The Internet is changing the way people buy cars. A recent video released by Capgemeni suggests that:

• 29% referred to consumer-to-consumer sites like blogs and forums when researching information
• 78% of respondents rely on search engines.
• 1 in 5 say they are likely to buy a car online.
• 2 of 3 say personalized offers influence their desire to purchase

This is nothing new but the last bullet listed there about personalized offers brings up an important topic that relates directly to the idea of Search Engine Brand Marketing. If 66% of auto shoppers are positively influenced by such things then how should car dealers respond to that. More specifically, how can the Internet be leveraged to accommodate this?

Why, social media of course.

Think about it. If 22% of new car buyers found their way to an OEM site by way of Search 6 months prior to making a purchase, just think of how dealers can and should be tapping in to this market. They can tap in to it by presenting their business as an Automotive Retail Center versus a Car Dealership.

Car dealerships are all about “ups” and qualified leads. The CRM process is typically designed to sell on customer impulse. It’s not until after purchase that the CRM process is designed to retain the customer. Naturally, once a dealer knows that you aren’t going to purchase now then you get dropped. You get dropped because it is not worth a sales rep’s time to stay in touch for the next 5 months. Or is it?

That’s the beauty of the digital age. With email, dealers can design automated campaigns to retain customers during this pre-purchase period. And I don’t mean by way of newsletters. I mean by truly effective and well thought out automated email follow-ups that demonstrate to these potential buyers that your dealership, your retail center, is going to walk with you every step of the way towards your purchase.

Your email campaigns should reel in these shoppers to your blog, to your articles, to your newsletter, and to your social media profiles where your product specialists can build on the relationship and give the customer every reason to do business with you when the time is right.

Point is, the tools are here today and the dealers and vendors that take the time to utilize them effectively by presenting their businesses better can and will capture these emerging virtual markets.

When it comes to the idea of Big Brother, Google really tops the list these days. Google knows more about your website than you do, which makes search engine marketing all that more interesting because even when you are implementing ineffective or harmful methods of which you are not aware, Google and the other engines know it.

Achieving SEO is not terribly difficult. There are some basics you should understand and some no-no practices that are published by Google. Beyond that it is more a matter of diligence. Like sports there is preparation, training, game time, and analysis involved with SEO. Do you want it more than your competitors and if so then how hard are you willing to work for it?

Diligence in regards to SEO comes from producing regular quality content written in a way that puts emphasis on the keywords and phrases you are targeting. Your content should also be natural. One method I find useful is choosing a message or topic and then writing about it for several ways, or numerous times over the course of a few weeks.

Blogs are useful for this, but unless people are commenting on your posts from other sites then your link backs may not be rich. You can publish articles on your website and then build static link backs to those from relevant sites. Of course, interesting content is ultimately what draws readership.

The ultimate no-no, and one that I find surprisingly ignored, is when people attempt to trick, fool, or cheat the search bots. Any sort of tomfoolery or black hat method is guaranteed to result in your site being penalized or having it completely banned from Google. The best SEO is the open and transparent type intended to be perfectly clear with the engines what you are set to achieve.

Whether you do your own SEO or outsource it, or a little bit of both, make sure the methods being applied are consistent, persistent, and legitimate. Your SEO technique is an extension of your business, your product, and you need trust and credibility with the engines and your customers.

Technorati Tags: automotive seo, search engine optimization, black hat, link back, natural, organic, methodology, technique, Google

Today I went to Ridley Creek State Park near my home here in PA with my wife, her Father visiting from out of the country, and our near-3-year son. Despite the fantastic weather, pretty much autumn-like, I expected the park to be rather empty considering that today is Christmas. But it wasn’t. In fact, there were hardly any available parking spaces so I parked in a puddle of mud.

We had a nice walk alongside the creek. There were people jogging, biking, and walking intimately with a spouse or sibling, some dogs too, not much different from any other day at that park. There was no pressure to say “Merry Christmas” to everyone, which I thought was nice. Just warm friendly smiles and occasional hello. Very natural, very peaceful. A needed sensation for this time of year.

