Ontario dealers coached on mastering SEO, blogging, figuring out Google and the merits of a BDC at Canadian Digital Dealer events.
Event host Brent Wees, Partner and Client Services Director for Glovebox
The Trillium Automobile Dealers Association (TADA) continued its efforts to bring its member dealers up to speed on all things digital with two back-to-back Canadian Digital Dealer events held Feb. 18 in Ottawa and Feb.19 in Toronto.
“It’s very executional,” said event host Brent Wees, Partner and Client Services Director for Glovebox.
More than just addressing the “Why, How-to and What’s next” for digital, attendees at what is now the 7th such event organized by the TADA were provided concrete and real life case studies that helped drive the message home, making for an engaging and informative day.
MEASURING ROI FROM THIRD PARTY LEADS
Kevin Frye was the first to take the stage, offering his opinions on third party leads and whether they are truly needed.
As eCommerce director at Jeff Wyler Automotive Family, which sells new and used cars in Cincinnati, Ohio it’s up to Frye to know the numbers and help set budgets.
And Frye doesn’t like some of the numbers he’s seeing based on ROI from third party sites, even though he’s shelling out big dollars to get quality leads. Neither did AutoNation, who he said has now moved away from third party leads.
That’s why Frye thinks it’s important for dealers to find out if third party sites are helping them turn a profit. The only way to do that is to look at the numbers.
By providing walkthroughs on platforms such as Google Analytics and other digital attribution tools, Frye was able to show the audience how dealers can compare the cost per vehicle detail page views from third party providers such as AutoTrader to get monthly and yearly snapshots.
While Frye said third party sites can help round out ROI if the dealerships have a big budget, most of their digital marketing investment should be focused first on their own website, that of the OEM and then finally, on third party sites.
“At the end of the day you need to look at your marketing mix to make the best decision for your dealership,” said Frye.
Greg Gifford, Director of Search and Social at AutoRevo
PEAKING UNDER GOOGLE’S HOOD
It’s tough to navigate in the seas of Google’s constantly changing algorithms, dealing with changes and updates, said Greg Gifford, Director of Search and Social at AutoRevo.
But the search engine optimization (SEO) guru wasn’t afraid to be frank with his predominantly dealer audience, telling them that their current knowledge and understanding of SEO best practices, along with web design, is lacking. “You must keep up with these updates or you’re going to sink,” said Gifford.
And not just SEO, but local SEO, he added.
Of the 24 websites that today’s auto buyer uses to research and shop for vehicles, 9.5 of them are dealer websites, said Gifford. It’s likely that a consumer will be looking at a dealer’s competing website before moving on to the next one.
But it’s not easy to get a coveted spot on page one or two in the Google search engine results for your local market. Gifford said dealers need to build websites with strong, original content and good quality hyperlinks to stand out.
Having good SEO is not enough, said Gifford. “You need to have an awesome website,” he added.
Canadian dealers were hit with Google’s Pigeon update around Christmas time, which Gifford said changed local search results drastically.
Prior to the update, Gifford said a search on Google and a search on its maps triggered different results. Now, using more “traditional” web ranking factors, the results are the same, and in a smaller radius.
The update also favours directories, such as Craigslist and Cars.com, even though consumers are searching locally.
That means that dealerships should practice what Gifford calls “barnacle SEO” and create a strong profile on those sites to increase the likelihood of being found through search.
Since only the strong armed with the right ammunition will survive under these conditions, Gifford said it’s important a dealership has a full time staff member or provider dedicated to SEO, not just the Internet manager.
“SEO is not cheap. It’s a manual process that costs money,” he said, and added staff should be attending intensive three or four day long conferences.
And if dealerships plan on working with a third party provider, Gifford warned against using those that only do article publishing, create vehicle model pages as their only SEO strategy, guarantee rankings or links, or withhold access to Google Analytics results.
RIGHT PEOPLE, RIGHT PROCESS
Success at a dealership depends on the people and processes that support it. That was one of the main premises from Bobbie Herron and Bryan Armstrong’s presentation on Business Development Centres.
Herron, Digital Sales and Marketing for Garber Automotive, said although BDCs are not a new concept, and have even been called a “dirty word in a lot of places,” both she and Armstrong see merit in having a dedicated centre to help support the sales staff.
“We need to stop looking at BDCs as a cost centre and start looking at them as a profit centre,” said Herron, who added that a BDC rep can make as many as 20 calls per hour. “Let the sales people do what they are good at,” she said.
Armstrong, eCommerce Director at VW Southtowne, says BDCs plug gaps in processes, preventing failure.
“By having the right people in the right place, everyone can succeed,” said Armstrong, citing a lack of process, the wrong people in the wrong positions, a lack of accountability and too many roles for each person as the biggest sources of failure.
Jason Stum, Digital Marketing Manager for LaFontaine Automotive Group
BLOGGING THE RIGHT WAY
Jason Stum asked the dealers in the audience to raise their hands if their dealerships have a dedicated blog. Only a few hands in the room went up. He then asked the audience how many of them are thinking about starting a blog at their dealership. This time, many more hands were raised.
Stum, the Digital Marketing Manager for LaFontaine Automotive Group and Founder of a blog called MarketPunch.com, was not surprised by his own poll in the conference hall.
He brought up a study that looks into some of the biggest challenges surrounding blogging. About 66 per cent of the people surveyed cite limited time and resources and the inability to measure a blog’s success as the number one and two biggest issues.
To help dealers attract a wider audience, Stum offered his insights into the best blogging practices and how dealers should approach them.
The first thing, said Stum, is to come up with a mission.
“Your mission defines what you’re writing and who you’re writing for,” said Stum, who had a clear cut mission in mind before he started blogging.
He shared his blog’s mission with the audience as an example, which is “to provide creative auto marketing insights that my peers and colleagues can use today.”
Once you’ve defined your mission and the audience for which you intend to write, it’s important to have an attainable goal, said Stum. His goal was to have 4,000 unique monthly visitors on MarketPunch.com, a number he measured from Google Analytics.
Next comes the writing part. And Stum said this is when people often come to him saying they are not writers. But Stum said that’s the beauty of blogging, which is really a conversational platform.
“I start sentences with ‘and’; I do it all the time,” he joked, and added that having an informal and earnest voice is the best way to attract an audience. “You’re writing for people, not algorithms,” he said, by being passionate about the subjects you love.
Stum said it’s also important to think of your blog as a homebase where the content lives, and social media channels as distribution centres. He strongly advises against publishing original content on Facebook before on a blog. Just be sure that you’re posting original content he said, or risk being penalized by Google.
The TADA’s Digital Dealer events continue to evolve and add a new mix of speakers and content, helping their members adapt to the changing worlds of digital marketing and website management.
