I was recently auditing the lead channels of a local car dealer and found that the word “SOLD” was costing this car dealer 10 to 15 delivered units per month.

If you are in the car biz, you know what an additional 10-15 delivered units per month is worth.

When you consider the all-in, front to back, …..that’s a lot of money.

Now add in the long-term value of those missed deals, like fixed-ops, repeat buyers, referrals, etc. It’s a staggering amount of money in long-term value.

My son has bought 5 cars from the same dealer and will not go anywhere else for service. He is only 30.

OK. We are both busy, so let’s get right to it. So, how was the word “Sold” costing this dealer so much money?

When you sell a car, it can take time to get that vehicle out of your online inventory and all your lead funnels.

As was the case for this dealer. They were getting messages from in-market car buyers on sold units asking:

“Is this vehicle still available?”

To which their BDC rep was replying with one word:

“SOLD.”

I found 37 of these exact message conversations, in the previous 30 days.

I picked up the phone, called the dealer, and asked him to give me access to incoming leads and let me moderate.

It did not take long. A lead came in on a vehicle that had sold that morning.

The conversation went like this:

Propsect: Is this vehicle still available?

BDC Rep: Sold this morning.

Me: Are you looking for a traverse? Or are you looking for something in that price range?

Prospect: I’m looking for something with a third-row seat. We have 4 kids, two are in sports, and we aren’t a mini van kind of family. LOL

Me: LOL OK! I can relate to that! So the most important feature you are looking for is a third row seat? Besides a third-row seat, what would be on your wish list?

(Now, while I am responding to the lead, I am also on the dealer’s website searching for vehicles with a third-row seat. I found 4.)

Prospect: Black.

Me: So, a third-row seat, color black? Anything else?

Prospect: price, payment etc.

Me: Hey! I just found 4 vehicles in our inventory with third row seats and two are black! I need to run out onto the lot to make sure they are still here and not already sold. What’s the best number to reach you, and I’ll let you know ASAP. I can even send you pictures and live video.

To make a long story short, I got their number, and they bought a Black Durango.

The customer was happy, the sales rep was happy, the dealer was happy … even the BDC rep was happy.

I was happy.

Just making this simple tweak resulted in an additional 12 units delivered by end of month.

These were sales the dealer might not have made had they not made this simple change to how they respond to the word “sold”.

My advice to you? Take a deep dive into your sales funnels from top to bottom. You might just find some missed opportunities and make those end of month numbers.

The post How Much Money Is The Word “Sold”​ Costing Your Dealership? appeared first on DealershipNews.com.

• Overall daily digital advertising spending is up 8% in November
• Average daily spending on social is up 97% in November
• Average daily spend on video is up a whopping 162% in November

How are dealer advertising trends different today versus pre-pandemic?

• Legacy media mix modeling is no longer relevant and dealers are shrinking their appetite for traditional ad buys in favor of newer digital advertising platforms.
• Being nimble and geo-focused are more important than ever.
• Customer expectations have changed. Online retailing is now becoming the “new normal” and many customers are quickly adapting to a digital experience of car shopping. As such, advertising and engaging with customers online is also becoming more important.

The post PureCars Analysis of Car Dealer Digital Advertising Focus: End of ’20 vs Pre-Covid appeared first on DealershipNews.com.

TIP #1 OPTIMIZE YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PAGE

Many business owners search for their own businesses and are surprised to find that they aren’t in the top handful of businesses listed, let alone page one. What’s worse, they aren’t found in the all-important #Google search “local 3-pack” which is in that map box just above the fold on the results page. Some can’t even find themselves in #AppleMaps, #Waze, #Siri, or any other typed or spoken search apps that provide directional and listing information. It drives many business owners mad.

What makes matters worse is that if you’re not on page one, you are virtually and literally cloaked. Few people searching for businesses make it past the first page of search, and 89% of them are ready to buy when in search mode. YOU HAVE TO BE ON PAGE ONE! There are several reasons for lack of ranking, but over time and at a relatively low cost, you can become visible north of the fold in the Google 3-Pack search block.

