2 posts tagged “internet marketing strategy”
The thing that is on most dealers' minds is how they can generate more business which, for the most part equates to how they can generate more leads. More people in the showroom, more web inquiries. The Internet has really bred a mentality today that auto sales is all about lead generation. Naturally, we began devising ways for blogs to generate leads.
What we had come up with was the idea of using blog entries to display multi-media rich virtual showcases of cars in stock, but this was met with technical challenges at the RSS level which we need not get in to here. Plus, as we began to realize that using blogs to showcase vehicles and generate leads was just another way to skin the same old stray cat, we started shifting our focus towards a whole other form of marketing...online brand marketing.
Search engine brand marketing is an entirely different thought process for car dealers, but dealers have been doing offline brand marketing for decades through radio, T.V. and print advertising. If there is one thing that seems to lack in online advertising for car dealers, it is the idea of brand marketing. Considering that search engines are the ultimate playing field for online brand marketing and that blogs are equipped to provide superlative SEO, what better way is there for dealers to use blogs today?
The hidden gem for using blogs for search engine brand marketing is that the product can be made completely hands-free for car dealers. Unlike many other forms of online advertising where the dealer is required to prepare vehicles for online display, prepare them for offline display, work with ad agencies to prepare promotions for print and web, deal with software and their providers, yada yada yada, dealers aren't required to lift a finger in order to benefit from this form of blog marketing. A marketing agency with the right tools in place can produce lasting and impacting results for their dealers by saturating search markets and improving overall online visibility, including social media marketing.
Last week Dealer Impact posted an entry to its blog titled, "Top Ten signs a dealership is not serious about the Internet". The list includes some legitimate points that I see every day when talking with dealers, but suggesting a dealer is or is not "serious" about the Internet creates the wrong perspective here.
Most dealers today understand they need to take the Internet seriously and most attempt to do so. The problem is that they do not always understand how and so many of the activities suggested in this list that dealers do occur because the providers they are counting on just aren't there for them.
When dealers go with a website marketing company, do you think they are purchasing a software solution or expert consultation from the provider on a regular basis? Probably a little bit of both of course but unfortunately most website marketing companies today are selling a software solution expecting the dealers to manage on their own and then contact the provider for assistance when necessary.
The problem with this formula is that dealers go in to a relationship with the provider with one set of expectations while the provider has another. A few months go by and the dialog between dealer and provider diminishes into daily oblivion and next thing you know the dealer is out on the prowl seeking another website provider in hopes to "get it right" this time. So who is to blame for dealers wanting to jump ship so frequently with website providers, the dealer or the provider?
Moving on, since most General Managers and Dealer Principals are not Internet "gurus", naturally they rely on those who are in order to help deliver success for the dealership on the Internet. While the GM would not likely have this person babysit their 8-year-old daughter as DI suggests, this should not discount the fact that this person can actually help the dealership succeed on the Internet. Flip it around. Should the Internet guru tell the dealer, sorry, I am not interested in baby sitting your 8-year-old daughter and therefore am not interested in helping your dealership on the Internet. As you can see, using this criteria as an analogy has little credence.
Getting serious on the Internet is about incorporating the web assets and the Internet marketing tools you have into your marketing strategy all together. Treating the Internet as a separate entity, which is all too common among dealers, is bad execution. Creating PDF versions of you print ads and making them available on your website is not true implementation of your marketing efforts on the Web.
Marketing strategies should be defined by the dealers without regard to medium and then the dealers should consult with their Internet guru on how to best incorporate the Internet into the defined strategy.
