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As I conduct internet lead mystery shopping to dealers around the country I am constantly amazed at the lack of control that dealers have with their email marketing.  It is amazing to see how many dealers send me follow up email templates that go directly to my spam folders.  What is even more amazing is how many dealers fail to pick up the phone to call me.  But I will leave that for another topic.

I just called on a local Honda dealer in my area about doing some consulting work because they lacked follow up on a lead that I had submitted.  I also know for a fact that their direct competitor is working with another consulting company to be up on their game.  So when I mystery shop the other store I see that they are doing things right to a certain extent.  It is interesting to see how many dealers there are out there that lack proper marketing and follow up processes.  It seems as if the CRM gets installed by the vendor in a "set it and forget it" fashion.  These dealers are sending out emails and wonder why they are not reaching anyone.  The reality is that people try to avoid spam and usually just delete what emails go there.

Dealers need to have a strategy to constantly update their email templates and processes so that emails are sent out properly.  Remember, the goal of an email is to be intriguing enough to get the customer to call you back and increase your connection with them.  At the same time, it is important to stop over complicating things and keep them simple.  I am talking about making your the content is not "spammy" with words like "amazing savings".  The email needs to be compelling, selling value, promote a positive online reputation and be less pitchy.  Give the customer a reason to call you back and replace the impersonal with the personal.

Recently, I learned from Ford Direct an interesting way of creating a subject line.  They taught me to keep simple and to include a phone number.  The phone number allows for mobile users to press on it and call the dealership right away.  This is how it should look:

"ABC Motors 717 515 2200"

Do not include the dashes.  I was told that a subject line that simple is more likely to avoid spam.  I was impressed that I started using it and it has helped my dealers greatly.  This is just one of many strategies that needs to be considered when sending emails.

For more information or training on how to effectively create emails that trigger proper responses and avoid spam, contact me at stan@dealeretraining.com or visit my website at http://dealeretraining.com/

In addition, dealers that want to learn how to incorporate proper emails into their BDC/Internet Sales Processes need to attend my workshop at AutoCon 2012 on September 5-8, 2012 in Las Vegas.

There will be even more opportunities to learn at the Internet Sales 20 Group October 23-25, 2012 in Chicago (http://www.dealerelite.net/events/internet-sales-20-group)...more information to be available soon.