Automotive Blog Marketing — Does Keyword Density Matter?
One of the most common theories in automotive search engine marketing is the idea that a high keyword density results in better search engine results. But is it true? Does the highest possible keyword density really result in great rankings?
No. Well, maybe. OK, a little bit. Let’s explore.
First off, what is keyword density?
Keyword density is the percentage of your text that is made up of your keyword. If your page has 100 words and your keyword occurs once, you have a keyword density of one percent. If your keyword occurs ten times, you have a keyword density of ten percent.
Does keyword density give you high search engine rankings?
This is where things get complicated. Keyword density does certainly contribute to your search engine rankings, but not nearly as much as many people think it does.
When the internet was younger, search engine ranking algorithms were far more simple than they are now. It was assumed to be true that if someone enters the phrase “blue widgets” into a search engine, they want their results to show something that is highly focused on blue widgets and only blue widgets. Search engines used to believe that the more times “blue widgets” showed up in your text, the more relevant your page was to what they’re looking for.
Unfortunately, too many people got ahold of that information and started abusing the system. They stuffed pages and pages full of the same search term over and over. They were trying to game the system, and the search engines caught on. They changed the system so it couldn’t be gamed that way anymore.
The key with modern search engines is human relevance. Use your keyword frequently, but not so much that it wouldn’t make sense if read aloud. If it would look ridiculous to a human reader, it looks ridiculous to the search engines. Don’t eliminate your keyword entirely, but use common sense. Sprinkle it through the text, but do so sparingly.
If you build your site for search engines and visitors equally, you’ll have a head start on all the rest.
Automotive Search Marketing — What Are They Searching For?
We all hope for world peace. We hope for an end to hunger and famine. But what we really, really want is to be number one in Google.
Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not that hard to be number one in Google. It’s not a difficult process and it’s not as mysterious as a lot of people make it out to be. In fact, if you have a website, the odds are pretty good that your website comes up number one in search engines for something or other. But what?
The trick to doing well in automotive search engine marketing is to know what people are searching for and ranking for that. The most competitive search terms are often not what you want to be number one for.
What you really want to be number one for is the most common search phrase your customers type into a search engine when looking for something you sell. That’s it. That’s the secret to success.
For example, someone who lives in Brooklyn and wants to buy a new Nissan is not typing “cars” into their search engine of choice. They’re not typing “new cars” or “new car” or “Nissan”, either. So what are they searching for?
They’re searching for “Nissan dealership Brooklyn”. Or “where can I buy a Nissan in Brooklyn?”. Or “new Nissan Murano Brooklyn dealer website”.
Compared to “cars”, those are pretty easy search terms to rank for, don’t you think? There probably aren’t a whole lot of people who want to rank for “Nissan dealership Brooklyn”. That means almost all you have to do is try to rank for it and you’ve got a fairly good chance of success.
Remember that the key to success here isn’t being the top of the biggest pile in the world. All you have to do is be at the top of your own little pile and you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.
Does Your Branding Line Up?
With all the talk of online automotive marketing these days, it’s easy to get the impression that when you communicate with your customers online, you’re doing so in a vacuum. Online customers become a crowd full of strangers without faces or names or personalities. They don’t seem like the same real live human beings that come into your dealership and buy vehicles.
Consistency is arguably the most important aspect of branding, and that doesn’t just apply to your website. Yes, you want every page on your site to give the same impression. But you also want to give the same impression on the website as you do in the dealership, in your emails, and in any offline media advertising you purchase. Here are some things to think about.
Does your website scream “cheap”? if a customer comes to your website, is the first thing they see a huge flashing banner telling them about a sale or a discount? There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but is that the same impression they’ll get when they come into the dealership? If they go to the website and see huge yellow flashing discount signs and show up at the dealership and find somber salespeople in suits, you’re not giving a consistent message and you’re bound to make people uncomfortable.
On the other hand, is your site too serious? If you run a dealership that focuses on great pricing and your website gives no such impression, you could be leaving money on the table by turning off your ideal customers when they show up at your website.
Do your emails give the same impression as your website and your dealership? Emails are a great way to communicate your brand. Give your outbound emails an audit. Do your signatures promote the same values that your site promotes? Would somebody receiving your email be surprised when they walk in the door?
One of the best ways to get answers to these questions is to find someone impartial and objective to give your impressions about your different media types. Ask them what they think — you might just be surprised by their answers.
Does The Web Make Salespeople Redundant?
If you’re a regular reader of this publication, you’ll hear a whole lot about online auto marketing. You’ll hear about email campaigns and blogs and social media. You’ll hear about website design and website functions. You’ll learn everything you ever wanted to know about selling cars online.
With all this online selling, where does that leave the salesperson? Does the person selling the car even matter anymore? Does the customer even care?
Yes, yes, and yes.
It’s easy to forget about the role the salesperson plays in the sales process, especially in an age when it seems like every possible transaction is secured online. But the role of the salesperson has never been more important than it is today, and that won’t be changing any time soon.
In “the old days”, the role of the salesperson was broader. They informed the customer about their choices, they educated them, and they held their hand throughout the entire process. The salesperson told the customer what they needed to know.
Nowadays, the salesperson no longer holds a position of power. They are not the only member of the relationship with a knowledge of the inner workings of their cars. Customers have access to online forums, OEM websites, the dealer’s own websites, and more. They can read blogs and media publications about your cars and your dealerships. They know as much or more than the salesperson about the specs of the vehicle.
So what is the salesperson’s role in the process now?
