Cutting-Edge Content: The Power of Business Blogging for Lawnmower & Tractor Dealerships

Why Blogging is Important for Your Business

Are you a lawnmower or tractor dealership struggling to increase your online presence? Are you tired of using traditional marketing methods that yield little results? Well, it’s time to step up your digital game, and what better way to do that than by starting a business blog!

Yes, you read that right. Business Blogging may sound like a mundane and tedious task, but in today’s fast-paced digital world, it’s an essential tool for building your brand and reaching out to potential customers. In this post, we’ll delve into why business blogging is important for lawnmower and tractor dealerships, and how it can help you maximize your online efforts for maximum conversion.

Establish your brand identity

As a lawnmower or tractor dealership, your brand identity is crucial to your success. By creating a business blog, you can showcase your expertise, highlight your products, and convey your unique brand voice to your audience. A well-written blog can set you apart from your competitors and help you establish a strong online presence.

Increase Website Traffic

Having a blog can help increase your website traffic by providing fresh and relevant content for your audience. When people search for lawnmowers or tractors online, they are likely to come across your blog, which can drive traffic to your website. Moreover, search engines like Google prefer websites with fresh content and rank them higher in search results. By consistently posting new blog content, you can improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website.

Engage with Your Audience

Blogging is an excellent way to engage with your audience and build relationships with them. By responding to comments and feedback on your blog, you can show that you care about your audience’s opinions and concerns. You can also use your blog to share customer stories and testimonials, which can help build trust and credibility with potential customers.

Establish Thought Leadership

Blogging can also help establish your dealership as a thought leader in your industry. By sharing your expertise and knowledge through your blog, you can position your dealership as a go-to resource for lawnmowers and tractors. This can help attract new customers and increase your brand’s authority in the industry.

Generate Leads and Sales

Ultimately, the goal of your business blog is to generate leads and sales for your dealership. By consistently posting high-quality content, you can attract potential customers and convince them to buy from you. You can also use your blog to promote special offers and discounts, which can help drive sales and increase revenue.

Now, you may be thinking, “I don’t have the time or expertise to create a blog!” Well, that’s where a digital marketing agency like Dealers Digital Marketing comes in. We specialize in helping lawnmower and tractor dealerships maximize their online efforts, and that includes creating and managing a business blog. Our team of expert writers can create high-quality blog content that showcases your expertise, highlights your products, and engages with your audience. We can also help promote your blog content through social media and email marketing, ensuring that your message reaches the right people at the right time.

A business blog is an essential tool for lawnmower and tractor dealerships looking to maximize their online efforts. It can help establish your brand identity, increase website traffic, engage with your audience, establish thought leadership, and generate leads and sales. And if you don’t have the time or expertise to create a blog, Dealers Digital Marketing can help! So, what are you waiting for? Start business blogging today and see the results for yourself!

Content Ideas for Business Blogging

One of the biggest challenges of business blogging is coming up with fresh and engaging content ideas. Here are some tips to help you get started:

Focus on your customers: What are their pain points, questions, and interests? Use this information to create blog topics that are relevant and useful to them.

Stay on top of industry trends: Keep yourself updated on the latest industry news and trends, and create blog posts that offer insights and analysis.

Use keyword research: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to find out what keywords your audience is searching for and create blog posts around those topics.

Repurpose old content: If you have old blog posts or other content that is still relevant, update and repurpose it into new blog posts.

Use customer feedback: Pay attention to feedback from your customers, whether it’s through comments on your blog or reviews on third-party sites, and use it to create blog posts that address their concerns or questions.

Blog Structure for Business Blogging

A well-structured blog can help keep your readers engaged and make it easier for them to find the information they need. Here are some tips on how to structure your blog:

Use headings: Use headings to break up your blog post into sections and make it easier to read.

Use bullet points and lists: Use bullet points and lists to make your content easier to skim and to highlight key points.

Use images and multimedia: Use images and multimedia, like videos or infographics, to break up your text and make your blog post more engaging.

Keep it concise: Keep your blog posts concise and to the point, and use language that is easy to understand.

Promoting Your Blog

One important aspect of business blogging is promoting your content to ensure it reaches a wider audience. Utilizing social media is an effective way to achieve this goal. By sharing your blog posts on various social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, you can increase visibility and drive traffic to your website. It’s essential to keep in mind that different social media channels cater to different audiences and require different types of content, so tailor your posts accordingly.

Another way to promote your blog is by incorporating email marketing. By sending newsletters and email updates to your subscribers, you can inform them about your latest blog posts and encourage them to visit your website. Email marketing is an effective tool for nurturing relationships with your audience and building brand loyalty.

Engaging with your audience is also crucial in promoting your blog. Responding to comments and messages on social media or on your blog helps to create a sense of community and trust with your readers. Additionally, actively seeking out opportunities to collaborate with other bloggers or experts in your field can help increase your blog’s reach and establish your authority in the industry.

Remember, promotion is key to the success of your business blog. By utilizing social media, incorporating email marketing, and engaging with your audience, you can increase visibility, build relationships, and establish credibility in your industry.

Benefits of Hiring a Service like Dealers Digital Marketing

While creating and managing a blog can be time-consuming, the benefits of having a blog are undeniable. However, if you don’t have the time, resources, or expertise to create and manage a blog, hiring a service like Dealers Digital Marketing can be a great option. Here are some benefits of hiring a service like ours:

Access to expertise: With a service like Dealers Digital Marketing, you’ll have access to a team of expert writers and marketers who can create high-quality blog content that showcases your expertise and engages with your audience.

Consistency: Consistency is key when it comes to blogging. By hiring a service like Dealers Digital Marketing, you can ensure that you have a consistent and regular blogging schedule, which can help improve your search engine rankings and drive traffic to your website.

Free up your time: By outsourcing your blog writing to a service like Dealers Digital Marketing, you can free up your time to focus on other aspects of your business.

