How Lessons from 'Sixteen Candles' Can Help Your Dealership Court the Right Customers

Image courtesy Universal Pictures

Since we've been in the mood for classic '80s movies lately, we followed "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" with another John Hughes film, "Sixteen Candles." It tells the story of a budding high school romance thrown into chaos by a number of outside influences, which overwhelms the lead character, Samantha Baker, as she tries to make a connection with her crush, Jake Ryan.

When you're trying to connect with your crush — we mean your dealership's customers — it's easy for things to spiral out of control due to unexpected circumstances. Maybe you're wasting time and money on a campaign your potential customers have already forgotten, or perhaps you're sending mixed messages to your audience, confusing them and sending them to other dealerships.

If you're struggling to find that special marketing spark with your customers, here are three marketing lessons we can learn from "Sixteen Candles."

Remember the Important Things

The movie starts out with Samantha waking up on her 16th birthday — a day everyone looks forward to. But to her dismay, her family forgets all about her birthday!

It might surprise you to learn that, like Samantha's birthday, some of your marketing campaigns are being forgotten and ignored by your potential customers. Likewise, you might be forgetting some of your better campaigns if you're focusing your time and money on weaker campaigns. Be sure you know how your campaigns are performing so you can get the most out of your marketing budget.

Since many consider phone calls the best lead source, applying unique toll-free numbers to your marketing campaigns and tracking the resulting calls can help you pinpoint which campaigns are working and which ones aren't. That way, you're not forgetting anything.

Send a Clear Message

Samantha doesn't just feel forgotten by her family but also by her big crush, Jake. In fact, Jake doesn't seem to know Samantha even exists before she accidentally drops a piece of paper on which she had written her true feelings. Jake becomes interested in Samantha after finding the paper, but keeps hitting a wall when he wants to contact her. He tries calling her house, but her grandparents pick up the phone and promptly turn him away. Uh-oh! Then he tries going to her house in person, but, due to a miscommunication, he believes Samantha is getting married, when her sister is actually the one planning a wedding. Even bigger uh-oh!

If your marketing campaigns aren't sending a consistent message, it can confuse your customers and cost you sales, just as a miscommunication causes Jake to think his chances with Samantha are over. Be sure your marketing messages are consistent across all outlets — from traditional advertising to social media to your website. Customers will turn the other way if you can't back up something that was promised in one campaign and not another.

Pursue the Right Relationships

As if Samantha doesn't have enough going on, she also has to deal with Ted, a geeky freshman who badgers Samantha for attention just to win a bet with some friends. It all begins when he moves to Samantha's seat on the bus. Ted tries to make conversation, but Samantha isn't having any of it. His annoying advances continue for much of the movie.

Don't let your dealership be a Ted to your customers. Some people simply don't want to receive unsolicited calls, which is why they sign up for do-not-call (DNC) lists. If you're placing calls to numbers on the federal DNC registry, you could face large fines and a damaged reputation. To protect yourself, use a call tracking software that flags numbers on the DNC registry and keeps you in compliance.

Jake, Samantha and Ted aren't the only lovable movie characters we can learn about marketing from. Check out some of the lessons we took from Forrest Gump.

Go Deep and Score the Game Winner With Your Marketing

When it comes to automotive marketing, football is king. Some of the best campaigns got their 30 seconds of fame in the Super Bowl spotlight, while Hyundai's coup to snag the NFL automotive sponsorship made big headlines in June. With even preseason games bringing in 11 million viewers, it's easy to see why the automotive industry loves football.

We love football too (especially our hometown Houston Texans), and we're pretty excited that the season is finally underway. While Texans linebacker J.J. Watt can probably teach us a thing or two about marketing — seriously, the guy is everywhere these days — we wanted to take a look at what we could learn about dealership marketing from the game as a whole.

Have a Smart Strategy

Football is a strategic game. Coaches spend years developing offensive plays that can exploit all kinds of defenses, and the players have to execute them at a high level to be successful. On running plays, everybody from a lineman to a receiver has a blocking assignment, and just one missed block can turn a big play into loss of yards. Passing plays are similar in that three to five receivers are running designated routes, trying to find gaps in the defense.

Just like football, good marketing boils down to having a smart strategy. Gaining a new client is like scoring a touchdown, and your competitors are like the defense trying to block it. You need to come up with a strategy that finds gaps in the defense, such as an under-served segment that can be targeted, or closes some of your own gaps, such as getting your campaign seen by the right people. Find the right strategy, and you'll be the Vince Lombardi of marketing.

Evaluate Your Performance

A football coach's work doesn't end after a game or practice is over. Every week there are still hours of film from games — theirs and their opponents' — and practices to pore over and evaluate. Coaches watch film to find the strengths and weaknesses of both their team and the opposing teams. Watching film is a crucial part of building a sound strategy and being prepared for any given game.

You need to evaluate your marketing campaigns in much the same way that coaches evaluate their teams by reviewing what works and what doesn't. While you're not exactly filming every customer's reaction to a marketing campaign, you can find the value of a marketing campaign with the help of a call tracking program. Using dynamic toll-free and local numbers for your marketing campaigns and tracking the resulting calls allows you to see where you're having the most success.

