It appears to me that Mark Twain was light years already ahead in regards to automotive digital marketing, when he stated “Find out where the people are going and get there first” – remarkable because Twain lived from 1835 – 1910, the first automobile was introduced to the masses in 1892 and Al Gore hadn’t invented the internet yet…

However Twain early on seemed to have had developed a common sense business acumen “to capture people’s interest in your story, product, your business and show them along the buying cycle, that you’ll be always there, on their side not leaving them out of sight – be already there when they (the consumers) arrive…

I believe we all can agree on the fact that the old purchase behavior and model has changed. From the prior rigid and linear path of offline marketing stimulus to a more circular online advertising stimulus – capturing buyer’s through metrics and their online behavior.

Similar to the old offline marketing and advertising approach, creating a lot of noise, occupying ad clutter exposure of e.g. Home Décor magazines of more of 60% advertising pages – the online world is experiencing a renaissance of this ad-noise, which I will compare to the virtual “Time Square” of online exposure. Instead having high raise buildings with neon boards and messages flashing up and down the strip some of the websites you are opening in your browsers are giving me the same feel – over exaggerating ad messages from all kind f businesses, display ads, tower displays, etc…it almost feels like that marketers and advertisers using the exactly same marketing strategies we have used for decades – this time only online, flashy, blinking and even more overkill.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to accommodate in today’s buyer world their needs, their online habits, their time on how the decide to research and buy – especially knowing so much more through our analytics websites and web traffic is revealing?

With an extensive research and a goal to create “smart advertising”, David Winter, VP of Business Intelligence at Cobalt asked his team of 70 “analytical geeks” and “introverted metric junkies” and to look at the online behavior of thousands of anonymous automotive shoppers across dealer, OEM and 3^rd party websites.  What they found were numerous indicators that the linear shipping behavior “Stimulus – Negotiation – Purchase” of car shoppers is a thing of the past.

Today’s car buyer wants to buy and/or research on their time card and their leisure and not on the pushy approach too many marketers are still suggesting is working – like the so well know “email blast”, mailers and one-pager ads in Saturdays newspaper.

Like Twain said “….find out where people going….” – Winter’s research explored numerous different types of buyers. Three generic shopping personas in particular, the Modern Family, Miss Pop-culture and Mr. Contractor had one thing in common – while they never send an email lead to any of their dealerships, the research captured what inventory they were surfing, which VDP’s they were researching, which Hours and Directions pages they viewed as they planned a visit to the dealership.    If we only have this information, and not an email lead how do we “…find out where the people are going…”, or more importantly, guide them to come to our stores?

These insights emphasize the role Remarketing can play in your store’s marketing strategy. Thanks to a Remarketing tool (cookie), which were embedded inside the surfed websites and could relocate the three buyer types mentioned above during their daily online behavior, the dealership and the OEM marketing messages could be reapplied for exposure over and over again on all other 3^rd party websites the consumers surfed and visited from there on.

The research and results indicated that when a Remarketing Cookie was applied and the message was brought to the consumers over and over again, the dealership had a chance again to re-win this consumer to sell a car or win the business. In our case of the 3 consumers…

Miss Pop-Culture went back to the dealership she initially had visited and surfed their VDP over and over again after 30 days – ending up buying a car

Mr. Contractor ended up buying the brand and model he decided on from the get-go after 20+ days, and even so he did not cross-shop Makes, he shopped more than 20 different dealerships only then to go back to the “guys” who he had visited first and who were using smart advertising in form of remarketing.

The Modern Family showed exactly the same pattern than the other two above – the only mayor difference was that their purchase process ended up being more than 90 days. Understandable considering how a modern family functions today with all the errands like Mini League on Tuesday and Saturday, Sophie’s ballet on Wednesday, Girl’s night out for mom on Friday and so on…

With the age of remarketing your dealership will have the opportunity to be always first in row for all these shoppers researching your inventory and website. With this first virtual touch-point your chance are increasing dramatically to close a deal down the new purchase path. Your dealership name can and should be out there with any minute, showing your future customer’s “that you know where the people are going”, and you’ll be already there and waiting. 

