Marketing in tough times
There is an old saying about marketing that goes, “Reducing your marketing to save money is like trying to stop a clock to save time.”
Multiple times this week I have had people tell me they would employ our services if they could “afford it” or “had the time” to invest. Some of my initial responses were:
- What makes you think you can’t afford it?
- When do you expect to have time?
- Time must be created.
Time is real, to you and me. But you must be cautious about confusing it with money or leaning on it like a crutch.
Believe me, I get it. There is not enough time in the day to accomplish everything you need. I experience this most of the time. But then there is the saying to God about granting you the serenity to accept the things you can not change, to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Now, it is because you can not escape time you must use it to your advantage. This, I would argue, is where you must learn to create time.
If you have a reason or excuse or a really good justification for not communicating your message then you are attempting to stop the clock and that is not realistic. You must reach your audience. Some suggestions I would throw out there include to…
- Be attentive not to quantify your effectiveness by one measure only.
- Be sure to communicate your message in multiple formats and circumstances.
- Invest time and money, but only when it meets your goals and objectives
- Have goals and objectives
- Define your goals and objectives
Ok enough of the hints. This week I have had people express an interest in spending money to market their cause, and people finding reasons not to. Hm mm, I wonder who you are more likely to encounter???
Car Dealers and Web 2.0
There is a lot of talk these days about blogging and Web 2.0 for car dealers. But when you cut through the fluff of what is discussed on these topics what you will find is that there is an abundance of “dealers should use Web 2.0″ proclamations and not much in the way of how, i.e. REAL SOLUTIONS.
Over the past couple weeks I have come across emails from companies touting messages to car dealers on the use of blogging and social media, driving high-quality or residual site traffic, and building long-term relationships with customers. While these topics alone are not particularly new for dealers, they do signify to me a new era in Automotive Internet Marketing because of the source of these marketing messages and their timing and context.
While there certainly is value in blogging and social media, this is still uncharted territory for car dealers. Primarily because these forms of marketing, these “tools” so to say, do not in-and-of themselves produce results. Rather it is in how these tools are utilized throughout your dealership that will make a difference in your business.
A good analogy to contrast the use of Web 2.0 as part of your marketing strategy is to consider your DMS and your CRM. Dealers typically make a pretty hefty up front investment to implement such systems into their business and then spend months training and learning the systems before they really experience the full benefits, sometimes even a good year or so.
With Web 2.0 dealers can expect to spend several months building what we call their virtual infrastructure just to have a chance at cultivating a truly engaged customer audience fit for doing business in your interactive marketing arena. All things considered, I suggest writing off the first 6-9 months as R&D versus marketing and advertising.
I am weary of venturing into the early web days of the auto industry where dealers were battered into making web investments because “they should” that not only didn’t prove fruitful but also that created a rift between car dealers and the “Internet Customer” that dealers are still paying for today.
If you want to get in to Web 2.0, start by defining what you want to see it accomplish and then work with your providers to obtain those objectives. This will prove more beneficial than throwing money at it and waiting around for something to happen because someone suggested to “just get into it”.
The trickle effect in new and used car sales
The meat of this article by Arianne Walker in Online Automotive Review is iterated in the final paragraph:
Even though OEMs and dealers have been shifting their marketing budgets online, the data shows that most should probably be accelerating that transition, putting even more money where shoppers – new and used alike – are increasingly going.
These trends are consistent with the recent Cobalt-Polk-Yahoo! study on new vehicle buyer behavior in how it directly and indirectly influences used vehicle purchases.
When I think of car sales, I think of long-term retention. But immediate sales are important to. While you need to invest into new and used car advertising, a primary benefit with investing in to new vehicle advertising is that the investment not only trickles down into used car sales, but it even influences used car sales. That is what the study suggests at least.
This is a key topic today for dealers and providers. Dealers today are cautious of where and how they shift their marketing dollars. It is widely known that the Internet offers the greatest ROI, however establishing your online brand recognition is not an event, it is an establishment that requires years of vision, commitment, and dedication from dealers and their providers.
Dealers must be prepared to take risks and to embrace long-term change in order to meet auto shoppers in advance, but it can be done with the right tools and techniques.
