There are many passionate dealership employees that attend conferences, read books, develop a strategy, and them implement it perfectly.

One such shining star in Rob Fontano from John Marazzi Nissan. There have been many articles on this community website about Automotive SEO but few have been focused on Conquest Marketing using Search Engine Optimization strategies.

Rob Fontano is one of the few people who could be called The King of Conquest Marketing. Rob has published hundreds of videos that are optimized on competing brands in his local market.

Ft Myers Toyota Camry

Need an example? Go to Google and type in "Ft Myers Toyota Camry" and this is what you will see:

You will see that there is a local Toyota dealer in Ft Myers and right under their website are two videos that challenge consumers to consider purchasing a Nissan Altima instead of the Toyota Camry. Are people clicking on this video? See the view counter on the first video:

Toyota Camry Naples

How about in John Marazzi Nissan's own home town of Naples Florida. Yes, there is a Toyota Dealer in Naples and they are not getting a break. Type into Google: "Toyota Camry Naples" and you will see:

Take a minute to watch this video on www.metacafe.com. (Watch Video) Rob does a great job of talking to the consumer and the videos are being watched!

This one video on MetaCafe was watched over 800 times. Videos are just one way to implement a conquest search marketing strategy but Rob does an outstanding job with video.

Join Rob's Video Marketing Workshop

If you have not started a conquest marketing strategy, consider implementing one since with SEO it is very low cost. If you would like to learn more about Rob's strategy, he will be conducting a 2 hour technology workshop at the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp, April 16-18th in Orlando.

The workshop is sponsored by automotive video experts Car-Mercial. Rob will be candidly sharing his strategy, process, and the results of his video marketing investments. I'm really looking forward to his workshop. Listen to what Rob has to say about his workshop:

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.

When Bob Burg, coauthor of The International Phenomenon, “The Go-Giver” speaks of giving, he’s talking about constantly and consistently providing value to others, and touching lots of lives with that exceptional value.

In fact, that’s the only way one can make money in a free-enterprise based society. Thus, shifting your focus from “getting to giving” is not only a nice way to do business, but a very financially profitable way, as well.

PCG Digital Marketing is proud to announce that Bob Burg will be delivering the Keynote address on Sunday April 17th at the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp.

Bob's message:

"A Counter-intuitive Way To Obtain High-Quality Referrals"

Spend the morning with Bob you’ll learn how to genuinely and authentically accelerate your ability to connect with new people and build the trust that is essential in life and business!

In fact, Bob’s mantra is: “All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those automotive dealers they know, like and trust.”

During this powerful morning program you will learn the philosophy at the heart of The Go-Giver, embraced by so many of today’s top producers and leaders.

You’ll learn how to quickly and easily build a prospecting and referral “Machine” to continuously create more sales than you ever dreamed possible! You will also learn the philosophy at the heart of The Go-Giver embraced by so many of today’s top producers and leaders, including the principle behind The Law of Influence – perhaps the biggest factor of all in terms of success.

In this information-packed morning session, you’ll learn how to:

• Quickly cultivate new prospects — whether or not you have ANY existing contacts
• Dramatically increase your business without spending more time or money
• Instantly connect via the “One Key Question” that will set you apart from the rest
• Develop an Army of “Personal Walking Ambassadors”
• Model the one SECRET all superstar salespeople use to get to the top

Click to register while space is available:

Click Here To Register Today

Learn More About Bob

If you would like to learn more about Bob Burg, visit his website at www.burg.com .

Request the first chapter of three of Bob's best selling books and he'll send them to you for free. This way you can get to know Bob before he speaks at the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp.

You can also watch videos of Bob speaking or read his blog which contains valuable insights for anyone who seeks to live a world class life. You can also connect with Bob on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Automotive Professionals Enthusiastically Praise Bob's Message

We are so pleased to have Bob Burg as part of the Boot Camp Experience. Car dealers need fresh ideas on leadership, sales, and most importantly how to connect with consumers.

Car dealers can benefit from innovation in technology but they can also benefit equally as well from new strategies to serve their customers and prospects.

If you are coming to Boot Camp to take your dealership to the next level, Bob Burg's keynote presentation will provide the strategy and case studies to show you how to create Endless Referrals, the Go-Giver way!

