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Tired of being in a Selfish Relationship?

Is your website constantly asking for or taking information from visitors? By providing information to visitors rather than requesting information from them, you can expect to see a rise in conversions and a decrease in bounce rates. Watch this week's Think Tank Tuesday and find out how to rethink your web strategy.

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Don't Make This Common Marketing Mistake

Your website can produce up to 600 more leads every month. I'll show you how to get customers who may be on the fence to contact your team in this week's Think Tank Tuesday. There's no reason you shouldn't be using this tool on your website. Don't miss out on hundreds of quality leads and watch Think Tank Tuesday right now!

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What's Your Competitive Advantage?

What would you say if a customer asked "Why should I buy from you?"  Everyone can compete on price, but in order to gain more customers and increase your sales, you need to have a competitive advantage. What's yours?

In this week's Think Tank Tuesday, I'll explain why it's important to set yourself apart from all the other dealers in your market, and how to do so.

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Stop Struggling With Content Development



Do you struggle to find content for your website? In this week's Think Tank Tuesday, I'll show you the ideal place to get 200-300 pieces of relevant content for your website every month.

Visit out website: www.ppadv.com
Like us on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/PotratzAdvertising
Follow us on Twitter: @Potratz

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Let's face it. Websites are becoming a commodity in the automotive world. Most quality website vendors are putting out solutions that are good enough to work well. Few are coming up with innovations that can differentiate them, and those differences are relatively small in the whole scheme of things. The difference between a good and a great website is minimal when translating it to increased sales.

The reason for this is that consumers are becoming increasingly impatient when in car shopping mode. It's not that they don't spend as much time doing it as before. It's that they are doing most of their research on websites other than a dealer's site and only visiting when they're ready to look at live vehicles. At that point, they're going straight to inventory or specials and deciding from there whether to consider doing business with a dealership or not. If you have the right inventory items that they're considering, a bad website isn't going to keep them from contacting you. Conversely, if you don't have the vehicles they're seeking, an amazing website isn't going to coax them into doing business with you.

Websites are websites. Some are better than others and have strong conversion tools, but the real arena through which dealers can move the needle is in the quality of their digital marketing efforts. One of those efforts, search engine marketing, is arguably the greatest opportunity for advancement because it translates into more visitors, more leads, and potentially more sales when done right.

The biggest challenge that dealers with OEM-mandated search marketing products face is in defining competition. From the OEM's perspective, a Ford dealer's competition is the Chevy dealer down the block and the Honda dealer around the corner. They want search exposure that can take sales from the other brands. This is a good and noble cause, but unfortunately it's not the most practical target for individual dealers and dealer groups.

From the perspective of the Ford dealership itself, their primary competition isn't the Chevy dealer and the Honda dealer but rather the other Ford dealers in the area. It's how they're graded; we all see reports every month that tell us how we're doing against other dealerships in the area that sell the same brands. It is for this reason that OEM-mandated search marketing, as affordable as it is, simply isn't the best way to improve sales. At the dealership level, the lowest hanging fruit for increased business is by taking sales from the real competition, namely the other Ford store a few miles away.

As mentioned, there is one advantage to the OEM-mandated search marketing: it's cheaper. It's often paid for in whole or in part and can act as a check box on your marketing. "Yep, we're doing SEO and PPC. The OEM is taking care of that for us."

Unfortunately, that's really the only advantage. It's designed in most cases to keep every dealership inside their own little box. Reaching outside of the direct market area is a no-no for companies that work for the OEMs. In fact, they're goal is to keep the boxes neat and tidy.

When the search marketing is focused at the dealership level, it's a completely different strategy. The goals have changed; it's not that a Ford dealer doesn't want to take market share from a Chevy dealer, but that's a heck of a lot harder than taking a deal from the Ford dealer down the road. Let's say there's a dealer in a small town a few miles from you. They're the only Ford dealer in that town. Everyone in town knows them. When they want to do business with that dealership, they'll search for the dealership by name.

Consumers who search for the dealership by city are looking for an alternative. They know about Bob Ricky's Toyota in the heart of town. If they do a search for "Somewhereville Toyota Dealers" or "Toyota Dealers Near Somewhereville", you'll want your dealership to pop up. People that do searches like that are trying to find someone else from which to buy their Toyota. If they wanted to buy from Bob Ricky's Toyota, they would have searched for "Bob Ricky's Toyota". They didn't. They want someone else. They want you. If you're ranked for that search, there's a good chance they'll check out your website to see if they can do business with you instead of Bob Ricky.

