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Stay on Schedule During Political Season

Stay on Schedule During Political Season

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Over the previous two weeks, we’ve talked about the very concrete ways that the 2020 political campaign affects your advertising campaign. In part one, we explained that getting your message out to the car-buying public requires an experienced campaign manager. In part two, we gave some specific strategies to help you avoid overspending on your campaign. In our final installment below, we’ll look at what the political season means for the scheduling of your ads.

 

How your schedule works

When you establish your budget and schedule your time slots, you expect your ads to run in the window you’ve selected. But during the pre-election windows, you can be certain that your campaign will not go exactly according to schedule.

 

Why? During election season, there is a very real chance some of your ads will be bumped by political spots airing in your pre-purchased daypart. Political candidates have the right to purchase time slots of their choice during election season, so there are instances when their choices will bump your spots off the air.

 

However, with the right insight and solid, ongoing relationships with radio and TV station personnel, there are ways to ensure stations make up for many of these bounced ads.

 

Broad reach and frequency

Election season or otherwise, the importance of getting your message to a broad audience of potential car buyers … and getting it to them as frequently as possible cannot be overstated.

 

The majority of dealers – most business owners of all stripes, for that matter – have little to no experience with such situations. It’s difficult enough to determine the right media mix at any time of the year; during election season it’s nearly impossible.

 

Don’t be “that dealer”

Don’t be the dealer who is left to wonder what happened when he sees a significant portion of his ads bumped during political season.

 

Don’t be the dealer who waited until the last minute to schedule his ads. During election season, these spots fill up even faster than normal – for obvious reasons.

 

And above all else, don’t be the dealer who didn’t seek help for solutions to all the pitfalls that election season brings. With the assistance of a skilled, experienced automotive agency like JKR, you’ll get as close to “business as usual” as possible when it comes to scheduling ads during election season.

 

JKR Automotive Advertising: The car dealer ad agency.

Avoid Ad Overspending During Election Season

Avoid Ad Overspending During Election Season

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If you read our blog from last week, you learned how running an ad campaign for your dealership is much like running a political campaign – specifically, how being successful depends, in large part, on an experienced campaign manager.

 

In today’s installment, we’ll explain how the 2020 election year will affect your own marketing spend. We’ll also give you specific workarounds to keep your own campaign within budget. After all, a good campaign manager knows the best ways to get your message to the masses.

 

Elections affect ad rates

Candidates for national office receive the lowest unit rates (LURs) in the class of time they buy. For instance, if a candidate wants to run his ad during the all-important afternoon drive time, a time in which you might normally run your ad, he would get the lowest rate for that time slot. If other businesses want to air their ads in the same window, they’re going to pay more than the lowest published rate but still less than another business who signs on later.

 

Getting the most bang for your buck

In other words, you need to place your ads as early as possible in the election cycle to get the next tier of lowest-available rates. You also need a relentless negotiator to ensure you actually get the best placement at the best price. You’d be amazed at how many dealers think they own a given radio market and get the lowest rates … only to find out they could be paying as much as a full third less simply by enlisting the services of a savvy media buyer.

 

Remember, too, that this urgency doesn’t just apply to negotiating price. After you get the price you want early, you also need to place your ad quickly. Doing so eliminates the possibility that stations will come back and request a rate increase after you’ve submitted your proposal.

 

Next Week: Controlling what you can control

Next week, we’ll talk about how the political season affects ad scheduling. If you have questions on anything you’ve read in this blog or wish to find out more about our agency, please contact Jennifer Bullock at jbullock@jkrads.com.

 

JKR Automotive Advertising: The car dealer ad agency.

Win the Popular Vote in Your Market

Win the Popular Vote in Your Market

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Did you remember that a major election year is just around the corner … and you’ll be casting your vote? As you are well aware, the media hype continues to build all the way up until Election Day – the time when important decisions are made. It’s the time when those who ran successful campaigns secured wins and look forward to better days ahead. It’s also the time when those who ran unsuccessful campaigns are left to wonder what might have been.

