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How Influencer Marketing Can Help Sell Cars

Influencer marketing. It’s an affordable way to get your brand name out there and increase your sales. But where do you start?

In order to add influencer marketing to your strategy or campaign, you have to iron out the details. In this week’s Hard Facts episode, Samantha reveals what you need to do before you take on key leaders that will promote your brand message.

Watch the video to learn more!

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

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http://www.DealerSynergy.com 856-546-2440 

New research shows that being there and useful in consumers' initial auto searches leads directly to dealership visits. The brands that want to win sales on the lot need to first win these early micro-moments.

Customers increasingly rely on digital, and especially mobile, to help with their auto purchase journey—to research, find deals, and get real-time auto advice. For example, 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. watches auto content on YouTube once per month.1 Today, these digital interactions influence shoppers' decisions as much as (and potentially even more than) the salesperson on-the-lot. And because we're not yet able to start and finish an auto purchase online, it's critical for brands to win early micro-moments to drive people to the lot.

Be there in early moments to accelerate dealership visits

We conducted a study looking at individual micro-moments and their impact on dealership visits. We found positive correlations between searches in all five of the key auto moments and a visit to the dealership.2

For moments later in the purchase journey it should not be a surprise if a consumer turns up at your lot—for example, when someone searches for where to buy a car.

However, being there in initial moments matters too. Our study shows thatconsumers in their early research moments, such as which-car-is-best or is-it-right for me moments, are signaling intent to visit a dealership within a week.3For brands, then, having a digital presence across all the five key auto micro-moments is critical.

Format matters in driving traffic to the lot Equally important to being there in the initial research phase is being useful with the right content in the right format. For early micro-moments, video is great for engaging consumers. In fact, of people who use YouTube while buying a car, 69% are influenced by it—more than TV, newspapers or magazines.4

For auto consumers, our research shows that YouTube has the greatest impact at the start of the purchase journey. People using YouTube in which-car-is-best moments showed a higher correlation with dealership visits than people using YouTube in other moments.5 Some of the common search terms for shoppers in these moments include: "[brand/make] + reviews," "[brand/make] + specs," and "best luxury cars."

Once consumers have narrowed down their which-car-is-best choices, they want to know if their selection will fit their lifestyle and needs. They're curious about features, options, interiors, and exteriors. Increasingly, they're turning to Image Search to answer these is-it-right-for-me questions. Search interest for "pictures of [automotive brand]" is up 37% year-over-year,6 and 80% of these searches are now happening on mobile.

These image searches can drive consumers to the dealership. In fact, consumers who used Image Search in is-it-right-for-me-moments were more likely to head to the lot than those people using Image Search within other moments.8 In these moments, popular search terms include: "[brand] + sedan models," "[brand/make] + interior," and "[brand/make] + dimensions."

If you want to be one of the few visits that a consumer makes to the dealership, invest in mobile for those early micro-moments too. We can unequivocally say that being there across all five moments is important if you want to turn auto browsing into buying. But don't fall into the trap of thinking that buying decisions only happen at the end of the marketing funnel. If you want to be one of the few visits that a consumer makes to a dealership, invest in mobile for those early micro-moments too.

We can unequivocally say that being there across all five moments is important if you want to turn auto browsing into buying. But don't fall into the trap of thinking that buying decisions only happen at the end of the marketing funnel. If you want to be one of the few visits that a consumer makes to a dealership, invest in mobile for those early micro-moments too.

And don't forget to track the impact of being there in early micro-moments. Tools such as Google store visits or store sales can help OEMs understand the role of these moments in prompting dealership visits, and help your brand drive true business growth.

Re-post: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/dealership-micro-moments-auto-searches.html?utm_medium=email-d&utm_source=content-alert&utm_team=twg-us&utm_campaign=20170125-twg-us-automotive-alert-OT-SL-SV&utm_content=Auto-cta&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT1RFeE1qZGtOR0UwTVRnNCIsInQiOiJyblBGTkhPUlBlMnVidjlYdjZlM3cwTkZ6cXZKb0htNStEM3dNekI3TTFMZENhNnpDSHdrczR0XC9jQWNiSTYwY0xBdjJmK29uaHg4Q2JIUWduRDBcL05qV1l6VWZrQ2lJXC9xM2RTc3lzNHJRYWUzQU92WHZIWllha2FnM2RaeGNXTiJ9

