Comments - The Horrifying Truth About Reporting In The Automotive Community - DealerELITE.net2024-03-28T21:08:47Zhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=5283893%3ABlogPost%3A320908&xn_auth=noRalph, I guess this is the ki…tag:www.dealerelite.net,2012-09-14:5283893:Comment:3216742012-09-14T02:00:06.241ZTimothy Martellhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/TimothyMartell
<p>Ralph, I guess this is the kind of thing I would have expected to see in 1998 not 2012. There is far too much knowledge out there for suppliers to still be doing this to it's clients. And while this knowledge may be commonplace to you or I, I do not believe dealers are really aware that their vendors are basically lying to them. It's one thing to "spin" the positive aspects of your product to promote and sell. It's another to knowingly provide meaningless data for the purpose of customer…</p>
<p>Ralph, I guess this is the kind of thing I would have expected to see in 1998 not 2012. There is far too much knowledge out there for suppliers to still be doing this to it's clients. And while this knowledge may be commonplace to you or I, I do not believe dealers are really aware that their vendors are basically lying to them. It's one thing to "spin" the positive aspects of your product to promote and sell. It's another to knowingly provide meaningless data for the purpose of customer retention. That is simply dishonest and should not be a practice that continues in 2013.</p>
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<p>My hope is that great events like Autocon will arm dealers with the kind of info that will protect them from things like this!</p> Tim, as much as your article…tag:www.dealerelite.net,2012-09-14:5283893:Comment:3214932012-09-14T00:22:15.128ZRalph Pagliahttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/RalphPaglia
<p>Tim, as much as your article appears to be revealing something that was previously a secret... IT IS NOT!</p>
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<p>Many of us who have been providing dealers with consulting services have ridiculed and chided suppliers who try to hype results for search terms nobody ever actually searches for when shopping for a car... For the past 7 years! </p>
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<p>This is a commonplace sales and reporting practice and ranks right up there with having 50,000 spammy pages generated by a website…</p>
<p>Tim, as much as your article appears to be revealing something that was previously a secret... IT IS NOT!</p>
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<p>Many of us who have been providing dealers with consulting services have ridiculed and chided suppliers who try to hype results for search terms nobody ever actually searches for when shopping for a car... For the past 7 years! </p>
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<p>This is a commonplace sales and reporting practice and ranks right up there with having 50,000 spammy pages generated by a website technology gone out of control and then telling the dealer that more pages indexed is better than fewer... Not 49,000 duplicated content spam pages! </p>
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<p>So, although I think you were trying to do the right thing here... Cmon, everybody knows that ranking for search terms not used by consumers is BS... Where's the news or new information in this post? I sure don't see anything other than YES, dealers should use common sense!</p> The best software for the ave…tag:www.dealerelite.net,2012-09-13:5283893:Comment:3214712012-09-13T13:54:44.331ZTimothy Martellhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/TimothyMartell
<p>The best software for the average business is still google analytics. Now able to track social interactions and even provide information about consumer behavior prior to searching for and clicking on your site, this is an invaluable tool and it is free. </p>
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<p>The problem with google analytics for car dealers is the automotive retail environment. In order to properly learn how to use google analytics, one really needs a distraction free environment and the ability to dedicate…</p>
<p>The best software for the average business is still google analytics. Now able to track social interactions and even provide information about consumer behavior prior to searching for and clicking on your site, this is an invaluable tool and it is free. </p>
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<p>The problem with google analytics for car dealers is the automotive retail environment. In order to properly learn how to use google analytics, one really needs a distraction free environment and the ability to dedicate uninterrupted time to learning how to use the tool and what the reporting means. This, of course, is the dilema because after 21 years in automotive retail I can say emphatically that for most dealer personnel, a distraction free envrionment is non existent in a dealership.</p>
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<p>What ends up happening is that people learn little pieces of what analytics does which generally boil down to some rough broad strokes that don't really tell the whole story and so many people view it as a bunch of worthless gobbledegook.</p>
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<p>The other alternatives can be good choices as well but would generally come at a great expense to a dealer and ultimately they would be underutilized. HubSpot for example offers excellent software and reporting that can be installed on the dealer's website. However, a dealer would likely spend a minimum of a thousands dollars a month for software like this and if we can't take the time to learn the free tool, how is a dealer principle going to feel about blowing twelve grand a year or more on something else that isn't being used.</p>
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<p>At Wikimotive, we use a custom analytics tool that provides complete explanation of a dealers total digital marketing strategy all in one place. We can include multiple websites, multiple blogs, multiple social media channels, there aren't really any limitations. More importantly, the reporting is broken down with detailed, but simple explanations about what the reports mean and what a dealer should do with that information.</p>
