Apps To Drive Automotive Consumers Into Your Dealership

Seven Apps That Drive More Automotive Consumers To Your Dealership Website

Seven Apps that Will Steer More Drivers to Your Automotive  Website and Customers Into Your Showroom...

Originally Written and Posted by Chelsea Hejny 

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When people start looking for a car repair shop or are trying to decide where to buy their next car, it's a given that they want a place they can trust. If you're looking to build your brand as one of the good guys, a great place to start is on your Facebook Page. Why Facebook? Because on Facebook you can offer a unique experience to current and potential customers.

Check out some of these app ideas that will make your Page a new-customer magnet, and make you look like the Honest Abe of automotive repair and sales (which we assume you are, of course!).

3 Apps That Will Make Your Reputation Shine

 1. Customer Reviews

According to a Zendesk-sponsored survey, 90 percent of consumers who responded to the survey said that "positive online reviews influence buying decisions." Are you using an app to let the world know what your customers think of you? If your automotive business has great reviews, put them out on the social networks for all potential new customers to see. They're gonna search for them anyway, so you might as well make them easy to find. (And it wouldn't hurt to leave some less than glowing reviews, if you have any, on your Facebook Page. Why? Customers are also looking to see how you deal with difficult clients so make sure you respond to criticism.) Check out how Laird Noller Automotive Dealer in Lawrence, Kan. uses a review app to let future potential customers know what existing customers think:

 2. Question App

Create an app for your Facebook Page that allows users to ask simple automotive questions or advice. If you're able to spend the time to give free information or advice with no strings attached, it will make you look like one of the good guys. While you're at it, give your Facebook visitors a quote for services they would receive at your shop, or a recommendation for a specialist – even if it's not your place. This small up-front investment may just win you a customer for life. Here's an example of how you might use a question app (Milluh's Auto Shop is not a real business):

 3. Charity app

If you were given the choice between patronizing two different establishments, and one was doing something great for the community and the other wasn't, where would you choose to spend your money? Probably the one that is making a positive impact on your community. The Dolan Auto Group in Reno, Nev. is an example of an automotive business that is continually working to make Reno a better place. For example, with their Class Project event the business offers a cash reward to local schools, based on the votes that various schools get using the app example here:

 4 Apps That Will Attract New Business

 1. Product Promotion app

If you want to show off your inventory — new and used — and highlight special features of some of your products, a product promotion app is ideal. Jim Sigel Automotive, which is based in Grants Pass, Ore. uses a detailed app (just part of it is visible below) to show off new arrivals, but they've also included a quick survey that asks customers about their favorite features, and include a video and some other fun facts about the new Chevy Silverado truck. If you want to check out the app, click here.

 2. Giveaway app

A great way to get people interested in your shop is to give stuff away for free. Host an "enter to win" sweepstakes or giveaway in which users will be required to Like your Page in order to enter the promotion. As with some other apps, this is a little bit of an investment on your part, but if you can get the customer in your shop and earn their trust, you may have a customer for life. Check out what Mills Motors in E. Oshawa, Ontario has going. Mills is a Canadian business so their giveaway is for hockey store gift card (of course!).

 3. Fan-gated Coupon app

Sometimes simplicity is the best way to get people to engage with your brand. If they stumble upon your Facebook Page and discover they can get 20 percent off an oil change or maybe a discount on a brake check for simply Liking your Page, chances are you'll get more bites. Offering a coupon instead of an Enter to Win may get more people in the door to give your repair shop a try. In this example, Allparts Automotive in London, UK, offers up a 20 percent off coupon for their fans to use in stores.

 4. "Request an Appointment" app

if someone's in the market to get an alignment or a new timing belt, they find your Facebook Page and see you stellar reviews, community involvement, and a discount coupon, why not seal the deal right then and there? Add a "Book your appointment" app to your Facebook Page and stop them from looking further. Here's an example of how Christian Brothers Automotive, with shops all around the south and midwest, uses an appointment app on their Facebook Page. Users go into the app and then select their their location and then request an appointment time.

Are you in the automotive business? Have you used apps on your Facebook Page? Which ones have brought business through your door? We'd like to know!

[Sent from Ralph Paglia's iPad Mini]

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http://AutomotiveSocial,com. 