It hit me like a ton of bricks while reading about Coca Cola's and Content Marketing Institute Guru Joe Pulizzi’s vision last month.  Pulizzi stated that "Coca-Cola is betting their farm on content creation." Going forward, the soft drink giant will rest most of its strategic marketing vision on the principles of content marketing.

As I stated in my late 2011 article “Why Context is King – and not Content!” one thing is crystal clear in my view – companies are beginning to finally see the value in creating rich content, the kind which inspires more valuable context and interaction.

So, how will Coca Cola address this new approach dubbed “Content 2020?”

They came up with ten chapters of their Liquid Content vision, from which I took three topics and transferred them into my vision on how I would set them into action for my dealership(s).

VJ’s Chapter 1: MOVE FROM CREATIVE EXCELLENCE TO CONTENT EXCELLENCE

Creative Excellence:

I am sure you have heard and seen dealerships announcing their yearly scholarship award on Facebook or the local press. They select a student and highlight their achievements. The scholarship award is often a car, which will be given to the student for a certain time, photos are taken, maybe even some large advertising stickers are placed on the vehicle. The ceremony comes to an end – the student leaves the lot – the story is a wrap (End of the creative excellence).

Content Excellence:

Take it up a notch. To make this student/car story a liquid and linked content development story you may consider contracting this student - to write and report about her endeavor in the new ride. Let her take videos on how 17 or 18 people actually will fit in the Beetle; let her Foursquare about the spring break road trip and the gas she was saving with the Civic or how much she actually is in love with her new Yaris, which now carries the name “Puggle, which was found during a Facebook friends poll…

Similar to a shaken Coca Cola bottle  – this so-called liquid content will swap and spray all over, and a formerly stale story just became a more emotional and impacting life cycle story.

VJ’s Chapter 2: POSITIVELY IMPACT THE LIFE OF YOUR CONSUMERS

With its new marketing umbrella theme “live positively,” Coca Cola has found a way to outline stories on how their products will add significant value to people’s lives. The campaign reminds of the Volkswagen’s BlueMotion Roulette story, which took place in Norway and consisted of more than 40,000 participants (and NEW Facebook friends) placing bids on how far the Golf can drive with just one tank on diesel.

The message was clear defined: save at the gas pump and perserve nature by lessening your impact on the environment. Because you could only guess once 160.000 consumers actually went to the VW Blue Motion site in a time span of two weeks, studied the technology and fuel consumption, calculated potential gas mileage and placed bids for a chance to win the BlueMotion Golf.

With this kind of 21^st century scavenger hunt, the consumer took engagement with a brand in their own hands. 6,000 Facebook posts from eager spectators were answered by VW – incredible number considering Norway is a small country.

So can you as a dealer duplicate this kind of success?

Yes, you can – maybe not in form or the scale of tens of thousands ofinteractions, but certainly you can apply these same principles. Just consider the Drive for the Cure event hosted by the Bergstrom Automotive, Grand Chute, WI in August 2011. With a Facebook Fellowship of almost 6,000 fans, news coverage on Channel Fox11 and an active approach of Q&A on the social media front, the group was able to raise their donation goal of $50k.

During the event, followers were able to follow the event’s progress – seeing spikes of Facebook interaction of more than 60 conversations, 70 views on YouTube – not even considering the word-of-mouth action which took locally place at the dealership grounds.

Even after the event, people were still commenting on the success and the approach for volunteering the next event! I guess you can say that here were some “Bergstrom” brand evangelists created.So,do we think this business was “positively impacting the life of their consumers” and used a good portion of social engagement and the principles of liquid content? Yes! And I love this story!

VJ’S CHAPTER: USE THE 70/20/10 FORMULA FOR CREATIVE BRAVERY

Coca-Cola wants to encourage creativity and bravery inside their marketing operations and developed the formula 70/20/10 which reads

• <>70% of new content will be considered low risk content. Another name you can call it “bread and butter content.” This content should not take long to create and will weave into your entire content strategy
• <>20% is an extension of the bread and butter content which has worked so far well in the past – this time newly packed with wording and “content”
• <>10% of your content strategy will be new and totally hit on the meaning of creativity. It needs to revolve around your brand and totally new ideas, never done and/or used before.

