The Ford SYNC system is handy when paired with a bluetooth device like an iPhone. Though most of the features promised are nice in theory, after driving and playing around with it I think Ford can do better. The system is on the right track, but if they really want to blow out the competition then they’d better step it up because this could seriously influence and lure people into Ford products if they do so.

I rented a Ford Fusion while on my latest trip to Detroit and I was fairly impressed that I could play music from my iPhone on the car stereo and take phone calls through the car’s audio system.

But I want more, and I think Ford will need to look to folks like Robert Scoble and design systems that guys like him need. Sure, they’re a bit ahead of the curve, but the gaps are closing fast and as people look to gain efficiency and time saving practices through technology they’re more than willing to pay a premium to do so (Apple’s iPhone is proof of that).

I’m certain that tons of applications could be built if Ford jumped at the opportunity and launched an app store. Productivity and small business apps would be extremely popular. If you think of traveling in a vehicle like you do surfing the web, Ford could build the next Google by making everything accessible at the moment one thinks of it. Lets think of a couple scenarios:

Consider each of the following are voice commands that set in motion a series of processes and inquiries made by the SYNC system.

1. I have a package to mail.
SYNC – “Do you have the item with you”
Driver – “Yes”
SYNC – “Is it packed and ready to ship”
Driver – “No”
SYNC – “Where’s it shipping to?”
Driver – “Miami, FL”
SYNC – “Is it over or under 5lbs?”
Driver – “Under”
SYNC – “USPS is your best choice, at about $7.95″ Place the item on the passenger seat to calculate the actual price, say ready when you’ve placed it there”
Driver – “Ready”
SYNC – Ok, package weighs 3lbs so Priority Mail will cost you $6.95, would you like to buy this label?”
Driver – “Yes”
SYNC – “Ok, would you like it printed?”
Driver – “Yes”
SYNC – “Printing complete, the nearest USPS location is at 578 Main Street, 3 miles away, do you want to go there?”
Driver – “Yes”
SYNC – “Ok, at the next intersection, turn right” – Then follow the rest of the directions. When you arrive take your item and label inside, grab a Priority mail box, and either get some tape from the Post office or buy some, stick the label on and your done.”

Ok, so that’s one expectation I have. Is it too complicated, or asking too much, I don’t think so. Would people use it? I believe they would.

All you’d need is a printer connected to the vehicle via USB and perhaps an iPhone docked so you can verify and purchase the label to print.

The next application will be called “What’s for dinner” and would include the ability to select a recipe, print off a grocery list and would send video recipes to your mobile device so you can watch how to make the dish.

Local businesses will be able to benefit once they integrate some sort of order receiving and fulfillment process. In other words, if I’m going to pick up the grocerys, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to submit the list electronically and go through a grocery store drive through after they send a confirmation to my vehicle that it’s ready for pickup.

Finally, one last really cool feature would be the ability to leverage a service like AskSunday through the vehicle. AskSunday is a virtual concierge that will perform simple tasks for you like call in dinner reservations, or speak on your behalf with your mobile provider about an issue you have. These virtual assistants are great, but if they cause more work then they’re simply not producing what they were meant for and that’s to simplify things for you. I would love to be able to delegate tasks to them, and perhaps have conference calls in my vehicle on the way to the office.

All in due time I suppose, but the first manufacturer to make it happen is going to be glad they did.

If your business has a blog there are some things you’ll want to check to be sure you’re covered. Doing a little SEO tuneup will be helpful in sending additional organic traffic to your blog.

Figuring out what SEO tweaking needs to happen is the first step. There’s lots of online resources regarding this process, but a nice simple process from Search Engine Land does a nice job of describing why B2B blogs aren’t achieving SEO success.

Here are some of the main points made by Galen:

Full posts on the home page
Not rewriting title tags
Lack of (optimized) alt tags on images
No control over what is indexed
Poor meta descriptions
No redirects

Below are some additional points on each one of those points.

Full posts on the home page can be easily fixed by adding a “More” tag wherever you want the break to occur. This is in the rich text editor of the wordpress add new post section.

Rewriting title tags is a matter of preference because something I don’t recommend is making the titles too optimized with keywords. It essentially can be considered spam if you’re using keywords that have no use being in a title. Titles should be written to entice the searcher to click on your result in the search engine.

Images are an important part of my SEO philosophy because I have seen tremendous results from this. A well optimized image file name, alt tag and quality image really is worth a thousand words in terms of what you’d get in traffic if you did it correctly.

Properly indexed is a matter making sure your site isn’t displaying duplicate content to the search engines. I’ve read up on the subject of Pagerank sculpting where SEO’s have suggested you structure your links to give your most desirable content the most authority. I’m not suggesting you stress out and start making big changes because you could likely make mistakes and break links along the way. Just don’t use tags like crazy because that could cause your site to index the posts twice.

