The art and science of link-building has been growing in the consiousness of dealers for the last several months. The trumpet that a few of us have been blowing has started to make an impact in the industry as dealers and vendors realize the SEO benefits of quality inbound links to their sites. It's starting to be a craze which is a good thing. As with any craze, there needs to be a word or two of caution attached. In this case, the words of caution were best illustrated by Google itself. It is against the rules to purchase links for the sake of increased page rank or rankings. Google has made this clear for years, and recently slapped its own wrist to make sure nobody thinks they're above their own rules. It's not against the rules to purchase link placement. They've been very clear that sponsored links and advertisements are perfectly acceptible as long as they apply the "nofollow" attribute to the links. A company that the Google Chrome team hired ...

If there's one thing that's constant in the technology world, it's change. We see it every day - what was once hot goes cold, what was once dying is reborn. I had a bad-prediction moment the other day when I had to backtrack on my opinion of the Windows Phone. The TK Carsites founder had purchased one a few months back and at the time I was (inwardly) laughing at him. I was wrong. Microsoft will be a player in the phone wars in the near future. That's what happens in automotive marketing as well. It's my job to analyze the latest and greatest products and trends in online automotive marketing and make a decision as to how effective they'll be, what the ROI will look like, and how long it will be able to sustain. We did this in 2007 when we first started exploring social media, for example. At the time, Facebook was 1/5th the size of MySpace, but we made the decision to bet on Facebook making a push and forcing MySpace to the side. The infographic below sho...

Those who have been on the internet side of the business for a while might remember some email marketing fads that came and went. They were sleak, sexy, interactive, and got blocked by 90% of the spam filters by 2008. Alas, the days of "fun emails" were behind us. Or were they? Video emails are making a comeback and frankly, I'm not sure what to think about it. There are several products out there in the market today that allow dealers to make quick videos of them talking directly to customers, doing short video walkarounds, or simply giving the personal attention that customers want to receive. I'm interested in hearing from the Driving Sales about the effectiveness of these. Call it a personal research project. It's not something that KPA/TK Carsites offers, but if it's effective I'd love to look into it. What are your thoughts? What's your experience? This question was sparked by one of the infographics that we promote through Hasai that hit...

We are very pleased to have the best dressed man in the automotive industry shedding light and sharing wisdom with dealers across the country on Wednesday at 9am Pacific, noon Eastern. "Marketing is constantly evolving and new innovative ways of reaching your prospects are emerging, most recently with the rise of marketing via smart phones and tablets. Join Paul to learn about how to most effectively market your services and connect with your customers in the world of Mobile Marketing. Walk away from this webinar knowing how to develop a mobile “mailing” list, innovative ways to make your message stand out, as well as key components of a successful mobile marketing strategy." Come see Paul in the morning on the TK Carsites Webinar. It's free!   ...

Most who are active participants of the Driving Sales community are well aware of the importance of having a Facebook page, getting local people to like it, and posting engaging content to keep our feeds present for people to see when they visit Facebook. Let's take it a step further and discuss some advanced marketing techniques that have been proven to be effective on Facebook. One easy technique is the use of sharable photos. Many of us are posting pictures of our customers on our Facebook wall, but I cannot stress enough how important it is for these pictures to go beyond our own walls. We need them to be on other people's walls. We need them shared, getting comments, and getting exposure for our brands to as many locals as possible on Facebook. Take a look at this update: It has many of the attributes of a very strong update. It has real people doing real things. It highlights the personality of the dealership and the fact that they didn't something extra...

What started off as a debate turned into one of the most eye-opening discussions of my career. A friend of mine who run marketing at an online corporate giant was interviewing me about my recent decision to purchase several of their products. The topic of conversions came up and the fireworks started: what was considered a conversion in the automotive industry? His contention was that conversions can only be sales, that leads by themselves weren't enough to qualify as a web conversion. He went so far as to say that a good dealer website should be able to SELL cars directly and that people should just be coming in to finalize paperwork and pick up their vehicle (or even better, have it all delivered to their house or work). I won that part of the debate - leads are conversions in today's world because so few people will buy cars without driving them first. I explained the necessity of building excitement and taking ownership during the drive, that people might be willing t...

