Up until recently, if you didn’t have a Google account you could not post a review on Google Places.  Inside sources are saying that this is going to change!  Read current policy.

For business owners, the current policy meant that only about 25% of their happy customers could post an in-store review if they were asked to share their positive experience online.  The Google Places App simplifies review collection right at the point of experience for Google account holders but it left many people unable to participate.

In the automotive industry, Google Places is the #1 free source of referral traffic for car dealers.  Our busiest automotive clients have Google Places listings with over 40,000 impressions a month with the average around 15,000 impressions a month.

Properly configured and merchandized Google Places pages drive thousands of clicks per month to the dealer’s primary website.  Google Places is an important part of a digital marketing strategy; it is the yellow pages meets consumer reports.

Change In Review Posting Policy

A respected industry source has started telling clients that Google will drop the gmail account requirement and allow anyone to post a review.  This change, according to this source, will be happening over the next week.

What does this mean for Google Places?  What does this mean for third party review platforms? In the automotive industry there are popular platforms that include Dealerrater.com, PrestoReviews.com, and CarDealerCheck.com so what will this change mean for them?

I will have a follow-up article on how this change, when confirmed, will impact 3rd party review platforms.

When this change is confirmed,  it will be a great opportunity for business owners and especially car dealers who have strong customer service processes and have implemented iPads in their store for review collection.

Of course, you don’t need an iPad to post a review, any device can be used for Google Places; this was confirmed recently by Scott Falcone with an email from the Google Places team.

Don’t Put Your Review Eggs In One Basket

When Google changes their review posting policy to allow non gmail accounts, I still recommend that business owners spread out their posts to the review website that are dominant in their market on Google Page One.

I especially want business owners to identify existing YELP users because Apple’s Siri assistant uses Yelp.com reviews in listing local businesses.  If you have not tested this feature, ask Siri on your Apple 4s this question: “Chevrolet Dealers” and you can see the output Siri gave me in New Jersey.

I also recommend business owners use review platforms that allow the business to own their review content.  These platforms allow business owners to syndicate reviews on their blogs, websites, and even to create custom profile pages for the sales professionals.

A solid reputation marketing strategy must acknowledge that many review sites can impact buyers during the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) and thus you can’t just focus on Google Places.

However, if this change in policy is confirmed this week, this will be a big boost for Google Places relevance.  It will also allow Google to better monetize the Google Adwords Express program which allows business owners to run ads with their current review counts, as shown below for Norman Jeep Chrysler Dodge in Oklahoma City.

These special Adwords Express ads really stand out from the normal Adwords ads and they have some very interesting ROI, which I will cover at the 2012 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference in Las Vegas, Feb 1-3rd.

So I’ll keep you posted when we can get an official response this week to this insider tip.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

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This is Part Two of a Four Part series on developing a Reputation Marketing Strategy for your dealership.  If you would like to read the previous article, click here for Part One.

Creating a Reputation Marketing Strategy requires that you have a process in place to survey customer satisfaction and a process that engages the customer based on their feedback.

By creating a culture that values customer service and transparency, dealers will be rewarded by consumers who control the sales process.

Don’t Be Afraid To Ask Everyone

Every customer that enters a dealership should be asked about their “experience” before they leave the store. If a customer leaves the dealership without being surveyed, dealers run the risk that the empowered consumer will be very critical to their online communities and on highly visible public forums like Google Places, Yelp, or specific automotive platforms like DealerRater.com and Edmunds.com

Review collection processes and word tracts should be customized for each dealership based on marketing strategies and investments in technology.  Dealers that invest in tablet computers like the iPad can leverage user-friendly mobile applications to simplify the review collection process.

The most efficient way to collect a review is when the customer is in the dealership.  Once the customer leaves, their motivation to stop their normal activities to go online a post a review are greatly diminished.

I discourage dealers from sending email “reminders” or to make calls to their customers asking for a review. This may impact the OEM CSI phone and email survey processes. Customers may get confused and  feel that they have already submitted a review to the detriment of CSI scoring.

In-Store Review Collection Workflow

A high percentage of customers will participate with an in-store review process if the engagement questions are handled properly.  During the verbal customer satisfaction survey, the dealership staff can identify which review platform is best matched for each customer.

Once surveyed inside the dealership, customers should be able to post to at least one review platform inside the dealership, as indicated in the InfoGraphic below.

If the customer did not have a positive experience, the issues should be resolved immediately.  Keep in mind that consumers have tremendous power to influence the next car shopper during the Zero Moment of Truth.

If a customer does not want to write a review in the store, you can send them home with a reminder postcard which identifies a website where they can post a review(s).  DealerRater.com was an early pioneer of the postcard reminder process to encourage customers to post reviews from home.

Working With Existing Account Holders

In the workflow above, dealers will be looking to leverage customers with Yelp, Google, Bing, or Yahoo accounts.  If a customer does not have any of these accounts, there are ways to capture a review.  Dealers will find that at least 30% of their customers will have one of the accounts listed in the InfoGraphic.

If a dealer identifies customers that have existing accounts, they will most likely have the most reviews in their local market.  Creating new accounts on behalf of your customers inside the store is discouraged.  There are many reasons for this warning, but for now you will have to trust my advice.

In-Store Review Platforms Create Powerful Content

For those customers that don’t have any of these accounts, I strongly suggest that dealers implement an in-store review collection platform.  This will allow dealers to collection 100% of your satisfied customers.  There are a number of choices on the market, each with their strengths and weaknesses.

I will be discussing in-store review platforms in greater detail in Part Four of this series.

The benefits of the in-store review platforms is that the dealership will own the review content.  These platforms allow progressive dealers to syndicate their reviews on blogs, websites, and also to create unique marketing strategies based on their customer reviews.

What About Duplicate IP Addresses?

Dealers must be careful of posting reviews inside the dealership using their WiFi or hard-wired Internet connections.  Without starting a technical discussion on IP addresses, your in-store Internet connections may reflect a physical address not located near your store.

Case in point, I am writing this article in Florence, yet my IP address at this cafe is being identified as Genoa Italy which is HOURS away from this location.

Many review platforms track IP addresses and reviews can be flagged as spam if they all come from same IP address or an address that does not match the physical location of the business.

Using 3G/4G technology on tablets running mobile apps will eliminate this problem because the GPS systems in mobile devices show that the review is coming from a device at the dealership location.   Contrary to popular belief, this is good in a mobile world.

Dealers can download mobile free review applications from Google, Yelp, MerchantCircle.com or platform independent review apps from cDemo.com.

Google Places encourages reviews to be placed in the store, restaurant, or dealership using their mobile application.  This has been confirmed by the Google Automotive team; consumers can post a review using the Google Places App using their existing Google account inside the dealership.

As smartphone market share increases, mobile devices will be the primary technology used for posting online reviews because they allow consumers to share the “emotion” of their experience at the point of contact.

Starting Your In-Store Review Collection Process

The workflow presented in the InfoGraphic above can serve most dealers desiring to build their Internet reputation scores.  Dealers will need to invest in mobile tablets and decide where to insert the survey and review collection in the sales process.

In Part Three, I will discuss how dealers are implementing in-store processes.  Dealer solutions will vary so I will document three different in-store processes to choose from.  After reading Part Three, there should be no reason why anyone would delay starting a review collection process inside their dealership.

This is the end of Part 2 of the series on developing a Reputation Marketing Strategy.  If you enjoyed the article, please share it with your friends, click on the +1 button, and Tweet it out!

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

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The foundation for any successful reputation-marketing program is a commitment to serve consumers with passion, transparency, and integrity.   Dealers have been trained by OEM’s to focus on CSI scores for years.  Online reviews are the digital equivalent and become the Dealership Reputation Score (DRS), which include more than just customers.

Every person who contacts a dealership at the First Moment of Truth (FMOT) has the power to enhance or diminish a dealer’s reputation. Online reviews for car dealers are typically seen by thousands of potential customers every month during the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).

For example, a BMW in New Jersey receives over 40,0000 impressions a month on their Google Places business listing which includes their Google user reviews.  Now add impressions on websites that include Yelp, DealerRater, and Edmunds and you can see why online reviews are influential when consumers research cars and dealerships online.

A dealership building a strong online reputation must have clear sales and customer service standards for their employees to read and put into practice.  Training and accountability measures will ensure that consumers have a consistent experience during all contact points.

Starting a Reputation Marketing Program begins with asking every customer about their experience at the dealership before they leave the building.  The casual scripted survey will allow dealers to identify potential problems before they escalate to a negative online review.

Asking satisfied customers if they would be willing to post a review online when done properly is never pushy or contrived.  Consumers are well aware of the importance of online reviews, mostly because of the influence of websites like Amazon.com and TripAdvisor.com.

Millions of dollars on ecommerce transactions each day are influenced during the Zero Moment of Truth based on previous customer reviews placed next to products, hotels, and restaurants.  Car dealers are being viewed through the same lens yet few dealers have taken online reviews seriously.

We surveyed 150 dealers in a state recently, as part of our national survey that we will release at DMSC 2012, and found some startling  statistics.  The data showed me that dealers have not taken the impact of reviews during the Zero Moment of Truth seriously.

Have A Strategy For Different Reviews Platforms

Online reviews are the fuel for accelerating a dealers’ reputation however review websites each have their own strategic value, visibility, and submission processes.  With this in mind, a successful reputation-marketing program must have a comprehensive strategy with a workflow that is based on the overall online strategy for the business.
Reputation marketing processes must also be flexible since changes in the marketplace are inevitable. When Apple introduced the world to Siri in October 2011, it also made waves in world of online review platforms.

When Siri is asked this question “List Honda Dealers” the phone will list them and show their Yelp reviews.

What do you think will happen when your dealership has 20 Reviews on this list and the competitors have none?

Apple’s choice elevated the important of Yelp.com to business owner’s overnight.

With smartphone web traffic on the rise, Yelp must now be part of any review collection process.

The challenge with Yelp for car dealers is that their user community and editors don’t like One-Yelpers; a consumer who creates an account just to post one review for a business.

For car dealers, this means that customers that are active on Yelp are extremely valuable.

Their reviews will be included in the store’s review count so the collection process must ask if the customer is a Yelper.

This is the end of Part 1 of the series on developing a Reputation Marketing Strategy.  If you enjoyed the article, please share it with your friends, click on the +1 button, and Tweet it out!

