It's as cliche as it comes. The best defense is a good offense. The best offense is a good defense. We've heard it a dozen times in different contexts, not the least of which are sporting events like football. As strange as it may seem, the saying has its most profound meaning when it pertains to car dealers.

Everyone in the car business love to get conquest…

There's nothing wrong with shopping at the local supercenter. The convenience of getting toilet paper, bananas, a video camera, and a package of socks for the kids all in the same place saves time and often saves money as well. However, there are lines that shouldn't be crossed. If you're looking for something as important as a suit, you probably want to go to a…

We are creatures of habit. Unfortunately, the habits of the general population has changed over the last decade to create a separation between where they buy cars and where they have them serviced.

What's more unfortunate is that dealers have really started pushing in the same direction. They have service customers and they have sales customers. They divide them…

I know. It's a buzzword. It's impossible to keep track of number of times experts in the car business have used the word "engagement" when describing how to get more customers. Engage on social. Engage on search. Engage on YouTube. Engage on your website. It's a mess but it's still important to be engaged with potential customers.

On the other hand, it's even…

It's easy for dealers to assume that their past customers are getting contacted regularly, but the reality is that every method of communication reaches only a limited number of people. To do it right, you have to hit them everywhere.

I originally published this article over at …

Conquest sales can be exhilarating. Let's face it, there's something medieval, even carnal about the concept of taking sales from your competitors. Even the action itself has an incredible name. "Conquest" - it sounds epic and it's something that we all want to do.

It's more than that, though. It's a double-dip. Every conquest sale is a good…

If there's one thing that gets me riled up when talking to dealers, it's finding out that there are two completely different strategies being applied to their traditional and digital marketing. It made sense a decade ago when the digital age was first coming into existence in automotive marketing. It made a little sense a few years ago when the digital spend was much…

The words "big data" have been buzzing around the marketing and advertising world for a few years now. Technology has made it possible to do things with data through analysis and proper utilization that weren't very easy a decade ago. It's a good thing, but it's not enough.

In the automotive industry, we see it used for everything from conquest sales to social…