As I conduct training seminars and webinars for the automotive industry, I often ask dealers what is their current mix between traditional automotive advertising and digital automotive advertising.

What is your mix?  Are you at 10%, 20%, 30%, or over 75%.  Take a minute to share your mix here on DrivingSales.com in the comments area below.

To come up with a good approximation of your "mix", in the traditional advertising category I would place radio, TV, print publications, newspaper, printed yellow pages, billboards, and direct mail costs.

In the digital advertising category I would place your website costs, Google Adwords or similar Pay-Per-Click models, digital display advertising, re-marketing, social media, online videos, third party leads, OEM leads, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services, and inventory advertising platforms like Autotrader.com and the Automotive Advertising Network (AAN).

Why Is The Range So Large?

The responses I get from car dealers range from 10% digital to 95% digital. This large swing reflects the tsunami of change that has engulfed the automotive industry in the last 10 years.

These massive changes are not limited to the automotive sector. All business owners are being faced with the challenge of being open to reconsider if the yellow pages, radio, TV, and newspaper are connecting their brand with the majority of in market buyers.

Dealers Need Digital Marketing Confidence

Recently I spoke with a dealer who had just purchased an existing franchise store that need a complete renovation. He shared all the costs associated with the refit of the building and his upcoming opening. He wanted to turn around this store and make it profitable location.

The conversation we had was focused on how he could make the biggest impact on the market with this new point. Intermixed with the conversation was frequent reminders of how much he was investing in the store, how much this place needed a capital investment, and how much he wanted to make this work.

When I asked him on what portion of his budget was allocated to digital marketing, the answer surprising. Aside from his costs to setup his new website, he had not budgeted for any other digital marketing of the dealership.

His advertising plans were solely radio, TV, and print, and I won't share what he planned to spend. When I suggested an initial investment of $3,000 a month in digital marketing strategies, he said that he didn't have that much to spend.

Welcome to 2011 and the wide gap in knowledge and confidence that digital marketing is a core strategy for automotive retailing.

Working Toward a Reasonable Change

It is easy to say that a car dealer that is only spending 10% in digital marketing is spending too little on new media since over 90% of car buyers use the Internet to research a car. It may also be safe to say that a dealer who eliminates all radio, TV, newspaper, and direct mail are missing a segment of their local market that is influenced by these channels.

Ignoring the extremes, I would like to suggest that to bigger opportunity is to move the majority of car dealers that under utilize digital marketing to the middle. From a survey conducting by PCG Digital Marketing with dealers across the country, the current average "allocation" for digital investments is 20-25% of a dealers total advertising budget.

I would like to see the average dealer investment in digital marketing move to 50% in the next year.

Those that say 50% is still too little, I'll be working on another industry move in 2012! We can't parallel park the Titanic in Manhattan without some patience. Moving digital spending to 50% would be considered a massive change but one that this industry needs to embrace.

This reallocation of traditional marketing investments will not happen without a massive effort to reeducated the dealer community. Proper education on the strategies and opportunities that digital marketing can provide will help make those steps to 50% + with confidence.

Today, dealers are not moving because of fear or they just don't know better. Neither position is attractive to an entrepreneur.

Automotive Advertising Education

We can assume that dealers will make this move on their own but there will be a tremendous opportunity cost for those that take the slow path to 50%; an that still is not the end game. Since first responders are rewarded in search, the sooner dealers make this move, the more they will be rewarded.

This move will need a coordinated effort by industry leaders, vendors, and educational agencies to educate dealers on all of the new media opportunities and marketing strategies for automotive advertising.

The DrivingSales University is one such program that will help dealers achieve greater confidence in digital marketing and innovative dealership operations. Dealer principals need to be able to clearly differentiate and measure the benefits of SEO, SEM, social media, display advertising, and inventory syndication.

