Service department marketing is something that often falls by the wayside in most dealership's and dealer group's marketing campaigns. However, with today's location based marketing applications and social media networks it's easier than ever to give your back end of the dealership the attention it needs. Here are a few quick ways you can utilize these new media elements:

1. Set Up Facebook Places and Deals for your Dealership Business Page - We've just actually completed a webinar on this last week, so Potratz can walk you through it on our website's past workshops. (http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/portfolio-item/setting-up-facebook-places-deals/). This will allow you to market service incentives to your Facebook place on mobile devices, but also set up deals for service on your dealership's or dealer group's business page.

2. Claim Your Foursquare Venue - Claim your dealership venue on foursquare and set up your specials. It's an easy way to brand your dealership on these location based networks, but also put your service coupons and added value on them as well.

3. Utilize Google Tags - Set up Google Tags in your SEM campaigns and advertise your best service coupons. This allows consumers to see your service campaigns when they are searching for various keywords or your dealership name on Google and Google Maps.

Follow those quick steps and immediately put your service department out there by using some of the best location based technologies available. It may take some time to claim and set up, but once you're live it's one of the best ways to promote service at a low cost.
 

This weekend, I was comparing website analytics for 2010 vs 2009 for one of our dealers, which got me to thinking about how 2009 compared to 2010. Before I knew it, I was digging into analytics for 2008 and 2007.

Limiting myself to just one dealer's analytics could taint my findings with the improvement of the website, lead generation, SEO, SEM, etc. So to ensure the most accurate findings, I formed a test group of six dealers from various geographic regions with multiple rooftops and brands to provide better insight and benchmarks. The dealers’ websites were managed through BZ, Dealer.com, Cobalt, Dealeron, and Potratz over the period of 2007-2010. Third party leads from sites like Cars.com and ATC were not used in this measurement.

Here are some of my findings:

Unique visits from 2007 to 2010 have increased at a rate of 743%
Average time on site increased 1:37 from 2007 to 7:10 in 2010
Bounce rates averaged 51% in 2007 and decreased to 23% in 2010
The money question… Conversions increased by 625% from 2007 to 2010!
Site visits by mobile device in 2007 were too low to measure (less than .01%). However, in fourth quarter 2010, these were at 6%

These findings did not completely surprise me, since I have been in the digital bubble for many years and I choose to do my shopping, reading, and learning online. Also, I am a gadget freak the type who feels like a little boy on Christmas day when I find a new Saas CRM, SFA, open source software, or API package.

We have all heard terms like “Internet Bubble” and how the internet is going to create explosive growth. Well, that time is officially here, and is not showing any signs of slowing. In fact, it is only growing, seeing a triple digit growth over time!

61,000,000 smart phones are in use with growth of 10% in the last 90 days, mobile tablets are flying off the shelves, and free wifi is popping up everywhere!

If your dealership is tracking lot ups on a paper log then I challenge you to track internet ups daily on a log and analyze this number daily just like you do lot ups. There is no difference in a lot up and an internet up! Internet ups are car shoppers, and the same shoppers you have visiting the lot EXCEPT the internet ups outnumber the lot ups 10 to 1.

Paul Potratz

While watching your dealership's TV ads, people with smartphones are probably using their phones and more than likely are online. In fact, according to a recent article by Engadget, a study by Nielsen and Yahoo! found that 86% of mobile internet users are browsing on their phones while watching TV, whether using mobile apps, browsing the internet, accessing social networks like Facebook or Twitter, or texting.

So what does this mean for car dealers' TV commercial production? Advertisements need to call these mobile users to action to stand out from the background noise, which people often tune out during ads. Combine TV promotion with social media to drive people to like an auto dealership's Facebook page. Ask people to tweet with hashtags like in Audi's recent Superbowl commercial. Have them text to opt into a special auto service mobile marketing list. Keep brainstorming, and the possibilities are endless.

The point is, an auto dealer's TV production needs to integrate with digital marketing efforts, like mobile marketing and social media campaigns, to be successful. 

Potratz, a full service automotive advertising agency is pleased to welcome Jordan Wolfe to its team as Senior Graphic Designer to help take auto dealer clients to a new level. With over 12 years in advertising, Jordan prides himself on the unique path where his career has taken him.

