Posted by Shawn Ryder

Voice Search

May 23, 2020Automotive Marketing, Dealership Tips, Digital Marketing, SEO 0

Future of Voice Search

Is voice search for the future of mobile search? The jury is still out, but Google says that 20 percent of all searches on mobile are now voice searches – and that number is growing.

While you currently can’t target voice searches directly, if you are interested in driving conversions from voice searches, here are some tips to consider for moving forward.

Understand what makes voice search different

Voice search queries tend to be longer. In 2004, most searches were 2 or 3 words. Today, search queries can be 27+ words. Voice searches also tend to be more specific (for example, searching for “find the closest open store that sells men’s black leather cowboy boots ” instead of just “cowboy boots”).

Analyze your longer tail keywords to find patterns

Since voice searches are usually more natural and conversational, keyword optimization should fit this new long-tail landscape.

Use modified broad match keywords

Modified broad match lets you specify that specific broad match keywords or close variants (such as +pizza +Chicago +delivery) must appear
to show your search ad. So even if the voice search is 30 words, as long as 3 of those are “pizza,” “Chicago,” and “delivery” your ad will appear.

Negative out keywords that aren’t driving customers

As you test and refine your keyword list for voice search, be sure to negative any words from a modified broad match that indicate the searcher is not a potential customer.

Be sure to give voice searches the option of calling

People use voice search because it is easy and hands-free. It makes sense that a voice searcher would want to keep using voice to engage with a business – and that means a phone call.

Speak in the language of “mobile.”

Since these ads will only be seen by people on their smartphones, your ad language should reflect it.

Tell searchers that operators are standing by to take their call. Use mobile-specific calls to action such as “Shop our mobile site,” “Buy on your phone,” “Find nearby stores,” and “Call us now.”

Posted by Shawn Ryder

Google My Business – Photo Management

May 22, 2020Dealership Tips, Digital Marketing, SEO 0

Google My Business Photos

Managing images of a dealership can have a significant impact on the quality of content users find when researching travel online. It is possible to add or remove photos from your account at any time. There are also ways to flag inappropriate images added by other users.

Adding Images of your Dealership

Data from Google shows that dealerships with high-quality, relevant images receive higher levels of engagement from users and are more likely to be visited by consumers who have viewed that dealership’s listing online.

Having the photography that includes the exterior and interior of your dealership as well as photos of models and the service department will be beneficial to attracting customers.

To add an image or images, simply log into your Google My Business account and select the “Photos” tab from the menu bar on the left side of the screen. From this section, you’ll be able to add and manage images, including selecting the cover image, identifying specific subjects (such as vehicle photos from your inventory) and other actions. You can add photos from your device or from Google Photos.

How to Remove an Image From Your Listing

Removing an Image Added to Your Account

Sign into your Google My Business account and choose the listing you’d like to manage. Select “Photos” from the menu on the left. Click the image you want to remove and then click the trash can icon in the top-right corner. This will delete the image from your listing.

Flagging Images from Other Users for Removal

To flag an image from another user for removal, navigate to your location’s photo gallery in Google Maps. Click on a photo to pull up the photo gallery image panel, and click on the three-dot menu icon in the top left corner.

Select “Report a Problem.” Complete the information on the form about why the photo should be flagged for your dealership and then click “Submit.”

A photo must be in violation of Google’s photo policy in order to be removed from the Google My Business. Sometimes it is necessary to flag an image a second time if it is not removed after an initial period of 7-14 days from the profile.

Photo Best Practices

Photo Orientation

Orientation is important for photo selection, and it’s best to keep this in mind when photographing a location. Horizontal images are preferred. Vertical images are acceptable if they have sufficient resolution to be cropped horizontally. Avoid using extreme angles or tight crops on images.

For example, when photographing the dealership’s exterior, try to find a direct shot that includes as much of the façade as possible. When shooting vehicles or service department photos, it may be more practical to use an overhead angle or a close crop shot.

Clarity

The dealership location should be the focal point of the photo. Users should be able to easily recognize what they are seeing when quickly looking at the pictures.

Photos should be sharply focused and without any blurriness. Images should look real and be high-quality without being heavily doctored.

Lighting

You want to add images that showcase the focal point in the best manner possible, including quality lighting. It’s generally a best practice to capture things during the day unless you are highlighting a location specifically known for its nightlife. Subtle differences in lighting quality can make notable differences in the visibility of photos within Google products.

Color

Choose images that have bright, vibrant colors because these often generate better visibility and more engagement for your Google My Business profile. Your image may be competing against hundreds of other photos of a given location for a user’s attention. While photos should not be heavily doctored, modestly boosting the saturation of images may be beneficial in some cases.

