MOTOZUMA INTRODUCES A BETTER WAY TO SAVE AND PURCHASE YOUR NEXT VEHICLE

New Social Web Site Teams with Hyundai to Offer Savings, Resources for Auto Shoppers

Chicago — Social media has provided Web users with a forum to share photo albums, cast themselves as the next viral video sensation, and communicate with friends around the globe. Now the power of social media is being harnessed to give first-time and new car buyers a way to share the car of their dreams with family and friends, save for the purchase, and earn valuable savings from manufacturers.

Introducing Motozuma.com, a new Web site that combines the power of social media with the money-saving tools needed to make a first-time car purchase.Hyundai offers car buyers an added incentive as Motozuma’s first Manufacturer Match partner. With the Manufacturer Match program, Hyundai will match the money in a user’s account dollar for dollar up to $500 if the user purchases a new Hyundai vehicle. Motozuma makes saving and shopping for a vehicle a customizable, interactive experience. Creating a free Motozuma account is the first step towards owning a new vehicle.

“Americans are eager to find new ways to save for vehicle purchases, particularly first-time car buyers,” said Chris Wire, Motozuma CEO. “At the same time, the Internet and social media have introduced a number of tools that enhance the vehicle buying process. We’ve brought those two principals together to create Motozuma.com. Our team is excited to help people save towards the purchase of a new vehicle and our site in an engaging way to build those savings.”

Click to expand...

How it Motozuma.com Works

Once you create a free Motozuma account, you’re in the fast lane towards savings. Your account allows you to save your own money, and money gifted to you from family and friends, that you can put towards the purchase of a new vehicle. Tired of disappointing birthday presents? Not sure what to ask for around the holidays? Just use your Motozuma account to let people know what you need most – the funds to help buy a new vehicle.

With more than 40 different manufacturers to explore on Motozuma, the car you want is just a few clicks away. Once you’ve found the vehicle that’s right for you, you can build a customized profile with photos and information about that automobile. You can share your profile with family and friends through Facebook, Twitter and other social networking tools, to encourage financial gifts that will build savings in your Motozuma account.

While you can shop with dozens of manufacturers, Hyundai offers added incentive to buyers with the Motozuma Manufacturer Match program.

“Motozuma will help Hyundai reach a new audience and the site will be particularly appealing to first-time car buyers,” said Dave Zuchowski, Vice President of Sales for Hyundai. “We are always looking to help people save on the purchase of a new vehicle, which is especially critical to the youngest generation of car buyers. Hyundai and Motozuma are delivering savings to that demographic in an exciting, interactive way.”

Click to expand...

The Tools You Need

Among the resources you’ll find on Motozuma.com to help you save and buy are:

· Vehicle Information: Cars, trucks, SUVs and more. With information on dozens of manufacturers, the photos, specs and other information you need on the vehicle you want is all in one convenient Web site.

· Personal Goal Tracker: Here you can establish your savings goals and easily track your progress towards your new vehicle purchase. Whether that purchase is weeks, months, or years away, the goal tracker establishes a timeline and savings plan to fit any budget.

· Spread the Word: You don’t have to have that awkward conversation about money with mom and dad anymore. Whatever celebration is coming around the corner, let your friends and family know that they can pass on the presents this year and help you save toward a new car instead. Customized e-mails and social media tools make it easy to talk up your plan.

· Time to Buy: Ready to drive? The Motozuma buying guide walks you through the final steps and gives you the paperwork you’ll need to take to an accredited dealership near you. After you pick your car, the dealer will help you finish the down payment process and get you on the open road in your new set of wheels.

Motozuma.com was developed by Synergy Marketing Partners and Real Art Design Group, a team with years of experience in automotive marketing. For more information and to open your Motozuma account, log on to Motozuma.com and start saving today.

