As car dealers look to increase profits and revenue, their marketing agenda lately has focused on social media and how this communication channel can grow their business.

Social media of course is important but a proven money maker for car dealers is being ignored by many dealers as part of their digital advertising strategy.

When I am called into dealership meetings to review their online marketing strategy, rarely does a dealership ask about increasing service revenue through SEO and SEM.

Dealers seem to be content with service direct mail and email campaigns which work very well in most markets. Over the past few months I have been working on an SEO strategy to increase the visibility of car dealers for common service searches in Google.

It is an eye opener to see just how I have been able to increase visibility for car dealers by targeting popular service keywords. A good way to test the service visibility for any car dealer is to type in a common service for a brand that they sell in their own town.

So a BMW dealer in Virginia Beach would test their service SEO by searching Google for:

• BMW Oil Change Virginia Beach  (see Google Search)
• BMW Brakes Virginia Beach
• BMW Tires Virginia Beach

In the first case, PCG's new Fixed Operations Microsite appears on Google Page One for Checkered Flag Auto Group ahead of all business offering a BMW Oil Change. 

The service microsite is www.virginiabeachcarrepairs.com . This added visibility for car dealers over time, will increase service leads, calls and service revenue.  The site is about 45 days old and it appears in Google search for a number of OEM brands and services in their market.

If you search Google Videos or YouTube videos for the Phrase "Virginia Beach Oil Change", their service video is ranked #1. Christine at Checkered Flag does an amazing job with their service videos.

Dealers who want to gain an edge in their markets should leverage service microsites and videos to communicate an effective message.  Service videos, when they are done so well like this example, can be placed in many places to increase conversion.

Dealers Becoming Price Competitive

In this challenging economy, many dealers have decided to become more price competitive for common automotive services like oil changes, tires, brakes and coolant flushes. I wholeheartedly agree with this strategy.

If dealers have good service advisers, they can extend the dealership brand and customer service experience to owners of cars that dealers do not sell. The service channel can be a more effective sales and lead strategy than any other channel because of the number of car owners they touch each month.

Busy dealer groups service thousands of cars a week and if they were also marketing to all car owners in their market, these numbers could grow significantly. So I would like to cast a vote that Fixed Operations SEO and microsites be on dealership agendas for digital marketing spending.

Dealers should also create a budget to create videos for popular services that they offer which can light-up content pages. Google rewards first responders so before your competitors take the lead for service microsites in your area, make the move.

As car dealers look to increase profits and revenue, their marketing agenda lately has focused on social media and how this communication channel can grow their business.

Social media of course is important but a proven money maker for car dealers is being ignored by many dealers as part of their digital advertising strategy.

When I am called into dealership meetings to review their online marketing strategy, rarely does a dealership ask about increasing service revenue through SEO and SEM.

Dealers seem to be content with service direct mail and email campaigns which work very well in most markets. Over the past few months I have been working on an SEO strategy to increase the visibility of car dealers for common service searches in Google.

It is an eye opener to see just how I have been able to increase visibility for car dealers by targeting popular service keywords. A good way to test the service visibility for any car dealer is to type in a common service for a brand that they sell in their own town.

So a BMW dealer in Virginia Beach would test their service SEO by searching Google for:

• BMW Oil Change Virginia Beach  (see Google Search)
• BMW Brakes Virginia Beach
• BMW Tires Virginia Beach

In the first case, PCG's new Fixed Operations Microsite appears on Google Page One for Checkered Flag Auto Group ahead of all business offering a BMW Oil Change. 

The service microsite is www.virginiabeachcarrepairs.com . This added visibility for car dealers over time, will increase service leads, calls and service revenue.  The site is about 45 days old and it appears in Google search for a number of OEM brands and services in their market.

If you search Google Videos or YouTube videos for the Phrase "Virginia Beach Oil Change", their service video is ranked #1. Christine at Checkered Flag does an amazing job with their service videos.

Dealers who want to gain an edge in their markets should leverage service microsites and videos to communicate an effective message.  Service videos, when they are done so well like this example, can be placed in many places to increase conversion.

Dealers Becoming Price Competitive

In this challenging economy, many dealers have decided to become more price competitive for common automotive services like oil changes, tires, brakes and coolant flushes. I wholeheartedly agree with this strategy.

If dealers have good service advisers, they can extend the dealership brand and customer service experience to owners of cars that dealers do not sell. The service channel can be a more effective sales and lead strategy than any other channel because of the number of car owners they touch each month.

