Articles

Grand Junction Harley-Davidson® prides itself on being located in the most beautiful motorcycle touring region in the country. But, they also set themselves apart by being an 11-time Harley Bar & Shield winner.  For those who carry that badge of honor, you know that it is no small feat.  It’s often stated that the culture of a company trickles down from the top.  That is evident by the personal attention customers get from General Sales Manager, Ben Hunter.  He’s one of those leaders that understands how to combine performance and personal touch.  Through Ben’s genuine care for his customers, the Grand Junction team provides unparalleled customer service to every customer and is one reason why

they generate tons of repeat and referral customers.  When customers are referred to any new business, they will typically do a quick search online to find out a little more about that business.  So, with the insight from Marketing Manager, Justin Marchun, Ben wanted to find a way to take advantage of those prospective customers who were researching Grand Junction H-D online and increase leads for the sales team. 

As a new participant in the Local Web Dominator program, they activated the lead generating feature that is included in the program called the Lead Magnet. The customized Lead Magnet is an embedded window that opens on the Grand Junction H-D website.  It includes a premium offer that is MAP approved and encourages quality leads for new or used units. These leads are then emailed directly to the Sales Manager at Grand Junction H-D® who can ensure they are worked correctly and closed as sales.

In just one month, at the end of winter…in Colorado, Justin was able to generate 25 unit leads for his sales team. With an average closing ratio of 10%-15%, that could translate into 2-4 bike sales in one month just from the Lead Magnet. Keep in mind, this is a winter month in Colorado!

One of the many responsibilities of a Marketing Manager in a dealership is to generate leads for the sales team…That’s what marketing is all about, after-all. Through the success of the Lead Magnet on their website, that is one thing Justin can cross off of his to-do list.

Want to set your Marketing Manager up for success by activating the Lead Magnet on your website today? Give us a call for a FREE demonstration or to get a FREE quote on the Local Web Dominator program: 877-242-4472 or visit us online at www.PowersportsMarketing.com/Local-Web-Dominato

Desert Wind H-D®, located in Mesa, AZ, is the sister store to Loess Hills H-D®.

Desert Wind H-D® recently bought Chester’s Harley-Davidson® and was looking for a solution for them to get better results with the 1-3 events they were having at the dealership per month. Historically, the dealership had advertised their events mainly through radio, TV and email blasts. After hearing about the success of the Sharp Shooter Program at Loess Hills H-D®, which includes more than 20 bikes sold and hundreds of additional new & used unit leads in just three events, they decided to give the program a try. 

Dealers typically get much better results using our Sharp Shooter Program than they do with traditional advertising for a number of reasons. The biggest one, is that only 3-6% of the people in any given market area ride what you sell. That’s it. That number hasn’t moved much since the 70’s and even if non-enthusiasts find

$20,000 stuffed under Grandma’s couch cushion, they’re not all of a sudden just gonna walk through your doors and buy a bike or side by side; they’re going to buy a new car or remodel their house. Why? Because they don’t ride. When dealers use Mass Media Advertising, $.94-.97 on the dollar are hitting those customers. The others? Many are missing their message because of satellite radio, Bluetooth streaming capabilities, DVR, thousands of channels and more.

The #1 reason a new customer joins the industry is through the influence of friends and family (not advertising). It boils down to the fact that you have thousands of dollars to spend to impact your business and the OEM’s have millions. It’s not your job to turn a non-enthusiast into a rider…that’s the job of the OEM. With your limited dollars, it’s your job to identify proven riders and increase the frequency of visits to your dealership. 

This is where the Sharp Shooter Program and Powersports Marketing shine. We find every real opportunity you have to sell a unit in your backyard. We call these folks your ‘Dealership’s Buying Base’ and it’s made up of two types of customers 1) Past Customers who’ve spent money with the dealership in one of your departments in the last four years and live in close proximity to the dealership and 2) Conquest Customers, or people who ride what you sell, live in your backyard, but haven’t bought from you. These are competitor’s customers and other orphan owners in your local market area. If you focus all your time, energy and marketing dollars on driving these two groups of customers through the door as frequently as possible, I guarantee you will grow your business.