###

About Motozuma
Motozuma.com is a new, free social Web site that offers consumers a better way to save and purchase their next automobile. Motozuma.com provides its members an interactive, customizable savings platform along with information on more than 40 different auto manufacturers. The Motozuma Manufacturer Match Program allows manufacturers the ability to match members dollar for dollar on the purchase of a new vehicle. Motozuma is a joint venture between automotive marketing specialists Synergy Marketing Partners and the Web designers at Real Art Design Group.

About Hyundai Motor America
Hyundai Motor America, headquartered in Fountain Valley, Calif., is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co. of Korea. Hyundai vehicles are distributed throughout the United States by Hyundai Motor America and are sold and serviced through more than 790 dealerships nationwide. All Hyundai vehicles sold in the U.S. are covered by The Hyundai Advantage, America’s Best Warranty. In addition, Hyundai Assurance is now offered on all new vehicles leased or purchased from a certified Hyundai dealer. The program is available to any consumer, regardless of age, health, employment record or financed amount of the vehicle. The program is complimentary for the first 12 months.

DriverSide announced a new partnership today with Automotive Forums...

one of the oldest online automotive communities with over 600,000 members. DriverSide has built online garages for the Automotive Forums members and will be helping them maintain and care for their cars.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) November 4, 2009 -- DriverSide.com, the leading resource for car owners, today announced a partnership with AutomotiveForums.com, in which DriverSide will build virtual garages for all Automotive Forums members. DriverSide garages enable members to better manage their vehicles by offering features such as online service history, recall alerts, repair estimates, service reminders, mechanic advice and car reviews and features from the DriverSide editorial team.“DriverSide is the best online tool available for car owners who want to extend the life of their car,” said Igor Sushko, founder of Automotive Forums.

As a part of its Business Services program, DriverSide has established partnerships with automotive dealers, service stations, aftermarket providers and web communities. Automotive Forums includes more than 620,000 members contributing to more than 1,500 forums, which cover every make and model.

“DriverSide is the best online tool available for car owners who want to extend the life of their car,” said Igor Sushko, founder of Automotive Forums. “Our members love their cars and DriverSide gives them the tools to be better, more responsible owners.”

Click to expand...

“Automotive Forums and DriverSide are great complements to each other, both offering great tools for car owners and enthusiasts,” said Trevor Traina, co-founder of DriverSide. “We are excited to see all the new garages from Automotive Forums users and to help them become even better car owners.”

About DriverSide
Recognized by CNET as the best site to use to maintain a vehicle, Driverside.com is the first Web site specifically designed for automobile owners. DriverSide’s tools help owners save money on auto services and maintenance costs, diagnose car problems and buy and sell automobiles. Its in-house editorial staff offers useful advice on how to own and maintain a vehicle as well as new and used auto reviews. The site’s community features allow consumers to share knowledge and post reviews on mechanics and dealers. DriverSide’s “Ask a Mechanic” tool gives users the ability to ask staff mechanics specific question about their car, for free. In addition to serving the car owner, DriverSide’s innovative industry program helps dealers, aftermarket shops, and other automotive companies build stronger relationships with their customers.

DriverSide was founded in fall 2007 by Internet entrepreneurs Trevor Traina, Adam Jackson, and Jad Dunning. The site has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Automotive News and Good Morning America. DriverSide is funded by Catamount Ventures and Allegis Capital. For more information, go to www.driverside.com.

About Automotive Forums (AF):
Founded in November, 2000 by Igor Sushko, AutomotiveForums.com is one of the oldest and largest automotive enthusiast communities. AF boasts over 620,000 members worldwide and over 1.5 million users access the site monthly. The community offers free discussions on all makes and models and on a variety of miscellaneous topics within the automotive industry – from scale cars to motor racing. The AF moderators are qualified automotive enthusiasts ready to help users solve their car problems and share their passion in any number of automotive subjects.

“Car Bomb: variation of the infamous “boilermaker beer cocktail.  Made with Guinness, Baileys Irish Crème, and Jameson whiskey.  Found to be most tasty by those in the “car” industry”…..   More on that later, but let me just share that this shot tastes like gasoline mixed with cottage cheese and nitroglycerine…  Another fun time was had by all at the 7th Digital Dealer Conference which was held in Nashville, and yes, a few “car-bombs” were enjoyed after a great day of sessions.