Think of meta descriptions like a posting a message to Twitter, which only gives you 140 characters. Google actually gives you 160 characters but making the most of meta description tags will go a long way like SEOMoz explains:

You shouldn’t always write a meta description. Although conventional logic would hold that it’s universally wiser to write a good meta description yourself, rather than let the engines scrape your page, this isn’t the case. I use the general rule that if the page is targeting 1-3 heavily-searched terms/phrases, go with a meta description that hits those users performing that search. However, if you’re targeting longer tail traffic, for example with hundreds of articles or blog entries or even a huge product catalog, it can sometimes be wiser to let the engines themselves extract the relevant text. The reason is simple – when engines pull, they always display the keywords (and surrounding phrases) that the user searched for. If you force a meta description, you can detract from the relevance the engines make naturally. In some cases, they’ll overrule your meta description anyway, but it’s not always wise to rely on that.

This is another good point, especially if your site has duplicate meta description tags and you have difficulty modifying each one individually.
Sometimes a great description is more important than ranking in the #1 position in Google because if your message clear and easy then it’ll draw in the traffic.

No redirects when your visitor enters www or a non-www url for your site can cause issues. Select either one and be sure that you redirect to the one you’ve specified.

Conclusion

B2B Blogs are representative of your company and brand, and assuring that you’ve done a thorough job will give your readers a better experience, and also allow others to land on your site when performing searches that could lead to a new client.

One of the biggest challenges in publishing is having enough content.

What is it that we must have in order to become successful on a blog? Some say content.

Others, like David from 37 Signals says that it’s not content.

I’m sick and tired of hearing about how you should be producing “content” to attract a web following. Treating content as a category on its own is missing the point entirely. Nobody cares about content. Nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks, hey, I should read some content today.

What people want is opinions, analysis, techniques, experiences, and insights. The best of all these come as a bi-product from actually doing stuff. The closer you are to the topics, the more natural you’ll be able to extract the goodies.

David has a great point. I think what he is saying is that content, when it’s considered a commodity and is being mass produced on a large scale is non-effective and will dilute the quality of a person’s message.

However, there is a need and until search engines become less greedy and content hungry we’ll all be forced to read it.

Why?

Because for every page of content there is a person who’s wallet gets fatter each time you see it.

What is Evergreen content?

Content that doesn’t expire, or have a shelf life. Its great information that took time to create, compile and add analysis to. The long term investment with the hopes that someday you’ll see the forest for the trees, or however that saying goes.

Then there’s the content vs. context debate.

I see a divide. Covering traditional media’s shift to digital media, I hear strategies for more content, strategies to optimise content and the production of content and ways to monetise content. Content. Content. Content. The content industries think that the recipe for digital success is to digitise and monetise content. It ignores the fact that more content is competing for a finite audience and a reduced advertising spend in the midst of a frail recovery. On the other side of the divide, you have digital companies that know the competition is not over content but attention. Who’s winning in the battle for attention? The average time spent reading news on local newspaper websites is 8-12 minutes a month. The average time spent on Facebook is seven hours a month.

I would agree that context (what happens after a post is made) is much more difficult to counterfeit or mass produce than content. But even when big brands master the art of producing context with clever ideas and ways to keep your attention, nobody questions it. Everyone just seems to think how cool, it’s social media and that means they care.

There are many things a blog can do, but here at TheDealerBlog we believe that a blog only serves one purpose extremely well – to differentiate you and your unique ideas to captivate your target customers.

Blogs enable thought leaders to become influencers, engaging communities and revealing unique character.

Blogs Are Where You Sell Solutions

People don’t buy products. People buy solutions. So tell me why I should be interested in your solution.

Here are a couple scenarios:

Product – Dealer Website Content

I’m interested in finding the specs on a 2010 Ford Superduty, specifically the weight distribution while pulling a 6,000lb trailer. I may also like to look through some pictures to see if I like it visually.

Solution – Dealer Blog Content

I’m looking for something that I can setup my circular saw on.  I would love a tailgate that can double as a workbench with some handy compartments because I am a general contractor.  I haven’t seen anything like this on the market, why?

This type of dialogue can come through in the comments of your blog.  By listening to the needs of your customers you might find new and interesting ways to appeal to them that your competition would never think of.  That’s how you use a blog.

Soon another contractor lands on your blog, they are searching for the same solution.

They decide to add to it because it’s an active discussion.

I was working at a jobsite the other day and left my last extension cord there, I wish Ford had an inverter built-in at the rear of the truck where I can plug in my saw without making a mess on the clients newly landscaped yard.

