Automotive Acronyms- What Do They Mean?

In the ever-evolving world of automotive marketing, the number of automotive acronyms tossed around by “those in the know” may leave you confused and wondering what you just signed up for. Don’t worry, IDM Automotive is here to break down those automotive acronyms and leave you with a clear understanding of typical terms used in the automotive marketing industry. Buckle up and get ready for a crash course in automotive marketing.

Popular Automotive Acronyms

VLP/ VRP/ SRP- This is a Vehicle Search Results page. It shows your potential customers a dynamic list of vehicles you offer.

VDP– Your Vehicle Description page. This represents a single vehicle from our VLP, listing all features, pricing, mileage, and options for that single vehicle.

UX– User experience. A good UX in mobile responsive, intuitive to the user, and uses the least number of clicks to get to the information a potential customer is seeking. A bad UX leads to higher bounce rates and more people clicking away from your site.

CRM– Customer Relationship Management. This is an application or program that allows a dealership a way to track and manage customers and their place in the sales funnel. You can track leads, calls, follow-ups, and sales performance. CRMs are vital to a dealership to maintain those customer relationships. Most CRMs also incorporate an ILM, an Internet Lead Management system, to capture leads that interact with your sites online.

DMS– Dealer Management System. This automotive acronym is typically a third-party system that handles all aspects of a dealership, from sales, finance, service, the parts department, and administrative aspects. The DMS also contains information from the Inventory Data Feed.

IMS– Inventory Management System. This takes the inventory feed from your DMS and allows you to add descriptions, pricing, and photos. You can then apply that feed to your website as well as third-party inventory listings.

BDC– Business Development Center. This department is responsible for driving traffic to the sales and service teams in a dealership. The department also handles inbound calls and leads and assigns those to the sales staff.

The terms listing above are the basic automotive acronyms for automotive digital marketing. Below are some terms, while not specific to the auto industry, can help to pull in more leads and increase sales performance:

Utilize Technology to Grow Leads and Increase Sales

Adaptive Technology– More people today are browsing sites from mobile devices. So, your website needs to scale correctly across all platforms, or you risk users clicking away to an easier to interact with website.

Backlinking– Quality backlinks provide legitimacy to your site. Social media and online directories are ways to get good quality backlinks.

GeoFencing– This uses GPS technology to create a virtual boundary that triggers an action when a mobile device enters that area. Auto dealerships can capitalize on this by geofencing an individual that is leaving a competitors’ dealership. As the customer enters or leaves the rival dealership, they are shown an ad from your dealership offering, for example, low financing options or a coupon for money off a vehicle purchase.

Lead Nurturing– This is the follow-up process with leads online. This is typically set up in your CRM to run with automations. So, a customer interacts with your site and fills out a form. That form triggers an automated email from your CRM, thanking them for their interest. Your sales team can further nurture that lead with phone calls or text messages.

Retargeting– This process uses cookies to identify users that have been exposed to an advertisement or campaign. Ads can then be targeted to those individuals.

Drive Leads and Nurture Relationships

While this is by no means a comprehensive list of automotive acronyms and marketing terms, it is a good start. Familiarizing yourself with the terms and utilizing some of the new technology available can help drive in new leads, nurture relationships with current prospects, and overall boost performance in your dealership. The crew at IDM auto is here to help. Contact us today to learn the best strategy to bring in that new business.