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Powered Webinar: “Influence the Influencer: Creating Brand Advocates with Social Marketing”

Featuring Jill Griffin and Allen Silkin

Date: Thursday, November 12th

Time: 2pm Central / 1pm Mountain / 12pm Pacific / 3 pm Eastern
Duration: 1 Hour

Get the details and register to attend

Consumers are more demanding than ever and earning their loyalty gets more
difficult every day.  Turning them into brand advocates is the holy grail of
marketing and the best source of advertising.  But many companies rely solely
on traditional marketing tactics to facilitate customer loyalty.  This
approach will fall short of the mark unless social marketing is
integrated into the mix. 

Join Jill Griffin, The Loyalty Maker, and Allen Silkin of Atkins
Nutritionals as they help you learn how to "Influence the Influencer:
Creating Brand Advocates with Social Marketing". To attend, please
complete the form to the right.

Social marketing helps companies reach audiences in new and more meaningful
ways and opens up incredible possibilities for building lasting relationships
with consumers.  Not only does social marketing provide a way to communicate
with consumers on a personal level, it also provides consumers a voice they
have not had in decades: they blog and tweet their brand opinions, they rate
and review products, they participate in online discussions and
they recommend brands based on their experiences.  If your company is looking
for ways to tap into social marketing to create brand advocates, then you
need to attend this Webcast.

Jill and Allen will discuss:

  • Four ways to tell if a customer in your advocate
  • How to climb Advocacy Hierarchy
  • Why complainers must be managed and how to do it
  • 9 ways to minimize detractors and maximize advocates
  • How to get online communities spreading your good name

About our Panelists:

Jill Griffin Headshot

Jill Griffin, The Loyalty Maker

Jill Griffin
empowers firms to attract, keep, grow and win-back high value customers.
Clients served include Microsoft, Dell, Toyota, Marriott, Hewlett-Packard,
Wells Fargo, Western Union, and Sprint. Jill's book
Customer
Loyalty: How to Earn It, How to Keep It
 was named to Harvard
Business School's Working Knowledge list and has been published in six
languages. Her coauthored book,
Customer Winback
,
earned Soundview Executive Book Summaries' Best Books Award. Jill newest book
is
Taming the Search-and-Switch Customer: Earning Customer
Loyalty in a Compulsion-to-Compare World
 (Jossey-Bass/Wiley,
2009).

Jill serves on the board of directors for restaurant chain Luby's
Incorporated, a New York Stock Exchange company with 95 locations and roughly
six thousand employees. In addition, Jill serves on the board of the Austin
Convention and Visitors Bureau as well as the Tri-Cities Chapter of the
National Association of Corporate Board Directors. Jill has served on the
marketing faculty at the University of Texas (UT) McCombs School of Business.
Her books have been adopted as textbooks for MBA and undergraduate customer
management courses taught at UT, Northwestern, and other universities. She is
a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina Moore
School of Business from which she graduated, magna cum laude, with Bachelor
of Science and MBA degrees. In 2003, Jill received the Moore School's
Distinguished Alumna award. An in-demand speaker, Jill keynotes conferences
worldwide.

Allen Silkin Headshot

Allen Silkin, Atkins Nutritionals

Allen is a seasoned internet veteran who specializes in monetizing traffic
and content to generate revenue via advertising sales, ecommerce and
subscription sales. He experience includes managing internet operations at
CBS SportsLine.com, eDiets.com and HealthGrades, Inc. His knowledge includes
help companies improve their marketing efforts of social media, ad serving,
media planning, sales funnel optimization (A/B and Multi Variable testing),
search engine optimization and marketing.

Get the details and register to attend

November 11, 2009 by Gary May 0
Customer Relationship Management: It’s The Message, Not Software That Sells

Three vendors, multiple pitches, agonizing internal conversations, budget decisions, integration, contract, training and the big fat check (every month). Now: simply turn it on and have it send messages for you and you win! Right? Wrong!

