Tag Archives

Posts with optimization tag.
Digital Signals: Hate The Player Or Hate The Game?

No matter how much it’s discussed, there are still massive
amounts of misinformation in addition to retail kick back in regard to social
media in general and what it does specifically for car dealerships. However the
simple question still remains the same: why?

It’s almost 2013 and some social signals are already making
a significant impact on local search queries and a couple networks are
absolutely affecting search engine optimization. Almost nobody at the OEM
level, not one of the existing enterprise social media providers and most
vendors have demonstrated proper use, understanding or leverage of social to
benefit you. It’s sad, however most dealers aid in this continuing and continue
to buy “services” from them…

If you’ve simply hired a social media company to “manage”
your social network content, you’ve likely made zero or near-zero impact on
local search as well as branding, defending SERP positions and a list of other
benefits. We see this continually via mediocre dealership Facebook pages,
auto-feed only Twitter accounts, automated blog posts copied onto hundreds, yes
hundreds, of other dealership blogs and copied Pinterest photos; the result? Complete
disconnect from people on their networks.

“But it’s not selling cars!” or “I don’t care about that
social garbage, that’s not what we do”, or “When it shows results, we’ll jump
on it properly” responses demonstrate that what’s happening in digital simply
hasn’t sunk in. Yes, there’s lots of talk, just very little good action, let
alone great. So are you going to hate the player or hate the game?

Most simply want to hate the game, not who’s doing it at the
dealership or outsourced to (aka the player). 
Some hate the player recognizing that the game is not to blame. However,
it’s neither. Our focus continues to go, inexplicitly, to BS “traditional”
marketing especially when there’s a sunny financial or industry volume
report.  There’s a near blanket of
ignorance put toward the largest, yes largest, shift in media consumption. And
we all do it. Well, over 90% of us.

How can you book an airline ticket online after checking
Kayak or Travelocity, or buy a pair of boots you’ve never tried on before with
glowing reviews, or even do a stock trade on your phone, tablet or computer
followed by sharing your gain on Facebook and then turn around and ignore
what’s happening with the socialization of media and search?

Digital signals are unavoidable. More importantly,
everything we do affects how others consume products and media, let alone
search.

So hate the player if you want, or hate the game if you’ve
got a louder voice or bigger fist, but when you finally decide to pay
attention, make investments, educate staff properly and turn the tides in your
favor, don’t complain if it’s too late or that someone else is eating your
lunch. It’s already happening.

 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

November 4, 2012 by Gary May 0
If You’re Going To Do It, Do It Right…

The special time of the year is nearly upon us, again. From September through February: conferences, expos and 20 Groups with the veritable sales crunch of "you have to get this or you'll be left in the dust!" pitches. You can feel dealers' and general managers' certain body parts tightening up now (not that they aren't pitched every day of every week of every month or every year already).

With very little assistance, which is by choice, direction or information, vendors are chosen and deals are signed. Does that mean dealerships make decisions without "data"? Not necessarily. However decisions made with vendors' own calculators (remember when lead estimating in your market at certain NADA website booths was the fix of the day?????), skewed analytics/search results and by recommendations (you know, what works for a dealer with half the competition and market size one of their 20 Group buddies has should work the same for someone else in a major metro with twice the stores and massive gross degradation?).

What generates results are a combination of relevant data, unbiased information, support, updates and consistency. However what we still see dominating today are dealers using:

Websites:

  • Without any SEO (and sometimes even basic optimization), micro-sites/landing pages and SEM with no/poor call-to-action, heavily redundant non-inventory based content (which Google LOVES! right?!) and the like…

CRM:

  • The "take it as it came out of the box" processes and templates that can't get a call back from a desperate buyer, no management notifications set up, and people with access sending out marketing messages to dealerships' database that are not proper, timely or accurate…

Social media:

  • Left up to companies setting up personal profiles on Facebook, Google Plus, Foursquare, etc. for businesses and/or…
  • Duplicating content on hundreds of dealership social networks and/or…
  • Solely following industry people's accounts and them fanning/following back and/or…
  • Simply buying audiences gaining thousands of eyeballs while most of the paid followers are in different countries (or simply spam accounts)…

…and the list just goes on and on and on. 

If you want to sell cars, you have to do it right. Meet and greet, the walk, the drive, the pencil, the close (yes, the road to the sale to many) that can't exist without process, checklists, audits and accountability. Yet most dealerships' entire digital presence has none of those!!