Busy dealer groups service thousands of cars a week and if they were also marketing to all car owners in their market, these numbers could grow significantly. So I would like to cast a vote that Fixed Operations SEO and microsites be on dealership agendas for digital marketing spending.

Dealers should also create a budget to create videos for popular services that they offer which can light-up content pages. Google rewards first responders so before your competitors take the lead for service microsites in your area, make the move.

At PCG Digital Marketing we monitor the leads that come in on the websites that we build for clients to cutdown on spam and to measure the effectiveness of our marketing programs.  Periodically, we see massive spam attacks on our forms which we continue to tweak to stop spam from coming through to dealer CRM systems.

Today one of my clients received a lead from Jennifer M. Sorrells who is a  PERS Marketing Executive.  Ms. Sorrells is a salesperson and somehow she thought it was a good idea to use a car dealer's quote form to sell here goods.  The choice of using a car dealer website form for soliciting business is in bad taste and in my opinion, paints a very poor image her company: Preferred Call & Response LLC.

Jennifer Sorrells Email

Here is the message that Jennifer sent:

customerfirstname : Jennifer
customerlastname : Sorrells
customeraddress : 399 E. 29th St.
customercity : Buena Vista
customerstate : VA
customerzip : 24416
customerhomephone : 888-528-2331
preferredcontacttime : Morning
customeremail : jsorrells@pcr-va.com
timeframe : 1 Week
Year : 2010
Make : Nissan
Model : Xterra
Trim : 4WD 4dr Auto SE
Comments : Hello,

My name is Jennifer and I’m the PERS Marketing Executive for Preferred Call and Response.  We wanted to contact you with some information regarding our Safezone GPS system.  The Safezone works just like On-Star,  you would have GPS tracking, voice capabilities, and an SOS button.  This can be downloaded on their cell phone as an application.  As long as the customer has a data plan there is no cost for the sim card or other data charges.   We thought you may be interested in offering this as an extra feature.  We would be willing to pay commission for the system as well.  I would like to send you some information for you to review.  If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Thank you,

Jennifer M. Sorrells
PERS Marketing Executive
Phone: 888-528-2331
Preferred Call and Response
399 E. 29th St.
Buena Vista, VA 24416

Why Spam When Your Can Call?

Wow..someone is interested in a Nissan Xterra.  Great...oh wait....its spam.

I wonder why a company that on their website touts the importantance of a live voice, would use email spam to market their business.   This is either a low class marketing strategy, a misguided marketing director or a "just a get the message out regardless of the cost"  tactic.  Companies that use these tactics should be called out and that is why I am writing about their marketing practice.

Notice, Jeniffer filled out the lead form to be able to submit the sales pitch so it was NOT an auto-generated email spam campaign but a deliberate plan.  This is best described as a doomed marketing strategy.  If their call center services were actually that good, they would have called.  Here is what their website claims:

"We offer call center services to businesses and government agencies that allow owners/operators to manage their core business while PCR attends to the sales, marketing, and fulfillment side. What a difference a live voice has on your potential customers!"

I guess they couldn't afford to invest in telemarketing to do their own sales!

Is anyone else sick and tired of car dealer lead form abuse?

At PCG Digital Marketing we monitor the leads that come in on the websites that we build for clients to cutdown on spam and to measure the effectiveness of our marketing programs.  Periodically, we see massive spam attacks on our forms which we continue to tweak to stop spam from coming through to dealer CRM systems.

Today one of my clients received a lead from Jennifer M. Sorrells who is a  PERS Marketing Executive.  Ms. Sorrells is a salesperson and somehow she thought it was a good idea to use a car dealer's quote form to sell here goods.  The choice of using a car dealer website form for soliciting business is in bad taste and in my opinion, paints a very poor image her company: Preferred Call & Response LLC.

