Commercial Auto Dealers

After a half year of talks, negotiating and arguing, General Motors and the United Auto Workers union have reached an agreement regarding lower-wage jobs.

At many of the GM plants across the United States, there will now be two tiers of lower-paying jobs. At the higher tier, workers currently make about $28 an hour. The lower tier will be saved for new hires and that will be about $14-15 an hour.

According to John Melton, the UAW Local 31 bargaining chairman, the union and GM have agreed on which jobs will warrant the lower wages and which ones will receive the higher ones. And it’s about time, too. The negotiations lasted for months. The main concern was the definition of the “core jobs” and the “non-core jobs.” They finally agreed that the definition of the latter included those jobs that were not considered a vital part to the automobile-building process.

Ultimately, the deal is going to affect about 16,000 factory jobs. But it’s also going to take years for this to take effect. It’s not like General Motors can suddenly start paying some of their employees half of their current salary. The automaker will need to wait until the “non-core” employees are fazed out or given other jobs to make room for the new hires.

What does this mean for you? In the long run, it could mean lower prices at your local GMC truck dealer. But don’t wait for that. Check one out today and see the affordable prices and variety of options designed to meet your driving needs.

As an automotive dealer, you struggle to get your message in front of the people who are ready to buy is endless. You purchase advertising in the local newspapers, buy commercial space on TV and ad spots on the radio. These actions have always driven sales.

But, during the last 10 years, the marketing landscape for auto dealers has shifted. Today, selling cars is often about online branding. Navigating the choppy waters of online branding includes harnessing the power of blogs, RSS feeds, article syndication, web 2.0 platforms and several other disciplines.

Everything begins with gaining exposure.

Exposure Is Critical

Gaining exposure online is critical to building your brand – but it shouldn’t be done haphazardly. Branding your name means getting in front of your target market and presenting yourself in a way that implies authority and trust while imparting goodwill.

It’s the channel through which you gain awareness in your market’s mind.

There are several effective ways to build your brand online. Each plays an important role in helping your dealership gain the exposure that yields the highest return for your advertising dollar.

Possible avenues of exposure include search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, link building from authoritative websites, social media optimization and landing pages.

Gaining a Foothold

Unleashing an online brand marketing campaign that implements these tactics can help your dealership establish a foothold in your market. It can provide the means to reach those who are most likely to make a buying decision.

The exposure you gain from a planned execution of complementary online branding tactics releases you from chasing the sale of the day. Instead, it paves the road toward owning a place in your prospective customer’s mind for the moment he or she is ready to purchase.

Delivering the Right Message

Unfortunately, exposure is only one piece of the puzzle. Gaining exposure without delivering the proper message is merely noise. It adds no value. Online branding requires that you deliver the right content to your target market.

For example, if someone finds your dealership by typing a query into Google, it’s likely that person is searching for something specific. You must deliver whatever that person is searching for. Otherwise, your brief moment of exposure will be wasted.

Similarly, if you’re maintaining a blog on your website, your readers will continue to read only if you’re delivering the message that’s important to them.

Hub and Spokes

Effective online brand marketing should be thought of like a wheel. The hub is your dealership. The spokes are the tactics you use online to build your brand and drive your target audience to you.

With the right tactics employed to deliver the message that your market needs to hear, you can gradually build a brand that dominates your market.