This is exactly what happened with Desert Wind H-D’s ‘Riding for the Long Haul’ party at their dealership on March 12th. They had food, drinks, door prizes, live music a stunt show and more. After executing thousands of events with over 700 dealerships, we’ve proven that focusing your message on the party is enough to drive a lot of high-quality traffic through the door and create hundreds of sales opportunities.

For this event, Desert Wind H-D targeted 2,500 total customers through direct mail, and even more through integrated emails, an integrated call blast, event signage, fliers, a web banner and more. Each piece of communication incentivized customers to go online and complete a survey and the results were incredible. There were 319 surveys completed, which created a total of 264 sales opportunities in P&A, service, and riding gear, and 70 responses for a new or used bike. Anything over a 1% response rate is considered a HUGE success for direct mail, and Desert Wind’s campaign resulted in a 12.67% response rate! More than 12 x’s the national average. 

Deb Metcalfe, GM of Desert Wind said, “It was a great event! We were busy all day.” The parts counter sold $4,691 and the MotorClothes department did $6,132 in sales.  According to Deb, they had “great counter sales and sold at least one bike.” Deb’s already planned her next event for April 16th with a Heat the Streets Party. 

Sharp Shooter events do an excellent job of giving dealers a shot in the arm. They drive a ton of traffic and typically generate a hundred if not hundreds of leads from proven riders in their back yard. But the real secret lies in consistently marketing to your Dealership’s Buying Base. Your goal should be to touch your customers 52-104 times per year. At this frequency, you are guaranteed to create affinity with your buying base, increase frequency of visits to the dealership and ultimately grow sales in all departments…because at the end of the day, your customers are kids in a candy store and they can’t help themselves but to spend money when they’re standing on your showroom floor. Give them more reasons to walk through your door, and they will buy more from you.

What’s next? SPRING. IS. HERE. April and May mean Spring Kickoff Parties. This is what you’ve been waiting for. If you don’t already have a Spring Open House on the books, plan one today. Check out the insert for samples of some proven winners in April and May.

For more information on how the Sharp Shooter Program can help kickoff your Spring Season with a bang, give me a ring on my direct line at 877-242-4472 ext: 112 or visit us at www.PowersportsMarketing.com/Sample-Campaigns. Happy selling.

I’m frequently asked by dealers if they should invest in an app for their dealership. Apps entered the marketing scene and became an instant fad, and many dealers jumped on the bandwagon. Dealers heard that other dealers had an app, so they started thinking they needed one too. I mean, if another dealer shows you up, you have to copy them, right? Wrong.  Before I jump in too far, let’s go over what an app is and make sure we’re all singing off the same sheet of music. 

App is short for application, which is a software written most often to be used on mobile devices (phones, tablets, etc.). Of course we’ve all heard the saying, “there’s an app for that,” and we’ve all downloaded plenty of apps from the App Store on Apple devices, and from Google Play on Android devices.

There can be big money in creating apps, so it didn’t take long for software developers to build cookie-cutter apps with simple functionality that they could sell to small businesses. Powersports dealers were targeted as well. 

If you’re wondering what they do, you’re not alone.  That’s the first question I asked as well. The sales pitch on dealer apps:

1. You can send Push Notifications to your customer’s phone and alert them of special events and promotions.

2. Your current inventory will always be in your customer’s pocket. It’s a feed from your website, so no additional work is required to load it.

3.Customers can watch a unit and be notified of price changes.

4. Apps build loyalty with customers and you stay in front of them more and create ToMA (Top of Mind Awareness).

5. It includes a button to call your dealership, and easy directions.

6. You can schedule a visit to the Service Department. 

Now for the second question I asked… “Why would a customer download it?”

Let’s go through the numbered points above and see if they are a good reason why the app should be downloaded.  

1. Hey Mr. Customer, download our app so we can send push notifications to your phone!

• Most customers will say “No thanks.”

