Cactus Sky Digital Introduces Integrated Solution for Automotive Dealers

Baltimore, MD, January 17, 2017 (Newswire.com) - ​​​​​​​​​​​​Last year, automotive sales achieved a record number of 17.5 Million units for the year, shattering previous numbers. Forecasters project an even bigger 2017, as the car buying process has changed forever with 95% of shopping and research taking place online.  Dealerships have become more accessible to consumers who are previewing the digital showroom, scoping online reputation, and reading reviews before ever visiting the physical store. 

Cactus Sky has combined their digital marketing suite of products into an integrated solution to form a holistic approach. Dealer Influence is designed to “influence” consumers from the research process to the ownership experience and beyond. By combining Cactus Sky Digital’s products: Lead Igniter, Conquest eMail, eReputation Builder, Owner Retention, and their newest product, Testimonial Builder, automotive dealerships no longer have to buy several products to cover what they need to succeed in 2017. This service is all-inclusive, influencing the entire car buying and ownership experience.

Last year, automotive sales achieved a record number of 17.5 Million units for the year, shattering previous numbers. Forecasters project an even bigger 2017, as the car buying process has changed forever with 95% of shopping and research taking place online. Dealerships have become more accessible to consumers who are previewing the digital showroom, scoping online reputation, and reading reviews before ever visiting the physical store.

Peter "Webdoc" Martin, President and Founder

“The goal is to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts when it comes to a dealership’s digital presence,” said Peter “Webdoc” Martin, founder and president of Cactus Sky Digital, eReputation Builder, and Testimonial Builder. “Most dealers have vendors with overlapping products all taking credit for the same sale. With Dealer Influence they get a complementary system that works together, and the accurate reporting they deserve.”

One of the most impactful components of this package is eReputation Builder. This is because in the last 24 months, online reputation has become the primary influencer for American car buyers.  Unhappy customers today are more likely to leave a negative online review, influencing other prospective buyers.  This aspect of the integrated product encourages consumers to use the Proprietary “Not Satisfied” system, and address the grievances in a “private” offline channel, protecting their online reputation.  In turn, happy customers are encouraged to leave a positive review on various review sites to help proactively build the dealership's online reputation.

“The ‘Not Satisfied’ system has helped protect our online reputation from angry customers and allowed us to address issues privately while helping us achieve a 4.0 Google+ Rating with over 400 reviews,” said Bill Bolander, Digital Marketing Director of Jerry’s Toyota (Baltimore, MD).

Conquest eMails are another key piece of successful digital marketing. In 2008, Cactus Sky was the first company to introduce Mass eMail Marketing to the auto industry and for 2017 they have another “first” as part of their integrated solution.  Unlike other vendors selling conquest email, the new integrated solution has a database development feature never offered before.  When a prospect opens the email and clicks through to the dealer’s website to start shopping, these “warm prospects” will be added to the dealer’s proprietary prospect list and will receive more relevant automated messaging. 

“In 2016 we broke our all-time sales goals and we can contribute some of the success to Cactus Sky and their products.  We see a definite lift in internet and floor traffic every time they send out a campaign,” said Vince Odoardi, General Sales Manager of Rockland Chrysler (Rockland, NY).

As the car buying process has evolved into a multi-month user-driven experience, Lead Igniter touches base every step of the way, keeping the dealership top of mind and ensuring that proper follow up is provided.  Lead Igniter focuses on a sales and service relationship building strategy that incorporates data mining and monthly messaging to reactivate dead leads and drive traffic back to the dealership.  The system utilizes marketing automation and real-time action notifications to ensure that customers are contacted in a professional and timely fashion. Dealerships across the United States and Canada have added Lead Igniter to their marketing plans to increase business without buying more leads. 

“I was skeptical about the benefits of the marketing automation but we have been able to track sales directly related to the follow up.  The open rates are more than double of our other email marketing,” said Glenn Gent, General Sales Manager of Horace Nissan (Farmington, New Mexico).