Access to analytics: A service like Dealers Digital Marketing can provide you with analytics and metrics on how your blog is performing, which can help you adjust your strategy and improve your results.

SEO: An expert will do keyword research, fill your content with keywords where they fit naturally and create a logical linking structure for your blogs to content on your site. Your much more likely to rank first when your articles are optimized for search engines.

Coming up with content ideas, structuring your blog and managing your blog can be time-consuming and challenging, but the benefits of having a blog are undeniable. If you don’t have the time or expertise to create and manage a blog, hiring a business blogging service like Dealers Digital Marketing can be a great option. Our team of expert writers and marketers can help you create high-quality blog content that engages with your audience and helps you achieve your business goals.

Got a handle on your business blog, but need help with your dealerships social media management, search engine optimization, digital advertising, and more! Dealers Digital Marketing is your trusted partner for a comprehensive digital marketing strategy for your lawnmower and tractor dealership. Get your Free Local SEO Report!

Cooperative Advertising: The Winning Growth Strategy

Your Marketing Budget: The Power of Cooperative Advertising for Your Dealership

In today’s competitive market, it’s more important than ever for dealerships to find effective ways to increase their visibility and sales. That’s where Cooperative Advertising comes in.

Cooperative Advertising is a cost-sharing arrangement between manufacturers and dealerships to promote products and services. It offers numerous benefits for lawnmower and tractor dealerships, including increased exposure, enhanced credibility, and higher sales.

In this blog post, we’ll dive deeper into the world of Co-Op advertising and provide valuable insights on how lawnmower and tractor dealerships can maximize their advertising efforts. We’ll discuss the various Co-Op advertising programs offered by manufacturers, how to qualify for Co-Op advertising funds, and best practices for creating effective campaigns.

By the end of this blog post, you’ll have a better understanding of how to leverage Co-Op advertising to increase your dealership’s visibility and sales. So, let’s get started!

Understanding Co-Op Advertising

Cooperative Advertising, also known as Co-Op Advertising or Marketing Co-Op, is a marketing strategy where manufacturers and dealers or retailers share the costs of advertising to promote their products and services. The concept behind Co-Op Advertising is that both parties benefit from increased visibility and sales.

Manufacturers typically offer Co-Op Advertising programs and policies to their dealerships, which provide guidelines on how the funds can be used and what types of advertising are eligible. The amount of funding available to dealerships can vary based on factors such as the manufacturer’s marketing budget, the dealership’s sales volume, and the type of advertising being used.

Lawnmower and tractor manufacturers such as Cub Cadet, Kubota, Exmark , and Scag offer Co-Op Advertising programs to their dealerships. For example, Cub Cadet’s Co-Op Advertising program provides funding for advertising in local newspapers, magazines, and online platforms. Kubota’s program offers funding for advertising on television, radio, and outdoor billboards. Exmark’s program allows dealerships to use Co-Op Advertising funds for dealership websites, online advertising, direct mail campaigns, and event sponsorships. Scag’s program provides funding for advertising on social media, local radio stations, and outdoor signage.

Manufacturers may also have policies in place to ensure that the Co-Op Advertising funds are being used effectively. For example, some manufacturers may require that the manufacturer’s logo or name is included in the advertisement alongside the dealership’s logo or name. Other manufacturers may require that the advertisement meets certain design or content guidelines.

By participating in Co-Op Advertising programs offered by manufacturers, lawnmower and tractor dealerships can take advantage of cost-effective advertising opportunities and increase their visibility and sales. However, it is important for dealerships to understand the guidelines and policies associated with each program in order to make the most of their Co-Op Advertising funds.

Maximizing Co-Op Advertising Opportunities

Co-Op Advertising can be a powerful tool for lawnmower and tractor dealerships to increase their visibility and sales. To make the most of Co-Op Advertising opportunities, dealerships need to understand how to qualify for funds, choose the right advertising channels, and create effective advertising campaigns.

How to Qualify for Co-Op Advertising Funds

Qualifying for Co-Op Advertising funds varies by manufacturer and program. Typically, manufacturers require that dealerships meet certain criteria, such as purchasing a minimum amount of inventory or meeting certain sales targets. Dealerships may also need to submit advertising proposals for approval before receiving funding. It’s important for dealerships to carefully review the guidelines and requirements for each Co-Op Advertising program to ensure they meet the necessary qualifications.

How to Choose the Right Advertising Channels for Your Dealership

Choosing the right advertising channels is crucial for a successful Co-Op Advertising campaign. Dealerships should consider their target audience, budget, and marketing goals when selecting advertising channels. Some effective channels for lawnmower and tractor dealerships may include local newspapers, radio stations, outdoor signage, and online platforms such as social media and search engines. If you are too busy running your dealership to manage your digital advertising, we can help! Contact us today to get started!

Tips for Creating Effective Co-Op Advertising Campaigns

Creating effective Co-Op Advertising campaigns requires careful planning and execution. Some tips for success include:

Clearly define your marketing goals and target audience
Use eye-catching visuals and messaging that speaks to your target audience. A lot of manufacturers have pre-approved digital ads to choose from.
Include both the manufacturer’s and dealership’s logos or names in the advertisement.
Adhere to the manufacturer’s guidelines for design and content.
Track and measure the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns to make adjustments as needed.

By following these tips and taking advantage of Co-Op Advertising opportunities, lawnmower and tractor dealerships can increase their visibility and sales while minimizing their advertising costs.

Best Practices for Co-Op Advertising

Track and Measure the Success of Co-Op Advertising Campaigns

One of the key benefits of Co-Op advertising is the ability to stretch your marketing dollars by sharing the costs with manufacturers. However, to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your Co-Op advertising investment, it’s important to track and measure the success of your campaigns.

To do this, dealerships can use a variety of metrics to evaluate their campaign performance. For example, tracking impressions can help you understand how many people saw your ad, while clicks can indicate how many people were interested enough to visit your website. Conversions, such as form submissions or phone calls, can help you gauge how many people ultimately acted as a result of your ad.