• Of the small percentage of customers who download the app, most will uninstall it once you start sending push notifications to their phone.

• For many people, cell phone communication is more intimate, meaning it’s primarily for communicating with family and friends. 

2. Hey Mr. Customer, download our app so you can have instant access to our current inventory!

• I have trouble answering the question… “Why wouldn’t I just go to your website for that?”

3.Hey Mr. Customer, download our app so you can watch bikes/units you’re interested in and be notified of price reductions.

• This could actually get you some downloads, but it’s based on waiting for a discount, and someone will have to manage the pricing of the inventory (keep in mind you can’t lower prices on new inventory for some OEMs). 

• This sounds like a great benefit, but I’ve yet to see this be truly successful because the app is deleted soon after being installed.

4. Loyalty is a great dealership benefit, but customers won’t download the app for this reason.

5. When a person needs to call a business, or needs directions, they search for them on Google. They don’t try to find the business’ app on their phone.

6. It seems clumsy to have a customer download your app to schedule service. And if they already had the app, when they need service most folks won’t remember your app, they’ll do a Google search and call you.

We’ve done business with over 700 dealers and 2 of them have said they’ve had success with their app. They couldn’t quantify that success, except through the number of times the app had been downloaded.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to know how many of those customers had uninstalled the app after downloading it.

At the end of the day, you and your team only have so much time and budget. I recommend not jumping on every bright and shiny product that comes along. Choose wisely what you spend your limited resources on. It’s better to be ‘Narrow and Deep’ over ‘Wide and Shallow’.

For more information, visit www.PowersportsMarketing.com/sharp-shooter or call 1-877-242-4472 and ask for me.

On Friday, February 19th Google made an announcement that search results pages on desktops will no longer show paid ads in the right sidebar.

The new format for paid ads is that for “highly commercial searches” (everyone in powersports) up to 4 ads will appear at the top of the results page, with an additional 3 at the bottom. Historically, Google showed up to 3 ads at the top of the page, and up to 8 in the right sidebar. Where there used to be up to 11 paid results, now there are 7 at best. 

So why did Google do this? Google has been working to standardize the advertising experience across devices for several years now. They’ve also made a significant move towards standardizing that experience with mobile in mind – which doesn’t support sidebars.

According to Ginny Marvin at Search Engine Land, Google began experimenting with this layout back in 2010 on mortgage queries. Since then, they’ve tested it in various ways, apparently with good results. Then, on February 17th, search marketers began to see the rollout of the new layout before the confirmation by Google.

There are a lot of conspiracy theorists in the search optimization/marketing community, and feelings about how exactly this is going to impact search marketing in the long haul are mixed to say the least. 
I’m not too worried about these changes, but there are a couple of things to think about. 

First, there are fewer overall slots for advertisers to appear in. Available spots went from 11 down to 7. That’s almost a 25% reduction in available spots. Of course, if your ad actually appeared in spots 7-11 studies showed that it almost never got clicked and your advertising efforts were probably wasted. You weren’t paying for clicks, but AdWords accounts don’t set themselves up, and whoever set one up like that was wasting money.

Second, Google used to only show a max of 3 ads at the top of a search results page. Studies by Search Engine Land, Moz, Google, and every other search marketing group show that those three spots get roughly 85+% of all ad clicks. Google just added a 4th “hot spot” for search results. Common sense tells me that’s a win.

Third, it may cost more to advertise using AdWords. Maybe. My feelings are that any increase caused by dropping the number of open advertising spots is going to be negligible. What we have been seeing over the last two years here at Powersports Marketing, is that the number of dealers who are beginning to understand digital marketing and engaging in its use is surging, and competition is increasing. So, in some markets, AdWords clicks are starting to cost more. When we first started managing AdWords accounts for dealers years ago, it was not uncommon for us to have accounts that averaged 15 cents per click. At the time, most dealers thought AdWords was either black magic or a waste of money and time. Competition was low, and as a result, so was cost.