Every time I conduct a seminar at a 20 Group meeting or at an automotive conference, light bulbs go off in the audience. Dealers are truly thankful to be shown, in plain English, why their lack of digital marketing investments is hurting their brand. We need to coordinate more "light bulb" experiences at 20 Groups, conferences, and regional teaching events.

Automotive Marketing Conference

One of those opportunities for education is the 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp in Orlando, April 16th-18th organized by my company PCG Digital Marketing. The Boot Camp will be held at the beautiful Hilton Orlando hotel and has attracted a wonderful team of industry leaders and dealership employees to teach.

Dealers spending less than 50% of your total advertising budget on digital marketing and new media, need to attend and find out what is working for dealers that have made that have crossed that line.

If dealers wants to increase their dominant market position, they should attend to learn that latest strategies for digital marketing and social media from industry leaders.

Bring More Than One Person

I would also like to suggest that at least 2 people from each dealership should attend. Why? Because the best opportunity for change occurs when the dealer principals or GM learns side by side with their eCommerce Director or Internet Sales manager.

Too many things can get lost in translation when one of these two roles are missing. The good news is that attendees and educators at the Boot Camp will be willing to share exactly what is working and how they are measuring the ROI of that investment.

Dealers can register for the Boot Camp and make the decision to invest in education and the future of their dealership today. The event website is located at: http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com

DrivingSalesTV.com will also be recording the two keynote addresses live from the Boot Camp.

As I conduct training seminars and webinars for the automotive industry, I often ask dealers what is their current mix between traditional automotive advertising and digital automotive advertising.

What is your mix?  Are you at 10%, 20%, 30%, or over 75%.  Take a minute to share your mix here on DrivingSales.com in the comments area below.

To come up with a good approximation of your "mix", in the traditional advertising category I would place radio, TV, print publications, newspaper, printed yellow pages, billboards, and direct mail costs.

In the digital advertising category I would place your website costs, Google Adwords or similar Pay-Per-Click models, digital display advertising, re-marketing, social media, online videos, third party leads, OEM leads, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services, and inventory advertising platforms like Autotrader.com and the Automotive Advertising Network (AAN).

Why Is The Range So Large?

The responses I get from car dealers range from 10% digital to 95% digital. This large swing reflects the tsunami of change that has engulfed the automotive industry in the last 10 years.

These massive changes are not limited to the automotive sector. All business owners are being faced with the challenge of being open to reconsider if the yellow pages, radio, TV, and newspaper are connecting their brand with the majority of in market buyers.

Dealers Need Digital Marketing Confidence

Recently I spoke with a dealer who had just purchased an existing franchise store that need a complete renovation. He shared all the costs associated with the refit of the building and his upcoming opening. He wanted to turn around this store and make it profitable location.

The conversation we had was focused on how he could make the biggest impact on the market with this new point. Intermixed with the conversation was frequent reminders of how much he was investing in the store, how much this place needed a capital investment, and how much he wanted to make this work.

When I asked him on what portion of his budget was allocated to digital marketing, the answer surprising. Aside from his costs to setup his new website, he had not budgeted for any other digital marketing of the dealership.

His advertising plans were solely radio, TV, and print, and I won't share what he planned to spend. When I suggested an initial investment of $3,000 a month in digital marketing strategies, he said that he didn't have that much to spend.

Welcome to 2011 and the wide gap in knowledge and confidence that digital marketing is a core strategy for automotive retailing.

Working Toward a Reasonable Change

It is easy to say that a car dealer that is only spending 10% in digital marketing is spending too little on new media since over 90% of car buyers use the Internet to research a car. It may also be safe to say that a dealer who eliminates all radio, TV, newspaper, and direct mail are missing a segment of their local market that is influenced by these channels.

Ignoring the extremes, I would like to suggest that to bigger opportunity is to move the majority of car dealers that under utilize digital marketing to the middle. From a survey conducting by PCG Digital Marketing with dealers across the country, the current average "allocation" for digital investments is 20-25% of a dealers total advertising budget.

