Posts Tagged Digital Dealer
ADM Community Ranked 10 of 100 Top Auto Blogs by Independent Source
The dramatically tall Infographic that appears below showcases an independently produced and ranked directory of the Top 100 Automotive Blogs selected for recommendation to visit, subscribe, join and follow in 2013…
When the author (Ron Mays) who assembled and created the infographic that shows this ranking of the “Top 100 Automotive Blogs and Networks for 2013” first contacted Ralph Paglia, we did not know what to expect. Ralph provided Ron Mays with the information he requested. When the list was announced by CouponAudit and the below Infographic published, all of us associated with the Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community were pleasantly surprised to see that the ADM Professional Community came in at number 10 out of 100 sites that were selected and ranked.
The infographic that Ron Mays and the CouponAudit team created to display this ranking of auto industry and car business networking UGC sites is available below:
An infographic by the team at CouponAudit
In above infographic, you can view top 100 Auto Blogs to follow in 2013, which CouponAudit ranked according to quality of posts.
Visit and join the Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community at www.automotivedigitalmarketing.com
Related articles
- Automotive Digital Marketing – Spread the Word about this Professional Community (admprofessionalcommunity.com)
- Reputation Management: Car Salesmen Surpass Congress On Ethics and Honesty Ratings Among American Consumers – Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community (ADM) (mazdadealersusa.org)
- Automotive Thought Leader Journal is out! Edition of 18 December 2012 (automotivesocial.me)
- Will Car Dealers Leverage Social Media Advertising for Competitive Advantage in 2013? (automotivesocial.me)
- Joe Webb’s “Validation and Fruition” on Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community (ADM) (automotivemarketing.info)
- Is It Time For Car Dealers To Provide Customers With Online Review Resources? (automotivereputationmanagement.wordpress.com)
- Schedule an ELEAD1ONE Demo at NADA 2013 in Orlando – Proud Sponsor of the ADM Professional Community (automotivedigital.me)
- Automotive Thought Leader Journal is out! Edition of 22 December 2012 (automotivesocial.me)
- How To Spot A Shady Auto Mechanic (allstate.com)
- It’s One Thing to Create Auto Jobs, the Hard Part is Finding Them (prweb.com)
What Do You Think About Dealertrack Acquiring Dealer.com?
Posted by Ralph Paglia in Automotive Digital Marketing, Automotive Marketing, Automotive Suppliers, Automotive Websites, Dealer Website, Mergers and Acduisitions, News and politics on December 19, 2013
Dealertrack Acquires Dealer.com – What Do Automotive Professionals Think?
Dealertrack and Dealer.com Unite to Transform Automotive Retail
via Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community.
Related articles
Car Dealer Website Live Chat vs. Contact Form: What Is The Difference?
Posted by Ralph Paglia in Automotive Digital Marketing, Automotive Marketing, Automotive Sales, Automotive Suppliers, Automotive Websites, Best Practices, Car Dealers, Managed Chat, Website Lead Forms on December 2, 2013
Live Chat vs. Contact Form: is there really a difference?
The difference between a contact form and live chat is that chat is, well, LIVE. Much more than a virtual answering service for your phones, a good chat operator can guide visitors through the website (including inventory), set appointments, provide Edmunds.com data about vehicles or CarFax reports up to twenty-four hours a day (with participating dealers and select live chat providers), and much more. The live chat operator becomes a car shopper’s ‘concierge in the cloud’.
Read the rest of the article at the source via Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community.
Top 15 New Year Resolutions for Marketers Serving Car Dealerships – Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community
Posted by Ralph Paglia in Advertising, Automotive Digital Marketing, Automotive Marketing, Automotive Social Media, Automotive Suppliers, Best Practices, Calls to Action, Car Dealers, Data Analysis, Marketing Data, Marketing Metrics, Marketing Research, Social Marketing, Social Media Marketing on November 23, 2013
Top 15 New Year Resolutions for Marketers Serving Car Dealerships
The Infographic shown below contains the top 15 recommended action items for automotive marketing professionals going into 2013… These were developed by the exceptionally talented marketing professionals at Hubspot and are well worth reviewing with your team and/or simply working them into your daily, weekly and monthly ongoing dealership marketing tasks to be completed as indicated:
16 Smart Resolutions for Better Marketing in 2013
It’s here — the turn of the new year. And you know what that means… This is your chance to reboot and decide what changes you’ll make in 2013.
Are there specific skills you haven’t quite mastered yet?
Do you have a particular goal in mind that you weren’t quite able to hit in 2012?