For over 30 years, Peter “Webdoc” Martin and Cactus Sky have served the automotive industry with unparalleled email marketing solutions.  This is due to their ability to deliver messages past the spam filters and reach consumers.  The customer retention program incorporates mobile-responsive design, marketing automation, email retargeting, and real-time action alerts, in order to improve engagement and build relationships.

“Customer retention is very important for our operation and through Lead Igniter we were able to bring back 307 lost service customers in 2016,” said Michelle Frye, General Manager of Tempe Dodge (Tempe, AZ).

The newest product, Testimonial Builder, capitalizes on social media sharing to showcase authentic video testimonials to potential local prospects.  This iPhone and Android app facilitates the filming and syndicating of video reviews right from the salesperson’s phone at the time of sale.  Using a scrolling teleprompter, the salesperson introduces the satisfied customers, allows them to share their story, and sends the completed video review to the customer with one click.  The customer is then able to share their video review on Facebook, Twitter and other social media as well as through email, and by text message.  On the backend, video reviews are optimized to increase SEO relevance and improve online reputation.  Dealers are having such success with Testimonial Builder that one had his video testimonials showing up in his competitor’s searches: 

“I am having what I consider a personal victory, a Dealer Principal from a competing Toyota dealership near me is complaining about our customer testimonials because they are showing up in searches for their dealership,” said Bill Finocchiaro, General Manager of Gettel Toyota of Lakewood (Bradenton, FL).

Through three decades of automotive marketing research and development, the Dealer Influence team has narrowed the digital selling process to five cohesive steps:

1.    Reach highly targeted in-market prospects with proven 3-touch email strategy.

2.    Re-engage inactive leads and deepen relationships with warm prospects.

3.    Deliver high-impact mobile-responsive email offers and follow-up with seamless marketing automation.

4.    Use satisfied customer testimonials to reach potential customers with authentic video reviews.

5.    Control online reputation by preventing negative reviews and encouraging positive comments.

Dealer Influence is now available to help auto dealers communicate with prospects and customers through the entire vehicle ownership experience.  This product successfully builds the dealership’s brand, increases online presence, and protects the dealership’s online reputation through improved communication.  From the first round of research to following up after the sale, Dealer Influence guides car buyers every step of the modern-day buying process.

Media Contact:

Peter “Webdoc” Martin
peter@cactusskydigital.com
410.296.2343 office
954.205.7716 cell​

​About Cactus Sky Digital

Based in Baltimore Maryland, Cactus Sky offers a suite of Digital Marketing tools to assist companies in further building and expanding their online relationships, their customers, and their prospects.  Cactus Sky Digital is a full-service digital marketing agency providing email marketing, online reputation management, website development, social media, and customer retention solutions.  For the past 16 years, Cactus Sky Digital has adapted to emerging digital marketing technology and trends, currently leading the industry in mobile-responsive email and video testimonial development.  Cactus Sky Digital utilizes behavioral targeting, mobile-enabled campaigns, social media marketing and database development/management to generate increased customer engagement and conversion.

To learn more about Cactus Sky’s marketing solutions visit: www.cactusskydigital.com.

About Conquest eMail

Cactus Sky Digital’s Conquest eMail marketing is a distinct digital marketing channel that provides clients with measurable results and return on investment. This marketing can be targeted by consumer populations, zip code, income, and other demographics.  For automotive dealers’ emails, these campaigns can also be targeted by vehicle ownership to provide clients with the opportunity to send conquest advertising to owners of competitive-make vehicles.

According to a recent study, 66% of people surveyed check their emails on a mobile device.  Consumers are doing research on their mobile devices and Cactus Sky pioneered mobile adaptive email technology. The dealers using the program have seen a considerable boost in sales and it has been directly tracked to the clicks from the mobile enabled emails.

