I'm looking forward to sharing with progressive dealers my latest research and strategies for automotive search engine optimization.  Google has been making so many changes to how search engine result pages (SERP) are displayed that it is hard to know what is important and what is just fluff.  

The job of an Automotive SEO strategist is not getting any easier!

DSES Workshop on Search Marketing

On Monday October 10th at 1:30 PM I will be conducting an exclusive workshop at the 2011 DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES) and sharing my findings.  The title of my DSES workshop is:

"The Most Important Ranking Factors for Your Dealership in 2012".

You'll be surprised what are the most important ranking factors for today's digital marketing terrain. The content of my workshop is a perfect match for DSES.  The conference attracts the leaders in the field of social media, digital marketing, SEO, SEM, ecommerce, and sales training who share the latest trends and strategies for success.

DSES is an intimate conference with just the right balance of workshops, keynotes, and panel discussions.  Jared Hamilton has done an excellent job of attracting national experts in and outside the automotive industry to inspire dealers to greater success in the year ahead.

I strongly encourage you to join me in Las Vegas by registering today for DSES.  The registration link can be found at: http://drivingsalesexecutivesummit.com/2011_registration/

If you register by August 31st you can save on registration costs.  It's a steal at $699 but that rate is only good till the end of August!

Las Vegas Automotive Conferences

This year DSES is positioned between two veteran conferences, DD11 and JD Powers.  I know that if you attended all three conferences you would be out of the office 10 days, so pick wisely.  The dates for all the Las Vegas shows in October are as follows:

• DD11 - October 5-7th 
• DSES - October 9-11th
• JD Powers - October 12-13th

If you have not attended DSES in the past, this is the year to invest in a new experience that stands alone in value and design.  If you want a new approach to digital marketing and social media, you will get the "meat" at the DSES Conference.   Just check out the lineup of keynote speakers on this page: http://drivingsalesexecutivesummit.com/2011_speakers/

Automotive Website Awards

Another perk at traveling out to Las Vegas this year will be the opportunity to attend the 2011 Automotive Website Awards ceremony which is being held at Ceasars Casino on Friday Night October 7th at 6:00 pm.

The awards recognize the best companies that provide website platforms and digital marketing prpducts for car dealers.  Come out and be the first to congratulate the winners.

You can reserve your tickets to attend the awards ceremony and VIP cocktail reception by visiting the official awards website at:  http://www.automotivewebsiteawards.com.  

Tickets are limited, so if you will be in Las Vegas on the 7th, reserve your tickets now.

See you in October!

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

I'm looking forward to sharing with progressive dealers my latest research and strategies for automotive search engine optimization.  Google has been making so many changes to how search engine result pages (SERP) are displayed that it is hard to know what is important and what is just fluff.  

The job of an Automotive SEO strategist is not getting any easier!

DSES Workshop on Search Marketing

On Monday October 10th at 1:30 PM I will be conducting an exclusive workshop at the 2011 DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES) and sharing my findings.  The title of my DSES workshop is:

"The Most Important Ranking Factors for Your Dealership in 2012".

You'll be surprised what are the most important ranking factors for today's digital marketing terrain. The content of my workshop is a perfect match for DSES.  The conference attracts the leaders in the field of social media, digital marketing, SEO, SEM, ecommerce, and sales training who share the latest trends and strategies for success.

DSES is an intimate conference with just the right balance of workshops, keynotes, and panel discussions.  Jared Hamilton has done an excellent job of attracting national experts in and outside the automotive industry to inspire dealers to greater success in the year ahead.

I strongly encourage you to join me in Las Vegas by registering today for DSES.  The registration link can be found at: http://drivingsalesexecutivesummit.com/2011_registration/

If you register by August 31st you can save on registration costs.  It's a steal at $699 but that rate is only good till the end of August!

Las Vegas Automotive Conferences

This year DSES is positioned between two veteran conferences, DD11 and JD Powers.  I know that if you attended all three conferences you would be out of the office 10 days, so pick wisely.  The dates for all the Las Vegas shows in October are as follows:

• DD11 - October 5-7th 
• DSES - October 9-11th
• JD Powers - October 12-13th

If you have not attended DSES in the past, this is the year to invest in a new experience that stands alone in value and design.  If you want a new approach to digital marketing and social media, you will get the "meat" at the DSES Conference.   Just check out the lineup of keynote speakers on this page: http://drivingsalesexecutivesummit.com/2011_speakers/

Automotive Website Awards

Another perk at traveling out to Las Vegas this year will be the opportunity to attend the 2011 Automotive Website Awards ceremony which is being held at Ceasars Casino on Friday Night October 7th at 6:00 pm.