Blogging 101 for Car Dealers
Since 2007 we have dedicated this blog to be a working demonstration of our RSS Marketing product. The purpose of RSS Marketing was for SEO promotion and it was highly effective, but RSS Marketing did not engage your audience.
In June 2008 we got away from using this blog for RSS purposes. Below is the original blog post that was published here. We have only modified the introductory paragraph but the remainder is in tact.
Enjoy…
I miss the networking aspect of blogging, and the empirical mentality that good blogging perpetuates. We call this Relational Marketing in our product and it is a next step in the evolution of AutoConversion products. That’s right. Now that we have proven the effectiveness of RSS Marketing and have built it in as a core component to our SEO promotion, we are evolving into the next realm of Blog Marketing for Car Dealers – Relational Marketing.
Two years ago when I first got in to blogging, it wasn’t even a buzz word in automotive. There were a few people doing it, such as Jake Jacobson from Higher Turnover, Jeff Kershner from DealerRefresh, Umer Farooq from AutoJini, and Brian Hoecht from Ai-Dealer. We got to know one another a bit from our blogging and still do today. In fact, as many have witnessed, Kersh’s blog has elevated his own career and even inspired many another to take a crack at it.
But there are numerous applications of blogging which pose a choice for Car Dealers today. You have guys like Alex Snyder effectively blogging for Dealership awareness and promotion. You also have guys like Paul Rushing of ISM in Training who blog for what we call Personal Branding, which is essentially using the blogosphere to literally sell cars. I see this as the future of a Car Dealer Salesman quite frankly.
So, as I reflect on the magnificence of where blogging today leaves us, I truly look forward to getting back in to the swing of things at the “relational” level here. For those that still frequent the AC Blog, I commend you for your diligence considering the impersonal nature of our content these past months with the RSS Marketing. But if you are out there and reading this, then may the force continue to be with you.
Here’s to blogging and relationships!
Cheers, -RG
One Dealership of infinite possibilties
Wanted to take advantage of message by Seth Godin in one of his recent blogs. The blog touches on the subject of how Search, or search engines, makes the infinite more finite. It’s a valid point. The masses have come to rely on search engines for helping to initiate or at least narrow down a person’s infinite number of choices. But what does this mean for businesses?
Businesses, Car Dealerships included, can not be everywhere in Search and so you must be selective about where you position your website. If you focus entirely on where your competition is then you are missing out on opportunities to reach market share where you competition is not. By the same token, if you focus solely on where your competition is not then you will miss out on a lot of your market share. Alas, you need a balanced strategy for both.
This is where data and research become important. There is data available and there are tools that are accessible for determining where and how to position your website. For instance, Axandra and Web CEO which are two of the more popular software programs for researching and managing SEO (and to some extent your PPC efforts). There are also good online tools such as Webmaster Toolkit which are good for researching Search Markets too.
Car Dealerships have two choices…they can invest time and training into utilizing these tools effectively, or else they can rely on trusting providers to assist with or even manage these things on their behalf. Regardless, someone needs to be on top of these things in order for dealerships to thrive in today’s online marketplaces. For Dealers that do rely on providers to do this, which is the majority, they still need to be responsible for where and how these providers do position their dealer customer websites.
It’s all about supply and demand and while you do want to position your site where there is an abundance of demand, you also want to position yourself where there is little supply. You can obtain a lot of market share by positioning your site in spaces that are frequented and not saturated with suppliers.
So when it comes to Search Engine Marketing for Car Dealers, remember that you do not need to be everywhere for everyone. You do need however, a well-balanced mixture of visibility within your competitor markets and the market spaces where you can be the bright and shiny star in a galaxy of infinite possibilities.
Shouts out to Andy at Vinart for forwarding the Godin article.
Car buyers demand competitive pricing and dealer transparency
If you ask customers what they want from the companies from whom they buy, you probably won’t be surprised by their responses. Studies show that Customers primarily want two things:
- Competitive pricing, and
- Auto Dealers to be transparent with information in a timely and professional manner
According to a recent study by Cobalt, Yahoo!, and Polk, the advent and advancement of the internet have made it possible for customers to demand this from all of the companies with whom they do business. No businesses are more affected by this than Car Dealerships. For most people, their vehicles are more expensive than anything they’ll ever buy but not live in, and saving money and hearing the truth are especially important in the car buying process.
