Ilana Zur
No one can beat Kevin Frye’s recap of conferences, so I’m going to keep my reflections of the 21st Digital Dealer Conference (#DD21) short and sweet and down to one major takeaway. For the full blown overview, I highly recommend Kevin Frye’s article.
AutoLeadStar got in early to pick up our badges (a trick well known to conference-goers) and to set up our booth. We managed to make our booth full of color, cutting-edge technology, home of the reese’s (yes- that was us) and of course, the LEADS shirts.
Booth 809 was surrounded by unbelievable talent- NADA University, DealerOn, Velocity, and many more. The energy was insane and the swag-swap was endless. But beyond all of that fun, we enjoyed interacting with different representatives from various dealerships. Everyone from Internet Directors to General Managers, we learned some of the biggest digital pain points of the automotive industry.
How do I engage my visitors on my website?
How can I add personal touch to digital?
Can digital replace my showroom?
How do I track my ROI?
What is machine learning and how can I use it for my dealership?
Thankfully, Digital Dealer was equipped with a plethora of sessions that helped dealers understand their digital dilemmas. Everything from Sean Seltzer’s Want Trackable ROI? session to Brian Pacsh’s Optimizing and Inspecting Google Adwords to Andrew Gordon’s Conquest Your Competitor’s Actual Website Visitors…-just to name a few- there was not a missing piece in the digital funnel.
But I want to focus on one take away from the entire conference. Filled with informative sessions, panels, and keynotes, there was one common motif that was resonant throughout the entire conference and can get easily lost in the followups and reviews– and it’s data. Data, data, data.
[bctt tweet=”Know your data. Own your data. Understand your data. ” username=””]
Turn your data into actions. Flip it around, turn it upside down, look at it backwards, “bop it”. A/B test. Use your data to your advantage. And if you can’t leverage your data to capture more leads, optimize your website, and bring profitable ROI, ask a vendor or an agency for help.
Explore.
Discover.
Learn.
Don’t leave your enormous digital budget hanging. You won’t see the results you deserve without using the data of today’s digital expertise. Thanks to #DD21, I really believe the industry knows where automotive is going and has all the right tools to move it forward.
Big thanks to the Digital Dealer team, the unbelievable vendors, and curious dealerships that made this conference what it was. And a huge appreciation to everyone who came to the White Party. As co-sponsors of the event, we hope you enjoyed the party and were able to learn about data even with a glass of top-shelf liquor in your hand. Now that’s a skill.
For anyone who is interested in following up and seeing what we’re all about, please contact sales@autoleadstar.com or call 216-242-1320 to schedule a free consultation or just to chat and say hello!
See you in Tampa, folks!