Click Dealer Renews Sponsorship of North West Counties Outfit Eccleshall FC!

Click Dealer is delighted to announce its continued sponsorship of North West Counties First Division outfit, Eccleshall FC, for the 2018-19 campaign!

The performance partners for dealerships will once again be sponsoring both home and away kits for the club, the team’s defibrillator and The Clickers will even have their own advertising hoarding this year too.

Eccleshall’s Harvey Collins, pictured in last year’s Click Dealer sponsored home strip.

Ollie Moxham, Director and Head of Web at Click Dealer said, “From the moment we were first introduced to the club my Brother-in-law once played for, I knew we’d have a great relationship.

“Family is at the forefront of our company and to see that in the football club is just one of the many reasons we chose to continue this partnership. Both Eccleshall and ourselves love to recruit local talent, so it was a no-brainer to continue providing support and awareness for a great local football club!”

Ollie Moxham
Click Dealer Director and Head of Web, Ollie Moxham, is passionate about supporting community projects.

Everyone at Click Dealer is very excited to see what the new season will bring, the framed shirt gifted to Click last season has even taken pride of place in the new office, for all of our staff and clients to see as they enter the front doors.

The Eagles took to Twitter to comment on their delight at Click Dealer’s continued sponsorship and it seems that they have already been hard at work during pre-season, with a new kitchen underway and renovations to both the changing rooms and Pershall Park itself.

Eccleshall’s social media team were quick to acknowledge Click’s continued sponsorship of the football club!

Everybody at Click Dealer would like to take this opportunity to wish Eccy the best of luck for the season ahead!

For more information on the work Click Dealer does in the local community and our various charitable partnerships, contact [email protected], call us on 01782 478220 or get in touch via our contact page.

Click Dealer Sponsors Eccleshall FC
Last year’s Click Dealer sponsored Eccleshall strips.

Clicker Dealer Hosts Charity Pyjama Party in Aid of Leighton Hospital’s Ward 17!

pyjama day
Determined to show their continued support for Leighton Hospital’s Ward 17, the Clicker’s are dressed to impress in their pyjamas this Friday 15th June!

Today, Click Dealer has hosted a charity pyjama day that has encouraged staff to showcase their favourite jammies, nighties, dressing gowns, slippers and bed socks. Every Clicker involved in the pyjama party has made a donation to the wonderful Ward 17.

What Do Leighton Hospital’s Ward 17 Do?

Leighton Hospital’s Ward 17, otherwise known as ‘The Child & Adolescent Unit,’ (CAU) provides both planned and emergency care to babies, toddlers, children and young people as well as offering professional care and support to their families.

Their services include the following:

  • High-Dependency Care
  • Inpatient Services
  • Paediatric Assessment
  • Planned Surgical Admissions
  • Pre-Operative Assessment
  • Emergency Surgery
  • Paediatric Trauma
  • Shared Care Oncology
  • Paediatric Audiology
  • Play Team Support
Why Are the Clickers Raising Money for Leighton Hospital’s Ward 17?

Back in March 2017, Click Dealer Director Pippa Rawlinson and Head of Sales Lee Rawlinson’s Son, Jude, was treated on Leighton Hospital’s Ward 17 for Meningitis and thanks to his tremendous and admirable fighting spirit along with the work of the dedicated and talented medical professionals on the ward, the treatment was a huge success!

To thank the hospital for saving Jude’s life and to ensure that the same standard of care can be given to other children unfortunate enough to contract the Meningitis virus in the future, Jude’s family, and extended family (The Clickers) are aiming to raise a grand total of £20,000 for Ward 17.

So far, Click Dealer has managed to raise over £11,000 in aid of Leighton Hospital’s Ward 17, and after surpassing the halfway milestone, The Clickers are more determined than ever to smash their target!

Charity Pyjama Day 2018

Click Dealer’s charity pyjama day is one of a number of fundraising events set in place for 2018 to help show our support and admiration for Ward 17. The event raised a total £329.03.

How Can I Donate?

If you would like to donate to Click Dealer’s charity fundraising drive in aid of Leighton Hospital’s Ward 17, please visit www.justgiving.com/clickdealer or email [email protected] to find out how you can help us with our fundraising efforts this year!

A massive thank you to everyone who took part in the charity pyjama day and to those who made a donation!

5 Ways Click Technology Can Help Drive Used Car Sales

Click Dealer was created to help dealers become more profitable, and we will never stop thinking of new, innovative ways to do just that!

