A Decent Business Blog Improves Sales, And Here’s How (Automotive SEO)
Just about every business that wants to exist in the 21st century needs a blog – that’s what we’re always told, sure, but isn’t this just some urban myth?
No, actually, this is based in factual data. Recently, MarketingSherpa published a wonderful post about how a company’s blogging efforts can raise traffic and exposure by 2,000%, reduce new lead cost by 15%, and grow the company’s revenue by 40%. It’s just one example, and there are many others that also show how blogging can directly influence a company’s sales.
But anyone who’s worked at a car dealership before will tell you – there are only 24 hours in a day and there’s about 28 hours of work that needs doing. That, however, is a myth and is not based in fact. If someone has time to maintain a website with online inventory listings, then someone also has time to crank out a new blog post from time to time. Click here for some handy hints and tips to get the juices flowing, and here’s why you’ll need them to flow:
Blogs improve SEO.
It’s true. A frequently updated blog is quite powerful in attracting search engine car shoppers – for better or worse, Google places a very high emphasis on freshness. It can also help a link-building campaign – more posts means more pages that might be linked to. Keep writing new blog posts, and your automotive online marketing will flourish.
Blogs show thought leadership.
Don’t worry if your blog doesn’t win any awards. Proper spelling and grammar alone will show your customers you know what you’re doing. When folks think you know what you’re doing online, they’ll assume you know what you’re doing when you sell them a car in person. Even the smallest amount of thought leadership gives your store a clear advantage over competitors who don’t show any thought leadership at all.
Blogs manage expectations.
An automotive blog is typically less formal than the “About Us” page on the website. The best use of the blog is as the voice of the dealership, because it’s the perfect opportunity to give potential customers a glimpse at the store’s culture. It provides some very welcome transparency into an otherwise unfamiliar experience. If your blog shows a relaxed company atmosphere, you’ll have relaxed customers. If your blog shows a challenging, high-speed atmosphere, you’ll have customers who are ready to negotiate like champs. Customers who don’t know what to expect, though, will be skeptical, distrusting, unwilling to budge on price, unwilling to forgive even the slightest mistake.
Human beings tend to want to buy cars from people they know, not from total strangers. An automotive local-dealer blog will start to build a relationship before anyone walks onto your lot and shakes your hand. So start now – build a blog, maintain that blog, track your traffic numbers, track your closing ratios, track your average profit margins – track it all and measure how much improvement you get out of it. You may be surprised.
Send to Kindle
Bil Gaines
@bilgaines
Latest posts by Bil Gaines (see all)
- Car Dealers: Get Yourself An Internet Department - March 26, 2013
- Automotive SEO vs. Automotive SEM - March 11, 2013
- Schema.org Microdata Markup for the Automotive Industry - March 4, 2013
- Google+ For Auto Dealers, Mechanics, and Auto Parts Stores - February 25, 2013
- Automotive Website Architecture And User Experience: Why It Matters More - February 11, 2013
Meet Us At SMX Advanced June 11-12
Who Is Intrapromote?