I started Sunday with Brian Pasch’s session on how to “Move Ahead of your Competitors with Content Based SEO Strategies”.  Brian has earned a well deserved reputation at being great at automotive SEO (he DOMINATED Cash for Clunkers!), and his presentations are well attended as they are “rich in content”.  What do I mean?  While many other presenters might provide some tidbits of info as a teaser to hopefully hire them later, Brian shares the actual strategies of what he is doing for his automotive SEO clients.  His approach is that he knows there will be folks out there who do not have the time to implement these strategies themselves, and will then hire him.  Sounds like “transparent selling” can pay off…  Brian shared that “the most important hire in 2010 for a large dealership will be a full time content writer” and that this move would be the greatest ROI decision large dealers would face.  With the 2 major Google algorithm movements this year, I agree wholeheartedly.  Of note, at the end of the conference, Brian gave his “Award of Excellence” to DealerFire after completing his review of all of the major automotive website providers – congratulations!

More photos and Video after the break



Next up was Stan Bradbury with “Get Ahead by Becoming a Leader in Mobile Communication”.  Both Stan and Brian Pasch’s presentations were “standing room only”.  Unfortunately, their meeting rooms were too small and were very stuffy (which is my only gripe about our location, very nice otherwise).  Many of us that attend these conferences are doing our best to stay one step ahead of this rapidly moving market, and I believe mobile communications is something we need to figure out.  Stan (Dealer Text Solutions) shared how technology shifts have changed our business, and how much more rapidly these moves take place now.  From our dealerships first using phones, then faxes, then websites, then emails, and now mobile communications, the pattern has shown that the aggressive dealers who identify and embrace these technology shifts are the dealers with the highest returns when these market changes take place.  Attending this presentation raised a lot of questions for me, primarily – how do we use mobile comms to sell cars?  I don’t think anyone can truly say they are sure of how to do this, as we are still working on the logistics of working with this.  For me, I am very curious as to which CRM provider will provide a seamless solution where we can “text” our customers directly from our CRM tool…

Social Networking was a very hot topic at the conference, and I attended several sessions which addressed this issue.  Perhaps I am having a cynical moment, but I believe that many dealers are overly concerned with “getting their Facebook and Twitter” setup when their most pressing concern should be to address the key fundamentals to successfully selling cars on the Internet (great website, inventory management, sales process, etc).  Our dealership was involved early in the social media movement, and we are even profiled by some of these presenters as being an example to follow, but I must share that the more I work with social media, the more I need to change my attitude and approach towards using it.  My gut feeling at this point is that our social media presence should focus on managing and promoting our positive online reputation.  You can have the best “fan page” in the world, but I think the truth is that when we look at any of these pages, blogs, or other sites, the majority of the “fans” or “followers” are our employees or counterparts within our industry.  It is different if you carry a brand which has passionate followers like Porsche or BMW, but I don’t think you can expect to create a Kia blog and see similar results (we carry 3 Kia rooftops, so don’t start screaming at me…)

I am sure the previous paragraph will open a bucket of worms, but this leads into another subject.  Many of the folks I talk to attending these conferences are just trying to figure out what to do with their Internet department.  Attending a show like this is like opening your mouth and having a fire hose inserted into it with the nozzle on full stream.  You receive an immense amount of information, and folks are quickly overwhelmed.  “Hey Kevin, how do I photograph my own inventory and write a unique description for each vehicle, then create and manage 150 additional micro sites, followed by 25 blog entries on the different models we carry, then attempt to register my profile with 2500 social sites (which keeps growing every day), setup and manage my search engine management account, update our website specials, implement our mobile phone short code campaign, complete some SEO on our sites, review our Google analytics so far down that I know which room of the house that someone is surfing our website from, and then make some custom videos that I post at 19 different video hosting sites, each with a different title and description…”  The answer is – YOU CANNOT DO EVERYTHING.  With all that said – when it comes to social media, I would encourage folks to pick a few of the primary social sites (Facebook, Youtube) and do a great job with them, rather than trying to do a little bit of everything poorly.  Look at what you do with your other friends with these sites, and keep your presence at the “conversation” level.  Don’t keep talking about “Great sale this weekend only!” – But do share what your satisfied customers have to say about you, and provide useful, relevant I info that you would share with them if you were with them at a social gathering…

