There’s an important message you want to get across to your customers. The car they test drove last month just received hot new incentives that finally put it within their budget. Your dealership has construction happening, and there’s information to reduce the frustration of accessing the service department. Or maybe, you’re sending a repair estimate along with pictures or a detailed explanation.

For more than a decade, email has been a go-to for communicating these types of messages. It’s reliable (as long as you have the right email address) and is a non-intrusive method of communication. But, according to 2018 statistics from Smart Insights, automotive services have an email open rate of just 13.17 percent!

Think of it in these terms: less than one in seven of your emails are read by the recipient.

If you think that sounds atrocious, it’s because it is. You have much better success in getting your message read by sending a text message, but that’s not always proper.

What’s the Problem with Email?

It’s not just one thing that affects our email open rate so much:

• Your dealership uses email to send marketing campaigns. It isn’t necessarily despised by customers, but marketing campaigns are rarely opened. If there’s an important email coming from the same source as that ‘junk mail’, there’s a good chance it’s going to be deleted instead of read.
• Email is no longer the main form of electronic messaging. Customers of all ages – not just millennials – use text messaging, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and other mobile services much more readily. Emails just aren’t checked as frequently.
• Your emails aren’t personalized. Of the email open rate concerns, this is the one that you can change.

Personalize Your Emails

Essentially, you need your emails to look different AND be attractive enough to open. You don’t want your important messages to get lumped in with the marketing campaigns and you don’t want customers to sluff off opening the email until later. A personalized email doesn’t solve all the problems, but it can help.

Send Emails from an Individual Work Account

A salesperson already will do this, as will service advisors. Emails should be personally written with casual, real-world language. Managers often want to send mass emails through their marketing provider, but that’s rarely the best way to communicate effectively.  

Anything that isn’t marketing related should come from an individual’s account, even if it’s to the whole email list your dealership owns.

Write a Catchy Subject Line

If there’s nothing catchy in the subject, there’s no reason for someone to open the email immediately. Write the main purpose for the communication in a clear concise message:

• Your Car’s Repair Estimate from XYZ Motors is Ready
• The Civic EX You Test Drove at XYZ Motors has a $1,000 Rebate
• XYZ Motors is Expanding! Here’s How You Can Still Access Our Store Easily.

Give an explanation. “Your car” and “Your quote” don’t hack it.

Add Your Own Flair

Don’t be starchy and formal. Write how you speak (minus any slang, of course). Conversational language in emails is received much better than formal writing.

There’s no point in telling you that every email you write will be opened. That’s not feasible. However, there’s a very good chance that by personalizing the emails you send, you can achieve a better email open rate than 13 percent.