During a recent management retreat, a colleague introduced the group to the Internet’s fastest growing Social Networking site, Pinterest.com. Pinterest (pronounced pin-terest, not pin-interest) has burst onto the Internet with growth rates we haven’t seen since Facebook. Traffic has jumped to almost 11 million visitors in mid-December, nearly 40 times where it was only six months ago. Pinterest is now in the top 7 social networks on the web, with 59% of its users being women ages 25-44.

During the brief demonstration I watched, I initially didn’t understand the mission of the site, or rather, why it would drive consumer eyeballs. I learned that you needed to “apply for admission” which could take weeks, or you could find another Pinterest user and have them invite you. Just like learning about every other social network, you’ll never truly understand it until you immerse yourself (which is what I did). While I was figuring out the value proposition Pinterest offered, I also showed the site to my wife and her sister. Their instant addiction caused me to embark on a journey to find out more about this site, and potentially how it might help my customers (you, the car dealer).



If you visit the site, you will notice that the majority of content relates to food, home decorating, crafts, and child-related ideas. I took a stab at creating a man’s version of the site, including my interests in cool cars, vintage guitars, and outdoor barbecuing. I was pleasantly surprised that when I searched for related “Pins” and “Boards”, I found there were many others with similar interests.

Pinterest is all about pictures, not so much about words. When you find an interesting picture on the web, you “Pin” the picture and it is attached to your profile. You can also have “Boards”, which are subject-related collections of Pins. I have Boards for “Cool Cars”, “Vintage Guitars”, etc. Every time I find a picture of a cool car, I “Pin” the picture and put in on the “Cool Cars” Board. You can also “Re-Pin” someone else’s Pin, which propagates that content across the web. You can also simply “like” someone else’s Pin, which just shows you liked it, but didn’t feel compelled to Re-Pin it.

Since a major component of a dealer’s social marketing strategy should be to build a social network, and join in on the conversations, I would think a progressive dealer would start a profile for their store, and simply “Pin” new or used car photos for special or unique items. You might also “Pin” pictures of cool aftermarket or OEM accessories, perhaps alone or as part of a customer’s vehicle. You should be careful not to be too self-promoting, or you will be unlikely to attract many followers. Instead, only show the very new, or very special, models or products, and simply try to create interest. Creativity attracts interest on the site, by adding unique titles and high-quality photographs; you can increase the traffic to your profile. Be forewarned, Pinterest has rules where they discourage overt self-promotion, and you wouldn’t want to start your experience getting blacklisted.

You could also search the site for related “Pins” for makes/models that you carry, and “Re- Pin” those items and maybe add a comment with your thoughts. Again, don’t add a comment that could be in any way considered self-promoting but instead add an interesting fact about the benefits of the car’s make/model. You should also begin “following” other Pinners with similar interests, or anyone who starts following you. Like all social media sights, networking is key. Another idea would be to use your knowledge and statistics about the users on the site, and gear some of your boards to them. For example, since the majority of Pinterest users are women, create Boards that appeal to women and direct them back to your profile to increase views of your Boards.

You could create a Board for your local community with pinned pictures of your community involvement, Little League teams you’ve sponsored, and your passion for your surroundings. You could create a Board with pictures of cool home garages, pictures of interesting driving destinations, or even pictures of vehicle interior customizations. Once again, creativity is key on this site.

The goal is to create Boards that reflect the personality and culture of the dealership, and the interests of the owner. As in all social marketing programs, you are trying to personally connect, in many cases one-on-one with other people with similar interests. If they feel a personal connection with you, they may eventually decide to become your customer, since people like doing business with friends.

I’ll admit, it took me a while to get my hands wrapped around this new site, but the growth stats are incredible. Effective Digital Marketing Strategy says to promote your business where people are spending their time online, so Pinterest definitely fits the bill. This site will force you to be a little more creative, and a little more subdued in your approach, but the exposure and payoff in the long run should be worth it. Chances are most dealers will read this article and move on, so your opportunity to be an early entrant could give you a nice head start.

Good luck, and please let me know how I can help!

According to Google Trends, email is more popular than beer, Lady Gaga, McDonald’s and American Idol… but not sex.

Email continues to be one of the most cost-effective ways of staying connected with your customers, but it only works if you have your customers’ active email addresses (and their consent).

