Hilarious Ad Campaign From the Ron Tonkin Automotive Group in Portland, OR
May 4th, 2009
I found these ads this morning and figured they are viral enough to grab some traction. Traction anyone?
Share This2009 6th Digital Dealer Conference 4/19 - 4/20 Las Vegas, NV
April 15th, 2009
I’m arriving @ the 6th Digital Dealer Conference and Exposition on Sunday morning and am leaving Tuesday. Below are the sessions that I’m excited to see:
Sunday
12 - Duncan Scarry - Increase your Web Traffic 30% in 30 Days: I’ve had the opportunity to work with Duncan and his agency, Moore & Scarry. They are extremely progressive on the digital front and this session should offer some executable tips.
1:30 - General Session - Please God, What Does It Take To Sell a Car: With a title like that and Gilbert Chavez, Joe Webb, and Kim Clouse running the show, this should be educational, if not hilarious.
Monday
9:00 - Dale Pollack - Will You Survive or Thrive in the Used Car Superstore Era: Of all of the speakers at this year’s Digital Dealer, I am looking forward to this session above all others. I read Dale’s book Velocity a few weeks ago and completely agree with his approaches of inventory merchandising and management.
10:45 - Rafi Hamid - The Dealer’s Evolution - From Internet Department to an Internet Dealer: I always enjoy Rafi’s thoughts. Plus, he is a member of the vAuto juggernaut and I’m sold on their products.
1:30 - Pat Ryan - Are Your Online Vehicle’s ‘Consumer Optimized’?: Another inventory merchandising session. I believe that properly merchandising inventory across all channels is critical to a dealership’s success, hence why my days @ Digital Dealer will be spent in these sessions.
3:00 - Phil Sura - How Dealers Are Using Video to Drive Conversion on the Web Site and Driving Organic Results with Google Through VSEO: Whew! That title is a mouth-full. I’m interested in learning about any advancements in video search and hope that some hard data and success stories are shared in this one.
5:15 - Brian Pasch - SEO Survival Toolkit: I attended Brian’s SEO webinar last month and am interested to see what this session is going to be about.
What sessions are you going to be attending? If you want to meet up in or around the conference, give me a call on my cell @ 206-334-7495.
Share ThisDirectory of Retail Automotive Social Networks
April 15th, 2009
I was inspired by a recent post by Paul Rushing regarding social networks in the retail automotive community. Below is a short list of these communities + my pages (in case you want to be connected through another social network):
DrivingSales.com - I’m Patrick Workman on DrivingSales (and in real-life). No direct links to profiles
AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com - My Profile: http://www.automotivedigitalmarketing.com/profile/PatrickWorkman
DealerRefresh Forum - This is a new forum with loads of quality info: http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/members/patrick-workman/
SellingIron.com - My Profile: http://www.sellingiron.com/profile/PatrickWorkman
AutoDealerPeople.com - My Profile: http://www.autodealerpeople.com/profile/PatrickWorkman
Car Dealer Social Network - My Profile: http://autodealers.ning.com/profile/3w0y42vn6avax
KainAutomotive Idea Exchange - My Profile: http://kainautomotiveideaexchange.ning.com/profile/PatrickWorkman
Are there any that I missed? If so, share!
Share ThisNew Hyundai Ad from FunnyOrDie - NOT REAL!
April 13th, 2009
Consumers Don’t Trust Your Dealership - Building Online Relationships to Break Down Barriers
April 6th, 2009
Let’s face reality…
Google ‘Car Salesman’ and this is the first image that pops up:
This is how a majority of consumers feel about you and your dealership.
No one wakes up early on a Saturday morning with a HUGE smile on their face excited to spend their day off at your dealership…no matter what event or promotion is happening.
No one wants to see or hear your TV, radio, or newspaper campaign. The noise created through these channels is the reason why the Internet has taken off. You use a Tivo/DVR to record TV, your iPod to listen to music in your car, and you’ve canceled your newspaper subscription. Your customers have done the same. Don’t kid yourself…
You have a website (effective or ineffective?), you subscribe to multiple 3rd party lead generation services (AutoTrader, Cars.com, Dealix; what is working today?), and get leads from the marketing efforts of whatever franchise your dealership represents. A name, email address, and telephone number are provided with (maybe?) a vehicle of interest and a hope and prayer that they will hear back from a professional that will give them the information they’ve asked for. They are contacting you because they’ve hit a dead-end online. They’ve drummed up enough information to get to this point, now they are ready to take the plunge into your dealership for a test drive, product pitch, comparison, or professional advice outside of cyberspace.
