Of all the marketing methods, both conquest and customer, email is the most cost effective and returns the highest return on investment than any other channel. Of course this is only true if you know these six tips to get the most out of your email marketing.

Subject Lines
Did you know 33% of recipients open an email based on the subject line alone?¹ Think of the subject line as your email’s headline. It should be brief, no more than 35-40 characters in length, for easy viewing on a mobile device. The content of your subject line should provide actionable information that represents the major content of your email. Always avoid using strong promotional attributes like multiple exclamation points or words in all caps. If you’re unsure of your selected subject line, test a couple out to determine which one receives the most opens.

From Line
Did you know 70% of people open emails from their favorite companies?² This exact reason is why it is very important to use your dealership’s name in the from line of your email. If you’re not familiar with this term, this is the line that indicates who the email is from. The from line is very important; often times recipients will scan this line to determine which emails they will open, delete, or even report as spam. If recipients can’t detect who the email is from, chances are they will delete it without ever opening it.

Image/Text Ratio
Did you know you have three to four seconds to grab a recipient’s attention and interest them enough to read your email?² A good subject and from line will get recipients to open your emails, but how do you get them to read the content? The trick is having a good image to text ratio. When you send emails, depending on the recipient’s email client and settings, they may not see any images until they download them. This is why it is important to have a good image to text ratio. If they can’t see any images and all your content is in the images, then chances are they are deleting your email. So be sure to put enough text so they can see what the email is about, which will trigger them to download the images to learn more.

Clean Design
Did you know if an email doesn’t display correctly, 71% of recipients will delete it immediately?² Getting people to recognize who the email is from, entice them to open it with a catchy subject line, and download the images is only half the battle. Now you need to think about your email’s design. Be sure your design is simple, clean, and not too busy, with a professional look and a clear message. Busy emails overwhelm recipients and too many elements within an email can cause it to display incorrectly. Remember every client, app, and device displays an email differently and if you want yours to look good in all, stick with a simple design.

Call to Action
Did you know marketers consistently ranked email as the single most effective tactic for awareness, acquisition, conversion, and retention?² Email marketing is a great way to get your brand noticed in the market place, engage customers, and promote your offers, but you probably already know this. What you may not know is the importance of clear, concise calls to action. There is definitely some relevance in how many calls to action you provide in your email, but it is more important that you make them clear and motivating. Calls to action provide your recipient a next step; without them you just leave them hanging with nothing to do but delete your email.

Measure Results
Did you know email yields an average 4,300% ROI for businesses?² We all know that at the end of the day, the only true measure of marketing success is ROI. With email, however, you have several measureable results that you can tie to a campaign to make its performance better. An email’s open rate lets you know how attractive your from and subject lines are. A click-through rate tells you how enticing your art is, how effective your calls to action are, and how much engagement your email receives. If you have high unsubscribe, bounce, or spam complaint rates, then you need to look at your email list and content. If you’re looking for benchmarks, here are some recently published email statistics by Silverpop. For the retail market segment, an average open rate is 20.9%, a click-through rate is 3.4%, a bounce rate is 0.3706%, an unsubscribe rate is 0.1411%, and a complaint rate is 0.0352%.

The truth is, the possibilities and ROI for email marketing are endless. Creating powerful emails that get your dealership noticed, create brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, and increase revenue to your pocket are completely within your reach. Remember these six tips to help you get the most out of your efforts and increase your email metrics and ROI.

Sources:
¹Lukasiewicz, Zachary. "19 Shocking Sales Stats That Will Change How You Sell." LinkedIn. N.p., 14 Feb. 2015. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.
²"20 Shocking Email Marketing Stats for 2015." 20 Shocking Email Marketing Stats for 2015. OutboundEngine, 2 Feb. 2015. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.

Of all the marketing methods, both conquest and customer, email is the most cost effective and returns the highest return on investment than any other channel. Of course this is only true if you know these six tips to get the most out of your email marketing.

Subject Lines
Did you know 33% of recipients open an email based on the subject line alone?¹ Think of the subject line as your email’s headline. It should be brief, no more than 35-40 characters in length, for easy viewing on a mobile device. The content of your subject line should provide actionable information that represents the major content of your email. Always avoid using strong promotional attributes like multiple exclamation points or words in all caps. If you’re unsure of your selected subject line, test a couple out to determine which one receives the most opens.