How in the world are we continually convinced that a solution 'in the box' is the right one for our multi-million dollar businesses?  Are most dealers now buying software and technology the same way that we've bought DMS for the past 20 years?  We have Dell build our own laptops down the finest detail, change the covers on our cell phones so they're more 'us', put 20's on our otherwise stock cars, and wear clothes that says 'me'. But we send out messages to everyone that's the same and expect them to respond, let alone come in, buy and refer? What a joke!

Here's a clue: if it takes more work and you don't see the results immediately, you're probably heading in the right direction. Why would you send a message (email, text, direct mail, etc) to someone that has a F-150 XLT from your store an offer for a $29 oil change that has small print disclaiming the offer is for 4-cylinder cars? How about sending someone that just leased a new Lexus IS250 from your dealership three months ago an offer that's $40 less per month or that has $1,000 less drive off for the same payment?

If you want to use CRM, treat it like a CRM tool by segmenting your customers in your database, updating regularly, creating different campaigns (start with something difficult, let's say like whether they're male or female) and start with unique messages and offers. It might even work!

Do you use your CRM, an eNewsletter and a company that markets specifically for declined service follow ups (if not more vendors)? Since you've created your own mess, at least hold each vendor responsible to running consistent (non-concurrent) uniquely-branded content that offers readers something that they won't likely want to ignore. What's meant by ignore? If you statistics show supposedly great open and click rates and you don't see a relative increase in traffic, people are likely ignoring your messages.

Have you started using social media as a CRM avenue? Think about it this way: do you believe that you have more customers opening your newsletter (with the same content as everyone else in your PMA) or using Facebook regularly? Don't answer out loud, but why don't you put your current, and archived, newsletters with a link on your Facebook Fan Page and every time you update, all of your followers get it in their feed and emai?

Instead of spending $10,000 a month on direct mail with a 2-6% open rate, send them via Twitter, Facebook and Plaxo for practically $0 and schedule the offers to be sent on specific dates, specific hours and with exact details. Considering that likely under 5% of direct mail is actually integrated into all marketing, your social media CRM efforts will pay huge dividends with less effort. Remember not to forget the most important part, the message.

If you believe that Customer Relationship Management is still about advertising, be prepared to have your (rear end) handed to you by more dynamic, engaged dealerships that have embraced the digital CRM revolution in addition to their CRM software. If the emails you send out to leads don't even have a link to your favorite reputation management site, links to your social media profiles and at least a 'why to buy' item like an intro video or photos of the car they will likely buy, you need to stop and really think over your CRM plan.

Treat Customer Relationship Management as its name implies rather than the 'other' CRM: customer-regardless mumble-jumble. Oh, and one more point: never stop asking questions. It's what you do when you stop talking and start listening.

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

November 1, 2009 by Gary May 1
Why Hit The Panic Button When You Can Hit The Simple Button?

Can't you just hear it in the background when you try to explain the shift to digital/social marketing from traditional 'push' marketing to a business like, oh let's say, a car dealer? A chorus fills your head from 1978: "Aaahh Freak out!  Le Freak, C'est Chic, Freak out!". Scary enough, our sales volumes are near 1978 levels and we continue to advertise as if it were.

From forums on DrivingSales to articles on Advertising Age to the offices of medium- to large-sized dealer groups, there is still a debate. That's' mind boggling! Consumers are gobbling up media at alarming rates. Their chosen media, not advertising. Do you still believe it was the advertisers that killed the newspapers? It's much easier to accept than understand that people don't need to read yesterday's news that they already got online or on their cell phone the day before.

So, people do what people do when they just don't understand: freak out, panic, sweat, worry, bury their heads. Come on, take out the Simple button (thanks for the idea Staples!) and start working and communicating WITH everyone. If you don't understand SEO, social media, microsites, true CRM, integration and the whole list of items that aren't a print, radio or TV ad then simply ask our community. Stop being in love with your advertisements and start being in love with your customers!

Changing the way we generate traffic is not easy, but it is incredibly simple. What is usually missing from any effective digital strategy at dealers is (1) process, (2) stick-to-it-iveness, (3) oversight, (4) knowledge, (5) willingness and (6) a burning desire to succeed. Why wait when you can dominate? The wait mentality really gets my goat. You might as well sell you business if you're going to wait.

