Five Expert Insights on Content and Mobile in 2013 and Beyond

For this month’s column, I interviewed Justin Cerone, founder and CEO of the newly formed Lincoln Digital Group (formerly: Business Writing Solutions). His previous work at Business Writing Solutions consisted of creating premium quality, custom content for automotive sales, service and parts locations.

While there, he served nationally recognized dealerships such as Braman Motorcars and the Rick Case Group. Justin also played an integral role in helping to achieve the first-ever known ADP DMS integration direct with a dealer smartphone application, as well as numerous other innovations and achievements in the field of automotive mobile marketing.

Below is a transcript of our conversation.

AJ: What's the key to producing high-quality finished content?

JC:

Quality is always unique to the provider. To us, quality means treating a dealer's content as if it were our own. There must be an inherent sense for what “quality” content is (and isn’t) — particularly in the mind of your target audience. And, you can’t overlook the style and clarity of your copy. As much as video will revolutionize the automotive industry, consumers will always have a need for clear, direct, and trustworthy written content. Thus, dealers will always have an opportunity to use appealing and compelling copywriting to sell throughout the foreseeable future.

AJ: How do you create unique content?

JC:

I’ve found this approach leads to the best results consistently:

1. Think about your unique value proposition and message to the customer.

Unique content must be authentic to the business. Capture the voice, tone, and other branding elements of your business. Your goal with content is for it to help your unique brand promises and advantages shine.

2. Put yourself in the targets’ shoes and get a feel for how your average customer may feel about your unique value proposition, and how you’ve expressed it.

Step back and ask what your target would think if they saw this. Identify what you anticipate the target will take notice of, and why. Then, focus on pain points, and resolve them with authority and trust.

AJ: You’ve had hands-on experience in various digital marketing roles, beginning with copywriting. What have you learned?

JC:

Short answer: The more you know...

This means, all aspects of digital: search, video, mobile, display, analytics, copywriting, design, the list goes on. Understanding how these elements work together creates value and/or synergy for a campaign or solution. When you can see the start-to-finish perspective on how to orchestrate and optimize various digital initiatives, you gain a competitive advantage. And, even more so, when these initiatives are executed by small and nimble expert groups.

Another key learning is, even in this day of mobile streaming video and other highly visual mediums, the written message is still very important. You need to be succinct. You need to be appealing. And, you need to be compelling. The need and desire for writing is not going anywhere. It needs to be executed effectively.

AJ: What are the most interesting and beneficial aspects of mobile for auto that you've been involved in?

JC:

Primary benefits are the personalization and convenience that can now be achieved using info on our mobile devices. I’ve recently seen it firsthand. I helped lead the first-known ADP DMS integration with a dealer smartphone app, the Braman Motorcars app, released this past Spring.

The relevance for a mobile customer who already has a business relationship with a DMS-integrated dealership is uniquely powerful in this new form of mobile interaction. And that’s what also makes it interesting: effective personalization and convenience is a game-changer for automotive mobile marketing.

AJ: How will mobile content and video consumption change the auto marketing landscape?

JC:

Consumers will choose media presences that provide the most useful info, realistic imagery, and valuable experience on their smartphones. Whoever can display their cars most engagingly on an iPhone or Galaxy is going to win.

The more automotive video becomes widely available on page one of mobile app and website search, the larger the search opportunity will be. Demand coupled with an above average experience is going to drive consumption of mobile video, and in turn, create even more demand. This means your mobile search strategy must be primed to capture the lion’s share of demand in this growing pie.

To contact Justin for more information you can email him at justin@lincolndigitalgroup.com.

AJ LeBlanc is the managing partner of Car-mercial.com and Carbuyersengine.com. Email aleblanc@dealermark.com for more information.