From Line
Did you know 70% of people open emails from their favorite companies?² This exact reason is why it is very important to use your dealership’s name in the from line of your email. If you’re not familiar with this term, this is the line that indicates who the email is from. The from line is very important; often times recipients will scan this line to determine which emails they will open, delete, or even report as spam. If recipients can’t detect who the email is from, chances are they will delete it without ever opening it.

Image/Text Ratio
Did you know you have three to four seconds to grab a recipient’s attention and interest them enough to read your email?² A good subject and from line will get recipients to open your emails, but how do you get them to read the content? The trick is having a good image to text ratio. When you send emails, depending on the recipient’s email client and settings, they may not see any images until they download them. This is why it is important to have a good image to text ratio. If they can’t see any images and all your content is in the images, then chances are they are deleting your email. So be sure to put enough text so they can see what the email is about, which will trigger them to download the images to learn more.

Clean Design
Did you know if an email doesn’t display correctly, 71% of recipients will delete it immediately?² Getting people to recognize who the email is from, entice them to open it with a catchy subject line, and download the images is only half the battle. Now you need to think about your email’s design. Be sure your design is simple, clean, and not too busy, with a professional look and a clear message. Busy emails overwhelm recipients and too many elements within an email can cause it to display incorrectly. Remember every client, app, and device displays an email differently and if you want yours to look good in all, stick with a simple design.

Call to Action
Did you know marketers consistently ranked email as the single most effective tactic for awareness, acquisition, conversion, and retention?² Email marketing is a great way to get your brand noticed in the market place, engage customers, and promote your offers, but you probably already know this. What you may not know is the importance of clear, concise calls to action. There is definitely some relevance in how many calls to action you provide in your email, but it is more important that you make them clear and motivating. Calls to action provide your recipient a next step; without them you just leave them hanging with nothing to do but delete your email.

Measure Results
Did you know email yields an average 4,300% ROI for businesses?² We all know that at the end of the day, the only true measure of marketing success is ROI. With email, however, you have several measureable results that you can tie to a campaign to make its performance better. An email’s open rate lets you know how attractive your from and subject lines are. A click-through rate tells you how enticing your art is, how effective your calls to action are, and how much engagement your email receives. If you have high unsubscribe, bounce, or spam complaint rates, then you need to look at your email list and content. If you’re looking for benchmarks, here are some recently published email statistics by Silverpop. For the retail market segment, an average open rate is 20.9%, a click-through rate is 3.4%, a bounce rate is 0.3706%, an unsubscribe rate is 0.1411%, and a complaint rate is 0.0352%.

The truth is, the possibilities and ROI for email marketing are endless. Creating powerful emails that get your dealership noticed, create brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, and increase revenue to your pocket are completely within your reach. Remember these six tips to help you get the most out of your efforts and increase your email metrics and ROI.

Sources:
¹Lukasiewicz, Zachary. "19 Shocking Sales Stats That Will Change How You Sell." LinkedIn. N.p., 14 Feb. 2015. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.
²"20 Shocking Email Marketing Stats for 2015." 20 Shocking Email Marketing Stats for 2015. OutboundEngine, 2 Feb. 2015. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.

Can you feel it? Are you ready for the change of seasons? Today is the official first day of spring! Retail outlets everywhere are starting to change up in-store marketing to highlight warmer weather, but more specifically spring. If your spring marketing isn’t underway, right now is the perfect time to get started. One way consumers celebrate spring is by cleaning and decluttering their lives… refresh and renew! Learn how you can capitalize on consumers’ need for cleanliness and drive additional traffic to your Service Department.

Offer Tips
Detailing a vehicle is somewhat of an art, so think about offering customers tips and tricks from your professionals. Things like how to get stains out of carpets, what materials to use to clean air ducts to remove odors, or what solution is best to use when trying to get tires to shine. Any tips will be greatly appreciated by your customers and will remind them that spring is a great time to detail their vehicle.

