Lessons Learned From Cash for Clunkers Program

I have been following the Cash for Clunkers bill for a few months and decided to create a handful of blogs to capture the potential consumer response to the bill if it was approved.  My early work writing about the Cash for Clunkers bill has been rewarded.  We had created a number of blogs because the official name of the program was fluctuating between “Cash for Guzzlers” and “Cash for Clunkers”.

One of our websites hit the mark.  www.cashforclunkersfacts.com that now has over 40,000 page views a day and has helped thousands of consumers learn about the bill.  The website has also helped over 500+ forward thinking car dealers better position themselves in Google search.  

Dealers everyday are being added to our blog’s marketing directory because of our organic search visibility.  If you type the word “Cash for Clunkers” and then add any state name or any car brand, our website will most likely be on Google Page One search results.

• Cash for Clunkers Florida – Page #1
• Cash for Clunkers Ford -  Page #1
• Cash for Clunkers Toyota – Page #1
• Cash for Clunkers Phoenix – Page #1
• Cash for Clunkers Bill – Page #1
• Cash for Clunkers Program – Page #1

Our website has assisted consumers with specific questions about the program by directing them to the right answers.  Often those consumers concerns were best answered by directing them to the NHTSA hot-line.  We have also provided the most active consumer forum to discuss the Car Allowance Rebate System.  Our WordPress blog project is the perfect example of how Internet marketing professionals can help our government launch a consumer facing program.

The Cash for Clunkers bill empowered the NHTSA to administer the $1 billion in funding and they created the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS).  The official government website is http://www.cars.gov.  Our non-government consumer blog and forum is most likely the second most visited website in the USA about the consumer clunker credit program.  We are working side by side to help consumers learn about the program.

Hundreds of car dealers have contacted us to be listed in our free marketing directory.  Many others have called us to promote their dealership with press releases, corporate profile pages and lead generation.  We believe that the services the PCG Digital Marketing offers will deliver the best return on their investment.  In addition to our services we have recommend the excellent third party services offered by Cubic Marketing and ADP Digital Marketing.

Cash for Clunkers Marketing

Here are some things that we have learned from this project and past marketing efforts on a national scale:

1. Many car dealers were reluctant to spend any money in advance of the official start of the program despite our urging that the “early bird” gets rewarded in Google organic search. 
2. In this economy car dealers are not in the mood to take unnecessary financial risks. The uncertainty on how the CARS program would work chilled their heels on spending and continues to hold back funding until the final rules are released on July 24, 2009.
3. Organic search optimizatioon takes advance planning. Car dealers have been late to that game because of their cautious stance on this program.
4. Being late to organic search optimization increases car dealer online advertising costs because accelerated visibility is more costly.
5. Car dealers as late as today (7/15) have called us to say that they are now ready to start online marketing and that they have not done anything yet to connect with local consumers or customers about the program. 
6. Regardless of how well we predicted the future in this one case, car dealers are very cautious on increasing their advertising budgets on new things.
7. Database mining of existing customer databases as well as sources like Polk may providing the best lists to target for mailers and telemarketing calls.
8. Our consumer data collected on www.CashforClunkersFacts.com was the first published study of what models consumers would be trading in and what brands they were most likely to purchase.  This data should be guiding car dealer data mining efforts.

No Sure Things for Automotive SEO

As we look back at previous national marketing campaigns that we were asked to create, not all have been as successful as the Cash for Clunkers program.  When BMW announced that they would bring the BMW 128i and 135i to the United States we created the #1 websites for the search phrases “bmw 128i” and “bmw 135i”.

When BMW announced the final pricing on these cars the air was let out of the Internet marketing balloon.  In this case having the #1 website in Google nationally doesn’t make a difference if a car is in tight supply and is priced to compete with the 3 series.   

We are grateful that most of our organic marketing campaigns have generated great traffic for our clients that have delivered a strong ROI.

Car dealers would would like to leverage the power of our WordPress microsites for sales, service or parts should give us a call at 732-450-8200.

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