I wish I started blogging sooner.

That's one regret that most online marketers share, myself included.

Why?

Blogging has a unique ability to grow and nurture an audience of interested consumers. Many thought leaders today have become well-known because of their blogs. 

What I'm about to share with you works extremely well in driving traffic and leads because the focus is less on your dealership and more on your readers (i.e., customers).

Consumers are going online to research products and services. Your blog is a distribution point where consumers can get the education they need to make informed purchase decisions.

But having a blog isn't enough, especially if it's being used to spew useless sales-related information. 

I talk a lot about having a strategy and following through on it. That's where I observe many dealerships get hung up. Nothing in business can compensate for the lack of strategy. Without one, you'll flip-flop your way to burnout and defeat.

Launch a Successful Dealership Blog in 2017

Here's an 8-step process that you can use to create and launch a successful dealership blog in 2017. Don't have time to read the full post? Use on of the jump links below.

1. Get organized

There's nothing worse than wasting valuable time tracking down documents and resources. In this example, we're going to use Google Drive and Google Docs as the hub for all strategy creation.

Start by going to drive.google.com. Once you're there, click on the "NEW" button in the top right corner. Select, "Folder" from the drop-down menu.

Name your folder something memorable. I chose, "Dealership Content." The "Dealership Content" folder will become the centralized location for all dealership content-related items.

Inside that folder, click on the "New" button in the top-right corner of the screen and select, "Google Docs." This will open a new browser tab with the text editor loaded.

Title your new document, "2017 Dealership Blogging Strategy." Feel free to format the text with fonts however you'd like.

From the "Insert" menu, select "Table of Contents." This will insert a dynamic table of contents into the document that will update as you add to the document.

With these items in place, you're ready to move on to the next step.

2. Have a clear objective

One of my favorite marketing-related quotes comes from the Disney Movie, "Alice in Wonderland." 

When Alice arrives at a point in her journey where she realizes that she's lost, the Cheshire Cat appears in a tree above her. 

She asks, "I just wanted to ask you which direction I ought to go?"

The Cheshire responds will a brilliant piece of marketing advice.

"Well, that depends on where you want to get to."

Confidently, Alice replies, "It doesn't really matter, as long as I..."

"Then it really doesn't matter which way you go!" 

Simply having a blog is not sufficient. Hoping that your blog will attract droves of customers to your website is also naive, especially if you aren't clear on your blog's purpose.

In your Google Doc, type, "Blog Objective." Select your text, and make it a heading. Once complete, hit enter (return) on your keyboard.

Articulating the purpose of your blog is important.  It will act as your compass and will help you determine whether you are truly providing value to your community.

If you're stuck, try answering these three questions that will help you gain some clarity.

1.) Who are your readers?
2.) What do they need?
3.) How will they change as a result of reading your blog?

By honestly answering those three questions, you should be able to craft a simple purpose statement for your blogging efforts.

For example, here's a sample statement:

My readers are off-road enthusiasts (who are they) who are not leveraging all of their truck's potential (their need). Reading the ABC Trucks blog will help them get to know their truck, aftermarket accessories, off-road tips tricks, and locations so that they can enjoy their vehicle to its fullest extent.

3. Create a list of topics

After completing steps one and two, you're already further ahead than most dealerships. Congratulations.

But now we're going to start diving into the nitty-gritty.

Most people get overwhelmed and give up because they struggle to come up with topics. Not knowing your objective and audience makes this task even more challenging.

Since we're going to use off-road enthusiasts as the example throughout this post, here's how you come up with topic ideas.

Create another heading in your Google Doc called, "Topics." 

Check out my last post about the five must use websites to create traffic-worthy content. Inside, you'll discover a method for finding topic suggestions using a tool I love called Soovle. 

To summarize, Soovle is a keyword suggestion tool that leverages autosuggest data from a variety of search engines such as Google, Bing, YouTube and Amazon.

All you need to do is start typing a search, and Soovle will get to work revealing the most popular searches across search engines. You can click on any of the suggestions to visit the original location.

Doing so will help you know what topics your audience will want to learn about, and should help you create a list of subjects.

As new ideas come to you, or as your research gets more in-depth, return to your blog document and add them to the list. Your Google Doc is a living document that can be shared with your entire internet team.

4. Consistency is key, create an editorial calendar

Even though Google rewards consistency, Google doesn't suggest what that "consistency" means. Some of the most influential, wealthiest bloggers I know, only blog once per month. 
 
Whatever you choose, make it realistic and take some of the pressure off. The more pressure you feel around blogging, the less likely you'll be to follow through. 

Create an editorial calendar by opening Google Calendar. Navigate to your calendar settings by clicking on the "gear" icon.

Next, click on the Calendars link. This will take you to a screen where you can create a new calendar.

Create a new calendar by clicking on the "Create new calendar" button at the bottom of the page.

Fill out all the fields on the page to setup your new editorial calendar. For this example, I created a calendar called, "Blogging."

If there are others at your dealership who will share in the content creation task, you can share this calendar with them and also edit their permissions.

From there, all you need to do is insert your blog topics on the dates that you'd like to publish them. That way everyone on your team can see (yourself included) when new blog posts are scheduled.

5.) Relevancy is King

People use to say, "Content is King," and I admit that I used to believe that.

But how can content be king if it sucks? 

What I've come to learn is that relevancy is king. Without relevancy, your blog doesn't stand a chance. 

Consumers are looking for information that will enrich and enhance their lives. They aren't looking to be forced into a cookie-cutter persona where every piece of the content applies to them.

If you look closely at this example, you'll be in one of two camps. Camp A which believes the numbers represented aren't that high. Camp B that which sees how high the numbers are. 

Why?

Because those stats are accurate to what's happening with many dealerships out there. Sure it would be nice to have hundreds of thousands of visitors to your website each month, or year, but I don't believe that's realistic for the state the automotive industry is in.

6.) Include additional value

When done right, your blog can act as the salesperson that never sleeps. 

