If you’re like most dealers, you may feel that you don’t want to inundate your customers with mail. However, the issue is that your competitors are most likely sending mail to the same customers that you’re trying so hard not to overwhelm.

It’s difficult to decide whether to mail regularly or spontaneously. You may be asking yourself: is there an equation to calculate how often I should actually mail my customers?

Unfortunately, the answer is NO. This is why engaging your customers on a regular basis is so important. You never know when they’re going to need or want your service. You can’t predict when a customer’s vehicle is going to break down or when someone gets a promotion and they can finally afford the convertible of their dreams.

The right time is different for everyone. Here’s a perfect example of a business being consistent until the time was right for me. I’m sure you’re familiar with the cleaning and upholstery coupons that seem to fill your mailbox on a regular basis. Even though I owned a white couch, I can’t tell you how many times I ignored their offers. My couch seemed perfectly clean! But one day, I walked into my family room and noticed that my crisp white couch wasn’t looking so clean anymore. So what did I do?

I saved the next coupon I received. And not only did I have my couch cleaned, but I spent an additional $200 for that special cleaning fluid that was “guaranteed” to do a better job.

The moral of this story is that when I was ready, I paid attention. And the company that was most consistent in sending offers is the one that earned my business. I am not saying that you should mail the same customer every week or every month. What I am saying is that you should be more concerned about missing their business rather than talking to them too much.

Bad relationships stem from under-communication—not over. I mean seriously, when is the last time you ever heard of a girl divorcing a guy because he talked too much?

Now that we’ve determined that there’s no such thing as perfect timing, you might be questioning whether or not direct mail loses its effectiveness when used on a regular basis. So just how aggressive should you be?

I recommend segmenting out your customers into two categories: one for sales and one for service. Depending on the size of your dealership, you can break each of those categories into two or three mail drops. For sales, I suggest targeting those customers a minimum of every 60-90 days. For service, I suggest targeting them every 60 days. Remember: you can’t control when the customer will need your service. But you can control that it’s your offer that’s in their hands the moment they do.

Do you shy away from giveaways and win-a-prize type mailers? If you’re like most dealers, you probably do. Giveaways are frowned upon for fear of attracting customers who are more interested in winning a prize than buying a car.

Customers come into your dealership daily. When asked if they need help, the normal response is: “No, I’m just looking.” But guess what? Even though they are “just looking,” those lookers turn into test drives and test drives turn into sales.

There’s not much difference between those lookers and a customer that walks in with a mailer, proudly announcing their hope of being the big “grand prize winner.” Gift-seekers definitely don’t show up intending to buy a car, but a gift-seeker can turn into a looker. A looker can turn into a test drive. And a test drive can turn into a sale. So why are we so opposed to giving a potential customer a prize and our salespeople as many potential customers as possible?

I talked about this in my previous blog. The whole idea behind doing a giveaway or any special event is to generate excitement and create that buying atmosphere. You create a buying atmosphere by drawing as many customers into the showroom at any given time. Enticing customers with a gift is the best way to ensure higher volumes of traffic. The more customers you see, the more test drives you do and the more cars you sell.

So, how can you ensure maximum results from your mailers when using giveaways to increase traffic?

First, train your staff on how to handle these customers. It’s crucial that they greet every customer without prejudice, and ask the right qualifying questions. If a customer reveals themselves to be a gift-seeker who is only there to claim their prize, your staff should use their relationship-building skills. This is when the selling begins!

Here’s an example of how to qualify a gift-seeking customer with a high-mileage vehicle:

“Hi, I’m John. Welcome to All Star Dealership. Are you here because you received our special offer in the mail?”

If the customer replies “Yes,” but that they are simply there to collect their gift and/or see if they’ve won, have your salespeople use this word track (or something similar):

“We appreciate you coming in and of course, that’s not problem. Let’s take a look and see what you’ve won! What type of vehicle are you driving now? How many miles are on it? Do you know what you currently owe on it? So, let me ask you this: if we could get you into a newer vehicle, back under warranty and keep your payments close to what you currently pay, would you consider looking at a vehicle today? Besides, you’re already here. You might as well take a few minutes and see if we can save you some money.”

