As usual, the PCG Pit Stop (this time in Seattle) was a wealth of learning and information for the dealers that attended. Since Dealer Marketing Magazine is headquartered just outside of Seattle, we were able to attend in our hometown.

Seattle is also the hometown for Cobalt, which hosted a Dealer Appreciation party at their headquarters the night before the Pit Stop. Dealers who attended the party enjoyed talks by members of the Cobalt staff including James Fabin—emcee, Matt Muilenburg, VP, product solutions, Lisa Koutek, director of sales, Christine Grant, digital solutions manager, and Chris Reed, chief marketing officer. Brian Pasch, CEO of PCG Digital Marketing spoke at the party, along with Auburn VW owner, Matt Welch, a longtime Cobalt client.

The next day, the PCG Pit Stop kicked off at the Seattle Westin Hotel. Brian Pasch did a number of presentations, but my favorite was his discussion of a book that is out talking about Zero Moment of Truth. Find out more and how to can get the book free on page 20 of this issue.

Among the great presentations, Allan Chell, CEO, and Jay Radke from cDemo showed how dealers could inventory photos and vehicles with their new iPhone app. It has been simplified so that dealers can easily follow the instructions and shoot photos of their vehicles and upload all the info directly into their DMS making it possible to get vehicles into the inventory and online immediately: www.cdemo.com

Rick Rikess, from Cobalt, gave a presentation on Gen Y customers—one of the most popular presentations at PCG’s Boot Camp in Orlando in June. The Gen Y generation is quite different from previous generations and it is important dealers understand what motivates them. Hint: It’s all about the technology inside the car not the outside, and the “experience” of buying the car, not all about price: www.cobalt.com

Cristy Roman of Now Marketplace gave dealers some valuable advice about internet marketing, including suggesting you put ads on your website before you advertise anywhere else. Roman asked, “Why would you not?” She suggested that dealers need to rethink their budget strategy for their advertising. According to Roman, 50 percent of your budget should go to internet advertising and only 20 to 40 percent to traditional (TV, radio, newspaper, etc.) The reason is that this is where decisions happen about buying cars now…not on the car lot: www.nowmarketplace.com

AJ LeBlanc from Car-mercial talked about VSEO (Video Search Engine Marketing) and how to dominate the first page of a Google search using video ads. Car-mercial’s services to dealers include uploading tons of videos for the dealership on a regular basis which helps you to dominate the front pages of Google. Part of the strategy is to upload to 15 different video search engines (did you know there were that many?) For more information, visit www.car-mercial.com

PCG Pit Stop regular, Joe Webb of Dealer Knows Consulting, did a presentation on Improving Customer Communication Channels: Phone Calls and Emails. Visit Webb’s site at www.DealerKnows.com

Brad Whisenhunt from Contact At Once! was the lunchtime speaker and taught the dealers about the value of Chat on a dealership website. You can find out more at www.contactatonce.com, and also, don’t forget to visit www.dealerchattips.com, which is a Chat education site sponsored by Dealer Marketing Magazine and Contact At Once!

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