​

"Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will." - Nelson Mandela

"A fool and his money are soon parted." - Thomas Tusser

"The creditor hath a better memory than the debtor." - James Howell

When it comes to what you get for your dollars, the less digitally educated (always) receive less, only the digital versed (sometime) receive more. This is becoming more the point today as the public becomes more digitally harmonized but the vendors create one digital segmentation after the other.  This takes place, unfortunately, because it can, plain and simple. This post won't stop dealers from spending stupidly, however, let's take a look at what truly matters in today's online marketplace.

Honest truths:

1. Your website - If your website is not a mobile-first or at last fully responsive website, you have problems. Your vendor won't tell you that directly and Google has work-arounds, however to properly address your website traffic today, you MUST be on a new platform. If your website backend requires you to optimize for mobile separately or "push" pages to mobile, you DO NOT have an effective website. You don't, get it? OK, you still don't get it...
2. Local SEO/Local citations - If your local citations are not managed, at least the top 14 that MOZ reports on let alone the over-60 that you should have claimed, managed and up-to-date, you are missing phone calls, leads, visits and sales. Quit taking pitches from social media vendors that these are "review sites". many of them offer visitors the ability to post reviews, however they must be evaluated as listings, not review sites. And all of those sites (including Google My Business/Google+, Facebook, Youtube, Yelp, Bing, Factual and more) are pointing to places. They need to point to the SAME place: address, website URL, phone number and more (commonly referred to as NAP). And your site needs to have those same data points in the site and structured around your local community. STOP placing 8-15 city names on the top-level pages with the same keywords and metadata. This is called keyword stuffing and will get you ignored, more or less. It's irrelevant and, most importantly, considered black hat by the search engines. Also, if you have one location for sales, service and parts, you are creating confusion by adding microsites and other ways to "promote" all aspects of your business. If you have a separate service location with a different address and local phone number, add a unique URL, you are fine. If you don't, you are confusing your local citations. Third, if you are leveraging subdomains as many larger dealer groups do (locaation.dealershipgroupname.com) or your OEM site (DBANameorLocation.ManufacturerName.com) you are shooting yourself in the foot in so many ways. Yes, stores pull it off all of the time. Google has said not to do this, so it's your risk!
3. Paid Search/SEM/PPC Marketing - if your paid search vendor doesn't report directly into Google Analytics and/or allow access into their MCC/AdWords account, you are very, very, very likely being taken advantage of. Many lies are told around not revealing all AdWords (and Bing Ads as well as other advertising, let alone ad networks) data due to special bidding, patented algorithms, unique software and other "Google doesn't know what we do" explanations. READ: you're being ripped off. A company doing an amazing job for you will show you that your CPC is going down and relevancy/page rank and conversions are going up. Many SEM companies earn rebates on the amount they spend collectively plus performance and, quite frankly, that should be celebrated.  A handful of very well-known vendors hide this data due to the fact that they are making more money on dealerships telling you it's their secret sauce while simply taking money from you. Seeing only the session data but not the cost and click data inside Google Analytics means you are having the (true cost) wool pulled over your eyes. For thousands of dealers, this is to the tune of hundred and thousands of dollars, monthly.
4. Social Media - Get over it! If you are not in the paid social game, you are nearly invisible, not generating a good volume of leads and, likely, not building the SEO value that social can. There is nothing wrong with organic social....if you have an ACTIVE audience of at least hundreds if not over a thousand. The size of your total audience (Likes) is irrelevant. Understand? If you have 5,500 likes on your dealership page and your posts receive under 20-40 people engaged on each one with mostly likes (no comments or shares), you are mostly talking to yourself. There are opportunities for organic social media, however if you pay for an ad or dark post once a month or less, forget it. Things have moved! Also, if you're not uploading video directly to Facebook (versus embedding or linking a YouTube video), you're not getting the exposure you deserve. Wh? Because Facebook said so. And, for the most part, quit Boosting posts and get real with your intended audience. Did you know that you can generate leads on Facebook directly? Not an ad with a landing page on your site, leads on Facebook directly. IF not, ask your "social media" vendor why they didn't know yet...
5. Measurement - You wouldn't necessarily think that you must be versed in measurement if you have a good handle on the above and you completely trust your vendor(s) , and you'd be kidding yourself. If you are not spending at least a couple hours a month in addition to simply your website or marketing reports to review analytics and how ALL of your marketing affects traffic, leads, retention and consideration, you are lost.

