Many businesses are great at making and/or selling products and services. Most can succeed at getting their message in front of their target market and getting some clientele. However, a critical point that is tough to perfect is retaining those customers - especially in today's business climate where much of the reputation and engagement is carried out online. The key to making a lasting enough impression for return business is understanding customers.

Rather than treating customers as simply a source of revenue, today's successful businesses give customers a more rounded-out experience. The first step generally involves getting shoppers to listen to the sales message. If a business is good at understanding customers, it should be able to devise a few messages based on the different types of buyers it has and get those messages specifically in front of those that are best to respond.

Step two in the process that leads to retention is emotionally connecting with shoppers. Understanding customers really boils down to the emotional drivers that motivate them. Many share similar drivers, but most will have differing emotions that would cause them to consider a purchase with a business. If marketing can stir the emotions and the company seems like it cares about its customers, this can raise feelings of trust and connection between a potential client and a business.

Finally, getting clients to participate in the business can seal the deal with keeping shopper's loyalty. A business can demonstrate that it is good at understanding customers by getting them involved in areas that don't necessarily strictly involve transactions, such as reviews, social media posts and live events. These efforts can also further humanize a business and win over the sympathies of its target audience.

Today's businesses have to take things a lot further in order to get loyalty and this is built upon simply understanding customers. What are some other ways that we can understand our clients?

http://marketing.nada.org/acton/media/4712/09022015

#CarSales Professionals sign up for my FREE NADA University Webinar September 2nd for "The Road Map To Becoming A Millionaire Car Salesman". (This is the 1st Webinar in this series).

Who: This webinar is for Dealers, GMs, GSMs, Sales Managers / Closers and of course Automotive Sales Consultants.

What you will learn:

* You will learn the 8 ways that every Automotive Sale Professional has to sell cars (The average car salesman ONLY uses 3!)

* You will learn the most powerful and accurate way to project and forecast

* You will learn how to EXACTLY make how much money you want and need

* You will learn EXACTLY what you need to do to sell a minimum of 30 units per month

* You will learn exactly what you need to do to earn at least $144,000 per year

And more...

Click this NADA Link to register for my webinar http://marketing.nada.org/acton/media/4712/09022015

One of the most difficult things businesses seem to struggle with in the their online marketing efforts is social media. While it's not new by the web's standards, businesses have only just begun to tap into its true potential over the last couple of years.

In the automotive industry, car dealers who previously questioned the value of automotive social media marketing are beginning to understand its value. With Facebook becoming a great advertising platform, on top of a platform to connect with customers and brand your business, car dealers have an opportunity to  sell more cars for a fraction of what it would normally cost.

Let's take a look at ways dealerships can stand out on Facebook.

Stop Self-Promoting and Give the People What They Want

When thinking about content for your dealership's Facebook page, stop thinking about self-promotion. It may sound like the exact opposite of what you think a Facebook page is for, but you need to think about how people (including yourself) utilize Facebook on a day-to-day basis.

You don't care about whether Joe and Jane Schmo bought a Jeep Wrangler today because you came onto Facebook to check on friends and family, as well as read news and see other interesting stories from the web. For your dealership to stand out, you have to post compelling and engaging content that can relate to your business. The most effective way to do this is to draw out the excitement in the brands you sell.

Post high quality images of cars you sell to show what they're capable of, giving the action a story. Post about the evolution of a particular model and ask people to respond with memories. Post facts about these vehicles, such as fuel efficiency or interior features to spark interest.

Create Awesome Content on Your Site

Your website is one of the most important aspects of successful social media marketing. You want to make sure you're not only sending people there to increase business, but you want to create shareable content to help grow your online presence.

Great examples of this for dealerships would be lists of modifications people can make, or vehicle comparisons that show how awesome the cars you sell are compared to the competition.

This content is not only great for your dealership's social presence, but also great for its SEO as well.

Give Your Inventory a Story

Posting inventory directly to Facebook and other social media sites has been controversial in the automotive industry. But done right, it not only becomes useful content, it brings real ROI to social media as well.

