Building Your Online Business Community
Online Business Communities have rapidly become a competitive marketplace. Companies are investing millions into their own communities, and with mixed results.
According to a recent article on SocialMediaToday.com, author Jerry Bowles writes “…several giant corporations have launched online business communities aimed at engaging small business owners and managers through a conversational social media approach” and lists more than half a dozen companies having invested $1M to $5M each into their Online Business Communities. Membership counts in these online communities range from single digits to tens of thousands. Time obviously a major factor for low member counts, but not the only reason.
Sites such as LinkedIn and Plaxo which are universally geared towards Online Professionals and fall in to the Social Networking category generate a lot of buzz traffic and offer a useful way to keep connected with close and distant contacts have an advantage in that they are not tied to a tight niche market or industry. Online Business Communities for big corporate well-known and established companies such as those listed in Bowles’ article, e.g. American Express, Visa, Dell, Intuit/QuickBooks, have the luxury of pre-exisitng large member groups with common and also recurring needs and interests specific to those organizations and their products also have an edge with their Online Business Communities because of those factors.
But one category of Online Business Communities to question are those in the niche market segments or industries that are starting up. We touched on the subject a couple weeks ago with DrivingSales.com, but there are others. The challenge with such Online Business Communities is their unique value proposition. Without an actual product or service, what are these online communities accomplishing? What can they do to develop and keep an audience aside from developing an audience for the sake of it?
Bowles makes some excellent observations that are good take-aways from his article which such all communities must consider.
3. The quality of the content of a web community trumps the most well-financed demand generation program. No amount of promotion can keep people coming to a community that is not engaging and useful.
6. Participants in smaller business communties are more engaged and likely to participate than those in bigger communities so make your community only as big as it needs to be. Two thousand engaged and qualified potential customers is better than a million page views.
8. That leads to what I modestly call Jerry’s corollary: the online communities that are most likely to succeed are those that are focused narrowly on engaging buyers of specialized, high-end products.
A concern with Online Business Communities that sprout from venture capital and which are designed for niche market segments and industries rather than evolving naturally from its customer audience is that through mere idealism they are putting the cart before the horse so to say in that they expect a software communications system to perpetuate the need for a business model.
MySpace evolved out of the need for bands to promote themselves which led to widespread popularity in promotion of individual persons. Facebook evolved that commodity into a more marketer-friendly environment. Both of these catered to a specific generation (or two). LinkedIn honed that down to a universal class of people, i.e. Online Business Professionals. But these sites are ultimately appeal to millions which is what gives them a chance to be successful.
Banking your model on something that will only appeal to a few thousand people makes for tremendous challenge. It limits advertising capabilities and puts you at the disadvantage with conversions and numbers.
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.
Automotive Search Marketing — Long Tail Keywords
A lot of people seem to think that search engine marketing is the most difficult thing in the world. Automotive dealership website and blog owners think are under the impression that there is great mystery surrounding search engine success, and that it’s more luck of the draw than anything else.
They couldn’t be more wrong.
When planning your online automotive search marketing strategy, the important thing to remember is that you’re not out to beat the search engines. You’re out to beat your competitors. The fastest way to beat your competitors is to stop competing for the same terms.
But how can you do that when you’re all trying to secure the same competitors?
Change the game.
Nobody can guarantee you that you’ll rank for this term or that term in the search engines. Nobody can promise you that you’ll get the perfect search term. What they can do, though, is give you the tools to rank for numerous “long tail” keywords that in the end will add up to the same results as one first tier keyword.
Here’s an example. If you’re trying to rank for “used cars Pennsylvania”, you’re going up against every other used car dealership in the state. You’re probably also going up against places that aren’t even dealerships. People selling cars on online auction sites, newspapers, automotive publications, the whole works.
But what if you were to try to rank for something completely different? Something more attainable? How about titling a blog post “Where can I find the best used car deal in Pittsburgh?” The chances of the rest of your competitors having the same title are pretty slim.
These longer search terms are called “long tail” keywords because instead of allowing you to achieve a major spike in success in the short term, they allow you to achieve long term success. On a graph, the long tail is what comes after the spike. Master the long tail and you’ll master the search engines.
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 Existing Customers, Part Two
Are you interested in keeping your current car-buying customers while still reaching out to potential new customers? Do you want to do this while keeping costs down? In today’s economy, cutting costs is the name of the game for any business owner, especially automotive dealers. Here is how you can use your advertising budget, your satisfied customers and the Internet to reach out to new customers.
Sponsor a Video Contest
Imagine the impact on your bottom line if dozens of your satisfied customers created a YouTube video based on their pleasant experiences at your dealership. As nearly everybody has a video camera and a computer nowadays, customers can easily create a video and post it to the site. And it’s free! Offer a gas card or some other incentive for the winner of the best video, and you’ll be surprised how much publicity your dealership receives from such a simple request.
Share Experiences on Your Site
You’d be surprised how many people will create a blog or a video with a promise that you’ll link to it from your dealership’s website. They’ll appreciate the traffic they receive and the publicity, too. Simply ask your satisfied customers to create something on their websites that discusses their experiences at your facility, and be sure to include a link on your website. It doesn’t get much more inexpensive than that!
Stir Up Their Creativity
Ask existing customers to create a short, 50-word description of the car they bought from your automotive dealership. Ask them to allow you to put it on the inventory section of your website. Many customers will just enjoy knowing that you used their descriptions, but you can offer a small prize for their efforts.
If you want to keep your customers engaged with your dealership so they’ll come back when it’s time for a purchase, use a variety of methods that appeal to them. These three ideas utilize social media and online automotive marketing, but using other ways is important, too.