As OEMs continue to take over marketing directly and through third party "consulting companies" that are taking millions of dollars of dealers' money monthly, any legitimate efforts that are being made on your behalf are being mitigated and, in many cases, competitive advantages are being shared with many. Now, we all know that most dealers can't duplicate (they'll do their best to follow the moves while inevitably missing important steps) proper marketing best practices, let alone all of the internal requirements, but realistically your advantages can be cut down significantly. This is also evident, for different reasons, to the point that many stores don't allow digital marketing staff to post on automotive blogs because they'll reveal their "secret sauce" (NOT!!). 

What's your next move? First, figure out who is taking you for a ride. This is most prevalent in search marketing, social media marketing, display advertising and website SEO . If you don't have an outside consultant or friendly dealer you can have an honest conversation with, chances are you won't ever know.  Yes, some vendors are honest about the work that is done for the fee you are paying. The rest, well...

​

"Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will." - Nelson Mandela

"A fool and his money are soon parted." - Thomas Tusser

"The creditor hath a better memory than the debtor." - James Howell

When it comes to what you get for your dollars, the less digitally educated (always) receive less, only the digital versed (sometime) receive more. This is becoming more the point today as the public becomes more digitally harmonized but the vendors create one digital segmentation after the other.  This takes place, unfortunately, because it can, plain and simple. This post won't stop dealers from spending stupidly, however, let's take a look at what truly matters in today's online marketplace.

Honest truths:

1. Your website - If your website is not a mobile-first or at last fully responsive website, you have problems. Your vendor won't tell you that directly and Google has work-arounds, however to properly address your website traffic today, you MUST be on a new platform. If your website backend requires you to optimize for mobile separately or "push" pages to mobile, you DO NOT have an effective website. You don't, get it? OK, you still don't get it...
2. Local SEO/Local citations - If your local citations are not managed, at least the top 14 that MOZ reports on let alone the over-60 that you should have claimed, managed and up-to-date, you are missing phone calls, leads, visits and sales. Quit taking pitches from social media vendors that these are "review sites". many of them offer visitors the ability to post reviews, however they must be evaluated as listings, not review sites. And all of those sites (including Google My Business/Google+, Facebook, Youtube, Yelp, Bing, Factual and more) are pointing to places. They need to point to the SAME place: address, website URL, phone number and more (commonly referred to as NAP). And your site needs to have those same data points in the site and structured around your local community. STOP placing 8-15 city names on the top-level pages with the same keywords and metadata. This is called keyword stuffing and will get you ignored, more or less. It's irrelevant and, most importantly, considered black hat by the search engines. Also, if you have one location for sales, service and parts, you are creating confusion by adding microsites and other ways to "promote" all aspects of your business. If you have a separate service location with a different address and local phone number, add a unique URL, you are fine. If you don't, you are confusing your local citations. Third, if you are leveraging subdomains as many larger dealer groups do (locaation.dealershipgroupname.com) or your OEM site (DBANameorLocation.ManufacturerName.com) you are shooting yourself in the foot in so many ways. Yes, stores pull it off all of the time. Google has said not to do this, so it's your risk!
3. Paid Search/SEM/PPC Marketing - if your paid search vendor doesn't report directly into Google Analytics and/or allow access into their MCC/AdWords account, you are very, very, very likely being taken advantage of. Many lies are told around not revealing all AdWords (and Bing Ads as well as other advertising, let alone ad networks) data due to special bidding, patented algorithms, unique software and other "Google doesn't know what we do" explanations. READ: you're being ripped off. A company doing an amazing job for you will show you that your CPC is going down and relevancy/page rank and conversions are going up. Many SEM companies earn rebates on the amount they spend collectively plus performance and, quite frankly, that should be celebrated.  A handful of very well-known vendors hide this data due to the fact that they are making more money on dealerships telling you it's their secret sauce while simply taking money from you. Seeing only the session data but not the cost and click data inside Google Analytics means you are having the (true cost) wool pulled over your eyes. For thousands of dealers, this is to the tune of hundred and thousands of dollars, monthly.
4. Social Media - Get over it! If you are not in the paid social game, you are nearly invisible, not generating a good volume of leads and, likely, not building the SEO value that social can. There is nothing wrong with organic social....if you have an ACTIVE audience of at least hundreds if not over a thousand. The size of your total audience (Likes) is irrelevant. Understand? If you have 5,500 likes on your dealership page and your posts receive under 20-40 people engaged on each one with mostly likes (no comments or shares), you are mostly talking to yourself. There are opportunities for organic social media, however if you pay for an ad or dark post once a month or less, forget it. Things have moved! Also, if you're not uploading video directly to Facebook (versus embedding or linking a YouTube video), you're not getting the exposure you deserve. Wh? Because Facebook said so. And, for the most part, quit Boosting posts and get real with your intended audience. Did you know that you can generate leads on Facebook directly? Not an ad with a landing page on your site, leads on Facebook directly. IF not, ask your "social media" vendor why they didn't know yet...
5. Measurement - You wouldn't necessarily think that you must be versed in measurement if you have a good handle on the above and you completely trust your vendor(s) , and you'd be kidding yourself. If you are not spending at least a couple hours a month in addition to simply your website or marketing reports to review analytics and how ALL of your marketing affects traffic, leads, retention and consideration, you are lost.

