Digital Air Strike Releases First Automotive Study to Include Both Consumer and Dealership Activity on Social Media and Review Sites

Study shows 69% of car buyers use social media in their dealership selection process yet many dealerships are not effectively engaging with social media-savvy consumers

Sunnyvale, CA (May 16, 2012) – Digital Air Strike™, the nation’s leading full-service automotive social media and online reputation management company, today announced the publication of the industry’s first 2012 Automotive Dealership Social Media and Online Reputation Study. Findings demonstrate that automotive dealerships are need to increase engagement engage with car shoppers on social networks and review sites during the car buying process, as the study shows the importance placed on these networks by consumers.

The study, completed in April 2012, is the first automotive-specific study to analyze both the use of social media and review sites by car buyers during the dealership selection process while concurrently auditing how car dealerships engage with consumers on these sites. The study measured usage trends on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ while identifying the top four dealership review sites, based on consumer use and traffic.

The consumer study surveyed 275 car buyers who purchased a vehicle in the last six months. It was found that the majority of car buyers utilize social media sites during the car purchase process. The study revealed that the top four review sites used to determine dealership selection, as ranked by consumers in the study, were Edmunds (22%), Cars.com (20%), and Yelp and Google Reviews (both at 19%). Highlights include:

• 69% of consumers said social media sites helped their vehicle purchase decision
• 68% of car shoppers said that dealership reviews impacted which dealership they visited when shopping for a vehicle
• 50% of consumers said that reading reviews affirmed their original choice of dealership, and 18% of consumers said they either selected a dealership based on the reviews they read or changed their choice of dealership after reading reviews on multiple dealerships

The dealership audit included 600 automotive retailers, including all major brands, from across the United States. The study compared engagement levels from 300 dealerships that managed their social media marketing “in-house” and 300 dealerships that used a social media vendor to manage their social media sites and online reputation.

Findings from the study include that the majority of dealers that try to manage social media activities in-house are not effectively leveraging social media as a communications channel. In fact, 90% of the auto dealerships that manage social media marketing in-house did not respond to negative online reviews and 95% did not respond to positive reviews, despite the growing importance placed on reviews by consumers during their dealership selection process. Highlights include:

• 79% of dealers that used a social media partner had a Google+ page, yet only 2% of dealers that managed their social media in-house had a Google+ presence.
• Only 27% of dealers managing social media in-house utilized “crowd sourcing” techniques as compared to 87% of dealers that worked with a social media partner.
• Dealers using social media partners had more than double the number of followers on the top two social media sites:
• Dealers managing Facebook in-house averaged 350 “likers” as compared to 770 “likers” for dealers that worked with a social media partner
• Dealers managing Twitter in-house averaged 121 “followers” as compared to 214 “followers” for dealers that worked with a social media partner

“This ground-breaking study highlights the importance of social networks and review sites in the car buying process,” said Alexi Venneri, co-founder, CMO and COO-Social Media of Digital Air Strike.  “Dealers who work with a social media partner can gain a significant advantage from increases in  consumer engagement and related website traffic.”

A webinar detailing full study results and research methodology complete with best practice examples and ROI tips will be broadcast on May 22, 2012. To sign up for the webinar visit: www.digitalairstrike.com/getsocialnow.

About Digital Air Strike

Digital Air Strike provides the industry’s most complete automotive social media and digital marketing solution. The company developed a turnkey program that includes fully managing social media sites, online reputation and digital lead responses for dealerships nationwide. The company offers multiple tiers of service ranging from targeted social media and review site management to comprehensive multi-vehicle quoting with behavioral targeting capabilities. Digital Air Strike’s expertise spans all manufacturer brands and has a proven track record of helping automotive dealers, dealership groups and manufacturers engage with more consumers while delivering increased website traffic.  Additional information is available at www.DigitalAirStrike.com  and  www.facebook.com/digitalairstrike.