Offer Specials
Although offering tips to customers will get them in the mindset of how great it would be to have a clean vehicle, most don’t want to take the time to do it. For those customers, it is important that you offer detail specials at your dealership. You could offer a spend and save coupon, where in they save a percentage of whatever they spend and the more they spend, the more they save. Or, you could offer detail bundle services at a discounted price. Whichever way you choose to promote detail specials at your dealership, you’ll drive additional traffic and revenue to your Service Department.

Partner Up
In rare cases where your dealership doesn’t offer detail services, think about partnering up with a local establishment that does. You can create a partnership between businesses and start promoting each other’s services. Your communication to customers could offer tips for detailing a vehicle and a coupon for your partner’s business. If you choose this approach, be sure there is a reciprocal communication promoting your dealership that is being sent to your partner’s customers.

So what are you waiting for? If you haven’t started, now is the time to get your spring marketing together and start promoting services that help your customers catch spring fever.

Can you feel it? Are you ready for the change of seasons? Today is the official first day of spring! Retail outlets everywhere are starting to change up in-store marketing to highlight warmer weather, but more specifically spring. If your spring marketing isn’t underway, right now is the perfect time to get started. One way consumers celebrate spring is by cleaning and decluttering their lives… refresh and renew! Learn how you can capitalize on consumers’ need for cleanliness and drive additional traffic to your Service Department.

Offer Tips
Detailing a vehicle is somewhat of an art, so think about offering customers tips and tricks from your professionals. Things like how to get stains out of carpets, what materials to use to clean air ducts to remove odors, or what solution is best to use when trying to get tires to shine. Any tips will be greatly appreciated by your customers and will remind them that spring is a great time to detail their vehicle.

Offer Specials
Although offering tips to customers will get them in the mindset of how great it would be to have a clean vehicle, most don’t want to take the time to do it. For those customers, it is important that you offer detail specials at your dealership. You could offer a spend and save coupon, where in they save a percentage of whatever they spend and the more they spend, the more they save. Or, you could offer detail bundle services at a discounted price. Whichever way you choose to promote detail specials at your dealership, you’ll drive additional traffic and revenue to your Service Department.

Partner Up
In rare cases where your dealership doesn’t offer detail services, think about partnering up with a local establishment that does. You can create a partnership between businesses and start promoting each other’s services. Your communication to customers could offer tips for detailing a vehicle and a coupon for your partner’s business. If you choose this approach, be sure there is a reciprocal communication promoting your dealership that is being sent to your partner’s customers.

So what are you waiting for? If you haven’t started, now is the time to get your spring marketing together and start promoting services that help your customers catch spring fever.

As winter finally comes to an end, it’s time to start thinking about how you will attract business for the coming of spring. Whether you’re in a part of the country where consumers have been trapped indoors because of the extremely harsh winter, or not, spring makes people want to get out and enjoy the outdoors. You can capitalize on this need for sunshine and fresh air and help customers and prospects catch spring fever with an event at your dealership. Here are three tips to help you get started.

Determine Activities
Chances are consumers in your area are excited to enjoy the nicer weather, but they don’t want to just come stand at a dealership. Think about hosting activities that will draw people in and make them stay. You could partner with a local radio station, give away prizes every hour, provide coloring supplies and games for kids, or even fire up the grill for the first cookout of the year. Whatever activities you decide on, be sure they will attract potential and current customers.

Create an Ambiance
This one may seem a little ridiculous, but people love decorations, even if they don’t know it. By setting a mood at your dealership, you’ll make your event even more memorable for attendees. If you have a local nursery or garden center that is already stocked with fresh flowers, visit them to pick out an arrangement that is eye-catching. If you live in a part of the world where fresh flowers are not possible yet, think about hitting up a local party store for paper flowers.

Get Prepared
Hosting an event at your dealership is just like hosting a party at your house. Be sure to have your staff clean up before guests arrive to make a good impression. Have a pep talk with your employees to ensure they are aware of the goal of your spring event so everyone is on the same page. Lastly, be sure everything is prepared, set up, and ready to go before your guests arrive.

If you’re looking for a great way to attract potential buyers and drive traffic to your dealership, hosting an event is a great way to accomplish this. Not only will you excite your employees and customers and build rapport with your community, but you’ll also capitalize on consumers catching spring fever.

