Take a look at those familiar little icons in the top right corner of the screenshot above. Four of the primary social media sites’ logos adorn a prominent position on the homepage. It’s not an uncommon sight. Some put them at the top. Other put them at the bottom. Some make them large and prominent. Others make them small and subtle. One way or another, most dealerships put them somewhere. They do it for a reason. The reason is presence. We’ve all heard about the potential of social media but few local businesses and car dealers in particular have found the level of success that they would like. Finding that success is not the topic of this particular article (important though it is). Instead, we’re going to gain an understanding of the importance of social media outside of the obvious. We all know that Facebook, Twitter, and the other networks have the potential to drive business when done right. Some would say that the effort and cost are too high, that...Read post

As customers continue to migrate towards mobile, the opportunity to generate and convert leads also migrates. Customers who once submitted leads via your desktop site are now shopping from their smartphones. If your mobile presence does not offer the speed, ease of use, and call to action, you very well may be losing a large percentage of these customers. It's critical for dealerships to explore their options for a polished mobile platform the same way they shop for a desktop website or CRM. http://www.carpursuit.com/learn/article/are-you-seeing-a-drop-in-internet-automotive-leads ...Read post

As the founder and CEO of CarGurus, I wanted to clear up some confusion that seems to have arisen about how CarGurus operates and how we deliver value to dealers. Read post

I’m not a broken record, at least I’m not trying to be. It seems that I’ve covered this topic from different angles a lot lately, but it’s simply that important to understand. In business in general and in automotive marketing in particular, getting more Facebook fans is a very low priority compared to reaching more people. This seems to be counter-intuitive. One might argue that getting more fans on Facebook is the way to reach more people, but they dynamics of the social network make it to where this isn’t the case. A page can be extremely successful and reach the masses with very few fans. Conversely, a page with hundreds of thousands of fans can reach next to nobody. It’s a challenging concept to understand until you get down into the way the Facebook algorithm works. In essence, it’s not size but quality that counts the most on Facebook. Just because someone likes your page doesn’t mean that they’re going to see any of your...Read post

Do you need showroom traffic? Of course you do! This week on Think Tank Tuesday learn how to drive your virtual showroom traffic. Leave Your Comments below the video and Share it Please. Visit our website: www.ppadv.com Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/PotratzAdvertising Follow us on Twitter: @PotratzRead post

If there’s one major flaw with the way that many businesses use automation tools, it’s that they’re not able to properly control the flow of content from its longest form down to it’s shortest form. This is unfortunate because using RSS feeds to post to Facebook and Twitter from a blog, for example, doesn’t save much time at all but minimizes the effectiveness of the networks. It’s all about flow. It’s about taking advantage of the strengths of the various networks will not falling into the traps that each allows. Let’s take a look at an example of content flow. In this case, we’re going to work it down from a standard piece of website content rather than a blog post or YouTube video. Those are easier. If you can master the creative elements of promoting standard website content, the other types of content will be a piece of cake. Original content This is where it all starts. Here, we see a sales special. It’s not th...Read post

Remember five years ago when it was rare to have a dedicated employee who managed the website? As the environment changed the internal roles also shifted. These roles are continuing to shift and now this person is evolving into a marketing all-star. Read post

Lady Gaga has her Little Monsters, Justin Bieber has his Beliebers, Kiss has their Kiss Army, and your dealership has ______? Where are your fans? Musicians focus their marketingon connecting with fans, that’s nothing new, but that approach is grounded in solid business sense. A 2010 Satmetrix study found that evangelists or fans, spend 13% more than the average customer, and they refer business equal to 45% of the money they spend.   How can your dealership think like a rock star?   Work to better understand your advocates. This will also help you determine the context of your relationship. Give your fans the tools and the ability to "share the love."   There's an old marketing adage: Sell the benefit, not the product. Remember that your fans typically love your brand for many reasons other than just the product itself. Think about how your fans use your product and what's important to them.   Seek wa...Read post