Some skeptics lament the decline in the use of social media platforms. Perhaps because they’ve become jaded due to all the arguments and political rhetoric constantly popping up in news feeds. Well, don’t for a second believe these pessimists!

Social media is not only growing, it’s becoming more popular than ever. For example, Facebook-owned social media…

At the recent 2018 F8 Developers Conference, Facebook introduced Facebook Journeys, a new enhancement to their Analytics, which will reportedly give businesses an omni-channel view of the customer journey from introduction to purchase… but…

As a dealership there are many ways you can identify if…

Get potential customers to be less combative and more receptive to their trade-in value with a planned trade walk prior to serving them the proposal.

It’s said that around 65% of potential automobile customers have a trade-in to discuss, and most all of them have a higher price in mind that they want to get for that trade-in.

As we get into the…

Car shoppers still hate to visit dealerships. Ask them why and they'll tell you they don't like pushy salespeople, they're afraid of being ripped off and that buying a car still takes too much time (among other reasons).

In an attempt to banish these customer fears, dealerships come up with marketing slogans like, "No haggle guarantee," and "Your friendly…

Great leaders and organizations inspire people because they are good at explaining why they do what they do. Their why gets people motivated. Their why makes people want to work for that company. Their why makes people want to buy their products.

For auto dealerships, your purpose is your “why buy” or “value proposition” message. The goal of this message is…

In this era of dealership expansions and acquisitions, groups are often put in the unenviable position of inheriting promises or perks that were offered prior to the dealership acquisition. One would think that it is simply a matter of grandfathering the customer into a perk offered by the previous owners. However, one automotive group chose to take a different approach, as…

Many businesses, including the automotive industry, have a strong focus on creating a better customer experience through technology. In fact, technology has transformed the customer experience across all industries. Consumers can buy a multitude of products online and have them delivered, in some cases, in an hour. Technology has even advanced to the point that consumers can…

All too often, a company gets intrigued with content marketing and decides to give it a try. But then, after just a couple of blogs, executives decide that there just isn’t any tangible return on their investment, or that it’s not measurable, and so lessen their content output, or abandon the initiative altogether.

In most cases this is due to poor planning…

Think about the value propositions most dealerships present to consumers. Free car washes, fast transactions, oil changes, low prices, etc. They’re all so similar that, in reality, they cease to differentiate one dealer from another. The simple fact that they aren’t unique just about negates the offer for consumers when they consider who to buy from.

Nobody…

Video content is now the preferred medium for consumers and statistics show that consumer Internet traffic for online video will increase by 80% by the year 2018. That’s not too far away.

And, when both are presented on the same page, consumers would rather watch a video than read text. For that simple reason, video content simply converts…

A little over a year ago, the founder of a credit card payment processing company made an unorthodox move that resulted in some very mixed reactions and a whole lot of media attention. Dan Price, founder of Gravity Payments, cut his own salary by 93% (from $1 million to $70,000 per year). He did this so he could pay every single employee the exact same amount - $70,000,…

What are you doing on Facebook to provide value?

By creating a Facebook group, you'll be able to nurture the database that you already have, as well as increase the audience for your business.  Your new Facebook group will give you the opportunity to get feedback on products or services, engage with customers, and build top-of-mind awareness.…

The first thing most people do when meeting someone new is to introduce themselves. This first meeting can quite easily dictate the future outcome of the relationship. If you come off as insincere or indifferent, the other party will probably not engage you again. However, greet someone with genuine interest and sincerity and you just…

Ever since reviews have risen in popularity, dealerships have mostly focused on written reviews -- they were the most prominent in search engine results and on third party sites.

This worked pretty well for a while. However, with the rise in the importance of reviews, some companies chose to act unscrupulously and falsely boosted their reputation by posting…

Our industry does a lot with gimmicks. You’d be hard pressed to drive through an auto mall or other area dense with dealerships and not see balloons, giant inflatable gorillas or wavy tube men. On nice days, we attempt to lure shoppers in with hot dogs and sodas. We incentivize test drives. We offer televisions, iPads and Playstations with purchase. There’s always a gimmick…

It’s widely known that video walkarounds, email responses and other types of video attract more attention from car buyers and better engage them once they reach out to you. But, one of the biggest mistake I see most dealerships make is to neglect the service department in their video marketing efforts.

Most importantly, utilizing video in your service…

In a newly released report conducted by J.D. Power and commissioned by the National Automobile Association, trade-in value reduction due to proposed legislation could have significant financial impact on both dealers and consumers. The “Used Car Safety Recall Repair Act” will prevent…