The last time I wrote about specific dealership practices online, I got tremendous negative feedback from the dealer community about calling out a dealer by name.  Fortunately, this time someone else started the ball rolling and I thought it was important enough to volley back.

+Ben Popken is the founding editor of Consumerist, and runs Stealerships, Jalopnik's aptly-named consumer protection section.  In an article he posted on Jalopnik, Ben shares how College Park Hyundai was marking up Door Edge Guards $1,495 when other dealers in the market were so much more realistic.

Ben called a few local dealerships, including my client Pohanka Hyundai of Marlow Heights,  to compare costs.  Pohanka told Ben the door guards were $100 at their store and could not explain the price demanded by College Park Hyundai.

Commenting about the markup practice, Popken closes he piece with these words.

"With such a huge markup, College Park is able to advertise a lower base price and then make up for it with an inflated markup. Interestingly, on their Google review page there is a comment listed as being from the dealership owner that says, "We are under new mgmt as of Jan 2010. While we sell 140+ vehicles and service 800+ vehicles per month, we have work to do!" Well, if by "work" they meant cranking out a 200x markup for an ancillary part, then they are crushing it."

The Internet Punishes Bait & Switch

The Internet is a great tool for research and comparison shopping tools.  Dealers need to understand that "bait and switch" marketing practices, although still very popular, will be the downfall of dealers over time.  It will impact their online reputation greatly.

All of us know dealers that advertising new cars in the newspaper at deep deep discounts.  The fine print says that the price is based on a series of rebates and incentives, that in all probability no single consumer can qualify for.

You seen them:

• - Military Rebate
• - First Time Buyer Rebate
• - College Graduate Rebate
• - Conquest Rebate
• - Pink Elephant Owner Rebate
• - Dealer Cash
• - Delta Airline Employee Rebate
• - OEM Rebate
• - Webbed Foot Rebate

The result of a consumer being promised a low price on the phone, only to walk into the dealership to get a much higher price will create an online stream of ill will that is not easily removed.  Here is an actual Google Places review for a dealership that practices this tactic:

"I can't stress enough how you should avoid this place. Unless you want to be fooled, bullied around from sales person to sales manager, only to find out that the price they advertise on the internet is completely phony, as it considers every possible discount, for which you will never qualify. Or, do you think you can be in the armed forces, working for UPs and Delta Airlines, have a current car lease, all at the same time??? So the price went from $34k advertised on their own website to a MSRP of $40.5k, that would come down to a mere $37.5 with the discounts I "qualified" for... A complete SCAM, with shady and rude people, that forced me get up and say I was leaving, only to hear, "Where are you going?" and I said "Home!" and heard back "That is some way of negotiating"... They even asked me, since I am a salesman myself, if I told my customers "all the truth" when advertising... I said, this is not advertising, This is misleading your consumers!!! Their answer: "Haven't you heard of creative advertising?". So, if you go there... Good luck."

Is this the type of information you want consumers to read in the Zero Moment of Truth?

These two examples should be a hard wakeup call for any business owner that thinks they can treat people poorly or try to pull a fast one because they can.

Does your dealership understand the power of transparency? 

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

http://www.pcgdigitalmarketing.com

The last time I wrote about specific dealership practices online, I got tremendous negative feedback from the dealer community about calling out a dealer by name.  Fortunately, this time someone else started the ball rolling and I thought it was important enough to volley back.

+Ben Popken is the founding editor of Consumerist, and runs Stealerships, Jalopnik's aptly-named consumer protection section.  In an article he posted on Jalopnik, Ben shares how College Park Hyundai was marking up Door Edge Guards $1,495 when other dealers in the market were so much more realistic.

Ben called a few local dealerships, including my client Pohanka Hyundai of Marlow Heights,  to compare costs.  Pohanka told Ben the door guards were $100 at their store and could not explain the price demanded by College Park Hyundai.

Commenting about the markup practice, Popken closes he piece with these words.