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

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A Google Places listing can appear 25,000 – 40,000 times a month in search results making it the #1 most visible “secondary” company website.  Understanding how to properly optimize Google Places and take advantage of its Reputation Management functions is crucial to a company’s online visibility.

Google Places Highlights:

• How to optimize the Google Places page
• How an optimized Google Places page will effect your dealership
• The process to increase Google reviews posted to your Google Places page
• Quick ideas to leverage your existing website traffic
• Use Google Adwords Express to amplify reviews

According to Pasch, “Benefits to businesses that take advantage of and properly optimize their free Google Places listing are significant.”

PCG Digital Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency. PCG is nationally recognized as a leader in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) as well as an award winning Internet training firm.

Glenn Pasch’s workshop will take place from 9:30am-12:00pm on November 16, 2011 at Center for Automotive Education & Training: 15-30 Petracca Place, Whitestone, NY 11357.

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Click here to register

Flint’s hands-on workshop entitled “Allocation of Resources and Budget Strategies”, will evaluate where and how the most successful dealerships are allocating their marketing budgets to maximize every dollar.  Flint will reveal surprising information about which advertising mediums are seeing less automotive marketing dollars and those that are now taking a bigger piece of the pie.  Attendees of Flint’s workshop will also learn how the Internet is changing the way dealers spend their money and new strategies that are proving to be the most cost-effective.

Jim Flint

Flint is quoted, “With the budget pressure that most companies face today, it’s more important than ever to be able to track results and ROI in order to deliver the greatest efficiency for even the smallest of investments.”  Jim will speak to Prioritizing Digital Marketing Strategies and how to evaluate new opportunities at the Pit Stop tour.

St Louis Marketing Conference Welcomes Expert Speakers

The St Louis PCG Pit Stop will take place August 14^th at The Chase Park Plaza.  Dealers who fly in on the 13^th are invited to attend a cocktail reception with host PCG Digital Marketing.

The PCG Pit Stop tour will be making its way to major US and Canadian cities this summer.  The automotive marketing conference pit stops are open to any dealership employee but were created with Dealer Principals/GM, General Sales Managers/ISM, and Fixed Operations Managers in mind.  Some of the additional workshop topics to be covered include customer communication, selling with social media strategies, fixed operations marketing, CRM processes, Google AdWords, mobile marketing and more.

Along with Jim Flint, PCG and the Pit Stop team welcome leading expert speakers including Dennis Galbraith, Christine Rochelle, AJ Le Blanc, Keith Shetterly and Brian Pasch.

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Dallas area car dealers are pleased to see the PCG Pit Stop digital marketing conference coming to Texas on July 9th and 10th. The conference will be held at the beautiful Hyatt Regency in downtown Dallas. PCG has secured great room rates ($109) to allow attendees to come the Saturday afternoon presentations, dinner, and reception and then stay overnight to prepare for the full day of workshops on Sunday.

This is the first time that DFW Metroplex dealers can gain access to high quality digital marketing training offered by PCG Digital Marketing without a flight out of town! The program is designed to provide the same high quality education offered at larger national events at a much lower cost per attendee.

Car dealers looking to learn more about effective digital marketing strategies will be able to participate in workshops lead by industry experts and thought leaders from PCG Digital Marketing. PCG has a strong reputation for attracting the best speakers and creating the most compelling materials for their educational programs.

Dealers looking for updated strategies for SEO, SEM, Social Media, Reputation Management, CRM Lead Handling, Chat, Fixed Operations, and Improving Sales should mark their calendars and register today.

Why Should Dealers Attend?

Please Answer These Questions:

• Are you leveraging the new communication channels provided by social media?
• Do you have an integrated digital marketing strategy for your dealership?
• Is your website conversion rate increasing each month?
• Could you be handling your calls and Internet leads better?
• Would you like a 2-4% average increase in closing ratios to to phone and Internet leads?
• Is your Fixed Operations Budget using SEM, SEO, and Social Media?
• Are you looking for advice on how to structure your entire advertising budget?
• Are you ready to implement free advertising strategies to increase website traffic?

Get the answers, advice, and strategies from industry pros at the PCG Pit Stop Conference in Dallas!

Register Today and Save!

Register to attend the next PCG Pit Stop^® today using the link on the menu above or just click here. The conference is conveniently located in Dallas so you can easily travel to and enjoy the workshop experience offered by PCG Education. Six other cities are included in the 2011 tour so if you can’t make the Dallas tour date, hop of a plane and get to a conference in another city.

Dallas/Fort Worth dealers need more than just their 20 Group Meetings and annual conferences to stay connected with the latest changes in our industry. Google has been making significant changes to Internet marketing every few months so don’t get left behind. In fact, anyone in Texas or surrounding states would be well advised to invest in this conference.

Details on the automotive conference can be found in the color brochure below:

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The conference will be held at the Palmer House in downtown Chicago.

This is the first time that local Chicago dealers can gain access to high quality digital marketing training offered by PCG Digital Marketing without a flight out of town!

Car dealers looking to learn more about managing their online reputation will be pleased to know that workshops and IRM specialists will be at the conference to help them create effective IRM processes.

Chicago Dealers – Please Answer These Questions:

• Are you leveraging the new communication channels provided by social media?
• Do you have an integrated digital marketing strategy for your dealership?
• Is your website conversion rate increasing each month?
• Could you be handling your calls and Internet leads better?
• Would you like a 2-4% average increase in closing ratios to to phone and Internet leads?
• Is your Fixed Operations Budget using SEM, SEO, and Social Media?
• Are you looking for advice on how to structure your entire advertising budget?
• Are you ready to implement free advertising strategies to increase website traffic?

Register to attend the next PCG Pit Stop^® that is conveniently located in Chicago that you can easily travel to and enjoy the workshop experience offered by PCG Education.

Dealers need more than just their 20 Group Meetings and annual conferences to stay connected with the latest changes in our industry.  Google has been making significant changes to Internet marketing every few months so don’t get left behind.

Details on the automotive conference can be found in the color brochure below:

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Consumer Reports is one of the few independent 3rd parties who do not “license” their results for inclusion in advertising, and they strictly monitor and enforce against commercial use of their name and their data.  By maintaining impartiality in their ratings and findings, consumers can put a lot of faith and trust into their ratings.

Consumer Reports relies completely on the consumer with regards to the actual testing.  Consumers will use and test the product and send in the necessary information, where Consumer Reports will score the vehicle only after 100 responses are sent in.  Because of all of these reasons, vehicle scores from Consumer Reports are heavily regarded in the auto industry as well as by the consumers themselves.

Mississippi Subaru Vehicles Earn Top Ratings

There were two Subaru vehicles that Consumer Reports found to be very reliable, both garnering top ratings in the report.  The non-turbo Subaru Forester and four-cylinder Legacy Sedan both earned top ratings from Consumer Reports.  Both vehicles, available at one of the leading Mississippi Subaru dealers, are high quality vehicles that consumers will love due to their attention to detail and ability to get customers wherever they need to go in style and comfort.

The Forester presents shoppers with a classy SUV that is easy to handle and operate.  The Forester model comes equipped with quality entertainment options, ranging from a quality sound system to an AM/FM radio and CD player.  The Forester also gives consumers a variety of convenience features that will make anyone happy.  With speed control, remote keyless entry, power windows, and comfortable seating for five, the Forester is as easy as ever to drive.

The Legacy sedan is a vehicle that handles extremely well and will make any owner happy to drive it.  With many of the same options and features as the Forester, the Legacy also adds a few more pieces that add to the convenience and reliability of the vehicle.  The Legacy offers steering wheel mounted controls, a feature that will increase driver focus while also making it easier to control the entertainment options in the vehicle.

Furthermore, the Legacy and Forester models offer consumers reliable vehicles that are also fuel efficient.  The Legacy gives drivers 19 city miles per gallon while going 27 highway miles per gallon.  The Forester is one of the more efficient SUVs, offering drivers 21 city miles per gallon and 27 highway miles per gallon.

It’s easy to see why Subarus are always so highly rated on reliability tests.  With quality service, parts, and vehicles, Subaru owners never have to worry about being left out in the cold.  For more information on these Subaru vehicles or any other of the great Subaru vehicles on the lot at Paul Moak Volvo, feel free to call (888) 859-4918 or visit http://www.paulmoaksubaru.com.

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Location based applications are a hot segment of the market and Google is moving fast into this space to become a dominant player in consumer reviews and feedback loops. Google Hotpot takes the data from Google Places and the reviews from other consumers and places them in a simple interface that anyone can use.

Creating a Hotpot Account

The first thing you will need to do is to create your account. Click through on this link to get started: http://www.google.com/hotpot

If you have a Google Account, just login and you will be asked to create a screen name. This is your public “reviewer” name so you can get creative at this point or use your real name. From the screenshot below, you will also see that your default start-up account needs a photo as well as some basic information. I decided to use my actual name so my Google HotPot account.

Once you create your account you can start rating local businesses and places nearby. You are presented with a search box and you can start by reviewing your favorite places. You have unlimited 1-5 star ratings and initially you only get 10 “Best Ever” stars, which is a special rating. I’m not sure how the “Best Ever” ratings will pan out but since they are limited, they may be weighted heavier.

Google HotPot Simplifies Review Posting

The default search is restaurants and so Google is taking aim at the most popular ratings engines like Yelp.com and CitySearch.com. Google also knows businesses that you rated in the past. For example, you will see that my review count started at eight even though this is a brand new account. This is from past reviews that I used with this Google email address on Google Places.

Hotpot takes all of Google Places‘ ratings and reviews features and adds a more personal touch. Currently, Place Pages mostly aggregate review data from sources such as Yelp. With Hotpot, users will be encouraged to rate and review businesses directly from their Google-linked profile. Users’ ratings and reviews are tracked with a counter at the top of each profile, and likes and dislikes are remembered and used in Google’s recommendation engine.

When you post a review, you photo will now appear next to the review as shown below:

Google Review Trends

How does this apply to car dealers? Think stars! The progression over the past few months looks like this. Google upgrades Google Places and emphasizes the important reviews. Then Google integrates Google Places reviews into organic search so business “star” ratings appear for broad business searches. Search for “Baltimore Honda dealers” in Google to see exactly how that look.

Then Google offers business owners the ability to run pay-per-click ads using their star ratings: Google Boost. Now, Google is making it easier for consumers to post reviews for local businesses.

