Latest / Auto Collabs / Three Letter Words with Chad Graves

Transcript

Three Letter Words with Chad Graves · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  [snaps fingers] So, [laughs] we always laughing when we hit record. [laughs] [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs.
• 0:15
  [laughs] If, if you don't know, like, the, we sometimes just drop into the episode, like we're in the middle of laughing at something, because we are.
• 0:21
  And because we're, I think we're all mildly afraid that once you hit that record button and I say something stupid- [laughs]... it's gonna be on the record. [laughs] Too late.
• 0:28
  Well, that's usually why I try to hit it midstream, so we can catch Michael, but he's pretty good at dodging. Today, we have Chad Graves on the show. And the very first auto conference I went to, it was a CBT conference.
• 0:39
  Um, I didn't know anybody, but I met Brad Paschal, who we're, we're all friends with, and he's like, "Well, I'm going out to dinner with these guys from a company called Reunion Marketing," and I didn't have any friends or anywhere to go, so I said, "I'll go."
• 0:50
  And the Reunion crew made me feel so welcome, and they just kind of welcomed me right in to what I learned to be the community of automotive industry partners.
• 1:01
  And, you know, I think that's one of the reasons that people do business with Reunion, is because when you meet the team, you realize, like, these are the kind of people you just wanna be around. Yeah.
• 1:10
  I mean, who, who doesn't wanna be around a guy, now this isn't Chad, but who doesn't wanna be around a guy that run- A good-looking... I'm just [laughs] That runs a podcast and is also, like, a semi-pro wrestler, right?
• 1:23
  [laughs] Which is Dane Seville. [laughs] That's right. He is a wrestler. I know. He is. Isn't that crazy?
• 1:29
  So you've got people and personalities like that, and they're not afraid to be that or be that part of their personality, and, and, and Chad is an extension of that team as well, and, and one of the co-founders there.
• 1:39
  Um, so yeah, I just, I, like, it is. They're, they're, they're that, like, you smile when you're around them type team. They- So we- they do put off that vibe though, right? Like that- Yes...
• 1:48
  that, um, y- you're part of the group. You're part of the crew. It's almo- they should call themselves Reunion Marketing. 'Cause- [laughs] 'Cause it feels like a reunion.
• 1:57
  [laughs] No, I mean, that, I think that is probably, like, something to do with, uh, why they gravitated toward that name.
• 2:03
  And it, and it kinda meant something to do with, like, the guys getting back together, but that's... I legitimately felt like that.
• 2:08
  When I was out to dinner with them for the first time, I felt like, "Hey, these are the guys that I know already, that I'm comfortable around." So excited for you to hear a little bit from our friend, Chad Graves.
• 2:20
  [upbeat music] Chad, man, it's so good to be sitting with you finally. We were just talking how I don't think we've ever podcasted together before. I don't think so, man, despite having known you for several years here.
• 2:37
  Uh, I think this is my first time, so I'm super excited to be here, chat with you guys today ahead of this awesome event that you guys got going on. No, man, we appreciate that.
• 2:46
  Um, you know, we were t- we were talking about, we always like to think about, um, you know, what the, what our guest can really bring that's kind of unique and timely to what's going on.
• 2:57
  And the thing that came up when Kyle and I were talking was the fact that you were a part of a large internal marketing team in, in a previous life.
• 3:07
  Can you tell us a little bit about the details, like what that team looked like, what the group was like? Um, we'd like to, like, just kind of flesh that out for a second. Yeah. It's super fun.
• 3:16
  Um, it's obviously where I kinda got my career start. Um, so even the backstory is, um, I'm a second-generation automotive kid.
• 3:24
  My dad worked for this dealer group, uh, it was the Leith Automotive Group here in Raleigh, North Carolina, where Reunion's headquartered today.
• 3:31
  Uh, he was a GM there for, I think, right around 30 years, so a lot of longevity, right? And when I was coming out of college, I actually did not really wanna be in the auto space, actually.
• 3:40
  I kinda wanted to go a different route- [laughs]... do my own thing. No. Oh, yeah. Um- I never hear that. [laughs] You do that. [laughs] You know? Wanted to do my own thing, right?
