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Built exclusively for Powersports dealers, the Firestorm email system makes sending powerful, creative emails a lot easier.

ATLANTA, Ga. – January 13, 2016 – Powersports Marketing™, the industry’s leading powersports training and marketing company, is excited to announce the rollout of their revolutionary Firestorm email system.  Firestorm is built exclusively for Powersports dealers, and is the industry’s first and only done-for-you, turn-key email program. 

Through the Firestorm email system, dealers can choose from dozens of fully-designed themed templates that include real, powersports specific, editable ad copy within each section, or they have the option to select from standard pre-designed header graphics only.  In addition, all the sample images included in the email are specific to the OEM sold at dealership, and each dealer receives their own custom designed email header graphic.

According to Rod Stuckey, CEO of Powersports Marketing, “Email marketing is here to stay, however the effectiveness of most dealerships’ current email marketing has much room for improvement due to the clumsy nature of non-powersports specific email software.  Because we built this system from the ground up for the motorcycle dealer, we’ve been able to make sending kick ass emails quick and easy.”

This new email program provides a level of powerful content at the click of a button never before available in this industry, while allowing dealers to add, remove, and edit the pre-designed email sections. Dealers don’t get locked into canned, stuffy cookie-cutter messages. And most importantly, unlike other email systems, Firestorm doesn’t try to be all things to all people. The graphics in Firestorm are designed specifically for powersports enthusiasts by some of the best graphic designers in powersports advertising. 

Firestorm provides dealerships with the best of both worlds: cool creative graphics with the convenience and ease-of-use of an editable templated email.

Dealers can sign up for a FREE demo of the new Firestorm email system by visiting www.FirestormEmail.com or by calling 877-242-4472.

About Powersports Marketing

Powersports Marketing™, a subsidiary of Dealership University, develops and executes 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, Powersports Marketing helps dealers deliver the right message to the right target audience via the best media method at just the right time.  For more information, please visit: www.powersportsmarketing.com.

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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

“The No B.S. Approach to Marketing in the New Year.”

ATLANTA, GA – January 13, 2016 – Powersports Marketing™, a subsidiary of Dealership University™, is hosting their semi-annual, 3-day, marketing boot camp.  This event will be Monday, March 7th – Wednesday, March 9th in Peachtree City, Georgia.

They’ll be combining their experience of partnering with over 700 dealerships, and a decade of operating a 4-store dealer group, to get to the heart of what really works in marketing for the Powersports industry and beyond.

Plus, there will be an open discussion with leading Powersports dealers from across North America, highlighting what works for them.

According to Rod Stuckey, CEO of Powersports Marketing, “We’re going to stick with what works and provide our usual ‘No B.S.’ approach to marketing that our clients have grown to expect from us.  Our goal is to educate dealers on how and why it’s important to focus on quantifiable direct-response marketing rather than branding and image marketing that can’t be measured.”

The Boot Camp will provide dealers with the upbeat, straight-talking training style that the Powersports industry has been used to receiving from Powersports Marketing for the past 10 years.  It’s geared towards Dealer Principals and their Marketing Managers, and will focus on real world Powersports dealer specific best practices and case studies that have proven successful in over 700 dealerships nationwide.  Topics will include both online and offline marketing systems, tools, and strategies that help dealers sell more bikes and make more money.

For more information, or to enroll in the 2016 Spring Break Out Marketing Boot Camp, dealers can call 877-242-4472 or go to www.PowersportsMarketing.com/BootCamp.

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

The Big Chill!

Host a 'Done for You' 'Big Chill' Celebration at your dealership based around the winter sledding and ATV season. This 1st quarter is this perfect time to get your customers excited about riding season.

Click the image to get more details or to reserve your spot today.

Local Web Dominator Case Study: Kissimmee Motorsports

Objective:

Jeff Lampe, General Manager of Kissimmee Motorsports, knows that he has a passionate team of Powersports enthusiasts at his dealership. And, he takes a lot of pride in making sure that Kissimmee Motorsports offers the Central Florida area the best shopping experience around. So, he wanted to find a way to ensure that potential customers knew that they could expect 5-star service every time they visited the dealership.

