There’s a plethora of articles, tips, and techniques about automotive SEO that fill blogs, webinars, and training courses. Everyone has opinions about what works best and how to help dealers rank better in search. The biggest mistake that dealers (and their vendors) often make isn’t in the SEO techniques themselves but rather in the underlying keyword principles. It doesn’t…

The Oldest of all celebrations...

A History of the New Year A move from March to January The celebration of the new year on January 1st is a relatively new phenomenon. The earliest recording of a new year celebration is believed to have been in Mesopotamia, c. 2000 B.C. and was celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox, in mid-March. A variety of other dates tied to the seasons were also used by various ancient cultures. The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians began their new…

Equal Share

What if you paid the sales people their commission by splitting a percentage of the bottom-line? They would be paid as one group  split equally on the gross profit. There would be unit bonuses paid for sales people selling more than ten units.Paying a split of the gross bottom-line would promote team work. The manager's job would be to get to as close to…

Marketing with Twitter and Facebook should be less about selling a product, and more about selling your brand. Some companies don’t understand this and that’s why they believe social media isn’t valuable, because when you only use it to showcase sales, it isn’t. Other brands have a firm grasp on…

“I sit down at the computer and think of things to post on social media.”

This is the problem. It’s the challenge that faces many dealers as they try to explore new ideas to post about on social media. They have “social media time” set aside, and…

No matter how many new marketing options come onto the scene, automotive direct mail continues to prove itself as one of the most valuable tools in any car dealer’s arsenal. Why? For its ability to drive new sales.

Direct mail is not only something that prospects can see and…

The last quarter of the year rolls around and you begin to hear some common refrains:

• "We are waiting until the first of the year"
• "Starting in January I am going to..."
• "We have to wait until spring when business picks up"
• "The first of the year I am really going to get into it."

Here's the reality for most people who make these statements: The calendar is the only thing that changes.

If you are waiting for the calendar to change…

Those of you who know me at all know I do not dabble in little projects often.  I like to spend my days breaking records, thinking big and planning attacks on the competition.  That said, it is always good to have a plan in place to follow that has been carefully crafted to do all those things.

This is my plan for 2013 and you are welcome to…

There’s a plethora of articles, tips, and techniques about automotive SEO that fill blogs, webinars, and training courses. Everyone has opinions about what works best and how to help dealers rank better in search. The biggest mistake that dealers (and their vendors) often make isn’t in the SEO techniques themselves but rather in the underlying keyword principles. It doesn’t…

Car dealers have been perfecting the best strategies to implement paid search campaigns.   It is common for dealers to ask me how much of their budget should be allocated to Google Adwords, Automotive SEO, Cars.com, or Autotrader.com.

In…

Annnnd we’re back! I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas, a happy Chanukah, and/or a pleasant other seasonal holiday. Now that we’re all back to work, I figured we could ease into things by thinking about the future, namely 2013. It’s only a week away, and this is the perfect time to take a look at your strategies for SEO, …

There are many mistakes made by dealers on Facebook. We detail the most egregious ones here from time to time in an attempt to help others not make the same mistakes. There's one mistake in particular that is almost unforgivable for the simple reason that it's so darn easy while being pretty darn effective. Dealerships are so…

Exploring the benefits to car dealers from partnerships between website suppliers and Google...

Every salesperson is really in two businesses: the people business and the marketing business. If you are great with people but don’t have any customers to demonstrate this quality to, you’re in trouble. Marketing must become the No. 1 function of any business, including sales. Marketing precedes sales.

Begin to think in terms of leads, not sales. You need marketing that will generate leads. Most salespeople think only in terms of advertising. Salespeople either wait…

It was one of the most used made-up words of 2012 (and in many cases, one of the most annoying). Just about every marketer in and out of the automotive industry used some variation of "SoLoMo" (Social/Local/Mobile) in a blog post, video, presentation, or declaration of things to come. The underlying concept - that many people and the sites they visit are…

We human beings talk to ourselves all day long. This is also known as "thinking." We keep up a running commentary about a multitude of things each day.



If your self-talk tends to minimize or lower your self-confidence, right now you can choose to use better, higher, and wiser self-talk.



Just being aware of what you are telling yourself about your self-confidence can be very beneficial. If you already say things that are positive and helpful, choose to keep the same pattern.…

There are plenty of ways to use mobile devices to promote a business. The merging of social, local, and mobile into the SoLoMo buzzword of 2012 is starting to became a reality for 2013. With YouTube's latest app for iPhone and iPod Touch, the video giant has given a powerful tool to businesses who rely on showing people their wares before they make the…

Let's face it, Facebook advertising has been a bit of an enigma for Automotive Dealers and it has come with a lot of trial and error.

Most dealerships offer some sort of contest or offer for people who 'Like' their page but are we really getting any sales conversion from this?

I hear a few folks that swear they've sold cars because of their Facebook following, and to them I say congratulations! But I wonder how much time was invested, and if the return was really worth…

As 2012 is coming to a close I have been browsing through a ton of 2012 blog posts from industry experts and I have to say...in true Scrooge fashion...'bah humbug!

All year long so many people have been complicating the sales process for dealers. Some...(many) have been hawking technology products that are supposed to be the latest and greatest this or that but really they are just neat looking tools that add a step to the sales process.

I've seen a million and…

We simply sell again. The internet will not sell for us. If we let the internet market do our selling we will continue to drive the margin down until there isn’t any profit left. We will build value in your dealership, your product and your sales staff then discuss price.

 The internet customer is currently free to browse as they please, shopping price after price. NO ONE is selling to this market! Imagine a customer phones in and asked for price and your new salesman…