The polaroid camera is not something that I would have used for inspiration in trying to develop a new mobile photo-sharing platform. But that’s exactly what Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the makers of Instagram, did. Polaroid cameras were big and bulky, and the overall design and feel was anything but sleek. I personally loved the eight exposures per pack. But, what was cool about polaroid cameras, and what Instagram has capitalized on, is the instant gratification factor.
Instagram is a free photo sharing application that allows iPhone users to take a photo, apply a filter, and share it on the service or a variety of other social networking services, including Facebook and Twitter. Instagram has indeed captured an audience with almost 10 million total users and an average of 14 photos uploaded per second.
I know what you’re thinking. “Dan, what does Instagram have to offer my dealership?” Most dealers that I talk to are weary of getting involved with a platform that is not specifically focused on price points and sales events. Volkswagen is a prime example of how the automotive industry and Instagram can work for your dealership.
Recently, Volkswagen Canada launched a campaign called ‘Art Heist’ to expose the Jetta as a work of art. Limited edition framed photographs of the Jetta started to appear all across Canada. These pieces of art were left for people to take down and bring home. Volkswagen encouraged those who took the pictures to share their experience online through Volkswagen Canada’s Facebook and Twitter pages under the #VWArtHeist hashtag.
So if Volkswagen launched a very successful campaign based on displaying “artsy” photographs of vehicles, then why would taking interesting photos of cars and your staff not gain interest as well? Here are a few rules to live by when using Instagram at your dealership.
Tip #1 Post interesting images of the vehicles: Don’t just take straight on photos of the vehicles but look for interesting angles, a close up of the rims, dashboard, headlights. Apply a filter to it, use the blur feature, and presto, an artistic shot that any car enthusiast or a loyal customer will surely like.
Tip #2 Post interesting images of your staff: What will make your Instagram gallery stand out is to start taking fun and interesting photos of your staff. Visually appealing lifestyle photos thrive on Instagram. Your staff is a subject matter that will always give you plenty of ideas. Do this with your service, sales, customers, and with everyone involved at the dealership.
Tip #3 Post consistently: A pet peeve of mine on Instagram is when someone will not post anything for weeks and weeks and then in one day post 20 photos in a row. To me this comes across as spam. Even if the photos are good, it’s overload and might result in people unfollowing you.
Tip #4 Get social with your posts: Like anything else, when a conversation gets going, more and more people want to chime in. By utilizing the @replies and hashtags you will see more and more activity that will give exposure to your profile. Using these features can open doors for social contest both internal and external. Do a photo contest within your dealership between the employees and choose a winner. Or have followers submit photos with a particular hashtag. You can be the judge and give them a prize. Make sure you’re supporting any contest on Instagram with other social sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Follow us on Instagram @potratz, and also follow my personal stream @dannallen. So enough reading! Grab your iPhone and go look for interesting angles and subject matter. Have fun with it, and I look forward to seeing your photos!
“MICHAEL!!! Do You Realize What We Will Be Able to Do Now?” Those are the very words I shouted with excitement at 3am on February 13th, 2007! We had discovered we were able to do “Targeted Online Advertising” by the use of HTML identifier tags, IP addresses, and cookies. I am talking about Remarketing, which is also known as Retargeting, Behavioral Marketing, Interest Based Marketing or Targeted Online Advertising.
By harnessing this new technology, Michael and I felt we could change the way our dealers and dealer groups were advertising online in a very positive way. On February 14th, 2007, we named our enhanced version of this new-found technology “Webratz” as a play off of Potratz. This new technology would allow us to improve conversions even more on PPC campaigns and also conversions in general since we could now target individual consumers that visited our dealers websites with an ad featuring the specific vehicle they had expressed interest in.
Four days later, I was on my way to present our new Webratz technology to a large dealer group several hours away from our offices, and I knew what I was about to share with this progressive group would earn us our biggest dealer to date. Imagine the potential, reach, one-to-one advertising strength, and cost savings from serving the exact vehicle offer a car shopper had expressed interest in on the website. Not to mention we could also use this technology for service, collision, parts, accessories, secondary financing, and extended warranties, which were all the profit centers they were very dialed in on. To say I was excited would have been an understatement.
The meeting lasted for 37 minutes, and when I left that conference room, I was second-guessing my decision to keep Potratz solely focused on the Automotive industry. I was confused and amazed why they were not able to understand the competitive advantage and cost savings that remarketing would offer. I even had a non-compete agreement I was prepared to sign. I felt like our project was never going to get off the ground before it even started, since we needed significant funding to purchase enough ad placement on the top sites we had picked.
