Tony

Chicago, IL – January 19, 2010 – Every day millions of people use search engines such as Google and Yahoo to search for new and used vehicles. The challenge for most car dealerships is trying to keep up with the ever changing world of SEO, the different social media networks, Blogs, Video and the way to win online every day.

Automotive Internet Media Inc. (AIM), an up and coming provider of leads to the auto industry, has officially re-launched Autosales.com (www.autosales.com). "We saw Autosales.com as an opportunity to overhaul a possible sleeping giant in our space," said Michael McDonnell, CEO and Co-Found Automotive Internet Media. "With a fantastic domain name and freshly new site built for search engine algorithms we believe we can compete with just about anybody."

Autosales.com affords dealerships with the ability to reach customers they otherwise would be missing from not ranking high enough in search. "Competing for the first page of Google is very challenging and sometimes impossible for some dealerships," said Tony French, President and Co-Found of AIM. He continued, "We give dealerships the ability to reach a completely different population of online consumers without the time and effort it takes for an employee to stay educated and up to date on optimizing their dealership’s website. We include tools and features for our premier dealers to help them target relevant customers within our engaged audience."

Autosales.com’s Premier Program allows dealerships to own their brand in their respective market. During these tough economic times, some dealers will fold while others will prevail while becoming stronger and smarter. One facet of winning in this market is diversifying your media budget. Having a web site and allocating the remainder of your budget on traditional auto destinations sites will limit your results. Dealers can’t own their market unless they can compete in search. With a slight reallocation of the dealer’s budget, Autosales.com’s Premier Program gives the dealership the ability to increase leads and sales results.

About Automotive Internet Media Inc.
Automotive Internet Media, Inc. (AIM) headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is a premier integrated media and lead distribution company. AIM encompasses an integrated network of highly specialized consumer websites that leverages search engine optimization to drive online traffic and connects digital advertising with our clients’ brand objectives. www.autosales.com is one of many sites owned and/or managed by AIM.

In only a short time, AIM is becoming a primary channel for automotive leads generated on the internet. With a solid foundation for growth, AIM is simultaneously building its current brands while continuing to grow through launching and managing other properties.

For more information, email:info@automotiveinternmedia.com or visit www.automotiveinternetmedia.com

Chicago, IL – January 15, 2010 – Texting has quickly become the most powerful and effective communication tool in use today. There are more text messages sent each month than phone calls placed. With more than over 270 million mobile phones in the United States and 100 billion texts sent each month, text messaging has become the preferred form of communication for millions of consumers.

Recognizing this shift in consumer behavior, the Chicago Automobile Trade Association (CATA) has partnered with Text2Drive to harness the power of this communication channel throughout this year’s Chicago Auto Show. CATA will incorporate the Text2Drive Mobile Marketing platform to collect opt-in mobile numbers through campaigns that will be incorporated in the CATA’s promotional advertising campaigns leading up to the show. The innovative Text2Drive Platform will be used to drive show attendance and increase attendee’s participation by raising awareness and creating a "buzz" around special events, featured vehicles and show promotions.

"The best part about Text2Drive is that it provides multiple benefits to our attendees and exhibitors," said Dave Sloan, president of CATA. "Not only can we leverage this technology to help us promote the show and use it throughout the show for marketing, our exhibitors can use it to uniquely promote their brands. Imagine someone at the show looking at the new Chevy Camaro and wanting more information, using Text2Drive they can immediately receive pictures and all the important information about the vehicle right to their phone."

Text2Drive offers car shoppers a very quick, easy and hassle-free method of obtaining vehicle information without the need of the Internet on their phones. "According to Nielsen only 30-40% of consumers have Internet connectivity on their phones. Text2Drive allows car shoppers to search inventory, receive vehicle information including photos and special incentives, and communicate instantly with sellers via text messaging from their cell phones," said Gregg Owen, CEO & Co-Founder of Text2Drive. "Text2Drive offers many compelling reasons for consumers to opt-in, resulting in our clients being able to create large mobile networks. Once the network is created we afford our clients the ability to easily collect, track, and organize this data so they can continue to remarket their products and services to interested consumers."

In addition to the auto show campaign, the CATA has created an introductory Text2Drive program for their dealer members. This program provides tools for the dealer’s website while incorporating the Text2Drive online mobile number collection widget on DriveChicago.com.