24/7, 365, it will work in the background by helping attract and nurture your audience. 

Most dealership blogs fail to provide additional value. The result is the opposite of what we're trying to achieve by setting up your blog properly.

Don't scare readers away by including a tacky call-to-action at the end of your blog posts. All the credibility you're seeking washes away with the infamous, "Check out our inventory," CTA.

Rather, offer more resources to your blog readers. They will love you all the more for it.  Include calls to action to other relevant information. Doing so will solidify your credibility and nurture your readers into shoppers.

At FlexDealer, we add extra value in a variety of ways. For example, if you checked out some of my previous posts, you probably noticed that they are quite lengthy. 

To make the information even more accessible, I thought it might be cool to make downloading the entire blog post (guide) as an option.

When you click on the CTA, you get a pop-up that asks for your name and email. Entering their information adds the reader to our email list (which we'll talk about in a second), so that, with their permission, we can continue to communicate with them about the topics they are interested in.

Creating a download of your guide doesn't have to be difficult. First, start by going to the Google Chrome app store.

Search for "Print Friendly" and click the "Add to Chrome" button. Doing so will install the print-friendly plugin to your web browser. Once installed, it will appear in your browser extensions.

Navigate to your blog post url. Once it has loaded, click on the "Print Friendly" icon.

Don't ask me how they came up with the name for this extension, but once you click the button, it will generate a print-friendly version of your entire blog post, including links. Just click on the "PDF" button to download a pdf of your post.

Next, head over to Dropbox.com. If you don't have a Dropbox account yet, sign up for free, or you can use any online storage platform. If you do, create a folder where you can upload your new PDF.

Once your pdf is uploaded, click on the "Share" link. You'll see a pop-up with some options for sharing. 

Go ahead and click on the "link settings." Select "Anyone with a link" as your sharing option and then click "Save Settings."

All you have to do from here is copy the Dropbox link of your pdf into your email autoresponder so that when people sign up for your blog, they'll receive it in their inbox.

7. Email your list

Every time you publish a new blog post, make sure you email your list. The trick is to only email segments of your list that have shown interest in the topic you've published. This is the best way to keep your audience segments engaged.

At FlexDealer, we use ActiveCampaign because it offers a robust feature-set for a reasonable price.

ActiveCampaign has done an excellent job at presenting your email list data in an easy-to-consume dashboard. 

They've also made it super easy to create and manage behavior-based automated emails. 

When you're ready to email your blog list, all you have to do is create a new campaign.

ActiveCampaign makes designing and sending a campaign super easy with their intuitive wizard.

8. BONUS TIP: Re-Email your list

FlexDealer finds that about 30% - 32% of our readers will open the original sent email. That means that 70% of our list isn't basking in the goodness that is the FlexDealer blog. 

That might sound low, but it's a pretty standard number.

So, to get around that and increase blog traffic and readership we follow these simple steps.

Step 1: Send your email and then wait for a week
Step 2: After one week, filter your sent list by those that are "unopened."
Step 3: Change your subject line, and re-email your "unopened" list

Conclusion

Okay, here's the recap about how to launch a successful dealership blog in 2017.

1. Get organized: Create a folder and document to store all your blog's crucial information. This will include post archives, image assets and whatever other items you'll need to save time and energy.

2. Set your blog's objective: This will help you keep your blog's subject matter focused and relevant to your ideal audience.

3. Create a list of topics: Do you leg work upfront and never struggle to find ideas again. This will help you stay motivated rather than discouraged not knowing what to write.

4. Create an editorial calendar: Stay on task and publish within a schedule that is realistic.

5. Stay Relevant: Your blog is not the place to pitch. Offer your readers the information that will help them grow a relationship with you.

6. Add more value: Something as simple as getting them to sign up for your blog newsletter can go a long way in nurturing the relationship and building credibility. Get creative and don't be afraid to try different calls-to-action.

7. Email your list: As soon as you're published, email your list. Make sure that it's an opt-in list so that you are compliant with email spam legislation.

8. Re-email your list: For those that didn't open your initial email, wait one week, change your subject line and send the email again.

When you focus on the items in this post, you'll create more shareworthy content and have a greater ability to attract, engage, and convert high-quality vehicle shoppers on auto-pilot.

Have a question or comment? Sound off in the comments below!

Let's face it, the market is cluttered. Multiple dealerships all broadcasting the same message; it's exhausting. So what can you do to rise above the clutter and thrive in your marketplace? 

In my recent interview with Gary Vaynerchuk, he shares a simple strategy that you can start implementing today to gain exposure and build relationships in your community.

What the video here:

There are a couple factors to success in business that Gary Vaynerchuk points out.

What motivates you to get out of bed in the morning? WHY are you doing what you're doing? Gary explains that leaving a legacy is his main objective. It's what motivates him to produce all of the content he does. It's what motivates him to share his knowledge about entreprenuership with the world. 

Simon Sinek, bestselling author of "Start With Why" believes that most of the time, people start with the WHAT. "What are you going to do?" or "What do you want to achieve?" - in contrast, starting with your WHY (the reason why you want to do something) comes with it a lasting motivation that helps carry you through to your goal.

Dominate a cluttered market

Consumers see right through your marketing. All of the best pricing and "We are the #1 dealer" messaging is ignored because, at the end of the day, consumers want something more than just a good deal. Sometimes we forget that a "good deal" consists of more than price. It includes the experience pre and post sale. It includes long-term relationships of trust, in addition to the right vehicle for the right price.

Since most dealers share the same message, it's increasingly difficult for consumers to know which dealership to work with. This is where you can really thrive. 

If most dealers are all saying the same thing, all you have to do to stand out is say something different. You see, everyone knows what car dealerships do and how they make their money. What they don't know is why you're unique. They don't know why they should trust you over your competitors. But since all dealerships look and sound alike, consumers are left to their own devices to decide who to buy from.