Here are 12 ways you can invite your customers to share their email with you.

1. Have you spiffed your advisors lately?
Run a promotion with your advisors and pay them $1 for each email address collected. Whatever percentage of emails that are collected during the promotion should be a good benchmark for the percentage that can be collected after the promotion.

If a $1/email sounds too expensive keep in mind that you’ll spend anywhere from $.68 to $1.25 in costs to mail a letter once you factor in time, paper, envelope, toner, and postage.

2. How about spiffing your customers?
Offer your customers an incentive to join such as a special service discount or enter them into a drawing for an iPad. If your emails and newsletters offer helpful, valuable content then your customers will stay with you once the incentive is over. Note: the best way to make sure you are getting the customer’s active email address is to email them the incentive or the registration confirmation rather than just handing them a coupon.

3. Facebook Sign-ups
Do something with all that traffic you’re sending to your Facebook page and invite people to sign-up for your newsletter by including a sign-up form on your page. Use your wall posts and updates to reference upcoming newsletters and link to your subscription center.

4. Get more mileage from your website
Add a sign-up form to your most popular webpages. Make the signup easy to find and easy to complete. One dealer website required customers to create an account and then log in through that account in order to join their list… way too much effort for most customers. You might consider adding customer testimonials on your signup page to let new subscribers know what your current subscribers think of your emails and newsletters.

5. Make every form a sign-up form
You have forms on your website to request test drives, request details on a vehicle, contact you, etc. These forms are already asking for the customer’s name and email. See if you can add a checkbox and an invitation to join your email list as well.

6. Make the love last after dealership events
If you’re hosting new owner clinics, chamber mixers, and other community events at your dealership where people are registering their attendance, include a sign-up option with the registration. Let them know by joining your email list you’ll be able to keep them informed of other upcoming events.

7. Put the post office to work for you
Send a postcard (cheaper and more effective than a letter and envelope) to customers inviting them to go green and join your email list.

Make sure you highlight what’s in it for them for joining. Caution: don’t let an email preference eliminate postal mailings. One dealer I know setup their CRM so when a customer opted to receive the dealer’s information by email, it marked the customer as Do Not Mail. Almost overnight they lost the permission to send postal mailings to a big chunk of their database. By the time the mistake was caught months later, they couldn’t separate which customers specifically didn’t want mailers from those that just preferred email.

8. Would you like fries with that?
Your F&I people, BDC callers, the cashiers, as well as your service advisors all have your customer’s attention either in-person or when they are on the phone with the customer and usually while the customer’s account information is open on the computer. Use this opportunity to ask the add-on question “Would you like to receive (insert manufacturer) updates and service coupons by email?” That approach usually gets a much more favorable response than the typical “Can I have your email address?”

9. At your service…
How many people do you have sitting in your service lounge right now? How many people go through there each day? Give them something to do rather than just watch old episodes of People’s Court on TV. Add a computer station with some nice signage inviting people to register. By using a computer terminal or an iPad, you don’t have to worry about typos or the data entry challenges that come from illegible writing on sign-up forms. Plus, you avoid this conversation: “What are those slips of paper in that box in the corner?” “Oh, those are our email signups from last month/year that I haven’t had time to enter yet.”

10. As long as you’re going to kill a tree:
How many pieces of paper go into the hands of your customers each day? Repair estimates, service receipts, finance contracts, business cards and service reminder mailers are probably just a few. Why not add a line to the bottom of your printed materials inviting people to join your list and the online address they can sign-up at?

Remember to tell them what the benefits are so they want to sign-up.

11. What’s black, white and read all over?
How about using a QR code that takes a visitor directly to your email signup page? These can be printed on everything from business cards to window stickers. Then, it is as easy as: point, shoot and sign-up… just make sure your webpage is optimized for mobile viewing. And while I don’t have any scientific evidence to support this, I do think it makes you look a whole lot cooler than a signup form on a clipboard.

12. Avoid taking one step forward and two steps back.
OK, this tip is less about getting subscribers and more about not losing the ones you have. Make sure the content you are sending is of value to your customers. For example, if you bought a house last year, do you want your real estate agent to email you new listings each month? Give people content that educates and entertains and you’ll keep them coming back for more, as well as sharing with their social network… which can lead to more sign-ups.

What process have you implemented to acquire more email addresses at your dealership?