MKT 265 _ 1-2 Blog: Branding: A Day in the Life

C.Wall
07/01/2020


Branding: A Day in the Life


What sites and/or applications do you visit most often?
I am the Sales & Marketing Manager for the company I currently work for, and am directly responsible for our Vehicle Sales. I oversee the sales transactions, and also all of our advertising efforts. In the past, there have been numerous avenues we have pursued in order to advertise our pickups, but in recent times, our budget has been substantially reduced. So these days are very basic and routine in comparison.

Foremost, we utilize our website (www.silveradoautosales.com). Our host for the website provides numerous services which promote sales leads, and also provide us with options of creating ads through various avenues (such as CarGurus.com, or CarsforSale.com). Though word-of-mouth over the years has helped drive a substantial amount of viewership to our website also. Through our website, we can respond to text and email inquiries, as well as accept or decline direct offers.

After that, we visit Craigslist.com in order to post or manage active ads there. In the past, Craigslist has been our number 1 source for generating leads and driving traffic to our website, and still remains as an important part of our business.

The routine is to then check in on, and respond to Facebook Marketplace inquiries. This will then be a repetitive process throughout the day afterward. Facebook Marketplace has been a good source of leads...however, Craigslist, CarGurus, and our website still produce more finalized sales transactions. As time goes on, this may change, of course.

Beyond that, we utilize some online classified avenues in various areas within a certain distance of our location, such as KSL.com. It is the website for a news station in Utah which offers online classified pages which draw numerous views, and is still within a distance to us that potential buyers consider reasonable to travel when getting a good deal on a truck.

Do you have positive or negative reactions when using certain types of digital media?
We have had positive experiences with most sources, with the exception of Facebook Marketplace. Potential customers coming from avenues such as our website, or CarGurus tend to prefer reaching out to us directly via phone in order to conduct a conversation, and - for the most part - tend to be relatively relaxed and patient in their approach. The buyers are often already familiar with what they are looking for, and are simply looking for assurance that our products are quality, or will meet their needs. It is mostly about relationship building from there. The online or digital sources themselves are relatively easy to navigate, and present straightforward information.

The potential customers from Facebook Marketplace, however, tend to prefer reaching out strictly through messaging. This isn't necessarily a problem, of course, though it can require additional time in communication in order to best identify needs or satisfy request when that information is not provided up front. But in that time the attention can often be lost. We have found that potential customers from Facebook require more maintenance while often only providing the most basic communication up front. We are, of course, exploring how to adapt as most of our customers have previously been from older generations, and we understand our methods have been geared towards them.

Do you find that your needs are satisfied using one type of digital media over another?
We strictly use online sources for advertising, and have never tried to explore TV (commercials), or Radio. So it seems impossible to accurately compare those options. However, among sources accessible by smartphone, there have certainly been better types for us, as previously mentioned.

Do you receive emails from companies?
We receive a high volume of emails from other companies; mainly those seeking to provide a service to us for a fee. Most of them are not given enough time to evaluate whether they catch our attention or not, and are merely deleted as soon as they come in. However, there are some whose use of graphics can be eye-catching. The sleek, non-cluttered (not wordy, or overly expressive), and professional in appearance graphics are generally what cause us to look a little closer.

What do you notice about the use of digital media in marketing today?
Everything is digital today! Well, just about, anyway. However, side comment - Locally, we have an agricultural paper classified that is still regularly printed and used by many of the farmers in the rural communities around us. I didn't know anybody looked at those anymore...but apparently some do! Otherwise, for marketing to be effective, one must go where the masses are...or, at least where your target market is. Either way, the masses (along with your target market) are on their phones. It is like everyone has an avatar in digital space, where majority of their life actually takes place. Communication, scheduling, shopping, purchasing, and even "hanging out" all takes place in digital space. Therefore, companies will want their billboards flashing in that space.


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