As OEMs continue to take over marketing directly and through third party "consulting companies" that are taking millions of dollars of dealers' money monthly, any legitimate efforts that are being made on your behalf are being mitigated and, in many cases, competitive advantages are being shared with many. Now, we all know that most dealers can't duplicate (they'll do their best to follow the moves while inevitably missing important steps) proper marketing best practices, let alone all of the internal requirements, but realistically your advantages can be cut down significantly. This is also evident, for different reasons, to the point that many stores don't allow digital marketing staff to post on automotive blogs because they'll reveal their "secret sauce" (NOT!!). 

What's your next move? First, figure out who is taking you for a ride. This is most prevalent in search marketing, social media marketing, display advertising and website SEO . If you don't have an outside consultant or friendly dealer you can have an honest conversation with, chances are you won't ever know.  Yes, some vendors are honest about the work that is done for the fee you are paying. The rest, well...

BOOM! It happens and you're left without a net... Damaged image. Damaged perception. Damaged goods.

Unless you have a brand. Unless you've been under a rock or have been too 'busy', the amount of evidence, chatter, discussion and conference-data hinging about branding has been nearly deafening. And still, undeniably, the majority of dealers put all of it on the badge.

Write your excuses down and put them where the training materials are from your favorite industry speaker (likely in someone's office or under the desk in the tower, collecting dust). That's where theu. Belong.

Retailers with amazing brand, consistent engagement, a commitment to what they do for customers and how much they care for their own people know what to do and say when the shit hits the fan.

If you have little else aside from lip service and management doing things the way they always have, you're forced to depend on the badge. And folks, that's a crappy position to be in. Oh, it is completely preventable.

Brand, whether the store's or the salesperson's or the service tech's or the business manager's, is inextricably tied to the customer expeerience. Someone can sell a product for years and ultimately be invisible.

Whatever comes out of any manufacturer difficulty or trial can be mitigated by having a brand that is independent.  It's been proven over and over and over.

There will be those who come out if any challenging time better, more aware,ore prepared and more convinced. Will that be you after the smoke clears? Or will it be back to business (badge reliant) as usual?

Don't be badge-dependant, be self-dependant!  If you don't understand or believe that, it's time to do a little self-searching...and ask what your brand is.

Best Practices: Professional Insights, Powerful Results 

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales or on our .

BOOM! It happens and you're left without a net... Damaged image. Damaged perception. Damaged goods.

Unless you have a brand. Unless you've been under a rock or have been too 'busy', the amount of evidence, chatter, discussion and conference-data hinging about branding has been nearly deafening. And still, undeniably, the majority of dealers put all of it on the badge.

Write your excuses down and put them where the training materials are from your favorite industry speaker (likely in someone's office or under the desk in the tower, collecting dust). That's where theu. Belong.

Retailers with amazing brand, consistent engagement, a commitment to what they do for customers and how much they care for their own people know what to do and say when the shit hits the fan.

If you have little else aside from lip service and management doing things the way they always have, you're forced to depend on the badge. And folks, that's a crappy position to be in. Oh, it is completely preventable.

Brand, whether the store's or the salesperson's or the service tech's or the business manager's, is inextricably tied to the customer expeerience. Someone can sell a product for years and ultimately be invisible.

