22 October 2019
Email marketing, when done correctly, can be one of the most efficient and effective marketing channels for your dealership. You can reach loads of customers without having to shell out large amounts of money, and your ROI has the potential of going through the roof.
On the other hand, email marketing campaigns can sometimes return results that are rather frustrating, and it can take a long time, even years in some cases, to refine to perfection.
Seeing low open and click through rates (CTRs) month after month can push anyone to think that it simply isn’t worth doing email marketing. That can turn out to be a costly mistake.
We will tell you how you can get the most out of email marketing for auto dealerships.
1. Automate as Much as Possible
If you need to send out emails with new offers to your customers a month before the end of their lease, or when their vehicle is due for a service, it would be rather time-consuming to send every single person a dedicated email manually, even if it doesn’t have to be completely rewritten for each person.
Instead, you can automate the process to flag people in your CRM when their lease is nearly ending and add them automatically to a sequence.
That way, they will receive emails without any additional effort from your side. Even if you want to send follow ups to all potential buyers who have visited your car dealer website within a certain time span, utilizing automation and tools powered by AI, it can be done with minimal time and resources.
2. Segment Your Customers
Think about email marketing as just another way of speaking to customers, and it straightaway becomes quite obvious that it needs to be highly targeted and personalized.
It is pointless to send the same message to everybody who has ever interacted with your auto dealership. Basically, think about where each prospect is in the sales funnel, and communicate with them accordingly.
You should provide opportunities based on what the customer could actually want, be it an appointment for a service for someone who bought a new car recently, a revised price quote for a car for someone who is still researching, and so on.
The more specific the message and group, the more likely it is that the person will open and act on the email.
3. Keep Tabs on Everything
We cannot overstate the importance of tracking everything related to your email marketing campaigns. Your car dealer website can conduct market surveys to figure out the best times to send out these emails. Build your email campaigns around the most opened subject lines and email structures.
Track all the mails you send to determine what works best for you, and try to replicate it. Running A/B tests can help your auto dealership truly assess what really works best.
4. Use High Quality Content and Images
Whether you’re contacting new prospects or existing customers, the biggest mistake you can make is to send only sales-related emails. It becomes very boring and your target audience is more likely to simply delete such emails.
By providing interesting and useful content, people will actually want to read your emails, because they are gaining something from them rather than being sold something.
If your target audience begins to associate your dealership with classy, helpful content, they will be more likely to actually open the email and act on it.
5. Include Existing Clients
Although it’s tempting to focus all of your energy on potential customers, this strategy has a problem because you’re ignoring your most receptive audience: your existing clients. Even if the sale has been completed, it is important for all auto dealers to stay in touch with their existing clients. Send them emails after a certain amount of time so that these customers don’t forget your dealership and the relationship they share with you.
Staying in touch with existing customers keeps your dealership on the top of their minds and they may recommend you to their family and friends.
Also, previous customers can become repeat car buyers since they appreciate the relationship they have with you, and will prefer to return to your showroom.
For more information on auto email marketing methods, Contact Us.