Here is what other car dealers have said about Bob's strategy:

“After reading Endless Referrals, never again will any salesperson in your dealership have to depend on ‘ups.’ Instead they can meet people wherever they go and form friendships and relationships that create a steady stream of referrals. Burg has put together a primer for developing, what he calls, personal walking ambassadors. And, it works!”

-Sam S. Edelsbert,  Mercedes-Benz Salesperson

“Thanks for the terrific program at our dealership. I believe the tools you provided for us have the power to transform the earning potential of our team. You presented them with proven principles that empowered them to take control of their own destinies. You didn’t just talk about selling cars. Instead, you gave our team winning approaches for developing and leveraging relationships with people in the local marketplace. This cultivates people wanting to do business with them directly, as well as people who refer others whether or not they themselves are in the market for a car. As you called it, they are developing ‘Personal Walking Ambassadors.’”

What you brought to the battle, Bob, was very hard-hitting, easy-to-apply ‘how-to’ information. You provided exact, simple language for situations, like the one you gave us regarding asking for referrals. So simple, yet no one I’ve seen actually does it. This one principle-based tactic could account for a huge increase in referral business, all by itself.

While not everyone applies the great information our company provides for them through excellent teachers like yourself, I am aware of several who are doing so now and already seeing results. It works that fast! These individuals are not only increasing their own success quotient, they are also becoming the building blocks that we can use to improve our overall corporate performance.

Please consider this my enthusiastic endorsement for any dealership or family of dealerships that want to significantly lower turnover and increase repeat and referral buyers in order to dramatically increase both their sales and the resulting profits as well!

- Mark Barton Former General Sales Manager JM Lexus #1 Lexus Dealer in the World

I just finished conducting a 20 Group workshop on digital marketing strategies and all the the dealers in the room had incomplete or inaccurate Google Places data. What was also interesting was that no dealers in the group had more than 15 reviews posted on Google Places.

Once I showed the dealers how easy it was to fix their profiles and setup a process to get customers to post reviews, they were very thankful. They were not aware of the importance of Google Places but now they do so and they can inspect their listings. Knowledge is power.

From this experience, I decided to remind all members of this community to run through this checklist and make sure that you are leveraging the full potential of Google Places. Let me know what you found when you looked at your Places page, and share with the community if this checklist helped you.

The Best Free Advertising Resource For Dealers

Google Places is the best free automotive advertising resource for car dealers to increase online visibility, referral website traffic, and phone calls. Despite this opportunity, many dealers have not completed and optimized their Google Place data.

When you login into your Google Places Dashboard account it will tell you what percentage complete your data is currently. Make sure you edit your profile to achieve a 100% complete status.

Google Places Optimization (GPO) however goes further than having your profile data 100% complete. You also want to optimize the consumer experience and enhance your brand message when consumers read your page. You also want to increase the opportunity to get MORE clicks to your Places Page than local competitors.

Google Places Checklist

Use this checklist to ensure that you have your Google Places listing optimized:

1. Enter your business name, address, and phone number so that it matches the primary information associated with the local phone company and your OEM website. Do not use a tracking number unless all OEM listings and all business directories are using this number.
2. Make sure that you enter your website address and test the link. You would be surprised to see how many listings still have http://maps.google.com or the OEM website.
3. Use all five “business category” tags, which include your OEM brand and the category “Used Car Dealer”. For example, if you are a Toyota dealer, make sure you pick "Toyota Dealer" as one of your 5 categories.
4. Complete the “Additional Information” section of the profile to include brands of goods that you sell and related services that include: tires, oil change, brakes, transmission service, and of course used cars.
5. Load 10 photos and stay away from photos of your building. Photos should show happy customers taking delivery of a car, your work in the community, OEM awards, or any brand enhancing images. Photos that will make people smile! Photos of your building will not help to engage your audience.
6. Load 5 videos and we recommend that three videos be actual customer testimonials. The remaining two videos can be a welcome to the dealership message and the final video to invite consumers to service their car at your dealership.
7. Set your “Service Area” beyond the default range of a 20-mile radius around your store location. For most dealers the range can be comfortably increased to 50 miles. Dealers near bodies of water can create a custom shape for their service area. If you need help, you can refer to this article I wrote on custom service areas.
8. Setup a process to get your customers to post reviews directly to Google Places. Your goal should be to get at least 30 reviews a month to be posted directly on Google Places. The Google Places App can help you easily achieve this goal. Between sales and service there are hundreds of customers that are completely satisfied with your dealership so ask them!
9. Invest $25 a month to enhance your Google Places listing with a Google Tag. This yellow highlighted graphic can advertise your monthly specials. Also, set a process to update your specials each month on Google Places because they will automatically expire in 30 days.
10. Once your have a strong number of positive reviews on Google Places, consider spending money to advertise your high marks from consumers using Google Boost. Let your customers speak for you and drive more traffic to your website.