Gary shares his unique perspective that you should strive to become the social media "Mayor" of your online community. Get involved by sharing and talking and commenting about the things that your community is interested in. He even suggests, "talk about that pothole in town that everyone complains about or the bad turn in town..."

This is a strategy that may make some dealers uncomfortable because it doesn't directly involve promoting a vehicle or a service, but that's the beauty of it. Leveraging the fact that consumers know what a car dealership does, the need for indoctrination (e.g., WE HAVE THE BEST PRICES IN TOWN!) aren't as necessary as they may have once been.

Instead of telling people you're a rock star, show them.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Blogging is one of the most powerful things you can do for inbound and content marketing. Effective blogging can increase organic traffic to your website, but can also generate high-quality leads for your dealership.

That's because people are going online every day (multiple times per day) to find information that will enrich and empower them. Whether they are looking for answers to questions or trying to decide on a place to eat, the whole idea behind the internet is to gain access to information.

But despite its importance, many businesses find it to be a daunting task. If you're one of them, I understand the struggle. It's real. I've spent countless hours watching the cursor blink on my word processor hoping that a spark of inspiration would help me pound out two thousand words of genius.

While those strokes of genius didn't happen very often, I've learned some tips about blogging along the way that have streamlined the process for me and made blogging easy.

Content Topic Ideas

Whether you have writers block, or just need some inspiration to know what to write, here are my top 5 tips for creating blog topic ideas.

1. Search Engine Autocomplete

One of the easiest ways to get content topic ideas is to use Google. Have you every noticed that when you start typing something into Google, it auto-suggests searches?

Google's autocomplete feature represents what other people are searching for online making it a valuable resource for content topics. To get started, all you have to do is start typing in a search.

2. Frequently Asked Questions

Whether you work alone or with a team of people, start thinking about (or ask your teammates) what frequently asked questions consumers have about your company, products or services.

You'll never go wrong following the "they ask, you answer" method for blogging, and it will provide you with an ongoing list of topics to blog about.

3. Instagram Hashtag/Image Quotes

You can use Instagram for inspiration by simply doing a hashtag search for your relevant niche and see what people find interesting.

To get started, open your Instagram app and tap on the search icon.

Type in a hashtag that has to do with your target audience. For this example, we're using the "entrepreneur" hashtag.

Look for image quotes, or trending images to see what the subject matter is about. You'll often find something that sparks a thought, and from there you may find a potential blog topic idea.

Once you've found something that stands out to you, look at the caption. Often the publisher of the image will share more thoughts on the image which can help you with content ideas.

4. Google Trends

Google Trends is a powerful tool that you can use to find out what's trending on Google both currently and historically.

Go to https://www.google.com/trends and using the site search, type in a topic. If you're a car dealer, try searching for one of your models. For this example, we're using the Ford F-150.

I recommend filtering the search results to the last 12 months to get an idea of how the vehicle is trending in search currently.

Google Trends uses a rating system out of 100 to identify the search interest of a particular topic. For the F-150, you can see that at some point throughout the year, it has declined into the 70's, but has risen at some points to 100.

Scrolling down the page, you can dig deeper and find out search interest per region during the selected time frame. This is helpful if you're trying to determine regional interest in your product or service.

If you've found a topic of relatively high search interest, that can help you determine what you should be blogging about.

5. Buzzsumo

I've written about Buzzsumo before, and it's worth a mention here.

Buzzsumo provides the ability to find out what content is performing well online by analyzing the most shared and most influential content.

All you need to do to get started is type in a potential topic idea and click, "Go".

Buzzsumo will deliver you the most shared content online relevant to your topic.

Click on the content it finds to get ideas about how you should approach your blog post. Doing so, you'll be able to leverage viral content for your next post.

Most people get stuck because they don't know what to write about. Using these suggestions, you should have more than enough ideas to help you get started. The name of the game is to blog about topics that people have an interest in. The suggestion above will help you do just that.

Improve Your Blog Writing

6. Dictate Your Ideas into Evernote (or similar)

How many times have you had a good idea on the go, but haven't been in a position to just start writing? This happens to me all the time, in some instances, that good idea vanishes into thin air because I failed to record it or jot it down.

Using Evernote, or your smartphone's built-in voice recorder, you can quickly speak your idea and store it on your device to reference back to at a later time.

Not only will you never lose a good idea again, but you will also probably feel like Captain Kirk or Jean-Luc Picard keeping your captain's log. (Obviously kidding...)

7. Grammarly

Grammarly is an awesome tool that I use to write every piece of content I publish. In essence, it helps improve your writing by showing you how bad you are at writing.

It is a contextual spelling/grammar check on steroids. With a variety of settings, you can get Grammarly to check your writing in real-time and point out errors or elements of your writing that you should consider changing.

You can even have it do plagiarism checks for you which cross-references what you've written to everything that's indexed online. Doing so will help you keep your writing unique.

8. Create an Outline

An easy way to improve your blog writing is to use an outline. Doing so will ensure that your blog follows a clear path to a conclusion. There's nothing worse than consuming content that has no clear entry and exit.

Creating an outline for what you want to discuss in your blog post will also help you during the writing process because it helps trigger thoughts and ideas that will help your content become more robust than if you didn't have one.

9. Conversational Writing

When I wrote my bestselling book, Don't Wait, DOMINATE!, I wanted to make sure that the reader felt like I was sitting there having a conversation with them.

Conversational writing still requires discipline, though. You want to make sure that even though the tone is conversational, that you're not using shortcut words like 'ya' instead of 'you', 'gonna' instead of 'going to'.

When I write in a conversational tone, I usually use contraction words like 'you're' instead of 'you are' or 'we're' instead of 'we are'. Why? Because that's exactly how I'd pronounce those words if I were speaking to you in person.

10. Schedule time

If you're (see that contraction?) focused on everything else that needs to get done, you will always be distracted and flustered when it comes time to write.