From Click DMS, where it all began, to our latest award-winning technology, ClickEngage™, we’ll have something that can help you generate more used car and van sales.

  1. Click DMS

From organising your stock, to helping you improve used car sales performance, Click DMS is your dealership’s right-hand man. Our dealer management system gives you all your stock information, purchase costs and supplier details at your fingertips. Handy features like the prep schedule and aged stock alerts also help you stay on top of maintenance and aged stock.

Not only does our DMS keep track of all your stock information, but it stores all your leads in one place in your customer database. With advanced tracking tools and key marketing reminders, lead management has never been easier, and with sales reports at the touch of a button, you can easily make yourself aware of how you are performing and improvements to be made.

  1. Click Web

Our websites are quicker and more responsive than ever before, and thanks to our new, leading SEO platform, a Click Dealer website will help increase your online visibility, bringing you more web traffic.

It will also help you ensure that your vehicles look their best with the ability to upload HD photos and videos with ease. Provide your customers with ultimate transparency with 360-degree internal and external view and our document upload feature.

Make it your own with tailored branding and over 200 modules to choose from, including finance calculators, home-screen sliders and so much more, all designed to help you deliver the best possible user experience and convert leads.

  1. Click Reputation

With online research now claiming a huge proportion of the car purchase process, third-party reviews have become more influential than ever. Click Reputation collates and displays your customer feedback on multiple review sites as well as your own.

This tool prompts customers to leave a review, alerts you to any negative reviews left on any site, so you have the chance to respond and try to sort out any issues, in addition to automatically promoting five-star reviews on social media sites. This way, anyone considering purchasing from your dealership will be able to see your positive reputation and that you care by trying to rectify issues brought up in comments.

  1. Click SEM

Click Dealer’s leading automotive SEM services are designed to help you improve your online visibility and brand awareness and drive more high-quality traffic to your website. This generates more leads, which in turn, boosts your car sales!

With our SEO offering, you will see your position in search engine rankings soar, which will improve your click-through rate and earn you more customers, and you can enhance your SEO with Click Dealer’s blog management service.

Our PPC services will ensure that your website is in the spotlight for relevant search queries and help you get the best ROI, and with Click Dealer’s Social Media Management service, you can make sure your brand is in peoples’ minds when they come to purchase a car by appearing on the most frequently-used channels on the internet, social media sites.

  1. ClickEngage™

Our newest product provides your customers with the option to create their own deal and reserve a vehicle online. ClickEngage™ seamlessly integrates with third-party software to provide your customers with instant part-exchange valuations and finance quotes to form an end-to-end deal-stacking process, which requires no involvement from the dealer until the point of collection. Because of this, it means your customers can reserve a car at any time of day or night.

This innovative technology provides more options for buyers so that they can purchase their car the way they want to, and offering this gives them more reason to choose your dealership. This means that ClickEngage™ is yet another way in which Click technology can help drive used car sales.

For more information or a free demo of Click Dealer’s technology, get in touch by emailing [email protected], calling 01782 478 220 or dropping us a message on our contact page. 

Top Three Organic Lead Generation Techniques for Car Dealers

Organising Email Inbox
Advertising is expensive. We all know it, and there is nothing we can do to change it. But it is a necessary evil, right? How else are you supposed to gain customers? The answer to that question is organic lead generation.

Organic lead generation is about getting customers to come to you, rather than actively searching for them through paid adverts. However, don’t make the mistake of thinking that organic lead generation will allow you to sit back and watch the customers roll in; it takes a lot of work, but the reward is worthwhile.

Why Should My Dealership Adopt Organic Lead Generation?

Dealers are busy people. If organic lead generation is so laborious, what’s the point?

Consumers now operate differently than they did a decade or two ago. Offering pages of information at the click of a button, the internet has given shoppers a sense of control over their purchases.

This means that they’ll want to do their own research and make their own choices, rather than calling up the first dealer they see an advert for. Play your cards right by using the following organic lead generation strategies, and this could work in your favour.

Blogging

Having a blog on your website which you update on a regular basis could help to generate leads for a number of reasons:

  1. If you help customers by providing useful tips and advice through your blog, they are more likely to trust you and feel inclined to make a purchase with you.
  2. Offering valuable insights based on your knowledge of the industry will make customers see you as an expert in your field.
  3. Through your blog articles, you could embed internal links that encourage readers to act. For example, if you write a piece about finance tips, you could provide a link to your online finance application form.
  4. Blogging contributes to SEO.
SEO

SEO is all about increasing your visibility online, so that when a consumer conducts an organic search that is relevant to your business, via an engine like Google, your website is more likely to appear on the first page of results.