About Chicago Automobile Trade Association

About the Chicago Auto Show
Sanctioned by International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, the Chicago Auto Show is the largest auto show in North America and has been held more times than any other auto exposition on the continent. First staged in 1901, 2010 will mark the 102nd edition of the show. The Chicago Auto Show will open to the public Feb. 12-22. Show hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. (Feb. 12-21) and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Feb. 21). For additional information visit:
www.ChicagoAutoShow.com

About the Chicago Automobile Trade Association
Founded in 1904, the Chicago Automobile Trade Association (CATA) is the nation’s oldest and largest metropolitan dealer organization. The CATA is comprised of nearly 500 franchised new car dealers and allied members, employing 46,000 people in the metropolitan area. For additional information visit:
cata.DriveChicago.com

About Text2Drive
Text2Drive is a pioneer in providing the automotive industry with exclusive tools to leverage the most powerful, efficient, and most popular communication channel ever created. Text2Drive provides its clients with platform to build their own mobile network and maximize the value of that network. The Text2Drive platform has greater reach and appeal because it is the only solution that allows the consumer to search dealer inventory, receive information and photos, receive coupons and instantly connect with the client via chatting/texting, all this without the consumer needing the internet on their phones.
For additional information please text "Showinfo" to DRIVE (37483) or call 800-219-8504. You can also email autoshows@text2drive.com or visit text2drive.com

About Automotive Internet Media Inc.
Automotive Internet Media Inc. (AIM) headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is a premier integrated media and lead distribution company. AIM encompasses an integrated network of highly specialized consumer websites that leverages search engine optimization to drive online traffic and connects digital advertising with our clients’ brand objectives.

In only a short time, AIM is becoming a primary channel for automotive leads generated on the internet. With a solid foundation for growth, AIM is simultaneously building its current brands while continuing to grow through launching and managing other properties.

For more information, email:info@automotiveinternmedia.com

Chicago, IL – December 18, 2009 – Chicago Automobile Trade Association (CATA), which is the oldest and largest new-car dealership association in the nation announced today they went live this week with a newly redesigned DriveChicago.com.

DriveChicago.com is a free online portal provided to CATA members to cultivate new and used shoppers, guide them through the selection process, and pass them to CATA member dealers.

The new DriveChicago.com site features expanded content and tools to better help guide consumers through the car shopping experience. The redesign incorporates new colors and graphics and completely new navigational tools, but the most important element is the site is better optimized for search.

"Any statistics you read, from all the industry studies indicate that consumers are using search engines to shop for new and used vehicles," said Dave Sloan, Executive Vice President of CATA. "With more and more consumers moving to search and with the market of steep online competition, we felt that we had to step up our SEO (Search Engine Optimization) game."

The CATA chose to partner with Automotive Internet Media Inc. (AIM), a local Chicago online marketing company. "We are delighted to have relationship with CATA and DriveChicago.com," said Tony French, President and Co-Founder of AIM. "Despite a challenging economic environment people are still purchasing new and used vehicles. Our goal with DriveChicago.com is to ensure they locate and purchase them from a new car Chicagoland dealership."

"DriveChicago.com has been a local destination site since 2000. The goal of the redesign is about delivering more leads to the CATA members by developing the right SEO strategy," said Michael McDonnell. "The process of SEO has changed and will continue to change. Buying keyword-rich domains, writing a few articles and tweaking the titles will no longer get you on the first page. What’s important to understand about SEO is there are no constants – no absolutes. At AIM, we understand that SEO is a moving target and our job is to continue to focus on the target."

More to come

Over the next few months DriveChicago.com will continue to deploy new tools and features to enhance the user experience. The visual and interaction design of the site will be monitored and changed based on the popularity of each application. Once the consumer finds the site, the key is to optimize the user experience.

About Chicago Automobile Trade Association

The CATA is the nation’s oldest and largest metropolitan dealer association. The group has produced the annual Chicago Auto Show–now staged at McCormick Place–since 1935. The CATA’s membership is comprised of nearly 600 new car dealers and affiliated businesses.

About Automotive Internet Media Inc.
Automotive Internet Media Inc. (AIM) headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is a premier integrated media and lead distribution company. AIM encompasses an integrated network of highly specialized consumer websites that leverages search engine optimization to drive online traffic and connects digital advertising with our clients’ brand objectives.