Seasonality

As much as possible, images should be relevant year-round. This means avoiding seasonal photos (for example – Holiday decorations or colorful Halloween shots).

Photo Rights and Watermarks

When adding photos, you want to avoid intellectual property violations. Make sure the photos you are uploading belong to only you. Try to add a variety of unique images rather than uploading the same images repeatedly.

If your photos have a watermark, it should be small and limited to one corner to avoid distracting from the overall image. Photos should obviously never include inappropriate or dangerous content and obviously no personal or confidential information. Photos should focus on the dealership – so include the building, service, vehicles and limited team members photos from the dealership.

Posted by Shawn Ryder

The New Way to Connect with Automotive Customers

May 19, 2020Automation, Automotive Marketing, Digital Marketing, Sales, Text Marketing 0

Text Messages

Did you know that while many emails go unopened and unnoticed, the majority of text messages are opened within just five minutes of being received? That means that text messaging, also known as SMS, is a highly effective and immediate way to communicate with your customers. An automated text message solution makes it easy and efficient to personally connect with customers. So now that you know, what are some of the best ways you can use text messaging to stay in touch with your customers and bring in more business?

How to Get Customers to Sign Up for Texts

Getting customers to sign up is the first step. You should advertise the benefits of signing up for your text message marketing campaigns everywhere: on your website, at the physical location of your business, on your social media pages, and in your email marketing campaigns. Also, think about this: why would a customer want to sign up? Advertise the benefits that will entice people to want to receive your text messages.

Text Examples

Never miss an automotive appointment again with our convenient text message reminders.
Receive instant text message notifications as soon as your vehicle part arrives.
Gain access to personalized text message promotions and exclusive contests!

Engage Customers from the Very First Text

Once customers have signed up, your automated text message solution should send them a thank you text, confirming their subscription and offering them a special promotion to get them interested. The promotion can be small, for example, a 15% off coupon for an oil change or tire rotation. The main idea is to provide immediate value and reassure the customer that signing up was a smart idea.

Provide Helpful Automotive Tips

A great way to build trust and loyalty with your customers is to send them helpful text message tips they can actually use. These tips serve to keep you connected throughout the year, even when the customer has not been into the shop in a while, and to establish your business as one that is always thinking about its customers’ needs. These can include safety tips, maintenance advice, links to buyers’ guides or industry news, and so on.

Send Automatic Maintenance Reminders

Text message reminders can be sent automatically to each customer based on their vehicle type and history, date of the last appointment, and time of year. Reminders make your customers’ lives easier because they don’t have to remember when to book an oil change, routine maintenance, or inspection. They will be automatically notified at precisely the right time. These text messages encourage repeat business. Once the appointment has been booked, the customer will get an automatic reminder on the day of the appointment so they don’t forget, reducing no-shows and increasing your revenue.

Offer Personalized Promotions

Customers love to feel like they are getting an exclusive deal. Personalized promotions bring in more business and also grow customer loyalty and satisfaction. Your automated text message solution will keep track of each customer’s birthday, purchase date and other individual data so that promotional messages can be sent out on important dates.

Try using an automated text message marketing solution and track how much additional business comes in due to personally targeted text message campaigns.

Posted by Shawn Ryder

Ways to Drive More Site Traffic

May 18, 2020Automotive Marketing, Dealership Tips, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing 0

Drive More Site Traffic

As we know, SEO is short for search engine optimization.

This is the very complex yet very visible way of accessing automotive web sites within the organic or non-paid realm of Google search results.

Simply put in its literal sense, is that the more visits or “hits” the more visible the dealer site would be when a search is applied.

Here we are going to review some ideas to help your dealership with traffic to your site.

Create a Facebook Page

Studies have shown that people are spending more time on Facebook than any other website on the internet. By being in front of such potential customers, you have the best chance of being seen. Create a Dealership Facebook Page for your website and install a “Like Box” into your website so that your visitors will know you are on Facebook and join as a follower on your Facebook Page.

Write a Roundup Post

A roundup post is an entry that speaks about a group of people in your dealership niche. This strategy is used to build relationships with influencers. Let them know that you are reaching out to them and promoting their content. More often than not, this leads to them returning you the favor by blogging or tweeting about you. If they are indeed influential in your niche, their return of favor will be sending massive traffic your way.

Produce Videos on YouTube

One of the largest search engines other than Google is none other than YouTube. Therefore, it is crucial to include YouTube in your arsenal of dealership traffic strategies. Create your own YouTube channel. Produce and upload automotive original videos with interesting content for your YouTube channel.

Using the “annotation” feature while editing YouTube videos, you can add a call to action for viewers to go to your dealership website URL.