Restore The Luster To Automotive Digital Marketing

Once, automotive digital marketing was the gold standard by which all other industries built their marketing strategies. Due to the economic downturn, the automotive industry has been in a rut in recent years, but that is changing. A survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers reveals that 44 percent of automotive CEOs are optimistic about the global economy, yet only 39 percent say their organizations are prepared for this upsurge. The Local Solutions team here at Cox Media Group believes that the industry is entering a third wave of growth — and automotive digital marketing will be at the heart of this resurgence. To maximize opportunities to increase revenue, here are some best practices to consider.

lEvaluate What's Working — and What's Not

Automotive digital marketing has gone through rapid change over the last few years, which means the things that brought your dealership success before may not be as effective now. It can be challenging to stay on top of the new trends and incorporate them accordingly. Our Local Solutions team saw this in action when we were asked to help a Seattle Chevrolet dealership. The dealership's strategy included local television spots and search engine marketing (SEM) but was lacking targeted display and mobile device targeting. Digital display and mobile targeting have grown to be crucial tools for reaching local customers. The Pew Research Center's 2013 study confirms that 93 percent of smartphone owners use their phones to go online, so if your automotive digital marketing plan overlooks mobile, consider it incomplete. Further,eMarketer points out that a 2013 Nielsen survey revealed that 48 percent of U.S. marketers said multiscreen advertising was "very important" to their marketing efforts in 2013, and a full 88 percent expect it to be very important in 2016.

Put Social Media at the Wheel

Smart marketers understand that traditional marketing, although still a large part of your marketing plan, needs to coexist with online content you share with prospective car buyers. With its Hummingbird algorithm, Google has made it clear that content is king, transforming what kind of content is acceptable to yield higher SEO rankings. We leveraged SEO and social media strategies to help a Tampa-based dealership improve its online presence to combat decreased foot traffic and stand out against competitors in a busy local market. By integrating Google+, Facebook and YouTube into its social media portfolio and investing in more relevant SEO keywords, the dealership saw a 48 percent increase in organic search results, getting their inventory in front of more car buyers in the area.

Automotive News reported on an executive panel at its World Congress in Detroit earlier this year. The overwhelming message from this gathering of marketing experts was "digital first." If the leading car brands are making automotive digital marketing a top priority, local dealerships should follow suit. Doing so will give you the ability to drive new leads and enjoy new revenue streams as the auto industry comes roaring back.

[Sent from Ralph Paglia's iPad Mini]

http://RalphPaglia.com 

http://AutomotiveSocial.com 

Great Quote from Henry Ellis:

"All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on."

- Henry Ellis.

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Ralph Paglia | President 
Automotive Media Partners, LLC 

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VEGAS Magazine Cover

[Sent from Ralph Paglia's iPhone]

Ralph Paglia | President 
Automotive Media Partners, LLC 

W www.ADMPC.com

W www.dealerELITE.net

http://RalphPaglia.com 

http://DigitalRalph.com 

http://LinkedIn.com/in/RPaglia

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Twitter and Instagram: @RalphPaglia 

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Are you guilty of driving while blind?

Check out "Ten Marketing Statistics Recently Released That Car Dealers Should Review" on Automotive Digital Marketing ProCom

Automotive Digital Marketing ProCom Professional Community for Car Dealers, Automotive Marketers and Sales Managers Ralph Paglia What do you think about this ADM Blog post titled 'Ten Marketing Statistics Recently Released That Car Dealers Should Review' ? Lots of data in this article... ADM Blog posted by Ralph Paglia: New Digital Marketing Statistics for Automotive Marketing Professionals Released Over Past Ten Days... Highlights include a user milestone... ADM Blog post link: Ten Marketing Statistics Recently Released That Car Dealers Should Review About Automotive Digital Marketing ProCom ADMPC is a Network for Car Dealers, Automotive Marketing, Advertising and Management Pros sharing Digital Strategies and Execution Tactics. 8959 members 12977 photos 955 songs 4234 videos 2856 discussions 585 Events 8762 blog posts   To control which emails you receive on Automotive Digital Marketing ProCom, click here

Facebook Follows "No Free Lunch" Trend Set by Google and Yahoo

 

 

 

Before You Break Up with Facebook, Remember a Lesson from Search

Yahoo and Google Also Started Out Free for Advertisers

Published: April 16, 2014

The internet is ablaze with chatter of how Facebook is "backstabbing" advertisers and "corroding" the relationships between brands and the followers they have worked so hard to attain. Between Eat24's heartfelt breakup letter to Facebook and Nate Elliot's "told you so" article on Forrester's blog, many companies and commentators have very publicly voiced their opinion on Facebook's decision to limit organic reach and drive marketers to paid advertising.

But before you sever your social marketing ties with Facebook, take a second and review the situation. Facebook isn't necessarily backstabbing marketers (although it is trying to make money). Instead, the social network is simply growing up and going down the natural path of marketing evolution -- one that we've already seen with search.

It happened before
As former VP-search at Yahoo, I saw a similar pattern a decade ago. As part of their initial go-to-market plans, Yahoo and Google both offered free traffic for a limited time to business sites. As a result, Yahoo and Google were able to improve and refine the relevance of search while simultaneously building a large and loyal user base. Once they achieved this, both companies monetized their large audiences by offering advertising through Yahoo Overture and Google Adwords.