• 3:47
  And then it has a way of sucking us all in a little bit, right? Um, so I was coming out of college. Uh, ended up saying, you know, "Let's, uh, I'll give an interview a shot, see what happens."
• 3:56
  I interviewed with Dave Sponaugle, who's the CEO of Reunion today.
• 4:00
  Um, w- we immediately hit it off, and, and at that time, it was, Leith was absorbing the marketing agency who had been doing the outsource work for a long time.
• 4:11
  Um, so I walked right in as, uh, an account executive, so I was kind of managing the marketing for, uh, anywhere from 10 to 14 stores out of the 33. Um, Dave was there. Matt Triana came on board.
• 4:23
  Andrew Coach is someone else who co-founded Reunion together. Dane Seville. And, um, so we were doing pretty much all aspects of SEO, video creation, social media. Pretty much everything except from paid search in-house.
• 4:37
  Everything from even, you know, TV, radio, print, event management, the whole nine yards. Wow. So at that time, supporting 33 stores, we had a team of around 20 or more folks, actually.
• 4:48
  So it was a pretty comprehensive deal, and, um, it created a lot of success for that group over, in, in really just a short time. The way that we were looking at data, making decisions.
• 4:57
  Um, you know, when I started there, uh, uh, most of the stores that I worked with were spending about equal... And this is 2012, so not that long ago, right?
• 5:06
  Um, spending about equal parts in newspaper prints as they were on digital marketing. And so, you know- Wow...
• 5:11
  we started kind of pulling things back and, and they have a really great team, general managers, folks like that, that, you know, were in place for a long time. They were...
• 5:19
  Most of them were pretty apt and, and excited for some change. And it, it created some great results, which ended up helping us, you know, launch Reunion later down the road. But being in- So-...
• 5:28
  and out of dealerships every day, I don't know that you could provide a better training ground for what we inevitably did. Well, yeah.
• 5:34
  And that's, I mean, just thinking about the timeline of that, you know, having 20-plus people at a 30-store, 30-plus store rooftop group, managing the marketing, is- Yep... still, we don't find that in automotive.
• 5:50
  So super progressive from just a, a, a mentality as a, as a group. Was that, uh, you know, were you p- a part of the growth or was that, you know, uh, kind of established when you came in?
• 6:02
  It, it just seems like even still-Dealer groups are, are not finding efficiencies with, with internal marketing teams today.
• 6:10
  And yet, you're back in 20- [laughs] 2012 with that team, you know, finding those, those efficiencies. Yeah, I think it's, it, it takes the right mix, right?
• 6:19
  I mean, I think that, you know, those of us that were there at that time and really looking to get it started, we really felt like a big part of that team and, and a big part of that dealer group.
• 6:29
  And we were really, you know, I don't wanna say put under the pressure, but we definitely felt responsible for the success, right?
• 6:36
  Like, when the dealerships that I worked with sold a lot of cars and had great months and had all-time profits, like, we felt partly responsible for that. And I think that that was so huge.
• 6:45
  And I think that's one of the things where, you know, marketing and dealerships still struggle a lot today is, like, how much of that success can be attributed- Yeah... to the marketing and advertising, right? Right.
• 6:54
  It's kind of a tale as old as time but, you know, it was great.
• 6:57
  And I think, you know, the last three years that we were there they saw some explosive growth in the website traffic, leads, phone calls, things like that, which propelled that success and helped tell that story a lot, too.
• 7:08
  So what was the impetus from... It sounds like a ton of your current team, at least the leadership and co-founding team in Reunion- Yeah...
• 7:16
  what was the impetus for moving out and saying, "Hey, look, we need to support other dealers and, and kind of do this on our own," because you see so- such success over here in the dealer group and now moving to supporting a wider swath of dealers across the country and, and, you know, held in the, held in the southeast now.
• 7:34
  Yeah. But why, why was that, like, the decision made instead of continuing to kind of press in? It was a lot of thought, a lot of time, um, but I think all of us were wanting to do something, uh, bigger, right?
• 7:48
  I mean, you know, that group was... It- it's rock solid, still have multiple stores all within this market. But that's where it was gonna stay, right?
• 7:55
  And I mean, at the time, you know, I was younger and, uh, definitely ready to take a risk, and I think all of us were.