The recipe will be successful when your new approach on content and context is continuously revamping new ideas and imagination and avoids recycling already portrayed ideas and themes from the past.So the proverb "No Risk - No Gain" seems to be the new approach on delivering genius content ideas spreading into a much wider context strategy down the road.

Please take also a look on how Coca Cola’s Joe Pulizzi had these videos for his Marketing team made, and to show them visual context of his brilliant ideas.

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Provocative question but the studies shown here can explain why using a mobile advertising strategy in your digital marketing mix could be a valid Millenial strategy for your business.

No turning back anylonger - Mobile is a rolling thunder and won't disappear. As the IBM study in the article "The Year of Mobile Marketing" as well as the just yesterday released Forrester Research prediction "having One-Billion Smartphone users by 2016 is pointing out - everybody wants to be mobile.

The integrated graphic on Local Mobile Search below is making an even stronger point: Search was used strongly performed on the desktop just a year ago - this model is changing. 80% of searchers research online are being today performed in a radius between 10 - 20 miles of the businesses they possibly will consider as a vendor.

Check out a few more brilliant facts below:

The research I found last week makes an incredible point on what really matters for consumers who have finally agreed to follow you and your business on your social network, such as Facebook.

When listening to the lyrics “I have got a reputation with everyone” from Derek Webb’s live concert (I encourage you to watch the video) - I somehow get the feeling that there are dealers out there, who must feel exactly like him.

I would like to combine it to the research findings from conversocial and Lie Leibovitz, an Assistant Professor of Communication at New York University. These findings, combined with these assorted song lyrics, make my point to my fellow dealers – you can no longer afford to ignore questions, complaints, suggestions or critics on your social platforms.

Lights on, Curtains up - Music please…

Derek’s Lyrics:

I know I always let everybody down

I know I've got a bad name in this town

'cause my last friend stopped calling months ago

VJ’s comment:

One out of four would nolonger do business with you, just because you did not have the time, staff or courtesy to answer a question or complaint! WOW! What’s even worse is when your Facebook business page does not engage but is still doing all this advertising of inventory, call for sales and exhibiting the typical pushy advertising mentality.

You might think – “well, almost 75% would still do business with me”, but that thought is short-sighted. We all know that negative experiences will be shared from one individual 63% of the time to a friend(s) via email, phone call, or in-person according to a 2011 Temkin Group survey.

Suggestion:

• Make it a habit to check your Facebook at least 4 times a day (or any other social network entity you are involved with) and make sure to look out for comments and ANSWER them.

• Do not engage in a “pissing match” giving your “complaining consumer.” It will turn into a back-and-forth match with no winner.Instead tell them openly that you want to address his/her concern, and provide a direct office line where they can contact you without speaking to a “gatekeeper” first.

• Resolve the concern and then report the positive outcome on your social network. This kind of transparency will dismantle any “rumors” around how (un)consumer-centric your organization is.

Derek’s Lyrics:

I know I always make you wait around

I know the way my promises must sound

And even though you've heard it all before

VJ’s comment:

Ouch!!! – This graphic should really be considered as social brain food, and be a part of very dealership’s digital marketing daily diet. The research also states, and I quote: “Every complaint which is left unanswered, and every minute it sits on the page, threatens the future business of the 9 out of the 10 page visitors who proclaim themselves less likely to offer their business to companies who don’t take social customer service seriously.”

- Not to be too repetitive – But time is the essence! Read also my latest post on this on socialmedia2day.com

Still unmoved? To make it hurt even more – and of course to match the lyrics and feelings involved in the song, the research further asked the question: “If you went on a company’s Facebook page, and saw a bunch of unanswered questions or complaints from customers, how would you react?” – the answers I reveal next will reach your pain point!

• 49.5% answered “I’d be far less likely to buy anything from that company,”because the respondents feared, “If I ever needed customer care, I’d likely be ignored as well.”
• 38.8% answered“I’d be somewhat less likely to buy anything from that company. Ignoring customers is a bad sign, but I have other considerations,” And just 11.7% said they would not care if they saw unanswered threads on Facebook.

The moral of the story? Make sure you take care with your reputation management process right away. There is really no excuse any longer to neglect social media and review sites, where our consumers have found their new playground.

In case you do not have the manpower, make sure to research which companies will offer a 360-degree solution to monitor, alert, and coach you how on how to get this beast “negative reviews” handled in a timely manner.

One of my favorite examples is a Volkswagen dealership located in the Southwest desert – now ranked #1 in consumer satisfaction for their region, thanks to their timely response susing the mentioned 360-degree reputation management solution. Keep in mind you really don’t want to end your song like our Derek is

Darlin' could you listen just once more

I've got a reputation with everyone

But I don't want one with you

Now get out there and check your status, please…

Happy Marketing...VJ

Shocking! Survey finds Ad Agencies are slow when adapting online marketing!

Today’s top story on Marketing Profs (insert link) literally hit me like a ton of bricks, and I’m guessing you’ll be just as surprised and maybe even shocked as well.  According to the latest questionnaire  from-CMO Council  addressed to Senior Level Marketing professionals, just one out of ten business marketing leaders are saying that traditional advertising companies are doing a good job in offering, evolving and servicing their clientele well in regards to online marketing and the challenges the Digital Age brings.

Taking an even closer look to the CMO Council survey; more senior marketers (48%) are on the move – from their prior hired ad agencies over to digital marketing solution and service providers, who can provide seamless integrated digital capacities like social media, mobile and interactive strategies. Further, senior marketers are concerned about agencies lagging or struggling to adapt their core competencies, showing:

• 1.) Even though agencies are acquiring digital marketing capabilities, they are not able to fully integrate their efforts (29%)
• 2.) 22% of senior marketers are of the opinion that agencies are still playing catching up to new technology
• 3.) And 22% say agencies are still struggling with their transition from their “old” business models and service offerings into “new” digital
• 4.) Just 9% are thinking ad agencies doing a good job on “Digital”

Does that mean your agency won’t show the results you are hoping for - especially on the digital front? Hopefully not, but to combat this possibility, make sure you create a “cheat-sheet” with questions you will ask your current ad agency at your next meeting. Find out if they are able to produce the results you are craving right away:

• a) Have them describe how automotive shoppers use traditional and online media today. Are they current with the latest research?
• b) How do you leverage our consumer’s interest in our Brand, Make and Model, combining the national OEM digital marketing efforts with our ambitions to steer created curiosity towards our website and brick & mortar location(s)?
• c) How fast is your turnaround when ad messages on national campaigns are changing? What does your turnkey support look like?
• d) Knowing that a consumer needs around 7 triggers/ad impressions to take (such as researching or even submitting a leads on the advertised campaign, how do you assure to have our ads “in their face” all the time?
• e) How will you remarket our efforts?How can you reinforce our advertising by driving traffic towards our campaign message?
• f) Can you provide a personalized campaign website anytime when OEM messages will change?
• g) Let them walk you through their reporting and what kind of metrics they will provide to you. We all know by now that online measurability will show you clear and actionable data and results helps you to understand the impact of your online advertising and will easily validate the return of your digital marketing investment.

It seems to be that these are tough questions – but think about it – it is your money you are spending, and you want to make sure that you leverage all the new, digital goodies which make online marketing oriented dealer(s) successful.

Every agency will tell you they are digital experts. The best way to judge their expertise is for them to walk through the details of campaigns they have run for others, and the results they have achieved. The great thing about digital is its measurability – have them show their numbers, and tell you what they can deliver for you!

The news is just getting better for mobile marketers and retailers, especially early-adopters of the mobile bandwagon-. A new IBM study confirms my earlier hypothesis on why you need to have a mobile marketing resolution for 2012 in your business planning.

Fact: The IBM study proves that potential customers use their smartphone devices to shop.

As of December 25, 2011, there’s been an almost 173% increase of sales made via a mobile device over 2010 (5.3%).  Couple this with steadily  increasing traffic to mobile sites year-to-year (almost 118% on December 25, 2011) and we have a pretty clear picture of the meteoric rise of mobile.

The lesson for dealers is clear: if you don't have a mobile website, do not participate in mobile group shopping site or have no clue what "geo-location" means, you need to get a handle on this right now. We are already into 2012 for 11 days – do you and your dealerships “think mobile” yet?

With this dramatic  increase of mobile traffic, it’s a natural assumption that time on mobile site will also increase, as well as sales. Indeed, we are seeing customers opening their wallets as a result of mobile search, especially the day after Christmas. Consider the following stats: Numbers here are showing the pattern pretty drastically evolving:

• 27.8% online sales increase for December 26th (YTD)
• 109% increase of mobile traffic compared to 2010 (16.4% for 201111.3% of all web-based sales after Christmas were generated through a mobile website (in 2010 the figures were 4.3%)

2012 will be the year of Mobile

When we believe the mobile marketing experts (and in this case we really should), in 2012 we will see even more mobile shopping apps popping up. More check-ins, more digital coupons, more mobile pay and check-out applications, more mobile devices, more deals and especially more mobile e-commerce. eMarketer’s Prediction is that  mobile commerce will reach $11.6 billion for the "Mobile Year 2012" - just slightly up from the approximately 2011 numbers of $6.7 billion (wink, wink)

Time to act now

Although the big crystal ball did fall on New York's Times Square, you have still time to get in on the 2012 mobile trend time left.

Here are my suggestions for what you should do right now.

1. You CAN’T AFFORD ANYLONGER to have not a mobile website. Not only is the mobile adaption rate of consumers going through the roof, but facts are also showing higher conversion rates for mobile sites than static websites. Keep in mind, you are actually getting the low-funnel consumer engaging with you on your mobile site – short before he will turn into a buying customer.
2. Make sure that your mobile site will have the capability to assist the consumer right then when they are ready to take a plan into action. Internal research here at ADP | Cobalt showed that these consumer in particular skewing towards “setting service appointments” – so your mobile site should have the connectivity to your DMS, allowing the customer to pick the time, the day, service menu and even which Service Adviser should help her further in real-time. One of the prime examples in the dealer world is i.e. Diver Chevrolet in Wilmington, DE. A seamless integration with all digital components and DMS resulted in tremendous success, especially in appointment set / show ratio.
3. Get familiar with the current Groupon and/or Living Social (more cities will be added in the future) or any other group buying websites in your area.
4. Find out if any of your car dealership competitors are running specials on accessories, driver gear, or the fixed ops stuff like brake services or  oil changes.
5. The same counts for offers from your local Pep Boys or Autozone stores, who may currently have tire sales and battery specials running.
6. Target not just the city where your dealership or store is located, but also the surrounding suburbs and towns. People will indeed drive a few miles even to save just a couple of bucks (Just ask Jessica, our digital ad specialist http://www.drivingsales.com/videos/friday-happy-hourbig-city-ads ).
7. Get acclimated with the Foursquare app. It will combine the need for people to get "vocal" aboutwhere they are right now and to check if the place they want to be a Mayor of in the future runs anything on specials.

Get going and start your marketing today!

A survey of social brand reception by gender, country and age

With my two posts “Why Online & Offline Marketing could be best partners in crime” and “Why should you listen to the Consumer Voice” I am concluding today with “Brands and Friends – Your Social Opportunity” the series of reflections on the TNS Digital Life Study. 

The question was: “How open are people to brands on Social Networks?”

The Findings: The big elephant in the room here – There is great acceptance and openness from consumers to brands in socially networked brands when the market in the country is considered “fast growing”. On the other hand, there is much higher brand resistance from consumers when in a developed market. For us here in the U.S., this means that the approach to connecting with potential customers needs to be carefully planned. According to the TNS study, the stakes are for damaging a brand, image, and perception are much higher in countries like the U.S. and Central Europe due to social resistance. The luckiest retailers are in Russia, where 17% of people are more open to brands than they are resistant to them.