About Lead Igniter

Lead Igniter is an automated email follow-up program developed by Cactus Sky to increase dealership closing ratios and generate more dealership traffic. This proprietary program targets unsold internet leads in a dealership’s CRM and utilizes adaptive sequence messaging, a technique derived from behavioral targeting, to engage prospects and lead them down the path that ultimately ends with a vehicle sold

Lead Igniter is designed to reengage inactive CRM leads through targeted monthly sales and service messages.  The average dealer has 20,000 unsold leads sitting in their CRM.  These leads are consumers who have requested information about purchasing a vehicle.  The industry has a 5% closing ratio on these leads, which has created a need for a better process to communicate and follow-up with these prospects.  This older data can contain spam traps and invalid emails that hinder email marketing efforts and cause poor deliverability.  Through database cleaning, Lead Igniter expunges these bad email addresses and leaves the dealership with a clean list of prospective sales and service customers.  

To learn more about Lead Igniter visit www.lead-igniter.com ​

About Testimonial Builder

Testimonial Builder assists businesses in digital marketing sectors, including online reputation, video syndication, social media, consulting, training, and customer satisfaction. Testimonial Builder enables salespeople to record a customer testimonial at time of sale when they are most excited, and then promote the online video testimonial automatically. Businesses can reach and acquire new customers with video testimonials. Once uploaded, the business can showcase video testimonials on social channels or websites, and can link them to any email or digital marketing collateral. This integrated and automated program improves business's online reputation, improving SEO and providing an interactive social media experience for customers resulting in increased sales.

To learn more about Testimonial Builder visit: www.testimonialbuilder.com

About eReputation, LLC.

eReputation Builder is designed to proactively build, enhance, and manage a company’s online reputation. Created to boost positive online reviews and stop negative reviews from being published to the web, eReputation Builder leverages Cactus Sky’s expertise in email deliverability and incorporates mobile-friendly video email to further increase response rates.

Its proprietary system encourages customers with complaints to share their experience offline using a “Not Satisfied” button. These negative reviews are routed directly to dealership management to provide them with the opportunity to respond and correct the problem. This prevents the permanent damage that can occur by the consumer posting a negative review on an internet or survey form. With easy to monitor comprehensive reporting and an unmatched inbox placement, eReputation Builder is an irreplaceable tool that delivers results and helps ensure that the dealership’s online reputation is protected,

 For more information, visit: www.erepbuilder.com.

Example of the video email

About Peter “Webdoc” Martin

Peter “Webdoc” Martin is the Founder and President of Cactus Sky Digital, eReputation Builder and Testimonial Builder.  These companies work together to help businesses acquire, manage, and retain customers online. He is a technology correspondent and digital marketing expert renowned for creating innovative programs. Martin has leveraged over 31 years of sales and marketing experience and has become a sought-after industry leader, speaker, writer, trainer, and consultant.

As the “Webdoc,” Martin shares technology news and advice. The “Webdoc” first aired in 1999 on ASTN (Automotive Satellite Television Network) where he provided the automotive industry with the latest online marketing news and website reviews. More recently, the Webdoc has been featured on television and radio networks including SNN6, ABC 7 News and the Joy FM as a technology correspondent. He delivers technology advice, how to directions, tips and product reviews. Martin also has collaborated with the Florida State Attorney’s Office to produce cybersecurity and online safety segments.

In 2005, Martin began sending out the popular Monday Motivational. Currently, more than 60,000 subscribers receive this weekly email to jump-start their workweek.

Martin is an acclaimed speaker and marketing expert specializing in online reputation management, digital marketing trends, mobile-enabled emails, conquest email marketing, and selling to women. He has been featured at numerous training sessions including NADA, Digital Dealer, AutoCon and RVDA events. He is a contributing author to AutoSuccess Magazine, Fixed Ops Magazine, Service Drive Today, and other marketing publications.

For more information, visit: www.thewebdoc.tv

The ABC7 webdoc segment: Best Data Plans

Vintage webdoc from 1999 on ASTN

Source: Cactus Sky Digital

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