What visual pops into your head when someone says, “car dealer”? Is it a greasy haired, tooth pick sucking, and, worst of all, plaid suited shyster?  Why is that?  Why does the phrase “car dealer” conjure such a repulsive image?  Why do car buyers associate car buying with a feeling of overwhelming dread and distrust?  Why does the car buying populous hold such distain for this particular Industry? Why do we enter a local car dealership as if we were John Rambo gearing up to take on a forest full of sheriff’s deputies and national guardsman.

 

 

Over the last few years, I have worked with auto dealerships to help them improve their Internet marketing, customer communication, and perception.  I have helped over fifty dealerships break a vicious and ineffective marketing cycle.  The reason I’ve been chosen by dealerships to tackle this particular problem is simple, if a little unconventional: I had no prior car dealership experience.  I have a different and new perspective than the companies they usually work with; I’m a car buyer.  I look at everything from that point of view—the point of view of the buyer.  This is Marketing 101.  You should always look at your business’s marketing and sales processes from your customer’s point of view.

Car dealer marketing, both online and off is, well, not good.  It’s loud, obnoxious, disruptive, aggressive, and, not to mention, forgettable.  Every ad, whether in print, radio, or television, is the same.  “We’ll beat any deal,” “We’ve got the best price,” “We crush the competition.”  The online experience is no different. Every car dealer website is a variation of the last: template-based and homogenized.  There is no unique information and no value.  At the end of the day, they’re all just terribly annoying.  If the goal was to see how many popup windows, video greeters, and chat boxes you could throw at a potential customer, then mission accomplished.

The bottom line is, car dealer marketing is aggressive.

One of my automotive clients recently said to me, “No one haggles with Home Depot over the price of a toilet, why do they haggle with us?”  Then he added, “And there is more margin in a toilet!”  It’s a valid question with an interesting answer.

We aggressively haggle when buying a car because that is the sales process car dealer marketing created. The buyer didn’t bring the fight to the dealership the dealership brought the fight to the buyer. In the words of John Rambo, “They drew first blood, not me!”  Aggressive, price-driven messages have conditioned consumers to haggle over price.  When you treat every potential buyer (of anything) as an aggressive buyer, the only possible outcome is the creation of aggressive buyers.  Pavlov could not have done it better himself.  

With all of the incentives, rebates, price beating and matching, and overall wheeling and dealing of car dealer marketing, car buyers can never trust that they know what the price is.  They’re confused by the whole process, so they haggle. If you applied this type of baffling marketing to a toilet purchase, they’d haggle at Home Depot, too.  Hmm, what would it look like if we marketed toilets like a cars?  I imagine something like this:

We’ve got the largest inventory of new and pre-owned toilets in the tri-state-area.  You have to go, and so do they!  We’ll beat any price, and now, this weekend only, we’ll give you $500.00 over the value of your trade no matter what condition!  Push it in, drag it in, we don’t care!  If you’re peeing in a bucket, we’ll give you $500.00 more than your bucket’s worth – we don’t care, we just want to see you in our toilets!  And for a limited time we’ll pay for your first 12 rolls of toilet paper!

That’s not the way toilets are sold; it’s not the way most things are sold. When you apply car dealer marketing to other products, you really begin to see how absurd and woefully outdated the model is. Some degree of farcicality and disconnection can be found in almost any industry’s marketing.  Using our car-dealer-toilet model, we see an extreme example, which helps to illustrate the effect of disconnected marketing on information rich, on-demand, and socially connected consumers.

Today’s customer is in perpetual beta mode—they evolve and adapt minute by minute.  Bombarded by information, increased access to data, and socially linked to one and other, customers are in complete control, and yes, price is a factor in almost anything they buy.  However, it is not the only factor.  

Consumers are naturally attracted to products and services that provide the greatest value, and value goes beyond price. If your marketing puts price front-and-center in your value proposition, be prepared to battle. Instead of going to war, go back to basics. Sales 101 advises creating value before discussing price and showcasing benefits over features.  Low price is a feature, not a benefit. Demonstrate that your product has unique value above the competition and beyond the price.  Soon enough, you’ll regain control of the conversation and begin the process of changing aggressive shoppers into better customers, forming more referrals for your business, which will, in turn, result in a significant increase in sales.

Analyze your marketing, your messaging, and your sales process to determine what behavior you are likely evoking from your customers before your business gets flushed away.

 

Article written by best-selling author, motivational business speaker and Single Throw Internet Markeitng CEO, Larry Bailin

Attracting Customers the New Old Fashioned Way.

 

As I sit here preparing to write another article outlining the fall of the local Yellow Page directory, a call comes into my office and is routed to one of our Internet marketing consultants.  The caller is interested in learning more about our Internet marketing services. Potential leads calling my office is a fairly common occurrence, what’s uncommon about this particular caller is the way in which he found us - the local Yellow Pages. Talk about timing, I didn’t even realize we were in the Yellow Pages!

 

 So, does this change my opinion of the big yellow lug? No.