These are people who have problems and they need solutions.  It’s all a matter of how you engage and offer a solution that will get you word of mouth business.  By helping out your audience, without an expectation of a sale, you become an influencer.

Blogs offer introductions, they tell people who you are and what you’re about.  If you understand your customer inside and out, then blogging will be the best way to keep the lines of communication open.

Imagine the opportunity to spend hours and hours before they even step foot through your door. That’s a blog.

Traditional Media such Television ads, Radio and Newspaper ads are forms of traditional media that auto dealers have embraced for decades. These ads require significant investment when all of the pieces are added up its thousands of dollars, but what’s the ROI?

I asked one of my clients about their ability to measure the success of their television campaigns and whether they could get data like “cost per conversion” or “impressions” or “click through rate” and not surprisingly they couldn’t.

I wasn’t trying to complicate things but perhaps I did. This post is to dive deeper into those questions.

Lets Define Some Key Terms

Cost Per Conversion – If an ad you’re running costs you $100 and the “call to action” (call to action is what you’re selling – a product, or email subscription form, etc) is completed 10 times then your cost per conversion would be $10.

Lead gen sites make a good profit at this because they can get websites to “convert” well. Convert meaning someone has taken the call to action. If you have a good conversion rate then it’s just a matter of pouring more money into the funnel, and that usually means pouring money into Google Adwords.

What are the differences between Traditional and Online Media

Here’s the deal. Traditional Media means you have to come up with a marketing campaign, film a 30 sec spot, record some content for radio, all which ends up costing say $5000. Then once you have it all ready to go it’s scheduled to appear in the paper, or on tv, or in the mailers, etc. It could take months for all of that to happen in some cases such as mailers to actually reach the target customer.

Traditional Media – You Cross Your Fingers And Hope It Works

Online Media – You Take Action And Measure

So for online media you setup a campaign, you outline what your “cost per conversion” goals are, then you pull the trigger. Within 24 hours you have data. If it’s not what you like to see, pause it.

Online Media Can Be Paused To Stop The Flow Of Money Before Its Gone

This is why online media is so valuable. You know what works, down to the keywords that convert, the ads that get people to submit a lead, the type of language people are responding to right now.

How Can You Combine Traditional and Online To Get Results

Now, Traditional Media combined with online media is really what I’m trying to help my clients understand. My client believes they can’t track traditional media, well here is a perfect example of how they can.

My Lexus client contacted me yesterday about a $1M sweepstakes they were doing in partnership with 4 other dealers that started today. I jumped on it, and in less than 12 hours we have a post up and most importantly, this is the key: It comes up in search when someone Google’s the name of the campaign.

This is critical.

If you really want to dive in and get your hands dirty, read this post from Vanessa Fox titled – Scoring Super Bowl 2010 Commercials – How’s the Search Visibility?

Sure that’s for million dollar campaigns, but then again that’s exactly what my client is doing so I suppose it fits.

Conclusion

You can track traditional media by being accountable for the contents and making some assumptions about what people may type into Google when they see the ad. The goal is to be #1 for that search phrase. The best way to do that you ask? Have a blog with enough authority like Lexus Of Reno’s blog and add that phrase to the title of the blog post.

One of the things thats so wonderful about blogging is that people generally understand who you are after reading your blog.

Just knowing a couple ways to spot a reader of your blog is one way to measure your blog’s success.

Your Blog Is Your New Business Card – But Who’s Reading About You?

Hand someone your business card and they’ll have your contact information.

Name, Phone number, email address, fax, job title, company name and logo, and maybe a catchy phrase.

But a simple Google search should have most of the same information and then some in a matter of .0015 seconds.  And if all that information about you is readily available, how do you know who’s using it, or how does that make you more accessible?  Here’s a way to test that.

Q. What is the most effective way to determine which customers that walk into your dealer’s front door have been reading your blog?

A. Here’s 5 ways to tell if you’re doing what you should be doing on your blog to win new business.

1. Author Your Posts Using Your Middle Name

My middle name is James and I could use that if I were wanting to see who asked for me by that name.  If I had the initials JD or TJ, I could use that for my name on the blog.  Whatever you use just be sure to let others who you work with know about your new “nickname” for the purposes of your “test”.

2. Get A Unique Phone Number

Have someone in the IT department create a new phone number for you that you post on the blog. That number would then identify anyone who’s coming from your blog and you’d have a really good idea of what gets people calling you.

3. Create A Contest

Being creative is not only fun and exciting but it takes you out of the daily grind and puts smiles on faces. Think of a contest you could easily do that would attract people you might like to do business with. If your targeting stay at home mom’s perhaps a drawing contest like one of our dealers did might be great. It’s also great content that you can post on your blog, you can see the picture they took with the winner of the drawing contest.

