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Are your shoppers constantly on their phones in your showroom? We've developed some strategies that can help you reach the customer in some new ways. Find out how to turn phone shoppers into sales on this week's episode of Think Tank Tuesday!

"I couldn't sell my boss a pen if he was trying to cash a million-dollar check!"

Selling your boss has very little to do with the fact that they're tough or often balk at the idea of adding new expenses. Those are things you tell yourself to help soften the blow when you don't get your way.

To help you change your thinking and sell your boss on SEO, I'll step you through a few of the ways you can break through and make your boss see the light.

Ask Questions and Let Them Talk

One of the easiest ways to sell your boss on SEO is to simply ask questions, let them talk, and listen.

"Seek first to understand, then to be understood."

You've probably heard that phrase, made popular by Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, on more than one occasion. This is essential advice for solving problems, as well as getting what you want in this type of situation.

In order to understand things from your boss's perspective, you have to take yourself completely out of the equation. You have your own preconceived notions of SEO, and those will likely not line up with those of your boss. So instead of just going back and forth, trying to convince him to see things from your point of view, you need to really listen and truly understand your boss's position.

Doing this, you'll likely hear something you'd otherwise block out or forget by the time it's your turn to speak. This will allow you to think more clearly and openly, helping to make your point in a way your boss can understand.

Break it Down into Understandable Terms

When you're trying to explain a highly-technical form of marketing, you can't talk to your boss the same way you would another marketer. You have to break things down so they can understand the terms and comprehend the concepts.

I'd suggest thinking about the key points that matter to your boss and creating talking points with simple explanations. Some that come to mind include:

• What is SEO? - An easy way to explain this is to compare it to advertising, as SEO is the opposite of advertising. Instead of broadcasting a message in the hopes of reaching people that are in search of your products or services, you make it easier for those people to discover your business over your competitors.

• How SEO Works - Once you've got them up to speed with SEO, tell them how and why it's done, and what happens as a result. They need to be able to visualize all of this in order to truly understand it.

• Quantifying Results - Let them know how results will be measured so they'll be able to see for themselves that the business is seeing an ROI. Many business owners are skeptical about SEO because they've been pitched too many products and services that fail to deliver. If they know that they'll have some level of control, it will put their mind more at ease.

Provide Examples of Successful Campaigns

As an automotive SEO company, Wikimotive uses examples from our own campaigns to show prospects examples of the success they can achieve with our services.

This is your best selling tool, especially when the example is one within your own industry. It's not only a relevant example, but it's also a way for your boss to better connect the dots and see the value in SEO.

Don't just jump in and expect the examples to do the work for you, though; take the time to break down everything. Explain what was down, how it was done, and give detailed answers as to why these efforts work and translate into results for the business.

If your boss can see the work in action, grasp the concepts, and see the potential for themselves, you should have no problem getting the green light on SEO.

Don't Bring Up Cost  Until it's Necessary

The cost of complex and labor-heavy services like SEO can derail your hopes of selling your boss unless you wait until your boss is already on board.

"How much did you say?!" is the type of reaction you can expect if you don't think about this before your (or your preferred SEO company's) presentation.

Your entire pitch should be centered around the value of SEO, working up to explaining the price. Whether that means you want to bring on a dedicated SEO professional or hire a company, you have to first make sure your value proposition was heard loud and clear.

Let me be clear: you're not trying to pull one over on your boss; this is simply about the presentation. If the first thing out of your mouth is "Boss, I want to spend $4,000 a month on SEO services," you're setting yourself up to fail. Not because the price is too high, but because you have to properly transition into talking about cost.

At the end of the day, selling your boss on SEO really all depends on your boss. Some may simply not be interested in it at all and others may be open to it with a proper pitch. But be prepared to fail the first time around. Stay on top of the latest happenings in the SEO field so that you can be ready to create another pitch down the road.

Search isn't going anywhere, so if you can be the person who helps your boss get started and succeed you'll gain trust and grow right alongside the company.

Originally Published to the Wikimotive Blog on December 21, 2015

Digital marketers have been saying that SEO is dead for almost 20 years. Although many keep predicting the end of SEO as a way to earn new customers and relevance, the reality is that SEO tactics are the only things that die - or rather, change form.

The reason SEO can never go away completely is simple - people will always search, and there will always be ways to optimize content to appear in search. Thus, although people may proclaim that SEO is dead thanks to a Google update or the rise of social media, having good searchable content will always be a long-term method for success.

Content marketing isn't going anywhere, and onsite content creation and powerful backlinks are major factors behind what currently drives SEO. As long as businesses create good content onsite that people want to link back to, they will be taking advantage of SEO tactics that haven't gone anywhere in a long time and don't look to be losing importance any time soon. While marketers may think this is ineffective, this is mainly because most marketers are pressured for quick results, when SEO and content creation are long-haul tactics.