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<p>We provide this reporting free for clients and we provide full reporting whether they are using all our services or even just one of the least expensive services we offer. </p> Timothy can you recommend a g…tag:www.dealerelite.net,2012-09-13:5283893:Comment:3216532012-09-13T02:45:25.802ZBruce Hartzhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/BruceHartz
<p>Timothy can you recommend a good reporting tool?</p>
<p>Timothy can you recommend a good reporting tool?</p> Yikes... Thats a shame. The b…tag:www.dealerelite.net,2012-09-12:5283893:Comment:3214532012-09-12T02:19:45.054ZTimothy Martellhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/TimothyMartell
<p>Yikes... Thats a shame. The best way to show search results success isn't by doing random anecdotal searches. Utilize a reporting tool that has and approved google api integrated to show non biased results. At least, thats what we do...</p>
<p>Yikes... Thats a shame. The best way to show search results success isn't by doing random anecdotal searches. Utilize a reporting tool that has and approved google api integrated to show non biased results. At least, thats what we do...</p> t's not just their reporting …tag:www.dealerelite.net,2012-09-12:5283893:Comment:3215242012-09-12T02:19:07.609ZBruce Hartzhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/BruceHartz
<p>t's not just their reporting that's in question. How about some of their sales pitches being totally dishonest.</p>
<p>I attended a webinar recently that reminded me of a few encounters with SEO salesmen and what you need to be aware of when shopping for an SEO solution. The presenter of the webinar evaluated a attendees website and praised how well it ranked.</p>
<p>He then wanted to show off his company's SEO efforts to us. His first mistake was to show us his browser screen and he…</p>
<p>t's not just their reporting that's in question. How about some of their sales pitches being totally dishonest.</p>
<p>I attended a webinar recently that reminded me of a few encounters with SEO salesmen and what you need to be aware of when shopping for an SEO solution. The presenter of the webinar evaluated a attendees website and praised how well it ranked.</p>
<p>He then wanted to show off his company's SEO efforts to us. His first mistake was to show us his browser screen and he was logged into his Gmail account.</p>
<p>Next he types his clients Make and City and does a Google search and shows us that his client owns page one of Google for that city's Make staying on the page for a few seconds only.</p>
<p>Having seen this before I go to the Makes manufactures site and search to see how many Make dealers are in the city.</p>
<p>Heres the count -Only <span>4</span> Make dealerships and 3 of them were owned by his client!!!</p>
<p>This dealers 3 out of the 4 sites would rank number 1 even if they had a one page website!</p>
<p>Now the Gmail deception. I can skew search results while logged into my Google account by hitting the sites plus one buttons and Google will serve that site up to me every time I search with a relevant term to that site.</p>
<p>There are many great SEO company's for hire and many that are not. Beware of how you spend your dealers SEO money.</p>
<p>PS This is a well known company and I brought this misleading search result up to the moderator during the webinar but was ignored.</p>
<p> </p> Tim,
This is bit of an eye op…tag:www.dealerelite.net,2012-09-11:5283893:Comment:3212722012-09-11T15:10:20.723ZJoe Clementihttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/JoeClementi
<p>Tim,</p>
<p>This is bit of an eye opener especially for a dealership that utilizes dealer.com and their SEO package. Thanks for posting the comments, it certainly opens some eyes that were narrowed by more than one vendor.</p>
<p>Tim,</p>
<p>This is bit of an eye opener especially for a dealership that utilizes dealer.com and their SEO package. Thanks for posting the comments, it certainly opens some eyes that were narrowed by more than one vendor.</p> They say, "Practice what you…tag:www.dealerelite.net,2012-09-09:5283893:Comment:3208602012-09-09T13:47:24.433ZTimothy Martellhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/TimothyMartell
<p>They say, "Practice what you preach!" So I called MYSELF out this time. The only question is, would your vendor stop taking your money if they knew their product wasn't giving you a return on investment? </p>
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<p><a href="http://www.dealerelite.net/profiles/blogs/our-service-for-google-sucks-so-we-re-throwing-it-out" target="_blank">http://www.dealerelite.net/profiles/blogs/our-service-for-google-sucks-so-we-re-throwing-it-out</a></p>
<p>They say, "Practice what you preach!" So I called MYSELF out this time. The only question is, would your vendor stop taking your money if they knew their product wasn't giving you a return on investment? </p>
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<p><a href="http://www.dealerelite.net/profiles/blogs/our-service-for-google-sucks-so-we-re-throwing-it-out" target="_blank">http://www.dealerelite.net/profiles/blogs/our-service-for-google-sucks-so-we-re-throwing-it-out</a></p> Thanks Bill. We need to raise…tag:www.dealerelite.net,2012-09-08:5283893:Comment:3212052012-09-08T14:25:08.816ZTimothy Martellhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/TimothyMartell
<p>Thanks Bill. We need to raise the bar as vendors. If Wikimotive was selling something that returned no value I would want someone to set me straight as well. We need to do better. We <em>can</em> do better.</p>
<p>Thanks Bill. We need to raise the bar as vendors. If Wikimotive was selling something that returned no value I would want someone to set me straight as well. We need to do better. We <em>can</em> do better.</p> Tim,
You hit the nail rite on…tag:www.dealerelite.net,2012-09-08:5283893:Comment:3209552012-09-08T00:22:48.824ZBill Gassonhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/WilliamGasson
<p>Tim,</p>
<p>You hit the nail rite on the head ,level the playing field.</p>
<p>I also noticed your post on facebook a few week's back very professionally non-biased written material.</p>
<p> Good work</p>
<p>Tim,</p>
<p>You hit the nail rite on the head ,level the playing field.</p>
<p>I also noticed your post on facebook a few week's back very professionally non-biased written material.</p>
<p> Good work</p>