DAYTON, OH - Dealer Authority has launched a new Facebook Advertising solution to their digital marketing mix called Drip Marketing. Drip Marketing was created for automotive dealers that wish to re-engage the traffic that leaves their dealerships’ website without performing any type of conversion action. This can include click-to-call, click-to-text, and lead form fills. Drip Marketing was created to target those customers with a series of Facebook Ads during their daily scrolling that would drive consumers back to the dealership's website for another opportunity to convert, and ultimately schedule a test drive to purchase a vehicle.

Drip is implemented through a series of “if/then” actions, based on the behavior of each shopper. This solution compels new and used car shoppers to take the next step towards conversion through a series of customized Facebook Ads. If a customer does not convert here, Drip activates by compelling the undecided shopper using a dealer’s “why buy” message through video. Depending on what percentage of the video the customer views, they may then be served with an incentive of the dealership’s choosing sealing the deal for a final sale.

To celebrate the release of this new solution, Dealer Authority will be holding a Facebook Live Launch on November 20th, at 3:00 PM eastern standard time, to discuss the solution and answer any questions that the public may have. To join the Facebook Live event, head to Dealer Authority’s event on Facebook, or reach out to Marketing Manager, Tabitha Flythe, at tabitha@dealerauthority.com.

Dealer Authority is a Dayton, Ohio based digital marketing agency specializing in the automotive industry. Their solutions include search engine optimization, pay-per-click, and social media management. For all press inquiries, please contact Tabitha Flythe (contact above).

Since 2019 began, the hot topic at Dealer Authority has been Instagram for the Automotive Industry. Our social strategists continue to see the value that Instagram brings to the table for car dealers through enhanced brand awareness, community engagement, and targeted audiences that have a specific interest in your brand – and in the end, helps you sell more cars!

Let’s take a moment and look at the statistics on Instagram specifically for the automotive industry.

Instagram was so kind as to put in a lot of leg work for us! Out of the 800 million Instagram users that interact with the platform on a daily basis, there are 3.5 million that are auto-enthusiasts. That’s 3.5 million people that most likely know nothing about your dealership, but they could – through a simple Instagram post. 

Now, getting the attention of this 3.5-million-person audience doesn’t happen overnight.  In order to grab the attention of this audience, you need to take the first step and set up your account, then consistently (at Dealer Authority, we post 3 times per week) post content that shows the personality of your dealership. 

The images and videos that you post to Instagram are just as important as the images you choose to put in a print ad. There is a happy medium between posting original content (photos on the lot, behind the scenes video, shots of happy customers) and utilizing stock photography for your post. Today, most individuals that are using social media on a daily basis can easily spot stock photography as they scroll through their feeds.  If you don’t have a content library that you can quickly pull from on a weekly basis, feel free to use stock – but mix it up with original images and video, that are onsite at your dealership.

Utilizing Hashtags

It’s also crucial to add hashtags to your posts. Think of hashtags as a digital road map that can lead Instagram users to profiles that showcase products aligned with their interests.  By adding a specific hashtag to your post, you are linking your content to content that has the same hashtag. A few examples of hashtags that carry a lot of weight for the automotive industry on Instagram are: 

• #carsales
• #dealership
• #instacar
• #instasales

What’s so great about Instagram is that you aren’t locked into using hashtags that are specific to the automotive industry.  You can also look to trending hashtags to generate traffic to your brand-new Instagram profile. These include:

• #MondayMotivation
• #ThrowbackThursday or #TBT
• #photooftheday
• #instagood
• #WednesdayWisdom

Let’s take your posts to the next level! Ready to connect to your OEM for no additional cost to your dealership? Tag them. By simply adding @honda, @subaru_usa, or @nissan_usa, you are linking your dealership to your specific OEM. Now you have the potential to pull from their Instagram audience that reaches into the hundreds of thousands.

Instagram Stories for Dealerships

Instagram also lets automotive dealers harness the power of real-time posting by implementing Stories. Think of your individual dealership posts as stationary content and Stories as direct messages that are pushed out to all of your followers at once. This is a perfect place to showcase video from the showroom floor, the interior of new inventory, or even post a poll to your surrounding community. Our society generally enjoys instant gratification, and Stories allows you to do just that – instantly engage with the people around you that have the most interest in your brand.