The best way to avoid that is to create an editorial calendar, and set time aside each day (for the power blogger) or each week and make sure that you are free from distractions.

When I know that I'm approaching my set writing time, ideas start to come naturally to mind, and I use some of the tips mentioned above (like voice notes) to make sure I have them stored.

I've used two different online tools for managing my editorial calendar. Asana and Google Calendar. Both work well as an editorial calendar and are also FREE to use.

Asana is a task management (to-do) platform that works well for managing personal and team projects/tasks. I use it as an editorial calendar in the following way:

First, click on the plus icon to create a new task for yourself. Write the topic idea as the task name.

Next, click on the description field and write/paste any ideas or links that will help you when it comes time to write.

Next, click to add a due date for the blog post and set it for your desired publish date.

Once you've added the tasks all you have to do is view your task list, and each of them will show up as the due date approaches.

Improving Blog Quality

11. Write for people, not search engines

On the opposite side of your computer screen is a human being who is looking for information. It can be easy when blogging (or doing anything online for that matter) to forget that a real person will consume your content.

We get so caught up in 'SEO' and 'Keyword Research' and 'Ranking' that we forget that those things only matter if people can see and consume what you're ranking for.

Google's whole purpose is to make the web a better place for who? PEOPLE!

That's why the first thing I suggest remembering to improve the quality of your content is to make sure you stay focused on a single person consuming your content.

You're not writing it for thousands of people. You're writing it for one person. One person who has a problem or a question.

12. Embed Images and Video

Every person on the planet has a dominant learning style. Whether they are visual, auditory or tactile learners, one of the best ways to make sure your content is consumable to all is to make it visual and auditory as much as possible.

There's nothing worse than pounding out a 2000 word blog post only to reach 33.33% of possible audience members because you left out visuals.

That's why some of the best blog posts out there include video (visual and auditory) as well as images (visual) cues for other learning styles to get the most out of your content.

13. Keep it simple

Stop trying to sound smart. When people try and sound too smart, they end up sounding dumb. Lengthy words inside of long sentences inside of juggernaut paragraphs are ridiculous.

If you can't make your point in a way that a six-year-old would understand, you're trying to sound too smart. Keep your sentences short. Keep them to the point.

14. Write something that you would read

Put yourself in your readers shoes. Would you consume the content that you're about to publish? If the answer is no, don't publish it. What's the point?

We just talked about how your focus should be on writing for people, so if it's not good enough for you, it sure as heck is not good enough for them. PERIOD.

15. Don't pitch

Gary Vaynerchuk posted an image to Instagram that perfectly describes my point here. The caption is, "Whoever asks first, is in second place."

​

One of the biggest mistakes that bloggers make (especially if they represent a company) is that they try to include sales pitchy information in line with the value.

Here's a novel idea: CONVEY VALUE ALWAYS. Overdeliver it. Force feed value to your audience to the degree that they can't deny your authority, expertise, and most importantly, willingness to serve them!

A premature 'ask' will kill your reputation. If you want people to believe you're the expert, prove it to them. Give away your best information for free.

I know that might seem like you won't have anything else to offer, but that's the case - trust me. You do!

The minute I shed the sales pitch from my content, the more sought after I became. It will happen that way for you too.

Be valuable to somebody, not worthless to everybody.

Conclusion

Don't worry about becoming a master of all these things at once. Heck, I'm still learning! But don't let that stop you from blogging either. The world needs your point of view. Your market and your customers need your point of view, so give it to them!

Keeping these 15 tips in mind will streamline the process of blogging for you to the point that it won't (shouldn't) seem burdensome anymore.

Blogging used to be a stretch for me, but it has become one of my absolute favorite online activities. It has helped my brand awareness go through the roof, my reputation has skyrocketed, and my business has grown.

Now it's your turn.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Blogging is one of the most powerful things you can do for inbound and content marketing. Effective blogging can increase organic traffic to your website, but can also generate high-quality leads for your dealership.

That's because people are going online every day (multiple times per day) to find information that will enrich and empower them. Whether they are looking for answers to questions or trying to decide on a place to eat, the whole idea behind the internet is to gain access to information.

But despite its importance, many businesses find it to be a daunting task. If you're one of them, I understand the struggle. It's real. I've spent countless hours watching the cursor blink on my word processor hoping that a spark of inspiration would help me pound out two thousand words of genius.

While those strokes of genius didn't happen very often, I've learned some tips about blogging along the way that have streamlined the process for me and made blogging easy.

Content Topic Ideas

Whether you have writers block, or just need some inspiration to know what to write, here are my top 5 tips for creating blog topic ideas.

1. Search Engine Autocomplete

One of the easiest ways to get content topic ideas is to use Google. Have you every noticed that when you start typing something into Google, it auto-suggests searches?

Google's autocomplete feature represents what other people are searching for online making it a valuable resource for content topics. To get started, all you have to do is start typing in a search.

2. Frequently Asked Questions

Whether you work alone or with a team of people, start thinking about (or ask your teammates) what frequently asked questions consumers have about your company, products or services.

You'll never go wrong following the "they ask, you answer" method for blogging, and it will provide you with an ongoing list of topics to blog about.

3. Instagram Hashtag/Image Quotes

You can use Instagram for inspiration by simply doing a hashtag search for your relevant niche and see what people find interesting.

To get started, open your Instagram app and tap on the search icon.

Type in a hashtag that has to do with your target audience. For this example, we're using the "entrepreneur" hashtag.

Look for image quotes, or trending images to see what the subject matter is about. You'll often find something that sparks a thought, and from there you may find a potential blog topic idea.

Once you've found something that stands out to you, look at the caption. Often the publisher of the image will share more thoughts on the image which can help you with content ideas.

4. Google Trends

Google Trends is a powerful tool that you can use to find out what's trending on Google both currently and historically.

Go to https://www.google.com/trends and using the site search, type in a topic. If you're a car dealer, try searching for one of your models. For this example, we're using the Ford F-150.

