Did you know that by default, Google Places is setup to market your car dealership only within a 20 mile radius of your dealership?  Do you sell and deliver cars to consumers more than 20 miles away?  Well of course you do!  Do you want to increase your automotive advertising reach? Yes!

However, many of the Google Places listing that I check for car dealers are NOT setup properly for their business. This impacts the number of times a dealership's Business Listing will appear in search results. For some dealers in metro areas, their Google Places listing will show over 15,000 a month. With this in mind, anything that could increase the visibility of your local business listing should be embraced.

As I stated above, Google Places service area DEFAULTS to a 20 mile service radius around the business address. This is one of the most important setting on your Google Places listing because it sets the geographic positioning of the consumers you serve. Car dealers routinely deliver cars to customers that are outside of a 20 mile radius of their business. With this is mind, dealers should inspect your service area settings in Google.
 

Google Places Custom Service Areas Polygons

Dealers that have physical locations near bodies of water will find that a simple radius setting is not the most accurate map of their service area.

In the screen shot below, Harris Auto Group in Canada is located on Victoria Island. If they left their Google Maps service area radius set at 20 miles, which is the default, they would not cover Victoria which is a major market for the island.



Fortunately, Google Places will allow you to enter in specific town names to create a polygon that covers the areas that the dealership serves. In the photo above, you can see that the shaded area was created by inputting the towns in the "List of Areas Served".
 

Don't Abuse The Service Area Settings

I encourage dealers not to abuse the Service Area setting and show unrealistic service coverage maps. I have a feeling that Google may penalize anything that would be contrived as scamming the system. I would say that a 50 mile radius for most dealers is reasonable. So take a minute and look into your Google Places service area setting and see if it has been set too conservatively.

Also, while you are looking at your Google Places listing, make sure that it has:

• Five great photos of customers taking delivery of cars or your work in the community. Kill the building photos.
• Five great videos. Three customer testimonial videos, one welcome video, and one service video.
• Proper categories that describe your business. There is a category for every OEM brand
• Make sure one category you select is "Used Car Dealer"

If you have any questions on Google Places, just type in your question below.  If you are going to NADA in February, make sure you stop into one of my workshops.  You can check my schedule on this link:  Brian Pasch NADA Workshops.

Did you know that by default, Google Places is setup to market your car dealership only within a 20 mile radius of your dealership?  Do you sell and deliver cars to consumers more than 20 miles away?  Well of course you do!  Do you want to increase your automotive advertising reach? Yes!

However, many of the Google Places listing that I check for car dealers are NOT setup properly for their business. This impacts the number of times a dealership's Business Listing will appear in search results. For some dealers in metro areas, their Google Places listing will show over 15,000 a month. With this in mind, anything that could increase the visibility of your local business listing should be embraced.

As I stated above, Google Places service area DEFAULTS to a 20 mile service radius around the business address. This is one of the most important setting on your Google Places listing because it sets the geographic positioning of the consumers you serve. Car dealers routinely deliver cars to customers that are outside of a 20 mile radius of their business. With this is mind, dealers should inspect your service area settings in Google.
 

Google Places Custom Service Areas Polygons

Dealers that have physical locations near bodies of water will find that a simple radius setting is not the most accurate map of their service area.

In the screen shot below, Harris Auto Group in Canada is located on Victoria Island. If they left their Google Maps service area radius set at 20 miles, which is the default, they would not cover Victoria which is a major market for the island.



Fortunately, Google Places will allow you to enter in specific town names to create a polygon that covers the areas that the dealership serves. In the photo above, you can see that the shaded area was created by inputting the towns in the "List of Areas Served".
 

Don't Abuse The Service Area Settings

I encourage dealers not to abuse the Service Area setting and show unrealistic service coverage maps. I have a feeling that Google may penalize anything that would be contrived as scamming the system. I would say that a 50 mile radius for most dealers is reasonable. So take a minute and look into your Google Places service area setting and see if it has been set too conservatively.

