Just a couple of weeks old, and already there have been some major hiccups with Facebook’s new Cover Photo option tailored for business to brand them even better than before. Two weeks remain until Facebook will switch all business pages into the new format. So why do I bring up the Cover Photos “hiccup” now? Because I have seen it used by several dealership around the nation. Well, I am not certain if anybody has read the Page Guidelines of Facebook so far, and when “do you act accordingly to their new rules?” Let’s dive in here. Below is are a couple of example, which from the design standpoint look great – but in the eyes of Facebook’s rules keeper are an absolute nightmare. The first screenshot is actually violating 3-out-of-4 rules in repetitive manner! In Facebook’s Page Terms, section III pos. B are stating (quote): Cover All covers are public. This means that anyone who visits your Page will be able to see your cov...

The automotive industry is buzzing about Facebook’s new Auto Intender.  Even though the term “Auto Intender” is not new (KBB has been using this term in their ad-package for a while now) the targeting methodology is different.  Facebook has been long considered a great marketing and awareness tool for the automotive industry. In fact the topic “AUTO” has, with 67%  of interacting Facebook users, one of the top-five leading “buzzes and product discussions” on Facebook as well as 33% of Social Network users seeking “buying advice on AUTO” according to the ROI Research and Performance study in 2011.  Still, the big question is: Will “Auto Intender” targeting capability help car dealers to: a)      attract more “likes” to their business pages b)      actually generate a call to action and will c)      be able ...

It hit me like a ton of bricks while reading about Coca Cola's and Content Marketing Institute Guru Joe Pulizzi’s vision last month.- Pulizzi stated that "Coca-Cola is betting their farm on content creation." Going forward, the soft drink giant will rest most of its strategic marketing vision on the principles of content marketing. As I stated in my late 2011 article “Why Context is King – and not Content!” one thing is crystal clear in my view – companies are beginning to finally see the value in creating rich content, the kind which inspires more valuable context and interaction. So, how will Coca Cola address this new approach dubbed “Content 2020?” They came up with ten chapters of their Liquid Content vision, from which I took three topics and transferred them into my vision on how I would set them into action for my dealership(s). VJ’s Chapter 1: MOVE FROM CREATIVE EXCELLENCE TO CONTENT EXCELLENCE Crea...

Provocative question but the studies shown here can explain why using a mobile advertising strategy in your digital marketing mix could be a valid Millenial strategy for your business.   In light of the 2011 Deloitte Generation Y Driving Study and the new study from InsightExpress on Gen Y and mobile advertising, – both manufacturers and dealers should be jumping out of their chairs, celebrating and getting creative.   As Deloitte has taught us, approximately 54% of Gen Yers will purchase a car in the next two years (they already make up 40% of the 2012 car-buying population in the U.S.). The task for marketers in the upcoming years will be, “How can we raise awareness more significantly for these Millenials?” The answer will be provided by the aforementioned InsightExpress study as well as the numbers below.   With an estimated rise of 106 million smartphone users this year, and approximately one billion of these smart devices in use by 2...

It is written "in stone"!

J.D. Power has released its latest 2012  U.S. Dependability Study and this time Lexus made rank one, closlely followed by Porsche and Cadillac - it is nice to see a domestic manufaturer up there. MINI improved their 2011 rankings and I relly would like to know what is going on with BMW, being myself an avid Bimmer driver...



When you are in the lucky position having a franchise of the winners in each category, make sure to adjust your SEO content right away and use phrases J.D. Power is using, too.



I.e. if you are a Toyota franchise, and you see in the study that the 2009 Toyota Yaris is the "Highest Ranked Sub-Compact Car" in its class - then use these terms in your vehicle detail pages and pre-owned special pages!  

Because consumers are aware of the study coming out in February, the search term "J.D.Power Dependability" will occur quite often in the upcoming weeks - guaranteed!

No turning back anylonger - Mobile is a rolling thunder and won't disappear. As the IBM study in the article "The Year of Mobile Marketing" as well as the just yesterday released Forrester Research prediction "having One-Billion Smartphone users by 2016 is pointing out - everybody wants to be mobile. The integrated graphic on Local Mobile Search below is making an even stronger point: Search was used strongly performed on the desktop just a year ago - this model is changing. 80% of searchers research online are being today performed in a radius between 10 - 20 miles of the businesses they possibly will consider as a vendor. Check out a few more brilliant facts below: Source: orangesoda.com     ...

