Articles by Todd Swickard - CEO

Todd Swickard - Is it the year for social networking in the car business, where we all connect to our customers and show them how good of a "friend" we are? Or is it the year that we make videos of everything? Why don’t we clog servers to show them video instead of pictures?

Todd Swickard - Since the world is changing, your marketing strategy needs to change too, or you’ll be left in the dust. It’s time to trade in your old ways of doing things to get the most mileage out of your marketing budget. So, here are a few tips for how to go about reviewing your strategy to make sure it’s ready to roll.

Dealers have a sort of love/hate relationship with compliance, especially in terms of their Web sites. Before manufacturers implemented standards for dealer sites, there was a kind of “Wild West” feel to things ...

Todd Swickard - The hype is building about mobile marketing and how it will affect automotive in 2009. Early adopters are pushing text messaging and mobile Web advertising. Those who sell mobile marketing services say it’s the future of CRM. After all...

Todd Swickard - Numerous vendors joined the parade and have tried to offer dealers a solution that makes sense for them. Now, we are on to the wild and wonderful world of 2007. So, is this really the year for search marketing?...

Todd Swickard - If you haven’t done it lately, go through every page of your Web site. Make sure it is as complete and easy to use as possible...

Todd Swickard - When considering overall online budget, the rule of thumb seems to be a 10 percent allocation of the total advertising budget...

Todd Swickard - Search engines want your money; so do search marketers, lead providers and online classifieds...

Todd Swickard - I basically got the same responses that I used to get when selling online classifieds: “This is a fad."

Todd Swickard - Make sure that you can find anything that you need at your dealership in less than three clicks from the home page...