Auto Dealers Meet Facebook. Facebook Wins.

Great comments Dien.

Many people like to see pictures of themselves so I've found that when I can tag people it helps. It also gets your post into the news feed of the friends of people you tagged.

Here is a personal example, my stepdaughter is competing in the June 2015 Miss SC Teen Pageant. Here is her facebook page for that venture:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Linds...506307?fref=ts

We don't have anything to sell but we are looking for exposure so I consider someone liking the page as a conversion. When we post more than just pics of Lindsey (friends or other contestants) and can tag those people then we are increasing our reach. It really seems to work but of course we are not selling a traditional product.

It is a good learning experience for me.

Rob Yaggie

Dien and Rob, I like your ideas, also remember the article
did say that paid ads DID work, but that part is way down
in the article. One dealer was very successful using
facebooks ads I believe he said he cut his social media
marketing costs from $500 a month to $90 a month by
using paid ads.
Think about that from our point of view. Suppose we spent
$90 a month on facebook ads and sold the leads to car
dealers?

Trevor

Yes Trevor I caught that in the article and I intend to give paid facebook ads a whirl so I can learn about them.

I think you have to be careful but they seem to have a great platform that starts with custom audiences (that is what really interests me).

Let me use Dien's example for how I would approach it
1) Have the burger contest... it is your widget to advertise/promote
2) Do everything you can at the time the customer is with you to get them to be your friend on facebook (you need that to tag them).
3) Tag the person in your picture post
4) Here is the magic... since you are friends with them, you can see the facebook user ids of anyone that has liked or commented on things on their page.... gather those ids.
5) Post a facebook ad with a custom audience of the ids you gathered and also add geographical restrictions (you really just want to reach the subset close enough to drive to the restaurant). The ad text would be personal to this audience... "Did Adam Jones have what it takes to conquer <<whatever>> ... Do you? Click like and view the messy pics"
6) I would just leave the initial photo ad up for a limited time but maybe switch to a similar ad later for this custom audience. Then maybe pause for a bit and then maybe turn on a 'throwback style' ad referencing the original person.

This is a very low volume but very targeted systematic approach. Also very cheap. The roadblock (i.e. opportunity) is that in order to make it worth the time you would probably need to automate the gathering of ids and ad creation. That could be done (probably against terms of service but again low volume so I wouldn't worry about that myself). The exposure should be trackable as well.

Just a few ideas bouncing around in my head.

Rob Yaggie

Hey Rob,
looks like you are pretty experienced at this, interesting campaign
ideas you have mapped out. If you try this out, I think you could
make some bucks with it. As Alex Becker points out it is tough
to sell SEO, or websites or facebook pages to businesses, they
don't see the benefits. But businesses DO understand LEADS and
will pay for them.

Originally Posted by Rob Yaggie

Yes Trevor I caught that in the article and I intend to give paid facebook ads a whirl so I can learn about them.

I think you have to be careful but they seem to have a great platform that starts with custom audiences (that is what really interests me).

Let me use Dien's example for how I would approach it
1) Have the burger contest... it is your widget to advertise/promote
2) Do everything you can at the time the customer is with you to get them to be your friend on facebook (you need that to tag them).
3) Tag the person in your picture post
4) Here is the magic... since you are friends with them, you can see the facebook user ids of anyone that has liked or commented on things on their page.... gather those ids.
5) Post a facebook ad with a custom audience of the ids you gathered and also add geographical restrictions (you really just want to reach the subset close enough to drive to the restaurant). The ad text would be personal to this audience... "Did Adam Jones have what it takes to conquer <<whatever>> ... Do you? Click like and view the messy pics"
6) I would just leave the initial photo ad up for a limited time but maybe switch to a similar ad later for this custom audience. Then maybe pause for a bit and then maybe turn on a 'throwback style' ad referencing the original person.

This is a very low volume but very targeted systematic approach. Also very cheap. The roadblock (i.e. opportunity) is that in order to make it worth the time you would probably need to automate the gathering of ids and ad creation. That could be done (probably against terms of service but again low volume so I wouldn't worry about that myself). The exposure should be trackable as well.

Just a few ideas bouncing around in my head.

