Category: Managed Services

Celebrate Every Win to Elevate Your Online Reputation

Posted on

By Miranda Jonswold, Senior Social Media Coordinator 

Contributors: Matt Murray and Jake Hughes, Widewail 

For shoppers across the nation, being handed keys to a new vehicle and parting with a firm handshake were common gestures of a successful car-buying experience. However, recent events have weighed heavily on both businesses and consumers in recent months, and the normalcy of in-person dealership transactions is a memory of yesteryear. One thing is for certain: we must not take anything for granted. 

Even in times of extreme change, people are still shopping and sharing their experience through online reviews and social sentiment. And many still want to know how transactions are being handled in today’s climate. Dealers: especially now, celebrate every win. Express your gratitude toward your customers and leverage their words as a marketing mechanism for prospective buyers and lessees. Reputation management is a tremendous key to success in making this happen. 

Reputation Management: a measure of character and resilience  

Think back to an online purchase you made or a time when you turned to Google for a “best ___ near me” search query. Did you choose that business or product based on its star rating and glowing reviews?  

If you did, you join 88% of online shoppers who incorporate reviews into their decision-making process. In fact, for 59% of shoppers, dealer reputation is the single most important factor when choosing which dealership will earn their business. Consumers are already researching which vehicle best matches their lifestyle needs, so it only stands to reason that they will research you by way of online reputation.  

What does this mean for dealerships? Be clear in your messaging, have your resources readily accessible (be it Dealer Home Services, Digital Retailing, etc.), be consistent with your communication, and assess how feedback can improve your business. 

That said, we can’t ignore the effect the crisis has had on the generation of reviews, as well. Fewer transactions and visits initially led to fewer reviews, and then Google paused live reviews from March 20th through April 9th. People could still leave reviews, but they were not visible on business’ Google My Business pages or counted toward their lifetime total of reviews. 

According to Widewail, an online reputation management provider and Dealer.com partner, review volume declined roughly 65% from the 2020 peak to trough; the decline occurred over the span of approximately 6 weeks, and the trough lasted about 3 weeks. Widewail also compiled data of average weekly dealership review volume between 12/1/19 and 5/1/20. Since people were still leaving reviews on Google, even if they weren’t yet live (those were released on May 4), the graph also displays the difference in perceived volume loss of reviews (85%) versus actual volume lost (65%). 

All this to say: like the car buying process itself, dealers should not take these reviews for granted, especially now that review generation is in recovery. As of May 1st, car dealer reviews have risen from 4.5 reviews per week to almost 8 reviews per week, and the volume continues to rise, according to Widewail. 

Check on your reviews. What are consumers saying about you now? What were they saying during Google’s review freeze? While what is being said about your business is paramount to your marketing strategy, it doesn’t stop there: It’s also about your connection. Are you responding to all reviews, even the negative reviews? Are you responding in a timely manner? Have you considered the SEO value of your response? What is your plan? 

Coordinated Review Response: Have a Plan 

According to Harvard Business Review, businesses that respond to online customer reviews see a 12% increase in volume of reviews and an increased overall star rating. So, answer your customers’ reviews, and answer them consistently.  

Take inventory of where your reviews are being generated. Do you have access to these channels? Consider who you want answering these reviews and create a workflow for researching customer information when needed. 

Just a “thank you” will do, right? Think again. Not only is this response lacking authenticity, it doesn’t provide much SEO value. According to Search Engine Journal, since 2017, reviews have become a more prominent SEO ranking factor. What drives Map Pack ranking in this regard? Think keywords, location and services.  

So, when Tom writes a review praising Kristen for helping him purchase his Subaru Outback–which he had delivered nearby in Concord, NH–don’t write back with just a “thank you.” Address Tom by his name, thank him for his kind review about Kristen, let him know your [business name] team appreciates his patronage from the Concord, NH area, and congratulate him on his 2020 Subaru Outback. Take time to provide value for your customer, for Google, and for anyone else reading your reviews. Celebrate the positive customer experience and the team that made it possible! 