The research I found for last week makes an incredible point on what really matters for consumers who have finally agreed to follow you and your business on your social network, such as Facebook. When listening to the lyrics “I have got a reputation with everyone” from Derek Webb’s live concert (I encourage you to watch the video) - I somehow get the feeling that there are dealers out there, who must feel exactly like him. I would like to combine it to the research findings from conversocial and Lie Leibovitz, an Assistant Professor of Communication at New York University. These findings, combined with these assorted song lyrics, make my point to my fellow dealers – you can no longer afford to ignore questions, complaints, suggestions or critics on your social platforms. Lights on, Curtains up - Music please… Derek’s Lyrics: I know I always let everybody down I know I've got a bad name in this town 'cause my last friend st...

Shocking! Survey finds Ad Agencies are slow when adapting online marketing! Today’s top story on Marketing Profs (insert link) literally hit me like a ton of bricks, and I’m guessing you’ll be just as surprised and maybe even shocked as well.  According to the latest questionnaire  from-CMO Council  addressed to Senior Level Marketing professionals, just one out of ten business marketing leaders are saying that traditional advertising companies are doing a good job in offering, evolving and servicing their clientele well in regards to online marketing and the challenges the Digital Age brings. Taking an even closer look to the CMO Council survey; more senior marketers (48%) are on the move – from their prior hired ad agencies over to digital marketing solution and service providers, who can provide seamless integrated digital capacities like social media, mobile and interactive strategies. Further, senior marketers are concerned about agenci...

The newsis just getting better for mobile marketers and retailers, especially early-adopters of the mobile bandwagon-. A new IBM studyconfirms my earlier hypothesis on why you need to have a mobile marketing resolution for 2012 in your business planning. Fact: The IBM study proves that potential customers use their smartphone devices to shop. As of December 25, 2011, there’s been an almost 173% increase of sales made via a mobile device over 2010 (5.3%).  Couple this with steadily  increasing traffic to mobile sites year-to-year (almost 118% on December 25, 2011) and we have a pretty clear picture of the meteoric rise of mobile. The lesson for dealers is clear: if you don't have a mobile website, do not participate in mobile group shopping site or have no clue what "geo-location" means, you need to get a handle on thisright now. We are already into 2012 for 11 days – do you and your dealerships “think mobile” y...

During my last trip to my homeland Germany, I discovered how far ahead we are here in the U.S. in regards to consumer behavior and the online research we conduct around our potential car buying clientele. Don’t get me wrong- websites for German automotive dealerships exist. But as far as execution, when you see how inventory is displayed (or should I say, not displayed), how inconsistent the OEM message is portrayed on the dealership website, or why a URL name is chosen and not marketed in their off-line marketing approach – I am stunned! These numbers become even more impactful when I share with you this research data from the current TNS Digital Life study. In this study, TNS looked at the global view of buying behavior. In this example, allow me to dissect the U.S. data based on the automotive consumer. I want to share how advanced the American online consumers are at using the web to evaluate your merchandise. It will reveal their preferred and “important deci...

A survey of social brand reception by gender, country and age With my two posts “Why Online & Offline Marketing could be best partners in crime” and “Why should you listen to the Consumer Voice” I am concluding today with “Brands and Friends – Your Social Opportunity” the series of reflections on the TNS Digital Life Study.  The question was: “How open are people to brands on Social Networks?” The Findings: The big elephant in the room here – There is great acceptance and openness from consumers to brands in socially networked brands when the market in the country is considered “fast growing”. On the other hand, there is much higher brand resistance from consumers when in a developed market. For us here in the U.S., this means that the approach to connecting with potential customers needs to be carefully planned. According to the TNS study, the stakes are for damaging a brand, image, and percept...

As I had promised, in Part 2 of my series, I wanted to reflect on the “Consumer Voice”, based on the insights and results from the latest TNS Digital Life study. The interface they provide on their website allowed me to specifically focus on the automotive sector here in the U.S. With Part 2 and the previously released Part 1 (Why Online and Offline Marketing could be best partners in crime), you as a dealer will be able to see more value in the findings and adapt one or more suggestions into your marketing mix – suggestions that  will improve your marketing ambitions and outcome positively, when implemented. Unpacking the Value of the Consumer Voice DATA POINTS; Part 2:   The question was: “What are people saying?” and “Who believes what they say?” Statistics around Commenters: I was surprised to find out that 40% of all commenters online left comments for the purpose of helping others (even though nobody asked them ...