Businesses that initially enjoyed completely free site traffic had to start competing in paid search ads as well as search engine optimization in order to maintain position. Today, businesses understand that investing in paid search and SEO are necessary to drive relevant traffic to their sites. More recently, Google increased its focus on the quality of content in paid and organic search. When companies try to game the system with generic, bland content or excessive links, their rankings and traffic drop. If you want to keep rankings or traffic high, you have to pay attention to its criteria, pay to stay on top in sponsored links and keep up with SEO.

Facebook is protecting quality
We're witnessing the same process underway at Facebook, so don't take it personally. Facebook is not targeting or attacking the businesses it spent so many years cultivating -- it's just the natural evolution in marketing. There are now 1.3 billion people actively logging into Facebook every month, and similar to Google's and Yahoo's go-to-market strategies, Facebook has spent the last few years getting businesses hooked on the free traffic.

However, Facebook realizes that the value of traffic depends on the quality, not quantity, of content. There are many reasons people "like" or become a fan of a business page. Perhaps you are a loyal consumer. In many cases though, you probably liked a page for the chance to win a convertible, a free vacation or another one-off giveaway. This means that you don't want to always see offers or promotions from that brand. Without some boundaries, the current technique of spamming fans would eventually annoy users, driving down engagement and conversion for the business and Facebook.

Facebook targeting is evolving
Now that Facebook is prioritizing relevance, the ability to use predictive social analytics to identify quality content is more critical than ever before. The old method of inundating fans with multiple offers is no longer effective. Businesses must focus on messaging that their audience cares about.

But how do you know what your audience cares about? The answer is simple -- they tell you! Social media is a cornucopia of public information -- particularly facts about people's personal lives. Moreover, Facebook's recent implementation of hashtags and Instagram acquisition make it easier for companies to use predictive social analytics to identify hot leads, increasing the chance for conversion. From "#itsaboy" announcements to "#ihateapple" rants, consumers constantly tell businesses what they want (or don't want). Brands can then predict buying behavior based on these announcements of definitive events or personal preferences that require specific products or services.

The lesson of the story is: Don't let a few jaded commentators convince you that all hope is lost and don't let a few evolutionary marketing changes cause you to break up with Facebook. Instead, work to keep the relationship strong and effective by understanding the changes and adapting your strategy.

Or you could try taking a page out of Eat24's PR playbook. Its breakup letter may have gotten the company more attention than any of its previous campaigns. But there may be diminishing returns that way.

Copyright © 1992-2014

 Crain Communications |

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Video Marketing Generate Increased Visitor to Lead Conversion Rates by Over 60 Percent

According to a recent Aberdeen ROI report, 95% of best in class marketers are using video as part of their content marketing mix. These marketers are seeing an average 4.8% website conversion rate with video versus 2.9% conversion rates for marketers that are not using video as part of their mix. Best-in-class firms are not only more likely to incorporate video into their content mix, but companies using video are also more effective in their content marketing and report better performance on a number of key metrics. Sign up and we'll send you a copy of the latest report from Aberdeen "ROI of Video Marketing" on how global marketers are thinking about their content marketing and video strategy this year. This webinar will cover: •  Content marketing trends from the past year •  Steps to amp up your 2014 Content Marketing strategy •  Real-world brand examples of how leading marketers are using video to convert more site     visitors into revenue SPEAKERS:

Steve Rotter VP Marketing Brightcove Trip Kucera VP Content Solutions Aberdeen

Advertising Age, 685 Third Avenue New York, NY 10017-4036

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Ralph Paglia and Subi Ghosh at Internet Sales 20 Group #IS20G

Build Dealership Website Forms to Autofill Facebook User Profile Data

Pre Fill A Form With Users Facebook Data

This is a step-by-step tutorial for allowing you to pre-fill a form on your website with user's Facebook data such as his email, name, address, etc.

In order to get the user's Facebook data, the user has to be logged in your website with his Facebook account.

You need your Facebook app credentials (App ID and App Secret). 

If you don't have a Facebook app registered or you don't know what that means, go to facebook.com/developers (I assume you already have a Facebook account) and click on "Set Up New App" and follow the wizard.

Important: make sure you filled "Site URL" and "Site Domain" with your infos. You are given an App ID and an App Secret that we will be using in step 2.

