2010 Marketing Strategy Planning Part 3

You are not alone when it comes to this! Here are a few areas I can help with as you do your own 2010 Marketing Planning, let me know if you'd like to hear more.

• Market Analysis-We have a ton of data & market info at our finger tips. Give us a call and we can put together an analysis of your market to arm you as you head into your strategy meeting.
• Custom Marketing Plan-This starts with a phone call I'll ask you some questions about what you have in mind and the Diva team will come back to you with a customized annual plan. We do all the work and you can pick and choose what you like.
• Marketvision 2.0-That's right, coming in January 2010 we're rolling out a whole new version of our extremely popular Marketvision software. The kiosk will now be able to sit at your dealership year round and track what marketing messages are being heard/seen, who is coming in, and what zip codes produce your most traffic & sales. On top of that customer contact data is easily uploaded from our system to your CRM for future follow up. Don't miss another lead's contact info again.
• ROI & Response analysis throughout the year to keep your strategy on track.

The quickest ways to contact us are direct at 317-644-5729, or by email at divateam@triauto.com.

2010 Marketing Strategy Planning Part 2

3. Decide how you will track response & ROI. These are two different things. In easy terms-response is the amount of action you see off of a type of marketing, ROI is the actual return on investment. If a piece of advertising brings in 400 people and you sell 0 cars, you have $0 ROI. 4. Draw up a calendar. Get an actual 2010 calendar out and look through the year. Plot tentative dates for your annual events, or for campaigns you tend to have good luck with or want to try. Think about holidays and how they will affect your efforts. 5. Call in the experts. Once you have a general idea of your annual spend & a basic calendar start planning with your consultants now. Giving a heads up to people like me, your TV/Radio rep, agency account exec and anyone else who helps design, place and execute your marketing can only be a good thing. Many of us work under such tight deadlines there is no time for custom creative ideas based on a complete marketing picture. Cluing us in early on will allow thought and planning to go into the ideas we bring you. 6. Finally, set up your plan. This 2010 strategy is flexible. Hold yourself & your team accountable to tracking all your marketing. Set realistic expectations as to what outcomes you are looking for. Be ready to change things that aren't working. Keep notes for next year's planning. There is no better time than December for getting these plans in place.

2010 Marketing Strategy Planning Part 1

Many dealerships, I'm sure not yours, but many never really sit down and strategize regarding their annual marketing. Budgets, ideas, campaigns, medias, markets and everything else change month to month depending on whims, gut feels and how the current month is shaping up. This leads to inconsistent messages to your market and gaping holes in your marketing, along with last minute planning and execution.

WHY!? We're talking about tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars of mismanaged funds being spent willy nilly. So how do we change that? Here's a very simple list of getting started-it may seem very basic to the marketing masters out there but it is just a quick plan to get started for those looking to do more strategy based planning this year

1. Set a meeting of the minds date. Put it on your calendar and make it mandatory. Pull in your management team and any other decision makers-it's probably not a bad idea to also invite a person or two outside the inner circle. Maybe the text crazed college student that helps detail cars on the weekend, or the owner's daughter that promotes the local UFC fights. Bringing someone with a fresh perspective in helps to challenge current ideas and bring new ones to the table.

2. Determine an estimated budget for the year. This doesn't have to be exact. Marketing goes in waves, many dealerships slow down in January and February for weather reasons and ramp up in the spring, others have 4-6 large events a year. The monthly budgets don't have to be the same--just get an idea of the annual figure.

Keep tuning into the Diva Blog this week to see the rest of the steps!