By monitoring these metrics, dealerships can make informed decisions about how to optimize their Co-Op advertising campaigns for better results. For example, if you notice that your ad is getting a lot of impressions but not many clicks, you may want to consider tweaking your ad copy or design to make it more compelling. If you’re getting a lot of clicks but few conversions, you may want to review your landing page to ensure it’s optimized for conversion.

Overall, tracking and measuring the success of Co-Op advertising campaigns is crucial for dealerships to understand what’s working and what’s not, and make informed decisions about how to improve their campaigns for better results.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Co-Op Advertising

Not adhering to manufacturer’s guidelines: Many manufacturers have specific guidelines for the design and content of Co-Op Advertising campaigns. Dealerships that don’t follow these guidelines risk having their ads rejected or not approved for reimbursement. To avoid this mistake, dealerships should carefully review the guidelines and ensure that their campaigns adhere to them.

Not properly tracking and reporting on campaign performance: It’s essential to track and measure the success of Co-Op Advertising campaigns. Dealerships should monitor metrics such as impressions, clicks, and conversions to understand the impact of their advertising efforts. If they don’t properly track and report on campaign performance, they won’t be able to make informed decisions about how to optimize their campaigns for better results.

Spreading advertising budget too thin across too many channels: While it’s important to choose the right advertising channels, it’s equally important not to spread the budget too thin across too many channels. This mistake can result in weaker overall performance, as the budget is not sufficient to produce meaningful results on any one channel. Instead, dealerships should focus on a few key channels that are most likely to reach their target audience and produce the best results.

How to Build and Maintain Strong Relationships with Manufacturers

Building and maintaining strong relationships with manufacturers is crucial for lawnmower and tractor dealerships to get the most out of Co-Op Advertising. Dealerships should establish clear lines of communication with their manufacturers to understand program changes, updates and requirements. This helps dealerships stay up to date with the latest offerings and opportunities available to them.

When you are transparent and responsive in communication with manufacturers can help to build trust and strengthen relationships. Dealerships should provide regular updates on their advertising campaigns’ performance and make sure that they are meeting the program’s requirements to maintain eligibility for future funding.

Maintaining a good relationship with the manufacturer also helps in getting more funding or increased co-op funding. It could also help in accessing exclusive offers, promotions, and discounts. Hence, it is essential for dealerships to take the necessary steps to establish and maintain strong relationships with manufacturers to maximize the benefits of Co-Op Advertising.

Maximize Your Co-Op Advertising for Success

Co-Op advertising can be a powerful tool for lawnmower and tractor dealerships to increase their visibility and sales, while minimizing their advertising costs. By understanding how Co-Op advertising works, how to qualify for funds, how to choose the right advertising channels, and how to create effective campaigns, dealerships can maximize their opportunities for success.

In this blog post, we’ve covered the basics of Co-Op advertising, including how it works, the types of programs offered by manufacturers like Cub Cadet, Kubota, Exmark, and Scag, and best practices for tracking campaign success, avoiding common mistakes, and building strong relationships with manufacturers.

By taking advantage of Co-Op advertising opportunities and following these best practices, lawnmower and tractor dealerships can improve their marketing performance and drive business growth. So don’t wait – start exploring your Co-Op advertising options today and see the benefits for yourself!

Frequently Asked Questions About Cooperative Marketing & Cooperative Advertising

What is cooperative advertising and how does it work?

Cooperative advertising is an advertising technique in which two or more businesses share the cost of an advertisement. It works by the businesses pooling their resources to create a joint advertisement that promotes each other’s products or services.

What is an example of cooperative advertising?

An example of cooperative advertising is when a lawnmower dealership and a tractor dealership agree to run a joint advertisement in a local newspaper. The ad might feature both dealerships’ logos and products and promote a sale or special promotion.

What are the types of cooperative advertising?

There are two types of cooperative advertising: vertical and horizontal. Vertical cooperative advertising involves businesses at different levels of the supply chain (ex: a manufacturer and a retailer) collaborating on an ad. Horizontal cooperative advertising involves businesses at the same level of the supply chain (ex: two retailers) collaborating on an ad.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of cooperative advertising and marketing?

The advantages of cooperative advertising and marketing include cost savings, increased exposure, and access to new markets. The disadvantages include potential conflicts between businesses, difficulty coordinating efforts, and loss of control over the messaging and branding.

What is cooperative marketing?

Cooperative marketing is a marketing technique in which two or more businesses collaborate to promote their products or services. The businesses may pool their resources to create joint advertising campaigns, participate in joint promotions, or share customer data.

Cooperative Marketing in Agriculture

Cooperative marketing in agriculture is a strategy in which farmers or agricultural businesses collaborate to market their products. This may involve creating a cooperative that markets products on behalf of its members, or simply sharing resources to promote individual products.

What is the importance of cooperative marketing?

The importance of cooperative marketing is that it allows businesses to share resources and reduce costs while still reaching a wider audience. It also allows businesses to access new markets and customer segments that may have been difficult to reach on their own.

What is the function of cooperative marketing?

The function of cooperative marketing is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing efforts by pooling resources and expertise. It allows businesses to share costs and risks while still reaching a wider audience and achieving marketing objectives.

What are the objectives of cooperative marketing and advertising?

The objectives of cooperative marketing and advertising include increasing sales, reaching new customers, improving brand awareness, and reducing marketing costs. It may also involve building relationships with other businesses in the industry and improving overall market competitiveness.

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The Rise of OTT For OPE Dealers

This article originally appeared in the May 2022 issue of OPE Business.