Last week while speaking at a NADA 20 Group, one dealer had less than 20% of their marketing budget in digital/online. His explanation? "Hasn't worked!". His process? Buying the same way he buys weekend spot or full-page ads. Folks, online is not a "stick-your-toe-in-the-water-and-see-if-it-feels-good" proposition. All of the transparency and accountability is there, no other media measures like online!!

Whether it's wanting to "own" page one of Google by partnering with a strong SEO company (especially if your website company thinks SEO is simply a typo of CEO), to sharing great content on Facebook or Twitter, effectively engaging service customers with a tool like Driverside, or doing effective CRM with a company like DealerSocket or VINSolutions, it's the same: if you don't know, ask.

If you don't have the best brand possible reflected online, over 60 percent open rates for your emails, positive onliine reputation, inventory that can be indexed by the search engines (you don't if it's framed-in on your website) and a community that communicates with you online, it's time to get your business in order before spending thousands and thousands of dollars every month because someone's convinced you that they can sell more cars for you (if they're that strong, hire them and get rid of your deadwood).

Polish up your Simple button and use it because you should be operating a profitable business and not a charity and blind contribution machine. In other words, make your business right before you continue to help make others right (and more profitable that yours)…

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

October 27, 2009 by Gary May 0
Reputation Management: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

This post should really be titled: Reputation Management: Can't I Just Ignore It? It's amazing that another year, and some great social media presentations, has passed with dealers still not understanding that they live and die by their reputation. They know it, they don't understand it. Or else everyone would be tackling their Achilles' heel.

It wasn't too long ago that dealers knew their customers by name, would give up their own car if a client's died on the way home, attended the events they sponsored and generally made sure their name (and brand) was sterling. Then came the 'glut years' of the mid-80s to about two years ago. Dealers practically printed money for 20 years or so and then the dance ended.

Volume, massive profits, huge staffs and even traffic have mostly gone in the same direction as reputation: downhill. With the exception of some forward-thinking and consumer-focused retailers, it seems apparent that our industry is completely fine with negative reviews on top of the other diminishing returns already listed. If there is one thing you do around social media, please let it be reputation management.

You may not be ready to tweet, post, share this, stumble upon anything, digg or have a bunch of fans, but chances are you are concerned about something other than how many other dealers sold cars out of your PMA. About 3/4 of the public will now now shop you based on other consumer write ups!!!!!! That should be enough to make any business owner or manager go online
and start participating in something other than fantasy football
leagues (not saying that anything is wrong with that!).

Maybe you don't realize how simple (read: it may not be easy but it's painfully simple) it is to participate, get everyone on board at your store and improve your results, or how quickly fewer than a handful of poor reviews can absolutely kill your business. You do have a choice no matter which way you go.

If you haven't been to Google, DealerRater or Yelp lately, it's time you did. Most of the traffic to your online store has been or will be viewing the comments others have made about you. And do it now. I've been talking with a large dealer in Los Angeles for four months who still hasn't decided to invest time, resources or effort in one of the greatest opportunities for more traffic, greater customer confidence, referrals (remember those????) and just plain common sense. I don't know what's stopping them and I don't know what's stopping you.

Just remember that there are three things that never work in the car business: hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. It's time you got up to speed on your online reputation and got a little more social. Maybe then we can get back to minting money again…

Best practices: Professional Insight, Power Results

October 18, 2009 by Gary May 0
The Great Dealership Debate That Shouldn’t Be

"Hear ye, hear ye! For all of you, thou shalt be indentured in thar' olde sales department.  And for the rest of ya blubbering fools, 'yer lucky to call the Internet department over yonder home!"  Boy, sounds like a clip right out of a bad Tom Cruise period movie about horse sales from the 17th century, right?  And to top things off, he loses his English accent about 17 minutes into the flick…

All right, it may not be that bad where you work, and it may be the 21st century, but why is there still a separation between most dealership sales 'departments'?  Why is there still a debate about whether or not they should be integrated?  Is it because the favorite 'floor' sales person loses status and the spooned deals?  What is it about the 1987 mindset that carries otherwise unacceptable practices forward?

