For years dealerships have been encouraged to enter the blogosphere as a way to garner a better position in the great war for SERP dominance. A blog can be a very effective tool for a digitally active dealership to create fresh and relevant content and a great asset to your Google Page One Management strategy.
While many dealerships have gone on to create their own blogs, many have since abandoned them like a beater trade with a bad tranny in the back corner of the service lot. It’s not that a blog is too difficult a space for a dealer to manage, in many cases it either falls away as something that is just too time consuming and not a priority or the internet manager that started the blog has moved on and no one knows the password or that it even exists at all.
Many automotive website companies have added blog like components to their platforms. Since they are not an actual stand alone blog, the articles generally don’t perform well as individual search listings. They do however provide dealers with a tool that enables them to easily add fresh content to their own websites, something that otherwise may not happen consistently enough to provide an effective SEO advantage.
One very powerful alternative to a traditional blog is an e-Newsletter. An e-Newsletter that is web based and published on it’s own unique and dealer relevant URL can provide an incredible platform for a dealership to not only create and publish good relevant content, but with a deliverability component that will far surpass most dealership blog readerships. Such an e-Newsletter that is published consistently on a monthly basis with relevant dealer and OEM content will have a very positive impact on your dealerships SEO strategy. Your e-Newsletter is also a great source of referring deep linking in-bound traffic to your website through engaging articles and compelling specials.
A big advantage to an e-Newsletter is that your provider can write the content for you. Articles ranging from vehicle reviews to employee spotlights can be crafted to be dealer specific and search engine friendly. This consistent flow of relevant content will help you dominate your Google page one rankings and deliver first party leads to your website.
Another important feature of an e-Newsletter lies in its reporting. While analytics can tell you a lot about your blogs traffic, they fall short on drilling into your customers engagement behavior. Your e-Newsletter reporting will enable you to not only track your delivery and open rates, but will show you exactly which of your customers and prospects are printing service coupons, reading articles and watching your videos. With this kind of data, you can create targeted 
campaigns specifically aimed at your customers preferences.
campaigns specifically aimed at your customers preferences. At the end of the day it’s all about engagement. Blogs can provide a source of information, but lack the ability to convert the reader with a call to action. An e-Newsletter can help build a more engaging relationship with your customers and maintain the “Top of Mind Awareness” that you are looking for.
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