DrivingSales, LLC
How SEO Impacts the Service Department
Digital marketing in the dealership often is viewed and conducted solely from a sales perspective. But the service department, often called the "backbone of the dealership", is just as important as far as preparing and executing a digital marketing strategy. Check out this video and infographic to learn more about digital marketing's impact and importance for any dealership's service department.
DrivingSales, LLC
The Biggest Mistake Dealers Make When It Comes to Customer Retention
Jim Roche is the Divisional VP of Marketing & Managed Services at X
time. We asked him to tell us the biggest mistake he sees dealers making today when it comes to customer retention. Hit play to hear what he told us.
RELATED: 5 Digital Strategy Tips to Boost Customer Retention
1 Comment
Self
Great interview Tori. I couldn't agree more. Having been in the industry for 16 years, drastic changes have certainly come into play. To not acknowledge, train and grow no matter what capacity would be a pure detriment to your future. The way social media and web based marketing has changed the dynamic and turned all of us into tech specialists has blown my mind.
DrivingSales, LLC
Interview with Jonathan Dawson: How Often Should You Have One-on-Ones With Your Sales People?
Jonathan Dawson is the founder and CEO of the sales training company Sellchology. Here, he chats with us about having one-one-ones with your salespeople.
No Comments
DrivingSales, LLC
Interview with Dave Spannhake: What Makes a Great "Meet the Staff" Page
We asked Dave Spannhake, founder and CEO of Reunion Marketing, what makes for an effective "Meet the Staff" page. Check out the video to hear what he had to say!
2 Comments
Self
Good idea having the staff member's outside interests listed. Great way to let the public know that we are human too.
DrivingSales, LLC
I agree! And if you can throw a little humor in there, too, all the better!
DrivingSales, LLC
The Mind-Blowing Power of User-Generated Reviews (and How to Leverage It)
We all know by now that reviews are important. VERY important. They're more than important -- they're downright powerful in their ability to affect a brand, whether for good or for bad. This 
infographic reiterates just how powerful they can be. But what do we do with this information? Keep reading for some best practices on how to take these statistics from a survey of more than 14,000 consumers and apply in concrete ways to help grow your dealership's brand.
Now Now that you've looked over these staggering numbers, let's talk application. Power Reviews provides these best practices for leveraging the weight of user-generated reviews:
- It's Not a Scavenger Hunt. Make sure the content is clearly displayed on your website's product pages. Don't make visitors search for the information (they won't). Also, make sure it's clearly accessible across all types of devices.
- Keep Them Around. Once a customer lands on your site, entice them to stay by featuring user-generated ratings and reviews on your home page.
- Add to Ads. Add user review snippets and star ratings to your digital advertisements.
- Bring Them In-House. Include star ratings and review snippets in the physical signage within your dealership.
How else do you leverage the power of user-generated reviews at your dealership to increase traffic and, ultimately, business?
3 Comments
Self
Great idea using reviews within the signage of your store. Great way to display your accolades without the customer having to put in the effort.
Automotive Copywriter
Great ideas. As a proponent for online shopping myself, I can tell you that reviews often are the deciding factor for where to shop and buy.
The key is in 'user-generated'. I can tell, as can everyone, when the reviews are posted by staff or solicited responses. These actually turn me off!
DrivingSales, LLC
Oh absolutely, Jason. Any business, and I mean ANY business, loses credibility with me when it's obvious the reviews were posted by employees.
DrivingSales, LLC
Mommy, Where Does Website Traffic Come From?
Do you agree with these numbers? Do your traffic numbers tend to be proportional to these, or different?
Weigh in on the discussion here.
5 Comments
Self
Hmmmm...appears to be accurate however my question is what is all grouped under "other sources?"
Beltway Companies
@Tori, agree - that is about right. We are seeing an increase from the CRM directly. Where customers are clicking through to the site from non-campaign emails we are sending, which are taking them to VDP's. As for social, to be honest - I am surprised that it is not higher? Our's isn't much higher than that. The strongest web traffic referrals for social have been promoting individual units vs. a generic special.
The Automotive Marketing Group
I think some of this depends on your market area and competition. We see a higher percentage of paid traffic, and lower percentage of organic traffic with most of our dealers. However, Organic should always lead the way.
Work Truck Solutions
It would be better to have a category called "digital marketing" that encompassed email and social media marketing. I primarily work with Commercial Dealerships and email surprisingly does much better than most other marketing sources. My company provides an email marketing program for commercial dealers and it generally accounts for 25% of their total monthly site traffic!
DrivingSales, LLC
How to Get People to Come to Your Dealership or Website [Interview with Michael King]
Michael King, founder of iPullRank, tells us how to get more visitors, both to the dealership and to the website.
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DrivingSales, LLC
Top Blogs of 2017
If you're like me, you can hardly believe it's 2018. Here's a look at the most popular DrivingSales blog posts of 2017!
5. Top 10 Sales Humor Memes of 2016
by Maddy Low
4. Can We Guess What Kind of Car You'll be Driving in 10 Years?
by Andrew James
3. 13 Rules for Social Media Success in the Car Dealership
by Jason Stum
2. The Truth About CarGurus
by Langley Steinert
1. Let's "Face It" -- Mind-Reading Works to Close Deals Faster
by Brad Paschal
What was your favorite DrivingSales blog post of 2017?
1 Comment
DrivingSales, LLC
Add a link in the comments to your favorite DrivingSales blog post(s) from 2017!
DrivingSales, LLC
Jenny Vance: Top Tips for Online Consumer Engagement
Jenny Vance, PERQ's Executive Vice President of Sales, shares some top tips for dealerships looking to improve and increase their online consumer engagement.
No Comments
DrivingSales, LLC
Is Your Dealership Just Part of the Noise?
Best-selling author and marketing guru Andrew Davis tells you how to make your dealership rise above the "noise" and stand out to customers.
1 Comment
This is why I believe customer reviews are so important and why someone in the car business selling cars should align themselves with a third party review site like DealerRater.com so the customers on the outside can see what doing business on the inside is like with you.
1 Comment
Amanda Gordon
Self
Thank you Tori. We just opened up a small scale service operation to the public and this info will certainly help.