News

PCG Digital Marketing (PCG) and several automotive industry thought leaders will converge at the PCG Pit Stop tour in Huntington Beach July 16^th and 17^th as part of the multi-city automotive marketing tour created by PCG.

Click here to register for the next Pit Stop

The PCG Pit Stop tours are bringing award-winning digital marketing strategies from today’s most influential automotive marketing experts to major US and Canadian cities this summer. With stops in Chicago and Dallas already wrapped up, the team of marketing leaders have their sights set on the Hyatt Huntington Beach, the location for the next Pit Stop.

Industry thought leaders Ralph Paglia, Kathi Kruse, JD Rucker, Brian Pasch, and Paul Potratz are just some of the personalities that will share their insights into the latest opportunities for car dealers to grow their business online.

Automotive Digital Marketing Workshop Topics

Paglia’s hands-on workshop, entitled “Digital Guerilla Marketing Strategies and Tactics,” will show dealers how to take advantage of emerging Internet marketing tools for guerilla marketers and how to recognize when their competitors are using these same tactics against them.

According to Paglia, “No dealer should try these techniques without knowing the risks and returns.”

Kathi Kruse will be addressing all conference attendees at the opening dinner reception on July 16th with a keynote address titled: “How to Generate Leads Through Social Media Integration.”

According to Kruse “Before they visit your store, internet savvy car shoppers spend up to 11 hours online researching you and your store. They bypass the Yellow Pages and cable ads to see what their Social network says about your reputation and inventory.”

JD Rucker, automotive social media pioneer, will be leading a popular workshop entitled, “Facebook Marketing vs. Facebook Advertising.” With Facebook and Google +1 dominating discussions on new media strategies, Rucker brings to the table a proven tactical plan that dealers can implement to dominate their local markets.

The automotive marketing conference pit stops are open to any dealership employee but were created with Dealer Principals/GM, General Sales Managers/ISM, and Fixed Operations Managers in mind. Some of the additional workshop topics to be covered include customer communication, selling with social media strategies, fixed operations marketing, CRM processes, Google AdWords, mobile marketing and more.

PCG Digital Marketing is pleased to announce that noted digital marketing specialist, Ralph Paglia, has joined the roster of expert speakers that will discuss the latest trends in automotive marketing strategies at the multi-city Pit Stop tours this summer. Paglia will be speaking at the Huntington Beach Pit Stop marketing conference for car dealers July 16th and 17^th.

Learn more about the Huntington Beach workshops here

Paglia’s hands-on workshop, entitled “Digital Guerilla Marketing Strategies and Tactics”, will show dealers how to take advantage of emerging Internet marketing tools for guerilla marketers and how to recognize when their competitors are using these same tactics against them. According to Paglia, “no dealer should try these techniques without knowing the risks and returns”.

Automotive Marketing Conference Coming to Major Cities This Summer

The PCG Pit Stop tour will be making its way to major US and Canadian cities this summer. The automotive marketing conference pit stops are open to any dealership employee but were created with Dealer Principals/GM, General Sales Managers/ISM, and Fixed Operations Managers in mind. Some of the additional workshop topics to be covered include customer communication, selling with social media strategies, fixed operations marketing, CRM processes, Google AdWords, mobile marketing and more.

Along with Ralph Paglia, PCG and the Pit Stop team welcome leading expert speakers including AJ LeBlanc, Paul Potratz, David Page, Keith Shetterly, Scott Falcone and more.

The Huntington Beach PCG Pit Stop will take place on July 16th and 17th at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach.

EATONTOWN, NJ – PCG Digital Marketing, New Jersey’s fastest growing Internet marketing agency, today announced a new partnership with AskPatty.com, a ‘marketing to women agency’ providing automotive education to women consumers, as well as training, support, education, and certifications to car dealers. The two companies are joining forces to provide scholarship opportunities for women to attend the PCG Pit Stop events in major US and Canadian cities.

PCG Digital Marketing’s ‘Pit Stop’ tours are bringing cutting edge digital marketing training to car dealers in the US and Canada. The Pit Stop tours provide marketing tune-ups in social media, lead management, Google Places, automotive microsites, mobile websites, CRM processes, Google Adwords, Remarketing, Automotive SEO, Fixed Operations Marketing and integrated automotive advertising processes.

Brian Pasch, CEO of PCG Digital Marketing is quoted, “We are thrilled to work with AskPatty.com to provide educational opportunities for women in the growing fields of digital marketing, social media and automotive sales. Jody DeVere is a pioneer in helping to empower women in the automotive industry.”