Social media advertising has so many impactful benefits for the automotive industry and you shouldn’t limit your social media marketing efforts to Facebook alone. Instagram’s largest age demographic is between the ages of 25 – 34 and these individuals are prime suspects for their first new car purchase. Get their attention by posting engaging, thoughtful, and informative posts that entice your audience want to "follow" and learn more.

This blog was originally posted on dealerauthority.com.

Ghosts, goblins, and… Google rankings? It may be a scary time of year, but it doesn’t have to be for your SEO strategy! We will shed the light on five common SEO myths so that you never have to be left in the dark.

Myth #1: Linking is Dead

Mummies and zombies may be dead, but link building certainly isn’t. Many people believe that with Google’s recent updates and announcements that link building has taken a back seat to other SEO strategies. Say it ain’t so! In reality, it’s using spammy links that are a dying art.

You still want to go after high-quality links from reputable sites. You don’t want links from blogs or directories that serve no purpose to your visitors. You want to be mentioned in relevant blog posts and be shared on social media. That’s the way to build links.

If you have the best content in the world but no relevant links, your site won’t get much traffic. Links and content are correlated with rankings. Great content still needs great links. Remember that!

Myth #2: All Backlinks are Created Equal 

Just as in life, not all things are created equal. On powerful social media sites such as Facebook, the hyperlinks you include in your posts don’t get counted as a link that will help improve your backlink profile. The backlinks you want pointing to your site are natural, authentic, industry-related and authoritative.

Also, on a lot of websites, they have what’s called a “no-follow” link. According to Google, classifying a link as “no-follow” provides a way for webmasters to tell search engines, “Don’t follow this specific link,” or even all links on a page. This helps websites prevent untrusted content. Don’t get tricked into believing that all backlinks are created equally. Spammy backlinks can actually cause more harm than good!

Myth #3: You Can Get Ranked on Page One of Google for Less than $100

Something wicked this way comes—and it’s not the Wicked Witch of the West. It’s those email pitches you often see claiming to raise your website’s Google ranking to page one for an amount in the $100 range. Don’t fall victim to this marketing ploy—there is no “quick solution” to get onto the first page of Google.

A strategy needs to be formed if you are truly interested in improving your SEO. An expert will need to identify the services or products that drive the most revenue to your business so he or she can employ an SEO strategy based on your actual needs. Keyword research and onsite SEO optimization are also involved. SEO strategy creation is both a science and an art, so go with the experts if you don’t want a site that turns out to be Frankenstein.

Myth #4: Stuffing Keywords is the Key to Success

Sometimes the more isn’t the merrier. If you have too many keywords stuffed into your domain, this can be viewed as a spammy tactic that Google can pick up on. (And, remember that Google hates spam!) Google is looking for actual business sites that are getting legitimate visitors.

Including a keyword within your company name is a good practice though, if it is a natural fit. A name like “Lee’s Honda of Beaufort” would be a good option because it has a personal connection based off of the name, a location with the word “Beaufort,” and the keyword “Honda” that will allow Google to clearly understand that this is a Honda dealership. However, too many keywords on a page can run the risk of seeming spammy or directing to sites that have no relevance to yours. Let an SEO expert be your guide so that you can achieve the best results possible.

Myth #5: I Don’t Need to Optimize My Images

“Optimizing” should be your keyword with everything you do on your website—so of course, you want to optimize your images!

Whenever you embed an image on your website, you can optimize it for SEO by using an HTML attribute called an “alt tag.” Alt tags are what search engines like Google will see since they’re not sophisticated enough (quite yet) to view photos as a human would. Adding alt tags to your images is a super-effective way to boost your rankings and keep keywords consistent on a page.

Even if your marketing team is just starting to scratch the surface of what will take your SEO from average to rock-star status, it’s a clear no-brainer that keyword research plays an integral role in setting up your company for success on the digital stage.

Recently I sat down with Dealer Authority SEO Manager and Keyword Mixologist, Jessica Robertson.  Jessica manages Dealer Authority's team of digital strategists daily and is on the cutting edge of SEO best practices. 