"With such a huge markup, College Park is able to advertise a lower base price and then make up for it with an inflated markup. Interestingly, on their Google review page there is a comment listed as being from the dealership owner that says, "We are under new mgmt as of Jan 2010. While we sell 140+ vehicles and service 800+ vehicles per month, we have work to do!" Well, if by "work" they meant cranking out a 200x markup for an ancillary part, then they are crushing it."

The Internet Punishes Bait & Switch

The Internet is a great tool for research and comparison shopping tools.  Dealers need to understand that "bait and switch" marketing practices, although still very popular, will be the downfall of dealers over time.  It will impact their online reputation greatly.

All of us know dealers that advertising new cars in the newspaper at deep deep discounts.  The fine print says that the price is based on a series of rebates and incentives, that in all probability no single consumer can qualify for.

You seen them:

• - Military Rebate
• - First Time Buyer Rebate
• - College Graduate Rebate
• - Conquest Rebate
• - Pink Elephant Owner Rebate
• - Dealer Cash
• - Delta Airline Employee Rebate
• - OEM Rebate
• - Webbed Foot Rebate

The result of a consumer being promised a low price on the phone, only to walk into the dealership to get a much higher price will create an online stream of ill will that is not easily removed.  Here is an actual Google Places review for a dealership that practices this tactic:

"I can't stress enough how you should avoid this place. Unless you want to be fooled, bullied around from sales person to sales manager, only to find out that the price they advertise on the internet is completely phony, as it considers every possible discount, for which you will never qualify. Or, do you think you can be in the armed forces, working for UPs and Delta Airlines, have a current car lease, all at the same time??? So the price went from $34k advertised on their own website to a MSRP of $40.5k, that would come down to a mere $37.5 with the discounts I "qualified" for... A complete SCAM, with shady and rude people, that forced me get up and say I was leaving, only to hear, "Where are you going?" and I said "Home!" and heard back "That is some way of negotiating"... They even asked me, since I am a salesman myself, if I told my customers "all the truth" when advertising... I said, this is not advertising, This is misleading your consumers!!! Their answer: "Haven't you heard of creative advertising?". So, if you go there... Good luck."

Is this the type of information you want consumers to read in the Zero Moment of Truth?

These two examples should be a hard wakeup call for any business owner that thinks they can treat people poorly or try to pull a fast one because they can.

Does your dealership understand the power of transparency? 

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

http://www.pcgdigitalmarketing.com

Tonight I was speaking with some very successful Wall Street executives at a cocktail party.

I asked one gentleman: "What is the formula for success for a Wall Street trader in today's market?"  

His response triggered a number of thoughts about the automotive industry that I would liek to share.

He told me that success was not guaranteed year after year or month after month.  

What worked very well last year was not necessarily what would work this year.  

The formula for "success" in fact was the trader's ability to adapt and change to market conditions.

Moreover, he stated that successful traders reinvented themselves on a regular basis.  At this point I started to see some parallel paths in the automotive industry.

Is Your Dealership Structured To Adapt To Change?

How many dealers are sticking to advertising, marketing, and customer service strategies that worked 5, 10, 15, or 20 years ago?  These dealers may be convinced that staying with what worked "back in the day" can still be relevant today.

To their credit, some things never change.  However, this does not excuse the lost opportunity to leverage Automotive SEO, SEM, Retargeting, Social Media, or Mobile Marketing.

Providing a great customer experience and exceptional value never gets old.  However, what constitutes a great experience does change over time.  This is where some may be holding on to "ghosts" of the past.

I have interviewed hundreds of Dealer Principals and General Managers on their choices for advertising and marketing partners. For many dealers, the reasons why their current vendor was chosen was surprisingly not based on data and analytics.  

For some, it was based on long term relationships. For others it was how many rounds of golf were exchanged over the past 10 years!

