I recently read an interesting article in Forbes about cause-based marketing which states that  55 percent of consumers would switch brands and/or pay more for a product or service to a company that demonstrates solid social values that the consumer also cares about.

This type of marketing is a win-win as it can position your dealership favorably to your customers while also helping those in need through charitable contributions. The great thing is that dealers are some of the most generous contributors to their local communities already. Cause-based marketing is simply marketing who your dealership is (brand identity) through sharing the causes that are important to your dealership.

Now don’t get me wrong here. There is a time and a place for this and nothing is more off putting than a business that constantly bangs its chest about how good it is and demands that you look at all its done. And, I also realize that some people prefer to just make the donation anonymously, purely to support the cause.

But some dealers are doing a really great job of cause-based marketing and it is worth a further look at this. One dealer group in Maryland goes all out in its community involvement efforts to ensure they are mutually beneficial to the dealership and the local community.  According to MegaDealerNews, these activities include performing health and safety services such as car-seat installations and checks every month, sponsoring multiple sports teams and underwriting a local field that services a minor league and college baseball team. The dealership also sponsors multiple hole-in-one tournaments and raffles off a Corvette every year.

This type of marketing can be powerful for several reasons. First, rather than pushing common things such as lowest price, it can earn business from customer goodwill and empathy and help the dealership stand out from the crowd. Second, as consumers these days are bombarded with “buy now!” messages, they tend to be more amenable to a message that is not trying to sell them anything, and this can help increase top-of-mind awareness. And last, but certainly not least, consumers can be more apt to trust a dealership which contributes to their local community.

There are plenty of examples of dealerships building their brand around community involvement and cause-based marketing. In today’s highly-competitive market it is important to create a competitive advantage to stand out from the crowd and overcome the noise consumers are bombarded with daily by the numerous retailers they interact with.

Dealerships are, in many cases, pillars of their communities and many have been in their local area for decades. Just existing, however, is no longer enough.

As part of your marketing strategy consider sharing with customers who you are and what you care about rather than a pure focus on what you sell. It may surprise you to find it helps sell more cars. And as it also helps support the local community, that’s a win-win.

Every successful business needs customer feedback to gauge how they are doing. Customer loyalty, experience and retention can’t be modified without hearing what your customers think. Dealerships rely on such things as manufacturer surveys and online reviews to get an idea of how well they are doing. Some will even go a step further and email their own survey, or have their BDC call the customer post-sale to ask.

And then of course there is social media. Progressive dealers increasingly use social media to monitor chatter, respond to complaints and gauge brand sentiment. But many are missing a large portion of what consumers say about them.

Here’s Why: If a dealership simply watches and responds to consumers who specifically talk to them online – meaning the consumer tagged the dealership in a post, or mentioned them in a tweet, plenty of dealers will see it and respond. However, according to an article on ZDNet, if that’s ALL your dealership is doing, you’re missing a lot.

In fact, the article shares that only 9% of brand chatter happens with a consumer tagging a business; while the other 91% don’t. Instead they use hashtags. For example, if someone were to tweet to me, 9% would include @carterwestpr in that tweet, whereas the rest would use #CarterWestPR.

There’s a reason people are doing that. When they tweet using a branded account, the reach of that tweet is typically limited to their followers and, perhaps, a slightly larger audience should a retweet or share occur. However, by using a hashtag, that reach is infinitely expanded to anyone searching individual topics – such as chatter about a dealership or model of vehicle. And this is where your dealership may be missing a whole bunch of feedback that could be useful.

According to the ZDNet article, the top reasons consumers reach out to a brand on social media are to ask to ask a question (57%); because they have a product or service issue (45%); or they want to give praise (34%). These are all opportunities for interaction. But if you’re only paying attention to those that tag your business, you’re missing most opportunities.

Another excellent way to capture social media opportunities, besides paying attention to social content you are tagged in, or via branded hashtags, is to also keep an eye on what your competition is up to. For example, a friend of mine bought a vehicle from a dealership roughly 100 miles from where he lives. Chances are slim that he will service his vehicle there and, since it’s a new car, it is going to be a little while before he needs service.

