The automotive digital marketing space is now the wild west of the auto industry and represents the best opportunity for dealers, who have the ability to make informed decisions, to promote their dealerships and inventory online. Unfortunately for most dealers they rely on recommendations from individuals or companies that have a back end motive in recommending products and services to them. Like the scouting reports that General Custer had before “the Battle of Little Big Horn” and are being lead to the slaughter.

Carnival like atmospheres and gee whiz presentations with recommendations from people who have not changed their game plan in relation to digital marketing in several years is a recipe for disaster. In this space with enhanced consumer awareness and online trends changing at an alarming rate cookie cutter products with declarations of how well they did in 2005 should tell the dealer to be weary.

This problem is not only presented by consultants and agencies who are trying to carve out a space in a niche that they do not understand it is compounded by the fact vendors that operate in the digital space make recommendations that only serve them and not the dealer.

Today there are so many different flavors of cool aid that is being served up to decision makers it is easy for the dealer to become paralyzed and choose to do nothing. Another big mistake.

The list of terms, tools and disciplines in itself can be confusing to a lay person. Automotive digital marketing, online best practices, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, micro sites, landing pages, CRM, ILM, SEO, PPC, websites, process, conversion ratios, email templates, social media, social networking, dealer ratings, click to call, online chat, online classifieds, twitter, linkedin, plaxo, leads, online merchandising, pop ups, pop unders, text advertising, banner advertising, online directories, blogging, squidoo, consumer generated content, have you got lost yet?

Now you have vendors pitching these individual products or combinations of them in packages as the answer to the dealers online marketing effort. Not to mention the training that must be performed for the use and implementation and process development.

Here is the typical situation. A dealer attends a conference and hears buzz words such as social networking, web 2.0, blogging, seo and sem. Currently they have a website and are sending their inventory to classified sites such as cars.com and autotrader.com and realize that they are not getting the best return on their time and investment.

So they contact a SEO vendor and a SEM vendor to help deliver more traffic to their website and realize that their process is broke after examining their lead handling. In comes the process consultant that gets them signed up with a state of the art ILM and CRM system and buying every lead in a 200 mile radius of their store. However the dealer has set a budget for expanding her Internet presence and soon realizes that all the based are not covered so she starts exploring more options. The SEM vendor tells them how they are going to deliver traffic to the stores website through an intelligent PPC campaign and the traffic will be almost instant and the leads will pour in through the site and they don’t need to buy leads and give them more money to drive traffic that closes at a higher ratio.

Now the SEO vendor explains to her that SEM is not permanent traffic and gets is more expensive over the long haul and tells her that she can buy leads for half the price that most lead vendors charge by buying direct from the lead aggregators while they establish a permanent search engine presence.

Now the autotrader rep and cars.com rep are waiting in the showroom to discuss the cancellation letter that was sent in because the process consultant told her not to waste money there to free up more budget so she can access discount credit leads that have been sold to six dealers already in the last 90 days.

Finally after three weeks of this circle jerk she has decided that she has tried the Internet and it is not worth it because it is not working in her store. She can’t find the ball no matter how hard she searches for it.

All the time her inventory data feed has been down because the modem for her DMS is infected with cockroaches where the parts manager dropped a burrito behind it in the parts warehouse where he hides to take breaks during the day and every email from the store is going into a spam filter because they have a local mail server and the F&I manager and title clerk are sending porn and the email around that says microsoft is going to give them $286 for every time it is forwarded to their 800 person contact list putting all the email address in the to field and the person who did online sales two years ago has an autoresponder set up to send every person who has ever submitted a lead through the website a daily email to call him on his disconnected cell phone to get the best damned service and because they need a car today and it is time for them to step up.

And people wonder why dealers have such a hard time getting it.  It is not their process that is broke it all the processes going on around them inflicted by the vendors who ply their trade in the niche or people who are trying to figure out a way to stay in the car business in a consultave role when they do not even know how to set up an email client.

The good thing is for people who are serving the dealers with integrity and for the dealers that operate with integrity and own a franchise other that one of the big three there is hope.  Current market conditions are going to rid the industry of posers and carnies at all levels.  OEMs, Dealers, vendors, consultants and dealership employees who have been faking it for years.

Now is the time for the dealers to act to own their competitive markets and make rational choices.  This can be done through education or finding consultants that can guide them who do not have an interest in pushing a certain vendors products.

Transparency is a buzz word that vendors and consultants use in their pitches to dealers telling them they need to be transparent with their ionteractions with consumers now dealers need to hold them transparent as well.  If a consultant or vendor that is recomending other widgets for the dealer to use in their online marketing efforts will not provide full disclosure as to ther relationship with these other parties the best thing the dealer can do is tell them to play their shell game at down the road motors and seek education and non biased recomendations.