• 8:01
  I mean, Dave was the only one with kids at the time, and sure, everybody thought he was a little bit crazy. But, uh, I think we all believed in the team. Uh, we believed in the folks around us.
• 8:10
  We believed in the strategy and, you know, we left with, with no clients in May of 2015 and, and have built up and continued from there. But it was a lot of discussions, a few beers, uh, to- [laughs]...
• 8:21
  kind of work up that courage, right? Uh, but we had a great time and, you know, we never looked back. And I think we, we believed in each other and, and knew we had something special even at that time.
• 8:30
  A core group that was willing to work and willing to put the hustle in. As you guys know, that's half the battle is finding the people that
• 8:38
  know that, that you can hold up- them accountable to work just as hard as you're willing to put that in. And I think we knew we had that.
• 8:43
  We knew we had something special, and wanted to see how far we could take it and how exciting it could be, and do something good.
• 8:48
  I, I do think that there, we also saw a void, um, in, at that time, and I think other companies have sprouted up since then.
• 8:55
  But, you know, at the time pretty much everybody was working with, uh, only a few digital marketing companies and- Right... and, you know, website providers.
• 9:02
  And, and, you know, we, we, we saw a chance to, to be a boutique, more hands-on style company that we could really make a difference for dealers all around for. You know, what do you...
• 9:11
  It's, it's unique, I think, that you have so many people in a company that have that pedigree of having been in the stores day in and day out for a long period of time doing the same thing together
• 9:24
  as a, as an industry partner as they were doing together, right, [laughs] on the dealer side. Yeah. Like, that's a, that's a pretty unique story.
• 9:31
  Um, which means when you walk into dealerships and you get to work with dealers all over the country, what are the... what do you think are the... what are the things that stand out?
• 9:40
  Like, the, the, the trip lines that stand out where you see a lot of different sizes of internal marketing teams in other dealerships.
• 9:46
  Like, when you walk in, you definitely have that experienced eye where you're gonna like, "Oh, you know, I understand why they're getting tripped up there.
• 9:53
  I kinda know what's going on there, even though they haven't told me yet." What are the common ones that, that kinda come up all the time? Uh, man, you know, I was, I just bought a new vehicle with my wife.
• 10:03
  Um, and I, I was talking to her in the showroom saying- What'd you get? What'd you get? I can tell you... We leased a new Mazda CX-5. It's the one she's had- Nice... her eye on.
• 10:12
  We're expanding our family, so we needed a bigger SUV, and, uh, it's been great. Absolutely love it.
• 10:17
  Uh, but going through the shopping process, not buying for the first time in my life, really, from somebody I knew was a whole different ballgame now, right? [laughs] Yeah. Um, so that was interesting.
• 10:26
  Um, but I'll tell you, I, I was joking with her in the showroom saying, you know, "I can tell within about five minutes of being in a dealership how it's performing and how it's functioning," in a normal market, right?
• 10:38
  Yeah. Uh, which I wouldn't say that we're in today, where, you know, they showed me three and they're like, "This is what you can buy. Here, these are your options." [laughs] Hey, what you're saying? That's it.
• 10:45
  Um, you know, a little different today. Um, a little different, right?
• 10:48
  But I think that, you know, the first thing I look for, Paul, and I think this goes back to, you know, the car business is a people business before anything else.
• 10:57
  If I walk in the dealership and I can make it all around the showroom without anybody asking me how I'm doing, what I'm looking for, is anybody helping me, that's usually strike one for me, right?
• 11:06
  And it's, uh, I think it, it's, are people...
• 11:10
  And even if I'm waiting and working with a salesperson, who's gonna be that second point of contact or that manager that's gonna walk by and say, "Hey, I know you're working with Paul, but, you know, I wanna make sure if you need anything, you know, my name's Chad," and, or, "Kyle's in the back, he'll help you."
• 11:23
  You know, like, that kind of process.
• 11:25
  Um, but I think the other thing that a lot of progressive dealerships are doing more is, is showing off what they are doing community-wise, things like that, as soon as you walk in the showroom.
• 11:35
  Um, but, you know, you can usually tell, I think too, by where the management is sitting in relation to the dealership.
• 11:42
  Are they still up in the classic tower, uh, looking down over everybody, or are they, you know, are they out? Are they in meetings? Are they doing that? And there's different styles of management today.
• 11:51
  But, um, usually those are kind of some of the things that I look for, just to get a pulse on what kind of dealer am I going to be talking to today? Um- You know- And it comes in all shapes and sizes.
• 12:01
  That's really interesting, because when you think about, like-The relationship between what you just said, which is all practical operation stuff, right?
• 12:12
  And your perspective on the industry is primarily from a marketing perspective, right? Oh, definitely. Yep. Both in the dealership and outside.
• 12:21
  And I think a lot of people, that's some of the struggle in what you said earlier, th- that, that there's this disparity between, like, what's marketing doing, what's the dealership doing- Most definitely...
• 12:32
  and not recognizing that those are so intertwined, right? That, like, if one's doing well, the other one's probably doing well at the same time because they're building blocks that stack, like- Mm-hmm...
• 12:44
  intermingled together, not separate buildings- Most definitely... that are trying to do different things, right? Most definitely.
• 12:51
  Yeah, I think, you know, going back to that original experience, you know, like, we helped implement... Or not implement.
• 12:56
  Some stores already had it, but, like, your V Autos and your Max Digitals that really brought online merchandising, things like that, into the forefront.
• 13:03
  And, you know, there's things in that system that help power marketing. And there's things that you can do with marketing to help make that system... You know, y- that everything should tie together, right?
• 13:11
  And that's ultimately what we're looking for. Like, our ideal fit, ideal partner, it's somebody who's willing to lift up the gates from a transparency perspective and say, "Hey, look, this is what I have going on here.
• 13:21
  This is what I have going on here. How can we power these ideas together to formulate an entire sh- dealership strategy instead of looking at everything from marketing, operations?"
• 13:29
  But, you know, and it, and even within marketing it can be sales, service, parts. And those silos are what can be really tough for, I think, everybody.
• 13:36
  Um, it's just a matter of how much do we want to talk about it and acknowledge that. So you have, uh, a, actually a pretty broad swath of products at this point.
• 13:46
  You help, you, you've, you plug in in a lot of places in a lot of different dealerships. Where do you find the most, the most helpful place or the most common place where dealers need you to come in and help?
• 13:59
  What's the most common place? Because, like, one of the reasons we're doing even the Auto Collabs podcasts- Yeah...
• 14:04
  is because we say we wanna introduce people to, um, the, we wanna introduce dealers to the people and the personalities and the products, um, you know, that they're gonna experience at a Soduku.
• 14:16
  And also, obviously- Sure... we know, like, only 600 people are gonna get to go to a Soduku, right? It's gonna sell out. Mm-hmm. That's all there's gonna be. But a lot of other people are gonna be listening to this.
• 14:24
  Um, so I think it's important, like, for you to talk about the, the most common thing you help stores with, and why do you think that's the most common thing? Yeah, definitely.
• 14:34
  It, it would have to be our, like, SEO, search engine optimization service. I mean, it's definitely where we got our start. It's definitely probably the product that I'm the most passionate about.
• 14:42
  It's our leading product today. Um- So let's do this. I'm gonna pause you right there. Yeah, please. Pause me. Because we, uh, we're, we're trying to do what we say teach to the back of the room. Sure.
• 14:49
  Because w- as, as marketers, right? The three, the three of us are marketers. Yeah. Let's do it. So, like, we just keep rolling with it. But, uh, we have a lot of operations people, a lot of finance people. Love it.
• 14:57
  And we think it's really important when people learn about other areas of the store. So take, take us back and just take us to, like, you know, like, explain it like I'm five. What is, what is SEO? Yeah.
• 15:08
  So the best way I explain it to people, like, in general, right, or if we've never heard of this is my goal with SEO is to get you to the top page of Google without you having to pay on a cost per click basis, right?
• 15:21
  So you do any kind of Google search, whether it's a car, it's a restaurant, it's a doctor's office. You got those lovely ads that Google makes a lot of revenue on. It's another service that we provide, right?
• 15:30
  But then below that, there's that rich organic stuff. Spot one, two, three. You've got the Google business profile on the right-hand side.
• 15:37
  And all of that below the ads with the Google business is really what SEO is all involved with. So, so SEO- Right, in a nutshell... SEO, executing an SEO strategy will get you to those spots, those coveted spots. Yep.
• 15:50
  What exactly is SEO? It's search engine optimization. Correct. And give, give me another layer of, like, what makes good SEO. Yeah, so I think- At the basic level of what makes good SEO. Basic.
• 16:01
  [laughs] So super basic, I think there's a couple pillars, right? You have content, which is on your site. You have local SEO, which is a branch, right? This is all off the website.
• 16:11
  You're making your name, address, phone number, things like that, are accurate across the web. Then your third component I think would be your technical elements. This is your keywords.
• 16:20
  This is the stuff that's really hard to judge, but a good, trusted SEO partner is gonna be able to show you what they're doing there.
• 16:26
  And then the fourth component, which has really spouted in the last couple years, is gonna be the user's experience on the website, right?
• 16:33
  And if you're managing all four of those pillars to a degree, you're going to see success. You're going to see advancements within your strategy. Gotcha. So if I'm, I'm, I'm in St. Louis and I, and I, you know, Google
• 16:47
  used Hondas near me, and- Yep... you have done a great job with your SEO, the paid ads are gonna show up, but everyone knows they're paid ads.
• 16:53
  And the, and the top organic results, you're gonna pop up 'cause you've done a good job with those things that you've just explained. Yeah, that's the goal, Paul. I mean, I think- Okay, good.
• 17:01
  I just wanted to, I just- Yeah... wanted to get our benchmark down. Now you can get nerdy. Yeah, man. Now you can get as nerdy as you want. [laughs] No, no, I think, I think you summed it up, man.
• 17:07
  I think that that's, you know, I think right now where most dealerships are is they're doing a decent job with the search you just mentioned, but new, right? [laughs] Uh, new Honda Accord for sale- Right... St. Louis.
• 17:22
  But what about the other aspects of your dealership? Honda tires, used Honda Accord. Those are the kind of things where we're seeing big opportunities, too.
• 17:29
  Those things are dominated by third-party sites, independents, and I'm a big believer, I could hop on a soapbox all day about, you know, investing more and bringing people to yourself where you know you're more likely to close those leads and deals than investing in other people to drive your traffic for you, right?
• 17:44
  And I could talk about it all day, but that's a... We won't go down that rabbit hole- [laughs]... in this 20 minutes. I got- It's okay. But, uh- Well, real quick, Ethan- That's the fun part, man...
• 17:51
  I, and I think this is where, because a lot of owners, operators, general managers, sales managers are, uh, or even service managers kind of go, like, they just go, "You know, someone's doing my SEM and my SEO," right?
• 18:06
  Yep. And they're like, they get- One broad swath, right... two SEs together. And it's like, "Yep, yep. Okay, so I'm paying someone to do that," right?
• 18:13
  Yep.There's a massive distinction in how those two operate, both- 100%... like how they're executed and how they operate in time. Um, I think that- Absolutely...
• 18:26
  w- one of the things that's really interesting to me, and that you probably see a lot, i- and you're saying, like, "SEO is our leader," is it's hard to communicate the, like, on/off switch of SEO,
• 18:41
  uh, unlike paid ads, right? Correct. Like, paid ads can drive traffic, boom, right? Absolutely. You can pay for a whole bunch of traffic. Yep. But SEO, similar to brand, is much more a long game. And what's- 100%...
• 18:55
  and what I know about it, it is, and, and you can kind of talk through this, is that the build to SEO, similar to brand, right?
• 19:04
  They a- they almost actually, interestingly enough, SEO and brand actually live in the same stream pretty closely. Sure, sure.
• 19:10
  But, right, the build is a lot longer build than even the da- uh, than even the drop-off, right? So the build- 100%. Yeah...
• 19:19
  of, like, how long we're doing this and the growth strategy actually takes a lot longer than what, when you stop it, the pain hits, right? Yes. Yeah, nailed it.
• 19:29
  Um, so maybe talk about, like, what you've experienced in, you know, people kind of treating SEO like it's any other, you know, paid media or agency performance metric. Yeah, I, I think you nailed it.
• 19:44
  I mean, it, it does take... I, I equate it to the marathon of digital marketing, right?
• 19:48
  Like, you gotta train a little bit harder, you gotta train a little bit longer, but the results are gonna last a little bit longer, right? As opposed to just some of the sprints that are out there.
