Dealer Controlled Marketing Services December 2007

DEALER SPOTLIGHT WHAT’S NEW AT FORDDIRECT

What subject lines do you use to ensure that emails get through and
? get read, instead of bounced by spam filters?
Warmest Wishes of the Season
From our team to yours, Happy Holidays!
As the year draws to a close,
it’s nice to reflect on all we’ve
We try to do things that are not generic that would be picked up by a spam filter. done and thank those who have
One of the subject lines we use for follow up messages is “Am I a pest?” For some helped make it possible. And
reason it seems to generate a lot of response. We try not to send it too often and use for us here at FordDirect, those
it for someone who hasn’t responded after several attempts to reach them. The mes- people are you – the Dealers,
ISM and BDC managers, and
sage would say something like, “I hope I’m not being a pest. It’s a fine line between
your staffs of Internet sales-
providing outstanding service and becoming an annoyance.” We haven’t done any
people who have helped con-
testing of lines that would be factual but we do know the “Am I a pest?” line seems tribute to our mutual success.
to generate some response. Because of you we have sold Leo Hillock, Executive
– Candy Fontz, BDC Manager more than 1.4 million vehi- VP, Dealer relations
Academy Ford, Laurel, MD cles through FordDirect and and development
DealerConnection referrals. We thank you for that
Normally, I put something in the subject line like, “Response to your inquiry on…”
and wish you continued success in the coming year
(followed by the name of the vehicle they inquired about). On follow up emails we and during this Holiday Season.
would do something like “Reference to… first email, phone conversation, or addi-
tional information.” Sometime I’ll use my name in the subject so they know who it is
A Look Back at 2007
from. We do bulk emails every two weeks and we’ll use things like, “Vehicle incen-
FordDirect was founded in 2000 by Dealers on the
tives from Jarrett-Gordon Ford” or “New 2008 Focus on site at Jarrett-Gordon Ford”
National Dealer Council as a joint venture between
and things that will grab their attention. FMC franchised Dealers and Ford Motor Company.
– Mike Ozella, Internet Sales Manager Dealers own 80% of the voting stock and make up a
Jarrett-Gordon Ford, Winter Haven, FL majority of the Board of Directors.
What we put in the subject line is the name of the dealership and the dealership Today, sales from FordDirect referrals represent 15%
phone number. We do it in normal writing style with lower case letters except for a of total Ford and Lincoln Mercury retail sales. This
capital letters on proper names like Ukiah. For the phone number I won’t use any year, Dealers are on track to sell more than 265,000
vehicles from FordDirect referrals (a 10% increase).
dashes between the numbers. I‘ve found that most of the emails get through. I used
to use things like “your quote request” or the year and model of the vehicle and I
2007 FordDirect Service Recap
found that most of my customers weren’t getting my emails. Now, with just the
New Vehicle Marketing Services – Markets
dealership name and phone I’m getting a pretty good response rate.
your vehicles everywhere buyers are online and
– Russell Gussman, Internet Sales Manager delivers them to your dealership from Ford sites,
Ukiah Ford Lincoln Mercury, Ukiah, CA leading automotive portals like Yahoo! and key
independent sites like KBB. In 2007, Dealer sales
If we’re responding to someone, we’ll use all lower case and say things like “this is from FordDirect new vehicle referrals are projected
the information you requested.” I’ve found that if you put anything like “sale” or to exceed 265,000 vehicles.
anything like that in the lines those are going to get filtered out. “Price quote” is
starting to get filtered out more frequently, especially by AOL; it’s probably the worst 2007 Enhancements – FordDirect launched the
for filters. We just try and keep it simple and stay away from buzz words like “sale” Referral Contact Service FREE of charge to drive
and “50% off.” Anything along those lines we just stay away from. And we always additional sales to you. The Referral Contact
use lower case. When we send bulk emails we’ve found that “specials” gets bounced Service contacts customers who submit an Internet
quite a bit. So we’ll use things like “this week’s cars” or “this week’s trucks” etc. It’s referral through FordDirect and identifies prospects
all just simple and there’s no hype to it. who require immediate attention or would like to
schedule an appointment. These “hot leads” are
– Les Dalrymple, Internet/CRC/IT Manager then faxed to the dealership so that salespeople can
Suburban Ford, Sandy, OR more efficiently prioritize their contact lists.
Editor’s Note: In October, the ClickZ Network ran an interesting article on testing Current Enrollment NVMS: 4,166 Dealers
subject lines to find the lines with the highest opening rates. The article covered Current Enrollment RCS: 5,100 Dealers
personalization vs. non-personalization, shorter vs. longer and putting the brand
name in the line. Their recommendation: test, test, test. You can’t keep on using the Pre-Owned Vehicle Marketing Services –
Advertises your entire pre-owned inventory with
same worn-out subject line, especially if you send out weekly or monthly email.
detailed descriptions and pictures online on
If you’d like to read the entire article you can find it at www.clickz.com/3627435. FordDirect.com and leading automotive sites like
AutoTrader.
(…continued on page 2)
 (What’s New at FordDirect continued...)
2007 Enhancements – FordDirect added several additional marketing
affiliates to expose your used inventory to more online buyers and increase
the number of email, phone calls and walks ins to your dealership.
