The Insanity of Cycle Trader

Someone explain the value of CycleTrader? As a motorcycle dealer
why spend money towards this site. Are there buyers? If so,
what kind of buyers are they? Buyers looking for "rock-bottom" pricing.
What seems so puzzling is why would a dealership want to position
themselves in this environment. All the ads look the same, the pictures
almost identical. The point is... once you're in CycleTrader
the only way to stand out is through the lowest price.
Why brand yourself as the "discount dealer". There are hundreds
of dealers who sell the same products as you. It's your dealership
that you need to make different not the products you sell.

Mission Motorsports Utilizes Online Registration To Capture Customer

The world famous Mission Motorsports in Irvine, CA enlisted the help of DGAdvertising to help them capture more customers and create greater interest in their Annual Parking Lot Sale. Web banners were placed on motorsports websites, directing to the Parking Lot Sale registration page. Over 1200 emails were captured, sales of parts, accessories and vehicles increased 30% for the event.

This unique and dynamic program was a huge success for Mission Motorsports. Go to dgadvertising.com for more example of creative

Motorcycle Dealers Opt-in for Mailbox2Inbox

Motorcycle dealers throughout the county are using Mailbox2Inbox to convert their customers mailing addresses in to email address.

Mailbox2Inbox Email Conversion uses the dealers customers' names and postal addresses to add accurate, deliverable email addresses to their customer database in four easy steps:

- Input file of customer postal address
- Match file to email database
- Send permission emails to customers
- Add converted approved email address to customer file.

The dealer only pays for the number of email addresses that we deliver from the permission email. On average, and depending on the quality of your database,
we should be able to provide between 20% and 35% viable customer email addresses.

Find out more by calling Mailbox2Inbox 949.497.3889

Motorcycle Dealer Builds A Brand Beyond Commodity Pricing

Commodity pricing entered the Northern California motorcycle market with a vengeance. Motorsports dealers fearful of losing sales to the discount dealers followed by promoting heavy discounts on everything from motorcycles, ATVs, scooter to watercraft. GP Sports, with stores in San Jose and Santa Clara, took a different approach. Instead of advertising discount prices, GP Sports promoted their dedication to sales and service. This ad... THE LINE BETWEEN GREAT DEALS AND GREAT SERVICE HAS BEEN BLURRED reached out to the customer who was looking for more than a just cheap prices. The results from this advertising saw a sales increase of 25% for the year.

GP Sports - Your Next 4,285 Miles Are on Us

When gas was over $4.00 per gallon, GP Sports, with dealerships in San Jose and Santa Clara, offered each customer $200 in gas when they purchased a Yamaha Zuma. At over 88 miles per gallon the Yamaha Zuma would get over 4,285 miles before their customer would need to spend their own money for gas.

The brilliance in this campaign was the advertising medium -- Transit Buses. Throughout the Silicon Valley buses displayed the GP Sports banners, reaching commuters with a powerful and thought proving message -- I could save a lot of money buying a scooter! Now that gas is reaching the $3.00 mark, maybe it's not a bad time to think about creative ways to sell scooters.

Wilson's Motorsports - Record Setting Sales

Motorcycle Dealers Converting Mailing Address to Email Address

Like most Motorsports Dealers, you don’t have your customers’ email addresses; you might have 10-15,000+ customer mailing addresses in house with NO or VERY LITTLE email addresses.

Mailbox 2 Inbox is the process of taking your customers physical mailing address and “converting” that address to their current email address.

On average, we are able to provide between 20% and 35% viable eMails from your address list, with the average results about 25%.

The best thing... You only pay for customers who want to be on your list. There’s no charge for invalid eMail addresses, or for customers who have asked to be omitted.

We have your customers email addresses, and we can provide them to you, so you can start shooting emails to them and start generating sales and service revenue. Your customers prefer to communicate via email, and it’s a proven fact that it’s easier to sell to an existing customer than to acquire a new one.

I think we agree this could be a very powerful tool to drive sales and traffic to the store.

So Fast It Flies

What a cool ad. This is motorsports dealer advertising at it's best. Killer headline, incredible images and solid tie-in. In a time when watercraft sales dropped dramatically, Mission Motorsports came up with killer creative to drive home the jaw-dropping speed of the Sea-Doo RXP-X. A 255 hp monster of a watercraft. Once again, a case-study example of taking the dealership to new level and building a solid brand for the dealer with one of the greatest products to hit the water. Mission Motorsports totally gets it.

Do Customers Buy Motorcycles From Ads?

Rarely do consumers buy directly from an ad... if there is a deep incentive or strong call to action customers might be inclined to purchase. But a branding ad usually doesn’t incent a customer to purchase. That’s not the case when this KTM ad for North County Yamaha ran in the San Diego Cycle Trader. This ad sold four KTMs. A customer came into the store and recognized Jim Hurkman from the ad and told Jim he appreciates the “owner’s” involvement in the business. After Jim sold him two KTMs, the customer told his friend about North County Yamaha and his friend bought two. Do ads really sell bikes...?

Building a Brand for the Motorcycle Dealer

Is price the only buying consideration for the customer?

Motorcycles stir a sense of passion in an individual. Does the customer have the same emotion towards his dealer? Certainly, just like the brand he rides, he wants to attach to a dealer who understands his passion.

This ad doesn't talk about prices, great deals or discounts. In a very powerful way, Mission Motorsports is telling the buyer... we're not like other dealers. One of Southern California's most prestigious multi-line dealers, and the owner still works on bikes. It's all about building a brand!

After all, we're not selling Kia Spectra's or Ford Focus' but GSXRs, CRFs, KFXs, Softtails, and YZs.

Motorcycles -- Sold As Commodity Products

Let's face it motorcycles, scooters, ATVs and watercraft are sold as commodity products. Commodity products being defined as largely undifferentiated that offer little or no perceived differences between competitive offerings. As an example, pick up the this weeks Cycle Trader and you'll see ads from dealers selling vehicles for $100, $200, $300 less than any dealers advertised price. How does a dealer build a stronger brand if his brand is built on "pricecutting" or "discounts"... discount his prices even more?