What we need to do is do things right. Businesses are responsible for everything they do. It's 2012. If you don't understand websites and SEO, get someone that does in your store. Don't think social media is right for your point? Ask your customers where they want you to be and then get someone that does it in your store. And get advice before you hire your person/people or bring on the vendor! You must own every part of your marketing today and not turn a blind eye. And no, it's not too much to do or to get someone in the store or close to you to provide reporting that is not from a vendor's proprietary dashboard (read: manipulation) that can't be validated by another unbiased source.

There are no excuses for businesses today to not know how to do things right and expect results. Sending texts from employees phones without permission based marketing and legal/opt-out included? Having a website for a 150+ unit store that has 800 inbound links and no +1's? Promoting a blog that has the same content as every other (fill in your brand) store within a 1,000 mile radius? It's NOT fine. It's NOT ok. Get real.

Act as if you're a customer to your own business! What are the chances you'd return to your own website if the home page never changed? Would you buy concert tickets from a site that never featured your favorite artists? Would you Like United Airlines on Facebook if every other post from them was two sea lions fighting or two mimes fighting with an intro of "caption this"? would you follow Morton's Steakhouse on Twitter if EVERY post was simply a push from their Facebook account and no interaction with diners? Would you continue to read Marriott's blog if all it contained was posts about awards they were winning from magazines rather than updates on their resort locations that you wanted to travel to? Look it's really simple, it's just not easy.

Own your marketing. The pisser is you've been hearing this for over five years now from a number of sources in the industry including this one. Quit cutting corners and believing everything that the large enterprise-level providers are feeding you. How can one provider claim to be the #1 vendor in an industry and charge half of what everyone else does? It doesn't work that way! You know that…

Look at it this way. McDonald's (as good as some of you may think they are) is not number one in hamburgers. They are number one in volume! Do they serve the best burger? No! Their burger is not the best…and neither is your website/CRM/Social Media if you don't know better.

If you're going to do it, do it right!

 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

August 23, 2012 by Gary May 1
How And When Do You Generate Your Traffic? Your Own Program Or Someone Else’s This-For-That?

Whether or not the money lasts in the government's C.A.R.S./Cash For Clunkers program, one thing is clear: automotive retail still waits for someone or something outside of the dealer to drive the traffic. With few (and great) exceptions, people started hitting lots hard over the weekend.The question remains: what happens that's entirely up to you before and after programs?

A couple of OEMs started a little early by creating buzz around doubling or even advancing dealers money. Dealers even sent out email and direct marketing (along with radio and newspaper….aaaaarrggggh!) to promote the fact that they'd have the CARS program at their dealership! Folks, that's just not enough. Remember that people what to know what's in it for them! If they can get $3,500 or $4,500 (or more) for their car ANYWHERE, why are you yelling that you simply have the program? Is your banner bigger? Big (something) deal!

Why not detail how you understand the program's details, that you have a special team at the dealership to promptly handle customers, that you have a 'Clunkiest of Clunkers' competition for a prize or that your staff's outfits are "older than your trade!' and have them come in powder blue ruffled suits? Now, I'm not saying that you need to look like your favorite scene for The Wedding Singer or a bit part in one of my favorite industry guy's videos…what I am saying is that you have to get your head out of the "same place, same thing" mentality and start thinking about how YOU drive traffic.

No consumer typically wakes up in the morning and says "I've got to make it by some dealerships today and spend some time at each one!". That should not be news to anyone. What differentiates you (or doesn't) is the special events, programs and 'why-to-buy-here' calls to action that invite people in. Why continue to fight over the same piece of pie when you can make yours bigger? And with the current economic issues, simply take a bigger piece of a smaller pie! But your way of doing business can't stay in "wait and see", "hold on for 90 more days", "not going to do anything just now" or "watching how effective (fill in the blank)'s promotion goes before we do anything" mode.

Look at your numbers, especially your regional/area performance. Losing sales in your PMA? Why? Asked your customers why lately? How many times have you blind shopped the competition? Did you optimize your website in the last 30 days (or simply put up a C.A.R.S page and/or compete for the same keywords)?

To expect business you need to plan for business:

  • Listen to everyone (yes, your staff is part of everyone)
  • Understand trends and performance
  • Track and adjust in real time
  • Communicate and set expectations
  • Brand, brand, brand, brand, brand, brand, brand

And remember, you can't live on someone else's brand (including the government's). It is also important to be real. If you don't understand something, say so! Ask questions or your vendors, partners, consultants and industry resources (as long as you are actually using them). If they can't do something, ask them to it and if they can't/won't: drop 'em like they're hot.

See the traffic on the highway? They are all going somewhere. They either have to or want to go where they're going. You might just end up being more people's destination if you play your cards right, plan to be successful and don't reply on ANYTHING outside your place of business to bring in the business.

Be a 'traffic-generating' leader, not a 'take what's left' follower…

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

July 31, 2009 by Gary May 0