Digital Trends: Luxury Auto Shoppers July 2016
A data-driven look at the online behavior of luxury auto shoppers.
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And don't forget to track the impact of being there in early micro-moments. Tools such as Google store visits or store sales can help OEMs understand the role of these moments in prompting dealership visits, and help your brand drive true business growth. Sources
1 Google/Ipsos Connect, Mobile Video Study, U.S., n=2503, among adults aged 18-54 who go online at least monthly, Feb. 2016.
2,3,5,8 Google Data, aggregated and anonymized data are based on a sample of U.S. users that have Location History turned on, 2015. Compared foot traffic to any auto dealership between users who searched for an auto keyword within 7 days and those who did not. Auto keywords included in the analysis are the top 500 keywords by auto micro-moment.
4 TNS Media Consumption Report, 2015.
6 Google Trends, September 2015 vs. September 2014, United States.
7 Google Internal Data, September 2015, United States.

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www.DealerVideoProduction.com / 856-546-2440

Dealer Video Production Is The Best Agency For Car Dealerships - 2017 Demo Reel

Dealer Video Production has a state-of-the-art video production studio in house, manned by a team of seasoned video production specialists, filmmakers, editors, sound engineers, animators, and designers that can help you bring your vision to reality. We specialize in full-service productions, taking your vision from the storyboard stage all the way through to post production and optimization of the videos for web and television.

Please let us present to you, our 2017 Demo Reel.

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http://www.BradleyOnDemand.com/ 856-546-2440

In this week's Episode of Make Money Mondays Dealer Synergy's President, Sean V. Bradley gives advise on using text and chat templates to communicate with your prospects. If there are phone and voicemail templates, why do we not have templates for texting or chat? There are different variations and levels to create and using templates. Sean explains that you should build a library of chat messages that you can choose from. Texting and Chat are just as important because if gives you a chance to escalate to a higher form of communication.

Make Money Mondays with Sean V. Bradley - Text & Chat Templates

To visit all of our Make Money Mondays in one place visit: www.MakeMoneyMondays.net

If you like Make Money Mondays, you will love Bradley On Demand: http://www.BradleyOnDemand.com/
856-546-2440

For more information about Dealer Synergy, visit http://www.DealerSynergy.com/

Sign up now for the next Internet Sales 20 Group!
http://internetsales20group.com

If you have any questions, call or text Sean on his cell 267-319-6776

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In this week's Episode of Make Money Mondays Dealer Synergy's President, Sean V. Bradley gives advise for Managers to make sure your employees are using the CRM the right way. A lot of dealerships do not use their CRM properly by forgetting data or duplicating leads. Sean breaks down a method to make sure everyone in the dealership is using the CRM.

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In this week's Episode of Make Money Mondays Special Edition, Chris Herman, President at Herman Advertising talks about setting your dealership up for long term success. The biggest mistake dealerships make is jumping from one solution to the next without seeing the first solution all the way through. Without a good plan you will not be successful and you will not make money. Chris tells us to lay a plan in place and stick with for the long haul.

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http://www.BradleyOnDemand.com 856-546-2440 

1 in 3 adults in the U.S. watches auto content on YouTube once per month! 

Consumer behavior is changing—and video is leading the drive 

In years' past, a consumer might have read reviews in magazines, asked friends and relatives for advice, and visited any number of dealerships before settling on a vehicle. That practice has gone the way of the in-dash tape deck.

Leveraging YouTube and Search, consumers are positively bingeing on digital content before making their purchases—and multiplying opportunities for marketers to be there in shoppers' which-car-is-best moments. Last year, consumers spent on average three hours more time researching than they did in 2013.8 They also performed 75% of that research on digital.9

All that research has huge ramifications for the brick-and-mortar showroom. With shoppers armed with so much information, dealerships have moved from being places to shop and explore—as they were in the days of in-dash tape decks—to mere points of sale. The average in-market shopper makes just two visits to a dealer before making a purchase.10

There's no substitute for sliding into the driver's seat, but consumers increasingly turn to YouTube before a test drive. In fact, one in three adults in the U.S. watches auto content on YouTube once per month.11 Research shows that consumers are gravitating particularly toward five video styles: test drives, walk-around, feature highlights, reviews, and safety tests.12 Mobile video particularly drives in-market consumers to take action; after watching content about cars, trucks, or racing on a smartphone, one in four will visit a dealer.13

Last year, consumers spent on average three hours more time researching than they did in 2013, and performed 75% of that research on digital.

These tendencies highlight an opportunity to attract viewers to brands' official channels. Mercedes-Benz recently responded to audiences' research behavior with a suite of videos that scratched viewers' walk-around itch, as well as offering feature demos of its redesigned E-Class sedan.

