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Many dealers ask me for help in retention measurement, and statistics surrounding Customer Loyalty Indicators.
Two important indicators of Automotive Dealership customer loyalty are the purchase of additional service after the sale by Members and multiple vehicle purchases.
In the automotive dealer sector, these are also sources for the greatest margin, so they’re critical not just as indicators of customer satisfaction but as profit drivers in their own right. Little profit is made on the sale of the first vehicle. Dealerships must rely on repeat service and additional vehicle sales to make the customer life cycle profitable.
However, most auto dealers haven’t the vaguest idea which car buyers are loyal service customers at their dealerships, or multiple car buyers (especially if they're a multi rooftop autogroup). On average, dealers retain only 30 to 40 percent of post-warranty service dollars on vehicles they sell. What’s more, remarkably few dealers track service purchases systematically. As a result, as little as 3% of vehicle buyers will purchase again from the same dealership.
While it may be necessary to keep sales separate from an organizational point of view, it is very important that their tracking systems be linked. One simple way to do this is through a digital loyalty solution like re:member group’s BEDROCK® and ASPIRE® platforms. While re:member group makes no claim in having a CRM solution (see DealerSocket for the best one in my opinion), our loyalty solutions do identify repeat buyers in all departments and can assist in determining a lifetime customer value to Members.
The information Service Advisors acquire should easily be cycled back to encourage salespeople to target buyers who have remained loyal service customers. In addition, incentive systems should identify the lift that dealerships receive as a result of implementing a loyalty program in both service and sales. The keystone measurement in this case should be repurchase loyalty, as this is the best possible indicator of customer loyalty.
The Walser Automotive Group in Minneapolis, Minnesota makes customer loyalty a significant part of their overall marketing strategy. Thirty-one Percent of Walser’s Customers purchased more than one vehicle between 2005 and 2009, representing fifty-six percent of Walser’s Total Vehicle Sales. In that time, Walser has increased their repurchase loyalty by four percent.
Furthermore, Sixty-nine percent of Walser’s customers continue to service their vehicle after the sale.
Recall what loyalty expert Fred Reichheld claims: a five percent increase in customer loyalty can yield an increase in profitability between twenty-five and eighty-five percent.
What are you doing to increase your customer loyalty? Or, what is your customer loyalty percentage?
Paul Long
President
re:member group
cell: 612.221.0463
email: paul@remembergroup.com
I met Randy McPherson for the first time in February, 2003, at the Interchange Building in St. Louis Park, MN. The interchange building was the “headquarters” for all the Walser Automotive Group’s affiliate companies, which Randy headed up.
I walked into the offices on the 18th floor and was greeted by a receptionist named Rita. Immediately in front of me was a large window looking into a board room occupied by (mostly) men in suits, obviously conducting a meeting. The board room looked out onto the Minneapolis downtown skyline.
I noticed one gentleman right away. He was wearing a pressed flannel shirt and slacks. he had a smooth head and a groomed goatee. Clearly a renegade. I took a seat in the waiting room.
When the meeting adjourned, the men in suits filed out. The gentleman in the pressed flannel shirt walked out, and greeted me warmly. “Hi, Paul, I’m Randy McPherson,” he said.
We went back to his office, and had a nice conversation. Among the family photos and hunting relics in his office, something caught my eye: an empty guitar stand in the corner behind his desk.
The interview went the way most first interviews go, which is to say pretty innocuous. We talked about the Walser Car Club, and how it was birthed. Since the inception in October of 2002, it hadn’t had solid leadership to spearhead enhancements, new partnerships, or growth to new dealerships. In fact, there wasn’t 100% compliance among Walser’s 10 locations in the Twin Cities, Randy said. They were looking for someone to build process, partnerships and new business.
We talked about my experience in sales, e-commerce and loyalty. I told about my experience in building loyalty partners. But Randy became particularly interested when I discussed points–the ability for Walser customers to earn points when they get their vehicle serviced, OR whenever they make purchases through participating merchants, like rental cars, hotels and retail.
This was the first of many conversations between Randy McPherson and me in scoping out what is today the products the re:member group offers.
