The results are in. Integration of traditional, digital and social media is the perfect storm. Yes, the market will always be fluid but when you harness the power of integration you really have something.
Integration requires you to look at things differently. You must stop evaluating traditional, digital and social media as independent silo’s. They can no longer be single tools. They must interact! They must be connected.
The power of integration is simple. You stay connected with your prospect and customer through the buying cycle. Your marketing is more viral, more interactive, more responsive and more effective.
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, avenues, functions and sources within a …..
You Get The Picture!
Here’s your starter rules to get started.
Stop treating each media channel as a stand alone tool.
Ask your self how can I integrate this.
Live by the motto… I Integrate Everything!
Believe me there’s a way to integrate everything. All you have to do is ask the question!
Ask your automotive ad agency or search google for more help. But what ever you do start integrating today!
Can you describe your dealerships unique selling proposition in seven words or less?
Let’s take it one step further …
Can you describe your dealership in seven words “without” using the 10 things most car dealerships say about themselves? I like to call these the industries common point of view.
Ten things dealership are most likely to say about themselves that everyone else is saying: • We offer great service
• We have great prices
• We have great selection
• We care about our customers
• Nobody beats our deals
• We can get everyone approved
• We do what it takes
• We’ve been in business ____ years!
• We offer more for your trade
• We’re Number 1
If you are up for the challenge, share your description in seven words or less in the comment section below.
Be sure to identify your dealership, include your address if you like.
Be creative! Challenge your automotive advertising agency to come up with a brand new one if you need to.
I’d like to highlight these in a future post and have readers vote on the best.
Here are the first three entries! • One Price Honda’s. Fast Fun Friendly
• Our Cars Are Cheaper In the Country
•A High Five Experience You Count On
Thanks for participating! Just type yours in the comment box below.
If you’re like me you’re always seeking out great ideas you think can drive dealership traffic. There are so many ideas that sound bullet proof. A sure fire silver bullet. But as the investigation moves forward the warts begin to show. The obstacles can be price, time, energy, resources or it just turns out to be a bad idea.
The best ideas; however, are the ones that give you a competitive advantage. An advantage that is difficult for your competition’s automotive ad agency to duplicate.
When I find one of these I call it a Blue Ocean idea. A Blue Ocean idea represents an idea where the seas are clear and uncluttered. Unlike a RED OCEAN that is just a blood bath of competition.
Social Media may be the biggest Blue Ocean Strategy you’ll see come along for a long time. Why?
It’s really simple.
Automotive Dealerships don’t have the resources to execute social media correctly
Automotive Ad Agencies don’t have the expertise to execute social media properly
Very few Automotive Ad Agencies or Dealers have the vision for social media
The graph below is a great visual of the Blue Ocean you can create with Social Media. The higher the number the higher degree of competence.
You have to get into this game and get into it the right way. The great news is you don’t have to have the vision, expertise or the resources. You just need to find someone that does. Unfortunately, virtually every dealer attempting to execute social media today is missing the boat. Their vision is a little short sited.
Social Media should be keeping you up at night with excitement. The tools available to fully integrate a plan are at your finger tips. The key is you must be willing to learn or find someone who will learn for you. Just don’t wait for it to become a Red Ocean before you set your sails.
First: Dealerships Need to Answer One Question Before They Blog
I believe dealerships need an integrated social media strategy for dealership new business. A dealership blog is the central platform. The places you can drive targeted online traffic is through SEO, Twitter, email newsletters, Facebook and LinkedIn. The blog becomes the “gateway” to your dealership.
To create a dealership blog that will be successful in generating traffic and a consistent flow of leads, you will first need to answer one simple question.
The very first question you must answer before you create your dealership’s blog is, “who is our best target audience?”
Without answering this question you will find it extremely difficult to generate traffic. If your blog has no traffic, no audience, no community … then you will have NO leads.
If you don’t know who your target audience is you will also find it difficult:
Deciding what to write about
Where to find resources
What search terms to use for SEO
Where to locate your online audience
It is a fruitless exercise without having a target audience identified. I can provide dozens and dozens of examples of blogs that have not identified their target audience. They are like ships without rudders. Aimless. I would list some of these for you but I don’t want to embarrass anyone.