Jennifer Sorrells Email

Here is the message that Jennifer sent:

customerfirstname : Jennifer
customerlastname : Sorrells
customeraddress : 399 E. 29th St.
customercity : Buena Vista
customerstate : VA
customerzip : 24416
customerhomephone : 888-528-2331
preferredcontacttime : Morning
customeremail : jsorrells@pcr-va.com
timeframe : 1 Week
Year : 2010
Make : Nissan
Model : Xterra
Trim : 4WD 4dr Auto SE
Comments : Hello,

My name is Jennifer and I’m the PERS Marketing Executive for Preferred Call and Response.  We wanted to contact you with some information regarding our Safezone GPS system.  The Safezone works just like On-Star,  you would have GPS tracking, voice capabilities, and an SOS button.  This can be downloaded on their cell phone as an application.  As long as the customer has a data plan there is no cost for the sim card or other data charges.   We thought you may be interested in offering this as an extra feature.  We would be willing to pay commission for the system as well.  I would like to send you some information for you to review.  If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Thank you,

Jennifer M. Sorrells
PERS Marketing Executive
Phone: 888-528-2331
Preferred Call and Response
399 E. 29th St.
Buena Vista, VA 24416

Why Spam When Your Can Call?

Wow..someone is interested in a Nissan Xterra.  Great...oh wait....its spam.

I wonder why a company that on their website touts the importantance of a live voice, would use email spam to market their business.   This is either a low class marketing strategy, a misguided marketing director or a "just a get the message out regardless of the cost"  tactic.  Companies that use these tactics should be called out and that is why I am writing about their marketing practice.

Notice, Jeniffer filled out the lead form to be able to submit the sales pitch so it was NOT an auto-generated email spam campaign but a deliberate plan.  This is best described as a doomed marketing strategy.  If their call center services were actually that good, they would have called.  Here is what their website claims:

"We offer call center services to businesses and government agencies that allow owners/operators to manage their core business while PCR attends to the sales, marketing, and fulfillment side. What a difference a live voice has on your potential customers!"

I guess they couldn't afford to invest in telemarketing to do their own sales!

Is anyone else sick and tired of car dealer lead form abuse?

Automotive retailers and their employees could significantly benefit from reading two powerful books. 

Many of the stereotypes that plague the car industry could be mitigated if employees of car dealerships practiced the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success that are outlined by Bob Burg and John David Mann.

I highly recommend that every member of the DrivingSales.com community reads these two books this month:

• The Go-Giver
• Go-Givers Sell More

These great, easy to read books will significantly impact the way you view the sales process and increase your success with communicating with people. 

Sounds too good to be true? Get the books and read them, it is well worth the investment. The books can be purchased on Amazon.com for under $14 each. Buy on Amazon. 

These two books outline the author’s philosophy about selling and success which goes against the grain of common sales training. The authors challenge the traditional sales process of:

prospect -> qualify -> present -> overcome objections -> close -> follow-up -> provide customer service

with a different approach that looks like this:

create value -> touch people's lives -> build networks -> be real -> stay open

Being a Go-Giver 

As I read the first book "The Go-Giver" I realized that I already practiced some of the recommendations in this book but I still have much more to learn. My passion for writing and sharing ideas on this forum is one way in which I can "give" with the hope that members will receive measurable value.

When I am asked to speak at conferences, 20-Groups and at individual dealerships I never see it as a "selling" opportunity although sales do come. I look at speaking as opportunity to teach and to give back to the automotive community.

Those of you who have heard me speak at Digital Dealer Conferences may know that at the beginning of my presentations I often clarify my purpose with this statement: 

"I will not holdback information on how to improve your ( insert seminar topic) and I will answer all your questions candidly. I will give you the tools to do everything on your own. That said, 50% of you will do nothing, 20% may call me and 30% will implement some or all of my recommendations on their own without any outside costs."

The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success

As a result of my willingness to share online and at conference, people have provided me with wonderful feedback and encouragement. Some have even made a commitment to help my business succeed. This has been hard for me to accept at times and so I was challenged by the 5th Law.

I have witnessed firsthand the power of following the recommendations in the Go-Giver. The Go-Giver outlines what the authors call "The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success". They five laws are: 

1. The Law of Value
2. The Law of Compensation
3. The Law of Influence
4. The Law of Authenticity
5. The Law of Receptivity

If these five Laws don't intrigue you to read these two books, then take a leap of faith and do it anyway! Are you looking for greater success? Fulfillment? If the answer is yes, spend $30 and take a few hours to read these two books. It's the best investment in your future that you will ever make. 

A Go-Giver Offer For DrivingSales.com

In the first book, The Go-Giver a story unfolds about a salesman named Joe that is struggling with success in his job and personal life. He is transformed in the book through a series of events and special people that show him the power of giving. 