Be Flexible

Omaha! Omaha! If you're a football fan, you know Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning isn't just a fan of really good steaks. Manning's ability to read the defense before the snap and call an audible to change the play is well known. The reason he shouts "Omaha" varies depending on the game or the situation, but it usually means something is changing. Manning's flexibility when it comes to play calls has helped him become one of the most successful quarterbacks in NFL history.

Much like how Manning's pre-snap routine has helped him become a winner, being flexible with your marketing can help you put up impressive statistics as well. There will be times where a well-planned campaign just isn't getting the job done. That's when it's time to tweak your strategy to cover the gaps in your marketing that you didn't expect when you launched the campaign. Don't be afraid of change.

Indoor sports are still a few months away, but if you're already excited about the upcoming NBA season, take a moment to review last year's amazing championship and read our post "What the NBA Finals Can Teach Us About Marketing."

What the Griswolds Can Teach Us About Dealership Marketing

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Family vacations rarely go as planned. Whether your dad takes a wrong turn in Albuquerque, the hotel fire alarm goes off at 3 a.m. or you "forget" your little brother at a highway rest stop, crazy experiences are almost the norm and sometimes make the best memories. Maybe that's why "National Lampoon's Vacation" — starring Chevy Chase as patriarch Clark Griswold — was an instant classic when it was released in 1983.

The Griswolds' wild cross-country trip spawned a number of sequels, including a reboot that released a few weeks ago. But just because there's a remake doesn't mean the original is any less relatable today than it was in 1983. Here are a couple of dealership marketing lessons we can take from the Griswolds.

Don't Mislead Your Customers

The Griswolds' trip can't have gotten off to a worse start when Clark visits a dealership to pick up the Antarctic Blue Super Sports Wagon he's ordered. Unfortunately, the Sports Wagon won't be ready for six more weeks, because the dealer has ordered a Wagon Queen Family Truckster instead.

The dealership then goes out of its way to offload the inferior model on the Griswolds. As hard as it might be to feel bad for Clark while you're laughing at his misfortune, this is a situation that should never happen at a dealership. You should never market a particular vehicle or service to a customer and then not follow up on your promises.

Keep Your Eye on the Prize

Even as the Griswolds' trip spirals hopelessly out of control, Clark never loses sight of the ultimate goal: Walley World! From being stuck with cranky Aunt Edna to having to deal with a shady mechanic in the desert, Clark never gave up and finally got his family to the theme park of his dreams.

Just as Clark doesn't back down from a series of challenges, your marketing team shouldn't either. Much like a Walley World roller coaster, the industry can have its ups and downs. Sometimes campaigns will have rough starts and other time you'll think you've won the lottery, but either way it's important to stay focused on getting results and bringing in customers.

Have you ever had a crazy family vacation? What dealership marketing lessons can you glean from your experience? Let us know in the comments.

[INFOGRAPHIC] It’s All About the Images

Ever heard the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words"? It turns out when it comes to marketing campaigns, this really is the case. Articles that contain images have 94 percent more views than articles without images. If you haven’t hopped on the photo bandwagon yet, you might want to look into it.

Check out this infographic from MDG Advertising for some more eye-opening stats about using photos in your marketing.

Infographic by MDG Advertising

To get a few more tips on how to make your campaigns stand out, check out these great campaigns.

Lead Management: A Recipe for Success

The Halloween decorations have been put away. You’re starting to hear Christmas music playing on
the radio and in department stores. But wait a minute…what about Thanksgiving? That fantastic time of year when the air is crisp, the leaves are wonderful shades of orange and yellow, and there’s just one thing on everyone’s mind: lead management.

Wait, what?

Yep, you read that correctly. We know you thought we were going to say turkey, but lead management and cooking Thanksgiving dinner actually have a lot in common. Don’t believe us? Keep reading.

You Need Top Quality Ingredients to be Successful

You know the saying “You get out of things what you put into them”? Well that couldn’t ring more true for both making Thanksgiving dinner and lead management. If you put good stuff in (See what we did there? Stuff in…stuffin', as in turkey and stuffing), you’ll get good stuff out.

Cooking Best Practice: Unless you want to upset Aunt Bea and Uncle Joe, don’t sacrifice the quality of your ingredients for the sake of price or convenience. For instance don’t ruin the sweet potatoes by buying the ones in the can. Sure the fresh ones are more labor intensive, but when you put that delectable spoonful in your mouth, your efforts will be totally worth it.

Lead Management Best Practice: To successfully grow your business you need to know more than just the source of your phone calls. You need a lead management solution provider that offers options such as tracking campaign effectiveness, call recording and online lead tracking.

Preparation is Key

Anything worth doing is worth doing well. And if you want to do something well, you have to prepare properly. Whether it’s cooking a turkey or managing leads, you can’t just jump in blindly. Bad, bad things will happen if you do.

Cooking Best Practice:  Give the turkey enough time to thaw. Check. Remove the giblets. Check. Season the bird on the outside and the inside. Check. Set the oven to the correct temperature. Check. Forget any of these steps and it could spell embarrassment when it’s time to carve. Follow these prep steps and you’ll end up with some succulent, food-coma-inducing poultry (tryptophan is no joke!).

