Articles

According to the late Peter Drucker, your store has a 1:14 chance of doing business with someone whom you have never done business with, a 1:4 chance of doing business with someone whom you have had a previous business relationship with, and a 1:2 chance of doing business with your existing customers. 

This emphatically demonstrates the importance of communicating to your customer base consistently with relevant and compelling messages.  Your customer database is your biggest and most often overlooked asset.

Speaking of relevant and compelling communication, let me ask you this: If you take every person on your customer list from young to old, male to female, touring rider to cruiser rider, off-road to PWC, in the market right now for a new bike, used bike, parts, accessories, service, or not really in the market for anything at all; is it easy to make your outbound marketing messages applicable to all?

Not really, right?

How about these common ad lingo phrases, are they relevant to all?  0% APR - Bad Credit, No Problem - No payments until July of 2016 - Top Dollar for Your Trade - First Time Buyers Program - We Will Beat any Deal - Zero Down Delivers - This Inventory Will Not Last - Managers Special - We’re Overstocked - Don’t Walk, Run - No Reasonable Offer Refused - All Credit Applications Accepted - 25 Lenders to Choose From - 20% off purple XXXL half helmets etc. 

No way, right? 

The odds of one of the previous mentioned marketing one-liners being relevant to its recipient is less than 5%. Then why are they so common?

Because most dealers are looking at what their competition is doing, which is all wrong, and copying it. 

One of legendary author Napoleon Hill’s great discoveries in his bestselling book, Think and Grow Rich, was to look at what your competition is doing and do the opposite.  

Consider these facts next time you hear your competitors’ radio commercial or see them on TV. 

• 95% of the people hearing or seeing those commercials have zero interest in motorcycles (that’s according to MIC statistics). That’s a lot of waste.

• Of the 5% that do ride and hear the ad, there are big odds against a cold prospect actually converting. 

Rather than waste tens of thousands of dollars trying to attract all new customers at crazy high odds through mass media with gimmicky catch phrases; doesn’t it make more sense to target your previous and existing customers with authentic, relationship building messages and invite them to an event or party at your dealership? 

Most dealers will not do regular monthly events, and this is exactly why you should. 

I was once at a 20 group meeting where all dealers in the room where asked about their most effective marketing. Over half of the room shared the success they had experienced holding some type of event at their dealership. When the moderator asked how many had executed again due to its success, none raised their hand. He asked why and was told, “because it was hard work.”

Back in my dealership days when I first tried events I attempted to do everything myself. From lining up door prizes, picking up the morning donuts and coffee, to remembering the tablecloths, putting up balloons and EZ-ups, etc. It was exhausting.  But eventually, we developed an open house checklist that assigned different tasks to different individuals and departments. We would have a quick manager meeting prior to the event to review the checklist and VOILA. I went from exhausted to standing around eating donuts and drinking coffee, proudly acknowledging how much better this event was than when I tried to do it all myself. 

There is one more secret reason dealers are hesitant to promote events regularly. It’s a little less talked about, and this one has nothing to do with the work load.  Most dealers don’t know the formula for marketing their event in a cost effective manner, and therefore have fear that the party will have a poor turn out if they don’t spend a small fortune. Not even us adults like to throw a party and have no one show up. 

However, there is a proven formula. It’s cost effective and it generates many more benefits than what just happens on the day of the event. This formula eliminates the previous mentioned frustration of sending marketing messages to your list that are not relevant.  It eliminates the waste of mass media.  And, it generates a quality list of authentic leads for every department in the dealership, month-in and month-out. And best of all, it isn’t a one and done, it’s part of a bigger strategy to nurture your biggest asset by touching them 52 to 104 times per year. 

We call this secret formula the ‘Sharp Shooter’ and I’ve only scratched the surface of how we can help you sell more bikes and make more money this spring. You’ve already proven you’re a better operator than your competition, because he didn’t even read this article, now do what he won’t do and pick up the phone and call us now at 877-242-4472 and speak with one of our event marketing experts. 

