http://www.completedealersolutions.com/blog Car Dealership Web Consultant Thoughts Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:10:10 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Is your marketing solely consistent of vain advertising? Vain advertising is when your only promotion is trying to sell something. I see dealerships solely doing this.  Many of whom have 1,000s of customer's e-mail addresses, and they only send them advertisements.  While this works well for stores like Best Buy who every ... http://www.completedealersolutions.com/blog/2008/07/28/vain-advertising/ One term that's consistently thrown around as being synonymous is marketing and advertising.  They are not.  Marketing is not advertising.  Advertising is a part of marketing. Marketing is mostly controlling what people perceive as your business.  And advertising plays an important role in this (if done properly).  But there is so ... http://www.completedealersolutions.com/blog/2008/07/28/marketing-is-not-advertsing/ I've noticed some legitimate companies starting to send off e-mails like phone calls, using phrases like "Good Morning Aaron" or "Hey Aaron" in the subject lines of e-mails. While it may seem ok, you're circumventing what everyone has begun to expect from e-mails.  Unless it's a friend or family (someone you ... http://www.completedealersolutions.com/blog/2008/07/07/writing-e-mails-like-phone-calls/ If you're not sure what an RSS feed is, please read our post "RSS Feeds". RSS feeds allow your customers to get the latest news and information in a single place -- their RSS reader.  This prevents them from having to go to web page after web page each day.  It's ... http://www.completedealersolutions.com/blog/2008/06/30/using-rss-feeds-for-marketing/ First, the biggest question may be "What's an RSS Feed?".  The easiest way to think about it is that it's like a news ticker, but anyone can publish anything using it.  It's basically a text-based website, that is constantly updated with the latest information the publisher wants people to have ... http://www.completedealersolutions.com/blog/2008/06/30/rss-feeds/ Video walkarounds, from most vendors, are simply the vehicle images doing a 'Ken Burns' effect.  That is, they zoom in and pan on existing images to give an illusion of a video.  Then combine a few of those together, add a voice over of someone reading off the options and voila, a ... http://www.completedealersolutions.com/blog/2008/06/27/video-walkarounds/ Effective mass mailing takes planning.  What?  I can't just e-mail my entire customer list? Not if you want it to be effective.  There are steps involved, that many people skip either because they don't have the ability to do it, never thought of it, or are just lazy. Most common method: Generate list ... http://www.completedealersolutions.com/blog/2008/06/27/effective-mass-e-mailing/ So, does bigger = better?  Even though I'm a bit biased, I have to say no.  Actually, for web providers, I'd say the opposite is more true. Case in point: A client just switched over to ADP CRM.  (This isn't a bash against ADP, they were just unfortunate to be the latest ... http://www.completedealersolutions.com/blog/2008/06/26/bigger-better/ Here's is a great reason why small companies such as Interlink Computing has a definite advantage.  We don't have entry level web designers hacking away unmercifully at your biggest advertising asset: your inventory list. Some larger providers (I will leave them unnamed, but check your website to see if it's them), ... http://www.completedealersolutions.com/blog/2008/06/26/images-sell-why-hide-them/ If you haven't read my previous post on "Give them what they want."   you should take a minute to read that.  Don't worry, we'll wait here for you to catch up.  Since we know that customer's have not come to your site to be entertained or have their time wasted, we ... http://www.completedealersolutions.com/blog/2008/06/26/give-them-what-they-want-part-2/