Last updated 3 months ago
It can be hard to keep track of everything that happens in a week. That’s why we endlessly roam the Internet in search of some of the most interesting stories from the automotive and social media industries – so you don’t have to. Take a look at what we’ve found this week:
What a 4 Million Dollar Super Bowl Ad Could Buy in Digital
“TV ads during the Super Bowl are expensive: $4 million for 30 seconds of media to be precise, and that’s before paying for things like production costs, agency fees and celebrity endorsements. They do, however, allow advertisers to reach over 100 million viewers at a single time – and be part of the cultural zeitgeist. The digital industry regularly complains it doesn’t see the level of big brand investment TV does, so we thought it’d be interesting to figure out how far $4 million would go in the world of digital advertising…”
7 Keys to Insanely Happy Customers in the Social Media Era
“They may have yelled before, but now they have megaphones. Whether they’re bashing or praising your products and your brand, customers are online and louder than ever. And right now, they’re on forums, review sites, Facebook and Twitter, sending out thousands of uncensored opinions – that could have major consequences…”
Why You Need to Treat Your Social Media Strategy Like Your Content Strategy
“In a typical organization, the social media tweets away in one department while the content writers toil away in another. The social team links to fresh content, sure… and that’s about the extent of their interactions. But, at the end of the day, what you post and share on social media is content, and it’s time we start treating our social postings with the same about of gravity as we do our content…”
How to Give Good Customers Bad News
“What happens when you make a promise to your customers, and then discover that your promise will be impossible to keep? Many years ago, my boss at The Danbury Mint had placed an ad in Smithsonian Magazine for a 1934 Packard Speedster model car. Far beating all expectations, 5,000 people ordered the car. The problem was that the supplier he hired couldn’t make the car to our standards. We were advertising precision die-cast models, and they were making cheap toys…”
8 Ways to Instantly Improve the Quality of Your Marketing Content
“The need to create high-quality content has put many marketers in a difficult situation: high-quality content takes a long time to create, and many just don’t have the time to do it. While it’d be nice to say, ‘tough noogies, find the time,’ that’s neither realistic nor helpful. So instead, I’ve opted to brainstorm a list of very quick things that don’t add much time to your content creation process, but will instantly elevate the quality of the content you create…”
The Path to Social Media Success in 2013: A 12-Month Plan [Infographic]
“Often, the best way to reach a huge goal is to break it down into small, less intimidating goals. To help small businesses tackle the daunting task of developing a social media presence (without feeling overwhelmed), Intuit has created a ‘Path to Social Success in 2013’ infographic. The 12-month plan divides the goal of achieving social success into quarters, each focusing on a specific goal…”
Last updated 3 months ago
Twitter is a vital part of your dealership’s digital marketing mix. But what about your customer sales funnel? Your sales and service teams could be using Twitter to find new customers, drive traffic, and steal market share from the competition. All it takes is a little organization and some solid research skills. Read our Twitter tips below:
Share Great Content
Are you using Twitter to drive traffic to your dealership’s website? Then you need to create and share content that speaks to your customers. Look for ways to mix articles and blog posts from your dealership’s website with other news stories, events, and community or industry content from others.
Leverage Hashtags
Are your customers using specific keywords when talking about your dealership’s vehicles or service department? What topics are your customers tweeting about most frequently when they search for a new vehicle or service center? Determine the topics that are of most interest to your customers, and use the appropriate hashtag when sharing content to ensure it gets found. A quick Twitter search, or visit to WhatTheTrend or Hashtags.org can help you to determine which hashtags have the most volume, while Trendsmap lets you see what’s trending in your location.
Build Lists
Building Twitter lists is a great way to listen effectively and find potential leads for your dealership. We recommend creating a list for prospects, competitors, industry news, community and customers.
Prospects: These are people in your city who have recently mentioned needing a new car, tweeted about bad service from a competitor, or have requested information from your dealership.
Competitors: Use this list to keep track of auto dealerships in your area and other OEMs. Monitor their tweets to understand how the competition is using Twitter to engage with their customers. Pay special attention to the type of tweets that get the most responses or retweets – that could be something that would work well for your audience, too.
Industry News: What are others in the automotive industry talking about, and who are they talking to? Use this list to stay abreast of new trends and information. You may find a few articles that you’d like to retweet to your dealership’s audience.
Community: Be on the lookout for new events in your community to share with your target audience. Not only will your dealership be seen as a good source for happenings in your area, your retweets, comments, and shares can help you to build relationships with other influencers in your city.
Customers: Encourage your customers to follow your dealership on Twitter - and when they do, add them to your ‘Customers’ Twitter list. Build loyalty and customer satisfaction by continuing to engage with your best customers post-sale.
Twitter is more than a marketing tool. It’s also a great way to monitor customer feedback and discover new prospects. Is your dealership using Twitter to engage potential consumers? Share your tips in the comments below.
Last updated 3 months ago
We all make mistakes. Even the most well-managed dealerships can have their fair share of slip ups. While it’s difficult to prevent mistakes altogether, it is possible to prevent an error from having a costly financial effect on your dealership – handled effectively, you may even be able to make a mistake pay off. Here’s how:
Search for Complaints
You can’t fix a problem you don’t know is there, which is why you should scour review sites and social networks for customer complaints, and do all you can to resolve them. However, if you can’t find any negative reviews, that doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have any unhappy customers. Do your best to encourage feedback from consumers at your dealership – not only will this help to alleviate potential gripes online, but also potentially form the basis of a strong, long lasting relationship. By actually searching for customer complaints (and making it easy for them to share their feedback) you’re showing customers you care about their experience, ultimately making them more forgiving should an error occur.
