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“The website is down again!”
How many times have you heard that? If you hear it more than once or twice a year, you might have a problem.
If you have an older site, it might be located on a single server. That means that if it gets too many hits at once or there’s a problem in that one location, your website will go down.
That was the old way of putting up a website. Some smaller companies will still offer you “on-site hosting”. It’s usually inexpensive and they push it because then they can have it right there in front of them.
With the advent of cloud computing, websites can be set up to be redundant. This means that your website can be repeated all over the globe.
Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and many more have cloud servers all over the world. The goal for these servers is to shorten the distance between your site and the end user. For example, if you have a website hosted only in Florida and someone in Seattle wants to take a look, they might have difficulties if there’s a lot of traffic in between. Also, if the server in Florida is down for maintenance or lost power or is simply overwhelmed, the consumer might not see your site.
With cloud computing, your site is copied on servers everywhere. The person in Seattle is really looking at a complete copy of your site on a server in, say, Seattle. Every day, the cloud system will go out and look at your website to make sure everything matches. Also, every time you make a change, the cloud system will send out a message and new copy to all the servers.
Every day, you’re contacted by big dealer website companies that want your business. They can set up a site in a few days and might even make it seem less expensive.
The problem is that many of those companies haven’t updated their infrastructure. They aren’t using cloud computing to store your site. They still have everything on the server they installed in 2001. This means that if they have a problem on their server, you’re out of luck.
Almost every dealership has tried working with these companies once or twice. It all sounds so awesome and easy, but you’re just a number. You’re one of thousands of other dealerships that have hired them to make a cookie-cutter website that looks exactly like everyone else’s.
The cost savings is not worth it. The hassle is definitely not worth it. There’s a better answer!
Instead of taking what looks like an easy path, talk to your local website design companies. They’ll help you build a great website and they’ll put up on the cloud systems for you.
Smaller companies don’t generally have their own services to put the website on. Instead, they build on cloud systems that will automatically install redundancies. There will be copies of your website everywhere, making it easier for consumers to access it from anywhere, instantly.
Service outages aren’t necessary any longer with websites. That’s all very 1999. Today, with the massive cloud server systems, your website should be up and available every day, all day.
If you have any problems or aren’t sure what to do, contact us. We’ll help you find a great vendor for your website.
What is relationship marketing and how is it different from transactional marketing?
How can internet tools, like social media, email, and text messaging, help with both but particularly relationship marketing?
In this blog, we’ll take a look at how you can use these tools to grow your business and make more sales.
“I’ve got a guy.”
“You’ve got a guy?”
“Yeah. I’ve got a guy.”
Everyone wants to be able to say that.
Everyone wants to have a person in the right places to help them get through whatever they need.
Every auto dealer wants to be someone’s “guy”. We all want the phone to ring with someone saying, “Hey, <insert your name>, it’s <insert their name>. I wanted to schedule a time to come down and look at trucks.”
That’s the call we work hard for.
So, how can internet tools help us make that happen?
First, we should look at the differences between relationship marketing and transactional marketing.
Relationship marketing is marketing that’s designed to create long-term bonds between a vendor and a consumer. It’s not about a single sale, but about the relationship that’s built in trust and familiarity. Here’s an observation: Until recently in all but the very largest cities, all sales were based on relationship marketing. Everyone knew everyone else, so of course, they knew who their car dealer was and asked for him by name.
Transactional marketing is marketing based on a sale. That’s the goal. When you see an ad for a cheeseburger, they aren’t asking how your kids are or how you might like your burger cooked. They want you to buy the burger as they serve it. The auto sales industry, these are the dealerships that simply stand around waiting for someone to show up and then sell them a car. Once the sale is made, that’s it. There’s very little contact.
The answer to that is simple: Would rather sell one car to a customer or a new car every three years? Do you want to have one member of a family come and buy a vehicle or have an entire family referred to you for their transportation needs?
The answers are obvious.
Relationship marketing takes longer, but it lasts longer. It’s there to make sure that you have business going into the years ahead.
There are a lot of ways to use email, texting, and social media to build a relationship.
Social media – Posting surveys, fun contests, and even just useful information will forge a relationship with your customers, even if you don’t know who they are. They’ll see what you’re doing and refer to you as a business they trust.
