Digital Dealer - March 2019 - 23

become among the most
important you must consider.
So, how can your dealership learn from this model
for truly effective 1:1 marketing in automotive? For
years, the industry has relied
on demographic and identity
data to try to figure out who
might be in the market for a
vehicle, but adding in behavioral data on top of identity
and demographic data,
provides a three-dimensional view of your prospect.
With this information, you
can personalize your message and create focused,
meaningful interactions, at
the right time, with the right
message, in the right way.

KNOW MORE ABOUT
YOUR CUSTOMERS

Behavioral data is so
important because, unlike
demographics, behavior
changes all the time. Understanding behavior allows
marketers to respond to
actual intent, rather than rely
solely on educated guesses based on demographic
segmentation. I promise
you, in real time, Amazon
cares far less about your
identity than it cares that you
are suddenly showing a lot
more interest in pet supplies.
Because with that information, they can start targeting
you for recurring subscriptions to dog food and puppy
treats since your behavior
indicates that you are a new
pet owner. Nothing about
your identity told them that.
By understanding your
shopping journey, Amazon is
able to place the things you
are more likely to buy into
your path at the right time
and sell you more.

Behavior becomes even
more important when it
comes to major-life purchase journeys or shopping
processes that are usually
less impulsive and more
thoughtful and time-consuming. Auto and home
shopping fall into this category. According to a recent
Google study, car shoppers
spend 16-17 weeks shopping predominantly online
prior to selecting and buying
a car.
That's a lot of consideration, and auto marketers
who have a view into behavioral data will have a distinct
competitive advantage in
the marketplace. Imagine
knowing when and how frequently a shopper visited a
certain category of websites,
and how long they spent
researching a particular
vehicle. With this information, marketers will be able
to have a more meaningful
and fruitful engagement
with shoppers and will be
more likely to turn them into
customers.

GIVE YOUR CUSTOMER
A BETTER EXPERIENCE

Marketers' top priority
and challenge is real-time
customer engagement,
according to the 2018 State
of Marketing (https://www.
salesforce.com/content/
dam/web/en_us/www/assets/pdf/datasheets/salesforce-research-fourth-annual-state-of-marketing.pdf)
by Salesforce. The report
highlights marketers' lack of
data savviness and ability to
personalize their marketing
with only 29% claiming to be
able to leverage their data in
a manner that leads to more

fruitful engagements with
prospects.
It's essential for marketers
to make real connections
with auto shoppers to influence their decisions. To do
this, they have to understand who their customers
are, what motivates them,
and, most importantly, reach
them at the right time with
the right message. After
all, influencing a person to
buy a car requires a vastly
different marketing strategy
than influencing a person to
buy a pair of sneakers.
Marketers need a wider
and deeper view of the
customer. They need to
understand which of their
prospects and existing
customers are in an early research process; which ones
are getting ready to make
a purchase decision; and
which ones aren't in-market
at all. The only way to have
real-time understanding of
what stage a prospect is in
is to understand behavior. If
the goal of artificial intelligence is to seek patterns
and accurately predict who
will buy and when, it can't
do it without including their
behavior.
PARTNERING WITH
A DATA PROVIDER

Data-as-a-service (DaaS)
organizations can provide
predictive analytics to monitor an entire customer population for behavioral events
that indicate which of your
customers are in-market.
Organizations that specialize
in the auto shopping journey
are able to provide in-market
indicators that let you know
if this is a prospect, a shopper or a customer. Prospects
D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

can be divided into two
groups: tire kickers or serious shoppers. Knowing the
difference can yield greater
dividends by allowing brands
to know where and how
to apply extra leverage to
make the sale.
Further, understanding
behavior provides brands
far earlier indication of when
consumers are beginning
their shopping journey and
allows brands ample time
to methodically engage
with them and personalize.
Those potential repeat
customers can then be
marketed to with more
timely and relevant messages for greatly improved
performance and customer
experience. Knowing when
to display the right ad, send
the right email, or make the
right call will provide brands
that leverage behavioral
data with the additional
sales needed in a market
that's only getting tougher.
In short, any effort you undertake to leverage AI must
include a behavioral data
component. Demographic,
identity and previous pattern
analysis are all important,
but as the old saying goes,
"Actions speak louder than
words." Put another way,
behavioral data makes AI a
lot more... intelligent.
BRIAN EPRO is vice president,
automotive at Jornaya. Brian
has been in the automotive
industry for more than 20
years working in business
development and strategy for
companies like DealerRater,
AutoLoop, and IMN, Inc. He
has an extensive background
in digital marketing. EMAIL:
bepro@jornaya.com

MARCH 2019

https://www.salesforce.com/content/dam/web/en_us/www/assets/pdf/datasheets/salesforce-research-fourth-annual-state-of-marketing.pdf https://www.salesforce.com/content/dam/web/en_us/www/assets/pdf/datasheets/salesforce-research-fourth-annual-state-of-marketing.pdf https://www.salesforce.com/content/dam/web/en_us/www/assets/pdf/datasheets/salesforce-research-fourth-annual-state-of-marketing.pdf https://www.salesforce.com/content/dam/web/en_us/www/assets/pdf/datasheets/salesforce-research-fourth-annual-state-of-marketing.pdf https://www.salesforce.com/content/dam/web/en_us/www/assets/pdf/datasheets/salesforce-research-fourth-annual-state-of-marketing.pdf https://www.salesforce.com/content/dam/web/en_us/www/assets/pdf/datasheets/salesforce-research-fourth-annual-state-of-marketing.pdf http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM

Digital Dealer - March 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - March 2019