[caption id="attachment_832" align="alignright" width="282" caption="Top 10 Digital Marketing Strategies"][/caption] DrivingSales.com members who want to get the inside line to build a strong gameplan for their digital marketing strategies in 2010 are encouraged to participate in a webinar entitled: 

 Top 10 Digital Marketing Strategies for 2010". 

  Be one of the first50 people to register for a webinar lead by Brian Pasch, CEO and founder of PCG Digital Marketing and get a chance to grow your skills and knowledge for free.  The webinar is scheduled for March 9th at 1:00 PM EST and will run for three hours. Normally, a three hour webinar would cost a dealership $500 for the information that will be presented.  In a special limited time offer for DrivingSales.com members, the webinar is being offered without cost for the first 50 automotive professionals that register and attend the webinar. After the first 50 spots are reserved,  additional attendees will be charged $300 per dealership. The demand for effective digital marketing strategies has never been greater than today. Brian Pasch will guide attendees during his three hour webinar on the 10 most effective digital marketing strategies that car dealers should implement in 2010.

Competitive Marketing Professionals Should Apply

  If you are looking for clear direction and a game plan on how to:

• - increase unique visitor traffic
• - increase first party leads
• - improve your online reputation
• - implement a Google Page One Management (GPOM) strategy
• - advertise your car inventory in new ways
• - reduce your spending on car inventory advertising
• - leverage social media for your dealership brand

then you should register for this upcoming webinar. The first 50 people are free. If you don't show for your free webinar, you will be charged $100. Slackers are not tolerated. No shows will be charged $100 so don't register if you can't make a firm commitment to attend. If you would like to receive to login credentials for the webinar, please follow the instructions listed below.

Registration For Webinar 

 

1. Make sure that you can attend the webinar on March 9, 2010 at 1:00 EST.
2. Call 732-450-8200 and ask for Carrie Hemphill, event coordinator.
3. Provide Carrie with your name, company name, address, title and email address.
4. Provide Carrie with a credit card number to use for the webinar:
   1. First 50 people are free, but if you are a no-show you will be charged $100.
   2. Registrants after the first 50 people will be charged $300
5. Once you register, you will receive login instructions no later than March 8, 2010.

Webinar Materials

  At the close of the webinar, all paid attendees will get a copy of the PowerPoint materials provided in the webinar. This will facilitate your ability to take the knowledge and advice from the webinar and implement change in your dealership. If you are ready to embrace digital marketing, reputation management and SEO head on, sign up for this webinar. PCG Digital Marketing (formerly Pasch Consulting Group) was recognized as a Top Rated SEO Company for the automotive industry at the 2010 NADA Convention by DrivingSales.com.

We Practice What We Preach

   Do we practice the same strategies that we preach? Type into Google:

• Automotive SEO - and we are #1 in the USA
• Automotive Reputation Management - and we are #1 in the USA
• Car Dealer Microsites - and we are #1 in the USA
• Automotive WordPress Microsites - and we are #1 in the USA
• Google Page One Management - and we are #1 in the USA
• Automotive Digital Consultants - and we are #1 in the USA

If you want straight talk and a chance to ask your questions about your next steps for 2010 in digital marketing, signup for this webinar.

Automotive Digital Marketing Boot Camp

  The next Automotive Digital Marketing Boot Campwill be held in Chicago from June 10-12th. If you would like to be invited, let Carrie know when you call.  The initial response from our pre-NADA  Boot Camp was very strong so we have decided to plan for our second Boot Camp experience with some additional instructors and surprises.

On Tuesday February 9th at 4:30 in the afternoon, a Continental Airlines representative casually told me that all flights from Newark on Wednesday would be cancelled due to the pending storm.  I was in a state of shock because just hours earlier I received an email from Continental indicating that I was upgraded to first class.  In a matter of hours my vision of a relaxing flight to Orlando to get ready for the NADA Convention and the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp the day earlier was shattered. I called select members of the PCG Digital Marketing team into my office who were heading to Orlando and told them they had two hours to go home, pack and get ready for a road trip through a blizzard.  I informed them that I had called all area airports and that all outbound flights on Tuesday evening were booked solid.  Since I was co-organizing an Automotive Marketing Boot Camp that started on Thursday Night, I told the team that we had no choice but to drive to Florida.  It was their turn to be shocked. Google Maps plotted the course at roughly 17 hours under normal driving conditions.  No one, including me could predict what we would experience over the next 34 hours on our way to Orlando.   I have learned to ask myself what this turn of events was trying to "teach me". I would not start to get that answer for at least 48 hours. The PCG employees drafted for the road trip included Carrie Hemphill, Jessica Guida, Matt O'Such and Sal LaMarca. We also transported Kim DePalma, our promotional marketing consultant, who had provided all the gear for the Boot Camp event.  The six of us departed Little Silver New Jersey at 7:30 pm on Tuesday night.

