Managing customer experiences is crucial for any business looking to drive business growth and retain customers. After reading reviews about a business, almost all potential customers will take their next step in a space that the business has complete control over. This means that the majority of customer interactions and experiences are within your control. Whether it’s through your website, physical location, or communication channels, the power to shape the customer experience is in your hands. By effectively managing these spaces, you can turn leads into paying customers and create a positive, lasting impression that will keep them coming back. In this blog post, we’ll dive deep into the importance of managing customer experiences and provide you with tips and best practices for optimizing your website, creating a positive in-store experience, and managing communication channels to improve customer engagement and satisfaction.
The Customer’s Journey: By the Numbers
96% of adults read Local Business Reviews
91% of consumers take the next step in the buyer’s journey.
51% of those people will visit your website.
27% of those people will visit your physical business location.
13% of those people will contact you (phone, text, email, live chat)
8% of consumers move from reviews to your social media profiles.
It is more important now than ever to create a positive and seamless customer experience across all touch points. By effectively controlling your website, physical location, and communication channels, your dealership can create a consistent and cohesive brand image and message. Additionally, you can use customer data and insights gathered from these spaces to personalize and optimize the customer experience, improving the chances of conversion.
Maximizing your control over the customer experience starts with identifying and addressing pain points. Utilizing data from your website, physical location, and communication channels can help you do just that. By analyzing website data, you can pinpoint areas that need improvement and enhance the user experience. Similarly, data from your physical location can be used to optimize store layout and improve the in-store experience. And by monitoring communication channels, you can improve customer service and address concerns in a timely manner. By utilizing data from all these sources, you can create a seamless and positive customer experience that drives business growth.
Let’s take a deeper look at each touch point.
Utilizing Your Website to Drive Business Growth
Having a strong online presence is crucial for businesses in today’s digital age. A website can be a powerful tool for attracting and retaining customers for lawn mower, tractor, and outdoor power equipment dealers. A well-designed website can provide customers with information about the products and services offered, as well as detailed specifications and pricing. It can also allow customers to easily browse and purchase products online, making the buying process more convenient for them.
Your dealership’s website can also be used to create a sense of trust and credibility with your customers. By including customer testimonials, photos, and videos of products in use, and detailed information about the company’s history and experience in the industry, a website can establish the business as a reputable and trustworthy provider of lawn mower, tractor, and outdoor power equipment.
A website can also be used to provide customers with ongoing support and education. For example, a dealer can provide information on how to properly maintain and repair equipment, or tips on how to get the most out of their equipment. This can help to build customer loyalty and encourage repeat business.
If your dealership has no website, or it isn’t quite up to par, we can help. Dealers Digital can help you maximize your online exposure and boost sales. We are the green industries digital marketing experts with over twenty years of digital media experience. Contact us today to get started.
Optimizing Your Dealership’s Website
Here are a few tips and best practices to optimize your dealership’s website to drive conversions and improve the overall customer experience.
Navigation: Make sure that your website is easy to navigate. Use a clear and consistent layout, organize your content in a logical and easy to understand way.
Optimize for Mobile: Over 80% of people browse the internet via mobile and expect for their experiences to be seamless. Your website should be responsive, meaning it adjusts to fit the screen size of the device being used to view it.
Clear Calls to Action (CTA): Your site should have clear CTA’s that guide visitors towards the next step. Whether that is to make a purchase, request more information, or to schedule a consultation.
Contact Information: Make it easy for visitors to contact you by including your phone number, email and physical address and contact form prominently on your website.
Testimonials & Reviews: Use testimonials and reviews from satisfied customers to help build trust and credibility with potential customers.
Search Engine Optimization: Optimizing your website for search engines (IE: Google) can help increase your visibility and drive more traffic to your site. There are many free resources out there to learn about and implement SEO, or you can hire an agency, like Dealers Digital, to help. Get your Free Local SEO Report.
The Value of Your Physical Location
Reviews are a powerful tool for driving foot traffic to your dealership! Reviews provide customers with valuable information about your dealership’s products and services, and can influence their decision to visit your dealership in person. A dealership with a high number of positive reviews is more likely to attract customers, which in turn, increases sales.
Your dealership should make an effort to encourage customers to leave reviews, and respond to both positive and negative reviews in a timely and professional manner. The way that a company handles a poor review says a lot about who they are.
Cultivating a Positive In-Store Experience & Utilizing Your Physical Location
Here are some tips on how to cultivate positive in store experiences and utilize your physical location to drive sales.
Create a Positive In-Store Experience: A positive in-store experience can help to turn customers in loyal brand ambassadors and encourage them to leave positive reviews. By providing excellent customer service, having a knowledgeable staff and creating an inviting and visually appealing store layout can help you to achieve this.
Utilize Your Physical Location: You can offer promotions and sales that are only available in-store or highlight products that aren’t available for purchase online. You can create in-store displays, or by offering special discounts or deals for customers who visit the store in person.
Provide in-store consultation: Offer in-store consultation services like product demonstrations, product trials or shopping assistants. This will allow your customers to have a more hands-on experience and get more personalized recommendations, which can lead to increased sales.
Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews: Encourage customers to leave reviews by providing a clear call to action, like a sign or card that directs them to the review. Respond to reviews in a timely and professional manner, and then use the positive reviews to help promote your dealership.
3 Types of Communication Channels
Effective communication is crucial for providing a positive customer experience and driving conversions for lawnmower and tractor dealerships. By managing phone, email and live chat effectively, your dealership can ensure that you are responsive to customer inquiries, provide accurate information, and address any issues in a timely and professional manner.
Phone: Phone communication allows for immediate, personal contact with customers. It is important to have well-trained staff who can answer questions and help quickly and efficiently. Business texting has become increasingly important in managing customer pickup and service notifications.
Email: Email communication can be used to provide detailed information to customers, such as product specifications, financing offers or promotions. It is important to respond promptly to customer inquiries and to make sure that the information provided is accurate and up to date. We offer automation solutions.
Live Chat: Live chat allows customers to receive immediate assistance while browsing your dealership’s website. It is important to have staff available to answer to chat requests in real time, or use a chat-widget, like Dealeramp to provide 24/7 automated responses.
