Storytailer

STORYTAILER LLC
CHAPEL HILL

Is Attribution Just a “BuzzWord” or the Holy Grail?

By

I don’t write many blogs under my own name anymore. I can, however, guarantee that I write many blogs. Has attribution been a “buzzword” in the recent past in the auto industry? Of course. Some would say that attribution is bulls**t. Others swear by it. The fact remains that there is literally only ONE QUESTION THAT MATTERS TO DEALERS:

“How is this going to sell me more cars?”

If you’re a vendor, you’ve undoubtedly heard this question countless times when making your sales pitches. If you’re a dealer, you’ve undoubtedly asked this question many times.

The facts are as follows:

  1. Consumers are navigating and researching on multiple sites in the car-buying journey.
  2. There is not ONE – any ONE – vendor that can claim full responsibility for a “sale,” no matter what journey the consumer made. If that vendor exists, all others would be gone.

These facts are indisputable. They have been verified, researched and “shouted from the mountains” to death by everyone from NADA, Google, Facebook, Twitter, social media platforms, marketing experts and many automotive-industry companies.

If dealers didn’t “care” about the ability to align their marketing spend with their revenue, “attribution” in the automotive industry would be a non-issue. Seriously. Attribution was a concern for dealers when “attribution” wasn’t even a word that was thrust in their faces by vendors!

Attribution – as a buzzword – in the automotive industry only means two things:

  1. What marketing investments are helping me sell cars… and
  2. How much influence are they in doing so?

Everyone is so freaking stuck on this whole word “attribution” that they fail to see the REAL question that companies are attempting to answer for dealers… the whole reason a technology industry (and companies like Clarivoy, Transparency, etc.) appeared or that huge companies jumped on the “attribution” bandwagon with their own solutions or the fact that there is a whole automotive industry CONFERENCE about analytics and attribution…

Everyone is jumping on the “attribution” train. Google, Facebook, Urban Science, Semcasting, etc. etc. Do you think these companies are investing in technologies, software, resources and training because it’s NOT important to their clients (i.e. car dealers)?

Sure, vendors have been providing reports for years to dealers showing how wonderful they are performing. There are plenty of attribution models to choose from and, for the most part, vendors are going to choose the one that makes them look the best. Hey, I get it. It’s business. I also don’t think vendors are purposefully fudging results. They’re just choosing the metrics that make them look best in order to retain clients.

IT’S NO DIFFERENT THAN A DEALER DOING A FOURSQUARE TO MAXIMIZE PROFIT ON A CAR DEAL!!

Except… in this case, the car dealer is writing the check.

So, who is stupid?

Google? They just introduced Google Attribution 360.

Facebook? They just rolled out their own attribution platform, Facebook Journeys.

Or is it Cox Automotive (AutoTrader)? They just launched their own attribution software?

What about companies like Semcasting? They recently acquired Transparency AI – an attribution company.

I could keep going…

The only reason any of these companies would invest/create these solutions is by demand. Clients want to know, and they need to provide a solution. The Holy Grail for their clients. The mystical, ever elusive answer to the question dealers have been searching for since marketing started. Is this (insert product here) helping me sell more cars?

There are many companies that still want to illustrate a linear attribution model to their clients…

Client engaged -> We got involved -> A sale was made

And if that’s enough to satisfy a dealer. So be it. The fact remains that chances are REALLY REALLY good that the customer just didn’t jump on the Internet, immediately find that specific widget/website conversion form/display ad/retargeting ad/Facebook ad/Twitter ad OR ANY OTHER ADVERTISING MESSAGE VIA ANY MEDIUM and simply converted and purchased. It doesn’t happen in any other industry and it certainly doesn’t happen in automotive!!

Dealers… stop letting vendors fool you into thinking “they” sold a car for you. We both know that they didn’t sell anything. They may have provided an opportunity… or contributed to providing one… but YOU sold the car.

You want real attribution? You have to do work. Yeah, it sucks. I hated Algebra and math but, you know what? If you want to make money, you might have to use it.