In the competitive world of automotive internet marketing, it's hard sometimes to know what's really working and what's a waste of time. Too often, dealers and their vendors are led down a path to some new form of "marketing gold" that will help their search and/or social gain an upperhand on the competition. It's for this reason that I've avoided pushing too hard about Tumblr. After using it for 3 years internally here at TK Carsites, I'm finally confident that it has 3 attributes that are important for anything that we are willing to recommend: - It's got to have sticking power. Despite ups and downs, Tumblr has emerged as a real player in social media and shows no signs of slowing in the future. - It has to be relatively easy. One of the reasons we don't recommend that dealers should build a unique class-C IP-driven, relevant-content-based blog network is because it is hard. It requires manpower, dedication, and several hours a ...

There is a distinct taste of irony to this post. I made my feelings known about cross-posting on all of the social networks earlier this month. Now I must break my own personal rule. This time, I have good reason. We're trying to compile a complete list of automotive social networks. We've put together a good list but I'm sure I'm missing some, so with a heavy heart I must do the thing I prefer to avoid: post this article across all of the social networks I know. Over the past 5 years, the automotive industry has managed an amazing transition. We were behind the times half a decade ago as an industry with many dealerships still using old technology or leaning on traditional advertising as their primary method of pushing out their message. In the short amount of time since, we've gone as an industry from being behind other industries in internet marketing practices to setting the trend and embracing the internet as the primary method through which we mar...

If anything, 5-minutes is overkill. It shouldn't take that long. Using the network, learning the ins and outs, consolidating the philosophy and strategy to combine nicely with search and other social sites - all may take longer. Here, let's start with the basics. Get your page built. There are a few things to keep in mind, but first and foremost is that you want it attached to your Google Places account. Eventually there will be some vetting that happens, but unfortunately anybody can make a page for any business. This won't last - they're just getting adoption rates up for now. Once they have the accounts active and working, they'll get into attaching them officially. That will be a cluster, but we're not there yet. First, let's just get the page built.   ...

Nobody. If you check your analytics, you'll find that an extremely small portion of your website videos are pushing the buttons you worked so hard to position on your website's homepage. A recent batch of data that I saw (that I, unfortunately, cannot reference yet) shows that those Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social buttons are being completely overlooked by most of your visitors. By most, you might as well call it "all" of your visitors because it's an activity that occurs normally after someone has already submitted a lead. Moreover, it's a sign of the "kiss of death" -- once they click away, the chances of them visiting your site again drop dramatically. Logic, not Alarms Before anyone freaks out and starts removing those dreaded buttons, think about why this is happening and what it means. People who have purchased a product or submitted a lead are more likely to push those buttons than those who have not filled out a form ...

Twitter is an absolute treasure chest of information about people. If there's one thing Twitter knows well, it's what people are doing and thinking at any given moment. Users often Tweet everything that's happening to them - what they're eating, where they're going, what they plan on doing tomorrow, even what car they intend to buy soon. Sounds like a longshot, right? No. In reality, Twitter can be harnessed for valuable information about people who are in the market right this very moment in your local area. You just have to know how to find them.. Luckily, Twitter Advanced Search does the trick. We have put together 7 tutorial videos on how to use specific areas of Twitter and posted them on 7 different sites. Watch the video below, then go to the next video in the series over at Automotive Social Network. Or, you can see the complete list of videos and where they're posted on the TK Carsites blog. Enjoy!   ...

There are always questions that surround social media. For many (those who aren't using TK automotive social media products - shameless plug), it has never delivered the tremendous results that they were promised. Social media was supposed to replace search. It was supposed to replace television. It was supposed to save the industry. Thankfully, the industry survived and is now thriving, but social media did not have a huge impact for most dealers. It didn't deliver the leads as promised. It's hard to track. It is, for many, something that just doesn't deliver, period. It doesn't have to be. We were extremely happy to have Kathi Kruse do our weekly automotive marketing webinar last week. She rocked the house! Listen to her as she demonstrates how getting more leads through social media is not only an achievable goal, but a necessary activity moving forward. ...

