Let’s face it, the days of endless numbers of customers pouring through the showroom doors of our auto dealerships, giving everyone the ability to pick and choose “buyers,” are over. Whether this is the result of the current economic times or a shift in customer buying habits is irrelevant. Every dealer should be looking for new and innovative ways to drive quality leads back into their fixed and variable departments.
One of the best, and interestingly enough, often under-utilized sources is the dealers own customer database. With everyone slashing budgets and eliminating most of the traditional advertising from their portfolio, how do we get our message out to the customers in our database? ... Permission-based Email Marketing! Now here’s the tricky part. The average dealership's email capture rate is pretty low -- as low as 18%. As a provider of auto dealer CRM and permission-based e-marketing from Autobase, I’ve seen stores top 80% in this same metric. The challenge is building strong process and creating an environment that motivates front line employees to “get those emails”.
It is not enough to simply DEMAND that salespeople and service writers gather emails from their customers. The key is “carrots and sticks”. In order to maximize their efforts, make the WIN for the staff clear. Once the campaigns are set up, the e-newsletter is created, and you’re firing on all cylinders, get the staff involved and make sure they are completely informed. If a salesperson or service writer can visualize all of this targeted marketing going out to their existing and prospective customers, automatically, and the only work involved on their end is to simply enter an email address, your capture rates will skyrocket.
It’s always easier, and exponentially more productive to hand out carrots than flog with a big stick.
by Guy Super, District Sales Manager
One of the best, and interestingly enough, often under-utilized sources is the dealers own customer database. With everyone slashing budgets and eliminating most of the traditional advertising from their portfolio, how do we get our message out to the customers in our database? ... Permission-based Email Marketing! Now here’s the tricky part. The average dealership's email capture rate is pretty low -- as low as 18%. As a provider of auto dealer CRM and permission-based e-marketing from Autobase, I’ve seen stores top 80% in this same metric. The challenge is building strong process and creating an environment that motivates front line employees to “get those emails”.
It is not enough to simply DEMAND that salespeople and service writers gather emails from their customers. The key is “carrots and sticks”. In order to maximize their efforts, make the WIN for the staff clear. Once the campaigns are set up, the e-newsletter is created, and you’re firing on all cylinders, get the staff involved and make sure they are completely informed. If a salesperson or service writer can visualize all of this targeted marketing going out to their existing and prospective customers, automatically, and the only work involved on their end is to simply enter an email address, your capture rates will skyrocket.
It’s always easier, and exponentially more productive to hand out carrots than flog with a big stick.
by Guy Super, District Sales Manager
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