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People's Choice Awards for Best Vehicle Photos?

flosho said:
I appreciate the kind words. The marketing department is myself and one other person and he does about 75% of the photos now. We've always been "online based" and so most of our customers have traveled several hours to get to us. (We are 1.5 hours from Minneap, 2 hours from Madison, 2 hours from Rochester, etc.. so kind of centrally located to a bunch of big cities). Our close rate used to be around 75%. We've moved into a more retail orientation now but continue to pull people from all over the US and ship cars all over the US.

Typical photo shoot runs about an hour 1.5 hours and about 20 minutes to process in LR.

We shoot a lot more vehicles inside in the winter but yeah we typically reshoot the exterior photos when the season changes drastically and is noticeably aged in our photos. Our turn is about 35 days so generally that's not a big issue but we always get a few turds.

We recently upgraded to a Canon RP mirrorless SLR. Interior photo's are shot on 18-135mm zoom with RF-RP adapter (which leads to some clarity loss) or a 1.8 50mm prime.

Also thought it would be fun to add our halloween photo..
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Your pictures are indeed phenomenal, but the time that it takes to do them is the part that concerns me the most. Do I believe that quality pictures help drive sales? Absolutely. But I just wonder if there are some diminishing returns based on the time it takes. Not trying to be negative. Just thinking out loud. Not sure how one could measure it.
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People's Choice Awards for Best Vehicle Photos?

George Nenni said:
Right on Will, I agree.

Poor merchandising affects 100% of digital marketing budgets, currently at $26,000 per month, per rooftop according to NADA.

If you randomly audit online used inventory, you find opportunities for improvement. Framing, lighting, and most importantly image order.

Studies have shown that in a 24 photo carousel, the viewing curve peaks around photo #8-10. Seeing 12 exterior photos followed by 12 interior photos, is potentially a lazy photographer who doesn't want to get in and out of the car. Photographers or editors need to be very intentional with photo order.

My wife shops for cars for our kids, looking for safety options, swiping like Pinterest, never reads descriptions, but when she hits a photo of a rear camera, she digs in more.

High value, interior options need to be in the first 6 images, in order to hook the view. Rear camera, sun roof, heated seat buttons, nav, JBL sound system, etc.
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We go with one outside pic, one why buy, followed by the hot button items, then the rest of the exterior, before finishing with the rest of the interior. Here's one that drives me nuts: pictures of the doors. I might be wrong, but is this REALLY necessary or are we just trying to increase our picture counts?
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People's Choice Awards for Best Vehicle Photos?

joe.pistell
carmudgeon said:
An online presentation should closely mimic an “on the lot“ presentation. A balance between wide-angle hero shots and close-up shots, drawing the shopper’s attention to value added features, in and out of the vehicle.
The more valuable the car, the more options there are. The more photos there ought to be.
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@carmudgeon plz show us some of your dealer work.
carmudgeon said:
...She told me, when she saw the Spotify logo, she knew that was the truck for her. I take 12 pictures of each page on the radio of those trucks and the last page was that Spotify logo on its own. A $60,000 loaded used pickup truck… but she likes Spotify. Go figure.
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Wow, great work, the 12 pics of the dash tech screen is SOOO smart. Our cars are truning into rolling living rooms. In car entertainment (i.e. dash tech) is HOT
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People's Choice Awards for Best Vehicle Photos?

carmudgeon
The topic of photo count, is the proverbial Ouija board. Every party has a hand in pushing and pulling the puck to a negotiated fixed number. The dealership wants as much exposure as possible. The photographer wants as a little as work to do as possible. But the job of the photography is to show the shopper the value and sell the car. 12 exterior photos and 12 interior photos might be good for a work truck but it’s certainly not enough for a loaded top-of-the-line pick up truck.

An online presentation should closely mimic an “on the lot“ presentation. A balance between wide-angle hero shots and close-up shots, drawing the shopper’s attention to value added features, in and out of the vehicle.

The more valuable the car, the more options there are. The more photos there ought to be.

Options not necessarily considered valuable or even listed in book pricing, are often the options that draw the most interest. 2 months ago I was stopped on the lot by a customer who bought a truck. She told me, when she saw the Spotify logo, she knew that was the truck for her. I take 12 pictures of each page on the radio of those trucks and the last page was that Spotify logo on its own. A $60,000 loaded used pickup truck… but she likes Spotify. Go figure. The manufacturers know what they’re doing.

Reminded by a talkative young lady, most people who come in to buy cars, are really not interested in the car per se.

Every feature has the potential of turning a shopper into a customer. If you are not showing them all you are likely missing the opportunity for a sale or a visit to the lot at least.

12 exterior photos and 12 interior photos is likely enough for Dealers to buy a car but maybe not the car buying general public.
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Any dealers using TikTok for marketing campaigns?

