Articles

Mungenast Indian; Indian Motorcycle of Green Bay; Indian Motorcycle of Libertyville; Indian Motorcycle of Kansas City; Indian Motorcycle of Lafayette

Powersports Marketing helped give a boost to six midwest Indian Motorcycle dealerships with the Sharp Shooter Program. A natural starting point was to first build their dealership’s buying base, to identify what each dealership was working with for past customers and conquest folks in their backyard. This is a two-part data strategy. First, we focused on a dealership’s past sales, service and parts customers who’ve bought from them in the past 4 years. Next, we identified people that rode 600cc+ on-road cruisers and H-D owners that lived closest to the dealership, but had never bought from them. Once we had those numbers, we marketed to 5,200 customers per store with half going to past customers and half going to new customers. 
 

Two of the six dealers were new open points, which meant no current customer database. Removing the past customer database, removes two of the most effective poles in the water: the integrated call blast and two email blasts. It also means you’re marketing to a cold list, a group of customers who’ve never bought from that particular dealership. This campaign would literally act as an introduction to the store.

Once we identified who we were going to marketing to for each store, we created a custom “49 Degree” Campaign. The card asked, “Did you know it’s going to be 49 degrees at ___ Dealership this weekend?” Curiosity is a huge driver of response and this was a great hook to drive customers both to the survey site to capture contact information (email addresses and phone numbers, which was especially important for the two new points), and generate a pipeline of leads for every department. 

With the Right Audience and Right Message nailed down, we used our signature media channels and timing to generate maximum results. For all but the two new stores, we used a combination of direct mail, two emails blasts, a call blast, event signage, web banner, fliers, survey site and a lead magnet to drive traffic to the event and generate hundreds of leads per store.

Marketing to a 100% conquest list for two of the six locations, we expected a significant reduction in response. We were pleasantly surprised, when the average response rate for all six stores came back at a 5.5% response rate! Each store averaged 275 completed surveys, with over 119 Parts & Accessories and Service Leads generated and 86 New & Used Bike Leads! Again, that’s PER STORE. Fresh off our trip to the Polaris, Indian, Victory Dealer Meeting in Las Vegas last week, we were very pleased with the response from the participating dealers. Todd Gaines, Indian of Libertyville’s Dealer Principal, stated, “The 49 Degree Event was awesome! Traffic was crazy and we had a great day in P&A and service. We rolled 4 bikes with several more in the works!” The best part about the campaign? Each dealership is left with hundreds of sales opportunities in each department. Below is the full report by store. Needless to say, they should each sell some additional P&A, book some more service and sell some more bikes over the next few weeks:

If you’re an Indian Dealer reading this, go to www.PowersportsMarketing.com/49degrees.  For everyone else, it’s August, which means back to school for the kids and new models for the adults. These are two of the very best reasons to celebrate! So get involved with a ‘While the Kids are Away, Come In and Play’ event or a ‘New Model Open House’. These are two proven winners to move the needle in late August and Early September. But that’s not all, we’ve got lots of great excuses to market to you base this month. Check out the inserts for just a few examples. To have Powersports Marketing build your dealership’s Buying Base and put a plan in place to hit them consistently, call me on my direct line at 877-242-4472 ext: 112 or get more details at www.PowersportsMarketing.com/49degrees.  Happy selling!

In the early 1900’s Schlitz beer was in serious trouble. The brewery had dropped outside of the top 5 in sales and the momentum of their fierce competitors was continuing to gain speed. All of the major brands had a similar product, so it wasn’t Schlitz beer recipe that was the problem. The name of the game had become advertising, and the more sales gained by Schlitz competitors, the greater the frequency and reach of their campaigns, resulting in more sales and increased market share. Over at Schlitz, sales were plummeting and the makers knew something had to give or they were going under. 

Out of sheer desperation, Schlitz brought in an outside advertising expert named Claude Hopkins who evaluated their current marketing. The first thing the expert did was request a tour of the brewery. What he saw stunned him. 

