Over two thirds of car shoppers find the dealership they will ultimately buy from using Google.  And Facebook has become the world’s largest website, commanding nearly 20% of all page views. Utilizing these two platforms to their maximum potential can be the difference between creating a new lifetime customer, and losing them to your competition.

Have you ever found yourself asking these questions about Google?

• How do I increase my brand recognition and awareness across the web?
• What is the role of mobile today and what should I be doing to capture customers in this space?
• What are best practices for getting more leads to our dealership utilizing paid advertising platforms?
• What resources does Google have available to keep me up to speed with the latest and greatest across search, mobile, display, video and social?
• What are free tools/services I can use through Google to attract more customers?

What about these questions about Facebook?

• What is your biggest challenge with Facebook?
• Do you feel you get enough engagement with your fans?
• Where do you find your most popular content?
• Are you running Facebook Ads? What kind of return are you seeing with Facebook Ads?
• Would you like to learn Facebook marketing ‘best practices’?

To find the answers to these questions and more, look no further than the Digital Dealer Virtual Exposition. December 5– 11 you will be able to meet with industry experts such as the Google Dealer Jumpstart team, and Kathi Kruse of Kruse Control, who will be on hand to live chat and answer your most pressing Google and Facebook strategy questions.

The Digital Dealer Virtual Exposition will showcase strategies, technologies and the top educational sessions presented at the 13th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition, providing an opportunity to review what you learned or see what you missed. And with complimentary registration, this time your entire dealership can experience many benefits of the real thing.

And for those dealers and managers that have never attended a Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition, this is a great opportunity to get a sample of what one is like.

Visit www.DDVirtualExpo.com to register and take advantage of the following benefits:

• Explore SEO, SEM, customer engagement, reputation management and social media strategies to make your dealership stand out from the competition.
• Reinforce Internet marketing fundamentals and learn how to get more car shoppers to walk into your dealership.
• Review pre-owned inventory models, and consider the benefits of a parts e-commerce program.
• Discover industry trends that will shape the future direction of the marketplace and customer behavior.
• Browse dozens of technology-focused solutions providers presenting the most innovative new solutions for franchised dealerships.
• Introduce your entire dealership to  new strategies to grow your business in 2013,  all from the convenience of your dealership, office, or home.
• Plus, every day of the seven day event, one attendee will win a free registration to the 14^th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition May 7-9, 2013!

The Exhibit Hall will showcase exhibitors presenting product information, video offer live chat and more.

Just like a real show floor, in the Exhibit Hall exhibitors will present brand and product literature, videos and more. Inside the virtual environment, attendees can visit the Auditorium to view the top educational sessions from the 13th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition on demand. Chat features offer opportunities to interact with other exhibitors, attendees and industry experts.

The Digital Dealer Virtual Exposition will run from December 5 – 11 offering 24/7, cloud based access and complimentary registration for all attendees.

Your entire dealership can log on whenever it is convenient to pick up a few ideas to improve your Google and Facebook engagement, along with every strategies for every department in your dealership.

Visit www.DDVirtualExpo.com for free registration and to sessions.

Check out a preview of the following thought leaders presenting solutions from their direct experience in the automotive industry at www.DDVirtualExpo.com