Now that you are ready to leave and go back about your day take a minute and leave a comment and let me know what you think.

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Technorati Tags: automotive internet sales, automotive vendors, online marketing

Masters of eMarketing

Yep that bold, in a message that reeks spam from the top to the bottom. It was an alleged personal email from someone who works for Jim Zeigler based my membership at Ralph Paglia’s social network, Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community.

Please keep in mind I had no idea who Jim Ziegler was prior to receiving this spam email promoting “The Masters of Internet Sales and eMarketing Seminar” in Atlanta, GA. Mixed message indeed. Apparently he is someone who makes his living from publishing content as a dealer advocate, training seminars and paid speaking engagements. Some of the things he publishes make me really wonder what his true motivations are. I can tell by his pen demeanor he will not be real happy with this post reviewing his product.

FYI, Bully Marketing is dead, unless you are in the make money online niche. Well I guess he is in that sub niche of the automobile industry, he just calls it training and motivation.

The SPAM was based on a an abuse of a social networking platform wanting to sell a training package on how to market online. I just need to ask….

What is he training here?

• How to abuse social networks to harvest email addresses?
• How to send mass spam using yahoo email accounts?
• How to alienate a prospect before they even desire what you are selling?

Believe me I know how to do these things already and have in the past made a lot of money doing it via affiliate marketing. Those days are long gone they died out with the CAN SPAM Act and affiliate networks setting guidelines as it became evident this type of marketing did not bring prospects in, but only infuriated people and opened up legal problems.

Let me make a recommendation to you Mr Ziegler before you attempt to sell a training program that allegedly teaches people:

• Social eNetworking
• Building your on-line brand with effective marketing strategies
• Strategic eMarketing and SEO techniques

You need to learn the ropes yourself.

Social networking sites have built in measures to prevent overt spam such as this but it does happen. The email address that was harvested and spammed was set up exclusively to open an account at Squidoo.com and posted in my profile at Ralph’s site. I do not use that email for any other purpose. Ralph has confirmed with me that he DID NOT provide Mr Ziegler with any email addresses from his site and even pointed out what I already knew. My email address was mined from there, either using software or by his employees going through the profiles and scraping the email addresses. Nothing new or novel about that.

Terms of Service at ning make this a violation of the communal standards in place to safeguard member from receiving spam based on their participation.

This type of behavior is illegal. The letter did not have any of the components in it for it comply with 15 § U.S.C. 7704 (a)(5). (i) It did not contain the verbiage that the message was an advertisement. (ii) It did not contain an opt out method. (iii) It did not contain the physical address of the sender. The Ziegler corporation sells law book on their website and they cannot even abide the Can Spam Act. The fact that the employees that sent the emails in their names with a deceptive subject title does not give them a pass on having to comply with the Can SPAM Act as they were not members of the networking site. How can you trust anything coming from them? If you can more power to you. This is the type of behavior that can cause you problems in your email marketing efforts. Legal Disclaimer : I am not an attorney, do not construe my opinion as legal advice!

It does appear that they are going to also be pushing video blogging and “effective” blogging techniques. After reviewing The Ziegler Corporation’s blog and online properties I do not see what is very effective about them.
Remember you lead by example and if this is the example you wish to follow you are very gullible. Remember the saying “A fool and his money are soon parted”. Don’t be a fool!!

You can learn to do these things on your own all of that is available for you now. Just use Google to learn how to set up a wordpress blog or you can wait I will set up a tutorial to show you how to set up and effective lead generating blog at a price that everyone can afford. FREE

Stay tuned at Internet Sales Manager in Training

UPDATE 7/18/08

I had given my dealer notice to pursue other opportunities on 7/15/2008. We reached an agreement for me to train someone to take my place. Daily I received communication from someone inside my store that I need to be careful with “blog postings” that I have made and was asked to leave yesterday in an amicable fashion. This was immediately after an online chat with someone inside the “Ziegler Corporations”.

Apparently there have been multiple emails and conversations with my former employer. What is amusing is the grief I received from people inside of the company and they have not even read the whole post here. All referral traffic from the corporate mail server only went to the home page of http://ismintraining.com.

I have received tremendous support from people in the industry as well as some not so supportive interactions. I have heard innuendo, suppositions and have some of my own, which was shared with the contact inside of the Ziegler camp.

Even some of the interactions I have had with people that do not have a clue about online networking have made some comical statements about this blog post and the organizations mentioned here.

No contact from JZ directly. I welcome it in an amicable setting. The original intent of the post was to show the etiquette needed when involved in social networking and to give an example of how not to leverage those mediums. Apparently Mr Ziegler has construed this as a personal attack and that was not the intent.