Jessica, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today.  I know that since the recent changes with Google’s Algorithm, many sites have seen changes in ranking which have definitely kept your team on their toes.

Can you tell us if there were any significant changes in ranking for the automotive industry since the algorithm change in August?

Fortunately for our clients, we noticed mostly positive effects on their rankings and overall SEO.  Google’s algorithm change focused on validating credible sources with information and landing pages backed up by professionals in each different industry and discrediting pages with unverified sources.  Websites focused on Health and Nutrition took a pretty hard hit, but Automotive mostly remained unaffected or actually received a boost in rankings. And it’s fairly easy to understand why.

For example, when you have a certified Toyota dealer doing reviews and write-ups about Toyota models in their local area, it’s clear to Google that this information is coming from a professional source that has been verified again and again. However, if you have “Becca’s Keto Blog” trying to rank first for dietary and nutrition suggestions, Google is more likely to discredit this type of information since it’s coming from a blogger and not a credited M.D. of Nutrition.

Share with us a little more about how your team targets specific keywords for our clients – typically this is aimed at their location, correct?

That is correct. Because auto dealers are focused on selling locally and outselling local competition we put a hard focus on geotargeting.  Ranking nationally for keywords is good exposure for a dealership, but a shopper in California that saw your funny ad in Pennsylvania is not headed cross-country to buy from you.  Though our specific strategy varies from client to client, we prefer to focus on long-tail search terms that include geo targets in the backyard of the dealership and on its home turf, as well as shooting for high search volume keyword combinations in those areas.  

Since strategy varies from client to client, do you have any unique examples you can share where this targeting method significantly impacted a client’s rankings?

Absolutely. We had a pretty exciting breakthrough for a long-standing client of ours just recently.  The important thing to understand about SEO is that this is not an overnight procedure.

“SEO is all about the long haul and the longer you work at it the greater results you see over time.”

We had already saturated the top 3 geo-targets for this client, with their landing pages all organically ranking on page 1, most within the top 4 search results. Since we were doing so well in those areas we started reaching out into other areas further out, but still quality targets.  What we found was a town that was about 45 mins outside of their city with a medium-sized population where they didn’t have ANY traction whatsoever.  Out of 21 different keyword combinations, not one ranked or was visible in the top 100 results of Google for that store.

So, to start we created 3 different landing pages focusing on that geo-target, and because the quality of their SEO was on point, to begin with, they immediately started ranking just days after being built.  But not only did this store start ranking for those 3 keywords/landing pages but suddenly their site was popping up for 20 out of the 21 keyword search terms!  Individually those pages ranked from nothing to fourth place, leaping 96 spots overnight, but collectively that store rose 1,717 spots in their Google rankings for that set of keywords!

“Where their dealership was once nonexistent, now they are on the map, and that is the true power of good SEO.”

That is fantastic! We always stress the importance of transparency at Dealer Authority.  Are there any key questions you would suggest businesses ask their SEO provider when assessing the strengths and weaknesses of their SEO approach so that they can see similar results?

Every dealership, every location, and every client are different, which is why SEO strategy must be unique to YOUR dealership.  Find out what your SEO provider is doing differently for your store specifically.  Get a list of landing pages they’ve created, check to make sure it’s not boilerplate content. Content doesn’t have to be front-facing to be effective, but at least have them show you the pages they’re making, and where they are on your site.  Find out what geo targets and keywords they are going after and why.

If the end goal is to get a customer to the showroom floor, then your website and the content and images that live on your site are a sneak peek into just how incredible your inventory is. That being said, it is crucial to make sure that the photos of your new and used cars are top-notch. In this straightforward, 10-step guide, our Director of Dealer Strategy, Christine Plunkett will help you build the tools to take photos of your inventory that will build trust with your customer and make your inventory shine!

Step 1: Invest in a decent camera. Your iPhone will work but if you have the budget, spring for a Canon or Nikon between $200 and $500 to set your pictures apart from the competition.

Step 2: Make photography someone’s responsibility. Preferably someone with an interest in photography, cars, or ideally both! Make one person personally accountable for photos being taken and properly uploaded to the website. Even if multiple people are involved in the process, one person must champion the cause to ensure it is done regularly and correctly.