The good news is that once all of these tips are implemented, you can track the increase in impressions, clicks, and activity using Google Places activity reports. So login to your Google Places account and run through this checklist today.

I'll be sharing more ways for car dealers to leverage free online advertising tools and search optimization strategies at the 2nd Annual Automotive Marketing Boot Camp in Orlando, April 16-18th.

I hope you can be part of that experience so get registered today. http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com

I recently had a demonstration of Dealer.com’s Social Relationship Manager (SRM), and I was so impressed that I decided to write a formal review of the product.

The raw potential of SRM should advance the widespread adoption of two software categories in the automotive sector. Social Relationship Manager is both a content syndication platform as well as a reputation management platform.

Dealer.com has fired the warning shot over the bow for stand-alone products that offer car dealers software dashboards to manage their online reputation or social media engagement. Customers of Dealer.com will find it hard to justify paying for third party reputation management, and social media publishing tools, since SRM integrates tightly with other powerful features of the Dealer.com platform for only $399 a month.

Content Publishing For Car Dealers

I’ve long been an advocate for content publishing strategies for online branding and marketing. In 2008 I stated at an automotive conference, “the most important hire next year for a car dealer will be a content writer”. That statement was true then and more urgent today; however, I was a few years ahead of the market.

Content syndication tools make it easier and more affordable for dealers to start their own content publishing strategy. In fact, at the NADA Convention in San Francisco, Digital Compass Marketing announced the release of Dealer Syndicator (DS), web-based software for members of the Automotive Advertising Network (AAN). Dealer Syndicator leverages content syndication technology over the thousands of websites in the AAN network. Dealer.com and the AAN are leading the way in this exciting new product category.

In 2011, content syndication software will be a fast growing segment for progressive dealers who have a strong digital marketing strategy.

Content Syndication

What is content syndication? Content syndication tools take exclusive and/or modified content and publish it across social media websites, microsites, or a private network of automotive sites.

Content syndicator tools simplify managing multiple logins across blogs, microsites, and social media sites. With a single login dealers can view, monitor, and post to dozens of websites.

In benchmarking tests conducted by PCG Digital Marketing, content syndication tools will increase the productivity of the internal or outsourced content writers 100-300%, depending on the task. This increase in productivity easily justifies the investment in syndication software for dealers with an active digital marketing strategy.

Content syndication tools use a single-login to allow car dealers to craft original content about dealership news, sales, promotions, incentives and post that content on multiple website platforms. Content syndication tools integrate and directly publish content into all popular blogging and social media websites that include Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, LinkedIn, Blogger, TypePad, Slideshare, Posterous, and dealer customized microsites using these blogging platforms.

SRM Is Platform Independent

Social Reputation Manager (SRM) is the first time Dealer.com has created a software platform that can be used by any dealer regardless of whether the dealer is a Dealer.com customer or not.

According to Dealer.com, “Social Relationship Manager is designed to Listen, Talk, and Connect with today’s social customers”. Platform independence is one of the reasons I was very excited about SRM because any dealer that wanted to double the productivity for their content writers could purchase SRM and amplify their investments.

Dealers who have not started to leverage content writing and social media now have another reason to get in the pool: SRM makes it easy and cost effective! The price/performance of SRM also makes it a strong product consideration for any dealer that may be using tools by Xteres.com or GoSo.com.

Social Relationship Manager in a Nutshell

Social Relationship Manager is a multi-function dashboard that summarizes the most important elements of a dealer’s online presence. From one login, dealership staff can review changes in online reviews, leverage OEM news on blogs and social media platforms, and amplify their brand across the Internet in a fraction of the time!