• 19:57
  Um, you know, SEO should take four, five, six months. And then, you know, we recently dug back into some numbers and looked at pages we built for a dealer in 2017. You know, it was actually a Honda store.
• 20:08
  2017 Accord, 2017, uh, RAV, or excuse me, CR-V. And those content pages are still getting traffic today because of the way that people are searching, and they're looking for those specific vehicles.
• 20:20
  So, like, they're getting pa- you know, residual traffic years down the line, right? Um- Wow...
• 20:25
  so we definitely, we can show it in the data where people are still going to these pages because that's what they're looking for. They've done their search.
• 20:31
  They've done their, uh, bit to understand that, no, I really want the 2017 model because that has a feature that maybe 2016 didn't have, right? And it's in the price point that I can get that 2018 isn't.
• 20:43
  So the long game is huge.
• 20:45
  And then when you talk about cutting it off, we're seeing a lot of folks right now coming to us, um, that did decide to cut things off in 2020 or even late last year whenever they said, "Oh, I don't have that model anymore, and I don't need SEO 'cause I'm gonna get it anyway."
• 21:02
  Wow. But now what's happening is models are ramping back up, and their sights have dipped below the competition, and they're, they're like, "Well, how'd that happen?"
• 21:10
  It's like, well, those guys never turned off the faucet, and, and you did, right?
• 21:13
  So they, Google started to say, "Okay, awesome, you know, this is the most authoritative dealer in town now, and now I'm gonna reward them for, for being on that and being maintaining it."
• 21:23
  And so I think that's gonna continue to happen.
• 21:25
  And, you know, I, you could continue that even further by talking about, you know, Google Business Profile made, I don't know, 20 to 30 documented updates last year alone, right? Like- Nice...
• 21:36
  and we're seeing people that turned that off, now they're wondering, "Well, I don't understand why my service page has no photos and no listings and no categories."
• 21:45
  And it's like, well, I do, 'cause when they rolled that out, you weren't doing SEO. Bang, problem solved. Um, we can get this- [laughs] You know? And it, that's kind of how it goes, right? Problem solved. Done.
• 21:54
  It's, you can't, you can't- Don't say, I'm not gonna say I told you so... you know, you can't say that- But, uh... you know, we know that Google's gonna keep changing, guys. I mean, that's not a secret to anybody, right?
• 22:03
  So it's, if you're not really to invest in that long game, then, you know, and build up your own website, then, then what could be more important than that, right? And that's kind of how I feel about it, obviously.
• 22:13
  Man, it sounds so much to me, like as you're talking about it and explaining it a little more, it seems so much to me like the way relationships work, right? Sure.
• 22:22
  It takes a while to build trust, and you can lose it much faster than you can build it.
• 22:28
  And even, even in the terms of, like, dipping, you know, in rankings, if you, just like that relationship that doesn't get cultivated, like there's not, there's not, you know, like, constant contact or, like, at least a check-in every once in a while.
• 22:41
  You just start to migrate toward the people in your life that are checking in and are there. Yep. So I'm just like, as you're talking about it, I'm like, this is just like relationship.
• 22:48
  Which is a lot different than, like- Right there... paid ad or hiring somebody to come in and do something.
• 22:53
  You're like, "Okay, I hire you, you come in, and you do the work, and then you leave, and I don't think about you anymore." Relationship's all together different. So SEO is, like, kind of the mature marketing game.
• 23:01
  It's the long game. Yeah, it is, it is. It's, but that you can have a lot of fun with it, and you can, you know...
• 23:07
  We're, we're doing some cool things that are helping with conquest and trade-in, and, like, if you're willing to give it that long time to nurture, like you said, it's amazing what dividends it can build that instead of having to just kind of pull- When you say-...
• 23:20
  pull things out... when you say long time, right, I think that people are like, "What does long time mean?" Yeah. Yeah. Like, how, like, man, this one time I tried something for 90 days. Yeah. Felt like forever.
• 23:29
  [laughs] Canceled. Canceled, right? Yeah. [laughs] No, but, but for real, like, how, how much time do you think you need to, to get a, a noticeable bump in your, you know, results because you've been doing SEO well?
