Email marketing offers dealers the opportunity to engage with more potential customers
With 225 billion emails being sent every day, it’s safe to say that email is a powerful form of communication with massive marketing potential. Email marketing also boasts an exceptionally high ROI, with 83% growth from 2015–2017 according to the Salesforce State of Marketing report.
The numbers send a clear message: you should be using email marketing as a way to boost sales and draw more customers to your dealership, both online and on foot. In this article, we’ll discover five actionable items to make your email marketing campaigns more impactful.
Harness the power of AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a major buzzword these days, and new advancements make it capable of working wonders in your email marketing campaigns. Ironically, using an AI platform to analyze user data can allow you to make your emails more human, and more personalized than ever before. An AI platform can help you save time and increase productivity by customizing content based on individual client data, and monitoring and analyzing your campaigns in real time. Using an AI platform frees up time which you can spend on other important activities in your business, and allows you to create personalized experiences for each customer on your mailing list.
AI isn’t perfect, so you can’t expect it to do everything, but as the technology advances and developers continue to experiment and make improvements, its usefulness will increase.
Personalize it
Personalization is essential to boosting email marketing ROI—52% of people will consider changing brands if their emails aren’t personalized, according to the State of Marketing Report. Use big data and AI analytics to tailor your emails to each customer by using emotionally charged touch points and hitting subject areas that interest that person the most.
For example, if a potential customer is interested in useful car maintenance advice, information about simple car care tips and repair services could pique their interest. Including the right content for each user will increase your open rate considerably.
Make it mobile-friendly
Of course, it’s no surprise that many people are reading emails on their mobile devices these days, so if you don’t already have mobile platforms in mind when you’re designing your email marketing materials, you should start thinking about that now. A simple single column of text with visual elements such as photos, call to action buttons, hover buttons, and add-to-order carts, are all things that could be added into the mix to make your emails feel more like a website experience.
Keep in mind that there are many different types—and sizes—of phones and tablets on the market. That means that what looks good on one device, might not show up properly for another customer viewing your email on a different device. Responsive design will ensure that your email is adapted to fit the screen of whoever is on the other end.
Provide useful info and advice
People are wary of constantly being inundated with sales and marketing materials, so your emails should contain more than just promotional offers and sales on the latest models to arrive on your lot this week.
Instead of packing your marketing emails with only promos, include content about things like maintenance tips or travel advice. A how-to article on oil changes, or a primer on winter tires are a couple of examples of things you could include. When you provide useful information, you’ll paint your company as an expert and earn more customers’ trust.
Scrub your mailing list
Not everyone on your mailing list is going to respond to your email campaigns and newsletters, so it’s a good idea to regularly scrub your list and remove contacts that aren’t responding.
The step in this process is to identify which subscribers haven’t been opening your emails, and initiate a reengagement campaign to get them back on board. A good way to reengage customers who’ve gone cold is to send them a “we miss you” message. For example, you could send them a personalized message that says something like “we haven’t heard from you in a while. Are you aware of our new financing offers on used vehicle trade-ins?” A personalized follow up message might be enough to bring them back into the fold. If they still don’t respond even after your attempts to reengage, it’s time to take them off your list.
Email marketing is a powerful and important tool for promoting your brand, building customer loyalty, and competing in today’s digital landscape. Like most digital marketing efforts, becoming successful with email marketing requires lots of planning and testing, but these tips can help you kick your email marketing into high gear.