That has changed pretty significantly in the last 24 months. Competition is greater, and supply and demand has kicked in a little. The days of having accounts that average 15 cents per click are pretty much history, and somewhere between 50 cents and a dollar have taken their place depending on population density and competition. That said, let’s all be glad we aren’t advertising legal services (clicks average $150-$175) or anything to do with mesothelioma (Highest cost clicks last year on Google at $850 EACH).

One thing that is important is that given the new layout for Google ads, it is becoming more and more important that dealers work with AdWords Partners to insure that they are getting the best exposure, value, and return on their digital marketing investment. Just like the days of the 15 cent click are gone, so are the days of trying to manage online marketing campaigns in house.

If you need help understanding how online marketing works and/or how we might be able to help you with yours, give us a call, or visit powersportsmarketing.com and fill out a contact form.

Talk soon. 
 

We just completed our Spring Break Out marketing boot camp, and it was another great turnout with a lot of very smart dealers in the room. As always, the magic doesn’t just come from those presenting, but it happens between sessions, during the breaks, at the bar in the evening, etc. I want to give a special thanks to all those who attended.

Inevitably, at some point during these twice a year live events I hear two remarks. The first is, “I was skeptical about attending because I thought this was going to be a pitch fest for your products. But, now I know that couldn’t be further from the truth”.  

What many don’t realize is that I started in this industry as a rider and enthusiast turned dealer. Well, in reality, right after opening our first single line Honda open point it was more like chief parts guy, service writer, toilet washer, and customer complaint punching bag.

Eventually, as I began to take over the sales and marketing for our quickly growing four store operation in Atlanta, Ga. I wasted more money on lame advertising that didn’t work than I care to admit. And often times, I was throwing away tens of thousands of dollars, and then sweating when the floor checker showed up asking for a hefty check. Those are the experiences that make you truly disgusted with any wasted cash outflow, and left searching for answers.

In reality, I was completely underqualified to be making the advertising decisions for our stores. Deep down, I knew that all I was basically doing was copycatting what my competitors were doing, which I was beginning to speculate was all wrong.  I began to realize I was an advertising victim created by my own ignorance.  It was at this point that I realized something had to change and I began to immerse myself in the study of all things marketing.

Here at Powersports Marketing™ I’m not the only member of the team who has been involved with wasting tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands on useless marketing for dealers that doesn’t work.  My entire leadership team bears that scar as well. Tory and Brad were both G.M.’s for our Atlanta based stores and have on multiple occasions felt the pain of misused marketing budgets. My current CFO, Kathy Peacock, was my controller in the dealership days and has written many checks for fruitless advertising.  And interestingly enough, Tia Robinson, our Digital Marketing Manager who I met many years ago when she was working for a certain OEM ex-client who we were doing kick ass campaigns for that were generating amazing quantifiable results. Ultimately, that client hired a new CEO and he changed from our proven direct response campaigns to a “branding” campaign and Tia was able to see and feel the painful difference between “branding” and “direct response”.    

And this brings me to the 2nd common remark that has very little to do with advertising or the actual content of the Boot Camp. “Your team is very impressive, what is your secret to recruiting such good people?”  This is obviously a loaded question, and the answer is so complex it would require a book rather than a paragraph. 

First, I’m extremely grateful for the amazing members of this team, and I do my best to let them know it every Friday in our company meeting. And second, is our company core values (powersportsmarketing.com/core-values), particularly number five: Dedication to continual improvement in business and in life.

Our core values aren’t just a poster on the wall, they are something we review, reinforce, and hold one another accountable for constantly.  I’m not the only one around here who has taken past failures of dealership marketing personally. All of the previously mentioned have also consumed mountains of information on marketing best practices.

As a team, each month we’re studying a new book together with the direct intent to learn and improve our performance. We also reward learning with incentives for certifications and other training, which is why we have more Google certified employees than all of our competitors combined. We regularly attend seminars and trade shows, and for the most part all share an insatiable desire to learn more, improve more, so we can deliver more. And we don’t just study, we practice what we preach in our own marketing.

