I've been talking about this post for a few weeks now and here it is. 

About a year ago General Motors launched a new service initiative called PASE. The program is designed to amongst other things, focus on 2 key aspects of service business.

1. 1st Service Retention

2. 13-72 Service Retention

Like many of you, we have the option of using the preferred vendor of choice to marketing to these customers. But it comes at a high price and you never fully control the creative. 

Right around the same time of this new program from GM I came across a story that was talking about Mailchimp launching their new Postcard Campaigns. 

“ Mailchimp is rolling out a new feature that will let users send printed postcards to existing and potential customers across the U.S. and 26 other countries. Users can customize the images and messages they want to send out using a tool similar to one the Atlanta company already offers for designing social media messages. When a card looks good, it can be sent with a click of a mouse button, no trip to the Post Office required.”

To me, this was some of the best news I had heard in a while. Not just because I love using Mailchimp. But I had also been looking for something I could use to send small amounts of direct mail. So it was perfect timing that Mailchimp rolled this out. 

Exporting a list is pretty easy from any CRM. So once you have your parameters correct all you have to do is export a CSV. 

If you are familiar with Mailchimps interface you will know just how easy it is to create audiences from an import. Doing postcard campaigns is no different except for this time you just need to include the customer's address. 

If you aren't that familiar, no worries. Using Mailchimp is super easy 

There is a little formatting you have to do once you export your list from wherever you are pulling it from. But its as simple as changing the header titles of your .CSV.

I found it easiest to just change my headers from the image below for example to. 

Street -> Address - Street 
City -> Address - CITY 
State -> Address - ZIP
ETC...

You want to make sure you start off each header with "Address - "whatever" "

Since most often you will be including the customer's email address when you are uploading. You can create other campaigns too like email campaigns and custom facebook audiences to accompany your postcard campaign. 

Using Mailchimp to send out postcards to our service customers has helped keep messaging direct and consistent among varied audiences.

We've also been able to save a ton of money in marketing because using Mailchimp is less expensive than many of the other options we have in the automotive space.

Here is an example of a postcard I made using CANVA and then sent out via Mailchimp

 Say hi in real life with printed postcards

What questions do you have that I can help answer? 

With more than 500 million active users worldwide, TikTok presents an enormous opportunity to advertisers. Not only has TikTok surpassed Twitter and Snapchat in popularity but it’s also less saturated with ads than its older counterparts. The visual app—which allows users to edit and share 15-second videos with built-in filters, effects, and music—has truly shaken up the marketing world with its unprecedented virality.

Create a TikTok Ads Account

To create your first ad campaign, visit the TikTok Ads home page and click on the Create an Ad button.

Because TikTok Ads is still in beta, the process of setting up ads isn’t entirely online yet. When you click the button, a form pops up requesting details to set up your account. After you submit this information, a representative will get in touch with you to set up your TikTok Ads account.

Create a TikTok Ad Campaign

In the TikTok Ads dashboard, click the Campaign tab at the top of the page and then click the Create button.

Next, choose a campaign objective, which is the primary goal of your ad. You can choose from three options: Traffic, Conversions, and App Install.

To set your budget at the campaign level, select either the Daily Budget or Total Budget option under Settings. Note that both the daily budget and total budget must be at least $500.

Set Your TikTok Ad Placements, Details, and Targeting

The next step is to create an ad group for your campaign and choose your placements and targeting.

There’s an option for automatic placements, where TikTok determines where your ad would perform best and places it there.

Once you’ve selected your preferred placements, follow the prompts to enter all of the details necessary to start running your ad, including any relevant URLs, display names, images, and categories. You can also select up to 20 keywords to describe your website.

The Targeting section lets you define the target audience for your ads. Set parameters for location, age, gender, languages, interests, devices, and more to attract the right audience for your ads.

Control Your TikTok Ad Spend, Duration, and Goals

Now you’re ready to choose a budget, schedule, and goal for your TikTok ads.

Set a Budget and Schedule

In the Budget & Schedule section, set the budget for the ad group. You can choose either a daily budget (the amount you’re willing to spend each day) or a total budget (the total amount you’re willing to spend for the duration of the schedule). Note that there’s a $50 minimum for the daily budget and total budget at the ad group level.

Also, choose the scheduled duration for your ads. Dayparting allows you to select specific times of the day or week on which to run your ad.

