Here's my two cents as a vendor without being self promoting. SMS is great for quick dialogue like confirming appointments etc., and can be great for lead generation if used properly. The problem with most companies selling SMS marketing in our industry is that they treat it like a coffee shop. Customers don't want to opt in and get pestered by a dealership every week about buying a car.
They also don't want to text in just to receive a link to the car they are already staring at right in front of them. Think like a consumer for a second.
SMS works for lead gen when there is a benefit to the shopper. Our dealers use calls to action via overlay on all of their 3rd party classifieds etc with a call to action promoting a special offer by text if the shopper texts their code to our number. When the buyer texts the code, they get a digital coupon that's trackable and a message letting them know that the dealer will call to verify receipt. From there phones start ringing automatically.
Does it work? Yes. Dealers who stock 2-300 new and used in West Michigan get an additional 40-50 opportunities each month in the winter and 80-120 on average in the summer.
this model works for consumers because it incentivized the customer for taking action.
it works for the dealer because the stage is properly set for them to call and make sure the customer got the coupon and "by the way, what were you looking at when you texted in?"...now it's a phone up.
Texting stock numbers etc adds unnecessary complexity for consumers and they don't need a link to your car if they're already on your lot or looking at it online. That all sounds niece and allows us as dealers to track which stock # etc but we have to give the buyer a benefit if we want them to engage and we have to make it easy for them .
What they need is a good reason to engage and if used properly, SMS is a good avenue.
Our method is a one-off text to get setup as well so there is no opt-in for marketing later on thus protecting from potential TCPA concerns in the future.
Jeff, I hope I provided enough info without being too self promoting so I will take it a step further and feel free to moderate anything that doesn't fit the guidelines.
What I explained above can be done by any dealer using many simple SMS companies found online if you want to do the work. The challenge is making sure the company you use isn't using some crummy SMTP to text protocol because those often don't deliver properly and lead to a poor consumer experience. If you want it done properly you will get better results by working with someone who knows what they're doing.
When I launched my company,KonigCo, I had spent 12 years in retail auto, then was a trainer for Cars.com and then launched Edmunds direct to dealer program. I saw dealer after dealer looking for a way to increase conversion without cannibalizing emails and phone ups. I created iCall AutoLeads with a model I hoped (at that time nobody had any dealer info just SMS stats like what we saw from someone else earlier so not really relevant to dealers)...so again, I hoped, it would work as planned since it was creating a consumer benefit and dealer benefit.
After tracking it with our dealers over nearly two years we have dealers from KIA to LEXUS getting great results. Happy to share those results with anyone who wants to reach out.
SMS is like any other call to action in the sense that it must offer a benefit for the consumer that's worth taking action.
Thats my two cents....well, more like $2
