How to Build that Dynamic Email List

Dealer Magazine

By Gary Nixon

I grew up practicing the maxim that every cloud has a silver lining, and you’ll find one even in this dark-cloud market if you’ll simply look at the situation as opportunity.

I realize many readers are doing the best they can just to hang on today. Each dealer I speak to is looking closely at every single expense with the goal of dramatically reducing each while increasing business. One expense that can be reduced significantly is marketing and promotion.

Yet many of the dealers I speak with continue to use expensive non-technology-based means for advertising their products and services, such as hardcopy mailers. I encourage these dealers to reconsider those expenditures and look closely at email marketing as a better alternative.

Email marketing continues to be the most cost effective way of communicating those important dealership promotions/announcements and service due notifications with customers and prospects.  A recent Aberdeen Group study confirmed this fact: “While 60% of marketers plan to cut their traditional marketing budgets this year, 47% of marketers plan to boost their email marketing budgets,” the study reported.

Now more than ever before, dealerships must look at the most cost effective way of marketing/communicating to their customers/prospects resulting in achieving the most effective return on investment (ROI).

Email marketing continues to reign as the lowest-cost, most-effective marketing medium to promote business to your dealership. However, as effective as email marketing is, let me state as an important aside that email marketing is not always the kind of communications every customer wants to receive from you. As you go about building your customer and prospect base, be sure you give customers the opportunity to tell you how they prefer to be contacted. For instance, while most customers will desire email communications, some still prefer phone contact, traditional mail or, in growing popularity, text messaging and related communications (e.g. live chat). A majority of our dealership customers offer each of these variations to their customers to ensure their message has the highest probability of being acted upon.

With email marketing, the broader your list the wider the net you can cast on an ongoing basis. Important Note:  Be sure you offer your customers the opportunity to “opt-out” of future email communications to keep within the CAN-SPAM regulations.

Just as your compliance to CAN-SPAM regulations is an act of integrity, so must each of your communications. In other words, every email must work toward building trust in and reliability of your dealership and its people. This is most easily accomplished by insisting on quality standards, including the proper use of language and grammar, the proper content and message, and the proper salutation. It is best to address a recipient by name (e.g. “John Smith” or “Ms. Sally Jones”) and where the customer’s name is absent from the email database then use a generic formal greeting such as Dear Valued Customer.  

Email templates should be crisp and visually appealing, and ideally their styles and formats should mimic the styles and colors of your web site so there’s continuity of brand and presentation.

Emails must also include an appropriate call to action or what it is you want the recipient of your mailing to do as a result (i.e. click for more information, search for more information, make a service appointment, view a multi-media presentation or any number of other actions).

Keep in mind that while email provides a low-cost marketing solution, it is important not to take advantage of this by “flooding” customers continually with your promotions. Instead, be sure to send notifications based on specific events requiring action applicable to that customer or prospect. I have seen dealerships “blast” their messages out continually, eventually paying the price by having their emails being flagged as “spam” by their customers’ and prospects’ Internet Service Provider.

When used properly – with an increasing number of consumers preferring this communications mode – you will see greater response rates to your email messages and associated cost savings. After all, email is a way of marketing two-way communications with your customers and prospects that gives them the opportunity to respond to your offer immediately. I can just hear readers commenting, “I agree, but our dealership has done a very poor job of collecting valid emails…in fact we probably have fewer than 15% email addresses in our dealer management system (DMS).

Do not fear, email append is here!

Okay, let’s help you build your email list. Here are some proven ideas that will help you capture customers’ emails to your DMS and/or improve the email quality:

1. Email Appending Services. Most dealerships upon investigating the depth and accuracy of their email list will be disappointed. The industry’s as a whole has not done a real thorough job at collecting these increasingly valuable addresses, but hope is not lost.

Email Appending is a process whereby a vendor will capture all of the names and addresses from your DMS database and compare them to the National Change of Address (NCoA) service and check for name/address validation.

The append service, such as CIMA Systems, will then compare these customers with numerous national databases to find a match of each name and address and if found an associated email address. These databases contain email addresses from customers who may have ordered a newspaper or magazine at one time.

