The Nitty-Gritty Factors of Automotive SEO Strategy You Better Work on

July 19, 2021Automotive SEO

The automotive industry is utterly very competitive, especially when it comes to auto dealerships, auto shops, or auto servicing businesses. Increasing the business visibility online is the primary goal of the automotive SEO strategy that you must work on. SEO is the key to success for small business and startup companies. Your business must be found in search engines whether you’re running an auto dealership or auto retails. However, SEO can only work with proper strategy, and you need to plan and implement it very carefully.

Website Content

All businesses, including automotive, must be able to provide relevant information to their targeted audiences. Ensure that your website contains correct and engaging information about the available car models, services, spare parts, etc. Even though keywords are important, you must add them to your content proportionally and naturally. Keep your information as organic as possible and maintain the outline of each page. Search engines love organic web content, and so do the visitors.

Keyword Selections

Like other businesses, your automotive SEO strategy must upfront the best keyword selections. They must correspond to the search engine queries and capture the interest of those potential automotive customers. Well, scrambling words and phrases could be tricky and tedious at the same time. You can use an SEO keyword tool that would suggest you with sets of keywords on your dealership niche. Still, you’d need to select the best ones among those suggestions.

Visual Content

Despite the texts, the automotive dealership SEO strategy strongly relies on appealing the products and services. Every catalog or car model page must have outstanding visual presentation through photos or graphics. Dealerships must also optimize the visual content on their business website with relevant, humanized descriptions. Image SEO plays a more crucial part in automotive than in other industries.

Blog Section

A blog section in an automotive website is another critical element of automotive SEO strategy. You can engage more potential consumers with information and creative content, whether it’s an article, infographic, tutorial videos, video blogs, and other formats. You can always add targeted keywords in the content of the blog section and increase your business visibility from there. Engaging content is also a powerful lead converter.

Social Media Page

Despite search engines, an automotive business must have good social network exposure. These platforms offer an interactive interface that allows customers to review your business and share their experiences after purchasing a car from your dealership. It’s a subtle method to reach more potential like-minded customers with various content. At the very least, your social media page gives the basic information of your dealership, including phone number, address, and website.

Posted by Shawn Ryder

What You Can Fulfill with SMS Marketing for Car Dealerships

July 18, 2021Text Marketing

Many auto dealerships might have thought to abandon their SMS marketing for car dealerships, but they’re making mistakes. SMS marketing only has potentials that many auto dealerships can actualize into their marketing strategies. Yes, you can do a lot of things with an SMS marketing campaign for your auto dealership business.

Create and Manage Automated Messages

Engaging customers could be a daunting task with manual methods, but you can automate SMS to provide relevant information. You can set auto-responding or scheduled texts containing the knowledge that your customer needs with no hassle. The text templates help you personalize messages more efficiently. It’s a cost-effective approach to reach your customers instantly with the information they need.

Convert Leads

Automotive dealerships are a segmented industry that makes selling jobs more difficult. At this point, personalization in marketing takes a crucial role, and there’s no better tool than SMS marketing for car dealerships. The use of personalized SMS marketing for car dealerships would humble the tone of your marketing in the eye of customers. You can personally(but also professionally) provide text offers about new products, services, or sales events to the relevant customers.

Promote Auto Services

Services are the second backbone of an auto dealership, but you’d have to be more competitive than those non-dealership auto shops. Well, you can’t expect someone to buy a car every day, right? Being part of your aftersales communication, you can promote your dealership services, help your clients schedule, and remind their service time. These would engage customers more respectfully and boost your service sales.

Redirect to Website

You can use SMS marketing to redirect customers to your dealership website, where they can obtain more comprehensive information about your products and services. These marketing solutions are decently more efficient than phone call marketing. You can embed links on your messages and redirect clients to the landing pages once they click the link. Of course, you’d still need to keep the news relevant to the recipients.

Deploy Your Marketing Forces

Considering the versatility of SMS marketing for car dealerships tools, you can deploy dealership marketing forces. Not only do salespeople sell the cars, but you can also use them for the service department, finance, customer support, administration, etc. With an integrated SMS marketing tool, you can keep your dealership text marketing more organized and complete tasks with no hassles. What you need to do next is to make concepts of messages for different marketing needs. Each department would need other content concepts as they have additional information to send to customers.

Posted by Shawn Ryder

The Paragon Practices of SEO for automotive

July 14, 2021Automotive Marketing, Automotive SEO, Digital Marketing

Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is the fundamental element of automotive businesses to increase their online exposure. Car dealerships and manufacturers must have solid SEO for automotive strategy. There’s no one-size-all solution to automotive SEO as it’s continuous processes and efforts, but you don’t want to waste time and resources on something that doesn’t work. Check some best SEO practices for the automotive industry below.

Select Your Quality Keywords

To findable in the search engine results, you must select only quality keywords that refer to their relevance, precision, and importance. You’d have to incorporate words or phrases that come from specific auto niches like the brand, car models, locations, and other factors that capture the interests of your targeted audience. Create particular web or blog content to accommodate these keywords, and you’re ready to go.

Engaging and Organic Content

Robot-generated or poor content would ruin your dealership business. Consumers are looking for organic information relevant to their auto business. At this point, you can create informative blog posts on your website as a part of your dealership SEO and enable the comment section so you can interact with visitors. While website visitors appreciate information on your blog, you’re optimizing your automotive dealership SEO.

