Even though it’s one of the oldest online marketing processes, email marketing is still the most effective way for your dealership to reach customers.
Your marketing team should focus on several aspects of online marketing, but your emails can make the biggest difference in your efforts. Email is still one of the most cost-effective and results-driven tools you’ve got. That said, the right email will grab the attention of your potential customers, while the wrong email will end up in the spam folder. Let’s explore ten ways you can improve this type of marketing.
1. Your Email List is the Heart of Your Efforts
Marketing to a large audience can be difficult. You’ll want to ensure your email list is updated and void of inactive subscribers. It’s important to do this so that you’re not sending emails for several years to customers who have moved away, won’t visit your location, or have stopped using the email address you have on your list. Use a tool to find out if you’re on the block list and if so, remove that email from your master list.
2. Ensure Your Email List has Special Data
Your master email list is only one aspect to who you’ll send communication as part of your email marketing strategy. This list should be filtered and broken down based on other parameters, including vehicle preferences. When you filter the larger list down to smaller chunks, you’ll reach subsets of your audience with direct marketing messages based on their desires. If you’ve got a family with three kids, you won’t send them emails about high-priced sports cars.
3. Ensure Your Emails are Mobile Responsive
In the current era, it’s more important than ever that all of your digital communication with your customer base is visible on mobile devices. This is called being mobile responsive. If your emails only look right on desktop or laptop computer screens, you’ll be missing out on a large portion of your audience that’s using digital mobile devices. It’s not difficult to have mobile responsive emails that your customers can easily view on every device they carry around. This is one way to ensure your email reach more potential customers.
4. Create Triggered Emails that Go Out Based on Customers’ Actions
When the recipient of your email marketing takes specific actions, you should have an email that’s ready to go to them. This could be as simple as clicking specific links on your website, adding information to your email list, or using an online coupon for regular vehicle maintenance. These triggered emails are a great way to ensure your dealership stays in the front of the mind of these customers. Figure out what actions customers need to take for your emails to go out to them.
5. Make Your Message Personal
The message you send in your emails should be personal for both your dealership and your customer. You can name the salesperson that helped the customer or a salesperson that should help them, mention the actions they took while at your location, and show sales and services that might benefit your new customer. Personalization allows your shopper to know they aren’t simply receiving a form letter that’s sent to every person that enters your doors or visits your website.
6. Respond to 100% of the Email Inquiries Received
If you ignore a customer’s questions, you’re leaving a potential sale on the table. It’s important that all email requests and questions get answered. This might be the most important aspect of your email marketing. Responses that come from real people, not a bot, allow your customers to know that your team is engaged in the car selling process and is interested in them coming to the dealership to buy a vehicle. The only acceptable response rate is 100% for email inquiries.
7. Keep Your Current Customers in the Loop
One subset of your main email list is a list of current customers. You don’t need to send them every sales event, but keeping them in the look with a regular newsletter or service offer can make a huge difference. The “Thank You” email you send once a car is sold shouldn’t be the last time you communicate with your current customer base. You want these shoppers to come back to you the next time they need a vehicle or when it’s time for their car to be serviced.
8. Send a Newsletter in Email Form
Your newsletter doesn’t need to contain sales offers, but it can. Your newsletter could be a huge part of your email marketing campaign, but it needs to offer information about the dealership, upcoming community engagement events, and vehicle information. A small section at the bottom of the newsletter can be used for marketing and sales, but it should not be the main focus of this message. Sending a regular newsletter helps your dealership stay engaged with your customers without being pushy.
9. Include Call-to-Action in Your Promotional Emails
You won’t add a call-to-action in your newsletter emails, but you should in any message that’s related to marketing and sales. These call-to-action messages could be a question that needs to be answered or an invitation to visit your website or dealership to make a purchase. If it’s time for a vehicle service, you can have a specific email list that goes out to those customers that could have hit the mileage marker that requires regular maintenance.
10. Test Different Formats and See What Works
There isn’t a standardized fit for your email marketing to be impactful and effective. Some customers might respond to your standard emails, others like a more direct approach, and some might put you in their spam folder. It’s important to test different ways for your emails to function and how they will work to reach your audience. Use various subject lines, calls-to-action, content, and preview text. Position the marketing aspect in various locations to see what works best for your messages.
Will you put some of these email marketing tips to work for your dealership? If so, you’ll find out just how effective this form of online marketing can be.
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