Over the last several months, really since speaking at the Digital Marketing Strategies Conference in Napa Valley earlier this year, one of the themes that we've been focused on is this: "What happens on your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media pages is not nearly as important as what happens on other people's Facebook, Twitter, and social media pages." Every few months I need to remind myself to continue to preach this point. Dealers and businesses in general always migrate towards focusing on their own pages and profiles when working social media. While it's important to maintain a strong presence through our own pages, the real bang for the buck is what happens off of our pages. Think about two scenarios: 1) A happy customer buys a new car. They're pumped, young, tech-savvy, and you ask them if you can take their picture for Facebook. They agree. You line up the car with your dealership's sign in the background. They stand next to the...

There's only one regret I have about delivering a keynote at this weekend's Driving Sales Executive Summit: how can I discuss the future of search and social in 30 minutes? It's a topic that would need 2 hours to scratch the surface because the changes that are coming up shortly are both exciting and terrifying at the same time. They're exciting because innovative, forward-thinking dealers (such as those who normally select TK Carsites as their marketing partner) will have an advantage over the competition by being "in the know" about the things that are soon to come. The terrifying aspect is that it's a huge responsibility that falls onto the shoulders of marketing decision-makers at dealerships and the vendors that they use. The good ol' days of "throw up a pretty website and try to get the people into the dealership" are behind us. 2012 will mark the tipping point of something that has been coming for the last 3 years, namely the ...

Many people have asked me over the last couple of days why I wasn't at Digital Dealer. I have had to remain aloof about it... until now. Today, KPA announces that it has acquired TK Carsites Inc. TK Carsites has over 650 automobile dealership clients throughout the country. The combination of the TK Carsites product line and current KPA product lines establishes KPA as a leading dealer services and Internet marketing provider for over 4,000 automotive, truck, and equipment dealerships and service companies. The united company offers an exciting prospect for dealers in ways that we've never been able to offer in the past. “I am impressed by KPA’s 95% year-over-year client retention. There is no automotive Internet marketing company that comes close,” says Richard Valenta, CEO and co-founder of TK Carsites. “For our clients, this means that they can continue to expect high levels of support, as well as a renewed commitment to the evolution of th...

Many dealerships have found email campaigns to be very successful and deliver a strong ROI. Those dealerships who have, over the years, accumulated a strong database of past customers as well as prospects have had some successes through newsletters, sales event marketing, and buzz-building particularly around new vehicle releases. Things are starting to change that dealers who use email should remember. The percentage of people who are checking their email primarily on mobile devices has more than doubled in the last year alone. Are your campaigns "mobile-friendly" enough to keep up, or are you missing out on reaching 15% of your database? For tips and a better understanding of the direction that email marketing is going, we turn to our friends at Litmus: "Email remains the strongest online activity around the globe. In fact, email users are expected to reach 3.8 billion by 2014; that is nearly half of the earth's current population, and a significant climb f...

It's a topic that has been covered ad nauseam here and on every business website on the internet. We can all see that social media is big, but how is it translating to the bottom line? Is it directly increasing sales? Are people realy in "buying mode" when they're looking at pictures of their friends at the bar last night? Is it worth the investment. The answer to the question really comes down to three things: the industry, the personality of the business, and the strategy. Many in the automotive industry have clearly demonstrated that social media can be very effective in generating business. Just read the automotive social media white paper as a single shining example from Jeff Cryder (who will be speaking at Driving Sale Executive Summit in Vegas). As far as personality at the dealerships, that's, well, personal. Is your dealership aggressive with its marketing to the point of being public and open about the people and happenings at the store? Are your...

It's not really a question that everyone can answer. For many, the decision has been made for us. Some manufacturers are forcing their dealerships to use specific website providers that consolidate the look, feel, and functionality of the website in order to maintain corporate consistency. Other OEMs allow their dealers to go wild. They have very few standards or compliance guidelines that their franchises are supposed to follow. Most OEMs are somewhere in the middle with specific compliance measures that must be met but no limits on which marketing company the dealers can use. Should a dealership website be consistent, looking mostly like every other of the same brand? Should dealers be allowed to express their personality and focus on their own strengths? Are dealers better off as individuals competing against others in their market of the same brand, or is the corporate line of keeping it simple and consistent while focusing on conquest sales from other brands the right ...

