Your customers do want to hear from you. Many of them even love you and want to know about your specials and promotions. Whenever a customer receives an automated phone call reminding them of their service appointment, part ready or a Happy Birthday wish, it always offers them the option to leave their email address at the end of the message. By doing so, an email notification is generated to you along with their Customer ID # and the voice recording.

Open the attached .wav file (you must have speakers or an audio card to hear the message) and write down the email address your customer provided. Then enter that email address into the customer record located in your data management system. It is strongly recommended you designate one or two people at the dealership to manage this task.
The next day that customer will receive the Welcome Message with a valuable coupon that they can redeem immediately (click on Welcome Message attachment) instructing them to add you to their ‘safe sender list’.

Now any subsequent promotion or special offers you wish to send them they will receive right to their Inbox!

Anyone sending emails on a regular basis knows the plague of writing a good subject line. You need to grab your reader’s attention as they skim through their full inbox of emails… but how? What does a good subject line have to do with spam filters? How do I tell my readers what is in my email, without overloading my subject with ‘spam trigger words’?

There are a lot of questions and theories out there about email subject lines. Heck, if you google ‘email subject lines’ about 12,000,000 entries show up! But don’t be overwhelmed, we are here to help you understand the facts of the subject lines and spam.

As the Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) and web email clients get more sophisticated in accessing emails, the sender’s reputation ends up being the trigger for ‘spam’ filters rather than the subject line. Luckily, here at CIMA Systems we are always checking our reputation and our email deliverability. BUT the subject still plays the major roll of who really decides what is spam: the customer.

What we know:

• The FROM name is one of the most important items in a subject line. It lets the reader know who the email is coming from and that it is a trusted name.

• The subject line is the second element the user sees, after the FROM Name. Where they are viewing this email can depend, so you want to make sure that your bottom line information is right there to persuade them to open.Don’t Lie. That is a sure fire way to make someone unsubscribe, and it violates the The USA’s Can-Spam Act which bans emails that are…”…likely to mislead a recipient, acting reasonably under the circumstances, about a material fact regarding the contents or subject matter of the message…”

• Rest assured, you CAN Say ‘Free’ or ‘Sale’ or ‘$50 Off’ in your subject line! Gone are the days of emails being filtered just by subject line alone. There are hundreds of variables that mail filters use when checking spam vs legitimate marketing emails. A good rule of thumb: if it sounds spammy, then it most likely is. Instead of saying “FREE FREE FREE!!!” try “A Free Car Wash, our way of saying thanks!”

You may be thinking to yourself “But I have SO MUCH good stuff in my email, how can I fit it into a short subject line?” Fear Not, for now we have…

• The Pre – Header. The Pre-Header is the first line of text that the email shows above your HTML and graphics. This can also act as a call to action by flowing with your email’s FROM name and the subject line. Within the Pre-Header we have a little more room to play with our words, and our call to action.

To This:

Keeping those items in mind we are now allowed to focus on the customer and what would get them to open up the email. Trying to convey a sense of urgency, or by letting the user know that they have “exclusive” savings is also known to help open rates. By putting your email’s call to action first in the subject, letting them know who it is from, and keeping good template standards will help keep your emails to stay out of the spam box!

Successful email marketing requires a clean email list. The size of your list is not as important as is the quality of the email addresses in your database. Important emails are sent out each day on behalf of your dealership. Service Reminders, Special Order Parts, Vehicle Ready, Surveys (to name a few) all require valid email addresses to ensure delivery to your customer. Listed below are a few simple ways to keep your email list clean:

1. Enter only valid email addresses – Avoid entering bogus email addresses into your database. Invalid email addresses like na@aol.com, noemail@yahoo.com, abc@abc.com, or emails made up by the dealership should be deleted from your name file. Bogus email addresses affect delivery rates and reputation. If you have to enter an email address, use na@na.com or none@none.com. CIMA Systems will filter out these email addresses from loading into CIMA.
2. Delete bounced emails from your name file. CIMA Systems will delete bounced email addresses from your CIMA System instantly. However if you do not remove bounced email addresses from your database, those emails will reload into CIMA once we run another import from your DMS. This is important because big ISP’s such as Yahoo or AOL, will label you as a spammer if you repeatedly try sending emails to non-existing (expired, mistyped, etc) addresses. This is because it may appear to them as typical spammer practice.
3. Flag customers who have opted out of email as “do not email” in your database. Please contact your DMS support center for instructions on how to flag opt-outs.
4. Actively seek email addresses from your clients. Opt-in email lists achieve higher open/click-thru/retention rates. Customers who are willing to opt-in to receive your email messages are more likely to open, read, and purchase products and services. Customer facing associates should ask for emails addresses and educate customers on the benefits of giving their email address. On the service drive or in the cashier’s office, associates should not only ask for email addresses but they should also verify the email address on file is still active.

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By Gary Nixon

Proactive marketing of factory-recommended services as well as dealership recommendations prior to the customer arriving in the drive not only pre-sells your service business, but displays your expertise at keeping their vehicle in top performance.

To accomplish this, you will need a plan of action and some automation to make such pre-selling practical, largely hands-off, and effective. Your audience must include new and used vehicle customers, current service customers, those you haven’t serviced in a while, and those which declined some of your recommended services.

Today, most dealers attempt to do this with a “blast” direct mail or email offering one-time service specials like a lube, oil filter or brake special hoping customers will see a coupon that is applicable to the service they feel their vehicles need. Although this plan does result in a spike in service, it is only temporary.’

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According to Reuters, auto sales dropped 12 percent in March alone and predictions are that they will continue to decline through the second quarter of this year. Experts counsel that a strong focus on promoting your parts and service business is the way to keep your profits up during this down time. I’d like to offer a different perspective to ensure you focus on your entire dealership.

Although individual promotions for parts and services, vehicles sales, or any other aspect of your dealership are an integral part of your marketing plan, sending communications that promote specific departments to the exclusion of others sets you up for a roller coaster ride. For example, a marketing promotion that only touts a $9.99 oil change may make your service business rise briefly, but it may soon go right back down again, leaving you in a constant state of peaks and valleys, scrambling to come up with even better promotions.

Instead, focus on promoting your entire dealership. This approach gives you room to highlight a particular department, for instance your service department, while still tying in all the services and products you offer that meet the full gamut of customer needs. Marketing your dealership as a whole sets you up for a steady stream of revenue, so your business remains strong even during the most difficult economic conditions.
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