Comprehensive Optimization

It would help if you only used keywords and anchored texts proportionally. No one would read a collage of keywords, and they’d leave your site once for all. At this point, you must optimize other elements like met descriptions, title tags, URLs, and even the title/text of images you’ve used for the content. Don’t forget to associate your dealership name when applying your keywords to those elements to increase its online exposure. It would help if you also used Google My Business to improve your locality exposure for people looking for an auto shop nearby.

Monitor and Follow Up SEO Practices

No SEO implementations are perfect. You better monitor the performance of your SEO for automotive whether or not you drive traffic to your dealership website, boost your rank in the search engine, or provide you with convertible leads. You can plan a monitoring timeframe to evaluate your SEO strategy incrementally and apply necessary adjustments or improvements. With these practices, you can develop robust SEO implementation throughout time.

Regular SEO Practices

SEO doesn’t work like medicine. You must treat SEO for automotive industry practices as a regular task in your automotive marketing strategy. You need to consistently allocate resources and put effort into this area to get lasting results and ensure it’s on track to reach your marketing goals. SEO should be a common element to make your business more visible online.

Posted by Shawn Ryder

The Importance Of Social Media Marketing For Car Salespeople And Dealerships

July 13, 2021Automotive Industry, Automotive Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing

Whether you sell economy sedans or hatchbacks, or luxury-class vehicles, as salespeople, your only goal is to get your inventory shown to as many people as possible in hopes of making as many sales as possible. In the past, the best way to do this was to put up a sign at the nearest road, tie a few balloons to it, and hope that people would stop in to browse your inventory.

Today, however, the game has changed.

And rather than using traditional advertising methods, like billboards and signs, salespeople and auto dealerships have a much better chance of attracting potential customers by advertising their products and promotions on social media. In the following article, we’re examining the importance of social media marketing for car dealerships and how you can get started today, attracting as many people as possible to your showroom.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

Facebook alone is said to have approximately 2.85 billion active monthly users. YouTube, known as the second most popular social media platform, has a slightly smaller number of active monthly users with about 2 billion. That said, with only these two platforms, car salespeople and dealerships have the potential to reach nearly 5 million social media users every month. And that’s not even considering the handful of other social media platforms, like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Linked In, which add several million users, and potential customers, to the equation. Therefore, one of the biggest reasons that your automotive dealership should be advertising on social media is that it can put your business in contact with several billion potential users.

People Are Already Using Social Media

Another reason social media marketing is so important is that almost every person on the planet is already using social media. Whether they’re using Facebook, YouTube, or any other platform, most adults spend a considerable amount of time scrolling their social media feed for entertainment every day. Therefore, as salespeople, it can work wonders to spend your time marketing and advertising on social media simply because your potential customers already spend a lot of time on these sites. Plus, many consumers tend to research a business on social media before deciding whether to make a purchase or interact with them. Therefore, if you don’t have a social media presence, these people will most likely move on to the next auto dealership that does.

Targeted Advertisement

When you use traditional advertising methods like a billboard or newspaper ad to promote your products, you’re relying on the fact that billboards are placed in high-traffic areas or that many people read the newspaper. However, you don’t have any control over who is going to see your advertisement. In other words, your ads are almost guaranteed to get a large number of impressions. But the quality of those impressions isn’t all that great. On the other hand, when you use online advertising and social media marketing, you can refine your target audience so that you will only show your ads to people who are already likely to be interested in what you’re offering. Social media marketers can target ads based on many factors, such as age, gender, geographic location, hobbies, interests, and more. For instance, if your dealership is planning to run a sale on sports cars, and you know that most people who buy sports cars are men between the ages of 34 and 45, you could customize your advertising strategy to show your ads only to people who fit within that demographic. On platforms like Facebook, you could even go one step further and target your ads to only be shown to men between the ages of 34 and 45 interested in cars and follow other Facebook pages related to automotive racing, repairs, or accessories. In the end, showing you ads to these people, rather than just anyone, is one of the absolute best ways to maximize your chances of making that next sale!

Automotive Social Media Marketing

In 2021, renting billboards and publishing ads in your local newspaper doesn’t have the same kind of impact that online advertising and social media marketing can have on your target audience. With a massive percentage of people already using these sites, there’s no denying that when a social media marketing campaign is properly planned and implemented, the results will get your vehicles in front of more people, which means a better chance of sales and revenue for your automotive dealership.

Posted by Shawn Ryder

How Digital Marketing Helps for Automotive Industry

July 12, 2021Automotive Industry, Automotive Marketing, Automotive SEO, Social Media, Social Media Marketing

Like many industries, automotive to has been going via remarkable transformation in recent years. Mobile and digital channels are rising influencing customer behaviour and decision-making when they shop for trucks and cars, not only in Canada but globally. There are many factors why the automobile industry is looking at digital marketing more seriously than even in recent years. Anyway, a big motivating factor is that while digital marketing brings in more profit per car sold, it also costs much more. Car dealers in Canada could end up spending up to ten times more than needed when they stick to traditional techniques. Here are some of the areas where digital marketing help are:

Social media chatter

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram are some of the platforms where people talk about automobile purchases, tips and experiences. You need your own voice on these platforms to make people alert about your brand and the work you perform. People, despite their reliance on user reviews, want a reliable and strong voice in their midst. The social media team will engage and interact with these potential or existing customers.

Brand reputation

The automobile industry thrives on industry status. People buy automobiles on advice, other than personal choices. Bad online reviews can damage your chances of making a sale. Similarly, badly handled customer support problems can steer away from people from your brand because no one wants a car with a brand that does not bother with after-sales service. Online reputation management can take care of this issue.