Whatever comes out of any manufacturer difficulty or trial can be mitigated by having a brand that is independent.  It's been proven over and over and over.

There will be those who come out if any challenging time better, more aware,ore prepared and more convinced. Will that be you after the smoke clears? Or will it be back to business (badge reliant) as usual?

Don't be badge-dependant, be self-dependant!  If you don't understand or believe that, it's time to do a little self-searching...and ask what your brand is.

Best Practices: Professional Insights, Powerful Results 

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales or on our .

The "C Word". You know, that word. The one that makes dealership executives' skin crawl, makes sales people laugh, has trainers' mouths drool and absolutely keeps your store from its true potential. It even has female staffers cringing, question working at the dealership. Say it with me....CULTURE.

Ignored by only the bravest of souls who understand the kind of wrath and trial it brings. Changing culture takes balls. It takes work. It takes time. And it takes an unrelenting focus as well as undying commitment. We all know it, so why do so few do it? Weak leadership? Lazy management? Not necessarily. Mostly it's due to the lack of understanding what the intermediate goals during and wins at the end of the effort are. You know...not starting with the end in mind.

Culture, by definition, is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

In other words, you've built the existing culture and it's continued nearly blindly. In order to change a culture, the industry has historically resorted to spiffing or spanking. That's not truly leading a culture change, rather a practice of distraction. So we take adults who should otherwise be able to achieve a change and create a different focus. Then we shoot down the same adults when the incentive or punishment dissipates. Quit setting your business up for failure!

Culture change takes conviction and creating lots of buy-in. We do that a lot with lead management and sales coaching at IM@CS. Creating adoption breeds results. More than taking the same business rules and communication requirements from dealer to dealer, like most consultants and trainers do, it takes a focus on sustainable actions through owning efforts, responsibility and results at each individual business.

Instead of blaming incompatible software, say desking and CRM, for why salespeople don't complete their logging and steps in tracking and following up with customers, create an environment where sales supports each other and daily reports reign. And back it up with at least one weekly sales meeting run completely out of CRM. Over-simplified? Possibly. Worthwhile? Absolutely.

Culture? It's everything or it's nothing. Yeah, that will reflect everywhere...

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results
 

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales or on our site.

The "C Word". You know, that word. The one that makes dealership executives' skin crawl, makes sales people laugh, has trainers' mouths drool and absolutely keeps your store from its true potential. It even has female staffers cringing, question working at the dealership. Say it with me....CULTURE.

Ignored by only the bravest of souls who understand the kind of wrath and trial it brings. Changing culture takes balls. It takes work. It takes time. And it takes an unrelenting focus as well as undying commitment. We all know it, so why do so few do it? Weak leadership? Lazy management? Not necessarily. Mostly it's due to the lack of understanding what the intermediate goals during and wins at the end of the effort are. You know...not starting with the end in mind.

Culture, by definition, is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

In other words, you've built the existing culture and it's continued nearly blindly. In order to change a culture, the industry has historically resorted to spiffing or spanking. That's not truly leading a culture change, rather a practice of distraction. So we take adults who should otherwise be able to achieve a change and create a different focus. Then we shoot down the same adults when the incentive or punishment dissipates. Quit setting your business up for failure!

Culture change takes conviction and creating lots of buy-in. We do that a lot with lead management and sales coaching at IM@CS. Creating adoption breeds results. More than taking the same business rules and communication requirements from dealer to dealer, like most consultants and trainers do, it takes a focus on sustainable actions through owning efforts, responsibility and results at each individual business.

Instead of blaming incompatible software, say desking and CRM, for why salespeople don't complete their logging and steps in tracking and following up with customers, create an environment where sales supports each other and daily reports reign. And back it up with at least one weekly sales meeting run completely out of CRM. Over-simplified? Possibly. Worthwhile? Absolutely.

Culture? It's everything or it's nothing. Yeah, that will reflect everywhere...

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results
 

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales or on our site.

We’ll let you in on a little secret. For years, decades really, you’ve been able to throw some words and photos onto recycled trees, shoot a check out for $5,000 a week and create a line so long out your front door you were laughing. And now you have a virtual ad up every day for one quarter that price (or less for most dealers) and bang your head against a wall.