So instead of just announcing you have a "White 2015 Jeep Wrangler" in stock, give it a unique story to draw users in to engage. Since it's a jeep, you can say:

"This white paint job looks so clean. Almost too clean, in fact! Who's going to take this off-road for us?"

Add a Local Touch

For local businesses, connecting with area consumers on Facebook is a the best way to get your name out there. For car dealers, standing out often means the difference between being the highest-volume dealership and the lowest-volume dealership.

To build more connections with car buyers in your area, post interesting facts and history about your local area and talk about area attractions. People like to be informed, and if you can add in the local connection, you'll help increase engagement and interest in your Facebook page.

Engage with Users to Build Loyalty

All of the above will help give your dealership's Facebook strategy a nice foundation, but to build upon that you need to engage with users.

This will not only help solidify the connections you've started to make, but will help create the loyal advocates that will help increase the consistency of your dealership's business.

This is a syndicated post. It originally appeared on Wikimotive's blog. 

No doubt you have heard the saying “happy wife, happy life”, right? Of course, I think we all have. The same concept holds true for your customers. We live in an age where word of mouth, reviews, and referrals can make or break a company. When you make a customer happy, your chances of them coming back time and again will increase. Which, in turn, will cause them to recommend you to their friends and family.

Excellent customer service is a big part of keeping a customer coming back in the future. Unfortunately many people brush it off when the staff gives subpar service, or, butts heads with a customer. Eventually, the staff forgets the incident happened. We need to remember; the likelihood of your client forgetting is slim to none. The likelihood of them turning to social media to complain or leaving a bad review is extremely likely. Once that happens there’s no way of knowing the exact number of people the negative comments reach. Of course, there’s also word of mouth, and news travels fast.

That being said, when your business receives positive feedback in any form, it becomes more likely that a person will take the positive review into consideration. Take a moment and think about it, you are in the market for a new TV and read reviews on two different models. Comparable in price, one has almost all positive reviews, the other, not so much. Which one will you spend money on?

When you fuel your retention it will reveal your expertise. Your brand needs to be viewed as an invaluable resource, and, the very best option for customers. They are looking for the best option for their hard earned dollar. Meaning, you offer the highest quality product, customer service, support and all around value. This also means making yourself viewed as a resource for customers. If you share valuable information on social media sites, post regularly on a blog, or utilize an FAQ page this all helps raise your SEO value; putting you ahead of the competition!

Gaining new customers is always fantastic, but, let’s remember how rewarding it feels knowing someone has been coming to you for years. The statement “I’d never shop anywhere else!” is something your business earned and feels very rewarding.

If you found this to be of use, contact us today so that we can continue the conversation! Let’s build a strategy for your business and retaining customers!

Many dealers aren't taking advantage of using content as a way to generate sales. On this week’s episode of Hard Facts, Samantha is covering how you can start implementing action items that will not only increase the resourcefulness of your site but will increase your SEO as well. 

Many businesses wonder where they are at in the grand scheme of things.  While success is definitely a relative term, for marketers the gold occurs when shoppers begin to develop brand loyalty.  There are three typical stages a business will go through before achieving brand loyalty at large.

The first stage a business would want to achieve is awareness.  At it's most basic, this means that people are aware that the business exists.  Many never even reach this stage!  Marketing and a logo can go a long way towards establishing the existence of a business, but the path to brand loyalty doesn't truly begin until the enterprise becomes known for something. Once this occurs, the next stage should hopefully follow.

When shoppers begin to develop affinity for a company, brand loyalty is on its way to being established.  In order to achieve this, a business needs to get the customer to care about it and feel that it represents them in some way.  Smart product placement and marketing, including building a social media presence that reflects the brand in a way that sparks this attitude is key at this stage.

The final stage for long lasting brand loyalty is amplification.  At this point, customers identify with the brand so much that they will forgive a misstep and even defend the brand.  Only a proven track record of positive action, branding and customer interaction will pull a company through to this stage.

Getting brand loyalty from customers is key to return business and word of mouth publicity.  What are some other ways to help build customer loyalty and brand recognition?