Asking Yourself The Hard Questions

I want to encourage all DrivingSales readers to ask yourself a very hard question.  Is your automotive advertising and marketing dollars invested in strategies that are "flexible"?  Do they change based on market conditions or are they set on auto pilot?

Are you using data and analytical tools to refine your decisions?  Are you going by "gut" decisions?

If Wall Street traders implode and fail because their inability to adapt and change to market conditions, are car dealers exempt from the same market conditions?

What do you see at your dealership?  Share your insights here on DrivingSales!

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

732.450.8200

Tonight I was speaking with some very successful Wall Street executives at a cocktail party.

I asked one gentleman: "What is the formula for success for a Wall Street trader in today's market?"  

His response triggered a number of thoughts about the automotive industry that I would liek to share.

He told me that success was not guaranteed year after year or month after month.  

What worked very well last year was not necessarily what would work this year.  

The formula for "success" in fact was the trader's ability to adapt and change to market conditions.

Moreover, he stated that successful traders reinvented themselves on a regular basis.  At this point I started to see some parallel paths in the automotive industry.

Is Your Dealership Structured To Adapt To Change?

How many dealers are sticking to advertising, marketing, and customer service strategies that worked 5, 10, 15, or 20 years ago?  These dealers may be convinced that staying with what worked "back in the day" can still be relevant today.

To their credit, some things never change.  However, this does not excuse the lost opportunity to leverage Automotive SEO, SEM, Retargeting, Social Media, or Mobile Marketing.

Providing a great customer experience and exceptional value never gets old.  However, what constitutes a great experience does change over time.  This is where some may be holding on to "ghosts" of the past.

I have interviewed hundreds of Dealer Principals and General Managers on their choices for advertising and marketing partners. For many dealers, the reasons why their current vendor was chosen was surprisingly not based on data and analytics.  

For some, it was based on long term relationships. For others it was how many rounds of golf were exchanged over the past 10 years!

Asking Yourself The Hard Questions

I want to encourage all DrivingSales readers to ask yourself a very hard question.  Is your automotive advertising and marketing dollars invested in strategies that are "flexible"?  Do they change based on market conditions or are they set on auto pilot?

Are you using data and analytical tools to refine your decisions?  Are you going by "gut" decisions?

If Wall Street traders implode and fail because their inability to adapt and change to market conditions, are car dealers exempt from the same market conditions?

What do you see at your dealership?  Share your insights here on DrivingSales!

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

732.450.8200

So a week has passed since dozens of dealers found out that their Google Places pages were updated inadvertantly by a massive update by Google.  

The original goal of this update was to "claim" and/create listings for dealers that had never claimed their Google Places pages.

The blogs have been filled with critical commentary regarding the update which GM participated in with Google, but as we have come to find out, the update impacted more than just GM stores.  

For many dealers their listing is in a state of "purgatory"; not publicly fixed although their Google Places login shows the correct data.

Without any direct conversations with GM, I think that GM recognized that a percentage of their dealer body was missing free traffic generated by Google Places.  Their intent was to help their dealer body get more traffic, leads, and calls.

For most dealers, Google Places ranks in the top 3 referring websites to a dealer's main domain.  In fact, I have clients that receive over 4,000 referral visits a month from Google Places.  

When dealers properly update all online directories with correct information and website address, traffic does noticably increase.  This is all fine, as long as the updates to public directories are done correctly.

Digital Awareness and Dealership Call To Action

Today I conducted a training workshop in Detroit and I would estimate that at least 15% of the dealerships represented in the room had zero reviews.  I estimate that over 50% had incomplete data and improper categories.  Basically, they did not know how to inspect their Google Places page.

In my mind, the real life examples in the classroom gave some "justification" that dealers needed help. Of course, this would have been welcomed if Google didn't touch claimed or fully optimized listings.

Without the proper optimization of Google Places, dealers are missing valuable free traffic and phone calls.  If dealers were better trained on the value of Google Places, then maybe this global update project would never have been scheduled.

