- HoneyHat

Why is email marketing useful for car dealerships?

Email marketing has a stunning ROI of $42 per dollar spent on email campaigns. If car dealerships don’t leverage email marketing, they could be losing out on potential profits.

Let’s look at the benefits that email marketing can offer to car dealerships.

Benefit # 1: Increase traffic to your website

Email newsletter campaigns can be a great way to drive traffic to your site. Email campaigns are a great way to get your audience to visit your website and check out the latest models, prices, and special offers.

You can increase your sales by increasing traffic to your site.

Benefit #2: Motivate Customers to Take Action

They don’t just walk into a dealership and buy the car. It is necessary to “persuade” them to act.

Email marketing campaigns can be used to encourage customers to act. The action can be as simple as visiting a car dealership to learn more about financing, leasing, and different packages for the model they want.

Email is an important tool that is sometimes overlooked by car dealers.

Benefit 3: Increase revenue through cross-selling

People are likely to purchase things that will improve or enhance their cars if they consider them to be expensive commodities. This is a great idea for car dealers.

You can boost your sales by promoting upgrades, selling insurance packages, or promoting newer models.

You can create different email templates with different goals, and use them in different situations.

Even if your results are not spectacular, you will still increase brand awareness and build a closer relationship with customers.

Top Communication Channel: Benefit #4

Email is the most effective way to communicate with customers, both new and old. It is also personal and cost-effective. Imagine the cost of having to call every customer or hiring salespeople to do this.

It’s also very convenient if you own auto dealerships at multiple locations to maintain one list of all your customers. You can then communicate with them via this channel.

Social media is also a good option, but not everyone is on it or uses a social platform.

What types of email campaigns can you send?

Email marketing for automotive companies involves a variety of campaigns. Some are automated (based upon user behavior), while others are based on goals. Let’s look at them more closely!

Welcome emails

Welcome email is a vital part of any marketing strategy, because it’s at this point that the customer will be fully engaged. They are designed to create a lasting impression on new subscribers and make them feel welcome.

Not all emails are about increasing sales. These campaigns can be sent automatically through your email platform. The campaigns are created once, and then triggered by a simple automated process every time someone signs up for your newsletter or popups.

Here’s an example of a Honda dealership:

Another one from Citroen UK

Both welcome emails thank subscribers for showing interest in the brand. then encourages them to return to the website and explore moree. Both campaigns are well-crafted, and the CTA button is clearly visible.

Promotional emails

The majority of emails from the automotive industry are promotional emails. When we think of dealership email marketing campaigns, we usually think of them. But they shouldn’t be the only ones.

Promotional campaigns can feature new models, reduced prices for regular inspections/services, invitations for test drives and special offers for after-sales items.

Here’s a typical example from a website for an Audi dealership.

It’s important to personalize these campaigns to ensure that the content resonates with the subscribers.

If, for example, someone visited your website to look at an Audi A4 sedan and then viewed your newsletter, you should only feature sedans.

Online Surveys

Online surveys can be extremely useful to any business, as they give vital information about what customers think. You may get suggestions on how to improve your business or what they didn’t like about their experience.

Online surveys are essential for car dealerships that want to maintain and build relationships with their customers.

You can use Typeform, SurveyMonkey to create your survey.

Online surveys are a great way to find out what your customers want before they buy and inform your salespeople how to improve their approach.

Service Email Reminder

Service reminders are another important type of email campaign to keep your brand in the forefront of people’s minds.

They show your customers that you are interested in them, without being perceived as promotional emails. You can target your subscribers with regular service intervals, oil changes and scheduled maintenance.

Some car buyers forget to service their vehicles. Some of them may be willing to book an appointment immediately by clicking the CTA in your campaign.

You should do all you can to simplify things. Most likely, a clear CTA will do the trick. It should also include an eye-catching image and copy that encourages action.

Here’s an example of a Nissan Dealer:

Tech Updates & Recalls

A recall can require that cars be returned to dealerships. You can also send an email to affected owners instead of calling them.

Brands like Tesla might also need to update their cars with new technology. Email is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach customers.

In 2017, Tesla released an over-the air update for cars in response to Hurricane Irma to accommodate customers that might need to travel long distances.

This is the email that people received.

5 Tips To Improve Your Email Marketing Strategy

We saw in the previous section what types of campaigns car dealers can use to target their audiences. Let’s look at some email marketing strategies to help you do email marketing at its best!

1. Collect email signups

To perform email marketing, you need people’s email addresses. To start building your email list, create a newsletter signup form and collect information about your customers.

You should encourage your subscribers to confirm their subscription and opt-in twice. You can keep your list cleaner by doing this. Your unsubscribe rate will also be lower, since the people on your list have consented to receiving email communications.

Facebook Ads can be used to collect email addresses from your customers and reach out to them.

2. Segment Your Email List

Email marketing involves delivering a personalized experience to your subscribers. To achieve this, you must segment your list based on data collected through your signup forms and in person.

Your email campaigns are more targeted if you have more information about your subscribers in your CRM.

You can segment your email list based on the following:

Demographics (age gender and location)
Personal interests
Purchase history
Purchase intent
What kind of emails they expect to receive

Segment subscribers by new leads or returning customers .

3. Keep your list clean & up-to-date

There is always the possibility that customers or subscribers who are engaged in email marketing for auto dealerships have moved or changed their email address. These addresses may negatively impact your email delivery (due high bounce rates). You also run the risk that will hit a spam trap, if you don’t keep your list up to date.

The first thing that you should do is to keep an eye on all your bounced emails.

Next, we suggest that you set up an automated sequence to clean your list. Create a trigger to delete subscribers from your list, if they don’t engage with your emails in more than a certain period of time.

4. Craft Compelling Subject Lines

Email subject lines are the single most important factor in determining your open rate. You need a catchy subject line if you want to see your campaign.

You can include some car-related emojis, but avoid spamming. Or you can be a bit mysterious in what your email offers. You can hint at special offers, or discounts on services.

As a rule, however, you should always be clear about what the subscriber can expect from your campaign.

5. Optimize Campaigns For Mobile Devices

People are increasingly opening emails on their smartphones and tablets. Nearly half of emails are now opened on mobile devices. If your email campaigns do not have a mobile-responsive design, you may be losing out on leads.

If you don’t optimize your campaigns for mobile, subscribers may ignore them or worse still unsubscribe. The best email marketing services on the market allow you to preview your campaigns and see how they will appear on mobile devices.

You can test your email to make sure that your campaign will display correctly on all email platforms before you send it to your entire list of subscribers.

Takeaway

Email marketing is much more than just sending a promotional email. Car dealerships can engage their audience more effectively and make more sales if they use email marketing and automation.

The post E-mail Marketing for Car Dealerships: A Complete Guide (2023), appeared on Email Automation Platform for Thriving Business.

Author: John Desyllas

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