Want it – Read it – Listened to it – or How to Build Your Context Library   It hit me like a ton of bricks when Gary Vaynerchuk entered the stage during the Driving Sales Executive Summit in Las Vegas this week and shouted out “SEO and Content is Dead – Context is the new King” – and I believe he has a very valid point here.   With Google+ now open for everyone, Facebook announcing new changes on an almost weekly basis that allow fans to tell their friends not only what they “LIKE” but very soon even having buttons like “Want It” – have “Read It” and “Listened to it”.   Because of this extension of features we will have an enormous avalanche of CONTEXT rolling towards us. With Google+ circles for example, we see not only what our friends have eaten, but when, where and if it was great. I can see which book my closer circle of friends just finished reading (the book &ld...

Here we are again. The weeks are flying by and today I'll post my conclusion of the 15 Free Tools To Monitor The Social Media Sphere - Part 3. I hope that you found at least one new tool in the last 3 weeks, which was a "new one" for you, and I wish you and your endeavor "Social Media Marketing" success! Here are my last five freebies: Google Alerts: The God-Father of monitoring tools. A necessity to set up this alert system for your dealership or any other company. Use your Brand you are selling as keyword in combination of your town you are operating in. Further keyword being used as an alert would be Owner’s name, General Manager’s name, Sales Manager’s name and of course dealership name. VJ’s comment: “LUKE...I AM YOUR FATHER! Come on folks when you not have heard about them, we need to change profession. Do we?!” Board Reader: As the title uncovers, this monitoring to...

Hello folks, it is Wednesday again and time for me to put on Part II of the series 15 Free Social Monitoring Tools. As I had stated in my first post, these tools were used by me during my "active" duty as an eCommerce Director for several dealer groups and I hope that you will find the tools #6 to #10 as useful as I did. Here we go: Kurrently: Shows Twitter stream or the Facebook threads on keyword topic. Real-time showing. Good feature: You can control how fast or slow your stream strolling in. VJ’s comment: “Especially useful for monitoring the "cloud" on Twitter!”   Same Point: Providing an overview of Social mentioning’s but also real-time Twitter and Facebook. Further crawls through Blogger blogs and LinkedIn. Promises also to show negative mentioning’s but could not see really evidence of legit results. Possibly needs some more improvement on their end. VJ’s comment: “Needs some improvement but listeni...

  As an e-Commerce guy, what would make my life easier when looking for specific data and news? How can I find short, to-the-point information when writing my next dealer blog post about model XYZ? And last but not least, who is actually talking about our cars, the automotive industry and/or our dealership right now? These are the questions that inspired this post on the 15 free tools I use to monitor the social media sphere. Enjoy! First 5 Free Tools for Using Social Media Like a Pro (Part I of III)  OMGILI: Stands for “Oh My God I Love It” – will track a keyword throughout several social networks. This tool has the capability to share results on Facebook and Google+ as well. It also shows further comments of threads and responders. VJ’s comment: “A very thorough research tool for an advanced user!” WordPress Search: This tool is an enormous help for finding other blogs writing abou...

Losing focus during your automotive social media campaigns is so easy. As the Internet Sales Manager, you must wear many hats. Because you are seen as “the PC guy” (which actually we are not) our days are full of “Fix my font size” and “Check my wi-fi” and of course the crowd favorite “Why is my computer so slow?” The day is just too short to keep up with all these duties, (even though Internet people are known to be more organized and scheduled than most) Still, the danger is high that we just get overwhelmed and important things like writing a blog post about the new upcoming model, sending responses to questions, entering fresh Facebook content and monitoring the reputation on  the Twittersphere, Yelp and the other online entities falls by the wayside.  MIRACLE ALERTS: WIN BACK YOUR FOCUS WITH AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR The idea is not new and for decades, the press, writers, bloggers and Marketing/PR departments have func...

Marketing Tactics – Hot and fresh from the press GOOGLE+ JUST INCREASED YOUR SOCIAL SEO FOOTPRINT It’s the moment we’ve been waiting for. After about six weeks of anticipation (a.k.a. an eternity in today’s web 5.0 environment), Google just announced that it will roll out two new significant platform updates in the next week. Update 1: Sharing Web Pages What it does: With the “Web Pages” update, you will see the well-known Plus1 button. At first sight, really nothing new, right? Wait! Then suddenly you see another NEW option in the pull-down menu called “Share on Google Plus” – brilliant! It will go directly into your stream of Google+, similar to your Facebook “Recommend” button. Dealerships advantage: Using this feature, you can now add a comment on a website you’d like to share, select the circles with whom you want to share this website/webpage, and hit “share”. In other words, you will now be ab...