4. Give Readers Incentive To Post

One of the events I attended recently was hosted by Neil Patel in which he talks about how his blog commenting skyrocketed by adding the “Top Commenters” widget on the side. This increased the comments per post by 79% and another hint, Neil responds to every single comment.

5. Share Information That Saves Time And Ask For Feedback

By posting things that will save your customers time like “How To Connect Your Bluetooth Phone For Handsfree Use” is an example of providing information that could be hard to follow in a standard owners manual. So ask the receptionist, or at your next managers meeting, what can we put on the blog that will help our customers when they have a problem.

Conclusion

Do all of these often enough and you’ll start to see which customers are reading your blog. You’ll also see that because you’ve been posting like this new faces will come through your doors because they feel confident about doing business with you.

Blogs are extremely powerful when put to good use. Some competitors might be making the mistake that a blog is just good for SEO.

Take this opportunity to start building relationships within your community, you’ll be talking to customers while they are staring at Google Analytics wondering why sales aren’t up even though organic traffic is.

In the meantime, whether you have a blog or not, think carefully about who you are and how you help your customers. By doing this you’ll be preparing yourself for the next blog post or the new blog you have been wanting to launch.

Make yourself known, connect with your readers, and watch the results happen right in front of your eyes.

Do you have a way to tell who’s been reading your blog when you meet them in person? Let us know what works for you in a comment below or send us an email by filling out the contact form on the right side of the blog.

Should you use online videos to increase traffic to your Web site thereby allowing customers another way to learn about your inventory?

The following data suggests the answer to that question.

A Kelsey Group study done in 2008 states that 33% of car dealers took advantage of automotive videos and 59% had plans to use video as part of their marketing plan on their Web sites some time during the next twelve months. 46% of dealerships were setting goals to decrease monies spent on ‘traditional media’ within the next that next year but only 8% planned to cut online marketing expenses.

As the trend for monies spent on car dealership advertising shifts to online media, making a marketing budget that includes the ‘thought out usage’ of these videos is a good strategy. While the data shows dealerships are moving in this direction the question remaining is does this strategy pay off in attracting customers? The answer to this question appears to be yes.

Customers like videos which can’t be denied when citing the popularity of YouTube. The National Marketing Manager of GM’ certified used autos adheres revealing Web sites with videos grant more customer initiated phone calls and e-mails than do Web sites not offering this service.

A quick scan of all the major auto makers’ Web sites shows the use of videos to woo and educate consumers about the models under their brand.

What types of videos are best to get a customer or potential customer’s attention? Any positive feedback is good such as customer testimonials, videos of all-new and redesigned models.

Videos that pinpoint features of vehicles that certain demographics will appreciate, video test drives to show off the brand’s flagship even if the customer ends up with an economy model — cars are about future dreams at times, educational videos, popular TV commercials, dealership messages to the customer base, clips shot in the service shop and videos that are auto news worthy.

The video that will appeal to your customer base and potential customer base takes into mind the region in which you serve and how each demographic responds to the models you offer taking care to showcase features that will entice the customer phone call, email, or stop by for a test drive.

For custom video hosting solutions – Inquire about our video platform and custom advertising integration.

Related Posts:

A Social Media Strategy for Car Dealers – Using Social Media Effectively

Lexus suspended sales of the GX460 so that it could look into the recent issues published by Consumer Reports about potential loss of control. The Lexus GX460 has a vehicle stability system that is supposed in intervene when the SUV detects sliding and make corrections to bring the vehicle back under control. Lexus has temporarily suspended sales so it can investigate the problem.

Lexus GX460 Suspends Sales – Sends Message To Lexus Dealers

Lexus GX460 Statement – Consumer Reports Testing – Lexus Halts Sales

Growing

We’re excited to be working with several new clients, so check back to watch as we start working on their new blogs and content strategy.

Design

We’ve been making changes to the design primarily in response to a clients request. They said they’re blog looked a little “plain” and we agreed, hence the work you see happening here as we test some layout changes and move things around a bit.

New Pages

Also, you may notice a few pages have been added to describe the services and technology we offer:

Blog Packages – This is our main product – a turnkey and managed blog for our clients with content and SEO services included.

Products – This page describes some of our SEO / SEM / Video packages we offer.

And finally, we’re happy to announce we’re hiring! Check out the new Jobs page.

Lexus Bluetooth Setup Guide

Bluetooth Troubleshooting Guide

To obtain information on compatible Bluetooth® [1] Phones, please visit http://lexus.letstalk.com/

To see a Lexus Bluetooth Compatibility List – Visit Lexus And Select the year, make and model