In 2011 the most important investment dealers can make is to establish a strong online reputation management process.

Good customer service will be rewarded ten-fold if Google’s Hotpot takes off. Bad customer service will be placed for all consumers to see for popular search phrases. Dealers need to start inspecting all business processes and test ways to integrate review posting strategies.

As Google makes it easier for consumers to post reviews from their mobile devices, like Google Hotpot, you should be encouraging your customers to post reviews on Google Hotpot when they are in your store or when you are on the phone with them. If you are NOT asking your loyal and happy customers, then most likely you will only see negative reviews.

Need Help?

PCG Digital Marketing can assist your dealership implement an Internet Reputation Management (IRM) process and show you how to leverage customer reviews. Act now because this is one of those rare opportunities to leap-frog ahead of your competition.

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The page is organically optimized for the dealership name, as shown be the META tags for this page:

And I highlighted the paid ad sections (in pink) that lead consumers away from this dealer’s review page to provide leads for related automotive services and their local competitors.  There is nothing illegal about what Car Dealer Check is doing since they are not using the dealers name in the main URL and only in the page tagging.

This however, is just another confirmation that companies are using the guise of consumer reviews to produce Page One organic results that leak brand equity away from car dealers.  If someone was looking for information about this dealer, you can see by the pink box how many “land-mines” are in key areas to generate revenue for the website owner.

CarDealerCheck Triggers Negative POD Score Points

If you are paying CarDealerCheck.com for their service, they may be willing to take off the paid ads from your listing page.  If you are not using CarDealerCheck.com I would request that your dealership name be removed from their database.  There is no law that says that they have to comply but I would ask out of professional coutesy.

Attacks on a dealer’s brand name is the reason why POD Score™ was introduced.  Dealer’s need to understand that their brand name is under attack and that they need a Page One Defense (POD). Dealers need to make sure that sites like this do not easily divert their in-market customers to their competitors.

Advice to dealers: This website, if it is running Google Adsense on your review page, should not be on Page One for a search on your dealership name.

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The platform allows your customers to post reviews on your custom review site while they are in the dealership. Strong advocates of the PrestoReviews platform get over 90% participation rates from their customers.

The reviews on the dealers custom local website are rolled up into the national PrestoReviews website similar how DealerRater.com displays reviews for all dealers on one website. The advantages of the PrestoReviews platform are many but a two main points are the program helps to increase your POD Score and also makes it easier for your customers (service and sales) to post reviews when inside the dealership.

Car Dealer Reviews

This week, Google Maps started to include PrestoReviews dealer websites on Google Places. I have a screen shot below which shows the inclusion of the custom site built for Infiniti of Lisle. Right now the star counts are not being rolled-up but it won’t be long until that integration takes place.

This turn of events further reinforces the need to have a multi-platform IRM strategy that can include more than one review site as your primary focus. All car dealers should have a process that includes encouraging customers to post on ANY review website that is rolled up on your Google Places listing.

For most car dealers I would recommend that they invest in both DealerRater and PrestoReviews since both have their advantages that will deliver a strong ROI for the dealership.

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Acton Toyota last week had over 1,000 reviews last week and this is what their Google Places listing looks like today, November 8, 2010:

Is anyone else seeing their Google Places review counts dropping?  It looks like there is a bug in their system that is going to be hurting many businesses.

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Today as I searched for Chicago Dealers and I was blown away how much Page One real estate was used for Google Maps listings.  This is the second time I saw this type of action on Page One this week, so it is time to start a discussion.

I color coded the SERP in sections to show that:

• Google Adwords was split on top and right shown in pink.
• Two organic listings were displayed above the new maps region, shown in green.
• That 7 spots were taken up with exploded Google Maps listings, shown in red.
• The remainder of the organics were shown under maps which were cut off on the screen capture.

Google Maps Changes IRM Strategies

I don’t see this type of display for all searches and maybe this is a new design for broad commercial searches but this is a game changer. What do you think?

What I can see is that Google review stars are SIGNIFICANTLY MORE VISIBLE which means that automotive reputation management processes must really be locked down. What I also see is that if you are not in the top spots for organic search, you will get crushed by this new design and experience significantly less clicks.

What I also would expect is that the Google Ads on the right side will receive less clicks. There is too much activity front and center that brings the consumers eye to the maps region. So this will also be a game changer for Adwords bidding.

Homework: Get your Google Maps listings updated with photos, videos, coupons, and make sure you have the geo-targeting set correctly. If this is a look at the future, the more complete and compelling your Google Maps listing is, the more calls and clicks you will receive.

If you need help, call: 732.450.8200.

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When Google Maps displays listings of car dealers, as shown below, it has been proven that high star counts increase click-through rates. With over 330 reviews displayed for Marlboro Nissan, their Google Maps traffic will surely increase. Their Internet Reputation Management program will really pay off now.

And when you click on the details for each dealer, you can see how well DealerRater.com reviews dominate the page:

Reputation Management Services

Congratulations to Chip, Matt, and the entire DealerRater.com team for getting this integration completed. Dealers looking for assistance and training to setup strong reputation management processes can contact PCG Digital Marketing for an IRM proposal.

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Of all the digital marketing concepts that one could teach to a dealer, that would impact his bottom line, POD Score™ would be in my top 10. The evolution of the “POD Score” has been a labor of love. I have assisted hundreds of dealers document and understand their visibility on the major search engines.

Over the past 5 years, the search results have produced alarming trends that most dealers are not aware of; their brand is under attack. A dealer’s POD Score™ is a measurement of how much of their brand equity is being diverted to competitors, lead collectors and uncontrolled commentary about their dealership.

Page One Defense – POD Score™

Based on feedback on numerous automotive forums regarding how a POD Score™ is calculated, I have created a revised formula for creating a POD Score™ that is designed to give dealers a quick measure of how well their name is being defended/protected online when consumers perform a “direct search” on their name in Google.

The elements in the revised POD Score™ are:

• Google Adwords Campaigns
• Google Maps
• Organic Listings

The revised formula also changes the weighted value of listings in the first five positions of Google organic results as compared to the last 5 listings on Page One.

A car dealer’s name is the number one keyword that drives traffic to their website in organic search. It can also be in the top five most clicked keywords if the dealership name is purchased in Adwords.

Consumers who search for a dealers name are most likely further along in the sales funnel than a consumer typing a broad search phrase. Consumers who search for a dealers name can be searching for a phone number, responding to an advertisement seen or heard offline, and an existing customer looking to service their car or ask a question.

Avoiding Disruptive Attacks

Since these consumers have set a search goal to connect with a dealer, it will take a disruptive event to divert a significant amount of traffic from a dealers website. I am suggesting that some of the more common disruptive events on Page One can be:

• A targeted PPC campaign showing by competitors or OEM.
• Strong negative reviews and low star ratings on Google Maps.
• Significantly higher stars on Google Maps for a competing dealer.
• A top five position for a complaint on aggressive websites like RipOffReport.com
• Targeted microsite attacking the dealers name like ww.abcdealersucks.com

Based on real life observations and data I have collected on multiple websites, I am convinced dealers should observe and take action for what appears on Page One for a search on their name. The degree of urgency will most likely depend on a dealer’s past experience with negative posts, employee attacks or aggressive competitors.

With that said, is just one element of their overall digital marketing strategy. Its beauty is that it clearly demonstrates the impact of digital marketing strategies, Automotive SEO and PPC, used to gain visibility for a car dealer’s name. Dealers will have to determine if their revised POD Score™ merits action.

What POD Scores Are Not Intended To Accomplish

• POD Score™ is not to be used to measure Page One results on random keywords. It is designed to measure the Page One results for a search on a business name.

• The POD Score™ (Page One Defense) is not designed to measure the exact financial impact of owning Page One.

• It is not a measure of the financial impact of PPC bidding or not bidding on a dealer name when no competing Adwords campaign are present.

• Most importantly, it is not meant to imply a measurement as to the net value of click traffic generated by PPC Ads vs. organic listings that show on Page One for a dealer’s name.

The Revised POD Score™ Formula

The revised formula is an acknowledgment that when a consumer types in a dealer’s name, there can be a number of things that can negatively or positively impact a dealer. The revised POD Score™ measures the dealer’s awareness of these attacks and their efforts and actions to stop brand leakage and attacks. There are three scoring elements in the revised formula, which are outlined in this document.

Special Thanks

I would like to thank the members of DrivingSales.com, DealerRefresh.com and AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com for providing feedback on the original formula and how it could be improved to relate to predictable click behavior and visual impact on Page One.

PPC Scoring Elements

In regards to PPC Ads, adding a scoring element can be tricky because budgets and schedule impact what is seen on Page One on any given moment. The dealer is in control of calculating their POD Score™ and that includes the scoring element for PPC.

Dealers can easily ask what keywords they are purchasing in Adwords.

For purposes of POD Score™, if a competitor’s ad or OEM ad is running at the top of organic search results for a dealer’s name, and if the dealer does not purchase their own name in Adwords as a defense, ten points will be taken off their score (-15). If a dealer recognizes their name is being targeted, and runs a competitive ad for their name, they will be rewarded five points (+15).

In the example above, Circle BMW get 15 points for creating a PPC campaign to mitigate the brand leakage created by BMW USA. If they did not create a PPC campaign, many leads would be siphoned off to BMW USA.

If there are no competitor PPC ads running for a search on a dealer’s name then there is no “top of page” attack and no POD need to direct funds at an Adwords campaign. That money can be spent to increase control of organic listings on Page One. Some Adwords experts have stated that buying a dealers name when no attack is present is great for lead generation. However, for the purpose of POD Score there is no reward.

Google Maps Elements

In regards to Google Maps, we firmly believe that dealers should edit and verify their own Google Maps listing. If the dealer’s Google Maps listing shows unverified, it can have incorrect data, phone numbers and website addresses. This is not a desirable event and an unverified listing will result in 10 points taken off their score (-10).

Reviews are an important element in Google Maps and highly visible when a consumer searches for a car dealer’s name. Bad reviews can be a disruptive event and can derail a consumer who was intending on doing business with the dealer.

Dealers should be defending their name by asking customers to post positive reviews. If a dealer ignores this element of Google Maps, most likely only negative reviews will show. Dealers should have dozens of positive reviews posted directly on Google Maps.

