March 2011 Success Story

Paragon Honda & Acura Soar to #1 New & Certied Pre-Owned Honda & Acura Dealer in the U.S. in Short 6 Month Period Paragon Honda and Acura grew from #17 to the #1 New & Certified Pre-Owned Honda & Acura Dealer in the U.S. in a short 6 month period during one of the most challenging periods in the history of the automotive industry by redefining their marketing, sales and service strategies. “Overall, it was our best year in business despite being one of the worst years in the industry,” said Brian Benstock, GM and partner of Paragon Honda and Acura, and their new strategies laid the foundation that continues to breed success and phenomenal results.

Paragon took a close look at the marketing practices they had in place and found that they were using multiple vendors to execute their advertising and it was confusing for their customers because the TV and radio commercials had one message, direct mail

had another, and email communications had another, yet none of the messaging was consistent with what was on their web site or the merchandising materials in the dealership.

“In the past we worked with 12 different companies to execute every part of our strategy, but the vendors didn’t work together so the campaigns were not integrated. It was confusing for our customers,” said Benstock.

“We wanted a more cohesive message and once we took steps to consolidate our vendors our advertising strategy improved dramatically. We hired one company to develop and implement one integrated marketing strategy that is completely connected and consistent.”

Paragon carefully assessed who they were

targeting. “We had always spent more money on mass marketing through TV, radio and print, but market research showed that over 90% of our business came from less than 10% of the city, so we began targeting our marketing to the consumers that live in those areas and that are in the market to buy or service their vehicle in the near future,” explained Benstock. Paragon conducted extensive market research to identify consumers that have the highest statistical probability of doing business with their dealerships now and in the future. “We use the manufacturer’s research, Polk Market data and the dealer’s historic sales and service trends to identify which customers to target,” explained Sean Wolfington, Owner of www.Tier10Marketing.com, the marketing company Paragon hired to help them revise their strategy.

Success Story Traditional advertising on TV, radio and print is expensive in New York, like other major metro markets so Paragon shifted their traditional ad budget toward more targeted marketing efforts that generate better returns.

“This saved us a substantial amount of money that we used to waste on people who were either not in the market for what we sell or who were not in our geographical market and therefore had a low probability of coming in for sales or service,” said Benstock.

However, since Latinos make up half of Paragon’s market, Paragon does leverage some good buys on Spanish radio, as well as, print ads in the New York Times where they include QR technology, a barcode that links consumers’ mobile phones to Paragon’s website where they can learn more about the offer and contact the dealership. “We recently did a radio buy that promoted a film premiere we sponsored in Queens,” said Benstock.

“We invited people to visit our website and Facebook pages to enter to win tickets to the premier and provided additional entries for people who shared the promotion with oth-

ers on Facebook and twitter.”

Online and social media marketing is also a large part of Paragon’s strategy. With over 90% of Honda consumers using the web to shop, Paragon has an in-depth strategy for search engine optimization and marketing, email marketing, banner ads on popular websites like Facebook, social media marketing, online reputation management and mobile marketing. “We have a lot of friends and followers on the top social media platforms including Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Bebo,” said Benstock. “As a result of our digital marketing campaigns, we increased the size of our database by approximately 50,000 in the last 6 months and we are sending out professionally designed emails that have credible themes and clear offers that generate leads from consumers who will buy and others who need service.”

All of Paragon’s digital marketing efforts drive consumers to campaign micro sites where the message, offers, look and feel are consistent with every other part of the cam-

paign. The campaign micro site is designed to convert the maximum number of visitors into email, phone and showroom leads. Some examples of their micro sites are www.ParagonHondaInfo.com and www.ParagonExpressService.com.

“Our best source of leads are our own websites because the closing ratios and average gross profits are much higher than the typical lead providers, as most 3rd party lead generators sell the same lead to multiple dealers,” said Benstock. “We only work with lead providers that generate a good return and have a lower cost per sale compared to our other marketing. We use www.AutoTrader.com, www.

Cars.com and www.AutomotiveAdvertisingNetwork.com because all three of them deliver exclusive leads which means they don’t resell the same leads to all of our competitors.”

AutoTrader and Cars.com have long done a good job with pre-owned and they give dealers exposure to clients they may not otherwise reach. The Automotive Advertising Network promotes Paragon’s vehicles on the most pop-

In a Nutshell Paragon Honda and Acura grew from #17 to the #1 New & Certied Pre-Owned Honda & Acura Dealer in the U.S. in a short 6 month period during one of the most challenging periods in the history of the automotive industry by redening their marketing, sales and service strategies that promotes all their prot centers.

• Paragon Honda & Acura use www.Tier10Marketing.com to deliver a cohesive marketing message across all marketing mediums to promote all their prot centers in sales and service.

• Paragon

only works with lead providers like www.AutoTrader.com, www.Cars.com and www.

AutomotiveAdvertisingNetwork.com that generate a good return and have a lower cost per sale compared to our other 3rd party lead providers.

