Remember, this is about your blog site, not your main dealership site.

It’s quite tempting to allow your service provider to post a slew of ads on your website as a way to increase revenue from your dealership site. After all, having a site that pays for itself sounds like it would be very cost-effective, and it initially sounds like nothing bad could come of it for your dealership.

The fact is that this couldn’t be further from the truth.

(SEE AD EXAMPLE ON LEFT – TAKEN FROM A CAR BLOG)

Ads are seen on almost every single website that you’ll see, but the problem is that the websites that post ads are doing it because that is often one of the very few sources of revenue that the site receives. In many cases, it’s a site that is devoted to something that isn’t supposed to be professional, which makes it acceptable for the site to be laid out in a not-so-professional way.

Posting ads on a dealership website sends a pretty bad message to potential customers. The way that customers perceive ad-riddled sites is not good at all, and it means a lot of different (negative) things to customers. It means that you are really trying to milk customers for all they are worth through ad revenue. It means that you aren’t making enough money through your car sales to keep advertising from 3rd parties off your page.  Worst of all, it means that you really aren’t taking your dealership blog seriously. Even worse, some customers would begin to doubt the legitimacy of your dealership if too many ads are on your company’s blog.

Granted, there is a difference between posting silent and barely noticeable car-related ads, and posting loud, obnoxious video ads about laundry on your site. It would be foolish to say that all ads are the same when it comes to how they are perceived by those who are following your dealership’s blog. Those who do decide to post ads on their blog should be aware of the different levels of advertisement.

Please do not Auto-Load Video’s on your Automotive Blog

If you have to put ads on your dealership blog, avoid posting videos that automatically start when the page is loaded. This is the easiest way to upset customers, to distract them from reading your blog posts, and also keep them from visiting your blog again. But really, when ads send such an awful message to your potential customers, can you really risk upsetting them by posting ads all over your blog?

If you are a frequent reader of business blogs, you have probably seen that blog – the blog that is so overly enthusiastic about the products it’s touting that it is beyond belief. Though sales staff love to show their enthusiasm for both the companies that hired them, and the products that they are selling, there is a certain point where too much excitement can actually damage a marketing campaign. Are you worried that you might be pushing the envelope with your spunk and zest? Make sure that you aren’t doing any of these major mistakes.

• Avoid using too many exclamation points!! It’s the most annoying punctuation gaffe ever!!!! Try to limit yourself to one exclamation point every two paragraphs, or it will sound as if you are a 13 year old girl talking to her friends!!!
• You don’t need to repeat how your product is the best product in the world. If you are writing your sales copy well, it will become self apparent. Too many times, a marketing campaign’s articles ruin a marketing campaign’s efforts by being overly redundant.
• Don’t use too much bold or italicized text in your blog articles. Though bolding your print will drag eyes to it, it can definitely be overkill in large amounts. In even larger amounts, it will turn your blog into a complete eyesore.
• Never, ever, ever lie about the cars in your dealership lots. If your car doesn’t come with performance suspension, don’t say that it does. This should be common sense.
• Keep your text descriptive, but don’t go on and on about certain features. Though a 400 word article can help you sell one of your new dealership cars, a 2,000 word article will actually sabotage your selling endeavors.
• Always remember that the key to excellent sales is to let the product sell itself. Show the product’s great features, excellent design, and decent mileage. Your cars are quality cars. You don’t have to continually reinforce that fact.

But…enthusiasm is supposed to be good, right? What happens if I have too much enthusiasm in my blog writing?

• As a general rule, if you have to oversell something, people will always grow wary of what you are trying to sell. They will wonder why you are working so hard at selling your cars, and they will think twice about going to your dealership.

You also won’t appear to be a professional dealership. Professionalism matters a lot when it comes to getting sales.

So, really, can we tone down the enthusiasm a bit?

Don’t Ramble

Though it is often a shame to say, there are too many times when a writer simply seems to ramble on and on about nothing in particular in their blog. Scarily enough, many of these writers actually write for dealership blogs.

