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Car Dealer Internet Marketing

Marketing and sales resources for car dealer sales professionals

How Active Should OEM’s be in their Dealers’ Social Media

February 1st, 2010 by JD Rucker

Crazy Social Media MarketingShould OEM’s be more active in helping their dealers in social media? I have my own opinions, but I want to start by asking the question and seeing how the community at Driving Sales feels.

Stop, think about how you currently feel, then read on.

As I’ve stated in previous posts, social media is a personal experience that is best handled on the local level when it comes to automotive. When I posted Car Dealer Social Media Basics: YouTube, the idea was that dealers would be able to have all of the tools that they needed to put together a proper video marketing plan. Brian Pasch did the same with Car Dealer Facebook Page Tips, and Paul Rushing showed us Automotive Blogging Advice - both of which are self-service, do-it-yourself style posts that dealers can use.

My next question is: “Why are we having to do this?”

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Posted in Automotive Internet Marketing, automotive social media | 6 Comments »

Car Dealer Social Media Basics: YouTube

November 10th, 2009 by JD Rucker

YouTube

More time has been spent watching videos online in 2009 than reading emails. This is the first time that has happened in a year, but it won’t be the last. YouTube is the biggest video site on the Internet, so we will discuss it as the primary source of video marketing, but it’s definitely not the only one.

This is one part of a five part series that will be posted on various sites. It covers the basics: a 30,000 foot view of the various social media sites as well as easy, practical ways that the sites can be used.

Why Do Car Dealers Need YouTube?

Videos are the easiest way to get a message out. Why? People will watch videos before they’ll read. It’s that simple. Videos require the least amount of effort, offer visual and audio stimulation, and are often associated with emotional responses. Some are funny, others are gross. Some are exciting, others are boring. Regardless of the intent, video encompasses what people are looking for on the Internet in a quick and neat little package.

YouTube (and the other video sites) gives car dealers an effective method of delivering their messages. They can be found on YouTube.com itself and can also be embedded on blogs, Facebook, and other Web 2.0 sites. Perhaps most importantly, they rank exceptionally well in Google for specific searches and can take up a valuable position on the search engine results pages.

Getting Started with YouTube

If you haven’t created a YouTube channel, do so now. You’ll want to attach it to a Google account (if you don’t have one, create one of those first).  The login and account creation processes are very simple and should take less than 2 minutes.
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Posted in automotive social media | 2 Comments »

People Encouraged to Review Dealers… For Profit

October 22nd, 2009 by JD Rucker

If car dealers thought they needed to worry about getting negative reviews before, now there’s something else to fear - the paid review.

This screenshot was taken from Mechanical Turk, a site that specializes in letting businesses “outsource” mundane activities for pennies.

lotpro_paid_reviewsWorried now? You should be. Here is a respected site that is PAYING people to review your dealership. What are the people going to write? It doesn’t matter. The idea is to get enough unique content on the pages to help them to rank for your dealership name. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted in Automotive Internet Marketing | 6 Comments »

Driving Sales Executive Summit Keynote Jared Hamilton

October 21st, 2009 by JD Rucker

jared-hamiltonListen to 10 important minutes of Jared Hamilton’s keynote speech at Driving Sales Executive Summit in Las Vegas on October 14, 2009.  Jared discusses the evolution of automotive marketing over the last 25 years and how social media and other online marketing tactics are replacing the old ways of marketing more and more every day.

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Posted in Automotive Internet Marketing | 3 Comments »

Automotive SEO Discussion at Driving Sales Executive Summit

October 19th, 2009 by JD Rucker

Rushing Rucker PaschOn thing was definitely made clear at the Driving Sales Executive Summit in Las Vegas: even the fiercest competitors can agree when it comes to how to do proper Internet Marketing.

Paul Rushing, Brian Pasch, and I went on stage in preparation for a fire storm. There was little doubt that in the highly competitive field of Automotive SEO, putting 3 of the industry leaders was certainly going to bring about clashes, debates, arguments, and perhaps even a little bloodshed.

It didn’t happen. The discussion was not only cordial and informative, but it was evident that we were preaching the same sermons. That’s the beauty of Automotive SEO - there’s a right way to do it and many wrong ways to do it. Luckily, the three on stage on October 13, 2009, all know the right way to market to dealers. Fortunately (or unfortunately) there was no bloodshed.

Here is a teaser clip of the discussion. As you’ll see, it’s easy to agree when everyone believes in the right ways of doing things.


More discussions will be had, as Paul, Brian, and I are working on a weekly show. More information to come!

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Read more about Automotive Digital Marketing on this blog.

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Posted in ISM Tips | 2 Comments »

Driving Sales Executive Summit Launches

October 13th, 2009 by JD Rucker

Through Twitter and a couple of different blogs, we will be covering the Driving Sales Executive Summit in Las Vegas. Follow it here or on the homepage to see what’s happening, when it happens.  Most of it will be brought via Twitter feed. If you have something to say about it, whether you’re here or not, join us by using the hashtag #DSES on Twitter.

More information about Driving Sales Executive Summit is available here.

Update 1: Skip Streets from Compete.com discusses behavior, helping marketers build their digital intelligence.

  • Takeaway 1: Nobody buys a car unless they’re interested in a car, but they may be interested in a car without buying it.
  • Takeaway 2: Cash for Clunkers was a nice boost, but sales, traffic, and conversion have gone down since.
  • Takeaway 3: Until recently, market demand has been in decline Y/Y.
  • Takeaway 4: OEMs are making progress in getting traffic to their sites while 3rd party sites have been declining until very recently.
  • Takeaway 5: Tier 2 Sites may be a waste of money.
  • Search importance increases the closer people get to buying a vehicle.

Update 2: Dennis Galbraith from RevenueGuru.com is showing an amazing slide about what to do with marketing for car dealers.