 Chapter V of "Diaries of an e-Commerce Director... Hello, VJ here with another “Old-Time German” recipe for used car sales success. The simple recipe I’m about to share with you worked so well for my dealership that we indeed made it to the #1 used car selling franchise in the state, ranking as #2 for monthly CPO sales in the Nation. On average 50% of  my spotlighted cars were sold in the first 7 days my campaign, and at the end of the 14-day cycle we could report 80% used cars sold through our spotlight ad specials. How did I do it? Let’s start with a familiar refrain we’ve all heard many times: “Just put the oldest units into the used car specials.” “Apply the Autotrader spotlight ads onto inventory older than 60 days.” Sound familiar? We’ve all heard this type of instruction for our Used Car Manager. The question is; does it work? Allow me a prediction. Your answer is something along the lines of &ld...

Chapter IV - What not to do when looking into your website to figure out “is it working”? As you will see down the lines a study confirms what we car sales people just to obsess too much about. What I mean is the constant search for the “holy grail” in making a website flashy, pretty and interactive with the latest gadget out there in the industry. I get it – we possibly think we need to impress our potential new customers who has finally found our website – us picturing them glaring at their screen with Uhhhh’s and Ahhhs gasping sounds coming out of their mouth. But sorry I need to disappoint you – need to wake you up a little bit more roughly, like my grandma used to do when my brothers and I slept too long in, and poured a nice cold and refreshing glass of water in our faces. The majority of customers reaching a desired website location wants just one thing  - “THE WEBSITE MAKES IT EASY FOR ME TO FIND WHAT I AM LOO...

This is the 3rd chapter of my "Diaries of an eCommerce Director", and the tstrategies and processes I am mentioning here are real life-time examples I did and implemented into my dealerships I had worked for. I have visited hundreds and hundreds of dealerships over the past few years. Some of them were nice looking, some of them were elegant and others were just “awkward”. For example: Why would you as a GM or Owner love an idea during an upcoming Thanksgiving and Black Friday campaign and have your head lurking out of a turkey’s rear end – you want to be funny, alright, but do you think this idea brings you more customers during the holidays and want to buy a car from you because the idea is cute? During my career I worked with several website providers and roughly 14 OEMs, and I discovered that website success relies on you - the eCommerce Director or Internet Manager and the support teams of the vendors working together. As so often...

I can stand up now but only with a helping hand from my team - Chapter II "Diaries of an eCommerce Director" So I got that squared away right from the get-go…my website looks good; First to Second grade content (I will explain it further down what means) is in place, but what do I do with all the leads generated via my website, website forms, 3rd party leads and so on. What is here the status quo on response, follow up and long-term usage of these valuable leads, email addresses and phone numbers? I am getting with my team with purpose of finding out what they love and hate currently in their daily tasks. And “No”, I do not think that I always just have a typical “bitch session” occurring out of these meetings. It gives me more likely a 360 degree view of who in your team is “who”. Who is doing what? Who is “a sleeping” star? Who is “all words no action”, and so on…? It further allows me to guide part...

Preface After almost a couple of  years of working with a leading internet marketing vendor and working the speaking circuit Volker Jaeckel (aka “@VJnator”) returns to the dealership world as an Internet Sales Director.  “Here is my story of rejoining the store and the steps I took that made my website the best performing in my group and achieved “#1 CPO Dealer in the state” status six months in a row.  Let me share how I believe a new Internet Manager can quickly make their store a success as well.” (Stay tuned for my  upcoming workshop “Internet Marketing Cliff Notes -short, sweet and successful.”) Chapter I - It hurts to crawl on my knees again. Luckily it is only temporary. That is it….I am back into the dealership world. I missed you, the world of shiny showrooms, the smell of rubber and the so-distinctive new car smell. And yes, I missed the challenge of helping a store achieve its full potentia...

Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov famously tantalized his dogs by ringing a bell to alert them that food was about to be served. The dogs, soon wise enough to associate the sound of a tinkling bell with a big juicy steak, began to salivate each time the bell tolled. This associated behavior is known as “classical conditioning,” and the parallel between the doghouse and the dealership cannot be clearer. Obviously, the incoming lead is the “ringing bell” in your dealership, and the dealers are the hungry dogs pouncing on the lead. Right? Wrong. Instead, what I hear all too often in my visits around the nation’s dealerships are lackluster lead responses like “Ahh, that can wait a little bit.” or “Somebody else can take the phone call.” Over the past four or five months, I’ve noticed this non-responsive attitude toward leads becoming more common than ever. What happened to the urgency? Shouldn’t every Internet sales...