• Paragon target-markets to quality single-owner trade-ins for their Certied Pre-Owned program.

• Paragon uses www.Car-mercial.com for Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO) to optimize videos to appear on top of the search engines for the most popular search phrases their consumers use to nd an Acura or Honda.

• Paragon works with www.TeamVelocityMarketing.com to target in-market customers and prospects who have the highest statistical probability of doing business with your dealership today and for the long term.

• Paragon uses www.CallRevu.com to monitor all customer phone calls to ensure sales and service calls are being handled properly – and act quickly when CSI concerns arise.

Success Story

Paragon Promotional Materials

Success Story ular search engines and social networks and sends them unlimited leads for a nominal flat membership fee. AutoTrader and Cars. com are more expensive but often generate more leads.

With the majority of consumers using search engines to find their next new vehicle, Paragon uses organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO) and targeted pay-perclick search marketing campaigns to attract in-market consumers who are shopping for Acuras and Hondas to their website and dealership. As a result, Paragon appears on top of the search engines for the most popular search phrases in their market “New York Honda” and “New York Acura”.

Paragon tracks what consumers are searching for on Google and they implement search strategies to appear on top of the results for popular search phrases. For example, during cash for clunkers Paragon generated over 5,000 leads in less than a month through Paragon’s website, www.

CashForClunkersNY.com, which was the #1 result when customers typed in “NY Cash for Clunkers”. When Toyota’s recall was announced, Paragon received leads from the Automotive Advertising Network who optimized a website called www.ToyotaRecall. org, which appears on top of the results when consumers search for information about Toyota’s Recall. “The Automotive Advertising Network also provides thousands of inbound links to Paragon’s website, which increases search authority and position on the search engines,” explained Brian Pasch, founder of the Automotive Advertising Network that Paragon uses.

Traditionally, television advertising has worked well for dealers because consumers experience the sight, sound and motion that other mediums don’t deliver. And now Paragon is using video to promote their dealership but they are optimizing the videos to appear on top of the search engines for the most popular search phrases their consumers use to find an Acura or Honda. “We hired

a VSEO company, to produce and position hundreds of positive videos about our dealership on top of the search. They also post comparison videos for consumers who are searching for competitive brands like Toyota and Nissan, so they can see the advantages of the Honda and visit our website to get an instant price quote,” said Benstock. “Google gives advantage to video results over text results and consumers like video more than text,” said Karry Moore, Owner of www.CarMercial.com, the company Paragon uses for their VSEO strategy. Paragon also communicates with all in-market Honda and Acura consumers by sending custom offers based on their vehicle, miles and position in their ownership cycle. Paragon sends custom campaigns via mail and email to promote all their profit centers, New, Used, Finance, Service and Parts. “We dial into Paragon’s DMS to target in-equity customers and we use variable print technology to send a custom message to each consumer that shows them how they can get a newer vehicle for a lower payment,” said Budd Blackburn, owner of www.TeamVelocityMarketing.com the targeted marketing company that Paragon uses. “We also include offers that promote the service the customer needs, extended service agreements and accessories.”

To further integrate their messaging, Paragon Honda and Acura make it obvious that something is going on at the dealership even if consumers don’t know about their sale, by the merchandising that quickly reminds them they’re lucky to have stopped by at the right time. “We want our customers to see a consistent message through our advertising and our in-store posters, tri-folds, balloons, hang tags and brochures,” said Benstock.

Just as important as communicating an effective and cohesive message to new customers, Paragon works hard to implement a detailed loyalty strategy to bring back customers for service and to resell their customer base more often. “We have a 360° customer communication process from the moment a customer buys to the time they renew into a new vehicle and everything in between,” said

Benstock. Paragon uses email, phone, voicemails and direct mail to communicate with their customers when they need service, accessories, an extended warranty or a new vehicle.

Paragon Honda and Acura are the #1 Certified Pre-Owned in the world. Actually, Paragon Honda sells more than twice the certified preowned vehicles of the 2nd place Honda Certified retailer and broke Honda and Acura’s all-time record by selling over 300 Certified Hondas and over 100 certified Acuras in one month. “We source most of our certified vehicles from tradeins because we have increased our new vehicle sales to customers who trade-in 2 and 3 year old vehicles as a result of our targeted marketing,” said Benstock. “We give every customer an autobiography that includes the vehicle’s history, lemon check, service history, and pricing information on competitive vehicles so our customers have a lot of confidence when they buy a Certified pre-owned vehicle from our dealership,” explained Benstock.

To make sure that everything they put into place is working Paragon tracks their advertising, employees, and how their customers are treated by listening to every call that comes into their dealership. “We use a company called www.CallRevu.com to monitor all our calls 24/7 and they send real-time alerts to our managers when a customer is mishandled on the phone,” said Benstock. “Our managers save a lot of deals because they contact customers immediately before it’s too late.”

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