Your entire sales department shouldn't be handling Internet leads because nearly all customers are now shopping online.  It's not enough to make those not taking website ups handle "online jacks" simply because there is not a trickle of showroom traffic to speak of, and definitely not to support the size of your team.  Do it because it is simply the right thing to do.  How you do it is up to you.

Dealers: quit responding to the market, conditions, volume and what you perceive to be business indicators and start being proactive: building, planning and expecting more.  Nobody ever built a birdhouse, let alone an empire, by standing still and waiting.

Yet people that otherwise can absolutely, positively produce more numbers, revenue and profit are not in organizations that support the opportunity, vision or appropriate business model.  While a good number of dealers have shifted their resources to completely cover all aspects of sales including web-based leads (and you deserve a lot of credit for doing that), most of the market continues to have a small segment handle what continues to be debated as a different kind of customer.

Fact: Consumers no longer bend around businesses, especially those with dated practices.  If you haven't checked in a while, they're no longer around.  Competition, the Internet and consumer-generated content/virtual word of mouth have changed our industry.  Businesses must listen to, connect with, communicate with and engage with the consumer on their terms.  To use an old adage: quit trying to find a square peg into a round hole.

If you no longer drive to the airport, stand in a 52 minute line and deal with a counter agent to buy an airline ticket, why are you expecting people to deal with an automotive retailer in ways that are also 20-plus years old?  Remember this next time you're in line returning a high-tech item that
you bought online from your favorite electronics retailer: you'll
likely find yourself in the same line as the people who bought items in
the store.  Imagine that…the same line!

It's time to look at your business with new eyes and focus.  Don't do anything less than you'd expect from the places you do business with.  No debate about it: there is no such thing as an Internet department.   There are only the ones that haven't figured it out yet…

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

September 24, 2009 by Gary May 0
Moving The Needle: From A Get Together To A Ground Swell

It is going to take lots more than talk, snake oil and rain dances to turn our hobby back into an industry with integrity, consistency and accountability (if we even had those in the first place).  It is more than about time to make change rather than simply talk about it.

Somewhere between the low-ball numbers form some industry experts and the pipe-dream estimates provided by others, there is a more accurate one and that's where we'll ultimately end the year.  Fact is the number is still going be a boatload below what it was just a couple years ago.  Now we can do our best to get to some better 'state of the industry' but the last time I checked, it still happens through selling and servicing cars the right way: one at a time.

Let's face it: consumers control content, the banks are controlling most of the consumers' spending (or at least for now), and there's no love lost for the venerable car dealer.

A couple weeks ago there was a Automotive LA Dinner, put together by Philip Inghelbrecht of TrueCar, and it was a great example of trying to get together to move the needle.  Eleven industry colleagues, most meeting for the first time, came from as far as 150 miles apart to meet in the Long Beach area and share insight, expertise, information, backgrounds and opportunities.  Our next meeting is supposed to be around the New Year, I hope sooner.

Next month's DrivingSales Executive Summit is going to be different.  charlie Vogelheim and Jared Hamilton wanted to put the dealers' future and opportunities in the spotlight, rather than the typical highest-paying sponsor or best-known industry speaker or colleague spearheading an event.  I hope this becomes a series of events with unprecedented support for the attendees, instead of greasing the skids for someone else.

The list of companies hosting webinars to get information out there for free is compelling: Cars.com, Powered.com, Automotive News, Ward's, Dealer.com and more are spending time, money and attention on where the water level really is: retail.

When the needle really starts moving in the right direction is when most of the events and support are the rule, not the exception.  It's a matter of finding the folks who weren't particularly impressed with an event, sitting down with them and finding out how to improve things.  Video after video, post after testimonial about how great an event or speaker or consultant was when half of the people in attendance leave a room is not going to benefit anyone.

Our responsibility is to improve, educate, compel, engage, support, enlist and activate.  Simply going through the motions and putting a new cover on old tricks (like reusing a one- or two-year old article and calling it fresh) , saying the you can deliver on something and then not or simply doing nothing at all – i.e. 'waiting' like so many dealers like to play it – is a move in the way wrong direction.  Don't get the wrong assumption: getting back to basics is great. Great for teaching someone how to close that doesn't.

