With today’s economy challenges hitting the auto industry pretty hard, I expect car dealers to whip out the chopping block on expenses that do not produce plentiful and immediate sales. This puts what we do at risk because our platform is about building your own brand commensurate lead generator which takes time, among other things such as focus, creativity, and timely execution.

But this begs the question that if tough economic times urge dealers to cut spending, why should they have had these expenses in the first place?

In my observations, to be somewhat cliche, dealers are apt to throw things at the wall and see what sticks. With Internet marketing still an evasive practice for car dealers, particularly with Web 2.0 concepts, I am concerned about the possible setback this could be for the dealer community. Blogging and Social Media are long-term approaches to Internet marketing and I imagine dealers turning away from these methods b\c it is difficult to see the results.

Some have suggested that dealers not pay for anything they can do for free, but I think that can be misleading advice. Time is money and while yes you can “blog” for free, blogging is a vague term that requires time which can take a dealer away from selling cars. Is it then truly appropriate for dealers to not pay for such services?

No matter what the economic times and no matter what you can and can not do for free, dealers should always consider the most cost-effective and time-efficient path to their marketing objectives. This means having reliable partners and relationships with those you trust whether they are employees, vendors, contractors, or people with which you are connected in the blogosphere. It also means dealers should be thoughtful and constructive in these relationships versus throwing money at something and sitting back waiting for results.

Keeping your dealership business profitable is certainly the goal but the path to achieve this is not with short-term strategies that make you vulnerable to the times. Now more than ever is the time for dealers to invest into their own brand and web presence and continually strive to make it bullet proof with a sound sales process.

We are in the process of rolling out 3 new websites. One to represent our product, one for training, and one for our online business community. It’s a lot to chew on for a start-up like ours with minimal capital and human resources, but it has become necessary.

While most people would balk at the idea of a 3-site presence, today’s market welcomes it. The Web is kind to those with a simple concise message, and a simple concise message we have not. Sure you could simply say that we help promote Car Dealer Websites, but people want to know how and that’s where it gets complicated.

Our “sophisticated message” is due in part to my own personality as I am prone to focus on the tactical or mechanical aspects of a Business Marketing and Advertising plan, but what we do is also new to the Automotive Industry so when we pitch our product to people they do become interested, but many struggle to get their heads fully wrapped around what we do which of course makes it more difficult to sell.

Our Business Marketing and Advertising message has 3 audiences and our ultimate goal is to be a bridge between consumers and industry. My hope is that by carving our message into 3 distinct and functional websites it will help to simplify things by giving people simpler and more tangible pieces of our message along with the ability to do something with each piece.

The backbone of any business, especially a car dealership, is repeat business. If your customers aren’t coming back to you for their new car needs, your income potential decreases. But how do you keep in touch with your customers without seeming pushy or desperate?

AWeber has the ideal way to stay in contact with your customer base while making each client feel like more than “just a customer” at the same time. Have you ever thought about sending birthday e-mails? If so, that’s a great start. In fact, this is one of the “X factors” in the online brand marketing industry. And who doesn’t enjoy getting birthday greetings regardless of how old they are?

In addition to a birthday greeting, you can offer a discount on a preventative maintenance service or maybe even a free oil change. Who wouldn’t like that?

If you’re considering this as a way to keep current customers, be sure to gather the necessary information. AWeber will do all the rest. Here’s what they’ll need:

1. Customer’s e-mail
2. Customer’s birthday

That’s it! And the great part is that each sale typically includes this information. That means you really don’t need to do anything extra except supply this information to AWeber. Try it out today and see what kind of results you get. The potential to keep your current customers is priceless.

Cobalt and Yahoo have been rolling out some good data on automotive consumer behavior trends and I had the fortune of sitting in on their training session Sunday at NADA in the San Francisco this year.

I was really taken at how they had actual data to show what buyers want today:

1. Competitive prices
2. A good buying experience

If you think about it though, what customers want today hasn’t really changed. What has changed is consumers’ access to the right information and the ability to attain real leverage in the buying process. Dealerships that are genuinely responsive to this are the winners.

The challenge though is “how”?

When I look at the Automotive Search Marketing products and techniques out there, I don’t see this “consumer interest” truly being met the way it should be. A lot of the reason why has to do with the fact that most providers are not responding to the consumers’ true needs and interests. They provide technology for dealers to manage a process, or, they provide marketing that caters to old-school dealer sales techniques. What confuses dealers is that they have outdated marketing strategies wrapped around complicated technology.

