Average dealerships have wishes and hopes. Confident, successful stores have goals and a plan to maximize CPO.

I was speaking to a large group of dealers and marketers recently on ways to get traffic, leads and sales with social media. Before we started, I asked everyone to categorize his or her social media marketing skill level — beginner, intermediate or advanced — and that day, I had a mix of all three.

Then I asked, “Who has a solid, written marketing plan?” Sadly, no one raised their hand.

What benefits do I actually get from social media?

A recent study from Crowdtap reported that the vast majority of car-buyers research a vehicle on social media before buying. Respondents also said digital car advertising is the least trusted source of information.

Some of the most up-to-date data from the study include:

• Sixty-eight percent of those who purchased a car found the vehicle on social media.

• Eighty-seven  percent say they research cars via social media.

• Eighty  percent say they're “more likely to turn” to social networks than sales people.

• Ninety-five  percent say they “would talk about” car models they like on social media.

• Fifty-four  percent say they use “User Generated Content” to inform their purchase decision.

Dealerships and CPO managers who are able to steer the power of peer endorsements, engaging target customers and social sharing will find success in social marketing’s people-powered future. But, only you can make the decision that’s right for your store.

Do I even need a marketing plan?

Honestly, the answer is … it depends.

While that answer may not thrill you, it is the most accurate.  Here's why:

Every business has its own DNA, its own culture and its own ecosystem. Some respond favorably to developing a plan that brings discipline and focus to all marketing activities.

Others may spend time, energy and budget to develop a marketing plan, then lose interest and resort to tactical maneuvers, which quickly veer off the prescribed path into parts unknown (and unmeasured).

Still, others may not have a plan at all and somehow manage to hit their numbers.

So you can see why I say, "It depends."

To get a better feel for whether a written marketing plan would make sense for your organization, answer the following questions:

1. Do you have defined social media and content marketing goals or strategic objectives that you want to reach?

2. What's your company-wide comfort level on publishing informative content about your company, employees and customers?

3. If you have specific goals and objectives, do your marketing efforts significantly and consistently contribute to achieving them?

4. Do you struggle with determining what the best performance metrics are?

5. Do you find that you're constantly seeking better marketing results but you remain unsure of how to best get those results?

6. Is your management team — sales, service, operations, marketing, admin — on the same page as to what marketing success looks like?

7. Would a written plan keep everyone more accountable for results?
 

If you're fearless in your answers to these questions, you may find that it makes sense to have a marketing plan. Going through that inquiry and decision-making process is crucial, and the insights you’ll earn may surprise you.

One of the challenges in developing a marketing plan is realistically aligning it with the culture of your organization. Your plan has to fit your culture and organizational structure. It must fit the flow of how “things get done.”

Making the commitment to do the ONE thing that will maximize your CPO is not easy, but I guarantee that once you’ve taken the steps, your business will be better for it, and you’ll have a clear idea of where you need to go.

Ask yourself if what you're doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow.

If you choose to move forward with your marketing plan, take note that it’s a living, breathing marketing GPS that will shift and change many times over as your goals and objectives are revisited, evaluated and redefined.

I’m going to speak more about making the right decisions on your marketing plan at Used Car Week’s CPO Forum on Nov.16.

We’ll cover some of the components of how to get more leads and sales from social media.

Setting goals is the first step to turning the invisible into the visible.

Many dealers and managers reach out to me with thoughtful questions about social media. It seems to be at the top of their “To-Do” list, but many are stuck not knowing if they’re on the right path.

There are those naysayers who are unfamiliar with social media’s benefits and how SEO, content marketing, online reputation and authority, even advertising, are all intertwined with social media.

There’s a lot of uncertainty and misinformation, and if you’re able to make it to my session at the CPO conference, I promise to do everything I can to help you and your team figure out what’s best for your store’s success.

The ONE thing you need to maximize CPO with social media is to decide where you want to go and how you’ll get there. A marketing plan will ease your travel by providing more efficiency with less expense.

Take action today, and turn your invisible desires into visible leads and sales.