Socially Responsible Advertising- A New Spin?

2008 is the "Year of Change" according to just about every political analyst and CNN headline, so how are you going to change your marketing strategy for this year? Are you going to finally break into the blogosphere? Maybe try a little Facebook action? Or are you looking for something new and cutting edge such as Video Ads on Youtube?

No matter what your new medium is perhaps its time to fully embrace socially responsible Advertising - or advertising specials that not only benefit the customers you are trying to bring in to your dealership but the world as a whole. Social networking made great leaps last year in unifying the world as one large global community and companies like Apple and Hallmark have not only embraced the idea of socially responsible advertising but they have made it pretty darn cool.


Companies who embrace major fund raising events is not a new idea, after all we were all right there when Oprah when shopping for the first (Product Red) Ipod and have sat through countless Jerry's Kids telethons. With the majority of new car being purchased by younger, more socially conscious people, especially women, these sales tactics (when deployed properly) are having a powerful impact on sales figures.

For instance one dealership that I know of ran a special all last year that for every new car that was sold of a particular make and model (that they usually have trouble moving in their area) they would write a check for 1% of the sale price to the local orphanage. They included this message at the end of every radio, tv and newspaper ad as well as having a huge sign out in front of their store. The results were pretty impressive, they 8 sold more of that particular type of vehicle then they had the year before. While 8 car sales doesn't seem to be a huge deal in the grand scheme of things that is still a nice boost. What if they had run that special on all new cars? Or run it at the same time they ran an ad offering to send 100.00 to Green Peace for each used car they sold?

Have you ever tried a sale like this? Was it successful? Do you have plans like this for 2008?

2008 Predictions For Auto Dealerships

Happy New Years!

Let's kick this year off right with a few goals, a few predictions and whole lot of fun. I am now fully back from a fantastic holiday vacation in my not so exotic living room and I am ready to get us started on our next Journey.

First let's start with with an update. As some of you probably already know I have entered the Myspace/Facebook, Stumble Frey. So far my only friends are a dealership and Barbara Walters.. I am not sure what that really says about me but I am afraid to explore it to deeply lol. In that vein my goals this year are pretty simple:

A. Master Twitter
B. Post at least once a week even if it's just an update on new models you should be including in your SEO/SEM campaigns.
C. Share my pitfalls in the worlds of Myspace/Facebook/SEM
D. Keep you up to date on all the fun new ways to increase your websites traffic and help you sell cars.

What do I see as being hot this year?

Video Media will be huge in 2008. The most successful video marketing strategies will combine catchy ads with Americas Funnies Home Videos for an "organic" feel with mass appeal. This is the year to really showcase your dealerships "personality". An effective video marketing strategy combined with Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and blogging will really help to take your online presence to the next level.

I also think that mobile media is going to start playing a more important role in SEM/SEO website designs especially if Google wins their with the FCC and releases Android.

This is shaping up to be an exciting year in SEM/SEO but all work and no play makes Jane a dull girl so check out Code Monkey if you haven't yet.There is also a World of Warcraft Video that is wicked funny. I think I will go buy my husband one of the T-shirts (he is a code monkey too) for all his help in QA'ing my blog posts.

To Flash Or Not To Flash - Answers For Your Dealership

The short answer is no flash, or at least very little flash. For me, the perfect ratio of text to images/flash files on a site is 10/1 (10 lines of keywords and contact information per flash file or image). That is not a hard and fast number, just a ball park figure to help ensure that both human and electronic visitors get the information they need.

Danny Sullivan who is the Editor in Chief of Search Engine Land makes a great point that flash heavy sites will never do well in SERPS (search engine results page). Why? Because bots don't have eyes. Flash and even jpgs were created for the human experience, and while that is great for us, it is a huge stumbling block when you are relying on a piece of software to get your website in front of millions of people.

Just in case you would like some other reading material:

Search Engine Tattler
Success Works
Edevmachine






Happy Holidays!