Nissan Just Declared May 6th National V6 Day. The Marketing Genius Behind It Is Worth Studying.
Nissan's CMO Allyson Witherspoon posted to LinkedIn this morning declaring May 6th National V6 Day. 5/6. V6. No media budget. No sweepstakes. No campaign. Just a brand that knew its product deeply enough to see the date for what it was — and a CMO confident enough to claim it. Here's what makes it genius and what every brand can take from it.
Same Industry, Totally Different Game: Why Car Import Marketing and Dealership Marketing Are Nothing Alike
Same industry, totally different game. The marketing tactics that fill a dealership's appointment book will fall completely flat for a car import business — and vice versa. Here's why the buyer, the message, the channels, and the content strategy are fundamentally different on each side of the automotive marketing divide.
Car Dealership Advertising Costs: A Complete Breakdown by Channel
The average U.S. car dealership spends over $543,000 a year on advertising — but most dealers couldn't tell you with confidence exactly where that money goes or whether each channel is earning its keep. This guide breaks down car dealership advertising costs channel by channel, from third-party listing sites and Google Ads to broadcast TV, radio, print, and the fast-growing CTV category, using real NADA data and industry benchmarks so you can compare your spend to what dealers are actually investing across every medium.
Why Real Estate Agents Build Personal Websites and Car Salespeople Don't: A Regulatory Tale of Two Sales Jobs
Every real estate agent seems to have their own website. No car salesperson does. It's not a matter of ambition, tech-savviness, or marketing sophistication — it's a matter of law. Real estate agents are federally classified as independent contractors who own their client relationships and keep their pipelines when they change brokerages. Car salespeople are legally defined as employees of licensed dealers, with licenses tied to specific stores and advertising compliance obligations that make independent marketing a liability rather than an asset. Here's why that structural difference matters for every business trying to figure out where personal branding actually works — and where company-level marketing is the only strategy that pays off.
What's a Realistic Marketing Budget for a Dealership Doing $2M a Year in Revenue?
The NADA average dealership spends over $500,000 on advertising. That number is built around franchise operations doing ten to fifty times your volume and has almost nothing to do with running a $2M dealership. This guide gives you the actual math: what a realistic budget looks like at your revenue tier, what each channel costs and produces, and how to evaluate whether your marketing spend is actually working.
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How to Rank Higher for “[Brand] Dealer Near Me”
When someone in Turnersville searches “[brand] dealer near me,” they’re not browsing — they’re buying. If your dealership isn’t in the top 3 map results, you’re losing high-intent traffic to competitors down the street. In this guide, Ritner Digital breaks down exactly how local dealerships can dominate Google’s map pack and turn search visibility into real showroom visits.
How Auto Dealerships Can Stop Losing Leads to CarGurus and Carvana
Your potential buyers are finding their next car on CarGurus and Carvana — not your website. That's not a traffic problem. It's a dependency problem. Here's the playbook for building a direct acquisition strategy that makes third-party platforms less necessary and puts your dealership back in control of the customer relationship.
What Is a Marketing SWOT Analysis? A Real-World Deep Dive for Auto Dealers
A marketing SWOT analysis shouldn’t live on a slide. This deep dive breaks down what SWOT is actually for—and shows a real-world auto dealer example that leads to better marketing decisions.
Why Dealerships Mention Nearby Towns in Their Blog Titles
Local SEO isn’t about defending your ZIP code anymore. It’s about competing where customers are actually searching. In this post, we break down Conquest SEO — the strategy dealerships use to show up in nearby markets, intercept high-intent traffic, and win deals their competitors never see.