Rob Yaggie

Some yrs ago I made Good Money from Car Dealers providing "Calendar Magnets" to Car Buyers (see Photo below)

I had a person at each Dealership take photos of the New Car Buyers standing next to their purchase and send them to me where I'd create a "Magnetic Photo-Calendar" and deliver to the Dealership....who'd then give them to their New Car Buyers as a "GIFT" from the Dealership.

The Car Buyers would place these mags on their fridges for 2 reasons:

1) a year long Calendar
2) a Photo they could Proudly show to friends & relatives

Car Dealers had 2 reasons to pay me for these

1) every person entering the Car Buyers kitchens would SEE the Dealer's Name
2) when Car Buyers came back to the Dealership to pick up their "Gift" the sales person would ask for Referrals

So.....THIS could STILL be offered to Car Dealers (I was getting $30 per mag. Nowadays (IMO) you could get $50ea x 80 cars sold a month = $4,000 A MONTH from each Dealer.

Plus......you could offer a FaceBook Page or a separate website to place the Photos. I made a 4ft by 6ft wood frame on which I'd place photos and mount the frame on a wall in the lobbies.

Don Alm

Cool idea Don, I like the photo!
There are no end to the services you can offer car dealers,
They have a lot of money to spend too.
I remember reading about one guy who approached
a dealer with a pamphlet some kind of legal/accident
booklet that his customers could get if they purchased
a car. The dealer was a nice guy (A car dealer imagine!)
He told him the price was too low and ordered copies for
whole dealership and introduced him to other dealers.
The guy made thousands from a pamplet he made himself.

Trevor

Originally Posted by Don Alm

Some yrs ago I made Good Money from Car Dealers providing "Calendar Magnets" to Car Buyers (see Photo below)

I had a person at each Dealership take photos of the New Car Buyers standing next to their purchase and send them to me where I'd create a "Magnetic Photo-Calendar" and deliver to the Dealership....who'd then give them to their New Car Buyers as a "GIFT" from the Dealership.

The Car Buyers would place these mags on their fridges for 2 reasons:

1) a year long Calendar
2) a Photo they could Proudly show to friends & relatives

Car Dealers had 2 reasons to pay me for these

1) every person entering the Car Buyers kitchens would SEE the Dealer's Name
2) when Car Buyers came back to the Dealership to pick up their "Gift" the sales person would ask for Referrals

So.....THIS could STILL be offered to Car Dealers (I was getting $30 per mag. Nowadays (IMO) you could get $50ea x 80 cars sold a month = $4,000 A MONTH from each Dealer.

Plus......you could offer a FaceBook Page or a separate website to place the Photos. I made a 4ft by 6ft wood frame on which I'd place photos and mount the frame on a wall in the lobbies.

Don Alm

Yup......another guy made a booklet for Attorneys (What To Do In Case of an Accident) that they gave to their clients.

Attorneys got the booklet for freebies AND.....the guy sold Ads to local biznesses.

Don Alm

From my experience -- a few years ago -- all the major dealerships, like Ford, Chev, etc. are similar to franchises and the corporate office (10 years ago) looked after all of the Internet marketing including websites. They (the franchises) were all charged outrageous fees for this service, but it was written into their contract, and there wasn't anything they could do about it.

There was money to be made servicing small independent used car dealers, but most of the people who had these type of lots, were people who retired early from their jobs to run their own business, so they were well up there in age, and technically challenged. Even if you setup a Wordpress website for them with a plugin that made it easy to add new cars themselves, the task would be over-whelming to a lot of them.

Still, the fact remains, that more people 50 and under, will do a search online quicker than they would ever drive around town and visit used car lots. So these dealers would be smart to hire someone young who is technically savvy, and most of the people between 15-30 are a lot more web savvy about websites, social media and getting followers that you might think. So the used car lot owner could give a son, daughter, niece, etc. a part-time job to give them a hand with all of this stuff.

It's isn't ALL about advertising. If you're going to use FB and Twitter to promote your business, you need to also think far enough ahead to make it entertaining and engaging. No one is going to like your page or follow you on Twitter if the only posts are all sales related.

For example (this isn't car sales) while my daughter is attending college, besides having a waitress job, she also has another part-time job as a social media manager for a retired cop who is now running a consulting business. She is familiar with Wordpress -- had her own blog since she was 15.