The reason I share this is twofold. We only do these live events twice a year, and it’s not a money maker for us. We have such a strong belief that our stance on dealer marketing is in the best interest of the overall health of this industry. And, we know that there is so much clutter in the market that we’re passionate about sharing our proven system with dealers. We’re motorcycle people first, marketers second. We’re always learning, measuring, and striving for improvement, all with the thought of you the motorcycle dealer in mind. The purpose of our boot camps aren’t to pitch our products, but to share the successes and failures we’ve had as dealers, working with OEM’s, and as a marketing company who has executed thousands of motorcycle dealer specific marketing for over 700 dealers nationwide. 

And this is exactly why you should go ahead and mark your calendar for Oct. 24 to the 26th and plan to attend our next boot camp. Heck, for that matter go head and jump over to www.powersportsmarketing.com/bootcamp and get signed up now. 

 APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY HORSEPOWER!

April brings motorcyclists out on the roads in droves. Make sure you give your customers a reason to ride by the shop and check out all the in-stock goodies they'll want to get this riding season.

Host a dyno competition, put out the newest line of rain gear, or host a bike wash at your dealership to get folks in the door and get the sales 'pouring' in.

Click the image to request a FREE Quote for your 'April Showers Bring May Horsepower' event.

Local Web Dominator Case Study: Loess Hills Harley-Davidson®

Objective:

Loess Hills Harley-Davidson® is more than a name.  It has a history as unique and resilient as the local landscape and the customers who are family to the Loess Hills H-D® team.  The dealership is founded in the interesting and deeply woven history of the local bluffs that were created by untamed forces, shaped by ancient winds, and left a connection that goes beyond just a single person in a single place.

The Loess Hill H-D® family represents a strength that has withstood the test of time.  And, one of the goals of Bill Fisher, the Inside Marketing Team Leader, is to make sure that the customers who have felt this strong connection have a way to share their thoughts with others who may not have had the chance to yet feel the difference of being part of the Loess Hills H-D® family.

Solution:

Bill and the leadership team at Loess Hills H-D® met with Account Executive, Josh Rapplean, to review how the Local Web Dominator program would give a voice to their customers through the review acquisition system.  They discovered that by linking up their DMS into the Local Web Dominator program, it makes the system for growing reviews from happy customers automatic and ongoing.   Plus, once their customers left a review on their custom review site (www.loesshillshdreviews.com), they were then asked to share it on Google.  Again, automatically, so there are no awkward conversations done in the dealership or unique codes for customers to remember.  It’s just a quick, automated request that guides customers to quickly and easily share their review on the top ranked search engine in the world.

Results:

The results have been unprecedented. Bill linked up his Lightspeed account to his Local Web Dominator program.  Within the first two weeks, they received 127 positive reviews on their review site from very happy customers.

But, even better was that they grew their already pretty strong Google listing from 16 reviews with a 4.2 star rating to 55 reviews with a 4.6 star rating (at the time this article was written).  Y’all, that’s 39 new, authentic Google reviews in two weeks.  

This kind of success doesn’t just come from having a program that makes it easy for your happy customers to leave you a great review, but it also a testament to how well the Loess Hills Harley-Davidson® team treats their customers.  It’s a powerful combination of implementing a high quality S.Y.S.T.E.M. into a high quality team.

Want to give your customers a voice to share how great your team is in a way that helps grow your online reputation, attract new customers, and increase customer retention?  Give us a call for a FREE demonstration or to get a FREE quote on the Local Web Dominator program: 877-242-4472.

We've discussed the importance of having a good search engine marketing plan in place to drive customers to your website. But have you stopped by your website lately to see if it's up to par? After all, it won't do you any good to have the best search engine marketing campaign in the world if it drives customers to a website that hasn't been updated since it was created. 

Rod is going to give some pointers about how to make sure your customers stick around on your website instead of just breezing through and never coming back.

Click the video to watch...