• 23:43
  What would you say is a reasonable time? Four months. Four months is kind of our benchmark. Four. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. It's, it's just not too terribly long, right? No, it's not.
• 23:49
  Um, yeah, I mean, four, and then if you're really talking about getting into, like, without a doubt differences, mostly, you, you know, I think that six months window is, is very adequate.
• 24:02
  That's, four months we always say, you know, we, we've implemented strategy at that point- Yeah... at, by the end of that fourth month, and you should start to see that steady growth.
• 24:10
  But l- usually if we're looking at data internally, it's, it's usually on that four to six month window, and we're saying, "Okay, this is somebody now that should be seeing those results."
• 24:19
  And if they're not-Let's figure out why, why that is. And, and now we've gotta tweak our own game plan, right? And come back to, to what really we need to do here.
• 24:28
  So, I mean, realistically, if someone's listening to this podcast when we launch it or, or within- Yep... you know, a certain, 30 days of us launching it- Sure...
• 24:35
  if you start to implement or at least take a step toward doing, you know, uh, executing better SEO, um, literally by the end of the year, by Christmas season, right, you should see noticeable differences in your organic traffic.
• 24:47
  Noticeable differences. Um, and I don't know if you've heard, but people are saying, like, things might get financially rough in this country. I've heard a thing or two about that.
• 24:56
  [laughs] I think I've read that somewhere. Yeah. I think I was just passing- Every once or twice... YouTube Kids or somewhere, something like that. Um. Something like that, right?
• 25:03
  [laughs] Instagram story about that somewhere. Yeah, somewhere. [laughs] I don't know. I wasn't really paying attention. But the reality is, you know, you...
• 25:08
  I'm also hearing, and Kyle, you, you're hearing and saying a lot in automotive, like, the time to get things in order. Like, things are really good right now.
• 25:15
  And so if you've been thinking about, you know, making improvements, SEO seems to me like an area where you can make some measurable improvements by the end of this year.
• 25:23
  Which, right, might help you reduce your overall ad spend. So when the budget does get tight- Yep... right, you might have to cut back. But cutting back doesn't mean, like, you know, trashing your traffic. Correct. Yeah.
• 25:34
  Yep. No, I think you nailed it. It's, uh, it's gonna be interesting to see, you know what I mean? It's, we, we've lived in a very interesting time these last couple years. That's an understatement. Let's face it.
• 25:45
  I mean, despite, I mean, I was on the very first Automotive State of the Union where we, we really had no clue what was gonna happen, right? Right. I'm thinking this was, like, April, May 2020.
• 25:54
  Is that timeline close on that? It was Mar- It was right after NADA- March 2020... March 2020. And, I mean- Early April. Yeah... and, and for the most part, dealerships have done pretty well since then, right?
• 26:04
  I mean, you're gonna have- Right... your exceptions. But you look at the last year and, I mean, for most- Sure. W- I, I know several clients who have record years, record sales. Oh, yeah.
• 26:12
  And they didn't even have inventory to sell, right? And so it's amazing. And so I think y- you always, it's always better to, you know, be ready for those things when you don't have to be ready today, right?
• 26:23
  It's better to be prepared.
• 26:24
  So, um, you know, I think just like with anything else, if, if people are investing now and, and starting to look at those things and understand, what does need to change, what does need to shift, or, or what opportunities do I have, right?
• 26:37
  I mean, there's a whole host of ways you can look for not a lot of money or no cost even, to just understand, okay, this is where I see opportunity and this is where opportunity lies.
• 26:46
  And for your point, when things maybe do change economically, um, you know, you're not the last one to the table trying to figure it out. For real.
• 26:55
  Hey, what's the best on-ramp for people to get ahold of you or kind of, like, find out more about Reunion? Sure. I mean, I'm always available, um, for the most part. My email is just chad@reunionmarketing.com.
• 27:08
  My cell phone is 919-602-0438. Our website just is reunionmarketing.com. We are easy to find. We're all on LinkedIn, Dave, Dane, all of us. Um, and we love having these conversations. So, you know- There we go...
• 27:21
  even if we don't, somebody doesn't wanna, you know, "Hey, I'm not ready to pull the trigger today, but I'd like to pick your brain," cool, man. Let's have that conversation.