Plate glass rooms full of filtered air designed to cool the beer without contaminating it. Four-thousand-foot deep artesian wells drilled to provide the cleanest and purest water available. The original mother yeast cell – developed by the brewery after 1200 experiments to bring out the robust flavor. 

“My God,” Hopkins said, “Why don’t you tell people in your advertising about all these steps you are taking to brew your beer?” 

But, the Schlitz people told him, “All companies brew their beer about the same way.” 

At the time, all of the big breweries were copying one another in their ads and claiming to have the “Purest Beer.”

“Yes,” countered Hopkins, “but the first one to tell the public about this process will gain a big advantage.” 

Hopkins went on to create an advertising campaign based on what he’d learned from the tour. Essentially, he told the story that every brewery could have, but didn’t.

Within six months, Schlitz became the number one selling beer in America. Rather than telling people the same thing every other brewery was saying, Hopkins crafted a compelling story that explained what “purest” really meant and why consumers should care. 

This story is a powerful illustration of just how critical marketing can be to any business success. Especially if you’re selling commodities like beer…or motorcycles. 

And this is where most business owners get it all wrong. They blame their success on the market, the weather, the economy, and the product. A typical business owner has the, “if you build it, they will come” mentality. So, most folks believe if their beer isn’t selling, they need to change the recipe and create a better beer.

The pizza shop thinks that a better pizza will increase sales; the hair salon thinks better stylists; and the motorcycle dealer thinks it’s better bikes. Yes, product is important, but once you get to a place where you have quality products and a defined target audience, it’s your marketing that sets you apart, and can make the difference between 1st place in your defined market area and 5th.  

Too often business owners look at what their competitors are doing and copy them. In Schlitz’s case it was “purest beer.” We call this marketing incest because usually the person being copied is doing it all wrong. Then with each copy of the copy, the ads just get worse and worse, dumber and dumber. 

In fact, this is how discounting gets started. Monkey see, monkey do. Dealers copying other dealers, and beat their price with a, “if they can do it, we can do it, because we all buy for the same cost,” attitude. 

But there is a better way. Hopkins had no mention of price in the Schlitz campaigns that catapulted the brewer from last place to first. Studies on top of studies show that consumers are looking for more than just price. 

Similarly, our Sharp Shooter Marketing system that has proven success in over 600 dealers and thousands of campaigns is a secret recipe that does not include discounting. 

Unfortunately, from time to time we have dealers that try to change our recipe.  Against our will, they replace our sugar with their salt and include discount offers and it ALWAYS reduces response rates. 

To find out the ‘behind the curtain’ reasons why discounting in your marketing will sabotage your results and lead to reduced sales and lower market share, join us in Atlanta on October 26th through the 28th for our Fall Harvest Marketing Boot Camp. 

We’ll be revealing real-world dealership case studies and evaluating what’s working online and offline. This is not a fluffy frou-frou event hosted by a big dumb company that doesn’t understand what you do. We live, eat, sleep, drink and breath powersports marketing best practices, and guarantee you’ll leave this event locked and loaded with the ammo you need to catapult your store to increased sales and profits. Call us today at 877-242-4472 or enroll online at www.powersportsmarketing.com/bootcamp. 

The crew over at Bluegrass Harley-Davidson in Louisville, Kentucky are Harley people to the core.  They set themselves apart from the other dealers in their area by putting an extreme focus on the individual needs of their customer, and by treating folks like family.  It is evident that this philosophy is adopted by their whole team because of the incredible reviews they have on their custom review site, their Facebook page, and most importantly, their Google+ page.   The benefit of having such an incredible online reputation is not just to make your staff feel good about themselves and their efforts, but to drive REAL business.

Jordan Monschein, the Marketing Manager at Bluegrass H-D, had the Lead Magnet activated on his website with the “Internet Value Package” as their selected premium.  The Internet Value Package is an after-the-sale incentive that allows the sales team to customize the offer based on the value of the purchase, availability of products & services they have at the dealership, and it’s provided AFTER they’ve made a purchase.  So they’re not giving away the farm to everyone that fills out a form.