It Was A Fight Worth Fighting
Well, I picked myself up and dug in as I started calling more dealers and dealer groups that I felt would be willing to be our beta dealer. The result… Dealer 2: NO It sounds like spyware; Dealer 3: You Can Do What? When? How? Well, Get Back To Me Later; Dealer 4: That sounds like big brother, no thanks. And then after the 17th door being shut due to the dealer’s website provider refusing to place our remarketing code in “Their Website” I knew I had to try a different approach.
Then, I contacted the Business Review in Albany, NY, and Barbara Pinckney was happy to do an article about us and remarketing on June 25, 2007, opening two doors. But neither was automotive. In fact, these were a law school and a large furniture store wanting to give it that old college try. I was ecstatic since we finally had the funding to really start and test this new technology of remarketing. I am a gadget, software, and API fanatic so when I have new things like this to play with it is like Christmas, Easter, and my birthday all wrapped into one.
What We Learned Was Fascinating
We created a few hundred text ads and several hundred skyscraper, button, and leader board ads for our new clients as we tested and retested the results. It was fascinating as we watched the analytics and tried to sort why people clicked what they clicked and how the returning visits were being affected. We tested the website traffic by creating various campaigns ranging from “All Visitors,” “Subscribers,” and “Abandoned Shopping Carts.”
Then the light bulb went off that we could also “Cross Sell.” Working with a college and a large furniture store was actually the best thing that happened to our firm since we learned so much by being able to move outside of the automotive industry and expand our minds seeing how other industries operate so we could apply these strategies to our automotive clients. Yes, we finally had auto dealers give it that college try.
The Auto Industry is an e-commerce industry today, and to become truly successful as automotive marketers in the 21st Century we must think, act, and operate like an online retailer…just like Amazon.com and eBay! Refusing to change and learn like the Brick and Mortar Blockbuster Videos will result in a “STORE CLOSED” sign, while companies like Netflix that learned to restructure, embrace, and change the way they market results in four digit growth.
Choosing a Remarketing Partner That’s Right For You
Today, remarketing is being offered by a number of companies, but I must warn you remarketing is not created equal, just like PPC is not. I encourage you to do your homework and ask how a company develops the strategy. Remarketing is an extremely time consuming marketing tool when you first begin, but once you get the foundation in place with the correct text ads, banner ads, video pre-rolls, and landing pages, it will be well worth the time and expense. Remarketing is not a “set it and forget it” strategy if it is to work and not burn through cash. When choosing a company for your remarketing or digital marketing, do they work with other dealers in your market or do they offer a non-compete agreement? If not, I would have second thoughts, since this practice drives up cost and will not allow separation of messages in addition to the concern of sharing of code on competing dealers sites to drive up click cost. Transparency in the true actual cost for each campaign is a must.
Traditional Marketing or Digital Marketing or Combination
We also learned that we did not fit the Automotive Advertising Agency profile since that meant traditional advertising in our minds. We had many dealers shut the door on us since they felt we focused too much on digital marketing and did not talk enough about traditional marketing. Our reasoning? Yes, sure, we definitely do traditional marketing and have done so for years just as the dealers we spoke to, but what was missing is integrating digital marketing with traditional marketing to have a complete puzzle, which results in reaching more car shoppers more affordably.
Do You Really Need Remarketing?
It’s now 2011 and remarketing is gaining in popularity, which is perfect timing since it is a great marketing tool that no dealer’s marketing strategy should go without any longer. There are more vehicle makes and models than ever before and if a dealership is to continue growing in the 21st century they must reach a wider audience and do it for less! This fascinating old technology called Remarketing has left the Digital Technortti stage and should be part of every progressive dealer’s advertising strategy. When Remarketing is done correctly we have seen return visits as high as 47% and conversions of leads increase by 13-19%.
What Is Remarketing?
As an example, let’s assume Mary Car Shopper visits Potratz Audi of Albany via Google Search, PPC ad, Facebook Ad, Email Blast, or any means, and is researching a new Audi A6 Premium Plus. As she is completing the contact form, her work phone rings, so she closes the browser down and returns to her job. Ten to 15 days later, she decides she has time to shop for that Audi A6 again, but she can’t remember on which Audi dealer’s website she found the perfect A6. So, she begins the search again. The Potratz Audi dealer website she visited earlier has a 50/50 chance at best that she will return. However, if Potratz Audi used Remarketing… Mary would have been exposed to Potratz Audi as she surfed websites for the weather, news, recipes, hairstyles, etc. So Mary, now very familiar with this Audi dealer, could go directly to their site, stop in after work, or have clicked on one of the remarketing ads days earlier.
Just think of all the sites you visit that have ads on them…those are the very sites remarketing ads could be served on!