Another strategy is to interlink your videos with annotations so as to pick up more views and more traffic. Optimize your YouTube channel by including a link back to your dealer website in the profile information on the left panel.

Write Guest Posts

Many bloggers or webmasters have audiences to their websites amounting more than just your own. Approach these people and ask them if they would like for you to write a post for their blog. This could focus on a particular model, vehicle, service or something related to the dealership.

Not only will you possibly get traffic flocking to your site, but it will also get you quality backlinks that will boost the ranking of your site on Google in the long run. In addition, you would have made a friend or friends and build relationships in the process.

Build an Email List

Building an email list enables you to drive traffic at the click of a button to a specific list. With a substantial number of automotive subscribers in your email list, you can also build a community around your site or even your vehicle niche and eventually will make sales after you have established a relationship with the individuals on your list.

However, it takes time, effort and the right strategies to attract people to subscribe to your list. Also, it is essential to use an email marketing service to build your email list.

Create Epic Content

This may seem somewhat obvious, but people love to read content that delivers immense value to them. Therefore, to attract the bulk of traffic to your website, your content must be well thought out and researched, outdoing dealership competitors’ efforts in a particular area.

Give Away Free Stuff

One very effective way of making your dealer content viral is to give away free stuff. You are able to drive massive amounts of traffic to your website, generate leads for your business, and even make sales later by giving away high-quality free stuff on the front end of your sales process. People love contests to win free water bottles, key chains, manufacturer focus trinkets, and maintenance services at the dealership.

Use Keywords in your Title Tags

If you want to get more traffic to your dealer website, it is crucial to know where all that traffic is coming from. The majority of online traffic finds content on search engines using keywords hence the first step to getting found on search engines is to include keywords into your website.

We call this process On-Page Search Engine Optimization. One element to include keywords in is in your title tag, the title of your website. There are many other elements to search engine optimization.

Retweet Contest

If your dealership is active on Twitter, you might have seen some of the marketing tactics in Twitter campaigns. One idea is that you could hold a contest to make the entry based on tweeting a certain link. Using backlink tweets, you can track those who have tweeted your link.

Setup Events On Facebook

Facebook events is an awesome application on Facebook that helps you to organize dealership events.

It is a great way to get more traffic because by leaving all the default settings the way they are – that is, allow guests to invite others, upload photos, write on the wall, etc., every one of these activities creates news items that go out into the feeds of those individuals and their friends. This means that your content or event will go viral very quickly on Facebook.

Add Your Site to Directories

Most online directories offer the free option to add your dealership URL to their listings. You will be able to pick up some high-quality backlinks by adding your site to directories. This is to get your site ranking well on Google.

Conduct Proper Keyword Research

Keyword research helps you to find relevant keywords that are high in demand but low in level competition.

Use the Google Keyword tool to gather this information and then use it for search engine optimization or cost per click campaigns to get your dealer website ranked to be found by prospective automotive customers.

Google AdWords

Pay Per Click advertising is also very effective in getting more traffic to your site. It is highly recommended if you have a sales funnel that more than pays for the cost of the traffic. Avoid PPC advertising if you do not have a product that you are already making sales with.

Facebook Ads

Facebook ads allow you to target your specific market according to their demographics, geographical residence, and the users’ preferences. As a result of Facebook’s large user base, you have a large group to market to even if you narrow it down to your own dealership.

Set your Dealership with Google My Business

97% of consumers search for local businesses online. Therefore, your website will get
more traffic if you were to list it with Google My Business.

Give Out Swag with Your URL

If you are looking for an offline method to promote your dealership, consider giving out swag. Everyone loves swag. Make the swag you dish out as cool as possible so that people actually wear it.

Post Content on a Regular Basis

To generate a regular readership on your website, produce content regularly. Try to get your next few posts on standby so that you can always get your automotive content out on the same day even if your week gets crazy and you don’t have a chance to create new content.

Link to your site in your Email Signature

You can get traffic to your site with every email your dealership sends. Therefore, set up a custom signature with a link to your website for everybody in the dealership. In addition, have it as an anchor text with the title of your site, because in that way, there is a good chance that it will get clicked.

Customize your 404 error page

Suggest other content on your site to visitors with a custom designed 404 page. This is
so that even if they accidentally land on that page, they don’t bounce from your site. In most cases sending them to the homepage works best for dealer web sites.

Interlink your Pages

Create links that link internally within your dealership site because the more links you have within your content to other content on your dealer site the better your site will rank in Google. This will also mean more traffic for you. Hence, interlink the pages on your site as often as is relevant – meaning vehicles, models, services, and more!