This is how.

MEASURE YOUR MARKETING SPEND VS. RETURN ON INVESTMENT BEFORE YOU BRING ON A VENDOR!

How does that help? Instead of hearing metrics like these:

  • Impressions
  • Click-throughs
  • Conversions
  • Leads
  • Referrals
  • Heard your Radio ad
  • Saw you on TV
  • Liked the big blow-up gorilla on the roof
  • The wavy tube-man caught my attention
  • I happened to be in the auto mall
  • And any other nonsense you can think of….

Try doing THIS for a change:

Figure out what you’re already doing. What is your current leads/closing ratio, retention rate, service traffic, etc. Make THAT your benchmark. Whatever metric is important to YOU. Create a spreadsheet (yeah, I know, manual work sucks.) Do it anyways! Do you want to know what’s working or not? I mean, we’re only talking about money in the 5-6-7 digits, right?

Then, make your new vendor accountable (and performing towards) THAT benchmark. The one YOU set. Not the one they are trying to reach. Not the report they want to give you. Because, in the end, this is the only benchmark that matters:

DID THEY MOVE THE NEEDLE??

If, after a period of time (I would suggest at least 90 days – unless they’re shady… but if they’re shady then you didn’t do enough research in advance so…), they don’t move that needle and improve on the benchmarks you set in advance, get rid of them!

Can attribution software/technology be of use to you, as a dealer? YES! But only if you know what you are trying to accomplish, the benchmarks you have already set and the goals you are trying to reach… THEN, being able to use the data you have in combination with the data from your attribution software/service to actually make decisions and adjustments to optimize your marketing spend to achieve more ROI.

ATTRIBUTION may be a new word to the industry – and a current buzzword – but it’s ABSOLUTELY everything a dealer has ever cared about!

“HOW IS MY MARKETING INVESTMENT SELLING ME MORE CARS!”

I highly doubt that there are any dealers/dealer marketing professionals that would argue with that sentiment.

Any vendor that tells you that they are the end-all, be-all and that they are the straight line between the consumer and sales is either ignorant, unknowledgeable or lying to you.

And for the vendors… If you don’t believe in “attribution,” you are misguided. EVERY DEALER wants to know if the money they are spending with you is well spent. If you don’t believe that, you are foolish. Be arrogant. Be “we rock and can make you a lot of money,” throw all of the memes, quotes and success stories around. All that matters in the end is can you prove it? Sure, you may be able to say X customer converted on my form, came in and bought a car but that DOESN’T MEAN THAT YOU WERE THE ONLY REASON!! Kudos for providing your dealer client with value but don’t, for a second, believe that you were the ONLY reason that client ended up buying from that dealership.

Consumers are hopping around the Internet searching for information like the Easter Bunny hiding eggs. There is no doubting that. If any vendor tells you that they aren’t and that their solution is the only reason for the sale, RUN AWAY!

The bottom line is that there are technologies and services that do a better job at attracting, engaging and converting consumers – and those lead to increased sales. Those are the companies that will shine, gain attention and which progressive dealers will take a shot with.

And those are the vendors you want to invest your money in. Stop worrying about and thinking about the word “attribution” as a buzzword and start thinking about it as you ALWAYS HAVE! Is my investment making me more money!

If you keep guessing whether your marketing spend is actually working without really knowing or trying to find out. If you keep relying on the multitude of reports from vendors using different metrics. If you keep just “doing what everyone else is.”

Eventually. You. Will. Lose.

/end rant / #CARSTRONG

The FTC May Have Just Killed Twitter Marketing For Dealers

By

Yeah, in the most absurd move ever, the FTC has determined that Twitter is not excluded from regulatory laws requiring full disclosure on products or services. The Wall Street Journal reports that any disclosures that would apply to any other advertising also apply to Twitter.