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

The first day of spring is March 20th. That's only 3.5 weeks away.  Hallelujah! Don't miss an opportunity to ring in the start of the riding season and kickstart your 2nd quarter sales.

Click the image to request a 'Spring Has Sprung' event quote today.

Sharp Shooter Case Study: Harley-Davidson® of Macon

Objective:

Increase market share from competitors and generate more quantifiable leads from the dollars being spent in marketing.

Challenge:

Traditional marketing had always been a challenge for H-D of Macon. In the past, the dealership had depended on radio, billboards and some print advertising to reach new riders. Like many dealers, Brett Sassaman, Marketing Manager and son of owners Greg & Lisa Sassaman, struggled with quantifying the effectiveness of this style of advertising and wasn’t convinced it was working. 

Solution:

To help Brett begin carving off new market share, we identified all the Harley owners who lived within 30 miles of his dealership, but haven’t bought from him. We combined that list with past customers from their Talon who spent money with the dealership in the past four years and also lived within 30 miles of their store. 

Once we identified their ‘Right Audience’, we went after them with the ‘Right Media’. We utilized 12 direct-marketing strategies including direct mail, a recorded call blast, email blasts, social media updates, in-store fliers, in-store signage, a web banner, lead magnet and even more to guarantee the target audience was reached multiple times leading up to the event. We’ve proven through executing thousands of campaigns with over 700 dealerships that this drastically increases response rates. To generate leads, each piece of communication incentivized folks to go online and complete a survey to tell the dealership two pieces of information: 1) First and Last Name, email address and phone number & 2) What they want to buy from the dealership. This typically generates hundreds of leads for not only unit sales, but also parts & accessories, MotorClothes and service as well. Combine this formula with consistency and we are systematically carving off new market share and generating more leads for Brett and the team at H-D of Macon. 

Results:

H-D of Macon has executed three events in three straight months; Black Friday & Chrome Saturday in November, a Naughty List Party in December and a Resolve to Ride More in January. The results have been immediate. Their Black Friday Event was one of the best days at the counter in memory and a record for the dealership! During their Naughty List Party they broke another record with 7 bike deals in one day. As this article goes to print, the Resolve to Ride Campaign has already generated 122 sales opportunities for their individual departments. Below are their last two Campaign Wrap Ups which generated over 450 combined leads including 74 new & used unit leads, 133 parts & accessories leads, 47 service leads and 109 MotorClothes leads. Out of just 2,500 records, their Sharp Shooter Campaigns are averaging close to a 10% response rate, or 10 times the national average for direct mail marketing. 

It's easy to think that closing skills is the most important ingredient in sales, but it's actually the time spent up front with the customer interviewing & investigating, establishing rapport, and building value that inevitably separates the professionals from the amateurs.  Anyone can be an order-taker for the laydown customer, but sales professionals create a sale with customers that weren't really planning to buy today.

Click the image to watch...

A few years ago when we were conducting boot camps or speaking at Dealer Expo, when we talked about online reviews folks were a little skeptical as to their significance.

Fast forward to today, and it’s pretty clear that business (and product) reviews are to be taken very seriously, they have become a part of our culture.

I thought I’d share some key points of the results of the BrightLocal.com 2015 Local Consumer Review Survey that show just how important business reviews are in the minds of your customers.

BrightLocal reports that 92% of those surveyed indicated that they read online reviews for local businesses. That number is up from 88% last year, and 71% back in 2010 when we first started talking about them. The point here is that almost everyone who looks for a business looks to see what others experience with that business has been like. To quote Mr. Trump – “It’s Huge.”

Another interesting fact is that of those who read online reviews for businesses, 80% trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation. The stipulation for this was that the review needed to be perceived as authentic. Fake reviews are usually pretty easy to spot. That said, this statistic is a really big deal. 80% of the people that read reviews about your dealership trust them as much as if one of their friends said it. 

What is the biggest influence in getting someone involved in powersports? The influence of friends and family, according to the MIC. Reviews carry comparable weight in whether they do business with you or your competitor.

