Can you feel it? The luck of the Irish is in the air. Which can only mean one thing, St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner. This year be sure to leverage the luck of the leprechaun to promote your dealership and drive more traffic and revenue your way. Here are three ideas to get lucky with St. Patrick’s Day.

Make Customers Green with Envy
St. Patrick’s Day presents a great opportunity to promote your newest lineup. If one of your models has a new body style or enhanced features, think about promoting this content to individuals who own an older model. If they are model loyal (recent studies suggest this is occurring more often), then these customers will become green with envy and want to upgrade to the newest vehicle edition.

Sponsor a Local Event
In a lot of communities around the country, St. Patrick’s Day is a celebrated event with parades, parties, and even festivals. Think about sponsoring one of these St. Patrick’s Day events around your local town to bring attention to your dealership. Depending on your level of interest and involvement, you may even want to participate in the parade by decking out the hottest vehicle in your lineup with St. Patrick’s Day flare. How little or much you get involved is completely up to you.

Encourage Customers to Get in the Spirit
One thing Americans love about the St. Patrick’s Day holiday is the opportunity to show their Irish spirit. And what better way for your dealership to get involved than hosting a St. Patrick’s Day contest? You could make the contest completely digital by hosting it on social media and asking people to post their best St. Patty’s Day outfit and then reward the pic that gets the most likes. If you’re feeling up to it, you could offer savings to anyone who comes to your dealership wearing green. Whatever you decide, encourage customers to show their St. Patrick’s Day spirit and rewarding them with a contest is a fun way to raise brand awareness for your dealership.

Get ready, because St. Patrick’s Day will be here before you know it and you don’t want to miss this opportunity to connect with customers and drive more traffic and revenue to your store. That’s right, get lucky this year with St. Patrick’s Day.

If you’re looking for a creative way to drive traffic, this week’s blog is for you. The month of March is typically littered with marketing about St. Patrick’s Day or March Madness, but very few marketers use Daylight Saving Time as an opportunity to connect with and reach current customers. So, check out these three ways you can leverage the time change to get lucky and drive additional traffic and revenue to your store.

Offer Something Extra
Although Daylight Saving Time is not a holiday, you could take the opportunity to offer a little something extra to customers. Think about having breakfast and coffee throughout the week to help your customers get used to their early morning routines. The offering doesn’t have to be something that will break the bank, but if you play into the earlier morning wake-up, you’re sure to draw some attention from customers.

Create a Happy Hour
Now I know what you’re thinking. “We are a car dealership, not a restaurant or bar!” Very good point. But, I’m not referring to an alcoholic drink happy hour; what I’m referring to is a happy hour where you offer $500 off a pre-owned vehicle during the hours of 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. Or, maybe a discounted oil change during specific happy hour times. Be sure to target slower times in your day when offering your happy hour savings and properly staff to handle increased volume.

Send Time Change Reminders
If you can’t pull any marketing together for the upcoming time change, think about simply sending reminders to customers. You can leverage email, voice messaging, or even social media to get your message out to customers. A simple, helpful, friendly Daylight Saving reminder will be appreciated by your customers.

The Daylight Saving time change is right around the corner, so if you plan to leverage it in your March marketing to get lucky and drive additional traffic and revenue, now is the time to get started.

Have you ever visited a website and then had that website’s ads follow you around the internet? Do you ever wonder how these marketers are able to target you with specific ads on other websites? Some marketers have gotten so sophisticated that they’ll even serve you ads based off of the specific item you were looking at on their website. Today, we’ll explore the world of tracking pixels and how you can begin using them in your Facebook advertising strategy.

What is a Facebook tracking pixel?
First let’s start by discussing what a tracking pixel is. In its simplest form, it is a snippet of code that is embedded into specific pages on your website. If you have a website master or company who manages your website, they will be able to help you embed the code.

Facebook’s Pixel is used to retarget users on Facebook who have visited your site. This pixel allows you to track the Facebook user IDs of individuals who come to your website, then build a custom audience and retarget them with appropriate ads. Since you are targeting an audience that has already been to your website, you have a higher likelihood of converting them to purchase.

How are Facebook tracking pixels created and installed?
The process to create a tracking pixel is very easy; Facebook has made sure that any marketer can do it, even if they aren’t tech savvy. All you’ll have to do is go to your Ads Manager page, within Facebook, and create a custom audience that collects data from your website traffic. Be sure that when you name your custom audience, you make it easily distinguishable so you know at a glance what it is.

