On my recent trip to Italy, my Apple iPhone 4S  started acting funny on Day One and by Day Two I had no cell phone service.  

My Apple iPhone 4s was giving me an error message "No SIM Card Installed".    

I called AT&T and their support team said that nothing in their database reflected this type of problem.  AT&T told me that there was no local support in Italy, so I had to wait till I returned to get the phone repaired.

I was not happy with that message from AT&T!

Apple iPhone ZMOT

I researched online and found that hundreds of people had reported this problem with the iPhone 4S on the Apple Support blog but strangely enough, there was NO official response from Apple.  Why would Apple be silent on a problem of this severity?

I was furious that the "smart" device that I counted on for GPS navigation and emails was not working.  I was blocked out from business calls and even from keeping up with Tim Jackson with Four Square check-ins! :))

When The Shine Comes Off Your Apple

This was the first time I experienced a manufacturing flaw with Apple hardware which previous to this incident was flawless.  The shine has come off my perception of Apple.   When I needed them to come through, they failed.

It turns out that I found a blog post on my LAST day in Italy that showed why this was happening and how to fix it.  I searched the Internet earlier in the week, but it was not until today that I found a fix to the physical hardware.

I followed the instruction on WooServers.com and in 2 minutes it was fixed. 

How Do You Handle Failure?

I'm sharing this experience because it is a great reminder that as hard as we all work to deliver excellence in our endeavors, sometimes we drop the ball.  When we drop the ball, it impacts our credibility and the faith that our customers place in us.

I will not travel to Italy again without a backup GPS unit.  Apple no longer is that perfectly reliable device that I once thought.  I still love my iPhone but will I rush to get the next upgrade before I hear what consumers are saying?  No.

This experience may just temper my Apple buying patterns because obviously a manufacturing flaw exists and Apple is silent on the matter.  That's not good for business and transparency.

How does your business handle customers when you drop the ball?  

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences

Brian Pasch

On my recent trip to Italy, my Apple iPhone 4S  started acting funny on Day One and by Day Two I had no cell phone service.  

My Apple iPhone 4s was giving me an error message "No SIM Card Installed".    

I called AT&T and their support team said that nothing in their database reflected this type of problem.  AT&T told me that there was no local support in Italy, so I had to wait till I returned to get the phone repaired.

I was not happy with that message from AT&T!

Apple iPhone ZMOT

I researched online and found that hundreds of people had reported this problem with the iPhone 4S on the Apple Support blog but strangely enough, there was NO official response from Apple.  Why would Apple be silent on a problem of this severity?

I was furious that the "smart" device that I counted on for GPS navigation and emails was not working.  I was blocked out from business calls and even from keeping up with Tim Jackson with Four Square check-ins! :))

When The Shine Comes Off Your Apple

This was the first time I experienced a manufacturing flaw with Apple hardware which previous to this incident was flawless.  The shine has come off my perception of Apple.   When I needed them to come through, they failed.

It turns out that I found a blog post on my LAST day in Italy that showed why this was happening and how to fix it.  I searched the Internet earlier in the week, but it was not until today that I found a fix to the physical hardware.

I followed the instruction on WooServers.com and in 2 minutes it was fixed. 

How Do You Handle Failure?

I'm sharing this experience because it is a great reminder that as hard as we all work to deliver excellence in our endeavors, sometimes we drop the ball.  When we drop the ball, it impacts our credibility and the faith that our customers place in us.

I will not travel to Italy again without a backup GPS unit.  Apple no longer is that perfectly reliable device that I once thought.  I still love my iPhone but will I rush to get the next upgrade before I hear what consumers are saying?  No.

This experience may just temper my Apple buying patterns because obviously a manufacturing flaw exists and Apple is silent on the matter.  That's not good for business and transparency.

How does your business handle customers when you drop the ball?  

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences

Brian Pasch

I have written a number of articles which share my opinion that Dataium will dramatically change the way car dealers will operate their online business.