You’re going to (hopefully?) provide each and every prospect that the information they’ve requested in a timely manner. Some of you will answer a prospect’s questions out-of-the-gate, others will use practices that have proven to be effective in generating interest through elusive questioning that will eventually compel the prospect to come into your dealership for some good old-fashioned face-to-face interaction. Most of these interactions will be recorded and noted through a CRM/ILM tool that will monitor your dealership’s activity with this client until they’ve purchased something from you, someone else, or have let you know that they are no longer interested.
You aren’t the only dealership the prospect is talking to. Often times they have shotgunned their contact information out to multiple dealerships with similar requests. In most cases, you are using the same CRM/ILM tool as your competition and your customer is receiving the same auto-generated emails from you as they are from other dealerships in the area.
You are a car salesman. Consumers do not trust you or your dealership unless they know or have experience working with you or your dealership. The reason prospects have contacted you through email vs a phone call vs face-to-face is because they don’t want to have to go through the pain of showing up at your dealership only to experience a scene out a Hitchcock film, sales vultures circling around, waiting for the next piece of fresh meat.
The question lies…HOW DO I BUILD A RELATIONSHIP WITH MY PROSPECTS IN ORDER TO BUILD TRUST?
It’s time to start utilizing the same relationship channels as your customers to build trust. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have given us the ability to break down barriers through faceless interaction online. Your customers are using these online services to build relationships and you should leverage this vehicle to do the same.
A few weeks ago, I was speaking with Tracy Myers of Frank Myers Auto Maxx about how he is using social networking to build his dealership’s brand and sales departments. He spoke of a recent example of a 22 year old woman that was at his dealership, looking for a car with a friend. This woman seemed to be scared to death being at his store, so much so that she took off during the initial pencil and ran away. The salesperson in this case only got the girl’s name. Having no email address or telephone number to reconnect with this prospect, Tracy did a search on MySpace, found the girl, and sent an email letting her know that he was there to help and wanted to answer any questions she might have regarding the car buying process. The woman immediately opened up through this channel. The barriers had been broken and after a few emails back-and-forth through MySpace, she came in and purchased a car.
Eric Miltsch of Auction Direct USA feels that using social networking as a way to connect with customers has been underestimated. The idea of connecting via a computer is still fairly new, but it is another tool like the telephone, email, or snail mail to interface with your customers. Your dealership could be wasting as much time on the phone as they are on email or social networking. Don’t be scared of the tools. The key is being efficient with everything in your toolbox to crank out information and quality content that people like.
The key is using social media to spread the good word of your dealership and change the way people buy and service cars through a different style of marketing and self-promotion. Do you have any examples of your dealership using social networking or any of the above practices to build relationships with your community or customers?
Share ThisTrying Out BudURL
March 22nd, 2009
I first heard of BudURL during a webinar hosted by Brian Pasch a few weeks ago. After using TinyURL since I started shrinking URLs, I like the idea of being able to track where and when people are clicking on the URLs that I’m placing around the web.
Signing up for an account was quick, easy, and free. Do it yourself here: http://budurl.com/?register/AccountPlanFree
Are you using BudURL? What do you think?
Share ThisWhy I Don’t Blog
March 21st, 2009
I’ve been a bad blogger recently. It’s not as if I have no interest in blogging, it’s more of a time and value thing for me.
I’ve started to use Twitter on a regular basis and have been broadcasting thoughts and ideas daily. I like having the ability to post in less than 140 characters to communicate. Quick, simple, easy information flow.
My efforts on Twitter have become much more conversational than any of my efforts in the blogosphere. In order for a conversation to develop on this blog, someone needs to find it, read an article, and feel compelled to post a comment with feedback or information. Too many hoops are involved in this online circus to make conversations a reality.
Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg, posted this comment yesterday and it pretty much summed up my feelings about blogging:
‘is personal blogging dead? w/my facebook page/twitter, I’m not sure I need a blog anymore.. thoughts?’
With the numerous channels of communication available to broadcast what I am doing, thinking, or saying, blogging has fallen off my radar. My interest in being an online publisher of ideas has moved beyond a single URL that hosts my thoughts and shifted to Twitter.
Anyone else feeling the same way about blogging? Has the script been flipped?
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