It’s no secret that auto buyers are turning to online resources before making an in-store purchase. Today’s buyers are more informed and ready to purchase when they walk into their dealership of choice. This is because these internet-savvy shoppers are researching their favorite model, including options and availability, examining local dealerships to see who carries the model of their choice, and visiting review and social sites to gather other consumers’ opinions to solidify their decisions. Once this extensive research is complete, then buyers go to the dealership to test drive the vehicle. Sound about right?

With these types of buying patterns, it is more important than ever for your dealership to make a good first impression. But, how do you make a good first impression on the internet?

Believe it or not, there are plenty of ways to accomplish this, but today we’re going to focus on upholding a positive online brand image through reputation management of online reviews. If you’re not sure what reputation management is, BusinessDictonary.com describes it as the process of identifying what other people are saying or feeling about your business and taking steps to ensure that the general consensus is in line with your goals.

Reputation is Important to Your Business
Since the pool of internet-savvy shoppers is turning more and more to online resources, it’s imperative you have a good image when they come across your dealership. In order to do this, you have to work to maintain a positive brand image.

There are many companies that fail to produce a positive image and the negative comments produced by consumers typically appear on websites that have high SEO ranking. These types of negative comments can lead to loss in sales, poor press coverage, inadequate employment applicants, and lower investor opportunities. On top of all that, negative consumer comments are difficult and sometimes impossible to clean up. How do you plan to keep a healthy, positive online presence?

Listen to Reviews
This tip seems pretty obvious, but it is often overlooked. Just setting up a spot for consumers to review your business is not enough; you want to constantly monitor the sites. By honing in on these reviews, even if they are positive, you gain insightful information about your business. Sometimes, you can identify areas of profit loss, underperforming employees, or areas of your business that should be highlighted as a competitive differentiator.

Respond to Reviews
The internet is an ever-changing and evolving platform where information can spread like wildfire. Because of this, it is key that you address reviews quickly, professionally, and most importantly, personally. We advise our clients to elect a person to monitor reviews daily and then set up a process for how to respond to a review, positive or negative. When responding to a negative review, be sure to first empathize with the issue, then provide a resolution to the problem, and lastly invite the customer to come back. Depending on the review site, you’ll want to direct message your response instead of blast your conversation all over the site, but in some cases this will not be possible. When responding to a positive review, there is no need to direct message, nor is there a need to respond to every positive comment about your dealership. Just make sure your response is personal and timely.

Ask for Reviews
Often the only time consumers post reviews is when they want to complain about a bad service experience or a recent product they purchased. So, many retail outlets end up littered with only bad reviews because consumers don’t usually post reviews about their pleasant experiences. To combat this, a needed step to any reputation management strategy is to actively solicit positive reviews. You can do this in multiple ways, but the most efficient is by requesting reviews from customers through email marketing after a purchase or service.

Choosing the Right Resources to Monitor Reviews
There are hundreds of software programs in the market today that will help you manage your review sites and even provide you alerts when a consumer posts a new review. Or, you could opt to pay a vendor for consulting and reporting of your review sites and not take the burden of doing it in house. Regardless, these services will analyze and understand the magnitude and sentiment of how consumers feel about your dealership. Whichever you decide, you’ll want to find a solution that works across multiple platforms to provide you a complete solution so you won’t need more than one.

Get Started
Now is the best time to get started on your dealership’s online reputation management strategy and start building your positive online presence. Regardless of the review sites your consumers are visiting, these five principles still apply and can even be carried over to your social media sites.

Did you know Americans buy more than 837 million packages of hot dogs at retail outlets per year? According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, Americans are consuming close to seven billion hot dogs per year, making them one of Americans favorite foods. You’re probably wondering what all of this has to do with driving more sales and service traffic to your dealership. Well, July is National Hot Dog Month and July 23^rd is National Hot Dog Day, which presents a perfect opportunity to leverage an American favorite delicacy and spark additional revenue for your pocket.

Hot Dog Photo Contest
A great way to generate visibility for any campaign is to find a way to incorporate social media into your strategy. For this specific campaign, think about hosting a contest on your Facebook page. Since regions of the country eat their hot dogs with different toppings, ask followers to post pics of their favorite hot dogs. Then, award the hot dog that has the most likes or the most unique toppings, or both.