I recommend filtering the search results to the last 12 months to get an idea of how the vehicle is trending in search currently.

Google Trends uses a rating system out of 100 to identify the search interest of a particular topic. For the F-150, you can see that at some point throughout the year, it has declined into the 70's, but has risen at some points to 100.

Scrolling down the page, you can dig deeper and find out search interest per region during the selected time frame. This is helpful if you're trying to determine regional interest in your product or service.

If you've found a topic of relatively high search interest, that can help you determine what you should be blogging about.

5. Buzzsumo

I've written about Buzzsumo before, and it's worth a mention here.

Buzzsumo provides the ability to find out what content is performing well online by analyzing the most shared and most influential content.

All you need to do to get started is type in a potential topic idea and click, "Go".

Buzzsumo will deliver you the most shared content online relevant to your topic.

Click on the content it finds to get ideas about how you should approach your blog post. Doing so, you'll be able to leverage viral content for your next post.

Most people get stuck because they don't know what to write about. Using these suggestions, you should have more than enough ideas to help you get started. The name of the game is to blog about topics that people have an interest in. The suggestion above will help you do just that.

Improve Your Blog Writing

6. Dictate Your Ideas into Evernote (or similar)

How many times have you had a good idea on the go, but haven't been in a position to just start writing? This happens to me all the time, in some instances, that good idea vanishes into thin air because I failed to record it or jot it down.

Using Evernote, or your smartphone's built-in voice recorder, you can quickly speak your idea and store it on your device to reference back to at a later time.

Not only will you never lose a good idea again, but you will also probably feel like Captain Kirk or Jean-Luc Picard keeping your captain's log. (Obviously kidding...)

7. Grammarly

Grammarly is an awesome tool that I use to write every piece of content I publish. In essence, it helps improve your writing by showing you how bad you are at writing.

It is a contextual spelling/grammar check on steroids. With a variety of settings, you can get Grammarly to check your writing in real-time and point out errors or elements of your writing that you should consider changing.

You can even have it do plagiarism checks for you which cross-references what you've written to everything that's indexed online. Doing so will help you keep your writing unique.

8. Create an Outline

An easy way to improve your blog writing is to use an outline. Doing so will ensure that your blog follows a clear path to a conclusion. There's nothing worse than consuming content that has no clear entry and exit.

Creating an outline for what you want to discuss in your blog post will also help you during the writing process because it helps trigger thoughts and ideas that will help your content become more robust than if you didn't have one.

9. Conversational Writing

When I wrote my bestselling book, Don't Wait, DOMINATE!, I wanted to make sure that the reader felt like I was sitting there having a conversation with them.

Conversational writing still requires discipline, though. You want to make sure that even though the tone is conversational, that you're not using shortcut words like 'ya' instead of 'you', 'gonna' instead of 'going to'.

When I write in a conversational tone, I usually use contraction words like 'you're' instead of 'you are' or 'we're' instead of 'we are'. Why? Because that's exactly how I'd pronounce those words if I were speaking to you in person.

10. Schedule time

If you're (see that contraction?) focused on everything else that needs to get done, you will always be distracted and flustered when it comes time to write.

The best way to avoid that is to create an editorial calendar, and set time aside each day (for the power blogger) or each week and make sure that you are free from distractions.

When I know that I'm approaching my set writing time, ideas start to come naturally to mind, and I use some of the tips mentioned above (like voice notes) to make sure I have them stored.

I've used two different online tools for managing my editorial calendar. Asana and Google Calendar. Both work well as an editorial calendar and are also FREE to use.

Asana is a task management (to-do) platform that works well for managing personal and team projects/tasks. I use it as an editorial calendar in the following way:

First, click on the plus icon to create a new task for yourself. Write the topic idea as the task name.

Next, click on the description field and write/paste any ideas or links that will help you when it comes time to write.

Next, click to add a due date for the blog post and set it for your desired publish date.

Once you've added the tasks all you have to do is view your task list, and each of them will show up as the due date approaches.

Improving Blog Quality

11. Write for people, not search engines

On the opposite side of your computer screen is a human being who is looking for information. It can be easy when blogging (or doing anything online for that matter) to forget that a real person will consume your content.

We get so caught up in 'SEO' and 'Keyword Research' and 'Ranking' that we forget that those things only matter if people can see and consume what you're ranking for.

Google's whole purpose is to make the web a better place for who? PEOPLE!

That's why the first thing I suggest remembering to improve the quality of your content is to make sure you stay focused on a single person consuming your content.

You're not writing it for thousands of people. You're writing it for one person. One person who has a problem or a question.

12. Embed Images and Video

Every person on the planet has a dominant learning style. Whether they are visual, auditory or tactile learners, one of the best ways to make sure your content is consumable to all is to make it visual and auditory as much as possible.

There's nothing worse than pounding out a 2000 word blog post only to reach 33.33% of possible audience members because you left out visuals.

That's why some of the best blog posts out there include video (visual and auditory) as well as images (visual) cues for other learning styles to get the most out of your content.

13. Keep it simple

Stop trying to sound smart. When people try and sound too smart, they end up sounding dumb. Lengthy words inside of long sentences inside of juggernaut paragraphs are ridiculous.

If you can't make your point in a way that a six-year-old would understand, you're trying to sound too smart. Keep your sentences short. Keep them to the point.

14. Write something that you would read

Put yourself in your readers shoes. Would you consume the content that you're about to publish? If the answer is no, don't publish it. What's the point?

We just talked about how your focus should be on writing for people, so if it's not good enough for you, it sure as heck is not good enough for them. PERIOD.

15. Don't pitch

Gary Vaynerchuk posted an image to Instagram that perfectly describes my point here. The caption is, "Whoever asks first, is in second place."

​

One of the biggest mistakes that bloggers make (especially if they represent a company) is that they try to include sales pitchy information in line with the value.

Here's a novel idea: CONVEY VALUE ALWAYS. Overdeliver it. Force feed value to your audience to the degree that they can't deny your authority, expertise, and most importantly, willingness to serve them!

