Dynamic vehicle comments

[Alex Snyder]

I used a hybrid approach with Homenet, but still wrote 80% of the copy/comments for each used vehicle.

HomeNet's comment templates are great - perfect for getting the ball rolling with sales managers who are scared to write. At the end of the day, I would say that the dynamic comments save you a minute or two at first, and once you're practiced in comment writing they only save you a few seconds.

I view what we're doing as a way to get our people started and practiced. Eventually, I would love to simply have it as a "suggestion" piece, but I don't need to pay for that.

Where this could get really strong is in blog article "suggestions", new vehicle comment "suggestions" (as someone already noted), and maybe even "suggestions" for adword copy or content on my website. But everything would have to be a "suggestion" for me. I want to edit whatever is dynamically created.

 

[Mitch Gallant]

We get the shaft on lots of great technologies "That will be coming to Canada in the next 6 months". Comments are a huge deal especially when your trying to hold some gross. Who's out there that offers dynamic comments and is there any standalones or are they mostly an added value to a bigger program.

The only one I'm aware of is VAuto with the cheese...cool but not in Canada
Sounds like Homenet has a program...
Vin Solutions is coming out with one...

We need comments on our vehicles and the dynamic content would be a nice crutch and a time saver. I agree with including some human content... no computer could describe a trade like the salesman who took it in.

 

[joe.pistell]

<-- Assisting HomeNet with new Comment Generator.

The vehicle options info is polluted with un-marketable junk, especially GM. Chrome is an information broker between the factory assembly info and the outside world, the options info is not people friendly and is hard to sell cars with it. It's gotten better, but, it's one reason why a Comment Generator is so difficult to create. Here's a PowerPoint I sent to HN back in 2004.HomeNet Option Renaming Mod

p.s. the formatting of the ppt is AFU due to google docs

 

[mattwatson81]

<-- Assisting HomeNet with new Comment Generator.

The vehicle options info is polluted with un-marketable junk, especially GM. Chrome is an information broker between the factory assembly info and the outside world, the options info is not people friendly and is hard to sell cars with it. It's gotten better, but, it's one reason why a Comment Generator is so difficult to create. Here's a PowerPoint I sent to HN back in 2004.HomeNet Option Renaming Mod

p.s. the formatting of the ppt is AFU due to google docs

I totally agree about the options. I have been battling this for 6 years now for window stickers, dealer websites, and exports to 3rd parties as well. Putting the options in an order of priority and wading through the junk.

 

[JesseBiter]

Joe, great idea in your PPT. I never saw it until now. Who did you send that to? What do you think of the way our options are handled currently?

--Jesse Biter
HomeNet Auto

 

[joe.pistell]

Mornin' Jesse,

That was back in 04, as I recall, I sent that PPT to Matt S, Tammy D, Andy M and Chris M. That PPT fueled the options renaming/strikeout mod in use now.


In my world, all marketing efforts grow from the vehicle up. The web inventory management system is the epicenter of all 21st century automobile marketing. I could see it plain as day back then and I am glad to see we're getting close.

Here’s the grand plan for 2010: Google Docs Everything traces back to the point of sale... the vehicle.

The Comment Generator is the lynch pin in this internet marketing system and it's facing some daunting tasks ahead. I've crafted a rules based CG system that calls on all the data points within webiol, and, if we can just get that options renaming & weighting task accomplished, then Homenet is well on its way to helping me achieve my goals… WORLD DOMINATION. Hahahaa…
Your team has called me often and I got the link to see the beta late yesterday. X'ing my fingers!!

 

[ryan.leslie]

When I was with cars.com I used to hammer my ISM's on comments. It makes a huge difference in response rate once they hit the VIN specific page and even more important than that, the keyword search functionality that is becoming more popular on the classified sites makes custom comments equivalent to SEO. If you haven't played with the keyword search on cars.com in your dma, check it out. Inserting "non-smoker" in your custom comments can impact your returns dramatically.

One other thing, I used to give this link as a launching point for my guys pretty frequently as well. Might be worth a look:

www.dealerassistnow.com

 

[mattwatson81]

Someone at the dealership should definitely put in comments on all their cars, but at the same time the comment management system should allow other dynamic data to also populate the comments and blend it together.

Just think about putting incentives in the descriptions of all your new cars? But those comments have to automatically change when incentives change!

Here are some example of where automatically changing comments are useful:

New car incentives
“Just Arrived†tag lines for only so many days
“Price dropped†tag lines
“Priced X under KBBâ€
“Internet Special†descriptors for aging units
CARFAX status
Trim level changes on the car
Mileage changes on the car
Vehicle equipment changes
Certified details
... etc

All of this should be done auto-magically to enhance and support the comments you manually put on a car.

 

[Mitchell Brenner]

I began playing with Dynamic Comments today and using them along with custom comments is a perfect blend. It helps organize my thoughts and then I can expand from there. It's sometimes a struggle to constantly be coming up with new word tracks and with the new Dynamic Comments I find it much easier to get started.

 

[Jason Walter]

We were using vAuto for awhile...we used their comments and then added our own, so I guess you could say it was a hybrid. Since I have someone on staff now that handles that we have stopped using vAuto and just write our own for both new and used.

I think the dynamic part would be ok but not something I would use exclusively. Like Alex said, you cannot replace a real person writing comments. On new we try and include all the features plus some type of branding/accolade for the vehicle and a call to action.