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Posts with sem tag.
What Do You Think It Will Take To Change? Hello?

Sometimes it helps being a cynic and a pessimist, or at least devil's advocate but at the end of the day you're either your own worst enemy or best ding-dang advocate.  It is always beneficial to see things with a different perspective but critically important to maintain your identity and job jump in the pool for the sake of it, no matter how fun the party.

Recently I've read two good articles. One by Joe Webb (President of Dealer Knows) in Digital Dealer Magazine. The other a blog post by Matt Watson (VIN Solutions) on AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com. Both deal with perception versus reality, pitch versus practice and simply understanding what you have and need before you're had.  Two common carriers of bias at the dealership level: a rep and an excited, overzealous  employee. Both are doing their job but if you to change anything you've got to address everything.

While results typically flow bottom up, change is managed top down. Changing your online results will not come from some videos on YouTube and some 'vSEO' on your website. Update all of your touch-points, become contextually relevant and timely, make sure your brand connects and apply process consistently. Changing how your employees act will not come from a new company policy solely either.

SEO and SEM are hot topics…and should be managed in tandem with your website and CRM. Having a bunch of disparate systems and efforts out there is like fishing with two poles…3,000 miles apart from each other. It just doesn't make sense!

Search engine optimization is an ongoing task with great opportunity, not a "got it with my website two years ago" item. When was the last time you looked closely at your analytics or, better yet, looked at your site with an overlay so you can see real numbers and statistics against what you think your consumers see. That's always an interesting meeting with my clients.

Change is never done. If you don't continue to change because you need to, because your competition is or because you can and make the right changes…you lose. The change everyone has been talking about for months is cutting everything and everywhere with very little regard. You see, that's not a change from troubled times in the past, especially for dealers and OEMs.

Our greatest changes are still in front of us. Are you ready? And what do you think it will take to change? Think about it and do it.

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

Week At IM@CS: Chats With The Industry

We typically address vendors here for best practices and today will be a little different. When trying to tackle social media, especially as a support for specific marketing online, it is important to be equipped. Some of the most frequent questions heard relate to getting started and how to be effective.

1. Where?
    Twitter, Facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIn, CarFolks, Google, Yelp, DealerRater, MyDealerReport for starters

2. Why?
    People go there, trust them, read them, listen to them more than they do with you, period.

3. How?
    Register, watch others, prepare and create a plan. Don't just set up a Facebook page and leave it. Support it with content, staff and purpose. There are now tools to measure your impact, for example on Twitter:
http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/twitter
http://twitter.grader.com/

4. When?
    Now, or as soon as you decide that your brand awareness and people connecting with you are important.

5. Remember
    Nothing, not even the best process, is a silver bullet. If you're planning on inviting more people to come to you, give them a reason. Not a price, not a car, not a showroom, not espresso. Give them a reason that the rest of the 'things' absolutely support.

Nothing can build or kill your business like reputation. What are you doing to ensure that the good outweighs the bad, no matter how accurate? Almost every resource listed above is free, but worth money. You've been spending $3,000-$50,000 per month to get one, two, three customers at a time (at a ridiculously low ROI). Why not spend $0-$3,000 a month using those tools to make sure every customer has a reason to use you, can find you, can read what others say about you and stay connected with you, something they never did with your $20,000 ad that used to run every Saturday.

Stay in front, it's more important than ever today. Stay relevant, your future depends on it. Stay tuned, that way your customers can.

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

Taking The Fear Out Of Online…One _______ At A Time

Even though you've already heard it: If you want to succeed in business today, it has to take place online. For us in the auto industry, that's truly more the case than not. But the fact is it's not harder than it looks or sounds if you have the right assistance.

Maybe it used to be much easier, in some sense, years ago when you'd place an ad insertion, sit down on Saturday, Sunday or whatever day of the week your ad would display, grab your coffee, flip the right page open and smile. "There's my ad" and "oh, so much better than their ad!" (looking at a competitors ad). You could touch it, feel it, see it and gloat over it. Somewhere before the newspapers started failing rapidly, you were paying A LOT for advertising there and in other media that is not capturing an effective audience today…in the least.

Now here comes the Internet, offering the ability to reduce budgets by 30, 50, 60 and even 75% percent and get a more effective (yes, more effective) reach and ROI, let alone transparency and accountability. You can hear the dealers backing away from their monitors right now. How (and why) can you have faith in something with no true ability to be tracked, where circulation and impression rates mean practically nothing, then look at the web and say it's not for you?

We are not talking about the "I don't get it" excuse. Let that flimsy fallacy go the way of the Dodo Bird. This is the simple message: In most markets $2,000-$4,000 monthly of well-placed spend after 60-90 days will replace what $15,000-$25,000 plus used to drive. Absorb that…call your website or SEO/SEM company and start, today. And stay in it for at least 90 days before you make any judgment. This is not a 'run and gun ad' world. This is a 'stick with it' world.