You’d be surprised at how many of these customers will say “Yes!” Sometimes, the problem isn’t that they don’t want a new car. Often, they simply believe they cannot afford one. By asking the qualifying questions, many times we narrow the reason down to objections that your salespeople already know how to handle.

Second, be sure to match any event promoted in your mailer with how you present it in your dealership—make it an event! Don’t forget that creating a sense of excitement and building customer enthusiasm around an actual event is the first step to a successful sale.

Next time you’re planning a mailer, consider a giveaway. Teach your salespeople that the gift-seeker is an opportunity… not an objection. Remember that the more people you get in your showroom, the more exciting the atmosphere and the more opportunities to make a sale. And every time that happens, not only has the customer won something, you have, too.

When I consult with dealers about service mailers, I often find that their approach contradicts what they’re looking to achieve.

On one hand, dealers know how incredibly competitive the market is, so they send out service coupons to ensure customers don’t defect due to a competitor’s offer. But on the other hand, they don’t want to send service offers too often. The biggest concern I hear is: “I don’t want to train my good, loyal customers to delay service until they get a discount.”

This never makes any sense to me. Why wouldn’t you want to train your customers to anticipate an offer? Don’t you want them to open every communication you send and believe that you will give them the best price and reward them for being an AWESOME, outstanding customer? Isn’t that the whole idea: sell your customers on your service facilities, build loyalty and prevent them from defecting in the first place?

In my last blog, I talked about how to create more impact with your sales mailers by making sales events truly special. Well, the same concept applies to your service mailers: train your staff to make a big deal about any service coupons and offers. In turn, this will train your customers to open all your mailers and use the coupons you have spent good money to send (that IS what you want them to do, right?).

I’ve never walked into a dealership’s service department and been asked if I had a coupon. And that is six vehicles later: after a Camry, a Volkswagen, four BMWs and an Acura.

However, whenever I walk into a large chain store, they always ask me if I have a coupon. Some even go as far as printing out coupons for me to use on my next visit! I will be the first to tell you that I go back to the same store to use that coupon. I will also be the first to admit that I spend way more than I should every time I go back. So if that is considered training your customers to wait for an offer, then I say let the training begin.

It’s a simple process to implement at your dealership: have your advisors ask each and every customer if they have a coupon for their service. Just mentioning a coupon will train your regular customers to open your mailers in search of offers, rather than tossing them blindly into the trash. This will increase your service mailer open rates AND your marketing ROI. In addition, you’ll show your loyal customers that you truly appreciate their business.

So what happens if a good, loyal customer doesn’t have a coupon? They’ll probably say, “Can I get a discount anyway? I’m here all the time.” This is another good opportunity to go above and beyond for your customer and make them feel special. Give them a $5 or $10 discount on the spot, or perhaps $25 off if they have an additional service done on that day. Be creative and encourage them to watch their mail for future offers.

Frequency is another key to keeping your service customers engaged. In my opinion, a new offer should go out every 60 to 90 days at the very least, and it shouldn’t expire for another 60 to 90 days.

In the end, you’ll find that rewarding loyal customers is much better for business than constantly chasing down the ones in danger of defecting. Don’t get me wrong: marketing to both is equally important. If you’re not in front of any customer at the right time, they can defect in a matter of seconds—that’s why it’s so important to reward loyalty. Training your loyal customers to watch for discounts gives them a reason to open your mailers. And sending service coupons gives them the incentive to keep coming back.

Do you remember the days when your mailers were based on actual sales events? Let’s go back in time: back to the days when the sale ran for eight hours only or was valid for just two days—not five. The idea was to crowd the showroom and create a buying atmosphere with a real sense of urgency, as opposed to a trickle of customers over the course of a week.  Sales days were often held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in order to give your store an extra weekend in the month.

