The Dealer Impact Blog

How Social Media Drives New Business: Six Case Studies

Businesses both big and small are flocking to social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Foursquare. The fact is that a presence on these platforms not only allows companies to engage in conversations with consumers, but also serves as an outlet to drive sales through deals and coupons.

And while major brands like Starbucks, Virgin, and Levi’s have been participating in the social web for some time now, the rate of adoption among small businesses is increasing too. According to a recent University of Maryland study, social media adoption by small businesses has doubled from 12% to 24% in the last year. But as these businesses look to Facebook and Twitter to connect with customers, many are finding that some strategies work and some do not produce results. We’ll be exploring these questions at a panel on Social Media and Businesses at our Social Currency CrunchUp on July 30. We’ve found some local and national businesses using social media effectively, ranging from Levi’s to a creme brulee cart, whose case studies are below.  Some of these businesses will be sharing their experiences at the CrunchUp (You can buy tickets to the CrunchUp here).

Via: Techcrunch

Check out these great case studies they are quite interesting.

Dynamic Internet Marketing

From Dealer Marketing Magazine
December 18, 2007

Unlike other forms of advertising, Internet marketing is nearly 100 percent trackable. You not only know what you are getting from your efforts, but you can evaluate and adjust to improve your results. Unfortunately, there are trends that make this space an increasingly difficult place for a dealership to succeed.
1. Internet traffic is increasing which drives up the cost of Internet marketing.
2. The number of your competitors jumping onto the Internet marketing bandwagon is growing, making it more crowded and more expensive to compete.
3. Someone is doing Internet marketing better then you, generating a better ROI that is reinvested into future Internet marketing efforts.
4. Someone is collecting better data from their Internet marketing efforts than you, and gaining more knowledge to use in the future.
Dealers can address these trends, however, by recognizing the value and power of their own customer data. A strong Internet Lead Management (ILM) tool best captures data. The real benefit comes when that ILM tool works hand in hand with a strong customer relationship management (CRM) solution, to close a significantly higher number of Internet leads.
Internet marketing is maturing. Don’t be satisfied by saying, “We have a Website.” Do not confuse having a Website with having a true Internet marketing plan. Dynamic Internet marketing built on customer data is here to stay and will only grow in importance
by Bryan Anderson

“Top Ten” signs a dealership is not serious about the Internet

10. They have AOL or Hotmail email address.
9. They still have the Field of Dreams mentality (Build it and they will come)
8. The Internet Manager spends more time integrating that new flying airplane on the site than making sure leads get followed up.
7. They switch website providers every year trying to find a site that will sell cars for them.
6. The Internet Department thinks they can take the same number of smoke breaks as everyone else in the dealership.
5. Policies, Procedures, and Accountability don’t pertain to the Internet Department.
4. The newspaper is their primary advertising medium, where the average reader is 55 and the new generation doesn’t even pick it up.
3. They use Cobalt or Reynolds as their primary web solution because they were told to (can you say brainwash).
2. The GM/Owner doesn’t use the Internet so why would anyone else.
1. The dealership has handed over a multi-million dollar profit center to Internet Guru they wouldn’t trust to baby sit their 8 year old daughter.

Brian Cox
President, Dealer Impact Systems
www.dealerimpact.com

Websites Can’t Create Leads

Your website has never created a single lead. There, I said it. Long lauded as the be all, end all of internet marketing, the website will always remain a limited, albeit powerful tool. Why is that, you ask? Well it’s because your website will always be a reactive marketing tool.

Your website sits out there in cyberspace, all shiny and glowing, whirring with multimedia and powerful data support. But until a consumer comes along, it’s worthless because it can’t go out and find leads. The best your website can hope for is to upgrade leads (turning a warm lead into a hot lead) and capture leads. You still need other tools (search marketing, email marketing, mass advertising, etc.) to drive leads to your site.

So, is your website important? Yes, it can be the most powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. But it can’t function in a vacuum — it’s the most important piece of a complete, integrated digital marketing presence.

D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC

The Future Is Clear For Some Dealerships Where Most Are Still in a Fog

Many dealerships are gearing up their efforts to build their email database, knowing this will be their primary means of communication with their customers now and in the future. As newspaper advertising continues to decline the prevalence of Internet Marketing will increase and the dealership with the largest email database is king. In fact those dealerships that make the greatest strides now will potentially set themselves so far ahead, other dealerships may not catch up.

That is a free and unlimited advertising conduit to send out sales announcements, rebates, incentives, videos, product information, and who knows what the future of multi-media will entail.

Hind sight is 20/20 they say, but I sure would not want to be looking back, saying “I wish I would have …”

Brian Cox
President
Dealer Impact Systems