Focus U.S.A.: People are more resistant to buy actually products they are not familiar with than they are open to learn about them online through social networks. Even so social networks are not considered the most ideal spaces for a retail business; it became clear that the growing popularity of group buying sites like Groupon, Yipit, Livingsocial and others opened up new opportunities as we can see here in the example below.

With localizing and personalizing the business’s digital footprint the retailers could be able to sell or offer a service more overtly rather than pushing too many offers in too frequent manner into their social media streams and networks. It is considered a more unapologetically approach to push these offers onto group buying sites rather than be a social spammer. Driving Traffic to the store – Yes! Creating profits – Depends!

Another interesting finding of this study was looking into gender behavior. Do Women approach brands on social networks different than men? – And? Any guesses? You have 3 more seconds to find out…Okay, here we go:

Survey question: How do you feel about finding out about a brand through a social network?

11% of women in the U.S. are more open to brands than they are resistant to them. Men on the other hand are  only 7% more open to connect via social.

Follow-up survey question: How do you feel about buying products through a social network connection?

[BUMMER ALERT!] 16% of the females are more resistant to brands than they are open to them and just 8% of the males showed more resistance to brands than openness.

VJ’s Question: Knowing now that there are indeed differences in brand acceptance and resistance between male and female – how does the research data reflects on age groups? Is there a chance for us dealerships to target in particular Boomers, Gen-X’s and Millenals (a.k.a. Gen Y’s)?  

VJ’s Answer: “Yes – and - No.”Hold on…I am not at all indecisive to provide you a clear answer. Here is why I came to this mixed conclusion.

According to the Data research of the TNS Digital Study – “Age Does NOT Matter”. [Quote]: Globally people’s openness or resistance for brands on social networks is NOT dependent on age. There is an assumption that younger people are more open, but this study shows that older age groups are as open to brands as their younger counterparts. [Quote-end]

Here are the figures I could dug out for you and indeed the fluctuation of the percentage points are minimal.

So YES, there is a chance to target your marketing messages and social network approach more towards your clientele, focusing on the more reciptive age groups discussed above.

Let’s take our future consumers here at the dealerships – The Millenials. From studies by Exact Target 2010, PEW Research and Morepace Omnibus Report we know that Millenials will “befriend” 51% of brands they like on Facebook. Keep in mind, BRANDS THEY LIKE, and not brands you think they should like! Furthermore, the study states that when Millenials are Facebook friends with an offline retailer (yes, that is you, the dealership) 26% LIKE special offers – again, please read carefully, - and I will spell it out for you “S P E C I A L offers”. Do not use social media “spam them to death” with countless oil-change coupons or car detail specials – they don’t care. Rather tease them with brand clothing and accessories, which appeals more to their brand loyalty. Hip is in! (Scion dealers, VW dealers, Hyundai – are you listening?!).

When looking at the Gen-X clientele consider communicating all the things what could make their life easier, when dealing with your dealership. No matter if you do it via social, in-store or in your marketing messages off- and online. A Nielsen study found that for this age group the convenience factor is considered huge. So when you have a 5-10 miles radius loaner car drop-off and pick-up, – communicate about it. When you want to display your monthly specials on let’s say Facebook, do so in a separate tab of your Facebook Business Page. Gen-X knows how and where to find your offers, believe me – you just need to make sure there are online, considering 80% are checking social networks on a daily basis.

Which brings me to the last group – the Baby Boomers. They are one of the fastest growing groups around social networking. They are still a little bit shy around Twitter, but Facebook plays a huge factor for them to re-connect with all school friends and colleagues. They love to see Reward Programs from businesses they follow. So similar to a frequent flyer card, why not create something similar for your fixed operations department and communicate with messages targeted to them. Loyalty is still highest priority for them and when combined with some savings during a service visit – you’ll win!

I hope you got some brain food reading throughout my “Trilogy” of this TNS Digital Life Study, and I hope you will see the word “Marketing” not any longer as a noun, but foremost as a verb…because it is!

Happy selling and do the right marketing!

As I had promised, in Part 2 of my series, I wanted to reflect on the “Consumer Voice”, based on the insights and results from the latest TNS Digital Life study. The interface they provide on their website allowed me to specifically focus on the automotive sector here in the U.S.

