June 17th, 2011 - 
What does Integration mean to you?
More Traffic
More Traffic, Less Spend
More Traffic, Less Spend, More Prospects
More Traffic, Less Spend, More Prospects, Greater Market Share
MORe Traffic, Less Spend, More Prospects, Greater Market Share, and a
HUGE Competitive Advantage!
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.
Here’s how Wikipedia describes integration.
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!
February 11th, 2010 -  Put Some People Behind Your Phones!
I spend a lot of time at up-your-ups sharing ideas and thoughts on driving dealership traffic.
An idea about phone calls came across my desk several months ago and now I think it’s time to share it with you.
Marketing and advertising are designed to drive dealership traffic. But the end goal is not traffic for traffic sake but traffic that makes the cash register ring.
If you want your calls to drive more traffic and profit here is something you should look into.
It’s a new tool called Tele Pulse. It’s the brain child of Dr. John from PCS Global.
In these economic times every dealership has less resources. Tele Pulse listens to the recording of calls overnight and sends a comprehensive report to you in the morning.
The key to these reports are they simply state the facts of the call. They’re not designed to evaluate the call handler. A brief description is given of each call. Based on this description the calls are grouped and identified into four area’s by Tele Pulse:
1) No Action Needed
2) Needs Follow Up
3) Elevated To Manager Action
4) Save A Deal
The call report as loaded with other useful information including who handled the call, what department etc. This is a 1o minute read for the General Manager. It truly gives you the pulse of the days activity.
I know a few dealerships on this new program and they’ve really liked it. Have your automotive ad agency check it out it’s not expensive and it really delivers results.
If you’d like your marketing and advertising dollars to pay off with adding dollars to your budgets try Tele Pulse. If your concerned with CSI this is a good place to start as well.
Let me know if you have tried this program or something like it?
December 24th, 2009 - 
Sharon Silke Carty of USA Today wrote this interesting article on Orphan customers.
If they’re not on your mind they should be. Here’s an excerpt from her article.
Auto sales are expected to rise slightly in 2010, up to around 11 million, compared with fewer than 10 million sold in 2009. But dealers are still expected to close at a faster rate than usual, because GM isn’t done closing outlets.
GM is killing the Pontiac, Saab and Saturn brands. Its Hummer brand will likely be sold to a Chinese company. That leaves Pontiac, Saab and Saturn customers needing a new place to service their cars.
If GM can’t hang on to these customers, it risks losing sales to other brands.
“GM desperately needs those sales and that market share,” says Michelle Krebs, senior analyst and editor at consumer website Edmunds.com’s AutoObserver publication.
via Car dealers want to keep buyers of dying brands – USATODAY.com.
Whether your a GM dealer or not these customers are in play. Never before have we had so many orphan customers. Get your automotive ad agency on this right away.
Here are several ideas on how you can drive some of this traffic to your dealership!
1) Plan a monthly email to Saturn and Pontiac owners. It’s an inexpensive way to stay in front of these orphans. Remember, to be in the right place at the right time you have to be there all the time. These lists can now be filter to product specific owners.
2) Offer additional trade-in value to any Saturn or Pontiac customer. A special finance package is also a good idea.
3) On your blog you need to start talking about the challenges these owners will have and what their options are. Warranty work, trade value, lease returns etc.
4) Have a special invitation sale for Pontiac and Saturn owners. Offer an oil change as an event gift.
5) Place a generic post on Craig’s list offering additional trade-in value for Pontiac’s and Saturn’s.
6) Put a special button on your web site for information on what to do if you own a brand that has gone out of business. Have it linked to a special landing page that walks through the options these owners have.
7) Get your team together and build a plan of attack. Put your stake into the ground that this opportunity is important to you.
These orphan customers are great opportunity. Let me know any ideas you are trying or have tried.
November 27th, 2009 -
Don’t just follow the herd. Twitter is evolving. Maximize it’s potential around your dealership’s new business objectives.
