Latest Articles

The PCG Digital Marketing started collecting data for our Automotive Digital Marketing Awareness and Budgeting Survey after the start of the New Year.   Today we wanted to share with our readers preliminary data from three survey questions.

We hope to increase the number of dealerships participating in the survey with your help.  Pass this survey link to dealer staff within your organization, in your 20 groups and friends in the business to grow the number of dealers involved.

If you have not yet participated in the survey, take a minute to do so. We will be posting the results of the full study prior to NADA.

Take The Survey

Participate in the survey by clicking on this link:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/automotive-digital-marketing

Adoption of Digital Marketing Strategies

The chart shown above is from 130 dealers to date.  Some of the responses may jump out to you like they did for us. For example, if you add the “not using” and the “ready to start” columns, you can see that in many area of digital marketing 30-40% of dealers have not yet engaged in their use.

This great digital divide will allow early adopters to gain a significant advantage on their peers.

Automotive retailers who redirect more of their marketing dollars to online spending in 2010 will be rewarded with increased market share.

Our data is skewed slightly because the survey is being done online. That means that the dealers participating in the survey are already engage in online discussion and communities. So, the numbers of dealers “not using” or “ready to start” is actually higher.

Internet Marketing Training

Thirty-four percent of car dealers surveyed are not budgeting for their staff to attend Internet marketing seminars or training. This is a discouraging fact. Regardless of a dealers’ level of engagement with digital marketing, they should at least understand the value of collecting best practices from their peers and face to face events are often a place for accelerated learning.

Dealers who do not budget for Internet Marketing skills development in 2010 will not be rewarded by many proven engagement strategies discussed on this forum. With NADA coming up in 30 days as well as the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp the prior day in Orlando, dealers would be best served to send their key marketing and sales staff for the latest strategies that can improve their 2010 results.

Digital Marketing Spending Still Small

With 39% of  car dealers surveyed having less than 20% of their overall marketing budget focused to digital marketing, dealers need to wake up and educate themselves on how to move that needle closer to 50% in 2010. Making decisions in a vacuum doesn’t work.

We Can Help

If you need assistance mapping out your 2010 Internet Marketing budgets and strategies, give us a call at 732-450-8200.

If your are looking for new strategies to improve your Internet Marketing visibility, Internet Reputation and your Social Media footprint in 2010, the team at DealerRater.com has quietly been building a set of tools that can be leveraged in new ways.

I love to share great ideas with the automotive community as I find them. Since Facebook is a hot topic I thought I would write about ways to make your Facebook page more interesting.

In the past few months I have been testing and implementing some of the free tools that come from DealerRater when a dealer is signs up for the Certified Dealer program. There are many benefits to the program but I would like to discuss one of the new recent ways their dealer platform can be leveraged.

Facebook Car Inventory Pages

Dealers can now add their car inventory to a Facebook Fan Page tab using tools from DealerRater.com. You can see an example of this technology on the Infiniti of Norwood Facebook Fan Page below.

There is a tab called “Classified Ads” on their Fan Page which when you click on the tab it shows their inventory. This is a tasteful way to add additional functionality to Facebook withoput posting cars in the main Facebook news stream. This feed is free to dealers on the Certified Dealer program and it is easy to add to your fan page.

The trick is to add graphics or call to action messages to make your fans aware of the tab. Then if they want to look at cars they can and you can keep your news stream more meaningful and a value to your followers.

Facebook Tabs Customized

If you didn’t know it, you can add HTML code pages to your Facebook Fan Pages that can look just like your website. It can also have active buttons that bring people to your website.

You can see another example from ABC Motor Credit’s Facebook Page shown below. They are a Buy Here Pay Here dealership in Ohio and they have a contest running which they wanted to leverage on Facebook as well as getting clicks to their website. So this custom tab was created: http://www.facebook.com/ABCMotorCredit

If you are not handy with HTML coding, find someone to help. It only took a few minutes of our team’s time to take the HTML code from ABC Motor Credit’s website and created this tab. Once these TABS are created, you can add graphics to the Fan Page to encourage people to click on the tabs.

There is a number of creative ways to enhance Facebook. Inventory feeds, video channels, website forms, specials pages or something completely crazy can now be implemented to super-charge your Facebook page.

2010 Internet Marketing Education

Do you like these ideas? You can super-charge your 2010 Internet Marketing Strategies by attending the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp in Orlando. It is being held on February 12th, one day before the NADA Convention in Orlando.

Get the edge on your competitors regarding social media, SEO, microsites, pay-per-click and video marketing strategies from industry leaders.

Jared Hamilton will be the opening night keynote speaker on Thursday evening February 11th. Sign-up today.

Learn more about this limited engagement event at: www.internetmarketingbootcamp.com

Automotive Internet Marketing specialists, the PCG Digital Marketing (PCG), announce the launch of a new comprehensive Internet Marketing package price at $995 per month.  The new offering will provide car dealers with customized online marketing solution that will include microsites, content development, blogging, social media, internet reputation management and Adwords strategies on a monthly basis with the convenience of a predictable monthly budget.  

The services delivered in PCG’s monthly package is configured based on the dealer’s current marketing strategies and vendor relationships. The PCG Digital Marketing package can work with any car dealer platform or existing service providers.

Automotive Social Media Strategies

Automotive social media platforms and online automotive portals have grown in popularity as the majority of consumers begin their car research online. By 2010, Generation Y will outnumber baby-boomers and become one of the most important consumer targets.  96% of Generation Y have already joined social networks. 

Dealers looking to leverage blogging, social media, Automotive SEO and Internet Reputation Management  networks can be overwhelmed with the amount of time and work needed to make an impact online.  Hiring a full time employee who can effectively manage these tasks would require a minimum $50K per year salary. 

With the new PCG package, dealers can saturate their local and statewide online marketing efforts for under $12K per year.   PCG’s new program includes a comprehensive approach to state-of-the-art Automotive SEO, blogging, online press releases, Internet Reputation Management, and social media networking. 

Predictable Marketing Budgets

Brian Pasch founder and CEO of PCG saw a need for this type of fee-based package in the Automotive community.  According to Pasch, “I hear the frustration of dealers at conferences who share stories about just how hard it can be to find the right person, or the person that was designated for Online Marketing was pulled off to work on other projects.  With this package, dealers can leverage the Automotive Internet Marketing expertise that PCG is known for and free up other employees to focus on what they do best.” 

Pasch also points out that Internet Marketing has no one-size-fits-all option.  Those not specifically experienced in the world of Automotive SEO and Marketing may have a harder time understanding the best practices for the industry.  “It’s another gamble that dealers don’t have to take.  PCG has proven success in Automotive SEO that a typical Internet Marketing Agency cannot immediately claim.”

Auto dealers who would like to learn more about our new comprehensive Internet Marketing package can contact the PCG Digital Marketing at 732-450-8200.