Media Contact: 

Charlie Vogelheim   I  cvogelheim@digitalairstrike.com  I   949.929.0716

Sunnyvale, CA (April 3, 2012) – Today Digital Air Strike was announced as the official company name of the recently merged automotive digital marketing companies ResponseLogix, Inc. and Digital Air Strike, Co. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Digital Air Strike has combined dynamic prospect-response digital marketing solutions with social media and reputation management for auto dealers. Both of the individual companies were founded by automobile industry veterans and work with dealers, dealership groups and manufacturers nationwide.

“The Digital Air Strike name captures the dynamic range of digital solutions and services in our expanding portfolio. We conducted primary research across all tiers and confirmed that it is an igniting brand that has strong brand awareness on par with many established companies in our industry,” said Tom Mohr, ResponseLogix co-founder and now President and CEO of Digital Air Strike. “Digital marketing mediums have dramatically changed the advertising landscape and we are excited to be the first automotive solutions company that has combined innovative lead management technology with cutting-edge social media and reputation management services.”

Founded in 2007, the Response Logix name will transition into one of three product lines for the company while continuing to deliver multi-vehicle price quotes, lead follow-up and behavioral targeting solutions for dealers. The original Digital Air Strike social media and reputation management product lines will now be branded Social Logix and Reputation Logix, completing the merged digital product offering.

“Dealers are continually engaged in a digital war for market share with the goal of driving more traffic to their website and all online assets they control. The Digital Air Strike brand was designed to communicate our value proposition of providing digital air cover and a dedicated team to work behind the scenes to give our dealers a distinct online advantage,” said Alexi Venneri, original Digital Air Strike co-founder, now CMO and COO-Social Media.

Digital Air Strike’s three product lines – Response Logix, Social Logix and Reputation Logix – all provide the benefit of fast response, enhanced marketing campaigns and increased consumer engagement.

###

About Digital Air Strike

Digital Air Strike is the most complete social media and digital marketing solution in the automotive industry. The company developed a turn-key program for dealerships nationwide that includes fully managing their social media sites, online reputation and digital lead responses. The company offers multiple tiers of service ranging from targeted social media and review site management to comprehensive multi-vehicle quoting with behavioral targeting capabilities. Digital Air Strike’s expertise spans all manufacturer brands and has a proven track record of helping automotive dealers, dealership groups and OEMs engage with more consumers while delivering increased website traffic. Additional information is available at www.DigitalAirStrike.com and at www.facebook.com/digitalairstrike.

Media Contact:

Charlie Vogelheim I cvogelheim@digitalairstrike.com I 949.929.0716

Create a Compelling Cover Image

With Timeline, it all starts with creating a cover image that will make an immediate and lasting impression on visitors to your Facebook page, so get creative and hire a professional if need be. You want visitors to be so impressed by your cover image that they are moved to “like” your page, because Facebook does not allow calls to action of any kind. Nor can you include your website URL, address, phone number, or any explicit marketing message. Customer testimonials combined with professional graphic design are a great option, possibly including a picture of the dealership or popular vehicle model in the background.

Give the Greatest Visibility to Important Tabs

Put your most important tabs at the top and give them custom thumbnails.

At first glance, it may appear that Facebook has turned the tables on marketers by moving all tabs–including the coveted custom tabs that are used to increase likers and run marketing promotions–to a different location and preventing them from being used as landing pages. In fact, the new layout can give you more control over which tabs consumers will click on, because you can arrange your Timeline so that the most important tabs are placed in a prominent position. This actually allows for significantly increased visibility compared to Facebook’s soon-to-be-eliminated architecture. The first thing customers will look at after your cover image is your tabs, so choose wisely.

Create Custom Thumbnail Images to Increase Click-Through Rates

Rearranging tab order is an important step, but don’t stop there–if you really want to get high click-through rates for your custom tabs (now officially called Facebook Apps), you’ll need to create a custom thumbnail image that entices people to click. Otherwise, you will be faced with default images created by Facebook or a third-party–they are often poorly designed and unattractive, and virtually guarantee decreased engagement. Again, it is advisable to use a professional graphic designer here–you want a compelling image because this could be your last chance to engage a Facebook user.