Twitter itself created the conditions that has allowed users to innovate. No one in the beginning envisioned that:
- People would want to follow strangers
- Celebrities would use Twitter to provide updates to fans of their activities
- Businesses would use Twitter to promote discounts, launch new products and services
- Twitter would be used in so many different ways by broadcasters, educators, politicians, doctors, lawyers, ministers and so many others you can’t keep up with them all
There are not many who use Twitter the way that we do. Other than sending personal Direct Messages, we do not send many personal Tweets to others. Our point-of-view is that most of our followers do not care about specific conversations that I’m having with others. What our Twitter followers have come to expect from us are helpful resources for dealership new business and driving dealership traffic.
For our own Twitter formula … 80 to 90 percent of our Tweets are made up of resourceful articles and posts. Our Tweets usually include just the article/post titles and URL links.
Many of these articles/posts come from my online reading using Google Reader. When I find a good post that I want to share, I click on bit.ly (a tool to shorten, share and track your links) in my browser bar, configure the information about the post and publish it to my Twitter account. If I’m finding lots of good material, I may post them through Social Oomph (Tweetlater) to be able to spread the posts over a period of time.
I also add posts from my blog. I have written a number of posts, the vast majority written as a resource for driving dealership traffic. Most of these are not time sensitive and continue to be a helpful resource for my readers. I know that because of the traffic each generates to my blog.
I have a number of reasons for re-purposing blog content in this way:
- Readers do not read my blog chronologically. People are so busy they don’t have time. I usually write and post at least once a day, Monday through Friday, but the majority of my readers are not reading my content on a daily basis.
- Even my most ardent readers will read posts through many different channels such as RSS Feed, email newsletter, SEO, Twitter and from mirroring blog post content through my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
- Even with a large number of followers, an article that I post at 11 am on a Thursday is going to be missed by 99% of my readers.
- I use post titles that are crystal clear regarding the content that will be found. This may be dull and bland for copywriters but it is much appreciated by my readership. They can find relevant material through my post titles through search and as these posts appear through Twitter.
- I provide links to similar articles that would possibly be of interest to my readers and try to spare them having to search for them on their own.
- There are often posts that I discover that I know would be of interest to my readers. So, I will “bridge-the-gap” by specifying how this post/article relates to them. Materials and tools that aren’t specific to my audience, I can make it specific to them. It then becomes a resource for ad agency new business.
If you aren’t generating traffic, it’s a sign of a lack of appeal. Metrics keeps everything on track and focused. I check my blog analytics multiple times a day along with other metrics tools from bit.ly, socialtoo and Twittergrader.
November 24th, 2009 - 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.
November 23rd, 2009 - 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.
eMarketer Daily has very helpfully published a piece on Lightspeed Research’s “Global Web Index.”
November 8th, 2009 - Birds of a feather flock together for many reasons. People buy Hondas for many reasons. The main overwhelming reason is they have the same lifestyle. Lifestyle marketing is the most under used tool dealerships have available to them. Why do you ask?
It’s simple, no one has taken the time to explain to you how today’s technology, the access to data and reduction of costs can provide you the opportunity to implement these tools.
Back in the good ole days you had only 6 broadcast television stations you could saturate the market with. You had to buy enough spots that would hit your prospects cost effectively.
Today we are attempting the same saturation but with hundreds of more choices. Yet the media continues to present media analysis from the same boring demographic position . You know what I mean, one size fits all. Your demographic of women 25-54 will match about every product being sold today. The next variable put into media selection always lands on opinion or in some cases experience.
This is usually a disaster waiting to happen and I know you have fallen into this trap!
Why has the media not taken lifestyle marketing to heart?
Well the short answer is they haven’t had to. You haven’t required them to act any different. The one size fits all demographic presentation works for any type of business so it doesn’t require any one to one data.
Lifestyle marketing begins and ends with the people who have bought from you. They are giving you some incredible data to work with. You have in your data base the perfect picture of the people most likely to do business with you.
Their profile can be matched household by household to provide you with an audience of clones. If you want to drive more dealership traffic then simply invite people more likely to do business with you.
The ROI for demographic buying is just not there.
Given a choice to drive more dealership traffic without spending more money is a no brainer. Lifestyle media buying can be implemented quickly. Why wait? Your burning dollars if you don’t!
November 6th, 2009 - In Market Buyer: Someone who raised their hand and stated they are in the market to buy a car today.
