NEW YORK – October 4, 2011: Adding momentum to its innovative solution set for automotive dealerships, Jeff Kershner will join HookLogic’s automotive team in a senior sales management position. Kershner is one of the most influential voices in the automotive online marketing world and one of the top bloggers in the space. His move to HookLogic comes on the heels of a $9.5 million round of funding from Bain Capital and raises HookLogic’s profile in the automotive e-commerce space.

Kershner has established himself as one of the most knowledgeable, passionate voices in the auto industry as founder of DealerRefresh, which is the leading thought leadership and strategy source for car dealers and manufacturers. He is a lifelong and experienced automotive professional, starting in the car dealership business at 18 and serving in almost every area of the business, from parts, to sales, to writing. Kershner has been one of the leading industry proponents of capitalizing on digital marketing, media and e-commerce.

“This new role allows me to fuse my passions for online marketing and selling cars,” Kershner says. “I absolutely love this business and the challenges it brings. HookLogic’s incentive solutions for driving in-market shoppers to dealerships make it the company to watch because, while dealers have become experts at generating leads, HookLogic is an expert at converting those leads into showroom visits.”

The move reunites Kershner with David Metter, president of HookLogic’s automotive division, giving the company two of the best known marketing professionals in automotive. “Jeff adds credibility to our automotive offerings and reassembles a team that had great influence in the retail automotive e-commerce space,” said Metter. “I never envisioned anyone other than Jeff in this role. It’s another proof point for HookLogic’s automotive solution.”

HookLogic’s targeted incentive programs and partnership with lead-scoring solution provider RL Polk have helped clients achieve an average 20 percent increase in close rates by converting more consumer leads into showroom visitors. Clients include Germain Motor Company, Suburban Collection, Herb Chambers Auto Group, and AutoTrader. Kershner’s addition concurs with a hugely successful first half of 2011 in which it signed a channel partnership agreement with AutoUSA Internet Sales Solutions, the premier independent Internet lead provider, to power its ShowPro suite of products.

Also joining the automotive team is Ryan Gerardi as the director of business development. Gerardi previously held a similar role at HomeNet, helping the company achieve incredible growth from 2005-2008. Gerardi will be responsible for developing existing and future partnerships with marketing solution providers, agencies and other relationships as HookLogic continues its automotive growth.

About HookLogic’s Incentive Solutions for the Auto Industry
HookLogic powers targeted incentive programs that drive in-market shoppers to auto dealerships and other lead-driven businesses. HookLogic solutions are easily implemented, work with nearly any marketing medium and enable end-to-end reporting and optimization. Headquartered in New York City, the company has offices in Ann Arbor, MI, Atlanta, GA and Manchester, UK. Clients include MileOne Automotive, Germain Motor Cars, Suburban Collection, Acton Toyota, and AutoTrader.com. Learn more at http://www.hooklogic.com/auto1/.

Media Contact
Carla Vicens Rudder
blast! PR for HookLogic
(919) 833-9975       x7003
Carla@blastpr.com

The project is a culmination of things. It is meant to offer auto shoppers a more private way of obtaining purchase information from local auto dealers and retailers. The site also offers dealers and retailers a social networking platform to promote their specials and cultivate high-quality prospects.

AC features a marketplace similar to Craigslist but rather than having dealers and merchants post ads in a market, shoppers are expected to post requests to which dealers and merchants may respond. The service is free for everyone.

AutoConverse.com supports communication in the format of a blog or forum which is visible to the public or in the form of private messaging which is only visible to the designated members. In either case, the Shopper is not forced to give up his or her phone number and email address in order to have a conversation with dealers and merchants. This is how the site provides a more private way of communicating.

This is how the site provides a more private way of communicating.

The site offers four different member types for people to distinguish one another – Shopper, Dealer, Merchant, or Agent, each containing its own unique set of links that can appear on the member’s profile. An Agent would be someone who represents multiple dealers or merchants, or a webmaster using the site to promote his own automotive sites and interests.

Members can optionally link to their Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare profiles along with links to their blog and website. Dealers have the ability to link people to dealer review sites like Carfolks.com or their dealership page on DealerRater.com.

Dealers, Merchants, and Agents can then create Merchant Sites which are WordPress-based microsites meant to promote a dealership or other brick and mortar storefront, or a website. These members can create as many merchant sites as they like and whatever content they publish to their merchant sites also appears on the AutoConverse.com activity stream.

This is an abridged version of the original press release which has further detail and quotes.