#SocialOrdeals has mastered the technique for business ranking using a suite of products in their platform that SMBs from Veterinarians to Car Dealers, Restauranteurs to Attorneys, Carpenters to Retailers, Franchisers and Associations of all shapes and sizes can utilize to grow their business’ visibility and sales volume. There are other companies out there that offer platforms with a similar suite of services but few are as affordable and for lack of a better description, credible in the execution as is Social Ordeals.

Tip #1: Google My Business is responsible for 25% of your ranking in search. The days of a dominant webpage are over. It’s Google’s plan to control as much of the web as they can and want you on their property for as long as possible – so we need to play by their rules.

Step 1: Claim the page as your business and make sure all information on it such as Business Name, Address, Telephone #, and Web Address are 100% correct. Google will send you a postcard verifying the location at the outset of claiming your GMB page.

Step 2: Load it up with your businesses specialties so people can see what differentiates you from competitors. If you’re a medical specialist, make sure prospective patients can see what you focus on, laser therapy, surgery, MRI machine on premises, etc. I suggest the most profitable products and services be spotlighted. If your a restaurant, post some of your specialty dishes, so on and so forth. Post pictures of the facility as well, along with smiling employees and customers if they oblige but not in the business’s products and services section.

Step 3: Pre-load popular questions and answers in the appropriate section given so the public can research you right then and there, and click to call instantly. The Q&A section is public so if you don’t answer any questions that come up without warning, someone from the public will, and you may not like the response. Keeping a vigil on this section is crucial because it’s so forward facing to a public likely in buying phase. Putting revised hours of operation here is a good idea because so many governments are vacillating on who opens and who doesn’t. Some only offer curbside so…you get the idea.

Step 4: Drive as many positive reviews to your GMB as possible. Reviews account for 15% of your search ranking score so make sure to have a review generation and reputation management strategy bought and paid for before you open your doors OR, get one in place if you currently aren’t employing one. Almost everyone looks at business reviews before making a decision. If you aren’t pulling 4.5-5.0, you are a B business in the eyes of the public. But it’s not just high scores that count, rather the volume of reviews that will lift you on any of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) of which Google gets 70% of the traffic.

Step 5: Drive all of your social media posts to your GMB page. Consider it a crucial social media element to your businesses positive visibility to the public. After all, the GMB page is one click away from the customer’s search engine operation so put your best content forward. Hashtag all of your social media posts (as well as your specialties) as you would on any social media platform because those hashtags WILL help you rank in search on Google. It may be a lesser known fact, but we’ve seen it applied.

The post TIPS FOR BUSINESSES TO APPEAR ON PAGE ONE OF SEARCH – 5 Part Series appeared first on DealershipNews.com.

We’ve been blasting calls to dealerships lately in order to get some insight as to how the current epidemic is effecting consumer behavior. As one would expect, the results are variable depending on the market. This past weekend saw some many dealers at or near par, and others down by double digits, nothing new there. It isn’t catastrophic yet, but it’s not trending favorably, especially with mandatory shutdowns looming and in place. Foot traffic was down everywhere, but online engagement increased as would be expected. But for dealers experiencing far less foot traffic, and not set up for state-of-the-art digital retailing, sales may be lost in the turbulence of inefficiency.

Why Are Car Sales Not Falling Through the Ice Yet?

It’s quite possible that the sales we’ve seen reflected during the last couple weeks are indicative of individual buying cycles that began several months ago and simply culminated over the last couple weekends. As the crisis grows, the slow down in transactions will be more akin to a ceiling fan that gets turned off and takes time to come to a complete stop. Hopefully, something will flip the switch back on before that happens. 

Necessity is the mother of invention, and this crisis has shed some light on the real future of automotive retailing. 

Those dealers whose websites have been modified or rebuilt to accommodate digital retailing platforms should be seeing an uptick in activity right about now. People are resistant to leave the safety of their homes, let alone drive into a car dealership and have to face off with any number of potential disease vectors for what is usually a long period of time. It’s no longer a preference, rather a necessity to reduce “perceived and real risk” during this period to buy online and avoid human contact. 

