SMS Marketing, for businesses, provides great benefits. The cost to reach people via text message is very low, especially in comparison to traditional forms of advertisement. With 94% of text messages being read by the recipient, response rates are very high. The ability to instantaneously communicate with your target audience, is what every business dreams of, and SMS Marketing provides just that, and within budget.

With credit being more scarce in the US, and Americans concerned about their finances, it has become more important to consumers to make smarter purchase decisions. Americans are looking for deals, and what better way to let them know about your next offer, than by sending them a text message? No matter where they are, or what they are doing, you can be sure that they know about your next sale, or your new product, or whatever it may be that you are trying to communicate to them. Saving money is becoming a more “trendy” thing to do. Shopping around, and finding deals is the new cool thing to do these days, and consumers love the feeling of making a smart purchase decision.

SMS Marketing allows consumers to receive great deals and information about the products and services they love, and allows for businesses to communicate with the consumers they need to reach. In the end, communication is essential when it comes to hitting the goal of a transaction, and SMS Marketing bridges the gap, giving both sides, exactly what they want. Businesses generate more sales, increase retention, and get a great return on their investment, while consumers stay informed, and receive the deals they are looking for, right on their mobile phones, no matter where they are.

With over 270 MILLION mobile phones in the United States, and over 2.5 billion text messages sent each day in the U.S. alone, SMS Marketing is a great way to communicate for any organization. Businesses are not the only ones that can benefit from communicating via SMS. Any organization, whether it is a non-profit, a church, school, or community, can utilize SMS. Bulk text messaging is used to keep people informed, keep people safe when natural disasters occur, and to promote business. The possibilities are limitless. If you need to reach people, SMS Marketing is right for you.

ExpressText offers Mobile advertising at a fraction of the cost. Expand your customer profile by utilizing our custom marketing SMS campaigns. ExpressText also offers SMS API at affordable cost.

To better understand the latest trends in online car shopper behavior, consider the following statistics:

• According to PEW Research, almost three out of four U.S. adults use the Internet. It is an amazing resource for many people to do product research and purchase as it is a hassle-free approach to shopping.

• More and more individuals are using the Internet to research vehicles. Almost 90 percent of consumers use the Internet to research vehicles – Capgemini Cars Online Study 2009/2010.

• According to the J.D. Power and Associates, 68 percent of used-vehicle buyers and 77 percent of new-vehicle buyers use the Internet in their shopping process.

• According to National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), nearly 90 percent of car buyers today are using the Internet to help make their purchasing decisions.

• Investments have been steadily increasing over the past few years in Internet marketing. According to a survey from Autobytel, 93% of dealers have increased their Internet marketing budgets in the last five years – more than half (56%) have increased their Internet marketing budgets by 50% or more.

These numbers clearly show that it’s more important than ever for auto dealers to have an online presence. Despite this, some auto dealers still dedicate only a fraction of their advertising budgets to Internet marketing.

Advantages of Internet marketing over traditional marketing
A dealership that does not use Internet marketing is more likely to lose all these important prospective buyers. If you are one of them, consider the following reasons why you should choose Internet marketing over traditional marketing.

One-to-one approach
Using Internet marketing, a dealer can send marketing messages personally to the targeted user. When a prospective buyer browses through the Internet, he/she typically goes through the sites online and refers to the products and services offered. This enables him or her to communicate personally with the dealer. This way a dealer can maintain direct contact with prospective buyers.

Appeal to specific interests
Unlike traditional marketing, which reaches out to a broad demographic, Internet marketing appeals to specific target audience or interests of people. Dealers can post advertisements and boost their websites with full knowledge that the audience is interested in.

Improved Return on Investment (ROI)
Auto dealers spend hundreds (sometimes even thousands of dollars) on traditional advertising methods such as TV, radio, and print. They still do not have any precise way to measure whether their target audience is paying attention or not. When it comes to Internet marketing, a dealer can accurately target anaudience and measure the visitors without spending much. This means, a dealer can get improved ROI using Internet marketing. A survey from Autobytel shows that Internet has provided highest return on investment (ROI) for auto dealers over the last 5 years. Almost 8 in 10 (79.5%) of the survey respondents reported that Internet has been their highest ROI. In contrast, only 7.5% (TV), 6.5% (newspapers), and 2.5% (radio) of respondents ranked traditional media as first.

Cost effective
One of the best things about Internet marketing is that you don’t need a large investment to get started. It is very economical and fast way to promote a dealership. This is not the case with traditional marketing, which is very expensive and takes more time to show results. When compared to the ratio of cost against the reach of the target audience, Internet marketing is many times inexpensive than the traditional marketing. With a small fraction of traditional marketing budget, a dealership can reach a wide audience.