With Part 2 and the previously released Part 1 (Why Online and Offline Marketing could be best partners in crime), you as a dealer will be able to see more value in the findings and adapt one or more suggestions into your marketing mix – suggestions that  will improve your marketing ambitions and outcome positively, when implemented.

Unpacking the Value of the Consumer Voice

DATA POINTS; Part 2:

The question was: “What are people saying?” and “Who believes what they say?”

Statistics around Commenters: I was surprised to find out that 40% of all commenters online left comments for the purpose of helping others (even though nobody asked them to do so). Comparing this stat to the 11% of Complainants and the 11% of “Praisers”, we as dealerships should be able to be more pro-active and just ask our consumers to chime in with some praise. ((only after you’ve provided an exceptional purchase experience, of course). With Google newest algorithm change bumping events and fresh review contenthigher in the SERP’s reviews will be your friend when it comes to “beating” the competition (see also Ellen Jones’s latest article on that topic “Latest is the Greatest – Keep Your Stars Hot for an SEO Hike”.

Now please take a look at the two smaller pie charts here. Sixty one percent (61%) of all written comments are trusted when they come from a friend. Can you now see the connection between consumer voice and social media playing hand-in-hand? All these theories around “There is no ROI on social media” can be easily debunked just by taking these figures here into consideration. There is an immediate correlation between these two entities and the final answer to the question: “Where should I possibly buy a car?” or “What car brand should I try next?”

On the other hand, “only” 4 out of 10 stranger’s comments will have an impact on a consumer’s behavior; this number is not at all bad. Just think about it… 41% will somehow allow a complete stranger’s recommendation or rant about a dealer, product or service to influence their decision to go ahead with their purchase?! Crazy?

VJ’s Question: So would it make sense to have a process dialed into your dealership which will allow you to ask for more “praise” from your customers? Would it make sense to guide them to these review sites where they can leave rave reviews that will now help you rank higher in search results and also help you gain more stars on your virtual report card?  

VJ’s Answer: “Of course and YOU HAVE TO.”All these charts and figures attached to it speak a very clear language. Consumers’ want to be guided to make the right decision by finding relevant information before the purchase and validating it with the opinion of others that they trust.   .

When we started to “hunt” for positive reviews and put a Reputation Management process in place in my dealership in early 2008, we actively engaged the owner of a new car in our process. Just when she or he was ready to drive from the lot with her brand new BMW (and after having received a tremendous buying experience from negotiation to finance up to the delivery process), we shut the door of the new Beamer and said :

Us: “Ms. Miller, aren’t you excited to drive this beauty home now and show it to the neighborhood, friends and family?”

Mrs. Miller:“Yes…”

Us:“I am so glad to see you so happy and I know you are thrilled with your choice to have picked this 135i – it is so you… - I have one more little thing for you waiting at home in your email box, which I will send in the next minute…would you just do me the favor and help me to tell my General Manager how great we both did here to have you now driving the prettiest car on the block?...It is an email of mine with a link, and I call it my grade card. My boss is really in to it and I want to show him that I wanna be the student of the month – and your rave review would just put me into this spot. Do you think you can do that for me?”

What do you think the outcome was? 8 out 10 new customers came home the same day, opened my email, clicked on the link (whatever review site you want them to fill out the rave comment about you on), and we gained an average 4.8 star ratings out 5 stars possible, leaving the competition to swallow our dust.

Last word: Make sure you install your own reputation management process into your overall delivery process. Do not forget that this recipe can also work for your fixed operations. Talk about your personal “Grade Card”, because people still buy from people and you are much more likable than just a brick and mortar location. And make sure to tell your customers that the CSI survey has nothing to do with your personal Grade Card. When you have received an “A” from your customers, I predict that your CSI will show a 100% as well – and last but not least: DO IT EVERYTIME, EVERY DAY.

Part 3 and final reflection of this series will discuss the findings around Social Media interaction and how people thinking about “Brands as Friends” – until then, happy selling and do the right marketing.