Guest Blog

By Ezequiel Arredondo Have you noticed in the last year how we seem to use our phones and other digital devices much more frequently? Last year’s surge in digital usage has resulted in our digital interactions becoming more fragmented and sporadic. But did you know that many of these seemingly meaningless interactions are opportunities to connect with motivated buyers? These ...

By Myril Shaw As a provider of F&I and Compliance excellence, we are always looking to make the best better. As part of that quest for continual improvement, we get excited when we find dealers who are hungry for growth. We find them most often in 20 Groups. Full disclosure here before we go any further. We do not facilitate 20 Groups.  ...

By Ezequiel Arredondo We’ve said it before, and we’ll gladly say it again: Shoppers contact your dealership to shop for boat models, but they stay for the customer service. As the buying process becomes increasingly digital, how does this impact dealers’ approach to serving their customers? It turns out consumers have an increased expectation for boat dealers to provide digital ...

By Ezequiel Arredondo The term “emotional marketing” does not do justice to the persuasive power that this marketing tactic grants your dealership. While it may sound very heartfelt—and it certainly can be, if that’s your goal—emotional marketing pertains to any type of persuasive messaging that’s used to tap into people’s emotions and form a connection. Over the years, studies have ...

By Mark Overbye You’ve no doubt heard the saying, “Be authentic.” If you’re like most people, you contemplate it for a moment, shrug your shoulders and move on. But what is authenticity and how do you achieve it and why should we care about it? My wife likes help with certain cleaning rituals on weekends. The work goes faster while I listen to ...

By Myril Shaw Well, here we are, the heart of the so-called “slow season.”  Thanksgiving, and Black Friday, have now come and gone. Now that the craziness of this year has calmed a bit, it is time to evaluate and make decisions about how to be better. This is the season for change – change to make you better. Change to ...

By Ezequiel Arredondo In the past, digital marketing has been viewed as an optional investment for dealers—a means to pull in extra sales leads to supplement the number of customers who are browsing on the dealership’s lot—but now that the internet has become the central source for researching boats, parts and marine services, digital marketing is a must. Dealer Spike ...

By Bill Yeargin Despite many of us having an inclination toward hindsight bias, which is believing we saw things coming when we actually didn’t, I haven’t spoken to one person who claims to have predicted the events of 2020. We have lived through a pandemic, social unrest, an economy that is struggling and a crazy election; as I have often ...

Dr. Elliot Eisenberg is an internationally acclaimed economist who was the keynote speaker at the first ELEVATE SUMMIT conference last year in Orlando, and will again reprise that role at ELEVATE SUMMIT 2020 happening online Tuesday, November 17. He will address key economic issues, including the 2020 presidential election, boating demographics and buying behaviors, GDP growth, interest rates, unemployment, inflation, ...

By Ezequiel Arredondo It may seem practical and cost-effective to reduce your digital marketing spend during the slow months when you don’t have inventory on your lot. However, Dealer Spike has seen this practice weaken sales leads for dealerships in the long run. Digital marketing yields the best results for your business when efforts are constant, rather than stop-and-go. By ...