If you’re met with a negative review, investigate and take the conversation offline. If you have contact information and can work one-to-one to provide swift and direct service, you increase your chances of not only retaining the customer but also the chances of updating the negative review. In the public eye, you will still need to answer the review. Address the reviewer by name, acknowledge the situation, and provide an update. In the event you don’t have their contact information, provide your own. Keep it professional and concise. 

Remember to be consistent. Answering reviews are essential, but it’s also important to stay on top of other online sentiment, such as Facebook comments or Google My Business’ Q&A tool.  

In summary, communicate expeditiously and authentically with your customers through reputation management and online sentiment, and let it inform your marketing strategy. This could mean showcasing a positive testimonial on social media to stimulate in-market shoppers to start their journey. It could mean evaluating your profit center ratings online–what is working well for customers, and where can you improve? 

Harness your reputation with a Dealer.com consumer review and response management solution. Consult your performance manager to leverage reputation specialists for complete coordination, constructing positive and negative review responses, building stronger local SEO, and delivering high quality interactions to customers. 

Sources 

Widewail COVID-19 Consumer Review Impact Study 

Neocreative, “Why Ecommerce Customer Reviews are Important” 

V12, “59% of Auto Shoppers Choose a Dealership Based on Reputation” 

Google Data, U.S., July–Dec. 2015 vs. July–Dec. 2017. 

Harvard Business Review “Study: Replying to Customer Reviews Results in Better Ratings” 

Search Engine Journal “Reviews are the Most Prominent Local SEO Ranking Factor in 2017” 

Carl Cannon Holistic Digital Marketing Strategy with Dealer.com

Posted on

Carl Cannon Chevrolet Buick GMC needed a strategic, transparent advertising and SEO partner to help them create a holistic digital marketing strategy.

Learn how a partnership with Dealer.com helped them increase traffic and sales for their dealership.
 

Download the Case Study

 
 

A Strategic Approach to Facebook Algorithm Change

Posted on

Over a decade ago, Facebook launched the News Feed with the purpose of connecting people with friends and family. Since then, business pages and advertising efforts have exploded into the Facebook arena, resulting in frequent and drastic changes in the way content is delivered to users. Consequently, users have reported that their News Feeds are consumed with more public content than updates from friends and family.

Facebook’s Algorithm Update

User feedback prompted Facebook’s latest algorithm update, announced in January 2018, titled “Bringing People Closer Together.” This algorithm update will prioritize posts from friends and family and/or content that will promote meaningful conversations and engagement.  At the heart of it, these Facebook algorithm updates are deployed to ensure content in the News Feed resonates with their original value proposition; your Facebook News Feed should inform and entertain.

What does this mean for businesses?

Family and friend interactions will rank higher in News Feed, leaving less space for public posts. As a result, business pages may see a decline in their organic reach, video watch time, and referral traffic. That said, business pages will be affected in various degrees. Pages with quality content that generate authentic interest and spark engagement will be less impacted, whereas pages that post generic or passive content will disappear into the ether. Businesses will need to become more strategic to maximize their reach potential, deploying quality posts and funding boosted posts to drive up engagement.  It does not appear that Facebook is not making any changes to Facebook Ad rankings at this time.

Best Practices for Facebook Business Pages

DO strive to create a conversation that resonates with your audience by:

Building your brand presence within your community.
Establish personality, push local content and community involvement. Connect and engage with local businesses.

Engaging with your audience.
Encourage interaction with open-ended, relevant questions.

Informing with product and business updates.
Keep these updates exciting, concise, and true to your brand. Ensure the updates are useful to your audience.

Exciting your audience with a variety of media formats.
Invite fans to attend events, ask questions during videos (live and pre-recorded), quality imagery, and website links to learn more

Continuing to utilize strategic social posting to create SEO value.
Organic posts still offer SEO value. Ensure that the destination links exactly to what’s expected to improve user experience.