“What I’d like you to do,” Randy said, “is to put together a business plan and meet with my CFO and me in two weeks. There’s another candidate that we are considering.”
As I left, I mentioned the empty guitar stand in the corner. “Do you play?” I asked.
“Oh yeah,” Randy said. “Do you? What kind of guitar do you play?”
“I play a Martin D-35 that my wife gave me for a wedding present,” I said. “How about you?”
“I play a McPherson,” Randy said.
It was mid February but as I walked out of the Interchange Building that late afternoon, I think it started to rain.
How Google Social Search Has Changed the Way Dealers Do Social
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Every few months, we see a dip in sentiment regarding social media. It's been going on consistently since early 2009 and we know that it will continue. Dealers try social, see little reason to continue, and set things on autopilot or abandon it altogether. Then, something changes that makes social media more important and the searches for "Automotive Social Media" spike again.
Get ready to do the search. Social just got more important again. A LOT more important.
During the Digital Marketing Strategies Conference in Napa last earlier this month, I gave a keynote that highlighted Google's commitment to social media (as soon as Jared, Bart, and Arnold send me the video, I'll be happy to post it here... hint, hint). Google reaffirmed that commitment in a big way earlier today that will change the way savvy dealers do social media.
Google Social Search is a game changer - even SearchEngineLand, a blog that is often conservative about the impact of Google changes, agrees. It will insert links into the natural search stream based upon social connections that share and produce those links. While social search itself has been around for nearly 2 years, it has always been a side-note buried at the bottom and likely unnoticed by most. Now, it has the potential to change the search results important to us with a single Tweet, review, or blog post.
With access to Beta, I did 2 searches for "Washington DC Chevrolet." The first, I did while not logged into Google, personalized search off and cookies cleared:
Then, I did the exact same search while logged into Google:
As you can see, a post by good friend Paul Rushing popped up at the top.
What does this mean for search and social? It means that social sentiment, which many dealers are paying attention to more regularly, just got that much more important. It means that dealers who are unprepared have the potential to see their search traffic drop, particularly if a competing dealer in the market is able to take advantage of this.
It means that YOU can beat them all to the punch and start getting prepared today before it rolls out fully.
I am in the middle of exhaustive research on the subject right now, but here are some key points to think about while you wait for our next version of the Automotive Social Media strategy guide:
- - Tweets Matter. A Lot. - Imagine a potential customer doing a search for one of your makes in your metro area (the most common new car search; "Denver Ford," for example). They under one of the results close to the top your dealership's listing. It's not at the top, but something catches their eye... Co-worker Debbie tweeted your dealership URL. They click through and see that 14 months ago, Debbie bought a car there and tweeted about how good her experience was. Bingo.
- - If You Thought Reviews Were Important Before... - As Google always does when they roll out new search features, we can expect expansion. While Facebook is almost completely out of the question for integration, reviews are definitely part of the equation. Same scenario as above, except replace "Tweet" with "RatePoint." Bingo again.
- - That Pesky Blogger... - Remember the guy who thought he'd wreck your business by posting on his blog about how you low-balled him on his trade? You were smart and covered your Google page one results to keep his post off, but now it's showing up again for hundreds, even thousands of people who are either connected to him or connected to someone who shared his post on social media.
- - Your Connections. - Now more than ever, having a strong and well-maintained Twitter account is important. Do you still have an RSS feed handling your Tweets, driving potential customers to unfollow you, or are you growing your account and being interesting? If the subtle, intrinsic benefits of Twitter didn't get your attention before, how about moving your website up to the top of hundreds of searches? Still want to automate?
I'm not going to sit here and say "I told you so." Not here. Not on Driving Sales. The dealers here represent the top echelon of automotive social media knowledge so you're probably taking advantage of social media in one way or another. Don't let up. Stay aggressive. Keep up with the changes.
And don't forget to bug Jared about getting me that video. It has some information that may further change the way you do your social media.
In early 2003, I had a great job at Northwest Airlines, managing partnerships for their award winning WorldPerks program. I worked with a great team of people and loved what I did. I had finished my MBA from the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, MN in the summer of 2002. And my wife had just given birth to our first child in November 2002. Life was great, if not hectic.