So it doesn't matter if it's one ad, one car, one store, one promo, one incentive, one anything. The only way to take fear out of something is to do it. Stop making excuses: you're astute, successful, experienced and capitalistic, even though somewhere along the line fear replaced confidence and the Internet replaced the 'Sunday Times'. Oh, you might even end up building a brand…imagine that!

And by the way, if your website company can't handle it and/or you don't have an SEO specilist, head to NADA in a couple weeks and to Digital Dealer in April and get one (see you at both events!)

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

Week At IM@CS: Chats With The Industry

What drives the traffic in? We haven't addressed that much so let's look at a few smaller providers in the realm that IM@CS believes provides the service, backs it and provides additional value:

GetAutoAppraise: Barry Brodsky and the crew at GAA have been doing appraisals for quite a while and know what is most important: the lead, not the value of the car. While the other companies focus on their own traffic around appraisals, GetAutoAppraise gets it done for the dealer with a great admin tool to boot. Check them out at http://www.getautoappraise.com

SEO For Dealers: When dealers ask about complex services they don't understand, they request to "keep it simple". In regards to SEO/SEM and the areas around that, Jeremy Hambly at SEO For Dealers knows how to get it done right: http://www.seofordealers.com

DealerBug: What in the world would drive a 'car guy' to build a widget for consumer to add to their desktop from their favorite dealer when most dealers can't even communicate effectively with their leads? Thank goodness for engagement and for Mike Jennings (former Ford and Compete guy) who understands one of the things that will drive people to and back to your store: http://www.dealerbug.com

We'll try to keep these updates weekly and ultimately have an area where you can get in touch with the vendors.

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

The Chicken Or The Egg? No…The Chicken AND The Egg

When you don't make one, someone makes one for you. If you make one too early, you may regret it.  It's the lifeline, the conduit, the facilitator and the support system making making things work: decisions. We are making decisions constantly in business. But are our decisions the right ones?

While this is not meant to second guess (or cause you to, slowing your business), this idea was put here to make you understand that decisions are based on options. Too often we hear expressions like "I had no decision" or "It's too hard to make a decision right now". If you are in business or your work for someone's business, it is your job to make decisions from a complete understanding of the options.

Now, not everyone has the time to completely research every option (I hear that from dealer principals and management regularly) and that is fair. But when opportunity knocks loudly and clearly, how you can not make a decision is one of the greatest mysteries in not just the auto industry, but any industry that is sales-related. No time to take meetings these days? Won't entertain vendors, sales reps and consultants? Watch the light at the end of the tunnel fade completely out.

When you lead, you get to take the advantage of time, less competition, more opportunity and other great benefits. There is also more risk but let's not forget why you're in business in the first place. Dealers that didn't ignore the Internet got a decent start.  Those who not only jumped on but got educated and leveraged web-based CRM, online marketing, SEO, SEM and other technology are, more often than not, reaping the benefits and mitigating their losses right now (unfortunately those who suffer from buy-it-and-dont-use-it-or-understand-it-itis don't qualify).

Now is the time to take the bull by the horns. Stop waiting, stop following. Start being part of the solution, the decision, the opportunity, the what's next! And guess what?

You get to have the chicken AND the egg…

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

You Know Something Your GM Doesn’t

No matter how you slice this one, it's not good. See, stores may build results and get things done bottom up. But unless things changed since the close of business yesterday, your store is managed top down. And the fact that you know things that your GM doesn't won't allow you to get far or make as much as you can.

While information is power, a powerful engine that's not started can't get you anywhere. Most stores operate today without the proper information at the management level, especially in regards to Internet department/lead management operation. It is in  your best interest to make sure management knows what's going on. And yes, while it is their responsibility to understand, it's your responsibility to inform.

While it is so easy to claim that you're too busy, can't get the time, don't see eye-to-eye and a hoard of other excuses to not getting real face time, you have to spend time with the top dog at the dealership. A few things that may pay great dividends in the 'support the Internet cause' meetings you have include:

    1. Performance snapshot
        – lead performance, website issues, vendor status, training and resource needs
    2. Marketplace issues
        – competitive forces, blind shop results, guest feedback (which means actually ask questions)
    3. Opportunities
        – Technology, new services/vendors, SEO improvements, competition asleep at the wheel

And the best way to do this (at least weekly) meeting is to come prepared. Not complaints without possible solutions, whining that you 'just can't do more', defensive stances or typical non-productive time. You have to know what's happening, show that you're acting in the best interest of your store, show him/her the 'win-win' and have a Plan B in the event that you don't get what you ask for.

Be careful not to guarantee a bunch more sales if they "spend just a little more each month". News flash: every GM has been through that. Look to create buy-in by leading your GM to water, making things their idea (you don't care about credit as much as you do the paycheck!), demonstrating a solid business case and talking about value, advantages and benefits that should result.  If you don't think you can pull it off, here's a hint: bring in a consultant for one day. (psst: it's worth it!)

Make sure your management, especially your GM (or owner if you have the Bat-Line) knows what is happening in the Internet department…you know, it's that 'trend' in your store that is just going to disappear over the next 3-6 months…right???

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results