evening. More than four hundred guests are expected from all over the county and it is set to be an exceptional evening, which we are looking forward to.

To find out more about Click Dealer’s online retailing platform ClickEngage™, or to book a free demo, get in touch via [email protected], 01782 478220 or through our contact page.

 

Revhead Ramblings: The Weight War Is On

Horsepower is done, we’ve seen manufacturers battle for the crown of the most powerful car and technically the Devel Sixteen has won (or at least it will if/when it makes it to production.)

The thing is though, despite the claims from the manufacturer, there wasn’t all that much coverage. I don’t think we can even comprehend 5000bhp, our current hyper cars are pushing boundaries with 1000bhp and they’re starting to struggle. It seems now manufacturers must turn their heads to another variable that has a huge bearing on a vehicle’s overall performance; weight.

If you look at some of the fastest lap records, they’re often by cars that resemble scaffolding, they’re then fitted with modest engines to keep weight down and the results are astonishing. For the rawest driving experience, you can’t get much better than a Caterham or Ariel Atom.

Speed is Too Accessible Now

It’s a matter of what the manufacturer intends the car to be, if it’s made for the track, power isn’t everything; a good power to weight ratio is everything for posting low times on the board. If, however they’re looking for outright speed and bragging rights then power is the crucial factor. The latter option seems redundant, particularly now. If I were to drive a Bugatti Chiron and plant my foot for six seconds, I’d have my licence taken away.

Obviously, the Chiron isn’t a fair example, it’s performance figures are justified, it was built purely for the purpose of speed. The same can be applied to an Audi RS3 though, bury my foot into the carpet for 10 seconds and I’ll find myself surrounded by four concrete walls by the end of the day. How can you go out for a drive in your lovely fast car knowing you’re only using six tenths of its potential? I’d much rather go out in a Fiesta ST and use every last bit of horsepower than scratch the surface of an AMG.

Less Weight Equals More Fun

An example I read online said a BMW M2 can lap Laguna Seca in 1.40, the same time as a stripped-out MG Midget. Which would you rather be in though? Once you’ve driven truly rapid cars, you’ll come to respect those focused on weight saving even more. It’s ok being able to rip your face off by putting your right foot to the floor, but carrying speed through corners and braking later and later as you learn the track is a much better experience and can only be achieved with weight saving.

Overall

This goes some way to explaining my feelings towards Tesla. The Model S and X may be fast, but they’re years away from capturing the hearts of true enthusiasts. They may put a Porsche to shame over a quarter of a mile but what would you spend a day lapping a track in? Straight line speed is fun, but cornering takes skill and an understanding between the car and driver.

Concerns About Online Vehicle Selling Put to Rest

Lately, Click Dealer has been making a lot of noise about our new online retailing software, ClickEngage™ and while many dealers have welcomed it with open arms, others still have concerns about selling online and are unsure whether this product will work for their dealership. We want to try and put these concerns to rest.

ClickEngage™ is our latest innovation, developed to help car dealers deliver a more convenient experience for their customers. It allows dealers’ customers to choose their vehicle on the website, add a part-exchange and receive an instant valuation, apply for finance and get quick quotes, select add-on products and pay a reservation fee entirely online.

What’s the point?

Online vehicle retailing offers a host of benefits. For example, ClickEngage™

  • Runs 24/7, so you can manage leads even when you are closed.
  • Captures consumer data so that there is less chance of leads being lost.
  • Creates deals for you, so you have time to focus on other things.
  • Offers your consumers convenience and transparency, which are key selling points.
I’m all for transparency, but does the customer need to see everything?

Openness and honesty are important to customers nowadays, especially for used car buyers, but by allowing the customers to not only see what’s going on, but actually take charge of their own deal you may feel like you are relinquishing all control.

With ClickEngage™, part-exchange quotes are based on Cap HPI valuations, but you can set your own parameters, deciding whether you would like the quote to be displayed to the customer as below or above the average valuation by percentage. So, while the customer can see their deal, you are still in control.

I’m worried I won’t be able to hold onto my customers online

We have designed ClickEngage™ to help dealers not only to generate leads, but also to convert them. When customers are directed to the ClickEngage™ platform, they will be required to fill in a few personal details and they will be able to opt in for marketing.

Finance quotes will come straight from your finance partners and if a customer is not accepted, you will be notified, so that you can get in touch and try to arrange an alternative solution.