The awards recognize the best companies that provide website platforms and digital marketing prpducts for car dealers.  Come out and be the first to congratulate the winners.

You can reserve your tickets to attend the awards ceremony and VIP cocktail reception by visiting the official awards website at:  http://www.automotivewebsiteawards.com.  

Tickets are limited, so if you will be in Las Vegas on the 7th, reserve your tickets now.

See you in October!

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

Car dealers have an increasingly challenging task ahead of them as they have to continue to evaluate the latest digital advertising platforms, services, and related technology.

It is not uncommon for dealer principals to say that they are “sticking to what worked in the past” because they have no patience and specific strategy as they sort through the claims of automotive advertising partners.

Automotive Inventory Syndication & Marketing

PCG has created a whitepaper that will be released today at the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp in Orlando and it will be available for download at http://www.automotive-advertising.net.  Also keep in mind that the keynote speakers will be live broadcast on www.DrivingSalesTV.com starting at 7:30 pm tonight.

The PCG whitepaper is entitled "Evaluating Automotive Inventory Advertising Services" and its focus is on inventory syndication, advertising, and how to measure the ROI of these strategies.

Since many car dealers use platforms such as Autotrader.com, Cars.com, UsedCars.com, EveryCarListed.com, and Craigslist this is an important discussion on how to evaluate success with third party advertising strategies.

The whitepaper will be a living document. It will be revised periodically to include new entrants into the inventory advertising and syndication business. It will also be revised from data and commentary provided by the automotive community.

Consider the initial release on April 16, 2011 a starting point for many viewpoints and related discussions on dealer inventory advertising platforms and third party leads.

The goal of this whitepaper is to publish datasets and strategies to compare and contrast automotive advertising platforms. This information contained in this report will provide dealers with new ideas on how to evaluate their advertising and syndication choices.

As this document grows we will also include case study data from dealers who offer to share their results.

Dealer Centricity Scores Introduced

In addition to providing data on pricing models and lead quality we will also take a look at the way in which cars are displayed on the Internet. We will introduce Dealer Centricity Scores (DCS) as a measure of how many ads (potential brand leaks) are displayed on Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP).

We will also introduce one method of evaluating the ROI of popular inventory syndication platforms using a Cost Per Vehicle Detail Page Views formula created by Dennis Galbraith.

This approach is one way that Dennis suggests that a dealer can evaluate the benefits of upgrading from a basic advertising package to a premium package.

So if you would like to download the whitepaper, it will be available after 5:30 pm on April 16, 2011. After you have time to read the document, add your comments and suggestions how this whitepaper can be enhanced.

Sharing Your Data For Future Updates

If you would like to share data from your dealership to be added to future versions of the whitepaper, send me an email to: brian@pcgdigitalmarketing.com. We would love to get actual dealer data from ALL platforms listed in the whitepaper.

Car dealers have an increasingly challenging task ahead of them as they have to continue to evaluate the latest digital advertising platforms, services, and related technology.

It is not uncommon for dealer principals to say that they are “sticking to what worked in the past” because they have no patience and specific strategy as they sort through the claims of automotive advertising partners.

Automotive Inventory Syndication & Marketing

PCG has created a whitepaper that will be released today at the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp in Orlando and it will be available for download at http://www.automotive-advertising.net.  Also keep in mind that the keynote speakers will be live broadcast on www.DrivingSalesTV.com starting at 7:30 pm tonight.

The PCG whitepaper is entitled "Evaluating Automotive Inventory Advertising Services" and its focus is on inventory syndication, advertising, and how to measure the ROI of these strategies.

Since many car dealers use platforms such as Autotrader.com, Cars.com, UsedCars.com, EveryCarListed.com, and Craigslist this is an important discussion on how to evaluate success with third party advertising strategies.

The whitepaper will be a living document. It will be revised periodically to include new entrants into the inventory advertising and syndication business. It will also be revised from data and commentary provided by the automotive community.

Consider the initial release on April 16, 2011 a starting point for many viewpoints and related discussions on dealer inventory advertising platforms and third party leads.

The goal of this whitepaper is to publish datasets and strategies to compare and contrast automotive advertising platforms. This information contained in this report will provide dealers with new ideas on how to evaluate their advertising and syndication choices.

As this document grows we will also include case study data from dealers who offer to share their results.

Dealer Centricity Scores Introduced

In addition to providing data on pricing models and lead quality we will also take a look at the way in which cars are displayed on the Internet. We will introduce Dealer Centricity Scores (DCS) as a measure of how many ads (potential brand leaks) are displayed on Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP).