The Yellow Page directory is a paper dinosaur and not long for this world. Yes, we did get a lead from it today, one lead, not a very good one and the first lead from the yellow book in seven years!

 

Are the Yellow Pages completely useless? Not completely, even dinosaurs served a purpose. If not for the mass extinction of the dinosaurs what would all those paleontologists do?  Speaking of extinction, if you market or sell to senior citizens the yellow book may prove to be of some value in attracting customers however, this as well will be short lived. As today’s seniors move on to greener pastures they are being replaced by aging baby boomers. Boomers make up a third of all internet users and they are bringing their Internet know-how with them as they enter their golden years. The one thing these boomers are not bringing with them is their big yellow book.

 

Another nail in the yellow coffin has been the generation every business is talking about, the “Millennials”.  Millennials are those born between 1980 and 1995 (give or take a year or two) and their numbers on the Internet rival those of the boomers. And guess what? More than three quarters of them don’t remember a world without the Internet and a large percentage of them have never picked up a Yellow Pages directory in their life!

 

So what’s a local business to do when looking to market to a local audience?

 

Just like the dinosaurs the Yellow Page directory has evolved (assuming you buy into that evolution stuff).  The powers-that-be at the Yellow Pages believe that SuperPages.com and Yellowpages.com (referred to as “IYP”, short for Internet Yellow Pages) are the vehicles to keep them out of the tar pit.

 

Don’t go waiving your terrible towels in praise for the yellow mammoth just yet. IYP’s are still fairly new to the online search game and they face some pretty stiff competition. Mega search giants Google, Yahoo! and MSN have invested heavily in developing local search tools and they’re playing to win.

 

Search volume within the IYP’s for local products and services pales in comparison to the searches done in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN etc.). Does that mean IYP’s have no value? Depending on your customers and your offerings marketing with the IYP might be a huge success or a miserable failure.

 

Here’s an example.

I have a client that operates a small regional chain of NJ car audio stores. They have been in business since the 70’s and have always advertised in the Yellow Pages. Recently they shifted to an IYP marketing solution to the tune of $1,800.00 per month.  Once my company took over the development of their new website and Internet marketing services we began to measure where there website visitors were coming from. We noticed that they were consistently getting 47 visitors per month originating from SuperPages.com. We compared that number with the visitors they were getting from Google and it wasn’t even close. Google consistently delivered over 7,000 visitors a month compared to the 47 from SuperPages.com.

 

Maybe the 47 visitors per month were high quality leads and worth $1,800.00 per month? We did the math. 47 visitors at $1,800.00 per month is $38.30 per visitor. Their average conversion rate from website visitor to lead is 10%.  Out of 47 visitors they can expect to be contacted by 5 potential customers (rounding up) which makes the cost of acquisition $360.00 per new lead. An average gross sale for one of their retail locations is $300.00 with an average gross profit margin of 20%. If they turned every lead into a sale they would have a net loss of -$300.00 per customer. In this case, SuperPages.com is clearly not worth it.

 

The success of any Internet marketing solution whether local or global is commensurate with the economics of the products or services you offer. I have another client where IYP works very well.  This particular client is a NJ Mercedes Benz dealer. They generate roughly the same amount of visitors from their IYP marketing as does the NJ car audio dealer however they sell a much larger ticket item not to mention the enormous lifetime value of a Mercedes Benz buyer.  

 

How can you get the most out of local search advertising?

Marketing in general is not for the faint hearted. In order to prevent your head from exploding you need to be more than a little risk tolerant. I’m sure you’ve heard the old adage, “you win some you lose some”? I have a slightly different mantra, “You lose some to win some”.  Failure is a pre-condition to success. Don’t be afraid to try something new, step out of your comfort zone and you just may be surprised with the results.

 

The great thing about Internet marketing is that EVERYTHING is measurable. If something is working you can tell. Adversely if something is not working you can try and make it better or cut your losses and shift budget to a program that you know works.  The only way you can truly fail is if you don’t take the time and effort to measure and manage your local marketing. If you have a set-it and forget-it mindset, Internet marketing is not for you.
Go waste your money on billboards.

 

No matter what online service you use to market locally be sure the service you choose offers statistics and reporting on the activity generated by your advertisement.

 

Measurement statistics you must have at a bare minimum:

 

·         CTR or Click thru rate. This will give you a percentage of how many people viewed your ad and then clicked on it.

·         Actual clicks. You need to know how many people in a given period clicked on your ad and visited your website.

Any online marketing service worth it’s salt (what does that even mean)should be able to provide you with these stats and if they can’t don’t  use them.

 

Measurements you can do without:
Impressions. Ad agencies (my favorite people in the world) and online advertising sites are famous for touting how many “impressions” your ad had. This is how many times your ad is viewed by a searcher no matter if they click on it or not. This number is always large and in any search scenario, irrelevant. No one ever remembers what they don’t click on.