Get the Most Out of Your Custom Tabs

Once the user has clicked on your thumbnail, they have entered your fan gate–whether it be a welcome tab or a contest tab–and are taken to a dedicated page that supports significantly larger graphics. This is the place to incentivize users to like your page–give them access to exclusive deals and other promotions, and provide calls to action. Take advantage of the increased real-estate by embedding plenty of engaging content. Link to your website, and to other Facebook tabs, especially your inventory and reviews tabs. Protect your reputation with a reviews tabs tab that syndicates your 4 and 5 star reviews from Google, Yelp, Citysearch, and other critical review sites.

Promote Your Dealership with Contests

Contests are one of the most effective ways to promote your dealership and increase liker counts. Professionally designed and executed Facebook contests will go viral, spreading brand awareness and giving you more high-quality fans–your prospective customers. If you do run a contest, don’t forget to post regularly and “pin” your posts to the top of your Timeline in order to increase its visibility. A given post can only be pinned for one week, so if you are running a promotion you will need to be sure to create engaging posts and pin them ongoing.

Make Sure Your Website has a Facebook Fan Box

Assuming you follow best practices for Facebook posting, if you employ the strategy outlined above you should have no problems maintaining high levels of engagement and increasing your liker count. Nevertheless, every dealer’s website should have an embedded Facebook Fan Box–this enables people to like your Facebook page without even visiting it. As such they will stay on your website and still receive marketing communications from you via your Facebook posts. Arguably the best way to do this is to install a social media toolbar. In addition to making it easy for consumers to like you on Facebook and follow you on twitter, a good toolbar should syndicate positive consumer reviews from Google, Yelp, Citysearch, etc, and give consumers easy access to coupons and other promotional content.

Source Leads and Manage Customer Service

Did you know that with Timeline, consumers can send direct messages to Facebook page administrators? This can be a blessing or a curse, depending on whether or not you have a system in place that enables you to funnel leads to your salesforce and quickly address customer complaints. Make sure your Facebook community manager is constantly monitoring so that you don’t lose leads to competitors or end up with a disgruntled customer who posts negative content to your Facebook page (or who gives you a bad online review).

Methodology: 1082 dealers surveyed. No Response Logix clients included. Gmail account used to collect responses. Requests submitted through dealer websites. Auto responders were discounted from the study, defined as any response received within five minutes and without specific information from the request. All Response Logix SmartQuotes satisfy best practices and would qualify as a top quality response.

Request a Demo

Creates Largest Automotive Digital Marketing Company Specializing in Social Media and Lead Response. 

Las Vegas, NV (February 4, 2012) – Response Logix, based in Sunnyvale, California, and Digital Air Strike, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, today announced at the National Automotive Dealers Association (NADA) convention a merger of their two companies. The combined company has  two robust business units: Response Logix offering a dynamic prospect-response digital marketing solution and Digital Air Strike offering complete social media and reputation management solutions. Both companies were co-founded by dealers and have developed innovative technology that is focused on helping dealerships improve their digital marketing efforts and response times to prospects and customers.

“I’m excited to announce the merger of these two fast-growing, ground-breaking companies,” said Tom Mohr, President and CEO of Response Logix. “I’m especially excited that we have brought together a winning team of innovators and powerful digital marketing solutions that are second to none. We are looking forward to working with our fast-growing network of over 1,100 dealers nationwide to deliver world-class marketing communications, behavioral targeting and social media solutions that give dealers a distinct advantage in today’s online marketplace.”

“This merger brings together two very dynamic companies that complement each other in many ways,” said Alexi Venneri, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Digital Air Strike, and now also Chief Marketing Officer of the combined company. “In our industry it is all about responding quickly, whether that’s to leads, online reviews or social media prospects. Our combined solution utilizes revolutionary technology and a team of strategic marketers to help dealers respond incredibly quickly and professionally throughout the entire sales and customer lifecycle.”