I would like to see the average dealer investment in digital marketing move to 50% in the next year.

Those that say 50% is still too little, I'll be working on another industry move in 2012! We can't parallel park the Titanic in Manhattan without some patience. Moving digital spending to 50% would be considered a massive change but one that this industry needs to embrace.

This reallocation of traditional marketing investments will not happen without a massive effort to reeducated the dealer community. Proper education on the strategies and opportunities that digital marketing can provide will help make those steps to 50% + with confidence.

Today, dealers are not moving because of fear or they just don't know better. Neither position is attractive to an entrepreneur.

Automotive Advertising Education

We can assume that dealers will make this move on their own but there will be a tremendous opportunity cost for those that take the slow path to 50%; an that still is not the end game. Since first responders are rewarded in search, the sooner dealers make this move, the more they will be rewarded.

This move will need a coordinated effort by industry leaders, vendors, and educational agencies to educate dealers on all of the new media opportunities and marketing strategies for automotive advertising.

The DrivingSales University is one such program that will help dealers achieve greater confidence in digital marketing and innovative dealership operations. Dealer principals need to be able to clearly differentiate and measure the benefits of SEO, SEM, social media, display advertising, and inventory syndication.

Every time I conduct a seminar at a 20 Group meeting or at an automotive conference, light bulbs go off in the audience. Dealers are truly thankful to be shown, in plain English, why their lack of digital marketing investments is hurting their brand. We need to coordinate more "light bulb" experiences at 20 Groups, conferences, and regional teaching events.

Automotive Marketing Conference

One of those opportunities for education is the 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp in Orlando, April 16th-18th organized by my company PCG Digital Marketing. The Boot Camp will be held at the beautiful Hilton Orlando hotel and has attracted a wonderful team of industry leaders and dealership employees to teach.

Dealers spending less than 50% of your total advertising budget on digital marketing and new media, need to attend and find out what is working for dealers that have made that have crossed that line.

If dealers wants to increase their dominant market position, they should attend to learn that latest strategies for digital marketing and social media from industry leaders.

Bring More Than One Person

I would also like to suggest that at least 2 people from each dealership should attend. Why? Because the best opportunity for change occurs when the dealer principals or GM learns side by side with their eCommerce Director or Internet Sales manager.

Too many things can get lost in translation when one of these two roles are missing. The good news is that attendees and educators at the Boot Camp will be willing to share exactly what is working and how they are measuring the ROI of that investment.

Dealers can register for the Boot Camp and make the decision to invest in education and the future of their dealership today. The event website is located at: http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com

DrivingSalesTV.com will also be recording the two keynote addresses live from the Boot Camp.

In my short time being active in the automotive marketing community, my passion has always been focused on dealer education.

I have been blessed traveling around the country meeting dealers at conferences and 20 Groups. From my travels it is clear that dealers and managers are hungry for education and winning strategies.

However, that hunger is not always reflected in dealer budgets and commitments to education for all dealership employees.

A recent PCG Digital Marketing survey indicated that over 35% of car dealers had no line item for employee education in their budgets.

The lack of commitment to education can be seen by the lack of participation for cutting edge automotive conferences. A case in point, one of the most popular automotive conferences is the Digital Dealer Conference. According to their conference website discussing their Fall 2010 Vegas venue:

“We hosted more than 850 dealers and managers at our fall Conference in Las Vegas, coming from 48 states, Brazil, Canada and the Netherlands. … and more than 1,800 total Conference attendees.”

The Education Opportunity

There are approximately 18,000 new car franchise dealers in the United States and many more independent used car dealers. Yet, less than 10% of dealers and likely less than 5% of key employees are sent for cutting edge conferences like Digital Dealer.

Our recent 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference in Napa attracted 90 dealership employees, workshop leaders, and vendor sponsors combined. We are just scratching the surface. Yet I am encouraged by the responses from conference attendees; they want more!

