I've been covering the Toyota recall story lately and our consumer blog at www.toyotarecall.org has some very interesting comments from consumers on the Q&A page.  I would recommend that you scan some of the comments because they show the fear, confusion and anger that is building across America. What Toyota dealers should be doing this week in their local media is a topic for a coming post.  In the meantime.... While I was searching the phrase "Toyota Recall" in Google I saw that Chrysler was using this surge in search traffic to tell their safety and quality story.  See the screen shot below: Obviously Chrysler is trying to leverage the search traffic to drive their brand message and to drive consumers to their website. Do you think this is a good strategy for Chrysler to pursue?  Share you thoughts.

With all the coverage of the Toyota recall and the 4 million + cars that are included in the recall, it is surprising to see that no one is writing about the potential mayhem that will be created at local Toyota and Lexus dealerships service departments. Consumers are fearful that their cars may cause them harm. As soon as the recall letters start to arrive, dealers will be bombarded with service appointments.  Our blog has already shown that consumers are panicking. If you haven't read the most recent Toyota recall notice on January 21st, check out this post:  January Toyota Recall Notice One dealer we contacted in Virginia said the Toyota database of consumers in their area showed that over 15,000 cars are included in the recall. Now, add to that number the thousands of Toyota owners that are not synchronized in the Toyota database. How is this car dealer expected to handle regular customer service work and a percentage of the 15,000 Toyota owners that will choose their dealership? Do the math: 4,000,000 cars in the recall (conservatively) divided by 1,200 Toyota dealers = 3,333 cars per retail location. Since this is an average, you can quickly understand that the range could easily be 1,000 - 7,000 cars at any store, depending on location.

Toyota Recall Service Hours

It would seem that Toyota dealers will need to extend service hours, add staff and implement new procedures to handle the service work associated with the Toyota recall. I am sure they will not want to drop their service levels for existing customers. The Pasch Consulting Group has created a website to help consumers with information on the recall at www.toyotarecall.org.  We have already received hundreds of service requests that we have forwarded to local Toyota dealers for free.  We expect the volume to increase to over 1,000 leads a day in the coming weeks. This reminds my staff of Cash for Clunkers where we had over 8 million consumers come to our website www.cashforclunkersfacts.com. If you are a Toyota dealer and would like to receive free recall service leads,   take a moment to read this previous post on how to request free service leads:  Toyota Recall Website Leads

How Are You Preparing For The Rush?

If any Toyota dealers are reading to post, please tell us what you are doing to plan for the upcoming workload.  It will be good to hear what local dealers are doing to attract this service business and how to schedule the workload without disrupting their business. From my perspective, this recall is an excellent opportunity to connect with local Toyota owners that are taking their cars to independent service centers.  If done properly, Toyota dealers can win back thousands of Toyota owners and convince them to service their cars at a Toyota dealership.

I've been spending time thinking of new ways to assist car dealers brand themselves on the Internet and to promote their excellence in sales and service online. If 85% of all new car purchases start online, then dealers need to get their message in the path of consumers shopping online. Nothing could be better than strong peer reviews! Many articles on the Internet have discussed Automotive Internet Reputation Management and the importance of checking what consumers are writing about you on the Internet. Still many dealers fail to read even what is posted or rolled-up on Google Maps. Automotive Reputation Management must be a standard operating procedures for car dealers in 2010.

Hare Chevrolet RMP

I would like to offer some new twists on this discuss with the concept of a Reputation Management Portal (RMP). In the example shown above, we have taken a simple WordPress website and consolidated links to popular review websites. The website is skinned to mimic the main dealership website.

Each of the six icons on the home page of the RMP is linked to the specific review page for our client Hare Chevrolet. Here is an overview of the Reputation Management Portal (RMP):

1. The site is created on a great branding URL, like www.iloveharechevy.com
2. The dealer can print up postcards and give them to happy customers marketing this catchy URL.
3. The single URL can be easily promoted offline and also by email.
4. The review website icons that you show and the order that they appear can be changed.
5. You can add your streaming Dealerrater reviews as a tab, as shown on this site.
6. You can add your Facebook Fan Page stream as a tab, as shown on this site.
7. You can add your YouTube video channel of testimonials, if they exist.
8. You can add your Twitter stream as a sidebar widget.
9. You can add a quote form for consumers who stumble upon you site and want a car.
10. You can add popular links in the sidebar to drive traffic to your main website.
11. You can add blog posts to the site to highlight written testimonials that arrive via email or postal mail.

