Attention Car dealers, your Information Age marketing strategies are obsolete, as we are now living in the

“The Experience Age!”

The Information Age

The Information age was spawned over two decades ago, by the emergence of the World Wide Web and Google’s efforts to organize all of the world’s information in one easily accessible portal.

The Consumers Have Taken Over The Asylum

Within a few years consumers had all the information they needed to make a buying decision at their fingertips. Often times they knew more about the vehicles they wanted than your sales consultants. They also got insight into how you treated your customer via online reviews and social media. As a result they drive greater distances and visit fewer dealerships than ever.

Social Media

The centrepiece of the Information Age was social media. It encouraged people and businesses to create profiles by accumulating text, pictures and videos. Our Friends and Followers responded to posts by giving Likes, Comments, Shares and more recently Expressions. Many businesses saw that social media was a powerful, cost effective marketing tool so they abandoned invasive advertising platforms like newspapers and radio.

Car Dealers, Late To The Party

Car dealerships were amongst the last business to adapt their sales models to meet the needs of online shoppers for four reasons.

1.   At first, dealers didn’t believe that their customers would use the Internet to shop for vehicles online.

2.   The only real advantage they had in the negotiation process was control of the information. Loss of that control led to decades of resistance and the continued use of antiquated sales processes that only worsened the industries reputation.

3.   They couldn’t see a measurable ROI on social media, so they made a lack lustre efforts like sharing content from their manufacturers or talking about how great they were. They didn’t seen to understand that the operative word in social media is “social.”

4.   This my favourite, because it’s the most dangerous phrase in business “We’ve always done it this way.” 

The Experience Age

The Experience Age is a product of Internet everywhere, mobile devices and live streaming video. These technologies are changing the way people and businesses represent themselves online. We are now represented by who we are in the moment as opposed to being a product of the content accumulated in our profiles.

To illustrate this, in March of 2016 Facebook announced that status updates amongst its 1.6 billion active users (at the time) were down 21 percent while live streams were soaring.

The redundancy of the status box is only a small part of the transition from information to experience. The real driving force for the changing dynamic of our online interactions is the mobile device. They allow us to share our perspectives in the moment and they inspired the development of social sites like Periscope and Snapchat. 

Game Changers

Periscope was the first widely accessible live streaming platform that allowed to people to broadcast in the moment experiences. Facebook, Instagram and YouTube adapted quickly by developing their own live streaming platforms.

Snapchat requires a snap, (a picture or a short video). Friend’s can watch the snap and chat until the snaps disappear. Snapchat is all about the visual experience in the moment. It had lead to a generation of people who are speaking to one another using pictures and videos, which means the focus has shifted from capturing a “Kodak Moment” to a literal way of communicating in the moment experiences.

The result is that profiles are no longer the cornerstone of our social media existence. In the Experience Age you are just you. This means the line between online and offline identities is getting narrower.

Perspective For Attention

Social Media has always been about, I’ll give you my perspective, and you give me your attention, but the key difference in the Experience Ag is that the stories we tell begin and end visually.

The #1 Factor That Determines Where People Buy Cars

Experience Age businesses will either succeed or fail based on the experiences that they provide for their customers. Those experiences must be shared with images and videos, as the number one determining factor for where people will buy a vehicle is the experience that they are promised when they’re shopping online. The great news for car dealers, who face compressed margins and increased competition, is that people will pay more for an exceptional experience.

Is Your Dealership Ready For The Experience Age?

Attention Car dealers, your Information Age marketing strategies are obsolete, as we are now living in the “The Experience Age!”

The Information Age

The Information age was spawned over two decades ago, by the emergence of the World Wide Web and Google’s efforts to organize all of the world’s information in one easily accessible portal.

The Consumers Have Taken Over The Asylum

Within a few years consumers had all the information they needed to make a buying decision at their fingertips. Often times they knew more about the vehicles they wanted than your sales consultants. They also got insight into how you treated your customer via online reviews and social media. As a result they drive greater distances and visit fewer dealerships than ever.