Several dealers I have chatted with are actively engaging folks to transact online, but they’re freestyling it, and not using any particular digital retailing platform so the constant back and forth of docs and questions may feel clunky and time consuming. Some are assuredly warming up to the inevitable truth that online car buying will be the preferred method of car buyers possibly much sooner than later.

Just 4 short weeks ago at NADA, digital retailing sounded like an ancillary model for the future. 

Everyone was still waiting to see which platform would deliver the best results. Webbuy had some very impressive numbers, but no one else was all the too forthcoming with a case study, at least when we asked. Many of us thought that DR was going to be commonplace somewhere down the road. No one expected it to be at the next Stop sign, but here we are. This “crisis” is unquestionably an anomalistic one in real-time, but it shows why having a customer friendly, seamless DR solution is an absolute must.

How long this nightmare will last, it’s hard to say. Will digital retailing-based transactions reach 10%, 20%, or 25% of some dealership’s sales in the next several months?  That all remains to be seen. I don’t think it will, but I do think that those pushing digital retailing should take advantage of the current chaos and start charting activity now so they have something to show dealers when the time is right. Meanwhile, keep on marketing. Slow downs are no time to slow down!

The post Is the Dawn of Digital Retailing Upon Us? appeared first on DealershipNews.com.

The first part is getting all of your managers on board, and that involves getting them together in the same physical space, or at least that’s what I do. I start every Monday morning with what I like to call my “Leadership Meeting,” which involves every department head and myself.

I set the agenda for the week, looking at the calendar to confirm visits from any guests from corporate or our vendor partners, in-store or offsite training, vacations or other items that everyone needs to know about. Here I’m trying to avoid the “no one told me” response later in the week when something important is about to happen. No surprises.

Next, we move on to general business items

…including where our results stand for the month. In this business, we’re measured on a month-to-month basis and I think it’s important that all department heads know how each individual department is doing. If we’re having a good month in a particular department, I want to call out that manager in front of their peers (but in a good way), encouraging them to keep it up and finish strong. If we’re lagging, I want everyone to know so that they might be able to lend some brainpower to improving the situation. Let’s say the new car department is behind the forecast and we talk about it. Maybe the service manager has heard a couple of technicians talking about needing a new car. He or she can inform the new car manager and they can plan a follow-up discussion after the meeting to go over new car incentives and talk with the employees. The point is, every little bit helps.

The last part of the Leadership Meeting is the most important, 

…as we go around the room and everyone gets to speak whatever is on their mind. This is meant to foster a sense of collaboration between the managers and work out any conflicts that may arise departmentally during the week. Let’s say the used car manager thinks his department pays too much in reconditioning the cars and getting them ready for sale (don’t they all think that?). The service and parts managers will, of course, be very protective of their turf, but maybe there is a discussion that can be had about ways to lower costs. Even if it only results in a plan to meet separately later in the week, hopefully, it provides a forum where managers can interact and not feel threatened. I am the moderator, however, and have to make sure things don’t get out of hand. In the rare instance where people are too emotional or argumentative, I shut off discussion and plan a follow up with the affected parties after the fact.

One more thing: the meeting doesn’t take that long, typically lasting 20 to 30 minutes. Any longer and you’ve lost their attention anyway and people won’t think it’s a valuable meeting. The key is to keep it short and meaningful in your managers’ minds.

After this meeting, the rest of the week can be spent making sure the department heads are disseminating any required information to the rest of the team and my working with them individually. Going around the store and observing what is or isn’t happening gives me the opportunity to work with that manager and employees further, and it also provides potential topics for general discussion at next week’s meeting.

Getting the rest of the staff on the same page only occurs when they see the managers do the same. I’ve seen cultures where the managers say things to their particular employees that take away from our mission. It does no good to have the service or parts manager tell a technician that the used car manager is “cheap” and “doesn’t want to spend a dime” or have the new car manager tell a salesperson that service and parts are “ripping them off” on accessories and installation. It sends the message that the departments don’t (and can’t) get along and that ultimately gets back to the external customer. Trust me, our guests don’t care about internal conflicts, they just want their problem solved.