Os Hillman provided a nice note today too in his TGIF devotional if you are interested in reading it you can visit my RM blog. It’s about the day that Christ Jesus quietly came in to this world and was born into a manger because the Inn was full. He calls it a “missed opportunity” for the Inn keeper. I felt it was a nice compliment to my stroll today in the park because it reflects the quiet subtle meekness that can sometimes be hidden in the chaos of Christmas today in America.

If you did not receive the web2ologies Holiday Card please let me know so I can make sure you are on our list.

Merry Christmas to you and your families and thank you for being a part of the AC Experience.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…. - John 3:16

A candy maker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would be a witness of his faith. He incorporated several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ. He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy-white to symbolize the Solid Rock, the foundation of the Church and the firmness of God’s promises.

The candy maker made the candy in the form of a “J” to represent the name of Jesus, who came to earth as our Savior. It could also be thought to represent the staff of the Good Shepherd with which He reaches down into the ditches of the world to lift out the fallen lambs who, like all sheep, have gone astray.

Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candy maker stained it with red stripes. He used three small stripes to show the stripes of the scourging Jesus received, and by which we are healed. The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Christ on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life.

The candy became known as the candy cane-a decoration seen at Christmas time. But the meaning is still there.

During Christmas, do you reflect on the real meaning of the season? It is one season we can use like no other to bring the focus on Christ. Ask God to give you opportunities to share Christ with someone this Christmas.

Courtesy of TGIF by MarketplaceLeaders.org.

There is so much jabber in the automotive blogosphere today about how blogging and social media/netoworking/marketing are becoming relevant to automotive retail you would think it is becoming the “next big thing”. But just like PPC 3 years ago became the prominent buzz word in automotive online retail promising dealers the opportunity to become their own “regional buying service”, blog marketing and social media are likely to become the next great distraction for dealers too.

The reason why is not because blogging and social marketing are fads, phases, or unreliable forms of marketing but because of how they are represented to car dealers by marketing/technology providers.

Dealers want increased sales and increased profit margins which require more business opportunities at less cost. The Internet promises to do this because you can reach more audience with less cost and Internet marketing companies promise to help dealers accomplish these things. Research, surveys, and statistics constantly tell us that advertising dollars continue to shift from conventional off line advertising to online media. Naturally, dealers are forced to put their money into strategies and schemas they struggle to grasp but because they trust the people providing them and because of good sales and marketing presentations dealers often buy in to mediocre situations.

All this is perfectly reasonable except for the fact that dealers continue to be disappointed and confused. Part of this is their own fault for not taking the time to digest important information, but a lot of this comes down to the mere fact that in the auto industry, dealers marketing and technology providers are often one and the same.

This is not to say that it is possible for a single company to provide marketing and technology, but if you look at other industries you will find that businesses typically provide one form of service or commodity, not two completely irrelevant forms such as technology and marketing.

For instance…

• IBM, Microsoft, and Sun provide technology, not marketing
• Coca-Cola and Pepsi provide soft drinks, not marketing
• MCI, Sprint, and T-Mobile provide telecommunications, not marketing

Of course, these companies have marketing divisions within their own organizations, but more often than not they partner up with major marketing agencies to assist with THEIR marketing strategy and they certainly are not providing marketing services to other companies. Chances are, these “marketing agencies” are not providing these firms with any sort of technology either.

So why is the auto industry so special that marketing and technology tend to go hand-in-hand? Could it be that dealers get ridiculed for being “behind” on trends because they are being led by mediocrity? There is a lot of good technology out there that is completely relevant and useful for dealers. But putting these technological tools and resources to use is a whole other ball game.

Dealers need to consider this when talking to firms about things such as blog marketing, social media, and search engine brand marketing. These are going to be some of the more sophisticated forms of marketing known to dealers and expectations are certain to be let down if marketing/technology providers are misrepresentative about what can be accomplished with them.

Technorati Tags: automotive marketing, online marketing, car dealers, auto industry, search engine marketing, brand marketing, social media, IBM, Microsoft, Sun, Coke, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, MCI, Sprint, TMobile, telecommunications

As stated in previous posts, the idea of brand marketing is not a new concept for car dealers. They have been doing it off line for decades with conventional advertising such as radio, TV, and print. But the car business has manifested in such a limited way on the Internet with its emphasis on conversion and lead generation that when you talk about online brand marketing it can be difficult for dealers to grasp.