Managing Communication Channels Effectively
By effectively managing these communication channels, your dealership can improve your customer’s experience and increase the likelihood of conversions. You’re also likely to increase your customer engagement and satisfaction while you are at it. Customers can reach out to your dealership in the way that they feel the most comfortable and convenient. This provides them with a greater sense of control over their buying experience.
Set clear expectations: Let customers know when they can expect a response to their inquiry, regardless of the channel. This will help manage the customer’s expectations and reduce frustration.
Respond promptly: Respond to all customer inquiries as quickly as possible. This shows that your dealership values the customer’s time and is committed to providing a positive experience.
Train Staff: Ensure that your entire staff is well trained in your dealership’s products and services, as well as in communication and customer service best practices.
Personalize your communication: Address customers by name and make sure to use a professional and friendly tone. Your customer will feel more valued and comfortable.
Gather and act on feedback: Regularly gather feedback from customers and find ways to act on it. This can help the dealership identify areas for improvement and make changes to better meet customer needs.
Despite the statistic that only a small percentage of customers may move from reviews to social media profiles, managing and maintaining a strong presence on social media platforms is crucial for any dealership’s marketing strategy. While the customer journey may vary, social media offers a variety of opportunities for dealerships to increase brand awareness, engage with customers, manage reputation, generate leads and stay informed about industry trends and customer preferences. By effectively utilizing social media, dealerships can improve the customer experience, drive conversions, and gain a competitive advantage in the market.
Brand presence and awareness: Having a strong social media presence can help increase brand awareness and establish your dealership as a reputable and trustworthy source.
Customer Engagement: social media offers an opportunity for your dealership to engage with customers, answer questions and provide information about products and services. This helps build loyalty and trust with your customers.
Reputation Management: Social media can be used to monitor and respond to feedback from customers. This can help your dealership proactively address any issues and maintain a positive reputation.
Industry insights: social media can be used to track industry trends, competitors activity and customer preferences.
Managing Social Media Profiles
Let’s look at some tips for creating engaging and effective social media profiles that can help drive business growth.
Define your target audience: Understand who your ideal customer is and tailor your content to fit their interests and needs.
Create a consistent brand image: Use consistent branding across all of your profiles.
Use Storytelling: Use storytelling to create engaging content that highlights the dealership’s unique selling points and the benefits of its products and services.
Engage with customers: responds to comments and messages in a timely manner and use social media as an opportunity to build relationships with customers.
Create a content calendar: Plan and schedule content in advance to ensure that you project a consistent and organized approach to your content.
Harness the Power
Mastering the customer experience is key for any business looking to drive growth and retain customers. By harnessing the power of managing customer experiences, dealerships can take control of the customer journey and turn leads into paying customers. Through effectively managing your website, physical location, and communication channels, businesses can create a consistent and cohesive brand image, personalize, and optimize the customer experience, and improve the chances of conversion. By utilizing data from these spaces, businesses can identify and address pain points, creating a seamless and positive customer experience that drives business growth. By implementing the tips and best practices discussed in this post, businesses can maximize their control over the customer experience and drive business growth. Harnessing the power of mastering the customer experience is essential for any business looking to succeed in today’s competitive market.
The High Price of Skimping on Advertising: A Look at How Cutting Your Budget during Economic Uncertainty Can Harm Your Business
In times of economic uncertainty, it may be tempting to cut your advertising budget in order to save money. However, cutting your advertising budget can actually have a detrimental effect on your business in the long run. In this blog post, we will explore several case studies from different industries that demonstrate the consequences of cutting advertising during economic downturns. From Procter & Gamble to General Motors, Ford, Coca-Cola and Home Depot, we will see how these companies’ decisions to cut their advertising budget led to a decline in sales and market share, and the difficulties to recover from it. We will also di
ve into the outdoor power equipment and tractor industry to see how this industry may be affected by economic uncertainty. Join us as we explore the potential consequences of cutting advertising during economic uncertainty and why it may be more beneficial to maintain or even increase advertising efforts.
Case Study 1: General Motors During the 2008-2009 Recession
In 2008-2009, General Motors, faced financial difficulties during the global recession. As an effort to save money, the company decided to cut its advertising budget by $800 million. This decision had a negative impact on the company’s sales and market share. General Motors’ sales dropped by 22% and its market share decreased by 3%. The company’s competitors, who did not cut their advertising budgets, were able to gain market share and increase their sales. This case study illustrates how cutting advertising during economic uncertainty can lead to a decline in sales and market share, which can be difficult to recover from.
Case Study 2: Procter & Gamble (P&G) During the 2008 Recession
In 2008, when the global economy was in a recession, Procter & Gamble (P&G), the world’s largest consumer goods company, decided to cut its advertising budget by $500 million. The company believed that by reducing its advertising expenses, it could save money and weather the economic downturn. This decision actually had the opposite effect. P&G’s sales dropped by 6% and its market share decreased by 2%. The company’s competitors, who did not cut their advertising budgets, were able to gain market share and increase their sales.
P&G realized that cutting its advertising budget was a mistake and quickly increased its advertising expenses. The company’s sales and market share eventually recovered, but it took several years to do so. In addition to demonstrating how cutting your advertising budget during economic uncertainty can lead to a decline in sales and market share, this case study also illustrates the importance of quick action. It’s important for a company to take quick action to address the negative effects of cutting advertising in order to recover.
Case Study 3: Ford During the Great Depression
In the 1930s, the U.S. economy was in the midst of the Great Depression. Despite the economic downturn, Ford decided to increase its advertising budget. The company believed that by increasing its advertising expenses, it could attract more customers and increase its sales. This strategy proved to be successful. Ford’s sales increased by 15% and its market share grew by 5%.
This case study demonstrates that increasing your advertising budget during economic uncertainty can lead to an increase in sales and market share. Ford’s decision to invest in advertising during the Great Depression was a wise one, as it helped the company to remain competitive and grow its business.