And that’s really what it’s all about, right? We have to have our stuff together to provide a unified front to the guests. For example, we don’t want salespeople promising something for a customer, only to not tell service what’s going on and have the customer show up on the service drive expecting to be taken care of, do we? How unprofessional do we look there? Whereas if we develop a system or process to communicate “we owes” internally, we can provide a much smoother experience for the guest. That’s what earns us repeat business from guests. Not low prices, not 10 minute, $9.95 oil changes, but an actual, factual good customer experience.

What do you do to get your people on the same page? Do you do something different to internally set yourself up for success? I’d love the feedback.

Make it a great day!

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For businesses, the truth is that most don’t realize the amount of conflict of interest that exists in their current agency relationships. Can you handle the truth?

This conflict, while not malicious in nature, is the result of a legacy agency model that continues to affect your marketing spend. Ultimately, it’s sucking the life out of your opportunity to build brand value that surpasses your paid media spend.

The good news is that you can still do something about it, but only after you understand it. I’m writing this article as a summary of a three-part podcast series I recently released to call attention to the conflict and offer a way forward.

The Current Legacy Model

Let’s begin with what I’m including as an “agency”. I’m talking about ANY vendor who is running any portion of your ad spend. This includes spends like SEO, PPC, programmatic, social, pre-roll, and anything else that costs you money to reach a consumer’s eyes or ears.  In many of these popular ‘agency’ models; a client’s fees are based on a percentage of their ad spend. Frankly, the model was created for a different generation of media placements and is way out of balance. This is the foundation of the conflict.

For those who are unaware, these types of agency fees are typically between 15-30%. So, if your budget is $100,000, they are taking $15-30,000 of that money to place the actual ads and only the remainder is spent driving your campaigns. While this makes a really clean model for vendors to price services, common sense tells us that it would be unwise for an agency to ever tell you to reduce your ad spend. In fact, it is more beneficial for them if you raise your ad spend. Conflict.

Why do you think a standard first question during the sales process is “What is your paid media spend?” This is the number used to qualify the business relationship for the agency. Take note that the question is not, “What is your marketing budget.” We’ll get back to this in a moment. But first, you should understand why you’re paying more than you should.

You Are Paying the Brand Tax

I consider all paid media a brand tax. Strong brands do not need to buy ad placements to sell enough products/services to meet their objectives. They are paying zero brand tax. Conversely, if your brand is so weak that you need to spend most of your budget on ads to push buyers to your products, then you are paying very high brand taxes. Most businesses are somewhere in between. But how do you know what level of the brand tax your business is paying?

Try this litmus test: What would happen to your business for the next 3 months if you completely turned off your paid media? The answer to that question will give you an idea of how strong your brand is and how much of your marketing spend is actually ‘brand tax’.

When you invest your marketing budget on brand-building content and not sales content, you are building equity that outlasts and ad spend. (By the way, it IS possible to drive actual sales with brand content, but we’ll get to that in a moment.) Now that we are clear on that, let’s get back to the broken agency model.

The Metrics to Nowhere

Now, let’s talk about the metrics that the old, percentage fee-based model is directing your attention to. The emergence of digital marketing has allowed us to measure on an entirely different level, but that doesn’t mean we are automatically better off. If I learned anything from the statistics class I took in college, it was that you can make numbers say just about anything you want them to.

Giving weight to the wrong metrics can result in an incredible amount of wasted ad spend. The number of impressions based on a street’s traffic used to be a great way to sell a billboard, but I bet most people these days can’t tell you what billboards they drove by this morning. Many digital agencies will report on campaigns by communicating how many “impressions” (or times shown) the ad had and, like billboards and television, this doesn’t measure the actual business impact of the ad itself.

Regardless of what you measure, the percentage of fees you pay for that wasted ad spend remains consistent. This is why focusing every metric on a measurable, attributable business result is the only way to go. Let me give you an example with one popular metric, cost-per-click or CPC.

I’ve seen many agencies openly sell and celebrate the fact that they focus on achieving the highest Quality Scores for their clients. Sounds awesome, right? High-Quality Scores usually mean more traffic more relevant to the keywords being searched and lower CPCs. Who doesn’t want lower costs?!

