"Why"?

This is the single most difficult concept for most marketers in automotive to understand.  “Why” is the reason AutoTrader and Cars.com run millions of dollars in ads on TV, then put only a fraction of…

People often ask me how I'm able to stay up on the millions of things that are happening in the world of automotive internet marketing on a daily basis. There are tons of blogs, social networks, and industry websites with enough posts to fill a full day if you plugged them all into an RSS reader. How does an…

Big challenge this week- old thinking managers who haven't actually sold in over 20 years still wanting to do business the way it was "back then".

Remember the 'good ole days', "back then", when all the sales people (and managers) did everything?  Sold new cars, new trucks, and used cars from the same showroom as well as the managers did the financing.  Then, one day, someone said it would be better to separate the finance department and have actually finance managers (vs…

In the second post of this series, Kathryn Carlson discussed two methods to address employee theft once it has taken place. This segment of the series advocates two preventative methods:



Hotline

This is the one thing that the…

Here is a tip for increasing your income immediately!

Have you thought about an advertsing plan? I mean really thought about it.
Showing how interested you are in your customer's well-being and
dedicated in keeping them informed has been a basis for increasing your income immediately.

The most trusted name in live chat brings the top ten blogs and auto news stories right to you! We monitor industry trends, current events, and the auto dealer community every week to bring you the top ten blogs and automotive stories from around the globe. In this weekly edition – Toyota sells cars on HSN, there’s a giant diamond in outer space, and the EU…

If your company does a lot of mass emailing as part of your automotive internet marketing strategy, it’s important that you’re careful not to fall into the “spam” category. It can be difficult to walk that line between what is acceptable and what is annoying, but it’s…

This is an important question because, we see individuals and companies asking for referrals all the time, from the gym to the hair salon; “refer and receive blah, blah, blah.” And to be honest, it simply does not motivate me. When you think about it, receiving a referral fee is typically not the first thing that comes to mind. I’m not saying ditch the “bird-dog”, I am just saying let’s dig a little deeper.

I don’t know anyone that makes a referral based on financial reward alone.…

Everyone knows word of mouth has gone the digital route. So it's important to have the publics' opinion there for everyone to see. Utilizing every other social media vehicle not only directly effects customers responses to spend money at your dealership, but studies have found not participating could lead them to…

Veteran auto industry business leader, digital strategist, and innovator joins rapidly growing business intelligence and performance improvement company

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – October 11, 2012 – Kevin Root has been named President and Chief Operating Officer of DrivingSales, the company announced today. Root joins the rapidly growing business intelligence and performance improvement company to further build…

The original article I had scheduled for today is titled, Tactics for Improving Employee Productivity. But as I was putting the finishing touches on the content, I said to myself, “Self, you’ve skipped an important step! You shouldn’t be presenting tactics until you’re sure that your readers understand the differences between strategies and tactics.”

It’s my understanding that “strategy” is derived from the ancient Greek word,…

Google’s Matt Cutts just recently announced an update for the Page Layout algorithm, which originally came out in January. This algorithm is designed to reward websites who place their content above their advertisements. In a tweet on the subject Matt Cutts mentioned that 0.7% of English language queries will be affected. This may seem like a small number but in reference to…

Site Retargeting with Facebook from Potratz on Vimeo.

Lost Sales and Declined Services Customers are in many Dealerships, the largest untapped source of additional revenue. And in most cases, the Sales has been lost because of a few words and not a few dollars.

Advisors…

I thought it might be a nice gesture to share what I think are three major mistakes made by dealers when buying direct mail.  

1st.  Buying for the budget.  Many dealerships buy just because they have budget left to spend.  This on it's own is not the problem.  The problem lies in the fact that normally when this is the case they will just buy any piece that has a current theme on it and expect it to win.  An example would be, right now November is coming up and dealers who…

Paul Potratz, founder and COO of Potratz Advertising, headquartered in Schenectady, NY, will be speaking Thursday, Oct. 11 at the Chrysler SEBC/SWBC S&P Business Conference in Orlando, FL.

Paul’s topic, “The 10 Step Process of Doubling Your R.O.’s with…