A premature 'ask' will kill your reputation. If you want people to believe you're the expert, prove it to them. Give away your best information for free.

I know that might seem like you won't have anything else to offer, but that's the case - trust me. You do!

The minute I shed the sales pitch from my content, the more sought after I became. It will happen that way for you too.

Be valuable to somebody, not worthless to everybody.

Conclusion

Don't worry about becoming a master of all these things at once. Heck, I'm still learning! But don't let that stop you from blogging either. The world needs your point of view. Your market and your customers need your point of view, so give it to them!

Keeping these 15 tips in mind will streamline the process of blogging for you to the point that it won't (shouldn't) seem burdensome anymore.

Blogging used to be a stretch for me, but it has become one of my absolute favorite online activities. It has helped my brand awareness go through the roof, my reputation has skyrocketed, and my business has grown.

Now it's your turn.

There is a lot of clutter in the marketing world.

It doesn't matter where you turn, it's almost a guarantee that you're hit with some level of marketing or another. From ads on your phone and laptop, to television; radio and print, it's difficult to escape.

And 'escape' is what most people do. Because there is so much marketing clutter out there, as human beings we've learned to ignore it.

The level of clutter has contributed to much more fierce competition. Everyone is fighting for the limited attention of potential consumers. There's only one problem, though.

Everyone (especially dealerships) are all saying the same thing. From 'Low monthly payments' to the 'best selection of used cars', how is the consumer supposed to know who is telling the truth?

It's time for you to focus on differentiating your dealership from the rest. Broadcasting the same message as your competitors won't do the trick. It just shows how you are all the same, not different.

Don't get me wrong. I understand that for franchise dealerships, the OEM has certain promotions for you to share each month. That doesn't mean that as a dealership, you can't get creative and pull yourself out of the clutter.

Call in the SWOT Team

When I sit down to consult dealers and ask what makes them different, I always hear the same answer.

"We have a higher quality product." or "Our team takes pride in great customer service". For Pete's sake, STOP! If you truly believe this, than your finger is not accurately on the pulse.

You're running a multi-million dollar business. Before you start contributing to the marketing clutter out there, you need to call in the SWOT team.

Okay, so I'm just trying to be clever with a play on words. I don't mean SWAT team, I mean you need to get your team together and create a SWOT analysis for your dealership.

A SWOT analysis is a crucial marketing planning method. It  will help you identify current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for your business.

Take some time to take a deep look into your company. List out your dealership's strengths. These could include your store's culture, management team experience, brand and core values. Additionally, take time to list out your weaknesses, opportunities and any threats.

Once you've taken the time to create these lists, the next step is to align strengths with opportunities. You should immediately see some ways that you can position yourself for success in the marketplace.

Now align your weaknesses with opportunities. This will help you understand what your dealership needs to overcome to take hold of other opportunities.

Next, look at your strengths in contrast to any threats to your business. Threats might include other stores with deeper pockets, or groups that are expanding with more stores in your area. The idea isn't to get depressed, rather, it's to learn how you can leverage your strengths to offset any threats.

By completing a SWOT analysis for your store, you will begin to understand your unique position in the marketplace. You will identify business goals that are unlike your competitors. This will make it easier for you to position your store for growth while your competitors keep guessing at the best way to compete.

The point I'm trying to make here is that you have your own company. As such, you should focus on achieving your definition of success in your own way. Start leveraging your strengths, overcoming weaknesses, taking hold of opportunities and softening the blow of your threats.

Once you know with clarity what you're trying to achieve, you will have a greater ability to market your store to the right audience. You will be able to address the customers' needs wants and desires in a way that will resonate with them. You will attract the people that  you want to work with and who want to work with you!

What you need to know before you start marketing is who you are and what makes you unique. Doing a SWOT analysis is an effective way to build a solid marketing foundation to build from.

There is a lot of clutter in the marketing world.

It doesn't matter where you turn, it's almost a guarantee that you're hit with some level of marketing or another. From ads on your phone and laptop, to television; radio and print, it's difficult to escape.

And 'escape' is what most people do. Because there is so much marketing clutter out there, as human beings we've learned to ignore it.

The level of clutter has contributed to much more fierce competition. Everyone is fighting for the limited attention of potential consumers. There's only one problem, though.

Everyone (especially dealerships) are all saying the same thing. From 'Low monthly payments' to the 'best selection of used cars', how is the consumer supposed to know who is telling the truth?

It's time for you to focus on differentiating your dealership from the rest. Broadcasting the same message as your competitors won't do the trick. It just shows how you are all the same, not different.

Don't get me wrong. I understand that for franchise dealerships, the OEM has certain promotions for you to share each month. That doesn't mean that as a dealership, you can't get creative and pull yourself out of the clutter.

Call in the SWOT Team

When I sit down to consult dealers and ask what makes them different, I always hear the same answer.

"We have a higher quality product." or "Our team takes pride in great customer service". For Pete's sake, STOP! If you truly believe this, than your finger is not accurately on the pulse.

You're running a multi-million dollar business. Before you start contributing to the marketing clutter out there, you need to call in the SWOT team.

Okay, so I'm just trying to be clever with a play on words. I don't mean SWAT team, I mean you need to get your team together and create a SWOT analysis for your dealership.

A SWOT analysis is a crucial marketing planning method. It  will help you identify current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for your business.

Take some time to take a deep look into your company. List out your dealership's strengths. These could include your store's culture, management team experience, brand and core values. Additionally, take time to list out your weaknesses, opportunities and any threats.

Once you've taken the time to create these lists, the next step is to align strengths with opportunities. You should immediately see some ways that you can position yourself for success in the marketplace.

Now align your weaknesses with opportunities. This will help you understand what your dealership needs to overcome to take hold of other opportunities.

