Dean Evans & Web Marketing

Integrated marketing will without a doubt multiply your marketing efforts without multiplying your budget. However, just making a single connection between marketing elements is not really enough. The best way to lay the groundwork for integrated marketing communications is by building your brand consistency.

This simply means that your message is clear and repeated often. Your message can be repeated in several ways: visually, audibly and textually.

Visually, your logo should be consistent. It should appear everywhere your name appears. Find a design you like and stick with it. You want your logo to become synonymous with your company. It should become familiar to your key demographics, and nothing stimulates familiarity like repetition.

Your message should be the same whether on the radio, television, web or in print. Boil down your company’s mission statement to a sentence or slogan, then make sure you repeat that slogan in all your advertising. Even when listening to a radio commercial, your jingle/slogan/mission should be familiar to your potential customers.

Your message and brand should be supported textually in your print campaigns as well. Support your statements with evidence and in-depth detail. Stick to your message and use content that adheres to your mission.

The more familiar consumers with who you are, the more powerful your message becomes. How often have you found yourself singing or humming a company’s jingle? That sort of familiarity doesn’t happen without repetition, and repetition goes hand in hand with consistency.

Death to the notion of “Internet Sales and Marketing” as somehow separate from the rest of the dealership! What I’m talking about here is an end to the idea that you have “Internet” customers and “showroom” customers. With 83% (and growing) of consumers for both sales and service conducting online research before calling or visiting the physical dealership, the people who visit your website are exactly the same people who visit your showroom. For many dealers this a complete paradigm shift. But, if you want to stay competitive and leverage the power of the Internet then you and everyone at your dealership must understand this.

How can you tell if you haven’t made the crucial shift yet and still living in the dark ages of the Internet? Just see if these apply to you…

5. Your dealership website hasn’t been updated in months (maybe years).

4. The parts and service departments have a vague notion that you have an “Internet” department but they have no idea who they are or what they do.

3. Your dealerships doesn’t regularly monitor web traffic, web lead conversion rates or web lead to sales conversion rates. (This means you’re completely in the dark!)

2. You still spend big bucks on radio, TV and newspaper advertising and are not so sure about this whole “search engine marketing and optimization” thing.

1. You think people still use the phone book to find dealerships!

Making this shift in thinking and action may be difficult, but it is the business reality for dealerships today. Without it, your dealership will be left in the dark!

When integrating your marketing efforts, remember to keep in mind that all roads should lead first to your website, and then to your lot. Your website has all the space you need to provide the details your consumers want and need. Use all your marketing efforts to direct consumers to your website “for more details.” Your website should be your main hub and should ALWAYS be up to date, informative, and easy to navigate.

It’s important to keep in mind that a large percentage of your potential clientele will spend one month or less shopping for their vehicle- thanks to the Internet. That month-long sales cycle is made possible by the only marketing media that spans all the steps of the sales funnel, your online marketing. It can raise awareness, develop familiarity and trust (consideration), and encourage consumers to visit your dealership and buy a car.

Other marketing elements like print, television, radio, etc. should be used to supplement your main marketing tool, your website. Each element will reach some consumers that the others will not. Each part has its specialty demographic and is therefore valuable. It’s up to you to decide how valuable, but recognize that the worth of each of your individual efforts increases when it plays a roll in a well thought out network of IMC. Conversely, the value diminishes when an effort sits in isolation.

More next week and I’d really like to hear your comments, stories and questions about IMC and your dealership.

So far we’ve discussed two of the three main reasons to engage in integrated marketing communication (IMC). IMC builds brand recognition and consistency, increases credibility and magnifies the power of each of your individual marketing efforts. This magnification is one of the most valuable aspects of IMC.

As you know, successful marketing builds consumer interest and awareness. IMC helps you to leverage the interest and awareness with other advertising efforts. As you accomplish your goal to build awareness with marketing media such as print ads, television spots, etc., follow up with Internet advertising that links your print ads to your website. No marketing effort should be isolated. Again, if your newspaper ad features a special like “Tax Free Tuesday,” make sure that when consumers type “Tax Free Tuesday” into their search engine of choice, you have a text ad to lead the way to your website and inventory. If each piece of the marketing puzzle works together, your traffic will increase both on and off line. As more people see your television and print ads, more people will look for you online. The more consumers who look for you online, the more ups you will have on your lot.

The primary goal of IMC is to create a “web,” or net, for your consumers. No matter what strand of the marketing web they touch, they should be led to the same central place- your dealership.