“How can I measure the number of leads/sales I get from showing up high in the search results?” is one question often asked.

The great thing about marketing your business online by way of Search is YOU CAN MEASURE its impact through what is known as quantification.

When you advertise your autos on 3rd party sites such as Autotrader.com and Cars.com, not only can you expect leads to come in by way of vehicle inquiries from these sites, but also you can expect increased traffic to your website and your showroom because these shoppers also seek you out virtually and physically. Tracking the increased business not accounted for as email leads is a challenge, but as time goes on you should be able to “quantify” a general increase in business for your retail center which you can attribute some, if not all of it to your 3rd Party subscription depending on your other marketing efforts. The reason why is because by subscribing to these 3rd Party sites you not only benefit from lead generation, but you also are benefiting residually from limited forms of online brand marketing.

With Search Engine Brand Marketing you have the inverse. Your purpose is to create long-term residual online brand awareness of your business by way of Search Marketing, Link Building, and Social Media. Although you can expect to see an increase in leads from your website, you also can expect a general increase in business everywhere else, including on your 3rd-Party lead generator subscriptions. Your success however is not measured by the number of leads you receive, but by quantifying the overall impact this has on your business through time.

A good example is that of an Internet searcher discovering your dealership for the first time by seeing you appear in Search (PPC and Organic) and maybe even on a social site or two over the course of 2-3 months. Then, when the shopper becomes actively engaged in a search he goes to Cars.com, bumps in to some dealers, including yours, and WHAM!, the user is jolted with a sense of familiarity of having seen you around here and there recently. Suddenly, your retail center has an increased amount of credibility and recognition with this person which makes it all that more likely he will inquire with you.

Dealers that grasp this have an edge on their competition. A simple philosophical shift in how you use the Internet to market your business can have tremendous impact for you in the short-term and the long-term. Applying these principals today will place you a step ahead over the next several years. Failing to do so will make it all that more expensive and cumbersome to do so down the road.

Short-term thinking is a dangerous practice no matter what business you are in. For auto dealers, however, it seems that the consequences for it are not as dire. Or are they?

Earlier this year, an auto group was formed which acquired a handful of dealerships. Naturally, along with the acquisitions also came vendor relationships and term contracts. In an effort to maximize resources, most (if not all) of these agreements were renewed without consideration for their long-term impact. Within the first 6 months this auto group ended up canceling more than one of the re-newed agreements and signed up for similar (and hopefully better) agreements with other vendors.

You could argue that the decision to re-new these existing agreements was short-sighted. You could also argue that doing so was appropriate and that canceling them so soon afterwards was inevitable. The point is that anytime a decision is made that impacts the long-term business operation and which is then negated shortly there afterwards is the result of POOR PLANNING and SHORT-TERM THINKING.

Recently I met with a dealership interested in a new online marketing strategy, or so I thought. What they really wanted, it turned out, was a “website”. While there, my team explained that our services were designed to promote a dealer’s website through organic search engine marketing and social media and that while not having a website in tact to properly represent the dealership would be an obstacle, the importance of putting together an online marketing strategy for their website-to-be was of equal if not greater importance than the website itself. The dealership seemed to agree at the time but then a week later it was explained to me that they had decided to just focus on getting a website launched and then get with us on the marketing sometime in the future.

The outcome could be attributed to a variety of things, including ineffectiveness in our own representation or communication, but the unspoken response I heard from the dealership was that they had their sights set on building a website and that everything after that was a distraction they would deal with afterwards.

This is an all-too-common scenario in the car business and I think it demonstrates the way many dealers think. The Internet is an overwhelming and ever-changing medium for many people and so it is intimidating to for some to approach it in ways not familiar to them, or at least in ways not yet popularized by their peers. Five years ago, many dealers we still fighting with the idea of whether or not they should have a website for their dealership. Three years ago dealers were jumping on the PPC bandwagon.

Today, dealers are faced with the reality of using the Internet to built lasting transparent relationships with their customers. It’s everything they have been able to avoid for the past several decades now staring them in the face like was depicted in the epic poem Beowulf.

ps - Shouts out to Brian Hoecht of Ai-Dealer for his wizardry in reflecting on this great tale of our time.