Design Your Ad Using TikTok’s Video Creation Kit

When it comes to designing the creative assets for your ad, the process is fairly straightforward. TikTok ads can be horizontal, vertical, or square videos and images. The best thing about the ads platform is a tool called the Video Creation Kit, which provides video and image templates you customize using your existing images. It also comes with 300+ options for free background music.

TikTok currently allows the following ad types: brand takeovers, in-feed ads, and hashtag challenges.

Now that you have the steps to creating and running your own TikTok ads. Do you think the platform is another social media outlet you are going to use? 

Also, who here is on TikTok? 

According to a recently released survey by Adobe, the average person spends more than five hours a day checking their email.

So, why are people not opening your emails? 

1. You're sending too many emails.

If you’re inundating folks, they may feel overwhelmed and start glossing over them. The Adobe survey didn’t specify what constitutes “too many emails,” but if you’re trying to increase click rates and hit your email-marketing benchmarks by sending a high volume of messages, it’s probably backfiring. 

If you are sending your mass emails using the same servers as your normal emails. You could be setting yourself up for delivery issues. 

2. Your emails are poorly written or too long.

The message is clear. People would rather read interesting emails, and they delete boring ones. Some of the more advanced email platforms like Gmail actually notice peoples's habits and eventually place senders that typically get deleted into a spam filter.

Why not try adding some GIF's or some fun pictures. 

3. You aren't personalizing your emails.

Nearly 20 percent of people said they felt most frustrated by expired offers. Keep that data in mind when personalizing emails. Send offers with enough time for someone to open the email and get to your store or website. This way they can actually use the offer rather than delete it because it’s no longer valid.

There's nothing worse then getting an expired offer in your inbox.

4. They’ve already bought what you’re advertising.

Try to make sure whoever you're sending it to hasn't bought a new vehicle in the last year. I know that maybe they might have someone else in the house who might be interested in a car. But in most cases we end up fielding calls from pissed off customers who want the new incentives.

Segment out your database when sending emails. In most CRM's you can build and save different types of lists. 

What other tips and tricks do you use to help make sure people open your emails? 

We all deal with toxic people in our workplace and navigating that field can feel like jumping through hoops. Sometimes the best way to avoid toxic people is by staying away altogether.

To help you identify what a toxic person is like.

Here are 10 different ways to spot a toxic team member. 

1. Sale people are afraid of toxic salespeople.

2. Ask a toxic salesperson what they’re getting done and they’ll tell you what they plan to get done.

3. Conversations always have winners and losers.

4. Listening is their tool to learn weaknesses, find fault, and gain an advantage.

5. Toxic employees allow you to fail so they look good. As long as they look good, everything is fine. When failure comes knocking, they make excuses for themselves and blame others.

6. Toxic employees don’t: Acknowledge failure. Extend forgiveness. Offer an apology.

7. Managers, leaders, and fellow employees are idiots. Toxic employees are always right. They carry the ‘burden’ of knowing what everyone else should do.

8. Toxic employees always have solutions/answers for everything and everyone but share it in a way to make them look good and you look stupid.

9. The only people who aren’t idiots are the people who: Admire them. Agree with them. Acquiesce to their desires. Advance their personal agenda.

10. Toxic employees throw you under the bus and make it look like they’re helping.

What suggestions do you have for dealing with toxic employees?

Have you ever stared at your phone wondering what to post on Instagram, and come up blank? Happens to me all the time and is totally normal. We all post a ton of sales related content but that stuff can quickly get boring. 

So what should you do on those days where you know you should post but don’t have any ideas?

#1: Share Highlights From Your Dealership

The next time you’re in a pinch for ideas, consider spotlighting a member of your dealership — it’s a great way to build trust and affinity with your audience!

#2: Share Quotes

People often think of quotes as good “filler content” — the kind of thing you post when you’re completely out of other ideas. Go find awesome quotes from your OEM's CEO. 

#3: Share Your Favorite Social Media Holidays

From #NationalDonutDay to #InternationalCoffeeDay, there are TONS of social media holidays that are perfect for filling out your content calendar when you’re in a pinch!

#4: Share Lifestyle Content

“Lifestyle content” doesn’t really fit a specific genre or category. It can be anything from a food overlay to photos of a beach at sunset — or something else entirely! Use your creative eye.

#5: Share User-Generated-Content (UGC) From Your Community

This is a great way to share your customers pics of their own cars. I like to follow folks who have tagged us in pictures before and look for them in our feeds for opturtinityies to regard their posts.