For members of this community, you and your team may be challenged to sell more cars, gain an edge over your competition, lower the cost of advertising per retail sale or increase fixed operations revenue. These challenges sometimes feel like walking through an endless battlefield; every 30 days you reset the clock and have to trod the same battlefield again watching not to step on any landmines.

 Are your automotive advertising strategies really optimized?

A Fresh Set Of Eyes Can Help 

If you are understaffed, overworked or if the pace of changes within digital marketing are making your head spin, I would like to offer my help. If you would like a free evaluation of your digital marketing strategy and visibility on the Internet, I am offering community members my personal analysis and a written report.

All you have to do is to commit to reviewing the report on a phone call. I will schedule a one hour follow-up call to share my findings. I will provide recommendations on how you can fix any deficiencies that I found using your own staff and business partners. There is no obligation to use PCG services.

You'd be surprised to know that I can measure the strength of a dealer's digital marketing footprint without much inside information. 

What I do need is the following:

1. Your name and contact information
2. The domains names you use for marketing cars
3. Your top 5 local competitors and their website addresses
4. Five areas that you want to increase your online visibility; your top online marketing goals

For the fourth question, the guidance I need is best answered with this question "What have you been asked to increase through the Internet channel?". Some dealers tell me it's service revenue and other say that their top priority is increasing used car sales. Give me some guidance so I can evaluate how successful your automotive advertising strategies are to meet those goals. 

When you have this information, email it to me at: brian@pcgdigitalmarketing.com and I will let you know when I can complete the analysis and schedule a call.

I look forward to providing you some insight on your online marketing strengths and weaknesses.

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
http://facebook.com/PCGDigitalMarketing

Automotive retailers and their employees could significantly benefit from reading two powerful books. 

Many of the stereotypes that plague the car industry could be mitigated if employees of car dealerships practiced the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success that are outlined by Bob Burg and John David Mann.

I highly recommend that every member of the DrivingSales.com community reads these two books this month:

• The Go-Giver
• Go-Givers Sell More

These great, easy to read books will significantly impact the way you view the sales process and increase your success with communicating with people. 

Sounds too good to be true? Get the books and read them, it is well worth the investment. The books can be purchased on Amazon.com for under $14 each. Buy on Amazon. 

These two books outline the author’s philosophy about selling and success which goes against the grain of common sales training. The authors challenge the traditional sales process of:

prospect -> qualify -> present -> overcome objections -> close -> follow-up -> provide customer service

with a different approach that looks like this:

create value -> touch people's lives -> build networks -> be real -> stay open

Being a Go-Giver 

As I read the first book "The Go-Giver" I realized that I already practiced some of the recommendations in this book but I still have much more to learn. My passion for writing and sharing ideas on this forum is one way in which I can "give" with the hope that members will receive measurable value.

When I am asked to speak at conferences, 20-Groups and at individual dealerships I never see it as a "selling" opportunity although sales do come. I look at speaking as opportunity to teach and to give back to the automotive community.

Those of you who have heard me speak at Digital Dealer Conferences may know that at the beginning of my presentations I often clarify my purpose with this statement: 

"I will not holdback information on how to improve your ( insert seminar topic) and I will answer all your questions candidly. I will give you the tools to do everything on your own. That said, 50% of you will do nothing, 20% may call me and 30% will implement some or all of my recommendations on their own without any outside costs."

The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success

As a result of my willingness to share online and at conference, people have provided me with wonderful feedback and encouragement. Some have even made a commitment to help my business succeed. This has been hard for me to accept at times and so I was challenged by the 5th Law.

I have witnessed firsthand the power of following the recommendations in the Go-Giver. The Go-Giver outlines what the authors call "The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success". They five laws are: 

1. The Law of Value
2. The Law of Compensation
3. The Law of Influence
4. The Law of Authenticity
5. The Law of Receptivity

If these five Laws don't intrigue you to read these two books, then take a leap of faith and do it anyway! Are you looking for greater success? Fulfillment? If the answer is yes, spend $30 and take a few hours to read these two books. It's the best investment in your future that you will ever make. 

A Go-Giver Offer For DrivingSales.com

In the first book, The Go-Giver a story unfolds about a salesman named Joe that is struggling with success in his job and personal life. He is transformed in the book through a series of events and special people that show him the power of giving. 