If Hare Chevrolet prints up postcards that promote this website www.iloveharechevy.com, you can bet that their service advisors will be able to identify happy customers to hand the card as ask for their assistance. That's dozens of postcards in people's hands each day. You can bet that your sales managers know who the customers that are very excited about their purchase experience. Instead of just handing out a card for one review website, why not create your own Reputation Management Portal postcard and drive reviews where they are needed most. The great thing about the RMP being a WordPress website, is that anyone can add or change icons to promote higher review counts on new websites. Once this is set in place, you don't need a programmer to get involved. This will allow you to direct review traffic to different websites throughout the year to have a wider branding influence since there are about 10 review websites that should be included in a comprehensive IRM strategy. If you like this idea, and would like a RMP constructed for your dealership, its very easy and simple to manage. I have a few other ideas to help dealers in 2010 increase their brand visibility online. Interested? Drop me a line. We'll have some "killer" strategies revealed at the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp in Orlando the day before the official start of NADA Convention. If you are going to NADA, fly in on the 11th and register for an intense day of social media and digital marketing education. I hope to see you there.... Brian Pasch http://twitter.com/automotiveseo http://facebook.com/paschconsulting 732-450-8200

Calling all Toyota and Lexus dealers! The Pasch Consulting Group proved that a good microsite can draw consumer automotive leads from a national audience with our Cash For Clunkers Facts website. Over 8,000,000 visitors in 2 months came to our site and thousands participated in our forums. Now that Toyota is recalling a few million cars, this represents a great opportunity for Toyota dealers to increase service revenue. Letters are being mailed to Camry owners next week and so it will be GAME ON for dealers who want to pump up their service bays. I believe that customers who bought their Toyota from a local Toyota dealer will likely bring it back to the same local dealer, but what about the people who purchased a used Toyota from a private party or other brand dealer. That is where there is a great opportunity! PCG has created a new not-for-profit, national consumer website to assist consumers with questions on the recall located at www.toyotarecall.org. If you are a Toyota or Lexus dealer and would like to get free leads from this portal, you can send us an email and request leads from your region on a first come basis. See what we need below. Exclusive Regions Our existing Toyota and Lexus clients have some areas taken but a good part of the country is open. This is a great way to leverage our SEO strategies and content writing to increase local service business. We will offer exclusivity as best as possible, so the first Toyota or Lexus dealer in Chicago for example, would get the leads from the city.  A 30-50 mile radius is normally given on a first come basis. If you are a Toyota or Lexus dealer, you can send an email to me with the following information:

Dealer Name: Website: Street: City: State: Zip: Service Phone: email address for us to send ADF leads into your CRM system

and for our records:

Your name: Position: Your Direct Dial Phone: Your Email Address:

You can email this to: info@paschconsulting.com This website is a not for profit service to the automotive industry. It will be a support system for the millions of Toyota owners affected by the recall. Any dealers who want to add their own articles, press releases or banners can submit them for review. Dealers will not be charged for leads, they will only need to provide a link to www.toyotarecall.org from their website. Brian Pasch, CEO Pasch Consulting Group http://www.dealer-seo.com http://twitter.com/automotiveseo 732-450-8200

If your are looking for new strategies to improve your Internet Marketing visibility, Internet Reputation and your Social Media footprint in 2010,  the team at DealerRater.com has quietly been building a set of tools that can be leveraged in new ways.

I love to share great ideas with the automotive community as I find them. Since Facebook is a hot topic I thought I would write about ways to make your Facebook page more interesting.

In the past few months I have been testing and implementing some of the free tools that come from DealerRater when a dealer is signs up for the Certified Dealer  program.   There are many benefits to the program but I would like to discuss one of the new recent ways their dealer platform can be leveraged.

