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Search Optics Inc.®, a leader in providing fully integrated interactive marketing solutions for the automotive dealer, today announced the launch of mobile websites.

The new mobile sites are designed to be utilized through hand-held devices, this new feature will allow dealers instant connectivity to customers as they can be utilized anywhere to view inventory, research prices, and gain immediate access to directions, maps & hours. The mobile sites feature fast load times as well as more detailed information including a breakdown of vehicles sent to phones, and monthly reporting detailing usage statistics.

"As the use of mobile devices continues to grow, it makes good business sense to ensure that your dealership is presented to buyers when they are actively looking for what you have to offer, which is why we are pleased to offer mobile websites to our clients." states Christian Fuller, Executive Vice President.

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The short answer is -- Because you want to be in business tomorrow and the next day.

To make that happen in this economy you absolutely need to get the maximum from every marketing dollar you spend – and the only way to do that is to measure and improve your results relentlessly.

The long answer is a bit more complicated.

If your business to be more successful, your marketing investments have to generate customers at a profitable rate. You have to be smarter than ever about spending your marketing dollars and the only way to do that is by constantly measuring and comparing results. Do that and you will quickly discover that nothing comes close to the Internet for creating measurable returns.

In my opinion, your marketing budget should start with the Internet and include other media only when you have maximized the returns there. TV, radio, newspapers, and everything else should follow your Internet marketing efforts because the Internet is where you get the greatest measurable bang for your marketing buck.

So Far, So Good

If you're like most automotive retailers, you've already made an investment in online marketing and seen the results at work. You've probably explored the world of search engines, keywords, online digital advertising, and all the rest. You may even be using competitive keywords to siphon off some of your competitor's prospects.

In short, you've picked the low-hanging fruit of ultra-high converting traffic and been happy with the impact on your bottom line.

If you're just a bit more aggressive than average, you may have thrown your net wider using specific model searches, and keywords associated with competitive brands and models. You also are likely to have moved beyond simple core search tactics to the use of "Long Tail" search phrases with four or five keywords to reach very specific groups of prospects.

That universe is smaller, but the conversion rates are still very rewarding.

In normal times you might be tempted to sit back and rest on your laurels. But these are not normal times, not by a long shot. And, online marketing success is a moving target. Ye

The Next Big Thing

The next big thing in online marketing is going to be the linkage of behavioral analysis with both traditional keyword-based search technologies, and a new breed of targeted digital display advertising. Here's an example of how this rapidly emerging combination of technologies works.

Assume an online shopper enters the search term "new car lease" in Google and does not receive any satisfactory results. The shopper then enters "new car lease special" as a second search term. At this point, Google understands from the cumulative behaviors that the shopper is interested in automobiles and leasing.

If the shopper then enters a different search, say "new BMW San Diego", Google's behavioral analysis can add non-BMW-specific items to the search result. Those items might well include information on "leasing" and "specials" for the brand(s) your dealership(s) offers in the San Diego market area.

The technology can also be used to present digital display advertising that is targeted both geographically and behaviorally. So the shopper may not only find your information in the Google results, but also see a digital display ad covering your lease specials in the San Diego market even if you're not a BMW dealer.

It doesn't make much sense for a local dealer to buy a Yahoo banner ad that anyone in the world can see. But, it makes a lot of sense to run a targeted digital ad at prospects who have identified themselves both geographically and behaviorally as part of your local market.

Behavior-based technologies get even more interesting when they are linked with emerging search and display networks like Yahoo Ad Ready. It won't be long until you are able to choose both a geographic area and behaviorally-targeted digital display ads across multiple platforms on the Internet. Google certainly isn't the only game in town anymore.

The good news in this emerging technology is that your online marketing results are likely to improve in the future because your marketing message will be more precisely targeted to what individual online shoppers are looking for. Bear in mind, however, that this is very sophisticated stuff from both a technology and a marketing point of view.

Bottom line, you probably can't do it yourself anymore. You will almost certainly need experienced professional help to manage a behaviorally-based online marketing program.

You've Already Done the Easy Part

If you're like most automotive retailers, you've probably depended on your IT specialist to manage your online marketing efforts. That has made sense until now because most of what's been done has focused primarily on the technology part of the equation, web programming, database management, search engine optimization (SEO), etc.

That isn't going to go away, but it's going to be a lot less important than clear, effective communication in the future. Online success has become more complicated than opening a Google account and bidding on a few keywords. The ability to behaviorally identify what an online shopper is really looking for changes the focus of online marketing from the technology to the message.

Would you ask your IT specialist to create your print and broadcast advertising? I didn't think so.

Your TV, radio, and print advertising are all done by professionals. Why should your online marketing efforts be any different?

At the end of the day, it's all advertising, the technology just helps you make better decisions about where and how to invest your money. If the Internet is the place you get the most for your marketing dollars, isn't it the place where you should be using your best marketing talent?

Sorry, but you've already done the easy part. When you're picking the low-hanging fruit of ultra-high converting traffic you can probably get by letting a technically competent person manage your online marketing. Those days are just about over.

How to Win the New Game

What you need now is not a technician who also does marketing; you need a marketing professional who understands technology. And because the marketing opportunities are changing so quickly in response to the technology, you need someone who is paying full-time attention to both.