Solution:

When Jeff signed up for the Local Web Dominator, they integrated their Lightspeed account to allow the program to automatically request reviews from anyone who had recent transactions. And that is where most dealers stop, but not Jeff. He took a very engaged, active approach by taking advantage of the ‘Business Reply Cards’ provided in the POP Kit. He implemented a friendly internal competition among his staff and compensated the team member who got the most Business Reply Cards completed by happy customers.

Results:

The results of this active approach to review acquisition are numerous: Increased email capture, employee engagement, employee recognition, boosted morale, etc. By having customers complete the business reply cards, they also provide their email address which Jeff can download as a spreadsheet and add to his future marketing efforts. Not to mention, the critical employee engagement and ownership of the review acquisition efforts. In less than 3 months, Kissimmee Motorsports has earned 378 reviews on their custom review site: www.mykissimmeemotorsportsreviews.com and his Google + page increased from a 3.9 star rating with 16 reviews to a 4.5 star rating with 43 reviews.

Now it’s much easier for potential customers to see that Jeff and his team are committed to quality customer service from a passionate, knowledgeable staff.

Want to generate additional unit sales from a steady stream of leads to keep your sales team busy as we close out the 3rd quarter of the year? Give us a call at 877-242-4472 and we’ll show you how to get started.

SHARP SHOOTER BOOK & TRAINING PROGRAM

Our FREE book program supplements the current Sharp Shooter campaign training we offer each week.  When you sign up for a Sharp Shooter campaign, we’ll train your staff to be ready for the event with our live ‘Campaign Kick-Off’ webinar.   View the training times and log in details by visiting our Training Calendar here.

In addition to getting your team motivated to provide outstanding service to your customers during your event, dealers who attend the Campaign Kick-Off Training prior to their event will receive one FREE motivating business/life book each month they attend.

Following is the list of FREE books for each month:

At Powersports Marketing, we have a Book of the Month Club. The entire sales team reads one book per month focusing on sales, business or self-development. Our December book is called Fanatical Prospecting, by Jeb Blount. Jeb says, “Miss even a single day of prospecting and you will pay for it in the near future. Miss a week, and you will destroy a month of sales.” 

Many Powersports Dealers fail to catch Jeb’s point with regards to their marketing because they fail to plan. They end up shooting from the hip and getting sucked into lengthy Radio, TV, Billboard and/or Newspaper contracts that claim to start their business on fire. 

What ends up happening is they fail to prospect for months or even an entire year because 97% of their advertising funds are hitting people who don’t ride, probably never will ride, and even if they fall into $20,000 they’re not all of a sudden going to walk into their dealership and buy a motorcycle. The vast majority of the 3% of riders who exist in their backyard are missing their message due to technology like satellite radio, Bluetooth compatible vehicles that stream internet radio, DVR and the internet.

So they don’t prospect, because they aren’t talking to their buying base. They’re not calling, mailing and emailing consistently to drive qualified traffic and generate an on-going pipeline of leads for each of their departments. Without a solid marketing plan to depend on, they depend on the weather, market and economy. 

Your plan for 2016 must include a consistent, multi-touch marketing program that targets your dealership’s buying base. These are made up of two groups of customers 1) Past sales, service and parts customers and 2) Conquest Customers, those who ride what you sell, live in your backyard, but have never bought from you. 

This should be the first step in planning your 2016 Marketing Calendar and we will help you with a FREE Market Analysis. We’ll determine where the majority of your sales come from in a radius around your dealership, then identify every past customer and conquest customer that own what you sell in that area. If the majority of your sales comes from within 30 miles of your dealership, once we’ve done this, you’ll effectively be marketing to every real opportunity you have to sell a unit in your backyard. With hundreds of existing campaign options and the ability to create custom campaigns, 2016 could be your best year yet.

You’d be amazed by the number of dealers upset about flat or declining numbers for years, but who continue to use the same marketing mix they have every year since the Bears last won the Superbowl. Those same dealers often tell me some of their biggest marketing challenges are 1) Quantifying the effectiveness of their marketing & 2) Getting a better Return On Investment.