Creating a Road Trip Twitter Hashtag

The first hour of travel was uneventful but soon the snow coming from the South was determined to slow our progress.  As we crossed over to the NJ Turnpike heading for Delaware the roads became treacherous.  The PCG team, hiding their fears, decided to start a Twitter hash tag called #PCGRoadTrip and started to use Twitter to track our progress Interestingly, many of the PCG Digital Marketing Twitter followers decided to follow the adventure by searching the hash tag we had set up. We had created a virtual cheerleading team for our trek through the blizzard of 2010 using social media.  The team also decided to use FourSquare.com  to "check-in" to the many retail establishments that we visited along the way.  The 32 hour road trip yielded many interesting revelations about the power and influence of mobile GPS enabled phones and social media applications that are location aware. We also decided to use a Flip-Cam to document our travels to Orlando and you can see the actual footage if you Google "PCG Road Trip".  We have posted over 14 segments on YouTube representing our travel from New Jersey to Orlando in a storm that most people would consider crazy to cross.

Consumer Reviews Impact Team Spending

After four hours of travel, we just crossed into Delaware; a trip that would normally only take two hours in normal driving conditions.  We hit a wall of snow as we crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge.  We were quickly schooled on the definition of driving in "white out" conditions.  The view from the driver's seat was best described as the warp drive effect  you see in Star Trek movies when they engage in warp drive. Needing a place to sleep for the night, Matt O'Such used his GPS enabled Motorolla Droid phone and started a search for local hotels on Google Maps.  The first three hotels were completely booked and hope was dwindling that we could avoid sleeping in the car.  We had a break when a Quality Inn said that they had three rooms available for $58 a night; we told the desk clerk we were on our way. When Matt O'Such got off the phone announcing the score, one of my first learning lessons was revealed.   I had a premonition that Carrie Hemphill, our social media specialists would have something to say, Carrie asked Matt what the hotel was rated by travelers.  The $58 a night rate concerned Carrie's sense of good taste.  Indeed, as Matt used his phone to look at the reviews, the hotel was rated at two stars. Without any deliberation, I instructed Matt to search for a hotel that was located in our path down I-95.  I have to admit that I was more than comfortable staying at ANY hotel because I could barely see more than a few hundred feet ahead on the highway. I wanted to make sure the team had comfortable and clean accommodations on this road trip so if it meant a few more miles down I-95 to find something better, I was up for the test. Matt used his web enabled GPS phone to locate a hotel 15 miles down the road that had availability and a 4.5 star consumer rating on Google Maps.  The PCG team cheered at the discovery and we changed our reservations.  At that moment, I learned the second lesson of many from the PCG road trip.  Driving in a white-out blizzard, we were able to find a hotel that had great reviews, all while driving in our car.  We did not need a road map, a GPS unit installed in the car or a printed travel guide. It wasn't until Thursday night that I was able to fully reflect on just how powerful web enabled, GPS integrated mobile applications can be to change our way of living.  The trip demonstrated how discretionary spending was influenced by consumer reviews; online reputation management will be marketing 101 for the coming year for business owners. The next day we awoke at 6:00 am to get on the road by 7:00 am and after a quick continental breakfast, we were battling for southern momentum.  Maryland and Washington DC were formidable opponents. We could only safely travel at 20 miles per hour and visibility was extremely limited.   It was a bit discouraging at times but the Twitter tweets and FourSquare.com check-ins at local gas stations, rest stops and even Hooters broke up the tension.

Clear Driving After Richmond

By the time we reached Richmond Virginia, the blizzard and snow was gone but we still had a long way to travel.   We had weathered the brunt of the storm and now it was just a challenge to stay attentive for the remainder of the trip.  We had just less than 13 hours to go and the PCG team was more optimistic that our decision to drive through the night was the right choice. What we didn't know until we arrived at the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp was that hundreds of people knew about our trip.  We were greeted by attendees that knew what we were going through and who were following our Twitter hash tag for updates.   People had a new found respect for the dedication of our team, not only to our responsibility to get to the event, but also for our intuitive nature to utilize social media to our advantage. It was then I learned my third lesson from this experience; social media and mobile applications are game changing technologies that can link friends and acquaintances in ways never imagined. On the day we departed, Google announced Google Buzz and during the trip the PCG team tested the platform and found that they could participate in local "conversations" along the way.  We gave I-95 travelers driving conditions updates at key checkpoints and reflected on the local chatter in each state.   The fact that while driving we were researching, communicating, connecting and participating in something bigger that what made up our six passenger Escalade was something beyond comprehension in retrospect. When we arrived in Orlando on Thursday morning at 3:00 am, we were exhausted.  In just 14 hours we would be responsible for running an automotive digital marketing conference and Matt and I would be speaking for over eight hours on Friday.  We made it, and in retrospect, that was the best 32 hours of social media education that I could ever ask for.