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.
Spreading Marketing Seeds Around the Web
So you have a blog or a website that promotes your online brand marketing message. You maintain the blog and make daily updates as well as ensuring it has relevant and fresh content each time. But if that’s the only thing you’re doing, you’re missing out on a whole World Wide Web of opportunities. Consider the following tools to increase your web presence and get your brand noticed more widely.
Twitter
This free social network service allows members to send updates to their account through text-based applications. Updates are generally 140 characters long, giving the website the reputation of being a micro-blogging service. The updates are posted on the user’s front page and other users can see them or sign up for a feed to be alerted when a user updates their site.
LinkedIn
As a business-oriented social networking site, many professionals frequent LinkedIn to maintain a list of contacts and details for people in their business. Last December, the website reported more than three million visitors each month, making it a great way to get your brand marketing noticed.
Squidoo
This is a blogging website that allows anybody with Internet access to set up page that deals with anything they want. Content creators share in advertising revenue, but it’s generally a site that garners high traffic. By posting a large amount of content about your brand, business, products, services or anything else relevant to your company, you can spread the word to potentially millions of readers.
There are so many websites and methods for getting your brand noticed by the online community. We’ve discussed three of them here, but there are probably dozens more. We’ll discuss more websites in the future to help you even more.
Characteristics of “Gotta Buyers”
There are two different groups that auto dealers need to reach to be successful with their online brand marketing campaigns: the “wanna buyesr” and the “gotta buyers.” Yesterday we listed the characteristics of the wanna buyers. Today we’re going to list the characteristics of the gotta buyers.
Characteristics of Gotta Buyers
• As the name implies, these customers are generally in a bind and they need to buy vehicles soon.
• They usually have vehicles that have broken down or need repairs that are too expensive.
• These buyers are generally recent graduates or have had recent changes in their situations that necessitate second cars in their households.
• Gotta buyers generally have credit issues that could create problems in financing some higher-priced vehicles.
• Many of these customers are open to the possibility of new vehicles if the dealership can “make it happen.”
• This is one the groups with the most profit potential for a dealer.
• Gotta buyers are in the market for new vehicles now.
Tips for Marketing to Gotta Buyers
• Price is typically the most important aspect of buying a car for this demographic.
• Gas prices and mileage are other important aspects of the purchase.
• Your dealership’s financing capabilities will play a major role in this group’s decision to purchase.
• Solicit phone calls for credit pre-approval.
• Emphasizing the ease with which you can get them approved will bring them to your dealership to make their purchases.
• Give your sales staff a stack of business cards to hand out to people they meet that are in the gotta-buy category. This will make the customers feel like they’ve got a “friend” in the car business and give them more confidence in your dealership.
Five SEO Tools of the Pros
Whether you’re new to the SEO industry or simply trying to add tools to your existing toolbox of resources, it’s always good to see what others are doing. Here are five important tools that SEO experts are using for online brand marketing, Internet marketing or any other goals.
1. Wordtracker
This handy website is an SEO user’s best friend. This is where you can find out what words people use when searching for the types of products or services that you offer. It also ranks the popularity of the different words that typical Internet users use, so you can tailor your website around the most popular keywords.
2. Google Analytics
With this resource, you can learn where your webpage visits originate and what the visitors are doing once they get to your page. And those are only two of many bits of information that Google Analytics provides so you can make your website as efficient as possible.
3. Thumbshot Rankings
You can find how certain keywords rank against each other so you can optimize your website more efficiently. It also gives you important statistics; for example, the average Internet user only visits the top two results provided by a search engine.
4. Copyscape
Everybody who has written for the Internet knows what this tool is. Copyscape helps prevent plagiarism by searching the billions of websites for copied content. This comes in handy if you’ve hired somebody to write content or if you want to make sure that other websites aren’t copying your existing content.
5. Webposition
As a website owner, you can use this resource to report your rankings, target your keywords, optimize your webpages and much more. It also includes trend graphs and tips for increasing revenue.
Breaking Down Barriers in Your Niche Blog
One of the best ways to reach your online brand marketing goals is to create and maintain a niche blog related to your product or service. But the explosion of blogs in the blogosphere has made it more difficult to ensure that readers notice your blog amid a sea of millions, or even billions, f blogs. We will be offering a number of tips in the coming weeks to help you set your blog apart from the others and attract notice on the search engines.
Today’s tip for creating a more noticeable blog is this: Be Significant.
Those two words can bring your blog to the forefront of the blogosphere and increase your chances of drawing attention. Now here’s how you can make your blog significant:
• Generate a reaction among the readers
Reactions lead to comments. And comments lead to interaction between you and the readers. Comments also increase visits because readers who make comments will often return to see if anybody has replied to their comments.
• Be concise
New readers lose patience if they see a lot of long paragraphs. In fact, some will skip a blog altogether if it looks wordy. Say what you need to say in as few words as possible. If it turns into a longer blog, create some breaks so it appears easier to read at a glance.
• Sound passionate
If you don’t believe what you’re saying or you’re simply uneducated about it, your readers will know. Blog readers are looking for new information when they come to a blog. And they want somebody to be passionate about the topic.
• Build links
Search engines favor blogs that have inbound and outbound links. Create links to other articles and blogs in your post (see below) to have a better chance of getting noticed.
According to the blogger Skellie, there are also four ways to tell if your blog is at risk of getting lost in the midst of the millions of others:
• It doesn’t get submitted to social media websites like Digg, StumbleUpon or others.
• Visitors don’t usually comment.
• Few, if any, other blogs link to your blog.
• Few people subscribe to your blog.
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