Facebook Inventory Classifieds

Dealers can now add their car inventory to a Facebook Fan Page tab using tools from DealerRater.com.  You can see an example of this technology on the Infiniti of Norwood Facebook Fan Page below.

There is a tab called "Classified Ads" on their Fan Page which when you click on the tab it shows their inventory.  This is a tasteful way to add additional functionality to Facebook without posting cars in the main Facebook news stream.  This feed is free to dealers on the Certified Dealer program and it is easy to add to your fan page.

The trick is to add graphics or call to action messages to make your fans aware of the tab.  Then if they want to look at cars they can and you can keep your news stream more meaningful and a value to your followers.

Customized Facebook Tabs

If you didn't know it, you can add HTML code pages to your Facebook Fan Pages that can look just like your website.  It can also have active buttons that bring people to your website.

You can see another example from ABC Motor Credit's Facebook Page shown below.  They are a Buy Here Pay Here dealership in Ohio and they have a contest running which they wanted to leverage on Facebook as well as getting clicks to their website.  So this custom tab was created:   http://www.facebook.com/ABCMotorCredit

If you are not handy with HTML coding, find someone to help.  It only took a few minutes of our team's time to take the HTML code from ABC Motor Credit's website and created this tab.  Once these TABS are created, you can add graphics to the Fan Page to encourage people to click on the tabs.

There is a number of creative ways to enhance Facebook.  Inventory feeds, video channels, website forms, specials pages or something completely crazy can now be implemented to super-charge your Facebook page.

2010 Internet Marketing Strategies

Do you like these ideas?  You can super-charge your 2010 Internet Marketing Strategies by attending the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp in Orlando. It is being held on February 12th, one day before the NADA Convention in Orlando.

Get the edge on your competitors regarding social media, SEO, microsites, pay-per-click and video marketing strategies from industry leaders.

Jared Hamilton will be the opening night keynote speaker on Thursday evening February 11th.  Sign-up today.

Learn more about this limited engagement event at:  www.internetmarketingbootcamp.com

  I am in the process of collecting data from car dealers on their 2010 Digital Marketing knowledge, strategy and budget. From the first 120 dealer responses, I was amazed at how many dealers had a low percentage of their budgets dedicated for online spending which included their websites, PPC, SEO, IRM, social media, blogging, and microsites.  

The Great Digital Divide

The 11 questions on the PCG Digital Marketing Survey will provide great data and insight for the automotive community.  If you have not participated in the survey, click below share you answers on this great survey. The results will be posted on DrivingSales.com. 

Take the survey

I firmly believe that dealers need to have greater than 60% of their marketing budget directed to online marketing.   Only 17% of car dealers would fall into what I would consider as being  "on the right path". Based on the data collected so far, dealers will be faced with major changes to the marketing strategies.  Dealers will be faced with the challenge of deciding how much they should be spending on social media, seo, blogging and ppc.  The answers are not very clear.

Automotive Marketing Boot Camp

Car dealers who want to move more of their marketing dollars online should consider coming to the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp.  It is being held on February 12th, the day before the official start of NADA Convention in Orlando Florida.  Attendees would fly into Orlando on Thursday February 11th for the opening banquet where Jared Hamiltion will be the keynote speaker.   Attendees must bring a laptop computer since all classes will provide hands on skills specifically designed for your dealership. The Boot Camp will provide both hands on training for important Internet Marketing tactics but also the higher level strategy of what to do and how much to spend.  I will be leading the Internet Marketing strategy classes. The Boot Camp will feature five educational tracks lead by industry specialists:

• Social Media - JD Rucker
• WordPress Microsites - Paul Rushing
• Digital Marketing Strategies - Brian Pasch
• Pay-Per-Click Marketing - Eric Mayhew
• Video Marketing and Optimization - Tim Jennings and Matt O'Such

Dealers looking to develop the skills of the Internet Marketing team as well as crafting an effective Internet Marketing Strategy for 2010 should sign-up while seating is available.  The Automotive Marketing Boot Camp will be limited to 75 attendees since each classroom session will be limited to 15 people.  This will allow the instructors to transfer the information and skills needed to each attendee. For additional information visit:  www.digitalmarketingbootcamp.com