Host a Hot Dog Eating Contest
A phenomenon is happening around the country where more and more eating contests are popping up and viewers are tuning in to watch. One way to drive people to your dealership is by hosting your very own hot dog eating contest. Ask customers and community members to join in on the fun and see if you can get enough participants to make an exciting event. Then, invite a crowd to come watch the contest and award the winner with a substantial prize.

Fire Up the Grill
If contests aren’t for you, no problem. A simpler approach to celebrate one of America’s favorite delicacies is to simply grill some up for customers and potential buyers. Be sure to market your BBQ so even members of the community will stop by to grab a bite to eat. You’ll want to have your newest, hottest models lined up for attendees to peruse as they enjoy their dogs.

If you’re like most Americans and love hot dogs, then use July to draw attention to your dealership by using word of mouth marketing to attract potential buyers and repeat customers.

Awe Christmas, the smell of pine, festive lights, hot cocoa, and jolly old Saint Nick. It’s hard to imagine celebrating such a traditional holiday in the middle of July when most of the county is experiencing the heat waves and humidity of the summer. However, celebrating Christmas in July allows your dealership to provide a marketing message that is different, something that makes you stand out from your competition. If you’re looking to capitalize on this unique “holiday,” here are three ways you can spark additional revenue.

Utilize Social Media
A fun way to create buzz for your Christmas in July campaign is by utilizing your dealership’s social media channels. You could host an ugly sweater contest and ask your followers to post pics of themselves in their most hideous getup. If you want, you could offer a prize for the sweater that gets the most “likes” or retweets to gain additional spark and attention for your Christmas in July campaign.

Get into the Holiday
If you have special incentives that you want to promote, either in your Sales or Service Department, you could take a memorable Christmas item that you have on hand, like Santa hats, ornaments, of jingle bells, and write an offer on each one. Then, when customers come visit your dealership, have them select the item from a bin so they can redeem their offer.

Deck the Halls
Another way to create a spark for your Christmas in July campaign is to decorate your dealership with the spirit of the holiday. If you wanted, you could drag out the tree, put up garland, or just hang up some mistletoe and Christmas lights. Whatever you decide, it will be a good idea for you to spread holiday cheer in July to get customers in the spirit of buying.

After the 4^th of July is over, hit your customers with a Christmas in July campaign to spark additional revenue. Be sure to promote sales or service incentives and make the campaign fun and memorable to drive potential buyers and current customers to your door.

As you read the title of this week’s entry, you may be thinking, “What is content marketing?” Simply defined, it is a technique of creating and distributing timely, relevant, consistent content to attract and acquire an audience of buyers with the objective of driving consumers to act. What does that really mean?

The truth is, we live in a world where consumers are constantly hit with more and more advertising and after a while, it becomes marketing noise. The consequence is the messages are less and less meaningful thus ignored altogether, hence the uprising of DVR and satellite radio. Statistics are even showing consumers skip the ads at the top of internet searches. So, how do you cut through the marketing noise to get your message heard and reach your customers and potential buyers? Content marketing.

Now, don’t get ahead of yourself! You don’t have to spend countless hours creating content, but you need to be smart about how you use your content, how you repurpose it, and where you use it. Whether you realize it or not, you are probably already using content marketing to reach your customers. So, how can you make a splash this summer with content marketing? Here are five tips to get started.

Define Your Content
In order to effectively market to your customers and potential prospects, you first have to figure out what type of content resonates with them and you can do this in a number of ways. First, begin with soliciting feedback through your social media channels. You can start by posting other people’s content and studying how your social community responds. Another way to gauge your audience is to utilize email to deliver your content, and then see which links are clicked the most and how many click-throughs the pieces generate. This type of initial strategy will help you determine exactly what type of content you should continue to produce to increase engagement and build a loyal audience.

Customize Your Media
Once you have determined what type of content best resonates with your target audience, then you’ll need to understand what type of medium should deliver your message. Typically when we talk content marketing, we automatically think about written content, but it doesn’t have to be. Content can come in the form of infographics, memes, videos, guides, reviews, blogs, ebooks, testimonials, podcasts, brochures, photos, webinars, vlogs, white papers, etc. The list could go on for days! You’ll want to select a medium that is easy for your team to produce and is well received by your audience; this should include a strategy leveraging multiple media. You’ll want to continually test the engagement of your chosen medium and tweak accordingly to receive maximum results.

