Digital Dealer 8 definitely plans to be a power packed conference based upon the ongoing advertising shift from offline to online, strong speaker line-up and an increase in last minute ticket sales.  (Oh, and do not forget the multiple give-aways that vendors have planned—from free trials to trinkets to ipads)  I have missed the past few conferences and am looking forward to connecting with old friends and colleagues and collaborating with new friends and vendors.  Top Discussion Points The top two topics discussed will be mobile technology and social media marketing without a doubt.  The internet community at large is still trying to understand and figure out how mobile technology and social media marketing will impact their businesses.  The forerunners are making strides in these areas, but it is still early in the game.  The leaders in the automotive industry in attendance will not be any different.  They will seek answe...

Everyone knows the economic downturn has caused dealerships to examine their expenses with a scalpel. Dealerships are literally in a fight for survival based upon their expenses because most incomes are drastically shrinking. We know there are successful dealerships weathering through the storm because of their innovation and adapting to the challenging economic environment.
But how are these businesses succeeding? What is driving their success?
A recent interview occurred between two very successful marketers, Seth Godin and Josh Spears. Josh interviewed Seth about Seth’s longstanding success in online marketing. The interview was brief, but included many nuggets of marketing wisdom. The highlight of the interview (for me) was this:

Josh Spears: The fact that you always have something new to say about marketing must rely on the fact that today’s marketing approaches must constantly be updated. What do you think have been some of the most significant updates of 2008?...

We all know at the end of the day that if a vehicle is not sold, no one makes money. A very simple and basic tenet of commission based selling we are all familiar with. The root principle of this model is that more traffic drives more sales. Thus, dealerships’ advertising spend was based on a linear 1+1=2 model—Dealership A spends $X in advertising for a linear return.
The internet has exploded that model from 1+1=2 to 1+1=3. How is that you ask? Simple. Blogs, Online video, Search engine optimization (with text and video), search engine marketing, online video, etc. The results of online advertising are definitely exponentially than the archaic, traditional, offline advertising. The speed to market is much quicker, the rate of return is much higher and the longevity of the customer could be much more sustaining.
The first lesson focuses on driving more traffic to your website. However, in order to drive more traffic, you must first analyze where you are. This involve...

In my previous two posts, “Learn online business strategies not just automotive online strategies” and "Now it’s time to get serious about that internet thing. Are you serious?!," I implied that automotive dealerships need to stop treating their internet departments like a detached part of their dealership. Instead, embrace their online strategies and synthesize them throughout their business.
A minority of dealerships understand this concept and are experiencing great success. However, a large percentage, do not and are subsequently struggling.
But, the mood is changing for the better. More dealerships are paying greater attention to their existing internet departments, more dealerships are shifting their advertising budgets online, vendors are improving their products and services and progressive automotive internet professionals are looking beyond the traditional "automotive digital marketing" space, grasping a hold of successful e-commerce strategies that work thr...

Outsourcing automotive technology services is a vast occurrence across the automotive digital marketing space. The reasons vary, but the majority of reasons surround two main points: knowledge and time. The majority of dealerships do not think they have the knowledge and expertise to market to their online customers and they do not think they have the time to manage their online marketing system. After all, both reasons help define outsourcing (insert link for outsourcing).
(Both are serious points that will be discussed in future postings. However, the bottom line is that you fail your business not to take the time to continuously learn not only the technical aspects of the internet, but also to learn internet marketing strategies.
Back to the point of my post…)
Do not rely solely on your vendor to provide the necessary goods and services without proper reporting and innovation. That's right, innovation.
Plenty of people will tell you that we need to monitor our vendors an...

I met with a leading vendor company last week during lunch (the vendor's name will remain nameless). {HINT to VENDORS: Free food is good… provided the company is personable and intelligent}. The vendors discussed their plans for the end of 2008 and shared project concepts for 2009. I enjoy meeting with vendors and learning of new technologies and best practices in the industry (provided the vendor is personable and intelligent). What better brain to pick than those who interact with a plethora of dealerships regularly? (See my post on questions for evaluation questions for vendors).
Through the course of conversation I always ask, what best practices do you see? A pretty basic question that opens the floor for flowing and insightful conversation based on the intellect of the vendor, of course. The vendor admitted that he visited a large dealer group a few times recently. (The dealer group will remain nameless). Shockingly, the dealer group did not have a process to handle...

Below is my article from Digital Dealer magazine, March 2008. This is not a cheap shot at self-promotion. It is merely an entry to remind people of using the basics, focusing on process and audit your vendors regularly and thoroughly.
Beechmont Ford and Montgomery Ford both located in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Lawrenceburg Chevrolet Pontiac Buick GMC, located in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, are three award-winning, highly successful dealerships whose Internet departments are all under the directorship of one man: Andy Warner. Beechmont Ford, a family-owned dealership operating for 15 years, is nationally renowned for winning the Ford Motor Company’s “President’s Award” – an award recognizing Ford dealerships that have made a commitment to consistently deliver exceptional sales, service and vehicle ownership experiences to their customers – eight times. Montgomery Ford has won the award four times and Lawrenceburg Chevrolet Pontiac Buick GMC is hot on their heels with a reputatio...