Quantity of reviews and star rating are the two things that will grab the attention of a searcher the fastest. Lots of reviews with a high star rating is always going to be a winner. Kind of a no brainer. Here’s another interesting stat that BrightLocal found – 73% of searchers will form an opinion after reading 6 reviews. I’ve never seen a review site of any kind anywhere that didn’t list reviews from the most recent to the oldest, so the 6 most recent reviews need to be good. If one or more of them isn’t, they need to be replaced with good ones in a hurry. That’s what I mean when I say you want to bury bad reviews with good ones. A large number of reviews and a good star rating can get stung if the most recent are not good.

Here’s another stat that is a real eye-opener: 69% of consumers believe that reviews older than three months are no longer relevant. What this means is that even if you have a lot of good reviews, if they are over 90 days old (specifically the last 6 reviews) you could miss out on an opportunity if your competitor has a much lower number of total reviews that are positive and current. 

These findings really highlight the importance of business reviews, and how important it is to properly manage them.

I encourage you to look at your year-end P&L statement and see how much you have spent on all forms of advertising in the past year. Think about how many potential customers you reached with that advertising. Get a round number in mind, and then Google your dealership and look at the reviews that come up. 92% of that number in your head did that too. What did they find? Did that money you spent lead them to a search that shows current reviews that shine a positive light on your dealership, or to old reviews no longer perceived as relevant, or worst case scenario was money spent only for searchers to find bad reviews? I’ve lost count of how many times dealers have spent significant amounts of money on advertising only to have searchers find terrible reviews.

One of the things we talk about in our boot camps (the next one is in March and you should be there, by the way) is annual/lifetime customer value. That number varies based on brands, but it’s safe to use $650/year in gross profit as an average annual customer value. Based on what we’ve looked at regarding reviews and the huge percentage of people that rely on them as much as a personal referral, it’s easy to see how not effectively managing them can cost your dealership dearly.

Very few reviews, bad reviews, and old reviews perceived as no longer relevant all equal lost opportunities and wasted marketing dollars.

So what do I mean when I say they need to be effectively managed? How do you do that?

First, it’s important to have positive reviews. Lots of them. Lots of positive reviews will cover a multitude of sins. If you’re constantly getting new, positive reviews, you will have solved two of the three big review challenges you face. The third is bad reviews. Unfortunately, studies show that unhappy customers are at least 11 times more likely than happy ones to leave you a bad review. In other words, if unmanaged, it’s a lot more likely that searchers are going to see something negative.

What if there was a program that automated the process of harvesting authentic reviews from your past customers? What if that program was able to take those customers that had a less than excellent experience, and rather than getting them to leave a review, had them tell you directly exactly why they thought their experience was less than excellent so that you could correct the problem and save them as a customer (retaining that annual client value)?

Simply looking at what you spent last year on advertising, combined with potential missed opportunities based on few, bad, or old, reviews, it’s pretty easy to see how valuable that program would be. At a few hundred bucks per month, it would easily be the cheapest, most valuable insurance you could buy. 

Can you think of a reason you wouldn’t want to have it, or why you would ever stop doing it? 

Me either. 

Give us a call to see how it works, or go to 

www.powersportsmarketing.com/local-web-dominator.

Talk Soon.

Increase market share from competitors and generate more quantifiable leads from the dollars being spent in marketing. 

Traditional marketing had always been a challenge for H-D of Macon. In the past, the dealership had depended on radio, billboards and some print advertising to reach new riders. Like many dealers, Brett Sassaman, Marketing Manager and son of owners Greg & Lisa Sassaman, struggled with quantifying the effectiveness of this style of advertising and wasn’t convinced it was working. 

To help Brett begin carving off new market share, we identified all the Harley owners who lived within 30 miles of his dealership, but haven’t bought from him. We combined that list with past customers from their Talon who spent money with the dealership in the past four years and also lived within 30 miles of their store. 