When car buyers research dealers in their area, they will typically only look at the first few websites on results pages. This is because trusted search engines have deemed these sites the most relevant and authoritative sources. As Google is one of the first places people go to do research, SEO is potentially the most powerful organic lead generation tool available to you.

Social

Love it or hate it, social media is everywhere. On average, individuals spend around one hour and 20 minutes on social media a day, which is what makes is an incredibly effective channel for increasing brand awareness.

Regularly posting on a social networking business page is a great way to get your dealership’s name and logo seen constantly, solidifying your brand in people’s minds so that when they are ready to purchase a car, you are the first dealer they think of.

Speak to Click Dealer about our in-house blog management, SEO and social media services by emailing [email protected], calling 01782 478 220 or dropping us a message on our contact page. 

Revhead Ramblings: What Do We Want In a New Car?

When you come to buy a car, what do you look for? Is it speed, practicality or the image it portrays of you? According to Mini, technology is one of the biggest sellers for consumers.

Just behind the design, technology is one of the biggest attractions in a new car for a consumer. I believe, if it wasn’t for the retro and iconic styling of Mini, technology would easily be the most important factor for new buyers.

What Do You Look For In a New Car?

When the average person goes out for a new car, what do they really want? If you were to ask me, speed would be up there, along with reliability and technology. But not everyone is like me, they don’t all want to accelerate global warming with their right foot and so choose a more economical car. But I bet if you ask for their top three requirements, my latter two responses would appear in the majority.

Technology is Vital

My parents and their friends love to comment on my screen time, it’s true; my generation are definitely technology addicts. But when you’re brought up with the world wide web at your fingertips, you’d be mad not to utilise it.

Automakers have obviously clocked on to this and have integrated the majority of our technology into their cars. Apple car play gives you the ability to read texts and access your music, Citroen have a built a dashcam directly into the car with a camera function that allows you to upload your photos directly to social media!

When Will it Stop?

The idea of smartphone integration appeals to me, I hate having to use an aftermarket system to play my music, the built in dashcam is a good idea, but sharing these images to social media is a recipe for disaster; think a self-filmed Jackass.

All of these features can be an issue though, decades ago, if your Land Rover stopped, an average mechanic could get it running again with his trusty set of tools, now however, you need computers more powerful than those that put a man on the moon to even find out what’s up with it.

Obviously, this technology is often for the greater good, but there’s something to be said for cars that require little more than an adjustable spanner and some Allen keys to run happily. The price to pay for convenience could be catastrophic.

SEO or PPC? Which is Right for My Dealership?

SEO
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a broad discipline, and SEO and PPC are two of the most popular practices within it.

SEO and PPC both aim to increase website visibility to attract more customers, and sales, from the internet. However, they each do this in very different ways.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search engine optimisation involves making changes to your website structure, copy, media and code in order to improve your ranking on search engine results pages (SERPS) for certain queries that are typed into search engines, like Google.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

PPC is an advertising model, which helps you appear as a paid result on SERPS. It involves bidding on keywords so that you appear in the best possible position on results pages for queries including these keywords, so that you gain more traffic. You are only required to pay when your advert is clicked.

Pros and Cons of SEO and PPC

SEO and PPC operate in very different ways, which gives each their own benefits and limitations.

  SEO PPC
Sustainability Delivers a continuous stream of organic website traffic (long-term solution)

 

 As soon as you switch off ads, the flow of traffic stops immediately (short-term solution)
Cost Visits to your site are free

 

 Visits to your site are paid for

 
Quality of traffic Generates high-quality traffic (leads with a high-chance of converting) Allows you to customise your audience, so you gain high-quality traffic without spending too much on clicks that are unlikely to convert

 
Time Improving your rank and achieving a significant ROI will take time Gives you instant access to the most-clicked spots on SERPs, so results are quick

 
Control Only search engines have full control Puts you in control of your budget and lets you turn campaigns off and on instantly, giving you flexibility

 
Complexity SEO is very complex, involving both creative and technical elements PPC is complex and without proper training, you could end up spending more than necessary

 
Maintenance Implementing SEO tactics is time consuming Constant monitoring is required to ensure the best ROI

 
Competitors Competitors have to work hard to outperform you It is possible for competitors to outperform you simply by bidding more

 
Measurement Results are difficult to measure Generates measurable results, allowing you to track ROI with conversion pixels

 
Extra benefits Contributes to your online presence and business growth

 

 All benefits of PPC are temporary, and are lost as soon as you turn off your campaign

 
Helps you secure a good rank, which makes users see your business as authoritative

 
Is SEO or PPC Right for Your Dealership?