Of course, these goals could pertain to your personal life, but what about some career and marketing-related goals, too?
Why not improve some critical skills and habits that could advance your marketing career and make you an even stronger contributor to your company’s success?
What marketing resolutions do you want to make?
If you’re not sure where to begin, for starters, HubSpot would love to help! We’re offering our marketing community members a free consultation to chat with a HubSpot expert about 2013 goal planning. (Not too shabby!) It’s worth the investment to take some time to figure out what will be different for you and your marketing in 2013. So consider chatting with us, and take some time to reflect on your challenges and goals by setting some strong marketing resolutions for 2013. Here are 16 great ideas to get you started, chock full of with links to more in-depth tips and resources to help you become a better marketer in 2013 …
“I want to become a stronger, more multifaceted content creator.”
1) I will blog at least twice a week. Did you know that, according to HubSpot’s 2012 Marketing Benchmarketing Report, companies that blog 6-8 times per month generate over 2X more leads than companies that blog just twice a month? Valuable content is the meat that attracts visitors and leads to your company. Making the commitment to an increased blogging frequency should significantly increase your lead flow. Considering adding this to your list of resolutions? Here are 10 ways to never run out of blog ideas again.
2) I will produce at least one video in Q1, and post it on YouTube. Video content can communicate a story or emotion better than almost any other form of content. A lot of marketers have a mental block that keeps them from creating video content due to a lack of technical savvy or resources. Kick those excuses to the curb and use this goal to tell one of your customers’ success stories — it could become the strongest selling tool in your sales reps’ tool belt.
3) I will become an active contributor to social media by posting articles to my company’s social channels. Maintaining an active, helpful social presence is a great tool for growing a reach that can be used to promote your best content. If this is a current weakness of yours, start by making a commitment to sharing others’ content so you can grow that valuable following. Need help planning your social media updates? Check out our free social media publishing schedule template.
4) I will work to enhance my and/or my team’s design skills. This resolution is especially relevant for 2013. A recent HubSpot study found that photos on Facebook generate 53% more Likes than text, and the trend toward visual content is only growing in importance. In 2013, investing in design skill development will be crucial for creating effective content for social media and other marketing channels. Purchase Photoshop for your team, ask a designer to host a short design tutorial, spruce up your PowerPoint skills, and download our 35 free email design templates — or check out these awesome, free design tools — if you’re a marketer on a budget. There are a lot of ways to become a better designer. Take advantage of them!
“I want to better optimize my marketing to drive stronger results.”
5) I will take the time to conduct a website audit in 2013. When’s the last time your website got a checkup? If it’s been a while, there could be plenty of missed optimization opportunities you never even knew existed. Does your website rank for certain terms that you didn’t know about? Conduct an SEO audit. Are there certain pages on your site that aren’t optimized at all — for search and for conversion? A website audit is a great thing to do early in the year so you reap the benefits throughout 2013. Check out our 25 website must-haves for driving traffic, leads, and sales, so you can start the new year off right with an optimized website.
6) I will take the time to educate myself and my team about the basics of SEO. Speaking of search engine optimization, every inbound marketer should know the basics of SEO. Especially with recent Google algorithm changes, there are some ways you can improve your search engine optimization through improved social performance (that’s right — they’re connected), and more! Download our free on-page SEO template, brush up on link-building best practices, and make sure everyone who creates content on your team keeps SEO best practices in the backs of their minds.
7) I will conduct one landing page A/B test per month to optimize my landing pages. When it comes to lead generation and reconversion, the difference between a 15% landing page conversion rate and a 25% conversion rate can be HUGE. Imagine if you could automatically generate more leads without changing your promotion strategy or generating more traffic — but rather just by optimizing your landing pages themselves? By making a habit of testing your landing pages on a regular basis to get more bang for your buck, you may be able to significantly scale your lead generation without having to scale your team! Check out this guide to landing page A/B testing to learn more — or download our complete ebook on A/B testing.
8) I will get into the habit of doing email A/B tests prior to emailing my list. Similar to the point above, optimizing an email before hitting send could increase open or clickthrough rates immensely. Who knows — maybe the first CTA headline you think of won’t resonate with your email list. But how the heck would you know if you didn’t test it first? Make this a normal practice in your marketing, and check out these various types of email tests you can try with your next email…. And while we’re on the subject of email optimization, you’re segmenting your email list too … right?
“I want to become a more data-driven marketer.”