Boosting quality posts to increase reach and engagement potential.
Be strategic with targeting. Establish primary and secondary geo targets, keeping your boosted posts focused on relevant interests and behaviors related to your campaign goals.

Keeping it current.
Leverage trending topics and be sure to utilize appropriate hashtags at all times.

DO NOT set your business page on auto-pilot. Facebook will demote these types of posts and have a low probability of showing up on people’s News Feeds:

Engagement-bait
Avoid “engagement-bait,” or fishing for reactions or comments that do not provide true meaning or value to the audience. “’LIKE’ if you want this car,” does not encourage valuable dialogue.

Passive Content 
Closed-ended questions, sales-heavy copy or visuals, or links unrelated to your brand or community further creates disconnect.

Keyword Heavy Content
Do not over-post or stuff content with too many keywords.

With all this in mind, thought-provoking and inviting content has a stronger chance of tapping into the heart of the Facebook user experience: personal connection. To learn how a Dealer.com Social Media Coordinator can help you create the best possible strategic social media strategy for your dealership, schedule a consultation today.

Miranda Jonswold is a Senior Social Media Coordinator at Dealer.com.

5 Google Posts Best Practices for Automotive Dealers

Posted on

With increasing competition in the digital marketing space, it is more important than ever for dealerships to make the best first impression with shoppers. Google recently released Google Posts for dealerships who have a verified Google My Business account. Let’s take a look at five ways your dealership can make the most of Google Posts.

Choose the most compelling content to feature.

Google Posts stay live on your Google My Business profile for up to 7 days with the goal of keeping content as relevant for shoppers as possible. Partner with your with your Dealer.com Social Media Coordinator to ensure your strategic content calendar includes planned Google Posts that are refreshed with non-repetitive content each week.

Set the right expectation by removing expired offers.

Google Posts show prominently below your business listing, and may be one of the first impressions your business makes with shoppers. Expired offers may set improper expectations with your potential buyers and may cause compliance issues. If you have Dealer.com Managed Social, your Social Media Coordinator will monitor your offers and remove them once expired. If you don’t have Dealer.com Managed Social, be sure your social media management partner is on top of removing offers in a timely manner.

Utilize professionally-designed impactful visuals to help posts stand out.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words; make sure your graphics tell the most effective message possible Graphics for Google Posts should have minimal, if any, text utilized in the graphic and should be designed by a graphic design expert with automotive-specific expertise. Our Dealer.com Content & Creative team of expert designers can partner with your Dealer.com Managed Social Coordinator to design visually captivating Google Posts.

Check the specs.

It’s very important that your Google Posts meet the technical specifications set forth by Google. Graphics must be a minimum of 720 x 540 pixels and must adhere to the 4:3 size ratio. Google Posts have a text limit of 1,500 characters, however, only the first 100 characters show up before the shopper clicks on the post. Make sure your first 100 characters are used wisely, and do not create unfinished/partial sentences.

Maintain visibility.

Since Google Posts are not tracked in Google Analytics, it’s important to use referral tagging to track your engagement. With a Dealer.com Website and Dealer.com Managed Social, your Social Media Coordinator can utilize the DDCRef tag to give you full visibility into both the quality and quantity of traffic being driven to your site through Google Posts.

At Dealer.com, our Managed Social team has been utilizing Google Posts to help clients expand their digital visibility. We’ve explored a variety of content tactics and understand which types of posts resonate best for specific automotive audiences. Request a consultation today to learn more about how we can assist with your social strategy.

Hannah Wright is a Supervisor of Managed Social at Dealer.com.

4 Tips for Turning Digital Reviews into Customer Service Wins

Posted on

Dealer.com Customer Review Strategy

For nearly every business, online customer reviews are a fact of life. Ubiquitous across the web and available to anyone to read and contribute to, businesses like your car dealership, are constantly faced with all of the challenges, and all of the opportunities, online reviews present.