You can't just run your TV commercials for video pre-roll. If you haven't secured the viewers' attention in the first five seconds, they will press the "SKIP NOW" button. Stop letting those leads slip away. This week on Think Tank Tuesday, learn how to create an effective pre-roll, and download our Video Pre-Roll Script template.

I had the pleasure of sitting in at a seminar at the Google headquarters put on by Google and Carfax for car dealerships. While much of the information could be deemed general knowledge, some of the ideas that Google had discovered via analyzing years of data and trends is surprisingly actionable for obtaining auto shoppers today.

One of the main differences between new and old auto shoppers is preparedness. Shoppers can do all the necessary research - including what price they should be paying for a car - before they even physically enter a dealership. The main way to handle this is absolute transparency with regards to the pricing and condition of a vehicle. This allows an auto shopper to feel more trust with the dealership, which in many cases can be the only thing preventing a successful sale.

Auto shoppers are on mobile. Sometimes this occurs while the shopper is at a dealership! They could be reviewing inventory or price checking while being shown a vehicle. Therefore, competitive pricing and accurate inventory on a dealership website is key to giving an auto shopper a good experience and getting a sale.

Car salesmen are stereotypically untrustworthy. Auto shoppers need to have trust in a dealership before they will purchase a vehicle. Also, shoppers visit 2 or less dealerships thanks to being armed with mobile phones that have all the information that they need to make a decision. Thus, a salesperson should get out of their own way and focus on making the car purchasing experience a positive and transparent one.

The most eye-opening trait of today's auto shoppers, especially for digital marketing agencies specializing in auto, is that auto shoppers don't submit leads! Almost 50% will never submit a form lead. This goes back to trust. Auto shoppers do not necessarily want to leave their information and be bombarded with spam or contacted by a pushy salesperson. Some ways to get around this are to make lead forms easier to fill out, require less information and make sure that the customer knows what they will get when they submit the form (i.e. "we will not spam you, but will contact you within 2 hours to follow up"). Another must-have is call tracking, because as form leads decrease, phone leads increase. Seeing as shoppers already have all the information they need to make a purchase, they are more likely to go straight to the dealership or call in and make an appointment.

All in all, auto shoppers today have all the necessary car buying info on their mobile device, they don't trust dealerships easily and they don't submit form leads. This can be nightmarish for digital marketing agencies trying to prove that they are driving leads, but great for transparent dealerships with well priced cars that cater to a customer’s needs. What steps are you all taking to make the most of the current customer behaviors of today?

Email Marketing is an important strategy, which when performed properly and effectively, it will set you above the rest of the competition. Our team has outlined their Best Practices, which formulate and structure our Email Marketing.

BUILD ACCURATE & TARGETED LISTS

This is the most important rule when sending emails for any occasion. Like any other marketing avenue, targeting is the key to increasing efficiency and reducing waste. Start by segmenting your lists. If you send sales and service email blasts, at the very least, you need two separate lists. Optimistically, you should have a list for both new and used sales prospects. Then you can decide if you would like to narrow that list down even further. For service leads, you should have a list of regulars, and a list of prospects. You may also want to segment based on in-market vs. out of market prospects for the more advanced campaigns.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

When it comes to sending your emails at a given time of day or day of the week. Generally, for automotive marketing, you will want to aim for an email to go out between Tuesday and Thursday before lunch. Unfortunately, every market is different and timing is difficult to measure without past data. What you will want to do is run some tests. Send emails at different time intervals throughout a given week/month to see what your customers respond best to. Then when you have the results from your tests, you’ll be able to determine what days your customers engage most with your emails. 

USE BOTH GRAPHIC/VIDEO & TEXT BASED EMAILS

Text based emails give more of a personal touch, and can appear more urgent than graphic/video based emails depending on the subject matter. You can expect to see more email responses as well as phone calls with text-based emails. However, a well-designed graphic/video based email can trigger immediate clicks through to the site if it is visually pleasing, customers will typically click on a graphic/video email, rather than calling or replying via email. 