If a car dealer has at least five positive reviews directly posted into Google Maps and their average is over 3 stars in Google, they can add 15 points to their POD Score™ (+15). If a dealer has less than five positive reviews, or an average Google score under 3 stars, they will subtract 15 points (-15).

In the example above, Brickell Honda has numerous Google positive reviews so their scoring for the Map component of POD Score would be +15 points.

Dealers With Cities In Their Name

For some dealers, their dealership name includes a city like “Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills.” A search can trigger Google Maps to show multiple dealerships if a consumer types “Mercedes-Benz Beverly Hills” and leaves out the word “of.”

In this case, dealers should be aware of the relative scores presented if other Mercedes-Benz dealers appear. A dealer who has significantly less reviews and stars than their direct competitors, they are inviting the consumer to click and compare.

We understand that for some dealers, Google may not show all their ratings on third party websites. In any case, dealers should be balancing where reviews are placed and since Google controls the maps listing, posting directly to Google must be part of your Internet Reputation Management strategy and the POD Score™ reflects that need.

Organic Search Listings

Members of the automotive community suggested that all organic listings do not have the same click through rates and thus should not be viewed equally for scoring. Additional feedback included that all organic listings are not shown above the fold so unless consumers scroll through the page, some listings may not influence customers at all.

It is our conviction that all listings on Page One are important but we agree that weighting is needed to reflect the energy needed to control the most important listing positions.

Negative Review Focused Sites

For example, a RipOffReport.com or ConsumerAffairs.com listing in position 3 (shown previously for Bay Ridge Nissan) will be a more disruptive event than in position 10. This is simply because for many browsers, the listings in positions 6-10 need the user to scroll down to see them.

However, on my new Mac workstation, I can see all 10 without scrolling for most searches. The work needed to push this listing off Page One from position 3 will also require more work than if in position 10.

For POD scoring, a direct negative post, like RipOffReport.com or ConsumerAffairs.com, with the dealership name in the title that appears in the first five listing is considered disruptive event and will result in a deduction of 10 points (-10). If the review is in positions 6-10, deduct five points (-5). This can include direct attacks like www.abcbmwsucks.com which we have seen many times.

So when a dealer calculates their scores for organic listings that they have full control of, they will be weighted as follows:

• Position 1 15
• Position 2 15
• Position 3 10
• Position 4 10
• Position 5 10
• Position 6 5
• Position 7 5
• Position 8 5
• Position 9 5
• Position10 5

Total points awarded for a dealer owning all 10 organic listings on Page One is 75 points. In order to achieve a POD Score™ of 100 or higher, a dealer must gain points from their Google Maps positive reviews or their PPC defense strategy.

To clarify what counts for POD Score™ points in the organic listings we have created this table:

We would like to clearly state that third party lead collection websites or advertising websites are a vital part of the automotive community and provide valuable services to car dealers. We however, do not feel that they should be appearing on Google Page One for a search on a dealers name.

POD Score™ Point Scoring Summarized

How to Get to 100 Points

A dealer that owned all 10 organic listings, had no one attacking them using Adwords, and had good reviews would receive a score Maps (15) + Pos1-5(60) + Pos6-10(25) = 100.

A dealer can also get to 100 points by defending their name with Adwords, if attacked by someone using Adwords, and not have all the organic listings under their control.

The following pages list a few examples of how the new POD Score is calculated on car dealers that are local to our office where Adwords campaigns would be expected to show.

Red Bank Volvo POD Score

Red Bank Volvo has a POD Score of 10 because of the following three section scores:

1. Adwords - A competitor is running a Google Adwords campaign on their name and they are not running a campaign the two days we tested this local dealer. (-15)
2. Maps - They do not have five positive reviews on their Google Maps listing and the last two reviews at the top of the list were damaging. (-15)
3. Organic – They control only positions 1, 2 and 3 in the organic listings.

Gold Coast Cadillac POD Score

Gold Coast Cadillac has a POD Score of 40 because of the following three section scores:

1. Adwords - Multiple competitors are running a Google Adwords campaign on their name and they are running a defensive campaign at the top of search listings . (+15)
2. Maps - They do not have a three star average rating on their reviews on their Google Maps listing and they have only 1 direct Google review. (-15)
3. Organic – They control only positions 1, 2 and 4 in the organic listings. (+40)

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Pasch’s leadership message is entitled: “Car Dealers are Under Attack,” and dealer professionals will learn why at the Denver summit. Pasch will explain why some very popular inventory advertising models can actually drive traffic away from their own site, as well as how dealers can fight back against online attacks on their brand name.

Information is power, and according to Pasch, dealers will leave his seminar with the proper information needed to protect their digital marketing investments. Tim Jackson, director of the Innovative Dealer Summit, said, “Brian’s presentation will be very timely and one of the most popular and interesting of the conference.”

Innovative Dealer Summit

The Innovative Dealer Summit is considered one of the premier leadership functions for dealer advancement. Summit attendees will include dealer principals/owners, general managers, senior dealership managers and directors, Internet sales managers, business development managers, F&I managers, key dealership leaders, sales leadership, advertising and marketing consultants, controllers and other key decision makers.

Attendees will learn the latest in innovative technologies from seminars devoted to 30 emerging, compelling topics during the 12-hour conference. Topics include Internet strategies regarding search engine optimization, dealer reputation management, social media marketing, lead generation and follow-up, and more.

Brian Pasch, CEO and Founder of PCG Digital Marketing (http://www.pcgdigitalmarketing.com) is a popular speaker and writer on automotive digital marketing strategies.  He is an active blogger on the most visited social networks and forums for car dealers who seek to learn more about SEO, SEM, social media and leveraging the Internet to grow dealership sales.

Brian Pasch is also creator of the popular ASMA Awards (http://www.asmaawards.org) which recognizes the best digital marketing platforms in the automotive industry.
The Innovative Dealer Summit was created as a directive and priority of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association. For more information visit http://www.innovativedealersummit.com

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It’s Social Media Baby!

If you haven’t noticed car dealers are being pushed off of Google Page One for the cars that they sell. To throw salt in the wounds, it seems that every month another car dealer “review site” pops up.

This means when consumers type in a car dealership name, more sites are vying to capture and suck the equity out of the brand.

In reality, many of these sites are just Google Adwords and banner advertising sites that are making money from optimizing website pages on a car dealer’s name.

There is nothing illegal about this and over 60% of car dealers are allowing their name to be leveraged for other people to profit from.

In the area of car dealer reviews, have you take a minute to see just how many websites seek to be the “authority” for car dealer reviews?

Here is a quick sample of the sites that I have found that want to be found in Google, Yahoo and Bing search for the phrase “Car Dealer Reviews” or “Auto Dealer Reviews”:

Car Dealer Specific SItes

• www.mydealerreport.com
• www.cardealercheck.com
• www.dealerrater.com
• www.cardealerreviews.org
• www.prestoreviews.com
• www.dealerscene.com
• www.dealershipratings.com
• www.carsdealersreview.com
• www.autodealerreviews.com
• www.dealerreviewer.com
• www.autodealerreviews.com
• www.edmunds.com

General Review Sites

• www.my3cents.com
• www.insiderpages.com
• www.yelp.com
• www.citysearch.com
• www.judysbook.com
• www.merchantcircle.com
• www.yellowbot.com
• www.switchboard.com
• www.superpages.com

Automotive IRM Confusion

The reason I bring this trend up on this blog is because it can be confusing for a car dealer to know where to focus their Automotive Internet Reputation Management strategies.  So let me give you some practical advice:

1. Look at your own Google Maps listing and see which review websites are being summarized on your Google Maps page.  Focus on getting positive reviews posted on these sites first.
2. Of course, getting posts directly on Google Maps should be a car dealers #1 priority because the “star” ratings are directly counted if a consumer posts on Google Maps.
3. Once you have seen which review sites are being summarized on your Maps listing,  focus on getting more reviews on those sites via email, calls and in store coaching.
4. To see if other sites are having an impact on your business, Google your exact business name and see which review sites are showing on Page One and Page Two.
5. Any sites on Page One or Page Two should get some attention to build positive reviews.

If a review website is not on Page One or Page Two, I would hold off investing any labor on these sites  until the steps listed above are complete.  Then, I would add positive reviews to the largest website vendors first and ignore the lesser sites that only have their own self interests in mind.

Summary:  There are hundreds of websites trying to capitalize on your car dealership name.  Don’t get overwhelmed and just focus on the most visible websites that appear for your car dealership name or the cars you sell in your PMA.

If you need help, call 732-450-8200.

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Car dealers are turning to a second career to jumpstart their online sales: movie director.  Consumer engagement in social media coupled with the popularity of online review sites has forced car dealers to rethink their automotive advertising strategies.

Video production which was once was cost prohibitive for dealers to do themselves has now become an affordable tool for creative automotive professionals. In growing numbers, car dealers are turning to FlipCam video cameras to create video testimonials for their customers, walk around car videos and now a move to create social media viral videos.

These videos are being integrated into their websites, Google Maps, Facebook and loaded on popular video websites like YouTube to extend the reach of their brand.  Customer testimonial videos are becoming standard operating procedure as studies show that consumers trust their peers five times more than a statement from an automotive dealer. 

One of the newest place to leverage a car dealer’s video testimonials in on Google Maps.  I recommend that you load a new car, used car and service testimonial video to your Google Maps listings. 

You should also add 3 or  good photos of customers getting delivery of cars and delete those photos of your building.  When you enhance you Google Maps listings with positive eneergy, watch what happens to your click through statistics.

Pioneers in this field of FlipCam videos include Tim Jennings, Ken Beam, Christine Knowles, and a host of advance thinkers who have made their websites come alive with multimedia. 

Get Ready To Laugh

One of the rising stars in automotive videos is Acton Toyota who first made me laugh with their A++ Toyota Warranty videos that you can see on this link:  Toyota Extended Warranty

Toyota Dealer Shines for FlipCam

One innovative car dealers has been nationally recognized for their innovative videos using a FlipCam is Acton Toyota.  The Boston Toyota dealership was recently featured in the national magazine “Toyota Today” for their spoof videos that were inspired by the popular Mac vs PC TV commercials.

Acton Toyota had no previous film or editing experience yet their videos have attracted thousands of visitors to their websites. The recent article in Toyota Today highlights that car dealers are just beginning to embrace social media communications that include these creative viral videos.