You might even think that your last print ad actually did better than any other source in recent memory.

The only rules that changed when you relied on print was if your rep would “take care of you”, a competitor would drop out of the paper for a week, you had a better lost leader than the closest same-brand store or if you included dealer cash or bought down rate and nobody else did that weekend.

Nowadays how you show up, where you show up, when you show up doesn’t make sense to you and don’t have anyone even get you started on pricing as gross erodes, software tells you how to optimize your lot and competitors you’ve never heard of are showing up in your pump-in, pump-out report.

You would gladly spend $30,000 a month to see your latest promotion, however if another rep or consultant walks in with a haphazardly assembled SEO report telling you that their services are needed immediately for $2,000 a month you’ll give them the Axel Foley treatment in Beverly Hills Cop.

And now you’re told that your current website provider platform isn’t up to snuff (what is a subdomain or a second “site”??), your paid ads don’t convert, leads are down and your cost per sale is up. You’re pissed. And mostly because you don’t understand what to do and how to do it or how to get your vendor(s) to do it, not because your most important advertising source can’t work.

It’s your smallest investment (you’ll spend more in coffee services, porters and trips to 7-11 for Red Bull for your staff to start logging their ups and follows ups in CRM).

Studies don’t matter. Analytics don’t matter. Lead ROI doesn’t matter. Not until all of the basics are covered. Not until you have an understanding of your $700-$3,000 per month spend. It’s never been a pay-for-it-and-leave-it even though every vendor tells you it is.

Websites are one of your three greatest investments and the least expensive (the other two are your staff and your CRM). Don’t ignore it and them blame anyone else. You shouldn’t spend money for anything you don’t understand. Don’t be the one who knows more about what clubs Jordan was using last weekend, yet nothing about the platform your website runs on or that you need to deliver four sizes of your latest ads instead of one. Don’t get pissed off at one of your smallest line items, get smart and get results.
 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales.com or on our blog

We’ll let you in on a little secret. For years, decades really, you’ve been able to throw some words and photos onto recycled trees, shoot a check out for $5,000 a week and create a line so long out your front door you were laughing. And now you have a virtual ad up every day for one quarter that price (or less for most dealers) and bang your head against a wall.

You might even think that your last print ad actually did better than any other source in recent memory.

The only rules that changed when you relied on print was if your rep would “take care of you”, a competitor would drop out of the paper for a week, you had a better lost leader than the closest same-brand store or if you included dealer cash or bought down rate and nobody else did that weekend.

Nowadays how you show up, where you show up, when you show up doesn’t make sense to you and don’t have anyone even get you started on pricing as gross erodes, software tells you how to optimize your lot and competitors you’ve never heard of are showing up in your pump-in, pump-out report.

You would gladly spend $30,000 a month to see your latest promotion, however if another rep or consultant walks in with a haphazardly assembled SEO report telling you that their services are needed immediately for $2,000 a month you’ll give them the Axel Foley treatment in Beverly Hills Cop.

And now you’re told that your current website provider platform isn’t up to snuff (what is a subdomain or a second “site”??), your paid ads don’t convert, leads are down and your cost per sale is up. You’re pissed. And mostly because you don’t understand what to do and how to do it or how to get your vendor(s) to do it, not because your most important advertising source can’t work.

It’s your smallest investment (you’ll spend more in coffee services, porters and trips to 7-11 for Red Bull for your staff to start logging their ups and follows ups in CRM).

Studies don’t matter. Analytics don’t matter. Lead ROI doesn’t matter. Not until all of the basics are covered. Not until you have an understanding of your $700-$3,000 per month spend. It’s never been a pay-for-it-and-leave-it even though every vendor tells you it is.

Websites are one of your three greatest investments and the least expensive (the other two are your staff and your CRM). Don’t ignore it and them blame anyone else. You shouldn’t spend money for anything you don’t understand. Don’t be the one who knows more about what clubs Jordan was using last weekend, yet nothing about the platform your website runs on or that you need to deliver four sizes of your latest ads instead of one. Don’t get pissed off at one of your smallest line items, get smart and get results.
 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales.com or on our blog

Not paying attention to mobile, tech and search is about to get more annoying…and costly!