Takeaway: As a resource to whittle down a car shopper's consideration set, video is invaluable. Consider creating content around the five popular video styles (test drives, walk-around, feature highlights, reviews, safety tests), which allows shoppers to research by simply hitting play, and make sure it's optimized for mobile. Mercedes-Benz's example illustrates how marketers can be there in shoppers' which-car-is-best moments in creative, digital-first ways.

Source: (Repost from "Think With Google") 

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/auto-trends-consumer-behavior.html

  

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It's simple. The Internet Sales 20 Group, this 9th installment of it, which is produced by Sean V. Bradley's company, Dealer Synergy, is much more than a "sales conference" or a "training session." This is an all out sensory assault on the Automotive Sales Professionals that are in attendance...
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http://www.BradleyOnDemand.com/ 856-546-2440 

Dealer Synergy Presents Chris Herman, President of Herman Advertising, advising dealerships on balancing there marketing plans. While many ask the question whether dealerships should use conventional or digital marketing, Chris states every dealership has a different balance between the two. To learn the differences between digital or conventional marketing, you can follow Herman Advertising in the link below. 

For more information about Dealer Synergy, visit http://www.DealerSynergy.com/

If you are interested in working with Dealer Video Production, visit http://www.DealerVideoProduction.com/

Sign up now for the next Internet Sales 20 Group!

http://internetsales20group.com

To find out more about Herman Advertising, visit

http://www.hermanadvertising.com

If you have any questions, call or text Sean on his cell 267-319-6776

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Google opens the AMP fire hose

Columnist Barb Palser believes that the broad surfacing of AMP content in mobile search will expose a universe of AMP content that’s been hidden from view.

Google’s expansion of Accelerated Mobile Pages across mobile search results is underway, gradually turning the trickle of AMP traffic to a steady flow.

The September start of the “blue links” rollout, along with announcements from some high-profile participants in the AMP Project, are advancing the open-source initiative on multiple fronts.

Google’s AMP expansion

Since Accelerated Mobile Pages first appeared in Google search results in February 2016, AMPs have been mostly concentrated in the Top Stories area of mobile search results:

AMP Top Stories carousel in Google mobile search results

The current expansion, which was announced in August and started in mid-September, will surface AMPs throughout standard mobile search results, aka “blue links.” When the phased blue links rollout is complete, Google will always present the validated AMP version of a page to mobile users instead of the standard web link.

At this stage, Google is only surfacing a portion of available AMPs; a September 25 query returned a mixture of AMP and non-AMP results in the blue links area. When the expansion is complete, all available AMPs will be displayed.

AMP blue links

Along with the blue links rollout, Google made slight modifications to its AMP viewer. The user interface is now grey instead of blue and employs an “X” button instead of a back arrow to close the viewer and return to search results.

Redesigned AMP viewer

Broader, deeper AMP exposure

For news publishers, the blue links expansion will surface evergreen and long-tail content that wouldn’t have been eligible for the Top Stories area but accounts for a large portion of search traffic.

It also opens AMP exposure to commercial, vertical and non-news publishers. Essentially, any AMP-enabled content that would normally surface in search will be presented to users.

A diverse group of non-news publishers timed their own announcements to Google’s blue links rollout. On September 20, eBay announced that its AMP-enabled product pages were live after a few months of development work to resolve some feature gaps.

On the same day, Shopify announced plans to AMP-enable its merchants and Reddit announced the launch of tens of millions of AMP pages on its platform. These companies join Fandango, Food Network and other non-news publishers on AMP.  There’s plenty of content to fill the fire hose.

Non-news AMPs: eBay product page and Food Network recipe.

AMP benefits in Google search

Google has stated repeatedly that AMP is not a ranking factor (at least not yet), but that doesn’t mean AMP content won’t get special treatment.

Most noticeably, Google has been building user experiences to showcase AMPs above standard search results. The “Top Stories” carousel was the first example — and now Google is working on a “Live Coverage” AMP carousel for breaking news, elections, sports and other real-time events.

These modules dominate the top of the mobile viewport, above standard results where non-AMP links appear. It’s easy to imagine a variety of special AMP-based user experiences for all types of informational and commercial content.

In addition, Google has signaled that load time in general will matter in its ranking algorithm going forward — and has contributed to the growing mountain of research establishing load time as a predictor of user satisfaction and engagement. With Google’s data showing an average mobile page load time of 19 seconds and a 53-percent abandonment rate after three seconds of waiting, lightning-fast AMPs should ace any speed-related SEO tests.