You can't get a newspaper person to get the web, so don't try to.  You can't get a person who's never used a cell phone to text a message, so don't try to. But if we act like a village (no laughter, please) and raise the collective water level, we can do amazing things.  The needle can move much quicker in the direction we want and need if we eliminate the roadblocks, maintain above the status quo and help one more person each day achieve something more.

And maybe, just maybe, we might get someone who's never turned on a computer to end up taking 70 leads a month and closing at the third or fourth highest rate in a dealership.  We might see more dealerships starting to implement true customer satisfaction tools, employ true SEO practices, get advanced training on their CRMs, get a higher ROI from truly targeted service marketing and even utilize mobile web (I don't care if it's 0.005% of online users now, it won't be next week, next month or next year so quit using ridiculous excuses!!!).

Remember: it's our job to help move the needle, not someone else's.  Let's get the needle movers together.  Unite!…and stay thirsty my friends…

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

September 18, 2009 by Gary May 0
Everything About Social Media That Can Be Explained In A YouTube Clip (Where Else Would It Be?)

This has to be the easiest post ever. And probably the best since it’s in someone else’s voice (video). This is one of the best ways to ingest some compelling data around social media, even if you take it with a grain of salt.

Whether you believe in the fundamentals of social media or not, understand the impact as well as influence or not, agree with the investment of time and resources or not, this should at least open your mind to the scope and reality. If you’re in business, you should be using every tool in the shed rather than excluding one since it didn’t come with instructions and a guaranteed return of investment.

Enjoy, let us know what you think!

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

September 18, 2009 by Gary May 0
Come On! What’s Social About A Price? Nothing!

After tip-toeing around this subject
for most of the year, it's time to take a more direct approach.  With more
car dealers using "social' media these days, seeing the overwhelming
amount of non-conversations are staggering!  A quick visit to the majority
dealer accounts on Twitter and Facebook reveal the following:

  • use of what are supposed to be social sites and
    services for essentially 'unpaid' advertising
    • The home of the $199 lease
    • Largest volume dealer in the
      area
    • Amazing inventory
    • More models arriving daily

  • use of auto-follow and auto-retweet programs to 'simplify'
    building followers
    • 30-day old accounts with
      2,000+ followers
    • Retweets of Automotive News
      articles
      • Consumers can't access as
        it's subscription only, and why share?
  • limited contextual links and content
    • video links are exclusively to
      store's site or YouTube inventory/walk-arounds
    • Using same links over and over
      with only slight modifications


Here's the hint that will hopefully get you to use social media for what it's
intended for: it's called social for a reason.  There is absolutely
nothing remotely social about car prices, lease specials, inventory, and 'buy
here!'.

Social is about conversation, influence, sharing, participation and ultimately
growing your virtual community.  And take note: this happens after
time.  It's organic and you have to learn.  It's not about control,
rants (although those can be fun in moderation), telling, limitation or
virtually throwing the keys on the roof.  Nobody cares about 100 tweets
telling how much you'll promise to save them, less the fine print.

Share funny stuff, eye-opening stuff, cool videos, first-to-market stuff,
did-you-know stuff, share fun events, invite people over to do things for free
and ultimately build a relationship around having conversations.  You'll
be amazed at how many customer service situations you can remedy, how many
times you can correct someone's misunderstanding about a capability or spec on
a vehicle and ultimately plant some seeds so that, when it's time, you already
have a customer that doesn't give a rat's behind that you are giving away gross
on "1 car at this price'.

So take some time and learn, understand and start participating instead of just
posting.  Just participating in social media doesn't give you any passes
or kudos.  Be real, be original, be compelling and be relevant.  If
you know you're market, friends, followers and customers, chances are you'll be
more successful.

Dealership staff: Don't talk to people.  Talk with people.  Listen to
people.  Create a valid, unpaid following that is interested in what you
share.  Be fun.  Be intentionally unintentional.

