Green as in profitable and green as in environmentally friendly. The automotive advertising industry is consistently changing with hybrids and ecofriendly vehicles having an increased importance to shoppers now more then ever before. Green initiatives are presenting new marketing avenues as new ecofriendly vehicles and increased Green initiatives for dealership’s increase your need  to be at the forefront of your dealership’s automotive marketing. Join Kimberly Roselle, Account Executive at POTRATZ, as she reviews what it takes to be Green and how to incorporate such strategies into your 2012 strategies. Register Here ...

The days of newspaper mixed with radio and an occasional direct mail drop to make a great month is a thing of the past. The relatively new found marketing channels, all driven by the internet, are changing how marketing progresses today and in 2012 as this triple digit growth across the country continues so do the opportunities to grow your dealerships revenues. Most marketing strategies are even more fragmented than in the days of cable and radio advertising. By understanding how the new marketing tools are best put into practice will guarantee profitable results that build momentum in 2012.

Facebook is an ever changing medium for social discourse with more than 750 million active users. On September 21st, the Facebook algorithm changed to no longer broadcast the most recent posts of friends and groups an individual is associated with. Instead Facebook now displays the most recent posts in response to an individuals search terms, interests and interactions. Whats New: The new algorithm divides news updates into two categories, "Top Stories" and a “News Reel”. The “News Reel” is located on the right side of the screen, this new feature now allows an individual to view everything that people are posting, liking and tagging because it is constantly updating. To view more on what appears in the reel, hover over the content and click on the down arrow that appears. To close it isn't an option. However, you can hide a story by clicking the down arrow. Status updates and photos have a new look on an individual’s homepage. They a...

I am not sure if anyone else has seen the new Kia Commercial for the 2012 Soul.  The Hamsters are back, this time spawning dance battles with alien robots to LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" in an effort to "Share some Soul", the title of Kia's new campaign.  Now while I love all of the things listed, Hamsters and LMFAO preferably, I still think the commercial is a little ridiculous, but the one thing it does do (as it is supposed to) is make you remember.  I am not sure I will be buying a Kia Soul due to dancing Hamsters, but it helps you remember Kia in general and when the time comes to research your next new car, then Kia will be in the front of your mind, simply because of the Hamsters.

 

Other masters of ridiculous branding campaigns that have turned into pop culture references include two of Geico's campaigns, first is the Gecko campaign which at this point I think has been running since I was born, but ...

How often have you heard a customer say, “I just don’t like the look of it” They are not sure what exactly turns them off from this vehicle despite all the amazing features it has that they want.  People’s taste change in automotive style with the ease of the wind blowing so it can be very difficult for a dealership sometimes to draw people in that may not like the “look” of the vehicle on their lot. Imagine the year 1908 and the Ford Model T has just come out. People’s reaction was all across the spectrum. Now look at today’s “modern” cars and check out the car doors for a moment. The rear doors are higher than the front doors and the windows are shorter in comparison to the door skins. Yes, this decreases the height of the rear windows and thus decreases the viewing area for the driver but it makes the cars look “faster” and sleek. Now do a comparison to the two cars – Model T and Today. Amazing ho...

Volkswagen Dealership located in the Carolinas is seeking a qualified and motivated candidate to fill the position of automotive sales manager. Candidate must have extensive successful experience running a Volkswagen Store as well as possess team building and leadership skills. Ideal candidate will be able to seize Volkswagen momentum to grow business. This is a long-range career opportunity with generous compensation, flexible schedule and full benefits package. There are unlimited opportunities for the right candidate. Desired Qualities: Driven to meet and exceed sales goals Strong leadership and team building skills Ability to build relationships and motivate others Professional appearance and outgoing personality Verifiable references, clean background and valid driver’s license Compensation Potential: Start at $120K to $150K Send your resume and cover letter to Volkswagen.Sales.Manager@gmail.com ...

Where Google Wave and Google Buzz fell short before, Google+ presents a new take on social media and looks to prevail.  One of the things going in Google’s favor is the familiar site design.  Does the below picture look similar to you at all?  Notice how Mark Zuckerberg’s profile is laid out in a similar fashion to Facebook Bing has recently taken a social approach by using Facebook relationships to endorse search results and are advertising it big time with their “Bing and Decide” campaign.   Maybe you have seen those commercials with friends talking about how they know each other and what particular sushi house they prefer.  Are you starting to see how this is making the review process easier and easier for businesses? By integrating social media data with search engines, your dealership could actively use your social fan base to promote and endorse your company.  With Google+ social media and search engines seems to me...

