When you log into www.gmail.com today, you will be greeted with a new feature that has been long overdue. For years you have been hitting the link, show images.  Today, Google has opted you in to their new feature which allows images to be displayed in each email from any sender without approving it to happen.  How huge is this???…

The importance of ensuring a customer has all the information and resources they need when making a big decision is crucial to turning a stand-offish prospect into a smiling cornstomer (We are in Iowa, of course we use corn references. Keep reading to learn the meaning of cornstomer). Patience, tact and logic seeds are key. 

Occasionally, OK, OFTEN we hear from our prospects about sad news that is keeping them from moving forward…

At Auto iLead, the most important task we perform each day is helping people. To help people we must first understand them, their needs, and how to truly HELP. Our commitment to help drives us to enhance the relationship a customer has with a dealership prior to arranging their appointment to inspect or test drive a vehicle. Keep in mind that our leads originate as an email to our dealer clients. Email is often our only means of communication which means we have to be the best! In…

How to Provide the Most Positive Digital Showroom Experience

Car buyers are spending more time online shopping for a car than ever before! According to a

 Polk Study, internet usage has increased significantly, with ¾ of…

It’s not uncommon for digital marketing at the dealership to give primary focus to vehicle sales processes and practices and for the most part ignore service and parts departments.  The reality is that more and more of your customers are online and 

touching all of the dealership’s departments.  The frequent strategy for addressing these divergent points of communication is like the story of the blind men and an elephant.  A group of blind men touch an elephant to…

The other day I was in a dealership speaking with an owner.  He said to me "I have 315,000 VDPs" to which I responded "wow, that it is great".  He then said to me "however, VDPs do not cash checks, sales do".  I was so happy to hear that because here is someone that really gets it.  I am not saying that focusing on VDPs is not important.  In fact it is one of the…

In constant pursuit of keeping up with the Marketing Jones Family, I came across a book by David Cummings and Adam Blitzer called Think Outside the…

Peter Martin Speaking At The Internet Sales 20 Group On "Permission Based Email Marketing & Data Mining" from Dealer Synergy on Vimeo.

http://www.internetsales20group.com

Peter Martin, CEO…

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

What boxer would step into the ring without having studied his opponent? What coach would take his team onto the field without have watched game films of their competitor? One of the key differences between being a champion or an “also-ran” is knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your rival. The same is true in business. The ability to scout your opponent and then use this information to design and implement a solid game plan is critical to your dealership’s success. As a professional,…

I've written a lot about the importance of having a mobile friendly auto dealership website given the increase in smart phone usage, but when your dealership sends emails, are you also taking mobile into consideration?

A recent study by Knotice, an on-demand marketing software and agency, shows that 36% of emails were opened on a mobile device (tablet &…

An alarming trend has arisen on the Internet side of automotive sales and it is called "Email Template Theft" (ETT for short). This may be happening to your Internet sales team right now or your team could even be the guilty party. Have you ever received an internet lead who never responded and just seemed downright suspicious? Could these leads have been submitted by your local competition? 

As an Internet Director, it certainly happened to me…

Think Tank Tuesday- Are You Missing Sales With The Wrong Messaging? from Potratz on Vimeo.

Are you missing out on sales because your marketing message is focused only on price points?  If you're only focused on price, you are not connecting with customers who are…

Do you hate seeing that your customers have unsubscribed from your email list? Do you loathe seeing them “unlike” your fan page. Do you cringe when your customers are no longer your Tweeps? Well, the average customer is bombarded with around 3,000 messages a day so more than likely, if they leave, they’re just not that into you.

How can you court your customers back and gain…

ZMOT its everywhere seems like these days. With Google as the general session at Digital Dealer this year I thought I would talk about how we see the execution of ZMOT for dealers. Below are the slides from my presentation. I think these numbers will add up to a pattern if you look at the slides closely.

There is not ONE ZMOT in Automotive there are TWO

• People spend as much time consuming online media as they do off
• Targeting is getting better & faster online,…

Last Digital Dealer we explored the data behind SEO & PPC and where your efforts get the most bang for the buck.

At Digital Dealer 12 in Orlado April 3-5 will will explore the data behind ZMOT and how to execute it in your store to increase lead volume and most importantly Show Rate in the dealerhips.

Click Here to attend my Digital Dealer 12 Session "Marketing…

That kills a General Manager it’s what he doesn’t know!

Those words spoken to me by one of the smartest dealers I ever worked for, Jay Marks, have stayed with me since 1996. Same principal applies in every position of the dealership but particularly in marketing.

Let’s face it Marketing is quickly becoming a…

But you couldn’t be more wrong about microsites!

I have had a few dealers reach out to me lately on Microsites being a bad idea and even one of the largest industry providers asking me if dealers using them will be “Black Listed” by Google…REALLY?! 

In this video Matt Cutts from Google explains his OPINION on microsites and calls out a post by Vanessa Fox “Microsites A Bad Idea Most of the Time”.

 …

An interesting report from comScore and I think some premonitions for retail automotive.

1. Could FREE shipping break open real eCommerce for automotive? I think it is certainly a big hurdle right now logistically and monetarily. Taking away the monetary factor may go a long way toward opening this up. Of course there are still some logistics involved and there is the tactile factor. The need to touch and feel the vehicle is diminishing slowly and…