Once we identified their ‘Right Audience’, we went after them with the ‘Right Media’. We utilized 12 direct-marketing strategies including direct mail, a recorded call blast, email blasts, social media updates, in-store fliers, in-store signage, a web banner, lead magnet and even more to guarantee the target audience was reached multiple times leading up to the event. We’ve proven through executing thousands of campaigns with over 700 dealerships that this drastically increases response rates. To generate leads, each piece of communication incentivized folks to go online and complete a survey to tell the dealership two pieces of information: 1) First and Last Name, email address and phone number & 2) What they want to buy from the dealership. This typically generates hundreds of leads for not only unit sales, but also parts & accessories, MotorClothes and service as well. Combine this formula with consistency and we are systematically carving off new market share and generating more leads for Brett and the team at H-D of Macon. 

H-D of Macon has executed three events in three straight months; Black Friday & Chrome Saturday in November, a Naughty List Party in December and a Resolve to Ride More in January. The results have been immediate. Their Black Friday Event was one of the best days at the counter in memory and a record for the dealership! During their Naughty List Party they broke another record with 7 bike deals in one day. As this article goes to print, the Resolve to Ride Campaign has already generated 122 sales opportunities for their individual departments. Below are their last two Campaign Wrap Ups which generated over 450 combined leads including 74 new & used unit leads, 133 parts & accessories leads, 47 service leads and 109 MotorClothes leads. 

Black Friday Campaign:

Naughty List Party:

Out of just 2,500 records, their Sharp Shooter Campaigns are averaging close to a 10% response rate, or 10 times the national average for direct mail marketing. 
 

What’s next? By the time you read this, January is in the books and we’ve moved on to February. February is the unofficial kick off to spring. That may sound ridiculous depending on what part of the country you’re in, but it’s true. Come February, your customer base is so sick and tired of months of cold and snow and cabin fever, they want nothing more than to get invited to your dealership for a party. Come February, you’re just a few short weeks away from riding season. The events you did in December and January planted seeds that have been watered and fertilized and are about to explode into a flood of bike sales. Don’t miss out on February. Don’t wait until March, April and May because if you do, you will miss out on sales to your competition.

February brings Mardi Gras, one of the biggest parties of the year, Valentine’s Day, which our clients have proven isn’t just for women and the jewelry industry, Spring Kickoff Parties and so many more reasons to keep your buying base engaged with your dealership. Check out the in

sert for samples of some proven winners in February. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed in the results.

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 request information at www.PowersportsMarketing.com. Happy selling.

My family and I just moved into a new house a couple weeks ago, and I had forgotten how much work it takes to get settled in. I’ve completed a lot of the tasks and ‘honey-dos’ on the inside, so this past weekend I turned my attention to the garage because it always seems to become the gathering spot for everything any time we move.   My tools had been in storage for the past 2 months due to selling our previous house quicker than expected, and everything was a complete mess.  

The garage is really my domain and from home projects to drag cars, I relieve a lot of stress out there. One of my projects involved removing the inline 6-cyclinder from a 1978 Datsun 280Z and replacing it with a high performance 350 small block Chevy motor.  If you ever want to talk drag racing or Chevy engines, I’m your guy. Give me a call. 

Before jumping into the garage on Saturday morning, I sat with my wife after breakfast for a few minutes. I flipped through the channels on our new DISH Network service (unfortunately regular cable or internet isn’t available at my new house – another story for another article) and I came across the movie ‘A Few Good Men’.

It was the courtroom scene where Jack Nicholson screams, “You can’t handle the truth!” 

That movie, and particularly that scene, is one of those ‘stop what you’re doing and watch this’ when you come across it. My 14-year-old son was sitting with us and he asked why it was so good. I tried to explain the gravity of the scene, but didn’t do it justice. So, I told him that we’d just have to watch the movie together. 

There are so many good movies with attention grabber scenes just like this that would cause a person to stop what they’re doing and watch. From Braveheart, Star Wars, and The Godfather, to Lethal Weapon, Saving Private Ryan, Fast & Furious, Matrix (I’m dating myself here) and so many more.  As I was thinking through these, I began to consider how our upcoming Spring Break Out Marketing Boot Camp is also a ‘stop what you’re doing and pay attention’ matter as well. 