Google has now launched its latest venture, Google Offers, its entrance into the world of online deals. Sites like Groupon and LivingSocial have seen incredible success with offers that people buy into and then invite their friends via social media, and Google is now providing some competition. Dealers seeking fresh automotive marketing ideascan look to a tool like this to market service discounts, gain branding visibility, and collect new return customers. People can sign up to receive daily deal offers from local businesses such as restaurants and hair salons. These offers will be for discounts of 50% or more off of goods and services, which people claim by paying through Google Checkout and printing out a receipt to bring to the business. Auto dealerships have seen success reaching new customers through sites like Groupon. A discounted oil change or car wash is a great low-cost way to start and bring in new people to the dealership who in turn may keep coming back or even even...

You’ve probably noticed the little magnifying glass next to Google search results. When you click it, you see a preview of what the site looks like. Google has recently added this preview feature to paid search results as well, letting people get a glimpse of your page before even clicking the link. What are the implications of this new feature for automotive advertising search campaigns? First, this makes the quality of the landing page all the more important. Before, people would have to click an ad to even see your site. Now, they can see it before even clicking, making it all the more necessary to have well-designed graphics and a clean, appealing look. Second, the page needs to be specific to what people are searching for. If they are searching for a 2011 Nissan Sentra and can see that they are going specifically to a page about the Sentra, they will be more likely to click the ad. If they are just going to the main dealership page which has 10 different brands l...

Today, Facebook is launching a deals program similar to those on sites like Groupon and Living Social, testing offers in five major cities across the U.S. These deals will include major discounts and exclusive offers for tickets, passes, and more. People can then share it by “liking” to potentially get greater discounts if friends buy into an offer. Although this program is still in a test stage, once released in all areas it will have great potential for automotive advertising on social media. Facebook’s new deals program takes social sharing of deals to a new level. Groupon and LivingSocial offers come through email and do encourage people to share these socially for the deal to be activated or become free. Facebook’s program will start with the deal showing up in a “deals” section when people log on and also showing up in friend feeds when someone likes an offer. When the new deals program comes out for everyone, auto dealers can take advant...

Many dealers are hesitant to let their salespeople use Facebook because they expect employees to waste too much time chatting with their friends, playing Farmville, etc. This concern is understandable when you want your salespeople to be on the floor selling, following up to leads over email and phone, and making the most of their time. But you can’t ignore the fact that the majority of your potential leads are using Facebook and it is a legitimate tool for automotive advertising. Instead of banning Facebook, there is a better way that still gives your salespeople full potential to connect with leads. At Potratz, we encourage the dealerships we work with to ask their employees to sign a social media policy, agreeing not to play games, chat (except for with customers), view videos unrelated to the dealership or vehicles, etc. Also, dealership servers let internet managers monitor employees’ usage, so managers can warn those who are wasting time on Facebook instead of doi...

Technology is advancing at the speed of light, so much so that the most life-changing innovations of the 21st century have been from this segment. Its effect has been felt on every aspect of society, but perhaps one area where the impact of this technology can be really be seen and felt is in automotive marketing. Digital automotive marketing is turning the dealers’ world around to a new form of communication. Effective marketing is no longer about who can afford to run a full spread ad on newspapers, or buy a prime spot on national television. Technology has changed the way people interact with car dealerships as well as consumer spending habits at large. Not so long ago, the war for marketing supremacy was fought over the internet. Firms spent millions of dollars on SEO marketing campaigns. Those that read and heeded the signs of change early enough were able to edge out the competition. However, the battle front has shifted again, and dealers who still imagine that own...

