Grab Prospects Across the Nation with One Simple Tool

With ever-changing technology in the world, more and more consumers are looking at better and faster ways of exchanging important information. In the past, dealers have exchanged information with their customers via mailed newsletters that have now progressed into e-newsletters. Although these have worked well, many dealers today are turning to blogging.

Simply put, a blog (or web log) provides interactive commentary or news on a particular subject (i.e. latest announcements from your manufacturer, dealership news/promos) to your customers. A typical dealer blog combines text, images, links and video content applicable to the auto industry. Further, the reader has the ability to leave comments in an interactive format on each of your blog subjects.

A 2006 study by PQ Media, “Blog, Podcast and RSS Advertising Outlook” showed the combined spending on blogs, podcasts and RSS feeds by companies rose from $6.8 million in 2004 to close to $50 million in 2006. In addition, a recent CapGemini study shows of the tools auto shoppers use when researching a vehicle for purchase, a healthy 16 percent used interactive marketing in the form of blogs or discussion groups when compiling information. These two studies point out a trend happening throughout the business world: as more companies adopt blogs, more consumers are visiting them and driving explosive growth in the new medium.

A blog has certain characteristics that qualify it to be a unique marketing tool above and beyond your typical marketing channels such as e-newsletters. It is timely, delivers fresh content, is quick and establishes a direct line from management to customers. Let’s identify the strengths of each of these qualifiers directly as they pertain to the automotive industry.

Timely response
Unlike any other online tool available, blogs give dealerships the opportunity to respond to their environment in an immediate way. For instance, a quick look at General Motor’s forward-thinking blog, Fastlane (www.fastlane.com), shows me I can find out the truth about the latest rumors regarding Buick breaking its contract with Tiger Woods. (Buick, in fact, did not and General Manager Jim Bunnell sets the record straight in his post, “Tiger Woods and Buick.”) In the post Bunnell candidly discusses the rumors and writes to “set the record straight”; letting Buick loyalists know that the contract is intact and the hoopla was started due to sensationalized headlines in the media.

This is a perfect example of the power of a blog when it comes to disseminating information quickly and controlling the message. GM could have chosen to continue letting the rumors fly and eventually send out a statement in their e-newsletter, but by taking the bull by the horn and posting the truth on their blog, they’ve taken the mountain and made it back into the molehill, stopping rumors in their tracks.

Fresh content
A frequent complaint heard by e-newsletter readers is they’re faced with the same content they can find on the company’s website or marketing materials. Nothing is fresh. This happens often with dealership e-newsletters as dealers recycle content used on their web site or in their online promotions. Not only does this discount the time your customers have spent reading the enewsletter, it also is a surefire way to dissuade customers and prospects from giving you their e-mail address for future communications. A blog, on the other hand, enables dealerships to add small bits of content the reader can’t find anywhere else. Due to the nature of a blog, posts are often personal comments and thoughts from leadership and can feature anything from news about the industry to their opinion on current events. It’s a view into the dealership a reader might not see through any other source.

Quick
Today’s consumers want to scan information in bite-size chunks and pull out the content that catches their interest or pertains directly to them. Some of the best media sites on the web have already invested time and energy into designing their sites to attract readers in this way. Take the Wall Street Journal, www.wsj.com, for instance. One glance at the front page of the Wall Street Journal and the reader will see several headlines that make up the news of the day summarized in four lines or less.

A dealership blog taps into this trend by giving users bits of information that can be easily scanned. The best blog posts are no more than a few paragraphs long; with one paragraph being the general rule of thumb for length. Compare that with an e-newsletter that often contains three to eight feature-length articles and long lead-ins and it’s not hard to figure out why e-newsletter conversion rates are dropping.

Direct
Perhaps the most important benefit of a blog is the direct link it creates between customer and executive leadership, or in the dealership world, buyers and sellers. While an e-newsletter article may inspire a reader to shoot off a quick e-mail to whoever maintains the mailing list, a blog creates the opportunity for one on one interaction between the reader and the poster. Teddy Stephens, General Manager of Fiesta Ford Lincoln Mercury, in Indio, CA has seen the power of his blog, Fiesta Ford eNewsFlash (www.fiestaford.wordpress.com) firsthand.

Since beginning his blog in February of this year, Stephens has received positive feedback from posters all over the nation. In this way, eNewsFlash, is pulling interest into the Fiesta dealership from sources across the U.S. rather than pushing information out to those readers in his geographic area. Again looking at the Fastlane example from above, Buick was able to begin a one-on-one communication with its brand loyalists the moment the contract rumors began. No other form of marketing gives you instant, direct communication in this way.

While blogs will by no means make e-newsletters or other forms of interactive marketing extinct any time soon, they should be considered as an addition to your marketing mix due to some of the attributes noted above. Blogs, unlike any other form of online marketing, can bring fresh, timely, interesting information to the reader and establish a one-on-one communication channel that can’t be matched today. And if you need a further push, look to your competitor down the street. I’ll bet within the next year you’ll see a blog pop up on their web site. Take my advice and establish a blog to get those buyers first. Best of luck.

This article is published in Digital Dealer Magazine, here.