Also, while you are looking at your Google Places listing, make sure that it has:

• Five great photos of customers taking delivery of cars or your work in the community. Kill the building photos.
• Five great videos. Three customer testimonial videos, one welcome video, and one service video.
• Proper categories that describe your business. There is a category for every OEM brand
• Make sure one category you select is "Used Car Dealer"

If you have any questions on Google Places, just type in your question below.  If you are going to NADA in February, make sure you stop into one of my workshops.  You can check my schedule on this link:  Brian Pasch NADA Workshops.

Jared Hamilton sent out a Tweet today about the recent report from Compete that Bing powered search is now 29% of the search market share so I thought it was time to share a few insights into Automotive SEO with Bing and Yahoo. Car dealers need to have a digital marketing strategy for Bing and Yahoo that is independent of what they are doing in Google. Do you have a Bing and Yahoo strategy?

In general, Automotive SEO "basics" apply to Google, Yahoo, and Bing which includes strong page titles, URL names, and relevant content. However there are some big differences. Yahoo and Bing favor sub-domains that are keyword targeted more than Google.

Having hundreds of SEO tests running a year, I'll share with you a two examples that demonstrate this sub-domain preference.

Toyota Sale

When you search Google for the phrase "Toyota Sale" you will see among the Page One results "www.toyotaforsale.org" which confirms what I have witnessed thousands of times; Google favors exact match domains or near match domains.

Yahoo and Bing on the other-hand will often favor sub-domains more than exact matches when they are properly optimized. A search in Yahoo and Bing show similar results and shows the site http://toyota.cardealersale.com on Page One. The Home Page title on this site is "Toyota Sale | Toyota For Sale". This sub-domain is NOT on Google Page One.

What this means is that you can get on Bing and Yahoo page one for important keywords using a sub-domain microsite strategy.

Jacksonville Hyundai

When exact match domains are not available you can see that sub-domains can also play a major role in achieving visibility for short search phrases. The sub-domain http://jacksonville-hyundai.fl.cardealersale.com is showing on Bing Page One.

You will also see in the example below that Bing shows a domain with TWO dashes in the name "www.jacksonville-hyundai-fl.com" which you will normal NOT see appear on Google Page One. Bing and Yahoo like these dashed domains!

OEM Compliance Issues Lessened With Sub-Domains

Most dealers also should know that OEM are more tolerant with sub-domain microsites that stand-alone microsites on a new domain.

For example, http://service.irvinebmw.com is a service microsite but it is associated with the primary dealer domain and thus complies with BMW microsite regulations.

For Toyota warranty information, Acton Toyota created http://warranty.actontoyota.com which indexes nationally on Page One for a search on Toyota Warranty.

In summary, there are more ways to gain Page One exposure on Yahoo and Bing than in Google and this means that the early bird will get the worm.

Automotive SEO Education

If you would like to keep up with the latest Automotive SEO Strategies, you can join a free community dedicated to Automotive SEO at http://automotive-seo.ning.com (which ranks #3 in the USA on Bing and Yahoo for the term Automotive SEO).

You can also get the latest SEO strategies live by attending the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference February 1-3, 2011 which is right before the NADA Convention in San Francisco.

Register online at: http://www.digitalmarketingstrategies.org.

The conference has attracted some of the top speakers and educators in the automotive industry and if you are looking to lock in a successful digital marketing attack in your PMA in 2011, you need to be in attendance.

Jared Hamilton sent out a Tweet today about the recent report from Compete that Bing powered search is now 29% of the search market share so I thought it was time to share a few insights into Automotive SEO with Bing and Yahoo. Car dealers need to have a digital marketing strategy for Bing and Yahoo that is independent of what they are doing in Google. Do you have a Bing and Yahoo strategy?

In general, Automotive SEO "basics" apply to Google, Yahoo, and Bing which includes strong page titles, URL names, and relevant content. However there are some big differences. Yahoo and Bing favor sub-domains that are keyword targeted more than Google.