Then he noticed a cool new feature on his vehicle he wasn’t aware of, tweeted out how impressed he was and used the make’s hashtag. Well, guess what happened next? A dealership local to him responded, agreeing that it was cool and that they hoped he enjoyed his new vehicle. How do you think that made him feel? Which dealership do you think will be top-of-mind when it comes time for him to service his vehicle? You guessed it, the one that impressed him by engaging with him.

That dealership didn’t try and sell him anything. Nor did it solicit any service business. They simply engaged him. They could only do that if they were paying attention to the chatter about them, in addition to the all-important chatter on relevant hashtags.

Don’t miss out on these highly-valuable social media opportunities that allow you to see the uncensored version of what your customers are saying and to engage your customers/conquest new customers. They will remember and, when it comes time, that simple tweet or response may just earn you more business.

There is plenty of buzz nowadays in the automotive industry about the customer experience. Everything from improving the in-showroom experience, to the finance experience, online experience and the service experience; mostly by using technology and the proper training of employees in how to properly interact with customers and treat them … well, better.

Justified of not, customers simply don’t like visiting car dealerships. This has been an uphill battle for dealers who have been fighting to overcome this for decades. Many customers are still jaded about the trustworthiness of car dealers in transactional situations.

I recently read an interesting article that applies to this problem of the customer experience at auto dealerships. If you’ve never heard of the Adobe Summit, it’s a well-regarded event put on by a highly reputable company and attended by some of the most intelligent people on the planet. Almost every PC uses some form of Adobe software, even if only the free Acrobat reader for PDF documents.

A nugget in an article about the conference, which was posted on Enterprise.com, includes a question posed to a researcher at the conference who works at a company that studies the auto dealership customer experience. He was asked how car dealerships measure their customer experience. The answer? They simply look at the nearest competing dealership’s customer experience and make the experience they offer slightly better.

I’m certainly not a rocket scientist or a researcher, but it would seem logical that looking at a nearby dealership’s poor customer experience and making yours “slightly” better would not mean you now have a great customer experience, but rather that you’re “not as bad.” Your dealership is now merely a little better than the next guy. It’s kind of like the difference between an “F” and a “D.” They’re both still failing grades that won’t make a parent proud.

So, what’s the answer?

Perhaps some advice from McKinsey can help, a firm that advises automotive manufacturers and suppliers, construction equipment makers, and other industrial producers how to improve global operations, drive performance improvement, and seek growth opportunities. In a recent article they provide some excellent insights about how to truly discover and improve your customer experience, rather than simply guessing. They name three core elements that can deliver impact and truly transform your customer experience.

1. Measure experience at the customer journey level, rather than at a transactional level.
2. Invest in technology that continuously monitors and provides feedback in real-time from customers, both in-store and via online channels, such as social media.
3. Ensure that your organization has a “continuous-improvement mind-set” rather than thinking your customer experience goals are complete.

While McKinsey is not specifically referring to car dealerships in this article, the advice they give is sound.

The key to creating and sustaining a great customer experience is doing whatever it takes to understand your customers’ opinions, perceptions and pain points. So, it’s worth continuously reaching out to finding out what is needed and wanted from your customers and potential customers and acting on that to get a competitive edge. Rather than just thinking you know what they are and acting on that.  

When it comes to earning business, the customer experience has become a key differentiator. These days, sales and service customers tend to choose convenience and experience over pricing. In fact, dealers that consistently provide an excellent customer experience, make it convenient for the customer to interact with them, and broadly promote this, are thriving, while others are trying to catch up with their competition.

Many technologies exist to help dealers provide a better customer experience. The key is to make sure you get the right tools; the ones that work well for the unique needs of your dealership or group. And, if you get them, make sure your staff knows how to use them. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, if you do get new technology that is there to help provide a better customer experience, and you promise that to your customers, please make sure you deliver on your promise!

Think about all those technologies which appeared over the years with the promise of making the car buying or servicing easier for consumers. Everything from trade-in valuation tools, to online credit applications, to communication methods, conversion forms, chat and text messaging. Most were more than likely sold to dealerships with the promise of increased conversions and leads. And they may deliver on that promise. But, keep in mind, your dealership then makes a promise to consumers by adopting these experiences/technologies. And the only thing the consumer cares about (or even knows about) is your dealership’s promise.