The inspiration for the scholarship program with AskPatty.com came from Lizelle Landino, National Dealer Advocate for PCG Digital Marketing. Lizelle is also an active member of the Automotive Digital Marketing (ADM) professional community.

According to Landino “I have been a long time advocate of empowering women in the automotive industry. One reason I chose to work with PCG Digital Marketing was their leadership in providing cutting edge education for car dealers.”

After participating in the PCG Pit Stop Conference, Lizelle took action, “I reached out to Jody DeVere because I saw the opportunity for women to strengthen their careers through PCG’s educational workshops. I was confident that AskPatty.com would create an effective scholarship program for women. These scholarships will allow women to participate in career enhancing education without cost to their employer.”

The PCG Pit Stop tours are taking place now throughout the United States and Canada with upcoming destinations that include Dallas, Huntington Beach, St. Louis, Vancouver, Toronto, and Seattle.

For more information on the Pit Stop events, please visit http://www.pcgpitstop.com/

About Ask Patty

With international headquarters in Thousand Oaks, California, AskPatty.com, Inc. takes a two-pronged approach to revolutionizing the women’s automotive retail market: For consumers, the AskPatty.com website, is a safe and reliable source for expert automotive advice and research. For auto dealers, tire dealers, collision centers, auto service and repair centers, the revolutionary AskPatty.com Certified Female Friendly® program, designed from the ground up, trains and certifies automotive retail and service centers on how to attract, sell, retain and increase loyalty with women customers.

Women can find an Ask Patty Certified Female Friendly® auto dealer, tire dealer, collision center, auto service and repair centers using the location search at http://www.askpatty.com/

About PCG Digital Marketing

PCG Digital Marketing is a full service Internet marketing agency that serves growing businesses in all industry sectors. CEO Brian Pasch is a successful speaker, educator and active writer and blogger.

PCG is nationally recognized as a leader in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) as well as an award winning Internet training firm.

http://www.pcgdigitalmarketing.com

Media Contact:

Carrie Hemphill

PCG Digital Marketing

732-450-8200 ext 2

carrie@pcgmailer.com

PCG Digital Marketing, an integrated digital marketing firm specializing in automotive marketing strategies, announces tour dates for their regional automotive advertising and marketing conferences; The PCG Pit Stop tour.

The automotive industry’s top marketing experts and trainers will be making stops in major US and Canadian cities in 2011 to help dealers fine tune their digital marketing and advertising strategies.    Speakers include Paul Potratz, Keith Shetterly, Christy Roman, Joe Webb, AJ LeBlanc, and the PCG digital marketing trainers, which include Brian Pasch, Glenn Pasch, and Christine Rochelle.

The dates and locations of the PCG Pit Stop tours are as follows:

• June 11th and 12th Chicago, IL
• July 9th and 10th Dallas, TX
• July 16th and 17th Huntington Beach, CA
• August 13th and 14th St. Louis, MO
• September 10th and 11th Toronto
• September 17th and 18th Vancouver
• September 20^th Seattle

The PCG Pit Stop tour is modeled after PCG’s widely popular Automotive Marketing Boot Camp. The Boot Camp is an annual three day event that brings together leading marketing experts to provide hands on tactical training for Internet Marketing, digital advertising, social media, lead management, CRM systems, automotive SEO and more.

The PCG Pit Stop tour will provide similar hands-on training in a condensed format during the Pit Stop conference.  Most programs will be one and half days to reduce time out of the dealership for key staff members.

The Pit Stop tours provide marketing tune-ups on social media, lead management, Google maps, microsites, mobile websites, CRM processes, Google Adwords, automotive SEO, fixed operations and integrated advertising concepts.

Advanced registration is required for all Pit Stop tours.  Auto dealer professionals who would like to register can visit http://www.pcgpitstop.com

For more information, please contact Carrie Hemphill at 732-450-8200 ext 2 or carrie@pcgmailer.com .

As I conduct training seminars and webinars for the automotive industry, I often ask dealers what is their current mix between traditional automotive advertising and digital automotive advertising. What is your mix?

In the traditional advertising category I would add radio, TV, print publications, newspaper, printed yellow pages, billboards, and direct mail costs.  In the digital advertising category I would add website costs, Google Adwords or similar Pay-Per-Click models, digital display advertising, re-marketing, social media, third party leads, OEM leads, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services, and inventory advertising platforms like Autotrader.com and the Automotive Advertising Network (AAN).

