Last month, I attended the Women in Automotive conference in Orlando, Florida, with a room full of strong, innovative women. One comment that stuck out to me was from one of the speakers, who claimed the automotive industry has a reputation problem that women have nothing to do with. At 9 Clouds, we’re trying to help our dealership clients reduce the stigma associated with auto sales with thoughtful, lead-focused inbound automotive marketing — but it is a huge stigma to overcome. If dealerships would put a concerted effort into hiring and integrating women on their staff, their reputations would improve much faster.

Automated email workflows are equal parts wonderful and terrifying. Wonderful, because they save you a ton of time writing emails. Terrifying, because they can break easily if they aren’t set up correctly. After all, a lot could go wrong with an email workflow, which is what we call any email sent automatically to a contact whenever they meet certain criteria. What happens when you spend hours drafting the content and setting the criteria only to discover, weeks later, that your workflow isn’t sending the right message to the right people? It’s every automotive marketer’s biggest fear. Fortunately, we’re here to…

I didn’t grow up thinking I was going to be a project manager, but I’ve actually being training for this career my whole life. My love of planning, organizing, and being punctual — which generally drives my loved ones crazy — means something totally different at the office. Today, I’m going to share with you my four most valuable project management hacks, which will make you a more efficient employee (and possibly a more annoying friend). 

Do you remember when trust falls were a craze? You’d turn your back to someone, cross your arms, and lean toward them. Maybe you’d shout to give them a heads-up — it depended on how much you actually trusted them to catch you. There’s an erosion of trust among people lately, and it’s not because we’ve stopped ambushing each other with our falling bodies.

For all the hang-ups and hassle, automotive co-op is super worth it. The chance to reimburse nearly all of your advertising costs with OEM funding? It’s like a radioactive spider bit your marketing budget. That said, it’s much more impressive and worthwhile when you can make jumping through all those co-op hoops look easy. Here’s how to use these auto marketing superpowers to do the most good.

Don’t touch the stove, please. Why? Because it’s hot. Why?  Because we just cooked dinner. Why? Because we’re hungry.  Why? Because we’re human. Why? . . . And that’s where the toddler stumped me. Any amount of time spent with kiddos involves a certain amount of questioning. Kids are inquisitive because they’re learning about the world around them. It’s cute, annoying, and challenging all at once. But I’m thinking we can actually take some advice from toddlers to improve our marketing.

The ideal Facebook ad budget should be based on three things: a percentage of your overall digital ad spend, your audience size, and the goal of your ad campaigns. The most common question about Facebook ads that we hear at 9 Clouds is: “How much should I spend on Facebook?” To help businesses find the ideal Facebook ad budget, we created the Facebook Rule of One based on our experience working with car dealers and automotive marketers. Here’s the quick version.

Text messaging has come a long way in the past decade. Remember when you paid per text? Back then, you were probably pretty stingy with your messages. These days, the messages app is probably one of your most used. Now Google is offering an extension through Google My Business, which allows customers to message your dealership directly.

We’ve been talking about cats a lot in the 9 Clouds office. It’s pretty unusual because, as we’ve pointed out before, we’re overwhelmingly a group of dog people. But we still welcomed a cat, Poppy the Domestic Short Hair, to the 9 Clouds family when our creative director John brought her home this month. “Cool story, Jenny, but what’s this have to do with marketing?”

When we look back on the summer of 2017, what are we going to remember? As a new homeowner, I’ll always look back fondly on July 2017. I hosted my first bonfire in my very own yard. (The yard I pulled weeds from in the scorching South Dakota sun. Ah, memories.) While we each have personal experiences shaping our summers — days at the lake, road trips with friends or family, fireworks on the 4th of July — there are also some shared experiences that will stand out. Here are the nine most interesting news stories from July 2017, including some memorable…

As I walked through the door to join the 9 Clouds marketing team on my first day as a new creative content strategist, I couldn’t help but feel every emoji on the planet. The excited, nervous, laughing, and stressed faces were just a few of the emojis that ran through my body that day. While it’s only been one week for me here at 9 Clouds, it’s already evident that I’ll likely experience each and every emoji while working in the ever-changing world that is digital marketing.

Raise your hand if you’re scared of change.  Raise your other hand if you listen to directions in blog posts. Raise the roof, winner!  Immature trolling for the day: ✅ Now, for those of you who didn’t give up on me, here’s what we’re really focused on today: the changes happening in Google AdWords.