I’ve been doing direct mail for a long time now—long enough to recall how dealers used to go out of their way to make an event successful. Families would come out for the festivities. Customers genuinely slowed down and enjoyed the experience, which gave dealers a greater opportunity to sell.

At these events, every single guest was personally greeted and invited to join in on the savings.  Balloons and other festive décor were peppered throughout the showroom, upbeat music was playing in the background and event-specific sales tags hung from vehicles. The tempting scent of fresh hamburgers and hot dogs floated in from the grill outside. The atmosphere was electric; bells rang when deals were made, and customers were publicly congratulated on their purchase via a loudspeaker announcement. Everyone was excited:  the dealer, the sales team and the customers.

If all this sounds more like a distant memory rather than what you experienced during your last sales campaign, you may be asking yourself: is my party over? Has my dealership forgotten how to have fun and make my customers’ car buying experience exciting? If you answered “yes” to any of the above, you have probably considered that your sales mailers do not seem to have the same influence over consumers that they did years ago.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. If you’re not making your sales mailers look and feel like a special event, a truly unique opportunity, why would they view the event as anything more than an ordinary day?

Boost performance of your next sales event mailer: put on a worthwhile event. Set the scene and make sure it looks like something is actually happening at your store. Decorate with balloons in the showroom and red tags all over the windows of your vehicles. Offer your customers an incentive to stop by—and give them a reason to stick around. Fire up the grill or team up with popular restaurants to cater. Reach out to your radio station and see if you can get a DJ on-site. Whatever entertainment you choose, the goal is to generate more buzz for your event.

It’s also critical to make sure your salespeople and managers are on board. It’s time for your team to hustle and, more importantly, get excited. Because guess what? If you‘re not excited, customers won’t be either. Offering cash bonuses to your sales team is a good way to keep spirits high, especially during special events. Take the time to place random envelopes on the windows for them to pull from or maybe a wheel to spin.

The celebration shouldn’t stop at the sale. Every time someone steps out of the finance office, you need to make a big deal about it with an announcement. As customers are congratulated, your salespeople and managers should take it as their cue to stand and applaud. This creates a real sense of excitement for the new vehicle purchaser, as well as those customers still shopping or working with salesmen on deals.

Everything comes back to the customer experience—excitement is contagious and helps create a buying atmosphere. So if you’re looking to improve your results from your next sales mailer, ask yourself: “Is my dealership’s enthusiasm contagious?”

Spoiler alert: it’s pretty easy to make sales exciting. But what about service? I’ll explain how the same thought process applies to Fixed Ops in my next blog.

Have you ever considered targeting your sales and service customers simultaneously? Try placing a service offer in with your next sales mailer. I promise you’ll be happy with the results.

Service has become a highly competitive market. Shops now exist on practically every street corner. It’s hard to find a conquest customer who is willing to drive more than five blocks for service, which makes mailing more than five miles out from your dealership a huge gamble. But where there’s no risk, there’s no great reward either.

To be smarter with your marketing dollar, include a service insert with your sales mailer. Target customers for both sides of the business—and you can target service customers farther out without putting a lot of money at risk.

Take a look at the numbers: A solo conquest service mailer runs anywhere from 79 to 94 cents or more without factoring in the cost of the conquest data. By contrast, an insert for service added to a sales mailer can ride for only a nickel. So let’s say you plan to mail out a sales mailer of 5,000 pieces. You can add a service insert for just $250— expanding your marketing area for service without putting your budget in jeopardy! A service insert will pay for the cost of your sales mailer 4-6 times over, and every vehicle you sell off the sales mailer is then additional revenue.

I’ve seen this work time and time again. Here’s a great example: After much persuasion, a dealer that I do a lot of business with decided to give this a try, although he was hesitant at first. Well, two months later, he called in to request another sales mailer. He had forgotten our previous conversation and told me, “I just want to let you know… I don’t do sales mailers without a service insert.” I chuckled a bit as I got the rest of the details for his new mailer. Of course, I didn’t remind him the service insert was my idea in the first place.

