New Marketing Disciplines for Maximum Advertising Effectiveness!Step 1 - Maximize your website effectiveness.
Every dealership I know of has a website. Only a handful are using it effectively. Start using this powerful marketing tool to its maximum advantage. If you are using a design firm, ask how much it will cost to convert at least a portion of your homepage, and create one other linked landing page for ad specials. When this is done correctly, even the least computer-literate person in your organization can go onto your website (with an administrative password, of course) and upload specials for the day, the week or the weekend. You can upload text, images and even streaming audio and video clips. There is a streaming audio company that will not only allow you to place audio on your website in an instant, they’ll give you a toll-free number for your customers to call in and record messages, which you can then post on your website. (e-mail me for more information and I’ll share this resource.)
Unless you have an in-house IT department, or a highly responsive web team that can handle constant updates to your site on a timely basis, it’s critical that you design your site to have these self-administration pages. If you rely on an outside firm to make every change to your website, frequent changes can be expensive. And if you can’t make changes on the fly, eventually you’ll lose interest in keeping the site dynamic and fresh. Your site will become stale, stagnant and nothing more than a basic information reference. You must put a priority on updating your website content. Fresh content leads to repeat visits, and repeat visitors are more likely to buy from you. Ever-changing content also helps you place higher in natural search results!
Step 2 - Develop an e-mail marketing program...
...that allows you to not only exchange e-mail with customers requesting information, but deliver images, audio and video clips as sales aids. If you don’t use an e-mail service that can help you target specific customers with relevant messages, consider using a simple contact system such as www.constantcontact.com that will allow you to build as many opt-in lists as you would like (e.g. late-model used car customers, luxury customers, lease customers, etc.) for targeted promotions. Whatever you do, don’t fall prey to companies hawking e-mail lists. There is no such thing as an opt-in e-mail list. No one gives permission for their e-mail to be sold unless they are hoodwinked and hi-jacked. The abuse and e-mail slamming that has occurred over the past few years has turned off formerly enthusiastic e-mail communicators and made them suspect of motive on every item in their inbox. If they didn’t invite you in, or give you permission to be there, at best you’ll get a cold reception. They will probably unsubscribe and at worst report your e-mail as spam, with potential blacklisting for your ISP, which could get you bumped off of e-mail service on their domain.
Are you asking for an e-mail address from every single sales and service customer? Are you e-mailing them with a request for permission to add their name to your mailing list for great bargains, exciting promotions and spectacular discounts? Tip: When asking for permission to e-mail information, always offer a short laundry list of items. If you ask whether someone will be willing to accept your e-mail, it’s a 50/50 shot. If you give them 3 choices... eg:
__Receive notification of upcoming special sale events
__Receive notification of overstocked inventory discounts
__Receive notification of low-mileage trade in sales
...your chances are much higher of getting an opt-in for at least least one of the choices, rather than just a yes or no.
Step 3 - Include your web address in every advertisement.
But only if you have followed Step 1! If you have a complicated web address, especially one with a dash (-), get creative and come up with a shorter, easy to remember URL that can be pointed to your existing web address. For example, if your current web address is www.JoshuaMartinUsedCarEmporium.com , or www.Joshuasusedcars-newcars.com, go to one of the domain search sites such as www.register.com or www.godaddy.com and search different name combinations. Some good choices might be www.Joshuacars.com, www.Joshuadeals.com or maybe something completely different like www.mygoofydeals.com. Register the URL and have your webmaster point that name to your regular site. Now if someones types in www.JoshuaMartinUsedCarEmporium.com or www.Joshuadeals.com...your main site pops up. The only difference is, which of those names will your customer have the easiest time remembering when they hear your ad on a radio or TV spot?
Step 4 - Use each medium to its best possible advantage.
Don’t try to put the exact same message on every medium you use. Use the emotion of broadcast to bring folks over to the ‘information’ medium...your website! Instead of trying to put 50 different prices with a 30-second disclosure in a 60-second radio spot, why not whet the appetite with sizzle? "These are some of the best used car bargains we’ve offered in 50 years. Go to our website, mygoofydeals.com and see for yourself! Click on our daily specials!" If you’re running 30-second TV spots, why not run a crawl on the bottom of the spot for the entire 30 seconds inviting viewers to fill out a credit application online at your website? Every medium has a different strength. If you’re running a laundry list of specific sale vehicles or a special timed promotion in a newspaper ad, why not build excitement on your broadcast ads with an invitation to see your print ad in this Friday’s edition of the 'Daily Blab'?
One enterprising dealer-client friend of mine has this message on his telephone answering machine after hours: "Thanks for calling. Sorry we missed you during our regular business hours, but our virtual showroom is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week at mydealership.com You can shop our specials, fill out a credit application and even get a guaranteed trade-in offer for your vehicle. Click onto mydealership.com right now!"
Step 5 - Do more research! Do more research!
Your website affords you the opportunity of doing an exceptional job of tracking media effectiveness transparently. People who have heard or seen your website URL and a specific promotion usually visit your website within 6 hours of the message. Look at your web stats every day. There are numerous website visit tracking systems that record not only every visitor to your site, but every page of your site they visited, information they downloaded, the number of pages visited and time spent on your site. Make sure that whoever is placing your advertising has access to your website tracking analysis. If you add a new radio station to your media mix this weekend, compare your website visits with the week prior.
Step 6 - Keep your creative consistent across the various media platforms.
Every medium has different selling strengths, but consistency in creative is the key to recall and response. If you’re holding a big used car sale this month, make sure every communication channel in your tool box is tuned to the same message. Your radio, television, newsprint, website, e-mail, receptionist, service drive, signage, payable mailers, etc. should all be playing on the same team.
Why not put a note in the envelope with every paycheck and bill you pay with the theme of your sale? One of my client-dealer friends sells over 1500 vehicles a year from employee referrals alone. That’s more vehicles than the average new car dealer sells in a year.
If you’re hiring an agency to handle your advertising, or if you're contemplating a change of agencies, make sure all presentations include a marketing strategy that integrates online and traditional mediums.
If you’d like more information on resources to effortlessly incorporate streaming audio and video onto your website, send me an e-mail.
Do you have questions or comments about this or past AdTalk articles? Feel free to email them to CBC.
This issue of AdTalk is brought to you by Research Partners...helping dealers reduce advertising costs for nearly 20 years.