Since they’ve activated the Lead Magnet, it has generated 20-25 leads per month, every month.  That’s in addition to the leads they are still getting from other sources on the website. Estimating a conservative 15% closing ratio, that’s 3 unit sales each month directly from the Lead Magnet alone. Those are some pretty powerful results – which can be attributed at least in part – from the incredible online reputation that Jordan and his team have cultivated by taking really good care of their current customers.  The online social proof from those review sites creates that persuasive ‘1st Impression’, and helps build trust with potential customers, who then visit 
 

bluegrassharleydavidson.com and are willing to submit their information via the Lead Magnet.

Want to give your raving fans a stage to shout your praises in a way that leads to killer social proof (and ultimately impacts future buying decisions for new customers)?  Give us a call at 877-242-4472 and we’ll show you how to get started.

As most know, we got our start owning and operating a 4-store group of dealers in the Atlanta, GA metro area.  Those stores weren’t for sale, but we were pursued by a conglomerate of Powersports dealers and made an offer that Rod couldn’t refuse. So, we started Dealership University, the training arm of our company. We began offering training on the subject of marketing and offered our first Marketing Boot Camp in 2008. 

During a pretty intense session on Digital Marketing one of the attending Dealer Principals raised their hand and asked me, “How much for the fish sandwich?” He mentioned that he appreciated all he was learning (teaching him how to fish) and that he had plenty to implement when he got back. But, he just wanted to “buy the fish sandwich” and let us to handle some of the marketing he knew we’d be better at performing than he would.  It wasn’t long after this question that both the Sharp Shooter and Local Web Dominator programs were born. 

Over the years we have upgraded, optimized, and continued to add value to both of these programs and they answer the question, “What marketing would you guys do if you still owned a dealership today?”

The freshest, most profitable marketing that is quantifiable and has a proven track record of generating a positive R.O.I. that has been utilized by over 600 dealers across the country is found in these two programs… the Sharp Shooter, and the Local Web Dominator.

• We target the people in your market area who are most likely to respond and buy.
 

• Several media are used to reach that group of people, increasing response rates.
 

• You receive a list of responders (often hundreds of people) who tell you what they are interested     in buying right now – generating leads for every department. 
 

• Your staff calls these folks up and schedules     

  appointments. Boom goes the dynamite… and   

  your R.O.I.
 

• On top of the list of leads we’re able to generate 

 a really nice amount of floor traffic, which    

 increases sales.

We also provide staff training and word tracks to make life easier for the leadership team of the dealership. If you’re not taking advantage of this program right now, you’re wasting your Marketing Budget on something that doesn’t work as well. You can and will get better results with the Sharp Shooter program. 

• Makes you the logical choice to do business with  

  in your local market area.
 

• Targets folks who are online right now searching 

   for what you sell and are in your market. 

• Generates leads you are currently missing out 

  on from prospects who are lower in the ‘sales 

  funnel’. These leads are actively looking to buy!
 

• Grows authentic customer reviews on Google.
 

• Increase conversions on your website.
 

• Boost your SEO and Page Rank.
 

• Provides an email system that has ‘Done For You’ content pre-loaded in it.
 

• And a lot more.

The vast majority of folks go online and do research before they make a purchase. With the Local Web Dominator program your dealership will be poised to gain new market share as well as increase the purchases from past customers.

Again, the programs are the freshest marketing that your dealership can do, and they both produce quantifiable results and a positive R.O.I.  Does your current marketing?  

Also, if you’d like to join us for one of our infamous Marketing Boot Camps mark your calendar for October 26th – 28th and join us in Atlanta. For only $249 (Early Bird Special through August 31st) this is the biggest no-brainer in the history of earth. Visit www.powersportsmarketing.com/boot-camp for more info or to sign up.

