Social Media

Post Inventory the Right Way to Facebook

Friday, May 17th, 2013

Cutter Chevrolet Rabbit

Here’s the sad truth about the way that most dealers are posting their inventory to Facebook. It’s not getting seen. None of it. Not at all.

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Accelerate Your Traditional Marketing with Digital Marketing to Inflate your Sales

Monday, May 13th, 2013

 

marketing strategy stree signs

Do you set yourself apart from the competition? With increased competition and market demand, it is imperative that dealers engage in unique marketing strategies that highlight their brand. The days of having the largest blow up animal and the highest balloon are over, and now is the time to capitalize on a diverse marketing strategy that increases exposure and engagement.
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Social Media Should Not Be a Checkbox with Reputation Management

Monday, May 13th, 2013

Checkbox

Over the past several months, we’ve been doing a ton of research in the automotive industry about how dealers perceive social media marketing. It’s something that has both thrilled and alarmed us because the results have been greatly mixed. On one hand, many dealers are starting to realize that social media is more than just a fluffy form of marketing that has not demonstrable ROI, a perception that had been growing in 2011 and 2012. Those tides have turned. However, the one alarming piece of information we discovered is that many dealers are considering social media to be a “checkbox item” for reputation management. In other words, if their reputation management provider offers social media, they’re covered.

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6 Elements of Facebook Marketing for Dealerships – Part 2

Monday, May 6th, 2013

 

In last week’s blog, we discussed the first 3 of Kathi Kruse’s 6 Elements of Facebook Marketing for Dealerships.  Continue leveraging your Facebook page using the final 3 steps:

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4.    Promotion Strategy – Building and increasing your fan base
There are a variety of ways to increase your fan base on Facebook. One of the most successful ways to engage your fans is to use Facebook ads. Design a graphic that is visually engaging, connecting your audience to your product. Your graphic should include a Call To Action that tells them exactly what you want them to do, such as, “Like this page to get an offer on….”

Promoted posts can boost your fan base even further. Once you find a graphic and Call To Action that you like, simply promote the post by clicking boost on the lower right hand corner. Paying to reach a larger fan base can increase your engagement by 3,000 views, with as little as $5 to $20 dollars.

Remember, keep testing, and find out what works best for you!
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Your Reputation Goes Well Beyond Reviews

Monday, May 6th, 2013

Review

There has been a promising trend in the automotive industry over the last couple of years. Dealers are starting to pay a good amount of attention to their online reputation, something that simply wasn’t a priority not too long ago. Today, it’s at the top of mind for most dealers. The only challenge is that many are taking action towards improving their reviews on sites like Yelp, Google, and Dealer Rater, but are not focusing at all on the other components of their reputation.

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Taking Social Media to the Next Level and Beyond at the Automotive Boot Camp

Saturday, March 30th, 2013

Philly Cheese Steak

It’s cheese steaks and education May 14-16 in Philadelpha as the good folks at First Class Educators are putting on their 4th annual Automotive Boot Camp. This is going to be one a bit different for us as I get to do something I’ve been dying to do for a long time – talk advanced social media marketing with the attendees.

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5 Digital Steps To Generate Massive ROI From Direct Mail

Monday, March 4th, 2013
Automotive Mailer

Automotive Service Mailer from 1928

As you can see from the image, direct mail hasn’t changed much in the past 90 years (except for the prices!).  Why should it?  It works to get good looking information in front of a lot of people very quickly, and consumers have a financial mindset when looking through their mail because that is how all their bills come.  I’ve done a $4,000 minimum trade-in guarantee direct mail piece that had a higher ROI of any digital advertising all year long.

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Four Engaging Content Types for Your Dealer Website

Sunday, March 3rd, 2013

Pohanka Acura Content

For the most part, most dealers understand the importance of having content on their websites. They know that search engines love unique content and if they have any hope of ranking well for keywords other than their own name, they need content to help expand their reach.

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Fix Your Orphans (the dormant social media profiles, that is)

Friday, March 1st, 2013

Facebook Orphan

The image above shows the last four Facebook activities by a major car dealership in a metro area. Over three months ago, they abandoned their page. This could easily be a very long post where I go into details about how this is wrong on so many levels, but I’ll keep it short because if you’re reading this, chances are very strong that you’re a savvy dealership that would never let this happen.

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Social Media isn’t for Every Dealer but it May be for You

Monday, February 18th, 2013

Vintage Studebaker Ad

Here’s a stark truth that may make some of our competitors, employees at Facebook, and even some of my own employees a little upset: car dealers don’t need social media marketing to be successful. Search, proper website maintenance, display ads, reputation management, and mobile marketing may all have a claim of being more important that social media when it comes to driving leads and foot traffic to a dealership.

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