First years
On the floor
Retail sales. Walk-ins, phone ups, month-end. Learned that the deal is won long before anybody talks numbers.
About
Twenty-five years, same industry.
I didn't come to the car business from marketing. I came to marketing from the car business — and that changes everything about how I work.
The retail years
I spent years in retail sales and dealership operations. Walk-ins, phone ups, month-end pushes, trade appraisals, the whole thing. That's where I learned that the best-looking campaign in the world is worthless if the lead sits in the CRM for six hours.
It also taught me how dealership people actually talk — which is why I don't write copy that sounds like a software company wrote it.
The digital years
Now I run digital for dealers: search, Google Business Profile, social, email, reputation, and the follow-up process that ties it together. Franchise stores and independents both — new-car rooftops and used-vehicle operations have very different problems, and I treat them that way.
One person, accountable, on the phone when you call. That's the whole business model.
The path
How I got here.
Then
Behind the desk
Dealership operations — inventory, process, staffing, the CRM nobody wanted to use. Saw where leads actually die.
The switch
Into digital
Started fixing the marketing side because the marketing side kept sending the store the wrong people.
Now
Shawn Ryder Digital
One person running search, profile, social, email, reviews and follow-up for a short list of dealers.
What I believe
Four things I'd tell any dealer principal.
Leads are worthless unattended
Speed to lead beats every clever campaign. If your follow-up is broken, fixing ads is a waste of money.
Your market is small
Reputation travels fast in a local market. Treating reviews as marketing — not admin — pays for itself.
Simple beats sophisticated
A process your team will actually run every day outperforms the platform nobody logs into.
Report on units, not clicks
Impressions don’t hit a forecast. Appointments, shows and deliveries do.
The practical stuff
- Based in
- Nova Scotia, working with stores across Canada and the US — on the phone during your hours, not mine.
- Client load
- Deliberately small. I turn down work rather than hand it to someone you’ve never met.
- Contracts
- Month to month. If I’m not earning it, you shouldn’t be locked in.
- Reporting
- Calls, forms, appointments. Not impressions and reach.
- Spelling
- Canadian. Your shoppers notice when the copy sounds American.
Let's talk about your store.
Free audit, plain language, same business day reply.