Lead Management Best Practice: Who answers your phones and processes your leads? That’s right, your staff. So obviously they should be prepared. If they’re not, they could end up losing leads. 78 percent of potential customers will take their business elsewhere due to poor customer service. Proper training can mean the difference between closing a deal and losing a customer to another dealership.

The Devil Is in the Details

Details. They are so important, yet no one likes to talk about them. Forgetting the details can lead to an epic fail. Remembering them can equal pure awesomeness.

Cooking Best Practice: You put the turkey in the oven. Did you remember that you have to baste it often? You remembered to make everyone’s favorite pumpkin pie, but did you set the timer? And most importantly, did you remember to get the cranberry sauce? See…it’s all in the details.

Lead Management Best Practice: Having the best trained sales reps and the best lead management tracking tools means nothing if you don’t know how they’re all performing. Use an ROI reporting tool to figure out if your advertising campaigns are working. Filter and monitor your staff’s calls to know how they are responding to leads.

What's your recipe for success? Let us know in the comments!

What Are People Saying About Your Service?

So you’ve run several marketing campaigns to drive customers into your dealership. You’ve made sure that your prices are competitive. You’re even staying up to date on what’s trending and adjusting your promotions accordingly. Why do you feel like you’re forgetting something?

Because you are. You’re forgetting that good customer service is the butter to your service department's bread. Sure, you can have one without the other, but they are soooo much better together.

Don't let service fall through the cracks.

We'll bet you didn’t know that 74 percent of calls to a dealership are to inquire about parts and services. And a whopping 64 percent of in-market car shoppers say that a service department's reputation is a factor when choosing where to purchase a vehicle. Keeping those stats in mind, it would make sense to put your service department's customer service pretty high on your priority list.  Remember, the main reason for customer churn is poor customer service.

Customers talk… a lot.

A happy customer will tell four to six people about their experience. On the flip side, a dissatisfied customer will tell nine to 15 people about their experience. Which would you rather have, considering it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one negative experience?

Your service department should be providing top notch customer service whether a customer is spending $50 or $50,000. Cars don’t last forever, so wouldn’t it be awesome if a loyal customer bought a new car from you because your service department treated them so amazingly? Just let that marinate for a minute.

When performance is measured, it improves.

Are you wondering how to find out what quality of service your service department is providing? We thought so. Using call recording software can reveal exactly what your staff is saying to customers. Your staff will be encouraged to provide better service if they know they're being recorded. Voice recognition software can take things one step further by automatically scanning calls for keywords or phrases that you want (or don’t want) to hear from your staff.

Have tales about the awesome way your service department treats customers? Let us know in the comments!

[INFOGRAPHIC] A Brief History of Call Tracking (And Some Other Stuff Too)

Marketers have been so spoiled with today’s call tracking technology that sometimes it’s easy to forget about the dark ages of managing calls.

The days where toll-free numbers were boring ole sequences of numbers that people had to write down to remember. The days where people launched marketing campaigns and just hoped for the best. (Attribution? What’s that?) The days where people had to pay close attention on a phone call, because once they hung up, they couldn't go back and listen to the recording (oh, the horror!).

No doubt about it: We've come a long way.

So in honor of the awesomeness of vanity numbers, call recording and intelligent speech-recognition technology, here’s a brief history of call tracking (and some other things too — you know, for context). 

Thanks for coming with us on our time-traveling adventure! Now don't be selfish. Share the knowledge.

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Four New Year's Resolutions Your Marketing Team Can Actually Keep

Now that 2014 is here, you’re probably joining the rest of the population in making New Year’s resolutions. But let’s face it. Most of the people that vow to lose weight in the New Year are back to sitting on the couch scarfing down potato chips by February. According to Forbes, of the 40 percent of Americans that make New Year’s resolutions, only 8 percent achieve them. So while you may not be able to stick to your personal goals, we have some common resolutions we think your marketing team can actually keep in 2014.

1. Lose weight.

No, we’re not saying you’re fat. Stop putting words in our mouth! We’re talking about letting go of all of those ineffective campaigns that are weighing you down. Forty percent of marketers waste money on ineffective campaigns, which can really drain your wallet. Shed the dead weight by implementing a call tracking  program to learn which of your campaigns are generating leads and which aren’t.

2. Try something new.

Are you looking for a way to jazz up your marketing? Why not start a blog? An estimated 61 percent  of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase due to a recommendation from a blog. For more tips on how to start a blog, check out this post by Hubspot.

3. Save money.

It’s five times cheaper to keep a current customer than to sign on a new one. So it makes sense to do everything you can to make sure your team members are delivering top-notch customer service. If you want to get the inside scoop on how your employees are handling calls, consider using a callrecording software. You’ll be able to hear real-time recordings of inbound and outbound phone calls right from your desk.

4. Get organized.

If you have several marketing campaigns running at the same time, it can be hard to keep track of which campaigns are driving customers to call. Assigning unique toll-free numbers to each campaign will allow you to determine where each call your business receives is coming from.

Use these tips and resolve to make 2014 as prosperous as possible.