• · Monitor Your Dealership’s Brand and Reputation
• · Compile and Inspect All Dealer Ratings In One Location
• · Easily See How Your Online Rating Are Increasing or Decreasing
• · Escalate Consumer Reviews or Blog Posts That Needs A Response
• · Suggest and Syndicate Custom Content
• · Schedule and Auto-Deploy Content Over Weekends or Holidays
• · Leverage OEM Incentives and News For Content Ideas
• · Make Your Facebook Page More Engaging

Looking At The Social Relationship Manager Dashboard

In the photo above, you can see how the SRM dashboard would appear to dealership employees. The initial dashboard screen is divided into six regions, which summarize the current snapshot of time for the dealership. The top navigation menu provides fast access to the core features of SRM:

• Social Media
• Reputation Monitor
• Dealer Ratings
• Social Syndication

I found the product navigation menus and overall user interface intuitive. After a few minutes it was clear how to navigate the product, which should be encouraging to dealers. This is a sophisticated product that anyone can use with ease.

Content Syndication Strategies

Let’s start with one of my favorite topics; content syndication.

I’m a proponent of content and inventory syndication and the SRM allows dealers to monitor ANY RSS news feed and syndicate custom versions of that news across blogs, Facebook, and microsites. So if you are a Porsche dealer, you can monitor the news feed from the OEM and when you see an article that interests you, you can copy the content, customize it for your market, and post it to MULTIPLE consumer facing websites minutes.

In the example above, it will post the article to the dealer’s blog, Facebook, and Twitter. You can connect SRM to all your third party blogs, micro-blogs, and social media sites and track how much “content” is being published to these sites.

I don’t know about you, but dealers I speak with are OVERWHELMED with how many websites, logins, and reports they have to use to INSPECT their online content publishing strategy. SRM simplifies all that with a single activity based dashboard.

In the photo on the right, you can see that each social media site you connect to SRM will show all recent activity.

If you have custom WordPress, Blogger, or TypePad microsites, they all can be managed from this central SRM dashboard.

This is a significant time saver and the consolidated reporting makes it easy for a manager or dealership executive to inspect the productivity of internal or third party content writers.

The dashboard application for content syndication will provide dealers with a way to inspect the amount of work that is being done to promote their brand online.

If SRM is leveraging all the best content publishing platforms, then this will prove to be a winning productivity application for car dealers.

What's the Holy Grail for SRM?

Integration to publish content to other third party automotive content networks, like the AAN, to expand the reach and power that SRM offers to dealers.

Monitor Your Online Reputation With Ease

There are a handful of automotive specific software tools that have assisted dealers monitor their online reputation. Companies like Xteres.com and GoSo.com were first to market.

Good ideas never go unchallenged and leading automotive platform providers like Dealer.com, Cobalt, Dominion, and TK Carsites have measured the market and are broadcasting a clear message; Reputation Management and Social Media will be an integrated part of their software strategy.

SRM will result in significant marketing consolidation for stand-alone reputation management tools.

Why? SRM makes it easy for existing dealers to monitor their online reputation and it comes with additional functionality.

In the photos above, you can see that dealers will be presented with a live scrolling feed of news alerts, blog posts, and reviews pertaining to their dealership, or any other set of keywords they decide to follow.

Manual IRM Resources

Dealers who are using free manual monitoring tools like “Google Alerts” should know that Google Alerts does not accurately track commentary that is going on inside popular websites, reviews sites, and industry communities.

The data mining tools that are leveraged by Social Reputation Manager are innovative and very thorough. It was designed with the content writer from a car dealership in mind. Each piece of content found by SRM on the Internet is pre-marked based on logic to determine whether it is a positive or negative post.

Of course, these predicative grades can be overwritten and marked for follow-up or deletion. Why deletion? For some dealers they share a name like “Classic Chevrolet” with dealers in many different states. So posts brought into the review window can be deleted if they do not pertain to them.

By monitoring, reviewing, and scoring all activity properly, dealer principals can develop a very accurate picture of the online reputation scores. In fact, SRM provides scoring for both Reputation and Social Media engagement.

Facebook Fan Pricing

Social Reputation Manager (SRM) also replaces stand-alone software tools that add inventory to a Facebook Fan Page.