9) I promise to set specific, numerical goals for every project I do. Goal setting is an important habit for every marketer in order to both evaluate and communicate their successes. Starting a new video series? What number of views, shares, website visits, or leads do you need to attract to make this initiative worth it? Make this step number one for all your work moving forward, and check out this free template to help you determine your 2013 marketing goals.
10) I will start tracking my analytics every week — if not every day. This is just plain good housekeeping. By keeping a pulse on how your marketing is performing on a regular basis, you can keep yourself from falling behind. A great way to do this is to use a waterfall chart to track your progress toward an end goal. If you get behind early in the month, you’ll know that you need to go full-steam ahead to fix the problem fast so you can still finish strong. Here are some other reports you should set up with your marketing analytics to keep your marketing — and sales — teams accountable.
11) I will commit to tracking my leads to sales, so I truly know what marketing channels work best. “Smarketing” is a beautiful thing. Very easily, we marketers get caught up in measuring success by marketing numbers exclusively, but what works for us might not be what’s best for the business. For example, a marketer at a software company could get 10,000 people to download a flip-book of cute kitty images (Hey, I’d download that!), but it doesn’t mean those 10,000 people are going to be good fits as customers. Using closed-loop marketing analytics and aligning your marketing goals with sales goals to understand if your content is attracting the right people will help you understand what’s best for the business.
12) I will encourage my team to independently measure their work, and report back to me. Measuring progress doesn’t need to live at the management level exclusively. In fact, it may work to your benefit to encourage data-driven habits at every level as a tool to keep your marketing team accountable. Empower your employees by cultivating a data-driven culture. Help your team understand how they can track their progress, and ask them for updates periodically so it’s always top of mind.
“I want to become a better overall inbound marketer.”
13) I will pick an organization I love and learn from them. Is there a company out there that you admire because of a particular way they do marketing? For instance, maybe you love Oreo’s content in social media. Or maybe you aspire to be as creative as Disney. Dissect WHY you love that organization, and learn from their marketing choices. Even if that company is in a completely different industry, there will likely still be key, valuable takeaways that can help to inspire your own marketing promotions. Start by checking our list of 10 of the most memorable marketing campaigns in 2012.
14) I will further my own education as a marketer by attending conferences and reading smart content every day. Never be too busy to keep learning. Consider attending a couple of top-notch marketing conferences this year. Print marketing ebooks and read them before bed, or read through an RSS reader of your favorite blogs while you sip coffee in your slippers. (Are you subscribed to this one yet, by the way?) You can always make the time. Find ways to keep your brain active and learning, and do the same for your team. Help them find educational resources they enjoy and can read every day, and set a good example by being a lifelong learner yourself.
15) I will accept feedback from my boss, teammates, customers, and community. A closed mind is a stagnant mind. Always be open to feedback when it’s given to you, and request it regularly even when it’s not. Survey your customers and clients to gut check their happiness. You may learn simple ways to make their lives better that make all the difference, yet takes no additional time from you. And, you’ll be improving the impact of your marketing along the way!
16) I will make a commitment to creating marketing that people love. The true path to successful marketing is making sure all the content you make, information you provide, and emails you send make your target market love you. When you create lovable marketing, it will also get clicked on, shared, downloaded, linked to, and promoted more often by your audience. And if you can build rapport and trust in the marketing stages, you’ll be teeing up a relationship that could lead to a lifelong, happy customer. To learn more about creating marketing that people love, check out our step-by-step ebook on lovable marketing here.
via Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community.
Related articles
- 3 Helpful Tips to Make Sure Your Online Reputation is Protected! – Automotive Professional Community (automotivereputationmanagement.wordpress.com)
- Automotive Thought Leader Journal is out! Edition of 02 January 2013 (autoindustryprofessionals.com)
- How do you hire Automotive Professionals? (autoindustryprofessionals.com)
- Twitter Cards Make Video Marketing Easy as 1-2-3 Tweet! – Automotive Social Media Professionals (automotivesocial.me)
- Check out “Your Phones and Your Financial Statement” on Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community (autoindustryprofessionals.com)
Dangers of Marketing Metrics Dependency – Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community
Posted by Ralph Paglia in Advertising, Automotive Digital Marketing, Automotive Marketing, Automotive Websites, Data Analysis, Marketing Data, Marketing Metrics, Marketing Research on November 23, 2013
Dangers of Marketing Metrics Dependency
The Dangers of Marketing Metrics Dependency
You know what they say about too much of a good thing, right? It’s … well … not good. A glass of milk is a good thing; it’s full of calcium and other vitamins that every body needs. But drinking a gallon all at once? Not so much. (Don’t tempt yourself. The consequences ain’t pretty.)