Remarketing is not a pop up ad…In fact, it is an ad embedded within websites like ESPN, ABC, Fox, Weather Channel and thousands of other top rated sites. This is a commonplace technology that is now being used by American Express, Bose, University of Phoenix and some car manufacturers. Are you using it?
Google Panda refers to changes made in search algorithms used to improve Google search results. The changes took effect in early 2011 and continue to be tweaked and changed by Google in order to give the user the best search results possible. The new machine-learning algorithm affects both page and website ranking in several ways, with the goal of weeding out poor content and content that is irrelevant to the search term entered. Many sites had a dramatic loss in traffic as a result of Google Panda, and with each change, they risk losing the traffic they’ve rebuilt. What does that mean for dealerships looking to optimize their sites and increase traffic through Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing?
It’s important to understand that SEO needs SEM. In a perfect world, a dealership could spend lots of money upfront on SEM and then once they’ve built up their campaigns and their content is filling up the first few pages of Google, they could stop spending on SEM and rely solely on SEO. Well, it’s not a perfect world, and Google isn’t going to continue making billions of dollars from advertisers without SEM. Therefore dealerships need to be spending in order to stay relevant and keep their ranking as high as possible.
It’s important to know where to focus your SEO efforts. Panda’s most recent update seems to be focusing on video content and favoring sites with lots of it. Therefore, it’s important for dealerships to make sure they’re uploading video in the form of test drives, walk-arounds, service video and anything else that will drive traffic. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, with many consumers going directly to the site to search for video of the products they’re purchasing. Staying current with video content is essential to boosting SEO.
That answers a few questions on SEO, but what about SEM? How does a dealer make sure they’re optimizing SEM dollars? The most important word in SEM is content. Make sure your keywords and descriptions are accurate and relevant to your campaigns. Having good content will increase your quality score which means your ads will come up more often in searches, which means a greater opportunity to drive traffic to your website. Make sure you’re advertising in both search and display networks. Image ads are just as important as keywords to drive traffic through clicks, and they have the added benefit of impressions. Be proactive and constantly monitor and optimize your campaigns. Don’t set them up and leave them to run – you can’t cook a perfect turkey without basting it, and you can’t run a great SEM campaign without optimizing it.
Learn more about how how your dealership can benefit from a well planned SEO strategy.
By: Rob Morton
There’s no customer as valuable as a loyal customer. Bring them in to your dealership’s service, parts and collision departments, and they are certain to stay with you when it’s time for their next vehicle purchases.
Search Engine Marketing is a great way to reach the casual customer, and get them in the door. Promote your fixed operations department at a cost that is far more competitive than broadcast and cable, using a Video Pre-Roll Campaign.
Video Pre-Roll is a great way to promote your dealership’s latest special on oil changes to customers in your market. While potential customers are watching video content on YouTube, reading the news on their local paper’s site, or checking the weather, your 15-second video ad can be playing as a part of their online experience. A creative video pre-roll with a good call to action and a competitive offer can help your dealership’s SEM campaign convert the unsuspecting YouTube viewer into a valued customer. You will be encouraging click-throughs to gain access to information on tires specials, while continuing to promote your brand to a qualified audience through measurable impressions.
While you will generate clicks over to your website and conversion page, it is best to place bids for Video Pre-Roll campaigns per thousand impressions. What this does is guarantees that a larger majority of the audience will see your message even when they are not actively researching where to buy a new set of tires.
Video pre-roll should be a part of your overall search engine marketing approach. SEM campaigns are effective because of their ability to target an audience based on relevancy by using keywords specific to your video pre-roll campaigns.
Video Pre-Roll is just one portion of a multi-faceted approach to internet marketing. If you’re looking into ways to incorporate an SEM strategy at your dealership, then I invite you chat with us on our website.
By: Erin Miller
I often find myself torn between the eco-friendly cars that preserve our environment, and the toys and muscle cars with the speed and power of yesteryear. Finally, Honda put together a new hybrid concept called the Mugen CR-Z RR that not only gives you fantastic eco-friendly fuel mileage (50 mpg in eco-mode) and emissions, but provides that get-up-and-go with 197 bhp and 158 lb ft torque. Then…they took it away. But not before announcing to the world, making us all excited, and even having a lot of automotive marketing buzz about it, thanks to the internet.