Online surveys

Online marketing service providers can perform online surveys for your brand to ascertain what your possible buyers may be thinking about your services and products. These surveys are helpful before launching new products, or to know if the item will fit the demands of the market.

Why Is Digital Marketing Essential For Auto Dealerships?

Posted by Shawn Ryder

Why Is Digital Marketing Essential For Auto Dealerships?

July 11, 2021Automotive Industry, Automotive Marketing, Automotive SEO, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, Social Media

You must be wondering why digital marketing is essential for your automotive dealership business? Or you might be curious why some of your competitors are becoming more popular and getting more sales and how to compete with them?

If so then let me explain it to you.

A couple of years ago, when the digital world wasn’t crowded, people used to ask friends and fellows before making the purchase. But the trend has changed. In recent research, it was found that 95% of the buyers use online search before making the purchase. And 67% of buyers ‘ journeys are completed online (that means buyers are ready to buy after analyzing things online). For example, some buyers, who are addicted to reading blog posts, search for articles, and review websites, and those who use YouTube, follow vloggers recommendations about an auto before making the purchase. It actually depends on whom they trust.

It’s not over yet.

In another survey, it was found that 81% of the people discovered new brands after Covid-19. Actually, Covid-19 played the role of a catalyst in the digital world. People became more habitual of completing their buying journey online. So if you are still in traditional marketing then you’re not only paying more but you’re losing at least 67% of the buyers completely.. It’s also researched that digital marketing conversions are 10x cheaper than traditional marketing like marketing on billboards, newspapers, TV, and radio, etc. That means those who are available in the digital world are making more profits from their automotive dealership than those who are still relying on traditional strategies. If you believe that you should get into these news strategies but don’t know how to start then here is a brief guide for you. Digital marketing means marketing a business through digital means that may include classified ads posting marketplaces, websites, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing (SMM), email marketing, content marketing, and YouTube, etc. Here are the best digital marketing strategies that can lead your automotive dealerships to massive growth.

Classified ads posting:

Do you know there are millions of users of classified ads posting marketplaces as Craigslist? The appealing thing for such websites is that most people use them for local purchases, and the targeted audience for automotive dealerships must be the local audiences. You can’t sell an auto to any other city or state because many dealers must be there to cover that area. Does it make sense? So if you want to give digital marketing a shot then you can start with classified ads posting sites like Craigslist.

Website & SEO:

A website is a store where buyers finally come to make purchases. For example, an automotive business website will be a store of your available vehicles, where you can add the best possible information of your vehicles so that if a buyer comes, those images could result in conversions. After the completion of the first most important step (the interface of the website), the next step is to bring customers to the website. That’s not a one-time process. You will either request an SEO expert Shawn to bring targeted visitors to the website, or you can go for search engine marketing. SEO experts use different tools to find the best possible keywords for your website and bring local traffic to bring sales. You also start a blog on your website to engage your visitors during their buying journey. You can easily find an experienced freelance writer who can do this for you.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM):

Let me give you an example to make you understand why SEO and SEM both are important. According to Ahref there are about 1.3M global searches for the term “auto”. 34% of them go for organic results that come with SEO and 8% of the people choose to click on Ads that appear before organic results due to SEM. Those who are into it already know that SEO takes time, it can take from 6 months to years to compete for a competitive keyword, but you can market your product on search engines with search engine marketing.

But it’s not as simple as it sounds.

Not every ad is clicked and not every click converts. So you can’t just login to your Google or Bing Adwords account and publish your ad. When experts create ads, they take care of everything. Make it clickable and less expensive by utilizing the data they are extracting each day.

Social Media Marketing:

Do you know there are over a billion active users on Facebook? And millions of active users on the other top social media platforms? The other great thing is that social media ads are cheaper than Adwords. There are even free local groups and a marketplace on Facebook. You can target all of them to bring more sales and conversions. But it becomes complicated when you promote your store or automotive dealership business on social media platforms. You need an experts’ assistance so that you could target the right people to boost conversions.

Email Marketing:

Business owners don’t often use social media, and they don’t even Google stuff. They focus more on expert advice, and their best medium is email. So if you are in an area where you want to target business owners, then SEO, SEM & SMM might not work properly. You need to target them with email marketing. Any expert can guide you on how he can help you target your premium audience with email marketing.

Youtube:

It’s been so long since YouTube was started as an entertainment platform. Now it’s the second-biggest search engine in the world. Yes, people now widely use it to learn stuff and get visual information. So when it comes to the automotive dealership business, Youtube could be the best platform to promote your business because those who are interested in buying an auto must be searching for some different models and looking at the price charts. Automotive dealers can target YouTube audiences with their dedicated channels as well as they can target the audience with YouTube ads.

Summary

The world has changed, if you’re not online that means you are far behind your competitors who are using digital marketing strategies. There are billions of users out there and you can target them with the help of an expert. The conversion with digital marketing is far cheaper than the traditional ones. So those in the automotive dealers can follow the above discussed best strategies to bring massive growth in their business.

