Many people have asked me over the last couple of days why I wasn't at Digital Dealer. I have had to remain aloof about it... until now.

Today, KPA announces that it has acquired TK Carsites Inc. TK Carsites has over 650 automobile dealership clients throughout the country. The combination of the TK Carsites product line and current KPA product lines establishes KPA as a leading dealer services and Internet marketing provider for over 4,000 automotive, truck, and equipment dealerships and service companies.

The united company offers an exciting prospect for dealers in ways that we've never been able to offer in the past.

“I am impressed by KPA’s 95% year-over-year client retention. There is no automotive Internet marketing company that comes close,” says Richard Valenta, CEO and co-founder of TK Carsites. “For our clients, this means that they can continue to expect high levels of support, as well as a renewed commitment to the evolution of their products.”

You will see much more coming out of KPA and TK Carsites in the coming weeks. If you aren't excited yet, just wait. You will be.

Many people have asked me over the last couple of days why I wasn't at Digital Dealer. I have had to remain aloof about it... until now.

Today, KPA announces that it has acquired TK Carsites Inc. TK Carsites has over 650 automobile dealership clients throughout the country. The combination of the TK Carsites product line and current KPA product lines establishes KPA as a leading dealer services and Internet marketing provider for over 4,000 automotive, truck, and equipment dealerships and service companies.

The united company offers an exciting prospect for dealers in ways that we've never been able to offer in the past.

“I am impressed by KPA’s 95% year-over-year client retention. There is no automotive Internet marketing company that comes close,” says Richard Valenta, CEO and co-founder of TK Carsites. “For our clients, this means that they can continue to expect high levels of support, as well as a renewed commitment to the evolution of their products.”

You will see much more coming out of KPA and TK Carsites in the coming weeks. If you aren't excited yet, just wait. You will be.

Many dealerships have found email campaigns to be very successful and deliver a strong ROI. Those dealerships who have, over the years, accumulated a strong database of past customers as well as prospects have had some successes through newsletters, sales event marketing, and buzz-building particularly around new vehicle releases.

Things are starting to change that dealers who use email should remember. The percentage of people who are checking their email primarily on mobile devices has more than doubled in the last year alone. Are your campaigns "mobile-friendly" enough to keep up, or are you missing out on reaching 15% of your database?

For tips and a better understanding of the direction that email marketing is going, we turn to our friends at Litmus:

"Email remains the strongest online activity around the globe. In fact, email users are expected to reach 3.8 billion by 2014; that is nearly half of the earth's current population, and a significant climb from 2.9 billion reported users in 2010. Now that most people are equipped with smartphones and iPads, is anyone still logging on to view their messages on a monitor? Here, we take a look at how our phones and other technological 'toys' have changed the way we view email."

Click to enlarge.

Many dealerships have found email campaigns to be very successful and deliver a strong ROI. Those dealerships who have, over the years, accumulated a strong database of past customers as well as prospects have had some successes through newsletters, sales event marketing, and buzz-building particularly around new vehicle releases.

Things are starting to change that dealers who use email should remember. The percentage of people who are checking their email primarily on mobile devices has more than doubled in the last year alone. Are your campaigns "mobile-friendly" enough to keep up, or are you missing out on reaching 15% of your database?

For tips and a better understanding of the direction that email marketing is going, we turn to our friends at Litmus:

"Email remains the strongest online activity around the globe. In fact, email users are expected to reach 3.8 billion by 2014; that is nearly half of the earth's current population, and a significant climb from 2.9 billion reported users in 2010. Now that most people are equipped with smartphones and iPads, is anyone still logging on to view their messages on a monitor? Here, we take a look at how our phones and other technological 'toys' have changed the way we view email."

Click to enlarge.

It's a topic that has been covered ad nauseam here and on every business website on the internet. We can all see that social media is big, but how is it translating to the bottom line? Is it directly increasing sales? Are people realy in "buying mode" when they're looking at pictures of their friends at the bar last night? Is it worth the investment.

The answer to the question really comes down to three things: the industry, the personality of the business, and the strategy.

Many in the automotive industry have clearly demonstrated that social media can be very effective in generating business. Just read the automotive social media white paper as a single shining example from Jeff Cryder (who will be speaking at Driving Sale Executive Summit in Vegas).

As far as personality at the dealerships, that's, well, personal. Is your dealership aggressive with its marketing to the point of being public and open about the people and happenings at the store? Are your salespeople and internet people tech-savvy enough to engage in a Facebook conversation with someone before and after a sale? These are all individual questions.

When it comes to strategy, there's winning and losing. Most strategies, unfortunately, are not very effective. I'm not going to go into the bad that's out there (another blog post altogether) but I will say that just because you have a bad experience with a strategy doesn't mean that you should abandon social media altogether.

To get a general view, we have an infographic from our friends at MDG Advertising that breaks down the ROI aspects of social media marketing.

