In today’s fast-paced digital world, car dealers are up against fierce competition. Every customer who walks through your doors has already done their homework, visited several websites, read a dozen reviews, and compared prices across multiple dealers. The problem? Traditional advertising and sales tactics don’t have the same impact they once did. This is where content marketing steps in to bridge the gap.

What is Content Marketing and Why Should You Care?

Content marketing is about attracting, engaging, and retaining customers by creating and sharing valuable content. It’s not about pushing the sale; it’s about building trust. Imagine your potential buyers finding answers to their questions directly on your website, feeling that they’ve been informed and cared for even before setting foot in your dealership. Content marketing can take many forms, from blog posts and videos to customer testimonials and case studies.

So, why should a car dealer like you embrace content marketing? Let’s dive in.

1. Establish Authority and Trust

Today’s car buyers are savvy. They want to work with a dealer they feel they can trust. Content marketing positions you as the authority in your niche. When your website or social channels consistently provide answers, advice, and tips, you’re building a relationship with potential buyers before they’ve even met you.

Consider a blog post on “How to Choose the Right Car for a Growing Family” or “Top Five Reasons to Buy a Certified Pre-Owned Car.” Content like this shows you’re an expert and that you understand their needs. And when they’re ready to buy, they’ll think of you first.

2. Increase Visibility Through SEO

Every time you publish a new piece of content, you increase the chances of being found on Google. By using strategic keywords like “best SUV dealership near me” or “top certified used cars,” your content can drive organic traffic to your website. Every blog post, FAQ, and customer testimonial is another avenue for potential customers to find you when they’re searching online.

Imagine this: a customer types “best dealership for first-time buyers” into Google, and there you are, at the top of the search results. Content marketing gives you that edge.

3. Drive More Qualified Leads

With content marketing, you’re no longer shouting your message to anyone who will listen. Instead, you’re targeting specific people: those who are genuinely interested in buying a car. By creating content that answers questions and provides solutions, you attract more qualified leads to your website. These are the people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer, which means less time wasted on unqualified buyers and more time spent with potential customers ready to buy.

4. Build a Loyal Customer Base

Content marketing isn’t just about attracting new customers; it’s about nurturing your existing ones. When you offer helpful information, such as maintenance tips or guides on how to protect a car’s resale value, you’re keeping your current customers engaged. They’ll keep coming back to you for valuable insights, making them more likely to come back when it’s time for their next vehicle or refer friends and family.

5. Stand Out From the Competition

Let’s face it—there are countless car dealers out there. But how many are using content marketing to set themselves apart? By consistently publishing high-quality, relevant content, you stand out as the dealership that “gets it.” You’re no longer just another dealer; you’re the go-to resource for car-related information in your area.

The Missing Link: A Proven Content Marketing System for Car Dealers

Now, you might be wondering, “Where do I even start?” That’s where my content marketing system for car dealers comes in. I’ve designed a step-by-step system specifically for dealers who want to attract more leads, increase sales, and build lasting customer relationships. This isn’t some cookie-cutter template; it’s a customized approach that leverages my expertise in content marketing to deliver real results.

And here’s the kicker: I’m offering it at cost for the first three dealers who act fast. That’s right—for a limited time, you can implement a content marketing system that has been meticulously designed to drive results without breaking the bank.

You can see how I do this process right here

Don’t Wait—Take the Leap Today

Imagine this: in a few short months, you could be the top dealership in your area, with a steady stream of qualified leads walking through your doors every day. All because you chose to do something different. You chose to embrace content marketing.

Ready to get started? The first three dealers who reach out get my content marketing system for cost. Don’t miss this chance to transform your dealership into a customer magnet.

Act now, and let’s make your dealership the trusted authority that buyers come to first.