SRM offers a new spin; encourage consumers to get your special Facebook pricing but it requires them to become a Fan.

Cool idea and I’ll be looking forward to seeing how much this helps to increase fans.

The design and layout of the Facebook tab is attractive and compelling but once a consumer becomes a fan, they may not have a need to visit the dealer’s Fan Page.

Energizing Digital Marketing Strategies

Any dealer that wants to increase the productivity of their existing content writers and social media team should get a demonstration of Social Reputation Manager. The product is well designed, easy to use, and can assist dealers in better engaging with consumers on the socialized Internet.

Dealers who have held off investing in content writing and social media have a compelling reason to get started. SRM simplifies the management of multiple websites and tracks all activity to measure the ROI of your investments.

Content Syndication takes traditional blogging and social media engagement to the next level. SRM is one of those groundbreaking products that energizes the automotive community and provides the momentum to build innovative, time saving, products in the years ahead.

For more information on Social Relationship Manager, visit: www.dealer.com or call 888.894.8989

I've never worked at a car dealership. But as I assist car dealers across the country, I have seen many different styles of management, structure, and process.

Recently I had the opportunity to conduct a joint 20 Group presentation with Joe Webb and Jared Hamilton and Joe presented the mystery shopping results he did for each dealer in the group. Wow, this was an eye opener from some dealers that had broken processes.

Part of Joe's analysis was to review the auto-responder emails that were generated by the dealer's CRM systems. Some of the emails were poorly formed, had missing images, and others had no call to action.

There are people that are more qualified to discuss the best email template designs but I would like to add an observation. The after hours email templates, from my perspective, assumed that the consumer who submitted the lead was done shopping.

I know from my own research that consumers are just moving on to another dealer to submit a lead to get the best local price. None of the after hours response templates created a call to action to get the consumer to invest a few more minutes to get to know the salesperson who sent the email or to know more about the dealership.

My thoughts were reinforced by a dealer principal who recently said to me "Brian, with all the focus on the Internet, I am afraid that we are forgetting that we still have to sell the consumer on our dealership."

Leverage Video Resumes and Testimonials

My recommendations are not ground breaking ideas, but they service as a reminder since many dealers have not taken action.

All dealership sales professionals should have a positive, energetic, and well made video resume that they can link, not include, in their auto-responder email. Dealers should also create a YouTube channel of customer review videos that they can reference in the email.

Here are some lines that could be added to typical after hours email templates that tell the consumer that they will be contacted the following day:

Dear (customer name),

I know you have many choices where you can purchase a car so I would like to ask you to take one more minute to learn more about me and how I will handle your questions and respond to your online request. I invite you to view my video resume: (link). I would also encourage you to hear what other local residents have said about buying a car from our dealership. Take a minute to view the (dealership name) Customer Video Channel: (link).

This gives the consumer the option to re-visit your website and let your passion and the passionate testimonials of your clients win their attention.

I would also suggest that your email provide a link to your current specials. You have to be careful on how many links you include in an email for spam filtering, but TEST adding links to important pages on your website.

These links are more important than fancy photos, logos, or other elements that could trigger a spam flag. Also, take time to test all your emails against free spam checkers.

You will be surprised how much you can increase delivery and open rates by eliminating words like "amazing", "awesome","unbelievable" and innocent words like "save", "discounts", and "huge". To test your email template, try this free site: Email Spam Checker

So, use video assets to engage potential customers when they are shopping after hours or during the day where video can tell a more passionate story than any email can hope to convey.

Prestige Volvo YouTube Channel

Keep in mind that video testimonials do not have to be polished. The more raw they are the more believable they will be. Let your customers sell for you. Linking your testimonial channel in your email templates will build brand value after hours!

Let me open this article by saying that automotive advertising platforms like Autotrader.com, Cars.com, and the Automotive Advertising Network (AAN) provide marketing opportunities that should be considered in a comprehensive dealership marketing strategy. In fact all three companies were awarded Dealer Satisfaction Awards this year by DrivingSales.com in the Used Car Advertising category.

Car dealers need to evaluate existing and new methodologies to connect consumers with the cars that they have for sale. The Internet has become more expensive to attract clicks than ever before as more dealers participate in Google Adwords and similar online marketing services.