Good news for early adapters in our so beloved automobile industry. When you are one of the pioneers using in your ads, Maroni stickers, or even on Business cards the two-dimensional barcode like images – a.k.a. quick-response codes or in short QR-Codes – you past the stage of  prior “thinking out of  the box” with flying colors. As you know adaptable smartphone apps are able to scan and then convert the code into a picture ad or other information you would love to share with your potential clients. Advantage for the consumer: Recalling “what was shown or said in an ad” with a push of a button. Advantage for us dealerships: Unlimited "air" time - 24/7/365 The MGH group conducted a survey to see how consumers are adapting to the “new” technology, which is actually now out for more than a year. Here is the great news and opportunity for us dealers: Almost 75% of smartphone users are very likely or a...

“I am Art Vandelay. I am an architect.” I am pretty sure that you are familiar with this quote by George Costanza introducing himself during a Seinfeld episode. I am here to say the same: “I am VJ, and I am an architect as well.”   Even so, I am not wearing a blue hard-hat during my daily tasks at my dealerships, not sitting in front of a huge tilted drawing table with a ruler in the left hand and a pencil in my right, and I’m certainly not saying, “Did you see the new addition to the Guggenheim? Yep. And it didn’t take very long either.” – But still, I am an architect. I’ll show how creating and building a house is very similar to building a successful Dealer Internet Operation.   Let’s get started – you have been pre-approved for a loan to build a house or, in this case, you made the cut during a job interview and have been asked to create a blueprint and Internet organization. How do you make...

It appears to be that Chevy has learned its lesson and glimpsing over the fence with the hope figuring out how Scott Monty and Ford has become the “role model” for Automotive involvement in Social Media. Looking at all the indicators what made Social Media what it is today – a powerhouse and a media revolution initialized by a group of Gen-Ys or let’s call them Millenials – Chevrolet decided exactly to target this consumer group with its newest stunt. They Idea: Having their newest models driven by students of the University of Southern California and the Stanford University (as they offered it to several other West Coast universities). The hook: Make it an “Geny-Y I like it” approach was not just invite the participants for “test-drive” but most likely for joy rides or better called “FREE RIDES”. The models were not Tahoe or Corvettes, which are models defining more the Babyboomer clientele. Chevrolet instead...

Okay, okay I am guilty as well pinning down the autotrader or cars.com rep in regards to “what is my click-through-ratio?” (CTR) or “I don’t know if these banners really do anything for me”, every time they wanted to make an up-sell for ”better exposure” of the brand. There was just too much doubt and not knowing in me to easily pass on these spins – until today (well, may be). The Online Publishers Association a.k.a. “OPA” was possibly sick and tired of all these objections they heard from their clientele all over the world and decided to put an end to the discussion between as-seller and ad-buyer. The mystical entity “Banner-Ad” needed to be researched to find out if actually your consumers are taking a look at it. To present even to OPA’s most doubtful critiques and skeptics concrete facts that Banner ads are indeed working for brands and companies, the organization tested conducted a very thorough r...

We all know Facebook is right now for dealerships around the nation the #1 choice when trying to engage with customers off-site, next to the biweekly or monthly ownership email marketing “blast” (my God do I hate this term “blast”) and/or dealer newsletter provided by IMN, Outsell, 3Birds Marketing or OnStation. But I could discover throughout my held trainings and seminars that we as dealers very rarely know about the motives of consumers, why they are following us or a brand – why do they like us. What make fans and followers click? A recent conducted research of Co-Tweet and ExactTarget came closer to provide an answer. The following motives and answers will possibly help dealerships to adjust their engagement level on Social Media Networks. It will help us further in creating new approaches to “catch” potential customers’ attention. Here the Top 10 Motivations why Consumers “Like” a Brand on Facebook and Follow ...

You can call it as you'd like to "unnecessary", "OMG", "why?", or "big brother is watching you" but it appears to be eminent that Hyundai is listening to the market, researches their potential consumers and future drivers very well and adapts much more faster than our other OEM's, when implementing Social Media and automotive into consumer's behavior. Hyundai is planning to make geo-location, Facebook and it's new telemetric system ready for the masses, starting this year. The so called concierge/rescue service Blue Link will offer the already wide spread routine emergency assistance in cars and trucks, convenience features and vehicle location sharing to family and friends - set up by you and through Facebook. I can imagine that when pushing the send button, the message will read on Facebook status kinda "I'm at Office Max at 4123 Wilshire Rd in my fantastic new 2011 Hyundai Sonata", with hyperlinks to the Hyu...