Hmm. Let’s think about that a moment. On a platform that allows only 140 character submissions, how, exactly, do you tell your followers about a great lease special, factory incentive or other promotion AND include the tiny, almost unreadable, 2 paragraph disclosure in 6 point font at the bottom of the ad? Well, you don’t.

So, what does that prohibit by default? Pretty much anything you want to promote that requires a disclosure and, for most car dealers, that’s just about everything. Heck, most factory incentives have disclosures. Contests, giveaways, or any other promotion (social media or otherwise) as well as coupons, service specials, and other customer offerings would also be excluded.

The easiest way to determine whether you can or can’t tweet something about any special, ad car, incentive, lease special, promotion, coupon, service special, parts special etc. is by following one basic rule:

If it needs a disclosure, you can’t tweet about it.

See, that was simple wasn’t it?

Now, all of the above being said, Facebook’s Terms of Service in regards to contests, promotions and such are violated, trampled over and ignored all of the time by both vendors (who know better) and by dealers (who may or may not).

That being said, Facebook can’t investigate your dealership and fine you for non-compliance with advertising regulations either.

So, has the FTC effectively killed Twitter marketing for businesses?

It depends on what you’re tweeting about.

If your tweets are informative, quality content or customer service and engagement focused then no. If your strategy is to blast your inventory and specials to Twitter on some sort of robotic RSS feed that forces everyone to not listen to you anyways, then yes.

You make the call. It’s your business but the U.S. Government has spoken.

Update 3.14.13

I spoke with Compliance expert Jim Radogna about this issue. He researched the actual FTC ruling & found the relevant passages and, in his opinion, you can still tweet specials, etc. as long as there is a clear link to the disclaimers included in the tweet. While the Wall Street Journal article seemed pretty straightforward, it’s in his opinion that they’re incorrect in their translation of the ruling and how it applies to tweets.

Business Insider reports that the FTC released more information outlining a way that businesses can continue to use Twitter to market without actually needing the disclaimer physically present within the tweet. Just use “Ad:” within the tweet

Foursquare Launches Local Updates for Businesses

By

If you haven’t heard, foursquare announced yesterday the launch of what they’re calling “Local Updates”.

What are these and how can you use them?

Essentially, Local Updates will allow businesses to push messages to consumers who have either “liked” their business or frequent it. Updates can include things like specials, pictures of a new car (or a used car you just got in stock), it can include coupons, service specials, or whatever else you’d like your customers to see.

Your customers will be able to see these updates while in the same city as you. While certainly not as geo-targeted as it could be (like in the auto mall or within 10 miles of your dealership), being in the same city is a start.

In the past, the only way (or type) of message you could put out there for consumers on foursquare were “special offers” which required a check-in. While you can still make an offer to a customer, the ability to simply provide updates to consumers is another way of engaging them and staying top of mind.

Here’s an example of what an update would look like:

With nearly 1,000,000 business pages claimed and 10,000,000 users, foursquare is simply something you cannot afford to ignore. It’s fairly low-maintenance when set up and, since its free, the benefits vastly outweigh the possibility of lost business. Engaging your customers (or potential customers) is something that’s not only necessary but integral to increasing customer loyalty and retention.

The Local Updates feature will be rolled out to businesses that have claimed their page this week sometime so stay tuned.

Here is a brief video intro created by foursquare:

 

When Customers Attack

By

Dealers are continuously struggling to keep customers happy. Most dealers want their customers to be happy as a happy customer can lead to more sales through word-of-mouth and referrals. CSI scores in both sales and service are essential in many ways to dealerships and can cause a multitude of problems if they’re not up to par.

Sometimes dealers are unfairly treated by customers for minor things, however.

I came across this video on YouTube quite by accident and was absolutely astounded.

I wasn’t searching for that particular dealership nor was I searching their brand or even searching their area. I’m about as far away geographically from the dealership as you could get so I can’t even blame geographical relevance. In fact, I had very broad search terms. This video still showed up on Page 4 of a Google search.

