A social network like Driving Sales has the power to allow marketers and brands to have conversations with potential customers about products and services.  But according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau in the U.K., social networkers are starting to tire of the constant barrage of brands asking them to join groups etc.  The study says that 31% of the users studied said they get too many invites to install applications etc.  Others said they were inundated with advertising that was not relevant to them. 

The moral of the story here is that marketers need to be very careful about how they approach members of a social network.  Most members are seeking valuable exclusve content and information they can use in their job or life. For more of a perspective on this, try this link and read a story in Advertising Age by Emma Hall titled "How to get the most out of social networks and not annoy users."  http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=136233

In the latest issue of Advertising Age, Land Rover has announced it is the first national auto brand to use Twitter to promote its new models.  If you are not sure what Twitter is, it is kind of a mass network of connected people who text each other (called tweeting) to talk about things of interest to both parties.

In the article, written by Ad Age writer, Jeremy Mullman, Land Rover's ad agency, WPP-owned PR firm, Wunderman, put together the Twitter campaign and paid a Twitter network to spread the news about Land Rover.  While it is too early to tell how the campaign will turn out, the new Twitter paid network called Twittad has about 4,500 members.  To read more on the story visit:

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=136090

If you're a car dealer that has done direct mail in the past, you know it is a never ending quest to get the price down.  If you went thru a direct mail vendor, they probably provided the creative for the piece and then had it printed at their own printer.  Somewhere in there you paid a markup to the person selling the direct mail.  They buy it from the printer and mark it up to you.  There is nothing wrong with that - its just capitalism in action, but in these days of tight budgets you may want to consider an alternative.  I ran across a company called BuyersDirectNetwork.com.  They have a very simple business model. They have negotiated low rates with a giant printer in the south and will hook you up directly with the printer for a simple monthly membership fee. Once a member, you get their negotiated, low printing prices.  BuyersDirectNetwork.com will help you with the creative you need for the direct mail piece and will allow you to buy direct from the printer so there is no middleman.  The monthly fee to BuyersDirectNetwork.com is in the ballpark of 300 to 400 per month, but it looks like buying the printing at cost will save you as much as 25 cents per piece.  This large printer will also mail the pieces for you if you choose.  If you want more information, you can visit the website or email them at info@BuyersDirectNetwork.com

If you are familiar with search engine marketing (SEM) you know it is the process of buying keywords and having your ad pop up when people search those words.  This is also called pay-per-click advertising.  What you may not know is that dealers across the country are buying their competitor's names so that their ad will come up if a consumer searches for the competitor's name.  For example if you are ABC Chevy, and you buy your competitor, Main Chevy's name, if a car shopper types in "Main Chevy" into Google, your ad will come up.  Pretty nasty huh?  I suggest you type in your own dealership name right now and see if another dealer's name comes up in the paid section of the search results.  (Paid section is on the top or right hand side of the page.)

If another dealer's name comes up in the paid section, they are buying your name in an attempt to steal customers that are looking for you.  Ouch.  So what do you do about this?  Turns out that issue is in the courts right now.  In a recent court ruling, Geico lost a lawsuit when the court ruled that the paid ad does not necessarily cause consumer confusion.  However, there is another court case pending where a business was buying a competitor's name and the injured party sued Google.  Google won the first round, but in appeal the Judge disagreed and sent the matter back to court.  So, it is up in the air at the moment.  The issue here is whether buying someone's trademarked name in pay-per-click (SEM) marketing is trademark infringement. 

This subject is causing lots of turmoil among all kinds of businesses who don't think another business should be able to buy their trademarked name.  Whether you agree or not, you need to be aware if you are losing customers this way.  If you are doing Google Adwords, you will also have to decide if you want to use this tactic yourself - at least while it is legal. 

It would be interesting to hear from DrivingSales members about how they feel on the subject.  Should a competitor be able to buy your trademarked name on Google?  Do you currently use this tactic yourself?  For that matter, have you trademarked your own business name yet?  Tell us what you think.

Brett Stevenson  is Publisher of Dealer Marketing Magazine, a trade magazine for auto dealers at www.DealerMarketing.com.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer began publishing in 1863.  Yesterday it closed down, never to print again. While we still have the Seattle Times in this market, you will find more and more markets losing their big city paper.  The Rocky Mountain News just died, the San Francisco Chronicle is done.  Obviously the Internet killed the local newspaper with help from television and other immediate sources for news.  As an old school ad agency guy, I watched over the last few years as they lost their audience and then lost their advertisers.  Few auto dealers were still using the local paper.  Most dealers would say it hadn't really worked for them in years.  Craigslist killed the newspaper classifieds, and even the newspaper's own website took part in the demise.  In large cities with big circulations, the cost of paper, the cost of production, large editorial staffs and the press workers made the overhead overwhelming. 

The interesting thing to watch as the papers fail, is how people change the habits to get the information they want.  While young people already use the internet for news and information, we will see older people begin to use websites to replace the paper.  I guess this means you will get up on Sunday mornings and sit down with a cup of coffee and your laptop instead of the newspaper.  Somehow, its just not the same.

