It’s that time of year when thoughts turn to personal goals such as exercising more and business goals like improving your customer service.
Online marketing is playing such an essential role for tire dealers these days, I recommend you make some resolutions in this area. Here are five resolutions for your consideration:
1. Make sure you have a mobile-friendly website – I’ve mentioned this in previous blog posts, and it becomes more critical every day; a majority of Americans now own a smartphone, according to a Pew Institute study released last June.
According to Google, 95% of smartphone users look up local information, and of those, 71% called and 59% visited the business.
If consumers are using their smartphones to research tires, you can bet many of them are in the buying mode. When they go to your website, you want them to easily see the critical information, such as your store hours, locations and tire promotions. Additional research by Google shows that 67% of consumers say they’re more likely to buy a product or service from a mobile-friendly site!
Here are some tips in Entrepreneur Magazine on how to tell if your website is mobile friendly and next steps for addressing this issue.
2. Use Google Analytics to help drive your marketing decisions – This is a great free tool for analyzing the effectiveness of your marketing programs and website. What are the main sources of your web traffic? What do your visitors do once they land on your site – do they visit multiple pages or is a high percentage of your web traffic quickly leaving the site? What are the demographics and psychographics of your visitors? That and much more can be found in Google Analytics. Here’s a good article containing tips on effectively using Google Analytics.
3. Give Facebook advertising a try – Social media was never “free” because it takes time to post relevant content, engage with fans, etc. But it is becoming even “less free” because Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and other platforms are all in full monetization mode now.
Facebook, for example, has changed is news feed algorithm to hurt organic reach. You spent a lot of effort to build up your Facebook fan base; you will have to pay to effectively reach them and other Facebook users going forward.
The good news is that Facebook provides a very targeted and cost-effective advertising platform. You typically pay per click similar to Google Ad Words. The CPC (cost per click) and CPM (cost per thousand impressions) rates for Facebook advertising are extremely competitive with your other advertising options such as print or radio advertising, online banner ads, etc. Go with a daily budget of $20 or so and see what works for you. Advertise a promotional offer to the Facebook users in your market area and measure the results.
Don’t give up on social media; some 73% of adults who are online are using at least one type of social network, according to the Pew Institute. It will remain a valuable vehicle for communicating with your target audiences; you just have to start kicking in some ad dollars to obtain your desired results.
4. Get busy with LinkedIn – LinkedIn became a much more valuable tool for companies last year, adding many enhancements that enable more robust and interactive company pages.
If Facebook is like networking on the soccer field and Twitter is analogous to reading the CNN news feed, LinkedIn is the online version of a chamber of commerce event – a great platform for business-to-business connections.
Especially popular among college graduates and users in higher-income households, LinkedIn can be a great tool for tire dealers to assess and connect with employee prospects. If you have commercial accounts, it can be very useful for connecting with prospective customers such as fleet owners/managers, associate dealers, etc.
Make a habit of reaching out to contacts by checking into LinkedIn at least once a day for 15 minutes. Check the announcements on promotions and birthdays. Make comments on posted content. Join relevant groups.
Also, take 30 minutes per week to research potential contacts. Have you been trying to make headway with a local trucking fleet? There’s a good chance a decision maker with the fleet is on LinkedIn.
5. Engage more – Social media is called “social” because it is about engaging with people. Create more interactions with your fans; start conversations. Don’t limit your activities to just posting your sales promotions; provide helpful content for your target audiences on a regular basis.
One thing we can count on concerning online marketing in the year 2014 is change. Additional online marketing technologies will become available; there will be many changes to existing tools and platforms.
I look forward to sharing ideas with you this year and encourage you to stay abreast of the online revolution – you may just find a leg up on your competition!
Christine Taylor is vice president of social media marketing for JTMarCom, a Nashville-based marketing agency that helps companies with online reputation management and integration of social media into their traditional marketing programs. With a combined 35 years of experience in the tire industry, the agency places a special emphasis on working with tire and automotive aftermarket companies. Follow Christine on Facebook and Twitter (@chrisgtaylor). She can also be reached at 615-714-5469.