Dealer principals are not the only ones that should be attending educational conferences and let me add 20 Groups. Most dealers will forget over 50% of what they learned and most will have difficulty translating digital marketing, social media, or mobile technology best practices to their internal team who stayed home at the dealership.

As you know, handing your ISM copies of a PowerPoint presentation does not have the same effect as if they were participating in a live workshop.

Send Decision Makers To Conferences

Dealership employees that run all profit centers should be engaged with their peers, inspired by industry educators, and educated by best practice leaders. If you consider service, parts, F&I, used cars, and new car managers a case could be made that every dealership should be sending multiple employees out for peer education each year.

Yet, the industry numbers indicate a very different commitment to education. The vendors, educators, and leaders of the automotive industry must do more to encourage dealer commitments to education.

Throughout the year, our industry needs more educational opportunities that are geographically dispersed to reduce travel costs. As the automotive industry relies more on digital marketing, social media, mobile devices, and new communication channels, education will be a prerequisite for success.

We need the structures in place for dealers, general managers, and front line employees to gain confidence in mastering the new paradigms in automotive marketing and operations.

Innovators Try To Meet Demand

Innovators like Jared Hamilton have announced the DrivingSalesUniversity.com. PCG Digital Marketing has announced the Automotive Internship Program. Industry veterans like Jim Ziegler have successful programs like the Internet Battle Plan.

We need more of these high quality educational opportunities. 90% of the dealership employees that should be involved are not getting the opportunity to engage.

With less than 10% of the employees that need education participating, I see this as an “abundance” opportunity. One could also make a point that since 10% only participate in off-site education, it’s a dog-eat-dog fight for those decision makers and education dollars.

I will prefer to believe in the abundance philosophy; there is so much opportunity for individuals and companies that want to serve car dealers. The market needs more people dedicated to educating dealers with passion and integrity. I am a passionate educator.

I encourage more to step forward to help car dealers master the skills needed for success in today’s changing marketplace.

Mark Your Calendars For Education

I hope to see many of you at the 2011 Innovative Dealer Summit in Colorado on March 30, 2011 hosted by Tim Jackson and CADA.

I invite you to attend the 2011 Digital Marketing Boot Camp, April 16-18th in Orlando.

When the Boot Camp ends, make sure you attend the 10^th Digital Dealer Conference, which starts on April 19th, just down the street in Orlando.

And don’t forget Jim Zieglar’s Internet Battle Plan on May 18-20^th Kansas City.

Make a commitment to education and your investment will be well rewarded!

In my short time being active in the automotive marketing community, my passion has always been focused on dealer education.

I have been blessed traveling around the country meeting dealers at conferences and 20 Groups. From my travels it is clear that dealers and managers are hungry for education and winning strategies.

However, that hunger is not always reflected in dealer budgets and commitments to education for all dealership employees.

A recent PCG Digital Marketing survey indicated that over 35% of car dealers had no line item for employee education in their budgets.

The lack of commitment to education can be seen by the lack of participation for cutting edge automotive conferences. A case in point, one of the most popular automotive conferences is the Digital Dealer Conference. According to their conference website discussing their Fall 2010 Vegas venue:

“We hosted more than 850 dealers and managers at our fall Conference in Las Vegas, coming from 48 states, Brazil, Canada and the Netherlands. … and more than 1,800 total Conference attendees.”

The Education Opportunity

There are approximately 18,000 new car franchise dealers in the United States and many more independent used car dealers. Yet, less than 10% of dealers and likely less than 5% of key employees are sent for cutting edge conferences like Digital Dealer.

Our recent 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference in Napa attracted 90 dealership employees, workshop leaders, and vendor sponsors combined. We are just scratching the surface. Yet I am encouraged by the responses from conference attendees; they want more!

Dealer principals are not the only ones that should be attending educational conferences and let me add 20 Groups. Most dealers will forget over 50% of what they learned and most will have difficulty translating digital marketing, social media, or mobile technology best practices to their internal team who stayed home at the dealership.

