The challenge many businesses face is personalizing themselves to their customers. Businesses try and accomplish this through many methods. They create unique commercials, ad campaigns and other marketing. They can hire a public relations firm to assist them in gaining exposure via various methods. They can also employ many services that help them better connect with their…

Content. That word scares a lot of dealerships. They’re told they need it from every vendor, at every conference and in every article. They need it for SEO, for blogs, social media, and their website. Advertisements? No problem. They have tons of cars and know what is a good deal in their market. They have ad agencies designing the ads and helping to assemble them. Content,…

About a month ago, Time Warner Cable blacked out CBS in several major markets including Los Angeles, New York and Dallas, because of a dispute with CBS over pricing for retransmission fees. Both sides, of course, point fingers at the other with CBS saying that Time Warner…

Lady Gaga has her Little Monsters, Justin Bieber has his Beliebers, Kiss has their Kiss Army, and your dealership has ______? Where are your fans? Musicians focus their marketingon connecting with fans, that’s nothing new, but that approach is grounded in solid business sense. A 2010 Satmetrix study found that evangelists or fans, spend 13% more than the average customer, and they refer business equal to 45% of the money they…

Many people really don’t know exactly what a Public Relations firm does. The common answer is “write press releases,” but I can guarantee you public relations firms do not sit around all day and just write press releases (or at least good ones). So what, exactly, do we do?

As defined by the Public…

Here’s how to sell cars fast on Twitter.

1. Create a special limited edition that will not be available for sale elsewhere – a Twitter exclusive.
2. Theme and schedule the special edition around a popular calendar event (e.g.…

Okay, you got me! This article has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with you.

On a daily basis I analyze dealer websites which I’m convinced had the same content writer. Have you ever seen websites with sentences that read like this, “Our team of…

When my wife and I were in the process of potty training our toddler; CORRECTION: When my wife was in the process of potty training our toddler (I liked to think of myself as the fan that cheered him on from the bleachers), we tried a million different “strategies” to get the idea of going potty to stick in his head.



After every successful potty-going…

For those with a business that has an active blog, you may say that this seems light. It is. It seems that there’s a huge gap between those who are adding content to their site and those who don’t so we’re going with a strong minimum. If you’re adding two pieces of content per month, you have the ability to make a difference.…

The vast majority of business websites out there tend to stay laser-focused on their goals. Whether they’re intended to sell a product or generate leads, it seems that all of the content placed on their websites works towards this end. While there’s something that can be said about the strategy, changes at…

I knew it would happen sometime in 2013. I’m glad it happened sooner rather than later.

For a while, many of the smaller bloggers such as myself have been preaching about how search, social, and content marketing are all actually a singular activity that can be broken down into a proper repeatable…

Pre-Roll Video Ads Still Hated, Here to Stay

In all the internet, is there a less innovative ad type than the pre-roll?

It's pretty much just the classic 30-second spot, lifted from broadcast TV and occasionally shortened to 15 seconds.

Yet when it comes to online video, in the end, that's where the action is. The ad unit has been maligned, foresworn, abused and dismissed. But like a cockroach, it…

“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…

I know this Video was uploaded some time ago, but it still is showing up on the serps. Please take down!…

There as been a major shift in digital marketing that has been building up for a couple of years now. Content was once a tool used for search engine optimization and social media marketing, but today and in the foreseeable future content will be the most important (and easiest) way to advance in search and social. We…

Attention email composers, bloggers and content writers (just about all of us):

Today, some excellent training from Steven Resell on how to research and write a blog post quickly.

We have have featured Steven several times on this site and while he is not one of the best known internet marketers out there, I have always considered him one of the best teachers.

In fact, I love the fact that he doesn’t come at you with all…

Univision in English? Finally It Gets in Step With the Hispanic Market

Trends Show that Spanish Is Not the Best Way to Reach Most U.S. Latinos

It must not have been an easy decision for Univision, the Spanish-language media giant, to join ABC in creating an English-language TV network and digital…