Having hundreds of SEO tests running a year, I'll share with you a two examples that demonstrate this sub-domain preference.

Toyota Sale

When you search Google for the phrase "Toyota Sale" you will see among the Page One results "www.toyotaforsale.org" which confirms what I have witnessed thousands of times; Google favors exact match domains or near match domains.

Yahoo and Bing on the other-hand will often favor sub-domains more than exact matches when they are properly optimized. A search in Yahoo and Bing show similar results and shows the site http://toyota.cardealersale.com on Page One. The Home Page title on this site is "Toyota Sale | Toyota For Sale". This sub-domain is NOT on Google Page One.

What this means is that you can get on Bing and Yahoo page one for important keywords using a sub-domain microsite strategy.

Jacksonville Hyundai

When exact match domains are not available you can see that sub-domains can also play a major role in achieving visibility for short search phrases. The sub-domain http://jacksonville-hyundai.fl.cardealersale.com is showing on Bing Page One.

You will also see in the example below that Bing shows a domain with TWO dashes in the name "www.jacksonville-hyundai-fl.com" which you will normal NOT see appear on Google Page One. Bing and Yahoo like these dashed domains!

OEM Compliance Issues Lessened With Sub-Domains

Most dealers also should know that OEM are more tolerant with sub-domain microsites that stand-alone microsites on a new domain.

For example, http://service.irvinebmw.com is a service microsite but it is associated with the primary dealer domain and thus complies with BMW microsite regulations.

For Toyota warranty information, Acton Toyota created http://warranty.actontoyota.com which indexes nationally on Page One for a search on Toyota Warranty.

In summary, there are more ways to gain Page One exposure on Yahoo and Bing than in Google and this means that the early bird will get the worm.

Automotive SEO Education

If you would like to keep up with the latest Automotive SEO Strategies, you can join a free community dedicated to Automotive SEO at http://automotive-seo.ning.com (which ranks #3 in the USA on Bing and Yahoo for the term Automotive SEO).

You can also get the latest SEO strategies live by attending the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference February 1-3, 2011 which is right before the NADA Convention in San Francisco.

Register online at: http://www.digitalmarketingstrategies.org.

The conference has attracted some of the top speakers and educators in the automotive industry and if you are looking to lock in a successful digital marketing attack in your PMA in 2011, you need to be in attendance.

"If car dealers want to increase their online reviews in 2011 they need to first ask themselves why they are reluctant to vote for their own vendors online."

Over the past two months I have been watching the ratings and review counts on DrivingSales.com for their 2010 Vendor Awards. Each year car dealers have the opportunity to voice their opinion and rate the best vendors that serve the automotive industry.

The Driving Sales Vendor Awards have become a benchmark for peer review. All votes are carefully validated to ensure that the person voting is actually a dealership employee.

This year my companies were listed in the categories for which we offer products and services and each year we make sure that we ask our customers to take a minute and posted their rating for our services. We make these requests on the phone and also via email.

We have friendly "battles" with our industry competitors but it's all good for keep the competitive spirit alive. Now that the voting for the 2010 Driving Sales Vendor Awards is closed, I wanted to share an observation.

The Review Process

I'm sure you know that getting YOUR customers to post reviews on Google Places is hard.

After someone purchases their car and gets home, it is hard to motivate them to take action remotely and post a review from their home IP address.

What is even harder is to get OUR car dealer clients to rate their vendors (us) on the DrivingSales Vendor Awards. Our automotive clients put off the task just like your car buyers…its ironic.

For example, for Internet Trainer, I have trained hundreds of car dealership employees at conference, workshops, and through webinars. Many of these automotive professionals have joined one of the PCG managed online communities or they are in our email database. Only a small percentage have taken the time to read my email advising them of the voting process and visited DrivingSales to vote.

In another category, only clients of PCG can vote in the Automotive SEO Vendor category. What is ironic is that we help hundreds of rooftops with their SEO and most indicate that they are satisfied when we ask them (Does this sound familiar?) Most all have committed to voting online. (Does this sound familiar?) Yet the review counts are very low! (Does this sound familiar?)