24/7 advertising
A dealer can promote a vehicle or service 24 X 7 x 365 using Internet marketing, which is not possible in traditional marketing. The moment a dealer implements an Internet marketing campaign, the dealership’s products or services will be on the air 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This medium allows consumers to research and purchase products and services at their own convenience and comfort. This advantage of appealing to consumers can bring in quality results quickly.

Makes you go global
The main advantage of Internet marketing is its ability to make your dealership global. By advertising on the Internet, a dealership can capture the attention from people all over the world. Without any additional cost, a dealership can promote its products or services globally. Traditional marketing consumes a lot of time and is very expensive way to go global.

Geo targeting
Auto dealers can effectively leverage Internet marketing medium as it allows ads to be targeted very precisely to the search location – helps to target a specific geographical location. A dealer can target a specific city, state or a country. Though it has no geographical limits, a dealer can restrict services to certain locations.

Given the latest trends in car shopper behavior and advantages over the traditional media, it is essential for car dealers to re-evaluate their advertising strategies and focus more on Internet marketing.

Search Optics, Inc. is a leader in digital marketing solutions for the automotive industry. Search Optics interactive marketing services include custom websites, search engine optimization, paid search and mobile solutions that generate leads which result in sales opportunities. Search Optics specializes in automotive internet marketing and automotive marketing services.

Communicating via text message is the most effective way to reach your targeted recipient whether you are looking to get in contact with the person for personal reasons, or for business. Because of this, SMS Marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing today. There are several benefits to being able to reach your target audience, instantaneously, no matter where they are, or what they are doing, which in itself is a benefit.

The efficiency gained by being able to communicate via SMS provides a great benefit. The speed and reliability can help employees be more effective communicating with multiple people at once, which can save a business a lot of time, and in turn, reduce costs. Rather than making multiple calls and having to leave voicemail messages, an employee can be sure that their SMS message was received and read by the recipient(s).

Another great benefit of SMS Marketing is the ability to know the delivery status of each and every message that you send. Delivery reports can be simple, or provide all types of analytics, but the most valuable piece of information would have to be knowing as to whether or not your message was received by your recipient. Ninety-six percent of SMS messages are read by their recipients, so if the message was delivered to the mobile device, then you can be sure that the recipient will read your message if they have not done so already.

SMS Marketing is a great way to retain customers as well. It typically costs less to retain customers, than it does to acquire new customers, so staying in contact with your existing customers can be extremely valuable to your business. Rather than just focusing on acquiring new customers, businesses should always monitor their retention rate, and work at increasing it. SMS Marketing is a phenomenal way to increase your retention rate, and requires very minimal work. Simply have your existing customers opt-in to receive mobile alerts, and you can send them all coupons with a special promotion with a single click and drive sales immediately.

There are several aspects of a business that can benefit from a guaranteed, fast means of communication, and SMS Marketing is the best way to do just that. The benefits are numerous, and the results are proven. With over 2.5 billion text messages sent each day in the United States, text message marketing is the “email”, of the new, faster, information age.

ExpressText offers SMS marketing campaigns at a fraction of the cost. Expand your customer profile by utilizing our custom SMS marketing campaigns. ExpressText also offers Bulk sms plans with lowest cost.

Requirements:
The mobile websites need to satisfy various parameters to ensure that the mobile website gives quality user experience, is reliable and accessible.
Website Load Time
Faster mobile website load time ensures that the prospective customers will have to wait for less time and can browse more thereby increasing the chances of lead generation. Faster load time adds to the overall user experience and significantly impacts the potential customer. Providing additional bandwidth can help improve the website load time. Providing quick information ensures that customers are retained and does not jump off to other website.
Site Navigation
Simplicity in mobile website navigation is a rewarding experience for the car buyers. Easy navigation helps customers to find information quickly suiting their needs. Optimized website navigation provides customers with specific requirements that they are looking for. Easy navigation to inventory pages, coupons, contact forms, and directions provides a superior user experience. Efficient navigation enhances the usability of the mobile website and allows customers to search the inventory effortlessly similar to automotive dealer’s website. The customers can conduct inventory search in mobile website with specific information like model, make, year, color, price, and trim.
Web Page Layout
A good mobile website page layout helps in effective presentation of the dealer information. Effective information presentation enables customers to use the website easily and quickly. Information about new and used car inventory, services offered by dealers and more can be effectively incorporated in mobile screen space for easy viewing by customers. Web page layout especially designed for mobile website ensures better presentation of content and thereby increases chances of sales and lead generation.