Once upon a time, your dealership only had a handful of options for marketing. Print media (newspaper/magazines), out of home (billboards), terrestrial radio and broadcast television made up the majority of the avenues available for your marketing budget. But those were simpler times. With the rise of digital marketing, some traditional channels have gone the way of the dodo (goodbye yellowpages) while some have evolved in order to stay relevant. Perhaps the biggest paradigm shift involves television, especially now that cord cutting is the norm and streaming services dominate the viewing landscape. This paradigm shift has given rise to “Over-the-Top” advertising, or OTT. Over-the-Top essentially means that content is being served via the Internet, without the need for traditional broadcast, cable or satellite providers, collectively known as “Over-The-Air” providers. OTT devices include smart phones, tables, personal computers, game consoles, smart TVs and smart devices like Roku & Amazon Firestick. The proliferation of the number of total available viewing devices provides exponential growth of the medium without necessarily increasing the number of available eyeballs. So what does this mean for OPE dealerships and how can you use the myriad of possibilities that OTT provides to your advantage?

The traditional television ad buying process looks something like this. Let’s say your target demographic is men and women, ages 54 – 74, your local TV sales rep would likely be trying to sell you space during Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune because they know that the average age of that viewer is about 65 years old. Nielsen metrics can also pull in some other demographic information like household income, etc but the ability to target at much more than a skin-deep level is greatly limited. Traditional television can be useful when placed intelligently, but if you’re used to working with a local media rep, you’ll notice that lately they are all pitching “free” value-add impressions on their streaming app or website to attempt to compete with shift in how we consume visual media.

Conversely, with OTT we can create a much more specific target audience, using hundreds of available data overlays to create an audience that looks more like this:

Males Age 24-64
Estimated Household Income greater than $70,000
Homeowners (exclude renters)
Discretionary spend 2x national average
Presence of attached garage
Property size greater than 1 acre

You get the idea. We use the data available to paint a picture of a customer who is likely to have the need or be in the market for a lawnmower. Want to dial it in even more? Serve ads featuring commercial grade mowers to customers who have 5+ acres or more. Only want to advertise in a single zip code because that’s where all the high end homes are? If you know your market, you can get as granular as you want. The options are virtually limitless with the type of data we have at our fingertips.

Now here is where things get really fun. When we begin an OTT campaign, the video ads are just the first part of the equation. Once we begin an ad campaign, we supplement it with display (banner) ads that will appear on your web browsing devices. This is called display retargeting and is highly effective at keeping your brand name at the forefront of the customer’s buying subconscious. Finally, within our campaign we define your dealership’s physical address as our area of conversion interest, or an addressable geo-target. Because a customer’s mobile device is likely connected to their home wi-fi network where they are first exposed to our dealership’s video ad, that mobile device ID can now be tracked and tell us when a customer who has seen your ad has physically walked into your store. Pretty cool, right? How data is gathered and issues about data privacy are probably thoughts best left for another article, but as a marketer, I approach this debate from the perspective of someone who simply wants to serve the most relevant messages to the most ready-to-buy customer available. That’s where the magic is.

By total dollars spent, OTT is going to dominate ad spending in the digital space for the foreseeable future. But it’s certainly not going to be an option for every dealership. Because CPM rates (cost per thousand) can range anywhere from $30-$50 per 1,000 views, we suggest OTT be a part of your marketing mix if you have a minimum of $10,000 to invest in a campaign. But there will be innovations coming soon that may make OTT advertising more accessible for do-it-yourselfers. Hulu recently announced the launch of a self-service ad platform where you can get started advertising on their network for as little as $500. So as the technology continues to evolve, there will be opportunities for businesses of all sizes to experiment with television ads in their home markets. While television advertising has traditionally been out of reach for most dealerships, there is hope that these new self-serve tools will even the playing field for all small businesses.

Local SEO – Demystifying What SEO Really Means For Your Dealership

This article originally appeared in the March 2022 issue of OPE Business.

I once had a dealer tell me that the “S” in SEO, stood for snake oil. I chuckled at the sentiment. Mostly because I knew where he was coming from. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has gotten a bad rap over the years due to unscrupulous marketing providers selling back links and blog and well, snake oil. And it’s difficult not to understand how SEO got that rap. Results can be hard to quantify. Customers don’t always give it the time required to start working. Positive results can be written off as the seasonality of the market. And Google changes their algorithm ALL THE TIME. What used to work 5 years ago and drove tons of traffic to your site, may now be considered spammy and the Google will swiftly devalue your site to the depths of – gasp – page 2 or worse of the search results, never to be seen again. But SEO doesn’t have to be this mythical bag of tricks that nobody understands. The concept of SEO is actually quite simple. How can we optimize your web presence so that the people who are looking for your products can actually find you? How we do it though, is the most important thing to understand. The first thing we need to do is differentiate between Local and National SEO. Understanding the difference will make all the difference in the tactics you use to optimize your business.

National SEO

National SEO means you are trying to rank as highly as possible for keywords or phrases that relate to your product or service on a national level. Simple right? Well, yes and no. Go Google a product you sell, something simple like Cub Cadet XT1 and note the results that pop up. The first few results are going to be dominated by links to cubcadet.com, followed by large national retail outlets like Home Depot and others. It certainly makes sense that Cub Cadet would show up at the top for searches that relate to “cub cadet”.

There are many factors that go into their position at the top of the search results. Important aspects include

Domain authority
Number of quality back links
Rich catalog data
Quality of on-site unique content

It takes a lot of time and effort (and money) to make sure all of the ingredients for Google’s secret sauce are accounted for and the truth is, it’s a large investment that most dealers simply don’t need to make. Because you’re trying to reach ready-to-buy local customers, not try to outrank cubcadet.com. If Cub Cadet is doing a great job with their national SEO, that’s going to help brand awareness and local searches that lead customers to your doorstep. If you are a national brand, an e-commerce store or a very large chain dealership that has a wide net to cast for eyeballs, national SEO is extremely important, but for smaller dealerships, it’s neither realistic or necessary.