Create a post “100 _____“ on anything

We all love lists. Examples of lists include 100 ways to improve fuel milage or ranking lists like the top most popular songs etc. Create lists on anything or to make it more effective, create lists of a topic that is currently trending and obviously fun.

Speed up your Website

When we talk about the internet, we are always talking about speed. When a dealership website takes more than a few seconds to load some potential customers will leave simply because they are impatient. Therefore speed up your website – it is key.

Optimize your images

Optimize your images by compressing their size, label their alt tags and title so that they
can be found by image search engines, such as Google Images, quickly and easily.

Build Backlinks

Link building is one of the surest ways to get your site ranked on Google so that you can direct massive amounts of traffic to your dealership site. However, when building backlinks, always keep in mind that it is the quality of links over the number of links.

One link from an authority site can do more for your site than 1,000 low-quality links.

Title Tag Optimization

Ensure that your title tags include keywords you are trying to rank on the Google search engine. By doing that, you increase the chances of ranking in Google and getting more traffic from searches containing those keywords.

Choose a Smart Domain

A domain name that contains the automotive keywords you are optimizing for actually gives you an advantage over everyone else trying to rank for those words.

Submit your Site to Search Engines

Again, may seem obvious but manually submit your new site to Google, Yahoo, and Bing to inform that to crawl it on a regular basis. For a WordPress blog, install and set up the Google XML Sitemaps plugin to enable crawling spiders to check out your site regularly.

Review Google Analytics and Optimize Your Site

Review Google Analytics to track variables that will give you insight into how to optimize your site. For WordPress bloggers, use the plugin Google Analyticator to easily install the Google Analytics tracking code.

One tip is that by looking at the exit paths of visitors, you can see which dealership pages should be tweaked to prevent people from bouncing from your site.

Often visitors end up on the site and look at particular vehicles – keep them engaged with other content to build a brand for the dealership. Next time they are think about what dealer to find their next vehicle, be top of mind!

Spy on Your Competitors

Find your biggest competitors by searching for your keywords in Google. Take the top results from there and spy on their backlinks. Copy your competitor’s URL and paste it in the yahoo search bar in this manner: link: pageurl -site:domain.com

This will show you the links that are pointing to this page so that you can attempt to improve upon them.

Put Your Website Everywhere

Get your dealership website URL known by doing a little “Guerilla Marketing”.

Some ideas: Give out business cards with an incentive for people to visit your dealer site on them and leave them everywhere. You can also get a decal of your URL for your dealership cars. Do whatever it takes to get people to your site!

Ask Your Customers for Feedback

Don’t be afraid to ask for opinions from people about what they think of your dealership site. Because the better you can create your site to be, the more visits you will get over time from repeat visitors. These visitors turn into sales and long term service customers!

Posted by Shawn Ryder

Canadian Grocery – Automotive Trends

May 16, 2020Digital Marketing, Sales 0

The automotive industry was already impacted by an unprecedented disruption before the coronavirus. We’ve seen shared mobility, driverless cars, and electric vehicles shake up the industry, so understanding how to adapt during difficult times is not a new challenge.

However, over the last couple of months, there has been a change in priority for people across Canada. According to Google people in early March were showing interest on dealerships – focusing on where to get cars, shopping for vehicles and checking out inventory.

Then around the 13th of March that all changed – quickly. For six weeks their main focus has been on basic necessities for everyday life – for example groceries. Where to go, how busy the stores are, and who has pick-up options.

Grocery Stores – Car Dealers Comparison – Canada

But as we adjust to things now – the interest level in dealerships has begun to grow again, while people are more familiar with grocery stores and the affect they have on every day.

Even though things are starting to focus on automotive – that doesn’t mean visiting the dealership. The new way of doing business will include virtual showrooms, online inventory, booking appointments and visiting customers. Digital is going to play a big part in the everyday for dealerhsips – understanding customer expectations, as well as the new ways people shop and buy, will be critical to success.

Posted by Shawn Ryder

What does Google Core Mean to Your Dealership?

May 16, 2020Digital Marketing, SEO 0

Google Core May 2020 Update

So, Google confirmed on May 4th that it is performing a core update to their algorithm, the second one in 202. What does this mean to your dealership web site?

Google is known for completing numerous algorithm updates on an annual basis but they are usually minor and search engine optimization (SEO) professionals usually don’t see much of a difference when it comes to search results for a client.

Search Engine Optimization professionals always need to pay very close attention when a core update is made public by Google on a regular basis. This is because it can certainly affect rankings and there will be a noticeable fluctuation in those rankings. While this affects everybody, it can certainly adjust rankings for all sites, including automotive.

Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the May 2020 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see this blog post for more about that:https://t.co/e5ZQUAlt0G

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) May 4, 2020

Automotive Industry Traffic Results

The automotive industry has also shown some significant results when it comes to traffic increase. In almost the entire world, the majority of modes of transportation are at a standstill. The pandemic event affects user behavior in terms of looking for transportation to get around.

Be that as it may, the update has been favorable to the sites for this industry. As you can see from the noticeable spike in traffic on May 5th, this site has also enjoyed a favorable appraisal from the algorithm broad core update.

Dealership SEO Tips

One of the worst things someone can do for their dealership is to be lazy with content + keyword strategy, not monitor and updating site content on a regular basis. When a dealership has a Search Engine Optimization strategy of ‘set it up and forget about it’ the core updates can really impact automotive rankings in a very negative way.

Here are some things that you can do to help with your web site rankings during this core update (and to prepare for others that will be coming):

Content will always hold the key to automotive success on Google. Make sure your web site content is up to date and relevant. This includes models, service, and local content to ensure that Google connects your dealership to the local market.
Take a look at your overall on-page web sites SEO strategies such as your page titles, meta descriptions, alt tags (image descriptions), and header tags on pages / posts.
Authentic link building strategies will also be helpful during this time. Which means links that are not obviously paid for as Search Engine leverage. Building links to your dealership site builds strong credibility and ensures that it becomes more recognized as an authority in the automotive industry.
Under the E-A-T approach which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. When raters view your content, Google will use this approach to better understand where and how to place your content. They want to know there is good content that is relevant to the viewer – meaning they find your site, look around and stay for a visit.

Google Core Updates SEO

Typically, Google Core Updates present some sort of challenge for SEO professionals and will inevitability cause them to do a pivot to different or more enhanced strategies. Since the May Core Update is still only a few days old – it is hard to tell what needs to be done right at this moment.

Google always aspires to not rank low-quality web sites. What matters most is whether a web page satisfies a user when they make any particular search query – either for a vehicle, service or dealership location.

Google doesn’t rank a web page because it’s on a high-quality site. It ranks a web page because it is relevant to the search intent of the individual conducting the search.

If your rankings are negatively impacting your brand, I suggest that you work on crafting content with a publishing plan and working on obtaining links to your website for a better holding position.

Posted by Shawn Ryder

How do Car Sales Use Social Media?

May 16, 2020Dealership Tips, Digital Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing 0

Car Sales and Social Media

As we all know – everybody wants the freshest and hottest lead for the dealership.

Salespeople have always had a very tough time generating new leads for themselves.

Long gone are the old school days when you could pick up the phone, make a few calls to reach a new prospect, and land a meeting at the dealership or test drive.

If you try cold calling today, it takes, on average, at least eight phone calls.

And when you reach them, do you know what happens? They don’t want to talk to you!

In fact, more than 90% of customers never respond to or buy from cold dealership calls. Given these challenges, how can we stand out? How can we generate more leads?

We do this through social selling at the dealership level.

What is Social Selling?

Social selling is when automotive salespeople use social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and even TikTok) to find and engage with new prospects.

Automotive Salespeople using social media to provide value to potential customers by answering questions, responding to comments, and sharing content throughout the buying process – from awareness to consideration until a customer is ready to buy a new or used vehicle.

Social Media Statistics

Just look at the sobering statistics related to social media usage.

Facebook: 2.3 billion users
YouTube: 1.9 billion users
Instagram: 1 billion users
Twitter: 329.5 million users
TIkTok: 800 million users

Car Sales are a Social Business

Everyone likely has a Facebook friend in the car business. When those in the market see salespeople in their Facebook news feeds, they become more familiar with them.

When they see a car salesperson repeatedly and they’re being genuine, they begin to see them as a friend and begin to really trust that salesperson. Eventually – and perhaps without ever actually meeting them – they see them as their friend in the car business; the one person they’re going to call the next time they need a new vehicle.

Today’s customer wants to find information fast, and they don’t want to come to the dealership to get it. That is where digital marketing and specifically social media come into play.

Dealers need to provide a wealth of data and engaging information to compete for their business.

If you don’t give them the information they are looking for, they will visit another dealership.

While there was once a time that you didn’t need a Facebook page and other social media accounts to compete, that time has long passed as we enter an ever more digital world.

Not only must you have active accounts, but you have to have engaging and valuable content.

Social Selling Defines Brand

With social selling, you get to decide exactly what your brand is and what it is not. Additionally, the more you repeat this brand message, the more it becomes a reality in the minds of prospects.

Strong automotive dealers have defined its brand as a group of honest, hardworking, yet fun salespeople looking to sell a few cars.

They’re community-minded and good people to know if you’re ever looking for a new vehicle. At least that’s what their social posts are saying about them. The dealership brand is exactly what you decide it is when you leverage real social selling.

