It's not often that Google announces when they are going to make changes to their algorithm in advance, but they did just that on Tuesday.

The latest update under the Panda name went into effect Tuesday night, Panda 3.9.  Panda was originally released in February 2011 as a way to remove low-quality content from Google's search results.

Google…

This summer has been a series of ups and downs for the hockey fan in me. On July 4th, I got to see my hometown Minnesota Wild pick up the 2 best free agents on the market, along with a few solid core players. In the weeks that have passed, I’ve gone from figuring out where the championship parade would begin, to accepting that the NHL may be cancelled this year.

That’s classic Minnesota sports luck for you: Fans get hopeful and excited about a great team, then something gums up the…

Those words were actually said to me but I'll get to that in a little bit. 

Well the dog days of summer are upon us. The showrooms are filled to capacity and your next available service appointment is in two weeks! Every marketing piece you've done has been a home run. Your biggest problem is where to park all these customer cars and all the managers can think of is how sweet their commissions are going to be. Some are even thinking that, at this rate, I can retire in a couple of…

OK – you don’t TRY to prevent preventive maintenance, but occasionally you may get in the way.  An illustrative story first: on July 3 someone poked their head in the door of our management meeting and told me my wife called and said that the mountain behind our house was on fire.  That was about 3 o’clock.  I was home 20 minutes later.  The fire had started around 2:15 at a…

The 2012 Canadian Digital Dealer Conference is coming, and the event is shaping up to be the educational event of the fall! Keynote speakers include Tim Wilson, a Google marketing guru, Rod Black, CTV and TSN sportscaster, and ActivEngage CEO Todd Smith!

Todd will be giving a keynote address at the second annual CDDC entitled Inbound…

Google’s online ventures are usually anything but under the radar. Yet recently, in what may be a game-changing play, the search engine giant quietly entered the third-party lead provider business for car dealerships.

The beta version of Google Comparison Ads for Autos (which is unofficially being referred to as “Google Cars” within the industry) was launched to very little fanfare a few weeks ago in the San…

SEO is a like a clock, always shifting, and kept true by machinery fathomless to the general population. Even people who make a living learning these intricate machinations are, at best, constantly battling to stay relevant. The hidden algorithms utilized by search engines like Google keep us on our toes, demanding constant vigilance and supreme dedication to the craft.…

Check out this latest blog by Yasmine Syed of Potratz, as she talks all about the variations of technology users.

Information and communication technology users are as diverse as the range of technology available today. The Pew Research Center’s “Internet & American Life Project” divides technology users into two core groups: “Motivated by Mobility” and…

Newsletter July 2012

Without question every dealership wants to improve customer satisfaction and retention. With fixed operations gross profits more critical than ever we must look at ways to insure results. Simple as it seems it all comes down to the process.

Don’t Ask Don’t Sell

This might make you think of a military program no longer in use but let’s place some attention on way this is a solid truth in today’s dealership…

The 3 Most Common Mistakes Salespeople Make That Cost The Dealership Money!

The good news: They are all Preventable! Read below for the latest in how you can prevent Lost Sales!

#1-NO INTERVIEW!

An interview is the most important part of any sales…

Recently, Chrysler announced that they reached their goal of having 80% of their stores opened on Saturday. In the pre-Fiat days, the number was closer to 60%! How exciting! What are the other 20% of their stores doing being closed? How can you NOT open your service department at all on Saturday? Even if they are there to support the sales department, they need to be open. Unless of course you have a CBA saying you must be closed which, in that case, the person who negotiated the contract,…

Following is the latest used-car weekly report from Ricky Beggs of Black Book USA. This data is for the week ending July 21, 2012.

Even though the overall market continues to move down at increasing dollar and percentage levels, the number of adjustments at 1,941 per day throughout the week was the 3^rd lowest amount over the past 11 weeks. The average price…

Becoming involved in your community, church or civic organization will bring rewards far beyond a pay check or a few more car sales.  Those that engage in these organizations for the betterment of their communities will receive great satisfaction for their efforts.

At a local services center, our car club was using money that we had raised to tile and carpet…

My $20,000 showroom Kiosk doesn’t ask the question

In order to promote products and services in the dealerships many dealers invest heavily in elaborate displays like a kiosk.  Those things often look very cool, but as a stand-alone display it lacks the valuable influence of a trained sales person.

Here’s the…

“Point the Thumb and Not the Finger”

What does all this mean?

Pointing the thumb and not the finger means to accept responsibility for your actions.  It's so easy to blame someone else or other circumstances for your failures or lack of results.  Take ownership of your own future; write your own book of business!  Become that entrepreneur and build your…

Participating dealers can now use iMR matching funds for customer journey service marketing programs; Service CSI and notification programs eligible for iMR Parts dollars

Daytona Beach, FL – July 25, 2012 – DMEautomotive (DMEa), the industry leader in science-based, results-driven automotive marketing, today announced that five of its leading sales and service…

Google announced a few months ago that they were going to start penalizing websites that were deemed to be over-optimized for SEO as an attempt to "level the playing field".  While many auto dealer websites shouldn't have an issue with this (your site provider should not only be up to date on Google's latest algorithm changes, but make sure your site is performing as well as possible), here are some things to avoid so you don’t…

We've all been asking that age old question when it comes to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, “Is it worth it?”

It seems like that is the case! In fact, for some types of keywords, PPC ads apparently have higher click-through rates than organic search results, according to a recent study by …

As marketers, we need to allow ourselves to be both leaders and followers. It’s important to innovate and move forward, if you’re always playing catch-up, how can you get ahead? At the same time, we can’t disregard something just because it’s been done before; necessity demands that we embrace the successful to survive. The trick is finding a healthy balance with your digital marketing, implementing one proven…

To many times the same person talks 90 % of the time . Sales reps say the meetings are to long , little training or good info , more of a bitch session , and they are negative . 

Meetings should be short and sweet . Twenty to thirty minutes most of the time . Have a planned training for the whole month that has others doing some of the training . The person doing the training should ask questions and answer questions .

 Make fun a planned part of the training . Single out the…