When it comes to marketing, the same can be said for your attitude toward analytics. As a CMO, cultivating a data-driven marketing team can drive more insightful marketing decision-making and thus, better results. But an over-emphasis on metrics can actually lead to the opposite.
But wait … is this even a problem for CMOs and their marketing teams? If you look at all the data out there, it seems like the biggest problem that exists with the current state of marketing analytics stems from a lack of marketing analytics implementation, not an over-dependency.
Better Technology Means More Data
According to the latest CMO Survey, 65% of companies fail to leverage marketing analytics in their marketing projects. A recent IBM Global CMO Study also reported that more than 70% of CMOs feel they “lack true insights” and are underprepared to manage all the data at their fingertips. Furthermore, a 2011 CMO Council survey found that CMOs feel overwhelmed and under pressure to understand the influx of data available to them.
Given the rapid pace at which new technology and software is emerging for marketers — and as a result, how much more data is available to them — these statistics are totally understandable. In fact, Gartner predicts that CMOs will outspend CIOs by 2017.
And as we mentioned in our 2013 Marketing Trends and Predictions Guide, while Gartner also predicts big data will drive $232 billion in IT spending through 2016, so far, it has been for engineers — not marketers. In 2013, however, we expect to see a rise of startups that are dedicated to making big data more accessible to folks on the front end, such as salespeople, business development reps, and marketing professionals. Origami Logic, to name one, aims to give marketers access to big data in a way that is digestible and usable by them specifically.
And the future for the adoption of marketing analytics looks promising. According to the CMO Survey, while CMOs reported spending only 8% of their marketing budgets on marketing analytics, they expect to increase this level to 13.5% in the next three years.
With Great Data, Comes Great Responsibility
While technology has afforded marketers with a lot more available data, it’s not enough just to collect it. The power in data really boils down to your ability to effectively analyze and draw insights from it. And let’s face it: That’s a skill in itself.
The misinterpretation of data is a common thing. Mark Twain once said, “Figures don’t lie, but liars can figure.” That’s not to say that all marketers out there are purposely skewing and manipulating data in their favor. A lot of times, the misinterpretation of data happens accidentally, or as a result of misunderstanding — like thinking correlation is the same thing as causation. And believe me, it’s all too common. In fact, Smart Bear Software Founder Jason Cohen wrote a great article back in 2010 — “Avoiding Common Data-Interpretation Errors” — about this very problem. See how easy it is to unintentionally muck up the numbers? Data is some very sensitive stuff, and you can probably guess how this could affect your marketing decision-making … and not in a good way.
Don’t get me wrong. CMOs and their marketing teams should embrace data. It’s just important to be mindful of some of the dangers that come with a dependency on metrics.
There Is Such a Thing as Bad Data
Bad data is one of these dangers, and unfortunately, there is a lo-hot of bad data out there, especially when you start to consider and question how much of it is the victim of what we just discussed: misinterpretation. That being said, there is a host of other factors that contribute to bad data: out-of-date research, unscientific processes in data collection, unreliable sources, insufficient sample sizes, irrelevant or unqualified sample participants, incomplete data, lack of statistical significance, etc. Not to mention that data derived from surveys is often dangerous in itself. Just consider this funny, yet telling example from a survey conducted by Public P…, which just goes to show that people will tell you what they think you want to hear, or that they’re willing to lie in order to sound more knowledgeable.
In fact, in a recent Harvard Business Review article, “How to Repair Your Data,” author Thomas Redman writes, “Simply put, bad data make everything about Big Data — from discovering something truly novel, to building a product or service around that discovery, to monetizing the discovery — more difficult.”
“In business, bad data can be downright dangerous,” continues Redman, citing an example of financial companies in the mid-2000s that sliced and diced bad (actually, wrong) mortgage data into collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). This bad data came to an ugly head when the financial system almost collapsed.
When it comes to data-driven decision making, the quality of your data is of utmost importance. Heed our warning: Bad data can lead to bad decisions.
Some Metrics Are Actually False Proxies
I read a really poignant article from Seth Godin (ha — aren’t they all?) a few weeks ago about “Avoiding the false proxy trap.” It was actually the inspiration for this article (thanks, Seth!). His point was spot on:
It’s so true, right? Sometimes, that perfect metric to measure exactly what we’re trying to achieve in our marketing just doesn’t exist (ain’t it the truth, PR pros?). But as a great CMO who is trying to make data-driven decisions, you can’t just stand by and not try to measure its success, right?