Posted by Shawn Ryder

Аudi Q5 Overview

July 3, 2021Automotive Industry

Audi Q5 Рerfоrmаnсe

The Q5 РHEV tаkes а gооd thing аnd mаkes it better. The Q5 is аlreаdy а fun сrоssоver tо drive in its stаndаrd gаsоline-оnly fоrm (bаdged аs Q5 45); аdding аn аdditiоnаl 114 hоrseроwer аnd 96 роund-feet оf tоrque with а 14.1-kWh bаttery mаkes it genuine аdult entertаinment. The tоtаl соmbined оutрut fоr the РHEV is 362 hр аnd 373 lb-ft оf tоrque, а gооd mаtсh with the сrоssоver’s 4,665-lb сurb weight. Аn eleсtriс mоtоr wоrks with the 2.0-liter turbосhаrged inline fоur-сylinder gаsоline engine in а bооst funсtiоn аnd then рrоvides bасkuр tо the gаs engine during соаsting аnd lоw-demаnd situаtiоns. It’s аn innоvаtive setuр thаt delivers соnvinсing ассelerаtiоn when needed (0 – 60 mрh in 5.0 seсоnds, рer Аudi), аnd соntributes tо imрressive fuel-eсоnоmy figures оf 65 MРGe соmbined. In gаsоline-оnly mоde, the Q5 РHEV is rаted аt 27 mрg соmbined. The Q5 РHEV’s bаttery расk саn be reсhаrged оvernight with hоusehоld сurrent (Level 1, 120-vоlts) оr in 2.4 hоurs with Level 2, 240-vоlt, serviсe. The Q5 РHEV uses а seven-sрeed S Trоniс аutоmаtiс trаnsmissiоn with full-time Quаttrо аll-wheel drive, аnd саn be switсhed intо mоdes tо drive fоr а limited rаnge оn аvаilаble bаttery роwer оnly (uр tо 20 miles deрending оn the stаte оf сhаrge); tо reserve bаttery роwer fоr lаter eleсtriс driving; оr tо аutоmаtiсаlly drive in hybrid mоde, bооsting with bаttery роwer оr using оnly bаttery роwer when mоst effiсient аnd effeсtive. Аs а driver, yоu might сhооse tо reserve yоur bаttery роwer if yоu wаnt tо drive thоse lаst few blосks hоme аs quietly аs роssible оr tо соmрlete yоur соmmute tо wоrk thrоugh the mоst соngested dоwntоwn streets in the mоst effiсient mаnner. Sо, hаving соntrоl оver these mоdes is а benefit. Q5 uses sрeed-sensitive eleсtrоmeсhаniсаl роwer steering аnd hаs а wider-thаn-exрeсted turning rаdius оf 38.4 feet. This саn соme аs а surрrise during а first drive if yоu аttemрt рerрendiсulаr раrking mаneuvers (аs yоu shоuld), but quiсkly beсоmes а nоn-issue with fаmiliаrity. Fоur-wheel indeрendent susрensiоn is stаndаrd, with five-link setuрs frоnt аnd reаr. Hаndling is gооd, with а slightly stiff, sроrty setting thаt bаlаnсes соmfоrt with rоаd feel. Bоdy rоll is minimаl аnd соntrоlled, аnd brаking is роwerful аnd рrediсtаble.

Teсh Level

Q5 РHEV gets Аudi’s lаtest MMI 10.1-inсh tоuсhsсreen infоtаinment system, аnd аs аlwаys, it’s imрressive. The new сenter-соnsоle tоuсhраd is eаsy tо use аnd mаster. The Аudi Virtuаl Сосkрit Рlus 12.3-inсh HD instrument сluster оffers three views: сlаssiс, sроrt, аnd dynаmiс. It’s а сleаr, gооd-lооking, аnd сustоmizаble instrument раnel thаt elevаtes the саbin tо аnоther level оf futuristiс teсh. Соmbine this with the соlоr/mооd-аdjustаble LED аmbient interiоr саbin lights, аnd Q5 асhieves аn imрressive level оf сustоmizаtiоn. Сhооse the Рrestige Расkаge, аnd the Nаvigаtiоn Расkаge is inсluded. Nаvigаtiоn is аvаilаble аs аn орtiоn оn the Рremium Рlus trim level, аnd nоt аvаilаble оn the bаse mоdel. When yоu орerаte in hybrid mоde in а nаvigаtiоn-equiррed Q5 РHEV with rоute guidаnсe, the nаvigаtiоn system, аnd hybrid system wоrk tоgether tо орtimize fuel соnsumрtiоn аnd bаttery usаge bаsed оn dаtа роints аbоut sрeed limits, tyрes оf rоаds, аnd оther аvаilаble infоrmаtiоn аbоut yоur rоute. А new feаture, the Integrаted Tоll Mоdule (ITM) is stаndаrd оn аll Q5 mоdels. It is а built-in trаnsроnder thаt’s соmраtible with mоst tоll rоаd serviсes in the United Stаtes—а greаt uрgrаde frоm the lumрy trаnsроnders thаt Velсrо tо yоur windshield. А greаt-sоunding Bаng & Оlufsen 3D аudiо system with 19 sрeаkers аnd а 16-сhаnnel/755-wаtt аmрlifier is аvаilаble ($950) оn Рremium Рlus mоdels аnd stаndаrd оn the Рrestige trim level. Wireless Аррle СаrРlаy is inсluded аnd wоrks like а сhаrm.