Finally, users could begin to reward AMP publishers by favoring AMPs in search results. If users begin to recognize the AMP icon and associate it with a fast page, they may start choosing AMP links (or avoiding non-AMP links) in search results for certain types of content and queries.

Over time, such preferences could manifest in changes to search performance. (In early September, Google was observed testing a darker, more noticeable AMP icon.)

Combined, all of these factors could provide advantages to AMP-enabled publishers over non-AMPed publishers, even if the ranking algorithm for general Google search results doesn’t explicitly favor AMP.

AMP beyond Google

Apart from Google’s use of AMP, new participants are bringing the broader potential of the open-source AMP Project into view.

The eBay and Reddit announcements cited speed and performance as primary reasons for adopting AMP — and opened the door to future AMP-only strategies.

Excerpt from Reddit’s blog post (emphasis added):

AMP pages look great and load fast on desktop just like they do on mobile. Maintaining good performance to pages as they change often amounts to a time consuming game of Whac[k]-A-Mole but we can be confident our AMP pages will always be fast. So, for many kinds of pages, we think the AMP version is the only version we’ll ever need.

Excerpt from eBay’s blog post (emphasis added):

Although both of them [AMP and non-AMP browse pages] are highly optimized, look the same, and share most of the code, updating both versions is still a maintenance overhead. In addition, we always need to watch out for feature parity. In the future, based on how AMP pages are performing, we may choose to have one mobile version (AMP) and serve it to all platforms.

The expansion of AMP to desktop experiences and the potential for AMP to replace standard web pages have been anticipated by the AMP Project from the start — but these are among the first large publishers to talk publicly about it.

A few days later, Bing announced AMP support in its search app for iOS and Android in order to provide a better, more consistent user experience. Like Google, Bing will link to the AMP version of a page when available.

AMP results in Bing Search app

This is something any search engine, social platform or other referrer could do — every standard web page with an AMP counterpart has a header tag pointing to the AMP version. Social news aggregator Nuzzel has been linking to AMPs for some time, and Twitter has taken initial steps to link to AMP in certain contexts.

Google’s promotion of AMP across its products is generating awareness, providing incentives for publisher adoption and driving feature development and innovation.

At the same time, the involvement of diverse participants and non-Google-dependent use cases will be critical to AMP’s long-term success and its mission to improve performance across the mobile web — not just a corner of it. The AMP format was seeded in Google’s environment but was never meant to stay there.

Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-opens-amp-firehose-259569?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_content=scap&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTURJeU0yUm1NV00wTm1RMiIsInQiOiI2aUtEVXVQWWZHTEtkQkZIODNKR3ZzZDVrRkE1MDUxWUpyMGFtTW14MDEzVGxBSXNHYzA0QXp5TFRyVjFMQ1pxSXpZQzFLKzBuek1BZU5iMnZhNmdhNnV1cmdBRFlyc0FOMXgwZ3pDXC94Mkk9In0%3D 

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What's the Deal With RankBrain?

Since 2015, Google has been using something called RankBrain, and it was used to process and deliver more relevant and organic search results. How? It was even a mystery to Google!

Rankbrain not only understands language semantics, but also complex search queries, which gives it the ability to think similarly to humans.

What does this mean for you? Find out by watching this week's Hard Facts.

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

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What's Mobile-Geddon?

Mobile-geddon is upon us! As consumers, we're always shopping for the next best thing on our mobile devices. Our Digital Performance Manager, Brad, takes over for Paul on this week's Think Tank Tuesday. He uses his iPhone for the majority of his online purchases.

There 5 steps you need to take to make sure your website and advertisement work correctly on mobile devices to make it more attractive to consumers. Watch this week's episode for more info! 

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

Website: http://www.ppadv.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PotratzAdvert...

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Potratz

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Snapchat: PotratzAgency

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In this week's Episode of Make Money Mondays Special Edition, Dan Moore, Senior Director of Marketing at VinSolutions talks about the importance of CRM. He breaks down step by step, how to serve a customer a unique experience through your CRM. Dan gives tips on delivering a powerful marketing message that can be processed all the way through into your CRM.
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No Need to Pick Up the Phone

Do you spend massive amounts of time cold calling leads with little results? There's a simpler, more sophisticated way to reach your prospects on their phones without the time investment that cold calling takes.

This method can also be combined with email and other digital channels to send similar messages across multiple channels, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

Watch the video to learn about Ringless Voicemail Drops and how you can start putting them to use for you business.


