

What did you do last week? Well, we were at the DrivingSales Executive Summit for a few days of serious learning. While the event included lots of speakers, we had the privilege of sending The Beard (Greg Gifford) and The Hair (Shaun Raines) to Las Vegas to do a dual-panel presentation. We saw familiar faces there, like Jessie Hochhalter of Google and Brent Wees of NextUp, and even met a few new folks.
The event was packed with lots of knowledge about digital marketing and automotive sales, and it got pretty high-tech when Ben Anderson from AutoMotion talked about RFID technology and geofencing. We’ve enjoyed a long relationship with DrivingSales, so it was great to have DealerOn make an impression with such Greg and Shaun.
They took the stage by storm, of course, and did a series of questions answers (game show style!) over SEO and SEM. Shaun brought everyone up to speed with what’s happening in the Google AdWords world, and he even talked a little bit on using your digital ad spend wisely and the pros & cons of using SKAG (Single Keyword Ad Groups). Everyone was duly impressed.
Greg, never one to disappoint, peppered his SEO Q&A’s with a ton of tips & tricks on local SEO. While traditional SEO is still important, you’ve gotta have strong local SEO signals, or your dealership isn’t going to be relevant in local searches. He’s talked about this before, of course.
He also made sure everyone was up to date on the recent Penguin and Possum updates that Google threw at the world only weeks ago. If you want to brush up on some of that, watch this clever little video.
Arguably, one of the main events of DSES was, without a doubt, the “Joe and Shaun Karaokethon” hosted by DealerOn! It happened on Monday night, Oct. 24, at Dino’s in Las Vegas. Joe Webb of DealerKnows and Shaun Raines have been serenading the auto industry with their singing skills for the past several years. But recently, DealerOn has gotten in on the action by sponsoring this night of fun, and this year’s Karaokethon was no disappointment.
Joe and Shaun rocked faces off and those brave enough took the mic and tried their hand at matching the likes of Joan Jett and Freddie Mercury. Seriously, we can’t wait to do this again.
If anyone else has some DSES stories they’d like to share, then let us know. And if you think Joe or Shaun got the lyrics wrong to your favorite song, well, maybe they’ll do better next time.
To watch the slides from Shaun & Greg’s presentation at DSES, click here.