Shaun Raines gave a great presentation on “Internet Existence: Is it making you or breaking you?”  Shaun always has a great presentation as he has the ability to keep things real, and his genuine desire to make positive changes within our industry is easily seen.  If you have been to one of Shaun’s presentations in the past, he likes to give away Hot Wheels to those attending.  Tied into this is a great tip from Shaun - stock up on some Hot Wheels for the brands you carry, and when a shopper comes in with their kids, give their kids some of the Hot Wheels, and let them know that regardless of what happens today, at least they are going home with a new Chevrolet (Honda, etc)…  ReachLocal is fortunate to have someone like Shaun Raines onboard – the folks in our industry trust him.



Duncan Scarry talked about the “The Top 10 Initiatives to Implement in 2010”, and his presentation verified one of my greatest areas of emphasis in this coming year.  Duncan showed a TV commercial that was made for one of their car dealer clients.  While measuring the results of this TV commercial campaign, they could see that their phone calls increased significantly following the airing of the commercials (I believe around 140%).  But…  the call tracking numbers indicated that the calls were coming in from the dealer’s website.  This is the pattern that I have been closely following for some time.  Our shoppers see, hear, or read our traditional media, and then they go to our website before they decide to contact us.  Before, our traditional media would drive our customers to our physical dealership.  Now, they go to our online dealership.  Why – because they have never wanted to go to our physical dealership to get “pressured” into buying a car.  Now they hold the power with being able to get the information they need online.



It is incredibly important to understand this, because when our shoppers hear/see our traditional media, they expect to see that promoted information on our websites.  Is your website updated with current information, specials, and banners that tie into the “Mazda Lease Special” that your dealership is pushing on TV, radio, or print?  Even better, does your site tie into any national or regional OEM marketing promotions?  This past month Nissan was promoting a Nissan Altima lease special on TV, radio, print, and online (I think I saw the ads every day on AOL).  So when folks hear or see this, and they search your local Nissan website, is your site updated to tie into this?  I am going to go out on a limb here and state that you should probably spend more time working on this issue than the very small amount of traffic that might come in from your Facebook fan page or a Twitter update…  Useful tip of the day:  You can do more with less in 2010 by taking advantage of all of the money your OEMs are spending to market on your behalf by taking a minute at the beginning of the month, going to your OEM site (e.g. www.nissanusa.com) and looking at their current promotion, and then updating your site to tie into that…  Better info means higher conversion which equals more leads… all with a little extra effort and no additional money.



Do you have a “static” website provider?  By that I mean this – did they develop their website platform some time back and they now intend to milk every last cent of profit out of their product while putting minimal to no effort to improve it?  If so, I believe you should be very concerned.  There have been 2 major changes in the search platform by Google this year, and if your website does not search well with these new changes, and is not adjusting to ensure they do, then you need to find a new provider.  Sorry folks, no names – but I can tell you after talking to multiple vendors that a key factor I am looking for with any vendor we partner with is that they have a dynamic solution which is constantly changing with this market.  (and while I am on this subject – pet peeve – a “partner” vendor helps you become more efficient by continuously improving and providing more value, NOT by adding improvements and constantly asking you for more money for these new “ala-carte” features…).

Ahhh – the “word on the street”…  I always try to take the time to meet new folks, and ask them what they are looking for at the conference, and what their top concerns are for 2010.  Unfortunately, I listened to several who shared that they just want things to “return to normal” in 2010.  I believe that this is a big mistake.  Our industry is going through a major change, and we must be more efficient, and learn to do more with less, as well as “re-learn” how to sell cars in our market.  If you think the “old days” are coming back, and we can sit back, withhold information, and conduct “business as usual”, your dealership is going to be in trouble.  The power has shifted towards our consumer, who has the information at their hands and can shop us online.  Are you prepared to work with that?