For members of this community, you and your team may be challenged to sell more cars, gain an edge over your competition, lower the cost of advertising per retail sale or increase fixed operations revenue. These challenges sometimes feel like walking through an endless battlefield; every 30 days you reset the clock and have to trod the same battlefield again watching not to step on any landmines.

 Are your automotive advertising strategies really optimized?

A Fresh Set Of Eyes Can Help 

If you are understaffed, overworked or if the pace of changes within digital marketing are making your head spin, I would like to offer my help. If you would like a free evaluation of your digital marketing strategy and visibility on the Internet, I am offering community members my personal analysis and a written report.

All you have to do is to commit to reviewing the report on a phone call. I will schedule a one hour follow-up call to share my findings. I will provide recommendations on how you can fix any deficiencies that I found using your own staff and business partners. There is no obligation to use PCG services.

You'd be surprised to know that I can measure the strength of a dealer's digital marketing footprint without much inside information. 

What I do need is the following:

1. Your name and contact information
2. The domains names you use for marketing cars
3. Your top 5 local competitors and their website addresses
4. Five areas that you want to increase your online visibility; your top online marketing goals

For the fourth question, the guidance I need is best answered with this question "What have you been asked to increase through the Internet channel?". Some dealers tell me it's service revenue and other say that their top priority is increasing used car sales. Give me some guidance so I can evaluate how successful your automotive advertising strategies are to meet those goals. 

When you have this information, email it to me at: brian@pcgdigitalmarketing.com and I will let you know when I can complete the analysis and schedule a call.

I look forward to providing you some insight on your online marketing strengths and weaknesses.

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
http://facebook.com/PCGDigitalMarketing

Facebook is a great communication tool for car dealers as they can stay connected to their existing customers and meet new customers by providing value. When done properly, they become a Trust Agents as described by Chris Brogan in his book with the same title.

With this great opportunity so comes spammers and scammers.  Companies have found that many business owners, including car dealers, don't want to invest in social media.  They would rather create INSTANT Facebook and Twitter fans to increase their "counts", regardless of the quality of those followers.

A Lesson I Learned: When someone you don't know asks to be a friend, be careful on who you accept.  

On June 29, 2010, I accepted Dayna Jaqeline as a friend. Since that time I have received over 10 recommendations that I "like" various businesses on Facebook. Today I noticed this one-way pattern of communications from this new "friend".

Dayna Jaqueline, or whoever this person really is, is part of an automated scheme to increase Facebook fans for a fee. Companies create these fake accounts or alternatively hire people to invite themselves into someones Facebook account and then use that doorway to solicit fans.

This is a becoming a big business especially since car dealers are being led into believing that more is better. So, they pay a fee ranging up to $1,000 to get a few thousands fans and accounts like Dayna Jaqueline whore out their influence to drive traffic and fans.

If my experience is any indication of the quality of communications these pay services offer, I would recommend that less is more.  It is the quality of your network that really matters in the end.

Facebook Whores

Should call this Facebook Prostution and Jacqueline is a Facebook Whore?

If you look at the 10+ requests that this account has solicited me in the past 8 days, you can infer that this person is pushing their influence for pay. What do you think? Would you send your friends requests every day to be friends with the companies you like best?

It's a shame that  good businesses are now associated with Facebook Whores. I will be sure to post this article on their walls to let them know the type of crap they are involved with.  Do you want your dealership associated with Facebook Prostitution?

Here are some of the companies that were solicited by Dayna Jaqueline in the past 7 days:

• Drake Institute
• Tryst Bingo
• Unlimited Twitter Followers *
• Vizio Optic Eyeglasses & Sunglasses
• MPB Today
• Quick Creations
• Roxanne Emery
• LYPHA
• Infused Web | Print | Design
• Hypnotist Ian Stewart
• DreamTemplate

* Also notice that Dayna was promoting Unlimited Twitter Followers...mmmmmm It looks like she also participates or encourages paid Twitter fan programs as well.

Advice on Building Facebook Fans

So, here is a word of advice. If someone offers to increase your Twitter and Facebook followers, and the methods are not clearly explained, run away. In this one case, Dayna Jacqeline is turning my Facebook inbox into the same spam junk that we experience with our email.

This is a discouraging twist in Facebook and of course I reported her to Facebook. It just takes time and effort just like the time it takes to review your spam inbox.

Facebook is a great communication tool for car dealers as they can stay connected to their existing customers and meet new customers by providing value. When done properly, they become a Trust Agents as described by Chris Brogan in his book with the same title.