I was privileged to work with some of the best loyalty marketers on the planet. My primary WorldPerks partner was U.S. Bank, which issued the WorldPerks Visa, and I handled a $200 million book of business for this partner alone. And since U.S. Bank was such a behemoth, I was able to develop co-partnerships with all the other partner categories, including car rental, hotels, communications, and the WorldPerks Mall.
My Pet Project, my passion, the WorldPerks Mall. The WorldPerks Mall gave me the opportunity to work with merchants in all categories, and gave WorldPerks Members the ability to earn miles by doing the things they did every day. I built partnerships with hundreds of “non-traditional” merchants in categories like department stores, clothing, electronics and toys. And then there were services that allowed Members to earn points…
MilesAbove was WorldPerk’s answer to small regional merchants who wanted to play in the mileage game. You’re a plumber? Give miles for Members using your service. Own a Co-op? Give miles to your patrons for their business. We had three “no go” categories: alcohol, fur, and auto racing. Other than that, partner development was fair game.
Originally managed by Carlson Marketing Group, MilesAbove proved too expensive to have an outside vendor manage it’s partner development. I brought it in-house, and automated the purchase of miles for companies wanting to play. An unintended benefit allowed Members looking to “round-out” their accounts to buy miles. The best professional development benefit was having the privilege of working with people from one of Mark Lacek’s companies, MilePoint, to build the first ever Buy Miles engine. We sold $1 million dollars in miles in the first 6 months after revamping MilesAbove. Carlson, a trusted marketing partner, was instrumental in process and collateral development. It was a team firing all pistons, and a high point of my tenure at NWA.
All of the merchant partnerships we built required a form of payment, which brings me full circle. WorldPerks Visa was an “anchor store”. It’s what every other partnership revolved around. My team and I loved building co-partnerships and finding creative ways to allow Members to earn miles without ever having to get on a plane.
Life was great. I loved my job, and the people I worked with were among the brightest and most creative I had ever met. I was having fun with my young family, traveling wherever and whenever we wanted.
“Marry me, fly for free.” My wife still reminds me of the promise I made to her.
marketing solution SusanGivens
video search engineoptimization increases salesby 45 percent
Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO)
marketing solution SusanGivens
video search engineoptimization increases salesby 45 percent
Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO)
their dealership dominates the most popularsearch terms on all of the major search
engines organically with high-impact videos.
This practice has become vital to successful
online marketing strategies. Online video is
fast-becoming a highly effective and cost-
effective means of advertising within the
automotive industry.
In the last two years, there has been an
undeniable surge in the number of online
video viewers, with approximately 175 millionunique viewers watching an average of morethan 900 minutes of online video each a
month, based on an October 2010 report by
www.comScore.com, and www.eMarketer.com
predicts nine out of 10 Internet users will beconsuming video by 2012.
In 2007, Google pioneered “universal search,”
otherwise known as “blended search,” where
multiple search results are returned in oneconvenient results display that includes
autosuccessonline.com
Websites, news
articles, images,
press releases,
maps, blogs, socialmedia, e-commerce
and video.
Google’s universal
search capabilityundoubtedlykicked online video
marketing into high
gear.
According toGoogle, searchersare 55 percent morelikely to click onthumbnail video
images than staticlinks and because
of this Googlegives more rankingauthority to video,
thus placing videoson the top of search
engine results.
“People would
rather watch the
movie than read the
book,” said KarryMoore, presidentand founder of
com, the company
is the process of ensuring that video assetsgenerate the highest-possible volume of
quality traffic to your Website. Dealerships
such as Gary Mathews of Jackson, in Jackson,
Tennessee, recently implemented a digitalmarketing platform to help them appear ontop of the leading search engines like Google,
Yahoo!, Bing and YouTube in their local marketto attract, sell and service more customers
profitably. “My Internet department has been
doing 40 to 45 percent of the dealership’sbusiness, and that’s true accountable sells,
not just sourcing,” said Duran Cage, InternetDirector for Gary Mathews of Jackson.