When speaking recently with a dealer friend, we got on the subject of brand awareness. His auto group consists of nearly a dozen stores concentrated in one metropolitan area. They have been around for some time now and naturally they are a well-known brand in their physical geo market. However when we got on the subject of brand awareness in Search, my friend did not seem to correlate a difference between his online brand awareness versus off line.

Take note of the use of the word “naturally”. This auto group naturally is well known in the physical geo market because they have been around for many years persistently advertising on television, radio, and print. Through the years this dealer has poured probably millions of dollars into off line or geo physical market advertising without blinking an eye. He [they, really] know people are physically out there and they know that their advertising and exposure will gain them increasing awareness through the years. Advertising their name to these markets is a no-briner.

So how do we translate this concept into Search? You can’t see people in Search unless you look at search statistics. You don’t know where people in Search are like you know where people on a highway are every day, unless you perform extensive research. Dealers are comfortable with getting leads from known brands such as AutoTrader.com and Cars.com because they know that people go there to find cars and that if their autos are not up there then those people will not find them. What dealers do not seem to consider is that this only gets their name in front of people actively engaged in a cars search, i.e. in-market.

Lead generation advertising does not give car dealers exposure to out-of-market (future) buyers AND it does not build directly on their own brand. So basically dealers are paying thousands of dollars to have at chance at appearing in front of a limited market in hopes to obtain a quality lead that is typically arriving because someone is interested in the advertised price and/or vehicle information and equipment.

Leads have little to do with the buyer’s interest or concern in the actual business of the dealership.

What all this boils down to is that if your name is not well-positioned in Search or Social Media then you are not gaining valuable exposure to in-market and out-of-market buyers. You also are not building a lasting online reputation. Search Engine Brand Marketing helps to accomplish these things. It is a viable compliment to your other forms of online advertising such as lead generation and pay-per-click advertising.

Technorati Tags: automotive marketing, internet marketing, search engine marketing, online brand awareness, car dealer marketing, generating leads, car buyers, auto shoppers, social media, organic search

As stated in a recent DDM article by Aimee Romero, one of the most important aspects of advertising is repetition. Romero goes on to suggest that when “many marketing media multiply that repetition, it becomes more powerful.”

Some suggestions that she cites are:

• All of your marketing should include links to your web site.
• Your web site should contain any print ads or television spots you’re currently running.
• Each ad, regardless of type, should include your logo, slogan, etc.

Basically, make sure your target market sees your name and brand wherever they look during their car search.

This is a tough concept for many car dealers to grasp at the Search level. The reason why is probably because Search is not a big part of their routine, therefore it is difficult for them to realize the extraordinary volumes of Internet searches being performed every minute.

The idea of Search Engine Brand Marketing is might seem foreign and new, but it has existed for years. And brand marketing in general has been around for centuries.

As Romero puts it,

“If you build your brand and offer consistency throughout your marketing campaigns, even consumers who are not ready to buy will remember your dealership when the time comes.”

Dealers that can grasp this concept at the level of Search will attain the competitive advantage in the years to come. Search Engine Brand Marketing takes time, vision, commitment, and effectiveness. All things that dealers seem challenged with on the Web.

Search Engine Brand Marketing is an important beast for dealers to wrap their heads around. The reason why is because of where the Web is headed, not because of where it is today.

Your dealership is a local community business with regional reach and part of multi-billion dollar franchise brand. Unleash the power of YOUR BRAND.

SEO is a long-term investment that can be defined as,

“the practice of preparing your web assets for [natural] search”

Good SEO leads to greater visibility of your site in Organic Search. But “good SEO” today isn’t accomplished by good keyword research, content, reporting, and analytics alone. Good SEO is accomplished by having an effective long-term online brand marketing strategy for your dealership.

As all smart stake holders in business know, an effective such strategy starts at the top with vision and is aided and enhanced by marketing experts and professionals. Not the other way around.

If you are looking to make an impact with your dealership and achieve long-term success then you need to start looking at the idea of search marketing in terms of online brand marketing. Accomplishing this requires the use of blogs, discussion forums, social media sites, and email newsletters, bundled and presented in a way that makes for good SEO and good online brand marketing.

Technorati Tags: automotive internet marketing, marketing strategy, online brand marketing, natural search, search engine marketing, social marketing optimization, email marketing, blog marketing