WITHOUT A GOOD SUBJECT LINE, YOUR EMAIL IS USELESS

That’s right, no amount of design skills or clever wording will matter if you don’t get the customer to open your email. Avoid generic subject lines, as these will not stand out and will be lost amongst the hundreds of other emails a customer will receive in just one week. Use personalization when appropriate, first names for example, can draw a customer’s attention. Strong subject lines are those that also demonstrate urgency. For example, “You need to see this,” might spark curiosity for the customer. Experiment with different subject lines by splitting your lists and A/B testing the results.

EMAIL IS ALWAYS CHANGING

No single rule of thumb will increase email effectiveness. You may find that subject lines or creative you’ve used in the past just don’t seem to work anymore. To be truly effective you will need to constantly evaluate your results, determine what works best and what doesn’t in your market area.

If our Best Practices, or, Marketing Strategies are of interest, please contact us today!

All of your advertising won't help you if your showroom and digital showroom aren't managed correctly. Too many dealers are ignoring two of their biggest points of sale. On this episode of Hard Facts, learn where you maybe making your mistakes and what to do about them. 

          Google has said they are testing their self-driving car prototype this summer on the streets of California. Are we, as humans, ready to give up control of driving ourselves?

            If you were to visit Google’s page endorsing their self-driving prototype you will be greeted with some staggering statistics. The likes of which include “94% of accidents in the U.S. involve human error.” Their claim is that if building a car loaded with sensors, lasers, and cameras to detect movement in all direction it will greatly reduce the possibility of an accident. The prototype also has a rounded shape, which, will help maximize the sensor’s field of view.

            I will agree with the fact that these cars will give independence to those who normally would not be able to drive themselves. Even business professionals who spend much of their time on the road, it will allow them to travel and work at the same time. These cars will allow the passenger to program their desired destination. Which would allow the car to bring a friend home, then, return back to you without anyone riding inside. What about those of us who remain independent and want to feel the rumble of an engine, not the soft hum of a battery?

            For years now cars such as the Mustang, Camaro, and Subaru WRX have garnered a following of loyal fans, which created a cult affect. Their owners are very proud owners, some adorning their wardrobe with hats or shirts, which proudly display the logo. They want you to know; I’m a fan, this is my car, I’m a proud owner. Also meaning, I love driving this car. While there are perks for the self-driving car, I don’t feel as if it will eliminate the vehicles we operate, at least, not for a long while.

            What does this mean for us? Once the self-driving cars are released for public purchase, it means coming up with new and unique strategies for advertising and pushing your product.

If you are interested in discussing this, or, any form of advertising please contact us today!

When business owners think of SEO, they most likely think of ranking #1 for the most obvious search terms in their area. And while those are arguably the most high-value single targets for your SEO efforts, these terms, such as "[SERVICE] in [CITY]," are also the most competitive.

Because of this, businesses should explore options for long tail keywords when doing keyword research for SEO campaigns.

Long tail keywords, on top of being easier targets, have a lot of unique advantages over their short tail brethren that can open up a lot of doors for businesses looking to increase conversions.

So the next time you're thinking about the importance of specific keywords in the grand scheme of your overall SEO strategy, keep the following points in mind!

Short-Tail Searchers Are Often at the Very Beginning of the Buying Process

I was recently in the market for a used car here in New Hampshire. The first thing I did was search for "used cars NH." That's a great example of a short tail keyword that many car buyers here in New Hampshire will use when looking to research used cars online.

Now, for used car dealers, that term drives a lot of traffic if you're able to get the #1 position. The problem is, there's no telling where that buyer is in the car buying process. But because the search did not include "dealership," "dealers," or anything specific, such as a city in New Hampshire, it's really tough to understand the bigger picture behind my search.

Long Tail Searchers Are Ready to Convert

After doing all of my research at the beginning of my buying process, I knew exactly what I wanted. Like most car buyers, that changed 20 times throughout my research, but I've made up my mind now and I contact the dealership that shows up for my specific, long tail search.

This is the main reason why it's so crucial to target long tail keywords. You want to attract customers who are intent on buying NOW!

Now, for products like iPhone cases, or any small purchase, the value in ranking for short tail keywords is much higher than for larger purchases. (People will often do a search, pick one that looks nice, buy it, and be done with it in less than 15 minutes.)

