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.

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.

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.

Did you know February is American Heart Month? Or that diseases of the heart are the number one killer in America? This February, leverage American Heart Month to drive customers and prospects to your door. Today you’ll learn three ways to raise awareness in your community and rev up your 2015.

Donate to the Cause
This idea is very simple. All you need to do is determine a dollar amount you will donate, the charity that will reap your donation, like the American Heart Association, and how your dealership will benefit from the campaign. There are many ways for your dealership and your charity of choice to benefit. For example, you could donate $5 for every oil change performed, $25 for every test drive taken, or $100 for every vehicle purchased during a given time period. This type of campaign is a win-win.

Sponsor a Walk for the Cause
Many cities throughout the country host a heart walk to raise awareness and promote healthy hearts in their communities. These events are always looking for sponsorships from local businesses, which presents a perfect opportunity for your dealership to step in and help out. A sponsorship to events like these are a great way for you to raise brand awareness in your community, generate goodwill, and in turn, drive more business to your store.

Promote Vehicle Health
Just like a human being, a vehicle runs off of a single “heart” – the engine. If it isn’t working properly, the vehicle will not run. Think about communicating heart healthy tips to customers for their bodies and their vehicles. You could even offer up some heart healthy vehicle savings to entice customers into your service drive.

Now is the time to get involved and show your support for healthy hearts and American Heart Month. You could select one of the ideas from above, combine them to make your impact more meaningful, or create a campaign unique to you. Whichever you decide, promoting healthy hearts will rev up your 2015 by increasing brand awareness, driving customers and prospects to your door, and informing your community about the number one killer in America.

We all know Presidents’ Day weekend is a great time to move vehicle inventory. Have you decided how you will communicate with customers and prospects about the vehicle inventory on your lot? Have you decided if you’ll draw customers and prospects into your store with a unique offer or customer appreciation event? Today I’ll share three topics to include in your Presidents’ Day marketing.

Leverage OEM Programs and Marketing
Most OEMs advertise Presidents’ Day vehicle incentives, some even provide creative elements to help dealers promote these weekend specials. OEMs spend lots of money to produce marketing materials for their Presidents’ Day incentives and you should leverage these national assets to gain more visibility for your campaign. If you choose, you can always increase your incentives to differentiate yourself from the competition, but leveraging the national brand is key to extending the reach of your campaign.

Promote Vehicle Service Specials
Although Presidents’ Day is predominantly a sales holiday, make sure you get noticed by including service incentives in your holiday weekend marketing. The truth is, not everyone is in the market to buy a vehicle and unless you are receiving accurate in-market data, many recipients will discredit your campaign because it doesn’t apply to them. So, think about including some Presidents’ Day service specials to entice customers and prospects to your dealership.

Be Creative
Let’s face it, Presidents’ Day weekend is a great time to attract business for almost every retail outlet. You can’t begin to fathom how much a consumer will be bombarded during the next couple of weeks with advertisements vying for their attention. Get creative and make sure your marketing campaign stands out from the pack. We believe the best approach is leveraging multi-channel delivery to gain visibility to your campaign through diverse mediums and at different times to grab a recipient’s attention.

Whatever your Presidents’ Day plans are, it is time to start putting some thought into how you will promote your dealership to drive additional traffic to your store for the holiday weekend. A profitable Presidents’ Day weekend is just the thing you need to rev up your 2015.

As we quickly finish up January and move into the second month of the year, you may already be able to see the predicated trend of rising vehicle sales for 2015. Vehicle sales is the number one indicator of success in the auto industry from year to year. However, I’m sure there are a number of other metrics you use to determine your yearly success, like customer retention, CSI scores, RO count, revenue, etc. All of these key performance indicators are important to you and the success of your dealership.

Due to the nature of our business, we always ask dealers to look at their marketing spend and cost per sale and service as a metric of success. For many of the dealers, we see an average marketing spend of $50,000 - $150,000, depending on the size of the store and allocated funds. At the core of our business, we strive to reduce a dealer’s marketing spend and find ways to drive down the cost per sale and service. Today, I’ll share five ways you can leverage our best practices and make a resolution to save marketing dollars.

Data Collection
One of the biggest wastes in the marketing world is inaccurately delivering campaigns. Specifically, delivering a campaign to the wrong physical or email address. Make it a point in 2015 to gather this information from your customers and input it accurately into your CRM or DMS. Think about putting processes in place so that each and every time one of your employees interacts with a customer, they ensure pertinent information is updated and correct so your marketing campaigns are delivered accurately and reach the right person.

Deliver Email
A great way to bring down marketing spend is by delivering email communications instead of direct mail. We all know that there are some communications that are best delivered through a direct mail channel; however, there are many that can be sent via email and will obtain the same response rates as a direct mail campaign. The truth is, when used correctly, an email is a fraction of the cost of a direct mail campaign.