As you know, handing your ISM copies of a PowerPoint presentation does not have the same effect as if they were participating in a live workshop.

Send Decision Makers To Conferences

Dealership employees that run all profit centers should be engaged with their peers, inspired by industry educators, and educated by best practice leaders. If you consider service, parts, F&I, used cars, and new car managers a case could be made that every dealership should be sending multiple employees out for peer education each year.

Yet, the industry numbers indicate a very different commitment to education. The vendors, educators, and leaders of the automotive industry must do more to encourage dealer commitments to education.

Throughout the year, our industry needs more educational opportunities that are geographically dispersed to reduce travel costs. As the automotive industry relies more on digital marketing, social media, mobile devices, and new communication channels, education will be a prerequisite for success.

We need the structures in place for dealers, general managers, and front line employees to gain confidence in mastering the new paradigms in automotive marketing and operations.

Innovators Try To Meet Demand

Innovators like Jared Hamilton have announced the DrivingSalesUniversity.com. PCG Digital Marketing has announced the Automotive Internship Program. Industry veterans like Jim Ziegler have successful programs like the Internet Battle Plan.

We need more of these high quality educational opportunities. 90% of the dealership employees that should be involved are not getting the opportunity to engage.

With less than 10% of the employees that need education participating, I see this as an “abundance” opportunity. One could also make a point that since 10% only participate in off-site education, it’s a dog-eat-dog fight for those decision makers and education dollars.

I will prefer to believe in the abundance philosophy; there is so much opportunity for individuals and companies that want to serve car dealers. The market needs more people dedicated to educating dealers with passion and integrity. I am a passionate educator.

I encourage more to step forward to help car dealers master the skills needed for success in today’s changing marketplace.

Mark Your Calendars For Education

I hope to see many of you at the 2011 Innovative Dealer Summit in Colorado on March 30, 2011 hosted by Tim Jackson and CADA.

I invite you to attend the 2011 Digital Marketing Boot Camp, April 16-18th in Orlando.

When the Boot Camp ends, make sure you attend the 10^th Digital Dealer Conference, which starts on April 19th, just down the street in Orlando.

And don’t forget Jim Zieglar’s Internet Battle Plan on May 18-20^th Kansas City.

Make a commitment to education and your investment will be well rewarded!

The largest Wiki website for the automotive industry is located at http://www.CarDealerWiki.org and its amazing to see what innovative dealers are doing to leverage this platform.

First, CarDealerWiki is free to create, update, and add pages about your dealership. You can create pages for sales, service, parts, new cars, used cars, and the possibilities are endless.

With all this power, and SEO value that this platform provides, it's odd that so few dealers have leveraged the website. Content publishing must be a part of a comprehensive automotive advertising strategy.

Free platforms like CarDealerWiki.org, press release websites, blogs, bookmarking sites, and social media tools can all be part of a low cost, high ROI strategy.

Capital Ford in Regina

There are many examples of dealers who have leveraged CarDealerWiki to increase the "paths" by which consumers can find their dealership. One of the best examples of Capital Ford Lincoln in Regina Canada.

They have created a number of great pages to market their dealership and best off all their investment in content publishing is paying off. You can visit their main Wiki page at: http://www.cardealerwiki.org/Capital_Ford_Lincoln

Their main dealership page, demonstrates the power of the customizes automotive Wiki platform. Their main Wiki page contains YouTube customer testimonial videos, their blog feed, customer reviews, and live inventory from their daily inventory feed.

One of the biggest advantages of CarDealerWiki.org is that is can accept RSS feeds. That means you can feed in live reviews from DealerRater.com and PrestoReviews.com.

Members of the Automotive Advertising Network (AAN) can use this feature to create sustainable links to their dealership Vehicle Detail Pages because each night the cars that are displayed are updated by what is in stock. This feature creates free "mini-sites" that help increase the visibility of the cars you have for sale.