• 27:28
  'Cause that's where things like this and good ideas get shared, and that's really what it's all about, right? As I know you guys are big proponents of as well. Absolutely. Here's to that collaboration. Let's go.
• 27:39
  [laughs] Amen. Chad- I love it... Chad, thanks so much for spending some time with us today. Yeah. I'm looking forward to spending some time- Thank you, guys... with the Reunion team at the karaoke event at ASOTU CON.
• 27:48
  [laughs] I love it. Thank you, guys. This was a great time. Appreciate it. Looking forward to seeing you guys in Philly. [upbeat music] VDP, SRP, SEO, SEM. [laughs] See, this is like a, this is like a solid rap, right?
• 28:05
  [laughs] It's called, it's called the I Don't Really Know What Three Letter Word You're Talking About Rap. And so I think a lot of people are very, very confused about what SEO is.
• 28:16
  And I think that, that Chad was hopefully able to assuage some of those fears and, and just the approach that it takes and t- and the time that it takes to put in.
• 28:25
  And I think as an industry, one, we've gotta do a better job at explaining all these three letter acronyms across the board.
• 28:32
  But two, I think we, we need to do a better job at segmenting and understanding where, like, marketing channels and marketing lanes and how they work together and work in and amongst each other.
• 28:43
  And so I really think that Chad is, uh, you know, Chad and Reunion are, are trying to solve that for dealers. And I appreciate that.
• 28:51
  Like, for a marketing agency to say that they lead with SEO is a, that's a bold tactic in- For real... in, in this time. Yeah. Michael? Well, I was gonna say- [laughs]...
• 29:03
  y- you know, it, it's, it is bold because everything we know, like, we've, w- we're in a space where there's SE- there's lead zombies, right? Like- Mm...
• 29:12
  we, we exist in, in troubling waters, uh, walking dead lead zombie kind of, where if it can't attribute immediately in a one-to-one fashion to a lead, you're really putting yourself on the chopping block quick.
• 29:25
  And of course, we know that SEO, while worthwhile, is not an overnight, um, thing. But I, y- y- Guys, look, you know me. I try and relate everything back to just regular day-to-day life. Track and field. Track and field.
• 29:40
  Yeah. [laughs] Like, SEO is like having, having an acreage and never wanting to mow the lawn, but then complaining that the lawn is never mowed and never cultivated.
• 29:50
  So here we have these properties that we've, over the last, what, 25, 30 years, have invested a tremendous amount into d- like, ads to drive traffic and, you know, the news spots and the radio remotes.
• 30:03
  And we want traffic, traffic, traffic. And we built this property, and then we're never willing to cultivate it. Mm.
• 30:09
  We're never willing to make it a pleasing space for all of that traffic, all of those people to come to, and then of course we get mad when it doesn't one-to-one attribute to a lead.
• 30:18
  So I thought he did a great job at dispelling myths around that. The last thing I would add to that is it reminds me of some interviews that I've done with Rand Fishkin, who's the founder of a company called Moz.
• 30:28
  Like, world renowned SEO, like, you know, Greg Gifford goes to Moz Con and speaks and does, like, a lot of stuff like that.
• 30:35
  And, and Rand was really expressing that because it's not immediate, because it requires effort, but can sustain you for extended periods of time.
• 30:48
  Because it's not immediate, it's that thing that we're just, it's really hard for us to, to bite into. So I thought Chad did a great job at, you know, explaining that. For sure. I mean, SEO in general,
• 31:00
  we live in an environment where we want everything now, not just in the car business, but in everything.
• 31:05
  And you know, look, diet pills are something, but eating right and exercising, what actually makes you healthy long term. So I appreciate Reunion's approach to this.
• 31:13
  I, I think they're the best people to be at least beating the drum of consistency over time and why it matters.
• 31:20
  So on behalf of Michael Cirillo, Kyle Mounts here, we're gonna keep laughing and we'll see you next time on Auto Collapse.
• 31:26
  Sign up for our free and fun to read daily email for a free shot of relevant news in automotive, retail, media, and pop culture. You can get it now at asotu.com. That's A-S-O-T-U.com.
• 31:39
  If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.
• 31:48
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collapse. Welcome to Auto Collapse. [laughs] Why are we recording? Are we rolling yet? Not yet.