As long as there are things to search for, people will search them, and if a business sells those things, they should be working on improving their SEO regardless what the naysayers may believe. What are some ways that you will evolve your SEO in the coming years?

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

Most Up To Date Statistics State That Car Dealerships Need A Video Strategy - 2015 Video Is The Most Powerful Tool For A Car Dealership. A dealership or dealer group can utterly crush the competition and have an unfair advantage in their market by having a video strategy. This video has the most up to date video statistics. Most businesses do not have a video strategy. Here are the areas that a dealership needs to focus on for video: - Video Search Engine Optimization - Video Emails - Video Conferencing - Video for Website(s) - Video for Social Media - Comparison Videos - How to videos - Videos for CRM - and so much more!

Native advertising isn’t a new concept, but it’s importance will increase as more businesses harness it on different platforms. Click-through and conversion rates tend to rise when native advertising is used, so it should definitely be a factor when planning marketing creative.

Native advertising is when an ad matches the form and function of the site, app or other platform that it is appearing on. Simply put, the ad matches the look and feel of the site. Of course, tricking people into clicking an ad is not the best way to gain good quality traffic. However, when an ad can be an ad, but still feel like it “belongs” to the site or app it appears on, the odds that it will be clicked on increase.

An example of this might be linking to an advertiser directly in the text of an article as a recommendation (this typically happens on affiliate advertising websites) or even sponsored posts on Facebook, with ads that look nearly like all the other posts. Instagram, Twitter and others have begun offering native advertising on their platforms as well.

This type of marketing is worth looking into for almost any business. While ads made to look like articles are definitely not the way to go (this tactic has failed for many in the past), taking advantage of native advertising platforms can help a business offer something to that platform via a sponsored post or similar that could keep customers referring back. What are some ways you all use native advertising to your advantage?

Last week we began a two-part series on the brain. More specifically, the science of how it works, or Neuroscience. This is a hot topic. Leveraging scientific knowledge about the brain can create a better sales process, drive more dollars to your dealership’s bottom line and create happy women customers that remain loyal to your dealership for years to come.

Let's check “under the hood” at the Limbic System and the Neocortex. After last week’s Part 1 article, you know that when selling cars, it had better be your NeoCortex doing the work – and definitely not your Limbic System. When selling to women, having the optimim level of engagement with your buyer is imperative. While you know that intellectually, it helps to have reminders in place to reduce the natural tendency to let your brain’s autopilot take control.

4 Strategies for Interrupting the Autopilot of your Brain

1. Know what matters to women. Women have a list of needs when buying a car, but emotional factors also figure into this decision. The top reason women report buying at a particular dealership is not price. The top reason is the customer service and treatment received. Price ranks second. This is important, because it really means you have to have the best price and top that off with unparalleled sales and customer service.

When it comes to what women look for when working with a specific sales person, trust and respect rank first and second. Here, the Limbic System is at work in your woman prospect’s brain, comparing you with her memories and making emotional judgements. The easiest way to build trust is to listen carefully and remain present.

2. Be confident, but not overly so. Confidence matters in life, but over-confidence can derail a potential deal. Overconfidence can allow you to miss the subtle emotions from your prospect that may be signaling she is apprehensive, intimidated or frustrated. Keeping overconfidence in check can help you ask the questions necessary to mitigate any concerns she may have.

Her emotions may have nothing to do with your dealership or your sales process. She may have brought those emotions with her from another experience, and it is up to you to find out how to overcome the issues. Listen more and talk less to help you assess how the deal is proceeding.

3. Stay logical. While emotions will play into a car sale for your woman buyer, it is important that you stay logical and focused. Relying on your intuition, instinct or “gut feel” has great potential to mislead you. Relying on a “smile” from your prospect as an indicator of her happiness, can be completely wrong. Studies show that 90% of people smile when they are frustrated. Again, culture and gender can be at play here – women often smile out of habit to placate others.

Your instinct has a good chance of perceiving false signals of success. Keep a logical perspective on the immediate situation to keep from misreading anything.

4. Find out what you don’t know. I’s easy – and natural - to rely on experience and knowledge when selling. Your prospect will expect you to have answers to her questions. Often times, however, it’s what you don’t know that will break the deal.

Maintain an open mind, and ask questions until you know what you need to know to lead the sale to a successful close. For example, some women may have trouble articulating their issues about the car they want, the warranty, or the loan. Don’t assume you know what they are asking before you answer a question. Careful not to interrupt or answer the question before she’s finished asking.

There is nothing easy about being human. But paying close attention to paying attention will make a real difference when selling to this emerging, powerful market in the New Year.

The holiday season can be a stressful time a year both personally and professionally. We want to give you the opportunity to share a few laughs in an effort to help minimize some of that stress. 