Case Study 4: Coca-Cola During the 2001 Recession
The Coca-Cola case study from the 2001 recession shows the negative consequences of cutting advertising during economic uncertainty. Despite the company’s belief that reducing advertising expenses could save money and weather the downturn, the decision to cut its advertising budget by $200 million had a detrimental effect on its sales and market share. As a result of this decision, Coca-Cola’s sales dropped by 2% and its market share decreased by 1%, while competitors who did not cut their advertising budgets were able to gain market share and increase their sales. This case study highlights the importance of carefully considering advertising budget during economic uncertainty and the difficulty of recovering from a decline in sales and market share caused by cutting advertising.
Study 5: Home Depot During the 2001 Recession
The Home Depot case study from the 2001 recession is similar to the case studies of Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola. In 2001, when the US economy was in recession, Home Depot, the largest home improvement retailer in the US, decided to cut its advertising budget by $200 million. The company believed that by reducing its advertising expenses, it could save money and weather the economic downturn. However, this decision had a negative impact on the company’s sales and market share. Home Depot’s sales dropped by 2% and its market share decreased by 1%. The company’s competitors, who did not cut their advertising budgets, were able to gain market share and increase their sales.
This case study illustrates that cutting advertising during economic uncertainty can have detrimental effects on a business, such as a decline in sales and market share, as well as loss of brand visibility and differentiation. It also shows that competitors who don’t cut their advertising budget may gain market share, making it harder for the company that cut the budget to recover.
How does Economic Uncertainty Effect the Outdoor Power Equipment Industry?
The outdoor power equipment and tractor industry, like many other industries, can be affected by economic uncertainty. During a recession, consumers may be less likely to make big-ticket purchases such as tractors, lawnmowers and other outdoor power equipment. However, it’s important to note that this industry does have some unique characteristics that may influence the effects of cutting or increasing advertising during economic uncertainty.
First, the outdoor power equipment and tractor industry is a relatively stable and resilient market. People will still need to maintain their lawns, gardens, and farms even during a recession. Therefore, the demand for outdoor power equipment may not decrease as significantly as in other industries. Moreover, businesses in the outdoor power equipment and tractor industry may also benefit from the fact that many customers are small business owners and farmers, who may have a steady cash flow even during a recession.
Additionally, outdoor power equipment and tractors are often long-lasting, durable products that require replacement or maintenance after several years of use. Therefore, even if customers delay purchasing a new tractor or lawnmower during a recession, they may still need to purchase replacement parts or maintain their existing equipment.
It’s important to note that cutting your advertising budget may also affect the industry as a whole, by making it more difficult for companies to differentiate their products and justify a higher price point. Moreover, a strong advertising campaign can help to attract new customers and maintain market share, which may offset potential losses in sales due to economic uncertainty.
Companies in this industry should carefully consider their advertising budget. Maintaining or even increasing advertising efforts may help to drive sales, maintain market share, and protect brand visibility. Additionally, it can help to differentiate products, justify a higher price point, and attract new customers.
Summing it All Up
The case studies of Proctor & Gamble, General Motors, Ford, Coca-Cola, and Home Depot all highlight the potential consequences of cutting advertising during economic uncertainty. These companies’ decisions to reduce their advertising budgets resulted in a decline in sales and market share, making it difficult for them to recover. These examples demonstrate how advertising plays a crucial role in maintaining market share and driving sales, even during economic downturns. On the other hand, the studies also show that increasing your advertising budget can lead to an increase in sales and market share, and that it is important for businesses to carefully consider their advertising budget during economic uncertainty and make decisions that will benefit them in the long run.
Geofencing: The Ultimate Local Business Marketing Tool
Geofencing is an extremely effective method of marketing that can help get more local customers through your door. It works by targeting people by their proximity to your business and sending them special offers to help get them in the door.
Mobile marketing is taken to the next level with Geofencing. A virtual boundary is setup around your dealership using GPS, Beacons & Radio Frequency Identifiers. It can help to grow your customer-base and strengthen your brand identity over time. Geofencing allows you to target internet-enabled devices within a specific geographic area. Customers who enter the geofenced area receive notifications about your brand’s current offers, limited-time promotions, and events where they can engage with your company. Geofencing is a great way to reach out to potential customers and increase brand awareness.
Does Geofencing Benefit My Customer?
In contrast, geofencing offers a plethora of opportunity for mobile users. Interactive shopping & Pick-up reminders, home security, garage door openers, automatic coffee pots and limited time offers to your favorite restaurants are just a few of the benefits. Geofencing can help consumers find new businesses or try new places they may never have known about otherwise.
Benefits of Geofencing for your Dealership
Increase Local Sales:Search Engine Optimization focuses on increasing your rankings on search engines, and the benefits of ranking in the top 3 are quite clear. 54.4% of all clicks on searches are on the top 3 results. Geofencing is a relatively new way to improve your local performance. By sending push notifications to customers within your defined geographic area, you can increase your sales.
Provide Personalization to Your Customer Base: The data that you collect during your geofencing campaigns is of immense value. It will allow you to better personalize your offerings by giving you insight into the demographics of the local population. It also tells you what type of offers interest them and get them in your store. You can use purchase history to determine the products that your local customers prefer and adjust your promotions accordingly.
Connect Your Brand with the Customers Most Likely to do Business with You: Many companies sell their products and services online as well as in the store. Outdoor Power Equipment Dealers do most of their large business in their stores versus online. You already know your local customers are the backbone of your business. A Geofencing strategy can cultivate a strong local following that you can expand over time.
Cheap and Effective: Most companies already utilize Google Adwords, you already have all you need to create an effective geofencing campaign. Google allows you to set location-based parameters for your paid ads and business listings at no extra cost.
Understand Offline Behavior: Understanding how your customers behave offline can give you important insights into how to better advertise to them and give your brand a competitive edge. Brands can use this data to understand how often their customers visit the neighborhoods where their stores are located, how long they stay in those areas, and what kinds of activities they engage in while they’re there. All of this information can help create a more customized and relevant advertising experience for your customers.
Crush Your Competitor: You can apply geofencing technology to your competitor’s as well. Create a geofence around their location so that when a customer gets close to their store, they receive an ad or promotion from your business! You are able to persuade them from visiting the competitor and visit your business instead. This is a fantastic way to drive foot traffic to your business.