I'm not complaining. Many of our great supporters voted this year but it did not come without a tremendous investment in time and resources. Verbal phone commitments produce low online voting results.

Rethinking The Approach

So this process has really educated me that we need to think of new ways to motivate our customers to take the time to click and post a review online once they leave the dealership.

If car dealers are coming to realize that Internet Reputation Management is important, what call to action could I have created to make our car dealer clients vote?

The answers are there....automotive retailers who are part of this community just have to ask why they didn't take time to vote for their favorite vendors?

If you did vote, what motivated you to take time to vote?

We need to start discussing the psychology behind voting online. For the record, I understand that everyone is busy. I also understand that the dealer/vendor relationship can be strong or weak.

But if car dealers are to move the needle with their own Online Reputation Management program in 2011 and increase their Google "Star Counts" on Google Places, we need to discuss what is working best.

Car dealers who are having great success getting their clients to post directly on Google Places, please speak up. I have some ideas to share but that will be in a follow-up article this month.

What ways can car dealers increase the success rate of getting their customers to vote on Google Places, DealerRater, PrestoReviews, Yelp, etc. from home?

"If car dealers want to increase their online reviews in 2011 they need to first ask themselves why they are reluctant to vote for their own vendors online."

Over the past two months I have been watching the ratings and review counts on DrivingSales.com for their 2010 Vendor Awards. Each year car dealers have the opportunity to voice their opinion and rate the best vendors that serve the automotive industry.

The Driving Sales Vendor Awards have become a benchmark for peer review. All votes are carefully validated to ensure that the person voting is actually a dealership employee.

This year my companies were listed in the categories for which we offer products and services and each year we make sure that we ask our customers to take a minute and posted their rating for our services. We make these requests on the phone and also via email.

We have friendly "battles" with our industry competitors but it's all good for keep the competitive spirit alive. Now that the voting for the 2010 Driving Sales Vendor Awards is closed, I wanted to share an observation.

The Review Process

I'm sure you know that getting YOUR customers to post reviews on Google Places is hard.

After someone purchases their car and gets home, it is hard to motivate them to take action remotely and post a review from their home IP address.

What is even harder is to get OUR car dealer clients to rate their vendors (us) on the DrivingSales Vendor Awards. Our automotive clients put off the task just like your car buyers…its ironic.

For example, for Internet Trainer, I have trained hundreds of car dealership employees at conference, workshops, and through webinars. Many of these automotive professionals have joined one of the PCG managed online communities or they are in our email database. Only a small percentage have taken the time to read my email advising them of the voting process and visited DrivingSales to vote.

In another category, only clients of PCG can vote in the Automotive SEO Vendor category. What is ironic is that we help hundreds of rooftops with their SEO and most indicate that they are satisfied when we ask them (Does this sound familiar?) Most all have committed to voting online. (Does this sound familiar?) Yet the review counts are very low! (Does this sound familiar?)

I'm not complaining. Many of our great supporters voted this year but it did not come without a tremendous investment in time and resources. Verbal phone commitments produce low online voting results.

Rethinking The Approach

So this process has really educated me that we need to think of new ways to motivate our customers to take the time to click and post a review online once they leave the dealership.

If car dealers are coming to realize that Internet Reputation Management is important, what call to action could I have created to make our car dealer clients vote?

The answers are there....automotive retailers who are part of this community just have to ask why they didn't take time to vote for their favorite vendors?

If you did vote, what motivated you to take time to vote?

We need to start discussing the psychology behind voting online. For the record, I understand that everyone is busy. I also understand that the dealer/vendor relationship can be strong or weak.

But if car dealers are to move the needle with their own Online Reputation Management program in 2011 and increase their Google "Star Counts" on Google Places, we need to discuss what is working best.

Car dealers who are having great success getting their clients to post directly on Google Places, please speak up. I have some ideas to share but that will be in a follow-up article this month.