With this great opportunity so comes spammers and scammers.  Companies have found that many business owners, including car dealers, don't want to invest in social media.  They would rather create INSTANT Facebook and Twitter fans to increase their "counts", regardless of the quality of those followers.

A Lesson I Learned: When someone you don't know asks to be a friend, be careful on who you accept.  

On June 29, 2010, I accepted Dayna Jaqeline as a friend. Since that time I have received over 10 recommendations that I "like" various businesses on Facebook. Today I noticed this one-way pattern of communications from this new "friend".

Dayna Jaqueline, or whoever this person really is, is part of an automated scheme to increase Facebook fans for a fee. Companies create these fake accounts or alternatively hire people to invite themselves into someones Facebook account and then use that doorway to solicit fans.

This is a becoming a big business especially since car dealers are being led into believing that more is better. So, they pay a fee ranging up to $1,000 to get a few thousands fans and accounts like Dayna Jaqueline whore out their influence to drive traffic and fans.

If my experience is any indication of the quality of communications these pay services offer, I would recommend that less is more.  It is the quality of your network that really matters in the end.

Facebook Whores

Should call this Facebook Prostution and Jacqueline is a Facebook Whore?

If you look at the 10+ requests that this account has solicited me in the past 8 days, you can infer that this person is pushing their influence for pay. What do you think? Would you send your friends requests every day to be friends with the companies you like best?

It's a shame that  good businesses are now associated with Facebook Whores. I will be sure to post this article on their walls to let them know the type of crap they are involved with.  Do you want your dealership associated with Facebook Prostitution?

Here are some of the companies that were solicited by Dayna Jaqueline in the past 7 days:

• Drake Institute
• Tryst Bingo
• Unlimited Twitter Followers *
• Vizio Optic Eyeglasses & Sunglasses
• MPB Today
• Quick Creations
• Roxanne Emery
• LYPHA
• Infused Web | Print | Design
• Hypnotist Ian Stewart
• DreamTemplate

* Also notice that Dayna was promoting Unlimited Twitter Followers...mmmmmm It looks like she also participates or encourages paid Twitter fan programs as well.

Advice on Building Facebook Fans

So, here is a word of advice. If someone offers to increase your Twitter and Facebook followers, and the methods are not clearly explained, run away. In this one case, Dayna Jacqeline is turning my Facebook inbox into the same spam junk that we experience with our email.

This is a discouraging twist in Facebook and of course I reported her to Facebook. It just takes time and effort just like the time it takes to review your spam inbox.

Last year I reviewed 35 popular automotive website platforms and published the results in the first ever Automotive Search Marketing Architecture (ASMA) study.   Of the 35  platforms reviewed, nine companies were recognized for excellence based on criteria that I set for the study.

We are now finalizing the applications for the 2010 ASMA Awards that will be presented this fall. I would like DrivingSales.com members to offer feedback on some of the criteria you would like to see in the comparison grids this year.

We will review about 40+ website providers this year and part of the study will be a chart that compares the base feature set of their website and add on modules the vendor offers.   This year we will include line items for mobile sites, mobile apps, Facebook apps, CRM, market pricing tools, etc.

As we compare and contrast the 40+ car dealer website platforms, what type of side by side data and comparisons would you like to see?  This is a big undertaking to create the report so your feedback will help make the report more meaningful to automotive professionals.

Please share your feedback here...I would appreciate your thoughts.

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

http://twitter.com/automotiveseo

Last year I reviewed 35 popular automotive website platforms and published the results in the first ever Automotive Search Marketing Architecture (ASMA) study.   Of the 35  platforms reviewed, nine companies were recognized for excellence based on criteria that I set for the study.

We are now finalizing the applications for the 2010 ASMA Awards that will be presented this fall. I would like DrivingSales.com members to offer feedback on some of the criteria you would like to see in the comparison grids this year.

We will review about 40+ website providers this year and part of the study will be a chart that compares the base feature set of their website and add on modules the vendor offers.   This year we will include line items for mobile sites, mobile apps, Facebook apps, CRM, market pricing tools, etc.

As we compare and contrast the 40+ car dealer website platforms, what type of side by side data and comparisons would you like to see?  This is a big undertaking to create the report so your feedback will help make the report more meaningful to automotive professionals.

Please share your feedback here...I would appreciate your thoughts.

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

http://twitter.com/automotiveseo