Social Media Revelations

During the Boot Camp and NADA people came up to the PCG team and commented about the trip; we created a following.  We continued to use Twitter, FourSqaure.com and Google Buzz to let people know about our team's location, NADA commentary and PCG sponsored contests.  Attendees commented that the PCG team was very visible. I even became the mayor of the Starbucks cafe in the Rosen Centre lobby. The 32 hour road trip was a primer to remind us that social media can be leveraged in so many ways to create a virtual community of like minded people.  Web enabled apps combined with GPS enabled devices created such a rich data set that I'll never think of traveling the same. The rules of engagement for digital marketing are changing.  What looked like a curse turned into a blessing for my team.  The road trip crew were enriched by the experience.  They can better serve our clients who seek news ways to engage consumers with social media and digital marketing solutions.   I dare say that I enjoyed driving through a blizzard but the rewards were priceless. Brian Pasch, CEO PCG Digital Marketing 732-450-8200 http://twitter.com/automotiveseo http://facebook.com/paschconsulting

The Automotive Marketing Boot Camp, held in Orlando on February 12^th, one day prior to the official start of NADA, brought together top professionals from the industry that supported and sponsored the educational event. The Boot Camp is a hands-on skills based training program which covers the most important elements of automotive digital marketing strategies: social media, blogging, video, link building, content creation, SEO and pay-per-click marketing.  The classes offered attendees hands-on classes which will deliver the abilities dealers need to understand, manage and catapult their online marketing strategy to the next level.  The five industry sponsors included:

• Thursday Dinner Sponsor - http://www.bzresults.com
• Friday Breakfast Sponsor - http://www.dominiondealersolutions.com
• Friday Lunch Sponsor - http://www.dealer.com
• Friday Dinner Sponsor - http://www.tkcarsites.com   
• Saturday Breakfast Sponsor  - http://www.dealertrend.com

Brian Pasch is the CEO of PCG Digital Marketing (formerly Pasch Consulting Group) and one of the Boot Camp's expert speakers, as well as a co-host.  Pasch applauds the companies who supported the boot camp adding, "As automotive retailers move to more digital marketing strategies, education and training is needed for car dealers.  The Boot Camp sponsors recognize the evolving needs of dealers and their need to educate themselves to further their success." More information about this year's boot camp can be found online at http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com/

PCG Digital Marketing (formerly Pasch Consulting Group) introduces an advanced automotive digital advertising strategy for car dealers looking to go viral with their live inventory feeds.  Car Port App^TM connects any blog, social media site, or website to a dealer's inventory of cars for sale.  PCG Digital Marketing will unveil the details on their new Automotive Advertising Network^TM (AAN) and Car Port App^TM publishing tools, for the first time at the NADA conference in Orlando.  The CarPort App^TM will allow car dealers to publish a live listing of their cars for sale on popular sites like Facebook, Wordpress, Blogger, NING, TypePad and other digital websites.  The dealer's cars that are for sale will be advertised on a large network of websites included in PCG's Automotive Advertising Network (AAN) as well as any blogs or social media websites owned by car dealers.  A click on any advertised car listing will take interested consumers to customized inventory pages on CarDealerSale.com or the dealer's custom website. According to Brian Pasch, CEO of PCG Digital Marketing, the Car Port App allows dealers to easily and organically advertise their inventory using their proven digital marketing and SEO expertise and can reduce their PPC costs as well. "This is a proprietary car listing technology that can be added to any social media or blog site," explains Pasch.  "Car Port App gives dealers the freedom to place their inventory in front of consumers in any place they feel is brand enhancing." In addition to viral live inventory feeds, car dealer inventory will also be published on PCG Digital Marketing's national car sales website, http://www.cardealersale.com , which will be free of distractions and competitor's advertising, as well as hundreds of Regional PCG car sales website that make up the AAN. "Car Port App combined with the CarDealerSale.com's landing page technology will produce high converting car dealer traffic and more first party car dealer leads," says Pasch. The Pasch Consulting Group is also co-sponsoring an Automotive Marketing Boot Camp on February 12^th in Orlando, one day prior to the official start of the 2010 NADA Convention.  The one day hands-on skills based training will include classes in social media, search engine optimization, video marketing, pay-per-click marketing and microsites.   Automotive professionals looking to enhance their 2010 digital marketing strategies and learn more about the Car Port App are encouraged to fly into Orlando a day early and attend the Boot Camp.  The event will be held at the Rosen Centre Hotel adjacent to the Convention hall.  Boot Camp classes will be lead by the industry's leading experts in all categories, including Brian Pasch, JD Rucker, Eric Mayhew, Paul Rushing and Tim Jennings.  Pasch is also taking appointments from dealer professionals who want to meet with him to discuss digital marketing strategy development for 2010.   Complete information on the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp can be found online at: http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com