Blogging of course is changing this. Blogging not only addresses the SEO need. It also addresses the 32% factor, that is, the 32% of buyers that do not buy within 90 days of submitting their first web inquiry. A good blog that is incorporated effectively should accomplish what a newsletter does except that it works for you ALL MONTH LONG, not just one week a month.

If you break it down to the bare bones benefits (SEO and CRM), it shouldn’t be confusing to dealers.

My message today with dealers is that when leads and prospects come into their realm,

“The goal should be to attain a relationship, not a sale.”

Dealers need to demonstrate to customers that they can and will assist them with their immediate automobile needs and interests as well as their long-term interests.

If you think your online marketing strategies aren’t reaching anybody, consider this story about a Calgary clothing shop that relied only on non-traditional advertising to get the word out.

The staff at Lululemon, a Canadian clothing retailer, disocvered to their surprise that thousands of people were lined up outside the store waiting for it to open on the morning of a huge sale. That might not sound unusual, but the only advertising the company used was on Facebook, a social networking site.

From one little advertising technique, the word spread to thousands of users, many of whom were in the store’s targeted audience. The result was more than the retailer could ever have imagined. And what makes this story even more dramatic is the fact that the people were standing in line for hours in below-freezing temperatures!

According to University of Calgary business professor Debi Andrus, more companies are turning to social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace to create a buzz about their products. She said it gives consumers the feeling that they are involved with the word of mouth and the advertising in general.

The next time somebody tries to downplay the effect of online ads or network marketing, remember this story. There are dozens more like it, too. Online marketing is the future of advertising, and these stories are likely to increase as more and more companies realize that fact.

You probably know that North Americans and Europeans are increasingly turning to the Internet to get all of their news and information. And you can even find online versions of your favorite newspapers and magazines. But did you know that this move towards a paperless medium is occurring all over the world?

A recent article on ChinaView.cn reported that more readers are visiting U.S.-based newspapers via the Internet. In 2007, there was an increase of six percent of online users, causing a sharp decline in the print medium’s advertising revenue.

The article went on to say that 60 million unique visitors logged on to U.S. newspaper websites last year, an increase of more than 3.5 million from the figures in 2006. The article also cited the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), stating that 39 percent of Internet users logged on to newspaper websites and the average visit lasted nearly 45 minutes each month.

One of the reasons for the large increase in visits is that many newspapers are adding user-friendly tools to their websites, according to Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Newspaper websites now have links to blogs, videos and other sources that enrich the online newspaper-reading experience. That’s just something you can’t get from reading the actual print media.

Newspapers are also seeing increased revenue from online advertising. But they still haven’t been able to replace the revenue gathered from the original printed product.

If your company depends on online marketing, these figures are exciting. It gives you more of an idea as to where to concentrate your advertising dollars and the return you can expect on your investment. Hop on the wagon while it’s hot and competition is less fierce!

If you’re like me, those floating ads that appear on some of the websites you visit get on your nerves. You may not have seen them because there are only a few websites on which they occur. If that’s the case, consider yourself lucky. More than once I’ve tried to click on the “Close” option and accidentally opened the ad completely.

I’m mentioning this because Google was reportedly about to introduce these annoyances on some of its pages. A representative from Google Adsense, however, squashed this rumor a few days ago. He also added that this would “never happen” because it violates the search engine’s advertising policies.

In addition to that, though, some users who have implemented floating ads into their adsense codes have had their accounts deleted lately. Google has also reduced the clickable area around the advertisements it places on pages in an effort to more accurately monitor what consumers are purchasing. Up until now, there have been a large number of erroneous clicks that only throw the statistics off.

These actions are indicative of Google’s ambition to become the single engine that Internet users go to whenever they search online. Because Google is creating more user-friendly websites and unintrusive advertisements on its pages, searchers feel less bombarded by companies trying to push their wares and more comfortable searching for anything they need.

What does this mean for the online marketing industry? It means that more people will see your pages with fewer frustrating advertisements. In the long run, it could mean more visitors and more profits. Who doesn’t like that?