Go ahead, dare to be unique and different.  You might just end up being really social…

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

 

September 3, 2009 by Gary May 1
First Of The Month Syndrome: You’re Not Starting Over

Month end is behind you, save for those few deals that are going to be back-dated to August 31. Hopefully with C.A.R.S. you didn't need to do that. Now it's a whole new month and you're thinking "I'm at zero, clean sheet of paper, time to hit my numbers!"  Since we know so many people that do that, there must have been one parent in all of our families that, when we were infants, whispered in our ears "you'll think like you'll get paid, you'll start over on the 1st, you'll scurry like hell to get everything done on the last day of every month". Man, talk about a dysfunctional     family!

So here you are, 20-40 years later, convinced that a calendar determines your effectiveness and runs your life.  While nobody is here to tell you it's not how you get paid, quotas are set, assessments are handled and forecasts are created, quit thinking that way.  You're not starting over.

Especially in today's Internet-based world, the first of any month is just another day to tackle the 30-100 leads in your queue.  You can let the management and executives control the way a company operates but you don't have to be controlled by a calendar.  When you remove yourself from that process, your vision grows and you can see things in better perspective.  Again, don't start a revolt or fight the way your GM runs your store.  Just start to believe there's people (your customers) that work and believe in a 365-day world.

When you start planning beyond 30 days, in reality most folks hope on 30 and plan less, you can better see marketing effectiveness, referrals building, many leads actually taking 5-12 weeks to buy (rather than ignoring them until the week before and finding out they bought elsewhere), track trends and cycles, even bring customers back for parts, accessories, warranties and more!

If you truly believe that your number is 'zero' when the last month expires and the new one starts, maybe look at how you're holding yourself back.  It might just be your condition, but for those that can change, it might be the most fun you've ever had at a dealership…and possibly the most money too!

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

September 1, 2009 by Gary May 1
What Will You Focus On Tuesday After Clunkers Shuts Down? Start Inviting Your Customers In Again…

Imagine, if you can, that business becomes painfully slow. Sales, traffic, even service, is down anywhere from a little bit to 'oh-my-gosh-how-can-we-survive?' slow.  Then try really hard to imagine some gift-from-above program from an unannounced source drives a bunch of customers to your store for a few weeks.  Then…the program ends abruptly.  At the same time, consider that you expected the program to end at any time so you are not completely surprised by the news that the masked crusader and his money left town.

What will you do the next business day? How prepared you are, how well you communicate with prospects and customers alike, how creative you are and where you know your business comes from will dictate if Tuesday is satisfactorily busy or if it is just like another day before all the loads of Monopoly money arrived.

Most people we've heard from consider C.A.R.S. a blessing with all of the traffic and sales it generated, as well as a genuine pain in the butt.  Of course!  If you had the program to do for yourself, would you have done it any differently?  You absolutely would have.  So why are you going to be twiddling your thumbs come Tuesday?  What program you run is up to YOU, every day.

Now, that's not to say that you're going to be able to come up with $4,500 of "it'll get here someday" funds on nearly half of the deals you do next week or any other day.  However, it's entirely up to you how to drive people off of their scared little (and big) duffs and into your business.

It's not up to the factory, it's not up to the million-dollar advertisements, it's not up to the region or your 20-group and gosh-forbid it's definitely not up to the government.  Don't you want them out of your business…not in it?  What happens in your business, positive or negative, is up to you, your brand, your staff, your effort and your planning.

So when the here today-gone tomorrow spigot of funds is finally turned off by someone making a lot more than you with nicer benefits than you have and a pension you can't even dream about, get back into the habit of making your business happen.  Less business?  Get a bigger piece of a smaller pie!

Can't figure out how to make it work?  Ask someone for help or at least tell the receptionist that you're not "away from your desk all day" and that you'll start taking meetings again.  Business doesn't happen from thin air, it takes a lot of work and some good consistency.  And sometimes it takes outside ideas folks, as painful as that might sound to some 20-year plus veterans.

Besides, whether you call it natural selection, survival of the fittest or one of a myriad of other expressions that refer to 'business better then usual', it is always best when you're the master of your domain rather than waiting for the next shot in the arm.

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

August 20, 2009 by Gary May 1