Here is one article: Dataium Business Intelligence Tools

Dataium’s cloud intelligence data and reporting tools will revolutionize CRM systems as we know them today. The first CRM companies that fully integrate Dataium’s API will have a distinct market advantage.

Why am I so bullish on Dataium? No, I am not an investor or being compensated for hosting a webinar.

I’m reaching out to dealers because they need to know about this new technology. Dealers who are early adopters will see why their CRM and lead handling will be greatly enhanced by Dataium’s business model.



I can’t think of ANY dealer who would not like to improve their lead closing ratio. I know dealers would love to be able to intelligently reactivate leads that were inappropriately marked as “closed”

Dealers who are looking to ride the next wave of automation in Internet/BDC operations need to attend this free webinar.

As a special bonus, the first 100 dealers to sign-up and attend will get a free trial of the Dataium base platform.

 

Webinar Scheduled November 7th at 2:00 PM EST

Reserve your Webinar seat now by clicking on the link below:
 

REGISTER FOR THE DATAIUM WEBINAR NOW!

Mark your calendar and get your team in the conference room so everyone can hear from Dataium Co-Founder Jason Ezell. I will lead the post webinar discussion and add his commentary on just how important the Dataium data pipeline will be for dealers.

See you November 7th!

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences

I have written a number of articles which share my opinion that Dataium will dramatically change the way car dealers will operate their online business.

Here is one article: Dataium Business Intelligence Tools

Dataium’s cloud intelligence data and reporting tools will revolutionize CRM systems as we know them today. The first CRM companies that fully integrate Dataium’s API will have a distinct market advantage.

Why am I so bullish on Dataium? No, I am not an investor or being compensated for hosting a webinar.

I’m reaching out to dealers because they need to know about this new technology. Dealers who are early adopters will see why their CRM and lead handling will be greatly enhanced by Dataium’s business model.



I can’t think of ANY dealer who would not like to improve their lead closing ratio. I know dealers would love to be able to intelligently reactivate leads that were inappropriately marked as “closed”

Dealers who are looking to ride the next wave of automation in Internet/BDC operations need to attend this free webinar.

As a special bonus, the first 100 dealers to sign-up and attend will get a free trial of the Dataium base platform.

 

Webinar Scheduled November 7th at 2:00 PM EST

Reserve your Webinar seat now by clicking on the link below:
 

REGISTER FOR THE DATAIUM WEBINAR NOW!

Mark your calendar and get your team in the conference room so everyone can hear from Dataium Co-Founder Jason Ezell. I will lead the post webinar discussion and add his commentary on just how important the Dataium data pipeline will be for dealers.

See you November 7th!

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences

Like a proud father who is moved with emotion as he sees his child graduate from college, I was filled with pride when Westbury Jeep secured their graduation honors. In July Westbury Jeep was recognized as the #1 Jeep Chrysler Dodge dealer in the United States for June 2011.

Being #1 in the US for any brand is a great reward and a double blessing for a passionate and engaging dealer principal. Many factors go into achieving that level of success and the entire Westbury Jeep team should be congratulated. Creating a team that executes on all levels is not an easy accomplishment.

PCG Digital Marketing has assisted Westbury Jeep define and implement their digital marketing strategy for the past three years. We have also developed a great relationship with Joel and his team based on keeping them ahead of their competition in regards to digital marketing.  

Become a Student 

Joel Sporn is a rare dealer principal that sought to understand all digital marketing concepts so he could adapt them to his specific vision for his franchise store.

Joel is a student of strategy and fiercely competitive. He chose to accept the responsibility of crafting his digital strategy and build a great team of marketing partners.

Joel sought out and connected with people who could help him learn, execute, and integrate that knowledge. Joel was patient to see the rewards of his digital investments, which is the main theme of this article.

Too often the executive leadership of a dealership is disconnected from the staff that are tasked to research, select, implement, and manage a digital strategy. This disconnect can cause dealer principals to be impatient.