Immediate Impact: Geofences are a powerful tool for getting people to take action when they’re in the perfect location to do so. By sending out messages automatically as soon as someone crosses a geofence, businesses can capitalize on the fact that most people only take a few minutes to read messages after they receive them. This makes geofences an ideal way to get people to do something while they’re still in the same general area.
Increased Transparency in Measuring Campaign Success Rates: Marketers can use geofences to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns by combining advertising with data collection. For example, they can create advertising geofences to count how many people entered the areas where they are serving digital ads or were exposed to a physical advertisement (such as a billboard). Then they can create visit attribution geofences around the businesses they are advertising to measure how many people entered stores.
Increase Your Online Presence: In addition to creating targeted marketing campaigns, companies can also use geofence-based advertising to increase online customer engagement. By setting up geofences around their stores (or even just in strategic locations nearby), they can notify people who enter the area of where to find their website or social media accounts. This can prompt people to go online for more information, news, and even discounts from the company. Customers can also go on social media to ask questions or provide feedback, helping the company improve its products and services.
Future Outlook
When it comes to providing a satisfying digital marketing experience, one of the most important things you can do is cater your messaging to your audience’s real-time needs by offering discounts and promotions related to their physical location. By tailoring your call to action to consumers’ interests and needs, you’re much more likely to boost acquisition and retention rates, build loyalty, and increase affinity with your brand.
As AI develops more and the market continues to change, it will become increasingly important to be as personalized as possible in your messaging in order to stand out in a crowded marketplace. It is very easy to implement geofencing into your digital marketing strategy. The experts at Dealers Digital can help you determine your target audience and manage your cooperative advertising dollars while implementing geofencing as a part of your strategy. Want to learn more? Contact Us.
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Allocating Your Dealership’s Annual Marketing Budget
Once you have figured out how much you will spend for the year on Marketing, you must then decide how to allocate that budget across the many different channels available to you. With so many types of digital advertising to choose from, it can be a daunting task. Let’s take a look at some of the different advertising channels and what function they have in your marketing strategy.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is defined as any marketing strategy that takes place through digital means- usually through internet-connected devices. That is pretty broad. There are many tactics and methods you can use that all fall under the digital marketing umbrella. Let’s take a deeper look at these tactics and how to allocate your marketing budget.
7 Types of Digital Marketing
Search Engine Optimization: Also known as SEO, Search Engine Optimization is the process of making a website more visible and attractive to search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The goal is to increase the quality and quantity of traffic to a business’s website from these search engines. SEO begins with great content. Do keyword research and really dig in to creating content that your target audience wants to read. Search Engine Optimization is one of the most valuable marketing tools there is, but it does take a little time to gain momentum and show progress.
Pay-Per-Click:PPC ads are a great way to get people to your site who are more likely to convert into customers. PPC Ads are also known as search engine marketing. In fact, studies show that PPC visitors are 50% more likely to convert than organic traffic. If you’re looking for a way to get more leads for your business, PPC ads are an excellent option. PPC ads break down even further into search, display, responsive, retargeting (and more). These can get rather complicated, but you are able to target specific types of customers and reach customers at a stage in their buying journey that they are ready to convert. If you need immediate results, PPC Ads are probably for you.
Social Media Marketing: Social media marketing (SMM) (also known as digital marketing and e-marketing) is the use of social media—the platforms on which users build social networks and share information—to build a company’s brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. There are both paid and free options available to your business. Paid advertising on social media produces much quicker results than organic.
Content Marketing: Content marketing is a smart way to grow your business by attracting, engaging, and retaining an audience. You can do this by creating and sharing articles, videos, podcasts, and other types of content that is relevant to them. This approach establishes your brand as an expert in your industry, promotes awareness of your business, and keeps you top of mind when your audience is ready to buy. Content marketing refers to informational, valuable content like blog posts, how-to’s and other instructional material. This type of marketing helps you connect with your customers and answer questions or provide a solution to their issues. This can help to generate leads and close sales. Content marketing takes some time to develop, so you aren’t going to see immediate results.
Email Marketing: Email marketing is a powerful way to connect with your audience and promote your product or service. It can be used to announce new products or services, offer discounts or other promotions, educate your audience on the value of your brand, or keep them engaged between purchases. Email marketing can be customized to fit any need or budget, making it a versatile tool for any business.
Mobile Marketing: Mobile marketing is a type of marketing that aims to reach an audience of mobile users through smartphone applications, advertisements, and push notifications. Mobile marketing is the process of promoting your product or service on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. Mobile marketing can be done through mobile-optimized ads, push notifications and mobile apps. Reaching your audience through their mobile devices is a great way to connect with them and promote your product or service. The average person spends 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phone each day. 1 in 5 of these people use their mobile phone more than 4.5 hours a day. That’s an average of at least 24 ads per day per person being seen. You can reach a large amount of people no matter where they are.
Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing allows companies to effectively market a product with a low budget, low effort and time, and at a well-contained risk level while guaranteeing a high return on your investment, increase in brand awareness, and business growth. In the green industry, there aren’t quite so many influencer’s as in other industries. They may come at a higher cost, but you will be able to see directly how they are helping your sales by using special promo codes and offers.
How do I know which channels to use?
How many marketing channels should you be using for your business? The short answer is: as many as you can! The more practical answer depends on how much time and money you have to invest in your marketing strategy. While PPC and Social Media Paid ads can generate quick sales, they are more expensive and thus require more of an investment to upkeep. If you have the time (or money to hire an agency) I would recommend allocating a little bit of your budget across all or most of the channels discussed above. By utilizing multiple channels, you are giving yourself multiple ways to gain valuable leads, increase sales, build relationships and customer loyalty and increase brand awareness.
A good starting point would be to allocate a portion of your budget to each of the main marketing channels: paid advertising (both PPC and social media), SEO, social media marketing, and email marketing. By using a mix of these channels, you’ll be giving yourself the best chance to generate leads, sales, and brand awareness.
Not sure where to start? Contact Us today and we can help! Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with all the latest news!
We’ve all been there before. It’s the afternoon and you realize that you haven’t posted anything all day on your social channels. Or maybe you woke up to find that a competitor has posted something that completely stole your spotlight. Either way, you want to make sure that doesn’t happen again. After all, your business is only as good as your social media presence. But how should you create, distribute, and analyze your content?