Simply having a business page on Facebook is no longer enough to run a successful automotive marketing campaign on Facebook. With a number of companies and brands joining the bandwagon, Facebook has become a saturated market and unless you understand how the market behaves, you might be get lost amid all the noise. Similarly, filling up your fans’ walls with advertorial posts will be useless unless you’re receiving a significant amount of responses—in the form of “likes” and “comments”, and high click-through rates for the links that you posted. Here are some guidelines to improve your posts and be more successful in advertising your automotive dealership on Facebook: Your Post Your post is the primary metrics that measures how effective your Facebook marketing drive is. Your main objective is that your call to Action is not only catches the attention of your fans, but also to engages them. If your posts are not eliciting some action...

Although the iPhone app was intended to let users stay connected with their Facebook friends while on the go, auto dealers can also take advantage of this technology to make their automotive mobile marketing campaigns more interactive and more in-tune with the social media. With the release of Facebook for iPhone’s newest version (version 3.4), one added feature is particularly useful for business owners: the ability to check-in at actual events. Checking-In to Events Along with bug fixes and other new features, Facebook for iPhone now allows users to check-in to events, rather than just locations as was previously the case. To check-in, users must first accept the invitation by saying “Yes” to the RSVP then they must also be present at the same time and venue that is indicated in the event invitation. Once they are checked-in, users can see the other guests who are also at the event. For example, now a user can check in at XYZ Dealership’s “Car Show...

Among the many methods of digital automotive advertising, mobile phones are emerging as one of the most effective devices to promote your dealership. But not all mobile phones are created equal. While SMS marketing capitalizes on text messages to propel its campaigns, another platform for mobile marketing is gaining popularity. I’m talking about smartphones. IDC’s 49.2% market growth prediction for 2011 shows that smartphones such as the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, etc, are definitely on the rise in today’s era of portable internet and mobile web browsing. But with the advent of mobile web, does it mean that SMS marketing will soon become an obsolete method of advertising? It’s not likely so. Millions of people still send text messages everyday, and SMS messaging remains a low-cost, easy and fast way to directly reach out to a number of people through mobile. And because SMS is a standard feature in practically all mobile phones today (including smart p...

Print classified ads are one of the main tools auto dealers use to advertise their vehicles and service but as more and more people are turning to the internet for information, online classifieds are significantly and steadily outperforming newspapers and periodicals in providing ad spaces and lead generation. Craigslist alone, as an established leader among local online classifieds, boasts over 20 billion page views each month, besting online retail giant Amazon and multimedia empire Disney. The 50 million new ads created on the site each month clearly indicates how successful online classifieds have become, showing why you, as an auto dealer, should consider this tool in your automotive advertising campaign. Online classifieds, unlike traditional print classifieds, offer more flexibility and more space. Instead of just a few lines of abbreviated text you can utilize the full page, making it possible to provide complete information about the product being sold. However, be sure ...

Five years ago Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, sent out the first tweet launching a new form of communication that became a revolution in 140 characters or less. This year, Twitter posted a blog reporting that it only takes about one week for users to send 1 billion tweets and last February an average of 460,000 accounts were opened per day. In the automotive industry, we should all ask ourselves, are we utilizing the fundamentals of Twitter to best engage current and potential buyers on this social network? Create some personality on your Twitter page. Instead of using the generic templates Twitter provides, invest some time to brand your profile. Make sure to maintain the brand consistency but have some fun with it in order to distinguish yourself from other dealerships. Go beyond just displaying your manufacturer’s logo and make the page reflect the dealership as a whole. Use Twitter to strengthen your traditional marketing efforts. This does not mean to fill your Tw...

Facebook has recently launched a new application that could change the way you interact on with current and potential customers. Facebook Questions, which operates similarly to Quora, Aardvark, LinkedIn Answers and other Q&A sites on the internet, can be a valuable tool for dealerships looking to find out more about their target market. With Facebook Questions you are able to ask a question then either set up specific poll answers for people to vote on, keep the question open-ended allowing them to add and vote on their own answers, or even do both adding specific poll options and still leaving the option for them to add to the list. Utilizing Facebook Questions is as easy as asking your fans a question. But you should exert some effort in crafting your questions. Essentially, they must have a goal and inquire on a specific area in your business that you think would benefit from customers’ input and suggestions. For example, ask them what their dream car is and what&rsq...

