Relational marketing-purposed blogs not realistic yet for auto dealers
An article by Gary Nixon of CIMA systems recently published on IMedia Connection provides some useful statistics and insights about auto dealer blogs and the consumer market.
[...]16 percent used interactive marketing in the form of blogs or discussion groups and more than 20 percent of respondents between 18-34 years of age used web groups and social forums when compiling information [for shopping autos].
The key points in his message are:
- Newsletters are declining in their effectiveness
- Blogs fill that gap
- Blogs should be used for relational marketing purposes
The term “relational” marketing was not used specifically in Gary’s article, but that is essentially what he was driving at. Read the first paragraph in the section labeled, “It has to inspire feedback “. He states,
[...]dealers that are taking full advantage of technology are the ones who are blogging about their own thoughts, theories and opinions of the vehicles on their lot and the industry in general.
This is a noteworthy insight, and I am certainly an advocate for dealers using blogs in this way. But this is a stretch for dealers. He cites Fiesta Ford’s blog which has been around since January 2007 and is being utilized for relational marketing purposes in an effective manner. But this is rare for dealerships. Mercedes-Benz of Haggerstown is also doing this, but I know they have some dedicated and expert resources (DealerRefresh) behind that effort too.
The reason I point this out is because like lot management, getting dealers to blog is a challenge. The knowledge is not there and the culture certainly isn’t either. This is why a full-service blog marketing solution for auto dealers are important. While out of the box, a full-service blog like AutoBurst does not focus on the relational marketing aspect of blogging, it does not restrict it either. With this approach, the blog can be optimized for driving traffic through effective hands-off RSS Marketing regardless of whether or not the dealer utilizes it for relational marketing. And if the dealer does take advantage of the blog for that purposes, then all the better.
Take a look at our recent post titled, “The 5 principals of an effective blog marketing strategy for auto dealers” which explains more about why full-service blogs for auto dealers make sense and how they can create a foundation for dealers to delve in to relational and social marketing aspects of blogging.
Kudos to Gary for the great article, too.
Technorati Tags: AutoBurst, RSS Marketing