Basically, members can create their own automotive classified pages, without limit. Capital Ford Lincoln's ability to make pages for each model year that they sell is also paying off. As you can see from the screen capture below, a year, make and model search for the city clearly shows the power of CarDealerWiki for Automotive SEO.

Anytime you use a free platform for content publishing, you need to check if the links that are being created are being respected by the search engines. That is because some platforms place "no follow" tags on all outbound links.

CarDealerWiki.org offers strong Automotive SEO value and "follow" links. Yahoo provides a link checking tool, and you can see that some of the pages that the dealership created are showing as trusted link sources to their main website.

CarDealerWiki in Competitive Markets

In competitive US markets like the Boston suburbs, innovative dealers like Marlboro Nissan use create CarDealerWiki pages to add additional paths for consumers to find their brand and be linked back to their primary website.

Creating an Account on CarDealerWiki

CarDealerWIki is free but accounts must be approved first. Accounts must come from a dealership email address or from a company that serves the automotive industry. All vendors that serve the auto industry should create a profile page for their business on CarDealerWiki.org.

Now that you know about a great content publishing and Automotive SEO tool, what is stopping you? Create an account today for free automotive advertising resources.

The largest Wiki website for the automotive industry is located at http://www.CarDealerWiki.org and its amazing to see what innovative dealers are doing to leverage this platform.

First, CarDealerWiki is free to create, update, and add pages about your dealership. You can create pages for sales, service, parts, new cars, used cars, and the possibilities are endless.

With all this power, and SEO value that this platform provides, it's odd that so few dealers have leveraged the website. Content publishing must be a part of a comprehensive automotive advertising strategy.

Free platforms like CarDealerWiki.org, press release websites, blogs, bookmarking sites, and social media tools can all be part of a low cost, high ROI strategy.

Capital Ford in Regina

There are many examples of dealers who have leveraged CarDealerWiki to increase the "paths" by which consumers can find their dealership. One of the best examples of Capital Ford Lincoln in Regina Canada.

They have created a number of great pages to market their dealership and best off all their investment in content publishing is paying off. You can visit their main Wiki page at: http://www.cardealerwiki.org/Capital_Ford_Lincoln

Their main dealership page, demonstrates the power of the customizes automotive Wiki platform. Their main Wiki page contains YouTube customer testimonial videos, their blog feed, customer reviews, and live inventory from their daily inventory feed.

One of the biggest advantages of CarDealerWiki.org is that is can accept RSS feeds. That means you can feed in live reviews from DealerRater.com and PrestoReviews.com.

Members of the Automotive Advertising Network (AAN) can use this feature to create sustainable links to their dealership Vehicle Detail Pages because each night the cars that are displayed are updated by what is in stock. This feature creates free "mini-sites" that help increase the visibility of the cars you have for sale.

Basically, members can create their own automotive classified pages, without limit. Capital Ford Lincoln's ability to make pages for each model year that they sell is also paying off. As you can see from the screen capture below, a year, make and model search for the city clearly shows the power of CarDealerWiki for Automotive SEO.

Anytime you use a free platform for content publishing, you need to check if the links that are being created are being respected by the search engines. That is because some platforms place "no follow" tags on all outbound links.

CarDealerWiki.org offers strong Automotive SEO value and "follow" links. Yahoo provides a link checking tool, and you can see that some of the pages that the dealership created are showing as trusted link sources to their main website.

CarDealerWiki in Competitive Markets

In competitive US markets like the Boston suburbs, innovative dealers like Marlboro Nissan use create CarDealerWiki pages to add additional paths for consumers to find their brand and be linked back to their primary website.

Creating an Account on CarDealerWiki

CarDealerWIki is free but accounts must be approved first. Accounts must come from a dealership email address or from a company that serves the automotive industry. All vendors that serve the auto industry should create a profile page for their business on CarDealerWiki.org.

Now that you know about a great content publishing and Automotive SEO tool, what is stopping you? Create an account today for free automotive advertising resources.