The problem lies in the quality and relevancy of all those cheap clicks. Did your ad display first because the algorithm deemed the keywords relevant, but actually it was out of context? How’s the landing page experience? Did they connect or did they bounce? Is the agency telling you if they bounced or is that your developer’s problem? The twenty-five cent clicks might be producing zero buyers while the three-dollar clicks are translating into $1000 sales. Now, which is the better value? In this example, your focus should be on avoiding those cheaper non-producing clicks and focusing more on connection with the $3 ones.

Let me talk about one of my favorite metrics in all of the digital advertising at the moment.

It is Facebook’s “Relevance Score”. The reason I love this so much is that it rewards those who produce content that people actually like and it is solely judged by the USER’S interaction with the ad. If your ad has a low relevance score, it means nobody wants to look at it. As an incentive to get you to make content that doesn’t annoy their users with your garbage sales content, Facebook charges you way more to display this ad.

On the contrary, if you invest your budget creating empathetic, fun, and engaging content, users enjoy it, like it, comment on it, share it, or otherwise interact with it. As a reward for your highly relevant content, Facebook charges you way less to display it because it is bringing value to its users. Think about it… the ONLY asset Facebook has is the attention of its users. Entertain them, and you get rewarded. Annoy them, and it’s going to cost you big.

In both of these examples, the conflict in the current agency model doesn’t incentivize excelling in the metrics that show relevance or direct correlate to business objectives leading to wasted time, money, and most importantly, the attention and psychological impression of those your business desperately needs to connect with.

So what are we to do in this era of conflicted agencies, savvy consumers, and information overload? We relearn what it is to form and measure “connection”.

How to Kill the Parasite

I’ve found the best way to curb the conflict and start building a brand connection that drives business is to get back to the basics of human connection. We’ve been conditioned to approach commerce as one business to another (B2B) or a business to a person (B2C). Instead, we should refine our thinking to consider that all commerce is now business to humans (B2H). Once we adopt this B2H approach, the common sense that has been lost in the conflict-laden agency models and metrics can be restored. It begins and ends with cultivating connections.

Getting beyond the transactional marketing inherent in sniping potential buyers at the bottom of the sales funnel requires a shift more and more businesses are realizing. I can’t tell you how many businesses and individuals I’ve had conversations with about this over the past year. In every conversation I can see the light building in the eyes of executives, marketers, and personal brands as I present the following approach which originated in my agency’s values.

When my first business was acquired and I turned 100% of my attention to my agency, one of the first things I did was define our values: Honesty, Empathy, Attention, Connection, and Care. The unique trait of our values is that they must be practiced in order if they are going to work. As we helped more companies build their brands and execute campaigns, the results helped me realize that our values are actually more about human connection than company culture. Because of that, they have been adopted as our marketing process and it’s working.

As you adopt the following process when strategizing, creating, executing, and measuring your marketing spend, you will stop burning through your budget with brand taxes and irrelevant metrics and begin cultivating a real and measurable brand connection with other humans (translated as a growing and healthy business).

Here is an overview of the five values:

1. Honesty: Be authentic, always. In order to do this, you have to get really honest about what you are actually about. What are your unique selling points and why do you sell what you sell. “We sell great products” isn’t enough. Not even close. There isn’t any room for illusions here…it’s really easy to tell who is faking it.
   
2. Empathy: Sure it is becoming a buzz word, but empathy has never been more important in marketing. This is where you do the hard work of understanding what the people you want to do business with you really care about. This isn’t a demographic, this is a mindset. This is psychographic. What do they want most in life? What are they afraid of? How do you help them get what they want and avoid what they don’t?
   
3. Attention: This is the pivot point. This is where the level of your creative is the true variable as you leverage your understanding of who you are and what your potential buyer wants to create content that earns their attention. Notice my use of the word “earns”. This goes back to the concept of the Facebook relevance score I mentioned earlier. If you don’t earn the attention, then you are taking it. Maybe even stealing it by loud, kitschy, disconnected content. Great content will compel the view to pay attention, not demand it. If your agency produces your content for “free” or as a part of their % fee, you should be paying attention. That model incentivizes them spending the least amount of time and money possible on your creative. They get paid off running more ads, remember?
   