 

On one hand, there’s the challenge of managing them (specifically, the negatives reviews) that are there for all to see, forever. Reviews are typically user-controlled within the domain of the website on which the ratings were written, creating a permanency that might continue to inform potential shoppers’ opinions about your dealership.

 

On the other hand, however, online customer reviews present you with the opportunity to positively engage with shoppers in a highly visible arena. Using a grateful, acknowledging strategy to say thanks for the positive reviews, and an empathetic, appreciative, and problem-solving approach for the negative ones positions your dealership as one that cares tremendously, values feedback, and is deeply embedded within the digital spaces where potential customers are shopping for their next car, auto part, or service appointment.

 

Given the importance and opportunity found within these customer commentaries, here are four tips for turning any digital review into a win for your dealership:

 

1. Don’t use generic responses.

A templated and pre-scripted business response to online customer reviews is obvious when you see one. They’re impersonal, and ineffective. Which is why, whether you’re responding to reviews in-house, or outsource the job to an agency, authenticity is critical. Generic responses to both positive and negative customer reviews come across as robotic and insincere.

 

Instead, personalize each response. It will take more work to assess issues and respond accordingly, but it will also humanize your dealership and portray it as a business that cares and values each customer and his or her issue. And that’s well worth the effort.

 

2. Turn an online review into an offline conversation.

One of the best tacks to take when managing negative reviews online is to move those conversations out of the public eye as quickly as possible. Not only does this prevent the potential of further damage to your brand, it also produces a quicker resolution.

 

Most of the time, you can deescalate the situation or address the issue directly with an email and then a phone call to rectify things. If you reach a resolution, most customers will appreciate your efforts, and may even amend their review.

 

3. Use reviews to influence change at the dealership.

Like every great business, you’re always seeking opportunities to improve your dealership operations. You can use reviews as a dipstick to check in on customer sentiment and steer future strategy.

 

If traffic is down in the showroom or service bays, for example, take a look at what customers are saying about your business online. This can isolate the issue, give you an opportunity to respond, and shape the changes necessary to get traffic flowing again.

 

4. Respond and maintain your search ranking.

Search engines use high-quality content to help determine ranking on search engine results pages (SERP). Timely responses not only show search engines that you’re digitally engaged, they also produce the content they’re looking for to maintain, and potentially boost, SERP ranking. To ignore these reviews is to miss out on an opportunity to increase your dealership’s digital visibility.

 

When it comes to online customer reviews, you have two choices: ignore them and risk alienating current and potential customers while potentially diminishing search rank; or embrace the opportunities they present to win back customers who wouldn’t likely do business with your dealership again, while also making the search engines happy.

 

Have an online customer review response strategy of your own? What’s working now, and what hasn’t worked in the past? Share your thoughts below.

 

Hannah Wright is a senior social media coordinator at Dealer.com

 

3 Ways Social Media Can Help Your Dealership Increase Search Ranking

Posted on

Dealer.com SEO

It’s not news that social media and SEO are invaluable to every dealership’s marketing strategy today. SEO has long been a critical element of search engine visibility, while social media, newer to the marketing scene, has become essential to a holistic digital strategy.

Perhaps what gets lost or continues to go unrecognized, however, is the increasingly important relationship between car dealer SEO and social media, how good content reaches far beyond social platforms, and that dealers need to think about an SEO and social strategy as one and the same.

While display and paid search advertising are designed to grab attention, SEO and social media, at least in this context, support brand visibility across traditional search engines and the social media platforms consumers are increasingly using to search for vehicles and dealerships.

Since it’s becoming more and more clear that one practice cannot succeed without the other, here are three ways a strong social media presence comprising high quality and frequently updated content that is informed by analytics can help your dealership’s search engine rankings improve.

1. Target a specific audience.

Social media has become more than just general community interaction.  Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, even YouTube allow dealers to target potential car buyers based on demographics, keywords and geographical location. Just like local SEO strategy, social posts should target a highly specific set of qualified, in-market shoppers in your region.