I am also sure that all dealers reading this blog post would like to get as much free traffic as possible. Especially, local pre-qualified traffic that Google Places can generate.

Be Patient - Inspect Your Listing

It is clear that things are still a mess for some dealers  from the calls I get from clients and friends.  If your dealership is unclear on how to properly optimize their Google Places listing,  

I'll be more than happy to send you a PDF document that outlines what you need to do.

Please take action to inspect and optimize your Google Places listing  with this document in hand so that the need for OEM's to step in to update your primary business listing will be avoided.

Request the PDF by sending an email to me by clicking on this link:

googleplaces@pcgdigitalmarketing.com

I know it will help!

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

732.450.8200

So a week has passed since dozens of dealers found out that their Google Places pages were updated inadvertantly by a massive update by Google.  

The original goal of this update was to "claim" and/create listings for dealers that had never claimed their Google Places pages.

The blogs have been filled with critical commentary regarding the update which GM participated in with Google, but as we have come to find out, the update impacted more than just GM stores.  

For many dealers their listing is in a state of "purgatory"; not publicly fixed although their Google Places login shows the correct data.

Without any direct conversations with GM, I think that GM recognized that a percentage of their dealer body was missing free traffic generated by Google Places.  Their intent was to help their dealer body get more traffic, leads, and calls.

For most dealers, Google Places ranks in the top 3 referring websites to a dealer's main domain.  In fact, I have clients that receive over 4,000 referral visits a month from Google Places.  

When dealers properly update all online directories with correct information and website address, traffic does noticably increase.  This is all fine, as long as the updates to public directories are done correctly.

Digital Awareness and Dealership Call To Action

Today I conducted a training workshop in Detroit and I would estimate that at least 15% of the dealerships represented in the room had zero reviews.  I estimate that over 50% had incomplete data and improper categories.  Basically, they did not know how to inspect their Google Places page.

In my mind, the real life examples in the classroom gave some "justification" that dealers needed help. Of course, this would have been welcomed if Google didn't touch claimed or fully optimized listings.

Without the proper optimization of Google Places, dealers are missing valuable free traffic and phone calls.  If dealers were better trained on the value of Google Places, then maybe this global update project would never have been scheduled.

I am also sure that all dealers reading this blog post would like to get as much free traffic as possible. Especially, local pre-qualified traffic that Google Places can generate.

Be Patient - Inspect Your Listing

It is clear that things are still a mess for some dealers  from the calls I get from clients and friends.  If your dealership is unclear on how to properly optimize their Google Places listing,  

I'll be more than happy to send you a PDF document that outlines what you need to do.

Please take action to inspect and optimize your Google Places listing  with this document in hand so that the need for OEM's to step in to update your primary business listing will be avoided.

Request the PDF by sending an email to me by clicking on this link:

googleplaces@pcgdigitalmarketing.com

I know it will help!

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

732.450.8200

Lexus compliance has been reminding dealers that they may only use their factory approved URL for marketing if the word "Lexus" is in the URL.  

This is not new in regards to their prohibition on microsites with the word "Lexus" in the domain name but recently I saw another variation on domain compliance.

Social Media & Online Directory Compliance

Dealers need to make sure that their primary OEM approved domain is the only website used to register business profiles on review sites like Google Places, DealerRater, Yelp, etc.  This also applies to any social media profiles that are setup with the dealership name.

Lexus is intent on making sure that all public directories or social media sites that have a website URL are all directing to the approved domain. So before you get a compliance "strike" for your dealership, make sure you check all your business and social media assets carefully.

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Consulting Services

Lexus compliance has been reminding dealers that they may only use their factory approved URL for marketing if the word "Lexus" is in the URL.  

This is not new in regards to their prohibition on microsites with the word "Lexus" in the domain name but recently I saw another variation on domain compliance.

Social Media & Online Directory Compliance

Dealers need to make sure that their primary OEM approved domain is the only website used to register business profiles on review sites like Google Places, DealerRater, Yelp, etc.  This also applies to any social media profiles that are setup with the dealership name.