Dominion Dealer Solutions announced today the launch of its new CRM, Dominion VisionTM. The most advanced automotive CRM in the market today, Dominion Vision combines the most intuitive CRM interface in the market with customized reporting and consumer-focused communication tools to create an easy-to-use CRM that will satisfy customers, sales reps and management. Powered by CRMSuite, Dominion Vision is the result of a business partnership designed to integrate CRMSuite’s state-of-the-art CRM technology with Dominion Dealer Solutions’ portfolio of high-performance digital marketing and data-mining software offerings.

Watch Keith Latman explain the workflow feature of CRMSuite

Dominion Vision CRM eliminates conventional CRM thinking by combining ease-of-use functionality with user-tailored dashboards. Intuitive technology erases the need for traditional action plans and lineated work flows. Dominion Vision learns about your customers and their preferences – helping your sales people connect with prospects using the best possible method at the best possible time. With real data at your fingertips, Dominion Vision is a true business intelligence tool. Mobility for all users is available via both a tablet-friendly interface and a downloadable mobile app.

“There are many CRMs in the marketplace but Dominion Vision is truly different. From our rich CRM legacy with AVV and Autobase, Dominion has always been committed to the dealer – using the latest technology to build simple and elegant solutions,” says Jack Ross, president of Dominion Dealer Solutions. “Now all of our tools, from DMS to CRM, equity mining to digital products, can work together to help car dealers sell more cars.”

Dominion Vision also includes proactive communication using machine learning to track consumer communications preferences in the form of a virtual, personal assistant, “Olivia.” No longer will customers fall through the gaps. This feature will scan the customer database on a regular basis and communicate via email, text or voicemail with prospects who have not been contacted. Customer responses will be forwarded to the salesperson to re-initiate sales and service communication.

Get a firsthand look at our NADA Booth #3716C. To schedule a presentation of Dominion Vision, please call 877-421-1040 or visit www.transformyourcrm.com.

About Dominion Dealer Solutions

Dominion Dealer Solutions improves dealers’ lives by developing advanced technologies including: reputation and social media management, responsive websites, digital advertising, SEO, SEM, multi-channel marketing, and custom market reports. Coupled with award-winning lead management, inventory merchandising, equity mining, customer relationship (CRM) and dealer management (DMS) solutions, Dominion redefines automotive retail by delivering first-class customer experiences for today’s automotive dealerships. Based in Norfolk, Virginia, every OEM and more than 10,000 U.S. dealers depend on Dominion’s foundation of innovation, integrity, excellence and teamwork to provide them with results at every turn. For more information, visit our website, like us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Youtube, or follow us on Twitter.

About Dominion Enterprises

Dominion Enterprises is a leading online marketing and software services company offering client solutions across multiple business verticals. Our B2B cloud SaaS solutions directly support clients in establishing their online and mobile brands, generating leads, and managing customer relationships. Our B2C web and mobile portals serve the housing, franchise and travel markets and include popular sites such as Homes.com. Dominion Enterprises is headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia and has offices across the U.S.

A micro site, blog, social media strategy is not a set it up once and forget about it process.  It requires nurturing just as the Green Pea does when they are shown their new desk.  You need to identify the strength and weaknesses from your efforts and look for ways to capitalize, improve or move on from.

The End is Where it Starts

The easiest way to identify trends in what consumers are looking for in your market area is with a well planned dealership blog.  A great way to dominate your local market area online is through an aggressive micro site strategy.  Its fool proof that a well optimized social media presence will deliver consumers to the showroom and service lane.  When the three are working together it is an army of 800lb marketing gorillas. Set a mission goal.  This is the most critical step.  Determine your objectives before determining what assets you are going to deploy.  For some dealers it may be just to protect their online reputation, the easiest effort, it could be to draw traffic on their competitors' names to their website, an advanced marketing strategy you have to be very careful with, others raise the awareness of the products they represent in their local market or to pull traffic from outside of their primary marketing area to increase their online saturation.

Deploy Assets

Setting up assets is the heavy lifting.  The real planning starts, this is where you build your blog, launch micro sites or get everybody in the store involved in social media.  You can do all three at once. To manage your online reputation is could be as simple as deploying a dealership blog and a specials micro site and setting responsibilities for a publishing schedule and updates to the asset.