The modern car salesperson has a great responsibility. They are directly and intimately involved with the most important part of any sales process. They have the sole power to make or break the deal.
The salesperson is responsible for the close, and for that they can never be replaced. Find good salespeople and keep them, or it doesn’t matter how pretty your website is — nobody will buy.
Engaging Your Customers through Internet Marketing
As an automotive dealer, you know it’s more difficult (and more costly) to find new customers than it is to keep existing ones. It’s simply not easy to bring new people to your dealership with so much competition in the automotive industry. That’s why it’s so important to keep your existing customers engaged with you and your facility as much as you can.
But how do you do that?
Many automotive dealers send out birthday cards and maintenance reminders to keep their names in their customers’ heads. But they are overlooking one major possibility: Internet marketing.
I’m not talking about using Internet marketing on your part to reach car-buying customers, though. I mean you can put a large amount of advertising for your business on your customers’ shoulders. With social media websites, YouTube and other popular online gathering places, your customers can spread the word about your dealership for you.
Think of it like this: The Internet is the new “word of mouth.” And any business owner knows that word of mouth is the best way to advertise. Unfortunately, unsatisfied customers are more likely to spread their dissatisfaction than satisfied customers are to spread their satisfaction with their experiences. Most satisfied customers won’t even take the time to post their pleasant experiences without any incentives.
If I’ve piqued your curiosity, come back on Wednesday to see how you can encourage and engage your existing customers to help promote your business by doing more than simply telling their friends.
Car dealers and manufacturers compete for online ad space
The days of seeing your local car dealer ads on TV are not going away, but dealer prominence in online advertising is now reaching unprecedented heights, giving car manufactures a new (but good) challenge. A recent report indicates that car manufacturers are finding competition for their ad slots, and that the competition is coming from none other than the car dealerships themselves.
Ad spending by dealers has increased dramatically over the last two years, and the increase has resulted in bidding wars on third party sites like Edmunds.com and Cars.com. Online ad spending by car dealerships was up to $32 million in 2007, and that number has more than doubled each year since 2005.
It’s a new plan of attack for car dealers to be involved in online advertising, but it’s on the upswing. “Buying space on the Web was never part of the strategy until recently, but now it’s 50% of the conversation,” said Pat Primm, a Cleveland area auto dealer.
Online ad pricing is measured in cost per thousand impressions — or CPM — and an ad spot that came with a $4 CPM price tag two years ago now costs $34. Advertising profits for Edmunds.com went up 64 percent in 2006 and another 93 percent in 2007. CEO Jeremy Anwyl says that “dealers and dealer associations are coming in after years of spending 90% of their ad budgets on TV. They are just now realizing that’s too much.”
While the third party websites are clearly the winners in this equation, the loser is the brand identity. With so many voices trying to tell the same story and sell the same product, the message being portrayed by the original equipment manufacturers can easily become diluted and confused. David Harris, the manager of ebusiness and CRM for Suzuki, Brea, California says,
“Our goal is to make sure we are communicating a consistent message. All of a sudden . . . you have a wide variety of messages.”
This is all the more reason for dealers to make sure they have effective online brand marketing strategies in place. Manufacturers have huge budgets to spend on researching the most effective ways to get the car’s message across. It’s vital to the dealership’s success that dealer marketing not only doesn’t conflict with that, but leverages it to their advantage.
Online advertising has become the new normal for car dealerships across the country. Twenty years ago, local TV advertising was the most effective and prominent method of marketing for automotive dealers, and the game has changed. This report is just the newest data that shows that a focused online brand marketing strategy will be the ticket to surviving and thriving in this new world of car sales.
Extending Brand Loyalty
“When it comes to pushing a brand, dealers can make all the difference on the front lines. Good dealers can increase brand loyalty, while those who struggle generally don’t drive return customers.”
Dealer-customer rapport, according to research from Carlson Marketing and the Peppers & Rogers Group, plays a vital role.
OEM’s do an extraordinary job with creating brand loyalty on the commodity, the automobile. They do this by creating an image that appeals to their targeted markets. They can even extend the brand commodity to a variety of market segments. But still the automobile must be acquired at the dealer level which means some sort of exchange must occur between dealer and customer.
What roles and responsibilities do dealers have in this process to live up to the name and reputation of the brand they represent? How can dealers extend the brand commodity they represent to create a unique brand experience for auto shoppers?
For dealers, emphasis is placed on two primary things:
- Price
- Service
If every dealer is offering the same 2 things to every customer, how then can the dealer treat “different customers differently” as the article suggests.
One way to reach out to customers in a personal undivided fashion is with your blog, or in a discussion forum or on a social site. In these places you can introduce topics, programs, incentives, and personnel. You can be part of conversations at the group level, micro group levels, and one-on-one.
The problem with automation is that you can’t treat different customers differently and so someone at the dealer level, if the dealer is going to differentiate itself from the competition, must come out and meet the customer one-on-one at some point. This can be accomplished physically, electronically, or through some sort of telecommunication. Direct mail campaigns do not accomplish this. Nor do electronic emails and automated email responses. Social media does.
But to accomplish this you need a presence in those social mediums. If you want to engage with Vox, Facebook, or Digg users then you need to have a presence on each of those sites. If you want to engage in a blog format you need a good blog with readership. These things takes vision, time, attention, technical skill, and more. So when you venture into this form of online brand marketing, do your research and consult those you trust. Most importantly, get to know the communities a bit and plan on applying this methodology for the indefinite future. The medium of exchange might be new, but the need to engage has and always will exist.