 

A few tips for succeeding in local search advertising:

 

·         Get the absolute most out of your advertisement space.  Make sure you put as much information into your ad as allowed. Google Local allows hours of operation, pictures (a logo goes a long way here), videos, links to your website, multiple categories, payment types and more. Use everything offered to you, you never know what will connect with a potential customer.

·         Use as many listing enhancements as budget allows. Most local search sites offer enhanced listings such as bold text, colored background or even preferential placement. With all the choices today’s connected customer has you need to do whatever it takes to get your marketing to stand out in the crowd.

·         Think like a customer. Remember, customers search for problems not solutions so be sure to address their needs in your ads and speak their language. Forgo the industry jargon in lieu of the problems you can help a customer solve.  The better you connect with their needs the better your chances they will connect with you.

·         Utilize your peers and their experience. See what works and doesn’t work for others in your industry. People love to talk about their successes and adversely complain about poor services. Just be sure to take everything your told with a grain of salt (two salt references in the same article) and try to get details. Should your peer have the set-it and forget-it mentality the service was doomed from the door.

I know this looks like a lot of work and that’s because it is but the effort pays big dividends. If you think showing up properly and productively in local search isn’t worth the effort, then gather up all of your employees for a moment of group prayer and pray that your competition thinks just like you.

Legendary rock band AC/DC just released, “Black Ice” their first new album in over eight years. Black Ice was released on October 8^th and rocketed to the top of the charts selling nearly 800,000 earning it the distinction of being the year’s best-selling rock debut.

Black Ice marks the band’s second stint at #1 (1981’s For Those About to Rock … We Salute You reached the peak several weeks after its initial release), and the first chart-topping debut of the band’s more than 30-year-career.

So why am I writing about AC/DC on my marketing blog?
One, I’m a head banger from back in the day and a huge AC/DC fan.
Two; it’s not every day that a marketing strategy can easily be classified as both insane and brilliant, this one has me torn. I may just have to put it in the things that make you go, “hmmmm” category.

The marketing strategy was to go low tech or as AC/DC’s website boldly states, “Low Definition™”

1.     In the U.S. this album was sold exclusively through Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and the band’s official Web site. You cannot find the album for sale or download at Amazon or iTunes in fact I can’t find it for download at all. You have to buy the physical CD. In today’s iPod centric culture this would seem to be a very risky marketing plan.

2.     A viral video campaign was launched post album release, October 23^rd to be exact. The video which can be viewed on YouTube or downloaded is done completely in Microsoft Excel and being described as, “The world’s first music video in an Excel Spreadsheet. AC/DC smashes through the corporate firewall with real rock ‘n’ roll. Watch the video playing back as ASCII art in Microsoft Excel!”  - Excel? Really? Maybe I can order a cool AC/DC tape dispenser or desk caddie??

My first reaction to this marketing campaign was disbelief. AC/DC sold out! Selling exclusively in Wal-Mart!?! A video created in Excel designed to, “smash through the corporate firewall”? What’s next, a concert at Disney? Who are they trying to reach? Head bangers don’t hang out at Wal-Mart! We go to the local record store to get our…oh wait a minute…there are no more local record stores and head bangers are now in their 40’s with 2.3 kids, 9-5 jobs, safety rated vehicles and a house in the suburbs. Oh crap! We do hang out at Wal-Mart!

When you ponder the fact that AC/DC achieved critical mass in the 80’s you soon realize that the average fan has become just that, average. The days of dreaming of Tawny Kitaen writhing around on the hood of a jaguar in Whitesnake’s, “Here I go again” video are long gone. The rock anthems that played over and over in our minds, songs like Twisted Sister’s, “We’re not gonna take it” and Ozzy’s, “Crazy Train” have been replaced with the Sponge Bob Square Pants theme.

Guess what else? It turns out we use Excel too. Not only do we use it, most of us like it. Think about all the cool things we do with Excel like calculations, equations and rockin’ macros! No one rocks a spreadsheet like we do, always trying to get our forecasts, “back in black”.

AC/DC didn’t leave the current generation of rockers out either. AC/DC will be the first band to get to get its very own version of MTV’s video game phenomenon, “Rock Band,” which is due out November 2nd for the PS2, PS3, Xbox and Wii and will be sold exclusively (where else) at Wal-Mart /Sam’s Club.

It doesn’t hurt album sales (are they still called albums?) that just about anything from the 80’s is popular again, you know, “what’s old is new”. AC/DC is cool (do they still say cool?) again for a whole new generation to rock out to. Maybe buying a CD brings back fond memories for the current generation the way buying an 8-track would to mine.

Okay, so maybe AC/DC is on to something with their Wal-Mart sellin’ spread sheetin’ ways. I guess I should be happy, one of my favorite bands didn’t sell out, they sold in, sold in to my surroundings making it easier for me to find and enjoy a great band with a great brand at an everyday low, low rock ‘n’ rollback price!

The only question I have now is how AC/DC will market to me in the next chapter of my life? Maybe my pacemaker will have download capabilities and be able to beat my heart to dirty deeds done dirt cheap?