It is not uncommon for digital investments to be pulled off the budget before they bear fruit in as little as 60 days.

Automotive SEO Is Not For Sprinters

Digital marketing investments can have an immediate and clear ROI for dealers like adding 24x7 managed chat to a website, adding pop-up coupons, or operating a pay-per-click campaign with well-designed conversion pages. These digital strategies have an immediate pay-off and, when measured, create a comfort level with bean counters.

Other digital strategies require patience to create a market dominating success story. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most misunderstood investments. Joel took the time to learn, craft, and implement a market dominating SEO strategy and the payoff is clear today.

Since an aggressive SEO strategy can take over a year to implement and refine, few dealers ever see the fruits of their SEO investment. Automotive SEO strategies are continually changing. Just recently Google added the “+1 Button” to search engine listing pages and this one change will have a major impact on click rates to dealer websites.

The Google launch of their social media platform “Google+” also creates new opportunities to drive social links and traffic to a dealer’s website.

Despite all these new opportunities, I caution dealers that have little patience to start an aggressive SEO strategy. If you are looking for SEO to make significant changes in online visibility and traffic in 90 days, don’t start.

Patience Also Needed For  Reputation Management

Patience is also required for Internet Reputation Management (IRM) processes, which yield an increase in online review counts each month. These reviews are visible to tens of thousands of in-market shoppers each month.

Dealers who ignore their online reputation “scores” are in effect using their monthly advertising budgets to send consumers to their nearest competitors. Dealers who want to fully leverage the digital divide must implement an in-store and post sale review gathering process.

Implementation does not come without resistance from dealer employees. They are also uninformed and impatient on the benefits of doing “more” work in their already hectic workday. The ROI to a commitment to IRM does not necessarily come in 30, 60, or 90 days, but when a dealership has 200+ more reviews than their nearest competitor, the pay-off starts to become very clear.

When consumers call and ask for sales professionals they never met because of an online review, your sales team will take notice.

Unfortunately, I have already started to see dealers give up on IRM process investments. I’ve been told that it’s too hard to ask happy customers to take 60 seconds to post a review inside the store. I’ve been told that none of their customers have Google accounts. Both are excuses and lies.

Dealers, what lies are you and your employees believing that are holding back your online marketing success?

Digital marketing takes a well-defined strategy and as I have outlined; patience. Success also takes a commitment to learn and lead from the top executives of the company.

We have mentored Brickell Honda, located in Miami Florida, over the past 2 years and they have over 800 reviews posted directly on Google Places.  Alex Andreus and Mario Murgado have a market dominating digital marketing strategy that includes a strong belief in presenting a positive online brand image.

With the correct leadership it is amazing what can be accomplished.  

Do You Have Patience?

Westbury Jeep and Brickell Honda have demonstrated patience in crafting and implementing their digital marketing strategy. Success did not happen overnight.

Their success came from having a strategy that reviewed all their current marketing investments, which resulted in an action plan. These two dealers are examples of a new breed of automotive professionals that are making the investment to develop a strategy that includes technology, training, and the willingness to be ahead of their peers.

Has your dealership made a commitment to create a dominating digital marketing strategy?

If dealers continue to measure success in 30, 60, or 90-day intervals they will never reap the rewards, which are produced from implementing a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.

I am not implying that your digital investments should not be measured each month. I am saying that until dealership executives invest in digital marketing education for themselves and their team, they will never have the patience to win the race.  They may win a short sprint but never the marathon.

Running A Dealership Is Like Running A Marathon

Successful car dealers are marathon runners.  Has your operations and marketing trainer prepared you for the digital marathon?   I sure hope so because the race has already started.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing

Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences.

 Brian Pasch

Like a proud father who is moved with emotion as he sees his child graduate from college, I was filled with pride when Westbury Jeep secured their graduation honors. In July Westbury Jeep was recognized as the #1 Jeep Chrysler Dodge dealer in the United States for June 2011.

