If you don’t have an email list for your auto business, you’re missing out on a valuable and effective tool.
Surveys have proven that email lists are the most effective way to market your shop or dealership. The auto-industry is still a booming business in all aspects. Here are five reasons you should invest in this quality marketing strategy.
- It’s inexpensive. Newsletters and online coupons can cost you anywhere up to 75% less in many cases than print marketing. Or, you can keep your budget the same and make it stretch that much further.
- It’s effective. You can proactively communicate with prospects and current customers without waiting for them to remember your business. Did you know you can segment your list based on location, demographic, income level, previous purchases, etc.? It’s as easy as setting up a sign in form wherever you need them. You can even segment based on the make and model of their current vehicle, which could make contacting them for model and make deals even easier.
- Immediacy. It takes 20 minutes to set up a mailing list. After that, it’s as simple as sending out your first email. The longest part of the process is usually the design of the offer and ad itself!
- It’s Measurable. All mailing list providers have analytics available for your use. You can find opens, clicks, etc. to see who has interacted with your email. You can also see bounce rates, so you can delete those who have inactive emails and get them off your list. One important note: if your customer or prospect uses the previewer option to read your newsletter, it will never show as opened. So don’t delete those who seem inactive. You never know.
- It’s Easy. Set up your account, choose a template that works for you, customize and place your message, edit, proofread, and send it out. All done.
So now that you know why you should set one up, what kind of emails should you send?
- Specials and Sales: Your customers and prospects love a good discount. Make sure you send out promotions and sales. Send at least two. One for the beginning of the sale and one when there is one day left in the sale. If you have an upcoming holiday event or weekend event, make sure your mailing list knows ahead of time.
- Monthly Newsletter: Customers and prospects love news they can use. Send out an email once a month highlighting industry news, new things going on in your business, local community stories, tips for maintaining their vehicle, weather tips, etc.
- Seasonal: You can send your clients or prospects online holiday, birthday, or anniversary cards (both personal anniversaries and loyalty anniversaries to your company are ideas to consider).
These are just some ideas to get you started. Now, here are some tips to make your email list more effective.
- Consider mobile friendly templates. Over 80% of emails are now read on mobile devices, so consider that when you choose images and videos. Also, Videos can drain data usage, so instead of putting a video in your email, why not provide a link to the video on your site or YouTube?
- Make images in your email clickable with live links to the actual information you want to share on your site.
- Consider that most email previewers won’t show images in the first place, so you may want to go with a primarily text-driven email. Don’t have an image-only newsletter. If your customer or prospect has to click “enable images” to see your content every time, they will quickly unsubscribe.
- Put a disclaimer at the top of the email (as part of your template so it shows up every time you start a newsletter) letting them know how they became part of your mailing list. “You receive this email because you signed up here, here, or here.” Fill in the “here” based on your sign up form locations (Facebook, website, etc.). Always follow CanSPAM laws or consult with Data-Dynamix if you’re confused what’s allowed.
- Assume that this is the first time anyone has read your newsletter. So make sure you include the business location, hours of operation, phone number, website, and point of contact in every newsletter. You want them to find you, so make it easy.