With more than 88 percent of ready-to-buy
consumers using search engines to shop,
most dealers are scrambling to outbid theircompetitors to appear on top for the most
popular search phrases in their market.
Gary Mathews uses a VSEO company thatautomates thousands of activities to ensure
that Gary Mathews uses. “VSEO is ‘targeted
TV,’ and VSEO allows dealers to deliver their
message to engaged consumers.”
Additionally, dealers can now have multiple
listings on “Page One” by implementing astrong SEO and VSEO strategy. Traditionally,
dealers could get only one listing for a
keyword or phrase such as “Jackson TN,
Hyundai Santa Fe” or “Hyundai Santa FeJackson TN” because they only had one
Website optimized for that phrase. Now with
VSEO, they can build on that single Website
return to have multiple video listings on thatpage, which creates more exposure for thedealership and keeps the competition relegated
to “Page 2” results.
Google indexes all video-sharing sites, not
just YouTube. This means that the more video
sites a dealer distributes their video content to,
the more opportunity that the search engineswill have to index those videos and consider
it relevant content for search returns; thus,
multiple listings for keywords or phrases such
as “Jackson Hyundai Santa Fe.”
Video has become such a game-changerthat VSEO companies like the one GaryMathews of Jackson uses have developed and
launched the automotive industry’s first truevideo search portal, www.CarBuyersEngine.
com, the only video portal of its kind whereconsumers can research and shop for new
and used vehicles, find a dealership, reviewvehicle comparisons or financing withoutthe typical online “clutter” — meaning, no
pop-ups or annoying previews to sit through
before video begins.
The Internet is an ever-changing landscape and
dealers need to keep pace with the changes.
There are no silver bullets, but clearly videoand VSEO need to be incorporated into a
dealers’ online digital strategy. “We want to
‘own’ the Jackson market and video is helping
take us to the next level,” Cage said.
Susan Givens is the publisher of AutoSuccess.
She can be contacted at 877.818.6620, or by
e-mail at sgivens1@autosuccessonline.com.
I met Randy McPherson in early 2003. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
My good friend Chad Dufault and I were having a conversation at Davanni’s, sharing a pizza. I think it was January 2003, but something tells me it may have been late 2002. I was working for Northwest Airlines in WorldPerks partner marketing, and he was VP of a mortgage company that Randy owned alongside Paul Walser of the Walser Automotive Group. We were talking about how to build his business, and how to retain customers. Since Loyalty was my focus at NWA, Chad was picking my brain. And we were just enjoying a pizza.
“You should talk to Randy McPherson,” Chad said out of the blue. “Walser is building a loyalty program, and they could use your help.”
I had never heard of this Randy McPherson before. “Who is this man,” I asked myself.
Location:Davanni’s, Edina, MN
The 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC) scheduled February 1-3, 2011 just prior to the 2011 NADA Convention has exceeded its pre-registration goals. Brian Pasch, CEO of PCG Digital Marketing, who is organizing the conference, attributed the pre-registration success to dealers focusing on education.
“In a recent survey conducted by PCG, 45% of car dealers said that their staff was not adequately trained to lead a competitive digital marketing and social media strategy for their dealership. With the outstanding lineup of speakers and educators at the DMSC, it is no surprise the dealer principals, managers, and eCommerce directors have registered.”
The Digital Marketing Strategies Conference is conveniently schedule prior to the popular NADA Convention, which is held this year in San Francisco. Attendees of the conference who are planning to attend NADA will be transported to San Francisco on Friday February 4th and will not miss any of the scheduled events at NADA.
Attendees of the Digital Marketing Strategies Conference will also benefit from the conference format. All meals are included in the registration fee so that attendees will have ample time to build lasting friendship over mealtime. Since the conference is being held in the Napa Valley, dinners will feature award-winning wines introduced by the winemaker/owners of the vineyards.
Conference Handbook Exceeds 150 Pages
Pasch added, “This year we have also created a 150 page digital marketing and social media handbook. The book is packaged with articles, resources, and tips from the speakers and educators at the conference. The handbook will be a great resource to review and leverage all year round since there are few books in print specifically targeting automotive digital marketing.”