You can't track what you do not measure

A blog will help you identify trends in what consumers are looking for in your marketing area with properly installed measurement tools, such as Google Analytics.  A micro site that is getting national traffic may not be in your best interest if your process cannot convert that traffic.  Make sure every click and every call is measured and properly sourced.

Capitalize on Trends

If your analytics show that consumers are looking for F150 Bedliners Houston then you have an opportunity to create content to show them that your dealership is the only place in Huston to buy bedliners from by deploying inner pages on your dealership website, a fresh micro site or a blog page showing you mean business as far as bedliners go.

Managing it All

A blog that has not been updated in two months is a waste of bandwidth and expectations.   Great content about how to set a clock on a 1995 Dodge Durango with a well optimized video on how to do it could drive leads via your online appraisal form. Using these mediums requires hands on management so you don't miss opportunities you would not otherwise have.  Set it and forget it is no longer a valid online marketing strategy. Once the expectations are set, trends are identified and deployment is streamlined the puzzle comes together and you have bred 800lb gorilla that your competition will never conquer. About the Author- Paul Rushing is the owner of SEGA Systems, LLC with over two decades of high ticket retail experience.  He can be reached at 912-266-1629, paul@segasystems.com, or www.dealerbytes.com.

When dealers are allowing review sites to show up for their name they are giving away to much brand equity. It does not even require the dealer name to be used in the title tag if the property using a name in content is authoritative enough.  Review sites generally speaking do not have an aggressive optimization strategy, they rely on contnet and home page linking strategies, because automotive seo efforts are fairly soft for dealer names they rank naturally for those terms.

In response to the dialog that Joe Orr and Brian Pasch are having about dealer name piracy.

Conversely the review site ranking strategy would be very easy for your competitors to take advantage of. With just a little bit of link building an aggressive competitor could have negative reviews optimized for your name. Negative review sites have more authority, more people will link to negative information than positive. Links to these negative review can be bought really cheap.  Which gives these negative reviews more search engine relevance than hundreds of positive reviews.  Some review sites even participate in buying fake reviews so they can optimize for your name.  Jim Rucker did an article about it where www.lotpro.com is participating in this scheme. Your competitors with an aggressive dealer microsite strategy could also rank for your name very easily. We have dealers occupying as many as five search engine entries with microsites for their competitors names, done in such a way that their competitors do not have a leg to stand on, this is the same strategy that Sean Bradley has touted with VSEO, but if they complain we will remove their name from the site.  There are many ways to grab traffic on competitors names and insure your own name in the search engine results pages. On grabbing traffic on competitors names you need to make sure you don't have any reason to have a business relationship with that store, it can and will make that relationship difficult if you participate in this strategy.

Fair Use, Trademark and Copyright Opinion:

(*See Disclaimer) The term Online Piracy is being misused.  A dealers name cannot be pirated.  Piracy refers to the unauthorized reproduction and distribution of copyrighted or patented materials.  You cannot copyright a trade name it is trademarked.  Piracy deals more with distribution of copyrighted intellectual property such as movies, music and written work or applications such as patented software.  Many popular peer to peer networks have been closed down due to piracy suits.  It sure is a cool buzz word even if applied improperly. Some dealers are on the right track with protecting their online reputation. A dealers name is trademarked so others cannot use it for "commercial" purposes as Brian pointed out but once an activity is in the public domain, such as your review site strategy, that information falls under fair use. The complaint is with the search engine not the site owner. An aggressive affiliate marketer could take all of your reviews good and bad, pull them into a landing page for lead generation or cpc offers, put your name in the title tag such as "ABC Motors - Consumer Reviews and Brand Name Dealer Pricing Any City, Some State" and you would not have a leg to stand on and could tell you to pound sand when you send the cease and desist letter, most would not but some would. Ebay Listings? Another whole can of worms. A title tag "ABC Motors Auction Listings - City, State" if you participate or "Brand Auctions Near ABC Motors in City, State" on a car centered domain name if you don't. eBay does pay affiliate marketers for traffic referred to their site.  Don't want eBay afiliates using your inventory and name in their content?  Don't list cars there and you may stay under eBay affiliates radar. Car.com, Edmunds.com, up2drive - BMW Bank of North America, Web2carz, Experian Automotive, Yahoo Motors, LeaseTrader.com and Vehix all pay affiliates for traffic or lead conversion through Commission Junction.  Chances are you may have granted some those organization license to use your name and it is passed on to their affiliates and or partners, pretty broad.  Carfax has agreements with many inventory providers and inventory aggregation sites, they make money off your listings and is a topic for another post. Couple review site rss feeds and automatically updating eBay listings on a landing page like that with aggressive optimization techniques. You may even lose position number one for your dealership name. Fair use and licenses you granted would win, want it out of the search engines? You better hope the webmaster is willing on their own free will. Send the wrong webmaster a C&D you may not like outcome, you would hate my response if I was on the receiving end of one due to an affiliate marketing property.