Note: This is a MUST read for any Toyota dealer. Toyota is starting the New Year with a renewed effort to go after Toyota dealers who have purchased domain names other than their registered primary Toyota domain. If you are a Toyota dealer that operate microsites on multiple domains or landing pages that include the word "Toyota" you will be asked to remove your content and hand over the domain ownership to Toyota immediately. This popped up when we tried to run a Google Adwords campaign to a dealer microsite that had the word Toyota in the URL name. Google blocked the ad because it was not a registered dealer domain name. It appears that Toyota gave Google a list of approved primary dealer domains and locked down anyone using Toyota in the domain that was not a primary dealer. Sub-domains are OK for now This crackdown will reduce Toyota dealers to having one website with the option of having multiple sub-domains. Blogs hosted outside the dealer's primary domain will be forced to be taken down. A sub-domain example is http://service.woburntoyota.com and dealers can create as many sub-domains as they want. They will not be able to create a website at www.toyotaservicewoburn.com or www.bostontoyotaservice.com. It is not clear if the sub-domain names will be limited in terms of city names that can be used. Regardless of Toyota's motives or an attempt to keep the "brand" consistent and to limit the use of their "mark" in domain names, dealers will be hurt in many ways. Dealers will have no choice but to forfeit all non-primary domains. Since Toyota dealers will be knocked out of the box for their current web marketing investments, I will also talk about third party companies and private individuals that own domains that include the word "Toyota". I will also discuss what alternatives dealers have for replacement Internet Marketing strategies.

While Toyota dealers can take out TV, radio and print advertising that crosses official PMA lines, this move by Toyota is not about protecting dealer 's primary market areas .

If it's a move to cut down on third party lead collector's that will also fail because of sub-domains. Just type into Google "Toyota Cars" and you'll see some of the largest lead collectors on Page One. Lead Collectors will Smile This crackdown will be welcome news for third party lead collectors and automotive listing websites that have been blocked from Google Page One from multiple dealer owned microsites. Many companies will be popping champagne when they will have easier access to get on Google Page One since dealers will not be able to own multiple versions of their own domain names. Toyota's decision to limit their dealers to one domain for their branded marketing will impact their ability to compete; dealers in larger cities where franchises are close together will be hurt even more. Toyota could be planning on taking domains like www.chicagotoyota.com from individual dealers and turning it into a local lead generation website for their dealers, but that will have to be seen. For now, they will force all dealers to forfeit their domains to Toyota and then go after third parties. If a third party takes down the domain and just parks it or converts it into a consumer blog with no money making purpose, Toyota may not be able to recover these domain names because they will fail the three basic criteria listed by the WIPO, shown later in this article. Some Third Party Lead Collectors Will Be Shutdown Their decision will also affect smaller lead collection companies that have purchased domains like:

• http://www.toyotacarsforsale.com
• http://www.toyotatrucksbonusbucks.com
• http://www.toyota-camry.com

Some of these websites are secretly operated by Toyota dealers and others are just selling the leads to resellers. Both will be impacted by this crackdown. Are User Forums in Jeopardy? I don't know if Toyota plans to go after popular user group forums that generate revenue from ads sales and Google Adwords like:

• http://www.toyotanation.com
• http://www.toyotaforums.net/
• http://www.toyota-4runner.org/

As you read the rules set by the WIPO a sticking point for these sites are that they are generating revenue off the Toyota name and that may give Toyota a case against them. Forum owners will say that this is freedom of speech but the WIPO might use their advertising revenue against them. If Toyota chooses to leave forum websites up, they may be creating a double standard for dealer and third party compliance. Let me say that I do not believe that these Toyota forum sites confuse the public, but that is not the standard that Toyota appears to be using. If dealer brand microsites are being taken down that are clearly marked as a local dealer and not corporate, then a larger agenda is at play. WIPO Official Rules Pertaining to Domain Names The official rules regarding domain names that include a trademarked word like "Toyota" are not cut and dry. I have tried to simplify my interpretation but here is the official wording from the governing body pertaining to domain disputes.