Automotive educators and speakers include Jared Hamilton, Sean Wolfington, JR Rucker, Alex Snyder, Gary May, Matt Murray, Glenn Pasch, Christy Roman, Joe Webb, Scott Falcone, and Christine Rochelle.
Sponsors of the DMSC include Dealer.com, VinSolutions, TK Carsites, Smart Web Concepts, Presto Reviews, DealerFire, CAR-MERCIAL, and DealerTrend.
Registration for the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference closes on January 28, 2011. Dealers interested in attend can visit http://www.digitalmarketingstrategies.org to register.
Hotel rooms can be booked at http://www.marriot.com since the event is being held at the Napa Valley Marriot Hotel.
ADM Members Invited to Superbowl Party
For dealers attending the 2011 NADA Convention in San Francisco, PCG extends an invitation to join their Superbowl Party, which is billed as the largest Superbowl Sunday party at the NADA, show. Dealers can register by contact Carrie Hemphill at 732.450.8200 ext 2.
PRICE PRICE PRICE....Well take a look at these numbers!! AutoUSA is a lead source provider to 4000+ dealerships nationwide!
http://www.imakenews.com/autosuccess/e_article001976082.cfm?x=bhTC7kM,b7Wgd1Lp
VERY interesting article...look at what MOST dealerships recognize as the main reasons for growth (where is PRICE at on that list?!?). This why it is so very important to not only be online, but also have a GOOD reputation and reviews by our customers that we deal with everyday! Make sure that when our internet customers close thier eyes and invision your dealership(s)...what do they see? An untrustworthy place to do business? or a fun and easy place to purchase their next vehicle???
You must have a "difference" in the way you do business and treat customers...rather than be the Badger Salesman (see the "Fun Stuff" Group if you have NEVER seen the badger!)
A proven better solution to "buying more 3rd party leads" - as the article suggested dealers are doing moving into 2011 - we all know that generating our OWN leads is a much more successful operation in overall closing ratio, not to mention name exposure and exclusivity.
If you need any help with your Digital Marketing, Social Media, Online Reputation, and/or overall exposure on the Internet, please don't hesitate to contact me personally for a FREE Synergy Session, and a customized digital solution for your dealer group! Happy New Year to everyone!!
Andy Fedo
VP of Training
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dealersynergy/3420894237/ I wanted to congratulate Rob Fontano on his recent cover story. I have had the opportunity to watch Rob evolve over the years and am excited for all of his success. Rob has been through several Dealer Synergy training workshops over the years. I have attached a Flickr link in the post of Rob Fontano and Football great Keith Byars (Formerly of the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins). I had Keith Byars as a guest speaker at one of my "Internet Director Immersion Programs" and as a guest speaker at NADA in 2009.
I think Rob came to my "Director Immersion Program" JUST FOR KEITH BYARS LOL! (It was his second Sean V. Bradley / Dealer Synergy workshop!
For all "Automtoive Internet Sales" members... you should really read his article and maybe even reach out to Rob on AIS... He is an awesome person and a great Internet Sales Professional!
Good memories my friend!! And I see that VSEO is working well for you too :)
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/e8e0b8bc#/e8e0b8bc/1
"
Jesse Thomas is the CEO and Founder of JESS3, a Creative Interactive Agency. JESS3 designs products and experiences for brands like Google, Nike, Facebook, MySpace, C-SPAN, Microsoft and NASA.
“Likes,” views and followers were all the rage in 2010. Despite the social media community emphasizing engagement instead of reach, media agencies quickly learned that engagement doesn’t scale easily, making it difficult to sell. Enter Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. As consumer use of social media spiked, the leading social networks retooled their advertising products to satisfy the newfound demand from brands. Instead of fizzling out like the popular online communities of yesteryear, they are driving toward profitability after several years of trying to figure out what they wanted to be when they grew up.
