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Jan 12, 2011

Wow - Easy. Professional. And I love the idea of the call to action button at the end.

I can just picture Uncle Joe cranking the volume and dancing in his office!

Jan 12, 2011

I wrote a post talking about this a while back ( http://www.drivingsales.com/blogs/bruceetzcorn/20... ) and agree, Animoto is a fantastic, cheap alternative to some higher priced video options available for dealerships. We've ( Dealer HD) have even integrated Animoto into our admin tool. Dealers can send all vehicle photos right to Animoto with one click of a button.

Jan 12, 2011

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you are well aware that video is increasingly important in your digital marketing strategy. Dealers across the country have been dipping their toes in the video pool, and a few have even jumped in head first. Most of us have tried putting together homemade video with Flip Cameras, cell phones, and slide show software. Another great option to creating professional video content is Animoto.

You don’t have to be tech geek to figure this program out. All you need is a few images, videos and some creative text and you have yourself a sexy video that will keep your audience captivated. I would strongly suggest going for the pro version ($249.00 per year). You will be able to churn out 100’s of high quality video to use for:

Video SEO (Sales, service, parts, branding)
Website specials
Blog posts
Conversion (Call to Action button at the end of video!!!)

I have played with the free version a few times but the 30 second limits and Animoto branding just doesn’t do it for me. Once I dived into the Pro version I have not looked back.

The call to action button has all kinds of possibilities. You have to remember that once you upload your video to YouTube the code does not work. You must use the embedded code provided by Animoto for this feature to function.

The above video gives you an example of what you can achieve with this great feature.

Have you used Animoto at your dealership? If so - share your experiences!

Oct 8, 2013

Great Job by Mike McKenzie at Jim Tidwell Ford Cobb County Ga. He worked a GREAT deal for me on a new 2013 F150 Platinum right off the bat without all the back and forth negotiations normally associated with buying a vehicle. Great Buying experience . I have already referred several friends . Great job Mike and to the whole Jim Tidwell TEAM !!!!! It's my 3rd vehicle I've purchased from them since 2002.

Aug 15, 2013

Have to give a big thumbs up to Curtis Ryan Honda dealership in Shelton, CT. We had the pleasure of dealing with Scott as our sales person who made our leasing of a Honda CRV the most pleasurable experience we ever had. Yup you read that correctly. It does seem like an oxymoron but Scott was the most easy going person we have ever dealt with in a car showroom. No high pressure just an easy going exchange of information and arriving at a payment that benefited both of us. We also never had a salesperson who actually spent time with us going over all of the features and helping us to set up our blue tooth and radio stations. Come on who ever does this? Highly recommend Scott and this dealership to everyone. We will be back for a second car.

Aug 15, 2013

Have to give a big thumbs up to Curtis Ryan Honda dealership in Shelton, CT. We had the pleasure of dealing with Scott as our sales person who made our leasing of a Honda CRV the most pleasurable experience we ever had. Yup you read that correctly. It does seem like an oxymoron but Scott was the most easy going person we have ever dealt with in a car showroom. No high pressure just an easy going exchange of information and arriving at a payment that benefited both of us. We also never had a salesperson who actually spent time with us going over all of the features and helping us to set up our blue tooth and radio stations. Come on who ever does this? Highly recommend Scott and this dealership to everyone. We will be back for a second car.

Aug 15, 2013

R3 Motorcars @ 1011 S. Pendleton St. in Easley - Both Rusty Smith (owner) & Jeremy Goeringer (finance) were great to deal with. My defenses were up when I first walked into their showroom but there was NO high pressure shenanaigans.
Bought a beautiful used Mercedes from them at a fair price. I would not hesitate to refer any of my co-workers or clients (I am a Keller Williams real estate agent) to them. They carry only gently used "luxury" vehicles i.e. Mercedes, BMWs, Cadillacs, etc.
Their showroom # is: 864.631.1999
Email: Jeremy@r3motorcars.com

I will surely be going back to them for my next vehicle as well.
Gary Bannon - Keller Williams Realty
700 Airport Road, Greenville, SC 29607 (864).323.8989

Aug 15, 2013

R3 Motorcars @ 1011 S. Pendleton St. in Easley - Both Rusty Smith (owner) & Jeremy Goeringer (finance) were great to deal with. My defenses were up when I first walked into their showroom but there was NO high pressure shenanaigans.
Bought a beautiful used Mercedes from them at a fair price. I would not hesitate to refer any of my co-workers or clients (I am a Keller Williams real estate agent) to them. They carry only gently used "luxury" vehicles i.e. Mercedes, BMWs, Cadillacs, etc.
Their showroom # is: 864.631.1999
Email: Jeremy@r3motorcars.com

