JD Rucker – DealerRefresh | DealerRefresh Automotive Dealer Forums

Why OEM Marketing Mandates are a Great Thing for Dealers (at least those who do it right)

Stop the presses! The cow just jumped over the moon. Pigs are flying. Hell froze over. Who kidnapped me and replaced me with an OEM shill? The answer isn’t that I’ve gone insane. It’s that I looked deeper into the subject and realized it can be easily turned around from being a negative thing for …

Best Practices Opinions & Advice

Why Dealers Should Protect Their Time More than Anything Else

At most dealerships in North America, there is a huge gap in the free time available to people in different roles. Some people such as General Managers and eCommerce Directors could probably count the free minutes they get in a day on one hand. Other roles seem to have a hard time staying busy at …

Best Practices

The Secret Sauce Is Always Spoiled

For the first time in seven years, I’m walking away from the fall conference season with a feeling of complete and utter hope for our industry. Never before have I seen so many dealers who were truly engaged with the speakers and each other. It’s as if we’ve hit a turning point where skepticism and …

Dealership Marketing Industry News & Trends

AutoTrader’s Social Media Survey is a Total Sham

They say that if you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything. In the case of AutoTrader’s recent “study” about car shopping habits, it’s not just a matter of torturing the data. It’s about coercing the study to produce a result that puts into a negative light the biggest threat to their …

Industry News & Trends

Are VDP Views the Cause or the Effect of Better Digital Marketing?

Which comes first…the VDP or your dealership’s overall marketing? Ever since the rise of dealership websites as a virtual showroom rather than the online billboards they started as in the beginning of the digital age, there has been a correlation between the number of people viewing vehicle details pages (or in some cases, inventory search …

Best Practices

Responsive Dealer Websites: More than a Buzzword

In my years working for a dealer website provider, I was often tasked with keeping up with the latest trends in website design, particularly how they pertained to their value from a traffic and lead-generation perspective. Google was always my beat. It wasn’t an easy task since they put out about as much content in …

Best Practices

Embracing Your Friendly Neighborhood Dealer Website Add-Ons

At one point, I was J. Jonah Jameson. When I left the dealership world and hit the vendor side over seven years ago, I learned from necessity that website add-ons were not a good idea. At the time, many were flash, most made the website load slowly, and few did much more than cannibalize leads …

Best Practices Dealership Marketing

It Takes a Dealership to Raise a Social Media Presence

It’s not just about branding. It’s about FOOT traffic! This is the last part in a 4 part series about automotive social media strategies that are emerging to help car dealers get true benefit. It’s not just about branding. It’s not about auto-feeding marketing content. With the right strategies in a place, dealers can drive …

Best Practices Opinions & Advice

Social Media’s Greatest Strength is the Data that Few Dealers are Using

[highlight color=”#F0F0F0″ font=”black”]This is part 3 in a 4 part series about automotive social media strategies that are emerging to help car dealers get true benefit. It’s not just about branding. It’s not about auto-feeding marketing content. With the right strategies in a place, dealers can drive foot traffic and website visitors in a way …

Best Practices

Your Social Media MUST Be Yours and Yours Alone

If there’s one thing that I absolutely cannot stand in the automotive digital marketing world, it’s the demand to make everything scalable. One of the biggest reasons I formed my own company was to help put an end to the automation and bulk-mentality that permeates throughout our industry. Don’t get me wrong. I totally understand …

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JD Rucker – DealerRefresh

Why Dealers Should Protect Their Time More than Anything Else

The Secret Sauce Is Always Spoiled

Are VDP Views the Cause or the Effect of Better Digital Marketing?

Responsive Dealer Websites: More than a Buzzword

Embracing Your Friendly Neighborhood Dealer Website Add-Ons