On the flip side, as consumers incorporate social media more into their daily lives, alternatives to the “big three” in the form of niche and location-based social networks have increased in appeal. Advertisers willing to experiment with media campaigns on these networks will have a distinct advantage moving forward as consumers become desensitized to text, display and even rich media ads. Whether they choose to go big or small, the social web equips advertisers with significantly more consumer data points than ever before to improve the targeting and relevance of online advertising.
Below are six predictions for digital advertising in 2011."
Read the rest of the article and watch the videos here!
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Automotive Social Media Marketing Statistics, Facts and Figures / Re-Post from Ralph Paglia of Automotive Digital Marketing...
Automotive Social Media Marketing Statistics, Facts and Figures published by reliable resources for December 2010
-
- Social network usage by Americans aged 65 and up grew 100% in 2010 from 13% to 26%, and is expected to continue to increase (Pew Research Center)
-
- Facebook passed Yahoo in August 2010 to become #2 video site in America (58,600,00 users) behind #1 YouTube (146,300,000 users) (comScore)
-
- Twitter now gets more visitors than MySpace, becoming 3rd most trafficked Social Network. Twitter.com had 96 million unique visitors in November 2010 up 76% from November 2009. #1 visited social network is Facebook with 598 million unique visitors. (comScore)
-
- 29% of Twitter users 18-24 years old use Twitter to follow their favorite companies and brands
-
- 60% of web users visit social networks (PC Advisor)
-
- Two thirds of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites have integrated content sharing with Facebook.
-
- The average Facebook user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events (Facebook press office)
-
- Twitter adds more than 300,000 new "Tweeps" (users) every day (Twitter)
-
- There are more than 600 million searches on Twitter every day (Twitter)
-
- YouTube receives more than 2 billion video views per day (YouTube press center)
-
- 77% of Automotive Internet Users (AIU) read blogs (Technorati)
-
- 60% of bloggers are aged 18-44 (Technorati)
-
- Male/Female distribution ratio of Twitter users is 47/53%
-
- 51% of active Twitter users follow companies, brands or products on social networks
-
- Women aged 55 and up are the fastest growing Facebook demographic in America
-
- Two-thirds of bloggers are male:
- 65% are age 18-44.
- Bloggers are more affluent and educated than the general population:
- 79% have college degrees / 43% have graduate degrees
- 1/3 have a household income of $75K+
- 1/4 have a household income of $100K+
- 81% have been blogging more than 2 years.
- Professionals have an average of 3.5 blogs.
- Professionals blog 10+ hours/week.
- 11% say blogging is their primary income source.
http://www.internetsales20group.com
I wanted to wish everyone a VERY Happy Thanksgiving from me, my family and the entire Dealer Synergy Team. I personally have a tremendous amount to be Thankful for. As you might or might not know, I was in a horrific, near fatal Jet Ski accident in Puerto Rico this past summer. It was a sureal experieince to say the least, I was in Puerto Rico for 2 months and out of work for over 3 months due to the accident. I had a lot of time to think, reflect and truly appreciate what I have. Sometimes when you are going at "warp" speed everyday things might get taken for granted. I am Thankful for my life, to be able to breathe. As simple as that may sound I am sincere. I am blessed and Thankful for my family, friends, company, clients and the ability to do what I love each and every day.
Life is WAY Too Short!! BeThankful that you have life and the opportunity to be and do anything you want to do. Reflect... Soak it all in... Enjoy it!
God Bless and Happy Thanksgiving
Sean V. Bradley-
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Recently Google created a Tsunami of change by integrating Google Places into organic search results. Dealers called me to ask what I thought these changes would have to their Automotive SEO strategies. I was not quick to answer because I think that Google is still refining their balancing act of SEO, SEM, and Google Places.
With that said, I am feeling much better about the changes that are in play. I was worried that the new Google Places integration would start at the top of organic listings which would favor websites connected to a Google Places page. From what I can see, Google is still rewarding exact match domain names and highly optimized websites before the “mosh pit” (in green) is displayed.
In the example below, a broad search phrase like “Los Angeles Dealers” produces a list of car dealers that have Google Maps, but before those listings, three company websites appear.