Loess Hills Harley-Davidson® is more than a name.  It has a history as unique and resilient as the local landscape and the customers who are family to the Loess Hills H-D® team.  The dealership is founded in the interesting and deeply woven history of the local bluffs that were created by untamed forces, shaped by ancient winds, and left a connection that goes beyond just a single person in a single place.
 
The Loess Hill H-D® family represents a strength that has withstood the test of time.  And, one of the goals of Bill Fisher, the Inside Marketing Team Leader, is to make sure that the customers who have felt this strong connection have a way to share their thoughts with others who may not have had the chance to yet feel the difference of being part of the Loess Hills H-D® family.

Bill and the leadership team at Loess Hills H-D® met with Account Executive, Josh Rapplean, to review how the Local Web

Dominator program would give a voice to their customers through the review acquisition system.  They discovered that by linking up their DMS into the Local Web Dominator program, it makes the system for growing reviews from happy customers automatic and ongoing.   Plus, once their customers left a review on their custom review site 
(www.loesshillshdreviews.com), they were then asked to share it on Google.  Again, automatically, so there are no awkward conversations done in the dealership or unique codes for customers to remember.  It’s just a quick, automated request that guides customers to quickly and easily share their review on the top ranked search engine in the world.

The results have been unprecedented. Bill linked up his Lightspeed account to his Local Web Dominator program.  Within the first two weeks, they received 127 positive reviews on their review site from very happy customers.

But, even better was that they grew their already pretty strong Google listing from 16 reviews with a 4.2 star rating to 55 reviews with a 4.6 star rating (at the time this article was written).  Y’all, that’s 39 new, authentic Google reviews in two weeks.  

This kind of success doesn’t just come from having a program that makes it easy for your happy customers to leave you a great review, but it also a testament to how well the Loess Hills Harley-Davidson® team treats their customers.  It’s a powerful combination of implementing a high quality S.Y.S.T.E.M. into a high quality team.

Want to give your customers a voice to share how great your team is in a way that helps grow your online reputation, attract new customers, and increase customer retention?  Give us a call for a FREE demonstration or to get a FREE quote on the Local Web Dominator program: 877-242-4472.
 

Last month we talked about reviews, and how critical they are to a dealership’s online success, and subsequently their brick and mortar success. The successful dealers now are those that understand that the battle for customers and their dollars is a digital one, and can be won or lost before they even leave their homes.

In a previous article, I talked about the Brightstar 2015 search report that highlighted the importance of having both a lot of positive reviews, and recent reviews – because 68% of searchers reported that they believed that reviews older than 90 days were no longer relevant. 

The big takeaway is that to be successful, your dealership needs to have a system in place that is constantly harvesting legitimate positive reviews from past and present customers so that when searchers find you online, you are the logical place to go.  Of course, my shameless plug is that we offer a done-for-you system that has proven to do this flawlessly, but whether you use us or not, you need a good system.

Once you have your reputation maintenance plan in place, the next step in the parade is to drive traffic to your site, and ultimately, to your dealership.

This is done in two basic ways, through SEO efforts, and SEM. SEO (search engine optimization) is an organic way to make your site rank better in the search engine results by having good content that is well structured and easily ‘crawled’ by search engine spiders. In addition to having a good site, having consistent name, address, and phone information (referred to as NAP info) on sites across the web also boosts your rankings. When Google sees a lot of other sites linking back to your site, they look at you as a more credible business and rank you higher in search results. 

Having solid structure on your website, good navigability, and lots of good content is important, and your web provider will (or at least should) be handling a lot of that for you. I don’t suggest you spend a lot of extra time and money on SEO services outside of what is on your site. 

Many people will disagree with me on this. Your web provider will probably disagree with me. Keep in mind that most of the folks who will disagree with me sell SEO services.  They have an interest in being able to bill you monthly. 

So why do I say not to spend a lot (or any) money on SEO services like link building, article writing, custom landing pages, and the other bells and whistles that a lot of SEO services offer? Because we are in a niche industry, and the OEMs and lots of national companies compete there, and have a lot more money to throw at those services than you do. 

