How do your customers engage with your website? How do you get them on the path to conversion? It's much more than just page views and time-on-site.

If you plan on getting the most out of your website, this week's ‪Hard Facts is for you. Samantha will teach you how…

In an effort to gain exposure and effectively reach Facebook fans, one of the obstacles dealerships face in social media marketing is the continuous battle against Facebook’s algorithm. Facebook rolled out its ad platform attempting to monetize its platform and satisfy shareholders. As a result, businesses experienced an extreme decline in reach and were forced to either pay…

If you haven’t heard, it’s getting harder for businesses to reach their audiences on Facebook unless they’re willing to spend some money. Estimates are that the average reach for a company post on its Facebook page is around 2-6 percent organically. There are only two ways to increase that. First, by paying for Facebook ads. And secondly, through interaction…

News for the Week of November 30

Snapchat Story Explorer 

Snapchat introduced Story Explorer, a unique way for users to share experiences through the eyes of the community.  With Story Explorer’s technology, after viewing a Snap, users can see more of the story simply by…

Smartphones and Tablets and Laptops, Oh My!

A Virtual Experience

A car shopping journey isn’t simple anymore, and consumers are using more devices and types of technology than ever to make their purchases. That means dealerships are striving to create the best cross-channel experiences for their consumers.

For consumers on car-buying journeys, devices and…

How Well Do You Know Your Consumers? 

Do you know their likes, dislikes, what content they’re most likely to engage with? If you don’t, you should. Knowing your consumers is the first step toward turning them into customers who will return time and again to your dealership. Whether you know it or not, consumers have been talking, and there are some things they’d…

In our industry, one universal sales practice is to tailor your techniques to the wants and needs of the customer in front of you. If you have a young male drooling over that sports car, you’ll probably be talking about performance specs, 0-60 times and horsepower. If you have a young family, you’re probably going to be reviewing all of the safety features of…

In B2B marketing, there’s no scarcity of brand messages from vendors to dealers. Increasingly, those messages now tend to market how the vendor’s products and services help dealers create a better customer experience, rather than focus on the products or services themselves. But is that a good thing? Certainly dealers now recognize that customer experience is…

In an unprecedented move, AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson recently announced that AutoNation will no longer sell any vehicle with an open recall – new or used. According to Automotive News, this effectively grounds up to 10 percent of AutoNation’s…

Today’s customers are fickle creatures -- one misstep and they never return. So, how is a dealership supposed to identify true customer loyalty if it can’t simply be judged by repeat business?

According to an article in Inc., the Disney…

Earning Hispanic Consumer Trust Through Communication and Empowerment

Think about the brands that reach you and catch your attention, whether television ads, ink and paper, or online.  How do they speak to you?  How do they approach you as a consumer?  Chances are, your favorite products are delivered to you courtesy of companies that have taken considerable time…

Think about the last time you scrolled through your Facebook newsfeed, Twitter account or Instagram feed. How long did you spend on each post? My guess is probably less than a second. Most people don’t spend a lot of time analyzing and reading every post that infiltrates their newsfeed from their networks. A typical user will scroll through and, when something…

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s hard for businesses to cut through the noise. Consumers are bombarded with advertising messages across all mediums from companies that claim they, or their product, is the best. Generally, these messages go in one ear and out the other.

So, how do you get the attention of today’s message-fatigued…

In this highly regulated industry, there has been some recent debate as to if dealership salespeople should be allowed to establish and control their own personal branding.

In the past, personal branding by salespeople was geographically restricted, simply because the technology didn’t exist to go much further. Salespeople would find strategic places to…

Jameson Irish Whiskey has taken video marketing on Instagram to another level – “the first brand to successfully utilize 3D video for advertisements on Instagram and Facebook,” according to a recent article in the Independent.  

The video itself is very simple, and suggests that you slide a shot to your friend. It then proceeds to…

It seems as if every big event nowadays is live tweeted by brands seeking to gain free marketing on the back of these popular events. This last Super Bowl saw brands literally setting up war rooms filled with social media professionals, graphic designers and even lawyers, simply to post content in reaction to real-time events. For most events targeted by brands in this…

When considering the successful use of social media by a business, the first thing that pops into many people’s minds is quantity. Not necessarily quantity of posts, but how big their audience is. Many judge social media success by the number of fans they have on Facebook, or followers on Twitter. If that number is large and/or growing, they feel as if their efforts are a…

Think about the last time you visited a business such as McDonald’s, Target, or a 7-11.  Now, think about the store itself – did you select the store because of convenience, or because you were dedicated to a specific location?  Sometimes the answer is both, but more often than not, like most consumers, you are making the choice based on…

It’s widely accepted that content created by third parties in general holds more value for businesses than content they create themselves. Many have felt that consumers better trusted product information and reviews written by neutral persons. According to new research by Vibrant Media, however, that thought process may no longer be the case, if it ever…

Do you think your customers feel the same about your company as you think they do?  Think again, they probably don’t.

These days, car dealerships, try to express their individuality from their competitors through value propositions. Almost every dealership has some sort of template or message as to “Why Buy from Us” integrated into their communications with…