Being #1 in the US for any brand is a great reward and a double blessing for a passionate and engaging dealer principal. Many factors go into achieving that level of success and the entire Westbury Jeep team should be congratulated. Creating a team that executes on all levels is not an easy accomplishment.

PCG Digital Marketing has assisted Westbury Jeep define and implement their digital marketing strategy for the past three years. We have also developed a great relationship with Joel and his team based on keeping them ahead of their competition in regards to digital marketing.  

Become a Student 

Joel Sporn is a rare dealer principal that sought to understand all digital marketing concepts so he could adapt them to his specific vision for his franchise store.

Joel is a student of strategy and fiercely competitive. He chose to accept the responsibility of crafting his digital strategy and build a great team of marketing partners.

Joel sought out and connected with people who could help him learn, execute, and integrate that knowledge. Joel was patient to see the rewards of his digital investments, which is the main theme of this article.

Too often the executive leadership of a dealership is disconnected from the staff that are tasked to research, select, implement, and manage a digital strategy. This disconnect can cause dealer principals to be impatient.

It is not uncommon for digital investments to be pulled off the budget before they bear fruit in as little as 60 days.

Automotive SEO Is Not For Sprinters

Digital marketing investments can have an immediate and clear ROI for dealers like adding 24x7 managed chat to a website, adding pop-up coupons, or operating a pay-per-click campaign with well-designed conversion pages. These digital strategies have an immediate pay-off and, when measured, create a comfort level with bean counters.

Other digital strategies require patience to create a market dominating success story. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most misunderstood investments. Joel took the time to learn, craft, and implement a market dominating SEO strategy and the payoff is clear today.

Since an aggressive SEO strategy can take over a year to implement and refine, few dealers ever see the fruits of their SEO investment. Automotive SEO strategies are continually changing. Just recently Google added the “+1 Button” to search engine listing pages and this one change will have a major impact on click rates to dealer websites.

The Google launch of their social media platform “Google+” also creates new opportunities to drive social links and traffic to a dealer’s website.

Despite all these new opportunities, I caution dealers that have little patience to start an aggressive SEO strategy. If you are looking for SEO to make significant changes in online visibility and traffic in 90 days, don’t start.

Patience Also Needed For  Reputation Management

Patience is also required for Internet Reputation Management (IRM) processes, which yield an increase in online review counts each month. These reviews are visible to tens of thousands of in-market shoppers each month.

Dealers who ignore their online reputation “scores” are in effect using their monthly advertising budgets to send consumers to their nearest competitors. Dealers who want to fully leverage the digital divide must implement an in-store and post sale review gathering process.

Implementation does not come without resistance from dealer employees. They are also uninformed and impatient on the benefits of doing “more” work in their already hectic workday. The ROI to a commitment to IRM does not necessarily come in 30, 60, or 90 days, but when a dealership has 200+ more reviews than their nearest competitor, the pay-off starts to become very clear.

When consumers call and ask for sales professionals they never met because of an online review, your sales team will take notice.

Unfortunately, I have already started to see dealers give up on IRM process investments. I’ve been told that it’s too hard to ask happy customers to take 60 seconds to post a review inside the store. I’ve been told that none of their customers have Google accounts. Both are excuses and lies.

Dealers, what lies are you and your employees believing that are holding back your online marketing success?

Digital marketing takes a well-defined strategy and as I have outlined; patience. Success also takes a commitment to learn and lead from the top executives of the company.

We have mentored Brickell Honda, located in Miami Florida, over the past 2 years and they have over 800 reviews posted directly on Google Places.  Alex Andreus and Mario Murgado have a market dominating digital marketing strategy that includes a strong belief in presenting a positive online brand image.

With the correct leadership it is amazing what can be accomplished.  

Do You Have Patience?

Westbury Jeep and Brickell Honda have demonstrated patience in crafting and implementing their digital marketing strategy. Success did not happen overnight.