Learn to Repurpose
One of the best things about content marketing is you can repurpose it over and over again. For example, this blog you’re reading today will be repurposed as a video script, then as content in our company newsletter, and again as social content. Each medium will have a different look and feel because the content has to resonate with the appropriate audience, but the overall theme will be the same. Being able to repurpose content saves your team time, money, and resources.

Produce Quality Content
The biggest struggle most companies have with content marketing is finding the time to do it. The truth is, you don’t have to do it every day or every week, but you need to produce enough so you’re relevant to your audience. You also want to make sure your content is consistent, so if you do a newsletter, for example, try to reach your audience at the same time each day, week, or month to increase visibility. With that being said, you want to make sure you produce quality content and try not to worry about the quantity. A really well done content marketing piece received less often will always produce better results than a not-so-well-done content marketing piece received daily.

Document Your Strategy
A really effective content marketing strategy can be difficult to produce. One simple way to keep your ducks in a row is by creating an editorial calendar, which is basically a monthly planner of all your marketing efforts and when each item is due. This will not only keep you on track to delivering consistent content, but it will also ensure you have a cohesive marketing plan for a given timeframe. Plus, by developing an editorial calendar, you have a very easy way to share your efforts with your entire organization so everyone is involved and understands the marketing focus.

Get Started
The world of marketing is changing and blasting ad after ad at customers and potential buyers will simply not get their attention anymore; you’ll get lost in the chaos. You have to begin to think about how content marketing will fit into your overall marketing plan and then start executing one piece per month and slowly figure out the rest. A good content marketing strategy will increase sales, retain customers, and build brand integrity.

The time has come for you to start planning your 4^th of July marketing. It doesn’t matter who you ask, July 4^th is one of the best weekends to sell vehicles. From the consumer’s perspective, it’s also one of the best weekends to buy a vehicle because of the increased incentives from the manufacturer. With that said, it sounds like the July 4^th weekend should be an easy sell day, but how will you stand out from your competition to ensure you win prospective buyers’ attention? Here are four quick and easy ways to stay top-of-mind with customers to bring them to your dealership for their 4^th of July purchases.

Communicate OEM Incentives
Some customers are simply looking for a deal. They want a vehicle, but they don’t want to pay sticker price for it. By simply advertising the OEM incentives and any special pricing you have on vehicles for the July 4^th weekend, you will tip the scale and get them into your store.

Announce Holiday Hours
To create top-of-mind awareness, you have to use relevant, timely information to communicate with customers. Letting your customers know that you’ll have adjusted hours for the holiday weekend is a perfect soft-selling approach and you’ll still reach customers with an appropriate message.

Remind Customers of Maintenance Needs
If you are looking to drive additional service business for the July 4^th weekend, try reminding customers of needed maintenance before they hit the road for holiday travel. Even if they aren’t in the market for a vehicle, you’ll be able to capture their service business and drive more revenue to your store.

Host a July 4^th Event
If you’re really serious about driving additional traffic to your store for the July 4^th weekend, think about hosting a BBQ. Nothing brings people together like hot dogs and hamburgers. You could even promote an appreciation event to grab customers’ attention. Be sure to have your most sought after vehicles lined up to get an extra revenue point from the event.

Whatever your plans are for the 4^th of July holiday, be sure to start planning your marketing strategy now. With easy, quick marketing, you’re sure to make a splash this 4^th of July.

It’s summer travel season and families all over the United States are preparing or have already taken a trip this summer. Families are diligently saving their pennies to make sure their summer vacation isn’t spoiled by lack of funds. So, how can you help customers save this summer? Check out these three ideas to make a splash this summer with summer savings.

Promote Preventive Maintenance
The truth is, preventive vehicle maintenance is always cheaper than trying to fix the problem after something has gone wrong. Educate your customers about the benefits of preventive maintenance and sympathize with them about the cost of this maintenance. Be sure to warn them about how skipping routine maintenance could cause more costly repairs down the road. Accompany this message with appropriate service specials for routine maintenance.