As winter finally comes to an end, it’s time to start thinking about how you will attract business for the coming of spring. Whether you’re in a part of the country where consumers have been trapped indoors because of the extremely harsh winter, or not, spring makes people want to get out and enjoy the outdoors. You can capitalize on this need for sunshine and fresh air and help customers and prospects catch spring fever with an event at your dealership. Here are three tips to help you get started.

Determine Activities
Chances are consumers in your area are excited to enjoy the nicer weather, but they don’t want to just come stand at a dealership. Think about hosting activities that will draw people in and make them stay. You could partner with a local radio station, give away prizes every hour, provide coloring supplies and games for kids, or even fire up the grill for the first cookout of the year. Whatever activities you decide on, be sure they will attract potential and current customers.

Create an Ambiance
This one may seem a little ridiculous, but people love decorations, even if they don’t know it. By setting a mood at your dealership, you’ll make your event even more memorable for attendees. If you have a local nursery or garden center that is already stocked with fresh flowers, visit them to pick out an arrangement that is eye-catching. If you live in a part of the world where fresh flowers are not possible yet, think about hitting up a local party store for paper flowers.

Get Prepared
Hosting an event at your dealership is just like hosting a party at your house. Be sure to have your staff clean up before guests arrive to make a good impression. Have a pep talk with your employees to ensure they are aware of the goal of your spring event so everyone is on the same page. Lastly, be sure everything is prepared, set up, and ready to go before your guests arrive.

If you’re looking for a great way to attract potential buyers and drive traffic to your dealership, hosting an event is a great way to accomplish this. Not only will you excite your employees and customers and build rapport with your community, but you’ll also capitalize on consumers catching spring fever.

We live in a world where most sentences end with, “Let me Google it.” Information is readily available at our fingertips and consumers are leveraging online research for any major purchase decision. With the help of the internet, consumers are getting smarter and smarter about their vehicle of choice and vehicle services needs including options and price before ever stepping foot into a dealership. In fact, in recent years, these internet-savvy buyers have switched their vehicle research methods to find information through local search, consumer review sites, and social media. These consumers are looking for comments, likes, and reviews about a specific manufacturer’s vehicles and which local dealership to buy from or where to service their vehicle. If they can’t find your dealership through these methods or you have a bad online reputation, they are turning to your competition for their vehicle needs. Today, we are going to focus on local SEO, also known as local search, and how to improve your dealership’s ranking to make sure you are being found by potential buyers.

Define Local Search
Let’s start by defining local search. You are probably used to the phrase organic search, which is the algorithms used for search engines to index relevant and trusted content. This is important for your website’s ranking through many major search engines; however, local search has a geographical component that centers specifically on building search relevance for a specific location, a brick and mortar business. For local SEO, search engines are seeking relevant and trusted locations.

Components of Ideal Local SEO
If you weren’t aware of the importance of local search before reading this article, you’re probably realizing that it is becoming increasingly important to a physical business location to be found on the internet by consumers. In fact, 64% of consumers are using local search to find businesses in their area. There is a basic recipe for local search success which we’ll go into more detail about throughout this article; however, the four components are:

1. Correcting directory listings
2. Regular posting of content through social media
3. Monitoring and resolving bad reviews
4. Collecting positive reviews

Let’s discuss how these work and the best way to utilize each to build a trusted location for your dealership’s local search.

Correct Directory Listings
Several online directory sites such as Superpages, Foursquare, Citysearch, Google, etc., list information about your dealership like dealership name, phone number, physical address, and website URL. Most likely these sites have your dealership information listed differently or have duplicate entries. Any inconsistency or duplication of entries throughout these sites negatively impacts your local SEO. However, if your dealership’s listings are consistent across all sites and you only have one entry, the local search algorithms see you as a trusted local brand and will rank you higher for relevant searches. Please note, it is important to constantly maintain these listings due to inaccurate data updates that are received by these directory sites.

Post Relevant Social Content
Writing and distributing content about your brand online that engages followers and is shared among their friends and family is a great way to build trust for local SEO. You want to appeal to the masses, so be sure to include a variety of social content. Think about including community or dealer-specific subject matter which gets the most engagement. You should also leverage product-specific information like new model releases or enhancements, utilize OEM-generated content or national events, and include seasonal or holiday content. We find it easiest to create a social calendar so you can spread all of the materials out throughout the month and ensure you have a good mix.

