Dealership email campaigns remain one of the highest-ROI ways to reach customers. Yuriy Kamsha breaks down best practices, common mistakes and smarter ways to communicate.
Despite the rise of a variety of social media channels and the constant presence of other platforms like texting, live calls and direct mail, email campaigns remain a reliable high return on investment channel for dealerships to connect directly with their customers. Not all emails are created equally, and it’s important to understand the common pitfalls when choosing an email software platform or writing content for your dealership.
All dealership emails should start with a header banner containing things like the logo, address, phone numbers, and quick links to common places like “Schedule Service” or “Hours and Directions.” The first piece of content varying from email to email will then be a “hero image” containing a topical graphic and the large headline you’re trying to get across like “Appointment Reminder” or “Black Friday Specials.” Following this will be the primary content, including things like the body message to the customer, coupons or special offers, and a call-to-action button or banner like “Schedule Appointment” or “View Specials.” Lastly, it’s important to have a footer with things like fine print, compliance information and a link to unsubscribe.
There are a variety of things that can go wrong with email campaigns, but many of them stem from either triggering spam filters or failing to consider the customer’s experience. Here are some of the most common traps to avoid:
All image emails: It’s always necessary to have some plain-text content in your emails, both from the perspective of spam filters and because of readability. Many desktop-based email clients don’t load images by default, making it important to put as much as you can in plain text and provide alt text for any image descriptions.
Special characters and all caps: Some amount of exclamation points and dollar signs are acceptable in the email body, however, putting special characters or price tags in the subject line is one of the easiest ways to get the email sent straight to spam.
Device optimization: People view emails on a variety of devices, including phones, tablets and different-sized monitors. Too frequently emails are designed with one of these sizes in mind, and viewing it on a different device makes images blurry or causes other formatting issues.
Compliance on emails should be handled automatically by your email software or CRM provider. This removes the possibility of human error and allows you to consistently insert things like opt-out links, privacy policies or any other content needed, while also automatically managing customer lists, segments and opt-outs.
Compliance, however, is not necessarily the only consideration. Having the ability to email customers daily does not necessarily mean that it’s wise. Consider what frequency of communication your customers will tolerate, segment out marketing emails to only the base of customers most likely to respond to them and generally give your campaigns room to breathe. The last thing you want is for customers who otherwise might have responded to marketing down the line getting annoyed and unsubscribing.
Transactional emails include communications like appointment reminders, where the customer is already expecting contact as part of them naturally engaging with your dealership. These are a great place to insert promotional banners for things like trade-up programs or other ongoing specials. By grabbing a bit of screen real estate toward the bottom of a standard communication, you can promote an ongoing program without the risk of sending it as a promotional email that could lead to the customer unsubscribing.
Email communications are a crucial component in daily operations for most businesses, including dealerships. It’s important to have a basic understanding of how emails should be structured, common mistakes to avoid and the frequency with which to contact customers to avoid opt-outs. Even more crucially, choosing an email software platform or CRM that can automatically handle compliance and has expertise in email marketing can make the whole process significantly easier. There’s never a wrong time to optimize your email outreach to your customers and start reaping the rewards.
Originally published on Auto Success Online
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