But I will provide some examples of blogs where companies have clearly identified their audience:
Let me know what you think of these.
Autonation (From battery life, tire wear and tear, community involvement and hybrid vehicles. Building relationships with past and present and future clients by sharing vital information.)
Blue Collar Branding (From boots, bowling balls to boats. Manufacturers who need to reach blue collar workers.)
She-conomy (Male advertisers who should be marketing to women.)
In order to succeed in automotive advertising we have to recognize that we all have to change to succeed. In this world of communication on steroids we have to embrace it and engage it. We all have to learn and study everyday.
There’s a saying that hits this nail on the head. Learners will be uniquely qualified for success and those that have not learned will fail faster than they have ever have before.
The question is are you going to be a constant learner or not? It’s only your future!
I have great respect for Tim Williams. He is the author of the book Take a Stand for Your Brand, an important read for every small-to mid-size agency CEO. In a recent Advertising Age article he writes,
“… we’re at the nexus of the Great Recession and the Great Transformation of Marketing. In circumstances like these, a strategy of “just try harder” won’t take you very far.”
Here are 10 ideas I have paraphrased from Tim’s article and applied to driving dealership traffic.
1) You can no longer just observe the changes occurring in automotive marketing, you have to engage. If you wait you’ll just fall behind the leaders even further.
2) A digital plan is just that..what you really need is digital competency, if you want to be the leader in driving dealership traffic.
3) You can no longer have the focus of your message be “one to many” you have to make it “one to one.”
4) Don’t sacrifice brand-to-consumer communications at the expense of consumer-to-consumer communications.
5) There are too many ways to track success today. You can track everything so don’t be caught with a lack of analytics and tools to measure your effectiveness.
6) Everything you do should be connected to other forms of advertising. Don’t ever let one piece stand alone.
7) Think in terms of channel plans instead of just media plans. This is a must to stretch smaller budgets into automotive dealership traffic. Change your perspective today from just placing media to creating media.
9) Don’t hold your hopes out for one big idea but think in terms of “big multi-channel ideas.”
10) You have to allocate more money to creative and creative media and not just media.
Extra Credit: Beginning 2010 you must have a plan that includes social media as a primary component to generate more dealership traffic.
If you’re trying to brand your dealership the single most important step you can take when launching is implementation of the silent salesman. This step talks to the two most important groups of people you can ever want to communicate with. These two groups are your employees and your customers.
As you make the investment into media, interactive, social and other tools you want to be sure the traffic you are driving to the dealership is getting the first impression you promised in your branding.
The most effective way to do this is with the silent salesman. You may know it by other names such as point of sale or collateral materials. They may include but are certainly not limited to mirror hangers, banners, stand up graphics, roof tops, posters, flat screen televisions, buttons and desk top flyers to name just a few.
You want your customers to be able to read and see quickly and easily the promise they were moved to investigate. It is your job to reinforce at the dealership this promise.
The second group we need to be concerned with is your employees. If you want them to walk the talk they have to know what that talk is. As we all know just having a meeting or two and expecting our message to have staying power is very foolish. This is maybe the biggest reason to invest in the silent salesman. You need to continually reinforce the dealership message to your people. If your message is in front of them on a daily basis it only makes sense to think they will retain and act upon it at a far greater success rate.
If you spend any money in driving traffic to your dealership you need to stop and invest in the silent salesman. Let the silent salesman carry your torch to your employees and to your customers. If your customers can’t see it and your people can’t repeat it you haven’t branded anything.
Say you are responsible to drive traffic to your dealership and it is your choice alone. You know customers have more access to you than ever before. So, where do you start. Do you go back to old tried and true methods? But you ask yourself how true are they any longer? Your choices now go on forever: traditional marketing, online & interactive, gaming, mobile, social media, etc.
I would suggest you start with what your customers want? If you start with the online shopper you need to ask what should you do when you connect with them?
