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5 Email Strategies to Power your Dealership in 2020

5 Email Strategies to Power your Dealership in 2020 | ADI Agency

5 Email Strategies to Power your Dealership in 2020 | ADI Agency

5 Email Strategies to Power your Dealership in 2020

Marketing trends and best practices come and go, but email just keeps on clicking along as a must-have. Email has power that other marketing channels do not. But you can’t just keep recycling the same-old-same-old emails you’ve been using for years. You’re going to need a sharp, smart email strategy if you hope to successfully strengthen leads and increase dealership loyalty in 2020.

Are you singing their tune?

If you’re still thinking of your email contact database as a “mailing list,” your dealership is going to suffer. Prospects and existing customers are savvier than ever. As a marketer, you have to respect that and show your respect with emails that speak directly to each recipient.

For example, even your most devoted customers don’t want to hear from you unless you have something tantalizing for them. If they’ve never once rented a piece of equipment, your March Madness rental special won’t cause their heart to flutter. On the other hand, when you send that March Madness discount email to past rental customers and prospects that nave nibbled around the possibility of renting from your dealership, all hearts will be a-flutter.

Strategy #1: Segment that email list!

As our example above illustrates, relevance is critical. Sending an email to all of your email contacts is pointless – unless your message is “Happy Holidays from XYZ Dealership.” But you can’t effectively target your emails unless you know which contacts should receive this particular message. Thanks to the wonders of CRM and sales/marketing platforms, you can tag a specific customer or lead in multiple ways, making it even easier to customize and re-customize email messaging.

Think categories such as:

  • Location
  • Interest(s) – based on website pages visited, landing page conversions or inquiries
  • Purchasing behavior – track each customer separately for equipment purchases (new vs. used), rentals, service, repair shop usage, even parts desk)
  • You could even go for gender if you want to do an appeal just for the ladies on your list. (Not a bad campaign idea, given the increasing number of women involved in the construction and trucking industries, from owner/CEO on down.)

With segmentation, you can easily target a narrow niche of contacts or combine more than one “field” for a customized recipient pool.

Strategy #2: Snag their attention

Your subject line says it all. If this little headline (yes, it should be short) doesn’t compel your recipient to open the email so they can read your succulent content, you have failed. Subject lines that work best are witty, convey urgency, or issue a challenge. If you can make the reader smile (or laugh out loud) or fear they’re going to miss out on something, you will have their attention.

The body of your email (your content) should be short and sweet. You want to get to the point quickly, because brevity respects your reader’s time. They’ll appreciate that. If you have two or three key points to make, bullet them. Then leave the reader with a link to download the whole report, see the video, read the infographic, etc. I

If you embed any images, make sure they’re small enough to load quickly and look right on smartphone or tablet screens. Otherwise, you will frustrate people instead of impressing them.

Which brings us to . . .

Strategy #3: Call them to action

PEER Strategy | Engage | Calls To Action | Loyalty Bound | CTA

Marketing industry studies underscore the fact that contact segmentation can

  • Help you deliver more relevant content
  • Increase email open rates
  • Reduce unsubscribe and/or opt-out rates

These are good things. Recipients are actually opening your emails instead of hitting the delete button. But your goal is not for recipients to open your email, or even to read your message. You sent that email because you want them to DO something. Email marketing is successful when you tell them what to do, and make them want to do it.

What might the call to action (CTA) be?

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Strategy #4: Use email workflows

5 Email Strategies to Power your Dealership in 2020 | ADI AgencyExcept for your “Happy holidays” all-groups message, email marketing is not a one-and-done technique. Email works best as a campaign – a series of 4 to 6 messages that work together. We call this a workflow. Why is this so important?

Even if your first email hits home with your recipient – they love your message or offer – they may not be able to respond right then. They may need another nudge, or more information before they click to convert. If you send just one email, you lost that opportunity to further engage.

Workflows keep the momentum going. You send them about a week apart. When John Doe doesn’t respond to the first message, he gets email #2 (Hey, John, there’s still time to get this deal … ). If John is, well, Johnny on the Spot and responds to the first email (or a later one in the series), your marketing automation software will stop sending further emails to him.

Strategy #5: Rethink the newsletter

Some years back, sending email newsletters was all the rage. But then marketers realized that this concept amounted to TMI. Presenting recipients with too much information merely encouraged them to skip your email altogether. So probably, like a host of other dealerships, you jettisoned your newsletter as passé.

 But, wait! It turns out you can create an email newsletter that people will actually read. Why not make 2020 the year you surprise your email contacts with a new twist on this “old” idea!

 In fact, by smartly updating your email marketing strategy overall, you can look forward to renewed interest and engagement from both prospects and customers. And that could power a profitable 2020 for your dealership.

 

5 Email Strategies to Power your Dealership in 2020 | ADI Agency

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