As a consumer, you’re probably used to being bombarded with content from every angle – but as a small business, it’s important to make sure that your content stands out from the crowd. If you’re an outdoor power equipment dealership looking to increase your social media engagement and reach, there are a few things you can do to make sure your content is up to par. Keep reading to learn more about how you can improve your social media presence!
The Keys of Engagement
Tell A Story: People love stories that move them. It’s really easy to tell someone how great your brand or product is. People are tired of hearing it! Show your consumers how your product helps them solve a problem or issue in their life. Make your content more meaningful by telling stories to get your point across.
Be Relevant: Consumers want the content they consume to be relevant to them. This resonates whether the content is happy, sad, realistic or drives anger. People like Meme’s because it draws attention to the things that people think, but don’t usually say out loud. A few ways to be certain that your content is relevant is to speak to customer’s pain points, follow current trends, appeal to their emotions and sharing personal experiences or challenges with the subject. Another way to find engaging content ideas is to look at your competitor’s social media accounts. What posts perform well? Which perform poorly?
Promote User Generated Content: Create a social media challenge (or use a current trend) or contest to cultivate user generated content. Ask your customers to create content of them using the products or the way their lawn looks after using the lawnmower they bought from you.
Employee Focused Content: Allow your employees to share a glimpse of their work life and what it is like to work for your dealership. Have an employee create videos educating customers on specific products and their features. But don’t force your employees to participate. This will show through in the content that is created. Encourage the employees most passionate and comfortable with social media content creation to participate.
Share Customer Testimonials: Reviews and Reputation Management becomes increasingly important as we mover deeper into the digital era. 95% of Potential customers are researching brands and reading reviews before they even consider setting foot in your door. Sharing testimonials also helps you build trust with potential customers.
Share Content from other Brands/Authorities in the Green Industry: There are several applications that do a great job of showcasing products from the manufacturers that you carry. You can also share articles and posts from industry experts and share your thoughts. This will give your audience a bit of a break from your brand, so they don’t get overwhelmed by your content.
Create Behind the Scenes Content: Some consumers find it interesting how the process works. Sharing content of your staff unloading inventory into your showroom or getting the show room ready for the day can be an interesting way to showcase your business. Giving consumers a behind-the-scenes look of life behind the counter can also make your business more relatable and understandable.
Use Hashtags (Correctly): A hashtag (#) is used to index keywords and topics on social media channels. Essentially, the hashtags that you use will allow the platform to properly categorize and distribute your content in the various types of feeds. In short, Hashtags make your content more discoverable. You want to make sure that the hashtags that you use are relevant, popular and add understanding or context to your content. There are many free keyword research tools that you can use to find the most widely viewed hashtags for your topics. Most platforms will allow you to use up to 30 hashtags. Do so but do it wisely.
Frequently Asked Questions About Social Media Engagement
Why is Social Media engagement important?
Engagement is a ranking signal on all social media platforms. If people engage with your content, the algorithm will see that content as interesting and valuable, and surface it to more users. This means that social media engagement can help you grow your social accounts and reach more people. Engagement also helps to build relationships with potential and current customers, which can lead to more sales and conversions.
What is considered a “good” engagement rate?
Anything between 1-5% is considered “good”. You will want to look at your social media analytics and see what your historic engagement rate is, so that you will know when you have increased it.
How do I calculate my engagement rate?
You can calculate your social media engagement rate by dividing the number of public interactions with a post by the number of account followers and multiply it by 100. For Example, if your last post had 75 likes and your account has 300 followers- Your engagement rate would be 75/300 X 100 = 25%. Most social media platforms will calculate this for you in their analytics section.
Why should I care about my engagement rate?
Keep these insights in mind as you fine-tune your strategy to reflect your target market’s taste, interests, and expectations more accurately.
Keep it Consistent
There’s a myth that creating great content takes a lot of money and it is time consuming. It doesn’t have to be. When used correctly and in unison with other strategies, you will have more time for other areas of your business that need your attention. When you increase your engagement, you will also increase your leads and ultimately, sales. Your customer retention and loyalty will also increase. The most certain way to increase your social media engagement is to be consistent with your posts. Your followers will come to expect to see your content, so you need to make sure that you have a steady flow of great content in que.
Don’t have the time for content creation and posting on social media? We can help! Contact Us Today and let’s talk about how we can help you grow your business! Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with all the latest news!
Local search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your online presence to increase local traffic, visibility and brand awareness. Unlike traditional SEO which focus on ranking for keywords and phrases for a search term, local SEO focuses on ranking for city, state, region or local area keywords and phrases. These keywords and phrases are commonly searched when consumers are looking for local businesses on the internet.
Local SEO focuses on optimizing your business’ presence on the web so more and more people in your local area will be able to find you. It is also about making sure that your online content presents your business in the best light and makes it easy for local people and businesses to engage with you. When done properly local SEO can be a great way to reach out to more local customers.
What Does Local Search Look Like?
Local Search Results look a little different than regular search results. This is also sometimes referred to as the local pack, or the map pack when you are looking at your search rankings. When it comes to local search rankings, things like proximity matter. With 72% of consumers that perform a local search visiting a store within 5 miles of their current location, it is easy to see why you want to be easily found online.
How does Local Search Work?
When it comes to local searches, there are a few more layers in top of the regular algorithm. These are used to help the searcher find the best match for their query. 18% of local mobile searches lead to a sale within one day. With billions of search queries being entered every day, that’s a lot of sales!
Relevance: How closely related is the result to the words used when the searcher entered their query.
Distance: How far Google believes the searcher physically is when they perform the search.
Prominence: How important Google believes one business is over another similar business.
With that, you get 2 types of results for local searches. The local pack (which consists of Google Maps & Business Profiles) and Organic Results. One thing to remember, is that a user does not have to specifically imply locality, for Google to display local search results. Sometimes, Google believes that the locality is implied.
Where to locate Keywords for Local SEO
Local keyword research is essential for any business that wants to improve rank in search engines for local products or services. Targeting these keywords will result in more local traffic to your site and, ultimately, more customers.
To get started, you’ll need a short list of keywords that people can use to find your local business. Once you have your list, you can begin optimizing your website for those keywords to improve your chances of ranking in the search engines.