Look no further! eMarketer Daily has very helpfully published a piece on Lightspeed Research's “Global Web Index.”
What do customers want from the brands they love? Information mostly (well, after a good discount anyway.) Ultimately, they want value. Most importantly you just need to ask yourself is my message relevant to them? If it is they probably want more of it.
Something to think about as you plan your online strategy.
You need to unlock your competitive advantages in this hyper competitive market place. The trouble is most dealers lock up their true competitive advantage in a difficult market and this is just the opposite of what you should be doing. Here are six keys for you to turn on the engine to more dealership traffic.
KEY ONE: CONQUEST SALES
Don’t stop your conquest marketing efforts. You must still invest in this process. With all the tools you have available there is no excuse to abandon conquest sales. So Today start planning how to capture sales from people who HAVE NOT yet considered shopping your dealership. Effective advertising always targets new customers.
Steal sales from the competition.
KEY TWO: THREE-FOLD DEFINITION OF ADVERTISING
1. Get the message to the masses – Target your audience.
2. Provide a valid opportunity to respond – Target your message.
3. Achieve results & sell product – Make it accountable.
YOUR ADVERTISING SHOULD SELL… NOT JUST TELL.
KEY THREE: PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE ADVERTISING MESSAGES
1. Attention Getter 3. Logical Reason
2. Strong Statement 4. Urgent Call to Action
KEY FOUR: CHARACTERISTICS OF CAMPAIGN EXECUTION
1. Planning 3. Continuity
2. Contrast 4. Believability
Plan your inventory, plan your best days. With good branding you will have continuity in all your customer touches. Be creative and contrast. Nothing expands an advertising budget like good creative. Finally people are more cynical that ever and if your message is not believable your leaving traffic at the door.
KEY FIVE: ELEMENTS OF IMPACT PRODUCTION
1. Intensity 3. Execution
2. Consistency 4. Different
If you really want effective creative make sure it has these elements. I have always found that skimping on production makes no sense. Why put the entire media budget at risk because you want to save a few hundred dollars on production.
KEY SIX: MAXIMIZE THE SALES DRIVERS
1. Desirable Inventory
2. Motivated, Informed and Professional Sales Force
3. Honest, Ethical and Effective Advertising for Results
If you can’t say yes to these three items you might consider holding off on your campaign until you can yes to all three!
Since advertising is not a science, there is no formula or equation to insure its success. But, you can measure certain elements that will help you determine your advertising’s effectiveness.
Here are the five items you should track.
1. CUSTOMERS
Track how many customers are shopping your dealership, who they are and why they came in today. In addition, track how customers are shopping. i.e. drive-by, internet, radio, TV or billboard.
2. MARKETING COST
Determine your Cost per Unit (CPU) by dividing your total advertising expenditure for the month by the number of units sold.
Total Ad Dollars Spent for Month = CPU Number of Units Sold
3. REVENUE
Determine your Average Gross by dividing your front end and back end grosses by the number of units sold.
(Front End Gross + Back End Gross) = Average Gross Number of Units Sold
4. TRANSITION
Determine your Demo Index by dividing your total number of customers by the number of demos.
Total Number of Customers = Demo Index
Number of Demos
(1 is perfect. The higher the number, the worse the performance.)
5. SALES
Determine your Sales Index by dividing total number of write-ups by the number of deliveries.
Total Number of Write-ups = Demo Index
Deliveries
(1 is perfect. The higher the number, the worse the performance.)
With these five measurements you can effectively evaluate the performance of your sales drivers and make any necessary adjustments.
Ron, Wheeler, Founder/CEO, Wheeler Advertising, Tel-Edge, and the Wright Edge Advertising.
The Integration of today's marketing channels is the single most important task you have as a retail marketer. This blog is designed to assist you in discovering ways to integrate traditional, digital and social media into a dynamic free flowing marketing program. Up Your Ups is "An Integration Think Tank" and we look forward to your interaction with us.
If you have questions or if you have suggestions on how I can improve this site, please don't hesitate to email them to me at rwheeler@wheeleradvertising.com
Change your perspective today from just placing media to creating media.