Next, look at your strengths in contrast to any threats to your business. Threats might include other stores with deeper pockets, or groups that are expanding with more stores in your area. The idea isn't to get depressed, rather, it's to learn how you can leverage your strengths to offset any threats.

By completing a SWOT analysis for your store, you will begin to understand your unique position in the marketplace. You will identify business goals that are unlike your competitors. This will make it easier for you to position your store for growth while your competitors keep guessing at the best way to compete.

The point I'm trying to make here is that you have your own company. As such, you should focus on achieving your definition of success in your own way. Start leveraging your strengths, overcoming weaknesses, taking hold of opportunities and softening the blow of your threats.

Once you know with clarity what you're trying to achieve, you will have a greater ability to market your store to the right audience. You will be able to address the customers' needs wants and desires in a way that will resonate with them. You will attract the people that  you want to work with and who want to work with you!

What you need to know before you start marketing is who you are and what makes you unique. Doing a SWOT analysis is an effective way to build a solid marketing foundation to build from.

There is something going on with dealership websites that needs to stop ASAP!

It’s something that should be pretty obvious, but clearly isn’t.

Know what I’m talking about?

Most websites for car dealers look, feel and flow the same way as each other.

They all have the same messaging, calls-to-action, design concepts and lack the site traffic needed to make a big impact on gross or net profits.

The problem is that automotive consumers are much more web-savvy than they’ve ever been.

They have been conditioned to use the internet in a specific way based on the sites they visit on a regular basis.

Sites like Amazon, eBay, Facebook and other ecommerce and social sites.

Most dealer websites are not providing the experience that online users are already used to. They are playing catchup.

I think most dealers would agree that the objective of their website is to get more leads from their website. After all, more leads = more sales opportunities, right?

Well here’s a secret that will get your website converting traffic like a machine.

I must warn you, that this secret will require....

Nonetheless, it’s a tried and tested strategy that will separate your dealership from the vast majority of other dealers and help you dominate your market online.

If you look at the other websites out there that your consumers are visiting on a regular basis, what do they all have in common?

Information in the form of content.

You see, every day MILLIONS of automotive consumers are going online to research your products and services. You know what they’re finding? Your competitors.

Why? Because your competitors are providing more information on their websites than you are.

Why is it that I can go online and find more information about a $20 cell phone case than most consumers can about the second largest investment of their life?

Think about it!

You need to get more content on your website that covers a variety of topics.

Blog about the latest vehicles on your lot. Do video test drives. Talk about your products and services in a way that provides REAL value to your customers. Leave the pitch out.

Just focus on value, value, value and more value.

The cool thing about providing value in the form of content is that you’ll attract the right type of customers to your site.

All you need to do is identify the type of customer you wish to attract and then create content that speaks to them.

When you know who you’re speaking to, it gets that much easier to know what to ask them as well. All you have to do is line up the call-to-action with the content that you’ve created.

This strategy will give you an immediate increase in leads because you’ll be able to leverage your existing site traffic.

So here’s the breakdown on how to get started:

1.) Figure out what type of customer you want to speak to (vehicle sales, parts, services, finance etc.)

2.) Create content in the form of a blog, videos, images etc that speak to them about what they’re interested in

3.) Keep the pitch out of your content - just focus on providing REAL value to the customer

4.) Include a call-to-action that’s relevant to your content

Doing so will allow you to:

1.) Leverage your existing site traffic

2.) Attract new Qualified site traffic

3.) Increase leads from your website

Have fun with this, and feel free to comment with your questions if you’d like some help getting started.

There is something going on with dealership websites that needs to stop ASAP!

It’s something that should be pretty obvious, but clearly isn’t.

Know what I’m talking about?

Most websites for car dealers look, feel and flow the same way as each other.

They all have the same messaging, calls-to-action, design concepts and lack the site traffic needed to make a big impact on gross or net profits.

The problem is that automotive consumers are much more web-savvy than they’ve ever been.

They have been conditioned to use the internet in a specific way based on the sites they visit on a regular basis.

Sites like Amazon, eBay, Facebook and other ecommerce and social sites.

Most dealer websites are not providing the experience that online users are already used to. They are playing catchup.

I think most dealers would agree that the objective of their website is to get more leads from their website. After all, more leads = more sales opportunities, right?

Well here’s a secret that will get your website converting traffic like a machine.

I must warn you, that this secret will require....

Nonetheless, it’s a tried and tested strategy that will separate your dealership from the vast majority of other dealers and help you dominate your market online.

If you look at the other websites out there that your consumers are visiting on a regular basis, what do they all have in common?

Information in the form of content.

You see, every day MILLIONS of automotive consumers are going online to research your products and services. You know what they’re finding? Your competitors.

Why? Because your competitors are providing more information on their websites than you are.

Why is it that I can go online and find more information about a $20 cell phone case than most consumers can about the second largest investment of their life?

Think about it!

You need to get more content on your website that covers a variety of topics.

Blog about the latest vehicles on your lot. Do video test drives. Talk about your products and services in a way that provides REAL value to your customers. Leave the pitch out.

Just focus on value, value, value and more value.

The cool thing about providing value in the form of content is that you’ll attract the right type of customers to your site.

All you need to do is identify the type of customer you wish to attract and then create content that speaks to them.

When you know who you’re speaking to, it gets that much easier to know what to ask them as well. All you have to do is line up the call-to-action with the content that you’ve created.

This strategy will give you an immediate increase in leads because you’ll be able to leverage your existing site traffic.

So here’s the breakdown on how to get started:

1.) Figure out what type of customer you want to speak to (vehicle sales, parts, services, finance etc.)

2.) Create content in the form of a blog, videos, images etc that speak to them about what they’re interested in

3.) Keep the pitch out of your content - just focus on providing REAL value to the customer

4.) Include a call-to-action that’s relevant to your content

Doing so will allow you to:

1.) Leverage your existing site traffic

2.) Attract new Qualified site traffic

3.) Increase leads from your website

Have fun with this, and feel free to comment with your questions if you’d like some help getting started.