When I look at local competition in the search engines for a car dealer, one consistent competitor appears. Dealers are under attack by their own OEM automotive advertising campaigns.

This can come from national advertising campaigns or Tier 2 regional advertising campaigns, and I have some examples to share below.

Vehicle Detail Pages With OEM Ads

Let me give you an example of what gets my blood boiling.

A dealer makes an investment to list their cars on automotive advertising websites for many reasons. One reason is that consumers, outside of their normal area of responsibility or PMA, may connect with a car that they have in stock. The key point here is that for out of area shoppers, their zip code would normally be a part of another dealer's PMA.

If you look at this example below, a Tier 2 Banner ad runs on the top and right side of this dealer's Vehicle Detail Page (VDP). The other areas are also advertising leaks, but not associated with a GM advertising campaign.

That's another topic called Dealer Centricity Scores that you should engage.

When you click on the top Silverado HD Banner or the right side Silverado banner, you are taken off-page to a Tier 2 Chevy website design for lead collection. If a consumer engages with this Tier 2 website, and completes a lead form, the lead most likely will not be sent to the dealer listed on this page, rather it will go to the dealer covering their zip code.

Does anyone have a problem with this model?

So the OEM endorsed advertising campaign or Tier 2 created advertising campaign, is working against this one dealer for any consumer outside of his market. It seems to me that this is just counter productive and is using the dealers inventory against him.

If a dealer is paying to list this car, on this site, why would he want an interactive Ajax banner ad running, that catches the consumer's attention, to drive them to another Chevy website?

Could you say that this dealer's advertising investment is funneling leads to his local competitors?

This is not limited to Cars.com as you can see from this Autotrader.com VDP. Once again, a national OEM sponsored banner campaign is taking prime real estate to drive consumers to the national Cadillac website.

Anytime a consumer gets to a national site, the dealer can not be assured that the lead will be routed to their CRM system. It's all based on zip code or consumer choice but the action was based on this dealer's advertising investment.

Inspect Automotive Advertising Investments

I'm not sure if any other dealers agree with me that this a topic that should be discussed at OEM Marketing meetings. A bigger issue to remind car dealers is to inspect their automotive advertising investments. When you take the time to inspect how your brand is being marketed online, many light bulbs start to go off.

I have been blessed with many opportunities to speak at 20 Groups organized by NCM and NADA. Typically, the meetings are attended by dealer principals of the same OEM franchise in non-competing markets. General Managers are present when the dealer can not attend. These meetings, scheduled 3 to 4 times a year, develop a support network that dealers can tap throughout the year.

At these meetings, dealers can compare their performance to their peers in non-competing markets. The dealers share best practices and encourage those who have "weak" numbers to improve by next meeting. The concept, when passionate dealers make up these networks, results in powerful support systems and clear communication channels for best practices.
 

Welcome To A Group Of 1

For Internet Sales Managers, eCommerce Directors, and BDC Managers many must participate in a 1 Group. In most cases they have to rely on themselves to stay current with the latest strategies in dealership sales and marketing practices. They are not given the budget to attend Digital 20 Groups or educational events that are specifically designed for their area of responsibility.

The employees that are on the front lines of the greatest changes in consumer communications are without a budget and without peer advice on best practices. They do not have composite data to compare metrics that apply to their area of responsibility. How many leads should each employee handle? What is a good closing ratio? How many leads a month should I expect from Autotrader.com? These questions, and many others, go without being answered.

In many cases, these same key employees have to beg to attend an automotive education conference. Finding that $1,500 in a budget is just too much for some dealers. Some employees find solace on website communities like www.DrivingSales.com but the majority are left to navigate the tsunami of change on their own.
 

A Change in 20 Group Meetings

I have been working with 20 Group organizers to create a new Hybrid 20 Group Meeting Format where dealer principals and eCommerce directors attend a two day meeting together. The format engages both the dealer and the eCommerce director with workshops on digital marketing, internet process, social media, and marketing strategies to compete online. The results have been just outstanding.

Many dealers have stated that this new Hybrid 20 Group Meeting Format is "The best 20 Group Meeting" that they ever attended.

Jared Hamilton can attest to the positive feedback we received when He, Joe Webb, and I conducted this Hybrid model for a 20 Group in Atlanta in February. It was magic!