The video’s description makes this even more astounding:

“The dealership provides free Wi-Fi internet access to it’s customers, while waiting for their vehicle to be serviced. One problem: It doesn’t work.
Watch me walk around nearly the entire dealership, only to get a signal enough to grab a few bits of data, and crap out. There was a point I got a good signal, but it never returned.
It’s very hard to see, but you can see that the signal meters remain red pretty much the whole time, until the media player shut itself off. At that point, I gave up. My car was about done anyhow. This is the ONLY part of Ron Bouchard’s that is not good. Sorry Ron. 🙁
EPIC FAIL Internet.”

Seriously?

This YouTuber knows the power of the internet. He’s uploaded over 1,500 videos and has amassed over 2.5 million views. He’s in a dealership that he even agrees on video deserves its 5-star rating and states in the video description that this is the only part of the dealership that is not good yet he feels compelled to make a video complaining about the lack of free wi-fi despite it being advertised in the service waiting area. It’s obvious that he didn’t “mean” any harm but this dealership now shows up ranking high for search terms like “car dealer” and “fail”. In the comments, he follows up TWO YEARS LATER, stating that the wi-fi still didn’t work.

Reputation management begins with knowing what’s being said about you.

This is completely unfair to the dealership but it’s a perfect example to illustrate the importance of perfection in your customer’s dealership experience as well as the importance of monitoring what people are saying about you online.

What would you have done had this video been made about your dealership?

David vs. Goliath – The Grant Cardone Saga Continues

By

Throughout the day yesterday, via Twitter, e-mail and YouTube, Grant and I have been discussing why I believe his contest is bad and why he shouldn’t be teaching dealers inappropriate social media tactics. I think I explained myself clearly in my previous blog post and, in the interest of not writing a book here, I’m going to share the conversations, some select tweets, and his YouTube video which is without a doubt in response to our discussions.

[Note: These e-mails are unedited.]
From Grant to me:
Arnold, 

The
biggest thing I have spent my career on is inspiring sales people to do MORE not
do less. If a sales person is going to fail let them fail by doing too
much and then making adjustments to do too much a
better way.   

Your
suggestions about the program being wrong suggest to take action is incorrect
and causes people to be ‘careful’ rather than
to take action.  

The
world is filled with noise…..the only way people can break out is to take
action and lots of it.  You are going to love the 10X rule because it is about taking
action in massive amounts.  

George
Patton said, “a marginal plan executed ferociously is better than a well
thought out plan never executed.”

Encourage
people to make mistakes by taking more action not by labeling actions wrong,
incorrect, against the rules – There is enough of this
encouragement already.

Neither
you nor me or experts on social media….no one yet knows what actually works.
 Lets agree to disagree and both discover what does
work by experimenting…

 All
my love….

My reply to Grant:

So, in your opinion, violating Facebook’s Terms of Service as
well as the laws of the State of California (which have both civil and criminal
penalties) is ok?

 Even if we disregard the whole “spamming everyone” part of my
argument, you can’t seriously be saying its ok for dealers to break rules and
laws because taking “more action” is better than less?

The people that are participating in your contest are ALREADY
YOUR FANS, Grant. By making them spam their friends, you do not accomplish
increasing your exposure to new people. It’s great to have promotions and
contest. Get people involved and engaging with you, just don’t make them do it
at their friends’ expense and makes sure you’re doing it legally and in
compliance with the rules and laws that govern them.

His reply to me:

Dude,

 I am not ‘making’ anyone do anything and I am not
encouraging spamming.

I put together a contest to encourage people to learn while
they play.

Most of the people out there don’t even know how to start a
FB page… 

We have had over 20 people create video for the first time.
People are having fun with this thing and today now learning new ways to fine-target their message to clients so it is
not perceived negatively

Be a lover man, not a hater

Be an inspirer not a stopper.

Be an encouragement and supporter for action and
activity- 

Still love you…

My reply to Grant:

You have to take responsibility as a public figure and role
model for dealers, Grant. People look up to you and will follow your lead. I
hold you to a higher level of accountability to what you put out into the world
than I do the average dealer.