(i) the domain name registered by the Respondent is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the Complainant has rights; and

(ii) the Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name in question; and

(iii) the domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.

If a non-Toyota dealer, like an independent used car dealer, who operates a website like www.bostonusedtoyotacars.com, that provides information on Toyota cars and the website doesn't look like a Toyota branded site, do they violate all three of the guidelines above? Would any consumer think this is the corporate Toyota site? I do not think so. Since the used car store can legally sell Toyota used cars in Boston, did the owner purchase the domain in bad faith? I don't think so. Examples of Other Domain Disputes There are a number of cases where upset consumers have created a website to express their dissatisfaction with a company or person. The domain they posted content on included a trademarked, incorporated or individual's name. In recent news was a case filed by Fox TV anchor Glen Beck against the owner of the domain:

www.glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com

The WIPO (http://www.wipo.int) dismissed Beck's claim, you can read this blog post: Glen Beck Dispute What May Be Safe When challenged in domain name disputes, some individuals were victorious based on a few conditions and freedom of speech laws. If we applied past WIPO domain dispute decisions to Toyota's current efforts to collect many Toyota domains in use, they would most likely lose in all cases where:

1. The site did not confuse the consumer in thinking that they are on a Toyota Corporate website.
   1. Shouldn't copy the layout of Toyota.com or related properties
   2. Shouldn't attempt to make visitors think they are on a Toyota site
2. It should not contain the Toyota logo.
3. It clearly identifies itself as an independent website.
4. The site should not be created to divert customers from the primary trademark holder.
   1. Examples: Toyota.net or ToyotaCorp.com could not be used
5. It is not for profit and informational in nature.

I'm not pretending to provide legal advice here, so you can read the rules yourself or hire an attorney for legal advice if you want to fight the letter that will soon arrive at your door. From my interpretation of past cases from the WIPO, creating a blog at www.toyotacartalk.com and allowing consumers to express their opinions would be allowed. Toyota would most likely lose a case if they wanted to take down a blog with this name as long as it is not making money or using the Toyota logo. It is a matter of freedom of speech. Case in Point: Freedom of Speech A famous freedom of speech case was over a Web site www.chelwest.com, operated by Frank Redmond, which expresses inflammatory opinions about a public hospital -- Chelsea and Westminster in London. Redmond was not happy with the hospital's treatment of his daughter. The hospital claimed that the site's name is too similar to its own site, and that "Chelwest" is part of the hospital's branding and therefore its intellectual property. The hospital's Web site is www.chelwest.nhs.uk. The single person panel ruled in favor of Redmond. The reasons were: Redmond is not using the site for any commercial gain and it is immediately apparent to Internet users who visit the site that it is not the official site; Redmond, according to the panel is simply criticizing the hospital with opinions which he believes to be true; it is not obvious that Chelwest is branding of the hospital. This case is interesting because the panelist deciding the case had tried to draw up a set of criteria that could be used to judge whether a freedom of speech site should be permissible or not. What CAN Toyota Dealers Do? From what I have been told Toyota dealers can NOT create blogs or marketing websites outside of their primary domain. If you have a free VOX, WordPress or NING community website that will have to be taken down. If Toyota dealers scream loud enough that might change but for now dealers will buckle because Toyota holds the purse strings.

So could Miller Toyota create a website called "www.ilovemillercars.com"?

From what I know, the answer is No

What Toyota dealers can do is push their inventory out to highly optimized local website properties that do not contain Toyota in the domain name but in the sub-domain. There are a number of related solutions that will allow Toyota dealers to post their cars, stories and sales on third party websites that have high rankings. Any Toyota dealer that needs help, can call or ask questions on this forum. Before Toyota started this crack down, it was clearly cheaper for Toyota dealers to own their own marketing microsites, but now Toyota will increase their advertising spending costs several fold.

Is there a solution?