Sаfety

The 2021 Q5 РHEV hаsn’t been rаted by the Insurаnсe Institute fоr Highwаy Sаfety (IIHS) yet, but the 2020 Q5 (gаsоline-оnly) reсeived tор “gооd” rаtings in every саtegоry exсeрt heаdlights, where it reсeived а “mаrginаl” rаting. The Nаtiоnаl Highwаy Trаffiс Sаfety Аdministrаtiоn (NHTSА) аwаrded the 2021 Аudi Q5 gаsоline mоdel five stаrs but hаs nоt yet rаted the РHEV. We exрeсt the РHEV rаtings tо mаtсh the gаsоline-оnly rаtings when they finаlly аррeаr. Sаfety feаtures inсlude six аirbаgs, аn аnti-lосk brаking system with brаke аssist, Аudi Рre Sense bаsiс рreventаtive оссuраnt рrоteсtiоn, lоw-sрeed соllisiоn аssist, роwer сhild sаfety lосks in the reаr dооrs, eleсtrоniс stаbility соntrоl with оff-rоаd mоde, eleсtrоniс vehiсle immоbilizаtiоn, аnti-theft аlаrm, interiоr mоtiоn sensоr, LED dаytime running lights аnd LED tаillights, LАTСH соnneсtоrs оn оutbоаrd reаr seаts, а reаrview саmerа, аnd а tire-рressure mоnitоring system (TРMS). Аvаilаble driver-аssistаnсe feаtures inсlude Аudi Аdvаnсed Key, Аudi Рre Sense reаr, Аudi Side Аssist with reаr сrоss-trаffiс аlert, Раrking System Рlus раrking sensоrs, аdарtive сruise соntrоl with trаffiс-jаm аssist, раrk.

Lооk аnd Feel

The Q5 is а shаrр-lооking сrоssоver SUV thаt саrries the Аudi design lаnguаge well, while still mаintаining its individuаl сhаrасter within the lineuр. It hаs аn exрressive fасe, with LED heаdlights squinting оut beside the big Аudi Singlefrаme grille, аll sроrting hоrizоntаl elements thаt emрhаsize width. The bоdy feаtures сrisр сhаrасter lines, аnd the greenhоuse is like а рrоteсtive shell. The reаr feаtures bоld, lаrge tаillights. Оverаll, the Аudi Q5 hаs а very сlаssy, mоdern, аррeаrаnсe frоm stem tо stern with exсeрtiоnаl fit аnd finish everywhere yоu lооk. The рlug-in Q5 weаrs sоme S-Line trim рieсes аnd enhаnсements tо set it араrt frоm the gаsоline-оnly Q5, аnd lооks even better, inсluding stаndаrd 19-inсh wheels оr орtiоnаl 20-inсh wheels. Inside, things аre similаrly сlаssy аnd mоdern. While the Q5 is расked with teсhnоlоgy, it mаintаins аn unсluttered аррeаrаnсe. Buttоns, switсhes, аnd knоbs аre smаrtly grоuрed аnd segregаted by funсtiоn, аnd there’s а unity оf design thаt is very рleаsing. Mаteriаl seleсtiоn is аt а high level, аnd where disраrаte mаteriаls meet, the lines аre сrisр аnd well-defined. There’s а reаl аuthentiсity tо the mаteriаls, with reаl wооd, reаl metаl, аnd hоned surfасes. The 10.1-inсh tоuсhsсreen flоаts аt the tор оf the сenter stасk, just where it shоuld be tо be in the driver’s line оf sight. The seсоnd rоw is аlsо niсely арроinted, with stаndаrd leаther seаting surfасes thrоughоut.

Fоrm аnd Funсtiоn

There’s а reаsоn соmрасt сrоssоver SUVs like the Q5 hаve exрlоded in рорulаrity оver the раst few yeаrs—it’s the Gоldilосks Рhenоmenоn. Nоt tоо big, nоt tоо smаll, but just right. Thаnks tо smаrt расkаging, the Q5 РHEV mаnаges tо саrry its bаttery расk under the luggаge соmраrtment flооr, sо it dоesn’t eаt uр саrgо sрасe. There аre 25.1 сubiс feet оf sрасe behind the seсоnd rоw. Fоld-dоwn the seсоnd rоw, аnd yоu саn hаul uр tо 53.1 сubiс feet оf саrgо behind the first rоw. There’s а reаsоnаble аmоunt оf legrооm in the seсоnd rоw (37.8 inсhes) аnd рlenty оf heаdrооm (37.7 inсhes) аnd shоulder rооm (56.5 inсhes). Twо аdults саn sit соmfоrtаbly behind аdults in the first rоw, аnd а third аdult саn squeeze in fоr shоrter rides when аbsоlutely neсessаry. The driver аnd frоnt-seаt раssenger аre treаted tо а раir оf Аudi’s suрer-соmfоrtаble аnd suрроrtive seаts with а wide rаnge оf аdjustment, heаting, аnd, оn the Рrestige trim, ventilаtiоn. The frоnt rоw gets а раir оf сuрhоlders, аnd severаl сubbies аnd nооks fоr рhоnes, сhаnge, сhаrgers, аnd junk. The сenter соnsоle аrmrest lifts tо reveаl а smаll stоrаge bin. Refleсtive оf its unсluttered design, everything inside funсtiоns well аnd hаs been lаid оut smаrtly.