The Pasch Consulting Group (PCG) announces a change in their corporate identity and branding strategy.  The company will be known as PCG Digital Marketing with their new logo and marketing strategy to be unveiled in Orlando at the 2010 NADA Conference. All of their forthcoming marketing elements will also be branded with their new tagline, 'Strategic Digital Marketing'. According to CEO Brian Pasch, the rebranding of his formerly self-titled company reflects their rapid growth in the marketplace as well as their ability to provide a comprehensive team approach to digital marketing solutions for a very diverse range of clients. "When we reviewed our business growth over the past four years, Search Engine Optimization and Website Design were just two of the services we've been providing. The term 'digital marketing' better reflects the scope of services and strategies we can implement for our clients which includes social media, paid advertising, branding and marketing strategies," adds Pasch. The digital marketing strategies provided by the PCG Digital Marketing Team includes leveraging social networking, blogging, Internet PR, Reputation Management, and microsite marketing, to name a few.  According to Pasch, each strategy is custom tailored to the client's goals and budgets.  "We are a partner at the marketing planning table to see which digital strategies can bring the most benefit to the client." Brian Pasch has long been the public face and name behind the company's remarkable success. He in an active writer on blogs and forums dedicated to digital marketing best practices, and is a nationwide speaker and educator at many of the automotive industry's foremost conferences.  Nevertheless, Pasch insists his company's success is the result of a team effort complemented by his expanding team of professionals and industry experts. PCG Digital Marketing will continue to serve varying industries including the auto community, legal, medical, manufacturing and retail.  Their ability to provide strategic digital solutions to a number of diverse industries demonstrates the depth and breadth of their digital marketing knowledge. Coinciding with the name company's rebranding is the promotion of Matthew O'Such to VP of Sales and also the addition of Tom Cowell as VP of Business Operations.  The name change and shift in staff is consistent with CEO Brian Pasch's commitment to providing excellent customer service and support as their clients leverage the ever-changing opportunities that exist in digital marketing. More information can be found online http://www.pcgdigitalmarketing.com

PCG Digital Marketing (formerly Pasch Consulting Group) is set to unveil a new automotive digital advertising platform at the 2010 NADA convention in Orlando. The Automotive Advertising Network (AAN) will allow car dealers to increase the visibility of the cars they have for sale on the Internet. The AAN combines PCG Digital Marketing’s proven strategies in Search Engine Optimization, content marketing, social media and blogging to provide dealers with an industry leading solution for lead generation and direct sales. The new technology will lead to many industry firsts, giving dealers the unique ability to advertise their inventory of cars for sale using popular blogging and social media websites helping car sales to go viral. The Automotive Advertising Network created by PCG Digital Marketing will first be introduced at NADA in Orlando, where Brian Pasch, CEO of PCG Digital Marketing is co-hosting an Automotive Marketing Boot Camp seminar on February 12th, one day prior to the official start of NADA. Special ‘show’ pricing will be offered at NADA and interested parties can set up a meeting to discuss the AAN with Brian Pasch by contacting Carrie Valentine at carrie@PCGDigitalmarketing.com About the Brian Pasch and the Pasch Consulting Group Brian Pasch is a veteran marketing expert and a noted expert in the field of Automotive SEO and Internet marketing. His career has spanned both management and technology roles. He continues to lead research into Digital Marketing platforms. PCG continually tests new digital marketing strategies which can provide a cost effective channels for business advertising and lead generation. PCG works for and with an ever-growing number of auto dealers and dealer groups from all over the country to maximize results of their digital marketing efforts. Links: http://www.pcgdigitalmarketing.com http://www.dealer-seo.com

I have been invited to particpate in a panel discussion during NADA to discuss automotive lead sources and the effectiveness of three types of leads:

• Manufacturer Leads
• Website Direct Leads
• Third Party Leads

The roundtable is being sponsored by Dealix and will include:

• David Kain, President of Kain Automotive, will focus on leads from OEM sites.
• Brian Pasch, Owner of Pasch Consulting, will argue the merits of leads from the Dealer Sites
• Anna Zornosa, General Manager of Dealix - will advocate the contribution of leads from independent sites.