If you like to speak with one of our friendly team members call 1-877-242-4472, or chat with us at www.powersportsmarketing.com.

Some readers may not be aware that my background includes being a Dealer Principal for a 4-store powersports group and later a Chevrolet Buick dealership. I’m a Dealer Advocate, I can’t help but see things from a dealer’s perspective first.  It’s how I’m wired; it’s in my DNA. 

That’s why the very first question that I ask before we recommend a product or service to any of our clients is, “If this were my dealership, and my limited budget, is this how I’d choose to spend my hard earned money?” If the this answer is yes, then I’ll follow with this subsequent question, “Well, if you believe in this product so much, are you using it here at Powersports Marketing, and how is it working?”
 

Since starting Dealership University™ back in 2004, we’ve experienced consistent double-digit growth every year straight through the recession, and ultimately landing on the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing, Privately Held Companies list by leveraging three main workhorses. Those do not include, Instagram, Snapchat, or Vine, not even LinkedIn, YouTube or Twitter. 

Based on a vast amount of experience in testing, spending, failing, and finally succeeding, I hold a strong conviction that Direct Mail, Email, and the Telephone are the best bang for the buck in niche businesses. I know these three aren’t as bright and shiny as the latest popular Silicon Valley startup, but they just plain work.

Both your business and mine are ‘niched’, by the way. Only 3% of the population ride motorcycles, so you marketing to the masses is about as efficient as me sending this newsletter to dry cleaners. 

As a dealer, I’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into yellow pages, TV, and radio only to wonder if it was working. Then, when call tracking numbers came out, my suspicions were confirmed with hard data. It flat didn’t work regardless of what message I used. With data in hand, I was told by the media reps that the purpose of my ads wasn’t to drive traffic, it was to build our brand. It wasn’t until I became a student and implementer of real direct marketing that I learned this was total B.S. 

The truth is, the purpose of your marketing shouldn’t be to build your brand and get your name out there, it should be to drive traffic to your showroom, telephone, and website. And, when done properly you get branding as a happy byproduct. Oh yeah, and it should be measurable. 

I’m not saying that if you are Tide detergent or Crest toothpaste that there isn’t something to this whole branding thing. But trying to compare Nike’s advertising budget and agenda with yours is beyond apples and oranges. It is the manufacture’s job to create the brand, the demand, and top of mind awareness.

It is your job to drive those who already have an interest in what you sell to your dealership so you can increase market share and improve customer retention. 

When sent to the right target audience, with the right message, at the right time, direct mail is a proven winner.  Here are a few interesting stats about Direct Mail:

• 56% of consumers think printed marketing is the most trustworthy of all communication channels. 

• Direct mail has the highest rate of success in new customer acquisition at 34% compared with other marketing channels.

• 40% of consumers say that they have tried a new business after receiving direct mail.

• 70% have renewed relationships with businesses that they had previously ceased using because of direct mail.  

(Journal of Marketing, January 2013 | Source Direct Marketing Association survey, November 2013)

Direct Mail is a proven winner. But, it’s not meant to act as a standalone marketing channel. It performs even better when bolted onto an integrated email campaign. Here are some powerful stats on email. 

Walters Brother’s Harley-Davidson has a long and storied history. In 1921, they started as Walters Brothers Motorcycle and Bicycle Shop by brothers, Ambrose (Bruce) and Robert (Bob), becoming Walters Brother’s Harley-Davidson in 1922. Bruce built a new store in Peoria, IL in 1949 and Wayne Weibler began working for him as an apprentice in 1951. Wayne would go on to buy the dealership in 1979, building a new facility in 1998 and bringing his sons, Steve and Scott, and nephew Bill Wiebler into managing the business in 2012.