However, unlike a movie or movie scene that grabs you and doesn’t ever make a hill of beans difference in your life, our upcoming Marketing Boot Camp will dramatically change your business.  In  fact,  don’t  just  take  my  word for it, read the reviews at www.PowersportsMarketingReviews.com and you’ll see that this Boot Camp has impacted the operation and profitability of dealerships all across the country. Scroll through the reviews and check out where dozens of dealers have highlighted just how impactful their experience with us was. 

We’ll be covering:

•The True Value of a Customer & Why You Must Understand this Metric

•Internet Marketing (SEO & SEM Best Practices)

•Marketing Case Studies that Really Work

•The Four Ways to Grow Your Business

•Your Dealership’s Unique Selling Proposition – Why Should Customers Buy From You Instead of the Competition?

•Lead Generation Advertising vs. Image Advertising

•How the ‘4-Legged Stool’ can earn you money

•And, much, much more...

If you’d like to uncover how to make your marketing drive good traffic in to the dealership, sell more units and make more money, you can’t afford to miss this Boot Camp.  It’s a FUN, interactive event... not an information dump where you’re overwhelmed with knowledge, but can’t implement when you get back to the store. Leaving this event you’ll have a road map to implement your 100% quantifiable direct response marketing strategy when you get back to the dealership and ensure a more successful 2016.

When: March 7th - 9th (fly in on a Monday and out on a Wednesday)

Where: Peachtree City Wyndham (near Atlanta, GA)

Cost: $349 for first attendee - $149 for each  additional person

Just like a messy garage needs a good purging and organizing from time-to-time, your marketing needs it too. There is no better time to get fired-up about implementing good marketing than in March. Stop what you’re doing and go to PowersportsMarketing.com/Boot-Camp to sign up today. See you there.   

 It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of direct mail. It’s tangible, it’s personal, and it just plain works (when properly executed). However, I’m a bigger fan of “fishing with multiple poles in the water.” One of the biggest mistakes made with dealership marketing is using one type of media as a stand-alone advertisement.

You’ve heard the story of how synergy works, right? Steven Covey gives an example of synergy by explaining that if one horse can pull 1,500 pounds and another horse can pull another 1,500 pounds, when you hook them together they can pull over 5,000 pounds. This is exactly how your media works. 

The official phrase used by stuffy ad agencies is ‘integrated media.’ This simply means to deploy multiple different media methods that work together to promote the same message and desired outcome creating a synergistic effect with the results of your campaign. The opposite of this is to deploy one-and-done advertisements or to use multiple media with each one promoting its own message and desired outcome. Neither are effective. 

The right way to start a professional marketing program for your dealership begins with a marketing calendar that lays out the foundation for the dates and themes of your marketing. Once you’ve decided on your overall strategy you can then create a marketing checklist that gets everyone in your dealership involved in the execution. This creates buy-in from your team and reduces the stress of the D.P. or G.M. trying to do everything himself (which, by the way, is the reason most plans aren’t consistently followed through with).

And there is one media that your dealership should be using every single week to execute your plan that bolts on complimentary to any other media you are using (especially direct mail). 

Email. 

Email is here to stay, and without a doubt the most powerful marketing tool available today for dealers. I realize that’s a bold claim, but check this out: 

A four-year study of over 72 million customers across 14 different industries revealed 40 times as many purchases came from email links compared to Facebook and Twitter (Source: Custora).

This seems pretty logical to me. People use social media as entertainment, and as a way to follow their friends and family or even celebrities. But when it’s time to take care of business, most of us login to our email.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, email leads the way on media return on investment by nearly double any other media with a 41 to 1 ROI.

The fact is, everyone with a real job, real income, and decent credit uses email. According to McKinsey, those in the workforce spend about 2.5 hours a day using email. And with the technology of smart phones improving the email experience, it isn’t limited to just time at the office. Members of the workforce are looking at emails during breakfast, lunch and dinner, too. 

So while there are plenty of workers who don’t use Facebook or Twitter (like me and many others) the same can’t be said for email. 

Email is the preferred method of communication across all age groups according to Merkle. 