It's a topic that has been covered ad nauseam here and on every business website on the internet. We can all see that social media is big, but how is it translating to the bottom line? Is it directly increasing sales? Are people realy in "buying mode" when they're looking at pictures of their friends at the bar last night? Is it worth the investment.

The answer to the question really comes down to three things: the industry, the personality of the business, and the strategy.

Many in the automotive industry have clearly demonstrated that social media can be very effective in generating business. Just read the automotive social media white paper as a single shining example from Jeff Cryder (who will be speaking at Driving Sale Executive Summit in Vegas).

As far as personality at the dealerships, that's, well, personal. Is your dealership aggressive with its marketing to the point of being public and open about the people and happenings at the store? Are your salespeople and internet people tech-savvy enough to engage in a Facebook conversation with someone before and after a sale? These are all individual questions.

When it comes to strategy, there's winning and losing. Most strategies, unfortunately, are not very effective. I'm not going to go into the bad that's out there (another blog post altogether) but I will say that just because you have a bad experience with a strategy doesn't mean that you should abandon social media altogether.

To get a general view, we have an infographic from our friends at MDG Advertising that breaks down the ROI aspects of social media marketing.

It's not really a question that everyone can answer. For many, the decision has been made for us. Some manufacturers are forcing their dealerships to use specific website providers that consolidate the look, feel, and functionality of the website in order to maintain corporate consistency.

Other OEMs allow their dealers to go wild. They have very few standards or compliance guidelines that their franchises are supposed to follow.

Most OEMs are somewhere in the middle with specific compliance measures that must be met but no limits on which marketing company the dealers can use.

Should a dealership website be consistent, looking mostly like every other of the same brand? Should dealers be allowed to express their personality and focus on their own strengths? Are dealers better off as individuals competing against others in their market of the same brand, or is the corporate line of keeping it simple and consistent while focusing on conquest sales from other brands the right way to go?

We may not have the answer to that question (only you do) but we do have this great, albeit long, video going over the benefits of personalized dealer webstes. What are your thoughts on the issue? Please post them below.

It's not really a question that everyone can answer. For many, the decision has been made for us. Some manufacturers are forcing their dealerships to use specific website providers that consolidate the look, feel, and functionality of the website in order to maintain corporate consistency.

Other OEMs allow their dealers to go wild. They have very few standards or compliance guidelines that their franchises are supposed to follow.

Most OEMs are somewhere in the middle with specific compliance measures that must be met but no limits on which marketing company the dealers can use.

Should a dealership website be consistent, looking mostly like every other of the same brand? Should dealers be allowed to express their personality and focus on their own strengths? Are dealers better off as individuals competing against others in their market of the same brand, or is the corporate line of keeping it simple and consistent while focusing on conquest sales from other brands the right way to go?

We may not have the answer to that question (only you do) but we do have this great, albeit long, video going over the benefits of personalized dealer webstes. What are your thoughts on the issue? Please post them below.

One of the hottest forms of automotive advertising is video banners. Today, the automotive industry is smack-dab in the middle (as you can see from the infographic below) and is used as a reference point for other industries.

Manufacturers are doing a tremendous job of using it, but very few non-TK dealers are even exploring it. There is, of course, no reason for this based upon the sheer affordability and traffic-driving prowess that video ads have, but with none of the bigger vendors talking about it or even exploring it, it's relatively new to most.

This graphic breaks down one of the major flaws with the service - click through. Unlike standard banner ads, this engaging form of advertising has ancillary benefits that go beyond branding. Messages are often heard and seen even if the direct click is never made. There are direct correlations that can be made between the number of impressions a dealer gets on their ad and the number of searches that are made for that dealership by name. People click, yes, but often they simply go back to Google and look for the dealership or type them in directly. The results can be astounding and unexpectedly predictable even if the click-thru rates are not.

In the end, it should always come down to conversions. For a medium that is so widely used in most industries, it's shame that more dealers and vendors aren't exploring it.

Click to enlarge.

Infographic by: Wistia

One of the hottest forms of automotive advertising is video banners. Today, the automotive industry is smack-dab in the middle (as you can see from the infographic below) and is used as a reference point for other industries.

Manufacturers are doing a tremendous job of using it, but very few non-TK dealers are even exploring it. There is, of course, no reason for this based upon the sheer affordability and traffic-driving prowess that video ads have, but with none of the bigger vendors talking about it or even exploring it, it's relatively new to most.

This graphic breaks down one of the major flaws with the service - click through. Unlike standard banner ads, this engaging form of advertising has ancillary benefits that go beyond branding. Messages are often heard and seen even if the direct click is never made. There are direct correlations that can be made between the number of impressions a dealer gets on their ad and the number of searches that are made for that dealership by name. People click, yes, but often they simply go back to Google and look for the dealership or type them in directly. The results can be astounding and unexpectedly predictable even if the click-thru rates are not.

In the end, it should always come down to conversions. For a medium that is so widely used in most industries, it's shame that more dealers and vendors aren't exploring it.

Click to enlarge.

Infographic by: Wistia