Social Media

The centrepiece of the Information Age was social media. It encouraged people and businesses to create profiles by accumulating text, pictures and videos. Our Friends and Followers responded to posts by giving Likes, Comments, Shares and more recently Expressions. Many businesses saw that social media was a powerful, cost effective marketing tool so they abandoned invasive advertising platforms like newspapers and radio.

Car Dealers, Late To The Party

Car dealerships were amongst the last business to adapt their sales models to meet the needs of online shoppers for four reasons.

1.   At first, dealers didn’t believe that their customers would use the Internet to shop for vehicles online.

2.   The only real advantage they had in the negotiation process was control of the information. Loss of that control led to decades of resistance and the continued use of antiquated sales processes that only worsened the industries reputation.

3.   They couldn’t see a measurable ROI on social media, so they made a lack lustre efforts like sharing content from their manufacturers or talking about how great they were. They didn’t seen to understand that the operative word in social media is “social.”

4.   This my favourite, because it’s the most dangerous phrase in business “We’ve always done it this way.” 

The Experience Age

The Experience Age is a product of Internet everywhere, mobile devices and live streaming video. These technologies are changing the way we  share information online. We are now represented by who we are in the moment as opposed to being a product of the content accumulated in our profiles.

To illustrate this, in March of 2016 Facebook announced that status updates amongst its 1.6 billion active users (at the time) were down 21 percent while live streams were soaring.

The redundancy of the status box is only a small part of the transition from information to experience. The real driving force for the changing dynamic of our online interactions is the mobile device. They allow us to share our perspectives in the moment and they inspired the development of social sites like Periscope and Snapchat. 

Game Changers

Periscope was the first widely accessible live streaming platform that allowed to people to broadcast in the moment experiences. Facebook, Instagram and YouTube adapted quickly by developing their own live streaming platforms.

Snapchat requires a snap, (a picture or a short video). Friend’s can watch the snap and chat until the snaps disappear. Snapchat is all about the visual experience in the moment. It had lead to a generation of people who are speaking to one another using pictures and videos, which means the focus has shifted from capturing a “Kodak Moment” to a literal way of communicating in the moment experiences.

The result is that profiles are no longer the cornerstone of our social media existence. In the Experience Age you are just you. This means the line between online and offline identities is getting narrower.

Perspective For Attention

Social Media has always been about, I’ll give you my perspective, and you give me your attention, but the key difference in the Experience Age is that the stories we tell begin and end visually.

The #1 Factor That Determines Where People Buy Cars

Experience Age businesses will either succeed or fail based on the experiences that they provide for their customers. Those experiences must be shared with images and videos, as the number one determining factor for where people will buy a vehicle is the experience that they are promised when they’re shopping online. The great news for car dealers, who face compressed margins and increased competition, is that people will pay more for an exceptional experience.

Think With Google

In a recent issue of Think With Google, Jason Spero, Google’s VP of Global Performance Solutions wrote that:

“Today’s customers aren’t comparing you to other businesses in your industry – they’re comparing you to the best digital experiences they’ve ever had.”

Unfortunately retail automotive is still using a lot of redundant processes like with holding information and antiquated technologies like auto responders and managed chat, that do not provide great online experiences.

Opportunity Knocks

These developments have created tremendous opportunities for those that are brave enough to take advantage of these new technologies. But, the question is how will retail automotive adapt to this new reality? Will their be another mass wave of resistance, or will they take advantage of this by embracing; live streaming video, video lead responses, 360 degree vehicle merchandizing, Omni-Channel websites, WebRTC, Talking to the Tech videos and Virtual Reality?

Learn How To Adapt On Facebook Live

For those of you that want to dominate your competition and shift your dealership from a transactional process to a customer centric experience, I invite you to join me every Friday at 3:00pm EST on Facebook Live where I will share processes, techniques and technologies that will help you dominate and prosper in the Experience Age.

Just “Like” my Facebook Page @digitalroadtoasale so you can receive notifications and join me on the road to prosperity in the Experience Age!