At last week’s Google I/O conference, Director of Google Maps Daniel Brath announced that Google Maps ratings are going to return to a 5 star scale. The move helps simplify listings, and in doing so will likely motivate car shoppers to leave reviews for their dealerships of choice. It’s also part of ongoing enhancements to Google plus. Here’s what dealers need to know about the change.
A close look at eBay’s decision to stop running paid search campaigns reveals the importance of well-executed PPC campaigns within automotive. Here are some key lessons for dealers.
Today’s digital world can be approached with a “beer guy” mentality, where digital thinking is simplified around four key areas—Inventory, Websites, Advertising, and CRM. Focusing on those basics helps make sense of the various tactics and trends that are always floating around our space these days.
92% of consumers trust ‘earned media’, including unpaid recommendations, tips, and social media check-ins (In contrast to 47% of consumers who trust television, representing a 24% decline since 2009). In other words, social credibility matters to your reputation.
We tend to think of the Internet in terms of its reach. Online, we can connect with people in the most remote places on earth, and store huge amounts of data in a far-off “cloud.” Even the name World Wide Web sounds like a far cry from our comfortable dealership confines. But when we look at where automotive technology is going, the web starts to become a lot less “worldwide,” and a whole lot more local.
This story punctuates this fact: Consumers are busy, finicky creatures of habit. We know what kind of experience we’d like to have, and in our busy lives, any negative deviation sets us on a course for an alternative.
Like your Internet Manager, consumers are busy people who demand a certain experience when they visit your website. How you invest your marketing dollars can either help or hinder the customer experience you think you’re providing. By streamlining your digital marketing efforts, you can bring consistency to the customer experience and a healthier work-life balance for your ISM. Let’s break it down.
What would happen if all of your friends disappeared tomorrow? When you think of what a friend is, they represent our connections to the world as we know it. No friends really means no understanding of our own ‘micro marketplace.’
It’s an exciting time for our industry. Sales projections are up, we’re fresh off one of the most exciting Detroit auto shows in years, and NADA 2012 is just around the corner. On the technology side, dealers can look forward to more marketing resources than ever, with significant innovations from Dealer.com planned throughout the coming year.
The rise of social media has broad and critical implications for automotive retailers. Consumers now have the ability to broadcast their opinions and recommendations to large personal networks via social media. To understand this effect, DriverSide and Dealer.com partnered with GfK Automotive Research on an extensive study.