By Ryan Gerardi, CEO, AutoConversion
If you’re investing the time and effort in quality digital content, which I imagine you are, it’s important to have a plan on how to collect, analyze and use the data that can be captured. Nowhere is it more important than the automotive industry where the average purchase is over $30,000.
Data collection used to have a bad name. People avoided sharing personal information and the general thinking was that customers simply wouldn’t be willing to trade personal privacy for what was then seen as a minor convenience.
But things have changed.
As people have become more and more comfortable sharing various elements of their lives, companies have stepped up their response with better marketing and services in tune with each of their customers. While the collection of data is often painted as an impersonal and detached process, it actually allows business to customize and cater to their customers. It’s the modern way to deliver truly personal service.
And it’s what customers want.
The Cox Automotive Future of Digital Retail study clearly showed that customers want to spend less time in the dealership – a major pain point for car shoppers. But the need to discover the customer’s needs and wants, as well as the ability to tailor the dealership experience to their tastes and timeline, depend on bringing them further along the sales funnel before they set foot in a brick-and-mortar store. For that benefit, customers are willing to share their details.
While personal privacy is still important, customers are more than happy to give up bits of data to a company who uses it to deliver tailored information, offers or services. That’s one of the biggest reasons more and more companies – regardless of their size – are making data analytics and AI a top priority.
- By 2020, 57% of business buyers will depend on companies to know what they need before they ask for anything. This means having solid prediction capabilities with your AI will be the key to keeping your customers. (Salesforce)
- When asked about the next big marketing trend, survey respondents identified consumer personalization (29%), AI (26%), and voice search (21%) (BrightEdge)
- Business leaders said they believe AI is going to be fundamental in the future. In fact, 72% termed it a “business advantage.” (PwC)
- In a survey of over 1,600 marketing professionals, 61%, regardless of company size, pointed to machine learning and AI as their company’s most significant data initiative for next year. (MeMSQL)
Centralize the Data Under a Single Platform – Your Platform
The biggest thing companies can do to bring data together in a useful way is by not hosting their video content across multiple touchpoints. Having various forms of content hosted on YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms simply gives the hosting site all the advantages of contact with customers without having to do the hard work.
Instead, companies need to bring their content together under a single host that can deliver content and gather the data companies need to grow. As customers come to expect enhanced or customized services, the personal touch data can bring makes all the difference.
As Flick Fusion COO Tim James stressed in a recent conversation, “We grew tired of hearing words like Attribution and Big Data in the auto industry. But these words are your future. The fact that you don’t want to hear them anymore doesn’t change the reality that these things are going to drive your future.”
What does that mean for the auto industry and the car-buying experience? The benefits are three-fold:
- Customers can learn about the products and services a dealership offers in a focused manner. Because content hosting is centralized, the experience online is tailored to the brand, the store, and the customer’s individual needs through advertisements and micro-moments.
2. Car dealers are able to mine data safely, and void of any competition. The host controls the experience, so a competitor won’t have the option to infiltrate your content with paid ads.
3. You know exactly where your data is coming from, and you know how to use it properly. There isn’t a question of which source a lead came from nor where they are in the sales funnel because you’ve seen their touchpoints all along the way.
Data collection and attribution aren’t swear words. They’re fundamental to a growing, healthy automotive business, and a single content host is a key component to utilizing the data well.
About the Author
Ryan Gerardi is an automotive media & marketing professional devoted to being part of the great convergence in mobility tech and connectivity, exploring people, ideas, and technologies that influence how we are connected and the way we get around.