In the search results shown above, you can see that an “exact match” domain with good content, links, and relevance PRECEDES the massive block of results shown in green that are enhanced by Google Places data. You can also see the other two websites that rank above the Google Places block are not slackers at all: Automotive.com and Cars.com.
Google SERP Find Exact Matches First
I’ve said this before and will repeat it again, Google always tries to present, on a search results page (SERP), the best matching assets in its database. Google, Yahoo, and Bing all weight exact matching domains very high as long as the websites have relevant content. Redirected domains that are not hosted will never appear in search results so all those parked domains you may own are not helping you. It may be time to get those parked domains on a real content publishing strategy!
Don’t Forget The Stars
When Google integrated Google Places, the normal 8-10 organic listings were changed dramatically which created a “jump ball” once again in the search marketing Olympics.
I would like to remind all car dealers that they MUST develop a comprehensive Internet Reputation Management (IRM) strategy to increase participation of their clients to posted reviews. My recommendation is that a successful dealer should have TWICE the number of positive reviews “stars” of their nearest competitor. That may be harder in years to come but all dealers should have a few HUNDRED reviews posted from authentic customers.
Testing Search Results Start To Show A Trend
From recent testing that I have done, websites hosted on great domain names may actually have an edge over local car dealer websites. Take a look at the search listed below. The websites that Google felt were best matches and NOT in Google Places were listed first. Then the local dealers were listed.
Once again, the TOP websites above the integrated and enhanced Google Places organic listings are two heavyweight contenders UsedCars.com and Yahoo Autos. For the car industry, the bigger, more established inventory advertising websites could be getting more traffic because they are NOT in the green Google Places area and shown at the top of the page.
This trend continues as you type in even broader searches, and you can see that websites that are EXACT matching or that have high SEO inbound links on targeted keywords, appear on Google Page One before the Google Places block. So, in essence, Automotive SEO strategies are still in tact and dealers that have EXACT matching microsites with great content are getting a boost.
The Future Automotive SEO
Since I am an advocate of Automotive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies, you would expect me to defend this marketing strategy but I will be the first to say that the changes with Google Places is still a dynamic event. I’ll keep you posted on what I find and make recommendations to take advantage of opportunities I see.
About the Author
Brian Pasch is the CEO of the PCG Digital Marketing and an active writer for the automotive community.
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Chrysler Dodge Jeep Dealership comes up with a VERY CREATIVE Social Media Strategy for their FaceBook using "call of Duty, Black Ops" as a Promo for "Likes"... Basically, all a person has to do is "LIKE" Locklear's FaceBook Fan Page and they will be entered into a FREE drawing / Contest for a FREE Call of Duty, Black Ops game-
"Googolopoly" The BEST & Most Powerful Automotive Digital Marketing & Social Media Strategy for your Dealership
This Graphic sums it ALL up... This is Exactly what your dealership should be thinking with the Internet & with Digital Marketing / Social Media... The best analogy I can give you all is that I want you to think of Google as a Monopoly board or bettter yet a "Googolopoly" LOL! Google says that ONLY .5% (LESS than 1%) of people go past the First Page of Google. So, your strategy is SIMPLE... LIKE in Monopoly you try to get as many PROPERTIES as possible... That is what you want to do with the First Page of Google! you want to get as many positions as humanly possible. For example:
· You want to DOMINATE the First page EVERYWHERE... Starting with your MAIN www.abcmotors.com site.
· You want your Focus Sites / Micros Sites to show on the first page in the TOP 10.
· You want your Face Book...
· You want your Twitter...
· You want your NING...
· You want your Flicker...
· You want your You Tube...
· You want your Dealer Rater / Reputation Management etc...
· Videos, videos, Videos... AKA Video Search Engine Optimization!
· You want your Vertical Search... Google Business / google Maps...
· You want your REAL TIME Search (LIVE News Feeds on First Page Google)!
*** Why...? Simple... The MORE you are on the 1st PAGE the LESS EVERYONE else is... 3rd party providers, competition etc... And we all know that you have a FASTER gestation period generating your own leads, you have a higher gross and a higher closing ratio.
THE NEW Phrase to Remember is "Googolopoly"