With the ease of which the FlipCam can create videos, more car dealers should investigate how they can bring their static websites alive with tutorials, testimonials, better display of the cars they sell and warm introductions for the services they offer.

I would estimate that less that 10% of all car dealers in the United States have testimonial videos on their website or integrated into their social media processes.  He who acts first will increase their marketshare and brand awareness.  Are you ready? 

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I have some good news for you today. Car dealers can now respond positive and negative reviews on Google Maps! The feature that many dealers have been waiting for is finally here. If you have verified your Google Maps listing proving that you are the owner, you can now respond to any comments, positive or negative, when you are logged in to your account.

This is great news for dealers who have an Automotive Internet Reputation Management (IRM) process setup and who have been monitoring reviews on sites like Google Maps, Yelp, CitySearch, InsiderPages and Dealerrater. I also like the strategy of thanking people who place positive comments!

Here is the official notice from Google:

Whether you’re looking for a great lounge to hang out with your friends or a trusty shop to repair your bicycle, the web is a great place to discover and learn about local businesses and services. Some of the listings on Google Maps showcase reviews to help prospective customers make informed decisions and find the places that are just right for them. Reviews on Google Maps are assembled from a variety of sources on the web to give you the best possible overview of what people are saying about a specific place. We also encourage users to share their opinions by writing reviews directly on the Place Page of any place they’ve visited, be it a local business, tourist attraction or the like.

Starting today, if you’re a verified Google Places business owner, you can publicly respond to reviews written by Google Maps users on the Place Page for your business. Engaging with the people who have shared their thoughts about your business is a great way to get to know your customers and find out more. Both positive and negative feedback can be good for your business and help it grow (even though it’s sometimes hard to hear).

By responding, you can build stronger relationships with existing and prospective customers. For example, a thoughtful response acknowledging a problem and offering a solution can often turn a customer who had an initially negative experience into a raving supporter. A simple thank you or a personal message can further reinforce a positive experience. Ultimately, business owner responses give you the opportunity to learn what you do well, what you can do better, and show your customers that you’re listening.

This new feature will make some serious competition for Yelp…but for now, it’s time for car dealers to take charge and come up with an review response policy and be careful how your comment on a negative review.

Demo of Comments

What is your reaction to this news?

I’m very excited to see that negative comments or characterizations can be challenged by car dealers who have been unfairly judged.  This of course reminds me to say that dealers must have an IRM policy in place with guidelines on who should respond, if at all.  Responding the wrong way to an angry customer or a negative review could compound the problem.

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As part of their new strategic digital marketing strategy, Kirkwood Mitsubishi will receive the most advanced automotive digital marketing strategies developed by PCG.   Enhancing the dealer’s online visibility will be accomplished through on-site and off-site SEO strategies, content development and the opportunity to be included in PCG’s exclusive Automotive Advertising Network (AAN).  The AAN combines PCG Digital Marketing’s proven strategies in Search Engine Optimization, content marketing, social media and blogging to provide dealers with an industry leading solution for lead generation and direct sales.

Additional PCG services will include blogging, writing and publishing press releases, link building, posting customer reviews, Twitter, Facebook, Google SEO compliance, Analytics, Google Maps, video uploads and more.   The goal of the new Internet Marketing campaign will be to increase the frequency that their vehicles appear in local and regional search results and to generate additional traffic and leads to their business.

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As part of their new strategic digital marketing strategy, the Fairfield County Nissan dealer will receive the most advanced automotive digital marketing strategies developed by PCG.   Enhancing Nissan Darien’s online visibility will be accomplished through on-site and off-site SEO strategies, content development and the opportunity to be included in PCG’s exclusive Automotive Advertising Network (AAN).  The AAN combines PCG Digital Marketing’s proven strategies in Search Engine Optimization, content marketing, social media and blogging to provide dealers with an industry leading solution for lead generation and direct sales.

Additional PCG services will include blogging, writing and publishing press releases, link building, posting customer reviews, Twitter, Facebook, Google SEO compliance, Analytics, Google Maps, video uploads and more.   The goal of Nissan Darien’s new Internet Marketing campaign will be to increase the frequency that their vehicles appear in local and regional search results and to generate additional traffic and leads to their business.

Nissan Darien serves the greater part of Stamford Nissan shoppers, extending their reach all the way into White Plains and Port Chester, New York. Nissan Darien is a part of the Darien Automotive Group, in business since 1956.

To learn more about Nissan Darien, please visit http://www.nissandarien.com/

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Irwin Ford is known for offering competitive perks like their price match guarantee and 24 hour vehicle locator to Laconia Ford shoppers.  Now the dealership is reminding the public of the many additional benefits their dealership offers. 

Included in Irwin’s top 20 list are convenient services such as a 24 hour vehicle locator, used vehicle money back guarantee, free loaner cars, free delivery anywhere in New England, and the Owner’s Advantage Rewards Program.

The full list can be viewed online at http://www.irwinzoneford.com/About%20Us-pid11998

Irwin Ford has the highest customer satisfaction scores of all local Ford dealers serving Tilton Ford, Meredith Ford and Manchester Ford shoppers.

Irwin Ford also offers one of the largest selections of competitively priced new and used Ford vehicles. Ford shoppers in the Laconia, Meredith, and Tilton areas can view a more comprehensive selection of Ford vehicles on the Irwin Ford website at:  http://www.forddealersnewhampshire.com/
To learn more about year end specials at Irwin Ford, consumers can visit http://www.irwinzoneFord.com

http://www.irwinzoneford.com/tilton-ford-for-sale-NH–pid12560

http://www.irwinzoneford.com//Meredith-ford-for-sale-NH–pid12561

http://www.irwinzoneford.com/Manchester-Ford-For-Sale-NH–pid12563

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Lamoureux Ford has been the dealer of choice for MA Ford customers since it opened in 1977.  Lamoureux has received Ford Motor Company’s President’s Award for 15 consecutive years, which “recognizes and rewards Dealers who have excelled in achieving superior Customer Satisfaction.”

That commitment to consumers is what makes Lamoureux the MA Ford dealer “where friends send their friends.”

Lamoureux Ford also boasts one of the best service centers in the area with knowledgeable staff to meet our Worcester Ford customers’ needs.  For customers’ convenience, Lamoureux also has an Enterprise Car Rental location on the premises.

Conveniently located on Route 9 in East Brookfield, Lamoureux Ford is the first choice for customers looking for Ford dealers in East Brookfield, North Brookfield, Worcester, Charlton, Sturbridge, and Southbridge.

To find out more about Lamoureux Ford please visit the Worcester Ford dealer’s website at: http://www.lamford.com

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Consumers living in the Worcester area can trade in their current vehicle to get 0.0% APR financing on approved credit thru FMCC on select Ford models. Plus, the new Ford Edge is eligible for $1,000 factory bonus cash at Lamoureux Ford in East Brookfield.  The Ford edge is a midsize crossover SUV offering a roomy cabin, comfortable ride, Sync system, plenty of standard safety equipment, and strong crash test scores.

Worcester Ford shoppers who may have been eyeing a particular model should take advantage of this limited time opportunity.  Qualifying Ford models eligible for the ‘swap’ include the Fusion, Mustang, Edge, Flex, Escape, Explorer and more. 

The Ford Fusion, Motor Trend’s 2010 Car of the Year, is a fuel-efficient mid sized sedan.  It features a stylish exterior with a chrome grille and sleek halogen headlights.  It blows the competition away with not only its performance, but its technological capabilities, such as Sirius travel link navigation system, SmartGauge Cluster with EcoGuide, BLIS system, and Sony sound system.

For more information on the Swap Your Ride event consumers can visit Lamoureux Ford located in East Brookfield or call 888-608-0042.

Lamoureux Ford serving Worcester is a community minded new and used car dealer.  They carry one of the largest in-stock selections of Ford cars, trucks and SUVs and offer the best pricing on all sales and service. 

For more information, visit http://www.lamford.com/

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Here’s an excerpt from Brian’s IRM workbook:

I am often asked how to deal with DUPLICATE directory listings for your business on popular directories like Google Maps and consumer review sites like Yelp, Insider Pages or CitySearch.  It is not uncommon for a business to have multiple entries on the same website if:

1. Your business has moved during the past 10 years.
2. Your business has gone through a name change.
3. Someone added a new listing without checking for previous entries
4. Someone has purposely added the business multiple times with variations on your business name.

Duplicate Entries Are Not Good

Leaving duplicate entries on the same website dilutes your Internet Reputation Management (IRM) process and may trigger the website owner to ban both accounts if they feel you are spamming their index.   Duplicate entries that a consumer may find via organic search or by searching a review website should be removed.

To find duplicates, try these steps using Google search:

1. Search Google for your business name + the name of the review site
2. Search Google for your business phone number + name of the review site
3. Search Google for your OEM brand, city  + name of the review site
4. Search or your business name inside of the website using their search tool.

So, if your dealership name is Brickell Honda, you would test for duplicates on InsiderPages.com by going to Google and typing as a search these three phrases:

1. brickell honda insiderpages
2. 866-645-7878 insiderpages
3. honda miami insiderpages

The process for removing duplicate entries varies by website.  Google Maps has an easy tool to report duplicate or erroneous map entries.  Other websites like Yelp, have a reporting process that requires a few more steps.  Invest the time in making sure all your public directory listings are correct. 

Review All Public Directory Listings

When you review your business listings, here are some suggestions:

1. Make sure you have a tracking number on the most popular websites, like Google Maps, and the review websites that show on Google Page One and Page Two for your dealership name.
2. Make sure your website address is correct
3. Make sure that you have selected the proper business category “tag” for the services you offer.
4. Make sure there are no spelling errors.
5. Make sure you take advantage of any sites that allow you to load photos or videos to your listing page.

Once all the most effective IRM websites are de-duped, record the links to all your business profile pages in a file that can be used to for IRM letters, icon placement for your primary website or to be used in a Reputation Management Portal (RMP). 

Checking What Consumers Are Saying

By having a single document that has all your profile page links, it is a basic ad no-cost way to see what has been written about your business online.  Setup a procedure where someone on your team visits these profile pages to ensure that no complaints have been posted that you are not aware of.

Setting up Google Alerts is another free tool to notify you in real-time when anything is posted online with your dealership name. However ,in case you miss some alerts, checking your manual list will be a second round of checks and balances for your overall social media strategy.