Local SEO

Local SEO means that you are trying to make sure your business shows up as high as possible when potential customers are looking for the product you sell. In the previous example, someone searching for “cub cadet XT1” should expect to find the product page at cubcadet.com rank near the top of search results. The important thing to remember with SEO is that you have to consider the intent of search. Think about how a search for “cub cadet XT1” vs “cub cadet XT1 near me” or “cub cadet dealership” changes how Google interprets the searcher’s intent. When a searcher adds a local qualifier like “near me” or your local city/state to their original search, Google understands that the searcher is looking for a business in their local area and returns results. So go google something like “cub cadet dealership near me” and note the results. At the top of the page you’ll like see what we call the “map pack”. The map pack displays the top three businesses in your general area that match your original search term.

Think about the importance of a local search and local search intent. If you search for a “cub cadet dealership near me” or “lawnmower repair near me”, it stands to reason that you’re looking for a business near you that sells Cub Cadet mowers or can repair your lawnmower. So if you can optimize your business to appear at the top of that list, research indicates that a whopping 75% of local-intent searches result in a store visit within 24 hours, ready to buy what you’re selling.

So how do you optimize for local-intent searches? Your Google Business Profile holds the key to dominating local search results. I’ve spoken at length about Google Business Profiles (formerly known as Google My Business) in the past, but understanding how to properly optimize your profile leads to dominance in the Google map pack.

SEO doesn’t have to be the black magic tactic that many think it is. It’s perfectly valid and extremely powerful when done correctly. But when done poorly, it can also have a negative effect on your business. So as with any task you outsource, it’s important to seek validation, ask the right questions and work with a vendor that you know you can trust.

Local Inventory with google merchant Center

Google My Business Is Changing. Again.

This article originally appeared in OPE Business.

If you’ve been a frequent reader of this space in past issues, you know how important and powerful I think the Google My Business tool is for local businesses. In November, however, Google announced that they were doing away with Google My Business in favor of a more streamlined business management model known as Google Business Profiles. This isn’t an uncommon practice for Google as this particular product has been renamed multiple times over the years. Anyone remember Google+ or Google Places? They were just prior iterations of what will be known as Google Business Profiles going forward.

So what does this mean for business owners who had just gotten used to utilizing the Google My Business app to post updates, images and product information?

First, the Google My Business app is going away in 2022. It will be retired in favor of allowing businesses to manage their details directly from Google Maps or Google Search apps or websites. So as long as you are a signed in to your Google account and you are a manager of your business, you’ll be able to make edits on the fly from within the existing web interface itself. If you’re used to going to google.com/business to manage your business, now you can simply go to google.com and search for “my business” and you’ll be able to manage your details directly from the search results page.

One big exception to this change is that if your business has multiple locations, you’ll still be able to use the existing Google My Business website to manage those listings just as you always have. That website will become known as the Business Profile Manager and act primarily as a support hub for businesses with multiple locations.

With this update, Google has announced some additional features that should have now rolled out to all users.

New verification process
1. If you need to claim your business listing, you can now do it directly in Google Search or Google Maps, without the need to go through the Google Business Manager.
2. Some businesses will see faster methods for verifying businesses, including video verification.
Call history
1. Call history helps you keep track of phone calls from your customers on Google Search and Maps. Using call history can help businesses respond quickly to missed calls so that you don’t lose an opportunity for a sale. Plus, any call that you receive that originates from your Google Business Profile will have a short whisper message informing you that the call came from Google. This is a great way to understand just how much traffic and visibility you’re getting from your listing.
Instant messaging
1. Your customers can now message your business in real-time directly from your business profile. You can customize your automated welcome message, share photos and store your conversation history. In order to provide an optimized experience and promote trust and engagement for your customers, Google requires businesses to respond to messages within 24 hours so if that’s not a watermark you’re comfortable with, it’s best to not activate this feature for now. However, businesses that are committed to an above average customer experience and respond quickly to messages will get the benefit of users seeing messages like “Usually responds in a few minutes” directly on your Google profile. If you can commit to responding and engaging with your customers quickly, you’ll likely see more customers taking advantage of this method of communication and you’ll be first in line when they are looking for the products you sell.
Marketing kit
1. Another recent addition is the new marketing kit that allows you to create free marketing materials to promote your business. Customize and download print-ready posters, windows stickers, pre-made social posts and more. As long as you have a verified profile, you’ll have access to these materials to encourage customers to review your business or even automatically create a quick video to use on your social media channels.

Local Google search results are powered largely by how well you engage with customers and optimize your business profile. Google benefits when they can provide the best possible results for searchers and your business benefits when you take the time to utilize all of the free resources at your disposal. According to Ipsos Research, an up-to-date Google Business Profile is:

2.7x more likely to be considered reputable.
Gets 7x more clicks
Is 70% more likely to attract location visits
Is 50% more likely to lead to a purchase

All of these factors add up to make the new Google Business Profiles the single most important free tool you’ll ever utilize for your business.

Rep Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

This article originally appeared in the November edition of OPE Business.

There seems to be a never-ending deluge of marketing buzzwords that inundate business owners year after year. And every year, the next hot thing that you just HAVE to do for your business changes. So, the toughest thing for any business owner to figure out each year is whether that next hot thing is actually the next must-have to take your business to the next level. One topic I get lots of questions about is reputation management.

Over the past several years, dozens of companies have entered the landscape touting the importance of reputation management. You’ve likely even been contacted by companies that market themselves as end-to-end reputation management companies. But what is reputation management and why is it important?

At its core, reputation management is exactly what it sounds like – tools that help you manage your business’s reputation online. There are three main pillars that make up the foundation of your online reputation.

Review Generation & Monitoring
Business Listing Optimization
Website

Review Generation and Monitoring

I know every dealer has had the importance of reviews pounded into their consciousness over the past several years. And for good reason – they’re that important. Consider the following data from Qualtrics.