You know what the definition of insanity is? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If you haven’t put your marketing plan in place yet for 2016, ask yourself the following questions: How are my sales year over year? What does my marketing mix look like? Can I quantify my results? And, am I satisfied with those results? If sales are stagnant and the answer to the last two questions are ‘No’ then it’s time to ask, “What changes am I going to make with my 2016 Marketing Plan?” 

Make this year the year you’re finally going to make the change. Join the list of over 700 dealerships who have used the Sharp Shooter Program to reach their Right Target Audience through the Right Media Channels with the Right Message at just the Right Time to grow their business.

Wolverine’s one of those dealers who plan their marketing out well in advance with multiple dealership events each month. For those of you who don’t think you can sell bikes and drive traffic with snow on the ground, check out what George did at Wolverine H-D last January 19th:
“I fed over 780 people one Saturday and had well over 1,000 people through the door. Rolled 6 units and planted a lot of seeds. It was incredible!”

The Sharp Shooter Program drove 1227 people to their custom URL with 1037 completing the survey.  Below is a snapshot of those results, which included 123 responses interested in upgrading their bike.

Those are incredible results for a dealership in any part of the country. However, the results on the day of the event are a happy by-product of following a consistent marketing plan, touching your buying base 52-104 times per year so that you can increase customer retention and carve off market share to grow your business quantifiably.

Four years ago they canceled $250,000 of advertising and started doing one Sharp Shooter per month. 2 years ago, they started doing 2 per month. In 4 years, they’ve grown from 600 units $11 million to 1200+ units, $30 million+ because they’re systematically touching their buying base over 104 times per year, and saving a ton of money in advertising.

For more information on the Sharp Shooter Program or to get started with your FREE Market Analysis to begin planning 2016 call me on my direct line 877-242-4472 ext: 112 or chat us up at www.powersportsmarketing.com. Happy New Year!

OBJECTIVE:
Jeff Lampe, General Manager of Kissimmee Motorsports, knows that he has a passionate team of Powersports enthusiasts at his dealership. And, he takes a lot of pride in making sure that Kissimmee Motorsports offers the Central Florida area the best shopping experience around. So, he wanted to find a way to ensure that potential customers knew that they could expect 5-star service every time they visited the dealership.
 

SOLUTION:
When Jeff signed up for the Local Web Dominator, they integrated their Lightspeed account to allow the program to automatically request reviews from anyone who had recent transactions. And that is where most dealers stop, but not Jeff. He took a very engaged, active approach by taking advantage of the ‘Business Reply Cards’ provided in the POP Kit. He implemented a friendly internal competition among his staff and compensated the team member who got the most Business Reply Cards completed by happy customers.

RESULTS:
The results of this active approach to review acquisition are numerous: Increased email capture, employee engagement, employee recognition, boosted morale, etc. By having customers complete the business reply cards, they also provide their email address which Jeff can download as a spreadsheet and add to his future marketing efforts. Not to mention, the critical employee engagement and ownership of the review acquisition efforts. In less than 3 months, Kissimmee Motorsports has earned 378 reviews on their custom review site: www.mykissimmeemotorsportsreviews.com and his Google + page increased from a 3.9 star rating with 16 reviews to a 4.5 star rating with 43 reviews.

Now it’s much easier for potential customers to see that Jeff and his team are committed to quality customer service from a passionate, knowledgeable staff.
 

Want to generate additional unit sales from a steady stream of leads to keep your sales team busy as we close out the 3rd quarter of the year? Give us a call at 877-242-4472 and we’ll show you how to get started.

If you haven’t already picked up on the fact that I’m a huge Chick-fil-a fan... I am.  I’m not sure what they put in their food that has hooked me so bad, but I eat there multiple times each week.  This morning I ate a chicken, egg, and cheese biscuit with a large coffee from there. Man, it was delicious.

Two years ago my family and I moved closer to the Powersports Marketing facility. Jokingly, Brad Cannon, who writes the Digital Marketing article in this newsletter, asked me if I had given the owner of my local Chick-fil-a fair warning that his sales would be dropping because I was moving. 

This year, I was the first person to be invited by my current local Chick-fil-a to join the new A-List customer VIP program that Chick-fil-a rolled out. With it I get special perks, coupons, VIP only family events, etc. 