As long as the content does not suggest endorsement or sponsorship you don't have much room to complain. A site disclaimer as simple as "This site and offers presented are not endorsed or sponsored by and dealership presented" is probably enough to grant the webmaster safe harbor.  The fact that you let review sites present advertising on your dealership name would also help bolster their case because then you are participating in selective enforcement of your trademark especially with the very competitive ads shown on the screen cap below. Using the lead gen site example. If they were trying to capture leads using a call to actions such as "Get a fast Internet Quote from ABC Motors" when the leads were going to other dealers then your trademark claim would be valid if they were only going to you then you need to contact the lead provider and protest. If the call to action said "Get Quotes from Brand dealers and Compare the price offered by ABC Motors" a complaint may fall on deft ears. Think the "Pepsi Challenge" In Brian Pasch's post about "Online Piracy" he bought up his experience with BMW

I had BMW attorney call me one day because I had a BMW SEO case study website up on http://www.bmwseo.com.  They said that since I was in the business of making money from SEO, I can’t use the BMW in the domain even though it may help their dealers.

In Brian's bmwseo.com predicament. I may of told an attorney that reached out to me, depending on his demeanor, to fly a kite unless his client wanted to purchase the domain name. That really falls under fair use, especially if you were offering a service geared or case study specifically to BMW dealers. A better option on the domain name would of been bmwdeaelrseoservices.com to completely avoid confusion and prevent a trademark dilution claim.  A product description such as BMW Dealer SEO Services is an acceptable derivative, with the right disclaimer.  bmwseo.com may create confusion in the eyes BMW consumers but once they clicked through it would be obvious that it was a service offering to dealers and not an offer to sell cars.  It really is no different than after market accessories for Honda Accords when they use the words Honda Accord in their product description. Trademark law is generally focused on Consumer Protection not the protection of the trademark holder.  It is to protect consumers from confusion.  In my opinion it is completely legal to use a dealers name or competing vendors name in a strategy or product review, however you need to be able to live with the repercussions.  Those that publish them usually are well aware of the pros and cons. My company would never use a dealer client's name in our online marketing materials in indexed content, however we may use a vendors name that we represent because our website message and traffic is geared towards consumers of online automotive marketing solutions.  That is the balance we maintain. Dealers that are really concerned with trademark and copyright concerns want to dig into http://www.chillingeffects.org/ which covers many of these topics.  That way they can get a better grasp of what is really involved in protecting their brand, their rights and the rights of those they feel are infringing upon it and not just take my word or another vendors word for it.  It is a a joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics. Make sure you are in attendance for our next webinar Wednesday at noon est 10-28-2009 where Jim Rucker, Brian Pasch and myself will discuss ways for dealer to own all 10 positions for their name and offer some differences of opinion.  You will be able to ask questions during the webinar and we would welcome another panelist. * Disclaimer "The GA Bar requires me to inform you that I am not a licensed attorney. Any opinion give is just that opinion. I do not have a law license nor have I ever practiced law. Completely discount my opinion based on it's legal merits, it is probably wrong. I have been accused in the past of misrepresenting myself as an attorney, however a room full of attorneys that made this accusation could not prove it and a judge laughed at them, furthermore I do stay in a Holiday Inn Express at every opportunity I think the running water and the switches that make the lights come on are awesome amenities. That was the same qualification I gave the judge for representing myself when accused of impersonating an officer of the court, he bought it."