91% of 18–34-year-olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Customers are willing to spend 31% more on a business with excellent reviews.
94% of people say an online review has convinced them to avoid a business.
3 is the minimum star rating of a business consumers would engage with.

The value of reviews goes beyond just driving consumer action (or inaction). Businesses with positive online reviews get more love in Google search rankings too!

One of the most frequent questions I ask is “can you remove a negative review for our business?”. Most of the time, the answer to that question is no. It is possible to flag a review with Google if you can prove that it’s not actually a review of your business, overly offensive or explicit or creates a legal concern. If you’re successful, the review can be removed, but it’s a rare occurrence.

The absolute best thing to do is respond to every review, positive or negative. When customers see an articulate response to a negative review of your business, it has been proven to create a positive impression because it shows you care enough to reach out to try and make things right.

Understanding the importance of reviews is one thing, but generating reviews at scale is where you gain real momentum and that’s where software comes in. Automating your outreach is the key to making massive gains in review generation. It’s also the quickest way to bury bad reviews. When you consider that 72% of customers will write a review if a local business asks them to, investing in review generation is a no brainer. I recommend this to every dealer I talk to.

Business Listing Optimization

Business listings play an integral role in your business’s online reputation. While reviews and social listening are more customer centric, business listing optimization is a key component of your reputation in Google’s eyes. If you recently added a new location or maybe moved from an old location, making sure your business details are accurate is extremely important for search engines and how the judge the integrity of the listing. There are hundreds of directory websites that Google uses to assess the value of your listing and you’re not going to update those manually, are you? Of course not. And even if you wanted to, many of them wouldn’t allow you to edit the listing if you tried. I recommend business listing optimization so every local business we work with because it has measurably positive effects on your local SEO efforts.

Dealership Website

I’ve mentioned in this space before that 75% of consumers admit that they judge a business’s credibility on the quality of their website design so the importance of your web presence can’t be overstated enough. While your website isn’t necessarily a tool like the review generation or business listing optimization, but I absolutely consider it to be central to the overall brand experience of the dealership.

Where the OPE industry is unique from many others is that dealers often rely heavily on OEM co-op funds for most of their advertising and typically have outside firms managing their campaigns. This means that I see many instances of dealers not being privy If you’re a heavy spender in digital media, sending traffic to an unprofessional website might actually be hurting your business. A banner ad campaign with a modest budget of $1,000/mo could drive over 10,000 visits to your website on average. That’s a lot of eyeballs to expose your poorly designed website to.

It’s an age-old phrase, but it’s never been truer than it is today. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Managing your online reputation properly means being a customer’s first thought, first interaction and first option for their sales dollar. It takes a long time to earn a positive reputation and, in the Internet age, a short time to destroy it if you don’t proactively protect your good name. Investing in reputation management can provide quality and consistent long-term ROI for your business and that makes it a must-have for your yearly marketing budget.

The F Word: Maximizing Your Reach With Facebook

This article originally appeared in the October edition of OPE Business.

When I talk to dealers about implementing social media efforts into their overall marketing plans, I’m either met with excitement, disdain or indifference. In my experience, no other marketing channel is as divisive as social media, especially as it relates to Facebook. It can be both frustrating and revolutionary depending on how you use it.

The fact is, as the medium has grown and evolved, it has become infinitely more complex and powerful. So the trick for dealerships has consistently been how to utilize the medium in a way that makes sense for the dealer and for the customer. I’ll break down some myths and give you some insight into how you can harness the power of Facebook without being swallowed by it.

Facebook Advertising

In the early days of Facebook, you could reasonably expect to see almost every post that was made by a friend or a brand you followed. It provided a user-centric experience and an easy way for brands to reach their customers for free. But free isn’t exactly a great business model. So Facebook started forcing users to “boost” their posts so the content you could been by more people. Boosting essentially means you are paying to get more eyeballs on your content. But there are more effective ways to advertise your brand than by simply “boosting” your post.

Most marketing agencies, mine included, manage advertising campaigns from with the Facebook Business Manager. If you haven’t set up a Business Manager account for your dealership, we highly suggest you use this as it will become your hub for managing ads and provides more in-depth tools for your campaigns. You can create your Business Manager account here: https://business.facebook.com/

By creating this account, you can assign your assets to marketing partners without giving them admin access to your Facebook page. This is not only prudent so those outside of your organization can’t hijack your page, but also technically required by Facebook’s terms of service.

Now that you have a proper business manager account, there are two major things you need to do to properly use your enhanced ad manager.

Create and configure your Facebook Pixel. This pixel is to be placed on your website and will allow you to see what actions are taking place on your website. You’ll be able to track page views, phone calls and many other actions, but it’s most important so that Facebook can automatically optimize your ad campaigns. For example, when you set up a new ad, you can specify which goals you want to optimize your ad for. If the goal of your campaign is to create new leads, Facebook will auto-optimize your campaign to generate more leads using the data the pixel provides. Your Facebook pixel will also auto-create audiences that will allow you to target visitors to your website, among other things. Speaking of audiences…
Create audiences. In my experience, custom audiences and saved audiences are the single biggest factor in increasing the effectiveness of your Facebook ad campaigns. You can set up your ideal audience to target by choosing demographic data, occupational info and what other pages they like. For example, if you are a Cub Cadet dealer and you wanted to run an ad about a sale on your XT2 Enduro Garden Tractors, you might set up a target like this:

Gender: Male & Female
Age: 25-64+
Location: 25 mile radius around dealership (or if you want to get fancy you can target by county or DMA)
Interests: People who like Cub Cadet on Facebook or have shown an interest in Cub Cadet, mowers or lawnmowers.

You can create saved audiences for each of the lines you carry and you know that you will be speaking directly to people who have shown an interest or affinity for that particular manufacturer and are the most likely to purchase. The next step is to then create a Look-alike audience that will allow you to expand the reach of your ad to people who act like the folks in your new saved audience. Once these audiences are set up, you can use them over and over again and maximize your reach while minimizing budget waste.