In only a short time, AIM is becoming a primary channel for automotive leads generated on the internet. With a solid foundation for growth, AIM is simultaneously building its current brands while continuing to grow through launching and managing other properties.

For more information, email:info@automotiveinternmedia.com

Automotive Internet Media, Inc. recently teamed up with Google’s Wildfire social platform to enhance their already successful social media marketing package for the automotive industry.
Automotive Internet Media’s team will continue to work with their clients to provide great online content and promotion, but will now leverage the Google Wildfire platform to achieve even greater results. Whether you are looking to build brand awareness, capture more leads, or amplify your dealership’s marketing reach, this solution will enhance your digital presence.
“Our social media strategy combined with Google’s Wildfire platform puts our clients’ digital marketing on steroids,” said Tony French, President of Automotive Internet Media. “We plan to integrate Google’s Wildfire into all of our social media accounts. By partnering with Google, we will leverage their social platform to increase engagement for our clients and help auto dealers use social media to sell and service more vehicles.”
Automotive Internet Media’s social media marketing program is built on creating unique and engaging digital content for each dealership with syndication to social media networks such as Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest. The results include increased organic traffic back to the dealership’s website, and amplified brand awareness and online engagement with consumers. Automotive Internet Media’s social marketing program, combined with Wildfire will create a best-of-breed social solution for the automotive industry that offers sophisticated real-time analytics in one complete platform.
“We are excited to have been selected by Google and Wildfire to be one of their first automotive partners,” French continued. “We are a small but growing company that takes pride in providing really effective products at a competitive price.”
Auto dealers looking to get the first-mover advantage can contact Automotive Internet Media at 866.423.0246 or email info@automotiveinternetmedia.com.
About Automotive Internet Media, Inc.
Automotive Internet Media is a small firm with big expertise in digital marketing for auto dealers. We do digital marketing smart, and we do it right. We provide best-in-class products and services such as search engine marketing/PPC, search engine optimization (SEO), social media services, retargeting, display advertising, vehicle video services, lead generation, email marketing, and consulting to the automotive industry.
Automotive Internet Media encompasses an integrated network of highly specialized consumer websites that generate leads, drive online traffic and connect digital advertising with their clients’ brand objectives. With a solid foundation for growth, the company is simultaneously building its current brands while continuing to grow by launching and managing other properties and providing digital marketing services to automotive dealerships.
Click here for more information about Automotive Internet Media’s social media program.

“Web 3.0 is here (mobile websites, real-time, video, GPS) and the ubiquitous shopper is empowered like never before. Dealers must breakthrough the patterns of communication that are defeating them and get on the same page with the customer, literally the same page.”

Mitch discusses industry changes in the past few years and what cars.com is doing in response. He also touches on the increased prevalence of mobile.

More and more car dealers are starting to truly grasp that the internet is the most powerful way to market their dealership and advertise their inventory. For years, dealerships would check the box. “Yep, I’ve got my inventory in Autotrader and Cars.com. I’ve got that internet thing all covered.”
It used to be that progressive dealerships would venture outside that paradigm but now we see that most dealerships have to do more online to compete. There are many good products and services in the market to help dealers win the online consumer but when you boil it all down it comes down to very important 2 factors.
The first is having the right inventory fairly priced in the market. Sure you can sell almost any kind of vehicle. I’ve said it many times myself over the years, “there’s an ass for every seat,” but that’s really the exception and not the rule. Dealerships need to purchase the fastest turning inventory for their brand and their market and price it competitively.
The second and most important, advertising your inventory – bringing as many potential customers to your dealership who might otherwise never know that vehicle exists.
One can argue there’s a lot more to selling cars. Dealerships need good salespeople, effective internal processes, a good reputation, a good service department, etc.  I believe that too but let’s face it, having good inventory and lots of people see that inventory is the top two in my book.
There are lots of ways to marketing your inventory. As I mentioned, ponying-up to Autotrader and Cars.com is a way that many dealerships bring in customers. Both of these companies have first-rate sites and good markets. Millions of shoppers visit these sites every month. But is allocating all or most of your marketing dollars to one or two sources the best way to capture more market share? It would be like Toyota only advertising on NBC and CBS. Or Ford spending their entire print adverting budget in Field and Stream magazine. Smart companies, big and small find ways to capture as many potential clients in as many different markets as possible.
What if you can advertise your inventory to millions of auto shoppers in multiple markets and only pay when a consumer is interested in your specific vehicle? What if you can take that potential customer shopping around the internet and land them directly on your vehicle detail page of the car they are interested in? What if you can take part of your current budget and translate that into more visitors to your website, more leads and more sales?
AIM’s CarClicks new marketing program will do just that. We take your inventory and upload it daily to over 20 different automotive sites that produce over 20 million monthly auto shoppers. We display your inventory in these sites with priority over other inventory within a 50 mile radius of your dealership. Consumers interested in a specific vehicle are driven directly to the dealership website’s vehicle detail page. All for less than a cup of Starbucks coffee. CarClicks leverages the biggest online market of auto shoppers, provides shoppers who are deep in the sales funnel, uses cutting edge technology and is very efficient and effective. It’s the new way to drive quality traffic to your website. To learn more click here.
 