Optimizing for longtail keywords also pays dividends the same way short tail keywords do, as people search in many different ways, you'll often receive many more visits for questions, misspellings, and other related variations.

Focusing on Long Tail Keywords Can Inadvertently Help Short Tail Rankings

Google understands the relationships between different searches, and by becoming an authoritative site on 10 ultra-specific topics related to your business, you can easily boost your rankings for the most high-value short tail keywords as well.

This way of thinking about rankings not only ensures you achieve more success with your SEO efforts, it also means you don't fall into the shortcut pitfalls of thin content and paid links. Many businesses, or their SEO companies, turn to these risky practices after having trouble ranking for the most competitive keywords in a particular industry.

By taking a deeper look at the opportunities long tail keywords can open up for your business, you could discover you're sitting on a goldmine of conversion opportunities!

Originally published to Wikimotive.com on November 24, 2014. 

Women visit 30% more dealerships than men when buying a car. Several factors contribute to this variance. According to KBB, women are twice as likely as men to be undecided about which car they want. Add to this the fact that women are less confident (38%) about car buying than men (58%), and take longer to make a decision; 75 days for women vs. 63 days for men.

The tendency for women to shop at more dealerships, coupled with different buying criteria, can be turned into an advantage for any dealership willing to lean in and take the right steps to meet the needs of this emerging segment of car buyers.

4 Ways to Attract Women to Your Store
Check this out -- 60% of women do not purchase from the dealership brand closest to their home.

1. Women rely on car dealership reviews 50% more than men and they prefer reading reviews written by women. A dealership will benefit from encouraging happy and satisfied women clients to write reviews. This has an additional benefit, because women who are satisfied will leave a higher-scoring review.

2. Nearly one-third of women report their dealer’s website as “unhelpful”. Making sure your website appeals to women will keep them on the site longer and help speed a buying decision. This means knowing and highlighting what matters to women, such as durability, safety and economy, not just MSRP.

3. Women rank respect and trust at the top of the list when it comes to working with a sales advisor. Customer excellence ranks higher in a purchase decision than finding the best price or deal. Creating a comfortable environment that establishes trust and respect makes the difference for sales now and in the future.

4. Women now account for half of car purchases and influence up to 80% of auto buying choices. In a study by University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, women drivers now outnumber male drivers 105.7 million to 104.3. Understanding these statistics and reflecting them in your sales approach and process are important to foster an environment of trust and respect.

Here's How to Turn Your Autoresponders into a Powerful Sales Tool!

Too many dealerships are guilty of having poor e-mail autoresponders. You’re missing an amazing sales opportunity if your autoresponder is lacking. Watch now to generate more sales, build more trust, and skyrocket engagement with these simple steps.

Many feel that digital marketers have an easy job. Just slap a call to action on a graphic, send it to Google display, post it on social media, buy some keywords and - done! In reality, digital marketers have a tough job that involves generating traffic and leads, amassing data, and using that data to create more traffic and leads. With such a complex job, there are a few things to keep in mind that can bring success to the average digital marketer.

One pitfall is over-analyzation. Digital marketers are presented with the opportunity to analyze mountains of data, yet often it’s best to stick to the core metrics of the business. These could include purchases, new customers, direct actions and conversions. These basic bits of data will do the bulk of the heavy lifting in guiding the marketing.

Creating relevant content that people want to read is key for content marketing. Digital marketers may become so caught up in making heavily SEO-optimized content that they lose sight of being informative and helpful. Many just plain forget to distribute the content, which is equally as important.

The desire to be anywhere and everywhere is also a pitfall to keep in check. Although it can be tempting to do tons of conquesting or to try and dominate every channel, the reality of marketing is to focus, build and adapt based on areas that have shown success. There is such a thing as being spread too thin.

There are several more tips that can help digital marketers find success. What are some other digital marketing tips you can add?

How Do I Manage Facebook's New Private Customer Messaging?

Have you heard the news? Facebook will soon allow customers and companies to take their conversations to a private chat. On this week's Hard Facts, Samantha covers this latest feature roll-out and what it means for you.