You also need to revisit your online efforts to focus them on generating the most productive possible outcomes telephone calls from motivated buyers. Emails are from shoppers, usually price shoppers. Phone calls are from buyers, and your sales people already know how to convert them into sales.

To survive in this market, you must relentlessly maximize the return on every dollar you invest in your business. Yesterday, that meant focusing your online efforts on technology, today it means re-focusing them on marketing.

What will it mean tomorrow? Call me in six months and we'll talk about the next big thing. Yes, online marketing is changing that fast, and you must revisit your efforts again and again and again.

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Profitable Internet marketing isn't magic, says David Ponn, CEO of Search Optics Inc., a firm that specializes in helping auto retailers with online efforts.

"All you need to know to be successful are a couple of simple facts," he says. "The people who build Internet search engines are running flat out to stay ahead of the marketers who manipulate Internet search engines. You absolutely need to know who's ahead at any given moment."

Automotive retailing is about generating quality leads and converting them to sales, Ponn says. "If you're a dealer, nothing else matters."

Until search engines such as Google came on the scene, the Internet was a chaotic place with eight billion pages filed in random order and no index.

There is no way to alphabetize the Internet like a phone book, so the search-engine companies set out to organize the world's information on the Web.

"What makes Google, Yahoo and MSN viable is relevance — the ability to sort through those eight billion pages, plus all of the new ones added each day, and quickly deliver the page most relevant to the searched terms," Ponn says. "That's a much more difficult task than simply indexing them."

Google began asking the people who put pages on the Internet to describe them, and the meta tag was born. That is a bit of keyword coding on a Web page that the search engine detects. Using meta tags, Web builder could tell a search engine which inquiries their page was relevant to.

"It worked like a charm, until marketers figured out that salting Web pages with meta tags — mirroring words commonly used in inquiries — would drive traffic to their sites," Ponn says.

So the race was on for Google to redefine relevance.

Next, the search engines began looking into the content of Websites for relevant information. In response, marketers started using high-frequency search words in their copy.

The search engines again shifted gears and started evaluating Websites based on how they were linked to other Websites. Marketers responded with hundreds of dummy Websites that existed only to link with their real pages and drive traffic to them.

Now, Google et al. are starting to look at what people are saying about a Website as a way to determine its relevance. Marketers are beginning to catch on to that, too.

"Once upon a time, meta tags were an important part of a Website," Ponn says. "But that was three full generations of search-engine evolution ago. Today, you still need meta tags on your Website, but they account for less than 5% of its total search engine score."

Another misconception is that there's only one right way to do search-engine optimization, he says. "Actually, there are many approaches to SEO, and you need to be doing all of them all the time."

He rebuts the idea that a Website click in and of itself somehow becomes a showroom sale. "What you need are not clicks, what you need right now are phone calls from motivated customers who know you have something they want to buy," he says

Clicks matter when they turn into something a dealership can close, such as a phone call. "Website should spur those phone calls," Ponn says.

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Until search engines like Google came on the scene, the Internet was a chaotic place with eight billion pages filed in random order and no index. Since there is no way to alphabetize the Internet like a phone book, Google set out to organize the world's information on the web. Their organization progress has been remarkable, but not the real key to Google's success.

What makes Google, Yahoo! and MSN viable is relevance — the ability to sort through those eight billion pages, plus all of the new ones added each day, and quickly deliver the page most relevant to the searched terms. That's a much more difficult task than simply indexing them.

Google began asking the people who put pages on the Internet to describe what they were about, and the Meta Tag was born. That is the little bit of code on a Web page that nobody except a search engine ever sees.

Using Meta Tags, the Web builder could tell a search engine which inquiries their page was relevant to. It worked like a charm, until marketers figured out that salting Web pages with Meta Tags, mirroring words commonly used in inquiries, would drive traffic to their sites.

And they did, so the race was on for Google to redefine relevance.

Next, the search engines began looking into the content of Websites to find relevant information. And marketers started using high frequency search words in their copy.

The search engines again shifted gears and started evaluating Websites based on how they were linked to other Websites. Marketers responded with hundreds of dummy Websites that existed only to link with their real pages and drive traffic to them.

Now, Google and some of the other search engines are starting to look at what people are saying about a Website as a way to determine its relevance. And the marketers are beginning to catch on to that ploy, too.

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Actually, there are many approaches to SEO, and you need to be doing all of them all the time. If you haven't heard that, it's probably because you've been talking to someone with too narrow a focus an SEO company, a Web developer, or a Pay-Per-Click provider. Each of them has something different to sell you, and each of them will tell you that what they're selling is all you need.

It isn't.

Once upon a time, Meta Tags were an important part of a Website. But that was three full generations of search engine evolution ago. Today, you still need Meta Tags on your Website, but they account for less than 5 percent of its total search engine score.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but any Web-related sales pitch built around Meta Tags should instantly trigger your BS detector.

If you can avoid the Meta Tag and SEO myths, you are well on your way to Internet marketing success. But avoiding the myths is only half the battle. You also need to harness the real power of the Internet to generate the leads that turn into sales.

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