- 14 November 2019
- Training events
The owner of a major Italian car dealership had appointed his Senior Marketing Manager as Digital Manager and entrusted him with the design of the new website. After one year, the site was still in gestation.
Conversely, another Dealer had thought of entrusting the role of DM to the technology expert. Who could have done better than an IT Manager? But even he had to give up after experimentation with various projects and software had failed to bring concrete results.
In another company, also a dealer, the owner had thought of locating the DM in the sales staff. But the salesman in charge, convinced that the BDC was a kind of call centre, had assigned two part-time receptionists to lead management, with disappointing results in terms of conversions.
Recent bibliographies strive to describe the figure of the Digital Manager (with the abuse of Englishisms): He manages 'Digital Advertising', 'Social Channels', is a 'Brand Ambassador', plans 'Engagment Strategies'. In fact, an expert profile in all these functions would be very rare to find and expensive for a Dealer. There would then remain the dilemma of how to fit him into the context of a sector as specific as Automotive. Will he be able to interpret the structure of automotive databases, juggle the complex logics of manufacturers' marketing systems and DMS procedures?
The figure of the Automotive Digital Marketing Manager is in fact a new profession. Consequently, it is not only rare but also subject to different interpretations. There is a lack of serious training at school level. It will take a long time for schools to circumscribe a role that draws on skills from various disciplines: economics, social sciences, statistics, IT, but without making it a specialist in any one particular one.
In order to understand what a DM in the automotive sector should do (today), we must analyse his or her role and, originally, the tasks that this job requires. A job description that corresponds to day-to-day operations from which to extrapolate tasks and responsibilities and thus the grading in the company organisation chart. Because once in the organisational chart it also becomes clear the economic level/ remuneration and thus the company cost.
Simplifying the analysis, we can divide the digital strategy in the automotive sector into 3 main components.
- Website - Lead Generation.
- Advertsing/Social.
- BDC.
The website is a key element for lead generation. There are dealers who mistakenly entrust the DM with the construction/maintenance of the website. The one who builds the website is the external agency. The DM's task is to follow the design, production and testing phases, involving all departments of the dealership, collecting the comments of the departments, filtering them and coordinating them towards the agency.
A good knowledge of the company organisation on which the distribution of information flows from the website to the individual departments and the BDC will be based is required. The skills are those of teamwork, analysis and interaction with different business functions.
It helps, but is not essential, to have a basic knowledge of new trends in user experience to support the design of the site. However, if one makes use of experienced agencies specialised in the automotive sector, they will be able to provide concrete indications and suggestions to facilitate the design phase.
The site, if well designed, will not require the use of programming languages but simple procedures that will allow the DM to update the main sections (Team, Promotions, News, Mailing list etc.).
The second component of the Digital project isAdvertising.
It is about planning the ADV, 90% of which is divided between Google in the form of the Search and Display channel and Facebook/Instagram for Social Marketing.
In this role, the Digital Manager's tasks are more of an administrative nature due to the campaign planning/analysis activity.
Operational management should be delegated to an external agency (or agencies) as these communication channels (Google and Facebook) require a high level of specialisation due to the constant changes in algorithms, procedures and communication techniques.
It is unthinkable that the DM is an SEO expert, knows how to activate Google Ads, manage Tag Manager, create posts, programme Facebook Ads, with ads and remarketing activities. Just to mention a few of the more specific activities in the world of ADV.
He is mainly in charge of planning the budget, allocating it between campaigns according to new product launches, open weekends, company events or other (e.g. black friday) and coordinating the agency that will take care of the creativity, graphic development and activation of communication channels. He could also use a team to help him develop part of these activities by coordinating them internally within the company. But this development is a cost that must be well thought out. The DM must therefore have a basic knowledge of monitoring/reporting tools, e.g. Google Analytics, in order to monitor the progress of campaigns in terms of lead acquisition and conversion rate. In this case, it is advisable to be able to read the results and to act quickly (especially when campaigns are running) with a fine-tuning of them. The digital channel has the advantage of providing a huge amount of data compared to off-line, but they have to be read and interpreted.
The third element of Digital concerns the BDC (Business Development Centre) composed of sales professionals. It is in fact a department that manages contacts arriving directly or indirectly from the various digital sources, organises the flow of information and the agenda to be transmitted to the sales force. The work of the BDC is fundamental in modern dealerships and effective because, if organised in the form of processes, it allows the contact to be finalised and transformed into a sale. The organisation and training of the BDC members should be entrusted to experienced training companies. The DM's task is to coordinate the team, control the effectiveness and utilisation of the business processes and monitor the results.
In summary, the DM is a figure who has several skills but is not necessarily a specialist in each of them. He is familiar with new digital tools and understands their potential, but is not a technician. He plans and coordinates budgets, but is not an administrator. He plans marketing campaigns, but is not a communications expert.
Certainly the diversification of its competencies makes it a managerial body that is positioned alongside the Sales or Marketing Management. It therefore manages its own team of which the BDC is a part.
In Italy today, the digital channel accounts for 35/40% of a dealership's retail sales, with the trend continuing to grow. The decision to invest in qualified personnel and technological tools is no less demanding than that of opening a branch in the territory. However, despite the innovative elements of technology, the evaluation parameters are still the same, the classic, subjective ones related to the entrepreneur's propensity to invest and risk. The quality of the team on which the result depends will always make the difference. Therefore, investing in a professional figure is definitely a trump card for the entrepreneur.