The phrase "quality content" has become somewhat of a joke within the SEO and digital marketing community. It's used so often when giving SEO advice--typically without further detail or actionable instructions--that there's no way for a non-SEO to truly grasp the meaning behind it.

But that all changes today!

I want to give you my explanation of quality content to help shed light on any mistakes you might be making with your own content efforts.

Let's dig in!

You Have to Nail the Intent

First and foremost, intent is easily the single most important factor to creating content today. If you don't nail the intent behind your content properly, you're not going to attract the right visitors, and your results will be suffer as a result.

But how do you understand intent?

In order to understand intent, you need an inside look at how people are phrasing searches related to your business/niche. For that, we'll use the Adwords Keyword Planner.

As an example, let's say you're trying to rank for the keyword "used cars for sale." The intent here is pretty simple: the user wants to find used cars for sale (likely within driving distance from their location). But the type of content you'd create for that target keyword would be a lot different from the content you'd create for "best used cars for sale."

A user searching for "used cars for sale" is probably after a list of used cars available at a dealership, or an aggregate display of used cars in their area. There's no phrase modifying this search, as is the case with "best used cars for sale." Modifiers help us identify searcher intent, allowing us to create content that will match that intent.

For instance, the "best used cars for sale" content should include a list of cars that are widely considered to be the most reliable. We've determined this based on the context of the word "best" combined with used cars. (If we were talking about "best movies ever," we'd be looking at movies that were universally well reviewed.)

I've come to put keywords into different categories based on intent. This helps me identify the right keywords to target on pages, and better craft content to meet the needs of search users.

The first is "transactional" keywords. These are keywords that show an intent to purchase. In our example, "used cars for sale" is a transactional keyword.

The second is "informational" keywords. Users searching these types of keywords are obviously out to be informed on a particular subject. People searching for "best used cars for sale" are out to be informed about the best used cars so they can make a better decision as a consumer. (They're also probably afraid of buying a lemon!)

Get into the habit of thinking about the intent behind keywords. It's really easy when you change your mindset. You've searched Google with the intent of buying, and with the intent of being informed, plenty of times. So take that experience and apply it to the keywords other people are searching for in your arena.

Creating Value for the User

Stay in the mindset of a search user!

Now, instead of applying that information to identifying intent based on keywords, apply it to your satisfaction with the content of pages that rank well.

What was it that separated their content from others? It was probably the value they brought to the subject.

But what does that mean exactly?!

It means they nailed the intent of your query.

For our "best used cars for sale" example, to fully ensure you're going above and beyond for users, you'd be best off breaking your list down into categories, featuring cars, trucks, and SUVs. Some users may have only been searching for sedans, but it's very likely the large majority were just looking for used cars in general.

Now, if you want to target searchers of "best used SUVs to buy," though, you only have to worry about covering SUVs. The only downside is, once you start getting specific you're likely going to see major drops in search volume per keyword.

Whatever your individual situation, the goal is to think of ways you can add more and more valuable information to aid searchers based on that intent. To put this into practice, I employ the Skyscraper Technique.

The Skyscraper Technique is simply building off of the foundation other sources have built in order to create something that's even more valuable to users. For example, you could use used car data from multiple sources, such as U.S. News, Consumer Reports, as well as user-generated data from sites like Car Complaints and True Delta to create a list of best used SUVs that takes more data into account than any other page out there.

If you're going above and beyond your competition while staying on topic, you're creating a lot of great value for users.

Combine Great Writing and Page Layout

Finally we start discussing the actual writing of content! You'd think that wasn't the most important part.

Well, it is and isn't. To truly call your content "quality," you need to first nail the research and planning. As long as you do that and follow through, the only way things could go wrong is if your writing is absolutely horrible. You want to have a little fun, add personality, but still maintain flow for an uninterrupted reading experience for users.

After the writing is complete, it's formatting the page layout that may present you with trouble. You don't just want to leave paragraphs and paragraphs of text on a page. You need headings, images, maybe even contextually relevant video, depending on the type of page you're creating.