4. Connection: This is where it all comes together. This is the goal. Real, genuine, earned connection. Who you honestly are and what they deeply desire come together in a compelling case for why your relationship reinforces one another. We all know that a $700 YETI cooler isn’t needed to keep drinks cold for your backyard picnic. The $100 Coleman will do just fine. YETI, however, through honesty of belief, understanding of what their customers aspirations, and great design, they have earned the type of connection that builds loyalty, identity, and gets those credit card swipes. Can’t you just smell the brand taxes vanishing?
   
5. Care: Care is the ongoing relationship of a true B2H connection; continually listening, adapting, and providing. Just like any real relationship, if you get comfortable and start feeling entitled, you are heading for trouble. This is where community management, experiential, surprise and delight, and proactive brand marketing strategies come into play. Again, ask how these types of activities fit into the current agency pricing model. They don’t.

How to Move Forward

Breaking free from legacy is always challenging, but can also be incredibly inspiring for your team and your customers. Momentum should never be underestimated. I understand that this approach could be considered overly generalistic at times, however, I assure you that it is infinitely complex.

You can’t pick and choose the values you like and forget the ones that are difficult. This builds. If you’re empathetic without being honest, your customers will feel misled and see that you don’t actually care. Not only did you miss the opportunity to connect, but you now made a negative psychological impression. You might close that one sale, but they won’t be back and they definitely won’t recommend you to their friends.

If demographics allow you to get ‘granular’ with your marketing, following this process allows you to bring the psychographics of your consumer down to an atomic level. You can do it, and the promised land of connection is worth it.

A great place to start is to take a look at your current marketing strategy, agency relationships, internal team, and consumer sentiment. If you’re honest, you will know where you stand pretty quickly. Chances are that if you’ve read this article, you already do.

The Parasite Feeding on Your Marketing Strategy and How to Kill It was written by yours truly, Patrick Bergemann. I discuss this and other marketing and human connection topics on my weekly, Clarity Compressed Podcast as well LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I’m also working on a digital workshop offering that will walk you through the process we use at Congruent so that you can transform your marketing and your business. If you’d like to be notified of updates for that, you can sign up for the email notifications at BrandBeatsTheHacks.com.

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As a kid, I played a game called “Mike Tyson’s Punch Out” on the original NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). In real life, Mike Tyson was an insane boxer to watch; a man full of power and antics. A real entertainer out of the ring and straight-up vicious inside the ring, often knocking his opponents out in seconds.

“EVERYONE HAS A PLAN UNTIL THEY GET PUNCHED IN THE FACE…” 

I’m paraphrasing a quote that Tyson made during an interview that says, in its simplest form, you can plan all you want, but when that first blow lands, you find out what you are really made of. You find out the TRUTH.

These days I hear people talking about the concept of “your truth” and I feel like it is being misused in many ways. While it’s not good to not live under the judgment of others, it is dangerous to think that “your truth” IS reality in every area. It isn’t.

THE truth is what you find out about your level of preparedness and competency ONLY after that first punch lands. Conflict and friction help us find out where we are weak, as well as where we are strong. They show us what we’re made of. 

This conflict-driven revelation is universal. You can it across relationships, personal finances, athletics, and your brand. Let me show you: 

The truth about athletics.

I’m going to allude to my initial example here. If you think you are ready for a fight and have a plan, the first punch you take will tell THE truth about how ready you actually were.

The truth about your personal finances.

If you think your personal finances are solid because you can pay your bills but have no savings or other available means, you’re one car break down or medical emergency away from THE truth. The truth that you are very vulnerable. 

The truth about relationships.

This is a pervasive and probably the most poignant example. We see examples of this all the time. Ask the husband how his marriage is and he responds, “Things are going great!” Then ask his spouse and you get a totally different…vibe. THE truth is that there is a broken connection that is going to take some honesty and care to fix. 

The truth about your brand. 

We are living in unprecedented “good times” economically in the US. Revenue and profits are up and unemployment is down. Investment dollars are flowing and it seems that there are overnight success entrepreneurs with each passing news cycle.

