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CHICAGO — A pair of dealership management executives plan to share their success stories in raising online inventory visibility during the next DealerADvantage Live Webinar organized by Cars.com.

The free workshop titled "Beyond Listings: Drive Sales with a Comprehensive Online Presence," is set to begin at noon EDT on Friday.

Jack Simmons, a Cars.com dealer training manager, is scheduled to moderate a panel that includes two dealer representatives. On tap is Andrew DiFeo, general manager at Hyundai of St. Augustine in St. Augustine, Fla., and Shaun Kniffin, director of Internet sales and e-business development at Germain Motor Co., which is based in Columbus, Ohio.

"Top-performing dealers are aggressively adopting innovative online media mix strategies and new technology to drive additional exposure and engage in-market shoppers," Simmons stressed.

"They understand that in today's economy doing business as usual means doing less business than usual and are looking for new ways to influence consideration," he continued.

Simmons went on to highlight that dealers participating in Friday's Webinar can learn more about several topics, including:

—How banner advertising raises the dealership's profile and the visibility of its Internet listings.

—How chat, mobile and video provide deeper engagement with online shoppers.

—How used-vehicle specials open the dealer's inventory and increase the likelihood of a sale.

"Branding and engagement are key to success in today's online advertising environment," Simmons insisted.

"Dealers who leverage new tools to demonstrate their inventory, brand their stores and communicate with car buyers will stand out above their competitors," he added.

Dealers interested in attending or learning more about this month's DealerADvantage Live Webinar can visit Cars.com's DealerCenter at http://dealers.cars.com/live. Along with completing the free registration, dealers can view archived recordings of past events.

Cars.com contends thousands of franchise and independent dealers have attended DealerADvantage Live since the site launched the Webinar series in September 2006.

Site executives pointed out that dealers do not have to be Cars.com customers to attend the Webinar. However, they must download free WebEx software at http://www.webex.com to participate.