It’s not enough to create content, hit the post or tweet button, and hope the right people will see the message. If you want to reach the right shoppers and continue to build a following, make sure you’re poring over your social data to determine the appropriate targeting strategy.

2. Create relevant content.

Here’s an exercise: do a Google search for one of your favorite major brands and chances are its Facebook page, for example, ranks somewhere not too far from the top organic listing. That’s because high-quality, relevant content has tremendous SEO value.

What’s high-quality, relevant content? It’s engaging, informative posts, tweets, articles, captioned photos, and videos that target a specific audience.

But don’t stop there. Great social media content also means linking to supporting webpages and writing using keywords and geographic terms that relate to your business. When that content also links to your dealership’s website, it may, for example, reinforce your onsite advertising efforts and integrate with your SEO strategy to help improve search engine results page (SERP) ranking.

And one more thing. Use #hashtags when relevant. While they don’t directly affect SEO ranking, timely hashtags tactically increase awareness and engagement of your social content. They’re both content filtering tools and, sometimes, a chance to expand your brand reach by joining onto something trending on the internet that might be useful to your marketing efforts.

3. Integrate your advertising efforts.

Create content that promotes your dealership’s advertising strategy such as new vehicle launches, dealership events, comparison pages, and sales promotions. This content should always link shoppers to the website where the marketing initiatives are well detailed.

Speaking of links, while those from social posts are considered “no follow,” meaning they don’t directly influence SEO, they can still influence relevancy on SERPs. Search engines like active websites, those that are being clicked on and engaged with. The volume of increased links shared through social content boosts social signals, which positively impacts long-term search visibility and ranking. Links to your website in social content won’t push SEO value directly, but Google will notice this social-originated traffic. Exponential impact can come from outside user engagement and can lead to authoritative backlinks.

The search and social platforms we once thought as islands are now clearly part of one big digital ecosystem. The trick is to use each one effectively and with strategy interconnection so as to ensure you’re reaching as much of your target audience as possible without burning out on too much content generation. Stick to relevant content creation, one with applicable keywords, hashtags, and links, post frequently, and your dealership will be “buying” up more and more of that first SERP page real estate.

Bobby Bailey is the manager, Managed Social and Chris Nichols is the manager, SEO at Dealer.com

Why Online Sentiment Should Have an Impact on Your Digital Strategy

Posted on

If reputation has always been top-of-mind for your dealership, then so, too, has customer sentiment. That’s because it’s your customers’ experiences that establish and evolve your brand’s reputation over time.

Today, your customers’ sentiment is measurable online. And though dealership clients everywhere may challenge the industry by turning to their devices and desktops to voice their opinions and experiences, they also present dealers with tremendous advantages and opportunities to influence brand management and shape digital strategy.

“No one is as deaf as the person who doesn’t listen.”

If you’re not tuning in to what is being written about your dealership online, then you’re not listening to your customers. To get a finger on the pulse of this online sentiment, you must first have the willingness and ability to digitally listen to your customers.

Many of your first-time shoppers, repeat service department clients, and even brand-loyal stalwarts share their experiences on social media, in video comments, on blogs, and on review websites to promote your business, voice their concerns, connect with other customers, or even to contact your dealership. This is critical communication from your customers – your most valuable business assets – available for anyone to see. To use this information to your advantage, you’ve got to listen to it.

It’s not just about online reviews.

Don’t misunderstand, reviews are important. It takes motivated customers, spurred by positive or negative experiences to write an online review of your dealership. But reviews are outliers that establish opposite sides of the online sentiment spectrum.

It’s what’s in between that really matters. Within that spectrum are posts in response to videos, blogs, and forums, as well as social engagement’s tweets, likes, and shares. To truly understand the sentiment your customers are expressing online you’ve got to tune in to both reviews and, even more importantly, the bite-sized pieces of content users are generating within the social sublayer all of the time.

