30 Top Integration Thoughts For Better Marketing

Integration should be on your mind at all times.  

It’s without a doubt the key to marketing today and in the future.  If you’re not integrating you’re falling behind.

I created a list of 30 Integration starter idea’s for you!   Read the entire list and you’ll begin to feel the power that integration can deliver.

Remember it’s just a starter list… ENJOY! 

1) Integrate you call recordings with a service to review and flag missed opportunities

 

2) Integrate Facebook ads into your fixed operations offers

 

3)Integrate seasonal or promotional language into your Pay Per Click ads

 

4) Integrate hotspot technology and your landing page creative for digital

 

5) Integrate unique URL’s into your landing page program

 

6) Integrate site reports from Google analytics to lower bid prices

 

7) Integrate used digital ads with specific make and model on website

 

8) Integrate your blog with twitter and tweet 6 times per day

 

9) Integrate facebook and texting and gain valuable opt in cell numbers 

 

10) Integration of floor traffic and texting

 

11) Integrate your floor traffic and  texting

 

12) Integrate expandable banner ads with your live website

 

13) Integrate your traditional media buys with association ads

 

14) Integrate more emphasis on website in TV ads

 

15) Integrate the power of mass media social network with yours

 

16) Integrate media events in the community with your twitter and facebook

 

17) Integrate specific URL’s in print with dynamic digital landing pages

 

18) Integrate your blog content and make a great e-newsletter

 

19) Integrate your organic search efforts with your blog content and copy

 

20) Integrate your key search terms in your social content

 

21) Integrate outside experts to your social sites to add relevancy for search

 

22) Integrate texting into  your TV campaigns

 

23) Integrate QR Codes into all print and showroom materials

 

24) Integrate your blog with website home page

 

25) Integrate point of sale and  your social networks

 

26) Integrate be back strategies with texting

 

27) Integrate a tracking system that tracks traditional, digital and social

 

28) Integrate lifestyle data into your  media buys

 

29) Integrate zip code data for better digital results

 

30) Integration of free posting site with digital

 

Everyday be looking for ways to integrate and stretch your marketing dollars.  Take a look at what a day of integrated marketing looks like by clicking on this Integrated Marketing link.  

 

Please share some of your integration idea’s with us.  If your automotive ad agency isn’t integrating quickly share this list with them.

 

 

Marketing Guru’s… I Bet You’re Not Here Yet!

Integrated marketing is here!  And it’s more powerful than you can imagine.

Talk about a competitive advantage!

If  you want to know what it looks and feels like watch this video from Social.Motive.

Traditional Advertising + Digital Advertising + Social Media

Hold ON!

If you’d like  more thoughts on how to make integrated marketing work just drop me a note.  It will be interesting to see how many Automotive Ad Agencies can connect with this new world.

Have Your Automotive Ad Agency Look At facebook Ads!

facebook ads are a good idea!

 

The value of any ad is based on the strategy and the intent of  the ad.

NOTE:  If you’re not engaged in social media with the right platform facebook ads will be on no value to you.

Here’s what you get straight from facebook. 

Connect with Real People

• Filter  your target audience from over 400,000,000 facebook userws
• Offer a relevant value to your target audience for increased success
• People respond to relevant content

Create Your Facebook Ad

• Ads are easy to create
• Advertise your own web page or something on Facebook like a Page or an Event.
• Choose to pay per click (CPC) or impression (CPM) in your local currency.

Optimize Your Ads

• Track your progress with real-time reporting.
• Gain insight about who’s clicking on your ad.
• Make modifications to maximize your results.

Here is the main reason i think this can work for you and your dealership!  Below are the list of filters you can use.  

Target Your Audience By:

• Location
• Age
• Sex

• Keywords
• Education
• Workplace

• Relationship Status
• Relationship Interests
• Languages

I have used this program with good success.  The costs are very reasonable.

But like any ad,  be sure your automotive ad agency has a well thought out plan before you spend any money.  It is not a silver bullet!   Just another good tool.

What’s The Buzz At Automotive Ad Agencies?

There’s a buzz in the air and it’s not Buzz Lightyear.  

What’s the buzz about?

 

Digital!

  

Questions abound beginning with what does an integrated digital plan look like and how much should I spend.

It’s become very clear if dealers want to connect with the ever increasing digital customer you’re going to need to spend more in this arena.  

That’s the advice of Martin Sorrell, chief executive of  WPP.

 “Don’t just do digital because you can,” he said. “You must do it because it is integrated. As a dealer you have to use digital to augment the sales process.”  Sorrell said he is seeing signs that automotive brands are increasing their online marketing budgets this year.

 He said WPP’s research shows 93 percent of prospective buyers compare vehicles online before taking a car for a test drive, using third-party and automaker Web sites. But dealers only spend 2 percent of their ad budgets on Internet display ads.

 We are in a business environment that operates 24/7.   You have to expand your thinking as it relates to digital marketing.  The future of digital involves mobile applications, social media, social forums and integrated media.

 Research says only one in five consumers start their search for a car  at a dealers website.  To gain market share you’re going to have to connect with these customers before your competitors.  Most dealers can do mass media in their sleep.  It’s the dealer who integrates it with digital who is going to dominate.

    When you see how all  the pieces integrate it’s very exciting.