When you see a blog or an article that doesn’t really make any sense in particular, you have probably seen how disastrous a long-winded, ranting, rambling blog can be for a dealership’s marketing campaign. No one takes a blog seriously if it can’t stay on topic.

Choose a Topic

Being unable to stick to the topic can come in a variety of different ways. The most common (and also damaging) way it can happen is when you can’t even stick to the topic in a single blog post. If the beginning of your blog begins with the unveiling of a new car on the lot, but ends with a charity event posting, you are not doing your blog a favor.

Another common way to stay off topic that frequently happens is to miscategorize your blog posts. If you say that you are going to write about a single topic, write about that topic. Categorize each blog post in a way that makes sense.

Keep the Writing Cohesive

It’s also important to realize that though dealership blogs can occasionally write about a car brand as a lifestyle choice (ex. – Fun things to do that drivers would enjoy in the area), making the dealership site a blog about everything is going to be confusing.

You have to find a way to tie in your car dealership, the manufacturer of your cars, or the cars themselves, into each blog post. Suddenly talking about the new reality TV show series on MTV will confuse your readers, especially when it comes to figuring out why you would write about something like that for your car dealership.

Don’t Be Discouraged

Sure, writing for a dealership blog might occasionally seem a chore (or you might always find it a chore). Your topics could be limited, and you will have to stay abreast of the information that really pertains to your customers in order to write great blog posts. However, consistency in your writing will help show your customers that you are a professional and focused dealership.

Your dealership needs to have a focused, professional, and knowledgeable air about it in order to continue creating relationships from it. By staying on track, you are helping bring customers to your dealership lots, and you are also giving your dealership a reputation boost.

How Consistency Affects Your Search Ranking

Finally, consistency allows your Search Engine Optimization as well.  When the search Engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo) see a consistent message about a subject, they increase the PR (Page Rank) associated with your website which helps your rankings.

Higher rankings means more potential clients see your information when they are searching.  Which, eventually, should lead to more customers reviewing YOUR website when they are in the market.

You, as a writer or as a businessman, might have a Bachelor’s degree, a Master’s degree, or a Doctorate in the field of your choice. The very minimum you possess above your customers is an above average understanding of the terms specific to your industry.

In fact, you have a very large “domain specific” knowledge which will surpass 99% of your potential customers.  This is great for you, and it’s great for your business. However, unless you are marketing your cars to people who have extremely above-average reading skills, you cannot afford to write blog posts “showing off” with your use of these terms.

On Wording

The reason why you can’t really get too advanced in either language or grammar is because you have to appeal to a wide audience. Some of your clients might not have an advanced vocabulary. If your audience is searching for the dictionary to understand what you are trying to say, what makes you think that they would be interested in buying your cars by reading your blog?

Everyone can use a car, so if you want to market to your audience, you need to market to everyone – even those who might not read very well.

If, however; you are selling a very prestigious car and care to cater to a selected clientele, you might then ignore this concern as the only harm is talking down to the occasional lottery winner and self-made millionaire.

However, the vast majority of customers who surf the net are not interested in reading a blog which sounds like a college dissertation. It will be boring, sound pretentious, and just not very much fun to read.  You are here to educate and entertain (mostly) to keep them reading.

People who love cars are surfing the web on their free time. Do you know anyone who would willingly read dry, boring articles instead of more entertaining and understandable blogs? Probably not (engineers notwithstanding).

Take the time to allow your personality to shine through.  You are making an effort to first create a conversation, then a relationship with your readers before you create a transaction in the future.

 On Formatting

When trying to create a format for your blog, it’s best to keep that simple, as well. Most blogs that are actually popular don’t really need to have too many thick, bulky paragraphs to get peoples’ attention. Sometimes, lists actually work better than a normal essay-style blog.

Keeping a simple format doesn’t mean that you can skimp on aesthetics. Most people are visual in nature. They yearn to see what they are reading about, so it’s important to try to incorporate photos into each blog post that you have. Of course, you can also overdo this as well. Each blog post is best off with one or two photos of the subject.