There is one simple truth that must be recognized by all dealers. That is that the Internet plays a major role in how today’s automotive consumers research and purchase vehicles. Never before in the history of auto sales has there been a faster, more efficient way to get your brand in front of such a large audience. The Internet isn’t going away. It’s the way business is done these days.

One aspect of doing business on the Internet is making sure that your dealer website is visible to large quantities of vehicle shoppers. There are a few different strategies that can make this happen; however, the only one that has real long-term benefits is Search Engine Optimization (commonly known as SEO).

Looking for a refresher on SEO basics? Read this.

So, what is the true cost of doing SEO?

Perhaps the more relevant question is what is the cost of NOT doing SEO? I’d add to that by asking what the point of having a website is if you’re not willing to take any measures to have it show up in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)? The simple science is that a website that returns no results (traffic, leads, etc.) is also a waste of your hard earned dollars.

Over the years, I’ve observed many dealerships who have consistently moved from one website vendor to another in an effort to get the lowest price. I’ve also observed the lowest priced vendor’s quality of work - it often stinks! Allow me to demonstrate.

A few years ago we were working with a dealership who was ranking on the first page of SERPs for some of the most competitive keywords for that region.  For whatever reason, they chose to make the shift to a new provider in the middle of the night, without notice to us. While they certainly ended up saving on their monthly website bill, that switch inadvertently cost them thousands because the new vendor had their site “re-optimized” for the right city, BUT in the wrong country. This dealer’s website disappeared from the search results. That dealer ended up moving back to my company to have us repair their web presence.

I’m not telling you this to plug my company's SEO services. I’m hoping however, that it demonstrates that in most cases, low price also translates to low quality. The name of the game is to get your dealership in front of as many people as possible. If you’re not showing up in SERPs, you’re not moving metal. So again, what is the cost of NOT having your site SEO’d?

At the 2012 Driving Sales Executive Summit in Las Vegas, Rand Fishkin, CEO of MOZ.com, said that he would choose the process of SEO over SEM (or PPC) any day of the week. His studies indicated that the quality of click-through traffic on organic search results was far superior to any click that came by way of pay-per-click advertising.

Fishkin pointed out that another advantage of SEO is that it provides a long-term solution for greater visibility. With pay-per-click advertising, the moment you decide to turn off the cash, your website vanishes from the listings. We’ll focus on SEM and PPC in an upcoming article.

In conclusion, I’d like to reiterate that the Internet is the way to do business this day in age. Every day millions of automotive consumers are going online to research products. This research helps them shape their purchase decision.

By focusing on a solid online strategy, you can place your dealership in front of thousands of people in your local market. Doing so enhances your ability to form relationships, help shape opinions and lead potential buyers to your dealership. The sooner that you adopt the truth that the Internet is the way business is done today, the better off you’ll be. Invest in yourself and your online presence so that you can reap the rewards.

Have questions about automotive SEO? I’d be happy to help. Send me your questions in the comment section below and I’ll answer you back!

There is one simple truth that must be recognized by all dealers. That is that the Internet plays a major role in how today’s automotive consumers research and purchase vehicles. Never before in the history of auto sales has there been a faster, more efficient way to get your brand in front of such a large audience. The Internet isn’t going away. It’s the way business is done these days.

One aspect of doing business on the Internet is making sure that your dealer website is visible to large quantities of vehicle shoppers. There are a few different strategies that can make this happen; however, the only one that has real long-term benefits is Search Engine Optimization (commonly known as SEO).

Looking for a refresher on SEO basics? Read this.

So, what is the true cost of doing SEO?

Perhaps the more relevant question is what is the cost of NOT doing SEO? I’d add to that by asking what the point of having a website is if you’re not willing to take any measures to have it show up in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)? The simple science is that a website that returns no results (traffic, leads, etc.) is also a waste of your hard earned dollars.

Over the years, I’ve observed many dealerships who have consistently moved from one website vendor to another in an effort to get the lowest price. I’ve also observed the lowest priced vendor’s quality of work - it often stinks! Allow me to demonstrate.

A few years ago we were working with a dealership who was ranking on the first page of SERPs for some of the most competitive keywords for that region.  For whatever reason, they chose to make the shift to a new provider in the middle of the night, without notice to us. While they certainly ended up saving on their monthly website bill, that switch inadvertently cost them thousands because the new vendor had their site “re-optimized” for the right city, BUT in the wrong country. This dealer’s website disappeared from the search results. That dealer ended up moving back to my company to have us repair their web presence.

I’m not telling you this to plug my company's SEO services. I’m hoping however, that it demonstrates that in most cases, low price also translates to low quality. The name of the game is to get your dealership in front of as many people as possible. If you’re not showing up in SERPs, you’re not moving metal. So again, what is the cost of NOT having your site SEO’d?

At the 2012 Driving Sales Executive Summit in Las Vegas, Rand Fishkin, CEO of MOZ.com, said that he would choose the process of SEO over SEM (or PPC) any day of the week. His studies indicated that the quality of click-through traffic on organic search results was far superior to any click that came by way of pay-per-click advertising.

Fishkin pointed out that another advantage of SEO is that it provides a long-term solution for greater visibility. With pay-per-click advertising, the moment you decide to turn off the cash, your website vanishes from the listings. We’ll focus on SEM and PPC in an upcoming article.

In conclusion, I’d like to reiterate that the Internet is the way to do business this day in age. Every day millions of automotive consumers are going online to research products. This research helps them shape their purchase decision.

By focusing on a solid online strategy, you can place your dealership in front of thousands of people in your local market. Doing so enhances your ability to form relationships, help shape opinions and lead potential buyers to your dealership. The sooner that you adopt the truth that the Internet is the way business is done today, the better off you’ll be. Invest in yourself and your online presence so that you can reap the rewards.

Have questions about automotive SEO? I’d be happy to help. Send me your questions in the comment section below and I’ll answer you back!