What ways can car dealers increase the success rate of getting their customers to vote on Google Places, DealerRater, PrestoReviews, Yelp, etc. from home?

The Automotive Website Awards (AWA), presented by PCG Digital Marketing each year, recognize companies that provide outstanding technology platforms for the automotive industry.

The 160-page research paper that is associated with the awards provides guidance to car dealers who are considering a change to their automotive website. (Download a copy)

The review process has opened doors for PCG, allowing our review team the opportunity to see the latest design, technology, and future products from the leaders in this industry. I am blessed that I have met so many great people behind the companies that were included in this year's report.

Reviewing ADP and Cobalt Technology

As part of the review process this summer, I met with the Cobalt development team in Seattle as well as the ADP/BZ team via a webinar. Both companies impressed me with their future vision and upcoming technologies. I posted a blog about some of the major positive changes in the BZ Platform, which excited a number of BZ clients. Change was definitely coming to users of both platforms.

At the time we reviewed their upcoming platforms, I had no idea that at the end of this year the two companies would merge. I am sure that I was not alone in July 2010 as I speculated which technology platform would eventually “win” and how the two companies would operate.

Some in the industry commented to me that these two “big” companies would have a hard time sorting out their technology and integrating their employees. I started to speculate about the different cultures at ADP and Cobalt and how John Holt would integrate the development, sales, and marketing teams to create a future vision for the new company.

I asked John Holt this question directly at the Driving Sales Executive Summit in October 2010, in front of 500 industry leaders. At that time, John had little to share but he had tremendous confidence that the combination would yield significant benefits for ADP and Cobalt clients.

Visiting the ADP / Cobalt Team in Seattle

Fast-forward to 60 days later. I visited Seattle in December 2010 and met with the new website team which consisted of architects, engineers, social media specialists, search engine optimization strategists, and marketing leaders of the new company. The team was a combination of BZ and Cobalt employees.

Members of each team took time to share their roles and vision for the future technology platforms that they were working on. Through all the meetings one thing impressed me. There was tremendous positive energy that was coming from everyone that was in attendance. There were no hints of divisiveness and everyone was focus, attentive, and added to the conversation.

John Holt and his executive team have quickly united the best of each company and have crafted a powerful technology focus for the upcoming year. This should be great news for Cobalt and BZ customers as the company readies its new technology platform. How this new platform will be implemented for its customers was not shared but I was impressed with what I saw.

Some dealers have commented that ADP and Cobalt grew too large to listen to the needs of their installed user base, but the two companies have indeed been listening. They have responded from the feedback provided in the AWA review process and from their customers. Granted, it may have taken longer than dealers would have wished but the good news is that change is in the air.

The Energy Factor

The new ADP/Cobalt company is not wasting time to produce a world-class product that includes the best in website architecture, design, SEO, automotive advertising, and social media integration.

The injection of 50+ new developers from the ADP merger will surely expedite the technology road map. Since I was not privy to rollout schedules or final production software I cannot say when the new platform will arrive, but don’t count these two players out.

Contrary to what some may believe, this merger has empowered these two companies. I go back to the “energy” factor I witnessed.

When the right teams of people get together with a unified goal, great things can happen.

I commend John Holt the leadership that has created this momentum in just five months. Now we all will have to sit back and see what comes out of the production funnel. The future looks so bright that they may have to give out sunglasses during the unveiling of their new platform. What are your thoughts?

The Automotive Website Awards (AWA), presented by PCG Digital Marketing each year, recognize companies that provide outstanding technology platforms for the automotive industry.

The 160-page research paper that is associated with the awards provides guidance to car dealers who are considering a change to their automotive website. (Download a copy)

The review process has opened doors for PCG, allowing our review team the opportunity to see the latest design, technology, and future products from the leaders in this industry. I am blessed that I have met so many great people behind the companies that were included in this year's report.