Doubling up your sales and service mailers is a cost-effective strategy, but it doesn’t mean you should start sending them out every other week. Here’s how to hit the sweet spot: target your customers just the right amount—mail them information frequently enough that they are paying attention but not so much that they shut you off and stop taking your offers seriously. To avoid oversaturating your customers with marketing messages, touch them each with a targeted communication every 90 days.

One last point on this: Don’t just slap a service offer at the bottom of your sales mailer and merge them together as one piece. These are two entirely different messages with different expiration dates. When you combine them, a customer has to keep the sales mailer just for the service coupon. This is a huge hassle, as the sales mailer offer is usually only active for 3-4 days while a service coupon is good for around 30-60 days. You don’t want your sales and service mailers to compete and take validity away from one another. Instead, hit customers with both items separately in the same mailer.

With this strategy, you can target conquest customers who have never done business with your dealership before, which helps to expand your market in both sales and service. These customers may not be in the market for a new vehicle just yet, but perhaps they’re due for an oil change, or vice versa. In any scenario, you’ll end up with two opportunities instead of just one—at a fraction of the cost of running two separate mail campaigns.

When I talk to dealers that are disappointed with their email and direct mail marketing results, my biggest question is this:

Why would you send out an email offer to your customers that you would not PAY to send out via direct mail or other methods?

I see it happen all the time. A dealer sends out an email for something such as an AC check for $69.95, or a free multi-point inspection and a filter special. If I were to say to that dealer, “would you spend 89 cents to send that offer on postcard?” Their reply would be a resounding “No!”

Before blasting out an email promo to all your customers, ask: “Would I spend a dollar to send that out?” If the answer is “no,” ask yourself why you think it is okay to send it for free.

To get better results from your marketing campaigns, it pays to be a little more strategic in your approach. Just because email marketing is viewed as “free” does not mean that you can blast out daily offers that have no real value to your customers. This approach will just end up alienating them, rather than driving them into your store.

Plan out your marketing messages for the next few months and make sure you are not sending out messages that you cannot justify as being true offers.

First, take a true account of the database of sales and service customers and segment out customers that are servicing on a regular basis but have never purchased a vehicle;  customers that are starting to defect, customers with vehicles two years and older, customers with leases due to expire, etc. Then, and perhaps most importantly, add to this list potential conquest customers -- consumers that drive your brand but have never been in for sales or service. This information is available from providers that have databases of lease, loan, insurance and warranty information.

Don’t make the mistake of cherry picking and trying to segment out your database to a ridiculous degree, drilling down for that “perfect” prospect. This tends to make the database too small and ineffective and excludes great prospects – such as the emotional buyer – how do you know when they are ready? You can’t get that just from segmenting your database!

Combine these customers and then split this list over 90-day segments. So as to not over-saturate your customers with marketing messages, but reach them on a good regular basis and get better results, it is best to touch a customer every 90 days. In this way, if you are sending relevant, good quality marketing messages, you can catch that customer when they are ready to make that key purchase decision for sales or service.

Don’t hit them so often that you are training them for a discount. With a long enough window in between they don’t start anticipating a discount. You don’t want to go to the extreme of Bed Bath & Beyond, where the customer won’t even go to the store without their coupon.

So, take that database of 6,000 names and split it into three drops. Then hit that first group of 2,000 people and be sure to place a 60-day expiration on the offer. Send out 2,000 in June; 2,000 in July; and 2,000 in August. And then hit that first group again in September, so you’re not over inundating your customers.

I’ve seen it happen far too often where the dealership sends out a mailer to their entire “prime” list, gets a decent response, and then immediately sends another mailing to the same customers, but this time with less response. And then the dealership sends out another soon after and gets yet another poor response. At this point, the dealer says “Mail stinks!” But what has happened here is poor planning. They mailed all their customers with that first shot and then over-saturated these customers with too many messages, one after the other. It works better to plan it out so you are not hitting these customers too frequently.