DriveChicago.com, the automotive portal owned and operated by the Chicago Automobile Trade Association (CATA), is partnering with Automotive Internet Media (AIM) to help CATA dealer members get more exposure to vehicle inventory and dealership websites.
“Automotive portals are fantastic for helping auto shoppers find vehicles,” said Tony French, president of AIM. “DriveChicago.com is terrific for Chicagoland auto shoppers because they can see every dealership’s inventory without going back and forth between other sites. DriveChicago.com is provided free to CATA dealers and has become a clearinghouse for Chicago area automotive information.”
Until now, DriveChicago.com worked like most other automotive portals. When the consumer modified the search based on their vehicle preference and clicked into a specific vehicle, the DriveChicago.com vehicle-detail page would render. Now, participating dealers will have the ability to drive the consumer who is interested in a specific vehicle from DriveChicago.com directly to the vehicle-detail page on the dealership website.
For Chicago auto dealers, this increases the opportunity for high quality leads. Leads from third party automotive portals have been decreasing in quantity and quality for years as car shoppers are becoming more reluctant to submit their personal information through third-party lead forms. Working directly with the dealership builds consumer trust and dramatically increases lead conversion because consumers know they are connecting with the business that can help them. It’s a much safer and better experience for the auto shopper.
How it works:
AIM will charge dealers a small fee for every customer who is sent to a vehicle detail page on the dealer’s website. Compared to other forms of advertising, the fee charged is below marketing costs. Most important, part of that fee is reinvested back into advertising that will drive more auto shoppers to DriveChicago.com, resulting in greater lead generation.
“This program is a winner for our dealer members, and a winner for DriveChicago.com,” said Tony Guido, chairman of the CATA’s DriveChicago.com Committee and owner of Arlington Heights Ford. “Our dealers are getting great traffic directly to their website at a cost lower than market value. At the same time they are reinvesting in DriveChicago.com. This marketing program will provide dealers with more options on how they reach Chicagoland auto shoppers.”
“This innovative digital marketing approach is somewhat new to the automotive industry,” said French. “Most dealerships measure and compare their marketing efforts in terms of leads. This is an important metric to measure; however the data will tell you the most effective metric in terms of actually selling a car is getting your inventory more exposure. If people don’t know you have a car for sale, they can’t possibly buy it. We are excited to add DriveChciago.com to a network of automotive sites that produce millions of auto shoppers.”
DriveChicago.com was launched in 2000 and has been providing Chicagoland auto shoppers with the ability to see “Virtually Every Vehicle in Town” in one easy-to-use website. The portal lists nearly every vehicle from every Chicago-area new-car dealership, so shoppers don’t need search multiple Websites to find the vehicle they want.
About The Chicago Automobile Trade Association
Founded in 1904, the Chicago Automobile Trade Association is the nation’s oldest and largest metropolitan dealer organization. It is comprised of more than 400 franchised new-car dealers and an additional 150 allied members. The group’s dealer members employ about 19,000 people in the metropolitan area. The association has produced the world famous Chicago Auto Show since 1935. For more information please visit CATA.info.
About Automotive Internet Media, Inc.
Automotive Internet Media is a growing provider of digital marketing products and services for the automotive industry. We provide best-in-class products and services such as dealership websites, search engine marketing/pay per click advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), social media services, retargeting, display advertising, vehicle video services, lead generation, email marketing and consulting to the automotive industry. Automotive Internet Media is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. For additional information please visit www.automotiveinternetmedia.com.