• Styling – I feel it’s very important for you to understand your customer’s vehicle style. What does the vehicle say about them? Are they looking for a family car with a lot of storage space to take cross country trips, or maybe an open top convertible to cruise down by the shoreline. The possibilities are endless, but narrowing down the shopping list gives you a better idea of the inventory you might want to show them to during the limited time spent on your lot.

• Safety Features - Safety plays a significant role to consumers when choosing the right car for them. Many people want a safe and reliable vehicle that they can trust to keep both them and their families safe on the road. For the safety-conscious shopper, try showing vehicles that rank high on the top safety pick list, and explaining the reasons behind it.

• Fuel Economy – Many of us just want to save money! To a lot of consumers, finding a car that offers great fuel efficiency is key. Finding out if your customer drives excessively is important to know. With that information you would be able to introduce them to particular cars that helps stretch their MPG.

• Cost – When consumers consider a new vehicle for purchase, the lines of affordability can easily become blurred due to the varied financing options available. A wise buyer shops for a new vehicle based upon what he or she can truly afford. Many if not all of us search for the lowest possible prices available to get yourself from point “A” to point “B”. But, there are also those of us who want a good price, but are willing to pay for quality. The key is to find out what your customers budget is; this will eliminate their fantasy from reality.

Are you looking for a way to get content in front of potential customers in a more visually stimulating way than just an ordinary text-heavy blog post? Information graphics or infographics might just be the perfect solution. These increasingly popular visual representations of information offer a great way to supply specific content to potential customers quickly and clearly, while also offering a great way to increase SEO and your social media presence.

Infographics are not only the latest trend in marketing, but they are also more likely to be shared across social media platforms than a standard blog post or article; getting more mileage than text or graphics alone.

In the automotive industry there are a lot of opportunities to utilize infographics to push your content out to people who might not have normally taken time the to read a long blog post. For example rather than standard vehicle comparisons, why not create an infographic that will display your content in a clean, concise manner that will also be easily sharable?

Being that infographs have become so popular, a well put together one has the potential to go viral and can greatly assist in SEO. For example, when a user sees an infographic that interests them in an e-mail, social media site, or wherever, they can quickly post it on their own website or social media account. Furthermore, if your infographic links back to your site, Google gives you credit for it, and in the SEO game, quality links lead to higher search rankings.

Before you get started creating infographs for your dealership or auto group take the following into consideration:

• Who is your audience and what is it that they will be interested in or find useful?

• Although facts and stats will be your primary focus, make sure to keep it as interesting as possible; be original, use eye-catching art and colors and be sure to keep your rhetoric light and don’t be afraid to inject some humor.

• Be sure to take ownership of your infographic. Include your logo or a short description about your company as well as a web address and contact information.

• Help your target audience find it. Post it to your blog, send it out via social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, send it in an eblast, etc)

• Once people can find it, make sure it’s easy for them spread it along to friends and family- give them the option to immediately share, retweet, pin or forward- this is especially important if you are sending it via email.

Infographics can be a truly beneficial tool in your marketing arsenal. Use infographic techniques to integrate a variety of information into a managable concept that any lay person will understand. Just remember to keep it simple, the graphic should present complex information quickly and clearly. Plus remember to have fun with them.

]]> http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/all-posts/the-next-big-thing-in-marketing/feed/ 0 http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/all-posts/the-future-of-billboards/ http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/all-posts/the-future-of-billboards/#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 13:58:20 +0000 Potratz http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/?p=11413

Categories: portfolio-category/think-tank-tuesday/ All Posts, Blog

Tags: Ad Agency, Advertising, Automotive Ad Agency, automotive advertising, Automotive Advertising Agency, automotive advertising company, automotive dealer website, Automotive Marketing, automotive marketing agency, Automotive Social Media, billboard, billboard advertising, Car Advertising Agency, car advertising company, car dealer, car dealership marketing, digital billboard, interactive automotive ad agency, Potratz, Potratz Partners Advertising

By: Hayley Berger

We’ve all seen them, whether you were going on a family vacation or driving on the highway to work, billboards; a symbolic icon of the American road trip. Even with the rise of digital advertising, billboard space is still at a premium and choosing an effective message can make a statement for your dealership. These days, digital billboards give the freedom to choose when your message is shown as well as give the vendor more opportunities to use their space.

BMW and Audi for example had a “billboard war” a few years ago when Audi posted a billboard challenging BMW with “your move”; BMW came back with “Checkmate.” Clever and compelling, this billboard war is an example of how traditional media can make impressions on thousands.

Now today for the first time ever, digital billboards have stepped up their game. We now have the ability to have gender recognition software built within the billboard that can display a different message for a man or woman. Imagine being able to specifically target different demographics, maybe for a man feature a truck and for a woman feature a crossover. In the UK, a company is using gender-identifying billboards inside bus shelters to help promote a charity for women in Africa. Using a software that measures facial features it can identify a women or man. If a woman is watching, than a 30 second video shows, with the thought being that a woman would be more interested. If a man is watching, the website for the organization shows up, with the thought that men would not care for a video and would rather be called to action by a website.