Make it a personal rule – all blog posts include at least one (1) picture.

Lastly, it’s best to re-read a blog post before you make it “go live.” Always ask yourself if your article or blog seems to be too complicated, difficult to follow, or confusing for the average person.

If you are unable to figure out what your own blog post is trying to say, chances are that your readers will be left scratching their heads instead of asking about your new cars.

Remember, it takes a lot to keep an earn people’s trust.  One of the most effective ways to accomplish this is to be transparent and honest.  Admit to mistakes from time-to-time.  In fact, be human.

Sometimes, a manufacturer will roll out with a car that is just blah. The car won’t have any unique twists that make it unique, nor will it have any bonuses that would really create an incentive to buy it. These cars are difficult to glorify, and even more difficult to sell, but you have to make an effort to find  the features that help make it a perfect pick for potential drivers. Otherwise, you are going to be left with a lot of cars on your dealership lots.

Remember, the manufacturers do believe they have a market before they invest millions building your vehicles.  Even if the market segment isn’t YOU.

When you have to deal with cars which, for you, seem to blend into the background, you need to follow these guidelines in order to make the cars look like a good option.

If you don’t understand the car segment, then here is the basic solution:  List every feature that you can think of, no matter how insignificant it may be. The more features you list, the more appealing the car will appear to be – or the better chance you have of mentioning a feature SOMEONE might be interested in.

However; I suggest before you do this that you find out the segment the car is trying to sell into.  Read a couple of magazines which cater to this market.  There has to be a few blogs as well.  In this research, you will find the phrases which evoke the passion the segment will take note and listen to.

If it’s a car that is simply a year-later version of a popular model, then mention any improvements over the last version. Saying it in an enthusiastic way can help. (Example: The new RGX17 is an improved version of last year’s hit model, and it is a model that we believe will be flying off the dealership lots come September.)  Note the inclusion of ‘we believe’.  There are no good reasons to state unequivocally something will happen as your comment will come off as slick-salesmanship on one hand, and lying on the other.

If, however; other respectable people have been mentioning this possibility, use their quotes in your blog post.

Don’t just say the car is ‘red’.  Try to come up with exotic, flashy, and descriptive names for colors. (Example: This absolutely striking 4 wheeled sedan is painted in a light azure hue.)  Notice the color names the brands give the cars?  Here are a few of the Ford Colors for example:  ”Dark Candy Apple Red”, “Dark Ink Blue”, “Kiwi Green”, “Windveil Blue” – I didn’t know there WAS a color associated with Windveil!

Use very action-oriented words when describing how the car drives. Here is a short list of good words and phrases to use: zooming, go-kart handling, high performance, racing, and of course, the ubuquitus powerful engine.   If you are not a good writer, then spend a little time reading some of the reviews on the car magazine sites and copy some of their phrases in a small book.  Highlight each chapter so that you can easily pull the information back up.

If you use your computer a lot, use Evernote  (www.Evernote.com) to keep the information easily accessible across all of your devices and computers.

Always list the positives before the negatives – give any positive notes to your negatives if you honestly have some.  This brings to mind the often-used “This beauty has 100,000 miles on it, however; the former owner was a grandmother!”  Please understand with CarFax lying is a very, very bad idea.

If you put something on the Internet, don’t believe that you can just pull it back down a couple of hours later and ‘No Big Deal’.  Many people could have copied your information and now you could have a PR nightmare on your hands for years to come.

Selling is more than fancy words, or great phrasing.  You need to create a relationship of trust with your clients through your blog. This begins with having a foundation of trust between your dealership and potential clients.

Trust, of course, begins with TRUTH.

It’s true that certain groups of people tend to enjoy certain cars more than others. If you know that the brand of cars that you sell tends to attract older customers, don’t call your customers “old” in the blog articles you write. It seems like common sense, but it occasionally does happen, and when it does, people actively complain about it. Complaints, of course, are never good for business.