Monitor for Sentiment and Reviews
The way people talk about brands has changed significantly during the past 20 years. Before the rise of review sites, people would talk about brands in a private conversations. Now-a-days, people turn to review sites to discuss their latest experience with a brand. With this shift in how brands are receiving feedback about their products and services, it becomes increasingly important to monitor all online chatter being said about your dealership. Any time a negative post is put on one of these review sites, it affects your local SEO ranking and the opportunity for your dealership to be seen by potential buyers. In fact, one negative review can cost you 30 customers per month.

Promote Reviews with Customers
One of the easiest ways to boost your local SEO ranking and be seen as a trusted location is to promote online reviews. The customers that visit your dealership regularly to have service work performed, come back for their new vehicle purchase, and refer friends and family members to your dealership are exactly the type of person you want to review your dealership online. Think about sending your best customers an email campaign with direct links to where you want reviews to be entered.

Social media and reputation management are no longer the name of the game, but rather pieces that directly affect how trusted and relevant your business is to local consumers. These same consumers may visit your social media and review sites, but the larger problem is how these sites affect your local SEO ranking. The strategy shared with you today increases the authority of your domain, drives relevant traffic to your website, and boosts credibility of your dealership for the long-term success of your business. Think about it like this - you could be losing customers every day if your business is not ranking on local search, so now is the time to get started and really focus on a strategy to ensure your dealership is seen online by potential buyers.

We live in a world where most sentences end with, “Let me Google it.” Information is readily available at our fingertips and consumers are leveraging online research for any major purchase decision. With the help of the internet, consumers are getting smarter and smarter about their vehicle of choice and vehicle services needs including options and price before ever stepping foot into a dealership. In fact, in recent years, these internet-savvy buyers have switched their vehicle research methods to find information through local search, consumer review sites, and social media. These consumers are looking for comments, likes, and reviews about a specific manufacturer’s vehicles and which local dealership to buy from or where to service their vehicle. If they can’t find your dealership through these methods or you have a bad online reputation, they are turning to your competition for their vehicle needs. Today, we are going to focus on local SEO, also known as local search, and how to improve your dealership’s ranking to make sure you are being found by potential buyers.

Define Local Search
Let’s start by defining local search. You are probably used to the phrase organic search, which is the algorithms used for search engines to index relevant and trusted content. This is important for your website’s ranking through many major search engines; however, local search has a geographical component that centers specifically on building search relevance for a specific location, a brick and mortar business. For local SEO, search engines are seeking relevant and trusted locations.

Components of Ideal Local SEO
If you weren’t aware of the importance of local search before reading this article, you’re probably realizing that it is becoming increasingly important to a physical business location to be found on the internet by consumers. In fact, 64% of consumers are using local search to find businesses in their area. There is a basic recipe for local search success which we’ll go into more detail about throughout this article; however, the four components are:

1. Correcting directory listings
2. Regular posting of content through social media
3. Monitoring and resolving bad reviews
4. Collecting positive reviews

Let’s discuss how these work and the best way to utilize each to build a trusted location for your dealership’s local search.

Correct Directory Listings
Several online directory sites such as Superpages, Foursquare, Citysearch, Google, etc., list information about your dealership like dealership name, phone number, physical address, and website URL. Most likely these sites have your dealership information listed differently or have duplicate entries. Any inconsistency or duplication of entries throughout these sites negatively impacts your local SEO. However, if your dealership’s listings are consistent across all sites and you only have one entry, the local search algorithms see you as a trusted local brand and will rank you higher for relevant searches. Please note, it is important to constantly maintain these listings due to inaccurate data updates that are received by these directory sites.

Post Relevant Social Content
Writing and distributing content about your brand online that engages followers and is shared among their friends and family is a great way to build trust for local SEO. You want to appeal to the masses, so be sure to include a variety of social content. Think about including community or dealer-specific subject matter which gets the most engagement. You should also leverage product-specific information like new model releases or enhancements, utilize OEM-generated content or national events, and include seasonal or holiday content. We find it easiest to create a social calendar so you can spread all of the materials out throughout the month and ensure you have a good mix.

