Last month we featured a post about Dennis Galbraith’s new business, RevenueGuru.    Dennis recently released a new white paper entitled “The Preference-Engagement Matrix” that we’d recommend to anyone involved with dealership marketing.  Yes, there’s a chat angle (Dennis knows from his Cars.com experience that chat helps shoppers engage the dealership in a conversation), but the white paper isn’t about chat.  The following paragraph pretty much sums things up:

Whether advertising is online or offline says nothing about its contribution to connecting the shopper with the store. Contact is a result of preference, for the vehicle and the dealership. Until the shopper has some level of preference for a vehicle at the store or preference for the store itself as the solution for finding a vehicle, most shoppers will avoid contact. For the shopper, searching online or across a variety of print ads until a preference is established makes a great deal more sense than hopping from store to store on an exploratory basis.

Dennis’ analysis is excellent and insightful.  Read the free white paper and get educated about marketing to car shoppers.