I do eat there a lot, but it’s not just the food that keeps me coming back. It’s their people. I’m always amazed at Chick-fil-a’s ability to find and keep good employees. I’ve never, at any Chick-fil-a, encountered someone who didn’t seem to care. They are careful to hire the right people, and they continually train them to get better.  

The staff seems to care about doing a good job. They quickly learn my name when I come in, they make my family feel welcome, so I continue to give them business.  

Chick-fil-a sends me direct mail and email on a regular basis, and because I am an enthusiast of their business I pay greater attention to their marketing. I get 2 to 4 emails each month, and 1 to 2 direct mail pieces. Sometimes they send more of each. This quantity is not too much because, as weird as it sounds, I’ve become a bit of an enthusiast. They’ve developed affinity with me, and could actually send me more marketing. 

My family and I also eat at Taco Bell from time to time, and it’s a different story. Is Taco Bell a bad restaurant? Not at all. I know what to expect with the food, and sometimes have a craving for it. I also know what to expect from the staff. It seems that in every Taco Bell I’ve visited there’s a feeling of apathy or indifference on behalf of the employees. I can’t think of a time I’ve received ‘bad’ customer service, they’re just indifferent and don’t care whether I come back or not. I’m just an order.

Taco Bell never sends me marketing. They sit back and wait, hoping at some point I’ll have the craving and visit again. 

Which of these 2 do you want to be?  I can promise you that building affinity with your buying base (past customers and riders in your market area who have never done business with you) will always lead to additional sales and profit. 

Building affinity starts with good marketing. You should be touching your buying base 52 to 104 times per year with direct mail, email, phone calls, and more. When you market to your buying base consistently they also become more loyal. In fact, I’ll rob a sentence from last month’s article: “Your customers are only as loyal to you as you are good at marketing to them!” 

So, the answer to the question at the top of the page is 52 to 104 times per year (which is once or twice each week) is ideal. There is a big caveat though… ONLY market when you have a good message. In other words, don’t just send an email because you’re supposed to. Have something to say.

That’s where our Sharp Shooter program comes in. It’s a Done-For-You solution that includes multiple touches to your buying base. They respond with their name, email, phone number, and tell you what they are in the market for right now.  Pretty cool stuff.  Call 1-877-242-4472 for more info, or chat with us online at www.PowersportsMarketing.com.
 

 
‘Tis the season to be thankful. So, I’d like to extend my gratitude to the Dealer Principals and Marketing Managers who attended our recently completed Fall Harvest Boot Camp. I’d also like to say thanks to my valued teammates for all of the hard work behind the scenes that goes into making these events successful. 

We covered real world dealership case studies, Annual Customer Value, online and off-line media, and as always, how and why all dealership marketing must include all four legs of the stool or it will falter. Those four legs being:

1.    Right Message
2.    Right Media
3.    Right Market
4.    Right Time

This may sound pretty basic, but in reality, to execute properly, it’s quite advanced. For example: I grew up with a friend whose family owns a local clothing store. I was a regular customer there for 20+ years.

But in the last few years, I’ve begun to gravitate away from buying at their store. They didn’t do anything to upset me, but I’ve just been slowly lured away by their competitors (without any real conscious awareness of it). Thinking back, it started when I was in a pinch for a suit prior to a travel engagement and received a mail piece from the local Jos. A. Bank promoting a compelling special offer. It was the right message, at the right time and with no regular communication from my local guys I was feeling indifferent about where I shopped. Then, the last couple of years since studying the massive rise in popularity from Amazon and Zappos I decided to give ordering a pair of shoes online a try (against my natural skepticism) and was pleasantly surprised by my experience. 

Eventually, I downloaded the Amazon app on my phone, and got in the habit of quickly ordering things as I needed them without my normal procrastination involved in visiting a retailer. Two weeks ago, while dumping the holding tanks in my RV, I sprung a pinhole leak in a drain hose (yuck). I clicked on my smartphone app and had a new one on the way within two minutes, and it was at my house by the time I’d returned from my road trip. 