Their success came from having a strategy that reviewed all their current marketing investments, which resulted in an action plan. These two dealers are examples of a new breed of automotive professionals that are making the investment to develop a strategy that includes technology, training, and the willingness to be ahead of their peers.

Has your dealership made a commitment to create a dominating digital marketing strategy?

If dealers continue to measure success in 30, 60, or 90-day intervals they will never reap the rewards, which are produced from implementing a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.

I am not implying that your digital investments should not be measured each month. I am saying that until dealership executives invest in digital marketing education for themselves and their team, they will never have the patience to win the race.  They may win a short sprint but never the marathon.

Running A Dealership Is Like Running A Marathon

Successful car dealers are marathon runners.  Has your operations and marketing trainer prepared you for the digital marathon?   I sure hope so because the race has already started.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing

Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences.

 Brian Pasch

Google send out notification to Certified Adwords Specialists about upcoming changes that impact Pay-Per-Click ads that utilize phone numbers on mobile devices.

This information is very important for dealers who have been using PPC ads for Mobile Devices.  If you are not targeting mobile devices, this is a reminder and wakeup call.  

You should be testing mobile ads as well as mobile RETARGETING.  (Very cool)
 

Clickable Phone Numbers on Ads

The point is that Google is making mobile Ads more effective by adding a clickable phone number as part of the ad.  This is a win for the consumer and the advertiser who believes that targeting mobile shoppers is a smart investment.

Once gain, Google is on a roll and continually adding new ways to monetize their platform.  

Is your current PPC vendor keeping you up to date with the latest opportunities in search marketing?

This is a great reason why this forum is a great place to stay ahead of your competition.  Stay tuned, every week there is another great suggestion by bloggers on this forum.

 

Google's Official Letter

Dear AdWords Advertiser,

If you currently have a phone number in your ad text or have plans to start adding your phone number in an ad, this is an important notice that in the coming weeks, we will be launching a new enhancement to AdWords ads that will impact charges on clicks to these numbers.

To help our mobile users connect more easily with advertisers, all non-clickable phone numbers displayed in AdWords ad text will be automatically converted into a Click-to-call number. Currently when advertisers enter a phone number directly into their ad text instead of using Call Extensions, the phone number is not clickable and will not generate a call. This can be a frustrating experience for mobile users who attempt to initiate a call to this phone number.

The new Click-to-call enhancement ensures that all phone numbers shown in AdWords ads are clickable and allows users to easily place calls from their mobile device. If your ad text includes a phone number, you will begin to receive clicks and calls on this number once the enhancement is enabled in your account. As with phone calls placed via a Call Extension, you will be charged for clicks on your phone number that result in a call.

Please note that AdWords policy does not allow for phone numbers to be inserted into ad headlines. As with all Click-to-call ads, advertisers will be charged when a user either clicks on the headline or the phone number listed in the ad. Please see below for additional information regarding this change.

Which phone number shows?

If you are currently using both Call Extensions and a phone number in your ad creative, only the newly clickable phone number in your ad creative will show. This is designed to help reduce user confusion from seeing two potentially different numbers. If you would like your Call Extension number to display, simply delete all phone numbers from your existing ad text by following these steps. You'll also receive an additional line of ad text displaying your phone number if the Call Extension is used.

Measuring results

You'll be able to review how many calls you receive on the clickable phone number listed in your ad text for each campaign, ad group, keyword and ad on the "Campaigns" tab in your AdWords account. Just select the "Click-type" option under the "Segment" drop down and view your report. Please note that since these are not calls generated from a Call Extension, they will not be reported in the Extensions tab reports.

Recommendations for featuring a phone number

You can simply leave your phone number in your ad text and benefit from this change which will automatically make your phone numbers clickable and enable users to call you. However, to get the most value from click-to-call, we recommend that you remove your phone number from your ad creative and create a Call Extension with your phone number directly.

This has several benefits. With a manually created Call Extension your number will appear as an additional line of ad text which frees up space in your ad creative for other promotion. In addition, when you create a Call Extension, your phone number appears on a separate line in the ad, and you're able to take advantage of other powerful enhancements such as Vanity Numbers, Call-only and Call Metrics reporting.
 