We will also introduce one method of evaluating the ROI of popular inventory syndication platforms using a Cost Per Vehicle Detail Page Views formula created by Dennis Galbraith.

This approach is one way that Dennis suggests that a dealer can evaluate the benefits of upgrading from a basic advertising package to a premium package.

So if you would like to download the whitepaper, it will be available after 5:30 pm on April 16, 2011. After you have time to read the document, add your comments and suggestions how this whitepaper can be enhanced.

Sharing Your Data For Future Updates

If you would like to share data from your dealership to be added to future versions of the whitepaper, send me an email to: brian@pcgdigitalmarketing.com. We would love to get actual dealer data from ALL platforms listed in the whitepaper.

One way to build the next generation of leaders and success stories is to start a reading program at your dealership.  At the start of this year I made a commitment to read a book a week and it has been the best decision I made for my personal growth.

Great books will challenge your team to think outside of their direct work experience and see new opportunities for growth, change, and excellence.    Your reading program can be divided into categories like personal growth, sales, time management,  or organizational leadership.

Books are an inexpensive way to grow your existing investment in your team.   So before I list all most favorite books that can assist your team to grow, can you list 5 books that would help members of this community.  

When you list a book, add a quick comment which category the book would fall into like sales, marketing, etc.  It will be great to compile a DrivingSales.com recommend book list and have members add their feedback on specific books after they read them.

Two books that dealership employees can start reading today is "The Go-Giver" by Bob Burg and John David Mann and "Gravitational Marketing' by Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller.  The authors of these two books will be speaking at the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp April 16-18th in Orlando.

For vendors in the community, I strongly recommend that you read "Getting Naked" since this short book will change the way you interact with car dealers.

So, what are your top 5 recommendations for book this community should read?

One way to build the next generation of leaders and success stories is to start a reading program at your dealership.  At the start of this year I made a commitment to read a book a week and it has been the best decision I made for my personal growth.

Great books will challenge your team to think outside of their direct work experience and see new opportunities for growth, change, and excellence.    Your reading program can be divided into categories like personal growth, sales, time management,  or organizational leadership.

Books are an inexpensive way to grow your existing investment in your team.   So before I list all most favorite books that can assist your team to grow, can you list 5 books that would help members of this community.  

When you list a book, add a quick comment which category the book would fall into like sales, marketing, etc.  It will be great to compile a DrivingSales.com recommend book list and have members add their feedback on specific books after they read them.

Two books that dealership employees can start reading today is "The Go-Giver" by Bob Burg and John David Mann and "Gravitational Marketing' by Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller.  The authors of these two books will be speaking at the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp April 16-18th in Orlando.

For vendors in the community, I strongly recommend that you read "Getting Naked" since this short book will change the way you interact with car dealers.

So, what are your top 5 recommendations for book this community should read?

Did you know that your local competitor just got smarter? You thought that they were behind the ball with digital marketing, social media, and leveraging the Internet but that was yesterday’s news.

Your local competitor did wake up. They realized that they were behind and took action. Good entrepreneurs are not perfect but when they realize that they are losing market share and wake up they can be a fierce competitor once again.

If I were you, I would be looking over my shoulder because your competitor is using their recent knowledge to mount an attack.

Your competitor attended a 20-group meeting, a social media conference, or a digital marketing workshop, and the lights went on. You were too busy to notice this change so I thought I would send a warning shot over the bow.

Keep Working On Last Year's Ideas

I was pleased to know that you got started with social media and digital marketing a few years ago and had an edge in your local market. You exploited that edge and basked in the sun of your success. Congratulations.

You were rewarded with greater sales, website traffic, and market share. Over the past few years you have been busy implementing the things that you learned by engaging in the educational opportunities offered by this industry.

In fact, I’ve noticed that you have been so intent on implementing what you learned you have been too busy to attend any new workshops in the past year. Is it still true that you got so many ideas in 2009 and 2010 that you have decided to skip attending conference this year?

Why pile on more ideas when you haven’t had a chance to implement those from 2009 right?

Your Competitor Wants False Confidence

To paraphrase a famous business book, while you have been busy implementing last years’ digital marketing strategies “the Cheese has moved again”.

Do you need an example?

Today being on Google Page One is not as important as being on Google Page with strong positive review stars. If you are one Page One with bad reviews, your advertising budget is helping to direct more business to your competitors.

If you haven’t focused on a strong IRM process, much of your Automotive SEO work may be actually hurting more than helping your online sales.

Where Are You?

Is this scenario describing your dealership?