So anyway, a couple of days ago I get a “Happy Holidays” postcard in the mail from my friend’s local clothing store. First of all it seemed kinda weird to receive because I hadn’t heard from them in so long. But, somewhat flattered that they’d reached out, I picked it up to see what my old friends had been up to. I immediately noticed it was addressed to ‘Current Resident.’ That felt a little impersonal seeing how I know that I’m in their database and they should at least know who I am. Oh well, they’ve forgotten who I am. No big deal. I was still curious to see if they had the same team in place. Since the son, Tim, was about my age and should be in charge by now, I thought he may be up for saying a few words about what was going on. Also, Brad has a guy there named Stan he always asks for that had worked there forever. I wonder if he’s still there…I dunno, the copy didn’t reveal. So, uncompelled by the holiday graphic and a pictures of clothes with very little additional content, I tossed it in the trash with little thought. 

But later, I was thinking about the four legs of the stool, and why there were multiple flaws in the execution of my old buddy’s holiday mailer. Primarily revolving around number one, message, and number three, market. Regarding the message, the lack of personalization, i.e. Dear Rod, or Happy Holidays Rod and Ashley (my lovely wife), illustrated they weren’t up to speed on the capabilities of today’s digital printers (or were too cheap). But more importantly, the message was weaker than circus lemonade, because it was selling things rather than the experience. This is a family-owned company who has been in this community for decades and they have a great story to share. They have many advantages that the big box giants and mega e-tailers can’t compete with. Like calling me by my name, providing service from a staff who cares, asking about my family and friends, etc. They are capable of providing an EXPERIENCE not just selling widgets.

The next big flaw was the market they mailed to. I know this was an every door direct mailer because it was addressed to “current resident.” Why would you send a generic message to everyone, when you could send a compelling message to your existing customer base who’ve given you money in the past? They are the ones most likely to give you money again in the future. 

This is one of the great divides in business, especially Powersports: Selling ‘things’ versus selling ‘the experience of’ and selling to anybody versus selling to the right somebody. 

Don’t let your dealership make this mistake during the holiday season. Too many small businesses are “Getting Amazoned” because their marketing is not nurturing relationships and selling the unique experiences they have to offer.

If you’d like more information on one-to-one direct marketing contact us today at 877-242-4472.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Rod Stuckey

P.S. – be on the lookout for our Spring Break Out Boot Camp dates coming soon.

 I just got back from our Fall Marketing Boot Camp, and it was at least as good as I had hoped it would be.

We had a room full of dealers, as well as a couple of OEM reps and that made for some really good back and forth during the sessions. Don’t take my word for it though, head over to www.powersportsmarketingreviews.com to see what the attendees thought. You can see reviews of previous Boot Camps there as well. 

If you haven’t been to one, keep on the lookout because we’re doing it again in March and you won’t want to miss it.

As I mentioned last month, the search marketing (AdWords) session is always pretty popular and there tends to be a TON of questions every time I lead it – both during the session and after. 

AdWords is an interesting marketing method because the IDEA is very simple, but the EXECUTION is extremely complex. 

There are so many variables to take into consideration, from keyword match types, bidding strategies, geography, time of day, day of week, conversion strategies, and a host of other things, that in a dealership environment it just makes sense to find an outside company to partner up with to handle it. Not doing so can be very expensive.

Trouble is, as one attendee said to me, “This stuff is like black hat and magic wand kind of stuff, I don’t really understand it and it’s hard to get good explanations.”

So how do you find that partner you can trust with a form of advertising that is difficult to understand? Interestingly enough, this is how many people feel when choosing a mechanic.

One of the things we do in our dealerships to show potential customers that we are qualified is to hang our mechanics certifications on the wall in the service department for people to see. It’s always good to have a wall full of certificates, right? Look for those certifications with potential AdWords partners as well. You can look up Google certifications through the Google Partners Program. If the company you are considering is not a Google Partner, cross them off your list. They have not exhibited the skills necessary to successfully understand and set up Google AdWords.

See how many Google certifications they have. It gets really easy to see who is working in their mom’s basement. 

Also, take a look at other certifications they have, this speaks to how seriously they take staying current in an environment that is constantly changing. Ask how much they spend annually on training and how much they manage in Google ad spend. This can be very telling as well. How many clients do they have? How many of those clients are in the powersports business – remember that this is a niche industry, and not everyone understands the lingo and culture.

