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?

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

This past week there was a buzz about a patent that was awarded to Google that is being referred to as the Reasonable Surfer Patent. The specifics of the patent reveal that it was filed 6 years ago and awarded in May 2010.

The first thing I questioned was the relevance of the patent since so much has changed in the past 6 years in search. The patent data include this text:

• Ranking documents based on user behavior and/or feature data
• Invented by Jeffrey A. Dean, Corin Anderson and Alexis Battle
• Assigned to Google Inc.
• United States Patent 7,716,225
• Granted May 11, 2010
• Filed: June 17, 2004

SEO pundits have differing opinions on the specific value of this patent but to save you the internal banter, I will try to distill what I think is most important. This patent is focused on how Google will “weight” links on a web page.

The weighting may include predicting what a consumer would most likely click on a web page. So a text link in the first paragraph of a blog article, with interesting anchor text, could have more “weight” than a link in the bottom page footer.

Links are critical in the overall visibility of any website and this patent is part of that discussion. The discussion that has surfaced pertains to where is the best place for links on a page and how do different types of links “rate” with Google.

For example, a link from the home page of Automotive News to any dealer’s website is a great link to have since that site is a recognized authority in the automotive industry. This link would have more “weight” than a link from a brand new microsite or a friends landscaping website.

Building Inbound Links

Car dealers who have launched effective off-site SEO campaigns that produce high quality inbound links from well ranked websites normally have an edge over their competition with all other things considered equal. However, it is difficult for dealers to independently create hundreds or thousands of high quality links to their websites.

Dealers can obtain high quality links from press releases, social communities, car forums, article syndication, document publishing portals and business directories. Increasing links is like an annuity of good will and create a digital marketing foundation.

If you have been considering increasing the links to your website, you should understand some of the basics of link building. Some of the questions you may have are:

• How many links do I have directed to my website?
• What is a good link?
• Where can I find places to create links back to my site?
• Where should that link be located?
• Are image links better than text links?

To find the number of inbound links pointing to your website, and to make it easy for anyone to get a correct count, I recommend that you go to www.websitegrader.com . Type in your domain name and then click on the “Generate Report” button.

The free report and analysis includes the number of “inbound links”. While you have the report, take a look at the data and one thing to spot is when your domain is going to expire. If it's less than two years, renew it today. Also, if your score is under 70/100, it would be a good time to give an SEO advisor a call.

Dealers who want to be competitive in online search should seek to have a diverse set of high quality sites linking to their website. I bring this up because often I see hundreds of links coming from only one website and so the number of links masks the problem of low diversity.

The total recommended links will vary but I would like to see over 1,000 links to the dealer’s home page and hundreds of links to key inside web pages like service, parts, and used cars. A good link is one that comes from a reputable website that has real content, real visitor activity and relevance to your business. The site can also be unrelated to your business but one that has a high Google PageRank. There are many link building scams on the market, so be careful that you don’t waste your money.

The Reasonable Surfer Patent emphasizes what I have been recommending for years. Content based SEO strategies that include blogs, press releases, article publishing, posting articles on technical forums and social communities can deliver high quality links. The key is to place that link in such a way that enhances the page and that links to the right page on your dealer website.

An example would be posting an article, outside of your website, about the different types of Nissan extended warranty plans available to a consumer. In the article you would place links to the extended warranty page on your dealer website or even Nissan brochures on your website. Car dealers who have been blogging for years or participating in automotive forums already know this.

How Many Links Do You Have?

Do you know how many links are pointing to your website? How about your competitor’s website? You can see inbound links on any website by going to Yahoo and typing in your competitor’s domain name or your domain name with the “link” parameter.

For example, if you wanted to see where ABC Ford (www.abcford.com) was building links from you would go to Yahoo and type in the search box:

link:www.abcford.com

No spaces. This will bring up the Yahoo Site Explorer and it will show you the first 1,000 inbound links to any website. There is a debate whether a text link will not be as strong as an image that is linked because a “surfer” may be more likely to click on a photo or banner that is above the fold.

There is no uniform agreement on this matter. Should you bold the text anchor? Should you use larger fonts for the anchor text? That is where the art of link building and testing comes into play. What is most uniformly agreed is that a list of links in a sidebar or footer will not be as strong as links inside an article.

Of course I am talking about a well written article with links on anchor text that point to relevant pages on a dealer’s website.

If you want to target high value keywords that you want your website to appear on Google Page One, then a combination of good on-site content and a few hundred links from external sites may be just what you need. The strategy for off-site links will be to use the keyword in content and hyperlink that keyword to an appropriate page on your website. It’s a two part strategy that must be in place to win.

If your keyword goal is very competitive you will most likely need thousands of links. The point is that over time, you can compete and win against your local competitors if you have a strong content writing and off-site link building strategy..

This past week there was a buzz about a patent that was awarded to Google that is being referred to as the Reasonable Surfer Patent. The specifics of the patent reveal that it was filed 6 years ago and awarded in May 2010.

The first thing I questioned was the relevance of the patent since so much has changed in the past 6 years in search. The patent data include this text:

• Ranking documents based on user behavior and/or feature data
• Invented by Jeffrey A. Dean, Corin Anderson and Alexis Battle
• Assigned to Google Inc.
• United States Patent 7,716,225
• Granted May 11, 2010
• Filed: June 17, 2004

SEO pundits have differing opinions on the specific value of this patent but to save you the internal banter, I will try to distill what I think is most important. This patent is focused on how Google will “weight” links on a web page.

The weighting may include predicting what a consumer would most likely click on a web page. So a text link in the first paragraph of a blog article, with interesting anchor text, could have more “weight” than a link in the bottom page footer.