Bloggers come under fire from many and that may be why dealers are not willing to participate in starting their own.  I know that I have personally come under scrutiny on more than one occasion for views that I have published, was eventually fired for a blog post and started my own business.  Two well know people in the industry have threatened to sue me over articles I have written on www.ismintraining.com. (here <one I was fired over and here) One of those stories caused a website provider to change their platform, whether they will admit it or not is another story, after I was informed by them how wrong I was in my opinion. Another post that I did caused our dealership to get national attention, and our dealer principal wound up on many traditional media outlets over a blog post. The additional exposure came from social media after the story went popular on Digg.com. Over 30 car deals were directly attributed to this almost free exposure, he gave me a nice bonus check out of the blue over a very nice meal. When Landrover made a bad move using twitter to create brand awareness it heated up the blogosphere and hopefully changed the way they use social marketing, it still built brand awareness. Jeff Kershner's blog www.dealerrefresh.com has probably done more to affect long term strategy and products offered by vendors in our niche than any other online outlet to date. Hoaxes by bloggers and other have also influenced traditional media most notably:

1. Rush Limbaugh got punked when an unknown blogger published a post claiming to have uncovered President Obamma's college thesis.
2. Story about a 13 yo kid who stole his dads credit cards and ordered prostitutes.
3. An anti abortionist faking pregnancy and birth of a terminal baby.
4. Fake press releases by the US Chamber of Commerce

Blogs have the ability to create buzz, while I would never encourage hoaxes, it amazes me why dealers are not participating more in creation of their own dealership blog. From conversations I have had with clients it would seem that time and having the staff to keep it updated are the biggest excuses. How many times have we seen a GM or GSM in their office with the door closed while working on print ads or planning television commercial shoots? I would offer that a well written blog post could generate more traffic than any single print ad or television commercial! It is a medium that cannot be ignored and needs to be included in your marketing plan. Dealerships need a blog to help bolster their online exposure especially if they want to be involved in social media. Here are some topics that dealers could blog about that will bring in traffic and help them create dealer brand awareness. Occasionally things can go viral and draw an avalanche of traffic but that is not the reason for dealers to blog.

1. Participation in charitable events such as the local Relay for Life or Habitat for Humanity.
2. Local sports - even better if you have local professional teams but being from the south High School football is HUGE.
3. Local political views that they do not mind sharing. Proceed with caution there, but I have yet to meet a dealer that did not have a strong opinion on local politics.
4. Car buying tips and examples of how things such as leases work.
5. How to change the time on clocks in vehicles they sell with video.
6. Don't send a letter to the editor of the local paper, email them a link to your blog post giving them permission to republish it.
7. New hire and retirement announcements.
8. Special promotions and incentives and how to take advantage of them. Sparingly and tactfully.
9. Customer testimonials, using the customers name with their permission.
10. New model first deliveries. I sold every Challenger we got as they rolled in.

Here are examples of blogs we have helped dealers set up for a Cincinnati Ford dealer and a North Carolina Chevy dealer they publish their own content. The one for the Chevy dealer is new and the Ford Dealer blog is over a year old and it generates traffic to their main website and direct phone inquiries. You can poke around them and get some ideas for content for your dealership blog.  Or ask questions in the comment section below. Think of a dealership blog as a brand awareness tool, like billboards, shopping cart ads, license plate holders, key tags, silhouettes, pens, ball caps and other trinkets. Not only can it garner local traffic when people are searching for what is going on it can also be used as part of your search engine reputation management, a well optimized blog will take up two entries in the search engines for your dealership name like your traditional website. if you have a brand sponsored website in addition to you main website you have half the battle won on owning all of first page results for your dealership name. Our next drivingsales webinar every Wednesday at noon will be sharing strategies that dealers can use to own all of the front page searches for their name and protecting their online reputation.  Hope to see you there.