My take-away from the initial tests is that Dealer Principals and eCommerce Directors need to attend educational conferences TOGETHER.

Currently, dealer principals are finding it difficult to bring back accurate data about ideas and strategies shared at their 20 group meeting. When they attend together there is no degradation in the message and opportunity.
 

Travel To Orlando As a Team & Learn Together

Until your 20 Group can implement the new Hybrid Format, I suggest that dealers and their eCommerce Director get down to Orlando for the 2nd Annual Automotive Marketing Boot Camp. The Boot Camp is being held at the Hilton Orlando from April 16-18th.

Attending together will yield unprecedented skills transfer and winning business strategies that you can take home an implement. Let's end the "1 Group" mentality and work as a team on your future marketing success.

Registration information can be found at: http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com.









 

Is it possible to increase online service appointments by 300%?

I didn't think so but I found out that you can by making some simple changes to your existing website!

Can you increase total service appointments by 10-15% with an inexpensive change to your website? Yes you can.

What would your service business and profits look like if you achieved these improvements over the next 60 days?

Fixed Operations, one of the most significant profit centers for a dealership, is often left behind when digital marketing strategies are discussed. When a dealer realizes this and takes action, the results can be stunning.

Most of the online discussions regarding SEO, Video Marketing, and even Pay-Per-Click strategies deal with marketing new and used cars. It is time to wake up the sleeping giant and take our Fixed Operations marketing game to the streets.

Many dealers use direct mail and email to market to existing customers or purchase third party lists to attract new customers. However, the larger opportunity is the thousands of in market consumers that use the search engines to locate and shop for car service and repair facilities. Does social media play a role? Yes it does! The combination of traditional marketing and innovative digital marketing for Fixed Operations is a game changer.
 

Check Your Fixed Operations Visibility

Google rewards those who act first and publish optimized content on a particular keyword goal. Add to this fact that independent service organizations like Jiffy Lube, Meineke, Pep Boys, and Discount Tire have been left unchallenged by franchise dealers.

You can conduct a simple test in your own market by inspecting your own search visibility.

For example, if your dealership was in Boston, you would type in these searches to test your organic visibility:
 

• > Boston Car Repairs
• > Boston Tire Stores
• > Boston Brakes
• > Boston Oil Change

And type in these phrases to test your Pay-Per-Click (SEM) visibility:

 

• > Tires Stores
• > Discount Tires
• > Oil Change Coupons
• > Brake Stores
• > Muffler Shop

Of course you can also add service searches that include your OEM brand. If you do a search for "Honda Brakes Queens", "Honda Radiator Queens", or "Honda Oil Change Queens" you can see that Paragon Honda is #1 in organic ranking for their service microsite. Fixed operations content publishing strategies can yield an annuity of leads with very low maintenance.

Google Instant will show you suggestions for what consumers are typing in your marketplace. How did your testing go?
 

• > Is your dealership showing in the Paid Search area (SEM)?
• > Is your dealership showing the the Google Places area?
• > Is your dealership showing up for videos, press releases, blog posts, or microsites in the organic SEO area?

If Fixed Operations is a major profit center for dealers why is Google Adwords, Google Places, and Google Organics often a low priority in Fixed Operations budgets?
 

Thinking Out Of The Box

How many search optimized videos have you created to promote your service offerings?

Checkered Flag in Virginia Beach is a dealership that invests in video and their value messaging is strong. Check out their video enhanced landing page for their body shop:

Virginia Beach Body Shop.

When you start to publish videos on Fixed Operations, not only do you service landing pages come alive but your videos can also be found in organic Search. Here are two examples of videos that were created to increase search visibility for oil changes:
 

• > Checkered Flag
• > Rairdon Group

If you search "Virginia Beach Oil Change" Checkered Flag's video is on Google Page One. Search "Jeep Oil Change Seattle" and the same result occurs for Rairdon's video. These were the search phrases that these videos were optimized for.

For fun, search in Google: "Virginia Fiat 500" . You will find a video I recorded last week. Can you see how video marketing can increase the visibility for the cars you sell and the services you offer?