Keep Up WIth Search Marketing Changes

If you would like to be notified when new digital marketing opportunities are announced, join our alerts mobile campaign.  To join,  text PCGTIPS to 75674

This will make sure that changes in the marketplace that impact your marketing and advertising investments are delivered to your mobile phone.



 

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

Google send out notification to Certified Adwords Specialists about upcoming changes that impact Pay-Per-Click ads that utilize phone numbers on mobile devices.

This information is very important for dealers who have been using PPC ads for Mobile Devices.  If you are not targeting mobile devices, this is a reminder and wakeup call.  

You should be testing mobile ads as well as mobile RETARGETING.  (Very cool)
 

Clickable Phone Numbers on Ads

The point is that Google is making mobile Ads more effective by adding a clickable phone number as part of the ad.  This is a win for the consumer and the advertiser who believes that targeting mobile shoppers is a smart investment.

Once gain, Google is on a roll and continually adding new ways to monetize their platform.  

Is your current PPC vendor keeping you up to date with the latest opportunities in search marketing?

This is a great reason why this forum is a great place to stay ahead of your competition.  Stay tuned, every week there is another great suggestion by bloggers on this forum.

 

Google's Official Letter

Dear AdWords Advertiser,

If you currently have a phone number in your ad text or have plans to start adding your phone number in an ad, this is an important notice that in the coming weeks, we will be launching a new enhancement to AdWords ads that will impact charges on clicks to these numbers.

To help our mobile users connect more easily with advertisers, all non-clickable phone numbers displayed in AdWords ad text will be automatically converted into a Click-to-call number. Currently when advertisers enter a phone number directly into their ad text instead of using Call Extensions, the phone number is not clickable and will not generate a call. This can be a frustrating experience for mobile users who attempt to initiate a call to this phone number.

The new Click-to-call enhancement ensures that all phone numbers shown in AdWords ads are clickable and allows users to easily place calls from their mobile device. If your ad text includes a phone number, you will begin to receive clicks and calls on this number once the enhancement is enabled in your account. As with phone calls placed via a Call Extension, you will be charged for clicks on your phone number that result in a call.

Please note that AdWords policy does not allow for phone numbers to be inserted into ad headlines. As with all Click-to-call ads, advertisers will be charged when a user either clicks on the headline or the phone number listed in the ad. Please see below for additional information regarding this change.

Which phone number shows?

If you are currently using both Call Extensions and a phone number in your ad creative, only the newly clickable phone number in your ad creative will show. This is designed to help reduce user confusion from seeing two potentially different numbers. If you would like your Call Extension number to display, simply delete all phone numbers from your existing ad text by following these steps. You'll also receive an additional line of ad text displaying your phone number if the Call Extension is used.

Measuring results

You'll be able to review how many calls you receive on the clickable phone number listed in your ad text for each campaign, ad group, keyword and ad on the "Campaigns" tab in your AdWords account. Just select the "Click-type" option under the "Segment" drop down and view your report. Please note that since these are not calls generated from a Call Extension, they will not be reported in the Extensions tab reports.

Recommendations for featuring a phone number

You can simply leave your phone number in your ad text and benefit from this change which will automatically make your phone numbers clickable and enable users to call you. However, to get the most value from click-to-call, we recommend that you remove your phone number from your ad creative and create a Call Extension with your phone number directly.

This has several benefits. With a manually created Call Extension your number will appear as an additional line of ad text which frees up space in your ad creative for other promotion. In addition, when you create a Call Extension, your phone number appears on a separate line in the ad, and you're able to take advantage of other powerful enhancements such as Vanity Numbers, Call-only and Call Metrics reporting.
 

Keep Up WIth Search Marketing Changes

If you would like to be notified when new digital marketing opportunities are announced, join our alerts mobile campaign.  To join,  text PCGTIPS to 75674

This will make sure that changes in the marketplace that impact your marketing and advertising investments are delivered to your mobile phone.



