How To Make Local Blogger Outreach Part of Your Retail Marketing

Getting bloggers to talk about your product is a tricky thing. Getting social media influencers to talk about your product multiple times is even harder – especially if you're a regional or local brand, rather than a big national brand. The Suburban Collection of car dealerships made it part of their retail marketing in the Metro Detroit area and did it well. And here's how.

Each weekend, they give a car from one of their dealerships to a local blogger and social media influencer as part of their social test drive program. In return, they ask that when you tweet, facebook, foursquare or whatever, you use the hashtag they created for the program: #SocialTestDrive. They don't put any restrictions on what you write or blog about, which is the only way to do it right. They let their product and service speak for itself and trust that it will result in a good experience for the recipient of the vehicle.

The Suburban Collection has only been doing this for about four weeks now, but they are already seeing good results. After their first week, they sold a couple vehicles as a direct result of the program. One of the guys who bought after following the first week's social test drive online said he came in because the experience he witnessed through the social channels seemed to be a good one. He had had a bad experience at Suburban in the past, but after reading the posts, he decided to give them another try. This time, he had a real good experience. The vehicle he bought wasn't even the one that was being test driven that weekend. But, the experience he'd followed through social media seemed good enough to give Suburban another shot.

"Our goal is to just be a part of the conversation," says Zac Holmes, Online Marketing Coordinator at Suburban. "People hang out online, live there, interact there – that's where you'll find them. We wanted to reach out to them in the space they're already occupying and connect them to our brand."

One of the smart things Suburban is doing is the way they recruit the people to participate in their program. They do it by having the person who just finished the program choose the next one, giving them the additional perk of sharing the experience with their friends. Plus, they get a list of influencers already vetted for them. Who else would know the local blogger/social media influencer landscape better than those who are a part of it.

"People are a lot more likely to believe a review if you hear it from someone you know or follow, rather than from the brand itself," said Holmes. "It's more realistic when it's coming from them. We also wanted to put people in vehicles they might not try otherwise. This makes driving part of the buying experience – whether it's actually driving the vehicle or driving it vicariously through following along with the driver online."

I have first hand experience in how the process works, since I participated in their social test drive program last weekend, driving a hybrid Honda Insight from Suburban Honda. I had followed the previous weekend's driver, fellow social media and ad guy, Bryan Willmert, on his social test drive (mostly through Instagram) and had enjoyed his story. Then, to my surprise the following week I got a tweet from both Zac and the Suburban Collection asking if I'd like to participate. Obviously, I said yes. And it was a pretty good experience.

They gave me a choice of several different brands. Once I chose Honda, they asked what I was driving and suggested four different models that I might like to test drive. I was interested in checking out their hybrid, the Honda Insight. When I showed up, they walked me through the vehicle and how to work all the options. They shot a video of me with the car and sent me on my way.

It was interesting to see the interaction I got. On my first day (last Friday), I had to go downtown Detroit for a lunch meeting. I tweeted out where I was going and the car I was in. I immediately got feedback via twitter. One person I know tweeted me that they were a half mile away from my meeting, could I stop by while there. I swung by and let him take the Insight for a tool around the city. Once that was done another tweeted for "nexties" and another wanted to see it and we hooked up the following day at the auto show. So, the most immediate feedback came via twitter – including from people outside of my own followers, people who were following the hashtag, either promoted by Suburban or via previous test drivers.

Longer discussions, with more in depth questions, came on the Facebook messages/pictures I posted. And for shear volume, my Instagram posts seemed to get the most reactions – including again, from people I had no idea who they were. They were just fans of the car or the brand.

Talking with Holmes, who works with four of the Suburban Collection dealerships in the Detroit area (Honda, Acura, Ford and Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge/Ram), his group has enthusiastically embraced the program and plans to continue it with one or two social test drivers each week. Judging from my experience and the reaction to it, I'd say they're on to something. It's a good way to connect with your local community in a very real way and really boost your share of conversation online. So, think about it. How can you accomplish the same for your local brand/client?

The big payoff: Just to show you that your social ROI isn't always evident right away. You can read my follow up blog post a little over a year later I came back to this dealership and bought a Honda Insight – a car that was never on my radar before this. I'm sure this program sold more than this one car. But I can say without a doubt it was responsible for my next car purchase!

Mike McClure, Social Driver