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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PotratzAdvert...
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Why aren't dealers seeing enough ROI in Social Media

4 Tips for Bridging the Gap with Dealers and Social Media

The gist of the article was that dealers don’t see enough return on their investment in social media.

Why do you think this is?

Is this because people aren’t interested in their local dealers on social media, or is it because campaign effectiveness in social media lacks?

2014 survey of more than 10,000 active car buyers found that social media ranked far below dealer websites, web searching and the automotive news media as a source of information when they are shopping.

In the NY Times article, Hyundai of Huntsville General Manager Matt Howell is quoted as saying that personal relationships are more important than social media, and that he is yet to attribute any meaningful impact on his business to social media.

Could it be that this manager does not truly understand the role of social media, or is he simply taking the wrong approach?

In the aforementioned article, another dealer is quoted saying, “I don’t even bother wasting my people’s time posting all day.” By focusing on ads, including ones that target car buyers when they are near rival dealers, the dealer reported an increase in sales while cutting marketing expenses per car sold to $90 from $500.

Are Facebook Ads the answer to dealers’ woes with social media? What about producing quality content that engages people, like other brands do, which marketers continue to stress importance?

What is “quality” dealer content anyway?

Is it happy customer videos? Is it warm fuzzy photos and videos that make people feel good?

When I encounter dealers producing this type of content, engagement is low, e.g. single digits. This is no way to market your dealership. Do you see other local retailers do this?

No!

Which brings me to my point…

Dealers are local multi-million dollar operations that are unique in the retail world. You can’t really equate franchise dealerships to any other entities in an apples-to-apples comparison. However, they are franchises, they are retailers, and they do thrive on repeat customer business much like other local franchises and retailers, so many of the same basic principles do apply:

  1. Always strive to provide an exceptional customer experience that people will talk about
  2. Provide useful informative information that your customers will appreciate
  3. Offer your customers meaningful incentives and promotions
  4. Make sure your dealership is easily accessible across multiple platforms, networks, and devices

While all four of these suggestions are equally important, each of them requires its own strategy to achieve.

1. Exceptional Customer Experience

The customer experience is a byproduct of the integrity of the dealership, which begins at the ownership level and works it way through the fabric of the organization. Most dealerships in my experience do provide a good customer experience, but no organization is perfect. There is always room for improvement. Without this, everything else is in vein. If your dealership isn’t reaching or exceeding your standard on customer experience then you need to strive to be a change agent there or else move on.

2. Quality Relevant Content

This is a challenging objective, especially over time. My philosophy is that dealers need to lean on whatever resources they can to consistently provide quality relevant content. By “quality and relevant” I mean information that is published by the dealership on dealership resources, e.g. the dealership blog and social media profiles.

The information does not always have to be produced by the dealership, but the more that can be, the better.

Here’s a resource; check out Jason Stum’s Ultimate Blogger Resource Pack on his siteMarketPunch. Here you will find multiple resources that Jason has produced to give dealers powerful useful resources for producing blog content which of course can then be used in social media. This could be a terrific starting point for you.

3. Meaningful Incentives and Promotions

Take my word for it, people aren’t interested in videos of your happy customers and they aren’t interested in gimmicky information such as cute pet videos. People want to know what’s in it for them and when you can save them time and money and give them a great value then you don’t want to be shy about letting them know that.

Put together exceptional offers, make them look and sound fantastic, and then let as many people know about them as possible. The great thing about digital media today is that it gives us insights as to who might want to know about what, and when, and how. Leverage today’s advanced tools and data and partners to execute smart and effective marketing and advertising campaigns.

4. Multi-Channel, Cross-Platform

As I just mentioned, leverage today’s advanced tools and data and technology. Dealers today have access to incredible resources, giving you the ability to reach people across multiple channels and different platforms and devices. But you need to harness these resources through key vendor relationships.

If you are tuning out vendors because you don’t want to be bothered by the noise then you are doing you and your dealership a disservice. If that’s the case then you might want to consider avendor visit protocol.  You are not a data or computer technology company, you are a car dealership; you sell and service vehicles.

Questions:

  1. Is your dealership incorporating Social Media in its marketing strategy and if so then how effectively?
  2. If so, are you able to measure and/or justify the ROI accurately?
  3. Is your Social Media strategy focused on sales, service, or both?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ryan Gerardi

SOURCE - http://www.dealerrefresh.com/4-tips-for-bridging-the-gap-with-dealers-and-social-media/#more-20380 

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