Obviously, you still have to be honest in your blog articles. Don’t tell your customers that the cars that you are selling are a favorite among younger audiences if it’s a blatant lie. If you know that your customers prize price over fancy accessories, don’t tell them that buyers that are interested in the cars are very into gadgetry. They won’t only feel like you are lying to them if you do choose to do this – they will feel patronized.

If you break this rule, you might as well not have a blog!

Instead, make sure that all the words you describe your customers with are words that are viewed in a positive light. For instance, say “thrifty” instead of “frugal” or worse, “miserly.” If your clients are older, say “young at heart.” If you don’t know how to approach telling your customers something about themselves, don’t say anything.

As a dealership, you need to make people feel empowered by the fact that they are buying services from you. You have to show your potential clients that you hold them in high esteem. Showing them that you don’t value them as customers is a good way to lose business before they even walk in the door.

Not sure whether the articles that you are posting to your blog are actually customer-friendly? Well, the easiest way to check whether or not the blogs are actually written in a friendly tone is to read them yourself and put yourself in the customers’ shoes. If you wouldn’t want someone to write about you in that way, you shouldn’t use those words or phrases to describe your customers.

Tone is crucial when it comes to making sure that you don’t upset customers. Though scholarly writing might have been the best choice for term papers in school, no one really wants to read such heavy material, especially not if they are just looking for simple and to-the-point answers. Friendly, lighthearted, and very basic writing works best for blogs, since you are actually catering to a very wide audience.

The bottom line here is that you simply cannot run the risk of upsetting or insulting the very people who are reading your blog. If you decide to break the #1 rule of dealership blogging, you might as well not have a blog associated with your dealership.

My Achilles heel is an address book with disconnected, incomplete and old address records.

SIRI – The Catalyst

So, after using SIRI (Apple’s new Artificial Assistant) for a couple of days it became painfully obvious that my address book (which the system uses to find phone numbers, messaging and email contact info) is painfully messed up.

When you ask something like “SIRI – Send a message to David Robertson” and you have only typed “David” as the name of the contact, SIRI can’t locate the right record and will come back with “Do you mean ‘David’, ‘David Jones’ or ‘David Smith?’”

This significantly slows down the process as you either touch the correct name (or address it via voice) and then move to the next step.

Furthermore, if you do not have the email’s and phone numbers in the same contact address, with the appropriate information tagged (as mobile, work, home etc.) the system will come back asking for clarification.

This caused me to be very frustrated with myself – not SIRI – since the core address information is my responsibility and it was very dirty.

Speech Commands on the MAC (or Windows)

It took only about two days for me to miss SIRI when using my iPad and my iMac.

I have moved all of my computers and tools over to Apple products.  Well, all but my WiFi.

Yes it is true, however; it was after 20 years of using strictly Microsoft products and machines from HP, Dell and others I slowly moved over to Apple products a couple of years ago and then decided that I enjoyed getting things done more than working on my machine which is a personal preference.

Yesterday, I was listening to a Tech Podcast which mentioned speech commands for Mac computers.  I feel confident this same functionality is available on Windows machines (Here is some information for Windows- Ed).

While the list is not nearly as exhaustive or complete, the system does have the ability to have commands added by you by just naming a command and adding the action script necessary to enable the functionality.

Guess what my first major stumbling block was once I figured out how to turn on the system?  Yup, the address book!

Your Address Book is your Most Important Tool – Again!

It wasn’t so many years ago that a person’s roledex was the first and main tool a person took with them when changing jobs.

I believe it was Harvey Mackey (of “Swim with the Sharks without getting Eaten Alive” fame) which mentioned that if you took away his business, but left him with his Roledex he would get back on top.

While this isn’t a post on networking as there are plenty which talk about it,  I will say that the quality of the contacts in your address book is more important than the quantity.

However; this post is yelling from the highest mountain top that the quality of the information in your address book is going to make you more effective and more efficient working with voice activated artificial assistants.

Cleaning Up Is So Hard To Do

I realize that your address book could contain hundreds if not thousands of names.  Don’t consider this necessarily a one night fix.