#6: Share Behind-the-Scenes Content

If you’re looking for a solution to those “what to post on Instagram” blues, you should consider diving into some behind-the-scenes content. Walk around the service bays or head into the body shop for some quick video content of people working.

#7: Share Stock Photography, Animations, and Videos

While stock photography may have had a bad reputation in the past, the times have changed and using stock photos on Instagram has actually become a big trend!

At the end of the day, there’s no limit to what you can post to Instagram — all it takes is a little creativity! You can do it. I believe in you. 

Take a look at three tried-and-true copywriting formulas that are perfect for email marketing, below. You can also use them on your social media feeds or in blog headlines, too! That way, you reach your audience no matter where they are.

Formula 1: F-A-B

With the F-A-B formula (which stands for Features, Advantages, Benefits), you can touch on your product’s bells and whistles, but you focus on why a person would find your product beneficial.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Feature: Briefly explain the elements of your product. Keep it short and sweet.
• Advantages: Highlight why these features are unique and how they can make a difference in your customer’s business, life, etc.
• Benefits: Showcase the value of your product and how it can solve your customer’s problems.

Formula 2: P-A-S

This copywriting formula works best if you focus on the “A” aspect. To “agitate,” you need to stir up all the negative emotions attached to their problem. Make the reader squirm in their seat. Get inside their head.

Let’s take a look at how it works:

• Problem: State your audience’s issue.
• Agitator: Agitate the problem by talking about why it’s a problem in the first place.
• Solution: Solve your audience’s issue by presenting your product or service as the solution.

Formula 3: A-I-D-A

A-I-D-A is arguably one of the most-used copywriting tactics of all.

This is a classic formula for selling, so it makes sense to deploy it in an email environment where you want readers to take action and move from their inboxes to the next stepping stone in the conversion path.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Attention: Catch the reader’s eye.
• Interest: Pique their interest with a compelling setup.
• Desire: Make them crave the thing you’re offering.
• Action: Tell them how to get the thing.

Copywriting formulas are great ways to make sure you communicate your message clearly and in a way that will be most receptive to your customers.

Different formulas work for various messages, so keep testing and tracking what you learn from each formula.

What forumula do you prefer? 

Post in the comments an email template you have that’s uses one of these formulas. 

Looking for some inspiration? Check Out Really Good Emails

Mangools Online Tools is one of the more versatile SEO tools around. From keyword research, link building, and rank tracking, Mangools is a set of tools that offer reliability.

The new Mangools Google Chrome extension is one of these additions to this versatile set of tools that integrate well with its main tool. Here’s a look at what it can do, and how it helps Mangools become a more functional tool.

Starting up

To begin using the Mangools Google Chrome Extension, all you have to do is to sign-in to your Mangools account, and all of the features can be used. To begin using the tool, all you have to do is to go to a website and click on the tool icon.

Overview

The first part of this tool is the Overview, which allows you to see general page info such as domain authority, page authority, trust flow, and citation flow. Along with these, you also get to view the Alexa Rank, referring IPs, and the number of  Facebook shares. You also have the option to show data for an individual web page, or for the domain itself.

Backlinks

The second part of the Chrome extension allows us to view backlinks for each website, which is essential for our link building efforts. This allows you to see the ratings for each link, allowing you to track down both high and low-quality links that may affect website traffic.

You can also instantly click and access these links, from which you can allow the Mangools extension to analyze a new domain. Having this ability helps you assess multiple websites more quickly, which makes looking our for domains and backlinks a more convenient task.

On-page SEO

Perhaps the most in-depth feature of the Mangools Chrome extension, this section allows you to provide a quick evaluation of your website. For starters, you can view the SERP presence to see how your domain would look like in Google’s search results, and search for header tags. 

You can also view keywords and page loading speeds in this section as well, along with possible suggestions to improve the performance of the latter. Lastly, the social part gives you a preview of how your website will look like when it is shared on Facebook or Twitter.

Rank Tracking

The last feature of the tool allows you to track keywords using the Mangools SERPWatcher. The Chrome extension will automatically track keywords that can be tracked, with the option of adding more after accessing SERPWatcher.

Verdict

Google Chrome extensions are small reliable tools that make doing SEO a much more efficient process. The Mangools Google Chrome Extension is one example of that, as it helps make certain processes much smoother, and allow us to do more in a single tool package. 

What About You?

We all have our preferred tools. What's something you can't live without?