In preparation for this panel discussion, I have created a survey that I would appreciate members of the Driving Sales Community to take.    If you know the close rates and budgets set aside for lead costs, please complete the survey below: The link to the survey is here:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/managing-your-lead-mix

I was naive.  I can't remember the last time I felt that way in my professional career and surely not in the past four years of active engagement in the field of Digital Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  Looking back at a recent event I have come to understand that my naivety was supported by my unbridled passion for online marketing and the shared energy of fellow automotive professionals that engage in online blogs and forums. Through my activity on online communities I was lulled into thinking that articles I penned on Automotive SEO, microsites, reputation management, Google Page One Management (GPOM) and keyword strategies were exactly what the automotive community needed, would actively read and engage. Automotive professionals posting comments and opposing views made my articles take on a life of their own; elevating the perceived importance and reach into the dealer network.  I envisioned General Managers and Internet Sales Managers forwarding links for my articles to their 20 groups and friends in the industry.  I am sure some did but my viral marketing vision was more like the one day flu. I was schooled over a thin crust pizza I was having dinner recently with successful automotive marketing executives when the conversation turned to a discussion on the latest online marketing strategies that are available to car dealers.  I proudly pointed out that my blog posts and whitepapers, viewable on popular automotive forums, were raising the level of awareness in the automotive community; Automotive SEO, inventory listing architecture, IRM, GPOM, and online brand protection to name a few topics. One of the executives smiled and said "Brian, but you must understand that at best your articles are reaching a small percentage of the car dealers in America.  Car dealership executives are  participating in online communities and reading the latest articles on Internet Marketing strategies much less than you think." The comment was not mean spirited. It was a compassionate wakeup call that the dealership employees that are actively engaged on Automotive Internet Marketing blogs are often not those making leadership and budgetary decisions at the dealership level.   It took a few seconds to regain my composure; were my efforts in vain? Their statement prompted Pasch Consulting Group to create a survey to poll dealers on their awareness and usage of key Internet Marketing strategies.  We also asked how dealers are adjusting their budgets  in 2010 for online marketing. The survey data from Internet Sales Managers had some strong words about the leadership at their dealership. When asked about the awareness and general knowledge of how to use  Internet Marketing strategies to help their dealership, Internet Sales Managers (ISM) said that over 60% of their owners and over 50% of their General Managers fell into two categories: "no clue" or were "just starting to ask questions". A comment from a dealership GM who attended the 7th Digital Dealer Conference in Nashville came to mind as I am writing this article:  "As successful as 7^th Digital Dealer Conference in Nashville was for you, those in attendance represent a small fraction of active dealerships.  Brian, many dealers have not taken the first steps to understand and engage in the digital world." Our research confirmed that nearly half of car dealerships surveyed allocate less than 20% of their marketing and advertising budgets for online activities such as websites, blogging, social media, lead generation, SEO and pay-per-click.  Over 65% of respondents said that their local Internet Marketing search visibility was poor, weak or average.  None of these three self characterizations are a ringing endorsement for their current online marketing strategy. Then a comment from an Internet Sales Manager that said, "My competition is asleep at the wheel.  They have no Internet Marketing strategy in place and I hope it stays that way."  Unfortunately for this one ISM, that will not be very long.  Our survey data shows that dealers will be increasing their online spending in a wide range of activities. Dealers who once were not aggressively engaged in online marketing will be joining to game in 2010. The Powerful Minority The ISM survey responses indicate that only 30% of dealership owners and top executives have greater than an entry level understanding of Internet Marketing strategies.  If we agree that the minority of car dealer executives understand how to leverage the Internet for sales, marketing and branding, then they are truly in a position of power.  Reading this article in itself could place you in the minority. Dealerships that are investing today in online data tracking, testing and analysis will surely be rewarded in 2010 as well as the future.  They will know with detailed analytical tracking and reports, for the first time, the effectiveness of their marketing dollars. They will increase spending in areas that have the best ROI with confidence while their competitors waste money with trial and error; heavily weighted with error. Dealers who have a knee jerk reaction and say, "I want what they are doing"  will be setting themselves up for failure.  