Where, will this lead? Who knows, but what we can expect is advertisers to use customized demographics to target specific people catered to their shopping habits.

]]> http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/all-posts/the-future-of-billboards/feed/ 0 http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/all-posts/facebook-not-just-for-games/ http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/all-posts/facebook-not-just-for-games/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 17:00:51 +0000 ToriHoffman http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/?p=11399

Categories: portfolio-category/think-tank-tuesday/ All Posts, Blog

Tags: Ad Agency, Automotive Ad Agency, automotive advertising, Automotive Advertising Agency, automotive advertising company, Automotive Marketing, automotive marketing agency, Automotive Social Media, Automotive Social Media Agency Marketing., Car Advertising Agency, car advertising company, car dealer, Car Dealer Social Media, Car Dealers Twitter, car dealership marketing, facebook, Facebook Car Dealership, Facebook for Automotive Industry, facebook for business, Facebook for Car Dealer, interactive automotive ad agency, Potratz, Potratz Partners Advertising, Potratz Social Media Auto Dealer, Social Media, social media for car dealers, Social Media Marketing

Facebook is not an idea that is new, but it is a site that is constantly changing, adapting, and furthering itself within the technological word. Most recently, Mark Zuckerberg announced an organ donor status option for Timeline, in which users will be able to share when they registered and their personal story. This status update [...]

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Facebook is not an idea that is new, but it is a site that is constantly changing, adapting, and furthering itself within the technological word. Most recently, Mark Zuckerberg announced an organ donor status option for Timeline, in which users will be able to share when they registered and their personal story. This status update isn’t officially registering as an organ donor; you still must contact the appropriate registry, however it provides an opportunity to help more than 114,000 people in the U.S. and millions more around the world that are waiting for that life saving organ transplant.

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking – What does organ donation have to do with a dealership? Nothing really to be quite honest, but don’t miss the bigger picture here, in just this week alone thousands of Facebook users have signed up to be organ donors, in part for Facebook making it easier to register.

Technology plays a huge role in society not only on a professional level, but also on a personal level as well, but I think Facebook itself plays an even bigger role. After all most people have some sort of smart phone with access to apps like Facebook at any given moment. Not too mention, if you take a look around people are always on Facebook; at work, in public places, even in movie theatres. I constantly see people on the social network site.

My point here is that as a dealership, you’re a company that is providing products that are also always constantly changing and furthering themselves. Cars are advancing on so many levels, so why shouldn’t the dealership that sells them be advancing also? How do you do this? USE FACEBOOK; promote not only your dealership but also the advances being made in the automotive industry. Get your fans involved, instill trivia games, give away prizes, and ask conversational questions. Facebook is clearly an innovative tool within technology, having 1,000 users sign up for organ donation within a week? Why wouldn’t you want to be a part of a social network that contains 900 million members?

]]> http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/all-posts/facebook-not-just-for-games/feed/ 0 http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/all-posts/a-dealership-for-generations/ http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/all-posts/a-dealership-for-generations/#comments Fri, 04 May 2012 20:16:01 +0000 Potratz http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/?p=11356

Categories: portfolio-category/think-tank-tuesday/ All Posts, Blog

Tags: Ad Agency, Automotive Ad Agency, automotive advertising, Automotive Advertising Agency, automotive advertising company, Automotive Marketing, automotive marketing agency, Car Advertising Agency, car advertising company, car dealer, car dealer websites, car dealership marketing, interactive automotive ad agency, Potratz, Potratz Partners Advertising

Listen to Kimberly Roselle’s audio blog, as she talks about the importance of going green in your dealership.

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]]> Listen to Kimberly Roselle’s audio blog, as she talks about the importance of going green in your dealership.

]]> http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/all-posts/a-dealership-for-generations/feed/ 0 http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/uncategorized/getting-to-know-your-customers-is-critical/ http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/uncategorized/getting-to-know-your-customers-is-critical/#comments Wed, 02 May 2012 21:09:02 +0000 Potratz http://exclusivelyautomotive.com/?p=11347

Categories: portfolio-category/think-tank-tuesday/ Uncategorized

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Categories: portfolio-category/think-tank-tuesday/ Uncategorized

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By: Toni Riggi

How do you develop a customer’s relationship with your brand when they are always in a hurry? It is no secret that technology and social media have allowed the consumer to be in a power position. They can fast forward through advertisements, subscribe to satellite radio, and simply search (or not search) whatever and whenever they please. Basically, they are too busy to see what they don’t want to see. Selectivity has become the norm.

How does an advertiser brand an organization to this type of consumer? The secret is to utilize the very same media in which millennial are employing. These people are busy, so as an advertiser, we need to fit neatly into their day. General branding, as a focus, should come to the forefront of an advertisers strategy. For instance, develop a remarketing strategy that utilizes cookies. Once a potential customer visits a site, they will then have a cookie placed on their device, and a remarketing advertisement will continue to pop up wherever they go. This simple and non-intrusive tool will enable consumer targeting during their evaluation and purchasing stages of the buying cycle. They visited your site for a reason, so why not remind them why?

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