SEM – DealerRefresh | DealerRefresh Automotive Dealer Forums

Digital Marketing: It’s Time for OEMs to Rethink Their Co-Op Programs

Digital Marketing: It’s Time for OEMs to Rethink Their Co-Op Programs This article was not written to be cute or semi-controversial. It was also not written for dealers to read, nod their heads and then do nothing. It was written for dealers and OEM executives to get beyond the bullshit being fed to them by …

Opinions & Advice

Stop Chasing Shiny Objects

Stop Chasing Shiny Objects – and Start Selling Cars! At Digital Dealer 13 (held in October 2012 in Las Vegas), I delivered a presentation titled Stop Chasing Shiny Objects (and Start Selling Cars)! It was well-received, and it helped the 100 or so in attendance understand that the loudest voices in automotive digital – those …

Best Practices Dealership Marketing Opinions & Advice

Dear Toyota: Here’s $108 Million to Spend in Your Fight for Share Against Ford

As the Toyota brand works to replace Ford in the top spot for US vehicle sales in 2018 (as of this writing, the Ford brand holds roughly a 14% share of the US Market to Toyota’s 12.4%; source here), you have to wonder how much of a difference an extra $108,000,000 to spend on targeted …

Best Practices Dealership Marketing

Nine Dirty Little Secrets of Automotive SEO and SEM

Nine Dirty Little Secrets of Automotive SEO & SEM: The Pitfalls of the ‘Set it and Forget it’ Approach to Dealer Search There are more than a few Dirty Little Secrets when it comes to dealers and their use of search engines to drive quality traffic to their websites. Secrets, of course, kept from the …

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For Car Dealers: All Search Is Local

All Search Is Local Let’s be clear: for car dealers, all search is local. If you’re a dealer, it does no good for you to rank high nationally for obscure keywords if you’re not also ranking in the first spot for core searches like “ford dealer near me” or simply “ford dealer.” Moreover, because most …

Dealership Marketing Sponsored Content

Adapt or Die: The Auto Dealer’s Digital Adaptation Survival Guide

If there is one thing that remain constant throughout the automotive industry today, it is that change is inevitable. Change will never cease to come along and disrupt the way we sell cars and service customers. If we aren’t willing and prepared to adapt our thinking, our strategy, and our tactics then we might as well …

Dealership Marketing

3 Easy Things to Do TODAY to Fill Your Service Bays Tomorrow

Pretend you’re the owner of a 2010 Ford Focus that recently went off warranty. Your check engine light just clicked on – most likely due to a battery issue – and you need to get it fixed ASAP. There’s seven inches of snow forecast for the weekend ahead and you can’t afford to risk an …

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How Negativity in Adwords Can Yield Positive Results

The challenge of Paid Search/Adwords can be quickly dismissed once one realizes the incredible possibility of impressive results. There are many educational resources for “would-be Adwords experts” along with plenty of tutorials, agencies, and expert-trainers who can be hired. However, in my experience, the only real way to master Adwords is to dive right in and …

Dealership Marketing

The Wrong Fight Against SEM

[highlight color=”#fddcaf” font=”black”]Brian Pasch comments on why dealers need help on more things than telling them to fight SEM spending. There are other games to play.[/highlight] Picking a Fight Against Paid Search A great discussion broke out on DealerRefresh Forums and I was compelled to comment, but then it turned into a longer story! Ed …

Dealership Marketing

When is enough enough? Where do we draw the line on expense cutting?

As most of you know, I am part of the third generation of Snyder’s at the Checkered Flag Automotive Group. My grandfather founded the company in 1964 after he himself was part of another third generation of Snyder’s at a department store we used to own in Downtown Norfolk since the late 1800’s (closed in …