During the Drivingsales Executive Summit there were several compelling presentations about maximizing your presence on dealer rating sites.  One of the most compelling was by Joe Orr of Dick Hannah Honda.  It would appear they are attributing a lot of their success to their participation at many of the review sites.  Brian Pasch did an article about their claimed success at Dick Hannah Honda which stated:

They worked hard to optimize SERP results so that when a consumer typed in “Dick Hannah Honda” in Google, that all 10 listings were controlled by them or contained  review sites.

This is a counter productive strategy for dealers that wish to aggressively market themselves.  They are giving away to much of their name equity and branding to sites that wish to profit on traffic for consumers searches for specific businesses.  The majority of websites are commercial every participant here at drivingsales participates in making money from their website, even drivingsales.  There is nothing inherently wrong with the rating sites strategy and they are benefiting tremendously from it. Some charge dealers to become certified and show them "best practices", which helps build the websites content and improve it's authority and at the same time they sell additional advertising and push traffic away from the dealers they have charged to become certified.  Click on images to see a larger view.

This does not even take into account third party lead gen sites, inventory aggregation sites that will show up in the search engine results pages for dealers by name and brand and market area searches.  Not to mention many dealer rating sites attempt to fake social proof for seo purposes.

Our next webinar will cover ways dealers can protect themselves and drive sites out of their name searches including sites like ripoffreport.com and preserve their brand equity.

Please comment about your dealership's experiences with these rating sites and I would love to hear others thoughts on this subject.

There were three underlying themes that all that presented in the social media and search space brought forward at the Drivingsales Executive Summit.

Content -

Dealers that wish to aggressively market themselves online need to be publishing as much content as possible in a myriad of locations that the dealer does and does not control. This content will help drive traffic from search engines and social media. With changes in the works at Google content is going to mean even more for dealers.

Listening -

Arron Strout and Chris Brogan both tuned in on this in both of their presentations and reemphasized our belief. Dealer's need to keep up with what is being published about them online and in social settings and listen for ques from prospective customers. Chris even brought forward an idea of how a dealer could increase fixed opps revenue and an awesome prospecting tool for sales. I will publish on this later.

Engagement -

This is the one that dealers will struggle the most with in the social media space. If you are going to use any of the social media sites and look to generate sales from them after you learn to listen you need to be ready to engage consumers in these settings. This will take active participation for dealers and their staff, it cannot be automated!! When dealers are getting started especially if done in-house they are better off to concentrate on one location and do really well than in many locations with little more than just a presence. If you were in attendance please add what you felt was the most important topics covered or if you were not ask you questions below.