There are so many steps and possibilities for achieving social media success that it’s hard to narrow them down to just one or two blog posts. Following is the second installment of three more tips to help you be successful in the ever-important world of social media networking and online marketing.

Digg in
Digg is one of the best ways to get your website and online company noticed. That’s why it’s so important to build relationships with the people using the Digg network. Usually, the users have their information listed on their pages, even their instant messaging screen names. Try to create relationships by contacting a few of these people each week to add to your network. By investing just a few minutes each day, you will spread your networking efforts over many social media websites .

Use Google’s many services
Have you ever thought about making a video relating to your company or services? With the popularity of YouTube, this could be a huge advantage in helping you reach your goals. Post your video and then build links to it through the other networking that you’re doing. It might be time-consuming at first, but the benefits will definitely be worth it.

Go global
It’s great to have your company’s message all over the World Wide Web in English. But you’d be surprised how much better you can network by posting the same message in different languages. With simple online translators like this one, you can make your content available in several different languages and then submit it to a broader range of networking sites. It only takes a few extra minutes, but it pays off very well for your networking goals.

Today, an effective online marketing strategy depends, at least in part, on the success of its social media plan.

Promoting your website’s content is only part of an overall plan to succeed. Effective marketing means becoming part of the network and trying to reach the forefront to gain recognition. Following are three important steps to help you and your business succeed in the world of social media marketing.

Add contacts regularly
Finding social networks that allow you to add contacts is a great way to build up your media strategy. Social sites like Myspace, Facebook and LinkedIn are large avenues to tap for new contacts. If you add just two contacts each week, you gain more than 100 contacts each year. The best part is that you can do this in just a few minutes each week. With a very small time investment, you reap benefits that can be priceless.

Consolidate your blog reader
Many people have dozens of RSS feeds and blog readers that they don’t need. Instead of spending your time reading all of these blogs, concentrate on a few that relate directly to your industry. Stay updated on the latest information and comment on the blogs you read regularly. Contact the blog’s author after a few weeks of commenting. This way, the author will be more likely to do some link-building with you because you will have formed at least some contact already. This might seem time-consuming, but it’s probably less time than you used to spend reading those dozens of blogs each day.

Participate in forums
Find a forum that relates to your industry and become an active member. Create a profile and add comments in the main part of the forum. You can also take it a step further and use the private message capabilities to introduce yourself to the more influential members of the forum in a polite yet personal manner. After building a relationship, you can slowly integrate your services or products with other forum members.

Look for more tips that lead to social media success in the next posting.

Do you ever consider what makes Web 2.0-minded systems like MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia, and LinkedIn so popular?

The obvious answer is because the users control their own experience and influence that of others. When you join these online communities you are able to present a compartmentalized version of who you are and network with everyone else in the system.

Kind of like real life, wouldn’t you say?

This is just how the real world works. We are all in a system (society) with rules and guidelines, or protocols to which we adhere to create a persona of our selves that we share with others and network. Naturally, any system that can mimic this sort of creativity and liberty in our online experience is going to win over some users.

When you look around you, one thing you see everywhere is advertising and it is usually loud, big, and bold. Take a drive down the highway to a metropolitan area and tell me what you see. Billboards, billboards, billboards. You see ads on bus stops and on buildings. You hear ads on radio, TV, and let’s not forget magazines. The point is, ads are everywhere and they are typically geared towards a particular audience that is likely to be viewing them.

The same goes for online advertising, but with the Internet, advertising can be taken a step further. There is a level of precision and reporting that go along with online advertising. So why, according to The Wall Street Journal, was only 5% of money spent on advertising done online?

I think it might have something to do with price. A quick analysis of advertising with The Wall Street Journal shows that a full page color ad for the US circulation would cost about $254,000. With 1.7M readers the advertiser is paying $0.15 an “impression”. Step down to a 1/7 page ad the advertiser cost would be about $28,400, or $0.016 per impression. A typical banner ad on the Web costs advertisers now about $20 CPM (cost per thousand impressions). This equates to about $0.02 per impression.

This is a very rough calculation but you get the point. The cost for advertising on the Web can be and typically is significantly less expensive which I think is the reason why 95% more money is spent in off-line advertising. This will change in time, and probably not too far off. There are companies out there getting a jump on this and with behavioral advertising hitting the scene, the cost for online advertising will rise steadily and quickly, possibly some day surpassing print and television advertising.