Whether or not particular individual services succeed, the following trends are likely to stick around in the near-term future. Some may not be immediately relevant to your company or industry, but being aware of oncoming movements in the social media landscape can help keep you and your business out ahead of the curve when a new trend holds promise for your organization’s growth.”

1. Location, Location, Location
2. Group Buying
3. Mobile Ads
4. Mobile Payments
5. Having a Social Media Policy

Source: Mashable

Let us breakthrough the social media barriers at your dealership give us a call at 877.334.9638 or email us at sales@dealerimpact.com.

Don’t forget to follow us on:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dealerimpact

Twitter: @dealerimpact

]]> http://dealerimpact.com/blog/2010/07/17/5-social-media-trends-to-watch-right-now/feed/ 0 http://dealerimpact.com/blog/2009/06/29/post-vehicle-inventory-out-to-craigslist-get-more-links-back-to-your-site/ http://dealerimpact.com/blog/2009/06/29/post-vehicle-inventory-out-to-craigslist-get-more-links-back-to-your-site/#comments Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:18:46 +0000 blog@dealerimpact.com http://www.dealerimpact.com/blog/2009/06/29/post-vehicle-inventory-out-to-craigslist-get-more-links-back-to-your-site/ Need more exposure for your inventory? Want more links pointing back to your site? Instead of just having one landing page (your website) why not have 10′s if not 100′s of landing pages? Social networking is making all of this possible and if you’re not participating then you’re falling behind.

In a recent blog post, we discussed the idea of putting your inventory videos out on YouTube. These videos each have their own URL with keywords which all link back to your dealer website. Along the same lines, Craigslist is another option for you to penetrate specific geographic markets. YouTube is an international sensation (as is Craigslist) but with Craigslist there are metropolitan networks where you can post an ad. Customers then search these listings by city/region to find local deals.

Dealer Impact has programmed the functionality to automatically generate a nicely formatted HTML ad with your vehicle’s information automatically populated into it – full of pictures, information, and links back to your site. Just like with YouTube, search engires are able to index each and every one of these pages for keywords. Even if a customer isn’t searching specifically on the Craigslist site, they could still find your ad by searching a specific enough phrase on a search engine such as Google.

For a sample Craigslist ad, visit: http://www.di-web2.net/craigslist/sample.html

From a marketing standpoint, notice how the branding of the dealer website is retained through to the ad. If you’re familiar with Craigslist, most ads you see have a plain white background, typically a lump of text that is hard to read, and some ads don’t even contain photos. With the thousands and thousands of ads posted on Craigslist, you only have those initial few seconds to grab their attention and get them to read on. We believe in branding your ads to your dealership, providing a professional looking landing page to convert more leads into sales.

For more information on listing your inventory on Craigslist, please call Sales at 877.334.9638

Each of these pages is specially formulated (SEO) for the search engine spiders to find and index their content, thus by creating these satellite websites out on the web we create a network of doorways for people to find you. These satellite pages can exist anywhere, even inside the Facebook network.

The Factor x10 Examples:
Satellite Pages

• Yes Team Auto Pontiac – Steubenville, OH

Facebook Fanpages

• Holmes Auto – Des Moines, IA

YouTube Channels

• Des Moines Imports – Des Moines, IA

Please contact us to find out more about the Factor of 10 and make it easier for customers to find you vs. your competition.

Brian Cox

President

Dealer Impact Systems

www.dealerimpact.com

Now for the weekly check list.  ISMs need to be completelting these items on a weekly basis and reporting to their management on their progress of each of these items.  Following this task list regularly will greatly increase your success: 

Weekly Check List

Date _______

1. __ Visit dealership website. Call toll free and other phone numbers to ensure they’re working and being answered properly.

2. __ Check AutoTrader, Cars.com, UsedCars.com, and/or other third party website photos, pricing information, and phone numbers.

3. __ Blind shop competitors selling both similar and different makes and models.

4. __ Post any upcoming Events and Specials on website. Be careful about posting any future discounts or pricing – those should be only posted once they are on, or when they are about to end to instill urgency.

5. __ Schedule broadcast email once per month, at the beginning of the third week of the month. Preferably, send on Tuesday or Thursday afternoon. Always have something for the customer first and foremost – give them a compelling reason to open your email.

6. __ Schedule automated targeted email campaigns to existing customers, including interests, specials, birthdays, etc.

7. __ Check with vendors to see if there are duplicate addresses they are sending leads to, to former employees, etc..

8. __ Test templated emails to see how they are arriving to customers.

9. __ Check your site for manufacturers compliance or non-compliances issues.

10. __ If you find any issues, send an email to your vendor (so you have it in writing), cc-ing your GM or ID, and immediately follow up with a phone call. If the issue is not resolved in 24 hours, re-send the email, and cc you GM or ID. They should take it from there.

Following these processes and checklists will help you maximize you efforts and success! Good luck.

http://drivingsales.com/blog/rafi/2008/06/03/weekly-ism-checklist/

For years, we’ve heard the excuses. At first it was, “most of my audience would rather shop on the lot,” and then it was, “Some my audience still doesn’t have internet access,” a short time later we heard, “There are still some people out there who don’t use the web to do their background research,” and even later we got this, “There’s still a group of consumers out there who refuse to use the internet, so we have to stay in the paper and on television.”

Well all of those excuses had merit at one time or another. And now, we’re here to say, that the time for all of those excuses has passed. The number of people who are both capable of purchasing a new or used automobile, and are non-internet users is so incredibly small as to be unworthy of your time and attention. And the same can be said for dial-up internet users… don’t you worry about them anymore either. The age of the late adopters has come and gone. And even those that came late to the online party have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

So what does that mean to your marketing? A few things…

• 1. No sense in segmenting your marketing into digital and non-digital formats, now. Every consumer is a digital consumer.
• 2. Assume that every customer is going to visit your web site. Count on it. It’s already happening.
• 3. Assume those customers know as much (or more) about pricing, options, financing, special offers and manufacturer’s incentives than your sales people do.
• 4. Don’t shy away from multimedia content, embrace it. Your audience is broadband.
• 5. Focus on the user experience of all your digital marketing. It’s just as, if not more, important than the experience a customer has when they visit your lot.
• 6. Don’t apologize for being digital. In fact, target your competition who isn’t up to date on technologically.
• 7. Realize that all your materials, now more than ever, need to work together.

These are just a few of the ways an all-online audience will change the way you approach identifying and reaching out to new customers. The days of the late adopter are long gone. Act accordingly.

D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC