Coming Up On Awards Time

I have recommendations for the Academy Awards:

Best Picture:

Slumdog Millionaire 

Milk 

Best Actor: 

Sean Penn- Milk       

Frank Langella - Frost Nixon         

Best Screen Play:

Benjamen Button               Enjoyed the story 

Slumdog Millionaire           Excellent 

Gran Torino                        Clint did it again 

The Wrestler                       A Very Big Surprise

Twilight                                Original                        

Hard Times For The Auto Industry

Although the web-site continues to grow. I have decided to suspend Dealer Packages until further notice. The site will remain up to accept individual listings at a reduced rate. In times like these I believe people will need an affordable way to market their vehicle's for Sale. RTPUsedCars.Com is still here to help your vehicle be seen in North and South Carolina. Dealers have seen their business drop off enormously and cannot afford to market their vehicles and in a lot of cases cannot even afford to buy vehicles. In the past year I know of two large dealers that have completely gone out of business. It is a sad time for America's backbone industry. On one hand they just were not managed properly, but on the other we cannot afford the lose of jobs that would result in total failure. I can only hope that the coming year and new Administration will stop the tide of foreign dominance on all fronts in America. As Americans we welcome healthy competition but it becomes unhealthy when it become a monopoly. Little by little we borrow more money from Asia and they buy more of America's infrastructure. Are you really going to be surprised when ABC or CBS is owned by Asia ? Or your favorite football team or what ever it is you hold dear and thought of as uniquely American. Quite Frankly if we allow the auto industry to go under we will be supplying a huge opening for Asian companies to step through in their quest to own America. I am not in any way shape or form against Asian people. I would just prefer they weren't smart enough to take over our country and we weren't dumb enough to let them.

NEWS AND VIEWS PPC

I promised you some straight talk about how to bring down the cost of PPC (pay per click) in your marketing plan. Go after organic searches, these are non-paid listings on the search page.
How can you bring these up! with links and making sure your site is "crawler ready". Make sure your site map is up to date. Make sure your meta-tags are easily recognizable. Use phrases such as example:"buy here pay here" in your site description. The way you describe your site is very important for search engines to find it when searching. I lowered my PPC (pay per click) monthly budget, tweaked my description and the organic searches have risen. My site is still on the first page of Google searches. Also, I experimented with a new category Cars Under 3K, it's getting traffic. In fact, I am scrambling to find more under 3K cars. Finally, We (Dealers) will never figure out exactly how search engines act. Simply, because the rules change. The web is like a living breathing monster that has to be fed a different diet(code) every now and then. I can only take you along on my journey. This is an on-going learning process: Have any tricks up your sleeve?

Want Your Auto Business To Survive Into 2010

Any one who has read the gloom and doom reported by Automotive News knows that 2009 is the time Dealers need to change "business as usual". I have been saying since 2007 the time of the new car is dwindling down the drain. To survive the next two years, trim the fat! What you want to keep on your floor plan is Used Car's. Preferably, the majority under $12,000. Consumer's will still need to buy cars most will be looking for a cash deal or low payments.And in a lot of cases, Buy Here Pay Here! This credit crunch won't go away overnight. And even when credit loosens up, the consumer's confidence has taken a serious hit. Be ready for this Business: I will once again say " trim the fat" in advertising. In North Carolina I give an affordable alternative that works. I am sure other states most have the same types of choices.The day's of $10,000 a month advertising is over. Think Locally! Concentrate your advertising only to your market. You don't need to be advertising through out the US it is not cost effective.

Want Your Auto Business To Survive Into 2010

Any one who has read the gloom and doom reported by Automotive News knows that 2009 is the time Dealers need to change "business as usual". I have been saying since 2007 the time of the new car is dwindling down the drain. To survive the next two years, trim the fat! What you want to keep on your floor plan is Used Car's. Preferably, the majority under $12,000. Consumer's will still need to buy cars most will be looking for a cash deal or low payments.
And in a lot of cases, Buy Here Pay Here! This credit crunch won't go away overnight. And even when credit loosens up, the consumer's confidence has taken a serious hit. Be ready for this Business: I will once again say " trim the fat" in advertising. In North Carolina I give an affordable alternative that works. I am sure other states most have the same types of choices.
The day's of $10,000 a month advertising is over. Think Locally! Concentrate your advertising only to your market. You don't need to be advertising through out the US it is not cost effective.
Forget New Car advertising: Let the Manufacturer do it!

RTPUsedCars.com

October 2008 :Suggestions on how to face the changing economic climate in the Auto Business and Survive. In North Carolina:
Radical Changes in Marketing Strategy: For Our New Economy!
In the "fat" times all the folks in the "Know " said your cost for advertising should be $75.00 a unit.
I suggest dropping that to $65.00 per Unit and utilizing your budget more effectively. All inclusive, Internet, Print, if you still do that should be quite small unless you are in a local that gets great response from print. I find Print success is very geographically oriented. TV, well folks I would be watching return on that money very carefully. Just plain stop the mail out’s they seem to do a good job in filling the land fills and not much else.
First, have what people want to buy: I know that is easy to say and hard to find: Spread out find cars in other locals:
The "bulk" not all of inventory 15K and Under with concentration on the 10K and Under Category:
Concentrate on going the next step in your Internet Advertising: Chances are some of you are paying huge amounts to sites that market themselves not you. If you do not have a stand alone web-site "get one". Now you have a way to go to the next step:
The reason is your "connected" web sites are expensive and do not link you back to where you need to be going.
Where is that You Ask: Take your Marketing Budget i.e.: Pay Per Click, what are you paying now? $500.00 to $1,000 a month how about lowering that amount and stop worrying about who comes up first! You just want to stay on the first page that is the goal. Having said that: Let me explain where the bulk of your leads should be coming from. LINKS and Social Marketing and Organic Searches. I will give you an example:
I started RTPUsedCars.Com Just this past month- I reached the 75% mark on referrals(links) that allows me to use my PPC budget now to invest in better positioning relevant to my geographical area.

In my next News and Views Letter I will go into Social Marketing:
And Marketing for your geographical area. Let’s face it that one Sale a year you make to the guy in NY is not cost effective:
How "money alone does not insure your search position" SEM-SEO
Note: The Views Expressed in this Newsletter are those of the Author: Unless noted as Quotes:
Bottom Line: Take "Big" Steps to keep your Bottom Line in the Black.


For more information on how you can change your Marketing: Contact Phyllis@RTPUsedCars.Com
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