If you research Powersports Marketing, you’ll find that we currently hold 13 Google certifications (they have to be re-tested every 12 months), and at least twice that many certifications from SEMPO (Search Marketing Professionals Organization) and Cardinal Path (the only company to be officially endorsed by Google for AdWords and Analytics training in the world). We spend tens of thousands of dollars per year on classroom training, and manage over a million dollars per year in ad spend for hundreds of clients in powersports. It also helps that all of our leadership either ran dealerships or came from OEMs.

Additionally, it’s a little difficult to reach our digital marketing team on Thursdays between 3:00-4:00 EST. That’s when we have our weekly conference call with Google to discuss new strategies, features, and tactics. We began them after Google paid to have two of our team members fly out to Mountain View and visit the Googleplex.

Once you have established that the company you are considering is qualified, you then need to make sure they are a good fit. What I mean is, you need to work together on a month-to-month basis to monitor your results, start new initiatives, and stop ineffective ones.

To do this, there are a couple of foundational elements that need to be in place.

First, your partner has to be transparent. They have to help you understand what they are doing. Too many AdWords management companies allow clients to believe that campaign management is black magic. If you get the vibe that your AdWords company has an attitude of, “you wouldn’t understand” or, “just trust me”…don’t. Cross them off your list.

A good partner will take the time to make sure you understand the logic of what they are doing – and sometimes why they don’t want to do what you might think is a good idea. They have to be able to explain the WHY of what they are advising – you are paying them for the HOW. Going back to our mechanic illustration, when my check engine light is on, I want my mechanic to be able to explain that it’s because of a vacuum leak in my emissions system, and that he can take care of it for me. I am paying for his expertise.

Another trait of a good partner is that they pursue you to discuss results. Accountability. There are an awful lot of companies who are happy to send you a monthly report with lots of charts and graphs that look really important, but often simply hide lukewarm performance, who are happy to never speak with you. I guess the idea is that you are supposed to look at the reporting with your eyes glazing over, think it must be working, and just keep signing the checks. I call B.S. on that.

What you want is a partner who will contact you monthly (something we work hard to do each month with clients – if we don’t talk to them it wasn’t because they weren’t called) and walk you through any part of the campaign you have questions about. This is simple month-to-month accountability. It’s a “here’s what we talked about doing in our meeting last month, here’s how that went, and here’s what I recommend this month” kind of meeting, much like you might have with any of your in-house management team. Your partner has to be an extended member of your team, who you work with on initiatives and who you trust to carry them out for you.

There is no black magic involved in AdWords, just a lot of hard work. In the spirit of total transparency and maybe a little bit of a shameless plug, I’d like for us to be that partner, give us a call – but if not, you know what to look for. 

Talk soon.

Tytler’s Cycle is a relatively new dealer located in De Pere, WI. They are rapidly expanding their OEM’s and now carry BMW, Victory, Indian & Ducati. 

Increase sales during the holiday shopping season by keeping past customers out of the ‘Big Box Stores’ and driving new customers through the door.

The Fat Man (Santa Claus) is a tough opponent. Something about presents under a tree make us go crazy. It’s estimated that $13.13 billion was spent last Black Friday alone, $36.69 billion during Black Friday Weekend and over 140 million people shopping between Thursday and Sunday the week of Thanksgiving. That number represents about 60% of American adults. Between Black Friday and Christmas, it’s estimated that Americans will spend $616.9 billion this year. With that surge in consumer spending comes a tremendous wave of advertising. The top 11 retailers in 2013 poured more than a quarter billion dollars into television advertising alone for Black Friday, according to the Wall Street Journal. Overall, according to Nielson.com, advertisers spent more than $2.5 billion in 2013, up from $2 billion five years ago. Whoa.

Trying to compete with the big guys through traditional media is impossible. You just don’t have the funds. Not to mention, 3.6% of the population actually buy what you sell, so 96%+ of the money being spent there falls on deaf ears. So, how do you cut through the clutter and beat the jolly fat man with your limited budget? Through multi-channel, direct-response marketing. 