So young people going to college needing flexible work hours and jobs... are really a perfect match for used car dealers. And if you were organizing all of this... one might make a good dollar or two.

If you remember Cal Worthington and his dog spot, you know the value of making your advertising interesting. I would imagine a video knock off today would get quite a bit of attention.

If you don't remember Cal, go see Cal, go see Cal. If you google him you'll know what I mean.

Just my 2¢...

Excuse me for "again" busting in on a thread but.....I Ben Dere.....Done Dat and I'd like to toss in something I've done that might inspire or motivate someone else.

WHAT is "IT"?

Back in da good Old Days.....as a Marketing Sales Guy I'd "hang around" my client Dealerships after selling then a "Photo Magnet Calendar" program or something else (Auto Dealerships were BIG BUX and little ol' ME had an "IN" with them .....and......I'd overhear conversations about OTHER "Marketing Problems".

One conversation that "Hit My HOT Button" was when a GM was talking with the Owner of the Dealership. They were "wondering" what they could do to "Get Some Referrals"......someway for their car buyers to be "Motivated" to REFER OTHERS to THEIR Dealership!

So.....I went back to my "Man-Cave"....cranked up my PC put together a "MAILING PIECE" ...."Follow-Up" program I had done for a different Niche and.....modified it for Auto Dealers and....WHALA!.....came up with something the GM Liked and the Owner BOUGHT! (See Photo Below....Note: you are gettin this FREE! I used to charge a pretty penny to even SEE this Photo)

SO.....after listening to what the 2 Top Dogs were talking about (Understand something here.....the MAIN reason why I've been able to Create & Sell so many different PROFITABLE Programs was because of 2 Reasons;
1) I LIKE people, I'm interested in HELPING people enjoy a better life
2) I love being , ON the "Field-Of-Battle....I LOVE meeting people....."Belly-To-Belly", especially Business Owners (because I started my first biz from scratch with a worried wifee and 2 babies and turned it into a success)

So.....I found out when the Owner of the Dealership was coming in the next day....I asked 3 questions;
1) What Time does he usually come in,
2) Where's he park and
3) What Color is his car

So......it took me 3 Tries to find the Owner's car parked in HIS Space so finally ....there he was.....I quickly parked.....and went in and told his "rejectionist" I'd like 90 seconds of his time to see MY Answer to "Getting More Referrals"!

I "emphasized" the word "Referrals"!

SO......the 'boss" came out of his office and "Spurted Out"; "OK! Whatcha got!"

I was sort of shocked that he didn't even invite me into his office HOWEVER, I understood that he was usually BomBarded with Sales people bidding for his time......so.....I whipped out my Sheet (Photo Below) and proceeded to explain HOW MY....."Follow-Up" program could bring in MORE Referrals and SELL MORE CARS for him!

Holy Camoly! It was like the guy came "UN-Glued" from his previous stance of "I'm King and ya better show ME why I should spend the next few seconds with YOU!"

He...."mellowed out" after he took a look at my "Thingee" and suddenly realized; "Hey! THIS looks GOOD and could possibly help us get More Referrals so....I better invite this guy intto my office!"

Anyways.....I SOLD my "Follow-Up" program to this dealership AND..... because of HIS participation....I was able to Sell Many more Dealerships.

So.....thanks for letting me Post this. Maybe it will benefit someone.

Don Alm

Note: This post WITH Photo.....might appear "mundane" or "Irrelovent" to your making money efforts HOWEVER.....this "little One Page Document".....along with MY Sales Expertise and Program..... was able to get 16.....I repeat SIXTEEN.....prominent Auto Dealers to Pay ME an average of 80 Car Sales a Month x $20 per Car Sale = $1,600 A MONTH from EACH of my 16 DEALERS!!!!!!!! For a "FOLLOW-UP" Program that brought THEM.....MANY Referrals and MORE ...RETURN ON INVESTMENT.....than anything they've ever done!!!

16 Car Dealers Paying ME $1,600 A MONTH.... EACH ..... = 16 x $1,600 = TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS A MONTH!

"IT".....IS OUT THERE! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS......GO GET IT!

Don Alm......Go-Getter from way back