Every day we hear about customer satisfaction. Companies do surveys to find out how satisfied their customers are with the service they received. Some even go so far as to reward employees with bonuses or prizes based on satisfied customers.

That’s just wrong. ‘Satisfied’ is the lowest level of acceptable customer service. Your business gains little from…

If you've participated in automotive internet marketing for long enough, you've very likely heard the concept that "content is King." It was in play back in the days when I started researching search engine optimization all those years ago and it never really stopped. There was a dirty little secret that few of us in the SEO community ever mentioned, but it's been…

We live in a strange world. Thanks to the internet's multifaceted infostream, time, formerly arrow-straight, has wrapped around itself like a Hot Wheels track which now, unfortunately, has sent the miniature muscle car of history careening back to the 80s.…

Are you the type of person who plans every aspect of your life, months or even years in advance? Or are you the type of person that does everything on a whim? I've always considered myself the latter in my personal life because I like the thrill of spontaneous plans. However, I take a different approach when it comes to working in automotive advertising.

In automotive marketing, it is best to plan for the future months instead of working in the current month. There are plenty of…

During the analysis and evaluation we conduct prior to starting a training program the question of ethics and standard business practices we train on usually requires some explanation. In other words, Dealer Principals and General Managers want to hear from us that we conduct our training programs ethically and professionally.

If I were to stand in a room full of Dealer Principals and ask "Who in here believes that the best way to take care of a customer is to sell extra or un-needed…

RCS

We’re all familiar the use of directories, and they can be fine for link building. But using them over and over again isn’t real company sh*t. Real marketing value comes from listening to what the target consumer is searching for and building content around those queries. Essentially, we should strive to become the go-to resource for clients in the industry. Strategies that create content which have customers coming back for more…

I currently work as the Marketing Director and Training Center Coordinator for a leading Automotive Consulting Firm but my first experience operating a business was when I was nine years old - I worked with my family owned production company. During those years ahead I started a professional career in the beauty industry. By the age of fifteen I knew what lay in store and by eighteen years of age I was managing a nail salon and later became regional “Nail Educator for Wanamaker’s Salons.” …

The excitement has been building for a little while now and we're finally here. 2013 was awesome for many of us on all three sides of the ball - dealers, vendors, and OEMs - and 2014 is trending towards being even better for many. On the other hand, the dangers popping up in many marketing disciplines are also casting some doubts on the future of a good chunk of the…

An SEO, one of the most common questions from potential clients goes something like this: “If we target keywords X, Y and Z, what kind of return can we expect on our investment? We need to know the potential ROI before we invest.”

Did you catch that? The keys to that question are the…

In the October 2013 edition of Dealer magazine, I examined a phenomenon that occurred last Christmas. Partnering with luxury shopping site Gilt.com, Starbucks offered an ultra-exclusive steel metal loyalty card for sale on their site for $450. The loyalty cards came pre-loaded with $400 in Starbucks credit…

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Beggs on the Used Car Market. I’m Ricky Beggs, Editorial Director at Black Book. We have completed the final full week of auction and market activity for 2013 as the final two weeks on the…

http://www.automotivedigitaltraining.com 856-546-2440

http://www.dealersynergy.com

Make Money Mondays with Sean V. Bradley - 'Value Package Proposition' - Automotive Sales - Car Sales

Dealerships and individual sales professionals NEED to differentiate themselves... you MUST identify what is different and better about you and your…

To paraphrase the immortal movie icon, Ferris Bueller, "The Internet moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

That seems to be the case with many digital marketing practices, particularly in the realm of advertising versus marketing. Oddly enough, it wasn't too long ago that I was preaching the reverse;…

A new online marketplace at www.WantALease.com has launched with the promise of helping car dealers connect and engage with car lease shoppers online. Dealers currently offer lease deals through a variety of platforms, but WantAlease.com is the first online marketplace to help them sell new leases to customers locally and in other parts of the U.S.



With WantALease.com, car shoppers throughout the country can…

  Mary Barra's uniqueness as the new Chief Executive Officer at General Motors is not because she is the first woman to lead the company. Barra's understanding of how stuff works at GM is dramatically different from any of the men who came before her.…

Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining discusses how sales management needs to properly work with the internet sales and BDC department. This includes understanding the functions of the department and what each person in the department does. While it is important to monitor and…

Online reputation has been a hot topic for a couple of years now. As solutions continue to emerge and the business of reputation management as a service expands, there's a dangerous trend that should be addressed.

Reputation management isn't about sending an email. It's not about filtering results by checking their sentiment first before directing them to the…