Dealers truly need to first understanding what "they" are doing. Executives who can leverage SEO, SEM, GPOM, Social Media, Internet Reputation Management (IRM), Microsites, Banner Advertising, Video and Mobile Technology in a comprehensive marketing plan will emerge as the true leaders in automotive sales. The interesting phenomena about the Internet is that early adopters are often rewarded with better positioning is search results. Dealers who keep their heads in the sand may wake up one day to find the barrier to entry very costly and some marketing opportunities closed. Dealers who have years of online content and reputation developed for their brand in their local markets will be able to dominate. I pity their competition that waits to see if Internet Marketing and Social Media will be effective for sales and marketing, because that day had already come. Increasing The Engagement in Digital Marketing If many automotive executives are not fully engaged  in the revolutionary changes that Internet Marketing technologies can bring, I am not confident that vendors will invest their money creating a new ADF specification or reporting tools to allow dealers to have end to end ROI tracking for 30% of the market who might demand it. Dealers who are not spending at least 60% of their marketing budget online are going to get run over by a train with their competitors in the conductors' seat. I hope that my articles will be part of the catalyst that challenges the automotive community to engage in real dialogue from which we can create a trusted document of best practices in Internet Marketing strategies, their related costs and ROI. Bigger is Not Necessarily Better The larger franchise groups by default are not necessarily in the 30% that peers say are leading the way in Digital Marketing strategies.  In fact, their shear momentum, like a super luxury cruise ship, may be hard to turn in the time that is needed to keep pace with change.  From my personal experience, some larger groups have one "prophet" who is trying to educate the entire executive team. At best, this is a difficult challenge and this task is too important to go alone. On the flip side, aggressive multi-brand dealer groups have a strategic advantage of scale. The time to create a comprehensive Internet Marketing strategy will save their bottom line millions of dollars in the years to come. Larger groups can leverage their creative assets, content and relationship to lower costs of marketing when done properly. Where and When Does The Education Occur Our survey data reported that 30% of dealerships in the USA do not send their employees to educational conferences to hone their Internet Marketing skills. If half of dealer employees don't get the benefit of attending NADA, Digital Dealer, JD Powers or a Driving Sales Executive Summit  where will the education take place? The PCG survey data suggests that there is a need for a better online school for Internet Marketing concepts and strategies.  A new model is needed to provide continuing education for car dealers in this ever changing field of Internet Marketing.  Budgets may restrict travel so the educational delivery mechanism must have both online elements and regional classroom training. New educational models can react to fast changes in Internet Marketing strategies.  Early in 2009  Twitter "tweets" and Facebook Pages were not showing up on Google Page One for searches on a dealership name. Today they are. This has a major impact on your brand message and how consumers portray your dealership.  What is your dealership doing to establish Social Media best practices? A new forum has to be created that offers assistance to dealers that are just getting started that does not dismiss their years of experience and success with off-line marketing.  A new model has to bring car dealers into the online marketing fold and help them drink from the "fire-hose" of opportunities on the Internet. Looking to 2010 Automotive retailers must invest in their key executives to raise their understanding and awareness of Digital Marketing strategies. Dealerships cannot be lead astray by the "flavor of the month" Internet Marketing shiny objects that show up at their doorstep.   They must create, implement and measure the results of a comprehensive Internet Marketing strategy. Dealerships with a small percentage of their advertising budgets targeting online marketing will continue to lose market share and brand visibility. Those that engage online marketing, social media and digital marketing strategies will be well rewarded when the year ends. Are you in the majority or minority?  Are you ready to engage and dominate your local market online? I'm ready to help anyone who wants to dominate! Brian Pasch, CEO Pasch Consulting Group brian@paschconsulting.com http://www.dealer-seo.com

The Toyota gas pedal fix has been approved by the NHTSA according to fast breaking news on the AP newswires. This could mean that Toyota dealers could get parts in the next week according to the AP newsire. I will be covering this story in full details today as soon as Toyota issues an official statement. This would be welcome news for Toyota dealers that are panicking that sales of many of their popular models have been suspended and no current source of revenue improvements on the horizon. The service revenue generated from the accelerator pedal recall will be welcomed by dealership owners. PCG has been forwarding thousands of free Toyota recall service leads to Toyota dealers who get in our free directory on www.toyotarecall.org.  It looks like its "Cash for Clunkers" all over again.  PCG is once again at the forefront of helping consumers and dealers connect on important national matters. According to ABC News:

Federal regulators have cleared Toyota's plan to fix millions of sticky gas pedals, and dealers could get parts to make the repairs as early as Thursday or Friday, people briefed on the matter said Saturday. Two dealers said they were told the news by Toyota executives, and a Department of Transportation official confirmed that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had no objections to Toyota's plans. Read full story.