There are paid services that automate this process and save you the manual work but not everyone has extra money to spend.  So you have no excuse, other than time, not to check your current business listings and clean them up if they have duplicates on the same website.

See You In Orlando

At my DD8 seminar I will demonstrating the most effective strategies, policies and procedures to create powerful Internet Internet Reputation Management (IRM) campaign, which should be an integral part of your social media strategy.  Public review websites is one of the most powerful social media tools that consumers have decided are valuable so you can’t ignore them!

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The Digital Dealer Conference being held this April in Orlando will cover the latest developments in Internet Reputation Management strategies.  Brian Pasch, CEO of PCG Digital Marketing, will deliver an in-depth presentation focusing on proactive reputation management techniques that will establish a winning online strategy for auto dealers in 2010. 

Pasch will review and demonstrate the most effective IRM strategies that car dealers can implement at a low cost that deliver a high ROI. Guests of Pasch’s presentation will also learn what other car dealers are doing to increase their positive customer reviews on Google Maps, DealerRater, Presto Reviews, InsiderPages and other important review websites. 

According to Pasch, Internet Reputation Management will be one of the key metrics for success in 2010 and beyond.  Add to this mix new mobile phone technology that can reward consumers for on-site reviews and it becomes very clear why dealers in 2010 need a reputation management policy and strategy.  

“The Internet has empowered consumers with new tools to express their satisfaction and dissatisfaction with car dealers online. Dozens of consumer review websites now appear on Google page one for searches on a car dealer’s business name. I recommend that all dealers look to see what is being written online about them,” says Pasch. 

Brian Pasch is the founder and CEO of PCG Digital Marketing, formerly the Pasch Consulting Group. He is a respected member of the automotive digital marketing community and an active writer and lecturer.  His expertise in automotive SEO, social media and Internet reputation management have made him a popular name among dealers looking for strategic digital marketing advice.

To learn about the automotive SEO services of PCG Digital Marketing, visit http://www.pcgdigitalmarketing.com .  For more information on automotive Internet Reputation Management strategies, visit http://www.automotiveirm.com/

About the Digital Dealer Conference

The annual Digital Dealer Conference attracts hundreds of dealership attendees that are looking to learn more about Internet and technology-related issues.  Speakers who are experts in the field of Automotive Digital Marketing present seminars which help forward thinking dealerships stay ahead of the ever changing technology curve.   For registration or sponsorship opportunities, visit http://www.digitaldealerconference.com/

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Car dealers who want to implement an effective Internet Reputation Management (IRM) process at their dealership should plan on attending Brian Pasch’s seminar at the 8^th Digital Dealer Conference in Orlando.  The conference runs from April 20^th through the 22^nd and will attract the top dealers in the country who are passionate about digital marketing.

Brian will educate dealers on how to create an effective reputation management strategy that empowers the dealership’s customers to share their positive experiences online.  With Google consolidating consumer’s reviews on Google Maps, car dealers can no longer ignore what consumers are saying online.

More importantly, if dealers are not proactively asking their satisfied customer to post their reviews online, the only comments that most dealers will see will be critical.   Brian’s research has shown that as positive reviews increase, so do calls and leads from a Google Maps listing.

Brian will walk attendees through the processes and procedures to establish a strong IRM program as well as leveraging new IRM ideas that include Reputation Management portals (RMP).

For additional information on the seminar schedule and how to register for the 8^th Digital Dealer Conference, visit:  http://www.digitaldealerconference.com

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Many articles on the Internet have discussed Automotive Internet Reputation Management and the importance of checking what consumers are writing about you on the Internet.  Still many dealers fail to read even what is posted or rolled-up on Google Maps.  Automotive Reputation Management must be a standard operating procedures for car dealers in 2010.

Hare Chevrolet RMP

I would like to offer some new twists on this discuss with the concept of a Reputation Management Portal (RMP).  In the example shown above, we have taken a simple WordPress website and consolidated links to popular review websites.   Each icon is linked to the specific review page for our client Hare Chevrolet. 

Here is an overview of the Reputation Management Portal (RMP):

1. The site is created on a great branding URL, like www.iloveharechevy.com
2. The dealer can print up postcards and give them to happy customers marketing this catchy URL.
3. The single URL can be easily promoted offline and also by email.
4. The review website icons that you show and the order that they appear can be changed.
5. You can add your streaming Dealerrater reviews as a tab, as shown on this site.
6. You can add your Facebook Fan Page stream as a tab, as shown on this site.
7. You can add your YouTube video channel of testimonials, if they exist.
8. You can add your Twitter stream as a sidebar widget.
9. You can add a quote form for consumers who stumble upon you site and want a car.
10. You can add popular links in the sidebar to drive traffic to your main website.
11. You can add blog posts to the site to highlight written testimonials that arrive via email or postal mail.

If  Hare Chevrolet prints up postcards that promote this website www.iloveharechevy.com, you can bet that their service advisors will be able to identify happy customers to hand the card as ask for their assistance.  That’s dozens of postcards in people’s hands each day. 

You can bet that your sales managers know who the customers that are very excited about their purchase experience.  Instead of just handing out a card for one review website, why not create your own Reputation Management Portal postcard and drive reviews where they are needed most.

The great thing about the RMP being a WordPress website, is that anyone can add or change icons to promote higher review counts on new websites.  Once this is set in place, you don’t need a programmer to get involved.  

This will allow you to direct review traffic to different websites throughout the year to have a wider branding influence since there are about 10 review websites that should be included in a comprehensive IRM strategy.

If you like this idea, and would like a RMP constructed for your dealership, its very easy and simple to manage.  I have a few other ideas to help dealers in 2010 increase their brand visibility online.

We’ll have some “killer” strategies revealed at the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp  in Orlando the day before the official start of NADA Convention.  If you are going to NADA, fly in on the 11th and register for an intense day of social media and digital marketing education.

I hope to see you there….

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During the last month of 2009, calls to the Pasch Consulting Group researching Automotive Internet Marketing strategies was at an all time high.  According to Brian Pasch, over 50 car dealer store locations contracted with his company in the past 30 days looking for assistance with social media, automotive SEO, blogging, press releases, microsites and pay-per-click marketing.

Among the dealerships welcomed by Pasch Consulting are Checkered Flag Auto Group in Virginia Beach, Miller Automotive Group of California, a division of Group 1 Automotive, Jerry Durant Auto Group of Texas, the Rairdon Automotive Group in Washington and Park Avenue Motors in New Jersey.

Furthermore, a recent study commissioned by the Pasch Consulting Group revealed that over 50% of US auto dealers have less than 20% of their total ad spending allocated towards Internet Marketing.   According to Pasch, car dealers could shift 20-30% of their non-digital marketing to online digital services by the end of the year.

Based on this study and dealers’ rising interests in online marketing, Pasch predicts that 2010 will see one of the largest budget shifts towards the Internet.  “We predict that over the next two years, tens of millions of dollars will be pumped into digital marketing strategies and social media marketing by car dealers.” says Pasch.  “Dealers want to be in front of the growing number of consumers researching cars online before making a purchasing decision.  Getting their brand in front of consumers using social media tools and platforms like Facebook is also a hot topic for car dealers.”

To meet this growing demand for online marketing strategies and advice on digital spending, the Pasch Consulting Group is co-sponsoring an Automotive Marketing Boot Camp.  The one-day hands-on skills based training will include classes in social media, search engine optimization, video marketing, pay-per-click marketing and microsites.

The Boot Camp is schedule for February 12, 2010 and is one day prior to the official start of the 2010 NADA Convention in Orlando Florida.  Automotive professionals looking to enhance their 2010 digital marketing strategies are encourage to fly into Orlando a day early and attend the Boot Camp.  The event will be held at the Rosen Centre Hotel adjacent to the Convention hall.

Boot Camp classes will be lead by the industry’s leading experts in all categories, including Brian Pasch, JD Rucker, Eric Mayhew, Paul Rushing and Tim Jennings.  Pasch is also taking appointments from dealer professionals who want to meet with him to discuss digital marketing strategy development for 2010. 

Complete information on the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp can be found online at: http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com

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The new buzz words on the street are SEO, IRM and social media; all which promise to drive more customers to your website.  In all the articles we have read, one simple element is left out; how the calls are being handled!

Do you have a system in place for call center training, monitoring and skills development?  The single most important resource a company has is its people. So, the more focused and driven employees are, the more likely a company is to be successful.

Companies should not assume that their employees have the organizational phone skills to move a prospect into a sale.  Call center management strategies and procedure manuals are an important part of your total CRM solution.

Listening to Tracking Numbers

Many car dealers and business owners own a few dozen call tracking numbers from companies such as CallSource or WhosCalling.  These numbers are placed on different websites, newspaper ads or print publications.  These calls are recorded and can be played back via a web browser to review how calls are being handled by your staff. 

The fact though is that many business owners have not set processes in place to score the calls to improve their customer service and sales processes.  Companies are driving more calls and web visits through SEO, SEM and Social Media but have neglected to test new call scripts and to measure the impact of professionally managed call center operations.

Do you have a weekly process in place to listen to a subset of your sales, service and parts calls?

Improved Performance Solutions

If you are looking for an outside review of your call center operations, we recommend Improved Performance Solutions.  Their company helps executives, managers and teams refine their interpersonal and management skills to achieve their goals and get results.  This includes call center management and measurement as well as a review of your entire customer experience.

Their company can asssist your business improve CSI and sales; call them if:

• You are new to management and want to hone your leadership style
• You are an experienced manager and need new management tools to further your career
• You or your company needs to re-energize its leadership
• Your company’s teams and departments need help working more efficiently and effectively
• You need an evaluation on your call center processes
• You would like them to develop call center training materials.

Let IPS be your coach.  They can help you identify and resolve any issues that may be blocking your path to success so you can focus more fully on achieving your short and long-term goals.

Call 732-261-5472 for additional information on the services that IPS can offer your business.

Improved Performance Solutions
16 Mt Bethel Rd #181
Warren, NJ 07069
www.ipsforyou.com

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In these cases, employees decide to hang out the employer’s dirty laundry, that most companies, have in the public eye.  In the automotive industry, consumers would be hard pressed to put in perspective some of the behinds the scenes “language”  or strategies crafted by car dealers.  

Former employees use this knowledge to paint their former employer as a bad person, a liar or characterizations that are much worse.