  What items stand out the most to you in search results? Often pictures and especially video will initially draw your attention more than plain text results. Videos posted to sites like YouTube show up especially well in search listings. Auto dealerships need to take advantage of this free exposure by creating videos of walkarounds, customer testimonials, test drives, dealership tours, events, etc., to post online and tag to rank right at the top of search results.   What can you do to make sure your videos rank your dealership’s name in search results and actually get views?   Use descriptive titles with model names and your dealership location to make sure you rank for people searching for all the specific models you sell. A name like “Stock # 13748A Just Arrived” is not going to rank very high in results or get many views. A video name like “Test Drive the 2011 VW Jetta-Greenville SC” will show up in many more searche...

StumbleUpon, Reddit and Delicious are popular websites that can drive traffic to your website without costing you money or an enormous amount of time. These types of sites were developed to help people discover new and interesting things, and guess what? Your site or blog could be one of the new and interesting things they discover. In order to truly make StumbleUpon, Reddit or Delicious beneficial to your dealership, you first have to build up a strong foundation. Just like with any social media, it is also important that you convey to the site-community that you are interested in helping them and are not planning to just push a sales pitch at them. As you add blogs and newsletters to your website, make sure that you add them to social bookmarking sites but don’t forget to go outside your own website too. Other interesting links- like manufacturers sites or car and truck links that might interest people- will help you establish credibility amid the community. Once your pro...

AUTOMOTIVE AGENCY ACCOUNT MANAGER for POTRATZ Would you like to work in an Automotive Advertising Agency as an Account Manager where you will be a key player and be encouraged to learn something new everyday to help our Auto Dealers and Dealer Groups surpass their goals…then read on! Potratz is a full service digital and traditional automotive advertising agency that focuses on fully integrating our entire portfolio of services to drive results for our clients. Our philosophy is simple…Empower the agency team to drive results for the client and all great things will follow. Our services include: Media Placement for traditional and interactive, social media marketing, online brand reputation management, behavioral marketing, video search, BDC set up, off site lead management and appointment setting, graphic design, lead generation, custom websites, landing pages, mobile marketing, surveys, TV and radio production, public relations, interactive marketing, and strate...

Q&A websites like Quora, Aardvark and LinkedIn Answers are gaining popularity in the social media spear, and people are looking for answers. Answers about cars, about servicing cars, about car parts and about where to buy cars. So the question is- as an auto dealership- are you an expert in the car industry? People buy from people. Q&A sites can enhance your dealership’s reputation by establishing your credibility on automotive topics. By  contributing to these sites you can demonstrate your expertise in the automotive industry, and keep your dealership  top of mind when a potential customer needs a new vehicle, requires service, or needs to buy a part for their car. These sites go beyond the marketing pitch and not only highlight you as an expert but also give people a reason to buy from you instead of XYZ Auto down the street. From an automotive advertising standpoint, Q&A sites like Quora, Aardvark and LinkedIn can help brand your dealership...

In today's Potratz online workshop, Dan talked about ways to enhance the look and features of your auto dealership's Facebook business page. One way to give a page a true "custom" feel is to add custom tabs with branded images, content, etc. In our experience with automotive advertising on social media, we find that the more customized the page, the more people like it, and the more time they spend on it.   It's fairly simple to add a tab with a very basic knowledge of HTML code--Facebook has its own code called FBML (Facebook Markup Language) that's similar to HTML and lets you add images, format text, add links, and more. This is something that any web designer can help with; at Potratz, we have created several customized tabs for our clients with graphics for specials, promotions, and more.   Even if you didn't get to attend today's webinar, you can learn how to add a Custom FBML tab to your car dealership's Facebook page tha...

Do you have a social media strategy for your dealership? Maybe you’ve met with your marketing department or your management team to discuss how you should go about posting to Facebook or Twitter. The discussions and the opinions can be endless- who should post, how often, what to post and what time of day and on and on and on. Unfortunately, during all this planning and strategizing we often forget the key to automotive advertising and social media: being social! Social media users don’t want to have marketing messages constantly taking up space on their “Facebook Wall” or their “Twitter Feed.” Which means your content needs to be strong enough- and interesting enough- that your users won’t click the dreaded “x” on their news feeds that will hide your posts or decide to un-follow your Twitterfeed. By creating an interactive social media plan, you allow the user to be a part of the community that you are creating. Instead of po...