But unfortunately, very few dealers are truly leveraging the power of email due to the clumsy nature of creating a quality looking email, and providing quality content. 

Have you ever sat in front of your computer and pulled up your email system to craft a quality marketing email and ended up staring at a blank screen not knowing which direction to go? 

Part of the challenge for the dealer is that most commercial grade email systems have been designed for the butcher, baker, and candlestick maker, and the themes and templates provided are useless. 

So, what a lot of dealers now do is copy and paste a plethora of different images and banners into an email. And while this can provide okay content, it is still under utilizing this powerful media. For the same reason your accessory department should be merchandised with matching fixtures and gondolas, your email should be tied together with an overall theme and graphics so it doesn’t look like you’re having a yard sale.

The other challenge is, going back to the previously mentioned marketing calendar, you have to have a plan that integrates email into your overall marketing strategy. 

To solve this challenge, we’ve created Firestorm™, the industry’s first motorcycle dealer specific email marketing solution built from the ground up by our team of programmers to integrate and compliment your overall marketing plan. Essentially, we’ve built the marketing calendar for your dealership right into the system, and you can now create and deploy professionally crafted emails that integrate with your store merchandising, direct mail, social media, etc. and are proven to get quality results in just minutes. 

For more information on our new Firestorm™ email system, contact us at 877-242-4472 or schedule a free demo of the program at www.firestormemail.com. 
 

 You either have, or shortly will be receiving one of our 2016 Marketing Calendars. This is an amazing tool that’s designed to help you plan your marketing for the year. 

Each month the calendar lists out all the popular holidays that you can use to increase response. That may seem simple, but holidays should be an important part of your focus.  Have you ever heard of the Collier Concept?

Robert Collier was an early 20th century author that was well published in the ‘self-help’ niche. He was also a master salesman on paper, and one of his greatest revelations came in a book he wrote, “The Robert Collier Letter Book.” One of his primary principles is that in all your marketing you have to, “Tap into the conversation already going on in your prospect’s head.” 

If you’ve followed my past articles, you know I’ve referenced Dan Kennedy several times, and I consider him to be the Godfather of Direct Response Marketing. He’s known for doing an exercise where he’d have students write out a description of their favorite TV character. Most people have no problem filling up a whole page.

Then, on a separate piece of paper he’d have them write a full page about their ideal customer/prospect. Most folks can’t get past a couple sentences. This exercise demonstrates just how difficult it is to write copy that relates to everyone. That’s why holidays are so important – everyone is impacted by them.

When you tie events to holidays that everyone is familiar with (tap into the conversation going on in their heads), people respond at a higher level. Therefore, you can get more traffic in the store, and sell more products.

Along these same lines, it’s essential that you substantiate the reason for your marketing. If you’re having an event or a sale, you have to validate the ‘why’, or your marketing will be less impactful. Folks in today’s world are more educated and skeptical than they’ve ever been, and you don’t want them to think ‘you’re just trying to sell them something’. 

I mentioned having a ‘sale’ above, but I want to be clear that I don’t recommend them. While they’re extremely popular, promoting a sale/discount actually makes your marketing incredibly less effective, and it’s a race to the bottom. 

If you sent direct mail to 5,000 customers promoting new & used inventory specials,  only a very small percentage of that 5,000 are in ‘buy a bike’ mode, so you’re not tapping into the conversation going on in their heads. You can actually train customers and prospects to ignore your marketing because it doesn’t relate to them. It’s not the conversation going on their head right now.

Even if you were to include a discount for each department, you’re still alienating well over 90% of the folks you’re marketing to and missing out on a great opportunity to build loyalty with them. 

In the calendar we also provide several samples of the creative we’ve used for our Sharp Shooter program during each month. Whether you choose a theme that’s listed, or we create a custom design for you, we want you to know that our team of marketing experts is ready to generate a positive R.O.I. on your marketing dollars. We’ll generate traffic in the store so you can sell. We’ll also create a list of responses/leads who give you their contact information and tell you what they want to buy. 