Generate Sales Opportunities
It’s a fact that a certain percentage of your database is ready to buy a car every month, but how do you truly identify who these candidates are? Well we’ve come up with a way to offer your customers savings at the pump and drive them to your dealership. Offer your customers a $25-$50 gas card in exchange for a test drive. I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but the truth is, if your customers are in the market for a new vehicle, it is just the right incentive to get them to come to you versus your competitor. Plus, you’re helping them save at the pump.

Create Fun Savings
No matter who you are, everybody likes to have fun and save money. So, what if you offered your customers both? All you need to do is determine what kind of savings you can realistically provide to customers in your Sales and Service Department. Then, create a fish bowl full of pieces of paper with different savings offers; for example $250 of the purchase of a new car, 10% of service, $9.95 oil change, or a free car wash. When customers visit, have them pick a piece of paper from the fish bowl to redeem their savings. It’s a great way to have fun with your customers while also saving them money on a new vehicle purchase or servicing their current vehicle.

No matter what you decide, be sure this summer is filled with savings – your customers will thank you and reward you with increased business.

Whew! Is it just me, or are the temperatures heating up outside? For most of the U.S., it’s time to turn on the AC and enjoy the cooler temperatures indoors. Even when riding in their vehicles, consumers are opting to turn on the AC versus rolling down the windows because of the heat and humidity. Chances are however, that your customers have not performed a routine AC check on their vehicle, nor do they even know it is important for them to complete this needed maintenance. Here are some easy ways to make a splash by cooling off your customers.

Raise AC Awareness
If your customer’s vehicle is blowing warm air, they may already suspect they have a problem with their AC. However, if there are issues with the hoses, lines, seals, or other components of the AC system which aren’t apparent, they probably have no idea there is a problem. Raise awareness with customers about their vehicle’s AC by reminding them to check these important items on their vehicle or offer an AC inspection and maintenance special to ensure they stay cool all summer long.

Host an AC Clinic
If you want to take your campaign one step further, you could host an AC Clinic in your Service Department. Most customers would like to learn a little more about how the AC in their vehicle works, but don’t have anyone to teach them. Offer to help them get a better understanding of the components that make up their vehicle’s AC and how to spot warning signs when these components may be aged and need replacing.

Before summer gets underway, keep your customers cool with helpful AC tips or an on-site clinic. You’ll make a splash this summer and drive additional traffic and revenue to your Service Department.

Isn’t it crazy that it’s already time to start planning and executing your June marketing campaigns? Plus, if you took advantage of Mother’s Day to drive additional traffic, it’s only right that you do the same for Father’s Day – especially if you saw a lift in traffic and revenue. But, what type of marketing can you execute to create buzz for your dealership and spur top-of-mind awareness? Today I’ll share two ideas to make a splash this Father’s Day.

Celebrate the ’Stache
In case you haven’t noticed, mustaches are in. They’ve been made into earrings, rings, temporary tattoos, and even emblems on shirts and other apparel. You can leverage the ’stache craze to market to local dads. You could offer savings to any dads sporting a ’stache, have a best ’stache contest, or simply sport some ’staches on your marketing pieces. This fun campaign will get the attention of your audience and your dealership will stay top-of-mind for future vehicle needs.

Go Golfing
A favorite pastime for many dads is playing golf with friends, colleagues, or family… or at least all the dads I know. Think about leveraging this interest to drive business to your store. You could host a Wii golf tournament right in your showroom or a golf outing at the local golf course. By creating a fun atmosphere and asking your customers to join in, you’ll generate brand awareness and drive additional foot traffic to your door.

Have Fun
Regardless of the contents of your marketing outreach for Father’s Day, be sure to have fun with your campaign. This approach will make your dealership stand out from your competitors and your profit centers are sure to see a splash for Father’s Day.

If you haven’t heard the buzz in the email marketing world, we’ve finally reached the tipping point where more than 50% of all emails are now read on mobile devices. That’s right, according to Litmus, in November 2013, 51% of all emails were being opened on a mobile device – a 21% increase since January 2013. This is a direct result of more and more consumers opting for smart phone devices and these numbers are expected to rise in the coming year, making mobile-friendly emails a must for marketers. How do you ensure your emails are mobile-friendly?