• Are you the incumbent that has decided to attend conference every other year?
• Are you the dealership that recently woke-up and engaged?
• Are you the dealer who wants to engage but needs assistance creating a competitive digital marketing strategy?

The dealers who want to remain relevant cannot afford to skip a year of education. The industry is moving faster that most can comprehend yet I hear so many excuses why dealers think they can take a break from learning.

• “I’ve been to that event last year”
• “I can’t take time out of the office.”
• “The speakers and topics are always the same”
• “I’m the only person in my market that gets it.”

The reality is that the best conferences have not only new topics but also important revisions to existing strategies that you are using.

Two years ago little data on consumer behavior on dealer mobile websites was being shared, today we have a wealth of data to discuss.

Two years ago the conversation on reputation management was just starting and today the case studies on the impact of online reviews is chilling.

Google has recently changed their standards for organic search rankings and many dealers were penalized for poor link building processes.

Education Is A Continuous Investment

Since your competitors are heading to conferences, workshops, and online learning opportunities based on the most relevant topics for 2011 I thought you would want to reconsider your lack of action.

You have the power to remain ahead of your competition and find where the cheese has been moved. What will you do?

A suggestion:

I hope to see you in Orlando for starters at the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp, April 16-18th. Lock in a $100 discount off Boot Camp Registration by taking advantage of this special registration link.

Did you know that your local competitor just got smarter? You thought that they were behind the ball with digital marketing, social media, and leveraging the Internet but that was yesterday’s news.

Your local competitor did wake up. They realized that they were behind and took action. Good entrepreneurs are not perfect but when they realize that they are losing market share and wake up they can be a fierce competitor once again.

If I were you, I would be looking over my shoulder because your competitor is using their recent knowledge to mount an attack.

Your competitor attended a 20-group meeting, a social media conference, or a digital marketing workshop, and the lights went on. You were too busy to notice this change so I thought I would send a warning shot over the bow.

Keep Working On Last Year's Ideas

I was pleased to know that you got started with social media and digital marketing a few years ago and had an edge in your local market. You exploited that edge and basked in the sun of your success. Congratulations.

You were rewarded with greater sales, website traffic, and market share. Over the past few years you have been busy implementing the things that you learned by engaging in the educational opportunities offered by this industry.

In fact, I’ve noticed that you have been so intent on implementing what you learned you have been too busy to attend any new workshops in the past year. Is it still true that you got so many ideas in 2009 and 2010 that you have decided to skip attending conference this year?

Why pile on more ideas when you haven’t had a chance to implement those from 2009 right?

Your Competitor Wants False Confidence

To paraphrase a famous business book, while you have been busy implementing last years’ digital marketing strategies “the Cheese has moved again”.

Do you need an example?

Today being on Google Page One is not as important as being on Google Page with strong positive review stars. If you are one Page One with bad reviews, your advertising budget is helping to direct more business to your competitors.

If you haven’t focused on a strong IRM process, much of your Automotive SEO work may be actually hurting more than helping your online sales.

Where Are You?

Is this scenario describing your dealership?

• Are you the incumbent that has decided to attend conference every other year?
• Are you the dealership that recently woke-up and engaged?
• Are you the dealer who wants to engage but needs assistance creating a competitive digital marketing strategy?

The dealers who want to remain relevant cannot afford to skip a year of education. The industry is moving faster that most can comprehend yet I hear so many excuses why dealers think they can take a break from learning.

• “I’ve been to that event last year”
• “I can’t take time out of the office.”
• “The speakers and topics are always the same”
• “I’m the only person in my market that gets it.”

The reality is that the best conferences have not only new topics but also important revisions to existing strategies that you are using.

Two years ago little data on consumer behavior on dealer mobile websites was being shared, today we have a wealth of data to discuss.

Two years ago the conversation on reputation management was just starting and today the case studies on the impact of online reviews is chilling.

Google has recently changed their standards for organic search rankings and many dealers were penalized for poor link building processes.

Education Is A Continuous Investment

Since your competitors are heading to conferences, workshops, and online learning opportunities based on the most relevant topics for 2011 I thought you would want to reconsider your lack of action.

You have the power to remain ahead of your competition and find where the cheese has been moved. What will you do?

A suggestion:

I hope to see you in Orlando for starters at the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp, April 16-18th. Lock in a $100 discount off Boot Camp Registration by taking advantage of this special registration link.

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

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

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

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

Capital Ford in Regina

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CarDealerWiki in Competitive Markets

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

Creating an Account on CarDealerWiki

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

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

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

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

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

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

Capital Ford in Regina

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CarDealerWiki in Competitive Markets

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

Creating an Account on CarDealerWiki

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

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