Organic Posts – Engagement Matters

As I mentioned earlier, organic posts (free posts) only get seen by a fraction of the people who like your Facebook page. There is magic in creating content that gets seen by more people. Some of the factors are:

Recency of the post
How frequently you post
Post engagement – How many people are interacting with your post by liking, commenting or sharing.
Past user interaction – Has the viewer interacted with your posts before?

There are tons of ranking signals so this isn’t an exhaustive list, but they’re a few of the most important. So think about which content most users want to interact with. Are they really interacting with the generic content that every dealer gets from the manufacturer? Or are users interacting more with your post about how you donated to the local little league team?

At the end of the day all of the content matters, but I typically urge dealers to focus on content that’s personal to them and ultimately it will be personal for your customers as well. Use 4:1 as a general ratio of personal to promotional and you’ll find that is a good mix.

At the end of the day, dealers need to remember that social media is supposed to be, well, social. The more you treat it as an extension of your personal brand, the more it will flourish.

Promoting Your Inventory for Free

This article originally appeared in the September edition of OPE Business.

Promoting Your Inventory (For Free) on Google

It is no secret that all OPE dealers have been affected in way or another by inventory shortages this year. Every dealer I have spoken to has spoken at length about the long-term implications of the disruption in the supply chain. But what about the inventory you DO still have on your showroom floor? The cupboard hasn’t been left completely bare, it’s just the shift we are seeing is that customers who may have been looking for a lower end model, might be more easily upsold to a more robust machine. So how do you make consumers aware of the models you do have available?

When the pandemic hit, online retailers were obviously in a much better position to serve customers than physical retailers who don’t have online stores, further widening the gap between online and offline retail. Outdoor equipment dealers should have been more insulated from this because most manufacturers don’t allow whole goods to be sold online. Yes, I know that there are a handful of online stores that are selling zero turn mowers on the web, shipped directly to your door, regardless of OEM rules and regulations. But for those of you who play by the rules, you are left to figure out how to compete in the online space. Enter Google.

Last year, in response to the pandemic, Google announced a program that largely flew under the radar that allows physical merchants to use Google Merchant Center to carve out a presence in search results normally reserved for shopping ads that shows local inventory available for pickup at a local store. This program was aimed at leveling the playing field for local merchants who could offer the one thing the online retailers cannot – the instant gratification of same day local pickup. So, when someone searches for a specific model like a Cub Cadet XT2, the search results at the top of the page will show shopping ads for local retailers that carry that model or models like it. Local consumers will now be driven to your storefront, instead of to an online store. According to Google, a shopping 76% of people who conduct a local search on their smartphone visit a physical store within 24 hours and 28% of those visits result in a purchase. Clearly, the dealers that make the effort to optimize their local presence, will reap the benefits.

It takes a little technical know-how to get set up in Merchant Center so that your on-hand inventory is consistently accurate, but once you are set up, the process can be automated so it is truly a set it and forget it marketing tactic.

Adding products to Google My Business

I’ve spoken at length in the past about the important of Google My Business because it’s the single most important (and free) tool that you can use to promote your business. If it’s been a while since you’ve logged into your Google My Business profile, you may not have noticed that there is now a Products section where you can add equipment directly to your profile.

This is a more manual process, but with a few clicks to upload a product image, add a product name and description, you can create an entire online catalog directly with your GMB profile. Adding rich data like this not only increases your exposure to local shoppers, but it helps the overall visibility of your profile.

You can also manage your profile directly from the GMB app on your smartphone, making it easy to add products, directly from your showroom floor, including used equipment or hard to find parts. These products can be categorized by make, model or type and they do not expire so ongoing maintenance of this section of your profile is minimal.

Google has done an admirable job of attempting to champion small and medium businesses in their struggle to compete against larger companies with seemingly unending resources. Google My Business and free local inventory ads are specifically designed to put local businesses on even footing with large chains and big box stores by providing customers with local shopping options. All you have to do is take advantage of the tools available to you.

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Brett Morris is the owner of Dealers Digital, a digital marketing agency for outdoor power equipment dealers and dealerAMP, a marketing automation platform for the OPE industry. He can grease all the fittings on a Woods Batwing in under 7 minutes.

Brett Morris
Dealers Digital
859-552-4392
[email protected]

How Smart Dealers Can Market Themselves in an Inventory Crisis

This article originally appeared in the July edition of OPE Business

Do you remember last year when the pandemic hit, how much fear swept across small retail businesses? Nobody knew how the pandemic would affect sales and ultimately their livelihoods, causing many of our dealers to pause their marketing and advertising efforts. And while COVID was certainly unkind to many small businesses, many of the dealerships we work with reported better than expected sales volumes. The smart dealers who continued to advertise in the early stages of the pandemic, reaped the benefits of being proactive in their messaging.

Fast forward to 2021 and the lasting effects of the pandemic are starting to manifest in inventory scarcity, resulting in a different type of crisis. Again faced with uncertainty, we’ve heard from many dealers who are pausing advertising programs, which is understandable if there is no inventory to sell, but the most proactive dealers can still position themselves to be top of mind when supply finally catches up with demand.

Here are three ways you can keep your dealership visible to potential customers.

Utilize Google My Business
If you’ve sat in any marketing webinar in the past two years, every dealership marketing consultant has likely driven home the importance of utilizing your Google My Business (GMB) profile and I am certainly no different. Why? Because it’s free and it’s extremely powerful. Here’s are two new features that will hep you make the most of your GMB profile:

Turn on GMB Messaging: Google recently turned on the ability for customers to message you directly from your GMB profile. Make sure you go into your GMB settings and turn on this functionality. Eliminating any friction between you and your potential customer is important, especially in this competitive space.
Add products to your profile: In 2020, Google gave businesses the ability to manually add products directly to their profiles, complete with photos and pricing information. So if a potential customer is searching for “Cub Cadet Ultima ZT1 42” and you’ve added that product to your local profile, you’ll boost your chances of being discovered for that product.

