At one point or another, we have all experienced the moment where the sales manager or GM asked us to put together a sales blast on a moments notice! That is their wanting us to send the entire database an email campaign regardless of whether or not the data is good. And while they will argue until you are blue in the face, we all know that doing campaigns in that manner can and will have negative consequences. Everything from mistakes in the email campaign, compliance issues, broken links, no alt text for images, and/or worse you get flagged for spam or blacklisted. Frankly, so many of today's CRM’s make it way to easy for the above to occur. Here are the top things to consider before hitting the send button! 

Quality over Quantity. What is the Purpose of the Email Campaign? 

More often than not the GM or Sales Manager will tell you “just send it to the whole CRM” to which we offer that not all emails in the CRM are valid, but in my previous case we were not allowed to ‘delete’ bad emails nor were we allowed to remove emails that have opted out. So each time an email list was pulled it was thought that I was deleting emails off the list, but in reality, it was because the customer had opted out. The point is, though, that sending an email blast to the entire database does not make sense. Nor will sending the email blast to the whole database get you the results you are hoping for! If anything, it will cause the customer to opt out! 

So before you go hit send on an email blast to the entire database, it is essential to understand the purpose of the email. For example, if your GM or Sales Manager is worried that the leads are down and the weekend appointments are low then sending out an email blast to 8,600 people on a Thursday is not going to do much good! Instead, you could create an email for the customers who have been quoted or have visited the store after having reviewed the deals, and send them an email or better yet give them a phone call. In doing so, you have a much better chance of securing a deal versus sending the entire database an email campaign; especially if the email went to one of your customers who has just quoted. Knowing that your email might have a lower price, which might upset the customer making it that much harder to secure the deal. 

Scrub Your Email Lists! A Customer Who Inquired A Year Ago on A Used Car Might Not Still Be in the Market! 

This is not saying that you should not email a customer if they have had correspondence with you within the last three to six months. But if the customer inquired a year or so ago, and never responded to your emails, calls or text messages than chances are they have either already purchased and/or they are not in the market. So sending them yet another email for the hopes and chances of selling them a car does not make much sense. That and it runs your dealer the risk of getting flagged for spam! 

Bottom Line: While sending out the email blast might seem tempting or the right thing to do, it is best to have a clear plan of action. Understanding the purpose of the email blast having a clear message for the customer. Otherwise - as outlined above - the campaign can cause more damage than good. And the whole purpose of sending out an email blast is to increase business, no? So before you send out the next email blast to the entire database review the customers who fit the criteria, get with your sales managers, and make sure that the pricing is correct and that the links are set up correctly in the email. In doing so, you will have more success. But most importantly, it is essential to review which customers have engaged with the email whether that is having opened it and/or replied. If your BDC or Sales Consultants take the time to follow-up with the customer your chances of selling the customer become that much greater! 

How do you handle email blasts at your dealership? Do you allow your sales managers to send out email blasts on their own accord?