Social Selling Produces Differentiation

Let’s say you’re a Volkswagen dealer in a highly competitive market. If all you want to do is get down in the mud on price while you spend thousands on Google every month to buy clicks to your website, then social selling is not for you. You believe that a Jetta is a Jetta is a Jetta.

With social selling, you can create differentiation between your brand of Volkswagen Jetta and your competitors’ brands. The trust and familiarity you build separate you from the other dealers in the same market. You still need to be priced competitively, but you no longer have to offer the lowest price every time to win the deal.

Social Selling Drives Buyers

Just as running a great “loss leader” in the Saturday print newspaper once drove ready potential customers to your dealership, so does great social selling today.

Whether you’re an individual salesperson creating your own brand on Social Media or the dealership’s social media manager. The key is building authentic content, stong familiarity, trust, and differentiation you’re creating puts you on the top of some car shoppers’ lists.

This means they’ll visit you first when they’re in the market for a vehicle. Giving you the first (and best) chance to sell them a vehicle.

Social Selling Helps Authenticity

With social selling, you create authenticity in advance of the dealership visit. This means – pay attention – that when someone in your network decides they want a new vehicle, they often come to you first before they spend hours shopping online. Before they find value and relevancy based on the interaction with social media.

They come to that dealership first because they trust. Being authentic. They want that dealership to help them find the right vehicle (relevancy) at a good price (value). In essence, this turns the transaction upside down and allows the dealership to make better grosses because the dealership defined what’s a good value.

Social Selling Next Steps

If you’re a sales manager or dealer principal and you’re spending any time at all trying to decide if social selling makes sense for your dealership or especially for your individual salespeople, the time has come to stop talking about it and start doing it.

If you have the experience and the resources, you are equally capable of creating a social media strategy for your dealership.

But, often working with a professional certainly can help to ensure that you will generate the best results. Meaning, less time spent on testing out different tactics hoping to uncover the one that moves the needle for your dealership.

Posted by Shawn Ryder

6 Ways to Get Traffic to your Dealership

May 16, 2020Automotive Marketing, Business, Dealership Tips, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, Local SEO 0

How do I get more traffic to my dealership?

The age-old question has always been “how do we get more appointments?” to just get them to the dealership. There has always been a thought process of just get them into the dealer, test drives a vehicle, and then have a good shot at selling them – with a turnover to the Sales Manager to close the deal. Times have certainly changed with the digital age – not counting on the recent Coronavirus but in the last few years of digital dealerships.

So with that here are six ways that I think we can look at for getting traffic – digital and in-person to your dealership!

#1 Social Media

Some dealers are still not comfortable with using social media to its full potential. Building trust for a dealership is certainly key in bringing folks to the dealership. One of the best and most relevant ways is to share your “story” on social media. This means building excitement and consistency in messages on social media. The platforms include Facebook, Instagram (including Instagram Stories), Twitter, and even the newest one TikTok.

For example – delivery pictures and having the customer tag themselves when appropriate – get them to share the picture. It is a strong message to have a customer show where they bought a car, what they bought, and by a simple picture of why they purchased from that dealership!

Another idea is to highlight your team members – people buy cars from people…. so doing something to differentiate from other dealerships on why their team should have a chance to earn the customers’ business.

#2 Targeted Email Campaigns

While a lot of dealers conduct mass email blasts to leads that were received or customers that had purchased. But taking it to another level will help drive specific traffic to your web site and in turn dealership. Using email platforms allows you to do custom lists that are generated from the names, interactions, and current status.

A dealership collects leads from various sources, new and used leads, then broken down to specific models.

Using strong email campaigns allows for targeting based on all of these factors. For example, if you have a manufacturer promotion on a particular model then you can target leads that had shown interest in that specific model. Then track the interaction they have with the email – taking it to the next level how they interact with the web site. So put a landing page on a web site with the promotion, a lead form and also track how the viewer goes through the web site – page by page and who they are specifically.

#3 Local Search Engine Optimization

Local SEO (Local Search Engine Optimization), sometimes referred to as local search engine marketing, is an incredibly effective way to market your local dealership online. It helps businesses promote their vehicles and services to local customers at the exact time they’re looking for them online in the local market.

This is achieved through a variety of methods, some of which differ greatly from what’s practiced in standard SEO, and some of which are far easier to manage using Local SEO tools and can require specific local Search Engine Optimization services.

Whereas anyone in the world with good enough SEO and authority can rank for a search query like “how to fix a blocked drain”. When the query has much more purchase intent behind it, it becomes “car dealers near me” or “best dealership in [specific location]”.