Step 3: PAY THAT PERSON ACCORDING TO RESULTS. Whether it’s a side gig for your lot attendant or you hire a photography vendor, make sure their pay is tied to the percentage of vehicles on your website which has photos. 100% is an unrealistic goal, but 75-80% is a reasonable expectation. If they can’t achieve the goal, ask them why and help remove roadblocks.

Step 4: Implement a process where used vehicles are photographed as soon as humanly possible after trade-in or purchase from an auction. Even if the car is not in pristine condition, if there is dirt on it, if there are bumper stickers, if you’re not sure how to price it until it goes through re-con – IT DOESN’T MATTER. Even if you’re not sure you’re even going to sell the thing, just snap some quick preliminary shots to go with the website listing as soon as it is stocked in. Tag your image with a watermark or banner that reads, “Sneak Peek” or “I haven’t had my bath yet” to let shoppers know it’s a new arrival. Instead of being annoyed by the dirty picture, a savvy shopper will like that they have first dibs on a new piece of inventory. Just don’t forget to go back and re-take and re-upload fresh images once the car is pretty (and remove the old images).

Step 5: Consider the framing of your inventory photos. You can go HAM and build a giant studio with white walls and a rotating platform – or just take a bit of time and energy to find a neutral location at your dealership. Even if you shoot the cars in the line, just be sure to back the vehicle out of the space and separate it from the pack. The image should fill the frame and there should be no distracting elements in the background. For heaven’s sake don’t have anything blocking any part of the car.

Try to avoid seasonal indicators in your pictures, like snow and ice on the ground. If the vehicle ages for long, observant shoppers will notice the picture was snapped months ago and question what must be wrong with it for it to still be available. Photoshop can help here when weather is unavoidable. Which brings me to my next point…

Step 6: DO NOT ALTER YOUR VEHICLES with photo editing. This is a huge no-no. It is perfectly ok to use photoshop to clean up the area around the vehicle, remove an ugly sign in the background, etc. But never ever ever ever change the appearance of the car. Do not remove dents, scratches, peeled window tint, anything. In fact, a strong case can be made for being overtly transparent about the condition of the used car. Highlighting a small dent will not typically turn an interested buyer away, but it might help build trust with the dealer. Most shoppers’ number one fear of car dealers is that they are being shady or lying. Not you! Show it all.

Step 7: Frame all your images the same way. Make it formulaic. Start at the front driver’s side quarter panel and methodically work your way around the vehicle snapping every angle plus all noteworthy features inside. You can’t really take too many photos, but you can take the wrong ones. Stick to highlighting features and benefits. Don’t show off the carpet under the floormat.

Step 8: Get low low low low low low low. Standing up straight will never result in a great vehicle image. Squat down and get eye-level with the headlights and shoot straight on from that height ALL THE WAY AROUND THE CAR.

Step 9: Be aware of the lighting. Bright sunlight can cause terrible shadows creating dark spots on your pictures. Whenever possible shoot on overcast days or under cover of an awning which shadows the entire vehicle evenly.

Step 10: TAKE PICTURES OF YOUR NEW VEHICLES. Some people want world peace, others want to end cruelty to animals, I can get on board with both – but my own personal crusade in life is to convince every car dealer of the necessity of photographing their new inventory as well as pre-owned. A stock photo is as useless to a shopper as no photo. Your website is your new showroom. When a shopper walks into your dealership to see a specific car you would never hold up a photograph of a similar make/model. You show them the REAL THING. Do the same online. It’s worth the extra expense to beautifully showcase your full REAL selection in your digital showroom.

BONUS TIP:

Slow weekday in your sales department? Start a “car photo conga line!” Have a few of your salespeople that are not next in the “up” rotation each round up a car that needs a picture taken. Have them line up near the photo staging area, and one after one they can pull up for the in-house photo master to quickly go snap all the key shots. After the car’s photo session, the salesperson can park the car and grab another one. This is a fantastic way to expedite a large number of vehicles that need photos and will also help your salespeople learn more about the inventory available on the lot!