Check out your Competitor: One way to find keywords is to analyze the keywords that your competitors are ranking for, and work to gain some of that traffic. If your business is targeting the same keywords as your competitors, then you’re likely on the right track. These keywords are relevant to your business and will help you reach your target audience. You can add any new keywords you discover as you move through the different strategies.
Use Google Autocomplete: Utilize a variety of different local keywords and terms to see what works best for you and your business. With some trial and error, you’ll have a comprehensive list of keywords that will help bring local customers through your door. Google will automatically show you the most searched keywords for your given topic based on your location.
Optimize your Dealership for local SEO
Google Business Profile Optimization: is an important piece of the Local SEO puzzle. If you are not regularly updating and refreshing the information you provide Google, how do you expect to show up on Google Search. As previously mentioned, businesses with a GBP get preference when it comes to local search results. If you want to learn more about optimizing your Google Business Profile, read more here.
NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) Citations: It is important that your basic NAP (Name, Address and Phone Number) remain consistent and correct across the internet. Inconsistent Data can confuse Google and cause you to rank lower in the Search Engine Results Page. Submit your information to popular directories in your local area and industry as well as Google, Bing, Yelp and other popular business listing management services.
Online Reviews: It is important to manage and respond to businesses reviews that you receive online. This is part of brand reputation management. A lot of consumers use a businesses reviews (or lack therof) during the consideration stage of the sales funnel. Having a large amount of good reviews helps build credibility and gives you brand equity.
On-Page SEO: The rise in online shopping has led to a rise in search engines for local businesses and services. Though “local SEO” can be intimidating, there are some simple techniques and tips any company can use to succeed. When you are optimizing your website for local search, the most important thing to remember is to make sure your site is both relevant and detailed to your business. Whenever you’re listing your business address, make sure you have the correct address and use the city, state and zip code. Some people make the mistake of putting their address in their phone directory, but you may only be getting visitors from your area which means that you won’t get as many visitors as you could be getting.
Backlinks: Having a backlink strategy is crucial to any online marketing campaign. A backlink strategy is a specific blueprint used to manage the number and type of backlinks you are obtaining from sources that point to your website. Having a good backlink strategy will help you in the long run build an online reputation, increase your online presence, draw in more potential customers and generate more revenue.
Just One Piece of the Puzzle
There are a lot of pieces to each part of the marketing puzzle. By optimizing for your dealership, one channel at a time, it’s certain you will see an increase in sales. Are you too busy running your dealership to handle your search engine optimization, local or otherwise? We can help! Contact us for more information on how we can help direct traffic to your store! Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with all the latest news!
Supercharge Your Dealership’s Email Marketing Strategy
Email Marketing can be daunting! What strategy to use, how to format it. Where to find and how to build your email list. Where to come up with content, the list goes on and on. Although it may be a little scary, email marketing is one of the best ways to connect with and build relationships with customers as well as push them through the marketing funnel. It is key to have a strong strategy in place or you can waste a lot of time creating content that people wont open or not have subscribers to send your emails to.
What Makes Email Marketing Worth the Time and Effort?
Think about how many emails you read and send in a day? Chances are, it’s more than one. There are more than 4 billion daily email users. That is a lot of emails! On average, email has an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent – higher than any other channel. With 50% of people buy from marketing emails at least once per month. So, if you’re not using email to market your business, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity!
Components of an Explosive Email Strategy
It is important that you follow a process rather than just skipping ahead to creating content to ensure that you hit all your marks and create a successful strategy.
Set Goals and Success Metrics: You will need to create goals for what you are trying to accomplish with your email marketing strategy. Use SMART goals. SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time sensitive. An example of a SMART goal is; By the end of the quarter, you want a 5% higher click-through rate on your emails. It is also important to decide which metrics you will use to determine success or failure. In the example above, your click through rate would be your Key Performance Indicator or Metric.
Target Market Research: You will need to research your target audience. You want to gain as much information as you can about them. The more you know the better you will be able to understand your target audience, and ultimately, create the type of content they will care about.
Review Previous Years End of Year Data: Using insights from this data, you can figure out which are your most effective email tactics. Your year end data will also show where your customers were engaged across all channels. By taking a look at the whole picture, you can keep yourself from having to start from scratch, or make the same mistakes.
Segment Your List: This is a vital part of a winning email marketing campaign. This is where you start personalizing based on each clients need. Segments allow you to send more personalized messages, and you meet your customers at different points along their journey. This can increase your open rate, help you to become more authoritative and improve your lead nurturing efforts.
Start with Federal Holidays and Important Business Dates: For each of your key dates, you will need to decide how far in advance you need to start marketing for it. This will give you a good start and make sure that you are hitting important events your customer’s lives.
Grow Your Email List
A growth plan for your email marketing is essential to success. Growing your email list allows you to have a greater reach with your marketing efforts. There are many ways to grow your email list. For example, you can offer an incentive for signing up for your emails, like a coupon or access to exclusive content. This will motivate people to give you their email address because they will be getting something valuable in return.
A well-designed landing page on your website that is dedicated to driving email signups is a great way to increase your list. You can use social media platforms and PPC ads to boost traffic to your signup page. Another variation of this is to add a pop-up to your website. This way, when a customer is browsing your site, the pop-up will appear and request their email. They must then interact with the box to remove it, which in turn can help motivate people to sign up for your email list!
Create Killer Content
The last thing that you want to do is over promise and under deliver. You must provide content that your subscribers want to see, or they won’t be your subscribers for long! Utilizing your target market research, you know more about what your customers like and do, so you can create your content, centered on what your ideal audience cares about.
It is also extremely important to be consistent. Your audience will get used to seeing your dealership’s name and logo. This helps to keep you top of mind when your audience needs a product or service you offer and increases the likelihood they will use your dealership.
Choose a Platform That Best Suits Your Needs
There are many email marketing platforms out there, as well as many all in one marketing platforms as well. A few favorites are MailChimp, Constant Contact and DealerAmp.
Mailchimp– with both free and paid options. Mailchimp gives insights into ways to get more opens, clicks and sales. The free option allows use of free email templates and is relatively user friendly.