That trade-in tool that the consumer abandons when they start the process because it’s unwieldy only hurts your dealership. That chat tool a customer utilizes to communicate with you, but then receives no response, makes the customer feel your dealership just doesn’t care. The voicemail messages customers leave which are never listened to, let alone receive a response; or those leads from multiple sources which are never followed up on make customers believe your dealership doesn’t want their business.

What about that request for appointment service scheduler a customer fills out, then shows up at the dealership thinking they have an appointment, only to find that the service department knows nothing about them. Yes, that happened to me! I think you get my point.

All these technologies can be a great way to enhance the customer experience. But only if you select a good product that does in fact deliver on the vendor’s promise, if it is used properly, is customer friendly and your employees are correctly trained in how to use it to better interact with your customers. If there is friction in the process from the technology, or if your dealership does not respond appropriately to whatever promise that call-to-action provides to your customers, it is hurting the dealership more than helping it.

If you fail to live up to the promises you make to your customers, this can quickly result in brand deterioration and loss of consumer confidence. Review your technologies and process and ensure that the experience you provide online, in your showroom and service drive enhances the customer experience and makes the process more convenient for them.

Your online processes are just as important as your in-store processes and, based on trends, will only become more important. You may have the greatest in-store customer experience in the country. But, if the online experience is lacking, the customer will never know that… because you’ll never see them. 

Great content comes in several forms. However, many people think of content as just the written word, such as blogs and articles. For those who aren’t writers, or don’t have the time to write, this can seem like a daunting task.

It’s tough coming up with ideas and, even when you do, explaining your idea in writing, rather than speaking about it in person, can be difficult.

Well, I have great news for those of you that feel that way. One of the most popular forms of content today is also the easiest to produce. It can also be the best way to get your message to your audience in your own words –and that is video.

Video content plays well across all publishing points. Your website, YouTube and other social media channels see increased engagement and studies show that these days audiences prefer video content. As a result, publishing platforms give video content increased reach.

Here are a few pointers that can help with developing video blogs:

1. Appearance – Many would tell you to follow the adage, “Dress for Success.” In this case, however, it’s more important to be yourself. To be at your best, you should feel comfortable when presenting. If you normally wear suits, that’s fine, but if you’re a t-shirt and blue jeans person, there’s nothing wrong with that. Dress in whatever way you usually present yourself to your customers.
    
2. Setting – One of the most important things to consider, but which tends to get overlooked the most, is the background. Everything in the video tells a story about you including the background. Ensure that the background is visually appealing but that it does not have so much going on that it is distracting. For example, a blank white wall behind the speaker versus a visually pleasant background such as an outside setting does make a difference in the impression the video makes on your audience. Be sure to do a test and see how things look. If you are at your desk is it clean or are there piles of paper lying around? Or, does that plant in the background look likes it’s growing out of your head?
    
3. Lighting – Be sure to have appropriate lighting while filming. This doesn’t mean you have to invest in studio lights, but simply that you’re well lit. If you have light coming from behind you, it is likely that that you will appear dark, or simply a silhouette to your audience. Light coming straight from the front could make you appear washed out. Side lighting (depending on the setting) is usually best. Of course, nothing beats nature. On a nice day with a good background, natural lighting can really make you shine on camera.
    
4. Sound – Last, but not least, ensure that the sound quality is good on the video. This can be achieved with an inexpensive lapel microphone that plugs into your smartphone (if you’re filming using one), a desktop microphone, or, if you have the budget, more expensive wireless lapel microphones. There are many options to choose from, regardless of what equipment you choose to film with. Simply ensure that your audience can hear you clearly and that you are not muffled, do not sound distant or have an echo.

Don’t let content scare you. There are many ways to produce educational, thought leadership content both written and with video. Of course, something else to consider is utilizing a mixture of both. This is the best way to increase the chance of your content being devoured by your audience. Whichever medium you choose, content can be the simplest, most effective and least expensive way to get you and your company in front of your audience on a regular basis.

One of the best ways to get your name out to your audience is through a consistent regimen of relevant educational content of interest to your audience. This helps position key people in your dealership or organization as industry thought leaders and gains indirect brand exposure.

Doing this consistently can lead to news stories, conference speaking spots and other opportunities that may be elusive without first becoming a known entity and expert in your field.

Once you start creating content, the next step is to figure out where your audience is and how to get in front of them. While content should be posted on your website and social media channels, expand beyond these venues or you could miss out on many opportunities to get your executives and company in front of your audience.