Dealers have started demanding more and more from their vendors from advertising sources to inventory providers, rightfully so. For years they have paid for products and services which they may not always completely understood or they did it because their competitors were doing it too. Ever heard an Autotrader pitch after being black there? The web has increased their knowledge because there is tons of great content to help guide them to make better decisions, Jeff and Alex's DealerRefresh, Ralph's ADM, Jared's DrivingSales and even a few of my rants. It is too bad industry publications and institutions have not followed suit by providing great content to help dealers and people on the ground improve their performance. We all are in this business to make money and drive revenue. If it was not for the money none of us would be doing it, from NADA to minimum wage lot guys, everybody is trying to grab their share. It's too bad that some do not try to provide value to their target audience and lead with the dollar signs in their eyes and publications. The quality of content found in industry publications is pitiful if not demeaning to it's readership and they wonder why they are having trouble selling conference tickets. Now they are polluting the web with it. When you see a publication that calls itself "Digital Dealer" go to an all-online publication; in this day and age it is to be expected. Too bad they don't try to develop a web presence that is all encompassing in relation to digital marketing first. Digital Dealer does not have an A-game online so how can anybody possibly take their publication seriously? The ezine format has long been dead and content online should be structured so it can be accessed at anytime not stuck in a downloaded pdf or reader that does not let you access back articles. Not to mention the audio greeting with hype from large vendors is not only bad form it's ineffective. Talk about increasing bounce rate! Another recent entry into the land of online nothingness was brought by a powerhouse at all levels and provider of consumer content from cars to alarm clocks. I read a post titled "Another Look at RQF" on the JD Power and Associates blog "Online Automotive Review" (I only linked to it because I am referencing it). It says a whole lot of nothing about how big name vendors structure their lead gen forms. If they just needed some content to fill some space to keep their advertisers happy they should of use a Lorem Ipsum Generator. Then there would be some value to those that have never seen that type of text before in trying to decipher it.  Not to mention I think I am the only person to have ever commented on that blog and it did not even receive an acknowledgment from the author. If you are on the Automotive News email list and try to stay current in the Industry you will realize they have yet to break a real story.  It's sad to see the "Alerts" hit my inbox when the information that is important to me has already been delivered via a Google news alert through another source.  They don't even do a good job of aggregating old information.  Want to see an old article?  Pay up sucker or just use Google.com to get it from the original source. I picked out these resources because they were the easiest to find quick examples of how the big names are dropping the ball online.  They already have built in audiences that would be easy to transfer to competent online enterprises.  Right now it appears to be out of necessity because of dwindling advertising revenue and they need another ad spot to sell.  It is overflowing at all levels. Sure a few people are going to be upset about this rant, but many will not take dig down deep and put it out.  Those reading this are in the top 1% of the top 1% of automotive executives and dealership employees or they got a phone call and email from someone crying foul.  You know where you fit in. If you are a dealer or provider please don't follow these bad examples. Dealers if you want to learn more about online marketing and reaching customers look to sources that do a good job in their own presence and provide you with actionable content without asking for a credit card.  The reason some of us provide content here and other places is to give you value and maybe you will reach out to us to engage our companies' services if you like what we have to say. Providers if you are going to do it, do it right or not at all.  Stop publishing Generic Nothingness and at least give readers something to think about.  Press releases that open up with, "(Insert Vendors Name) the industry's leading provider of (product} ...." are getting tiresome and we are laughing at you. People also know that just because your PR firm says you are the best it does not make it so.  Make them work for their money and stop using fill in the blank forms.  Stop publishing the same content is six different spots. "Participants" are cross-pollinated at the valuable online resources. Some may have a bigger reach than others due to broadcast features or search engine presence. If you contribute to all, do it in a way that talks to that individual audience. Stop talking about hot topics if you know nothing about them.  Just because you have read a few books or talked to a few people out of the industry it does not mean you can transfer it to others via the services you offer.  Take criticism and look for ways to improve don't bolster up to call and threaten lawsuits or make personal attacks, it just draws unwanted ire and damages your brand.  When somebody shows you how to improve your product give them a call and say thanks. Maybe you can establish a good working relationship.  It may lead to some referral business. If you have made it this far thanks for staying through the rant.   I look forward to seeing many of you at the Drivingsales Executive Summit next week.  If you have not registered please do so now, chances are you will have a great opportunity to hear a few more rants and take something back to your dealership you can actually use versus an armful of pamphlets and pitches about the "Industry leading widget..." or even worse, untested bad advice. * Disclaimer - The views and opinions expressed here are that of Paul Rushing. The comments made are not endorsed or condoned by this site or SEGA Systems, LLC

Dealers have been beat over the head by many "go to guys" in the auto industry about social media.  Every time an article is written social media and social networking you can hear Kumbaya in the back ground as us automotive vendors rush to comment and give their point of view, however.... The most important element element of social interaction is never discussed.  All we ever hear about is:

1. How to build a big twitter following.
2. Don't use Facebook groups create a fan page.
3. Only send two or three tweets a week with targeted specials.
4. Just the opposite of number three, RSS your inventory in there and shout loud and fast.
5. Don't waste time on myspace.
6. Keep your employees off this stuff get them to create profiles at website with a terrible name and we will spam blast your customers for a fee.
7. Make sure you start a dealership specific Ning site.
8. Umpteen other things you got to do.

