Missing the Marketing Target

In 2006, it seemed like everyone was getting on Facebook. My firm saw the potential and created a Facebook app that allowed auto dealerships to display their inventory. Taking an inventory feed and presenting it in real time on a dealer’s Facebook page as a new tab was groundbreaking at the time. My sales team was excited, but I saw an opportunity to sell this one at scale.

Months later, we only had 10 dealers using the app. My sales team had a hard time getting dealers to buy in on the concept. To add to the frustration, many early adopters of Facebook didn’t have any inventory to sell. I needed to sell my solution to these prospects who had no clue this amazing product offering was even possible. While Facebook was growing business pages like crazy, they didn’t have any marketplace apps like mine.

Today, if you want a unique piece of art you go to Etsy. If you’re looking for a rare comic book, you browse eBay. For furniture, you’ll make your way over to Wayfair. And, if you want a solution for your dealership, you go to Fortellis.io.

Enter the Fortellis Platform

Fortellis launched a few years ago as a platform of modern APIs that allowed rapid development of integrated solutions for the automotive industry. The genius of this unique automotive platform is the robust Marketplace where the integrated solutions can be sold. With 10x growth year after year, the industry is waking up to the fact that Fortellis is where developers go to build solutions, and dealers go to purchase them.

Go To Market

Go To Market is more than a title for a person or team at your company — it’s a call to action that’s the difference between solving a need and making a profit. The Fortellis Go To Market team understands this and is here to work with your company once your App listing is added to the Fortellis Marketplace. This all starts with building the right listing.

Frontline Ready

Any Sales Manager will tell you that vehicles sell best when they’re “frontline ready”. This means that the vehicle is in tip-top shape, shiny and may even have painted sales messages on the windows or balloons to get the attention of those driving by. This also means you need photos and solid descriptions for online listings to help engage prospective buyers.

Your listing in the marketplace should also be “frontline ready”.

Here are some tips to make your Fortellis listing stand out.

1. Include plenty of images. These can include marketing materials used for leave behinds or, better yet, screen shots of your solution in action.

2. Videos are critical. While an image is worth a thousand words, videos average 30 images per second. Consider having at least one video on your public YouTube channel.

3. Descriptions should be geared to your target audience with relevant terms they understand. This should also include keyword tags for maximum SEO value.

4. Highlights and features make any product listing and are a critical focus for your target audience. Include more highlights and features in your listing to better connect with potential buyers.

Use All the Tools in your Toolbox

The Fortellis Go to Market team offers a whole set of tools to help attract prospective buyers to your listing. Items like release templates, newsletter announcements and approved logos can all be found in our Marketing Guide.

DOWNLOAD FORTELLIS MARKETING GUIDELINES

Fortellis Has Your Back

Also consider participating in Fortellis events and visiting the Fortellis booth at major tradeshows. As a Fortellis contributor, you can participate in virtual events such as Fortellis In-Vents and live (dev)days to talk shop with industry experts and test your skills in sessions and hackathons.

Your organization should take the initiative to promote your listing as you would any other product. Here are some great ways Fortellis can help you get the most out of your efforts.

Social Media: Whenever you share your listing on your social media channels, be sure to use the approved Fortellis tags and logos found in our Marketing Guidelines. We monitor Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and regularly comment on and share posts from our contributors.

Blog Posts: When your team develops great content, submit your posts to the Fortellis Insights blog. This can increase the number of readers your content will receive and can be used to drive traffic to your listing. The Fortellis Go To market team also helps you reach thousands of Fortellis users by promoting Insight blog posts on our social media channels and in our TechConnect newsletters.

Hosting your own event? Fortellis team members are available to participate in live or virtual events hosted by our community of contributors. They can help add value to your events and attract more attendees.

Get Off the Fence!

I remember what it felt like to take that chance with Facebook, and I’m so glad we did. Being on the cutting edge of what dealers wanted and associated with such a major platform gave our little company great street cred. And thanks to the Fortellis Marketplace, you can benefit the same way today. You can do more than just build a solution —you can own your piece of market.

Create your Fortellis account today.

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