Be sure you utilize this powerful tool. It’s a roadmap to growing your business and having a prosperous 2016. 

If you don’t already have one of Powersports Marketing’s 2016 Marketing Calendars, call us at 1-877-242-4472 right now and we’ll send you one at no charge.
 

ATLANTA, GA – January 25, 2016 – Powersports Marketing officially congratulates our 2015 ‘Voice of Customer’ Excellence winners!  Earning this prestigious award is quite an accomplishment and is issued from the ultimate authority: the dealerships’ actual customers.

The 2015 winners include:

• National Dealer of the Year – Wolverine Harley-Davidson® - Clinton Township, MI

• Region 1 Winner – Ronnie’s Mail Order – New Ashford, MA

• Region 2 Winner – Augusta Harley-Davidson® - Augusta, GA

• Region 3 Winner – Indianapolis Southside Harley-Davidson® - Indianapolis, IN

• Region 4 Winner –Thunder Mountain Harley-Davidson® - Loveland, CO

• Rookie of the Year (Less than 6 months on the program) – Kissimmee Motorsports – Kissimmee, FL
   

This annual competition is scored on the dealers’ Repeat and Referral Score (RRS). The RRS is a dynamic measurement determined by using an algorithm that considers the Dealers Voice of Customer (reviews & feedbacks), star rating, trending, and action on responding and handling those reviews and feedbacks.   

Winners will all receive a variety of prizes, including premium placement on the national consumer website: www.PowersportsDealerLocator.com.  Additionally, the national winner will receive a complimentary Sharp Shooter Event Marketing Campaign valued at $5,000.

Powersports dealers may contact Powersports Marketing at 877-242-4472 to inquire about PDL Certification, the Powersports Dealer Locator website, the Repeat and Referral Score, or how to compete in the 2016 ‘Voice of Customer’ Excellence Award program.
 

About Powersports Marketing

Powersports Marketing™ www.powersportsmarketing.com and Powersports Dealer Locator www.powersportsdealerlocator.com are subsidiaries of Dealership University™ and specialize in training and targeted marketing solutions for Powersports dealers of all sizes throughout the U.S. With solutions ranging from Direct mail and E-mail Marketing to Search Engine Marketing, Online Reputation Management and Social Media Marketing.  For more information, please visit: www.powersportsmarketing.com.

###

Media contacts:

Tia Robinson

Powersports Marketing

877-242-4472 ext. 110

trobinson@powersportsmarketing.com

Rod Stuckey

Powersports Marketing

877-242-4472 ext. 102

rstuckey@powersportsmarketing.com

Welcome to 2016 and issue 79 of the Ultra Marketing Machine newsletter, a.k.a. the Yellow Paper. Happy New Year!  It’s hard to believe we’ve been mailing this for over 6 years straight, and I’m proud to say we have no plans of using the trendy reason of going green as an excuse to cut costs, and turn this into a digital publication. Right here, right now, if the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise, I resolve to keep this newsletter in real print, on real paper, bringing you the best real world dealership marketing best practices in real ink for another 6 years and beyond. 

I do realize that 10 or 20 years from now, the decision makers in dealerships may prefer digital consumption of this content. But today, the Dealer Principals, GM’s, and readers I speak with appreciate the tangible product. And these are the primary folks we aim to please. I bring this up because I see a dangerous marketing trend emerging with dealer marketing. 

It seems that many of the OEM’s are so busy trying to attract the next generation of customers who currently have low income, no credit, and a limited desire for the product, that they’re ignorantly unaware they are beginning to repel their existing customers, who by the way, have solid income, great credit, and high desire for the product. 

If 90% of my client base is made up of baby boomers and Generation X’ers who appreciate this newsletter in print, and 10% are millennials who feel we should deliver this via Snap Chat, I’d be pretty unwise to focus a disproportionate amount of resources on the 10% rather than on the 90%, wouldn’t I?

