The shotgun approach to automotive email marketing is the best way for your dealership’s message to end up being marked as spam.  Working with our dealers we have found that targeting email messages to customer based on their specific vehicle models tend to have higher open rates than those blanketed approaches do.  Below are three ways your dealership can target your automotive email marketing to increase open rates.

Recently we have found a lot of success in getting customer feedback for our dealers.  Using an automotive survey in an email message will increase interaction between your dealership and your customers.  People generally enjoy being able to give their feedback and your dealership can use this as way to improve your customer satisfaction.  Once your customers finish your dealership’s survey you can reward them with coupons by driving that traffic back to your website.

Most dealers tend to use automotive email marketing to promote their sales events or their ridiculously low lease rates.  Every now and again it is nice to reach out to your past and potential customers with a greeting.  Greetings are a great way to keep your brand fresh in the consumers eye.  By reaching out and wishing your customer a Happy Birthday or Merry Christmas might not generate a lead in the short term, but they will remember that the next time their ready to schedule a test drive.

Another great way to stay in contact with your customers is by reminding them of service.  A recent poll we conducted shows that customers overwhelming prefer Email for Service Reminders by 88%. You can drive traffic to your lot by sending out email messages with incentives to get their tune up at your dealership.

88% of Service Customers Prefer Email Reminders

If your dealership is looking for ways to keep that top of the mind awareness for your vehicle inventory and automotive services we suggest using , Greetings and Service Reminders in your Email Marketing Campaigns.  Each of these are great ways to increase open rates while reducing unsubscribe rates of your dealership’s automotive email marketing.

PAUL POTRATZ