No longer in line for production, the CR-Z RR could have started a whole new trend in the hybrid and electric car market. My first vehicle, the first I made payments on at least, was a Nissan Sentra Se-R Spec-V 6-speed stick shift with almost 200 bhp and was so much fun to drive. While it got good gas mileage, it didn’t get anywhere near 50 mpg like the CR-Z RR, and it was not considered an eco-friendly car. The CR-Z RR was a model that has an ability to blend the foreign toy cars with the continually changing green market. Not to mention creating some major changes in the auto marketing world, as this type of car would create a fun and exciting marketing campaign for anyone to design.
Many of the hybrid and electric cars share the trade off of power, speed, and overall performance for cleaner emissions, better gas mileage, or even no gas at all. The CR-Z RR was a beautiful blend of these features all wrapped into one odd looking but speedy little package. Many young adults and first time car buyers are looking to get into an eco-friendly car, but some of that group want something stylish that doesn’t force them to drive like their grandparents. Plus, the marketing strategy to go with this car would be fresh and new, utilizing search engine marketing, mobile marketing, and the newest fad, QR codes. The Mugen CR-Z RR was the answer to this gap in the hybrid/eco-friendly market, but alas for reasons unknown, we will never see it.
Never say never though. It is only a matter of time before manufacturer’s bring this idea back to the table. As technology and our understanding of how vehicles can be made to work with the environment instead of against it, there will be more changes ahead, increasing the variety and abilities of these hybrid and electric vehicles and expanding the limits of the automotive marketing industry. With that said, Honda may have dropped the ball by deciding to not continue with the CR-Z RR concept, because if they don’t put out a car like that, someone else will. It will be interesting to see over the next few years how the eco-friendly car market changes and the new choices that will be brought to the buying public and showcased in automotive marketing. I for one cannot wait until the day comes where not only can I get a fun-to-drive, super speedy car, but can also feel like I am doing my part to make the environment better.
Are you looking for a knowledgeable team that is ready and willing to evolve with your dealership and automotive marketing campaign, visit this page to see more information and contact us now.
By: Cathie Wright
Newspaper circular ads are standard practice for most dealerships, and are easily recognized by auto consumers. With Google’s recent announcement that it will be offering online circular ads for retailers such as Best Buy and Macy’s, dealers now have the opportunity to use a format they’ve dominated in print to compete in the online advertising world. Retail ads are a large source of revenue for Google who is hoping the new platform will drive online customers into stores for the holiday season and beyond. This can also drive consumers from the web to your dealership when implemented properly.
Online ads have become increasing visual, with video and graphics featuring product images taking the place of more traditional text-only listings. This new circular ad format will build on that trend by allowing for multiple images as well as multiple links, resulting in a greater chance for clicks. Clicks = $ for Google, who grabbed 74 percent of search-based ad revenue in 2010 and expects that number to be 78 percent in 2012 with help from this new platform.
While Google itself is an obvious beneficiary of this launch, the consumer will also benefit from circular-style ads through promotions based on query topic and location. The new style ad will also be available in display and banner ads, which is a benefit for businesses who already use those formats for their campaigns.
This is great news for dealerships looking for an integrated advertising plan utilizing both traditional and digital strategies. The new online circular will allow you to recreate your print ad online, further enhancing brand recognition and allowing for more synergy between campaigns.
Are you looking for a knowledgeable team that is ready and willing to evolve with your dealership and automotive marketing campaign, visit this page and contact us now.
Upon opening the Apple.com website today, you will be greeted with the words “Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will be forever the foundation of Apple.”
Steve Jobs was indeed a visionary. He was a man who constantly developed new ideas and successfully pushed the envelope time after time. The first Apple’s computer was introduced January 24, 1984 and, I feel as though I speak for many when I say they have certainly continued to influence our culture. For starters, the words iPod and iPhone are now household names.
Whenever I used to think of a Mac, I would picture myself as a 16-year-old trying to do a high school forensics assignment on an old Mac without a clue as to how to use it. But here I am years later, and the word Mac has become an integral part of my vocabulary. Today with the breaking news of the death of Steve Jobs, Apple’s former CEO and co-founder, I take a moment and look around the office here at Potratz, where Apple technology surrounds me; it is an essential part of our business.
Here at Potratz we use Apple technology to offer your dealership the best of our traditional and full service advertising programs. Our graphics department isn’t the only group that depends on the reliability of Apple products; they are embraced by every employee. Our video department uses Final Cut Pro, an Apple software package, for developing television advertising to help promote your dealership.
Many of Steve Jobs’ inventions affect the way we do business today. Even if you don’t own a Macbook , iPod or an iPad, there is no doubt something in your professional and personal life that has been touched by the genius of Steve Jobs. If you’ve ever received a phone call from Potratz, it was probably made from an iPhone.
Potratz prides itself in following the same innovative and forward thinking philosophy as Steve Jobs and thanks him for his many years of inspiration.