Series Campaigns
If you aren’t convinced or aren’t ready to jump in with both feet and commit your marketing to an email delivery channel, think about creating a series of campaigns. Since email is the cheapest delivery channel, try communicating with customers first with an inexpensive email campaign. If you do not elicit the desired response from an email campaign, follow it up with a direct mail communication. Many customers will respond to an email campaign, which will save you on direct mail spend.

Segment Database
Not all customers react to the same type of marketing, so why would you market the same way to every customer? I know you’ve probably heard this before, but in today’s oversaturated marketing world, it’s true. Think about segmenting your database based on purchase behavior. Your new car customers will need to be simply reminded of their vehicle’s service needs, which can be accomplished with an email campaign. These customers have just purchased a vehicle and want to keep up on its maintenance to ensure their vehicle is running properly. Whereas a big ticket service customer, someone who is going to the independents for their minor maintenance, but coming to you for their major repairs, may need an email and direct mail campaign to drive them into your service drive on a more regular basis. Segmenting your database by purchase behavior is a great way to save on marketing.

Leverage Social Media and Reviews
In case you’ve been living under a rock, let me tell you, your customers are going online before coming to your dealership. Buyers are more educated than ever before on their purchase decision and who they will purchase from. Social media and review sites are free to join and cost very little advertising spend to promote. Your buyers are likely visiting these types of sites when deciding on who to buy their vehicle from or where to service their vehicle and one bad review can cost you up to 30 customers. By creating a positive online presence and filling social media and review sites with content from customers promoting your dealership, you’ll attract buyers and customers and lower your advertising spend.

With 2015 just starting, now is the time to reevaluate your marketing spend and figure out how to do more for less. These tips are really just the beginning and should provide you thought starters to implement new policies, practices, and processes for your 2015 marketing. This is your year to make a resolution to save marketing dollars.

Chances are your lot is starting to quickly fill with 2015 models and if you’re lucky, you have very few 2014s left. With the start of every new year, people everywhere are thinking about swapping their current vehicle for a newer, upgraded model. This situation puts you in a perfect position to jump start your 2015 vehicle sales.

Pull Ahead Leases
One great way to move new vehicle inventory is with a pull ahead lease program. Typically these are offered by the manufacturers, however, you could allow customers who currently lease desirable pre-owned vehicles to turn their leases in early. Most will jump at the chance to do so and you can put them into a lease for a newer model.

Vehicle in Demand
Another idea for you to boost your vehicle sales in 2015 is by leveraging a “we want your vehicle” campaign. Same basic principal as above except you aren’t just looking for lease vehicles. Look into your database for popular demand pre-owned vehicles and communicate to these owners about the high-demand for their vehicle. You could even offer to give them an extra incentive for trading in their vehicle now.

Trade Up
It happens all the time. A consumer buys a vehicle and then the next year the manufacturer comes out with a new body style or better technology features for that model. Well the consumer is instantly envious of the newer model and wants to get it. Capitalize on this with your 2015 vehicles by targeting customers who may have an older body style, less fuel economy, or outdated technology features and offer them an incentive to trade in their current vehicle and trade up to the newest model.

Now is the time to start leveraging your new 2015s to attract and entice your customers to get rid of their current vehicle and step into a new model. With these campaign ideas, you’ll stock your pre-owned inventory with quality vehicles and move additional 2015s.

If your goal for 2015 is to drive additional service traffic and revenue to your dealership, then this week’s campaign idea is for you. Chances are your customers have made New Year’s resolutions for all kinds of things, like losing weight, stopping a bad habit, or self-improvement. Think about asking your customers to make a New Year’s resolution to stay current on their vehicle’s maintenance.

Resolve for Better Vehicle Maintenance
With a consumer’s busy life, they often forget about their vehicle and the maintenance it needs to continue to be in top working order. By sending them a communication and asking them to make a resolution to their vehicle, you bring the topic of vehicle maintenance to their attention and your dealership top-of-mind.

Remind Customer of Their Resolution
There is a big difference between making a resolution and keeping a resolution. You will need to have a plan of attack in place to remind customers to keep their vehicle maintenance resolutions. Think about sending helpful reminders every quarter about their 2015 vehicle maintenance resolutions or put together a type of calendar for customers who have resolved for better vehicle maintenance to keep them on track.

Reward Customers for their Resolutions
Provide a reward at the end of 2015 for customers who have kept their resolution throughout the year. You could offer them a gift such as a free oil change or car washes for 2016. Anything would be appreciated and would ensure your customers always come back to you for any future vehicle service needs.

New Year’s resolutions are a great way to connect with customers, increase brand awareness, and drive additional traffic and revenue. January presents the perfect time for you to ensure your customers are resolving to keep up with vehicle maintenance.