Digital Dealer - October 2019 - 41

IT HAS BEEN PROVEN THAT CONSUMERS ARE
CREATURES OF HABIT AND WILL RETURN TO WHERE
THEY'VE DONE BUSINESS BEFORE, PROVIDED THEIR
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE WAS POSITIVE."
car shoppers are seeking
more information, like exact
make and model.
Since you have a good
grasp of your Google
Quality Score (QS), you
can figure out your ad rank.
This brings us to topics like
bid price for paid search,
PPC, SEM or whatever
you want to call it. It is
proven that you have to
bolster your QS. The key,
however, is relevance. The
QS influences important
metrics like click to call, location, promotion, call-outs,
message, site link, and
structure snippets. And,
make sure not to miss the
importance of pushing customers "below the fold" on
their mobile when properly
executing this strategy.
If you are like me, my
head is spinning. This is
insane.
Really?
You are supposed to be
selling cars, managing your
team, and building customer relationships. How in the
world can you even be one
tenth knowledgeable about
all this BS unless you have
a BA, BS, MS, MBA, MFA,
and a PHD from MIT?
It is a digital treadmill,
and you have got to jump
off!
Of all the touchpoints in
a shopper's journey, the
dealership website has
far less competition from
other stores at the mo-

ment when a shopper is
on a dealership's website
when a prospective buyer
is on their website. So, all
that digital spend you are
doling out is just paying for
introducing your prospects
and customers to your
competitors.
Well, there happens to
be another place where
shoppers will not view
or engage with another
dealer, and that is right in
your customers' home mailbox. No other dealer has
an opportunity to influence
or divert attention from
your message, or allowed
the opportunity to engage
with your customer when
you send your relevant,
targeted, response driving
message in the form of
the well proven medium of
mail.
Your customer database
is your best source of
future sales. If you have
a database of 10,000
customers, and you sell
1,000 cars a year, you
have a 10 year supply of
customers to prospect to
and sell in that database.
Those customers usually
reside in your assigned
market area, they have a
pre-established relationship with your dealership,
their vehicle has probably
been serviced by you, and
thus the vehicle has more
intrinsic value to your used
vehicle department.

Simply make your
database the centerpiece
of your Target marketing
strategy. Identify previous
customers who have had
their vehicle longer than
the average 11years on
the road. Those prospects
should be moving toward
the end of their ownership
cycle. Also, there are those
who are ending their loan
or lease term in the next
6 -12 months. Those too,
are a great target. Select
models that have a high
propensity to trade, and
avoid those models that
have proven to have a long
ownership history. Look at
owners in your database
that have vehicles that
have a high trade in value.
Select your target market,
speak to them directly with
a relevant message that
will resonate with them,
and ask them for the order.
Use direct mail and email
to provide your targeted
prospects with a bonafide
reason to come in, call,
email, text, go to your
website or watch a video.
Be sure to give them a
good reason to buy, and
buy now. Then follow up.
Good old fashion blocking
and tackling.
Last, it has been proven
that consumers are creatures of habit and will return
to where they've done
business before, provided
their previous experience
D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

was positive. Some say
that there is less mail being
mailed today than ever
before, and that's because
of all the digital bru-haha. Well then, that's good
for you. Less mail in the
mailbox, means your mail
is more impactful and more
relevant when your unique
offer reaches your target
audience.
It is now a fact that over
60 percent of digital ad
spend going towards fraudulent activities.
Google even admitted it,
and is supposedly writing
checks. Let me know if you
get one. You have heard
of fake news, but have you
heard of Fake Facebook
Pages?
Look into it.
MAK & Associates' 2018
research study on auto
dealer advertising surveyed
400 dealers and discovered that "Direct mail was
the most effective form of
advertising employed by
auto dealers today."
Make direct mail part of
your monthly ad strategy. "Look, it's not rocket
science."
ANTHONY J. TACITO is
founder and CEO of TaCito
Direct, a direct marketing
and advertising agency that
specializes in the automotive
industry; and a founding
partner of Fountain Capital,
LLC.

OCTOBER 2019

41
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Digital Dealer - October 2019

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