If a match is found, the append services vendor will contact these customers on your behalf asking them for their approval (with the opt out option) of communicating valuable information about dealership specials and their vehicle needs. Once approved, the email is “pushed” or placed back into your DMS for future communications.

 Important Note: Some email append service vendors will keep the newly found email address on their system. The reason behind this is to get you locked into using only their system for your email communications. It is important to make sure you get these emails into your DMS and are not held hostage by any vendor.

Email appending is an excellent way to “prime the pump” in getting started with an email base. Once established, it provides you with a strong foundation to begin building on communications with your customers utilizing this method.

1. Collect them at your store. Fundamental but often neglected is the collection of email addresses from customers and prospects by sales and service personnel. When engaging customers one-on-one or by phone, ask if you might have their e-address for ongoing communications with them about special offers, discounts, vehicle notifications, etc.

What process can you put in place to make the collection and capture of these addresses easy and assured? There are several methods used to encourage email captures. Dealers have found that providing something in return to your customers is a sure way of receiving it. First, it is important to inform the customer that the email address is kept confidential and will be used solely to keep them abreast of important information regarding their vehicle and dealership announcements. In order to encourage them to provide this address, provide them a special offer such as entering their email address in a monthly drawing for a free iPhone or oil change. In fact, one of our dealership customers has used many of the recommendations within this article and has 90%-plus customer email addresses in their DMS.

As a cautionary note, we have seen some dealership offer a “spiff” to their employees for collecting email addresses. Collecting emails in the rush of business can be tough and result in incomplete or inaccurate addresses collected or if no address collected an imaginary one created (e.g. sallycustomer@anywhere.com). Be sure your staff gets valid and accurate addresses. Doing so will ensure that your list is clean, bounces are reduced and your response rate improved.

Important Note: If you’re using a vendor to manage your email communications program, insist that they notify you promptly when bounces and other inaccurate or “dead” addresses are returned so your list can remain cleansed and therefore more effective.

1. Offer an e-newsletter/Blog. Another way to capture an email is to offer your customers a newsletter or blog as another method of capturing their email. Be sure to market it visibly on your web site and other materials; for instance, create a simple, small paper form that you clip to every buy order or repair order that triggers the salesperson or service advisor to ask the prospect to offer his or her e-address information. Be sure the newsletter or blog link on the web site enables you to capture their email address. One dealership that does this very well is San Francisco Ford, Lincoln-Mercury (www.sanfrancisoford.com). Check out their Blog and you will see that they ask all visitors to join their VIP program which automatically captures the visitors email address for all future dealership promotions/communications.
2. Offer a customer loyalty program. In order for the customer to receive rewards, you inform them that they must provide you with their email address. Tie the program into service visits or parts purchases or other profit center offers to entice repeat business and retention. Such a program need not be costly. Like many coffee and sandwich shops have proven to be effective, start a redeemable-for-service-type program whereby with every 10 LOF services the next one is free, etc. Obtain participants’ emails when they sign up and let them track their “points” on a special section of your web site.

A recent Digital Dealer poll showed many dealerships have had success offering a free rental as part of their loyalty program when customers bring their vehicle in for service. Have printed information on the front counter of your dealership and make it a policy that every consumer receives a copy when they visit.  Train your service and sales teams to ask every one of these potential rental customers or loaner users to provide their email address. 

1. Start a car clinic. By doing so you can inform the customer that they will be notified of future sessions only through email. As part of its promotion, require responders to provide their email address.
2. Your ideas. You’re probably using email address-building ideas not mentioned here and, if so, I’d love to learn about them and perhaps feature your ideas in a future article.

In summary, before you can have a successful email marketing campaign you have to build a viable database of email addresses. Make sure you’re not putting the cart before the horse; take the time to build an accurate and comprehensive database so that your special offers, insightful newsletters and dealership incentives are actually received, read and acted upon by your target audience.

Now is the right time to turn the dark clouds into the silver lining of an accurate, healthy email marketing list that will benefit your business greatly now and going forward.

About the author

Gary Nixon is President and CEO of CIMA Systems, a leading provider of automated multi-channel, multi-medium customer communications solutions for automobile retailers. For more information visit www.cimasystems.net.

Tags: Email Marketing, CIMA Systems, Car Dealers, Cost Effective, ROI