When building content for the dealership web site focuses on the models sold by the location, along with the local market. That way it helps Google connect that dealership with the models sold in the local market.

#4 Targeted Text Marketing

Text marketing campaigns may seem outdated to some, but they are an invaluable marketing tool for others. Last year, on average 456,000 Twitter tweets were sent every minute of the day. A pretty impressive number, isn’t it?

But it’s a measly looking figure next to the 15.2 million text messages that were sent every minute. And that doesn’t include app to app messaging!

Texting is the most effective direct marketing channel. It has the best engagement rates – and is a lot less annoying than a phone call. The open rate of text messages is as high as 99%, according to some reports. This is much higher than email marketing, which has an average open rate of 32%. Thanks to a lack of spam filter and the fact that people check their phones more obsessively than their email inbox, companies can yield a great return using text marketing campaigns.

One of the best ways to do this is to make sure you segment your audience so you can send them targeted messages. This way your texts are more likely to be welcomed by your customer and lead to a conversion.

#5 Local Citations

Local citations positively impact local search engine rankings for a dealership. The number of citations a dealer accrues, the accuracy of the data they feature, and the quality of the platforms they exist on all influence rankings. Search engines like Google amass data about each business. If what they encounter is accurate, the search engine trusts the validity of the data, which is believed to strengthen the dealerships’ chance of ranking well. However, if the data search engines encounter is inconsistent, this trust is eroded, lessening ranking opportunities.

Local citations either positively or negatively impact consumers. Accurate citations help people discover a local business, which can result in web, phone, and foot traffic, culminating in sales, and more service department customers. Inaccurate citations, however, can misdirect customers, leading to a loss of reputation and revenue.

#5 Google My Business

Google My Business is a free tool that lets you manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps. That includes adding your dealership name, location, and hours; monitoring and replying to customer reviews; adding photos; learning where and how people are searching for you, and more.

Google My Business doesn’t just make it easier for customers to find you physically, but digitally too. It can vastly improve your search visibility in Google.

Not to mention, when prospective customers are looking for local businesses, they are generally ready to make a purchase (or at the very least are highly interested in making a purchase).

Folks don’t Google, “dealerships in Toronto” to read a blog about vehicles… they do so because they’re looking for a vehicle and want to hand over their hard-earned money to whoever has the vehicles they are looking for in Toronto.

Add as much information and media as you can, including a dealership profile photo, the market you serve, your dealership hours, attributes (e.g. “wheelchair accessible,” “free wifi”), the day and year you opened, and a public phone number and obviously website URL.

According to Google, businesses with photos see 35% more clicks to their website and 42% higher requests for driving directions in Google Maps to get to the dealership.

#6 Dealership Reviews

Dealership reviews not only have the power to influence consumer decisions but can strengthen a company’s credibility. Dealer reviews have the power to gain customer trust, and they encourage people to interact with the sales and service departments. Customer interaction ultimately leads to improved profits for the dealership.

One of the best ways to encourage future customers to leave positive reviews? Respond to current ones. Not only does leaving an appreciate response show the original reviewer you’re thankful for their support. But it also makes that positive review stand out on your listing and influences people to leave their own reviews.

You should also respond to negative dealership reviews to show you take them seriously and placate the unhappy customer. But make sure you’re extremely courteous — attacking them back will only make you look unprofessional and their review more credible in the eyes of the reader.

Conclusion

I hope that this list helps you with some thought starters on how to drive more digital and foot traffic to your dealership. Tackling all of these can be difficult for sure so take it one step at a time. Obviously, if you need help with any of these subjects or ideas – contact me anytime!

Posted by Shawn Ryder

What is TikTok?

May 16, 2020Automotive Marketing, Digital Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing 2

What is TikTok?

Today we’re talking all about the app TikTok, which launched in 2016, and in 2018 the application gained popularity and became the most downloaded app in the USA.

TikTok is one of the most popular social media apps on the planet allowing users to upload 15-second videos that they can share with the world.

Trends include lip-syncing to an archive of popular songs dancing and collaborations allowing the user to do it with someone by replying to their video.

So look how does it work? Well it’s really simple you just download the app like what you
would any other platform and then create an account you’ll have to come up with some kind of user name. Really no different to Facebook, Instagram, or anything like that.

Watching TikTok Videos

Now once you’re logged in you can instantly start watching everybody’s videos and there are so so many videos on TikTok. This is one of the most random apps you’ll ever see. You open up the app on your phone and then it will take you to a 15-second video and that 15-second video will just loop.

If you swipe up it will take you to the next one, so on and so on and so on. There’s a bit of a lot o when it comes to what you’ll land on when you swipe up because it really could be anything.