Monitor for Sentiment and Reviews
The way people talk about brands has changed significantly during the past 20 years. Before the rise of review sites, people would talk about brands in a private conversations. Now-a-days, people turn to review sites to discuss their latest experience with a brand. With this shift in how brands are receiving feedback about their products and services, it becomes increasingly important to monitor all online chatter being said about your dealership. Any time a negative post is put on one of these review sites, it affects your local SEO ranking and the opportunity for your dealership to be seen by potential buyers. In fact, one negative review can cost you 30 customers per month.

Promote Reviews with Customers
One of the easiest ways to boost your local SEO ranking and be seen as a trusted location is to promote online reviews. The customers that visit your dealership regularly to have service work performed, come back for their new vehicle purchase, and refer friends and family members to your dealership are exactly the type of person you want to review your dealership online. Think about sending your best customers an email campaign with direct links to where you want reviews to be entered.

Social media and reputation management are no longer the name of the game, but rather pieces that directly affect how trusted and relevant your business is to local consumers. These same consumers may visit your social media and review sites, but the larger problem is how these sites affect your local SEO ranking. The strategy shared with you today increases the authority of your domain, drives relevant traffic to your website, and boosts credibility of your dealership for the long-term success of your business. Think about it like this - you could be losing customers every day if your business is not ranking on local search, so now is the time to get started and really focus on a strategy to ensure your dealership is seen online by potential buyers.

A cold wave is sweeping the nation! People everywhere are experiencing colder weather than in recent years. You can leverage these freezing temperatures to promote services at your dealership. Check out these three ways to rev up your 2015 with service related campaign ideas.

Start Your Engines
This time of year reminds people why they want a remote start in their vehicles. Instead of scrapping windows clean in the bitter cold or heading out to sit in a frozen vehicle while it warms up, they can simply push a button from the comfort of their warm home and their vehicle will start automatically. Capitalize on this convenient vehicle feature and offer customers free installation or a discount on a remote start for their vehicle.

Check Your Tires
If you’re located in a place where snow and ice are covering the roads, you’ll want to think about this campaign idea. Tire wear throughout the year isn’t as noticeable as when you are trying to get traction on snowy and icy roads. Right now is a great time to let customers know that if they are tired of slipping and sliding all over the roads, they need to purchase new tires for their vehicle.

Inspect HVAC System
With temperatures around the country falling and the groundhog telling us there are six more weeks of winter, now may be a perfect time to remind customers to have their HVAC system inspected. Typically customers who have noticed a decrease in air flow or heat already know there is a problem and you reminding them to get their HVAC system inspected will promote action.

Right now is the time to capitalize on the cold weather that is sweeping the nation, because before you know it, it will be gone. Think about also offering cold weather related convenience services, like serving hot chocolate in your service waiting lounge or offering free vehicle pick-up and delivery. Get started now to leverage the colder weather and rev up your 2015 with increased service traffic.

A cold wave is sweeping the nation! People everywhere are experiencing colder weather than in recent years. You can leverage these freezing temperatures to promote services at your dealership. Check out these three ways to rev up your 2015 with service related campaign ideas.

Start Your Engines
This time of year reminds people why they want a remote start in their vehicles. Instead of scrapping windows clean in the bitter cold or heading out to sit in a frozen vehicle while it warms up, they can simply push a button from the comfort of their warm home and their vehicle will start automatically. Capitalize on this convenient vehicle feature and offer customers free installation or a discount on a remote start for their vehicle.

Check Your Tires
If you’re located in a place where snow and ice are covering the roads, you’ll want to think about this campaign idea. Tire wear throughout the year isn’t as noticeable as when you are trying to get traction on snowy and icy roads. Right now is a great time to let customers know that if they are tired of slipping and sliding all over the roads, they need to purchase new tires for their vehicle.

Inspect HVAC System
With temperatures around the country falling and the groundhog telling us there are six more weeks of winter, now may be a perfect time to remind customers to have their HVAC system inspected. Typically customers who have noticed a decrease in air flow or heat already know there is a problem and you reminding them to get their HVAC system inspected will promote action.

Right now is the time to capitalize on the cold weather that is sweeping the nation, because before you know it, it will be gone. Think about also offering cold weather related convenience services, like serving hot chocolate in your service waiting lounge or offering free vehicle pick-up and delivery. Get started now to leverage the colder weather and rev up your 2015 with increased service traffic.