Engage Your Existing Customer List
In the OPE industry we find that dealers will spend tens of thousands of dollars per year to acquire new customers and ignore (or just take for granted) their existing customer base. According to Marketing Metrics, the probability of converting an existing customer is between 60 – 70%, but the probability of converting a new prospect is only between 5 – 20%.

The way our industry is structured, especially with how co-op ad dollars from OEMs work, the majority of our focus tends to be on new customer acquisition. And while acquisition is extremely important, think about where your business really makes its money and its margins. Most would say it’s in service and repeat purchases.

Every dealership has a customer list, but do you have contact information for your customers? An email address? A cell phone number? Maybe buried in your DMS somewhere? Smart dealers can take control of their data but utilizing a CRM (Customer Relationship Management). If you don’t have a CRM or a DMS capable of exporting your customer list, making this a priority for the second half of 2021 is a good move. When coupled with an email marketing and text automation tool, creating and maintaining a robust CRM pays dividends multiple times over by allowing you to communicate with existing customers in real time, informing them of service promotions or other incentives. And if you DO happen to have good inventory on a particular model, you may be in a unique position to sell quickly to a captive audience.

Once you have a system in place to capture and nurture those contacts, consider driving more people to sign up to join your list. Be creative by creating a “wait list” for customers to sign up to be informed when new inventory arrives you can have them sold by the time they hit the floor.

Don’t Stop Spending
If you decide to completely stop your advertising programs during slow times, remember that there is always a competitor out there who is maintaining some level of spend to make sure that their name is the first one found when customers are searching. You should definitely cut down your ad programs from your usual peak spending highs, but make sure you maintain a presence to keep your dealership in the spotlight. You can stop video ads, banner ads and even social ads during this time, but consider keeping some budget in the Google network, either utilizing Search ads or Local ads. These ad types appear when someone is specifically searching for you or products you provide so this tactic allows you to be present when a potential customer is showing some intent to find you. Best of all, if they don’t click, you don’t pay.

It is important to spend any “down time” preparing for when inventory starts to arrive because this forced shift in seasons won’t last forever. If you are proactive now, you won’t be scrambling to move late-arriving inventory before selling season is completely over.

Love Your Website and It Will Love You Back

This article originally appeared in the May edition of OPE Business

If you had the chance to hire someone who doesn’t take days off, requires no benefits and was responsible for bringing in the lion’s share of customers to your door, I imagine most business owners would do that in a heartbeat. Clearly, that person doesn’t exist, but your website – the digital front door of your dealership – does all of those things and more. Why then do so many dealers take a “set it and forget it” attitude toward their web presence?

Here are the five things you should be doing to make sure your website is truly working for you and your dealership.

Keep it Updated
This may seem rudimentary, but websites get stale and need to be updated. Your best-sellers from last year, may not be your best-sellers this year. Featuring zero-turns on your homepage in the dead of winter when your dealership is in Northern Minnesota might cause a disconnect with your customers. More importantly, search engines like Google value content freshness. Keeping your website updated with proper hours, services and catalog information signals to your customers and to Google that you are committed to providing a superior user experience.
Design Matters
You know what they say about first impressions right? Site design is not an area to skimp. In fact, a whopping 75% of consumers admit that they judge a business’ credibility on the quality of their website design. Showcasing your professionalism is important for every interaction a potential customer has with your business and for many, the customer journey begins when they find your website. In 2021, a poorly designed website is worse than not having a website at all. For dealers, that means you need to have full product catalogs, complete with high quality product images and multiple calls to action to capture user info.
Make it Snappy
When I first start building websites around 1997 or so, internet speeds were, shall we say, a bit slower than they are today. The general rule of thumb back then was shoot for an average load time of 8.8 seconds for best user experience. Today, 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less! If you want to see how quickly your website loads, head on over to google.com and search for “Page Speed Insights” and you’ll be able to see exactly how Google measures your website performance.
Mobile is important, but don’t ignore desktop
Almost 56% of global web traffic comes from mobile devices, a trend that’s largely gone unchanged since 2017. For dealerships, we’re still seeing a larger percentage of traffic coming from desktop computers and tablets than the national average for other businesses. The reason for this is because lawn and ag equipment is many times a heavily researched purchase decision due the price and financing implications involved. Users will come back to your website over and over to compare models, promotions and financing offers and in our experience, a good amount of that research is still done on desktop devices.
Commit to SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Building a website isn’t like Field of Dreams. “If you build it, they will come” has no bearing on the Internet. When you consider that 92% of all website traffic comes from the first page of Google results, you can see how important it is to commit to making sure your name and your brand can be found at the top of search results. It’s not enough to just show up #1 when a customer Googles your business name – that’s what Google Maps/Google My Business is for. The hard part is making sure a customer that doesn’t know you or has never been exposed to your brand can find you easily when searching for things like “lawnmower repair near me” or “Cub Cadet dealer Bardstown KY”. While some technical assistance may be required for long-term SEO efforts, if you want to start making an impact right away with your own SEO efforts, commit to creating content that can be added to your website. This content can take the form of manufacturer specific landing pages or by blogging frequently about your service offerings and promotions. Remember, Google prioritizes freshness and it craves original content. In a world where all of your competitors might be using the same website provider, with same content and the same designs, a little extra effort on your part or direction from a professional, might just be the little bump your dealership needs to outshine the rest.

Like anything else, if you put time and effort and resources into your web presence, the benefit to your dealership is nearly immeasurable. It is the #1 most essential tool you’ll ever utilize for your business so show it some love and it will love you back.

If your business is struggling to be found or your competitors are seemingly EVERYWHERE, we can help. Contact us to talk about SEO for OPE Dealerships & Landscapers.

Dealers Digital | Marketing for Dealerships

All posts by : Brett Morris