Email – Sending a message to someone’s inbox is an excellent way to bring to personalize the relationship. You can send them longer, more in-depth things that they need to know. You can also customize your message for them. For example, if you have your CRM track everyone who clicked on an ad for pickup trucks, the emails you send them will feature pickups, not economy cars. You can also email personal messages to people to inspire action.
Text messages – The most intimate way to contact someone is through text messages. You can reach out with messages that ask how they are, how their car is running, or if they’d like to stop by. You can send messages inviting them to a BBQ at your dealership or any of a thousands other things. Your messages can be signed personally and help to build that personal relationship.
SimpSocial makes this all very easy. With the help of SimpSocial, you can have ads that inspire people to contact you and then those leads can be put directly into marketing messages.
The tone of the messages is up to you, but our team can help you get it all set up.
Even more important, everything someone does, from the first click on a Facebook ad to buying a car is tracked in a CRM so you never forget what you know about someone. When someone makes an appointment, you can look up their name, their kids’ names, know what type of vehicle they’re likely to want, and much more.
Building relationships takes time, in life and in business. Using the modern tools that are available, it’s easier to do than ever!
The Federal Communications Commision made a ruling about the use of text messages for marketing. It was prompted, they say, by monthly calls and complaints from consumers about unwanted calls and text messages.
“Month after month, unwanted robocalls and texts, both telemarketing and informational, top the list of consumer complaints received by the Commission.”
The new ruling is an enhancement of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The goal of the new ruling was to provide protection for wireless consumers who might be paying per call and for whom text messages are very intrusive.
The TCPA was passed by Congress in 1991. Not only is the bill designed to protect consumer privacy where robocalls are concerned, but it’s designed to prevent robocalls to public safety phone numbers, like 911 and police station non-emergency numbers.
“The TCPA and the Commission’s implementing rules prohibit: (1) making telemarketing calls using an artificial or prerecorded voice to residential telephones without prior express consent; and (2) making any non-emergency call using an automatic telephone dialing system (“auto dialer”) or an artificial or prerecorded voice to a wireless telephone number without prior express consent.”
Here’s how this works for those of us who are following the rules: If a consumer opts into messages with you from a Facebook ad, you can, legally, send them text messages. If they opt out or if they never granted you permission in the first place, you can be fined by the FCC. While they have the ability to jail you, they’re unlikely to, but it can get very expensive to have them come after you for abusing texting systems.
If you use Facebook ads, there will be a record of consent there. There will also be a digital record of the consent in your CRM that Facebook sends it to. This means that if you’re asked, you’ll be able to show the date and time that the person opted in.
This is part of the importance of maintaining great records. While you’re unlikely to get into trouble with a single person, if there’s a pattern of abuse, you might find yourself talking to FCC investigators.
The addition and clarification in July of 2015 was promoted by autodialers or robo calling software. This was made even more important with the advent of VoIP (voice over internet protocol). This technology has been around for over 20 years, but in the twenty-teens, they became inexpensive enough that everyone was able to access them.
There was a sudden explosion of their use by all kinds of companies, including some of the country’s biggest firms. It’s an inexpensive way to reach thousands of people every day. Using a sequential dialer, the software will simply call every number, one after the other, without any input from humans.
Never text someone who hasn’t given you permission. It’s possible to buy lists of phone numbers, but not only are those usually a waste of money, it’s a violation of law.
It’s really that simple. If they didn’t say yes, it’s not allowed.
Using Facebook and Instagram ads, you can invite people to share their mobile numbers and grant permission to receive occasional messages.
Make sure you’re not messaging them every day. Be polite about how often you message them. If you’re in an active conversation with someone, that’s different, but for marketing messages, once every week or two is plenty.
Don’t send videos and rarely send photos. Images take up a lot of bandwidth. While many people have unlimited data, not everyone does. If you send a video, you can crush someone’s data allowance for the month. Even photos are too much.
If you want to share a video or a photo, invite them to click a link that will take them to the internet to see the image. You can also have a link that requires them to click it to download what you’re sending. Either way, they’re in charge of how much data your message uses.
If you’re not sure what to do, let the experts at SimpSocial help you. We create messages for you that will nurture your leads and grow your business. Our Facebook ads are designed to inspire people to give you permission.
Be respectful of the privilege of being allowed to communicate with people and you’ll do fine.
Also, if someone contacts you and says that they have a ton of people in the area who’ve said yes to receiving messages from you, politely decline. Those people have no idea it’s you they’ll hear from and they’re probably not even your target audience.