As women become the fastest growing car-buying segment, influencing 80 percent of the car-buying decisions in the U.S., it is imperative for auto dealers to focus their sales strategies towards securing more female customers.

Unfortunately, at times, women have been underserved and do not have fond memories of their last experience. So it all lies on the shoulders of the dealership to ensure that female buyers have the "ultimate car buying experience" when they walk into your…

Most of us know the value of online content, and so many who are not trained writers or editors are straying into the area of blog posting and sharing of others' Web content. Much of it is informational and shared by industry experts, which helps us all.

Some, however, are doing so in a way that violates others' rights and might even land them in court. A professional writer / author / blogger friend of mine was recently the victim of this, with his work not only reprinted without…

First, a mini-rant. It will make sense why I'm starting with a rant before getting to the meat of the issue.

I was on the phone with a social client and their prospective search marketing provider the other day when I was blindsided by ignorance. It wasn't what I expected from a company that came highly recommended for their search prowess, so I called later…

Two years ago while looking for a new digital marketing home I penned this blog post based on my observations visiting prospective employers.  Though I am happily nestled in a progressive and healthy wonderland right now, I find the points that I raise still very relevant in today's automotive digital marketing world:

Any good salesperson knows that the last way you want to greet a customer is with the words,…

See what Scott Sparks has to say about the Zeck Ford Service Department!

Their President's Award Winning Service  Department is second to none ! They deliver Award Winning Service through a combination of a Professional Well Trained Staff. A Clean Modern Facility, State of the art Equipment , and Computerized Invoicing, Record Keeping and Information Systems. Zeck Ford provides friendly…

This article was written by Steve Hall. 

Follow this Recipe for Better Results

Summer in Kansas City is the time to smoke, grill and barbecue. The other day I was putting together my special rib sauce and it occurred to me that cooking is a lot like managing. Cooking when you have a great recipe is a lot easier –­ and the results are consistently better ­if you’re…

When it comes to negotiating with a car dealer, what’s the comfort level of men and women? Swapalease.com, the nation’s largest online car lease marketplace, was interested to take the pulse of car shoppers around the country. According to their findings, women are now warming up to the negotiation process. Click here to see the complete findings.



An online survey was presented to more than 1,000 drivers…

One of the many byproducts of training in so many dealerships is that you get to observe all the different ways people do things. Like how they answer the phone or talk to a customer in the service drive.

Over the years, I’ve made it a point to take note of some of the ways Advisors and Managers blow their customer up in the service drive and I thought I would share with you my observations and my Top 5.…

You could have the most talented team on paper, but how can you know they're the right fit? Many businesses struggle with this issue when hiring new team members and promoting current employees. …

Imagine yourself entering a business where everyone seems to be hurrying around and you are greeted with, "Someone will be with you in a second" as…

Is this a reasonable concern with dealers?

Targeted re-marketing to existing DMS contacts is a issue most dealers leave to routine, email and letters generated daily from dealership level.

Is the ROI measured? 

Can the dealer do a better job?

LIVE MARKETING is a new automotive forefront player in the data space, concerning DMS data mining. The company has been in development of a brilliant strategy to use multi-channel media -- and -- to roadmap the process of re…

The bad part about search engine optimization in the automotive industry is that there are so many companies that report on what they do for SEO rather than what they're accomplishing with their efforts. We've seen this hundreds of times when bringing on new clients and it's time to set the record straight.

It isn't hard to track the key performance metrics…

Website chat is viewed by many dealers to be an alternative method of communication, as it should be. There are some who view it as a lead generation tool and they can look at numbers to show that they're getting more leads, but to truly test their results that must take a closer look.



Properly positioned and managed chat on dealer websites can definitely be…

The expanding role internet plays in marketing has made online marketers to evolve useful strategies for marketing their products and services online. Contents play vital roles in creating information about any product or services for internet users. Video marketing helps create powerful contents about any product and…

ATTENTION CARS.COM CUSTOMERS: If you received an email asking you to update your account credentials it has all the marks of a "phishing" scam. (For you neophytes that is when a fake site is published that looks real but is only there to steal your logins and passwords.) I would avoid logging into any Cars.com dealer portal sites without checking with support first. It will ultimately be less of a headache than having your dealer account temporarily compromised.

This article was written by Steve Hall of the NCM Institute Center for Automotive Retail Excellence. 

Is it a Knowing Issue or a Doing Issue that is holding you back?

Have you ever thought about what keeps you from becoming the best you can be? Hopefully, not only have you thought about this in the past, but you think about it on a regular basis. Though this thought…

AutoTrader releases groundbreaking statistics on the future of the automotive shopping experience.

Millennials have the pedal to the mobile metal and are shaking up the automotive…

In its 2014 Automotive Buyer Influence Study, AutoTrader.com researchers determined that social media has little impact on auto sales, and traditional media as a shopper resource is heading continually downhill. In fact, only 7 percent of millennials turn to print newspapers to look for vehicles. And, after many have said that millennials aren't interested in buying vehicles, this study says that mobile-addicted millennials are the shoppers spurring the most change in the vehicle…

Study of 307 dealerships nationwide shows that for every 1,000 app users, a dealership receives, on average, $144,000 in incremental service revenue

Daytona Beach, FL – August 19, 2014 –DMEautomotive (DMEa) today released new research proving that mobile app users become more frequent visitors to a dealership’s service department after they download the app. The study looked at 307 dealerships nationwide that offer a…