Is the holiday season stressing you out? We get it. So we're sending y'all a way to share some laughs and reduce the holiday frenzy.

Of all the many businesses that participate in digital marketing, many are not following the basic process of testing advertising to see if any of it actually works. While "A/B testing" and "split testing" are nice buzzwords in the field, the actual process required with these often requires patience from the same companies that are expecting fast results from their marketing. If one masters the basic flow of confirming optimal marketing tactics with data, they should have no problem with testing advertising.

Step one is to form a hypothesis based on what is known already, and to test it on the least important part of a campaign that it applies to. That way, the rest of an account can remain unaffected while a specific campaign runs the new idea on a limited budget. Many companies falter here by applying a hypothesis on a widespread rollout, making it difficult to see if it actually works or not.

Step two is to evaluate those results. If the original test isn't successful, revisit the original idea and start over. Once there is some success in testing advertising ideas, those are the ideas that should be given more money. It's much easier to justify moving more budget when the data points in favor of the hypothesis.

While basic, many businesses are in such a hurry to drive immediate results, especially with mediums like pay-per-click, that they either skip testing or apply testing too broadly without confirming that it works. What are some other ways you all test when optimizing your marketing?

As we get ready to embark on a new year, we will dedicate the last two issues of Women’s Wednesdays in 2015 to an ultra-sophisticated topic….the Brain. More specifically, the science of how it works, or Neuroscience. Why? Leveraging scientific knowledge about the brain creates a better sales process, drives more dollars to your dealership’s bottom line and creates happy women customers that remain loyal to your dealership. Toning down the Limbic System and firing up your Neocortex will help your sales team avoid “autopilot” and turn potential lost sales into successful deals and new clients.

Lots of times women come into the dealership and may say “just browsing”. But when a genuine buyer or potential successful sale falls through, that is met with real surprise to the staff. There may be questions like “What did we miss? What was going on with her?”

When an expected conversion doesn’t happen, it is human nature to blame or to shrug it off and say someone wasn’t a serious buyer. By employing new ideas, however, your sales team will avoid miscues – and missed sales. Let’s take a closer look.

The Brain’s Autopilot
Any activity that is repeated over and over can become routine. Our brains are built that way for efficiency. The brain’s Limbic System stores these memories and reactions so we can call on them again rather than “recreate the wheel.” This system can be handy when we are doing tasks that don’t require a lot of new thought, such as driving a car.

The Neocortex, on the other hand, is the best part of the brain to use during a car sale. The Neocortex is in charge of language, reason and analysis. This part of the brain needs to be active and supercharged during the sales process in order to take in all of the information necessary to understand interactions with your customers.

Here are some ideas for reducing the natural tendency to let your brain’s autopilot take control:

1. Assume your woman browser is a buyer until she buys a car. This may sound silly, but it is important not to dismiss anyone who is IN A DEALERSHIP looking at a car. On average, women visit two dealerships prior to buying a car. Dismissing any prospect may mean she buys at the “other” store. Stay engaged and find a way to interact with your women prospects.

2. Beware of blind spots. Gender is a powerful filter for the way people look at the world. Bridget Brennan, author of “Why She Buys” and CEO of Female Factor, thinks it is “more significant than age, income, ethnicity or geography” in the way we see the world. It pays to examine if your dealership and sales advisors have preconceived notions about women buyers. Brennan suggests studying women as you would a foreign market, because “cultural differences dictate language, behaviors and perceptions.”

Making assumptions can prevent accurate assessments of the potential success of a sale. Allowing emotions to cloud logic is easy to do – that Limbic System is always ready to turn on and take over! Work to remove any unconscious bias so that the sales engagement doesn’t follow the path of past unsuccessful encounters. Next week we will examine 4 new ways to Interrupt the Brains AutoPilot.

People have been using influencer marketing for a long time. Celebrity endorsements are one form of marketing that still works to this day! However, being an influencer is no longer strictly for famous residents of Hollywood and popular athletes. Nowadays, anyone with a huge, engaged following online could be considered an influencer. Influencer marketing is increasingly important, and utilizing influential social media pages and people to spread awareness is something that should be on every company's radar.

The good news is that a business doesn't necessarily need a highly paid athlete to market their services. Winning endorsements could come from anywhere. Simply having an online presence and being engaging might win over some fans with influence, but those with influence in a company's field should still be sought out.

Influencer marketing can occur naturally, but often some tactics can be utilized to expedite the process. This can be accomplished in any number of ways. The most obvious, though, is building relationships with those of high influence to the point that they will vouch for the brand as a favor. Another way could be to send sample products to influencers in exchange for reviewing or mentioning them to their following.

Businesses struggling in getting a social media following should check who they know online that could be of help in getting their brand in front of as many people as possible. What are some ways you are all utilizing influencers to spread your message?