Leave the Over-Optimization at Home

On-page optimization is still extremely important for SEO success, but not in the way many of you might think. You do still need optimized headings, metadata, and images, so don't think optimization has been made irrelevant. The difference is you don't need to stuff keywords into every other sentence in order to have Google understand what your content is about and achieve rankings.

Instead, the optimization you do make should be subtle. Look for longtail keywords that can be naturally fit into your content without taking away from the flow or seeming out of place. It's not something you'll immediately master, but it does get easier over time.

Just Remember: Quality is Subjective

While I'd love to tell you that everyone will universally love your content if you follow these instructions, quality is subjective at the end of the day. Not everyone is going to approve, and it's nearly impossible to create "perfect" content.

As long as you're achieving results and utilizing the available data to improve with each new page, you're on the right track!

Originally Posted to Wikimotive.com on August 10, 2015.

It’s no secret that businesses use ads to deliver messaging to potential customers. Customers blocking those ads could be invalidating some of these businesses’ ad spend. However, adoption of ad blocking on mobile is still in it’s infancy, even as mobile marketing is exploding.

According to Pagefair*, ad blocking might cost publishers nearly $22 billion in 2015. In addition, ad blocking use has risen 41% in just the last 12 months. With these kind of stats, there might conceivably be cause for alarm among businesses trying to advertise their services.

Luckily for advertisers, according to a recent survey by Genesis Media**, while many install ad blockers on their desktop and laptop computers, only 3 percent do so on their smartphones or tablets. Seeing as mobile browsing has already eclipsed desktop browsing, this should make it quite plain that mobile advertising helps not only reach the fastest growing audience, but also helps sidestep the growing concern of ad blocking by potential consumers.

For now, having a focus on mobile advertising can help both reach the biggest audience and sidestep the majority of ad blocking consumers. What are some other ways you all are dealing with Ad Blocking?

* Source: http://blog.pagefair.com/2015/ad-blocking-report/

** Source: http://www.genesismedia.com/survey-of-over-11500-adults-finds-76-percent-have-never-used-ad-blockers/

Outsourcing Your Daily Social Media Posting is Crippling Your Potential!

You sell yourself short when you don't personally engage with your fans and followers. Learn how to build relationships to sell more cars and become a staple of the community. On this week’s Think Tank Tuesday:

• Learn why hiring a company to handle social media hurts you.
• Understand how Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are the new rotary clubs of the digital age.
• Develop a personal, unique, and effective social strategy by yourself.

Digital Marketing is one of the largest advertising expenses a business can take on. Since the science behind digital marketing is growing as more and more data is collected, many of the kinks are being worked out with respect to wasted digital marketing spends. There are many reasons why digital marketing could be ineffective enough to be considered a wasted spend, with two being fraudulent/bot clicks and poor targeting.

Fraudulent clicks makes up a large part of wasted ad spend. While platforms such as Google AdWords attempt to mitigate and investigate fraudulent clicks, it is safe to say that detecting every single wasted click would be a near impossible job. Free analytics solutions don’t really provide the keys to making sure only legitimate traffic reaches a site either. While IPs and URLs can be excluded on platforms like Google Analytics, the interface can be cumbersome and less than straightforward. One solution is to operate on a custom analytics platform. Such a platform could be built that could tell via IP address, country of origin, or referral URL which clicks are likely fraudulent and compile this into a report for further analyzation. If these clicks are detected as being from advertising, a business would then have a good case towards getting some marketing dollars refunded from whatever advertising platform the traffic originated.

Another way digital marketing spend can be wasted is through poor or nonexistent targeting. Simply blasting out a display ad, boosting social content to a huge audience or using generic broad match keyword terms via PPC might be a way to get a lot of traffic, but much of this traffic is unqualified and unlikely to buy. A Zero Moment of Truth approach is to try and catch users when they are closest to buying. This ultimately means making sure to set targeting that makes sense with regards to interest, geography, demographic, time of day, etc. Narrowing down the audience will result in less traffic, but theoretically this traffic will be better traffic that is more interested in a product or service being offered.

All in all there are many reasons digital marketing dollars might be going to waste. Can you name some other basic checks a company should be doing to minimize wasteful spend?