Are you trying to train your employees how to answer questions from customers with a variety of different needs? What you’re looking for may well be a slightly creepy robot bust with a swappable face. That “Employee Training Robot” is the work of Stockholm, Sweden-based startup Furhat Robotics. Boasting a wide-angle high-res camera, stereo speakers, and beamforming microphones, the technology aims to fill the niche of an interactive robot for workplace training environments.

By projecting different faces onto its 3D-printed mask, Furhat’s robot can transform itself into a man, woman, child, or even an animal. It can do this while speaking, listening, maintaining eye contact, and even appearing to show emotions to the person it is communicating with. Unusual? Most definitely. Potentially useful? That’s the hope.

“Another thing that distinguishes Furhat is the powerful SDK that allows developers to create the world’s most advanced applications for social robots,” Al Moubayed continued. “Truly immersive and useful apps are the holy grail of social robotics, and one where we think Furhat will excel.”

The Furhat robot is available and ready to be deployed in the real world. Its cost depends on the job that it is required for.

The inventor of Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) has acquired the industry’s top marketing analytics provider to present dealers with the most holistic and actionable insight.

November 19, 2018 -- Car Wars, the artificial intelligence (AI) phone solution for more than 13,000 dealerships, announced today its acquisition of Vistadash, the only agnostic digital marketing reporting platform supplying dealers with critical metrics. 

The concept of DNI evolved decades ago when Van Tuyl Group (now Berkshire Hathaway Automotive) needed a way to track phone calls from online referral sources and keywords. To effectively tie a phone call to the digital campaign that led to it, Car Wars developed DNI -- ultimately the first to do so in automotive.

Car Wars remains the innovative leader for DNI in the industry, being the first to send events based on call outcomes into Google Analytics. Through a unique combination of artificial and human intelligence, Car Wars delivers insight on each phone call’s results, ultimately pinpointing which online sources led to Sales and Service appointment opportunities, all the way to booked appointments.

Vistadash is leading the industry in standardizing marketing metrics, and worked alongside Car Wars to organize the way phone call events are pushed into analytics platforms. Once events are in the platform, Vistadash then incorporates CRM data to tie appointment numbers to units sold and serviced, providing full visibility into each campaign. With better CPE (Cost Per Engagement) insight, dealers can adjust marketing dollars to more effectively meet goals.

Car Wars’ purchase of Vistadash also gives dealers an added layer of transparency and uniformity. Car Wars already consults dealers on phone processes; now the company has positioned itself as the true expert in digital ad spend as well. The integration of Vistadash and Car Wars tracking tags will allow for a more straightforward setup experience for every dealer, and product development teams will make phone call metrics more visible and actionable inside Vistadash. Additionally, Vistadash will continue to be an agnostic platform and will integrate with every DNI provider in the space. 

“This acquisition makes sense because we’re not only the creators, but the leaders in DNI, remaining at its forefront all these years,” said Cassie Broemmer, Partner and Executive Vice President of Business Development at Car Wars. “While a phone call is the most pivotal conversion channel at the dealership, most dealers still aren’t tracking those events the way they should be nor are they optimizing digital marketing most effectively. Now that our product is tied more closely to Vistadash, this makes us a more complete solution in measuring marketing outcomes.” 

Dan Moore, President of Vistadash, said, “We couldn’t be more excited about this acquisition, given the fact that both Car Wars and Vistadash provide an agnostic view of which marketing channels are providing the best results.”

Broemmer further adds that Moore will remain President of Vistadash, and will be responsible for bringing the two companies together to elevate marketing insights for automotive. Dealers using both Car Wars and Vistadash can expect a more seamless platform experience. Be on the lookout for new development and groundbreaking synergy from both platforms.

About Car Wars

Car Wars leverages human reviews, artificial intelligence and CRISP metrics to equip Sales and Service departments with everything they need to Own The Phone. By listening to and categorizing 100% of inbound and outbound calls at a dealership, Car Wars provides managers with insight into how every call is handled, alerts them when an opportunity needs attention and actively improves phone performance in both Sales and Service. For more information, visit carwars.com. 

About Vistadash

Vistadash is the automotive industry’s premier marketing intelligence tool, giving automotive dealers the ability to consolidate and simplify reporting, as well as measure the quality of their online and offline marketing campaigns based on engagement. Its clear, user-friendly interface displays all the latest data trends at a glance, allowing users to quickly and easily analyze information and encourage smarter marketing decisions. For more information, please visit vistadash.com.