 

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

Change once again is rocking the automotive digital marketing world as Google today drops the third party review counts from its yellow stars. ONLY reviews directly posted on Google Places are showing.

This screen shot of BMW of Scherville showed all the DealerRater reviews last week in their star counts but not today.

This is what their Google Places account looked like last week:

This change is impacting all Chicago BMW dealers:

In-Store Reputation Management & Google Places

I've been coaching dealers to start using the Google Places App on their iPhones and iPads to increase directly posted reviews. The benefit? The dealer can use Google Boost to spice up their PPC strategy.

I also warned dealers that if Google every dropped the review "counts" from the stars from 3rd parties, they would be better protected by having a direct Google Places posting strategy.

Now keep in mind, Google is still showing the counts from third parties in brackets, but the key metric is that the yellow stars are what always show and not always do the consolidated reviews show.

I am not saying that 3rd party review sites are not IMPORTANT, they are. 

It is just that the MOST visible aspect of Google Places and SERP results is the yellow stars.  Secondly, there is not way to predict which 3rd party sites will show up in the brackets underneath the listing.

A Tsunami of Change

Acton Toyota has over 1,227 reviews posted on DealerRater but they only have 10 reviews directly posted on Google Places. A few weeks ago I saw their Google listing and it showed over 1,000 reviews with their stars. That is now history!

In fact, Google is not even showing all of their reviews from Dealerrater.com as shown below:

Dealers looking for direction on how to best adapt to these changes should start an in store reputation management process that include using 3G iPads and iPhone devices.

Dealers must set processes to identify consumers with Google accounts while they are in the dealership. 550,000 Android devices are activated a DAY and all have Google Accounts. Google empowered consumers can post reviews directly on Google Places, with their account, from a mobile device.

I told dealers this day would come and today is that day. If you need help with in store training, processes, and strategy on reputation management, give me a call. I'm here to help. We have the strategy and solutions.

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

732-672-2356

Change once again is rocking the automotive digital marketing world as Google today drops the third party review counts from its yellow stars. ONLY reviews directly posted on Google Places are showing.

This screen shot of BMW of Scherville showed all the DealerRater reviews last week in their star counts but not today.

This is what their Google Places account looked like last week:

This change is impacting all Chicago BMW dealers:

In-Store Reputation Management & Google Places

I've been coaching dealers to start using the Google Places App on their iPhones and iPads to increase directly posted reviews. The benefit? The dealer can use Google Boost to spice up their PPC strategy.

I also warned dealers that if Google every dropped the review "counts" from the stars from 3rd parties, they would be better protected by having a direct Google Places posting strategy.

Now keep in mind, Google is still showing the counts from third parties in brackets, but the key metric is that the yellow stars are what always show and not always do the consolidated reviews show.

I am not saying that 3rd party review sites are not IMPORTANT, they are. 

It is just that the MOST visible aspect of Google Places and SERP results is the yellow stars.  Secondly, there is not way to predict which 3rd party sites will show up in the brackets underneath the listing.

A Tsunami of Change

Acton Toyota has over 1,227 reviews posted on DealerRater but they only have 10 reviews directly posted on Google Places. A few weeks ago I saw their Google listing and it showed over 1,000 reviews with their stars. That is now history!

In fact, Google is not even showing all of their reviews from Dealerrater.com as shown below:

Dealers looking for direction on how to best adapt to these changes should start an in store reputation management process that include using 3G iPads and iPhone devices.

Dealers must set processes to identify consumers with Google accounts while they are in the dealership. 550,000 Android devices are activated a DAY and all have Google Accounts. Google empowered consumers can post reviews directly on Google Places, with their account, from a mobile device.

I told dealers this day would come and today is that day. If you need help with in store training, processes, and strategy on reputation management, give me a call. I'm here to help. We have the strategy and solutions.

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

732-672-2356