Car Dealer Reputation Management

Car Dealer executives and owners need to have a proactive Internet Reputation Management campaign in place to defend their good name.  In the summer of 2009 we were approached to help one automotive executive fight back against the unsubstantiated claims of online bloggers, many of which were former employees.  Five months later, the results of our Automotive Reputation Management strategies are paying off.

When you do a search for Carol Grossinger, on Yahoo and Bing, the first page of search results now display the good works Caroline is doing in the community as well as leading her business.  This summer there were multiple attacks on Caroline’s reputation that appeared on Yahoo and Bing Page One search results.  That has been corrected by the IRM team at the Pasch Consulting Group.

10 out of the 10 organic listings for Carol’s name on Yahoo and Bing now properly represent her integrity, business success and her charitable work in the community.

In Yahoo and Bing, we have a complete Page One Management (POM) success story and you can see that from the screen shots below:

Google and Rip Off Report Website

On Google we have 9 out of the 10 organic listings on Page One updated with positive news except for the infamous “RipOffReport.com” website.  Google and this website have a long history of high rankings and this site is challenging to remove from Page One.  It will be pushed off of page one over time but it is not a fast process for some posts.

When stubborn posts like this “compliants” site are on Google Page One, we have to employ even stronger measures to promote our clients reputation.  The owner of the RipOffReport.com has allegedly been extorting cash from companies with negative posts for years and has been tied up in many lawsuits that allege the same.  There is no rational discussions with the staff at the RipOffReport.com; their business is tied to being on page one for company name or executive name searches.

The good news is that we are making progress as you can see from the screenshot below; the negative website is now under the fold when before it was #2 on the first page.  The photos were never there before we started and new videos that we will be adding will also help in 2010.

If you or your automotive dealership has been attacked by former employees or disgruntled consumers, give the IRM team at Pasch Consulting Group a call.  You can ask for Jessica Guida, IRM specialist or Brian Pasch, CEO and founder of the company.  We will review your specific situation and help you implement a proactive Internet Reputation Management (IRM) solution.

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A new website  called SurChur (http://surchur.com)  can actually be used as an Automotive Internet Reputation Management tool.

The tabs make it easy to quickly see what is being said about your dealership across the web.  This is a very convenient dashboard for what is currently being written about any search phrase and I recommend that dealers use it regularly along with Google Alerts and Google Reader.

Internet Reputation Management and monitoring will need to be part of auto retailers standard operating procedures in 2010.  If dealers are looking for assistance and training in Automotive IRM, call the Pasch Consulting Group for a free consultation at 732-450-8200.

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Consumers have tremendous power today to express their opinions about their experience at your business and make that voice heard. With dozens of popular websites containing a listing of your business that allows for consumer reviews, car dealers can no longer ignore the feedback that is being shared online.

Automotive studies have confirmed that dealers who focus on good online customer service reviews see a measurable increase in calls and leads referred from review websites. Since Google Maps is now rolling up review scores from multiple websites, the consolidated dealer “score” is front and center for any search that includes a city or state search word and the brand that you sell.

Give it a try. Type in “Denver Toyota Dealers” and see that Google Maps is at the top of the organic search results, and under each address is a review count. This data encourages consumers to see how well you are doing. When you click on your review score, are you proud of what you see?

Which Websites Should I Monitor?

There are a number of review websites that need to be monitored because of how the search engines rank their content. Google, Yahoo and Bing may show a different priority when a consumer searches for your business name. Some of the websites that I suggest you monitor include:

• DealerRater.com
• InsiderPages.com
• CitySearch.com
• Judysbook.com
• Yelp.com
• MerchantCircle.com

Since new sites are always being created, the rule of thumb is that you should monitor any websites that have review capabilities that show up on Google Page One and Page Two for a search on your dealership name. Also check searches for your OEM brand and the city name where you are doing business from.

DealerRater.com is the only site that has a paid system which gives dealers a two week window to resolve complaints with consumers before they are posted. Since DealerRater.com is highly optimized for organic search, most dealers will find the site on Google Page One for searches on their name.

The search visibility of review websites make them difficult to ignore, especially if they have unbalanced negative reviews. Let me emphasize this point again; do not ignore review websites.

How To Increase Your Positive Review Counts

Like any digital marketing endeavor, you must honestly assess if you have the proper staff in place that will not be distracted from this important task. An effective Automotive IRM program, once launched, will require about 3-4 hours a week for the first six months to really see a difference. These hours are spent contacting satisfied customers and getting their buy-in to post a review on one of your targeted review websites.

If you don’t have the right staff in place or you know that your IRM staff member will be unable to isolate time each week for this important task, hire someone to do it for you.

Dealers do not have the luxury to ignore online review websites. They have to have a process in place that ensures that online comments reflect the true percentage of positive and negative feedback in their store.

Proactive IRM Starts With a Friendly Phone Call

My staff has found that starting with a phone call makes the process more intimate and meaningful. Call through a list of customers that have purchased in the last 7 days and ask first about their experience at your dealership. Thank them for their business and find out if they need assistance.

Ask them if they would recommend your dealership to family and friends. If they say yes, explain that consumers start their car research on the Internet and that their peers will value their opinion if they found it online. Ask them to help you educate their peers by sharing their positive experience online.

If the phone call is handled professionally, most customers will agree to help. Tell them that you will make it easy by sending them an email with links to two websites where they can post their review. Don’t overwhelm them with six review websites; rotate which two sites are used so you cover all sites over time. Ask them if they can write their review in the coming week. Most will say yes. This is an important buy-in question to reinforce in your email.

Thank them specifically for their commitment to open the email and post a review in the next week. Once you send the email, keep a log on when they said they would post their review. Check back to the sites you included in your email with links and see if they made a post.

If they did not post, send them a very brief email saying that you were following up and that maybe the email was caught up in their spam filter. Remind them how easy it is to click on the link and post a review. Ask them nicely to honor their commitment to help educate others. The second notice gets more people to keep their promise. Everyone is busy and a friendly reminder is just that.

It’s A Process That Yields Results

If every week your dealership’s proactive IRM program adds two new reviews, at the end of the year you will have over 100 positive statements that you can leverage. More likely, you can get 4-5 reviews a week with a few hours of dedication. This will yield over 250 reviews in a year.

When Google Maps displays your dealership and your competitors on a list which shows that you have 100 more reviews than your closet competitor, you will be amazed at the results. If you place a unique tracking phone number on your Google Maps listing today and start this process, you will be pleased to see how an increase in positive reviews equates to more calls. These calls may even be considered “warm leads” because of the positive reviews that they have most likely read.

With an emphasis on advertising your customers positive experiences, you are well positioned when a negative comment is posted. The reality is that if you don’t start an IRM process, the majority of posts that you will read online will be negative. Life is about balance. No dealership can be perfect. For most dealers the negative customer experiences are a small percentage of their sales. Make sure your online review scores accurately reflect that same percentage.

Don’t Buy Votes

Starting December 1, 2009, a new law, which will be enforced by the FTC, has guidelines for people who write online reviews, endorsements and testimonials. The law is focused on online posts where the writer has been compensated in some way for the review. (Download FTC Rules)

Take a moment to make sure that your dealership is in full compliance. To simplify the matter, never pay for an online review or endorsement. Never offer a free oil change, a free tire rotation, a discount or a gift card in exchange for a review or testimonial. If a reviewer is compensated according to the new law, that must be disclosed in the review.

Compensation cheapens the experience for your customers and it may get you in trouble. You don’t want to be the first auto dealer that the FTC sues under this new law because a competitor reported you. Just wait, every industry will have its turn under the FTC magnifying glass.

If a customer is not compelled by a friendly voice to share their experience online, move on to another customer. Most dealers have hundreds of customers each month that they can draw upon for IRM assistance. Some dealers have utilized a business card which lists popular review sites, and they encourage their staff to get customer commitment when they deliver the car. Just make it easy to get your customer involved.

It goes without saying, never implement a system where your sales staff receives monetary or cash equivalent rewards for having their customers post the most reviews. This system will always result in cheating and fake reviews being posted by sales staff and their friends from their home computers.

Never encourage customers to post reviews from inside your Internet café since many sites will notice multiple posts from the same IP address and ban your account.

Dealers that have an active Facebook page or Twitter account can also post links to the reviews written by their satisfied customers. By praising customers who have helped spread the word, you create a desire in other customers to receive that same praise.

You can ask your followers to post a review by adding easy links to the websites previously listed. Make it easy for them to participate. People who are already online and who are asked to help promote their experience at your dealership are likely to follow a link and post a review if done properly.

Defensive Internet Reputation Management Tactics

An effective IRM program has an offensive and defensive strategy. The defensive team knows when a new comment, blog post or article has been indexed on the Internet by Google. The defensive mantra says: ” The sooner you know about a problem, the better chance you have to diffuse the matter.”

If you would like to receive email notifications when someone writes a review or a blog post that includes your dealership name, I highly recommend Google Alerts. You can use this free service to monitor your dealership name and the names of key executives. When set up, you will know via email when a new post is indexed in Google, and then decide how to respond.

There are tools on the market to automate this process. You just have to decide if you need anything more than Google Alerts. If you have an active campaign to post positive reviews each week, your staff will be on all the top review sites every week checking what has been posted.

The need to pay for a monitoring service may not be justified for a single point dealership. Larger dealer groups that have one person managing multiple dealer properties may be better served to purchase an automated tool or just outsource the process.

Internet Reputation Management = Brand Protection

I started the article with this question:

If a customer came to your dealership in the still of the night and spray painted “Liar” and “Cheat” in large letters on your street facing signage, would you leave it untouched when you arrived in the morning?

An Internet Reputation Management (IRM) program is also a brand protection process. As more of your customers start and end their car shopping experience on the Internet, your online brand becomes vitally important.

I predict that customer reviews will be further leveraged and consolidated by savvy entrepreneurs because of the influence that they yield. Imagine what would happen if someone created a customer “score” and made that score a household name.

When used car shoppers want to know about a vehicle’s history, they often ask for a CARFAX report. Imagine the impact if a company invested the money to nationally brand the concept of a DEALERSCORE report; a consolidated summary of your online customer satisfaction scores. What would your consolidated score look like?

From my search experience, less that 20% of car dealers across the USA have implemented a healthy proactive IRM program.

Over half of the dealers in America have “You Suck” written on their Internet billboards and they don’t seem to care. The rest may have no reviews at all, which means they are even more vulnerable for that first negative post.

