In Dealership Marketing Manager?

Is Twitter really where I should be?

Does Facebook have value for your business?

Do I need a Blog?

The answer is YES. That's the easy part.

The hard part is figuring out how to manage all of these social media outlets.

Most dealerships I have been too have computers for salespeople. And that's great - you've come a long way. The problem is, dealers have these computers so locked down that internet access is usually only allowed to access the dealerships website.

Sales people are one the most underutilized resources in a dealership for social media / alternative marketing. Imagine if 50% of your sales floor had twitter and facebook accounts and used these avenues to work for them to help sell more product?

There has not been a single dealer who has given me a valid reason why they block these sites. Most dealers tell me "I don't want them sitting around all day surfing the internet". Um.... HELLO ?!?!? This leaves me speechless....

88% of the people that walk through your front door started their shopping online. You need to leverage this.

With all these sites and marketing possibilities, you might want to start thinking about a new position at the dealership. Alternative Marketing Manager or the like.

A person responsible for not only your SEO / VSEO (and all the things that come with that... way too many to list here - call me) but social networking and managing your online identity.

It appears dealers have no problem spending BIG BUCKS to buy ineffective third party leads (when they don't have the capacity to even handle them properly) yet that money may be better spent on a full time dedicated marketing manager.

Whens he last time you searched twitter for anything related to your dealership or your product in your area? Twitter is full of people reaching out. Its a tremendous opportunity to not only speak to the masses but to speak to a single person while the masses watch.

And that's HUGE.

RETHINK EVERYTHING Read more!

Long (Tail) and Short Of It All

Long Tail. What is it?

Essentially, the long tail is the hundreds to thousands of keywords and key phrases that a site is found for, yet rarely noticed or exploited.

The principle of the Long Tail is the opposite of focusing on the top 10-20 keywords for marketing their sites. The "top keyword" concept is reinforced by agencies that contract to gain rankings for 10-20 terms, maybe 30. However, when studying the referrals from the search engines and the traffic they generate, those that focus on the top 10-20 terms may be missing the majority of their market.

People tend to focus on the thousands of visitors that come to the site for the most popular terms. Most site managers are very happy to see the numbers increase for those specific terms, and even happier to see those terms consistently ranking well. Conventional thinking applies the 80-20 rule that the top terms provide 80% of the business, but in evaluating multiple sites, this has proved to be the opposite.

In most cases, the top 10 terms provide a lot of traffic, but not nearly as much as the total terms after the top 10 or 20 most popular. Add up the terms that refer 1-3 visits during the month, and chances are, they will add up to more total visitors than the top terms. On closer examination, most sites will have the majority of their business (sales and leads) generated from these terms that are rarely tracked. This is the heart of the long tail -- the length, or total number of low-number referred terms outnumbers the height, or the total of top 10 terms.

Now you know.... Read more!

Bad Times For Print

The owners of the Philadelphia inquirer and the Philadelphia daily news will be filling for bankruptcy next week after talks to restructure their debt fell apart.

While I am not against print advertising I do think this is yet another reason why a serious look at your current marketing mix is needed.

Even if these papers vanish, people will still get their news.

I wonder how.....

RETHINK EVERYTHING.

(published via iPhone)

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Start your Alternative Marketing Engines!

The 2010 Toyota Prius has made its official debut at this week's Detroit Auto Show. The company estimates it'll have a 50 MPG rating -- up from 46 MPG in the previous model -- and there's a bigger, 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine for improved highway mileage. In addition to Power and Eco driving modes, EV Drive will let you run on battery alone for about a mile, which if nothing else should provide a little extra push for getting to the gas station when you've held off for too long. One of the coolest (literally) new features is the optional solar panels in the moonroof that will generate power for circulating air and keeping the interior temperature from going too high. If that's not enough, there's a remote-controlled A/C system that can run on battery alone and lets you set the temperature before you get in.

The above text was taken from Autobloggreen.com.

Did you just read this? So would prospects if you sent out "blast" emails to them using your database. But dont just send it to everyone and their mother. Think different. Send it to a select group of people such as:

1. Have expressed interest in a Prius

2. Have expressed interest in fuel economy

3. Are current Prius owners who may be ready for a new one or an additional one (think family)

4. Previous Corolla and Scion customers

5. Prior Hybrid customers

You get the picture...

Grab information from Toyota.com and wordsmith it to show your dealers identity.

The Press Release section of Toyota.com is at your disposal... and speaking of press releases, maybe its time your dealership did a few as the SEO of a press release from Reuters is priceless!

RETHINK EVERYTHING.

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