He has worked in the sign industry, trade show sector, and automotive world, as well as for a national retail chain. He also managed to freelance along the way for a wide variety of clients and industries. At KB toys he handled retail advertising for over 450 locations both nationally and in Puerto Rico.

As the advertising manager for Herb Chambers, one of the country’s largest privately held automotive groups, he helped them achieve a strong, consolidated presence in their markets. Jordan is excited to take this experience and pass it along to our clients to help them drive more leads and sell more cars.

Social media campaigns for auto dealers should be designed to deliver performance and ROI for dealerships and dealer groups. Not all campaigns should be evaluated the same, nor should the same metrics be used. In order to track the success of a campaign, dealers should set objectives upfront to help identify key performance indicators.

First, dealers should determine what their campaign sets out to accomplish. Here are three
objectives to get you started:

1. Increase reach - exposing new car prospects to your brand
2. Drive a specific call to action – sign-up for email list, opt-in to mobile text program, Facebook “like,” filling out a form, scheduling an appointment
3. Incentivized sharing – reward customers based on their behavior

Over a period of time, track individual campaigns using historical benchmarks. Then assign
weighting values accordingly. For example, a campaign designed to build an auto dealer’s
database will be weighted heavily on data capture versus a campaign to drive awareness, which
could be rated on such tactics as influence sharing through a viral invitation. There are many
different combinations for weighting values as usually multiple objectives come into play in most
social media campaigns. 

As the Super Bowl draws near, the creativity of television campaigns are at its yearly high. In every workplace across America, Monday's water cooler talk will be dominated by the commercial spots that run during the nation's biggest event. Extending a brand's conversation past that :30 second TV spot is a big challenge that most dealerships and dealer groups struggle with when they decide to run a television campaign. Now more than ever, your dealership can utilize new media to provide an extended conversation with your demographic… and here's how.

Now, even though your dealership's television budget in all likelihood is not what E-Trade's or Budweiser's would be for the Superbowl, these tools can still help any dealership's ROI for their advertising flight dates.

A very simple and effective way to do this is to set up a personalize social media tool to monitor and engage your conversation. For example, during your commercial tag the end screen with a Twitter hash tag, Facebook page, or landing page URL where people can discuss the commercial or act upon a promotion. This could be contest driven as well, so consumers can act upon your message and carry it out through these social networks. Audi will be utilizing these Twitter hash tags during its Super Bowl spot so they can monitor and interact with consumers who are discussing their commercial and brand over Twitter's network.

Don't sweat it if your dealership does not have the proper staff in place to monitor Twitter search and hash tags properly. This can be something as simple as directing people to your website to answer a trivia question about your commercial or asking them to re-enact something funny through video or photo on your Facebook page. The opportunities are endless, and by providing conversation beyond your TV buy the return can be much more positive and impacting. The main point of doing this is to carry on conversation and brand awareness after your spot airs, and any way you do can so via online media can be beneficial.

So take a look this Sunday at the manufacturer's ads and see how this year (more than ever!), they are utilizing social media and online marketing to carry on their conversation and connect with car buyers on a more personal level. Then, implement this with your video spots. It's time to think outside the box and create promotions that can be driven through video or social media networks and allow your customers to interact. If your spots allow the consumers to be brand ambassadors for your dealership, your message will be carried further than any TV or radio campaign ever could.

This week’s snowstorm is affecting dealerships across the country as they plan to deal with the weather: getting ready to dig out the lot and preparing for fewer customers to come in. But bad weather can be the perfect opportunity to send out a special offer. Your auto dealership’s marketing campaign needs to connect to what people are experiencing to see more results than just generic advertising.

First, you can set up an automotive email marketing campaign promoting service. When a snowstorm is coming, a “weather advisory” email can push a special for snow tires. People will be more likely to think about getting snow tires for their cars when bad weather is on its way. We have seen these emails get a much higher open and click rate than generic sales offer emails.

Next, your dealership's social media also needs to push this special. Offer a coupon that people can print or show on their smartphones at the dealership.

Take advantage of whatever’s going on around you to push an offer--bad weather is an ideal chance for dealers to call people to action for service specials.