The ruling will be good for companies like mines because we have many automotive domain names that do not include Toyota in the URL that we can optimize for local Toyota dealers. We will move any microsite content with the now prohibited domains to their primary websites. We also have a few new strategies that will be compliant so no Toyota dealer will be left behind. Since we will only work for one Toyota dealer in a marketing region, those that act quickly will have a solution that can be implemented quickly. In the end, it's bad for Toyota dealers and will be a costly decision to limit free market thinking on the Internet. As I stated before. Toyota dealers can take out TV, radio and print advertising that crosses official PMA lines so this is not about protecting dealer franchise marketing. Again, this is good for some businesses but NOT local Toyota dealers who were smart enough to be entrepreneurial in their Internet Marketing plans. I'll have more to report as this story unfolds... Brian Pasch, CEO Pasch Consulting Group http://twitter.com/automotiveseo 732-450-8200

This blog post is not intended to give any legal advice. If you are involved in a domain dispute, contact your lawyer or a domain litigation attorney.

Google Insights for Search will allow business owners to create a better local keyword strategy to increase the visibility of their brand.   Google Insights will allow online marketing managers to refine their SEO keyword list and to be more proactive in their content writing. From a high level perspective, search engines like Google query "best matching" assets in their database of web pages, videos, images, and social media feeds when consumers type in a search phrase. When it determines what the best items to show, it creates the infamous "Google Page One" search result. (SERP) A big question has always been: "What search phrases are consumers using in my area?" The questions that should follow are:

• What assets can I upload and tag with text that will be a good match? (SEO)

• What am I willing to pay per click for that search phrase? (SEM)

• How will I track if clicks from that search phrase results in a conversion or sale? (GBP )

Diversity of Best Matching Assets Increases Most recently "best matching' includes real-time Twitter tweets and Facebook posts; this is an Internet Marketing strategy game changer. I'll be posting an article on real-time search results in the automotive industry and the effect on Automotive SEO strategies shortly. So now, Google Page One Management (GPOM) and IRM strategies have to deal with social media feeds, videos, static images, press releases, ecommerce images, Google Maps and text links. Using Google Insights For Car Dealers It's a good reminder to state that localized search is a part of the equation of what search engines will serve on Page One in addition to best matching keyword assets. When a consumer types in "Nissan Sentra" from their home, the search engines have to decide how to balance local content and national content when they display a search engine results page (SERP). If you type in "Nissan dealers" from a PC in Irvine, California, Google will show you local California Nissan dealers on Google Maps. That fact that you did not type in "Irvine" or "California" does not matter since Google knows the geo-location of your IP address roughly. The same query from a PC in Preston Maryland should show a different result, as shown below. As a side note, please make sure that your dealership's Google Maps listing is correct and that it is showing for broad searches like the ones given above. Google Maps normally pops up with a city, county or state is included in a search phrase. If your Google Maps listing is not tagged properly, you may be missing hundreds of free advertising views per month. Google Adwords Keyword Research Tool Many dealers have come to know that Google provides a free tool called the Google Adwords Keyword Tool which can show them how popular search phrases are on a monthly basis based on total USA data. The Google keyword tool can be used to help select domain names as well as keyword strategies that have a broader target. A screen shot below shows how you can track national use and global use of certain search phrases. A new tool that I would like to discuss is called Google Insights and this tool has a different spin on Google search data that will help car dealers with localized content development in 2010. The tool is designed to help online marketers research seasonal and regional trends in search phrases. Google Insights will also show which search phrases are picking up in volume; I like this feature the best. This insight can help car dealers decide what they should be targeting in terms of their blog posts and the wording of their press releases, tweets and online ads. Google Insights For Search in Action Automotive retailers approaching the end of the year may want to know which search phrases local consumers are typing in that are looking for an "end of year" car sale. In your area, Google Insights could tell you which phrase was on the rise; "Nissan Year End Sale" or "Nissan Clearance Sale" or some other variant. Once you have that data in hand, you could create a blog post with those search words in the title to increase your chances for a "best matching" asset in your local market. The tool can also help refine local vocabulary and terms that might be unique to a market. Some areas of the country use the word "pop" to describe a soda so regional differences that can be exposed with Google Insight. Dealers should research the top search phrases for their brand, in their local market, so they do not base their strategy on national data or worse yet, a guess. "Honda Civic" Keyword Research Below is a screen shot of research done in Google Insight for the search phrase "Honda Civic" for the State of Arizona. Notice how Google Insights gives you other phrases that are increasing in volume; see bottom right of charts. This is good data to have and it allows proactive content writing. Google Insights also maps areas of search interests on your state which can also show further localized trends in your PMA and beyond. There is so much that can be done with this data, but there is a limit to what you'll read in one sitting. Google Insights is another tool that should be in your Internet Marketing toolbox for 2010. Since content and asset matching is so important for search visibility, this tool can help your hard work go even further. If you have questions, just ask. Brian Pasch http://twitter.com/automotiveseo http://facebook.com/paschconsulting 732-450-8200