		Fine-tuning your Online Marketing – A holistic approach for winning customers online
Peter Leto, Industry Strategist & Mariana Kerppola, Industry StrategistGoogle Jumpstart Dealer Team		Roughly a decade ago, there were four mediums we relied on to market our dealerships and vehicles – TV, radio, print, and outdoor. While we still utilize these mediums today, we have witnessed dramatic changes in the auto shopping experience as customers continue to rely on the Internet throughout the shopping process (Zero Moment of Truth).In this keynote address, Marianna Kerppola and Peter Leto will illustrate: How dealers can start to streamline their marketing and advertising in order to win more customers online, Changes in auto shopping behavior and what this means for your digital marketing strategy, and how to marry your traditional and digital marketing strategies in an effort to create consistent messaging for your customers.
	The Fundamentals of Online Automotive Marketing
Tori Morandi, Manager, Industry Education AutoTrader.com	Nothing has affected how people buy cars more than the Internet. In fact, you can safely assume that more than 90% of the shoppers who walk into your dealership have done at least some research on the Internet about you, your cars and what people are saying about you. In this introductory workshop, you’ll learn about why the Internet works as the primary influence to get car shoppers to walk into your dealership. You’ll also learn about consumers’ mindset, how much and where they spend their time online when they are shopping for a car, best practices for merchandising and the importance of online reputation management.
	Dealership Facebook Marketing 2013 Proven strategies to attract visitors, engage genuine fans and generate leads
Kathi Kruse, Founder Kruse Control, Inc.	Facebook is the fastest growing marketplace in your community. Fifty million current and future car buyers share their ‘likes’ with each other every day. When the goal for your store is to be “liked” by hundreds or even thousands of enthusiastic fans, 30-year car business veteran and social media marketing expert Kathi Kruse shows you how to get them and turn them into customers. She shares proven ways to get engaged and motivated fans and followers on Facebook. Her insider’s secrets will help you build genuine fans, generate leads and close more sales to your social customer.
	Advanced SEO for Dealers What Still Works on Google
Ali Amirrezvani, President, CEO & Co-founder DealerOn, Inc.	Google has come out with at least three major categories of algorithm and ranking factor updates over the last 12 months in Panda, Venice, and Penguin. Google’s updates have created great opportunities for dealers, since most of the changes are targeted at penalizing redundant content and rewarding highly localized, relevant content for local searchers. Amirrezvani will provide dealers with a list of best practices for optimization that still work in Google’s new SEO landscape.
	New Trends in Search and Social Marketing
Paul Potratz, Industry Speaker	Social has become search marketing and search has become social marketing. The two giants Google and Facebook are competing for the each other’s audience, which means each company has developed several new marketing opportunities and ways to increase your leads. The new marketing opportunities provides progressive profiling and insights of a customer’s behavior to specifically target based on interest, stage of life, lifestyle, and for as little as $0.91 per lead. The new tools that are available today will drastically increase your sales and service leads. Paul Potratz will explain how you will get started whether you want to do it yourself or ensure your marketing firm is doing it correctly.
	The Digital Crisis that is Slowly Killing your Dealership
Kevin Frye, e-Commerce Director Jeff Wyler Automotive Family	Will your dealership still exist in 10 years? I’m bet that many of you will be out of business. Why? Because your dealership is too stubborn to adjust with the market changes we have seen and continue to see taking place in our market. Today’s dealerships are facing a major crisis to their future survival. Kevin Frye will share with you what that crisis is, and why it should be your biggest concern for the future. This workshop will teach you six crucial steps you must take to not only survive, but to also dominate your digital market. Real-life examples, Internet search data, and clips from movies and TV shows will show how the modern customer behaves, and how your dealership must adapt to be a highly efficient digital dealer.
	SEM: $300,000 Difference Per Year to the Bottom Line
Michael Groves, e-Commerce Director Apple Auto Group	SEM is a great way to drive traffic and measure tangible results. Looking at a fresh trade and reviewing what recon dollars are needed or reviewing the financial statement and finding areas of improvement are examples of using the same exact approach for both e-commerce and SEM – learn to keep score in order to change the score. In this session, you will learn to keep score using three key metrics. You will learn how to hold your SEM partner accountable to tangible results just like your third-party lead/media providers. Finally, you will take home conversion tools that will measure impression to sold results to make a $300,000 difference per year to the bottom line.
	Mastering the Art and Science of Website Conversion
Amir Amirrezvani, Vice President & Co-founder DealerOn, inc.	Dealers spend thousands of dollars a year on third-party leads, non-verifiable advertising slots on third-party sites, and questionable marketing platforms with unproven revenue models. In this content-packed presentation, Amir will provide: best practices you can immediately implement on your website to dramatically increase your lead volume, test cases of how other dealers dramatically improved their conversion and show rates, a testing framework that dealers can use to optimize their websites over time, the metrics all dealers should use and measure to optimize their websites over time.
	How to Hook Shoppers Online, and Buyers on the Lot
Jacob Solotaroff, Senior Vice President/ General Manager Max Systems	Smart dealers are using the Internet to super-size their traffic—and avoiding the dreaded race to the bottom that puts a squeeze on gross profits. But in the crush of third-party sites and the sea of competitive listings, how will your inventory stand out? Thanks to thorough research and analysis on the emerging online behavior of today’s savvy online car shopper, FirstLook and MAX Systems has unlocked this key to automotive marketing success.Jacob Solotaroff, GM of MAX Systems, will share cutting-edge insights on how to create the most consumer-relevant online listings. By exploring how and why consumers make buying decisions, how they decide where to buy, how they decide what to pay and how they determine the value of your inventory, session attendees will discover the keys to overcoming marketing challenges, driving more traffic, more volume, and stronger closing rates at solid margins.
	Parts e-Commerce – A Dealer Guide
Ted Fellowes, Expert – Parts e-commerce	For most dealerships, profits from parts sales are critical to survival. Nothing is likely to have a bigger impact on automotive parts marketing and sales than e-commerce. Unfortunately, parts e-commerce is a “Wild West” – an explosion of suppliers promoting a variety of dissimilar solutions. Prices vary widely; yet most vendors make similar claims. Adoption and usage of parts e-commerce is now climbing. Your competitors are cashing in and sales are reported in billions of dollars. Don’t get left behind. This session is a guide to available parts e-commerce choices and a framework to select solutions that best fit your parts operations and plans. Parts e-commerce is described in terms of a clear, easy-to-understand structure: customer types, parts types, your franchises and DMS, as well as your current parts business. Each approach to parts e-commerce is explained, vendors are identified, an action plan is summarized and systems integration considerations are covered.
	Blending Science and Strategy to Maximize Used Vehicle ROI
Dale Pollak, Founder vAuto Inc.	For most dealerships, profits from parts sales are critical to survival. Nothing is likely to have a bigger impact on automotive parts marketing and sales than e-commerce. Unfortunately, parts e-commerce is a “Wild West” – an explosion of suppliers promoting a variety of dissimilar solutions. Prices vary widely; yet most vendors make similar claims. Adoption and usage of parts e-commerce is now climbing. Your competitors are cashing in and sales are reported in billions of dollars. Don’t get left behind. This session is a guide to available parts e-commerce choices and a framework to select solutions that best fit your parts operations and plans. Parts e-commerce is described in terms of a clear, easy-to-understand structure: customer types, parts types, your franchises and DMS, as well as your current parts business. Each approach to parts e-commerce is explained, vendors are identified, an action plan is summarized and systems integration considerations are covered.

The Digital Dealer Virtual Expo Runs Wednesday Dec 5th – 11th, 2012 | Dealership Personnel Register Free