This technique is not limited to the use of iFrames as you can and probably should use Hana Code Insert to display any large amount of HTML, but this is a good use for Hana Code Insert. You will probably need to watch the video in addition to reading the instructions below so you have a visual reference.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To begin, look for the Hana Code Insert plug-in which is accessible from the Settings tab in your WP Dashboard. There you will see space for a “New Entry” where you can copy/paste your HTML code and label the insert. Then press SAVE or UPDATE which will create the instance of this Hana Code Insert and displays it at the bottom of all other Hana Code Inserts you have created. Now grab (copy to clipboard) the Hana Code Insert from bracket to bracket which should include the words “hana-code-insert” plus your label and looks like this:

[ hana-code-insert name='YOUR LABEL' / ]

Next you go to the Page or Post you wish to create or edit and paste the code from bracket to bracket into your entry. You can paste this code in the Visual editor or the HTML editor. Doesn’t matter. You can also insert text, images, and other copy as necessary above or below your insert.

Now press PUBLISH or UPDATE or SAVE DRAFT to finalize this entry and when you preview it you should see your code appear just like normal. It’s that simple.

1. The first step is to obtain the URL to your RSS feed. In this case, we went to a Nissan dealer on web2carz.com and obtained their URL.
2. The next step is to log in to your WordPress site and go to the Widgets section under the Appearance tab.
3. Then, while in Widgets, add the widget for RSS feeds and click on the “Edit” link. Be sure to add the widget to the desired sidebar if you have more than one sidebar.
4. Now paste the URL feed in the appropriate field, give your widget a title if desired, and set any of the optional parameters. Most importantly set the number of items you wish to display.
5. Finally, press “Save” and your new widget is live.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you have any questions regarding this you may leave your comments below. Alternatively if you require assistance or wish to schedule one-on-one training then please contact us.

You can preview a feed on a dealer blog by visiting this Pennsylvania Toyota Dealer Blog. Look for the list of vehicles towards the right labeled, “Browse Our Vehicles”. Notice there are no vehicle images appearing in this display. We are curious to see how visitors respond to this.

To preview a W2C RSS feed on a Squidoo Lens try this Nissan Dealer near Cherry Hill (NJ) Lens. Notice there are thumbnails appearing there.

By the nature of RSS, when users click on a listing displayed in the feed they are brought to the vehicle display page of that listing on web2carz.com. The result if one inquires is a true third-party lead however by design it was the dealer’s blog or lens that ultimately produce the lead.

Web2Carz.com is one of the few auto classifieds sites broadcasting RSS feeds of inventory and they have been doing it for a couple of years now. We recently begand posting our Dealer Subscriber inventories here because there is no cost to the dealer and we see tremendous value in the RSS broadcast of inventory.

If you have any questions about this technique or wish to learn more, please contact us or visit our online discussion forum.

BlogPro Automotive is the first of what we hope to be numerous derivatives of the AutoBurst blog marketing program built and designed for small businesses and budding entrepreneurs to get a jump on their product offering and their own marketing strategy.

Your feedback on the release and its contents are welcome here. Thanks to everyone who has and/or continues to support us. it’s been a wild ride these past several months, that’s for sure.

Shouts out to Mark Dubis for helping with our first press release.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Implementing the necessary steps to true permission-based list building is becoming increasingly more important. Companies that do so establish a major competitive advantage over those that do not.To give you an idea how much a difference true permission-based email marketing can make, look at the 4 sets of reporting data on recent email campaigns.

The first 3 sets are from monthly newsletter campaigns by 3 different dealerships sent to their mass email list of recipients which was compiled using conventional industry practices. The 4th data set is the combined result of 3 different email campaigns with 3 different messages over the course of a 2-month period to the same list of double opt-in recipients built over the past 6 months.

Newsletter Campaign to Sample Conventional List A
12659 sends
2045 unique opens (16.2%)
716 unique clicks (5.6%)

Newsletter Campaign to Sample Conventional List B
4457 sends
447 unique opens (10%)
111 unique clicks (2.5%)

Newsletter Campaign to Sample Conventional List C
13387 sends
1326 unique opens (9.9%)
322 unique clicks (2.4%)

Combined Result of 3 Campaigns to Double Opt-in List
968 sends
607 opens (62.7%)
189 clicks (19.5%)

This double opt-in list of 350-plus recipients belongs to the dealership with Sample List A and effectively demonstrates QUALITY vs. QUANTITY. The messages sent in each of the 3 campaigns were completely different too. One was for a free haircut at a local salon; one was for a free battery check; and one was to solicit an actual car in stock.

The quality over quantity factor is a reality and particularly challenging for car dealers. Customer expectations of dealer intentions are low to begin with, and permission-based list building requires time, commitment, and a genuine understanding of your audience. But with the right tools and the right approach, incorporating this should return good dividends for car dealers realtively quickly.

Click here to view the embedded video.