Current Enrollment: 2,807 Dealers
Call Tracking – Advertises a toll-free phone number for your dealership
and captures high-quality Internet phone referrals that increase your lead
volume and provide additional sales opportunities. All calls are recorded
for training purposes and automatically entered into your CRM.
Call Track-10 – Provides a call monitoring system that tracks and
measures all phone calls generated by your advertising. Call Track-10
identifies where your calls are coming from in real time and records calls
for training purposes.
2007 Enhancements – Several updates were released that make it
easier to use the Call Tracking tool and administer the dealership’s toll
free numbers. Additional functionality and reporting was also added.
Current Enrollment: 2,319 Dealers
FDAF Digital Marketing Package – There are now more than 45 FDAFs
participating on FordDirect’s Digital Marketing Service, which is a turnkey
advertising solution that promotes FDAF offers on FordDirect sites and
major search engines and drives online customers into the dealership.
Leads generated by the service are closing at more than 20 percent!
DealerConnection – Provides a website for your dealership that
consumers find when searching for a Dealer on Ford-brand websites or
when searching online using search engines such as Google and Yahoo!
2007 Enhancements – FordDirect transitioned your sites to a new
platform and we’ve been adding additional features throughout the year.
As a result, sales this year from DealerConnection referrals will double,
and are projected to be more than 55,000 vehicles.
FordDirect has integrated pricing on the site with Ford national and
regional incentives, added reporting capabilities, the ability to create
complete custom pages, flash capability, clickable central theme image
and much more.
Current Enrollment: 5,500 Dealers
Premier Customization Service – FordDirect has also launched the
Premier Customization Service which helps you sell more cars and trucks by
creating and maintaining a customized DealerConnection website for you.
Current Enrollment: 309 Dealers
Special thanks to the FordDirect Dealer Advisory Board
Dealers from all markets have representation on our Advisory Board.
They represent you and help guide us. So we would like to thank: Jim
Bass, Fred Beans, Victor Benitez, John Bleakley, Michael Chapman,
Jerry Chase, Jr., Kevin Collins, Mike Devon, Ron Ewer, George Gorno,
Dick Heaton, Vernon Krause, Mark McMullen, David Menten, Doug North,
Sam Pack, Mike Pallotta, Don Price, Richard Savino, Mike Saxon, Vince
Sheehy, Alan Skobin, Dennis Snyder, Casey Stoudt, Larry Stovesand,
Bob Weikert, and Colin Wickstrom.
Contact Us!
4 Parklane Blvd. Suite #675, Dearborn, MI 48126-4218 (Toll Free) 866-550-7812, (Fax) 866-259-8667
General questions: inquiry@forddirect.com DealerConnection and SalesPoint Techical Support Center: 866-762-3673
Operations Managers: Heather Blunt Marc Carlton Mike Dailey Howard Witzke
313-248-5427 313-845-5664 313-317-7311 313-323-7247
hblunt@ford.com mcarlto9@ford.com mdailey4@ford.com hwitzke@ford.com
COMMENTS ON SUCCESS
Sunnyvale Ford, Sunnyvale, CA
Sunnyvale Ford in Sunnyvale, CA averages a 17% close rate in their
Internet department. What’s their secret?
“Treat every lead the same and set
up a process and follow it,” Internet
Manager Derrick Kidwell and Sales
Manager Bill Benak agree, “The sys-
tem breaks down when an individual
salesperson handles a lead and gets
hot or cold on it depending on how
they feel how much the customer is
in the market or not.”
As for their process, Sunnyvale Ford
Sales Manager Bill Benak (L) and Internet
operates a Business Development
Manager Derrick Kidwell (R).
Center that answers the phones,
deals with emails and sets up the appointments for the salespeople. This
allows them to get back to the customer faster.
“Once the BDC sets up the appointment we take a copy of the lead
down to the sales desk and give it to the sales manager,” said Bill. “The
manager will then select a salesperson to ‘up’ that customer.”
Derrick added, “If the salesperson does not sell the customer at that
time, the BDC team will start following up with the customer.”
Sunnyvale Ford also depends on Call Track-10.
Bill said, “We utilize Call Tracking extremely heavily. On a monthly basis
we probably receive an average of 1,500 unique in-bound phone calls.
If a customer calls more than once in a
month it’s only counted as one call. We SUNNYVALE FORD INTERNET METRICS
actually have 86 different call tracking Closing Ratio (Sept.) 17%
numbers. We need them because we
market in so many different ways. Enrolled in FordDirect:
I want to know whether every single • New Vehicle Marketing Services
way is working or not working. We use
• Pre-Owned Vehicle Marketing Services
the numbers to see how many phone
calls we get from each particular • Call Tracking
source. Plus we use the service to see • Call Track-10
how we handled each of those calls by
going back and listening to them.”
• SPOT Insurance
“The Internet has really leveled the playing field for the customer,” said
Bill. “Everybody kind of knows your cost on new vehicles so they have a
strong negotiating point.”
Derrick said, “So you have to utilize the Internet or you’re pulling yourself
out of probably half of your business. We see customers who contact
us and we no sooner send them a response than we see them on
the floor.”
Bill said, “The Internet is no different than the telephone, a drive by,
a newspaper ad. You just have to have a process in place to deal with it.
And that’s what we do.”