As smartphones grow in popularity, advertisers are turning to location-based marketing applications like Foursquare to engage consumers. At Potratz, we have implemented location-based campaigns on social sites for multiple clients to encourage users to check in on their phones. Here are a couple examples: Steve White VW Audi offers $15 off parts/service when people check in The Bill Rapp Superstore offers a $10 NYS Inspection and car wash for every check-in. With over 7 million people on Foursquare and other location-based tools like GoWalla and Facebook Places gaining popularity, auto dealers need to get on board with location-based marketing to offer rewards to tech-saavy customers. Service specials work well to draw people into the dealership when they can save money on an oil change, car wash, inspection, etc. Plus, with Foursquare's recent statistics updates it's easy for a user to see where friends are checking in and what your favorite categories are. The new...

As of February 2011, YouTube has 490 million unique visitors per month worldwide. The average YouTube user visits the site 14 times per month, spending an average of 25 minutes on the site each time. And these numbers are only for the YouTube website itself and don’t include all those embedded YouTube videos that are all over the place, in blogs, viewed on smartphones, etc. We know that YouTube can be an important medium to increase SEO, to share content and to receive feedback on that content, but how well are you showcasing your page?  YouTube says there are 35 hours of video uploaded every minute, with all that competition how do you standout from the crowd; how do you stand out from every other dealership?You don’t have to be overly internet savy to create a fantastic, customized YouTube channel. There are easy options that everyone can take advantage without taking up to much time. Create a custom background- just like any other medium, you want your YouTube...

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS 
 POTRATZ is a Digital and Traditional Automotive Advertising Agency and we are in search of talented graphic designers that preferably have experience in automotive marketing design. This is a chance for the right designers to really start being creative in automotive marketing online and in print. The successful candidates will demonstrate strong graphic and web design capabilities for the automotive industry, and grasp of design principals. Must be able to work with multiple projects and be able to perform within tight deadlines, have strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to adapt to a changing environment and acquire new skills. The Bottom Line… If you rock at what you do, love to always be learning more, want to work with the coolest auto dealers and dealer groups in the USA, Canada and Australia, want to work with an awesome team of creative types that love what they do, be part of a firm that is leading the charge o...

Ideally, an auto dealership should be running a pay-per-click campaign through Google AdWords, but what if you just don't have the staff or the time to manage an AdWords campaign? Google now offers a simplified option called Google Boost through Google Places in which you can basically "set it and forget it." Unfortunately, this platform is only available in certain markets but will eventually be offered across the country. Once you claim your Google Place for your car dealership, you can see if Google Boost is available for your market. If it's available, all you have to do is set your budget for the month, and Google takes care of the rest. Based on the information about your dealership in your Google Place page, Google will pick keywords for which your ad will show up in the sponsored section. Just as in AdWords, you only ultimately pay for each click, and Google will automatically manage your budget to give you more impressions and clicks depending on how h...

Ever get that sinking feeling that your auto dealership's website looks just like every other dealership's site? You're not alone--just look at every other dealership using some generic provider for their site. A website refresh is going to take a substantial amount of time and development, but if you can edit the text content, there are some things you can do now to help your website rank higher in search and keep your visitors on the pages. Here are four simple tips for writing content for your car dealer website: Keep it simple. Write on an elementary school level since, like it or not, the average visitors to your website are going to find their eyes glazing over if they have to read anything more complicated. Realize that writing for the web is much different than writing for print. On a website, the text needs to fit well in the user's browser, be broken up frequently, and include links to other sections of the site. Call your readers to action. G...

Running a successful social media campaign in the automotive industry, or any industry for that matter, involves keeping an eye on the website updates and improvements. With that said, Facebook has recently released its update on the comments plugin which can offer you some exciting features for your dealership's business page.  These features include threaded comments, moderation controls, and being able to sync comments to your Facebook page. The ability to synchronize your comments with your dealership page could provide an excellent way to increase customer interaction for certain websites or blog sites that see a majority of their interaction on their Facebook page (or vice versa). Even though these social networking updates may seem minor, it's important that your dealership constantly monitor and embrace these improvements. Take Facebook Places and Deals for starters. Each of these updates provides different avenues for how an automotive dealer or dealer g...