The study reveals that the impact of a customer’s online brand marketing experience in the car buying process cannot be overstated. In every area of their lives, customers are going online to research, to learn, and even to shop, and the purchase of an automobile is no different.
The study found that one of the most crucial aspects of the online brand marketing process is responding to customer inquiries. People are spending an incredible sum of money on their car, and they’re bound to have questions. Customers are taking the dealer responses to their questions very seriously, and for good reason.
A recent article in Dealer magazine on the study says “simply initiating a response is not enough to build customer loyalty. Rather, dealers must respond as consumers request, factoring in content, speed and method of response, in order to increase the chance of selling a vehicle.” It should be obvious, but when a customer wants an email instead of a phone call, or they would prefer to be phoned before 5 o’clock, it makes sense to take heed and communicate with them in the manner they choose.
The concept of sharing experiences with personal networks is not a new one — we’re all familiar with one person telling two friends and those friends telling two more. Existing and potential customers now have access to methods of group communication previously inconceivable to marketing departments. With the rise of internet usage, those two friends are still being told, but they’re being told publicly and there are a whole lot more than two of them.
With forums, blogs, rating sites and social media becoming the fastest growing methods of information transfer, giving customers a professional and helpful experience is more vital than ever before. Automobile dealers have the opportunity to capitalize on good customer relationships and experience growth at exponential rates.
Protecting Your Online Reputation
As a dealer with an automotive blog or website, you know the importance of online brand marketing. It’s what sets you apart from the myriad of other automotive dealers in the nation and even in your local area. That’s why you always want to ensure that you put the best information “out there” and have a reputable site.
But how do you protect your online reputation when people can post whatever they want on the Internet? One disgruntled customer could cost you sales. Here are a few tips to protect your brand and your marketing strategies so you can defend yourself and keep as many potential customers as possible.
• Google Yourself
This is the easiest way to see what’s in cyberspace about you or your business. Simply type your name into the Google search engine to find out what information already exists about you.
• Create an Alert with Your Name or Your Dealership’s Name
I’ve done this with my own name just so I can see if anybody is posting anything untrue about me online. You can easily create an alert through Yahoo or Google that will send you an e-mail whenever somebody posts your name online.
• Respond to Negative Comments
When customers are happy with their experience at an auto dealership, they typically don’t create a blog post or any other written statement expressing their satisfaction. But dissatisfied people will. And sometimes, they’ll even exaggerate the truth or just make completely false statements. If you see this, do your best to respond, whether by commenting or by contacting the person who posted the information. It might not be a big help, but at least you get your side of the story out there, too.
Social media for your profit centers
In a recent article by Bobby Malatia of Kain Automotive titled, “Creating Your Internet Dealership”, Malatia identifies several things for dealers to consider when attempting to utilize the Internet for sales in all profit centers versus just car sales. One of the items he presents is the idea of using “landing pages or microsites” to promote the different products in your business. Malatia suggests that they do not have to be “branded by the dealership itself”.
Malatia is right and it brings up a good point.
Consumers are more interested in your product than they are your commodity. Your product is the unique value your company creates, e.g. your brand, by helping customers gain the most utility from your commodity. In the case of car dealers, your commodity is not just automobiles for sale but other things such as service of course and your financing programs, car parts and after market items, rentals, etc.
Within each profit center you often have more than one market audience. Because of this, you might be better off creating a variety of landing pages and microsites to reach out to each of these different consumer audiences.
This is where social media sites can come in to play. In fact, using social media for each profit center and for each consumer audience could be an extraordinary way to accomplish this form of online brand marketing.
For instance, MySpace is probably not the best place to promote high line or luxury vehicles, however it is very fertile land for after market parts and accessories of some economical performance vehicles such as Mazda and Subaru. You could create create multiple MySpace profiles to represent each of these particular market niches, this giving your dealership, or retail center, several representations of its business across numerous social media sites. The primary work entailed to accomplish this is the setup of each profile, but once you have integrated it with the sales process of each profit center then from there it is simply a matter of promoting it via content and SEO.
Imagine a future where automotive retail is not just a physical showroom with a corresponding website but a diverse array of physical and virtual representations of each unique profit center in the dealership that has an automated sales CRM process built into it custom tailored to each specific market niche. That would be applied technology.