The responses I get from car dealers vary, but can range from 10% digital to 95% digital.  This large swing reflects the tsunami of change that has engulfed the automotive industry in the last 10 years. These massive changes are not limited to the automotive sector.  All business owners are being faced with the challenge of being open to reconsider if the  yellow pages, radio, TV, and newspaper are connecting their brand with the majority of in market buyers.

The Opportunities For Education

Recently I spoke with a dealer who had just purchased an existing franchise store that need a complete renovation.  He shared all the costs associated with the refit of the building and his upcoming opening. He wanted to turn around this store and make it profitable location.

The conversation we had was focused on how he could make the biggest impact on the market with this new point.  Intermixed with the conversation was frequent reminders of how much he was investing in the store, how much this place needed a capital investment, and how much he wanted to make this work.

When I asked him on what portion of his budget was allocated to digital marketing, the answer surprising.  Aside from his costs to setup his new website, he had not budgeted for any other digital marketing of the dealership.   His advertising plans were solely radio, TV, and print, and I won’t share what he planned to spend.  When I suggested an initial investment of $3,000 a month in digital marketing strategies, he said that he didn’t have that much to spend.

Welcome to 2011 and the wide gap in knowledge and confidence that digital marketing is a core strategy for automotive retailing.

Eliminate The Extremes

It is easy to say that a car dealer that is only spending 10% in digital marketing is spending too little on new media since over 90% of car buyers use the Internet to research a car.  It may also be safe to say that a dealer who eliminates all radio, TV, newspaper, and direct mail are missing a segment of their local market that is influenced by these channels.

Ignoring the extremes, I would like to suggest that to bigger opportunity is to move the majority of car dealers that under utilize digital marketing to the middle.  From a survey conducting by PCG Digital Marketing with dealers across the country, the current  average “allocation” for digital investments is 20-25% of a dealers total advertising budget.

I would like to see the average dealer investment in digital marketing move to 50% in the next year. Those that say 50% is still too little, I’ll be working on another industry move in 2012!  We can’t parallel park the Titanic in Manhattan without some patience.

Moving digital spending to 50% would be considered a massive change but one that this industry needs to embrace.  This reallocation of traditional marketing investments will not happen without a massive effort to reeducated the dealer community.  Proper education on the strategies and opportunities that digital marketing can provide will help make those steps to 50% + with confidence.  Today, dealers either are not moving because of fear or they just don’t know better.  Neither position is attractive to an entrepreneur.

Automotive Advertising Education

We can assume that dealers will make this move on their own but there will be a tremendous opportunity cost for those that take the slow path to 50%; an that still is not the end game.  Since first responders are rewarded in search, the sooner dealers make this move, the more they will be rewarded.  This move will need a coordinated effort by industry leaders, vendors, and educational agencies to educate dealers on all of the new media opportunities and marketing strategies for automotive advertising.

Dealer principals need to be able to clearly differentiate and measure the benefits of SEO, SEM, social media, display advertising, and inventory syndication.  Every time I conduct a seminar at a 20 Group meeting or at an automotive conference, light bulbs go off in the audience.  Dealers are truly thankful to be shown, in plain English, why their lack of digital marketing investments is hurting their brand.

Automotive Marketing Conference

We need to coordinate more “light bulb” experiences at 20 Groups, conferences, and regional teaching events.  One of those opportunities for education is the 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp in Orlando, April 16th-18th organized by my company PCG Digital Marketing.  The Boot Camp will be held at the beautiful Hilton Orlando hotel and has attracted a wonderful team of industry leaders and dealership employees to teach.

Dealers spending less than 50% of your total advertising budget on digital marketing and new media,  need to attend and find out what is working for dealers that have made that have crossed that line  If dealers wants to increase their dominant market position, they should attend to learn that latest strategies for digital marketing and social media from industry leaders.

I would also like to suggest that at least 2 people from each dealership should attend.  Why?  Because the best opportunity for change occurs when the dealer principals or GM  learns side by side with their eCommerce Director or Internet Sales manager.  Too many things can get lost in translation when one of these two roles are missing.

The good news is that attendees and educators at the Boot Camp will be willing to share exactly what is working and how they are measuring the ROI of that investment.  Dealers can register for the Boot Camp and make the decision to invest in education and the future of their dealership today.  The event website is located at: http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com