What is this important element they all are missing? Nobody is listening.  No I don't mean your connections, fan page supporters and twitter followers. Today I had a conversation with Alison Groves @ raventools.com and she shared with me her experience of using the web to buy a car. Alison is an advanced web user and a Social Princess.  She was frustrated that when she tweeted about being in the market for a car not a single dealership professional or dealership profile tried to engage her about her upcoming purchase.

Nobody was listening.

I was taught at an early age that I have two ears on one mouth.  When I started selling cars over 20 years ago it was reinforced by my sales manager.  Listen to your customer, ask the right questions and sales will follow. It is no different with social media and networking.  It is a conversation starter.  If you try to monopolize that activity by only pitching and not being involved it is a waste of bandwidth and time.  If you don't listen across the space you are missing business and missing deals that others are ignoring too.. Social media is a sales tool if you listen. Stay tuned for tips and other tools for listening in the social media space.

Attracting new customers via social networking is an arduous task. There are two ways to attract new business using these mediums, advertising and building connections. In a B2B environment it works wonders because all participants have a common goal, improving their bottom line. In a B2C environment social networking/social media is not a prospecting tool,it is more of a CRM function. Businesses that look to attract retail customers need to understand that a myspace profile, facebook page and twitter account is best suited for use as follow up tools not lead generation. B2C organizations can generate revenue in social networking environments and that is the end goal, build a list of raving fans who constantly buy and send new business. Your primary purpose is staying in contact with your customers with social networking. For B2C organizations who are looking for an quick return on investment social networking may not be the answer. When you are just starting out using these venues you are the same as the green pea salesperson who has no client list. You will also quickly discover that over 70% of your real life connections do not participate in social networking just as the green pea soon discovers that not all of her "friends" will buy from her. My business has been completely built using inbound marketing. I have landed clients from my participation here at DrivingSales, Ralph's ADM and Car Dealer Social and many clients have come from referrals via connections in these networks and happy customers.  These efforts are not our best lead gen tools, no more than social profiles will be for B2C companies.

Our best lead generation tool is Google.com, Yahoo.com and Bing.com, because we own the right keywords due to aggressive Search Engine Optimization.  While SEO is not the only way to bring search engine traffic it is the most cost effective and brings more value long term than search engine marketing.

What we have to understand as marketers who wish to attract new customers we have to go where our customers are.  If we were to walk into a dealership and mention the three networks referenced above to the dealer principal or general manager you would get a deer in the headlights look from that decision maker over 90% of the time.  I know from from personal experience many do not even recognize the main networking sites and resources such as car dealer marketing on craigslist other than their IT person has blocked access to them on all of the dealerships computers. Social networking is real time, what happens today may not be found tomorrow.  Robert Scoble from Rackspace explained that if you want to get into Google and for that content to "stick" the best device is a blog.  I will add that if you want to develop a strong online marketing presence you need to start with search and understand that Social Media is not primarily a marketing function and probably deserves the least amount of attention until you have search nailed. I pointed this out in a comment at Gary May's blog post about social media:

• - 227,636,000 Internet users in the USA as of June, 2009, 74.1% of the population, according to Nielsen Online.
• - Only 75,000,000 US users on Facebook Their Numbers
• - 89% of adult web surfers use search engines. - PEW Internet
• - Facebook is smoking twitter in growth numbers and most users are "cross pollinated"

It would be safe to assume that ratio of facebook users who also use search engines is close to 100%.  By not concentrating on search first you are missing opportunities that will never find you in social media.  Not to mention the right initiatives in the search arena, a blog, will help fuel your social media exposure. Still confused by the social media vs search equation?  Leave a comment below or feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email.