  • Takeaway 1: There are a TON of things that go into selling cars in today’s Internet World.
  • Takeaway2: Gary May said “Galbraith: Dealers have a mess on our hands when it comes to what needs to get done & compliant”
  • Takeaway 3: Brian Pasch said “Dennis Galbraith urges dealers to think about the bigger picture in dealership operations and technology before adding more…”

More updates coming!

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Read more about Driving Sales on this blog.

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Posted in ISM Tips | No Comments »

Social Networks: A Party, Not a Pitch

July 28th, 2009 by JD Rucker

Mingle

The first thing that many car dealers will think when they read the headline is, "I’m not interested in going to a party. I want to sell cars!" Dealers and businesses in general have been walking a fine line between "having fun and being interesting" on social networks like Twitter and Facebook and truly using them for business. What most dealers do not understand is that having fun (and more importantly, being interesting) is the first step towards being able to promote your business through social media.

In Paul Rushing’s post about how dealers shouldn’t spam social media, he clearly lays the framework for what I’m about to say.

Future posts will outline what to do and how to do it on social networks. Automotive social media is about conversations and engagement, so first it is important to understand how they work.

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Posted in automotive social media | 7 Comments »

How Twitter Search is Changing the Face of Automotive SEO

May 7th, 2009 by JD Rucker

Automotive TwitterI get teased at work sometimes.

"Aren’t you supposed to be going after Google? Why are you spending so much effort on Twitter?"

When I tell them that Twitter is the future of search and the reason that Google has shown so much interest in buying them, they normally laugh. "What, are people going to search for ‘What’s JD Rucker doing right now?’"

With changes made yesterday to Twitter search, it appears that CNET, Mashable, and Techcrunch/Washington Post are finally starting to agree with me.

Twitter is going to start to index the links that are posted on their site in Tweets. This is a significant development in the world of search engine optmization as the need for real-time data that Google and the other search engines have never been able to master will come to life in the world of Twitter.

Most believe that the interest shown by major companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook in buying Twitter has been a result of its exponentially-increasing popularity on the Internet and in mainstream media. Celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Oprah, and President Obama have made thousands of headlines with their exploits and uses of Twitter.

While the popularity is definitely a factor, the real value in Twitter is in the accumulation of limitless amounts of data. What’s hot? What’s the best for this or that? In essence, an advancement in Twitter search is positioning it to become a major player in the search engine marketplace.

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Posted in automotive social media | 8 Comments »

SEO Questions? Tweet Me!

March 9th, 2009 by JD Rucker

This post is in part a con. While I’m definitely interested in offering advice and not a sales pitch to any DrivingSales member who has SEO or Internet Marketing questions, I have an ulterior motive.

If you aren’t on Twitter, you might be missing out. If you haven’t heard of Twitter, you need to watch more news, read more newspapers, and spend more time online.

Twitter is a microblogging and lifestreaming platform that has taken the Internet and the rest of the world by storm. It has been credited with helping Obama win the election, for helping Britney Spears improve her faltering reputation, and for giving Skittles a new direction in their marketing campaign.

Still not convinced? Do a search on Google for "Twitter". Hit the "News" button up at the top. Check out some of the headlines and the dates on these stories. You’ll notice immediately that Twitter is hot and it’s on the rise.

How is Twitter going to be used in business? How can it help car dealers, manufacturers, and vendors? These are topics for a future post as well as for my upcoming Twitter Ustream.TV show, but for now, I’ll just entice you with some quality, sales-free SEO advice.  All you have to do is tweet me.

If you have a Twitter account, you probably know what to do.  Add me: JD Rucker on Twitter, and send me an @ reply. Direct Messages get mixed in with the other 50 I get a day, so @ replies are the best way to get my attention.

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Posted in automotive social media | No Comments »

Google’s Making Changes. Are YOU Ready?

November 21st, 2008 by JD Rucker

SearchWikiFor Searchers

The way it looks initially, searches will be experiencing a paradigm shift in the way they search.  Sounds pretty dramatic, but between changes coming in Universal Search and the SearchWiki functionality rolling out right now, searchers will (hopefully) be able to get the information they need more easily without having to use multiple attempts at different keywords to get what they want.

Before, typing a search for "Toyota Dealers" would yield mostly national searches in the organic section.  The sponsored section was normally geo-targeted results, but unless you happened to be close to dealership whose website was very well optimized, you probably had to do the search again.  If localized, universal, and personalized search make good on their promises and meet their goals of relevancy, that could all change.

For Website Owners

The real question should be, "Is your website provider or marketing firm ready for what’s coming down?"

Bruce Clay is saying that "ranking is dead."  Behavior based search is expanding, regardless of whether someone is logged into Google or not.  He predicts that in the first quarter of 2009, there will be a major shift to localized, personal search that will make the once-simple job of optimizing a website much more difficult.  The factors that determine the rankings delivered to the target audience will change and we will see a shift towards other indicators for success.

Matt Cutts says "ranking won’t be as important as it used to be in 2009."

This is a scary proposition for the ill-prepared SEO firm.  It isn’t a matter of making websites linkable and large.  What will be necessary is for them to be directly relevant to the search terms that they are wanting to rank for.  This is a subtle distinction, but in the whole scheme of things, it’s a huge difference from the way websites are optimized today.

Personalization and localization are coming.  They’re here, to some extent.  If you haven’t seen it already, don’t worry.  Your data center will update soon.

Universal search is changing.  It is apparently in a constant state of flux.  We’ve had a taste of it for a year, now.  SEO’s must embrace the fact that they are having to become more like marketers.  There is a distinction, and anyone who doesn’t make that distinction and adjust will be lost in 2008.

Other key points:

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Posted in SEO | No Comments »

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