Facebook API call

We are using the Facebook PHP SDK (see on github) to deal with authentication and make API calls.

require "facebook.php";    $facebook = new Facebook(array(      'appId'  => '...',      'secret' => '...',  ));    $user = $facebook->getUser();    if ($user) {    try {      $user_profile = $facebook->api('/me');    } catch (FacebookApiException $e) {      $user = null;    }  }  

The form

<?php if ($user): ?>      <form action="#" method="get">          <input type="text" name="name"              value="<?php echo $user_profile['name'] ?>">          <input type="submit" value="Continue &rarr;">      </form>      <a href="<?php echo $facebook->getLogoutUrl() ?>">          Logout of Facebook      </a>  <?php else: ?>      <a href="<?php echo $facebook->getLoginUrl() ?>">          Login with Facebook      </a>  <?php endif ?>

[Sent from Ralph Paglia's iPad]

505.301.6369

SEO with Google's New Hummingbird Semantic Search Algorith

Do Keywords Matter in Google's Hummingbird World?

by Ray Larson

Rolled out in late 2013, the Google search engine Hummingbird delivers answers instead of educated guesses. Powered by semantic search, results are returned based upon an understanding of what users are looking for—rather than a rank order of approximate answers based on keywords and Boolean parameters.

Implicit in Google's new methodology are significant changes for how marketers approach search engine optimization (SEO) and keywords. Now, every marketer needs to ask themselves: Do keywords even matter?

To answer that question, let's add some context (Hummingbird's specialty). First, we'll dig a little deeper into the concept of semantic search. Then we'll walk through five key takeaways for content creators and search marketers.

Semantic Search Explained

Semantic search is precisely interpreting the meaning among words in a search query. For a long time, that capability was just a distant hope. Instead, for years, Google and other search providers relied on keywords and links to determine the best answer to return for a specific search. Answers were returned rank-ordered as approximations based upon matched keywords on a website and the number of links to that site (with links seen as a "vote" of trust on the website's trust and authority).

Thus, keywords and links became the "virtual currency" of the pre-Hummingbird search economy. All search marketers know how that eventually worked out: Search engine results pages were polluted with misleading results, leading to websites with thin content and providing an unsatisfactory experience to the user.

How Hummingbird Results Are Different

Hummingbird makes the SEO tricks that caused the previously described mess too expensive to pursue. Instead, Hummingbird eliminates guesswork and capably interprets queries with associations. The words surrounding your keywords are now more precisely interpreted. The search engine is better able to discern the relationships between words and thus the context and the user's intent, delivering a much more relevant search result.

Here's an example to illustrate how semantic search works. Let's say a user typed in the question, "How do I fix the gas furnace in my home?" In past years the search engine bots would have honed in on the words "gas furnace" and "home." The results in the SERPs might have included gas furnace distributors, parts, and maybe repairmen.

With Hummingbird, however, a user gets exactly what he or she needs: tips on troubleshooting, "how to repair" (rather than "fix"), and even a YouTube video my wife will love (she's the handyman in our house). There's not a repairman in sight in the organic listings, though the smart repair firms advertised their services via pay-per-click advertising in case my wife can't finish the job.

Hummingbird understands the relationships among topics, themes, and videos, and how they relate to each other. Insufficient or inaccurate queries have a much higher probability of returning the desired result whether by design or accident (called "serendipity" by semantic search expert David Amerland).

With Hummingbird's more sophisticated capability to understand words, their meanings, and their relationships within a query, now marketers can include related words and synonyms.

The result: Keyword stuffing and keyword density need to be dropped from the lexicon of search marketers and SEOs.

So, Are Keywords Dead?

How does this sophisticated understanding of search queries by Google affect search marketers and content creators? Does an emphasis on user intent rather that keywords mean keywords are dead from an optimization perspective?

Here are five key points to address the question.

1. Keywords are now the tools used to discover and uncover user intent. All the words in a query are now important. Google can effectively link associations between words. That makes the query itself—all the words in it—much more important than before.

2. Remove the terms "keyword density" and "keyword architecture" permanently from your vocabulary. Flee from any marketing or SEO "guru" who uses those words. Content created merely to satisfy an optimization requirement (such as keyword density and architecture) for search engine ranking is a waste of time and effort.

3. Replace keyword research with user intent research. Keywords are still an integral part of content strategy. But what's more important is to determine the intent behind those keywords. Create content others will share with users' intent in mind, not the algorithm.

4. Use synonyms. Don't cram keywords down your visitors' throat. Keywords need to be employed in a natural way. Because Google has the ability to understand relationships much better, synonyms work equally well. Your keyword lists should grow exponentially.

5. Content creation, now more than ever, means writing for users—solving their problems, addressing their issues, and enriching their lives. Answer users' questions by creating content that does so.

Lastly, it is important to remember that Google's market dominance for search engine users stems from its ability to reliably supply the best, most precise results for a user query. Semantic search, under the aegis of Hummingbird, protects Google's business by ensuring users receive the best results from Google search.

 Source: http://www.MarketingProfs.com

[Sent from Ralph Paglia's iPad]