Official Recall Repairs Announcement

We anticipate that by Monday we can expect an official statement by Toyota on how recall repairs will be handled. Millions of Toyota owners will be waiting to hear just how fast their cars can be fixed so that they can once again have peace of mind while driving their Toyota cars.  Toyota dealers are anxious to get this behind them so today's news is the first part of getting the recall service started. In a related story, the President of Toyota Motors gave a press conference yesterday. Read Full Story

BMW has a written policy for dealers outlining their rules and regulations for SEO, PPC and microsites.  In fact, their policies regarding website design and digital marketing engagement are some of the most restrictive in the business.   Recently, BMW veered out of the restrictive lane of digital marketing and has embraced a "controlled" roll-out of service microsites for their dealers.  BMW, through a joint venture with Dealer Product Services, will offer their dealers co-op money to build a single landing page on a domain that follows a specific pattern.  This pattern could very well be the same for all BMW dealers in the county.    I use the word "microsite" to reflect what some people would call this design but it is only a landing page with links back to the dealer's primary website.  You can check out a sample of the design by visiting:  http://www.allentownbmwservice.com .    The URL pattern looks like it will be the term "BMW service" and the city of their dealership or the reverse. The landing page has very little text and the coding suggests a quick and dirty single page design.   From this pre-launch site, it looks like no one is thinking about how to maintain these landing pages over time because there are no centralized CSS files and everything is hard coded in a single page.  Using Pay Per Click To Drive Service Leads The BMW service marketing program includes a pay-per-click management campaign which BMW will co-op to drive traffic to this landing page for service related terms.  The creation of this landing page will enable BMW dealers to run two pay-per-click campaigns at the same time for their PMA.   This will increase the visibility of their brand through paid advertising and is a positive step in using digital advertising to drive fixed operations business.  They just may be paying a lot more than they should to increase service revenue by ignoring SEO and relying only on PPC. In the program, the PPC campaigns will be targeted using zip codes to ensure that the ads don't cross PMA lines.  This is an imperfect design because depending on where a consumer's ISP hub is located, the IP address of a consumer's PC at home could very well appear in a town a few miles away.  In California, New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and other metro areas where PMA maps are not large, the BMW service marketing program will be showing ads in densely populated areas that violate their own PMA marketing restrictions. Since the SEO architecture of the landing page is weak on text and the website is only one page, some additional issues will come into play.  The Google PPC quality score for these landing pages will be low because the words they will be buying will not be backed up with enough on-page text.  For example, if a dealer is buying "BMW Brakes", "BMW Transmission", etc. there is no text on the page to match those terms they want to buy.  This will make their Pay-Per-Click spending increase compared to if they actually created a microsite with text pages on brakes, transmissions, tires, etc.  Yes, I just gave away how to fix that problem and  I would hope that the architects of this program add more value and insight for BMW marketing dollars. SEO Scorecard For BMW Service Microsites In regards to the Automotive SEO  power of this design, it violates my guidelines for creating effective microsites because it has no real quality content but it seems that BMW has some other goals.  From the architecture, it seems that BMW wants to try to limit or "geo-target" only the town that the dealer is located in so that their landing pages don't start showing up in organic searches in other dealer's PMA.  So they limit the text on this one page to include only the city where the service center is located. There is no way to geo-target a website organically to match a PMA map; regardless of any claims someone would make to satisfy BMW marketing executives.  My guess is that by putting up a single, low text landing page, they are hoping that it doesn't show up organically for search except for the town name in the URL.   Of course, this to me is a silly concept so if they only want a pay-per-click landing page they should add a "robots.txt" file in the root directory and tell Google not to index the site organically at all. Microsites Roles in Google Page One Management This toe in the microsite waters by BMW sparked a number of related thoughts regarding microsites and Google Page One Management (GPOM).   The top organic search phrase that drives traffic to a car dealer's website is their own name. I have stated my opinion in previous articles that enhancing what is displayed on Google Page One for a search on a dealer's name is very important. BMW misses the mark for this microsite naming model because they are using the town name for the microsite and not the actual business name.  Instead of using http://www.allentownbmwservice.com it would benefit the dealer more if they used "danielsbmwservice.com", especially if you have negative press showing up on page one when you search a dealer's name. Google keyword traffic estimator tools also supports a microsite model that includes the dealer's name would be much stronger than the town that they are located in. What Shows Up On Google Page One If a dealer engages in social media and is able to secure a matching name in Twitter and Facebook for their business, there is a good chance that when they type in their dealership name, they will own four out of the 10 organic listings.  