Seek out venues such as websites that cater to your industry, as well as smaller media publications that may be less competitive, are relevant to your audience and welcome content. Many of these sites don’t have a large editorial staff developing content and depend on industry experts, such as you, to contribute. In turn, they publish your content which can lead to more exposure through possible syndication in e-newsletters and/or print.

Now, here comes the part about too many chefs in the kitchen. With content, good planning and a consistent voice is key. Sure, having ten executives and/or employees all writing and publishing content may seem to be the perfect idea as this provides you with plenty of content and less work for each executive. Sounds more efficient, right?

Well, not quite. While it might be more efficient, it is the exact opposite of what you should do if your goal is to establish thought leaders and gain exposure through those executives. It takes a bit of time and skill to establish someone as a thought leader. The more people you attempt to gain exposure for, the less effective the strategy, and the more diluted your brand becomes.

A good example is in the world of advertising. If every time you saw a commercial for Kentucky Fried Chicken a different person was hawking the chicken, rather than good old Colonel Sanders, it might not be as effective, right? Good branding efforts begin with a solid base.

In the case of content marketing and building thought leadership, the foundation should be built around one or two high-level executives in your organization. This ensures that your audience isn’t bombarded with different people, splintering their attention. It’s much easier to focus on one or two individuals. It’s difficult enough to get attention for one or two anyway – try getting attention for ten!

Focus on your key public-facing executives. Those who most interact with your customers, are on social media and who are, or who should become, well-known public entities for your company. Over time, these individuals become recognizable to your audience and brand association is strengthened.

Have you ever looked at an article, saw the author and immediately knew where they worked and who they were? In the automotive industry, names like Grant Cardone, Dale Pollak, Joe Verde and others come to mind… and these high-profile personalities exist in every industry.

However, they did not become well known without some time and effort.

Another part of too many chefs in your marketing kitchen is making the mistake of having too many people view and edit the content. Sure, it is good to have the executive and a writer and editor. But I have seen some companies have as many as ten or more sets of eyeballs on a blog or article. And, you know how everyone has an opinion – well let’s just say the content ends up a mish-mash of everyone’s thoughts and opinions and usually reads poorly. Not that each person has bad ideas – it’s just very difficult to get a good, well-written piece of content that flows well, has a cohesive voice and message and resonates with an audience if it is approved “by committee.” You tend to lose the personality of the writer and the impact of the content.

So, plan a good, relevant content marketing strategy for your customers and potential customers that focuses on one or two key executives. Then produce and place well-written quality educational content on a regular basis. In so doing you should be on the right path, creating thought leaders who support and attract your audience and improve brand recognition.

I’m pretty sure most of you have received some sort of marketing that was either irrelevant, offensive or perhaps just made you say, “Why the heck am I receiving this?”

For marketing to be effective, it must reach the right audience at the right time. I’ve seen plenty of 40-somethings receiving invitations to join the AARP. A little early, right? How do you think that message went over?

Each irrelevant message affects individuals in different ways that even the best marketer cannot predict. Everyone has a different personality, sensitivities and interests. For some, a premature AARP invite (as in 15 years premature) could be completely offensive, especially if they happen to be sensitive about their advancing age! Others may ignore it and laugh about it. No matter which end of the spectrum that individual happens to fall, that marketing message it mostly a waste of time and, potentially, detrimental to the business.

Consider this story.

The other day, I received an invitation in the mail to attend a “free lunch and informational seminar” on the benefits of preplanning my own cremation. First, I don’t have any idea how I ended up in their demographic list of potential candidates who would be interested in cremation! Secondly, even if I were interested (which I’m not), I don’t think I’d want to learn about those benefits at a pizza place or Italian restaurant (the two venues this company chose). Personally, the ONLY thing they may have gotten right about me in their solicitation is the chance to win a free cruise. I’d much rather have gym memberships, discounts on paddle boarding trips or offers for exciting excursions and exotic vacations than learn about why I should plan my own death and prepay for cremation.

Marketing and branding go hand-in-hand. No matter what you put out into the universe, it affects how you are perceived by potential clients. While I am certainly not in the “plan your own cremation” demographic, even had I been, I’m fairly certain that the venue would not have felt appropriate for me. It would be like showing up at Chuck E Cheese for a seminar on how to become rich and famous. Uh, yeah… I’ll pass.