Once you’ve selected your custom audience, all you’ll need to do is copy and paste the pixel code onto the pages of your website that you want to track. Again, your website provider should be able to help you install the code onto your website to ensure it gets placed in the head tag (don’t worry, they’ll know what that means). Once the pixel code is placed on your website, return to your Ads Manager to monitor that it is collecting data and working properly.

Once you’ve got your Facebook Pixel up and working, think about setting up a lookalike audience. This is also pretty easy to do and takes your website visitors’ attributes and determines other individuals on Facebook who have the same or similar attributes. This expands your pool of relevant audiences that you can market to on Facebook.

Now what?
You’ve taken the time to setup a custom audience, copied the tracking pixel to your website, and have started collecting data; now what? Great question! It’s time to set up Facebook ads that use the data from your tracking pixel. If you have never created a Facebook ad, you’re in luck. They make it very easy to do with their setup wizard. Simply choose the objective for your Facebook ad and fill in the necessary information. Next, when choosing your ad set, be sure to select the custom audience that you set up that collects Facebook user IDs from their activity on your website. Here you will also set the daily budget and schedule for your ad. Lastly, create your advertisement to retarget your website visitors through their Facebook news feed. When setting up your Facebook ads, there a couple of things you will want to remember.

1. Make the ad look as close to your website as possible, that way you can leverage brand recognition to drive your message.
2. Make the content of your ad enticing so the user will click on it and engage.
3. Make your ad visually appealing and use more imagery than text to stand out from the sea of advertisers. (Facebook has a 20% text rule, so make sure your ad has 20% text or less, or your ad will be rejected.)
4. Leverage Facebook’s carousel ads to show multiple products in your lineup to further entice users to click and learn more.

If you’re looking for a way to spend less advertising dollars, but get more return, look no further. Facebook’s Pixel is a great way to retarget individuals who have recently visited your website, already know your brand, and, therefore, more likely to convert to a sale. Plus, you can extend the reach of your advertisements and gain further brand recognition, by setting up lookalike audiences and delivering relevant advertisements to these individuals.

2016 brings with it new possibilities and an extra day. That’s right, 2016 is a leap year, which means you get an extra day to sell and service more vehicles. This presents a marketable event to drive traffic and revenue, and an excuse to reach out to customers with relevant content. Leap day is just around the corner, so if you’re planning to leverage the extra day to create new possibilities you’ll want to get started. Here are three ideas to help you show love and leap into loyalty.

Share Gift Certificates
A great way to show love to customers is by utilizing the extra day to pass on savings. Think about utilizing gift certificates for your dealership and giving them to your most loyal customers. The gift certificates can be in a digital format or dropped into an email campaign to make distribution easy. Gift certificates are a great way to give back to customers for being good patrons.

Get Creative
Another great way to promote leap day and capitalize on the extra day is by getting creative. Think about offering special incentives for purchases made on leap day. For example, you could offer an extended 4-year warranty plan for all vehicles purchased on February 29^th. Or, you could offer four free car washes with every vehicle serviced on February 29^th. Leveraging strategies like these, are a great way to stimulate end-of-the-month sales and service opportunities and keep customers coming back to you.

Offer a Unique Angle
Since leap year only happens once every four years, it presents the perfect opportunity to get outside the box and utilize a marketing hook or unique angle that you wouldn’t typically use. Think about a way you could use the leap year mentality to drive sales and service. What if you offered something totally outrageous on leap day, like two vehicles for the price of one, or free service for the year to anyone who services on leap day. Whatever you do, be sure that it is something that will work for your dealership and that you can continue to offer it every four years. You’ll also want to mainly target current loyal customers to build rapport and increase future return on your campaign.

If you’re thinking about leveraging one of these leap day marketing opportunities to bring additional traffic and revenue to your dealership, now is the time to get started. Remember if done properly, you can reap the rewards of not only increased sales and service opportunities, but you could also gain additional loyalty by showing love to customers.

Earning, maintaining, and fostering relationships with customers is a large endeavor. You have to find new and inventive ways to keep your dealership top-of-mind to ensure they return to you for future vehicle needs. This month, OneCommand is promoting many ways to show love to customers. Here are three simple ideas for you to demonstrate your thanks and appreciation to customers to build loyalty.