I have created a quick 11 question survey and would appreciate if the members of the Driving Sales community could take a quick minute to participate. If you are employed at a dealership, and not a vendor, you can take the survey. Here is the link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/automotive-digital-marketing I will share the results of the survey in a future blog post.

I was copied on an email from our Internet Reputation Management (IRM) manager to one of our clients today. The email struck me how helpful a consistent monthly reputation management program can be for car dealers.  By contacting a dealership's customers as a third party, my staff has the ability to be an agent for building customer satisfaction and also to "hear"  and document what their customers are saying. Take a moment to read an excerpt of an email that Jessica wrote to one of our clients after her calls from the previous night:

On another note there was one customer that seems to be a loyal customer to you (purchased 3 cars from you) but mentioned a few things to me that could cause him not to write a totally positive review at this time - I did not send him details on how to post as a result. Here are the details of his comments: I spoke to a gentleman named David, who was with Jennifer _______ during her purchasing experience - Jennifer is the name on the customer list you provided to me. First, David mentioned that he felt as though the Sales Manager over-estimated things during the process, even after they were already finishing up the contract. Second, they are still waiting for a new key remote for the vehicle because the original key remote doesn't seem to work all the time - he mentioned 8 out of 10 times it doesn't work. After a couple weeks now, they still never got the other key and the one time they went in to get the service done they were told that they didn't have the key. David dealt with John, the service manager - red team, that day. David did not seem extremely angry, just concerned as to why this hasn't been taken care of yet. I felt as though he would not be able to give you the high rating we are looking for in this IRM campaign, at this time. However, if things get settled with David please let me know because a 3-time customer is always a great candidate to write a review.

Intercepting Negative Reviews

The beauty of a monthly IRM process, that we provide for car dealers, is that in addition to getting customers to post positive reviews on websites like Google Maps, InsiderPages, DealerRater, Yelp and CitySearch our clients get feedback, if there are problems.  This customer felt comfortable to share their frustration with an independent agency because we made them feel that their opinion was important.  We asked them about their experience and they told us their concerns.  This issue most likely would never have been escalated to the General Manager of the dealership.  Worst, this could have resulted in a negative review being posted or the dealership losing the confidence and business of a loyal customer. Now the dealership can respond and resolve the concerns of a multiple purchase customer.

IRM Must Be Part of Your 2010 Internet Marketing Budget

I bring this up because in 2010 the power of the consumer will continue to dominate automotive digital marketing articles and strategies.  Car dealers should be implementing an IRM strategy that utilizes defensive and offensive reputation management strategies.  Social media strategies and IRM strategies have to be tied together in the coming year if not already. Ignore this part of your 2010 Internet Marketing strategy and any disgruntled customer will go online and light your dealership on fire!  If you have not invested in a good IRM strategy, those negative posts will be all that consumers see and you will be missing valuable sales. Google Maps is one of the most powerful sources for dealership phone calls.  How many positive reviews are showing on your Google Map listing?  Negative?  That's your PUBLIC billboard and that's only one billboard.  If you don't like what you see, get the help from an IRM professional and don't forget to clean up your internal processes at the same time. Happy New Year! Brian Pasch, CEO Pasch Consulting Group www.dealer-seo.com http://twitter.com/automotiveseo