Here at Powersports Marketing we’ve long championed the proven data that clearly states the number one way we grow this industry and create new riders is through the influence of friends and family. Somewhere along the way, the big dumb ad agencies hired by the OEM’s have convinced their clients that spending millions of dollars marketing to Non-Riders, Minorities, and Millennials is going to grow this industry and set them up for success 20 years from now. Then in a trickledown effect, the OEM’s push programs on you, the dealer, persuading you to advertise to these segments. I say hogwash. 

Motorcycle riders are passion based enthusiasts. My wife and daughters love horses, my father loves airplanes, my good friend Chris loves deep sea fishing, many of my colleagues here at the office love golfing, and Tory and Brad love Muscle Cars. All of the previous mentioned have two things in common. One, they are passionate about their hobbies, and two, their involvement in their chosen hobby is a result of the influence of friends and family, not the result of an advertisement. 

If you want consistent growth for the New Year and beyond, I strongly urge you to market with laser precision to your buying base. Your buying base is made up of two groups. One, your existing customer list. Those who have given you money in the past are the most likely to give you money again in the future. Did you know 68% of lost customers discontinue shopping with a business because of indifference. We call these lost customers “quiet migrators,” they just drift off, because they really aren’t given a compelling reason to hang around. Over time they develop a feeling of apathy, as if the business doesn’t really care about them. 

When you send one-to-one, relationship driven, compelling marketing messages to your customers and ‘touch’ them 52 to 104 times per year, and then back that up with a consistent and positive in-dealership experience (greeting customers by name, etc.), you begin to create raving fans who share their experience online with reviews and offline with friends and family. 

The second group, or part of your buying base, are customers who ride what you sell, or a competitor’s product, live in your backyard, but have never done business with you. We call these conquest customers. 

These are the two ways you increase your customer retention and grow new market share.

Unfortunately, ad agencies, and many OEM’s don’t understand that dealerships have a limited budget to spend on marketing, and that limited budget must be spent in the most impactful and effective ways possible. Spending a significant portion of your limited budget going after minorities and non-riders is futile.  

My motive for creating awareness over this dangerous trend is not all self-serving. As a former Dealer Principal, I speak from experience. I wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on mass media trying to convert non-riders into riders. It was an expensive lesson and one that I’ll never forget. I’m in no way opposed to looking into the future and strategizing over the best methods for keeping our industry strong for decades to come, but not at the expense of what is best for feeding my family today. Enjoy the rest of this issue!

For more information on how Powersports Marketing can help you grow your buying base in 2016 contact us at 877-242-4472 or visit us online at www.PowersportsMarketing.com.

Quaid Harley-Davidson is a family owned and operated Harley dealership in Loma Linda, California. They’ve been living out their non-conformist, rule breaking, out-of-the box passion for the Harley brand for almost 20 years. They share their zeal for life and their community by being actively involved in the happiness of their customers and the betterment of their community. Sales Director, Brandon Quaid, knows that the entire Quaid Harley-Davidson team exudes this passion and that their customers reap the benefits of that. But, he wanted a way to have all the happy customers that visit the dealership share about their experience, to help continue to grow the herd of happy Quaid H-D customers.

Brandon decided to give the Google Referral Program through the Local Web Dominator a try. This program invites customers to leave a review on their custom review site(www.quaidharleydavidsonlomalindareviews.com), then after doing so, they are automatically asked to share that review on Google. The process is automated, so folks on the sales floor and at the counter can continue offering great customer service without having to remember to beg for reviews on Google.

The results for Quaid H-D are incredible! In just over two months, their Google business page has grown from 18 reviews with a 3.9 star rating, to 51 reviews with a 4.3 star rating. Additionally, they have 127 reviews from happy customers on their custom review site. That’s a 185% increase in reviews in just 2 months! That’s also a conversion rate from the custom review site over to Google of 26%! Brandon and his team are off to a great start. At this pace, they will be the obvious dealership of choice for anyone looking for a Harley dealer in the Loma Linda area.Want to generate that kind of increase in your Google reviews? Imaging how that would make your business look on Google compared to your nearest competitor. How do you rank on Google right now compared to other dealers in your market? Give us a call today to talk about the Google Review Referral program through the Local Web Dominator program: 877-242-4472.d.