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Everything You Need To Know About www.VirginiaUsedCarDealers.com

The Internet Corner

John Summer established JTZ Enterprise in 1995.  John is well respected in the automotive industry by his peers, car dealers new and used, vendors, and colleagues.  He has spoken to 20 Groups, multiple VIADA and NIADA Conventions, and VIADA Dealer Days.  John Summer served as Co-Chairman of the VIADA Professional Development Committee and on the MVDB Internet Advertising Task Force Committee. John has been a Consultant to Automotive Dealers for over 25 years for not only his extensive knowledge of regulations and compliance, but his expertise in advertising and marketing in the automotive industry.

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One of the VIADA Member Benefits available exclusively to VIADA members is the website, www.VAUsedCarDealers.com(VUCD). It benefits every member, dealers and associates alike, in some way. For some member dealers, it is a large part of their Internet advertising approach. Yet, still, this site is largely unknown to some members. Today, let’s review just a few of the features and benefits that VUCD brings VIADA and its members.
• Every VIADA Member is included in “Find a Dealer” page. If VIADA has your dealership’s website address and/or email, VUCD will link to them free of charge. Anyone can search the entire member base by zip cope.
VUCD is the VIADA’s largest effort to reach out to the Car Buying public. Prospective car buyers are led to the site via search engines and 3rd party Auto Classifieds sites and are immediately exposed to our Association and our Code of Ethics. They are encouraged to visit www.VIADA.org in order to learn more about an association of car dealers dedicated to fair trade.
• For only $40 a month you can have your autos included along with thousands of others. Each listing includes a complete description of the vehicle, links back to your dealership website, lead generation tools like Tell A Friend and Make an Offer. Also available are dealership logos, contact information and much more.
• Each listing has either a link directly to your dealer website’s credit application or we can link them to our own. Our credit application is secure and compliant with all the privacy laws governing the auto industry and the leads that come from your cars are only made available to you.
• Each listing has a SMS short message lead generation tool. Regardless of whether or not you are into texting, one thing for certain is that your customers are texting. VUCD allows car shoppers to have listings sent directly to their phone for further viewing. Their number and lead information is then stored for the dealership so they may follow up later.
• Each listing has as many as 12 images each. The vehicles can be fully described in a number of ways.
• Some dealerships utilize the VIN Decoder tool at VUCD to enter their listings. The decoder will turn a VIN into data that includes Year, Make, Model, Trim, Powertrain, Transmission, Engine, Body Style, all Features and Equipment, Induction type, Brake type, Steering type, EPA Fuel Ratings, Wheelbase and so much more.
• Other dealerships have 3rd party companies automatically upload their data and images to VUCD. Still others use their F&I software to upload inventory to VUCD. If you have service providers like Dealer Specialties or Cherry Auto, you could already have your listings on VUCD. If you have your inventory on your website, chances are we are already receiving data from your web provider on behalf of other dealers and we could have your inventory included in the next scheduled feed. If you are using software like Comsoft’s Monymaker to print contracts and track inventory, then you can avoid having to double enter your inventory by having your F&I software feed us your inventory. We currently receive data from over 100 providers every day.
• Once your inventory is on VUCD it is then fed to other online 3rd party classifieds sites. Some of them like Dodah.com and LemonFree.com are free for car dealers to advertise on. We will also send your inventory to all your other paid online advertisers, big and small. From Cars.com to DealersLotInc.com, if you want to advertise with them, we want to help! We send data to over 200 other advertisers every day! There is no limit to the number of companies you want us to feed your inventory to. If you find a new advertiser we are not already feeding to, tell us about them. We will add them to our feed partner list and set up the new feed at no extra charge.
• Participating VUCD Dealers have access to a free OFAC Check tool. This tool gets updated daily by the Department of Treasury and all name checks are stored for future reference.
• Participating Dealers also have access to a Craigslist Posting tool. In just a couple of clicks, all the photos and information for a particular car can be used to post an ad on Craigslist. They may have started charging $5 a post, but many dealers are finding it is even better at drawing car buyers than before.
• In the Dealer Login Area there are two sets of statistics available. The first one will tell you how much exposure your cars have gotten from VUCD while the second one will tell you what is most popular amongst all the listings at VUCD. You will get total number of searches, views and clicks for all cars. This is not only a great way to measure the ROI on your $40 a month investment, it is also a great way to see what vehicles are most desirable in your area.
• Need more cars? Log in to the Dealer area and you can view as well as post cars for wholesale. The wholesale pricing will only be seen by other participating dealers.
VUCD Dealers also have their inventory included in our nationwide site, www.ShopAutosOnline.com. This only maximizes your Internet exposure!
• A percentage of all proceeds from VUCD are returned to VIADA. On top of that, VIADA also sells Banner Ads to select Associate members. VUCD has generated thousands of dollars in revenue since it started back in January of 2005.
• You can try it with no long term commitment for only $40. Once you know you have to have it, you can pay for 5 months to get one month free or pay for 10 months to get two months free. Call today and see how VIADA’s secret weapon can help you sell cars!

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