Technorati Tags: advertising efforts, brand recognition, credibility, IMC, individual efforts, integrated marketing communications

As we discuss the benefits of integrated marketing communication (IMC), we have to include the asset of credibility. If a customer is able to read your ad in the newspaper, they should expect to be able to find you online. Likewise, ads on television should also lead consumers back to your website. Nothing steals credibility like a dead end. If a consumer searches for you and can’t find you, they are not likely to trust you. On the other hand, if a customer catches the end of your television ad and remembers just the name of your dealership, it adds to your credibility when they’re able to quickly find more information online. When your message is unwavering, it builds trust and helps you portray an air of professionalism and consistency.

If you run a special and only advertise it in the newspaper, when consumers look for details online and find nothing, they may think they missed the special or feel angry that you haven’t provided more information. Sure they could call, but studies show that calling a dealership is not the preferred means of contact. Using IMC means giving the consumers what they want and making sure they know a) who you are b) where they can find you and c) that they can trust you.

Technorati Tags: credibility, IMC, internet marketing communication

We’ve already discussed the overall importance of Integrated Marketing Communication for your dealership. Now, let’s get into some of the specific value that this integration can bring to your dealership.

IMC is valuable in many capacities, but three of the top reasons are:

1.) brand recognition and consistency,
2.) credibility and
3.) magnified power of individual marketing efforts.

Let’s talk specifically about brand recognition.

Repetition is key when advertising/marketing your dealership. You can easily increase the power of a message through repetition. For instance, your slogan becomes associated with your dealership and with your customers’ feelings about your dealership. When that slogan is used in every effort- whether online, on television or on the pages of a newspaper- it becomes more powerful. When your target market hears your slogan regularly, sees it online, etc., they will remember it. Then when they are ready to buy, now or in the future, they will think of your dealership. And this, my friends, is the true power of IMC.

For inspiration and a great look at the best taglines and jingles over the years visit Most Influential Taglines from Tagline Guru.

Technorati Tags: brand recognition, IMC, integrated marketing communications

In our ongoing talk about death to the concept of “Internet marketing and/or Internet customers,” let’s talk about “IMC.” You have probably heard the term “Integrated Marketing Communications” (IMC) before. Though the lengthy title may be momentarily intimidating, chances are you’vealready engaged in the idea, and you should probably be doing more of it.

IMC is simply connecting all of your advertising/marketing dots. For example, your ads should connect to each other and drive traffic to your website. IMC is very much grounded in the concept of a network– emphasis on the net. Any television, radio or newspaper ads you run should mention your website. Conversely, your Internet advertising should make use of the same slogans and promotions prevalent in your offline advertising. There should be one central location for information and all of your marketing should point to that location.

IMC is a simple, important concept (with a long title), all too often overlooked. Don’t allow dead ends in your marketing plan. Ads that go nowhere will be far less successful than ads that lead consumers back to your online showroom and, eventually, to your physical showroom and their next car.

Technorati Tags: IMC, integrated marketing communications, website traffic

Today dealers are experiencing the most competitive landscape in the last 30 years. A few years ago, if you were spending over $500 to attract a customer to your store for a new car, it was o.k. - your margins and bottom line were still robust, and business was good - especially if you were a luxury or import volume franchised dealers. In the past, when dealers’ floor traffic went down, they would simply notify their manufacturer, who would then launch mass advertising and incentives to drive people to the showroom and service departments. Today, incentives are still going strong, but fewer customers are coming in the door. Why?

1. Because there are fewer consumers and many more vehicle choices.
2. Because consumers are starting dialogs with Internet savvy dealers via email and phone well before they are walking into the showroom.
3. And most recently, the credit crunch from the hom

Because of this Retail Perfect Storm a changing landscape of more competition, lower margins, and the opportunity of the Internet - this blog will focus on helping dealers who want to be on the winning side of this Perfect Storm not one of the ones who fall by the wayside because they were in their own world, not paying attention. And I’ll discuss the web opportunity that is right now not what was happening two years ago.

* * *

Internet Marketing Is Dead

When I say “

Technorati Tags: automotive retail, more competition, the perfect storm, web 2.0

Dealers’Marketing Budgets: Re-Calibration Needed

Dealers as a whole are still behind the curve. I know this is old data, but not much has changed: in an article in the April ‘06 issue of the Dealix Newsletter called “Latest Data on Consumer Media Usage,” there a chart with some demoralizing statistics on people’s weekly media consumption vs. where dealers are spending their money. Here are just a Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: budget re-calibration, consumer media usage, dealership budgets

Or, in other words - go for the brains before good looks.Here’s an article I wrote for Dealer.com’s Power to the Dealer Newsletter that I wanted to share with those who haven’t seen it. This is about Web 2.0 for dealers because Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: online automotive marketing, web 2.0, website conversions