Unfortunately, the OEM-mandated search marketing products aren't designed to help in this regard. In many ways, they're designed to prevent this from happening.

If your goal is to beat the competition, your competition, then don't look to the OEM's search marketing company. Don't just check off the search marketing box and call it a day. Explore your options and see if there's a way to improve your search marketing to focus on helping your dealership the best way you can, by being aggressive and getting your dealership in as many relevant searches as possible.

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Bad Company Ruins Good Habits!

Aristotle said, “You are what you repeatedly do, therefore excellence is not an act, it is a habit!” 

A habit is something you form into your life do to a continued daily practice. Depending on what you are continually practicing, habits can be either good or bad. The time and efforts you invest into them determine the developments of your habits.  If you allow more time and efforts to be the focus of some habits over others they will grow stronger, have a larger appetite and desire more attention. The larger the appetite the more it wants to be fed. The more it craves the more it gains control to rule your life. The more it rules your life the more you have lost having a habit and allowed a habit to have you.

We could learn about habits through the parent and child relationship. Good manners are developed through the continued daily investment of example, time, consistency and energy from parents to their children. The parents enforce the habit through influence. When a child receives a gift, the parent says, “Say thank you.” The child than says, “Thank you.” The child than gives the parent the gift back and the parent says, “Thank you.” The parent than tells the child to say, “You’re Welcome!” What is taking place here? The parent is enforcing a continued practice of response through influencing the child to say certain things. These are practices done with the hopes of developing good manners into the child’s character. The parent continues this for days, weeks and even months until it has become a habit. When it is a habit the parent no longer has to remind the child to do it anymore. The thing that was not natural is now a natural response. The child doesn’t have to think about it or even look to the parent anymore. Why, because it is a habit.

Now just because the habit is formed, enforced and is a natural response in the child’s life doesn’t mean the habit is there to stay for life. As a matter of fact the good habit can be influenced to change. Just as the good habit came through the influence of the parents is the same way the habit can be changed. Remember that, “Bad company corrupts and ruins good habits.” This is why it is so important to be careful of who you are hanging out with. Who you associate with will begin to rub off on you and effect your manners, character and speech. Your company will influence your habits. Your habits will influence your character. Your character will influence your reputation. Your reputation will influence your life. Your life will influence your world. Do you see the importance of keeping good company? Good company promotes good habits, good character, good reputation, a good life and ultimately makes a good world. In the same way, bad company promotes bad habits, bad character, bad reputation, a bad life and ultimately creates a bad world.

As professionals in the dealership and life in general you have worked so hard on developing good habits. You have invested your, time, energy, money and efforts into building good character and a solid reputation.

Here’s how you can protect yourself from “Bad Company” destroying your “Good Habits.”

1.      Don’t hang around the wrong people!

Don’t associate with people who are always complaining and negative. These people will ruin what you worked so hard on building. It’s always easier to look at the bad side of things. It takes discipline to train yourself to look at the good and achieve good results. If someone can get you to ruin your reputation they can effectively ruin your life.

2.      Hate what is bad!

We are to detest with horror the results and consequences of living a life that exhibits bad habits. We need to be like Teflon. Teflon is a material used on cookware for the purpose of keeping the food from sticking to the pan. We need to be Teflon to the bad ways and bad habits that try to stick to us.  They should slide right off of us.

3.      Hold onto what is good!

This is admonishing us to push away the bad ways and habits of life and to embrace the good ways and habits of life. When it comes to the good habits and ways of living this life we should be like glue. We should let them stick to us like crazy glue. Don’t switch them around either. Don’t slip away from doing good. Instead you should overcome the bad habits and intentions with the good habits and intentions you live.

Don’t be overcome by bad habits, rather overcome bad habits with good ones!

It’s in our power to make a difference in our lives. We have the influence to change our world! It falls on us. We are to never hold back the good that is in our hands. Good people who have good habits need to step out and stand up for what is good. What good is it? It is so good that it will change your life and the lives of others.

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Who is the BEST Automotive Dealership Website Company? And Why...???

Automotive Internet Sales is creating its TOP 10 LISTS! And the first section is Dealership Website Companies...

So, Please give me your feedback. Remember that is what this site is about... INFORMATION, IDEAS and FEEDBACK.

I look forward to all of your posts and thoughts.

SVB-

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