What time is it? Really, what time is it? It’s not hammer time or time to get ill, although you may after reading this. It is time to consider where you SEE what time it is. For a lot of people in automotive (read: dealer principals, general managers, general sales managers), it’s usually a nice watch. And guess what? Within months, a lot of those people will be migrating to “smart” watches. Lots and lots of people will.

What does this mean for you? Well, truth is we don’t exactly know yet however know this…you’re about to get more annoyed from a cost and tech perspective. And to think, you were finally getting comfortable with spending money on SEO for your antiquated website 5 years after you should have been spending the money to DOMINATE your market and you just felt like looking into geo-fencing, although you still don’t get it.

Tech, and smart watches specifically, is going to continue the drumbeat of change and focus. Not to say everyone is going to buy a $10,000+ gold-plated Apple watch,. No. More people will be buying the Android watch that’s $499 at Costco right now!

Very few of you are going to think “great! A service app on someone’s wrist with integrated push notifications…I’m in!” Most of you are going to ask “what person would even want their smart phone that close to them?” or “Why do I need to pay attention now, until it’s more common?” or, the worst, “what spend any money on that?”

This is the real question you need to ask yourself, “will my platform, apps and communication be ready for this switch and what is a reasonable cost to be ready?” and for most of you, the answer is no. Look at your email templates and ask yourself are they mobile-ready today. (hint: most dealers have large/wide headers with links, some kind of framing, large/heavy graphics, video and other assets as part of your (non-relevant) emails you send to customers. Newsflash, you’re killing yourself and, if you have an OEM-pushed consultant coming in to your dealership, you’re even more in trouble. You’re not ready!

Tech, search and communication are changing at the speed of the consumer, and you have yet another wrinkle in your plan to do the same thing you were doing before you read this, so keep doing what you’re doing. Yes, car sales are up so dealers can make a lot of mistakes and still make money. The about-to-happen explosion of smart watches represent another example of how overwhelmingly wrong automotive retail marketing is. Now go put your Fitbit on your wrist that tracks you via GPS and uploads to your Strava account and do that run you were planning,. Nothing to see here, everything is fine...

Best Practices: Professional iInsight, Powerful Results

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales.com or on our blog

Not paying attention to mobile, tech and search is about to get more annoying…and costly!

What time is it? Really, what time is it? It’s not hammer time or time to get ill, although you may after reading this. It is time to consider where you SEE what time it is. For a lot of people in automotive (read: dealer principals, general managers, general sales managers), it’s usually a nice watch. And guess what? Within months, a lot of those people will be migrating to “smart” watches. Lots and lots of people will.

What does this mean for you? Well, truth is we don’t exactly know yet however know this…you’re about to get more annoyed from a cost and tech perspective. And to think, you were finally getting comfortable with spending money on SEO for your antiquated website 5 years after you should have been spending the money to DOMINATE your market and you just felt like looking into geo-fencing, although you still don’t get it.

Tech, and smart watches specifically, is going to continue the drumbeat of change and focus. Not to say everyone is going to buy a $10,000+ gold-plated Apple watch,. No. More people will be buying the Android watch that’s $499 at Costco right now!

Very few of you are going to think “great! A service app on someone’s wrist with integrated push notifications…I’m in!” Most of you are going to ask “what person would even want their smart phone that close to them?” or “Why do I need to pay attention now, until it’s more common?” or, the worst, “what spend any money on that?”

This is the real question you need to ask yourself, “will my platform, apps and communication be ready for this switch and what is a reasonable cost to be ready?” and for most of you, the answer is no. Look at your email templates and ask yourself are they mobile-ready today. (hint: most dealers have large/wide headers with links, some kind of framing, large/heavy graphics, video and other assets as part of your (non-relevant) emails you send to customers. Newsflash, you’re killing yourself and, if you have an OEM-pushed consultant coming in to your dealership, you’re even more in trouble. You’re not ready!

Tech, search and communication are changing at the speed of the consumer, and you have yet another wrinkle in your plan to do the same thing you were doing before you read this, so keep doing what you’re doing. Yes, car sales are up so dealers can make a lot of mistakes and still make money. The about-to-happen explosion of smart watches represent another example of how overwhelmingly wrong automotive retail marketing is. Now go put your Fitbit on your wrist that tracks you via GPS and uploads to your Strava account and do that run you were planning,. Nothing to see here, everything is fine...

Best Practices: Professional iInsight, Powerful Results

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales.com or on our blog