Alex Snyder
Carsten said:
New owners includes? Musk?
I doubt Mr. Beast is ear marked for that but it would be interesting.
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If you didn't see it, I highly advise watching Trump's press conference while he signed Executive Orders. It was entertaining for sure. And you get a real good sense for how serious he is.

He did speak about TikTok quite a bit. He wants the United States to own half of TikTok. His argument is that TikTok is worth nothing if it goes away. If it stays, it has huge value. And his signature is all it takes because Congress gave the President that power specifically in regard to TikTok. They have 90 days to figure it out.
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Any dealers using TikTok for marketing campaigns?

kylewilliam said:
Hey everyone, I've been considering using TikTok ads to promote my business, but I'm a bit hesitant. Has anyone here tried them out? I'm curious to know about your experiences—did you see a significant return on investment? How does the cost compare to other platforms like Facebook or Instagram? Also, are there any specific demographics or niches that tend to perform well on TikTok? Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated before I dive in. Thanks in advance for your help!
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What is your business? Don't want to assume it's a dealership just because you're posting on a dealership forum..
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A.I. ain't A.I. in automotive. It is B.S.

ed.brooks
john.quinn said:
I too have been a nay-sayer... but no longer.

I use GPT a lot. And there is zero doubt we are right around the corner from AI having more relevant, meaningful conversations with customers than we can hope from our Sales staff. Not a chat bot -- suggest inventory, help with payments, compare and contrast; it's wide-open...

I almost hate saying it... but unlike L5 autonomous driving, or EV's being half as practical as gas or hybrids, AI is here, it's not going anywhere, and it's real.
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JQ -- Just for fun, I ran your response through AI. This is what it came up with:
AI is on the verge of surpassing human sales staff in having meaningful conversations with customers. Unlike other technologies, such as autonomous driving or electric vehicles, AI is already here, and its potential is significant.
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Mac compatibility in a dealership

Protector said:
The sleek design fits perfectly, and it looks way better than the HP all-in-ones we had before. As for software, we're currently using CDK as our DMS and plan to switch to PBS next year. Running CDK on my Mac has been pretty smooth via browser access. I haven't tried PBS on Mac yet, but I'm hoping it'll be just as seamless. If anyone else is navigating this transition, I'd love to hear how you're managing. By the way, if you're in need of Windows keys, there's a site that sells them cheaply **removed link** It could be handy if you need to run any Windows-specific apps in a VM. Looking forward to hearing your experiences with Macs in the dealership.

I know for sure that CDK and PBS can run on Mac through browsers such as Safari or Chrome. Switching to Imac is a great decision for you. If something doesn’t install, you can still use the web version. I had only one problem, I couldn't install a very important program. I read the forum and was advised to do a factory reset macbook, read how to do it correctly https://moonlock.com/factory-reset-macbook and did it strictly according to the instructions. The problem was immediately resolved. I don't know what the problem really was. Most likely just some kind of lag.
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Everything went smoothly with my MacBook too. In fact, this is top technology. Rarely do problems happen with it or something does not start.
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#RefreshFriday CRYPTO! ..and why should a dealer consider using it? | Ben Hadley

concerttim said:
I assure you that cryptocurrency payment will soon become mandatory for all types of businesses. The growing, active international community of cryptocurrency fans is an ideal target audience for businesses, regardless of the category.
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22 Retail Automotive Predictions for 2022

Fantastic post. Riffing on #21, the industry consolidation may start to have ramifications on the vendors in the space. You're either in the with big dawgs, or struggling to gain foothold. I've seen this play out previously in the media space as Sinclair Broadcasting, Nexstar, and others got massive.
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Change my mind: Dealer Website Finance Calculators should die

craigh
johnhabeck said:
Here's the average completion rate that we see. About 14% of users who view a VDP complete the payment calculation. My presumption is that some people like to tinker around with something that doesn't ask for their name/phone/email. The payment calculator is one of the only tools on most dealer sites that isn't gated by a form.
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That's a bit staggering to me. We've had analytics on our calculators in the past and never seen that type of engagement.
More than 1 in 10 visits to the VDP include an interaction with the calculator to the point of a calculation?
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Change my mind: Dealer Website Finance Calculators should die

Alex Snyder
Jim K said:
Why don't we see more creative leasing offers?
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The used car dealers who have figured out how to stock and which banks work for leasing are killing it! They don't have to worry about what they're paying at auction as much. I'm surprised Vroom and Carvana haven't figured this out yet.

Many franchised dealers focus on their captive lenders and miss a lot because of that.

As for the captive lenders offering creative lease offers - they don't have to right now. New cars are... well... we all know how rare those have become. Unless they start to care about used cars (which they should right now), then I don't see anything more than non-captives staying aggressive on earning paper the residual/rate way.
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