I can still remember what it was like when I first got into the car business.  I was fresh out of the Army after completing a three year enlistment.  This was almost 20 years ago.  …

Networking is a critical aspect of business.  From dealer 20 groups, business after hours and the morning coffee shop huddle found at every java house in America.  So it amazed me when I read an …

Today, Ol’ Low Ball has one of the most profitable Buy Here Pay Here lots in the country and wanted to come school us young bucks on how the car business really should be. Ol’ L.B.: All I know is if people want to send me something via that email, that is the one my secretary tells them to send it to.

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?

Domain at godaddy – $7.55 a year for .com Your own hosting account $4.95 a month Owning your content and not having to appease others: Priceless If you need help setting up a blog using the software from wordpress.org subscribe to my feed or email subscribe as I am preparing some tutorials to help you learn to set up Car Dealer Blogs.

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.

My budget for the next 30 days is only $3000.00 and here is how I am spending it: Secondary Finance Leads – $1050.

I really can’t say that I live up to that goal but I am working on it and with the huge shifts taking place online today car dealers need to start listening to their customers instead of telling them what to do. Your customers are talking about you at work, church, the local bar and now they are talking about you online and how you handle this can make or break your online reputation.

I had turned off PPC campaigns, not worked sites such as craigslist and updating inventory comments to their fullest while optimizing a lead management system. So for the last two week I have been working on work flows, email series and working customers.

Our calls to action have to be straight forward, you need to give the customer a reason to provide a number, make an appointment, give a deposit and buy the car. Getting the customer to make an appointment – In every contact with a customer I attempt to close on an appointment for a test drive or trade appraisal.

In my haste to accept the position and get started selling cars over the Internet I really did not think through my answer. The Internet is a tool to generate leads to sell cars to, but the actual deal closing is done in the showroom or over the phone.