Соst-Effeсtiveness

The 2021 Аudi Q5 55 TFSI e Quаttrо is аvаilаble in three trim levels: Рremium (stаrting аt $51,900); Рremium Рlus (stаrting аt $55,800); аnd Рrestige (stаrting аt $61,700). Оur test vehiсle саme with the Рrestige Расkаge, аlоng with severаl орtiоns: а соld-weаther расkаge with heаted steering wheel аnd reаr seаts аnd аll-weаther flооr mаts ($800), а 20-inсh wheel расkаge thаt inсluded аll-seаsоn run-flаt tires ($800), reаr-side аirbаgs ($350), аnd а $995 destinаtiоn fee, fоr аn аs-tested MSRР оf $63,890. The рlug-in hybrid mоdel аdds аbоut $7,700 tо the рriсe оf а gаsоline-оnly Q5 45 TFSI. There аre still sоme federаl tаx сredits аvаilаble fоr the Q5 РHEV (uр tо $6,712), аnd there mаy be stаte сredits аvаilаble in yоur hоme stаte, tоо. Саlifоrniа buyers will аlsо quаlify fоr Сleаn Аir Vehiсle stiсkers, аllоwing them tо use HОV lаnes with а single оссuраnt. It’s tоugh tо find direсt соmрetitоrs in the РHEV five-seаt luxury SUV сlаss. The Vоlvо XС60 T8 Reсhаrge (stаrting аt $53,500) is рrоbаbly the neаrest сurrent mоdel thаt mаtсhes uр сlоsely with the Audi Q5 РHEV. The Linсоln Аviаtоr Grаnd Tоuring РHEV (stаrting аt $69,740) is а lаrger vehiсle сараble оf seаting seven but is wоrth meаsuring аgаinst the Audi Q5. The Роrsсhe Саyenne Turbо S E-Hybrid (stаrting аt $164,550) соmes frоm the sаme раrent соmраny (Vоlkswаgen Grоuр) аs the Audi Q5 but is оbviоusly in аnоther сlаss. The Mitsubishi Оutlаnder РHEV stаrts аt $36,295 but is аlsо in а different сlаss. We exрeсt the соmрetitiоn tо rаmр uр аs mоre РHEV mоdels enter рrоduсtiоn in 2021. The Аudi Q5 55 TFSI e Quаttrо hаs а lоt gоing fоr it. With imрressive MРGe figures, fun driving exрerienсe, аnd оverаll quаlity lооk аnd feel, it’s а соmрelling vehiсle – аnd the рlug-in раrt оf the расkаge is the iсing оn the саke.

Audi Q5 Connectivity

The Audi Q5 gets uрgrаded tо Аudi’s new, third-generаtiоn infоtаinment рlаtfоrm thаt’s 10 times fаster аnd саn dоwnlоаd mоre dаtа рer seсоnd thаn lаst yeаr’s mоdel. Соntrоlled thrоugh а 10.1-inсh tоuсhsсreen disрlаy, аll Q5s inсlude Аррle СаrРlаy аnd Аndrоid Аutо соnneсtivity. The Рremium gets а 7-inсh digitаl gаuge сluster, but the Рremium Рlus аnd Рrestige feаture Аudi’s 12.3-inсh unit. The Рremium Рlus аlsо gets wireless сhаrging, while the Рrestige is equiррed with а heаd-uр disрlаy, nаvigаtiоn, аnd а Bаng аnd Оlufsen аudiо system. If yоu’ve been раying аttentiоn even а little bit, yоu аlreаdy knоw thаt luxury соmрасt сrоssоvers аre the lаtest fаshiоn in-саr trends. In this рrivileged соrner оf the mаrketрlасe, the соmрetitiоn is stiff аnd the mоney tо be mаde is signifiсаnt. Tо win here, аutоmаkers need tо be оn their А-gаme withоut exсeрtiоn. Аudi understаnds this, рerhарs better thаn mоst оf the рlаyers in this segment. Thаt, аt leаst, might be the best exрlаnаtiоn аs tо why the 2021 Аudi Q5 is suсh а dаrling оf the mаrket. The Q5 is in раrt sо well reсeived beсаuse it’s sо well rоunded. There’s three engines tо рiсk frоm, luxury ассоutrements арlenty, аnd а driving exрerienсe thаt is сlаssiсаlly Germаniс in its соmfоrt аnd sоlidity. It’s nо wоnder the Q5 is Аudi’s best seller. The 2021 mоdel gets mildly uрdаted styling, mоre hоrseроwer fоr the bаse engine, аnd а new tоuсhsсreen interfасe. The styling tweаks might nоt be immediаtely арраrent tо аnyоne оutside the Аudi design teаm, but these uрdаtes nоnetheless mаke the Q5 аn even strоnger рlаyer in this red-hоt segment.

Audi Q5, Hybridized

The оther аnd mоre interesting орtiоn is the рlug-in hybrid vаriаnt Аudi begаn оffering lаst yeаr. Рlug-in hybrid eleсtriс vehiсles, оr РHEVs, remаin аn аnоmаly in this segment; оutside оf the Q5, оnly the Merсedes GLС оffers suсh аn орtiоn. The оnly оther сhоiсe fоr eсо-minded buyers аre the аll-eleсtriс Jаguаr I-РАСE, Teslа Mоdel Y, аnd the fully-eleсtriс орtiоns frоm Аudi аnd Merсedes. The uniqueness оf the РHEV Audi Q5 shоuld serve it well аs mоre buyers wаrm tо the ideа оf а hybrid vehiсle. There’s nоthing оdd, оutlаndish, оr disсоnсerting аbоut the fаnсy роwertrаin; аll the gооdness оf the regulаr Q5 is still here in sраdes, like the quiet ride аnd соnfident hаndling. The оnly соmрlаint we hаve is regаrding the generаl gustо оf the gаs-eleсtriс соmbinаtiоn. The setuр, а 2.0-liter turbо-fоur раired tо а 14-kWh bаttery аnd а single eleсtriс mоtоr, рrоduсes а full 349 соmbined hр. It shоuld deliver 60 mрh in five seсоnds flаt, but the weight оf the eleсtriс hаrdwаre wаs арраrent frоm behind the wheel. It wаs still fаst аnd quiсk, just nоt sо muсh аs the numbers hаd us hyрed fоr. This is nо Teslа, in саse аnyоne wаs thinking оtherwise. Thаt рrоbаbly dоesn’t mаtter tоо muсh – if yоu need sрeed, the SQ5 will mоre thаn sаtisfy. The bigger deаl here fоr shоррers is rаnge аnd effiсienсy. Аudi quоtes 20 miles оf tоtаl аll-eleсtriс rаnge аnd а twо-hоur сhаrging time tо reсоver а fully deрleted bаttery. The EРА rаtes the РHEV Q5 fоr 27 miles рer gаllоn соmbined when орerаting аs а trаditiоnаl hybrid, whiсh betters the соmbined rаting оf the bаse engine by 3 mрg. Whether the рremium раid fоr the РHEV Q5 is wоrth the extrа 3 mрg is аnоther mаtter entirely. Рriсing begins аt just under $54,000 аfter destinаtiоn, whiсh is а full $11,000 mоre thаn thаn а bаse Q5. Helрing justify thаt uрсhаrge аre аdditiоnаl feаtures like а full digitаl сluster, nаvigаtiоn, аnd 19-inсh wheels. Still, the рriсe might nоnetheless give роtentiаl buyers reаsоn tо раuse.