Holding a monthly event at the dealership is a great excuse to market to your buying base with a compelling message.  The first step is targeting the people who are most likely to respond and spend money at the store. We don’t care about anyone else. It’s not your job to convince a non-motorcycle/enthusiast to join the industry. That’s the job of the manufacturer. With your limited time, energy and budget, your job is to get the best possible results for your money. The way to do that, is to identify your buying base. These is a combination of past customers and conquest customers, or folks who ride what you sell, live in your backyard, but have never bought from you. Next, it’s time to hit them 52-104 times per year. That may sound like a lot, but the Sharp Shooter Program uses up to 12 different, direct marketing strategies per campaign (or month) to guarantee you are achieving your goal of 52-104 touches. The key here, is making sure you have the right message.
 

Think about some of your hobbies outside of the business, something your passionate about. I’ll use golf as an example. If a local golf store invited you into an open house once per month for food, drinks, demos on the new clubs, and more…would you attend at least one of them? Of course. Fact is everyone loves getting invited to a party. So, if your invite you buying base to a party at your dealership 12 times per year, over time you will own them.
 

We’ve proven that focusing your message on the party and not the sale is the fastest way to create affinity with your buying base, turn prospects into customers and achieve your best ROI. By focusing on the party/event, you’ll create many more opportunities by not alienating the 99% of folks who didn’t have ‘buy a bike’ on their ‘top 5 things to do this week list’. You’ll still get those guys, you’ll just get everyone else, plant seeds for future sales and hold higher margin since you won’t be discounting. With this style of marketing, the event doesn’t mark the end of your campaign, but the beginning of a month-long sales process working the leads that were generated. The actual results of the event are a happy bi-product of following a system to touch your buying base 52 to 104 times per year so that you can increase customer retention and carve off new market share.
 

Every month, there are several great, relevant excuses to market to your base. The theme of your party should be relevant to the broadest base possible and should tap into the conversation already going on in the heads of your customers. This is exactly what Walters Brother’s H-D did the weekend before the 4th of July with their ‘Stars, Stripes & Bikes’ Party.

The Wednesday before the event, we delivered the Campaign Update which includes a list of leads generated from the campaign up to that point. 

Walters Brothers marketed to 2,500 past customers and had 547 surveys completed, which created a total of 439 sales opportunities in P&A, Service, and riding gear, PLUS 92 responses for a new or used bike. This resulted in a 21.71% response rate, which is over 20x’s the national average for direct response marketing!

Our most successful clients don’t look at this program like an event marketing solution. You can’t do this once or twice per year and truly grow your business…just like you can’t go to the gym once or twice and expect to be fit. You’ve got to go consistently. But if you market to your buying base consistently, over time, you’ll own them. 
 

If you don’t currently have a plan in place to hit your buying base 52-104 times per year, call us today and we will help you identify that  group of customers is where the majority, it not all of your future sales should come from this year. The results you want out of your marketing start here. We’ve got lots of great excuses to market to you base this month. Check out the inserts for just a few examples. To have Powersports Marketing build your dealership’s Buying Base and put a plan in place to hit them consistently for FREE, call me on my direct line at 877-242-4472 ext: 112 or chat us up at www.powersportsmarketing.com. Happy selling!

I’m talking about your website. 

In the powersports industry, we are a pretty spoiled group when it comes to web sites. There are three big players in the industry, and they all have a pretty much ‘done for you’ solution. A dealer can open a dealership, call a web provider, provide a logo, and in short order have a functioning web site up and running. 

And that’s where a lot of dealers stop.

Therein lies the rub. The landscape of business is not what it used to be. Now, any business has two locations that have to be maintained: 

1. It’s physical, brick and mortar location, and 
 

2. It’s digital presence.

The online world can’t be ignored or overlooked. Studies have shown that well over 90% of people research products and businesses online before making a purchase. 

So how much time and effort does the average dealer put into their web site on a monthly basis? Very little, actually.

If you are one of those dealers reading this now who thinks I’m making a big deal out of nothing, let’s take a closer look and see why the ‘set it and forget it’ strategy for a web site might be a bad idea.