To listen in, you’ll need to invest in software or partner with a digital provider who can monitor the millions of online channels on which people are expressing their dealership sentiments. With a tap on those many lines of communication, you can use this rich information to shape future sentiment and influence business strategy at practically every customer touchpoint – from new car delivery to sales campaigns to community involvement and philanthropy.

Let’s dive into two specific online spaces where customer sentiment is commonly expressed, and where there is opportunity to glean valuable, strategy-defining information:

Forums – These are a dense environment of highly engaged customers and auto enthusiasts, and influencers’ sentiments can shape the reputation of a dealership. With lots of followers, their opinion matters.

As an example, let’s say one of these forum users, one with a lot of clout, had what he or she felt was a negative service experience at a dealership. If this user tells his or her audience about the experience and to beware, then followers will listen. With an ear toward these online conversations at all times, a dealership could use this information to examine their process, and respond, for example, by creating social campaigns to positively promote the dealership’s service center.

Star Ratings – Dealers cannot ignore the content associated with star ratings like those found on Google and Yelp to name a few. Using keyword searches and word cloud analysis allows you to fine tune what a particular review really means for your dealership. Sometimes, there are sub-topics in these reviews that need to be addressed on their own. But the only way to address these ratings is if your dealership is monitoring them in the first place.

It’s critical to know what is the general online sentiment for your dealership. It allows you to develop agile business strategy – one that is both reactive for today’s customer concerns, and proactive for tomorrow’s potential. Listen in on the digital reviews, comments, and ratings that customers are freely supplying across the internet, and your dealership will be well poised to get ahead of the conversation the next time around.

Bobby Bailey is the manager, Managed Social at Dealer.com

The 4 Most Important Creative Elements of an Integrated Campaign

Posted on

Managed Services Creative Campaigns

Today’s car shoppers are inundated with advertisements. In order to break through this clutter, it’s important for your campaigns to reflect your brand and deliver a consistent and captivating message across every customer touch point – whether you’re retargeting shoppers with display ads or designing website pages. This not only helps your dealership steer shoppers toward high converting pages (such as landing pages or vehicle details pages), but also reinforces shoppers’ confidence that they’ve arrived at the right digital location.

Integrated campaigns should comprise the following four creative elements:

1. Homepage Slides

Homepage slides are the most visible area of a website. Shoppers visiting your website directly or through general search engine results page listings are exposed to these slides at onset. They’re the first digital impression shoppers have of your business.

Because of this positioning, homepage slides are often the most effective place to begin campaign messaging. Along with a high impression rate, they can easily link to interior pages of your website. Whether you’re looking to promote current incentives, highlight department specials, or inform visitors of an upcoming event, customized homepage slides are influential in determining your shoppers’ experience – and their likelihood to convert – online.

2. Campaign Landing Pages and Banners 

Campaign landing pages and banners often go hand-in-hand. These custom-designed pages provide additional details for upcoming/ongoing dealership events or incentives, and can house all relevant information and detail unable to fit on homepage slides or display ads. Banners can be used on landing pages or other interior website pages to highlight important information and offer a strong call to action, all styled to match the look and feel of the campaign.

3. Specials

Specials pages attract shoppers looking to find the best deal. Specials should be generated for all of your profit centers and link directly to relevant inventory. By aligning the creative look and feel from homepage slides, banners, and campaign landing pages, you can display all pertinent offers for that profit center in a way that reflects the rest of the campaigns on the site.

4. Display Advertising Creative

Display advertising creative delivers dealership campaigns beyond your website. Effective display ads need to feature the same creative styling, messaging and links as the rest of the campaign assets on the website, while also reaching a relevant audience that might be interested in the first place.

Creating effective campaign assets is a very important part of the advertising process, especially if you consider the work involved in OEM approval. By aligning all creative elements within a campaign – whether on a homepage slide, a landing page, a specials page, or a display ad – you can provide a consistent and effective message, which, if done well, will deliver increased opportunities.

This article was co-written by Erica Danford, Dealer.com Vice President – Managed Services, and Andrew Lane, Dealer.com Senior Manager, Content & Creative – Managed Services.