Make Your Dealership Personal
Has anyone ever told you that it’s the little things that count? When building customer loyalty, it is absolutely true. Find ways to motivate your employees to make every interaction with customers personal, from how they approach a new customer on the lot to greeting a customer driving into your service drive, from spending time explaining a specific service to a customer to having fresh coffee in your waiting lounge. Each time there is an opportunity for your dealership to make a positive impression on a customer, encourage them to do so. It will go a long way in building loyalty.

Listen to Your Customers
The truth is your customers already know everything that is wrong with your dealership and the customer experience that your staff is providing - all you need to do is listen to their advice. Think about putting a comment box in your service waiting lounge or surveying customers after a purchase or service to see if your team meets their expectation. Be sure that if you ask customers to take time out of their busy day to provide you valuable feedback about your business that you listen to what they have to say and make adjustments accordingly.

Say Thank You to Customers
This idea is truly the simplest of them all. Often times businesses forget that patrons have other options of companies with whom they could do business. Because of this, a little thank you can go a long way in building customer loyalty. Think about sending a simple thank you message each time a customer services their vehicle at your dealership.

This February show some love to customers and your dealership will be rewarded with additional loyalty.

If you made a resolution for 2016 to earn additional loyalty from customers, then this post is for you. In the past, marketers would say retaining  customers is much easier and more cost effective than going out and soliciting new business. This still rings true today; however, with the growing number of marketers vying for your customers’ attention and the increased competition in the automotive arena, you may need to step up your customer loyalty game. Here are a couple of ideas you can use to show love to customers and build customer loyalty by leveraging the upcoming holidays.

Show Love with Valentine’s Day
Most Americans view Valentine’s Day as just another “Hallmark holiday”. But no matter who you are, and even if you think Valentine’s Day is senseless, you’d appreciate it if someone wished you well on this day of love. Think about leveraging this opportunity to build customer loyalty by letting customers know how much they mean to you. You could send customers a valentine through social media, email, or direct mail that thanks them for their continued business and demonstrates your appreciation. This valentine could include a special savings for loyal customers or just a heartfelt message. Whatever you do, don’t overthink it; just consider what your customers want and need and let that be your guide.

Show Love with Presidents’ Day
As you know, the Presidents’ Day holiday is one of the best automotive sales days of the year and it’s the perfect time to focus your efforts towards customer loyalty. Now I know what you’re thinking - “How can I focus on selling cars and customer loyalty?” Great question! A recent study from Consumer Affairs shows that despite the growing number of vehicle choices, a large segment of Americans find a brand they like and stick with it. Think about leveraging this upcoming holiday weekend to focus on customers who are in a favorable equity position, coming up on an expiring lease, or have owned their vehicle for more than five years. By communicating in a timely manner, these customers are more likely to come back to you to purchase additional vehicles versus going to your competition.

February is right around the corner so don’t wait! Get started and show love to customers to build loyalty.

The new year brings new possibilities and an opportunity to start again. This January, think about reconnecting with current and inactive customers to demonstrate why they should do business with your dealership. Most consumers are looking to save money and time in the new year, so when you’re communicating your specific dealership advantages, you’ll want to make sure to highlight these specific benefits. Here are two ideas to get you started.

Find Ways to Save
Giving customers discounts can be a very slippery slope. How much should you discount? Will you be able to hit revenue numbers when discounting? Will you actually build purchasing behaviors and loyalty when you discount services, or will your customers go to the business that offers the best discount? These are all questions you should ask yourself before determining how you will help your customers save money in the new year. Think about offering a punch card that allows customers to buy three oil changes and get a fourth one free. Or provide a free multi-point inspection, tire rotation, or car wash and vacuum with every vehicle service. Demonstrating that your dealership offers a little something extra for free and building behaviors and loyalty are great ways to ensure active and inactive customers continue to come back to you in the new year.

Save Them Time
For many Americans, time is the most valuable resource and one thing they don’t want to do is waste time having their vehicle serviced. Think about setting your dealership apart from the competition by offering a shuttle service or pick up and delivery service. These types of conveniences are priceless to consumers, because they can get back time by doing business with you. If you offer a quick or express lane, be sure to market it in the new year with the specific details about how long it takes to get a vehicle serviced. Find ways to give customers back their time and your dealership will be rewarded with increased traffic and revenue.