PCG Digital Marketing is pleased to announce that David Kain, President of KainAutomotive.com, will be a featured presenter at the 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp.

The title of David’s workshop is: "Digital Sales Process Innovation. Making it easy for Customers to Say Yes!"

In his workshop session David Kain will demonstrate the Digital process elements that leading clients of www.KainAutomotive.com use to blow past their competitors and achieve market leadership.

These proven elements will allow dealers attending the Boot Camp to engage their prospects at the highest level, making it easy for them to hear yes to an appointment and a sale.

The Boot Camp Keynote Speakers will be broadcast live on www.DrivingSalesTV.com. 

PCG Digital Marketing organizes the annual Automotive Marketing Boot Camp, which attracts dealers who seek to increase their competitive edge through education of automotive industry best practices, strategies, and technology.
 

Boot Camp Speakers Are Natural Leaders

Attendees of the Boot Camp will benefit from a diverse roster of automotive marketing experts and automotive leaders that include David Kain, Tracy Myers, Jerry Thibeau, Sean Wolfington, Brian Pasch, Jeff Kershner, Andrew DiFeo, Gary May, Matt Murray, Hagen Durant, and Jared Hamilton.

Topics to be covered during the 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp include digital marketing, social media engagement, lead management processes, BDC structure and workflows, video publishing, reputation management, Google Places marketing, Google Adwords strategies, automotive blogging, content syndication, website analytics, as well as Automotive SEO.

The Automotive Marketing Boot Camp is very unique and effective because participants receive conference materials in advance of the class and come fully prepared to engage in actual demonstrations.

Participants use their own accounts during the classes so that they can then continue to work with them on their own long after the boot camp. This year the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp has introduced longer workshop sessions and labs (2.5 hrs) to allow important topics to be covered in greater detail.

The 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp will also feature Technology Showcases, which will offer attendees a glance at the latest vendor innovations for the automotive industry.

Boot Camp Precedes 10th Digital Dealer Conference

The 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp is scheduled for April 16-18th and ends just prior to the 10th Digital Dealer Conference. The two conferences represent the "dynamic duo" of automotive education, technology, and the opportunity to learn industry best practices.

Dealers are encouraged to send their team to both events to get the full benefit of the speakers, classes, and networking while traveling to Orlando.

To view the entire Boot Camp agenda, visit: 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp Agenda

PCG Digital Marketing is pleased to announce that David Kain, President of KainAutomotive.com, will be a featured presenter at the 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp.

The title of David’s workshop is: "Digital Sales Process Innovation. Making it easy for Customers to Say Yes!"

In his workshop session David Kain will demonstrate the Digital process elements that leading clients of www.KainAutomotive.com use to blow past their competitors and achieve market leadership.

These proven elements will allow dealers attending the Boot Camp to engage their prospects at the highest level, making it easy for them to hear yes to an appointment and a sale.

The Boot Camp Keynote Speakers will be broadcast live on www.DrivingSalesTV.com. 

PCG Digital Marketing organizes the annual Automotive Marketing Boot Camp, which attracts dealers who seek to increase their competitive edge through education of automotive industry best practices, strategies, and technology.
 

Boot Camp Speakers Are Natural Leaders

Attendees of the Boot Camp will benefit from a diverse roster of automotive marketing experts and automotive leaders that include David Kain, Tracy Myers, Jerry Thibeau, Sean Wolfington, Brian Pasch, Jeff Kershner, Andrew DiFeo, Gary May, Matt Murray, Hagen Durant, and Jared Hamilton.

Topics to be covered during the 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp include digital marketing, social media engagement, lead management processes, BDC structure and workflows, video publishing, reputation management, Google Places marketing, Google Adwords strategies, automotive blogging, content syndication, website analytics, as well as Automotive SEO.

The Automotive Marketing Boot Camp is very unique and effective because participants receive conference materials in advance of the class and come fully prepared to engage in actual demonstrations.