• The dealership blog ties to twitter and facebook.  Key search terms from your blog increase the ranking of your website.  
  
• You build a powerful social network that has far extending fingers into the market place.  
  
• SEO program drives your website, blog, facebook and twitter pages toward page one of selected key words.
  
• Specials on your website tie to your mass media.  Mass media push traffic to your website.
  
• Targeted banner ads connect with in market shoppers and drive them to special landing pages. 
  
• Text messages promote these special events.   
• Cross promotions with local media outlets get very creative. Everything touches everything. 

 Don’t hide from this new world.  Get in the game.  Get your automotive ad agency to recommend your next step.  Market share is up for grabs.  Up your digital spending with a well thought out plan and just watch as your market share grows and grows.

Online Advertising Driving Dealership Traffic – How to Buy Banner Advertising

Anyone that has spent time on the internet has noticed banner ads. Banner ads come in different sizes [generally 3 sizes] and vary in appearance and subject matter. But they share two basic functions: 

1) When you click on the banner ad, you will go the Dealership’s website.

2) Your advertising message and branding message will reach internet users in the form of ad views or ad impressions. It is these impressions that determine how much you will pay for banner ads.

Dealerships generally have three options if they want to purchase banner space from websites to place banner ads.    

• Approach the web sites yourself and negotiate a price – limited and time consuming. Because you don’t have bargaining power, you will generally pay higher prices.
• Employ an advertising agency – An automotive ad agency will seek suitable websites [called publishers], negotiate the price of banner space, and do most of the work of posting banner ads on your behalf.  They will also help with online advertising campaigns and supply creative artwork.  This comes with a cost and will increase your CPM.
• Utilize Ad Networks – Banner ad networks basically act as brokers between the advertisers/dealerships and publishers/websites.  Ad networks take care of placing ads, negotiating prices, tracking and can offer additional features important to automotive dealerships.
•  Features such as:

o      Behavioral Targeting – Determining an internet user’s behavior, psychographics and preferences based on what websites they visit. Then place ads in front of them as the browse the internet.

o      Contextual Targeting – Serving an ad to an internet user based on the content they are currently viewing.

o      Retargeting – Targeting internet users that have visited your website and then placing ads in front of them as they browse the internet in order to bring them back to your site.

o      Geographic Targeting – Serving ads based on the internet user’s physical location.

      Ad Networks give dealers a greater access to reach internet users, provide flexible payment models, offer low costs and provide targeting abilities.  Thus, Ad Networks are hard to beat for Dealerships.

I have found this to be the best path for dealers to take!

What have you found out?  What do you think of banner ads?

Banner Advertising – Can It Drive Dealership Traffic?

Statistics say 8 out of 10 car buyers now use the Internet during the car-buying process. 

Recommendations from online customer reviews and social media have replaced family and friends in importance.   eMarketer, June 2008

But can banner advertising reach these internet shoppers  and provide a solid ROI?    Can banner advertising effectively reach car buyers looking to buy with a call-to-action message?  The answer is YES!

First, your banner ads should only target people who have been identified as in the market.  This is done through behavior and re-targeting programs.  Otherwise I suggest you stay away from banner ads.

 Banner advertising can act like TV or Radio advertising.

Picture the banner advertising as basically the first 5 seconds of a TV or Radio ad.   We need to engage them and to get the hand raisers attention.  If you get thier attention two positive things happen.

1)  The in market shopper visits  the Dealer’s website.  By clicking the banner ad the internet user is linked to the Dealership’s website.  In this case, the banner ad has brought the Dealership a potential car buyer to their website that they would not have had otherwise.

 

2)  They give Dealerships a way to promote brand awareness and generate exposure on the internet.  The impact of delivering millions of advertising impressions to potential car buyers is very powerful.  Remember your banner ad is only be viewed by those that are in the market for a car.

Here is how the targeting of car shoppers works!

A main feature in banner advertising is the ability to target internet users with specific online behaviors. This allows a Dealership to place banner ads in front of internet users targeted as auto shoppers.

This is done by collecting data on the websites internet users’ visits.  When they visit automotive related websites, read automotive content or perform Google searches with automotive keywords, they’re targeted as automotive shoppers.  Now when they browse the internet, your Dealership’s banner ad is placed in front of them and only them.

Here’s some information you should know!

Banner advertising account for 21% of all online advertising and but fallen over the last couple years [Search Engine Advertising at over 50% is the number one source for online advertising].   

In addition, Click-Thru-Rates [CTR] have also fallen for banner ads over the last two years. Studies from comScore showed a 50% drop in CTR from 2007 to 2009. 32% of internet users clicked on banner ads in 2007 to only 16% in 2009.

However, this is only part of the story.  Case studies conducted by comScore from over 200 ad campaigns showed quantifiable impact and awareness from online ad exposures from impressions:

• Incremental online sales of 27% and offline sales of 17% following online exposure.
• Increased visitations to the advertiser’s website following online exposure – 65% lift the following week and 45% increase over four weeks.
• Search queries also increased with online exposure – 52% increase in searches the week following the first ad exposure.

Online advertising can offer a compelling value proposition to reach internet users and is something you need to look into.  But remember only if you target should you consider banner advertising.

Let me know your opinion of banner advertising?