The Digital Dealer Virtual Exposition concluded on December 11th after seven days of a brand new way to showcase the latest digital marketing strategies and technology solutions for franchised dealerships.

However, for those of you that missed the event or would like to review the information that was presented, the content of the Digital Dealer Virtual Exposition can be accessed via archive at www.DDVirtualExpo.com through January 11, 2013.

The virtual format hosted hundreds of attendees from dealerships across the country, along with representatives from over 75 technology-focused service providers exchanging ideas on how to sell and service more vehicles more profitably. The seven day event represented one of the largest digital gatherings of automotive professionals ever assembled. Collectively the audience spent over one thousand hours in the virtual landscape engaged in live chat, video, product documents, research papers, and viewing of the top eleven sessions from the 13^th Digital Dealer on-demand.

Attending dealers and managers commended the concept to extend benefits of a Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition into virtual space, and agreed that there was excellent material presented in the new environment. The majority stated they learned actionable strategies relevant to their business needs and many stated they are now more likely to purchase a digital solution based on products and services they researched in the Virtual Exposition.

Exhibitors enjoyed the opportunity to connect directly with customers and prospects interested in learning more about their products and services. “The Virtual Exposition was a great experience for the Netsertive auto team. We were able to interact with several dealers right at our desks, and found the interface to be easy-to-use and powerful.” stated Tim McClain, Marketing Manager for Netsertive.

The new format utilized an emerging medium in the event field, the virtual exposition, offering many of the benefits of a live event with 24/7 cloud based access. Over 75% of the attendees that visited the Digital Dealer Virtual Exposition had never attended a Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition, and were able to utilize the unique format to realize education benefits of the industry’s premier automotive digital strategy conference, and view leading Internet and technology solutions without leaving their dealerships. Many stated they are more likely to attend a Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition in the future, now that they better understand the format and benefits of learning and networking with industry thought leaders, leading vendors and their peers.

“We are always thinking of ways to offer new education and networking opportunities to our audience of franchised dealerships” explains Michael Roscoe CEO of Dealer Communications, the host company for the event. “It was exciting to work in a new medium, and while we believe a virtual event will never replace the face to face learning that goes on at a Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition, the format has many benefits to attendees. We were especially excited about the number of dealers and managers that attended the Virtual Exposition but had never visited a Digital Dealer Conference before, and to hear so many positive comments about the opportunity to learn proven digital marketing strategies and meet with the industry’s best vendors.”

One of the unique features of an entirely digital gathering is live chat, and over the seven days the Virutal Exposition facilitated hundreds of discussions and thousands of chat lines between exhibitors, attendees and industry experts. In addition to exhibitors directly answering customer product questions, Peter Leto of the Google Jumpstart Dealer team, Kathi Kruse of Kruse Control, and Vicki Gibbs of Albright Digital facilitated live chat discussions covering strategies for Google, Facebook and reputation management. Each day of the seven day event, an average of twenty people at a time shared ideas and questions on how to best move forward with their social media plans.

Seven lucky attendees won a complimentary registration to the 14^th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition, May 7-9, 2013 at the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel, Orlando, FL.

The content of the Digital Dealer Virtual Exposition, including the eleven most attended sessions from the 13^th Digital Dealer and virtual exhibits from over 75+ technology-focused solutions providers will be available through January 11, 2013.

Visit www.DDVirtualExpo.com to learn more about:

• Auction Tools
• BDC Tools & Training
• CRM & DMS
• Classifieds & Marketing Agency
• Chat Tools
• E-mail Newsletters
• F&I Tools & Training
• Fixed Ops Marketing
• HR Management & Training
• Inventory Management
• Lead Generation & Sales Tools
• Mobile Marketing & Mobile Apps
• Optimization (PPC, SEM, SEO)
• Reputation Management
• Social Media
• Telephone Training & Tracking
• Transportation & Logistics
• Valuation & Re-marketing
• Video Marketing
• Website Development

And view the top eleven sessions on-demand:

		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.