If you’re looking to find additional opportunities in the new year, try communicating with customers about ways you can save them time and money. These two factors will demonstrate your dealership advantage and start your new year off right!

The 2015 calendar year ended with a bang in the automotive industry, surpassing all vehicle sales expectations and previously set records. Industry experts have concluded that 2016 is on record to outpace 2015, making it the new record for auto sales in the U.S. The excitement around vehicle sales is great and you’ve probably reaped the benefits attributed to these numbers. However, we’d like to focus today on how you convert these new sales customers into loyal service customers. Here are two campaign ideas to start your new year off right by keeping your dealership top-of-mind and educating your customers about their new vehicle purchase.

Explain Technology Features
Each year, the models produced by automakers have more and more technology features. They haven’t brought to market a driver-less vehicle yet, but we all know it’s on the horizon. Help build confidence with your customers and brand awareness for your dealership by sending vehicle education tips about the new technologies found in your recently sold vehicles. Most Americans are keeping their vehicles longer; a recent poll shows vehicle ownership at 93 months, or about eight years. With this length of ownership, it’s probably safe to assume that these new buyers’ previous vehicles had little to no technology features; hence, any education you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Think about using a campaign to focus on a specific technology feature or create model specific campaigns to review several technology features.

Develop Maintenance Habits
One of the most important things to do when you sell a new vehicle is to get the customer to come back to you for service work. There are many reasons beyond your control that a customer won’t come back to you, but you have to work to develop maintenance habits to keep the customer coming back over and over again. Start by introducing them to your Service Department, then work to educate them about their vehicle’s specific maintenance schedule, and lastly be sure to educate them about the need for regular and seasonal maintenance. A strong sales follow-up marketing plan will ensure recently sold customers will come back to you for their vehicle maintenance needs. Keep in mind, this same strategy works well to retain active service customers and bring back inactive customers.

Start your 2016 off right by keeping customers loyal to your dealership and service drive full with vehicle education tips.

2015 was a great year for us at OneCommand, but it wouldn’t have been possible without you. The team at OneCommand is grateful to you for allowing us to partner in your success. We look forward to all of the new possibilities 2016 will bring with our loyal clients.

From our team to yours, have a wonderful and safe holiday, and a joyful and prosperous new year.

As 2015 quickly comes to a close and we look ahead to 2016, it’s time to get started on your end-of-the-year marketing. The next campaign in the OneCommand Holiday Marketing Guide is for New Years. We’ll provide three ideas to help you reflect on the current year and look forward to the bright future of the coming year.

Ask for Honest Feedback
The end of the year is a perfect time to reflect on what’s been working well and what hasn’t and make the necessary adjustments and goals to do better in the coming year. Often times, however, you don’t know what is working and what is not from a customer’s perspective. Think about delivering customers an end-of-the-year message that solicits their honest, unbiased feedback. Inform them why you are doing this and that you want to make 2016 even better than 2015 and you need their help to do so. A communication like this is always well received by customers and typically very beneficial for businesses. You might even want to provide a small incentive to customers who offer good, constructive feedback.

Inform of 2016 Enhancements
Chances are there are already things that you plan to do a little differently next year, be it more email marketing, free car washes with service, more detailed walk-arounds, or additional customer appreciation events. Regardless of what you have planned for 2016, you’ll want to inform your customers of anything that directly enhances the customer experience. The truth is, as Americans, we always think bigger and more are better, so if you’re offering customers more, then they may decide to come back to you in the new year rather than your competitor.

Send Thanks and Warm Wishes
A simple and effective way to stay top of mind with customers throughout the hustle and bustle of the holidays and into the new year is to send a heartfelt thank you message for their patronage throughout 2015. This can come in the form of an email or direct mail, whichever fits your specific needs and budget. Just be sure the message is a simple thank you and not a solicitation for their business. This will resonate better with your customers as the stress and anxiety of the end of the year mounts and they’ll reward you in the new year with increased sales and service business.

Right now is the perfect time of year to solicit customers for their opinions about their experiences at your dealership. It’s also the perfect time to adjust items that need improvement and offer enhanced services to customers in the new year to get an advantage on the competition. But, don’t forget to send customers thanks for their business to ensure you get a great start to 2016.