When you search for your dealership name, you’re always going to show up in the search results. If you haven’t tried it, do it. When you start typing in the names of particular models though, like when someone is researching a bike to buy, the organic results are populated by the OEMs and national sites like Cycle Trader and others. These are huge sites that get a lot more traffic than dealership sites, and have a lot of money to throw at them. Don’t take my word for it, fire up Google and do some model specific searches and see what I mean. The amount of money and time that a dealer would have to spend to compete at the organic level with these sites isn’t reasonable, practical, or in most (if not all) cases, possible.

So how do you compete? Take your budget and spend it on SEM, Search Engine Marketing. While there are a lot of ways to spend money on search engine marketing, I recommend spending it on AdWords. Google is the 800 lb. gorilla in the search engine game, and AdWords is how you market with them.  

Using AdWords, you can cut through the clutter and appear on the first page of search results immediately, right next to the national sites – and ahead of your local competition. If you use a professional company to manage your campaigns for you, it can be the most economical way to advertise outside of email. 

AdWords levels the playing field, and it is a VERY quick way to get results. We have managed campaigns for dealers that increased their monthly website traffic by as much as 50%, and created hundreds of new leads. Done properly, AdWords just works.

I like to think of reputation maintenance and AdWords as a sort of 1-2 punch for online marketing success. AdWords gets you in front of the specific people who are actively looking for what you sell so that they know who and where you are, and by guarding your reputation (reviews), they find that you are the best place to buy from.

If you want a clearer picture of how this can work for your dealership, give us a call, or go to powersportsmarketing.com/local-web-dominator.

Talk soon. 
 

Loess Hills H-D® gets its name from the corrugated, sharp bluffs formed from the last ice age, they can see just east of the dealership located new the Nebraska/Iowa Borders and the Missouri River. Just a short drive from Omaha, Loess Hills H-D has a beautiful 30,000 square foot showroom, providing their customers with whatever they need to hit the road in style

 Loess Hills H-D® has a huge growth goal. In 2015, they finished the year at 400 new & used units and are trying to get to 375 new and 325 used (for a total of 700 units) in 2016. Increasing traffic and opportunities to sell bikes at their monthly events was a key objective.

In order to help them achieve their growth goal, we started by cleaning up their database to identify folks who were most likely to respond and buy. Many dealers feel like they ‘own’ their past customers because they’ve purchased from them in the past. Loess Hills H-D® understands that even the best dealership in the country can increase frequency of visits, reactivate lost customers and increase their annual customer value. We identified past sales, service and parts customers who’ve spent money with the dealership in the last four years and lived closest to the store.

Once we identified the ‘Right Audience’, we went after them with the ‘Right Media’. We utilized over a dozen direct-marketing strategies to guarantee the target audience is reached multiple times leading up to the event. This drastically increases traffic and response to the survey site where we gather two pieces of information: 1) Contact Information and 2) What they want to buy from the dealership. This typically generates hundreds of leads for not only unit sales, but parts & accessories, MotorClothes® and service as well.

Most marketers would tell Loess Hills H-D®, that in order to sell more units, they would have to have a sale. The challenge with focusing on the sale, is that you alienate the 99% of customers who didn’t have ‘Buy a new bike’ on their ‘Top 5-things to do list’ that week. By focusing on their ‘Ink And Iron’ Event, they got more folks to respond, and created many more sales opportunities for all departments and they got to hold more margin along the way.

?January Event:

Ink & Iron

There were 368 surveys completed, which created a total of 303 sales opportunities in P&A, service, and riding gear, PLUS 67 responses for a new or used bike. In addition to the leads, on January 30th, they had over 500 people at the event and the best day of the entire month!

?February Event:

Cabin Fever Party

There were 350 surveys completed, which created a total of 304 sales opportunities in P&A, service, and riding gear, PLUS 66 responses for a new or used bike. Check out the email Josh Rapplean, his Account Executive, received after the event:

?March Event:

After the results of their first two events, they’ve decided to bump up their total amount of customers to 4,000, of which 2,500 are past customers and 1,500 new H-D owners, who live in their backyard, but haven’t bought from them. Looking forward to hearing how their St. Patrick’s Day Party on March 12th goes. In executing thousands of campaigns for dealers in every corner of the country, we know this type of consistency will ultimately produce the results dealerships are looking for.