I will surely be going back to them for my next vehicle as well.
Gary Bannon - Keller Williams Realty
700 Airport Road, Greenville, SC 29607 (864).323.8989

Mar 11, 2013

Just wanted to let you all know that my salesperson gene king does a wonderful jof before the sale and after. Always thinking of us. Thanks gene for all your help
Conrad slorp

Mar 11, 2013

Conrad slorp

Feb 21, 2011

Dealership ratings are SO not like product ratings. Whereas many people will review products whether they like them or not, 95% of unprompted dealership reviews (maybe higher) are of the negative variety. Almost nobody goes out of their way to rave about a great car buying experience, but many are willing to vent about a bad experience to anyone who will listen. It's generally only those customers who are encouraged to post positive reviews that will do so (and most of those who are encouraged to do so, will not).

Thank you, cars.com, for further dilluting the review pool and for giving us yet another site on which to police fake negative reviews. Unscrupulous competitors will do this and it's VERY hard to police, especially if all cars.com requires in order to post a damaging anonymous review is a valid email address (which can be created in about 2 minutes).

Jan 17, 2011

Dealers can opt out of the ATC reviews if they don't want them posted. This way some dealers who are really into concerned about their reputation can have them displayed. Other dealers who don't care about their online reputation can turn them off.

terrencegordon · Jan 17, 2011

It should be "When Shoppers Speak (Nicely) You Win". What about the negative reviews? Cars.com and AutoTrader are jumping in way too early on this band wagon. And to whose benefit? Surely not the dealer, who is paying to advertise their vehicles on what now could contain detrimental content for their business.

Good luck Cars and Trader. I'd hate to be the one taking the phone calls from your dealers when the negative reviews start piling up.

Jan 17, 2011

Time will only tell. My bet is that Cars.com is heading for disaster with this one. If you have honest reviews, you must publish all of the negative ones as well as the good ones. How fast will a dealer threaten to cancel Cars.com if a negative review is posted? How fast will consumers see right through it if every review they see is a good one? This appears to be a no win situation for Cars.com.

Jan 17, 2011

Wouldn't you want to keep your customers on a site that offers the Dealer Review research right there? Content that is monitored by the site owner by giving the dealers the heads up before it is posted to the site? Or would you rather the consumer Google your dealership name only to find one of the 140 possible review sites where consumers write "unmonitored" reviews?

By the way, for ATC to post these external reviews seems to give too much validation to these random external sites. They should do what Cars.com is doing instead.

Jan 16, 2011

So Cars.com reviews will not be genuine for the consumer?

Jan 16, 2011

Jeff, thanks for starting this thread. Lots of comments and debatewill surely follow. Is Cars.com attempting to bite the hand that feeds them? They will say no... but what will the dealers say?

dwhitemd · Jan 16, 2011

I would be interested to know how far will Cars.com go to protect the integrity of the reviews. It is extremely easy to create positive reviews for yourself (and negative ones for your competitors) - and without an method for checking the validity of the reviews, Cars.com might find itself play "cop" on a full time basis. If a review can simply be posted based on a phone call or email (or lack of either) it looks like it would be very easy for those inclined to do so, to manipulate the system.

Jan 15, 2011

Robert,

ATC is not increasing rates. You are obviously not paying attention and if you do work for ATC, it's time you find another job.

Jan 14, 2011

Dangerous as most 3rd party reviews out there are negative reviews. Where Cars.com will be consulting the dealer through this process and allowing dealers to have the last say in the review.

Jan 14, 2011

This is not a main focal point for ATC we are discussing our new 2011 dealer solutions not dealer reviews. This is a great way to truly help our Dealer Partners and show that the company Cars.com truly cares about things like CSI and Co Op dollars all of that impact our dealer partners. Here at ATC we are discussing our new solutions and the pricing of it. I guess to cover our purchases of VAuto, KBB and HomeNet. I hate when I have to increase rates!!!!!!!

bphampto · Jan 14, 2011

Premium listings, promoted listings, either way, nothing in the auto business is free. The end of the day we still do all the work while the vendor gets paid.

Jan 14, 2011

It will probably be bundled with the Premium Listings that Cars.com is getting ready to unleash!

Jan 14, 2011

There will be no charge for Dealer Reviews on Cars.com.

Jan 14, 2011

On the surface, it seems that the ability to "Opt In" to the dealer review service is the best of both worlds. This way, only the dealerships that want the reviews, get them.

My biggest concern would be that until you have at least 25+ reviews the "rating system" will be greatly affected by one negative review. Of course it is easy to say that if you are providing excellent customer service and vehicles there should be no worry, but everyone knows it is much easier for a person to spend a few minutes ranting online in a review than to write a glowing review.

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