Why are mobile-friendly emails important for marketers?
You might have heard about mobile-friendly emails… but do you really understand how to put it into practice? Basically, mobile-friendly emails are built in a way that allows the email to be easily viewed on a mobile device. Traditional desktop email layouts, which often times feature large images and multiple columns, render terribly on a mobile device.  If you are part of the 51% of smart phone adopters that are viewing emails on your mobile device, then you have probably been a victim to a non-mobile-friendly email. For recipients of this type of email, it can be frustrating and result in low engagement, in turn creating low campaign response rates and ROI.

As a general rule of thumb, mobile emails must be aesthetically pleasing to the eye, work properly, and perform correctly or a mobile user will just unsubscribe. In today’s marketing era, you have to create your emails with the mobile user in mind. Here are five characteristics of mobile-friendly emails:

Mobile Characteristic #1:
The easiest and probably most effective way to make your emails render correctly on a mobile device is by creating them in a one-column layout. Emails with a multi-column layout are very difficult to navigate on a mobile device and, in some cases, the mobile device will actually strip the email so it only displays the first column. A single-column layout is the best way to go; it is easy to read and scroll through with your finger on a smart phone.

Mobile Characteristic #2:
Keep your content short, sweet, and to the point. This honestly is a good tip for any email marketing, but specifically on mobile, because these recipients don’t want to scroll through a long message just to get to the point. Real estate within in a mobile window is very finite, so a clear, simple message is the best for mobile emails.

Mobile Characteristic #3:
One of my favorite tips is to use a good mix of content and images. We’ve all been there where the email we just received is all white space that says download images. A typical consumer will simply delete the email message versus downloading the images either because they don’t really care about the email or they don’t trust the sender. If you use a mix of content and images, the recipient can at least see what the email is about before deciding what action to take or download the images.

Mobile Characteristic #4:
One thing marketers typically forget to incorporate into their mobile email are large, call to action buttons. These are really, really important when creating mobile emails because they are easier to click on than a link. When creating a mobile email you want to think about tappable buttons not clickable. By utilizing these types of buttons, you’ll increase engagement with your emails.

Mobile Characteristic #5:
Another thing to keep in mind when creating mobile-friendly emails is understanding how the email from and subject line will appear in consumer email applications. Remember, this is the email’s first impression to get the recipient to open your email. If the subject line isn’t eye catching or the sender info isn’t recognizable, chances are your email won’t get opened. So, be sure to use your company name is in the from line and trim subject lines down to under 40 characters or front load your subject lines.

Lastly, once you have fully optimized your email and made it mobile friendly, you’ll want to test, test, test. You can use platforms like Litmus and render your email on multiple devices at once, or you can do it the old fashion way by simply sending your email to the most utilized mobile devices (iPhone, Android, Windows, etc).  

In summary, when creating mobile-friendly emails, you really need to think about the user experience. You have to adjust the way you think about email layout, design, and content. You have to create your emails to be finger friendly and get out of the mindset of the point and click mouse… fingers are the new mouse.

Summer is in the air; can you feel it? Warmer weather, longer days, and school quickly coming to an end all mean one thing… summer is just around the corner. Most American families take a vacation in the summer time and because of the cost of flying, many use their own vehicles to get to their destination. Why not offer them something to ensure your customer’s summer travel isn’t interrupted with vehicle problems? Why not do everything you can to get them to their vacation destination on time and safe?

Offer Roadside Assistance
Now I know what you’re thinking, “I can’t offer each customer the option to have roadside assistance,” which is probably very true. However, you can offer customers a roadside assistance kit. You can either pick up the kits at a retail outlet or create your own. You can offer them as an additional item for sale in your Service Department or include them when a customer purchases a particular dollar amount of services from your dealership. Roadside assistance kits are a sure fire way to ensure customers are prepared for traveling this summer.

Offer Travel Tips
When families are getting ready for their summer travel, often times it is in a huge rush and certain things can be forgotten or just simply overlooked. You could send a helpful communication to customers to remind them of those vehicle items that are typically overlooked but could cause travel delays. For example, you could remind customers to check their spare tire for proper inflation, test their vehicle’s battery, or simply get an oil change and top off fluids. All of these quick and simple services only take a few minutes but could save your customers hours on the road.

You can grow your business this summer by sharing road trip tips with your customers and ensuring they are prepared for the road. You’ll not only build trust and brand awareness, but you’ll also drive additional service traffic to your store.