For every enquiry, search engines will give websites a Quality Score to determine the ranking order. Quality Score is calculated by an assessment of multiple factors: a website’s click-through rate, keyword relevance, landing page quality, relevance of ad text and more. These factors are optimised by using a mixture of SEO and PPC practices.

The best way to gain maximum visibility is to use both, but if you have a limited budget or are nervous about jumping into the deep end head first, try to choose rationally. Establish your SEM goal and using the above table, highlight the pros which match your business model best.

For more information about Click Dealer’s in-house SEM services, email [email protected], call us on 01782 904 715 or alternatively, you can message us via our contact page.

How Will the Discontinuation of Facebook Partner Categories Affect Car Dealers?

Facebook algorithm
As of May 25, Facebook’s Partner Categories targeting options are unavailable in the EU, meaning that the way businesses advertise on the social media platform has changed. If your dealership advertises on Facebook or is considering doing so, here is what you need to know about this recent change.

With Partner Categories, advertisers would be able to use third-party data to target users. In the wake of the new GDPR regulations, along with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has made the decision to remove this feature, in an attempt to better protect people’s privacy on the social media site.

What were Partner Categories?

When you create an ad set on Facebook, you are given ‘Detailed Targeting’ options. Here, you can choose which users will you’re your advert, filtering them by demographics, interests and behaviours.

A lot of this personal user information used to be provided by third-party companies, and the targeting options were referred to as ‘Partner Categories’. The data provided by Facebook’s partners could be very thorough, revealing things like whether or not a user was a homeowner, a parent, a credit card holder, a business traveller. This information was useful for helping advertisers to ensure that their adverts were only being shown to consumers that their product or service was relevant to.

What is the Point of Targeting?

Traditional forms of advertising, such as television, radio and billboard adverts, involve broadcasting promotional material to the masses, in the hopes that consumers who are interested will get in touch, whereas Facebook adverts use a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) model.

This means that businesses will only pay when someone takes action on their adverts that appear on the site. If everyone sees an ad, it is likely that a number of people will click on it, even if they are not open to making a purchase because the product or service is unsuited to them. Advertisers will have to a pay a fee for these clicks, which is a waste of money.

This is where targeting is useful, because it allows you to refine your audience so that your adverts are only seen by people for whom they are relevant. For example, if an estate agency wanted to advertise a particular new listing for sale on Facebook that was well-suited to new buyers, they would be able to select ‘first-time homeowners’ as a Partner Category.

What has Changed?

Facebook has officially stopped delivering to Partner Categories formed on audiences from the UK and these targeting options are no longer available. This aims to better protect peoples’ privacy on the social media site and results from the new GDPR regulations and the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal.

How is this Change Relevant to Car Dealers?

Another target audience which could have been specified from data provided by Facebook’s partners, is people in the market for a car. If you were selling a prestige saloon, you could have targeted a corporate executive audience, if you were selling an MPV, you could have specified users who were parents, if you specialise in a particular make, you could have filtered users who had owned a car from the that make. This is no longer the case.

What Should You Do if Your Dealership is Affected?

It is easy to get caught up in Facebook’s intelligent targeting software and overlook the simplest way to attract the right audience, which is to create a tailored advert to begin with! To do this, you will need to think about who will be interested in what you are selling.

Use your common knowledge, existing customer data, and information from studies to create a buyer persona, listing the demographics and psychographic attributes of your average customer. Keep this persona in mind when you create your advert and this should help you gain interest from people who are likely to convert. For example, if you are creating an advert for a Rolls Royce, your target audience is likely to be wealthy, and may also be interested in yachting, art and brands like Louis Vuitton and Rolex.

Using Facebook’s split testing feature is a great way to create an effective advert. This allows you to run different versions of your adverts, so that you can measure the number of clicks and conversions they receive and determine which strategies produce the best results.

Retargeting is also a great option. This involves setting your ads to appear to users who have previously visited your website. This method of advertising has excellent rates of success, due to the fact that the people being targeted have already expressed interest in your product and brand.

To speak to Joe about running your dealership’s Facebook account or for more information on how Click Dealer’s team of in-house social media specialists can help you with social media marketing, get in touch today via [email protected], 01782 478220 or through our contact page!