It is not him that was attacked. His product was scrutinized based on the way his company chose to advertise it. Maybe he and I can take this as a learning experience and move on and do what we do best.

Deliver our message in the best way we see fit.

Update 7/23/2008 :

Received a phone call from “Da Man”. Once the call was answered and he confirmed he was speaking with we me were disconnected. I promptly returned his call thinking that maybe it was a bad connection on my end. He stated “Nope it was not on your end, this is Jim Ziegler and just wanted to confirm that you would answer the phone. Click….” He would not answer again. I have confirmed that the number the call was placed from is one that he advertises on several of his online listings.

Not long ago I had to take my 10 yo sons cell phone away from him for making crank calls. I think I need to get my child to explain to him how rude it is to call people and hang up. He, the 10 yo, remembers his lesson well. Maybe next week if when I take the kids to 6 Flags we can stop in and let him give “The Master of eMarketing” a lesson on phone etiquette.

I misconstrued the reason for the calls per Jim Ziegler:

James A. Ziegler, CSP, HSG “Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 5:37 PM”>5:37 PM (25 minutes ago) My apology for accidentally calling you. I was actually trying to reach Carl Gregory Hyundai, your former employer doing research concerning my case. (against who for what?) I used the phone number on their Hyundai web site and, unfortunately, it was still your phone number. It was not intentional. Sorry to bother you. J.C. Hurst and I and my employees have been instructed by attorney NOT to communicate you while we have an ongoing legal case happening. I am sure you understand…JIM James A. Ziegler, CSP, HSG This Man Means Business (R)

Update July 26, 2008

Received a letter from Myers & Fuller P.A. Demanding that this blog post be taken down. You can see the letter at scribd.com the live link is Letter from Jim Ziegler’s Attorney to Paul Rushing

This was attached to that letter : Draft complaint James Ziegler vs Paul Rushing

My reply to this letter can be viewed at My Response to James Ziegler vs Paul Rushing

My Second Letter removing my retraction: My Second Response to James Ziegler vs Paul Rushing

Technorati Tags: automotive blogging, Automotive SEO, automotive social networking, credibility, jim zeigler, masters of emarketing

Email marketing is a powerful tool if used properly, car dealers and vendors understand this. Of course I mystery shop dealers and vendors and watch the emails I receive for ideas and also see some examples of not what to do. One thing is clear is that you must have a call to action in every contact via email. It can be anything, try to get a phone call or a visit to the dealership or a links to a special promotion which also has a call to action.

But first you must have your prospects open your messages!!

I currently have access to Cobalt’s LMCC product as part of our online marketing package we receive for being a 5 Star Chrysler Dodge Dealer, but I do not use it any more than needed for us to maintain compliance with the 5 Star Program. The problem I have with the Cobalt LMCC is that the subject lines are prepended with a customer number.

A potential customer is not a number and relegating them to one in your opening line to them does not endear them to being receptive of your message. Also they do not allow you to change the from field to make it personally identifiable. A dealership has never sent an email message people do!!

As I was exploring options on a replacement I checked with several other vendors in the market place and went with AVV. In my research I contacted several vendors I looked at iMagic Labs and BZ Results as well. I do not think I will ever do business with iMagic Labs based on the interactions I had with their owner when I was researching their product.

Apparently BZ Results uses their own product to manage internet leads. Which is probably an adaptation of an open source product Sugar CRM. For them to be one of the leaders in the market for CRM and ILM solutions they sure do not get the deliverability part right. If you are going to send out html emails you need to send the out in “Multi Part MIME format” which basically sends out a text version or an email as well.

While open tracking and click through rates can only be tracked using html format it is still more important to get your message delivered versus tracking them 100%.

(click the image to see it full size if it does not display properly)

You will notice that a recent email that I received from them in a gmail account does not load the images unless I chose to allow them. What this could do for most consumers is cause them to hit the “Spam” button and permantly delete all emails that come in this poor html format and eventually will cause all emails sent from that domain to a gmail account to goto the spam folder thus alienating a portion of business for them and their customers.

The bold announcement of the message being “Permission Based Marketing” is typical of declarations that mass spammers use and their message does not comply with The CAN-SPAM Act. They do not include their Physical Postal Address which is a provision of the act.

Even when I set up our account with AVV they do not even mention that to their customers. I just wonder if the whole industry is out of compliance? What would be interesting to see is when a case does come forward where a dealership and a vendor are held accountable for not being in compliance if the industry will wake up. This is a huge liability and eventually some litigious minded consumer will nail someone to the wall if it has not already been done. Keep in mind I am not an attorney so this is not legal advice but if you will visit The CAN-SPAM Act it tells you exactly what you need to do to be in compliance.

Technorati Tags: bz results, crm, email, Email Marketing, ilm