Reviewing ADP and Cobalt Technology

As part of the review process this summer, I met with the Cobalt development team in Seattle as well as the ADP/BZ team via a webinar. Both companies impressed me with their future vision and upcoming technologies. I posted a blog about some of the major positive changes in the BZ Platform, which excited a number of BZ clients. Change was definitely coming to users of both platforms.

At the time we reviewed their upcoming platforms, I had no idea that at the end of this year the two companies would merge. I am sure that I was not alone in July 2010 as I speculated which technology platform would eventually “win” and how the two companies would operate.

Some in the industry commented to me that these two “big” companies would have a hard time sorting out their technology and integrating their employees. I started to speculate about the different cultures at ADP and Cobalt and how John Holt would integrate the development, sales, and marketing teams to create a future vision for the new company.

I asked John Holt this question directly at the Driving Sales Executive Summit in October 2010, in front of 500 industry leaders. At that time, John had little to share but he had tremendous confidence that the combination would yield significant benefits for ADP and Cobalt clients.

Visiting the ADP / Cobalt Team in Seattle

Fast-forward to 60 days later. I visited Seattle in December 2010 and met with the new website team which consisted of architects, engineers, social media specialists, search engine optimization strategists, and marketing leaders of the new company. The team was a combination of BZ and Cobalt employees.

Members of each team took time to share their roles and vision for the future technology platforms that they were working on. Through all the meetings one thing impressed me. There was tremendous positive energy that was coming from everyone that was in attendance. There were no hints of divisiveness and everyone was focus, attentive, and added to the conversation.

John Holt and his executive team have quickly united the best of each company and have crafted a powerful technology focus for the upcoming year. This should be great news for Cobalt and BZ customers as the company readies its new technology platform. How this new platform will be implemented for its customers was not shared but I was impressed with what I saw.

Some dealers have commented that ADP and Cobalt grew too large to listen to the needs of their installed user base, but the two companies have indeed been listening. They have responded from the feedback provided in the AWA review process and from their customers. Granted, it may have taken longer than dealers would have wished but the good news is that change is in the air.

The Energy Factor

The new ADP/Cobalt company is not wasting time to produce a world-class product that includes the best in website architecture, design, SEO, automotive advertising, and social media integration.

The injection of 50+ new developers from the ADP merger will surely expedite the technology road map. Since I was not privy to rollout schedules or final production software I cannot say when the new platform will arrive, but don’t count these two players out.

Contrary to what some may believe, this merger has empowered these two companies. I go back to the “energy” factor I witnessed.

When the right teams of people get together with a unified goal, great things can happen.

I commend John Holt the leadership that has created this momentum in just five months. Now we all will have to sit back and see what comes out of the production funnel. The future looks so bright that they may have to give out sunglasses during the unveiling of their new platform. What are your thoughts?

I was visiting an established dealership group recently and I chuckled when one of the General Managers stated that they STOPPED taking calls from ANY vendors that were attempting to sell them on digital marketing and social media services.

His reason was simple; he didn't know enough about the subject to filter through the sales speak and to get to the facts on ROI.  He quickly admitted that by doing this he could be missing something "BIG" that could really make a difference in his business.  For him at this moment, it was easier to shut off the constant stream of solicitations.

I wonder how many other dealers in the country feel the same way. 

Calls to their phones or the barrage of emails in their mailbox touting the best CRM, IRM, SEO, SEM, and now Social Media Optimization (SMO) tools is just too much.  Do they have the tools to determine fact from fiction?

For me, it was a great opportunity to LISTEN and assess what it is like on the other side of the table.  I was also blessed with the opportunity to educate and help this dealership understand the opportunities in the market for growth.

As a vendor community and as an industry we need to invest MORE in dealer education before a sales pitch.  We need to create the bridges of understanding from traditional marketing to their digital and social equivalents. 

This dealer's feedback was clear that our CURRENT industry practices has NOT made it easy for them to comprehend the changes that are second nature for some of us on this forum.

2011 Digital Marketing Strategies

If you are a dealer on this forum and feel the same way, I invite you to attend the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference.  It is being held just before the 2011 NADA Convention in beautiful Napa Valley California. 