What is the truth about all of these businesses when it comes to how solid their brand footing is? Well, we are one downturn away from finding out… just like we did in 2008. 

Those who have relied on easy money and easy sales by living off of a well-executed Google Ads spend, PPC, or other forms of algorithm hacking to close a deal will feel real pain when those budgets get cut. 

Those who did the work to built strong brands that consumers connect with regardless of the “sales funnel” will show the strength of their footing and disproportionately win.

What are you lying to yourself about?

My hope is that this community is able to courageously ask the question, “What am I lying to myself about.” My hope is that we are ready to consider and accept what THE truth really is.

Honestly asking yourself this question is always a positive thing. That is THE truth. 

—I talk about this topic and others on my weekly Clarity Compressed Podcast. You can also listen on the platform of your choice: iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or Castbox. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And if you want to learn more, you can check out my website pauljdaly.com

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Based on Microsoft data, in 2015, the average consumer’s attention span had dropped to just eight seconds. This is a brand new problem for dealers trying to create a name for themselves in the electronic space. The knee-jerk reaction and the shift in focus from producing quality content that speaks for your audience to the content that yells at them is akin to a red-faced, fast-talking salesman suffocating a customer as soon as they enter the dealership — an experience nobody enjoys.

Instead, try using those 8 seconds to make an impression and keep your customers’ attention. Here’s how it’s done:

Filter Your articles

First, don’t get caught up in the phrasing of “attention span.” Our attention is held provided that the content we’re looking at keeps it. You’ve got eight seconds to deliver your information, or you have eight seconds to persuade your audience to keep reading.

Take one of the most popular vehicle commercials of all time: Volkswagen’s “The Force” that uses a one-minute, 42-second run time to create suspense. The VW logo doesn’t appear until the final seconds of the ad.

Research by Origin showed that a focus group responded to various ad lengths and types, ranging from 15 seconds to a minute in length, and from traditional advertisements to ads with overarching tales, with no major differences in likeliness to purchase. However, participants who scored higher on a test that showed all of them more likely to selectively filter out content had also been more likely to spend money on a product that content pitched.

Simply put, if you make a lasting impression, those people who are interested in what you have to say will stay lengthier than those dreaded eight seconds.

Attract New Buyers

The days when auto dealers could keep their audience hostage with a 30-second TV ad without having to worry about all of them changing the channel or turning to their smartphones are gone. Only those experienced enough to reach the consumer on a mental level can break through and attract first-time buyers.

More research is being done now than in the past by your audience, according to a study released by Autotrader, which shows that 78% of online car shoppers make use of third-party websites to get their information regarding cars. Knowing this, why would you waste your marketing dollars on shoving the same information down your consumer’s throat that they’re are already getting for free?

Your digital content should be viewed as an extension of your in-store advertising, not just as a tool to get consumers to “BUY RIGHT NOW!” Chances are they’ll just move on to the next choice in the sea of content available. They may be in no hurry to drop a big dime, rather their purchase window maybe 90 days out. 

Once you master the evolving art of using your content to connect with people, you won’t even need eight seconds in order to impress.

Thomas Cassirer is the public relations coordinator from PCG Digital and auto digital strategies and SEO professional.

Initially posted on Auto Dealer Today 

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Rideshare is getting more expensive…

“Ridesharing services have completely transformed the way millions of people commute for both work and leisure, and will continue to grow in popularity especially in larger cities,”

Scot Hall
Executive Vice President of Swapalease.com

“However, from a personal finances perspective, even when taking parking, fuel and maintenance into consideration, the costs associated with leasing continue to be lower than Ridesharing as a primary mode of transportation.

If the media chatter proves true and these costs rise further, consumers will need to take a harder look when considering these options for personal transportation.”

Swapalease.com matches a person wanting out of their existing vehicle lease contract with a car shopper looking to take over a short-term vehicle lease. The marketplace has several thousands of cars and trucks available for transfer to anywhere in the continental U.S.

Media Contact:
John Sternal
Merit Mile for Swapalease.com
954-592-1201

The post Rideshare vs Leasing: Cost Breakdown appeared first on DealershipNews.com.