With the merger, dealers will now have a combined suite of digital marketing communications, behavioral targeting and social media solutions that reside in a “one-stop shop”, delivering an efficient path to a distinct competitive advantage.

The Response Logix product line features the robust automotive Internet lead management tools SmartQuote, SmartFollow and RapidTouch. SmartQuote delivers an information-rich, multi-vehicle price quote to the customer within 10 minutes of lead arrival, 24/7. SmartFollow provides continuous email and online advertising-based follow-up to prospects for up to 180 days. Through a partnership with a leading automotive call center, RapidTouch ensures that once the quote has been sent, a follow-up phone call is made to the prospect within 45 minutes.

The Digital Air Strike product line offers a complete solution to fully manage over 50 social media and review sites. Dealers can select from multiple levels of service including the Defend package for outsourced online reputation management, the Conquer package for proactive social media marketing, and the Dominate package which is a complete solution that offers the broadest combined automotive social media and reputation management solution.

“Our dealership customer base will now have the opportunity to fully engage prospects on social media networks and throughout the lead management process,” said Mohr. “The combination of professional digital marketing messaging and fast response is an incredibly powerful solution for increasing sales and improving customer retention.”

In the near-term the company will operate under both names while leveraging the strength of their combined management team. Dealers using both product lines will benefit from future integration while being able to respond quickly with professional marketing messages to all types of consumer digital engagement, which will result in selling more cars and servicing more vehicles.

                  ###

About Response Logix 

Response Logix is the leading automotive digital marketing solution that enhances sales response and engagement for both prospects and customers. It provides advanced automotive Internet lead management tools for immediate lead response and includes the capability to respond to leads with an immediate, information-rich, multi-vehicle price quote (SmartQuote®); the ability to follow up on leads with a rapid call (RapidTouch), then the ability to continue to follow prospects with ongoing email and online advertising for up to 180 days (SmartFollow®). All information is tracked and monitored in a comprehensive analytical package (SmartFacts®).The company was co-founded by dealers and technology veterans and has powerful patent-pending solutions, all tailored to meet the needs of the fast-paced, multi-tasking internet selling environment. Additional information is available at www.responselogix.com.

Response Logix can also be found at NADA Booth #3672.

About Digital Air Strike

Digital Air Strike is the leading turn-key social media solution in the automotive industry. The company offers multiple social media packages, providing increasing service levels from targeted online reputation management to proactive social media coverage to the most comprehensive social and reputation management solution in the industry, including over 50 sites enhanced and fully managed.  The company’s expertise spans all manufacturer brands and it has a proven track record of helping automotive dealers, dealership groups and OEMs engage with more consumers, improve online reputations and deliver increased website traffic. Additional information is available at www.DigitalAirStrike.com  and at www.facebook.com/digitalairstrike.

Digital Air Strike can also be found at NADA Booth #3388.

Media Contact:  Charlie Vogelheim  /  cvogelheim@digitalairstrike.com  /  949.929.0716

The following video provides additional information on ResponseLogix’s merger with Digital Air Strike and why social media and reputation management should be a top marketing priority for automotive dealers.

Creates Largest Automotive Digital Marketing Company Specializing in Social Media and Lead Response. 

Las Vegas, NV (February 4, 2012) – Response Logix, based in Sunnyvale, California, and Digital Air Strike, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, today announced at the National Automotive Dealers Association (NADA) convention a merger of their two companies. The combined company has  two robust business units: Response Logix offering a dynamic prospect-response digital marketing solution and Digital Air Strike offering complete social media and reputation management solutions. Both companies were co-founded by dealers and have developed innovative technology that is focused on helping dealerships improve their digital marketing efforts and response times to prospects and customers.