Participants use their own accounts during the classes so that they can then continue to work with them on their own long after the boot camp. This year the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp has introduced longer workshop sessions and labs (2.5 hrs) to allow important topics to be covered in greater detail.

The 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp will also feature Technology Showcases, which will offer attendees a glance at the latest vendor innovations for the automotive industry.

Boot Camp Precedes 10th Digital Dealer Conference

The 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp is scheduled for April 16-18th and ends just prior to the 10th Digital Dealer Conference. The two conferences represent the "dynamic duo" of automotive education, technology, and the opportunity to learn industry best practices.

Dealers are encouraged to send their team to both events to get the full benefit of the speakers, classes, and networking while traveling to Orlando.

To view the entire Boot Camp agenda, visit: 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp Agenda

Years ago, when Dealerskins changed the face of automotive website design with full Flash based technology, dealers flocked to the new platform because their websites were more "alive" than their static brethren.

The excitement eventually faded when dealers realized that 100% flash website were not indexing properly in organic search results.

Since that realization, website platform providers have moved away from heavy use of Adobe Flash technology in favor of other solutions.

At the recent NADA Convention, website providers revealed some very "flashy" web and mobile designs that might scare dealers at first glance.

The good news is that today's "flashy" effects are not the old school Flash coding but rather HTML5 code. 

This will becoming a standard in the years ahead so if you are in the market for a new platforms, keep reading.

HTML5 Will Add Clarity

HTML5 seeks to clarify web coding standards and document all the "tricks" that were once undocumented. By clarifying specifics — especially in error handling — HTML5 stands to open the doors for much more efficient and effective JavaScript, heralding a new era for robust interactivity with dynamic interfaces and rich user experiences that would be too heavy and difficult, or impossible, to implement in XHTML or HTML4.

As some of the largest website providers retool their website technology for release in 2011 (Cobalt/ADP, TK Carsites, Reynolds, etc.) you will see some solutions include the graphical energy that HTML5 can deliver.

This is very important for applications or websites that are viewed on iPads and iPhone. Currently Apple does NOT support Adobe Flash technology so HTML5 is the way of the future.

So when you get your next demo from your website provider, ask them about their plans to integrate HTML5 coding on their websites to achieve stunning graphics and transitions once reserved only for Adobe Flash. HTML5 compliant websites will be more cross-platform compatible as well.

Years ago, when Dealerskins changed the face of automotive website design with full Flash based technology, dealers flocked to the new platform because their websites were more "alive" than their static brethren.

The excitement eventually faded when dealers realized that 100% flash website were not indexing properly in organic search results.

Since that realization, website platform providers have moved away from heavy use of Adobe Flash technology in favor of other solutions.

At the recent NADA Convention, website providers revealed some very "flashy" web and mobile designs that might scare dealers at first glance.

The good news is that today's "flashy" effects are not the old school Flash coding but rather HTML5 code. 

This will becoming a standard in the years ahead so if you are in the market for a new platforms, keep reading.

HTML5 Will Add Clarity

HTML5 seeks to clarify web coding standards and document all the "tricks" that were once undocumented. By clarifying specifics — especially in error handling — HTML5 stands to open the doors for much more efficient and effective JavaScript, heralding a new era for robust interactivity with dynamic interfaces and rich user experiences that would be too heavy and difficult, or impossible, to implement in XHTML or HTML4.

As some of the largest website providers retool their website technology for release in 2011 (Cobalt/ADP, TK Carsites, Reynolds, etc.) you will see some solutions include the graphical energy that HTML5 can deliver.

This is very important for applications or websites that are viewed on iPads and iPhone. Currently Apple does NOT support Adobe Flash technology so HTML5 is the way of the future.

So when you get your next demo from your website provider, ask them about their plans to integrate HTML5 coding on their websites to achieve stunning graphics and transitions once reserved only for Adobe Flash. HTML5 compliant websites will be more cross-platform compatible as well.