If you could get a list of these people emailed to you each day would that be a pipe dream? Think again! I have recently discovered CF Carnet a company that has access to the names and addresses of people who have had their credit score pulled at a dealership.
When we talk about dealership traffic is there any better traffic than a hand raiser?
They supply you with a custom direct mail piece and each day you down load the mailing labels and send out a mailer to each hand raiser. When they receive the mailer they have the choice to call the toll free number which connects with a call center and get pre-approved. They can also choose to call you direct or come in directly to your store.
List Filtering:
You have the power to filter these leads as you see fit. For example, you can dictate the range of credit scores.
Select credit scores of 625 and less or choose credit scores between 725 and 650. You have the freedom to pick the scores that fit your dealership.
You’ll also want to define the geographic territory you want to influence. You can do this by mileage, radius or zip code. This program really allows you to tailor a strategy that works uniquely for your dealership.
I suggest you have your automotive ad agency take a look at this. If you have tried this before let me know your thoughts?
November 3rd, 2009 - Free posting sites, led by Craigslist, have 3 times the traffic that ”pay for” sites have.
Yes, you heard me right three times the traffic of paid sites. And yes they’re free for dealers to use. I think it is important to note we are talking about active car shoppers interested in a used car. These are in market shoppers taking the time to go on the internet and shop. How can you pass this growing market … You Can’t!
So why are dealers not taking advantage of this great opportunity for additional dealership traffic? Automotive dealers are quickly realizing posting on these sites is not as easy as it sounds.
Automotive Dealerships today simply do not have the resources to maintain this daily routine that is needed to execute and generate more dealership traffic.
Fortunately there are sources out there that can help and I have found one I would like to share with you.
SurePost is one these companies. SurePost will post your vehicles right from your DMS. You don’t have to do a thing to generate more dealership traffic. Sure Post will complete a branded page for you so that all your cars are branded with your logo and colors.
They will post cars everyday on over 16 sites. This is important because you want as many cars at the top of the posting as possible. In many markets they eliminate the posting every 7 days.
I am aware of one dealer who over the last few months has doubled his used car dealership traffic and sales compared to a year ago. It is more impressive to note that SurePost was the only used car advertising dollars he spent. Plus, his 70 cars posts’ were getting over 700 unique views every day. Think about the impressions! His total advertising costs were under $500.
SurePost also provides unique analytics on the cars you have posted. You’ll be able to see which cars are generating the most views. This kind of information can go a long way when it comes to buying inventory. It will also provide for some real information on pricing.
Take a look at this you’ll be glad you did!
October 24th, 2009 - The basics to driving traffic to a dealership have never really changed. The tools may be more dynamic or more complicated but understanding the basics will make your job easier.
DO YOU HAVE DESIRABLE INVENTORY?
It may sound simple but you must stock your best-selling units in the best-selling colors. You’re going to get a lot of pressure from the manufacturers to carry other models, but don’t focus as much effort on them. The simple fact is desirable inventory in a mixture of popular colors will always create and drive traffic to your dealership. I am seeing this in used car inventory more than ever. Look for opportunities like Sure Post that provide valuable analytics to the used cars people are shopping for on line.
DO YOU HAVE A MOTIVATED AND INFORMED SALES FORCE?
Your sales force is the link between your customer and the dealership. Be sure you keep them informed.
1. Inform them about every ad campaign and get them motivated.
2. Develop a prospecting program that gives them a purpose and incentive. There are some neat programs out there like Dealership Advantage that give sales people some great prospecting tools.
3. Train them on how to use your ad campaign as a closing tool. If there is logic in your campaign and a real reason to buy, your staff should know it.
DO YOU HAVE A SOLID RETAIL MESSAGE?
Focus your advertising on getting Conquest Sales.
1. Communicate one clear message.
2. Relate the value to the targeted buyer.
3. Create urgency, not distress.
4. Ask for the order
BE SURE TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE EVERY CAMPAIGN- DO I HAVE THE INVENTORY, DO I HAVE MY STAFF READY AND IS MY MESSAGE BUILT TO DRIVE TRAFFIC.
|
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
|