Keep in mind that perception is everything. In this case the messaging was horrible and the venue even worse. This all contributes to my perception of the business. Even if someday I do become interested in learning about cremation, I certainly wouldn’t be compelled to learn about it in a pizza parlor.

The next time you design an email, direct mail or digital advertising campaign, do a little research first and go over your message and audience to ensure the message is appropriate, relevant and delivered to those people most likely to be interested in that message – and to convert.

If you just simply ‘spray and pray,” you can be just wrong enough that your message achieves the exact opposite of your desired goal, turning those potential customers away to your competition.

The art of public relations has changed dramatically in recent years and now includes a myriad of services and possibilities. Today’s consumers are exposed to as many as 10,000 brand messages per day and, to break through this noise barrier, public relations must adjust methodologies accordingly. While this is certainly a challenge, there is a way to make things a tad easier: Think like your human audience!

An interesting article on agilitypr.com shares how companies can better target their audience and increase brand reach if they fine-tune messaging to be more appealing to that audience. One key point in this article, but something many companies neglect, is to truly know your audience. When asked who their audience is, many companies include generic demographics such as:

• Age range
• Income level
• Marital status
• Homeowner status
• Etc.

The problem here is that, while those demographics may help you choose media buys and advertising placement, they do little to increase the relevancy and impact of your brand message for that target audience. Your brand message could be perfectly placed in exactly the right publications, online venues and traditional media. But, if your message doesn’t resonate with the audience, it’s just more noise.

A great example is an experience I had a few years ago. I once had a chiropractor as a client with a body wrap solution that enabled people to lose inches in just a couple of hours. The Oscars were coming up, so I set up for a producer from Entertainment Tonight to come out and try the service. I was stoked -- we got a spot on Entertainment Tonight – one of the largest syndicated TV shows in the World! This was going to be huge and the chiropractic office would be flooded with calls and new businesses. Well, guess what? They got maybe two calls. And ZERO new business -- It was the wrong message to the wrong audience.

However, when I got the same wrap service onto prime-time news with a different message, not targeted at celebrities or the pre-Oscar audience, but the general man and woman on the street, the office was flooded with calls. This was a real lesson in crafting the right message and targeting to the right audience.

I am sure as a dealer you have seen how “spray and pray” tactics and not very effective.

As the article shares, a PR strategy is nothing without a strong brand personality targeted with the right message to the right audience. As one of the major goals of PR is to expose the world to your unique personality, it needs to be the driving force behind your approach.

To attract and grab the attention of your audience you need to be relatable on a personal level. Then find interesting ways to put your messaging in front of your customer’s and potential customer’s eyes in a way that will uniquely resonate with them. 

You may need to try it out a couple of times. And remember, what you THINK will work is not always the case. What you WANT your message to be may not be what resonates with your audience – and those humans and their emotions are what you want to capture.

Study after study finds that word-of-mouth is the single greatest influencer when it comes to marketing. Providing a consistently excellent customer experience, then having those customers go out and tell their family and friends about it is the marketer’s holy grail. According to many, it’s perhaps the easiest and least expensive way to acquire new customers while also retaining those you already have.

While word-of-mouth is certainly an influencing factor, some tend to focus too much on purely positive word of mouth. What do I mean by that? Think about the plethora of sites and organizations where your customers can leave feedback about you for others to see. Everyone high fives each other when a five star or glowing review comes around; and goes into damage control mode when customers say bad things. For many, the strategy behind damage control is simple, get more great reviews to bury any negative ones. That will work, right?

Not quite. Here’s why:

While it’s generally true that consumers trust reviews from others, they are increasingly more interested in negative reviews than positive ones. For today’s savvy consumers, while those positive reviews will tell them how great the product or service is, what they really want to know is two-fold: what people who didn’t have a great experience have to say and how the company handled it.

Aside from the obvious natural cynicism many feel when seeing a product or service with tons of positive reviews – and the potential for some or many of those reviews to be manufactured – all they want to know is whether the product or service solves the problem they are looking to rectify, and does the company stand behind its offering.