I remember sitting down for Thanksgiving in and listening to my uncle tell my father about his car-buying experience the week before. He described in great detail about how he played coy for a while, letting the salesperson lead the conversation up until the point when it came down to money. The back and forth, the getting up and trying to walk out, the manager chasing him into the parking lot, the cut price, the regretful looks of the manager and his salesperson, culminating in the glorious and triumphant results at the end of the sale when he drove off with what he considered a steal. The two discussed every nuance, every scowl and head shake. They made it sound... fun. My first car-buying experience didn't go as well. By that time, there was already information available on this new thing called "the internet" that gave me insight into the numbers. I was instantly despised and practically tossed out of two dealerships before finally buying a car. I was lectured b...

One of the hottest forms of automotive advertising is video banners. Today, the automotive industry is smack-dab in the middle (as you can see from the infographic below) and is used as a reference point for other industries. Manufacturers are doing a tremendous job of using it, but very few non-TK dealers are even exploring it. There is, of course, no reason for this based upon the sheer affordability and traffic-driving prowess that video ads have, but with none of the bigger vendors talking about it or even exploring it, it's relatively new to most. This graphic breaks down one of the major flaws with the service - click through. Unlike standard banner ads, this engaging form of advertising has ancillary benefits that go beyond branding. Messages are often heard and seen even if the direct click is never made. There are direct correlations that can be made between the number of impressions a dealer gets on their ad and the number of searches that are made for that deale...

To commemorate our 50th referral from DrivingSales, we are giving away free SEO to up to 20 Driving Sales readers, no strings attached. Tell us the keyword and the domain and we'll get you ranked higher on Google for that keyword. That's it. No fine print. Just a "thank you" to DrivingSales readers for being the biggest referrer to our sites of all the automotive social networks. With stores 44-50 coming in the form of an active member of Driving Sales signing their group with us, we hit the 50 mark faster than expected. Visit TK Automotive Search Engine Optimization Freebie to claim your free keyword. The only "catch" is that we ask you to 'like' our Facebook page. Otherwise, you owe us nothing. Pick a keyword and we'll drive links to your site from our proprietary network. We won't have to make edits to your site at all. Pick the keyword and watch your dealership move up in Google. Simple stuff. Thanks guys and keep the community ac...

A few months ago, Google updated its SEO Starter Guide. Already the guide has been translated into 40 languages and has helped countless website owners and webmasters gain basic knowledge about search engine optimization and website usability. Now, in its latest iteration, the guide is packed with even more helpful information that should not be missed. What is the SEO Starter Guide? For years, webmasters always asked representatives of Google in forums and at conferences, “What are some simple ways that I can improve my website's performance in Google?" With so much information (and disinformation) on the Web regarding search engine optimization, Google realized that it could be intimidating for those just starting out on the Web. That’s what led to the creation of the “Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide”, which covers numerous topics and areas that webmasters should consider optimizing. Google also included illustrations and simple lang...

Many people often ask “How do I get more people to look at my inventory and how do I then get those people to convert?” Well, the answer, while simple, does involve a dealer’s embrace of the technology available today. If you’re looking for ways to minimize aged inventory and maximize gross, then exploring ways of getting the most out of your online inventory is the obvious answer. When doing so, you have to remember the results of a recent study conducted by CarGurus that states, “New car shoppers prefer visual material such as photos and video over textual material by a margin of two to one.” The study also found that new car shoppers spend the majority of their time (62%, or nearly two-thirds of pages viewed) looking at photos and videos versus more traditional forms of online auto research such as specifications, reviews and pricing. Your inventory must be easy to find by the search engine spiders or crawlers so you must incorporate search ...

The future of blogging will make more of a transition from a personal aspect to a business oriented platform which will assist businesses with personalizing themselves. Blogging is still and will continue to be an integral part of Social Media. Although people love the quick characters of Twitter and the paragraphs on Facebook, they still seek and yearn for more places to connect and articles that help them relate to the Online communities they have chosen. I think businesses will capitalize on this knowledge as more Industries jump aboard the Social Media train. In the future, more blogs will be seen on websites and act as a side-kick or personality of the business. Blogs will also be a great forum to share their other online participation from YouTube videos and photos that will enhance their online presence. Businesses and blogging in the future will go hand-in-hand as means to suffice their communities demands of having the ability to communicate and connect. The continuing s...