Links are critical in the overall visibility of any website and this patent is part of that discussion. The discussion that has surfaced pertains to where is the best place for links on a page and how do different types of links “rate” with Google.

For example, a link from the home page of Automotive News to any dealer’s website is a great link to have since that site is a recognized authority in the automotive industry. This link would have more “weight” than a link from a brand new microsite or a friends landscaping website.

Building Inbound Links

Car dealers who have launched effective off-site SEO campaigns that produce high quality inbound links from well ranked websites normally have an edge over their competition with all other things considered equal. However, it is difficult for dealers to independently create hundreds or thousands of high quality links to their websites.

Dealers can obtain high quality links from press releases, social communities, car forums, article syndication, document publishing portals and business directories. Increasing links is like an annuity of good will and create a digital marketing foundation.

If you have been considering increasing the links to your website, you should understand some of the basics of link building. Some of the questions you may have are:

• How many links do I have directed to my website?
• What is a good link?
• Where can I find places to create links back to my site?
• Where should that link be located?
• Are image links better than text links?

To find the number of inbound links pointing to your website, and to make it easy for anyone to get a correct count, I recommend that you go to www.websitegrader.com . Type in your domain name and then click on the “Generate Report” button.

The free report and analysis includes the number of “inbound links”. While you have the report, take a look at the data and one thing to spot is when your domain is going to expire. If it's less than two years, renew it today. Also, if your score is under 70/100, it would be a good time to give an SEO advisor a call.

Dealers who want to be competitive in online search should seek to have a diverse set of high quality sites linking to their website. I bring this up because often I see hundreds of links coming from only one website and so the number of links masks the problem of low diversity.

The total recommended links will vary but I would like to see over 1,000 links to the dealer’s home page and hundreds of links to key inside web pages like service, parts, and used cars. A good link is one that comes from a reputable website that has real content, real visitor activity and relevance to your business. The site can also be unrelated to your business but one that has a high Google PageRank. There are many link building scams on the market, so be careful that you don’t waste your money.

The Reasonable Surfer Patent emphasizes what I have been recommending for years. Content based SEO strategies that include blogs, press releases, article publishing, posting articles on technical forums and social communities can deliver high quality links. The key is to place that link in such a way that enhances the page and that links to the right page on your dealer website.

An example would be posting an article, outside of your website, about the different types of Nissan extended warranty plans available to a consumer. In the article you would place links to the extended warranty page on your dealer website or even Nissan brochures on your website. Car dealers who have been blogging for years or participating in automotive forums already know this.

How Many Links Do You Have?

Do you know how many links are pointing to your website? How about your competitor’s website? You can see inbound links on any website by going to Yahoo and typing in your competitor’s domain name or your domain name with the “link” parameter.

For example, if you wanted to see where ABC Ford (www.abcford.com) was building links from you would go to Yahoo and type in the search box:

link:www.abcford.com

No spaces. This will bring up the Yahoo Site Explorer and it will show you the first 1,000 inbound links to any website. There is a debate whether a text link will not be as strong as an image that is linked because a “surfer” may be more likely to click on a photo or banner that is above the fold.

There is no uniform agreement on this matter. Should you bold the text anchor? Should you use larger fonts for the anchor text? That is where the art of link building and testing comes into play. What is most uniformly agreed is that a list of links in a sidebar or footer will not be as strong as links inside an article.

Of course I am talking about a well written article with links on anchor text that point to relevant pages on a dealer’s website.

If you want to target high value keywords that you want your website to appear on Google Page One, then a combination of good on-site content and a few hundred links from external sites may be just what you need. The strategy for off-site links will be to use the keyword in content and hyperlink that keyword to an appropriate page on your website. It’s a two part strategy that must be in place to win.

If your keyword goal is very competitive you will most likely need thousands of links. The point is that over time, you can compete and win against your local competitors if you have a strong content writing and off-site link building strategy..

Google Places, formerly called Google Maps, has a new feature that allows to you add customized, time sensitive text on your business detail page. For the average car dealer, consumers will view your detail page on Google Maps over 500 times a month.

If that is the case, then why not add a personalized "post" that you change each month to match your current sales promotions and incentives. You can only type in 160 characters but the placement of the text is locate perfectly for a consumer to see.

Login to Google Places

To see where you make these posts, login to Google Places and click on your store listing. The page will look something like this:

In the upper right hand corner, you will see a new area to add a post to your comments that will appear on your Google Maps page for up to 30 days. Here is a close-up:

Once you create the call to action message and click on the Post button, it will go live on your Google Maps listing. You can get creative here but keep in mind that your competition probably is unaware of this feature so use it to your advantage.

You can add a message about being the highest rated dealer in the area or that you have the best incentives to purchase at your dealership. You don't have alot of room so use it wisely.

Do you have some examples of what you plan to add with a post on your maps page?

Share them here and add a comment below.

Google Places, formerly called Google Maps, has a new feature that allows to you add customized, time sensitive text on your business detail page. For the average car dealer, consumers will view your detail page on Google Maps over 500 times a month.

If that is the case, then why not add a personalized "post" that you change each month to match your current sales promotions and incentives. You can only type in 160 characters but the placement of the text is locate perfectly for a consumer to see.

Login to Google Places

To see where you make these posts, login to Google Places and click on your store listing. The page will look something like this:

In the upper right hand corner, you will see a new area to add a post to your comments that will appear on your Google Maps page for up to 30 days. Here is a close-up:

Once you create the call to action message and click on the Post button, it will go live on your Google Maps listing. You can get creative here but keep in mind that your competition probably is unaware of this feature so use it to your advantage.

You can add a message about being the highest rated dealer in the area or that you have the best incentives to purchase at your dealership. You don't have alot of room so use it wisely.

Do you have some examples of what you plan to add with a post on your maps page?

Share them here and add a comment below.