I’m not alone in my thoughts. Many people share my opinion on
your contest. I think the video part of your contest is great. You ARE making
them post on FB and Twitter about your contest. If they don’t they can’t win so
if they want to participate, they have to do it.

The fact that they don’t know, or have, proper social media
skills only makes it worse. You’re teaching them the wrong way to do things,
not the right way.

I still love you too. You’re still them man. You don’t know how
many people have messaged me kudos for standing up to you and saying most
people would be afraid to. I just tell them that you can handle it and,
hopefully, respect my opinion.

My job involves teaching dealers how to do it right. Your reach
and exposure certainly outweighs mine but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t advise
people not to follow your example. That would be neglecting my job, and
responsibility, in bringing proper digital marketing techniques into their
dealerships.

His reply to me:

Right on bro=  but there is a difference between
standing up and making someone else wrong…

at this point it seems like you are more interested in making me wrong
….

Based on what you are suggesting the  social media campaign
I used to help NADA get the Brownback Amendment passed which protected auto dealerships from losing their finance depts. would have
violated the law.  I slammed that thing every way possible from FB, TWeets, Youtube to direct emails into unwanted and completely
disconnected fields…

Where did you get that great signature…

My reply to Grant:

No, your Brownback Amendment activity was a “rally” so to speak.
It was a call to action and information for dealers. YOU were doing the
“spamming” if people considered it that, which I didn’t.

This is a contest. The state of California has laws regarding
contests, it does not have laws about social media. FACEBOOK, on the other hand,
has rules about having contests on their website, which your contest does not
comply with.

I’m not interested in making you wrong. I KNOW you are. This is
not an opinion. I provided links to the laws and Facebook policies in my blog.
Feel free to read them for yourself.

Yes, you inspired my putting my signature image in my e-mails.
It was always my signature though. I didn’t make mine look like yours. You’ve
inspired me to do a lot of things. You’ve inspired me to be better at what I do
and helped me do that because I made a commitment to listen and learn.

I’m trying to HELP you understand that it’s important that you
teach the RIGHT way to do social media. Between you and I, we both know that
you’re great at teaching closing techniques to salespeople and motivating them.
We also both know that you’ve never sold a car via the internet and, in fact,
I’ve helped you with social media in the past.

I AM recognized as a thought-leader and expert in the field of
social media. That’s why I’m enlisted to do all of the social media for most of
the major auto conferences. They certainly don’t ask me to do it because I
don’t know how.

I know you’re a busy guy and probably don’t have time to go back
and forth with me. Ive always had your back and you know that. Ive contacted
you when your account was hacked. Ive shown you a lot of things. Just know that
I believe you needed to hear this and, hopefully, you’ll realize your mistake
and take action to change it.

Don’t make this a right vs. wrong thing. Don’t worry about
saving face. Just fix the problem.

As we tweeted back and forth today, a friend of mine, stated via Twitter that he was backing off because it was pissing his friends off. Here’s the conversation:


To even suggest to Stan that he shouldn’t be friends with someone (which he implies) who is advising him that he is going to alienate his friends by continuing his actions is not only irresponsible but it’s absolutely self-centered. I know for a fact that I am not the only one giving Stan this advice.
Why does Grant want to encourage Stan not to take my advice? The answer is simple:
He wants people promoting him no matter what the cost is to them!
Now we get to the YouTube part. [Note: This is my favorite.]