Constant Contact– They offer a free trial, however there is not a usable free option after the free trial. There base plan starts at$9.99 a month and includes email templates. Sign-up forms and Posting to social media. Constant contact is a little more user friendly, but that does come at a price.
DealerAmp– is built specifically for Outdoor Power Equipment Dealerships. It is a one stop marketing automation and messaging platform that takes your dealership marketing to the next level. DealerAmp manages your dealership’s follow up, two-way texting, sales pipeline, scheduling, social media, email marketing, and so much more. This software is packed with features specific to the green industry and will replace all your current marketing tools with just one platform. Schedule a Demo to learn more!
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Recession Proof your Dealership with These 5 Tips!
There has been a lot of discussion about a recession being on the horizon, and with inflation rates at an all-time high, it’s understandable to be worried. Recessions can be devastating, and many businesses never recover from the financial loss. So how can you make sure that your business makes it, regardless of the state of the economy?
Lead by Example
As the leaders within your organization, you can stabilize your work environment and maintain health and balance within the workplace. You do this by leading by example. Show your employees that you are all on one team. And lastly, cut costs where you can but don’t sacrifice quality or your employees’ livelihoods. Your morale will be easier to maintain, and you will have a greater capability of responding to crisis. People want to do business with those they know, like and trust. By ensuring customer excellence is achieved in all interactions, you increase the likelihood of creating a loyal customer. Trust becomes even more important at economic downturns occur.
Targeted Marketing
Promoting your business during an economic recession might seem counterintuitive, but it’s actually essential to surviving tough times. To be successful, you’ll need to be tactical in your approach. The best way to reach your customers is by meeting them where they are – whether that’s online, in-person, or through word-of-mouth. Hyper targeted marketing is a low-cost way to reach your consumers. A few ways to utilize targeted marketing are listed below:
Content: Good content is essential for SEO success, and it’s also key to attracting organic traffic to your website. When creating content, make sure it’s high-quality and targeted to your audience. Relevant content will not only help you rank higher in search engines, but it will also attract more organic traffic to your website.
Social Media: While, like most things, you can spend money on social media. It is not necessary. You can achieve the basics of social media without spending a cent. When it comes to social media, you get what you put in.
SEO: SEO has the highest potential for value per dollar of any other marketing effort. The successes of good SEO will stick with your site, long after you stop paying for services. No matter how long you have been in business, your website can always benefit from an SEO update. SEO is a crucial part of being seen by your customers.
User Experience & Website Design: Existing in the digital world is an essential part of being a business today. The success (or failure) of your online efforts can often be determined by the appearance and usefulness of your site.
Stay Ahead of the Curve
Talk to your partners and suppliers now. Do not be surprised by supply chain or staffing shortages. Be aware of trends for your industry and allow yourself to anticipate not only business needs but also the needs of your ideal customers. There is a good chance that other companies in your industry are dealing with the same obstacles, so communication with suppliers and customers is not only crucial but can be game changing. You want everyone on your team to be on the same page. This can help you to identify pitfalls before they even happen.
Think Twice About Big Investments
It becomes even more important to manage your cash flow when you are in the throes of a recession. Looking at your finances and projections can help you anticipate where cash flow might get a little tight so you can prepare solutions and adjust ahead of time. Do everything you can now to evaluate your operations and trim the fat to strengthen your cash position prior to entering into a recession.
Stay on Top of Accounts Receivables
During a recession, everyone struggles financially. Your customers may start paying more slowly and you may have a more difficult time collecting receivables. Evaluate your customers paying habits and make adjustments now, to save you lots of time and headaches later. Stay on top of collections. Offer additional ways for clients to pay: such as, electronic payments. You can also stop working with clients who are reluctant to pay or stop extending credit if your cash flow can’t withstand it.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
There is nothing you can do to control the economy. It is important to focus your attention on what you can control, and that is how you run your business! A recession will bring countless struggles and challenges for your company. Knowing your numbers and leaning into smart changes will help you to lead your company with a fearless growth mindset and allow you to overcome and emerge a leader in your industry.
If you find that you don’t have the time or expertise to handle your dealership’s marketing, we can help! Dealers Digital has a proven track record of helping Outdoor Power Equipment Dealerships maximize their online reach. With over 20 years of digital marketing experience, we know your market and we know how to reach your customers! Contact Us for more information about how we can help your Dealership turn those clicks into cash!
8 Tips to Optimize Your Dealerships Google Business Profile
What is a Google Business Profile?
A Google Business Profile helps your dealership get found online. According to Google, “with a Business Profile, you can manage how your local business shows up across Google products, like Maps and Search. If you run a business that serves customers at a particular location, or you serve customers within a designated service area, your Business Profile can help people find you. Verified businesses on Google are twice as likely to be considered reputable.”
With Google boasting 92% of the world’s search traffic, it’s easy to see why it is important to optimize your Google Business Profile.
Benefits of Creating & Maintaining Your Google Business Profile
With a Google Business Profile you can maintain accurate information about your business online, interact with your customers, and attract new customers. When your dealership shows up at the top of the search results page; it is much easier to make a positive and professional impression, which will result in a higher CTR, or click-through rate on your website.
An active Google Business account is a powerful tool that can help you improve your website’s ranking in Google search results. Your Google Business Profile is the first thing a lot of internet users see, and sometimes, the only thing they see. It is important to make sure that Google can find you and that it has the right information.
It’s important to remember that potential customers will be comparing you to your competitors. That’s why it’s essential to have a complete and optimized listing. By making a good first impression, you’ll increase your chances of converting those users into customers.
Google Business Profile Optimization
Key Elements to Optimize:
Use your actual business name. Stuffing your listing with too many keywords is not only against Google’s Terms of Service, but it can also result in your listing being penalized.
List a local phone number. If you want to rank high in local search results, it’s important to have a legitimate local phone number. If you’re using a call tracking number, make sure to enter the tracking number in the primary slot. This is the number that will show up to users. Put your actual local number in the secondary slot.
Make sure your hours of operation are correct.
Write a compelling description. Make sure your business description includes information about who you are as a company and what you stand for. You don’t want to stuff this section with random keywords just to try and boost your ranking in searches – that won’t work. The description on your GBP won’t affect your ranking, but it will give potential customers and partners a good idea of what you’re all about.