Take a look at your physical location. Is everything in your location set up exactly how it was the day you opened? Of course not. Sure, your parts, service, and sales departments probably occupy the same physical space, but they don’t look the same. Things change, different products are emphasized, parts are added and discontinued, all kinds of things happen. In the same way that your physical dealership changes, so should your digital dealership. One of the goals of your web site is to get folks to revisit it when they are looking for something. If it never changes, visitors get the feeling that it’s stale, dated, and probably not worth revisiting. 

Am I advising to redesign your site every month? No. I am advising that slider banners get updated regularly, offers get changed up, and that when visitors hit the site a month or so later, it looks like something changed, just like the feeling they get in your physical dealership when visiting from time to time.

Chances are, what I’ve said so far is probably not super surprising to anyone, so let’s take a deeper look and get into territory I’ll bet you a beer you haven’t thought about.

Not editing, changing, or customizing your web site can cost (and probably is costing) you money. 

The reason I say that, is because many (most) dealers are bolting on AdWords campaigns to their web sites. This is a fantastic thing, because I can’t think of a better way to spend online advertising money. Here’s the thing you want to think about though: how much clicks cost are based in part on the quality of your site.

Now, an AdWords campaign is almost never going to direct traffic to the home page of a dealers web site, because AdWords is focused on conversions – generating leads that turn browsers into buyers, and that doesn’t happen on the home page. It happens on individual model pages, service appointment pages, and parts request pages, and that is where AdWords campaigns land people – farther down the sales funnel. 

Where do dealers spend most of their energy and time on their web site? The home page.

That’s not all bad, but what happens typically is that all of the individual product pages for all the units gets overlooked, and the only content on those pages is whatever the site provider puts there, which typically amounts to a simple spec sheet that is not too compelling. 

So what is my advice? Take the time to put some content on the individual product pages. Each page doesn’t have to be the length of a novel, but there needs to be some content there for a couple of reasons.

First, your web site is supposed to help turn browsers into buyers. If there is nothing more compelling on the page than a couple of pictures, seat height and engine specs, you are missing opportunities, and that is costing you money.

When I was working the sales floor, I always had something I would say about each model if someone came in looking. Sort of a 30 second elevator pitch about each unit that could then turn into a real presentation as the client showed interest. That’s what should be on each unit page. Take the time each year as the new models come out to do this and you’ll be ahead of the game. Sell the sizzle to get the conversion and then the sale. An online brochure won’t get it done.

The second reason is that to make the most out of your AdWords campaigns you’ll want content there. There are two main factors that play into what makes up cost-per-click charges with Google, bid amount and quality score (on a scale from 1-10).  

Bid amount is how much you are willing to bid for a click (not how much you will actually pay), and quality score is made up of over 100 criteria. Content on your landing pages helps your overall quality score in several ways. Google looks at the keyword you bid on, the ad you show, and the landing page you go to, to determine the relevance they have to each other. If they are in alignment, you get a better quality score. Content on your landing page helps Google understand what the page is about, and when they understand it, your quality score goes up and your costs go down.  Additionally, with good content on your landing pages, your bounce rates will go down (that’s when someone lands on your site and leaves without viewing any other pages), your visitors time on your site will increase, as will conversions – all of which increase quality scores, reduce click costs, and – oh, by the way – result in more dollars in the register.

The takeaway here is that you don’t have your sales staff walk around your physical dealership handing out brochures and waiting for people to buy, you expect them to sell. Your digital dealership should sell too, and it gets the conversation started with good content that causes visitors to respond.

Oh, and if you need some help pointing people to those pages to get those conversations started let us know. We have the best folks in the business ready to give you a hand.