What you see on TikTok

Now the more time you spend on the app the more you will tap into the algorithm so
we’ll start to show you videos that are related to stuff that you’ve liked and engaged with.

From an automotive perspective, there is a lot of content added on the platform – will highlight some of the well-done ones on here as well!

But apart from that it really is just a smorgasbord of weird creative amazing bizarre videos I’ve ever come across ok then let’s talk trends so look there are definitely trends on tick-tock and just to name a few there is the Adele trend.

There’s another one when you use a finger gun no lip-syncing is a huge part of tick-tock okay it’s what a lot of people use it for lip-syncing to a song or lip-syncing to a quote from a film.

There are also some really creative people on there are artists, there are people that dance. It’s just a really random app full of really random things so as a consumer there’s plenty of
content for you to sit there and watch.

But as a creator what can we do what kind of videos can we upload to TikTok now they make it incredibly easy to shoot edit and upload a video all within a few minutes.

TikTok Experience

There’s a huge archive of music to choose from and there are different video effects you can add to your footage but what’s it like to use this app as a Video Creator.

Well, I thought I’d find out now once, so opened an account I thought I’d upload my first video now I put no thought into this just to be really clear I literally uploaded the first video that I found on my phone and within a week of that video had over 50,000 of views.

Which was just insane to me but just as an example let’s compare tick-tock to YouTube okay I upload a 15-second video on my phone and it gets 50,000 views to look at the views on this video as an experiment okay but it’s nowhere near 50,000 views right getting that amount of views is actually really difficult.

I upload a video 15 seconds long which is just hanging around on my phone and I get
50,000 views so with the first video getting so many views are put on experiment and upload some more so in the last week I’ve uploaded six videos and as you can see they’ve had varying degrees of success.

TikTok – Facebook Videos

So my first video as I mentioned did pretty well it got fifty-nine thousand views I then uploaded two more videos that you would have seen on this channel before I used these as Facebook profile videos they didn’t do very well one only got 567 views the other one got
147.

I then uploaded another video that also did terribly 158 views and then uploaded another one that did pretty well that got over 7,000 views but then I created a video specifically for tick-tock the rest of these videos were just videos that I had sat on my and that video I used one of the trending hashtags it was the finger gun and that got over 23,000 views by being
on tick-tock, for just one week I managed to get there than 93,000 two views which

I’ve got to say I’m really impressed with tick-tock I guess to sum up you could say minimal effort maximum results if you’re looking to get eyes on your content and to grow a following quickly then honestly TikTok could be one of the easiest and quickest ways to do that.

Example Automotive TikTok Videos

@jamesonlikescarsShould I make a pt.2? ##videocall ##ButterGlossPop ##strengthtraining ##cars ##car ##cardealer ##luxurycar

♬ original sound – thepeepeepoopooboys

@hotnfresh4uTexas Check!! ##fyp ##foryou ##foryoupage ##texascheck ##denton ##texas ##cardealer ##cars ##trucks ##gmc ##SnickersFixTheWorld ##boss ##dealership ##texastiktok

♬ Paper Planes – Instrumental Hip Hop Beats Crew

@abrahamurcarfriendWhat brand of car is the best investment for you and your family? ##foryou ##fy ##foryoupage ##cardealer ##salesman ##toyota

♬ Patatak – mihnea.craciun

Posted by Shawn Ryder

Grocery Stores and Dealerships

May 1, 2020Customer Experience, Digital Marketing 0

Grocery Stores and Dealerships in Pandemic

We all know that the last couple of months have been extremely difficult for everybody, including the automotive industry.

Tracking the data that is provided for search from Google, it highlights how there has been a change in priorities for internet users. When you compare the relevant searches between Dealerships and Grocery Stores over the last 60 days or so it tells a story.

Middle of March

When you look at the United States Statistics and the Canadian Statistics they are almost exactly the same for the period. Around the middle of March, there was a switch in priorities for people.

Before dealerships were shown as more important when it came to search activity online. With the current pandemic thought it obviously shows that people were focused on the essential everyday items.

When it comes to automotive marketing it is a tough time for all dealers. Walking a fine line between pushing inventory, models, or manufacturer information and providing updates on the dealership.

The Automotive Future

This will obviously change over time but there is certainly time before anything drastic happens in the automotive industry. Keep an eye on the future, as we get through this pandemic. It will change the industry forever. There will be more focus on digital showrooms for dealers, an online finance process and arranging delivery.

Below you will see visuals of how the last 60 days has been between the two search categories. It starts off with automotive being key and then around the middle of March there was a sudden switch to the grocery industry.

Stick with digital retail and we will get through this on the other side. One highlight is that with digital retailing now when an appointment is set it is more likely that a lead is going to purchase.