I have always done business this way and I don’t want to change now

Whether we like it or not, automotive retail is changing. Just as so many other industries are, the vehicle trade is becoming digitalised. According to a report released by Cox Automotive earlier this year, 83 per cent of car buyers want to do some of their purchase process online, and over half of these people want to be able to structure their deal away from the dealership.

The key to success with any business is to be attuned with your customers. You can choose to ignore their desires and expectations, or you can choose to adapt to them and thrive in the new commercial environment.

My competitors are not selling online so I don’t need to worry

Do you want to be a follower or a leader? Don’t wait for your competitors to start stealing your leads, seize the opportunity for yourself!

I don’t get enough traffic to my website for online retailing software to be relevant to my dealership

There are ways to change this. Search Engine Marketing and online retailing go hand in hand, and while it is certainly an investment, the two together are a winning combination for lead generation. You may be content with the number of walk-ins your dealership gets, but just think about how much your dealership could develop using these contemporary strategies.

I just don’t think it would work for my dealership

We don’t claim that ClickEngage™ is a miracle product that is right for everyone, but we track the amount of reservations dealers receive through our software and the statistics show that it has had extremely high rates of success for the majority of dealers.

ClickEngage™ is available as a monthly subscription, so there is no harm in trialling it for a couple of months, and if you are not seeing the results you wanted, you don’t have to stick with it, but with its potential for lead generation, surely, it’s worth a shot!

For more information or to book a free demo of ClickEngage™, get in touch with Click Dealer today via [email protected]  or  01782 454354. Alternatively, you can send us a message through our contact page.

Click Dealer Wins Dealer Management System of the Year Award at Car Dealer Power Awards 2018!

Ollie Moxham Car Dealer Power Awards Rebecca Chaplin
Last night, the Car Dealer Power Awards 2018 took place at The Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, and Click Dealer is thrilled to have won the Dealer Management System of the Year Award.

The Clickers were also highly commended in the categories ‘Website Provider for Independent Dealers’ and ‘Product Innovation of the Year’ for ClickEngage™.

Ollie Moxham Car Dealer Power Awards Rebecca Chaplin
From left to right: Founder, Car Dealer Magazine, James Baggott, Click Dealer Director and Head of Web, Ollie Moxham and Click Dealer Head of Marketing, Pip Moxham collecting Click Dealer’s Website Provider For Independent Dealers Highly Commended award.

The winners of the Car Dealer Power Awards were determined by the votes of the dealer community, and we would like to thank everyone who voted for Click Dealer.

This is the first time in the nine years that the Car Dealer Power survey has been conducted that Click Dealer has actively taken part, and it is an honour to not only receive commendations, but to win an award.

Click DMS is where Click Dealer began, and has remained our core product for more than 15 years. Our dealer management system offers a single virtual space for dealers to manage their customers, stock and sales data. Seamlessly integrating with leading databases and accounting software, it provides a host of innovative solutions to help dealers run their businesses more efficiently.

Ollie Moxham Car Dealer Power Awards Rebecca Chaplin
Click Dealer Head of Marketing, Pip Moxham and Click Dealer Director and Head of Web, Ollie Moxham.

Car Dealer Magazine CEO, James Baggott, said: “We know that controlling all of the moving parts of a dealership is complicated at the best of times – and at the worst of times it can be an absolute nightmare.

“That’s why we hear time and time again what a life saver dealer management systems are. With more than 15 years’ of experience in the automotive software market, our winner is well established when it comes to DMS.

Our readers said this firm is ‘constantly striving for the best’, is ‘proactive’ and one adding it’s the ‘best value product’ they’d ever had.”

Ollie Moxham Car Dealer Power Awards Rebecca Chaplin
Head of Editorial, Blackball Media, Rebecca Chaplin and Director and Head of Web, Ollie Moxham collecting Click Dealer’s Dealer Management System of the Year award.

Managing Director, Gerry Moxham, said: “Winning the DMS Award and being highly commended in two other categories is a great achievement for our company.

Our DMS has always been the heart of Click Dealer and we are continuously working to make it better and more valuable for our dealers. To have it named as the DMS of the year by the people who are using it is truly humbling.”

Ollie Moxham Car Dealer Power Awards Rebecca Chaplin
Click Dealer Director and Head of Web, Ollie Moxham and Click Dealer Head of Marketing, Pip Moxham.

For more information about Click Dealer’s award-winning dealer management system, get in touch by emailing [email protected], calling us on 01782 904 715, or messaging us via our contact page.