Industry News
It’s called the “bright, shiny object syndrome” or BSOS for short. For people in charge of dealership marketing it can be a problem that’s extremely hard to overcome.
People infected with BSOS can often see every new thing as THE thing, the one solution that’s going to make all the difference in helping them achieve their goals.
Something new comes along that looks good and they grab it. Then, all of a sudden, they spot another bright shiny thing that looks good and they grab on to it before the previous shiny thing is ever fully utilized. The pattern happens with enough frequency it becomes a never ending cycle of starting over.
Because of BSOS, it’s easy for automotive marketers to get pulled in an almost infinite number of directions on how to spend very finite resources like time, personnel, and money. Every day, another bright and shiny idea is launched to sell. With each are frequent opportunities to jump to yet another thing, ultimately causing resources to be exhausted with no consistent results achieved.
If you or someone you know sufferers from BSOS, it’s ok. There’s a cure and your dealership can benefit tremendously by kicking the habit.
The solution is found in one simple observance. Some things sell cars and a lot of things don’t. The key is having a precise strategy for being able to identify what works for your dealership versus what doesn’t. Then, you must have the fortitude to stick with what works and get rid of what doesn’t. The more things you find that work well will begin a decrease in the dependency for hopping around from object to object, and ultimately will allow you to be more critical in evaluating things that can pull you astray.
One of the common denominators for marketers who do a good job of separating what works from what doesn’t is they stick with something long enough to accurately measure its true value before they change gears and move on to something else. They provide themselves the opportunity to build a solid foundation of tried and true performers that achieve their goal. That doesn’t mean they’re not open to new things, they’re just more critical of their place at the table.
They follow a process that isn’t overly complicated. It’s based simply on time. The time to succinctly think through how to best utilize a tool; resource; or idea, the time to implement it properly, the time to think through and define their desired goals, and the time to then measure the heck out of something to see if it actually met or exceeded the goal.
Once a really solid foundation is built it then becomes much easier to separate contenders from pretenders the next time they try and present a new bright shiny object that deviates from what you know works for your dealership. As they’re presenting the wonderfulness of whatever they’re selling, call a time out and tell them you’re only interested in the answers to two questions:
Question 1: Does what they have sell cars?
Question 2: Can they prove it? Not just prove it with stories from other dealerships, but prove it in your dealership every month.
The lesson to be learned is that it’s not necessary to chase every bright shiny thing. There are some new things that work, and some things that are too tried and true to be shiny that also work. The key is easily sorting them out to find the best fits for your store.
Does it sell cars?
Can you prove it?
If the answer is yes to both those questions, it’s worth your time and budget. If not, it’s just a worthless bright shiny thing and who needs a collection of those?
As a successful auto dealership executive, you already appreciate that maintaining your industry lead and competitive edge takes continually attracting qualified customers who are ready to buy. No earth shattering revelations there. But what’s changing — at the speed of an electron — is how you can find and market to those customers.
Customers engage via multiple devices and in numerous ways. Understanding the customer journey and building a solid marketing plan that engages the customer at each step of the buying journey is essential.
That’s where Client Command® comes in. We use the latest data-gathering technology and analysis to identify and reach the best in-market customers and pre-qualify them with our unique, comprehensive lead nurturing system. Using 177 algorithms to identify buyers and where they are in their journey is how we guarantee results. Not only do we use your database we search multiple databases and target buyers.
A gun shot approach is never as effective as highly targeting and marketing to buyers by offering the right message at the right time. We are especially thrilled about our direction and the investments we are making in our people and platforms. Our dealership marketing programs now include:
- A plan to personalize and optimize customer journeys to target customers at the right time.
- Test messaging and promotions to determine the best conversion rate and highest ROI
- Highly targeted messaging and conversion optimized landing pages that drive sales
- Effective, permission based email marketing. 77% of consumers prefer to receive permission based marketing communication via email than any other channel.*
- Relevant, targeted content that nurtures loyal relationships and helps close more sales.
The Client Command® system is proven and comprehensive. We continually fine tune by keeping abreast of new techniques and software and applying them to our process. We are voracious about generating leads that turn into sales.
Results are continually measured to ensure the most effective lead-generation methods and strongest returns. The Client Command® team includes experts who are among the most skillful in their fields. They excel at what counts most: sourcing quality leads that translate into sales.
We understand that effective marketing depends on a thorough knowledge of the automotive marketing industry. That’s why we stay informed on relevant issues such as new laws and proposed legislation, market case studies, gasoline prices, new car features, and more. Then we leverage this learning to adjust our marketing software and messaging. The bottom line: we take advantage of the latest industry changes so you get the most relevant leads possible.