Any single video may be only viewed a few hundred times a year, but what happens when you publish a dozen videos, two dozen videos, each optimized for a particular keyword? The combination of videos, blogs, microsites and content optimization together can yield an annuity of leads and business for your Fixed Operations profit center.
 

Fixed Ops Marketing Workshop

At the 2nd Annual Automotive Marketing Boot Camp I will be leading an extended session on Fixed Operations Digital Marketing. I will be sharing my proven marketing strategies specifically designed for Fixed Operations for the first time!

Attendees are advised to bring their laptop computers and a login to their website and/or microsite because changes that will be implemented right in class will start to improve dealership search visibility. As part of the workshop I will be demonstrating the tool, techniques, and strategies that can be implemented to:
 

• > increase service appointments
• > increase overall service revenue
• > engage the independent service centers in your market
• > Increase the paths to your dealership website for service inquiries

Fixed Operations Directors and Marketing Directors should be attending the Boot Camp and this is just one of the reasons why you should register. Your investment to attend the Boot Camp will be well rewarded in the next 60 days as dealers implement winning marketing strategies for SEO, SEM, Video, and online service appointments. Are you ready to make super-charge your fixed operations business model?

As an added opportunity for Boot Camp attendees, Rob Fontano from John Marazzi Motors in Florida, will be demonstrating his video marketing techniques in a separate presentation during the CAR-MERCIAL Technology Showcase.

Learn from the best and find out why John Marazzi's video publishing strategy is a winning marketing investment. Video search marketing is affordable and scalable once you understand the strategy.

Boot Camp - April 16-18th in Orlando

Make the decision to invest in Fixed Operations Marketing and register for the 2nd Annual Automotive Marketing Boot Camp today. April 16-18th in Orlando. http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com

Your website is supposed to attract, engage, and convert consumer traffic into an eventual lead. If you agree, when was the last time you involved your customers in the design process?

When was the last time you tested the impact on conversion with different website designs?

Car dealers see hundreds or thousands of consumers come through their doors each month depending on location.

I challenge dealer principals and dealership equity holders to step back and ask how they are leveraging those connections.

No Shortage Of New Ideas

There are many new ideas being presented at 20 Groups, Automotive Conferences, Boot Camps, and on blogs on how to better connect with consumers. Is it SEM, SEO, Social Media, Banner Advertising, Re-Marketing, or something new?

There is a scarcity of documented automotive white-papers on grass roots consumer surveys. When was the last time you read a dealer generated white paper that asked consumers to share their motivations, processes, or influences in the car buying process.

Yes, the largest companies in our industry have case studies, but what about the dealers on the front lines of automotive sales and service? I would love to read local survey data from a dealership group that sees 2,000 customers a month in their sales and service channels.

Are you willing to share feedback from your store?

Industry experts, thought leaders, and peers are great motivators for change. Outside influences challenge dealers to consider looking at their businesses in a new way.

But why have dealers not asked their own customers for advice?

Dealers are asking consultants whether they should engage in Facebook. Did you ask you customers if they are regular Facebook users? Regular Twitter users? Foursquare?

Survey Your Customers

I just wanted to remind dealers that their local customer behavior is unique in many ways. By conducting regular in-store surveys over the next 30-60 days, you will get some data that can be monetized. You just have to define a process and start collecting data.

Here are some simple questions that you can ask your customers when they are in the store. Of course, you don't have to ask them all of the questions at one time or visit:

1. Do you have a Google or YouTube Account?
2. Do you use Facebook? If Yes, how many times a week are you on Facebook?
3. Do you use Twitter? If Yes, how many times a week do you Tweet?
4. Have you ever used Groupon?
5. Do you use any of these mobile applications: FourSquare, Whrrl, or Google Places?
6. Did you visit Autotrader.com before coming in?
7. Did you visit Cars.com before coming in?
8. Did you visit our main website before you came in to purchase a car?

If Yes, How could we improve our website?

Don't rely solely on out of town experts like me!

It's your business so activate your local consumers to refine your marketing strategy.

Consider creating Point-Of-Sale (POS) materials to activate your customers to engage with your dealership online. Do you have any "Join Us on" Facebook, Twitter, or FourSquare desk cards, window stickers, or banners in the dealership?

Let's get back to engaging our customers and collecting local marketing data that can be used to prioritize your digital marketing strategy.