What’s next? Spring. March and April mean Spring Kickoff Parties, Tax Events, Bike Week and many more reasons to kick off the Spring Riding Season. If you’ve missed out on January and February, this is what you’ve been waiting for.  Check out the insert for samples of some proven winners in March and April.

For more information on how the Sharp Shooter Program can help kickoff your Spring Season with a bang, give me a ring on my direct line at 877-242-4472 ext: 112 or chat us up at www.PowersportsMarketing.com. Happy selling.

To put it bluntly, the biggest challenge with focusing your marketing on creating new riders is that you’ll get little to no response, and therefore little to no R.O.I.  Ultimately, you’ll simply be wasting your money instead of investing it. There is a way to create new riders, but it’s not directly through marketing, believe it or not. To prove a point, let me share a related story.

Growing up, some of my favorite things to do were play baseball, football, and ride motorcycles. My passion, though, was riding, and every minute I could, I rode.  I had pictures of motorcycles, Rick Johnson and Jeff Ward covering the walls in my room.  My first street bike came when I was 16 (an older Ninja 500), and I started working in a Powersports dealership at 17.  I still remember the first motorcycle I purchased from a dealership - a CBR 600F3.

Anything motorcycle related, including marketing, I paid attention to. 

On the other hand, Golf wasn’t something that I ever thought about. The first word that would have come to mind when I thought of golf is BORING, and I would have rather gone to the dentist than watch golf on TV. I did love Adam Sandler’s golf movie, ‘Happy Gilmore’, but I never visited any golf courses, or paid attention to any of the players. 

As I grew older, I knew who some of the famous players were, but that’s about it. While I could have afforded it, I wasn’t a golfer. You could have marketed to me with the best marketing methods, a million different times with incredible incentives. I wouldn’t have responded, and you would have been wasting your money.

About 7 or 8 years ago, however, a friend invited me to play golf. I explained I didn’t have golf clubs or shoes, thanked him for the offer, but declined. He called me back a day later and said, “I’ve got an extra set of clubs for you, and you can wear tennis shoes at the course we’re going to… and, oh yeah, I’ve already paid for you.” Then he said, “You should come if for no other reason than just to hang out with the guys, even if you don’t hit any balls.” 

I accepted, and ended up having a blast. I even hit a few good shots, which enticed me to go back the next time my buddies played.

Now, I’m a golfer… I love it. 

Over the last few years I’ve thought about the process of going from an almost anti-golf person, to now being an enthusiast. Yes, golf is an enthusiast based industry just like Powersports. But, before my friend invited me there’s no amount of advertising that would have made a difference in me playing. Now, I not only pay attention to golf marketing, I often respond.  

Did you know that the number one reason someone starts playing golf is the influence of friends and family? Makes total sense, doesn’t it?  And, if you play golf, it was a friend or family member that got you interested. 

Did you know that the number one reason someone starts riding motorcycles is the influence of friends and family?  Makes total sense, doesn’t it?  And, if you ride, it was a friend or family member that got you interested.

Again, focusing your marketing on creating new riders is a waste of time, money and resources.  The right way to create new riders is to host events at your dealership and entice your herd of customers to invite their friends and family members. There’s no silver bullet and it may not be the first or second visit to the dealership that leads to a purchase, but you and I both know that it’s hard to be around this amazing industry and not get bit by the motorcycle bug.

That’s is why our Sharp Shooter program is so popular and effective. We utilize several media methods to invite the Powersports enthusiasts who live in your market area to join you for a party (the ones who already ride because they’re the ones who respond to good marketing), and we tell them to invite/bring their friends and family.  

For more information, visit www.PowersportsMarketing.com/sharp-shooter or call 1-877-242-4472 and ask for me. - Tory