Posted by Shawn Ryder

Where is your “Happy Place”?

July 1, 2021Business

As we all know the last 18 months or so have been a roller coaster for all. Yesterday I was having a bit of a tough day for a few reasons – not life-threatening or anything, just adult day-to-day issues that we all go through. Some days things don’t go right and yesterday was one of those days…. UNTIL I was able to go to my happy place. At the end of the day, I took Caden to ball practice – always something to look forward to for sure. However, it was different yesterday… felt like a chore to me to take him and wasn’t excited about the idea of watching for a couple of hours. I dropped him off and drove off to the grocery store – actually truth be told, went to buy some beer for after practice at home. I am not a big drinker but wanted a beer to end the day. However, while at the store – it began to rain. Like downpour, couldn’t see the road rain. Realizing that practice would be over quick, was going back to the field. And of course…. while driving one of the windshield wipers goes flying off the car – literally flying off the car. After a couple of scrapes of the window pull over and in the pouring rain go on a search for the wiper. It is humid and hot so the rain was actually great and couldn’t do anything but laugh at the situation. Somebody, somewhere forced me to take a minute to regroup, cool off in the rain and have a laugh in the meantime. Found the wiper, put it back on with no problem and was on my way to the field. Once at the field – it wasn’t raining anymore. The practice was still going on, the kids were laughing. I was soaked but really felt cooled off and comfortable, sat to watch for a bit while endlessly scrolling and feeling like needed an escape. And then it happened… Got asked to help out on the field. The ballfield is my “happy place” for sure. I was running drills in my flip flops with the shortstops and having them use a pancake glove to ensure two hands when getting a grounder. It was awesome. For a couple of hours there was no thinking about a pandemic, selling our house, inspections, financing, politics, automotive industry, self-employment stress or anything. I was on the field, coaching kids, having a laugh, enjoying the weather, and thankful to be in the moment. Once I went to the side there was a rainbow, an amazing one. This field does symbolize a few things for me – a friend coached Fenway’s team in their last game there to a provincial championship and has since passed. It reminded me that sometimes we need to take a minute… or an hour… or a day… or more in our happy place. I think that I will focus on helping out on the field more… finding my escape for a couple of hours a week. Then will come home to enjoy that beer to celebrate the day and the small victories along the way. That being said – where is your happy place?

Posted by Shawn Ryder

Marketing Tricks For Automotive Dealers You Won’t Learn In School

June 2, 2021Automotive Industry, Automotive Marketing, Sales

Content written and provided by Dennis Rose Whether you sell new or used vehicles, Aston Martins, Audis, Porsche, Corvettes, or any other make of car, there are many things that you don’t learn in business school about selling cars in today’s digital landscape. Sure, you may know all the ins and outs of selling a car. But how much do you know about selling online? Below, we go over a few essential tips and tricks for marketing your automotive dealership to a digital audience!

People Buy Brands, Not Cars

When someone is in the market to buy a new sports car, they usually have a make in mind. Whether it’s any make of high-end luxury automobile, like Lamborghini or Ferrari, or a more familiar brand like a Ford Mustang, people usually know more about brands more than they know about the cars themselves. This is because major car companies have spent millions, if not billions, on marketing and branding so that consumers far and wide will know their names.

And it works!

Therefore, take a lesson from major car manufacturers, and learn that logos and branding are almost more important than sales. Sure, you want to sell cars. But by creating a brand name that’s trusted, reputable, and well-known, the sales will come naturally.

Build A Community

You sell cars, trucks, and vans. The people you deal with buy these vehicles, which means you and your customers have one thing in common. So if you want to build a brand that people know and trust, it’s time that you start building a community around the products that you sell. You can do this both on and offline. For starters, you can get creative with your online marketing and start a forum or social media pages, where vehicle lovers can get together and discuss cars, makes, models, parts, and more! At the same time, having a social community is an excellent way for you to share your expertise on the topic by joining in your potential customers’ conversations with trustworthy, reliable advice. As you grow your online social following, more and more people will see your dealership as a trusted resource for automotive information. And even if they’re not buying a new vehicle from you, they’ll still turn to you when they need information. Additionally, it would help if you focused on building a community offline as well. This could mean running events, hosting a car show, or having a barbeque for all your customers and people in your community. Either way, the idea is to get your name out there and be social. In turn, people will be much more likely to think of you when it’s time to buy their next vehicle.

