In a video interview with Kevin Frye, E-Commerce Director for Jeff Wyler Automotive, Kevin shares his thoughts on the future of mobile and a few ways Jeff Wyler Automotive has been using mobile as a marketing tool, along with some insights on mobile strategy within the dealership realm.
Ben Anderson: Welcome back for another installment of the AutoMotionTV Mobile Marketing series. I’m pleased to be with Kevin Frye the E-commerce Director from Jeff Wyler Automotive. Kevin thanks for being with us today.
Kevin Frye: Thanks Ben
Ben Anderson: Let’s jump right into Kevin. In general, on a broad perspective, what trends have you seen regarding mobile marketing in the dealership realm?
Kevin Frye: Well, without question I think it’s been the biggest concern of Fortune 500 companies this year. There was a great study that went out this past summer by Adobe and it showed that projections are mobile commerce is going to grow by 65% compound each year to be about a 24 billion dollar market in 2015, so I don’t think much more needs to be said as to how important companies are looking at it.
Ben Anderson: When is the right time, when should a dealer consider a mobile marketing strategy? In other words, what metrics should they look for and when is it too soon?
Kevin Frye: I don’t think it’s ever too soon but I think within our industry it’s pretty common that you see there are some leaders and most of the other dealers will follow. From what I’ve seen mostly so far there are some dealerships out there that are being aggressive and clueing around and getting mobile friendly sights, tracking the traffic that’s coming in and trying to get ahead of the curve. I think at this point in time though Ben, most of the dealers are probably behind and theirs a good chunk of them that don’t even have mobile sites up at this point.
Ben Anderson: So let’s expound upon that. What strategies have you seen dealers use specifically in the mobile marketing arena to try to help capture those mobile device users?
Kevin Frye: In my mark I gotta tell you not a whole lot, we’ve been very active and I can tell you some of the strategies that we have used. Probably the most successful is just having some contests built in with the text function such as with a local radio station or a giveaway… some giveaways at a local fair, or whatever the case may be; to do two things, to build up a database of people that are hitting us on the mobile platform. In the same respect we’re trying to send out a message that we have mobile friendly sites. So the other part of what we’re doing with that is we’re trying to brand within our market that we do have mobile friendly sites for people that want to utilize that method.
Ben Anderson: Specifically for you Jeff as well as other, some of your observations I guess, how are you seeing others promoting the mobile website and mobile app side of things? What metrics are they using? What strategies to push that to the consumer?
Kevin Frye: Well, I can say for ourselves, because I haven’t seen a whole lot from our competition, we’re doing it in several different ways. One of the simplest things we are doing is in our traditional marketing we’re utilizing QR codes. We might not get a lot of click-throughs on the QR code, but just that visual sends a message to our shoppers that this dealership is mobile friendly and technologically there and being able to work with someone that wants to surf it via iPhone or Droid or whatever the case may be. We are also, we’re finding success in marketing on the top mobile traffic sites, and for most dealers in the country that’s going to be their local news station that has a mobile site where people are going for traffic, sports, weather, things to that nature. We’re buying banner ads in those sites where people can see that we’re mobile friendly as well.
Ben Anderson: That makes a lot of sense. Specifically on the traffic side of things, what are you seeing? Are you seeing an increase in mobile base device traffic as a percentage of the whole is that growing is that stagnant?
Kevin Frye: It’s growing and I would say, we carry fifteen different brands, it ties into the demographic of the shopper you have. We’ve seen the greatest traffic and the greatest growth, in our case, with Honda and Toyota shoppers. In the same respect if I look at like a Buick or a Cadillac shopper they’re going to be lagging behind, but that makes sense in terms of the type of shoppers for those cars.
Ben Anderson: Yeah, sure it does. Let’s move on to maybe internal operations. Anything you’re doing with mobile based devices whether its websites or apps in internal operations?
Kevin Frye: Yeah, the primary thing we’re doing on that side is our CRM tool does have a mobile platform, that’s VIN Solutions, so we have a lot of sales people as well as service managers that are responding to leads, utilizing their Smartphone. Or on the sales side, what they’re doing is they’re utilizing it on the lot to search inventory.
Ben Anderson: Great, and the final question. This is kind of a summation of what you’ve chatted with us today on, Kevin, but how has your company really used mobile, in maybe thirty seconds, to help shoppers look for new vehicles or used vehicles at Jeff Wyler Automotive?
Kevin Frye: It’s very simple. You’ve gotta stick to the fundamentals. Inventory, inventory, inventory is the number one concern. Make it easy for them to get there, and then from there it’s typically hours, directions, and the ability to find out how to schedule service.
Ben Anderson: Great Kevin. Thank you so much for your time. My guest has been Kevin Frye with Jeff Wyler Automotive. Kevin again, thanks for your time.
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