There is no better time to get started than today.

Your competitors hope you do nothing.

Copies of This Article

If you would like a PDF copy of this article to use at your dealership, you can download it here: Automotive Internet Reputation Management

About The Author

Brian Pasch is the CEO of the Pasch Consulting Group and an active writer for the automotive community. You can find him on:

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/automotiveseo

Facebook http://facebook.com/paschconsulting

You can also reach Brian in his New Jersey offices at 732-450-8200.

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The RSS feed will allow you to place the stream of customer reviews on a blog using a RSS widget. Of you prefer a full screen version of the reviews, you can use the DealerRater.com Javascript snippet which can drop into most any blog page. The great thing about these two choices is that they update in real-time as more positive reviews are posted on DealerRater.com.

The DealerRater.com RSS feed can look like on a WordPress Blog:

The DealerRater.com Javascript Snippet can look like on a wider website page:

Auto Dealer Reviews

Keep in mind that this is just one source for reviews posting. You can display great reviews from multiple review websites if you create a compilation of multiple RSS feeds and weed out any negative reviews.

It is very important to leverage your positive reviews on the static pages of your website. Reviews from customers that live in the towns in your PMA can be a fantastic way to create search optimized pages that include your brand and the city names that surround you.

Setup Google Alerts and Google Reader

All dealer principals and members of the senior management team should be using free tools like Google Alerts or Google Reader to track what people are saying about you online.

You can be notified by email as soon as your dealership name or the name of your employees are used in an article that Google indexes. There are paid services that offer a nice interface to view articles that use your name for a fee but until you decide to spend for that convenience, please setup these free tools.

The sooner you know what is being said about your dealership, the sooner you can decide how to respond. One nice advantage to being a DR Certified Dealer is that you have two weeks to resolve any compliant before anything harmful gets permanently posted.

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Business owners often feel helpless in protecting their online reputation from valid blog posts and  negative posts planted by competitors.  On the flip side, businesses often fail to leverage positive commentary and testimonials posted on the Internet. Having a proactive strategy for disseminating positive commentary can often be the best defense against future negative attacks.

Internet Reputation Management services have a bright future. New web content is growing in direct relation to the explosive growth of social networking portals.   Each month new tools are being made available to allow a non-technical Internet user to create their own website, blog and social networking portal.  With the ease at which content can be created, organized and shared on the Internet, business owners need to be mindful of what is being written about their company.

Free Basic Reputation Tracking Tools

Protecting your reputation on the Internet can start with using a simple and effective tool called “Google Alerts”. Once you create a free Google account, you can enter specific search phrases into your own watch list.  Google will then send you an email with links to articles that include the phrases in your watch list.  You can request notifications as they happen or summarized daily, weekly or monthly. I would recommend that you start with the “as it happens” choice for a week, and then decide if you want to move it to “once a day”.

For our company, our watch list includes ‘Brian Pasch”, “Pasch Consulting”, “Pasch Consulting Group”, and “NJ SEO”. We also include in our watch list some of the buzz words in the niches we cover.  For our Automotive Marketing Division our watch list includes: “Automotive SEO”, “Automotive Digital Marketing”, “Car Dealer Websites” and “Automotive SEO Specialist”.  We use Google Alerts for both reputation management as well as tracking what other companies are posting in our competitive space.

Creating your Reputation Management Watch List

 A recommended strategy for a business watch list would include your business name, your product names and the names of your key executives.  Knowing what is being said, both positive and negative, is the first step in creating a sustained reputation management plan.

Your Internet Reputation Management strategy should have a clear escalation plan for positive and negative commentary.  Positive commentary should be evaluated and the very best should be included on your own company blog or website news page.  You may want to get permission from the individual to repurpose their commentary in your marketing materials.

Negative content should have an immediate response strategy which is best handled by a seasoned SEO and Reputation Management Consultant (RPC). Every post will have a different strategy depending on where the post was made and the policies of the website host.

Reputation Management for Professional Services

Recently, a New York City executive coaching and placement firm called the Pasch Consulting Group about a barrage of vicious attacks on the firm’s founder and on the services they offer for executives in transition.  The negative posts were well planned and well placed so that they appeared on Google Page One, when consumers issued a search on the company name.  The CEO said that these comments were directly hurting their business and needed immediate relief.

 The company’s lawyer had already pursued legal action against the individual who posted the verbal assaults under different names and aliases.  This disgruntled individual eventually signed a retraction letter and promised to stop this Internet reputation attack.  In reality, he never stopped posting.  So we were called in to help. Within 30 days we were able to have the most visible articles removed from the various websites. We also found additional negative posts on business portal sites that we were able to remove directly.

PCG created an offensive plan to get articles posted about the hundreds of satisfied clients the company had from its long history.  For this client, they never invested the time to post their client testimonials and case studies on the Internet.  Using various techniques, PCG was able to add significant content in Google page 1 and 2 for searches on their company name.

Reputation Management for Car Dealers

For Automotive Dealers, online reputation management must be part of your Internet Marketing Strategy to protect your PMA from neighboring car dealers.  If a car dealer’s visible Internet reputation is poor, consumers may very well shop at a neighboring dealership.  

I have seen posts on the Internet that were outlandish and shocking.  If I were in the market to buy a car, these negative posts would give me second thoughts about buying from certain dealers.  It only takes a few angry consumers to make any dealership look like the devil.  You can search Google yourself to find dealers being called racist, discriminatory and deceptive. 

Often, consumers have a choice between two dealers that are 15 miles apart. If one car dealer has glowing reputation scores and one has low scores, reputation can sway their final pick.  I recognize that other factors play a part in that final decision like price, convenience and availability.  However, if your Internet reputation can be improved, taking remedial action is mandatory to continue to grow your Internet sales leads.

Sites like DealerRater.com, Yahoo Local, Insider Pages, Google Maps and Yelp all have review engines that can appear on Google Page One when consumers search your business name.  General Managers need to implement a system to regularly request positive review from their customers.  This can include new car customers as well as service customers.

Businesses should create a list of all review pages in an email and send these links to satisfied customers.  The email should request that they post an honest review of your company.  Do not attempt to post customer reviews from your own business computers.  Many of these sites track IP addresses and you could be banned from the directory for review spamming.

Empowering Your Satisfied Customers

Reputation Management requires both an offensive and defensive strategy.  The longer your offensive strategy is in place, the harder it is for negative commentary to drastically affect your business.  If you have been lax at posting positive commentary, then ANY negative commentary will look out of proportion.

Business owners can no longer ignore public commentary and commercial review websites.  A restaurant owner that has a comment posted on the Internet about a food poisoning episode, without balanced commentary, will be affected for consumers looking to try a new restaurant using Internet based searches.   A hotel that has posts about dirty bed linens and mildew will see their online bookings drop.  Simply stated, any post with your company name needs to be reviewed.

The Pasch Consulting Group has effective methodologies and strategies to assist business owners in implementing  a solid reputation management action plan.  If you would like additional information, visit http://www.paschconsulting.com

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First of all, the name of these websites, when they appear on a page of search results for your business name, is enough to unnerve you alone. When your business name and RipOffReport.com is in the title of a Google search result page, it immediately implies that you have done something wrong.  When these complaint posts are resolved to the satisfaction of the consumer, you will find that the post still stays up.  You might infer that the end game of these websites it to have something “bad” on every business name to drive traffic to their advertising campaigns.

Second, these websites make their living off of being sensational and controversial, so don’t expect any common courtesy or concern as to how a post is negatively affecting your business.  The owners of these websites get daily threats and letters from lawyers but most are ignored.  This can be incredibly frustrating especially when businesses could be losing hundreds or thousands of dollars each week the post remains visible. 

Is there any protection from your competitors who decide to make false reports?  Not really.  If someone wants to attack there are numerous ways to defame another company anonymously.  So what is a company to do when the Internet has created a virtual soapbox for anyone to instantly create a negative global message? 

Companies need to have a strategy that includes offensive and defense measures to control what consumers are writing about them on the Internet.  Companies that stand to be hurt by sites like:

• 1. www.ripoffreport.com
• 2. www.complaintsboard.com
• 3. www.pissedconsumer.com

should implement a proactive Internet Reputation Management strategy that includes positive reviews on the Internet to create a balanced view of their company and its products or services.

The defensive elements of an Internet Reputation Management strategy would start with ensuring that your business listing is correctly represented in all the top consumer review websites.  Once this task has been completed, an email needs to be drafted to your customers that would request and simplify the task of posting positive reviews on these sites. 

The customer participation email should have a few versions since there are so many places that you will eventually want to have reviews. You would not want to have only one version that shows links to 10 different review websites; it would overwhelm your customers.  I would recommend that you don’t put more than 3 choices in a customer email.

Since there are about a dozen websites that should be considered for your IRM platform, your first email could link to the highest value review sites like Google, Yahoo and Yelp.  Once these websites had ample reviews posted, you could send a second version of the email to target sites like InsiderPages, CitySearch and JudysBook.  The goal will be to have at least six positive reviews on the most popular public portals in your industry.

Do your research since every industry has specific high value web review properties.  For car dealers, that website is www.dealerrater.com.  For restaurants, they have a few high value sites like www.opentable.com and www.chowhound.com .  So, in addition to the big national review websites, don’t overlook industry specific websites.

Keep in mind that only REAL customers should be posting.  Often computer IP addresses are checked when a review is posted so 10 reviews from the same IP address would most likely raise a flag and the posts would be removed. 

Fake reviews are often easy to spot.  Encourage your customers to be specific in their reviews and write about whom they dealt with in your company and what was their specific interaction with your business. In your email, ask them to close the review with their full name and the State/City they live in.  By adding a name the post has an extra degree of credibility rather than a review being signed as “J. Smith”.

The offensive elements of an Internet Reputation Management (IRM) campaign will be proprietary to the firm that you hire to assist you with your specific problem.  However, in effect, an Internet Reputation Management consultant will often employ highly focused SEO strategies and content publishing platforms to push these negative reviews off of page one.

If you have not carefully reviewed what has been written about your business on the Internet, take the time to assign that task immediately.  Then formulate a company IRM policy that addresses any immediate needs and protects your business from future attacks. Ignorance in this area of Internet Marketing can be costly.

For more information on Internet Reputation Management, visit http://www.automotiveirm.com/

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