While the components of digital retailing have existed within our industry for some time, digital retailing as a concept has not. Indeed, dealers could sell a vehicle entirely online in the past. And many have done so. But they’ve done so by cobbling together a less than perfect experience for the customer involving multiple widgets, phone calls, emails, and…

There are three huge ways to transform the Social Media at your Dealership

Tell Your Story

Telling your Digital Story is a huge step in the right direction. In the most recent quarterly conference call, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated that stories were the next big thing, and he’s a guy that knows the next big…

According to an interesting study by Forrester Research, many businesses fail to communicate in a way that enhances and solidifies the business-customer relationship. The same can be said for some…

When it comes to social media advertising, Facebook reigns supreme with Instagram a close second. These are ideal platforms on which to raise brand awareness, bring customers down funnel and generate leads.

For dealers, a presence on Facebook and Instagram is essential, because quite simply, this is where your customers are spending their time.…

When it comes to working conferences, there are many different thought processes. The first, of course, is that a lot of money is spent between the cost of renting the booth space, sponsorship, the actual booth itself, staffing, swag, prizes and travel expenses. Conferences are indeed a considerable investment, and everyone wants to see a return on their…

While many dealerships agree that video is important and worthwhile, at the same time some think it’s time-consuming and lack the resources to put a video marketing strategy in place.

What if I told you that acquiring and scaling a well-planned video marketing strategy which leverages video content for shoppers throughout the entire buying…

It’s a well-known fact that people buy from people (or companies) they like. There are certainly many different ways to get customers to like your dealership, from providing a great customer experience to being active in your local community.

However, consumers are increasingly finicky when choosing where to buy or service their vehicle. In…

Balancing customer engagement and the cost of advertising is your key to increasing your marketing return on investment (ROI). Sounds simple, right? It is – and it starts with a digital-first strategy. This variation on multi-channel marketing uses digital media channels (such as email, SMS, or social media) to initiate engagement with customers. Once you’ve…

There you are, working on your to-do list, trying to create content for your dealership. You sit there and contemplate what you can write that will be relevant and interesting to your customers. But no ideas come to you. The more you think about it, the more frustrated you get, until you simply give up trying and move on.

Content marketing can be frustrating.…

Facebook Marketplace, while new on the scene, has quickly turned into a valuable sales channel for dealerships. Many dealers are finding great success in engagement as well as sales with consumers. Not just another third-party listing site, Facebook Marketplace has capabilities many other platforms don’t have. Chief among them is the ability for interested car buyers…

In a recent blog, I wrote about how content marketing is more of a long-term play.

In addition, to attract an audience, it is vital to offer more than purely sales content and “buy now!” messages. Consumers are constantly bombarded with these salesy messages.…

Today, it’s a well-known fact among dealers that a consistent presence on social media properties is vital to keeping their brand in front of consumers. It has also been found that some different types of content – text, images and video – perform better than others.

However, it’s still very difficult to know what the best TIME is to post content in order to…

Since Facebook has exploded, businesses have all rushed to capture their audience’s attention and leverage the platform’s marketing potential. In the beginning, gaining business exposure on Facebook’s platform was relatively inexpensive. As Facebook continued to modify its algorithm to appease its users and better monetize the platform when it went public, Facebook…

If you hold a management position in the retail automotive industry, you’ve probably had a customer attempt to leverage something to get what they want. Whether it was an unreasonable request, or simply a last-ditch effort to get a perceived wrong made right, many of you will have run into this situation.

In the past, a customer’s leverage was typically the…

Videos of happy customers generate more online reviews and website visits  

Newport Beach, CA – September 10, 2018 – In the six-month period from February through July 2018, Downey Nissan, California’s #1 volume Nissan dealer, experienced a viral lift of 627 percent in their social media marketing program, attributed to videos sent out by Vboost, an automotive…

Here is a great post by Ken Varga, he gave a great way to increase sales online and offline.

Great read...

Saying Just Because is REALLY A GREAT IDEA…

Breaking Up With LinkedIn 

Original Article is Above

When I received an email invitation from Alignable, I pushed it aside and tagged it to “look at later”. I figured it was another trendy hopeful like Foursquare or Myspace that would become the next footnote in the social world and given this I figured, “why even bother?”

On a…

There is one common problem most companies run into when they start a content marketing strategy. Frequently, executives have unreal expectations and expect to go from zero to hero in a matter of days. They want an immediate return-on-investment – such as leads, engagement or website traffic. I am afraid that is simply not realistic. Hey, sometimes you can hit gold straight…

Dealerships are coming around and increasingly realize the importance of having a good social media presence. Perhaps it’s due to the reach and effectiveness of social media ads, or the ability to stay top-of-mind with customers – both existing and potential. Regardless, dealerships are shifting their focus away from traditional media towards digital and allocating more…

We’ve all seen it happen. In fact, chances are really good that you’ve done it yourself -- posted that Facebook status update, sent that text message, or that e-mail and then – oops, you notice those typos or grammatical errors…after it’s too late to correct.

Well, does it really matter? In a word, yes.

When dealing with your friends, you can…