Advantages:
Automotive dealers can effectively leverage the power of mobile websites to tap the growing market of mobile web users.
Improves Online Web Presence
With faster processors, faster download speeds, and more smartphone subscribers, the number of mobile web users is rapidly growing. It is essential for automotive dealers to have strong online web presence to ensure mobile web users segment is effectively targeted. Apart from PC based dealer website, mobile websites can enhance the online web presence of the dealer in this competitive market. As more potential customers nowadays access information on web through smartphones, they can also search for automotive dealer’s website. Thus, having a mobile website improves online web presence as customers can find dealer related information quickly.

More Opportunities for Sales
Mobile websites help to target specific customers and provides more opportunities for sales by receiving quality leads. Better usability of mobile website, faster load time, navigation, and good web page layout provides superior user experience thereby increasing the chances of lead conversion and improving sales. With the fast changing market trends, mobile websites helps to tap emerging segments of customers and provide more opportunities for sales.

Get Quality Leads
The main objective of maintaining online web presence is receiving quality leads. The mobile websites provides potential customers with easy access to automotive dealer information from anywhere and anytime thereby increasing the website traffic and bringing in more quality leads.

An optimized mobile website for mobile users will grant automotive dealers a competitive advantage by increasing their brand awareness in a positive way. Mobile websites are also an excellent communication channel to explore new markets and generate more revenue.

Search Optics, Inc. is a leader in digital marketing solutions for the automotive industry. Search Optics interactive marketing services include custom websites, search engine optimization, paid search and mobile solutions that generate leads which result in sales opportunities. Search Optics specializes in automotive marketing and automotive SEO.

Positive Impacts:
Online reviews positively impact the dealership sales by increasing the confidence among both existing and potential customers.

Credibility
Potential customers perceive online reviews as authentic, genuine opinions from other customers and feel that they are receiving accurate information. Online reviews are an effective way for dealers to communicate with customers. A good number of positive reviews on dealer website mentioning satisfactory experiences of customers are likely to instill confidence among potential customers. The potential customer can feel more comfortable and satisfied when reading a comprehensive evaluation of the dealer from a large number of customers. Even, the way dealers handle negative reviews by customers by quickly and efficiently resolving problems increases the trustworthiness of the dealers. It is likely that such unhappy customers will revert back to the same dealer.

Included In Consideration Set
The customers usually have a pre-defined set of vehicles that they prefer to buy. The automotive dealers in order to increase their sales needs to persuade the customers to alter their consideration set. The customer generated content like vehicle ratings and reviews, consumer ratings and reviews, dealer ratings and reviews can be effectively used by automotive dealers to alter the consideration set of these automotive internet users. The information given through dealer ratings and reviews can effectively target the new-vehicle buying customer segment. Online reviews enhance dealer consideration among customers as both positive and negative reviews increases awareness level of the particular dealer. Also, positive reviews improve the attitude of customers towards dealers. Thus, expanding the consideration set helps to increase automotive dealership sales.

Reassurance
The online reviews and testimonials at automotive dealer website provide reassurance to the new customers that the dealer stands for professionalism, quality, credibility, and security. Reviews by previous customers reassure the potential customers that it is safe to deal with this dealer and there is commitment to customer’s privacy. Providing online reviews on dealership website also increases conversion rates as it increases trust and confidence among first time visitors. Thus, existing and new customers will confide upon the dealership that helps to increase sales.

Negative Impacts If Not Monitored:
The negative online reviews can have impact on the attitude of customers towards automotive dealers.

Left Out From Consideration Set
Online reviews influence the purchasing decisions of automotive internet users. Also, they are checked while researching for a particular car on the Internet. Thus, ignoring or not monitoring the online reviews means failing to effectively target the large segment of automotive internet users and getting left out from user’s consideration. Poor online reviews and testimonials can fail to persuade, build confidence and trust among first time visitors and lose out on important prospective customers.

Needs More Time To Convince The Buyer
Online reviews and testimonials indicate the satisfaction of other customers due to better services and quality offered by dealer. Potential customers reading improperly monitored reviews are likely to view the dealer as less reliable and not trustable. Thus, the dealers may have to put in more efforts and time to convince the customers.

As online reviews are like online conversations between customers, automotive dealers need to actively get involved in them that can result in sales growth. The automotive dealers can leverage online reviews and testimonials by existing customers to generate new customers by efficiently targeting them at each step of car buying process.

Search Optics, Inc. was founded in 1998 in San Diego, California, as a pioneer in providing online strategy, E-commerce development, and automotive internet marketing services with a core competency in the retail automotive industry. Approaching a decade of service, Search Optics, Inc. has grown into a leader in providing online interactive automotive marketing solutions for retail automobile dealerships.