This is normally achieved because a dealer's primary website will show two listings, which leaves six organic listings to control.  Regardless of the website platform that you use, any single website will not show more than two pages for a search on a dealer's name. If a dealership was able to control 80%, 90% or 100% of the organic listings for a search on their business name, first party leads will increase.  The leads would increase because they would push off Google Page One the third party lead collectors that are using their multi-million dollar brand to collect free leads.  In the case of John Marazzi Nissan, shown to the right, they have done a great job of controlling 9 out of the 10 organic listings when you search for their business name. Optimizing pages for a dealer's name, called "brand leakage", is a multi-million dollar business.  Dealers are just realizing they need to fight back against this practice.    For many dealers, Edmunds.com appears on page one for searches on their dealership name.  The website collects consumer leads and will resell them to multiple dealers in their state. For example, if you search "BMW Macon" in Google you will see that Edmunds has an optimized page on this URL: http://www.edmunds.com/dealerships/BMW/Georgia/Macon.html .  At the top of this page, a message gives consumers the option to find other dealers in the state and to get a price quote.   This is a perfect example of how a dealers name and their brand can be used by lead collectors. A dealer cannot control the organic listings for all related search terms in their PMA but they should work on their #1 digital asset; searches on their business name.   You can read a previous article on this topic called; "Is Your Brand Leaking" that goes into greater detail on this issue. BMW was on the right track, but did not understand the benefits of GPOM.  If a dealer wanted to increase the consumer awareness and ease by which they could engage with their business, they could purchase a domain for service, parts and even tires and build real microsites that Google will respect.  These sites could be done in WordPress and have real content pages on parts, service, tires and other fixed operations phrases that could drive additional revenue to their dealership.    An additional advantage of using WordPress is that dealers could add their own local sales, specials and testimonials to further increase the local search relevance of these sites. Enterprise Microsite Management The Pasch Consulting Group has developed WordPress management tools that can update hundreds or thousands of WordPress microsites simultaneously with customized, locally optimized content from a central control panel.  These tools eliminate the problem of maintaining content for hundreds or thousands of dealer microsites which would change throughout the year. It would allow local WordPress sites to maintain their local keyword targets and links while being updated centrally.  It would also leverage OEM marketing dollars since WordPress is open-source software and costly CMS licensing fees for their dealership microsites would be avoided. Any OEM who wants to increase first party leads to their dealerships should strongly consider a GPOM microsite model that can be centrally managed and create unique localized content for each dealership.   If car manufacturers implement a microsite framework like discussed in this article to enhance the GPOM concerns of their dealers, then they can implement a similar model using the dealership's primary city.  The point is that they could implement both strategies and provide their dealers with a significant bump in first party leads. If the BMW Service program is successful, what would stop a third landing page to be created called "bmwpartsallentown".  The answer is nothing.  I just hope that BMW is not fearful about creating too many microsites, which would be a shame for the dealers.  They are heading in the right direction but just have not to worry about marketing costs and first party organic lead generation. I applaud BMW for breaking out of their outdated thinking on microsites and I hope that it evolves into great strategic assets for their dealers.  When done properly, a microsite model implemented at the OEM level could be a game changing strategy for OEM's in 2010.  Some aggressive local dealers have already found this model to work but imagine the impact if it was done for all dealers in a brand franchise.  Did you hear that sound?  I think I heard third party lead collectors choking on that concept. If any OEM wants a winning microsite strategy that will both dominate organic search results and provide a platform for pay-per-click marketing and branding, that solution has been delivered on a silver platter.  I have always wondered why OEM's would allow third party lead collectors to poach consumer leads off a search on their dealer's name.  I have recently learned that it is not because they are in bed with these companies, but rather they needed a cost effective strategy to fight back.   Now they have one.  About The Author Brian Pasch is the CEO of the Pasch Consulting Group and an active writer for the automotive community.  You can also reach Brian in his New Jersey offices at 732-450-8200 or by visiting http://www.dealer-seo.com .  If you are attending the 2010 NADA Convention in Orlando, make sure you meet up with Brian if you have questions on using microsites to enhance your online visibility.  Other Articles by Brian Pasch 

• Google Page One Management
• Is Your Brand Leaking
• Has Your Brand Been Vandalized