Location based marketing within your social networks and applications provide your dealership an excellent opportunity to promote itself and your service department. With geo-based apps gaining an enormous amount of headway, it's important that your dealership use them to help promote your various marketing campaigns and departments. 

Location based networks like Foursquare, Gowalla, and SCVNGR are great avenues to achieve these types of promotions.  Let's start with Foursquare and discuss 3 simple steps that your dealership can do to promote its service department's current specials and coupons.

Step 1 - Claim your venue (Dealership) - Head to foursquare.com and claim your dealership by searching for it in the upper right hand corner. Then, click your venue and simply follow the instructions to claim your dealership and you'll be on your way to setting up specials.

Step 2 - Head to your venue and create your first specials. You can create this based on simple check-ins, a set number of check-ins, or mayor-ships. This is great way to provide your visitors ADDED value for your service department or sales incentives. Add a current service coupon and get started… But remember, you'll want to add more savings to provide your visitors with an additional and exclusive incentive to check in.

Step 3 - Promote It! Utilize P.O.S materials in the service or sales departments that encourage your walk-in traffic or customers to check in. Make sure they are aware that they will be able to get something of value, just for checking in! Also, promote it on your Facebook page and website. This will let your other social databases be aware of these customized savings!

So those are a few simple steps that can get you started with customizing some of your location based marketing efforts at your dealership. In no way are these campaigns limited to service coupons and incentives… and you can have fun by setting up treks on SCVNGR and trips on Gowalla. This will let you tie in a series of events that people can do in order to get certain things in return. It's a locational scavenger hunt and a lot of the manufacturers have been utilizing these apps to create fun games and treks for mobile users (Nissan, Mazda, Buick, and more).

Take some time to set up these networks so you can customize these options. It will definitely increase your social networking and location based marketing stamp, but also allow you to communicate with car buyers on a more personal and fun level! Plus, it keeps your dealership on the cutting edge of location based technology. So start checking-in today!
 

Technology is constantly changing the playing field in business; especially advertising.  Most people in the industry are always looking for the next big thing and automotive dealers are always looking for the next "silver bullet".  But sometimes you have to take a look backwards to keep ahead of the curve.

As new advertising tools are introduced it effects older technologies. Most people regard these older platforms as becoming obsolete... but are they in every case?  A good example is Netflix.  If you don't already know, they offer "on-demand" streaming of thousands of movies and shows to computers, t.v.'s, video game & media systems, laptops and various mobile devices.  Many people have already canceled their cable or satellite subscriptions and use Netflix instead.

What makes this such a great example is that it creates two advertising opportunities for car dealers in 2 directions!  One possibility is that it might create the opening for pre-roll commercials to captive audiences, like you would see on youtube right before you watch a video.

But how does this relate to old technology?  Well lets say you canceled your Satellite in favor of Netflix.  It's great until you want to watch the local news, sports or the latest episode of survivor.  The cheap and easy solution which many people have already figured out is doing what folks have done since the age of the honeymooners.  That's right, t.v. antenna's!  What's even better is that now most major networks are broadcast in digital HD!  Plus if you own a newer television (if it's an HD you probably do) it has a built in digital tuner so you don't need one of those boxes.

So again, as an automotive advertiser how can you take advantage of this old tech? One thing is local programming has been ignored for years by many people who had satellites. But more importantly, a whole new demographic is going to be watching these stations now!  It's not just going to be housewives or the retired.  All of these converts will only be able to get local programming via antenna, which means they will only see local dealers who are on the air.

Potratz is pleased to welcome Justine Cervenka, an experienced advertising professional who has joined the team as Media Director. Originally from Cobleskill, she has returned to New York after working for multiple agencies in Arizona since 1992.

Justine has handled accounts for a variety of industries, including retail, healthcare, travel, and education. She also has extensive experience working with automotive accounts, having managed media for auto dealership advertising as well as for the local Toyota Dealer’s Association.

In her new role, she will be placing buys, planning media strategies, maintaining budgets, and coordinating the Potratz team to meet the needs of all their clients efficiently. She looks forward to using her knowledge and abilities to take Potratz to the next level as the leading automotive advertising agency.

Potratz serves auto dealers around the nation with full service automotive advertising, including TV, radio, direct mail, lead generation, social media, and online interactive marketing.