Use these websites to find great-fit images that look fresh, creative, and inspiring (instead of distractingly fake like many stock photos). Try cropping or rotating images to make them your own.

Mix in a few of these photos that make sense in your niche so you can ramp up your posting schedule to once per day. Just be sure to write strong, original captions too.

1. Pexels 

Pexels provides high-quality, free stock photos that you can use without attribution in any personal or business project.

Results are not limited to photos posted to their site — their search automatically pulls in other popular photos from Pixabay and Flickr that are available for free use. They even have a section for hi-res video.

2. Unsplash

Beautiful, free photos gifted by the world’s most generous community of photographers. You’ll be hard pressed to find more appealing, no-strings-attached photos for general use.

It’s tough to find a photo focusing on many specific, niche subjects. But, that’s where a paid service like Depositphotos or Shutterstock can fill in the gaps. And you’ll often find that you can make seemingly irrelevant image fit when you add a bit of text to them!

3. Burst

Burst is a free stock photo platform powered by Shopify. Pick from thousands of royalty-free images shot by photographers around the world and organized by category. You do not need to be a Shopify customer to use Burst.

Create Dead-Simple Designs (Even If You’re Not a Tech-Savvy Designer)

Remember: You’re not limited to posting only photos on Instagram.

Huge Instagram accounts like Shopify, Starbucks, and Netflix regularly mix in posts featuring graphic designs or screenshots to help their feed stand out to new subscribers. (And with an almost 28 million combined followers, they’re not bad role models to learn from.)

While photographs are one of the most-common Instagram post types, sometimes you need to add a dash of variety to keep your followers interested and engaged! Maybe work in a special offer, a design featuring a happy customer’s review, or a quick tip. Whatever the case, make sure that even these images look polished and professional.

Whether you’re designing a new blog image or Instagram quote, you need graphics that make your brand look polished and put-together.

It’s easier than you think to avoid that thrown together, amateur look that many stores fall into by default.

The secret? An image creation tool that’s so simple you’ll actually want to use without throwing your laptop out a window.

Fortunately, options for graphic design tools that save you time and provide helpful templates have expanded in the past few years.

4. Easil

Love slick-looking designs, but still want the simplicity of a template? This tool makes drag-and-drop design easy.

Easil features modern, edgy templates for Social Media Templates, GIFs, infographics and more. [Web]

5. Canva

A friendly drag-and-drop editor with tons of presets and templates to make your designs quick and easy. It’s free to start, but you’ll have to pay for premium images and most custom templates or to upload your own fonts. [Web, iOS, and Android]

6. Pablo

A quick-and-dirty tool for creating very simple text overlays on photos. It doesn’t boast advanced features, but it’s great for the simplest compositions. [Web]

7. Spark

Create beautiful graphics and videos in minutes. Spark sports tons of templates that require little-to-no prior design knowledge. However, it’s not highly flexible if you’re looking for a custom design. [Web, iOS, and Android]

8. Snappa

A great alternative to Canva, Snappa provides tons of free images, icons, and presets baked-in — and it’s easy to use. [Web]

9. Photoshop

The granddaddy of photo editing tools. Photoshop is truly a beast of an application and it can produce great results — but only if you have the time-intensive training to master the tool and the extra budget. [Windows and OSX]

10. Design Pickle

Want to outsource design entirely? Pay a flat monthly rate for unlimited designs and revisions from a professional graphic designer.

This service could become a lifesaver if you have heavy design needs but aren’t ready to hire a full-time designer.

11. IconFinder

A huge collection of free and paid icons to use in your next design project. Just hit the “free” filter button when searching results. [Web]

Does Your Instagram Audience Love Quote Images Too? Create More in a Couple of Taps.

Instagram powerhouses like Foundr Magazine have grown awe-inspiring audiences of well over 1 million followers by mastering the art of the Instagram quote image. With the right tools, you can follow their example.

12. Typorama

iOS users can grab this app for easy quote image creation. Input your text, then adjust the styling, filters, overlays, and cropping in just a few taps. [iOS Only]

13. Over

Choose from thousands of templates to add great looking captions to photos. Over makes it a snap to adjust the filters and masking to fine-tune your image’s final look. [iOS Only]

14. Wordswag

Add eye-catching text to any photo in seconds with this paid app for iOS or Android. It also includes dozens of quotes built-in in case you’re running low on ideas. [iOS and Android]