“I’m excited to announce the merger of these two fast-growing, ground-breaking companies,” said Tom Mohr, President and CEO of Response Logix. “I’m especially excited that we have brought together a winning team of innovators and powerful digital marketing solutions that are second to none. We are looking forward to working with our fast-growing network of over 1,100 dealers nationwide to deliver world-class marketing communications, behavioral targeting and social media solutions that give dealers a distinct advantage in today’s online marketplace.”

“This merger brings together two very dynamic companies that complement each other in many ways,” said Alexi Venneri, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Digital Air Strike, and now also Chief Marketing Officer of the combined company. “In our industry it is all about responding quickly, whether that’s to leads, online reviews or social media prospects. Our combined solution utilizes revolutionary technology and a team of strategic marketers to help dealers respond incredibly quickly and professionally throughout the entire sales and customer lifecycle.”

With the merger, dealers will now have a combined suite of digital marketing communications, behavioral targeting and social media solutions that reside in a “one-stop shop”, delivering an efficient path to a distinct competitive advantage.

The Response Logix product line features the robust automotive Internet lead management tools SmartQuote, SmartFollow and RapidTouch. SmartQuote delivers an information-rich, multi-vehicle price quote to the customer within 10 minutes of lead arrival, 24/7. SmartFollow provides continuous email and online advertising-based follow-up to prospects for up to 180 days. Through a partnership with a leading automotive call center, RapidTouch ensures that once the quote has been sent, a follow-up phone call is made to the prospect within 45 minutes.

The Digital Air Strike product line offers a complete solution to fully manage over 50 social media and review sites. Dealers can select from multiple levels of service including the Defend package for outsourced online reputation management, the Conquer package for proactive social media marketing, and the Dominate package which is a complete solution that offers the broadest combined automotive social media and reputation management solution.

“Our dealership customer base will now have the opportunity to fully engage prospects on social media networks and throughout the lead management process,” said Mohr. “The combination of professional digital marketing messaging and fast response is an incredibly powerful solution for increasing sales and improving customer retention.”

In the near-term the company will operate under both names while leveraging the strength of their combined management team. Dealers using both product lines will benefit from future integration while being able to respond quickly with professional marketing messages to all types of consumer digital engagement, which will result in selling more cars and servicing more vehicles.

                  ###

About Response Logix 

Response Logix is the leading automotive digital marketing solution that enhances sales response and engagement for both prospects and customers. It provides advanced automotive Internet lead management tools for immediate lead response and includes the capability to respond to leads with an immediate, information-rich, multi-vehicle price quote (SmartQuote®); the ability to follow up on leads with a rapid call (RapidTouch), then the ability to continue to follow prospects with ongoing email and online advertising for up to 180 days (SmartFollow®). All information is tracked and monitored in a comprehensive analytical package (SmartFacts®).The company was co-founded by dealers and technology veterans and has powerful patent-pending solutions, all tailored to meet the needs of the fast-paced, multi-tasking internet selling environment. Additional information is available at www.responselogix.com.

About Digital Air Strike

Digital Air Strike is the leading turn-key social media solution in the automotive industry. The company offers multiple social media packages, providing increasing service levels from targeted online reputation management to proactive social media coverage to the most comprehensive social and reputation management solution in the industry, including over 50 sites enhanced and fully managed.  The company’s expertise spans all manufacturer brands and it has a proven track record of helping automotive dealers, dealership groups and OEMs engage with more consumers, improve online reputations and deliver increased website traffic. Additional information is available at www.DigitalAirStrike.com  and at www.facebook.com/digitalairstrike.

Media Contact:  Charlie Vogelheim  /  cvogelheim@responselogix.com  /  949.929.0716

The following video provides additional information on ResponseLogix’s merger with Digital Air Strike and why social media and reputation management should be a top marketing priority for automotive dealers.

Follow Charlie Vogelheim on Twitter @Vogelheim

Join NADA’s VP of Dealership Services John Lyboldt as he discusses the must-see vendors, events and speakers at NADA 2012. The Webinar begins Wednesday, Jan 25 at 2PM EST/11AM PST. Don’t waste time wandering or wondering what’s worth your time, get it straight from the source.