Remember, people only buy when they are ready. With this consistent, 90-day approach, you have a better chance of catching them when they are ready, and without turning them off with too many irrelevant offers.

When I look at advertising strategies in our industry, one of the most consistently missed opportunities I see is dealerships who are trying to save money by marketing to all their customers through email, and only sending mail to customers without an email address on file.

These dealers often ask me, “Now that I can email my customers, why do I have to send them mail?” My answer is simple: without a cross-media approach, you’re making a predetermination about your customers. And isn’t that exactly what you tell your staff NOT to do?

Think about it: when you choose to use ONE form of communication and exclude others, you’re assuming that every customer will respond to that medium every time—when in reality their lives and needs change on a daily basis.

For years I’ve heard my dealerships tell their staffs not to cherry-pick or “plate glass” the customer, stressing the inherent risks of making assumptions about customers’ apparent ability to buy based on their clothes or current vehicle. Making predeterminations about customers can often backfire and send customers back out the door— and right into the arms of a competitor.

Predeterminations also happen in the service drive. Recently, I had a service advisor actually tell me where I should go to buy tires for less than the ones available at his dealership!

Did he ask me to buy them there? No.

Did I say I couldn’t afford his prices? No.

He made an assumption about me—and his dealership lost my money.

Here’s the bottom line: Just because you send customers an email does not make them an email responder.  Sending them a piece of mail does not make them a mail opener. Or maybe they feel most comfortable talking on the phone. What a customer responds to today may be opposite of what worked yesterday. Life changes daily and so do their communication needs.

This is why a cross-media approach is so important and works so well. A mixture of approaches means you increase the opportunities to engage your customers and keep them from falling through the cracks. By targeting all your customers through mail, email and telephone (where applicable), you can increase your response rate for service from an average of 5% to 15 %—or even higher for service.

Why such a big increase? Well, you’re no longer making assumptions and predeterminations about your customers. Instead, you’re covering your bases and responding to their changing needs. Simply put, the cross-media approach gives you a much better chance of keeping customers happy, informed, and out of your competitors’ hands.

When I look at advertising strategies in our industry, one of the most consistently missed opportunities I see is dealerships who are trying to save money by marketing to all their customers through email, and only sending mail to customers without an email address on file.

These dealers often ask me, “Now that I can email my customers, why do I have to send them mail?” My answer is simple: without a cross-media approach, you’re making a predetermination about your customers. And isn’t that exactly what you tell your staff NOT to do?

Think about it: when you choose to use ONE form of communication and exclude others, you’re assuming that every customer will respond to that medium every time—when in reality their lives and needs change on a daily basis.

For years I’ve heard my dealerships tell their staffs not to cherry-pick or “plate glass” the customer, stressing the inherent risks of making assumptions about customers’ apparent ability to buy based on their clothes or current vehicle. Making predeterminations about customers can often backfire and send customers back out the door— and right into the arms of a competitor.

Predeterminations also happen in the service drive. Recently, I had a service advisor actually tell me where I should go to buy tires for less than the ones available at his dealership!

Did he ask me to buy them there? No.

Did I say I couldn’t afford his prices? No.

He made an assumption about me—and his dealership lost my money.

Here’s the bottom line: Just because you send customers an email does not make them an email responder.  Sending them a piece of mail does not make them a mail opener. Or maybe they feel most comfortable talking on the phone. What a customer responds to today may be opposite of what worked yesterday. Life changes daily and so do their communication needs.

This is why a cross-media approach is so important and works so well. A mixture of approaches means you increase the opportunities to engage your customers and keep them from falling through the cracks. By targeting all your customers through mail, email and telephone (where applicable), you can increase your response rate for service from an average of 5% to 15 %—or even higher for service.

Why such a big increase? Well, you’re no longer making assumptions and predeterminations about your customers. Instead, you’re covering your bases and responding to their changing needs. Simply put, the cross-media approach gives you a much better chance of keeping customers happy, informed, and out of your competitors’ hands.