Upload lots of high-resolution photos. This includes exterior, interior, and product shots. This will help the customer feel more familiar and comfortable should they visit in person.
Upload videos, if you have them. Videos must be 30 seconds or shorter and smaller than 100 MB.
Be Consistent. One of the most important aspects of digital marketing is staying consistent. You must post and update regularly to stay front of mind with your ideal customers and to remain an authority in the Outdoor Power Equipment world.
Get reviews from happy customers. A large ranking factor for Google is customer reviews. Businesses that have more reviews tend to seem more credible and reliable to consumers. Asking for review should be ingrained into your sales process. Why? 71% of consumers will leave a review, if asked. This is why it is important to have a strong brand reputation management strategy in place as part of your overall marketing objectives.
This Seems Like a Lot of Work – Is it Worth it?
A solid marketing strategy includes social media, brand reputation management, business listing management, dealership SEO, plus many Outdoor Power Equipment Dealerships also employ paid advertising in the form of Pay-Per-Click Advertising, Display Advertising and many other digital advertising strategies. With so many options, it can be daunting! At Dealers Digital we know what it takes to maximize your online exposure and boost your sales! Our focus is on the Green Industry. We know your market, we know your customers, and we know how to reach them. Whether you are looking for a do-it-yourself platform, (Here’s looking at you DealerAmp), or want someone to handle all of your marketing needs, we have a solution for you! Contact Us to start the conversation about upping your marketing game!
The Mystery of Lawnmower & Tractor Dealership Search Engine Ranking
Search Engine Factors for Google
What is a Search Engine?
A search engine is an application designed to search for information on the internet. Google, Bing and Yahoo are examples of search engines. A search engine will look for information and index it based on what it finds. It will also assign each page a PageRank score. PageRank is a score that Google assigns to each page. The PageRank is based on the number and quality of other sites that link to the page and the importance of the sites that are linking to it.
It is key to understand how search engines work to fully understand how to optimize for them.
The search algorithms used by Google and other search engines are large collections of other algorithms and formulas, each with its own purpose and task. These algorithms work together to produce results that a user will be satisfied with.
In fact, there are algorithms in place specifically to monitor the satisfaction of users with the results they get, and to make adjustments where necessary.
Paid Search Results
Organic VS Paid Search Engine Result Page
Organic search results are not a means of generating revenue for search engines like Google, but they do have other powerful uses. If there were no organic search results, paid search results would become less relevant, reducing views and clicks in the process. While organic listings may not generate revenue for Google directly, they do indirectly contribute to the company’s bottom line by keeping users engaged with the search engine.
Why does this matter? The layout changes, existence of search features and click through rates of organic results are all driven by this. By displaying a featured snippet, Google allows users to find answers to their questions without having to leave the site. For commercial intent questions, Google adds an additional paid search result. This is due to these driving factors.
Search Engine Optimization is the process of making your site more visible to search engines and ultimately, customers. By doing everything you can to be visible, you can increase the amount of visitors to your website. This leads to increased sales for your dealership.
How do search engines rank pages?
Before we think about how, lets think about why. It would be a lot cheaper and easier for search engines to display pages randomly, by word count, freshness or any other variable or easier sorting systems. They don’t do this because no one would want to use the search engine if they did it this way.
First, search engines classify the query that is coming in. This gives the engine the necessary information to perform the rest of the steps. For example, is the query local, a question, etc.
The next step is context. This is where the search engine relies on any relevant information they have on the user entering the query. This could be the location of the search or many other factors. This is where historical and environmental data comes into play.
The search engine then weighs different factors in importance relevant to the query. (Authority, how recently it was published, etc.) The layout of the page is then created based on the context gathered. What is important to remember here, without getting too technical, is that the different elements of any given search results page are determined almost instantly.
Finally, ranking can take place. After all the information is gathered and analyzed, the search engine can rank sites based on the criteria determined in the previous steps. This is an extremely simplified version of how search engines work- machine learning is also a huge part of Google and search engines as well. For more information about how search engines work, check out this guide from Search Engine Journal.
With so many factors at play- how will I ever get my site to rank?
You can use the machine learning systems of the search engines to assist in your content development strategies. With Devices and technology changing rapidly, keeping up with what is happening with search engines can give you clues to how your consumer interacts with content and what types of content they expect.
Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO, is the process of optimizing a website for search engines. This has become more important than ever for small businesses who aren’t able to spend millions of dollars on advertising. Ranking at the top of search engines is what will get your business noticed.
Google Search Engine Results
A Few Tips to Help Your Rankings
NAP: Make Sure that your Name, Address, and Phone Number are correct across all listings. When this information remains uniform, it tells the search engine that this is the correct information. Make sure you spell your name the exact same way across Facebook, Google, LinkedIn or other social media as well as business listings such as Yelp and the Yellow Pages.
Backlinks: Pages with more backlinks tend to rank higher than those with fewer backlinks. A backlink is a link from another website to your site. You should always work to add more of these to your site. A simple way to do that is to sign up for all the free listings you can, Yelp, Google My Business, Bing, Yahoo, Yellow Pages, and any other niche/service pages to which your services are used. Links from more authoritative sites are also weighed more heavily than from lesser sites. There are multiple strategies you can employ to help add backlinks. Link building campaigns focus on gaining high authority links back to your website.
Good Quality Content: Google wants to rank sites that are worth ranking. Having a customer first mindset when creating content versus stuffing for keywords will get you much further. Consistently providing well written, quality content, will help your overall ranking on your page.
Mobile Friendly: Since most people search the internet via their phones these days, its no surprise that mobile friendliness is a ranking factor for search engines. This part can get a little technical, so it may be advised to use a professional for this. The main goal is to ensure a smooth experience regardless of where the web page is being used.
There are many other ranking factors and the ranking factors can vary from search engine to search engine. If you keep the basic idea in mind that you are creating content that will be useful for your target audience, it is relatively easy to employ some of the basic SEO principles.
You don’t have to know it all! Your customers are looking for you online. Give them what they want and make it easy for them to find you. Let Dealers Digital help you maximize your online exposure and boost your sales.
The Importance of Social Media Marketing