Rather than moaning about the loss of the paper, we need to look forward to what is to come.  Many parts of our business lives and our personal lives are going to change with the technology improvements and even with the economy problems.  If you haven't noticed, the Post Office is not moving a whole lot of mail anymore.  Most people email instead of using regular mail, and direct mail companies are feeling the big crunch.  I think we need to prepare for a change in the post office and learn to live without delivery to the mailbox out on the post in the front yard.  Are you ready? Have you invested in the latest phone gadget that will take calls, deliver email and show you movies in your palm? Have you noticed that when a person walks by you on the street, blabbering away to themselves, that they aren't crazy, they just have Bluetooth in their ear?    Quick, go buy a paper and sit down and read it before its gone.

If you have been watching the demise of the local newspaper recently, you have seen a number of major newspapers in the country either close, or go up for sale (which means they will close soon.)  Most dealers who have been around for a while can remember when running a big ad in the paper was a great way to reach customers.  There is a valid replacement for those newspaper ads in the form of banner ads on the local media websites in your market.  However, there are some differences in the way you should use banners that can affect the campaign's success.  Unlike print advertising, where you might run one ad in the paper, banner campaigns require multiple sites to be effective.  You need multiple sites because the consumers in your market are using various sites for their news and information.  One person might use the local newspaper's site, another may use the local tv station's site and yet another may depend on their favorite radio station's site.  So for success, the rule is:  while the banners are like print, buy them like radio or television commercials.  You wouldn't buy one commercial on one radio station would you?  Buy many banners on many sites.  Some of the great benefits of a banner campaign are: 

1.  You can monitor the audience delivery of each banner position during the campaign.

2.  You can use more than one banner design to see which creative works best.

3.  When a person shows interest in your banner message, they will click thru to a landing page or your site for more information. 

4.  Banner advertising is dropping in price during the recession - most sites charge cost-per-thousand (CPM) and you can negotiate lower and lower pricing.

5.  You can change banner ads with a different message often.

6.  You can track the effect on your website using Google Analytics (this is a free program your website designer can add to your website.)

7.  You can run video in your banner ads on some sites (like your tv commercial if you have one.)

8.  You can target different vehicles based on the websites audience.  Run vehicles that appeal to young people on rock radio station's site, run trucks on country site, etc.

By learning to use local media websites you can carefully track the delivery of your advertising and drive more people to your online showroom to begin a dialog with them.  Be sure to develop processes for website visitors like you do for actual showroom visitors.  As the banners drive consumers to your site, you need to greet them and move them like you would in the showroom. 

I am sure there are more than a few auto dealers out there right now who are sitting at their desk in the showroom, staring out at an empty lot, wishing they had gone into the insurance business.  It is a daunting time right now with most of the public suffering from analysis-paralysis, afraid to buy anything.  The good news is that the country runs on cars, and cars wear out.  The question is how to hang on until things turn around. 

Having spent the last twenty years planning advertising for auto dealers, I can make a few suggestions for this downturn.  Take this time to revamp your operation and learn the ins and outs of using online to marketing your dealership and products.  We all have to grasp that the world has changed and things are different in all parts of the car-buying process.  The newspapers are on their last legs because the Internet and local media websites, like the newspaper site, the television station sites, and radio station sites are now people’s first source of news.  If you don’t believe me, tour your own dealership and ask each person if the subscribe to the paper.  I predict you will find that some people over 45 still get the paper, and everyone under 30 does not.  That makes buying newspaper ads for your dealership a big mistake.

If you don’t know where to start with online, I suggest Google Adwords.  Put simply, this is where you “buy” keywords and phrases so that when someone searches those keywords, your Google ad comes up.  If the person “clicks” on your ad to find out more, then you pay for the “click.”  If they don’t click, you don’t pay.  The reason to do Google Adwords is that search is how car shoppers shop now.  If you are not in the search results, you’re not in the game. 

Want to test it?  Go to a computer, type in something that a person would search if they were shopping for one of your type vehicles.  If you are a Dodge dealer, type in “Dodge Dakota”.  Now look at the screen.  Does your dealership’s website come up in the search?  If it does, good for you.  Your site must be optimized well and the search engines can find it.  If your site does not come up, then you can figure you just lost that customer to someone else.  One of my account executives has a saying he uses when talking to dealers about advertising.  He says the most important three things you need to do are: 1.  Turn on the lights, 2.  Put up sign outside, and 3.  Do Google Adwords.  Kind of silly but this is coming from an AE that has been doing television for dealers for years.  He knows that car shoppers use search engines first before they ever step on anyone’s lot.

Want to maximize your exposure with as little money as possible right now?  Do search engine marketing (SEM), which is the tech way of saying learn Google Adwords.  If you want to learn to do Google Adwords yourself, Google has a great course in the Adwords section of their site.

Brett Stevenson is publisher of Dealer Marketing Magazine.  Contact him at Brett@DealerMarketing.com