Lexus is intent on making sure that all public directories or social media sites that have a website URL are all directing to the approved domain. So before you get a compliance "strike" for your dealership, make sure you check all your business and social media assets carefully.

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Consulting Services

If you are looking for ways to bring your search marketing strategy to the next level, one of the strongest opportunities will be to show your employees how to expand the visibility of their social connections to Google.

Why should you take that action?  

When a consumer (i.e. your employees) click on the  Google +1 button, their connected network of "friends" is influenced.  The greater the consumer's network, the greater their influence.

I recently visited a dealer group that had 1,200 employees.  If each of these employees were trained on how to maximize their social network connections visible to Google, they could help the dealer increase their local search visibility very quickly. 

This dealer could easily impact 30,000 - 50,000 local consumers if they trained their employees to invest 15-30 minutes of their time to assist the dealership with their local search visibility

I hope you would agree that increasing local search visibility is key to attracting local car buyers.

Lead Google To Your Socially Connected Friends

The best was to accelerate Google's ability to know your friends is to fully optimize your Google account profile.   If you have a Google account, you have a Google profile page.

In each user profile, the account owner can link their social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, LinkedIn, Yelp, Plaxo, Quora, etc as shown below in the red box on my profile.  

You can also connect your blogs or websites that you contribute to as shown in the green box.

The more accounts you link, the faster Google and scan these networks to find your friends.  The reason WHY you want to optimize your profile is to MAXIMIZE the influence of your social media "likes".

For me, when I click on the "+1 button" for any website, I influence thousands of my friends that also have a Google account.  This impact in local search is really amazing.  So what are you waiting for?

Social Influence Must Include A Google+ Strategy

In Part II of this topic, I will show you how expanding your network also applies to Google+.  I will also document the impact of leveraging your Google visibile network on specific local search phrases.  

In the meantime, open up your Google profile and complete all the fields that are provided to connect your social networks.  Then plan a training session at your dealership to show everyone how to maximize the socialization of Internet search results on Google.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Consulting

732.450.8200

If you are looking for ways to bring your search marketing strategy to the next level, one of the strongest opportunities will be to show your employees how to expand the visibility of their social connections to Google.

Why should you take that action?  

When a consumer (i.e. your employees) click on the  Google +1 button, their connected network of "friends" is influenced.  The greater the consumer's network, the greater their influence.

I recently visited a dealer group that had 1,200 employees.  If each of these employees were trained on how to maximize their social network connections visible to Google, they could help the dealer increase their local search visibility very quickly. 

This dealer could easily impact 30,000 - 50,000 local consumers if they trained their employees to invest 15-30 minutes of their time to assist the dealership with their local search visibility

I hope you would agree that increasing local search visibility is key to attracting local car buyers.

Lead Google To Your Socially Connected Friends

The best was to accelerate Google's ability to know your friends is to fully optimize your Google account profile.   If you have a Google account, you have a Google profile page.

In each user profile, the account owner can link their social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, LinkedIn, Yelp, Plaxo, Quora, etc as shown below in the red box on my profile.  

You can also connect your blogs or websites that you contribute to as shown in the green box.

The more accounts you link, the faster Google and scan these networks to find your friends.  The reason WHY you want to optimize your profile is to MAXIMIZE the influence of your social media "likes".

For me, when I click on the "+1 button" for any website, I influence thousands of my friends that also have a Google account.  This impact in local search is really amazing.  So what are you waiting for?

Social Influence Must Include A Google+ Strategy

In Part II of this topic, I will show you how expanding your network also applies to Google+.  I will also document the impact of leveraging your Google visibile network on specific local search phrases.  

In the meantime, open up your Google profile and complete all the fields that are provided to connect your social networks.  Then plan a training session at your dealership to show everyone how to maximize the socialization of Internet search results on Google.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Consulting

732.450.8200