Marketing Mike

Dealership brand marketing beyond the OEM

Is Your Dealership’s Brand Bigger Than the OEM’s Logo on the Wall?

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Dealership brand marketing is about building a local identity that goes beyond the OEM logo on the wall. Your OEM’s brand is not your dealership’s brand. That distinction matters more than ever. The OEM creates national awareness. It promotes vehicle design, safety, technology, financing, and incentives. It gives shoppers a reason to consider a Honda, […]

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AI leads for car dealerships and BDC follow-up

Is Your BDC Ready to Sell to a Bot? How to Handle AI-Generated Car-Buying Leads

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Stop assuming every lead in your CRM represents a shopper sitting behind a keyboard. AI leads for car dealerships are becoming part of the modern dealership sales process. Some leads now come from AI car-buying agents acting on behalf of real shoppers. Others come from shoppers who used an AI assistant to compare vehicles, pricing,

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SMS marketing for car dealerships and service customers

How Do You Use SMS to Turn Service Customers Into Repeat Buyers?

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Your service drive may be the most valuable audience in your dealership. SMS marketing for car dealerships gives you a direct way to stay connected with service customers across the ownership timeline. These customers already know your store. They already own a vehicle. They already trust your technicians, advisors, and brand. Many have already paid

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Google Ads bidding strategies for dealerships and Q4 budget planning

Google Just Changed Its Bidding Labels. How Do You Protect Your Q4 Ad Budget Before It’s Too Late?

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Google Ads bidding strategies for dealerships are changing in how Google labels certain automated bidding options, but the underlying bidding behavior has not changed. What has changed is how dealerships should evaluate these strategies, conversion tracking, inventory feeds, and Q4 budgets before increasing ad spend. Google changed how it labels two major Smart Bidding strategies

Google Just Changed Its Bidding Labels. How Do You Protect Your Q4 Ad Budget Before It’s Too Late? Read More »

OEM co-op marketing funds for automotive dealerships

OEM Co-Op Marketing: Are You Leaving Dealership Marketing Money on the Table?

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Stop treating OEM co-op funds like a rebate you might remember to claim later. Unclaimed co-op is one of the most expensive leaks in dealership marketing. An underperforming campaign at least produces data. An unclaimed co-op dollar produces nothing. It never reaches a shopper, never supports an inventory objective, and never reduces your dealership’s marketing

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Best car dealer near me local SEO and AI visibility strategy

How Do You Show Up When Buyers Ask AI “Who’s the Best Car Dealer Near Me?”

Leave a Comment / Inventory Turn/DMS /

Best car dealer near me is becoming a question buyers ask Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI tools before they ever visit a dealership website. Stop assuming buyers will find your dealership because your lot is visible from the highway. Today, shoppers ask questions such as: If your dealership does not appear in those answers,

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Dealership social media content planning and creation

How Do You Turn One Slow Saturday Into a Month of Social Content?

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Dealership social media content should not depend on whether someone remembers to post or whether your marketing coordinator has extra time that day. If someone remembers to post, you publish a photo of a vehicle. If the lot gets busy, your content disappears. If the marketing coordinator takes a day off, the entire calendar goes

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Dealership marketing spend per car sold in 2026 and Cost-Per-Vehicle-Sold strategy

How Much Should a Dealership Spend on Marketing Per Car Sold in 2026?

Leave a Comment / OEM Co-Op & Stack /

Stop treating your dealership’s marketing budget like a fixed percentage pulled from an old spreadsheet. If you spend too little, your inventory sits longer, your service lanes lose visibility, and competitors capture the shoppers you paid to create. If you spend too much, your front-end gross gets compressed by campaigns that generate clicks but do

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Dealership seasonal marketing calendar for sales, service, inventory, and marketing campaigns

What Should a Dealership’s Seasonal Marketing Calendar Look Like?

Leave a Comment / OEM Co-Op & Stack /

Stop treating your dealership’s marketing like a collection of disconnected promotions. A holiday sale runs in one direction. Your service department promotes something else. Your inventory team needs to move aging units. Your OEM announces a new incentive after the ads are already live. That is not a marketing calendar. That is expensive reaction. A

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Dealership service lane marketing and customer retention strategy

Your Service Lane Marketing Is Your Best Marketing Department

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Dealership Service Lane Marketing: Turn Your Service Lane Into a Customer-Retention Engine Your dealership service lane is more than a place where vehicles get repaired. It can be one of your most powerful marketing and customer-retention channels. Every day, your service department interacts with customers who already know your dealership, already own a vehicle, and

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