Unfortunately, this leads to an unhealthy reliance on these so-called proxy metrics. Sometimes they take the form of vanity metrics like impressions, comments, and follower counts, which just don’t indicate success as it relates to your bottom line. And a lot of times, they even make us forget about the true goal of what we set out to do, leading us to implement tactics that help us juice those numbers, but don’t really align with the ultimate goal. Now that’s not really a good use of data, is it?
Metrics Can Give Your Marketing Team Tunnel Vision
Here at HubSpot, we love data, and our whole company is underpinned by an extremely data-driven culture. That’s why, on our marketing team, metrics keep us all accountable for and on track to hit our individual goals. It also keeps us liable for the service level agreement (SLA) we have with our sales team. And that’s a great thing … except for when it’s not.
When you over-emphasize the role of metrics, you increase the risk of a certain side effect we’ll call ‘metrics tunnel vision.’ Your team becomes so obsessed with their metrics that they lose sight of the bigger picture. Their decisions about which strategies and tactics to implement become so based on satisfying their particular metrics that they sometimes forget about the good of the marketing team, or even the company, as a whole. There is more than one way to skin a cat — or from a marketer’s perspective, achieve a goal — but that doesn’t mean every possible strategy or tactic is fair game. You could spam your marketing database over and over again with emails, and you may achieve your leads goal, but it won’t be without consequences.
It’s great to be working toward a goal, but sometimes you have to step back and question an individual strategy or tactic as it relates to your team’s overall goals, strategy, and marketing vision.
Metrics Can Become a Security Blanket
Similar to (and sometimes a result of) ‘metrics tunnel vision,’ an over-reliance on analytics can cause marketers to treat metrics like a security blanket. This leads to thinking like, “It doesn’t really matter if that negative thing happened as an off-shoot of the campaign I ran, because that campaign totally enabled me to nail my goal metrics this month!” Or, “I didn’t go the extra mile on that project because I knew it wouldn’t directly support my goals … (even if it would’ve supported the goals of another marketer on my team).” You can see how this doesn’t exactly promote internal team collaboration or support.
Metrics should motivate and keep your marketers accountable for their goals, but they shouldn’t excuse marketing that isn’t lovable … or cross-channel.
An Over-Reliance on Metrics Can Stifle Innovation
On the flip side of the security blanket dilemma, an extreme dependency on metrics can also end up suppressing marketers’ willingness to experiment, stifling any sort of innovation and truly creative, outside-the-box thinking. This usually stems from the fear that trying something new — since it’s not yet tried and true — might result in a failure to hit their goals, reflecting poorly on their performance as a marketer. It can also lead to marketers’ reluctance to experiment with innovative campaigns because of uncertainty about how they would measure success. Unfortunately, these fears can be huge blockers for innovation … and agility. Some of the greatest marketing ideas have come from taking big risks, and marketers will never feel truly comfortable with taking risks if they feel like they’re slaves to metrics.
This is all not meant to frighten you away from cultivating a data-driven marketing team, because there’s no denying the importance of data-driven decision-making. But remember, it’s important to tread lightly. Data is powerful, and with great power, comes great responsibility.
Too much of a good thing, you know?
Image Credit: Fields of View
Read more at the source: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33909/The-Dangers-of-Ma…
via Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community
Related articles
Is Your Mobile Website Ready for Google Enhanced Campaigns?
Posted by Ralph Paglia in Advertising, Automotive Digital Marketing, Automotive Marketing, Automotive Websites, Best Practices, Dealer Website, Google, Internet Sales Manager, Mobile Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, String Automotive on April 22, 2013
Is Your Mobile Website Ready for Enhanced Campaigns?
Is Your Mobile Website Ready for Enhanced Campaigns?
Online Car Selling Checklist for Automotive Marketing
Posted by Ralph Paglia in Advertising, Auto Industry Professionals, Automotive Digital Marketing, Automotive Management, Automotive Marketing, Automotive Product, Automotive Retail Management, Automotive Sales, Automotive Websites, Best Practices, Calls to Action, Dealer Training, Dealer Website, Digital Marketing Strategies Conference, Internet Sales Manager, Inventory Photos, Marketing Data, Marketing Metrics, Vehicle Merchandising, Website Lead Forms on March 23, 2013
Online Car Selling Checklist for Automotive Marketing Professionals
Online Car Selling Checklist
via Online Car Selling Checklist – Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community.