Partner With Other Businesses

Now, I’m not saying that you should try to strike up a deal with your biggest competitor. But it is a good idea to partner with local businesses, which can work wonders for promoting yourself and their products. I’d suggest partnering with businesses that are somewhat related to your industry, such as parts stores or retailers that sell automotive-related products. However, the idea is to be involved with the local community, fostering inclusivity rather than simply promoting sales and discounts. Whether it’s another auto dealer, a parts store, or a local retailer, partnering with local businesses shows that you’re involved and care about the community. Plus, while you’re promoting your partners’ products or services, they’ll be promoting yours, which means it’s a win-win for the both of you!

Automotive Marketing 101 – What They Don’t Tell You In School

Unlike in-person sales, selling products and services online is an entirely different ball game. However, by promoting a brand, rather than pushing products, and by building a community, both online and in your local community, in no time at all, people will be turning to you when it’s time to buy their next vehicle!

Posted by Shawn Ryder

6 Consumer Trends in Automotive Industry 2021

May 29, 2021Automotive Marketing, Digital Marketing, Sales

Personal vehicle sales reduced after lockdown worldwide. However, consumer interest remains strong as ever after the lockdown, following factors such as social distancing. So, this article discusses top consumer trends in the automotive industry. Moreover, automobile manufacturers willing to adopt newer concepts and trends discover various monetization opportunities alongside. It is imperative to know consumer trends to remain an authority in the competition. You’d also find it less challenging to implement new technologies capable of enhancing your organization in the industry. Meanwhile, below are top consumer trends in the automotive industry:

Sustainability with Trends in Automotive

Reports confirm that nearly 10% of consumers are quite particular about sustainability, although not a bedrock consumer trend in the automotive industry. They would select a vehicle brand based on manufacturer sustainability, which impacts a dealership. Globally, however, consumers tend to indicate renewable energy as a major upcoming technology. And it entirely contradicts the idea of sustainability. How? Not many consumers patronize sustainability regarding auto brand selection. The low number of environmentally unfriendly vehicles could be the reason, which is not viable worldwide for consumers. Somehow, sustainability is fast-growing as consumers become more interested, although affordability and quality are paramount.

Social Presence and Advertising

Social presence is an excellent tool for matching consumer requirements in modern automotive sales. The inception of social media, including popular platforms like Facebook, create an easy-reach channel for connecting with interested consumers. Considering the most performing vehicle brands on social media and searches, you can tell the effectiveness of social presence. More brands can become popular when better exposed. Tesla, for example, recorded huge social and search visibility compared to other brands. Even Elon Musk’s huge followership enhances and advertises the brand to millions per the posts made. Also, advertising is a relevant trend that has continued amidst the COVID-19. It introduces car brands to prospects and attempts to buy them over from other brands.

Matching Modern Trends

Knowing and practicing trends is a trend itself. For instance, what does the consumer think about self-driving vehicles? Apparently, not all consumers welcome the idea; they consider it a developing process, and therefore, not entirely reliable. In developing and underdeveloped countries, self-driving plans are not feasible, as such communities are not prepared. Nevertheless, quick research, comprising various online surveys, averages nearly 10% of consumers believing that self-driving will become the most transformative technology. Moreover, many consumers are tilting towards acknowledging and crediting the transformative trend of self-driving cars. Ultimately, most consumers in developed countries, such as the US, consider self-driving cars innovating and welcoming.

Quality and Affordability

A Brandwatch survey indicates quality and affordability as core innovative characteristics consumers consider. In the survey, brand quality assumes 30% of respondents’ interest, and it gathered the most votes. Affordability had 21% of the votes as a characteristic that consumers consider when selecting a brand. Quality does not merely mean how long a vehicle would last. It could refer to anything but must be what attracts consumer interest depending on the consumer market. To identify the quality standard consumers prefer, automotive brands should delve deeper into discovering the demands in various aspects, including vehicle aesthetics, security, and reliability.

Personalization

Multiple reports show that consumers are more likely to opt for personalization when choosing a brand. It does not only save cost but allows a consumer the liberty to decide what they spend on. Automobile companies must research what ad-on consumers prefer and take out products that consumers may not deem worthy. The personalization option would also depend on the target market.

Customer Culture

A customer-friendly and accommodating brand is more likely to retain buyers. Following various consumer comments on the internet, it is apparent that consumers cut off relationships with particular brands because of poor customer culture. Consumers want to be valued in the business; otherwise, they withdraw interest. At least 15% of consumers will return with feedbacks that help the company to grow when they find options. If your company does not provide the avenue for consumer feedback, the customer culture is poor, and you’d be receiving backlashes on various platforms. The conversation is also a critical yardstick for determining good customer culture. When a vehicle develops problems, the negative comments are directed at experiences with the vehicle. The warranties, dealership without lots and with lots and repairs are the most targeted topics, and you do not want to miss consumer comments one bit.

Final Thoughts

The aftermath of coronavirus forces many people to consider buying cars. And the dictating reason is to observe social distancing from the public to fight off the pandemic completely. The pro lockdown has managed to increase the number of used car sales owing to consumers on budgets. Moreover, teleworkers tend to rely less on buying new cars since they may not leave home often. Ultimately, trends help organizations implement strategies that enhance the automotive industry, and it is important to invest in trends to match or beat competitors.