However;  consider your future and start trimming the bad information out of your address book.  In fact, start today!

If you clean just 3 names a day, you will have over a 1,000 names cleaned in one year.  Whatever it takes, you will be happier and more productive in the future if you start now.

Even if you don’t have SIRI or an Android phone, take my advice and be prepared because the future is coming whether you want to embrace it, or not.

I have been testing my new iPhone 4S since yesterday and my feelings two years ago about SIRI have been confirmed.

Life in the technical field just changed, drastically.

The chasm between those companies who try and build systems to support others through HTML 5 (presently the ‘go to’ system to consider not building Apps specifically for iOS and Android) just got a huge awakening (I hope they realize).

One of the arguments for creating HTML 5 applications for most companies was to bypass the iOS AppStore (and Android to some extent). If a company can build a compelling, fast and user-friendly website without need for direct connectivity to the Operating System It is a huge win. The company has saved a considerable amount of development and anguish working to move the application through the (Apple) AppStore acceptance process.

However; if the world has finally been introduced to a working, fun and practical method of user interface extraction (AI voice control) and your HTML 5 application cannot gain access without becoming an App where does that leave you?

Grasping at straws.

I have no doubt that HTML 5 has a future, however; the obvious path to superiority was just given a smack down by Apple through the implementation with SIRI.

I have been wondering what Apple would do regarding the forward momentum HTML 5 had been attaining in response to their AppStore applications.  While discussions on TWIT (www.TWIT.TV) discussed the better experience of using an application (especially Apple applications) I don’t believe that is ‘enough’ of an advantage to slow HTML 5 application growth.

However; while I considered many of the implications of SIRI regarding Sales and Marketing, I failed to think about how access to such an interface change would effectively blunt the effort to move to HTML 5.

Not any longer.

Momentum Swings back to OS Manufactures

The Mobile OS manufacturers have always had an advantage to offer those developers who create applications in their playground an advantage to those who use the browser as their means of accessibility, but I didn’t figure it was enough.  I was thinking that the cost, annoyance and opportunities to keep 30% more profit (the typical cost of delivery through Apple and now Microsoft’s AppStore’s) would generate enough momentum for companies to get HTML 5 applications ‘right enough’.

Not any more.  SIRI (and whatever Microsoft and Google come up with to counter SIRI) is the ultimate ‘requirement’ to force a OS specific application to be built.

The only one of the three companies mentioned above to have a significant reason to not use the AI as a carrot (or stick) is Google.  Microsoft has spent huge sums of money into voice recognition and AI development over the decades and I believe that allows them to quickly try to blunt the SIRI effect and no compelling reason not to use Apple’s model of routing Applications through their AppStore.

Google, however; doesn’t care to push profit through the AppStore model.  It is both their strength and greatest weakness to allow so many modifications to their system and it is much more open than either of the competitors.  One could argue that with their purchase of Motorola we might have witnessed the eventual change in this attitude.

I will save the discussion regarding Google’s decision (allow web access to Android’s voice interface or not) for another time.  Suffice it to say that 1 year ago I would lean towards Google ‘would’ try it, and now I believe they have a hard decision and could choose to not allow such functionality.

As for me and my Interface – I choose SIRI

Two years ago I used SIRI and fell in love with the technology even as limited as it was at the time.  When Apple purchased SIRI I was very happy.  When Apple didn’t ‘do’ anything with the technology for so…so… long, I was getting annoyed.

Today, the day after I have received my 4S (I pre-ordered at 6:00 in the morning when it was released) I feel confident that we are literally at the same point in history as when the first rocket was successfully launched into space and children started dreaming of becoming astronauts.

If there are options in the future for applications and one of those applications will interact with SIRI and the other cannot (not due to programmer’s ability, but rather due to no API (Application Programmers Interface)) guess which application I just chose?

Yes – the one I can talk to.

This might  be SIRI 2.0, but it feels like a whole new world – welcome to the future whether you want it or not.