Respond Positively
If a customer does say you’ve made a mistake, listen thoughtfully and respond in a positive way. Apologize for the error and ask what you can do to make it right. Quickly determine what the customer needs fixed, and do all that’s in your power to fix it. That means empowering your sales and service staff to be able to solve problems for customers and teaching them to respond proactively and with empathy.
Make it Right
Do your best to resolve any issues as quickly as possible. The more efficiently a business is able to correct an error, the more likely the customer is going to be satisfied with the outcome – and even recommend that business to friends and family members. That means your dealership needs to have a process in place for implementing solutions. If a member of your sales or service team cannot solve the problem immediately, ensure that staff are aware of how to quickly escalate an issue up the chain of command to find an appropriate resolution.
Evaluate Your Processes
After making things right for the customer, it’s important to learn from the situation and ensure that the same mistake won’t happen again. Repeating the same mistakes undermines the goodwill built up by resolving the issue. It’s important that your dealership is able to identify and fix the root cause of the problem, rather than just the symptoms, to keep your customers happy and continue to build loyalty.
It costs more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. Therefore it’s more important than ever that your dealership continues to work on making your customers happy. How does your dealership overcome your mistakes and work to delight consumers? Share your tips in the comments below.
Last updated 4 months ago
It can be hard to keep track of everything that happens in a week. That’s why we endlessly roam the Internet in search of some of the most interesting stories from the automotive and social media industries – so you don’t have to. Take a look at what we’ve found this week:
How to Retain Trust in Your Brand
“Trust in business is at its highest point since 2007, according to the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer, but it remains fragile and businesses must use their corporate bran reputation as well as product brands to strengthen trust… To become more trusted organizations businesses should develop programs that fulfill a societal need at the same time as selling more products…”
The Ultimate Guide to Cross-Channel Campaign Management
“In early 2012, Forrester launched a report on a new category – cross channel campaign management (CCCM) – that is transforming the marketing landscape. We know it’s a bit of a mouthful, but the concept is sound and promises to give marketers what they’ve always been waiting for: reduced cost-per-acquisition, higher customer conversions, and comprehensive customer profiling across the entire media mix…”
Content Marketing Made Easy: 7 Blog Post Formats You Can Copy
“While there’s no arguing with the fact that content marketing appears to be the ‘go to’ promotional strategy for digital marketers in 2013, that doesn’t mean that it’s easy! …if you’re feeling burned out and stumped for new content ideas, consider the following blog post formats. Each of these template structures provides a basic outline for a blog post or guest post style that should help you to minimize the struggle associated with regularly turning out great content…”
8 Ways to Brand Yourself on YouTube
“How do you develop a brand on YouTube? It definitely takes more than just an awesome logo. Why is branding important? You want to give people something familiar and recognizable in which to attach your content so that viewers will likely want to check out all of your other videos and ones that you upload in the future. It makes you easier to find, and trust…”
5 Social Media Habits to Make this Year
Over the past year, I’ve experimented with social media in a number of ways… I wrote about promoting your brand on Pinterest and how to raise your Klout score. Along the way, I learned some key lessons about keeping the social media fires burning…”
26 Tips for Getting Started with Social Media Marketing
“Are you looking to get started with social media marketing? Do you want to reexamine how you’ve been using social networks? In this post, I’ll cover 26 tips, an A-Z guide, to help you understand the backbone of successful social media strategies...”
Last updated 4 months ago
Writing great content can help your dealership to reach new customers online. Whether shared on social networks or optimized for the search engines, your dealership’s content marketing efforts have the power to engage consumers, build loyalty and drive revenue. Of course, first your content needs to get found. Here are 3 tips to ensure your content marketing efforts are seen by your customers:
Ensure your content brainstorming includes keyword research.
Creating content for your dealership takes a lot of time and effort. So when you do decide to write a new article for your website or social media channels, you’ll want to ensure it’s about a topic that’s going to drive traffic to your website. When brainstorming ideas for blog, be sure to do some keyword research to verify whether or not potential customers are searching for your proposed topics. Google’s Keyword tool is a good way to see the total number searches done for a specific term, or find similar keywords that may reach a larger audience.
Create content that people want to share.
This is obviously easier said than done. However, there are a few things to keep in mind should you want to inspire your target audience to share your latest blog post, video or infographic. Write content that’s helpful, funny, informative, or all of the above – these are some of the main reasons that people share articles with others on social media. Think of a list of topics that would appeal to your target audience, and brainstorm ways to leverage those articles on social channels to build a deeper connection with your customers.
Write articles that compliment your brand.
Your content should relate to your brand. That means, as a dealership you should regularly write articles on topics relevant to automobiles, driving, vehicle maintenance or events in your local community. You want to ensure that you’re getting relevant traffic – or, visitors who are actively searching online for car sales or service options. In order to reach a captive audience of relevant customers you need to target your content to those consumers.
Content marketing is a vital part of your dealership’s digital marketing strategy. To be successful, you need to balance writing for the search engines with writing for your customers. The pairing of valuable keywords, with interesting and relevant content is what will ultimately make your content strategy a success.
Does your dealership have a content marketing strategy? Share how you leverage your content to reach new customers online in the comments below.