The dates are February 1st - 3rd and on the 4th we will transport attendees to San Francisco in the morning to register for the start of the 2011 NADA Conference.

The 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference has attracted some of the the industry's top thought leaders in social media, Automotive SEO, SEM, IRM, Content Publishing, Automotive Advertising, Branding, and the latest insights on the things you NEED to know to succeed in 2011.

If you are looking for guidance to create an effective digital marketing strategy in 2011, I invite you to register for the Conference by visiting:  http://www.digitalmarketingstrategies.org. 

The conference is limited to the first 50 dealerships that register and seating is selling out quickly.  This will ensure that every dealership that attends gets personalized advice, attention, and take home action plans.

Conference Speakers

Speakers and workshop leaders at the Conference include:

• Jared Hamilton
• Alex Snyder
• Gary May
• Matt Murray
• Glenn Pasch
• JD Rucker
• Sean Wolfingtion
• Christine Rochelle
• Brian Pasch

The conference will also feature technology updates from VinSolutions, Dealer.com, TK Carsites, DealerTrend, Smart Web Concepts, PrestoReviews.com, DealerFire, CAR-MERCIAL, Automotive Advertising Network, and a few special guest that will be unveiled at the Conference.

I hope to see you in Napa prior to the 2011 NADA Convention.

Brian

I was visiting an established dealership group recently and I chuckled when one of the General Managers stated that they STOPPED taking calls from ANY vendors that were attempting to sell them on digital marketing and social media services.

His reason was simple; he didn't know enough about the subject to filter through the sales speak and to get to the facts on ROI.  He quickly admitted that by doing this he could be missing something "BIG" that could really make a difference in his business.  For him at this moment, it was easier to shut off the constant stream of solicitations.

I wonder how many other dealers in the country feel the same way. 

Calls to their phones or the barrage of emails in their mailbox touting the best CRM, IRM, SEO, SEM, and now Social Media Optimization (SMO) tools is just too much.  Do they have the tools to determine fact from fiction?

For me, it was a great opportunity to LISTEN and assess what it is like on the other side of the table.  I was also blessed with the opportunity to educate and help this dealership understand the opportunities in the market for growth.

As a vendor community and as an industry we need to invest MORE in dealer education before a sales pitch.  We need to create the bridges of understanding from traditional marketing to their digital and social equivalents. 

This dealer's feedback was clear that our CURRENT industry practices has NOT made it easy for them to comprehend the changes that are second nature for some of us on this forum.

2011 Digital Marketing Strategies

If you are a dealer on this forum and feel the same way, I invite you to attend the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference.  It is being held just before the 2011 NADA Convention in beautiful Napa Valley California. 

The dates are February 1st - 3rd and on the 4th we will transport attendees to San Francisco in the morning to register for the start of the 2011 NADA Conference.

The 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference has attracted some of the the industry's top thought leaders in social media, Automotive SEO, SEM, IRM, Content Publishing, Automotive Advertising, Branding, and the latest insights on the things you NEED to know to succeed in 2011.

If you are looking for guidance to create an effective digital marketing strategy in 2011, I invite you to register for the Conference by visiting:  http://www.digitalmarketingstrategies.org. 

The conference is limited to the first 50 dealerships that register and seating is selling out quickly.  This will ensure that every dealership that attends gets personalized advice, attention, and take home action plans.

Conference Speakers

Speakers and workshop leaders at the Conference include:

• Jared Hamilton
• Alex Snyder
• Gary May
• Matt Murray
• Glenn Pasch
• JD Rucker
• Sean Wolfingtion
• Christine Rochelle
• Brian Pasch

The conference will also feature technology updates from VinSolutions, Dealer.com, TK Carsites, DealerTrend, Smart Web Concepts, PrestoReviews.com, DealerFire, CAR-MERCIAL, Automotive Advertising Network, and a few special guest that will be unveiled at the Conference.

I hope to see you in Napa prior to the 2011 NADA Convention.

Brian