We know how important it is that we learn about your target customer and dealership. We listen carefully to your input on how we can serve you better. It’s truly a partnership. We’ll use our data to assist you in developing client profiles, determining your highest value and most frequent customers, and when current customers will be ready to buy again.
The result? Working with Client Command®, you enjoy the best lead generation — and strategic marketing tool that technology can provide. It’s a proven system tailored around the particular needs of your dealership, and it delivers results. Guaranteed. Every time.
Have you ever felt like the abundance of emerging marketing and advertising technology, gizmos, and strategies is a bit like being in a tsunami of information? Just as you get comfortable in one area, BOOM, there’s a new wave crashing down. As technology progresses, it’s inescapable as a marketer. The decision to make is do you want to navigate the waters head on in an ark or risk it in a life raft.
When it comes to automotive marketing, doing something different from what you know can be a bit uncomfortable. You may ask yourself things like, “Will it give my store an advantage? Is it cost effective? How much time will my team and I have to spend on it? What if it fails?”
But, it’s even more uncomfortable when you find out you’ve fallen way behind everyone else because you failed to progress and evolve. That’s why it’s imperative to seek out and embrace new marketing and advertising strategies in order to keep your message where your audience is going to see it. Even though there’s a lot to sort through, the benefits of adopting the right strategies can be awesome.
- Today’s audiences can be more tightly targeted than ever before.
- Ads can be specific to the viewer; so, the message is much better received.
- Engagement, leads, and purchases can be tracked to the specific medium.
- Less time, money, and effort is spent figuring out how to reach the right people and more time can be invested working on selling more cars.
- For automotive marketers wanting to adopt emerging technology and media but not drown in the tsunami of information, we’ve compiled three things to always consider when getting started.
1. Know your audience and their media habits.
Although almost all dealers are already engaged in some sort of digital advertising, as much as 80% of their monthly advertising spends are still broadcast media specific. That, despite the fact that there are fewer viewers in news and fringe time – traditionally the favorite time slots of dealerships. According to the Pew Research Center, late night news has lost nearly a quarter of its audience over the last decade, and viewership in other fringe times is dropping. Considering the fact that only about 1 in 20 households reached will be in the market for a new car, dealership media buys are talking to a shrinking market, of whom, only a small percent are truly active prospects.
A profitable first step is to consider the alternatives based on knowing your audience’s behaviors and understanding the mediums where they spend the most time. Emerging technologies can solve both the audience size and the percentage of prospects problem by reaching targets who are currently in the market for an automobile. It’s a much smaller population, but with a much greater return on dollars spent.
2. Hold the medium accountable.
The objective of campaign marketing is to sell automobiles, and the media rep (whether digital or traditional) sitting across the desk or virtual meeting should have a good answer to one important question: How can we track the sales results of this investment?
Having an accurate answer to that question is essential to allocating your marketing dollars to the marketing that produces the best ROI.
And there’s a second question the media rep should answer: How do you make sure that you are pushing the right message to the right prospect? Is it spray and pray saturation coverage or are audience members actively in market shopping? The fact that the prospect is identified as being in the market isn’t enough. What is the prospect in the market for? How long have they been in market? And what is the source of the data?
Media accountability starts with a clear explanation of what the medium is going to do, and how it’s going to do it. It ends with an accurate accounting of the units sold through that medium. Anything less is simply a vendor asking the marketer to “trust me.”
3. Put your message where the buyers are.
On the average, the typical cable-enabled American home receives over 200 channels. And on the average, they watch less than 10% of them. While broadcast tv and cable viewership is dropping, it’s increasing on devices that can connect to video content (streaming players, game consoles, computers, tablets, and smart phones).
Increasingly, viewers are where traditional advertising is not. And that leads to another question that the media reps should answer: How will your dealership’s message get to viewers wherever they are? And, how will the media company make sure they’re getting your message to the right audience members at the appropriate time in their buying journey?
These are questions that some media representatives aren’t used to hearing. In some cases, you may even encounter a blank stare. Those who will be most helpful to you in navigating the change in the way marketing information is both transmitted and received will have a ready answer. It’s because that’s the way they’ve designed their programs.
Its answers to questions like the ones above that will help automotive marketers clearly navigate the confusing waters of emerging advertising technology. By gaining those answers, you’ll be able focus on doing more of what works and quit doing what doesn’t. Your pipeline will be full and you can sell cars and that’s a pretty sweet deal!