To help them achieve their marketing goal, our Sharp Shooter Program targeted 2,600 of Tytler’s past customers and 2,600 conquest customers (people who ride the brands they sell and live within a few miles of the dealership, but had never bought from them) through a number of direct marketing strategies. By giving the customers many opportunities to respond and going direct to them as possible, we were able to cut through the clutter of all the other advertisements and drastically increase response. 

Of 5,200 potential respondents, there were 386 surveys completed for over a 7.4% response rate! The direct mail industry averages about a 1% response rate, so Tytler’s results crushed the national average over 7-fold. This created a total of 386 sales opportunities, 185 in P&A, Service, and Apparel, PLUS 109 responses for a new or used bike (as the chart illustrates below).

In addition to regularly working with Powersports Marketing on the Sharp Shooter Program, Quinn Kiley, Marketing Manager of Tytler’s Cycle, recently attended our Fall Marketing Boot Camp in Atlanta and left the following review about his experience:

By Quinn K. on October 29, 2015
De Pere, WI | General Department
In the powersports industry you are regularly approached with solutions to get the word out about your business. Since day one of working with Powersports Marketing they have consistently built my confidence in the results of their solutions. Now, having attended their Fall Harvest Boot camp, I have accelerated the process for building a successful game plan. I felt like I was walking away with a masters in marketing in the powersports industry. They walk you through the why and the how to approach each channel. We now have the tools and resources to cut through the noise and build a better business for our clients. Powersports Marketing is a fantastic organization with great people that truly cares about helping you build the best business for your clients. Highly recommend their work and look forward to continuing to work with them in the future.

Quinn and his team are following up their Black Friday event with a Christmas event to ensure they are capturing as much of their customers wallet share this holiday season as possible.
 

What’s next? By the time this hits dealerships, January is just around the corner. January is a tough opponent for many dealerships out there. For many parts of the country, it’s cold and there’s snow on the ground. A lot of dealers let their past experiences tell them to ‘hold off until spring’ and ‘save their advertising budget for the riding season’. Don’t. 

Even in January, it’s almost impossible to not generate a positive return on investment…meaning, more gross profit is generated directly from the sales of the event than what was spent on the marketing. More importantly though, it keeps your buying base engaged with you, it gives them a reason to come down to the dealership and shake off some cabin fever, impulse purchases happen and it generates a list of leads for your staff to call and drum up business when otherwise there would be crickets. Check out the insert for some proven winners in January. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

For more information on how the Sharp Shooter Program can help kickoff your 2016 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.
 

Higgins Powersports is a family owned and operated Powersports dealership that has been in business since 1975 and is located ‘smack dab’ in the middle of Massachusetts.  Because of their long-standing connection to the community and contagious enthusiasm for the industry, most of the locals know, like, and trust the Higgins Powersports family.  Robert Sheldon, General Manager for the dealership, knows that there is a golden opportunity to make this home-grown business even better by identifying the ‘silent migrators’ and trying to bring them back as repeat and referral customers.

By taking advantage of the proprietary review acquisition system of the Local Web Dominator program, Robert was able to affirm that a majority of their customers are really happy with the service they receive from the team.  But, even though the folks at Higgins Powersports do a great job sharing their passion for riding, some customers leave less than satisfied.  Robert was able to identify those folks and hear their side of the story to learn ways to make an already great business even better.

The first batch of customers that received a review request email generated a ton of 5-star reviews, and a handful of negative feedback.  Robert was able to quickly respond to each of these unhappy customers, express empathy for their situation, and make a sincere effort to make the situation right.  In doing so, he had three of the first unhappy customers come back into the dealership after they expressed their frustration, and because Robert was able to resolve their issue, they made another purchase at the dealership.  WOW!  Talk about a golden opportunity.  

So many dealerships have no idea who their unhappy customers are and no way of figuring that out; those customers just silently migrate to another dealership.  Through the LWD program, Robert was able to identify, resolve and reactivate a handful of his unhappy customers who would have otherwise just left and given their business to a competitor.

Want to generate that kind of repeat and referral business at your dealership?  Want to tap into the golden (and most likely hidden) opportunities within your business?  Give us a call today to talk about reactivating lost customers through the Local Web Dominator program: 877-242-4472.