I recently read about a fellow with a master’s degree, shown on the news because he spends his days in the New York City subways wearing a “Job Wanted” sign and handing out resumes. That’s strategy is about as effective for getting hired as a construction worker howling at good looking women and getting a date. Apparently, none of his studies were in the field of sales and marketing. It’s a bit unsettling just how important sales and marketing are in the real world, yet how little respect and attention they receive from our formal education system. Conduct a little research on almost any ultrasuccessful Entrepreneur, Executive, CEO, Author, Doctor, Politician, etc. compared to ‘The Average Joe’ or the complete failure, and you’ll likely find there was a secret differentiator, but it wasn’t a master’s degree. The super successful are highly skilled at selling. That’s the difference.

Thomas Edison may have been a great inventor, but arguably he was an even better marketer. Otherwise, you may be reading this over candle light. Henry Ford may have created the Model T, but it was his creation of the dealer network (sales and marketing) that made him the dominant force in the automotive industry. Donald Trump is certainly a real estate mogul, but it’s sales and marketing skills that have made him RICH. He devised the brilliant sponsorship opportunities on his hit show, The Apprentice, which have made him a small fortune on top of his real estate empire. Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs were both masterful at sales and marketing, in a very competitive landscape. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has taken suggestive selling to a new level with his ‘featured recommendations,’ inspired by your previous purchases.

In the real world of a high-performing, growing business, everything revolves around HOW to get stuff sold. It’s what the leaders of these great companies think about 365 days a year. 

It’s also what great dealers do. In fact, many of the best dealers in the country execute a year-round sales and marketing process using our Sharp Shooter system. It’s not a random one-and-done strategy; it’s a well thought out, well calculated, pro-active system designed to touch their buying base 52 to 104 touches per year. And if you ‘touch’ your buying base with the right kind of message this many times, you will eventually own your buying base.
 

There are four pillars to the Sharp Shooter program. Pillar 1 - we determine the right target audience for your dealership by focusing on people that ride what you sell and live in your backyard. Pillar 2 – we use the right media mix to reach that target audience. Pillar 3 - we utilize the right message including a compelling call to action that creates urgency to respond. And, Pillar 4 – we do it at just the right time. These components are like the four legs of a chair, take one away and you’ve got a faulty chair. 

But, Pillar 3 is where everybody gets it wrong, and ultimately breaks the chair, and then tries to blame the other 3 legs. Especially the OEM’s and their ad agencies. The magic behind our strategy of having the Right Message is to promote a monthly event. Holding an event at the dealership each month is a great excuse to market to your buying base. 

We’ve proven that focusing your message on the party, and not the sale, is the fastest way to create affinity with your buying base, turn prospects into customers, and achieve your best ROI. By focusing on the party, you’ll create many more opportunities by not alienating the 99% of folks who didn’t have “buy a bike” on their current list of things-to-do. You’ll still get those customers, but you’ll also get many additional opportunities, plant seeds for future sales, and hold higher margin since you won't be using a discount-focused message.

With this style of marketing, it’s not all about the results on the day of the event. The event doesn’t mark the end of your campaign, but the beginning of a month-long sales process working the leads that were generated through your custom landing page and promoting your upcoming event. The actual results of the event are a happy bi-product of following a system to touch your buying base 52 to 104 times per year so that you can increase customer retention and carve off new market share.

Sending out marketing messages over and over to your buying base asking them to buy a bike when they aren’t in the market is about as wise as trying to get a job on the subway wearing a sign. To learn more about how our Sharp Shooter

marketing system can help you generate hundreds of quantifiable sales leads month-in and month-out, contact us today at 877.242.4472

Harley-Davidson® of Baltimore (AKA: “The Harley® Shop in Baltimore”) have been taking good care of their customers for many years.  Tina Jarman, Marketing Manager of Harley-Davidson® of Baltimore was looking for a way to generate a dominant online reputation while leveraging that reputation with ‘social proof’.  It’s a well-known fact that what your customers say about you will always be more compelling than what you say about yourself.

During the LWD Performance Coaching sessions, we activated the auto-posting feature of the LWD program.   This FREE feature enables the first two 5-star reviews that are generated on their custom review site (www.hdstorereviews.com) each day to automatically post to the H-D® of Baltimore Facebook page.  There are no strings around their finger to remember to share those posts.  They happen daily…and automatically.