As we prepare to launch our new search, social, and website platform, "TK Connect", we're pleased to offer the readers of Driving Sales the first opportunity to use the platform. Take it for a test drive, build some assets that can generate leads, and let us know how we can make it better. No cost. No obligation. Nothing. All we want is feedback from dealers to help us make improvements before we launch publicly. The web and SEO assets you create are yours to keep and can help you to improve your dealership marketing dramatically. It's our "thank you" for helping us take the most cutting-edge marketing platform to hit the automotive industry and make it even better thanks to your input. As a "stealth" beta launch we are keeping it closed to the first 20 dealers who sign up. Use the Promo Code "TKDSES" to get going. We'll email you your credentials and then it's off to the races. Click Dealer Marketing Strategy...

It's a question we often ask our dealers and something that we now ask the Driving Sales community. What's next? There was a time when having a website meant little more than putting up an online billboard that said, "Here's where we are. Here's our number. Call or come by and let's talk." Now, the Internet is viewed by most dealers as the most important venue for delivering the message, grabbing the leads, and starting the sales process. We now see robust websites with lots of tools, tons of pages, loads of inventory, and plenty of content. Search engine optimization and pay-per-click marketing are important aspects for driving traffic. Social media has emerged as a tool for retaining customers as well as finding new ones. Microsites have been around for a while but are really starting to become an important part of most dealers' marketing strategies. Goal-specific landing pages flood the web. Portals, hub sites, splash pages... all getting...

Those who use Facebook are there to interact with friends, find interesting content or breaking news, and generally get away from the drudge of day-to-day work and life. As a result, many who use sales as the backbone of their business, such as car dealers, find it challenging to get into the groove with how Facebook can be effective as a sales tool. This Infographic by our friends at GetSatisfaction takes a look at the "sales funnel" and how it can be applied in Facebook. Despite common belief, Facebook is not an empty portal where everything gets lost in the black hole of lolcats and pictures of little Timmy sliding into 3rd base. It can be an extremely effective tool for taking people down the path towards the eventual sale. Click to enlarge. ...

Over the last 4 years, we've seen the automotive industry change faster than any other. Even technology has enjoyed a more steady pace through innovations and mindset than the automotive industry from top to bottom. The way we sell, the way we market, and the way we do every aspect of business has transformed in so many ways that it's often hard to keep track of what's working and what's not. Now, in 2011, one thing is emerging as a theme that tells the tale of success. Dealers are taking charge of their marketing in ways they haven't in the past. The game is much more complicated than it used to be. The Internet has forced business owners in nearly every industry to adjust. The car business has seen the most dramatic adjustments of them all. Why It's You The hands-off approach to marketing has, for many (including the savvy dealers on Driving Sales), gone away. Today, those wanting to be the best of the best don't simply contract with vendors and...

The most common questions dealers ask us when we talk about Power SEO for their websites that are not on the TK Carsites platform is, "How can we do it if it's on a website built by {some other vendor}?" There are really two answers to the question, but the first is the most important. We build high-quality, relevant, well-indexed inbound links to dealers' websites. It's that simple. As many have stated, the search engines look at inbound links as "votes" and measures of authority for websites for particular keywords. The more high-quality links you have going to your pages, the better they'll rank. I highlighted high-quality because there is a large distinction between the different types of links. Our success is hung on our network of properties that have been accumulating search engine credibility for several years versus the JohnnyComeLately link-building schemes that have no juice. The key to offsite Automotive SEO is a combination of...

For the past 10 months, we have been travelling around the country as an executive staff, talking to current and future clients to get an understanding of what they are really looking for in a complete Internet marketing solution. We've taken this information and worked with leaders in marketing and strategy to harness what we know about automotive in an environment tempered by best practices in other industries. The general theme that we've discovered is that dealers and marketing professionals agree on most (not all) aspects of Internet marketing, but one thing stood out as a clear "must have" across the board: integrating search, social, and website lead generation was the key to success going forward in 2011 and into 2012. We have been doing this to gain an understanding of how to build and position the newest variation of our award-winning Power of 5 marketing platform to be unveiled in the Spring. What we learned is that "variation" was not ap...