Automotive Digital Marketing – Time to get Real!!

Automotive Digital Marketing is a buzz word created by consultants in the niche to sell online marketing ideas and products that fit a traditional frame of mind.  Tacky intersituals, pop up coupons, dealer micro sites are some of the crappy techniques that are being pushed by the gurus.

When you call them out about bad they are getting it wrong they respond in ways that do more to damage their search engine reputation that you can possibly imagine.  The biggest crowd to suffer from watching these people in action are the old school second generation plus car dealers.   They are so used to being told the right way to do things by they forefathers and gurus, who proclaim a wealth of knowledge, when they dont really have a clue about online marketing themselves.

Online marketing is not just about capturing leads and the processes used to follow up with them, it is way more than that.  I often get criticized for my views of online marketing and that is ok I have very thick skin, but what is amazing when people realize you are onto a better way of reaching a target audience they try to cannibalize the idea as their own, when they do not have a clue about delivery.

Car dealers sell widgets that people can buy anywhere from anyone, within reason.  People using he internet to research cars will submit leads to dealers and third parties but more and more these are below the fold consumers.  They are ones needing help with special finance, buried in trade ins and price whore shopping, not saying these consumers are not valuable, which cause more work for the people working these leads.

Why not go after the best customers in a way that will harness the power of attraction versus the power of promotion?  Dealer rating sites claim that this is the wave of the future when actually it is a past tense thought on web 2.0.  Dealer review sites actually take away from the dealer one of their most highly trafficked search terms that bring buyers to their website, their name.

Just as explained at another automotive marketing blog.  Car dealers are not selling a unique product and to pay to have reviews of their dealership solicited by third parties is really ignorant, especially when part of that pitch is to dominate search traffic for their dealership name and their peoples name.  Those are terms that the dealer should control on their own and make it impossible for other sites to enter their primary search terms.

If you want to display testimonials from customers you should control the property that they are displayed on, unless you are selling a a unique product.  Then third party validation is worth something.  But when people are comparing where to buy a Ford from, you need to give them the reason to do business with you, not pay someone else to solicit your customers for them to have access to your database and monetize traffic for your name.

There are plenty of sites that you can use for free and solicit your own customers to give you a review, without them being encouraged to submit leads to third party lead providers for your widget.

People going online to look for car dealers by name are already sure they probably want to do business with you or to see if you have what they want.  Why confuse the matter by sending them to a third party for information about you?

*****Disclaimer for people who are going to be pissed about this post:  The thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of Paul Rushing and have not been expressly endorsed or encouraged by any affiliation he holds in the automotive industry.  If you have a problem with it feel free to leave a comment or to contact me directly.