This powerful, yet brilliantly simple, process allows the authentic reviews from H-D® of Baltimore’s review site to post automatically to the 2,200+ fans they currently have on their Facebook page.  Imagine the impact those reviews have on

their potential customers.  In fact, an average of 60% of Facebook fans will eventually make a purchase from a business based on the reputation built through that social media channel. 

Want to generate authentic and compelling social proof to set you apart from your competition and then have it automatically shared on your Facebook page to connect your positive online reputation to your social media outlet?  The Local Web Dominator program can help.  Give us a call today so we can show you how it works: 877-242-4472.

It’s hard to believe, but by the time you read this, Memorial Day will be right around the corner and the industry will be escalating into full-swing, summertime madness. Hopefully, your 1st quarter wrapped up nicely, 2nd quarter is going strong and you have your eyes set on some lofty 3rd quarter goals. If you’re like many of our clients, you’ve recently finished up a big Spring Open House, Armed Forces Day Event, or you’re looking forward to a Memorial Day Campaign. 

It’s no secret that word of our success has traveled throughout the industry. In 2014 alone, (January-April) we’ve already worked with hundreds of dealerships and earned many success stories from our clients. This has made it extremely difficult to pick just one dealership to highlight in this article. So, I thought why fight it? Let’s share a few! Here are just a handful of incredible success stories from the last few weeks:

Motorcycles of Manchester (M.O.M.’s):

These guys just finished up their ‘Spring Open House’ and said it was the “Best Event in 15 years of ownership.  We SOLD 25 units on Saturday alone, and lined up a ton more.  Ran out of hot dogs and hamburgers in the first two hours, and bought over 500!  It was a great turn out as usual, fantastic event.  You guys Rock!”

Calumet Harley-Davidson®:

Calumet H-D® just finished up their ‘Have a Fling with Spring’ campaign and the results were ridiculous. They said, “We sold 8 units Saturday with more working and broke records for single-day sales in EVERY single department. Motorclothes & parts were just insane. Haven’t seen lines at the registers like that in years! There was a HUGE crowd and everyone was really excited about the event and all the marketing. It was a major success!” There were 1013 surveys completed, which created a total of 979 sales opportunities in P&A, Service, and riding gear, PLUS 145 responses for a new or used bike! They’re continuing to sell units from the leads generated as this article goes to print.

Southern Thunder H-D:

At their ‘Spring Bling’ event, the GM said, “There was a huge crowd! We had lines at every register all day long and rolled several units. Now that the traffic has left, the guys are eager to get started on all the new and used unit leads!” They have plenty of leads to go around. There were 1777 survey responses, including 265 people looking for a new or used Harley-Davidson. This equates to a 13.8% response rate and generated over 1,000 P&A, Motorclothes and Service Leads! 

As you’re probably aware, the Sharp Shooter Program focuses on the four fundamental components of marketing which are 1) Identifying the Right Target Audience 2) Surrounding them with the Right Media Channels 3) Hitting them with the Right Message and 4) Executing the campaign with the Right Timing. When you combine these four components, a couple of really fun things happen; you drive a ton of qualified traffic to an event at your dealership (your customers and your competitor’s customers), and you generate a pipeline of leads for every department of the store…which is exactly what happened for the dealerships listed above.

If you’ve missed out on the first part of the season, don’t worry, there are plenty of great reasons to market to your base the rest of the year. The best part of the riding season is just getting going and you can celebrate the kick-off to Summer with Backyard BBQ’s,  a 4th of July Event, Stunt Shows, Demo Days, Sizzlin’ Summer Events, Dog Days of Summer Parties and a whole lot more! Need help planning June and the rest of the year? Call me on my direct line at 877-242-4472 ext: 112 or chat us up at powersportsmarketing.com. We’ve got hundreds of designs and campaign themes that have proven to be effective in every corner of the country and we’re eager to help. Happy selling!