 

As an automobile dealer, every day is a sort of Election Day for you. The way you run your campaign – specifically, your advertising campaign – goes a long way toward whether someone purchases a car from you or the dealership down the street.

 

If you want people to buy your cars, they’ll first have to buy into your message.

What is that message? It is, simply, your unique selling proposition, or USP. It’s what sets you apart from the other dealers in your area. Your F&I department might be the best in the state. If that’s the case, you need to let folks know that you can get them in a car even if they don’t have the best credit score. Or, you might be best known for service after the sale. If so, potential buyers need to hear about it.

 

Whatever your message is, intenders need to hear it, and they need to hear it often.

 

JKR: The Expert Campaign Manager

It takes a very specialized set of skills to first, determine your USP; second, frame it into something consumers will respond to; and third, deliver it to the people in your area with enough frequency to make your message memorable.

 

It’s hard enough to run a dealership. You have to greet customers, overcome objections, handle financing, and provide service after the sale. You also have to keep the lights on and pay your employees. When are you supposed to find time to actually advertise on top of all of that? How are you going to get your message out there?

 

Just like every aspiring political candidate, you need a campaign manager, too. You need someone with the knowledge and experience to make you the logical choice for potential car buyers. You need someone to clarify your message and get it to the widest target audience possible – over and over again.

 

JKR advertising can manage your ad campaign better than anyone in the business. Why? Because we have more combined experience than any other auto-retail advertising agency. We specialize in helping dealers grow beyond their natural market share. You want to win at more than your fair share of “election days”? Jump onboard with someone who’s already done it!

 

Pro Tips for Turbulent Times

This is part one of a multi-part series on how the election affects your business. And it does affect your business in ways you couldn’t foresee. In future posts, we’ll talk about buying air time during campaign season, about on-point messaging, and avoiding the pitfalls associated with advertising in a challenging season.

 

We’ll give you the information you need to make informed decisions. And isn’t that what elections are all about?

 

JKR Automotive Advertising: The car dealer ad agency.

Your Plan for the Coming Service Tech Shortage

Your Plan for the Coming Service Tech Shortage

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If you’ve read any of the major auto retail trade magazines in the last year, you’ll have heard the warnings about the expected service tech shortage. Major players in the industry have been vocal about the lack of qualified mechanics to replace those who are leaving the trade or retiring.

 

According to the National Automobile Dealers Association, the “retail auto industry needs roughly 76,000 new technicians every year to keep pace with jobs being created, plus retirements and replacements for technicians who leave the industry for other reasons.” As of this writing, only 37,000 technicians graduate every year, leaving a projected shortfall of 39,000 trained techs.

 

The Implications

The repercussions for you, the dealer, are significant. Automobiles are more high-tech than ever, which means technicians need the most current and extensive training they can get. And with more cars on the road today than at any time in history, the total demand for service grows ever higher. If you don’t have trained technicians who can service the cars you sell, you risk having longer turn-arounds, higher costs and lower margins, and – worst of all – angry customers.

 

The Solutions

What can you, as an owner or manager, do to head off the problem? As it happens, you can do quite a lot.

 

  • Sponsor a program at a local school. Not every high school junior or senior wants to go to a four-year college or sit at a desk for the next 45 years. In fact, many relish the prospect of working with their hands. Unfortunately for them, fewer and fewer high schools offer vocational training. Help change that by sponsoring a tech program at an area high school or technical school. Provide tools and old fleet cars for students to use. Offer scholarships to promising students. Be visible, too. The student who sees you in his classroom today might jump at the opportunity to work for you tomorrow.

 

  • Talk up the technology. Today’s cars aren’t much like the cars you and I learned to drive. With remote start, Bluetooth technology, electronic stability control, automatic emergency braking, telematics, and countless other features, new vehicles are more like two-ton traveling computers than the cars built just ten years ago. And there’s not much millennials like more than technology. Visit area high schools and talk up the opportunities to learn new and exciting technology. Show them all the high-tech intricacies of today’s vehicles, and you’ll find more than a few interested in pursuing a career path they hadn’t previously considered.