I had several people on the floor share with me their excitement over 2 vendors (WideStorm and Vision Selling Systems) who were exhibiting an online negotiation product.  I have to admit, I am intrigued as well and look to test this out.



Is there any nightlife in Nashville?  Are you kidding – if you love live music, you should be in heaven as Nashville proudly claims to be the Music Capital with good reason.  After multiple “Car-bombs” and some great food, we visited Tootsies where 2 live bands were performing at opposite ends of a bar that is about 1/3 the size of one club back home, lol.  I think my highlight was seeing 2 girls approach Jeff Kershner and asking him “Are you that (giggle-giggle), - that guy from Dealer Refresh? (Giggle-giggle)”.  Wow, real life automotive blog groupies.  Damn, there goes my whole cynical theory about social media, lol.

Once again I have piles of notes from this conference (and believe it or not, I do go through it and create “tasks” within my Outlook to follow up…) and lots of great ideas to pursue.  It is so easy for us to get absorbed in our jobs and forget one key thing.  We work with other PEOPLE.  Real live breathing human beings that have feelings and emotion.  I will candidly share that the thing that amazes me about this industry is how poorly we treat so many of our people.  With so many things that we must do well to win our customers’ business, you cannot do it yourself.  It must be a team effort.  Take some time to let your people know how much you appreciate their hard work, listen to their suggestions, and most certainly ask them to help you.  A “pat on the back” goes a long way further than an “a55- chewing” or a “what have you done for me today” attitude.  I am on the same boat as Shaun Raines.  I not only want to lead our dealership to be the best, but I want to “make a difference” in making our dealership not only a place you want to shop, but also want to work for.  Looking forward to seeing everyone at Digital Dealer 8 (I hear it is Orlando, not sure…)  Cheers!

Review by Kevin Frye the eCommerce Director of Jeff Wyler Automotive Family

AutoRevo Releases Auto Industry’s First iPhone Inventory Management Application Integrated with Carfax

DALLAS, TX – October 29, 2009 - AutoRevo, the premier provider of auto dealer websites and on-demand software for automotive dealerships marketing and selling cars online, today announced the release of AutoRevo Mobile, an application that allows dealers to manage their inventory on their iPhone.

“The technical barriers to a true mobile solution for dealers have now been removed with the latest iPhone. This is a great opportunity for our industry to flourish with a drastically increased speed of business,” said Chad Polk, CEO of AutoRevo.AutoRevo Mobile allows dealers to decode a VIN from a photo of the VIN barcode, edit vehicle information, update prices, shoot and upload unlimited photos, run Carfax Vehicle History Reports™, and manage leads, giving dealers the ability to manage their inventory from anywhere, at any time.

"We had several dealers buy out their existing contract and upgrade to the iPhone in order to be an early adopter of AutoRevo Mobile,” continued Polk. “That tells me we have a game changing product that will move the industry forward. You can literally have a car advertised on your site before the ink dries on the bank draft.”

Click to expand...

About AutoRevo: www.autorevo.com
A leader in the automotive industry, AutoRevo is a premier provider of dealer websites and on-demand software for automotive dealerships marketing and selling cars online. FastLot, the company's Internet marketing platform, delivers dealer websites, integration with any automotive shopping site, real-time inventory pricing tools, lead management, digital customer delivery documents, advanced reporting and much more.

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, AutoRevo was founded in 2003 and has experienced triple-digit growth for the past six years. The company is aligned with the auto industry's leading e-commerce sites, including: eBay Motors, AutoTrader.com, OVE.com, Openlane.com, Cars.com, Craigslist, Google, Vehix, CARFAX, and hundreds more. For additional information or to learn more, visit AutoRevo - Dealer Focused Digital Solutions and blog AutoRevo - Dealer Focused Digital Solutions.