Why do you think it’s so difficult to get customers to leave positive reviews? Because they EXPECT that customer experience and, when they get it, there is no motivation to publicly scream that company’s greatness. Think about that last great meal you had. Did you immediately go into Yelp, Google or any other review site and tell the world? No, you probably didn’t. At the very most, you may have told your friends or family how great the meal was which could drive incremental business for the restaurant.

It’s much easier – and more likely– for a person with a negative experience to leave a review because they are frustrated about their negative experience. Think about the last time you went to a restaurant and had a horrible experience. Maybe you waited forever to get acknowledged. Perhaps the food was sub-par. Whatever the reasoning, you are much more likely to tell the world about this type of experience because you are feeling emotionally wronged.

While it’s great to get good reviews, the real tell-tale sign of how a business is really treating its customers is how they respond to and handle negative reviews. Think about it: No business in the universe is going to fake negative reviews. And that’s why consumers trust negative reviews more than positive ones. Have you ever seen a news story where a company was accused of paying or planting negative reviews about themselves? Chances are slim that that it has ever happened.

So, is word of mouth important? Yes. Negative word or mouth, however, carries much more weight when the company handles it correctly and consumers can see how passionate the company is about setting things right and providing a good customer experience.

Companies that pay close attention to negative reviews, publicly acknowledge them and make a concerted (and public) effort to rectify the consumer’s problems, will find that consumers are much more likely to forgive them when reading those reviews -- If they can see that the business cares and will help them should something go wrong.

That’s all anyone really wants, right? Few people expect perfection from any business. The only way to overcome negative word-of-mouth is by paying as much attention to how those negative comments are handled as you do the positive reviews.

Make damage control more of a priority along with your drive for positive reviews and you could find that those negative comments and word-of-mouth transform into value proposition statements that consumers trust.

Conference season is upon us and each business is competing with hundreds of others for attention. A strategy is needed, or your business simply ends up as part of the noise everyone fast-forwards through – media and attendees alike. So, how do you break through the “noise” barrier and actually get attention? Here are some tips:

1.   Press Releases – While press releases no longer have the SEO value they did in the past, they still have their use. The first component is to create a compelling story that both the media (and your audience) will be interested in reading. Don’t send a press release without good reason and be careful not to use too much hyperbole as this can quickly turn off an editor. Don’t send a press release that “Brand X is the first to market with the coolest most innovative product ever!” Unless you have the best thing in the universe (which most people don’t but almost every company believes they do), the press release will fade into the background and be ignored by the media.

Do send a press release that “Brand X has released a product that solves X problem and here are the results with Client Y.” There is a fine art to crafting press releases that get attention and it involves great storytelling which creates interest. Not simply shouting about how great your product or service is – because that’s what everyone else is doing.

Lastly, when you tell your story make sure you get a clear message across. State your point simply and don’t get so clever in your writing that your audience cannot understand what the release is all about. And, don’t get too clever with your language, use terms that are at the level your audience can understand.

2.   Content marketing – Sometimes, a product or service gets overlooked for a very simple reason – the prospective customers don’t understand what it is and why they need it. Content marketing with blogs and articles planned out and released on a regular schedule prior to the conference can help the industry audience better understand why the technology is valuable and how it can help them accomplish their goals. If done properly, it can also position the company and executives as thought leaders.

3.   Social Media – It’s surprising how many businesses fail to take advantage of social media to engage with conference attendees. Most conferences use hashtags which allow businesses to monitor conversations, share messages and engage with attendees. Through the use of Facebook ads (which offer an incredible ROI in terms of cost per reach) and Twitter ads (which do the same), you can have a presence in these conversations and, perhaps, attract some attention and booth traffic.

4.   Case studies, White papers and e-Books –These assets provide your audience with real-life examples of customers successfully using your products and services. Most dealers want to see results and hear about what other successful dealers are doing. Providing real-life data from other dealerships can help gain their attention.

Lighty-blinky swag may cause someone to stop by and collect it for their kids at home. But is not very likely to motivate anyone to do a demo or engage in conversation other than the polite kind (hopefully). Even throwing out a $50 per demo offer usually isn’t enough to make most attendees blink these days. A free month of service? Not unless they already know that they need your service.

A well-planned strategy should help improve your conference ROI. Simply shouting “Come buy my stuff!” at the top of your lungs, places you at a disadvantage and you may just come away from the conference feeling as if you got the short end of the stick.