Email Marketing: 5 Tips to Get Started
Car dealers across the country are looking for ways to generate more leads for less money. A couple of weeks back we talked about free automotive portals and the response was impressive. Today, let’s talk about low-cost leads.
At Strathcom, we find email newsletters to be one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to generate web traffic and additional leads for not only new and used vehicle sales, but also fixed ops.
In some cases, a dealer can already send a basic email newsletter from their CRM system. If you can’t, there are many services out there that will take care of almost the entire process for a few-hundred bucks a month.
So, what do you want to consider when writing an email newsletter? Here are 5 tips to get the ball rolling:
1. Content is king. Everyone talks about the importance of content, but actually developing content is a little more involved. As part of our email newsletter service, we work with clients to develop topics and then write the content for them.
What if you want to make your own content? Look at your website: what are your existing and prospective clients looking at? Along with content, think of the layout as well. A newsletter that can incorporate images, logos and videos is a lot more appealing than just text.
2. If it’s a promotion, make it worthwhile. Just $5 off a $70 oil change may not bring many customers into your dealership, however a $199 windshield replacement with a free inspection and tire rotation will. Sound crazy? One group we work with generated 741 leads in less than a week by doing just that.
3. Link your newsletter to the appropriate page on your website. If you are going to be promoting a specific part of your business, make sure your newsletter links to the right page on your website. This generates more traffic to your website and increases online leads.
4. Segment your database. Some people in your database are there for certain reasons. If you can segment your email database and deliver highly targeted newsletters you will have an even better chance at success.
5. Measure, test, repeat. Not every newsletter is going to be a smashing success, but you will improve if you measure what happens with each delivery. A basic newsletter program can tell you how many newsletters were delivered, opened, clicked on, forwarded and more. Use this data to make your newsletter as effective as possible.
Hopefully this sheds some light on starting your own email newsletter campaign. I highly recommend that you consider this cost-effective option to generate more leads. If you have questions, please feel free to give me a shout.
– Duncan Cochrane