While he doesn’t mention me by name, it’s real tough for me to believe that this video wasn’t created in response to my calling him out and trying to make him realize that he is NOT helping his dealers. He is hurting them. Obviously, he doesn’t care. He’s more interested in self-promotion than on the social media success of his dealer audience.
Let’s examine some of his comments:
“..you’re learning what the difference between spam is and a good coordinated program.”
Yeah we’re learning that what YOU’RE doing is spamming. What you’re NOT showing us is a “good, coordinated program”. Running a contest via a software program called Contest Burner that is designed to spam people (for only $147). If you read their website, it describes Grant’s contest EXACTLY. It’s all about the following:
  • Flooding your site with massive traffic
  • Creating an army of back-links from all over the net
  • building a monstrous, responsive list
  • explode your revenue
Funny how there’s not ONE MENTION on that incredibly long home page telling you about RESPONSIBLE social media or that the program is designed to engage your fans and retain them. Of course not, it’s not designed to be responsible. This is what it accomplishes.
“With Contest Burner, your visitors will “happily” spread the word about your site all over the web. They’ll get engaged with your message… and become raving fans!

In fact, they’ll tell everyone about how great you (or your product) is and they’ll recruit people (influence them) to visit your site!”
Bravo, Grant. You’ve enlisted all of your fans to tell everyone they know how great you are while, at the same time, annoying the hell out of them.
Now let’s examine his logic and reasoning to his fans on his YouTube video:
  • You shouldn’t listen to their friends and colleagues but “push through the criticism”.
  • Social media is no different than him “knocking on a door”
  • “if you stop because people are asking you to stop, you’re done.”
  • If you’re creative, it’s not spam
  • Social media is no different than knocking on a door, making a phone call, or sending out a piece of mail, it’s just electronic.
  1. I don’t need to listen to my friends and colleagues. You’re the only thing that matters. Got it.
  2. It’s not like “knocking on doors”, it’s like knocking on your FRIEND’S DOORS. I’m sure your friends would appreciate you harassing them.
  3. Uh… when did “No” stop meaning “No”?
  4. Even if it’s creative, it’s still spam.
  5. You can be spam whether you’re knocking on a door, making a phone call, sending mail, sending e-mail or being on social media. In fact, there are laws regarding the use of 4 of the 5 of these and, I suspect, there will eventually be laws regarding the use of social media.
I’m sorry but anyone that tells me to annoy my friends and family, despite their requests to stop, and to “push through” anyways, is not doing me any favors.
The ONLY person winning from this contest is Grant Cardone. 
If you’re friends, family, and business connections are only worth $500 to you… well.. that says a lot.
[As I finished this post, I got another e-mail from Grant]

Dude  

All you have done is make
wrong – there is no direction, no guidance, and no teaching.

there have been no efforts to
do so either….

its been a constant
commercial of what I am doing wrong….then i expect you got some cowards
patting you on the back and got all inspired..
 but you didn’t help guide or inform anyone of what to do only encourage
them not to do!

My friends don’t do that with
me.  Teachers and mentors that I learn from encourage me to use my
strengths and

and never suggest that I do
less but offer advice how I can be more effective…

Go back and look at your
tweets and see how policeman like they are.  I am taking my time to tell
you this because I like you and would like you to be
supportive of me and what I am doing….

A better way to do this is by
example —– why don’t you get involved in the program and show them how to do
it or do you just monday morning quarterback?

My response to Grant:

Do you honestly believe that you are helping dealers learn anything
about social media?

His answer:

I
got a 100 from my brother with a message on it for you…

I responded with one word: nice
To be fair, he did respond with the following (despite the fact that I absolutely took the last e-mail seriously):

Just
loving you baby…  I have given you too much attention today…

but
it has been fun! Have a monster year and best to you..

I have nothing to gain by criticizing Grant’s contest except putting an end to the continuous stream of Grant-spam that I’ve been getting. He, on the other hand, has everything to gain by encouraging the continued participation of his contestants.
I absolutely feel like David and he is Goliath. Am I trying to “topple” him? No. Am I trying to get his attention and make him realize what he’s doing is wrong? Yes. 
The scariest part is.. maybe he already realizes it.

Oh, and Grant, if you want me to show you how to “do it right”, I’d be happy to.
Onto my commercial: Very soon, I may have a ton of Grant Cardone material available for bid on eBay including some signed photos, books and tons of audio material. 
Just kidding.. maybe.





Contact Me