 

  • Talk up the benefits. One major advantage of a four-year degree – at least in the eyes of today’s high schoolers – is the prospect of a large paycheck. But college students are mistakenly optimistic about their starting salaries. Likewise, high school and college-age students are unaware of the earning potential of service technicians. According to NADA, the average dealership service technician earns over $60,000, significantly more than a new college grad. And since 69% of college graduates have an average debt of $30,000, service technicians start their careers with a distinct advantage.

 

  • Treat them right. Fairly or unfairly, service technician work has a bad reputation. People envision terrible hours, unpleasant work conditions, and low pay. You, on the other hand, can be the notable exception. Position yourself as the area dealer everyone wants to work for. Give service techs a reasonable work-life balance by rotating weekend and evening shifts among the crew members. Make all work – even warranty work – the same hourly rate. Or forgo hourly rates altogether and consider a putting your service techs on salary. Give your techs a chance to get advanced training. And don’t forget to reward them accordingly. A slight salary bump or title change will go a long way toward creating loyalty.

 

Customer satisfaction depends on quality service. Quality service depends on great technicians. You absolutely can avoid the pitfalls associated with the service tech shortage. Get started today.

 

JKR Automotive Advertising: The car dealer ad agency.

What Southwest Airlines Can Teach Auto Dealers

What Southwest Airlines Can Teach Auto Dealers

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Ask any car dealer – heck, ask a business owner in any industry – and she’ll tell you that the secret to success is a happy customer.

 

And she’d be right… sort of.

 

It’s true that happy customers are crucial to making sales. But the way to create happy customers starts well before they walk through your door.

 

The secret to creating happy customers is creating happy employees.

 

A recent study from Glassdoor.com, one of the world’s largest job search engines, bears this out:

 

Maintaining a satisfied workforce—particularly among customer-facing roles—should be considered a key prerequisite to delivering great customer experiences.

 

In its survey of 293 employers across a span of 11 years, researchers showed a significant, strong correlation between employee morale and customer satisfaction. The correlation was especially evident in customer-facing roles like sales and support.

 

It just makes sense.

 

It’s hard to give your best to your customers when you dread coming to work. But the opposite is also true. When you wake up every morning looking forward to seeing your colleagues and supervisors, you can’t help but reflect that to potential customers. It’s easy to sport a sincere smile when you’re sincerely happy.

 

What can you do?

  • Show appreciation. The number-one rated employer in the study, Southwest Airlines, is known for acknowledging team members’ successes and contributions. They even encourage employees to acknowledge each other for jobs well done. This is an easy one to emulate. Put up a bulletin board in the breakroom giving props for specific good work. People love seeing their name and pictures.

 

  • Share the love – and the profit. Southwest, of course, is famous for showing its appreciation by sharing a percentage of its profits with its employees. In 2017, that profit sharing amounted to an average bonus of 13.2% for every employee. It’s probably not in your budget to share that much of your profit, but you can create annual bonuses – however modest – based on your company’s performance. Another way to invest in your employees? Send them back to school. The tuition assistance you offer today could pay you back in ways you didn’t imagine, in the form of more knowledgeable – and loyal – team members.

 

  • That’s right: just listen. A former employee of Trader Joe’s – the third-rated company in the study – explains that her managers always took time to listen to what was going on in her life, whether business related or personal. She felt heard, understood, and valued. You, too, can implement this in your day-to-day operations. When a team member stops to talk to you, take a moment to just be present. You don’t have to offer advice, but just showing you care enough to listen will make a difference.

 

  • Create a path for growth. In the earliest stages of the hiring process, Hilton – rated number four in this study – asks its candidates about their long-term career goals. More important, they promote from within wherever they can. You can do this, too. When you see a particularly promising employee, develop his talents and let him shine in a bigger role with more responsibilities.

 

What’s the bottom line?

Take a page from Southwest’s playbook: Rank employee happiness above customer satisfaction. You’ll find that loyal team members will bring you even more loyal customers.

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