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Email Quotes - Text or Graphics?

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MullerToyota

MullerToyota

Boss
Jun 20, 2009
103
8
First Name
Muller
#1
Ok, I am back and forth on this a ton. Based on everyone's experience, do you think utilizing text only emails for quotes and autoresponse emails to reach customers is the best idea? Or does presentation count and a nicely designed layout with buttons to our website, etc provide a better chance of actually seeing the customer?

Personally, in the last year, the market for Toyota has been so crazy in my area (Northern NJ), that I can't get a good feel for what works better or not.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!
 
#3
Hi Clay - good question. Truth is, the answer to this has changed several times over years. In terms of presentation, a nicely presented email with graphics is going to be better, and also establishes that your customer is getting a professional response and quote on what is typically the second highest purchase item they get every few years. However, what has driven how we do this is whether or not the email with graphics would get "spammed out", or whether (in later years) it could easily be seen on a cell phone (for someone with a Blackberry or other type of smart phone, or someone who did not have a smart phone...). We have taken both approaches over the years based upon the current situation in the market. Currently, we do email a professional email template for price quotes, and have found that the significant majority of our customers have no problem getting it on their computer, and on their cell phone (the amount of people with "smart phones" has significantly risen). With that said, we also have a plain text template that we can send with a price quote when needed.
 
#4
I agree that my friends don't email me anything with graphics, unless its from failblog, but do you think people expect or are impressed by a professionally laid out quote from a dealer?

I don't do follow-up with any graphics at all, but the quote, I feel, should stand out.

My question is, if dealer A gives you a professional looking quote and dealer B does not - even if both dealers have the same price and are the same distance from your house/job and both do a good job of follow-up, is there any statistical evidence to suggest that one will get the sale over the other?

Personally, if it weren't for the fact that images get spam blocked more than text, I think I would stick more with a professionally laid out quote.
 
#5
There is a difference between a nicely templated email provided by your CRM or ILM that was designed by people who have ways of measuring the spam impact and just throwing a bunch of pictures into an email.

All I was getting at is that most people don't receive emails that are full of graphics unless it is a newsletter or promotional piece. But there is definitely a compromise that can come off very nice. I am envisioning a simple frame around a table where the top and bottom of the frame has a thin image that brands your dealership and/or yourself.
 
#6
I have moved more stores further away from contining graphics in my email templates due to spam issues, but mainly due to the exposion of mobile devices. A small logo won't hurt if it brands your store, but I prefer a link back to my site if I want the customer to see something like a video review of the vehicle they are concidering.
 
#7
Good question.

Here is what I recommend if you are going down the route of price quoting.

Side note: before sending a price quote, my philosophy is to take first opportunity to show a sense of urgency to serve the customer. Being professional and taking the opportunity to build rapport will often lead you down a path passing right by the price quote.

IF the price quote is in the deck of cards, play cards..it's rarely the vehicle they purchase anyways. *

I love PDF's. They open on just about every computer. They slide through the spam filters and they can offer a professional presentation. I recommend each and every ISM have a way of saving a document/price quote in PDF format.

With this, you can build our your price quote in text, copy paste into a professional word .doc and save as a PDF. Send both the text and the .pdf in 2 separate emails. Why not?

Be sure your CRM will allow you to easily attach a .PDF. You'll be surprised, there are a few crm's out there that make this a real challenge. *
 
#8
Jeff Kershner said:
I love PDF's. They open on just about every computer. They slide through the spam filters and they can offer a professional presentation. I recommend each and every ISM have a way of saving a document/price quote in PDF format.
Click to expand...


Jeff, I can say that by providing price quotes to our customers, we get more traffic from the internet. However, that is followed up my very aggressive phone call follow-up.

But, the PDF idea is great. Currently, we download window stickers to PDF and attach them to our quotes, but being able to send the entire quote in a PDF might be a great idea.

Alex, I agree a bunch of random graphics is not something that is beneficial. Currently my template looks more like a 2 column webpage with links on the left of the quote to take them to various landing pages on our website and a header to brand our dealership. Inside the body of the email gives them the quote, disclaimer, and some information about our dealership.

Rob, I agree, the SPAM issue seems to be the biggest detractor for using graphics. In response to that problem, I do have my auto-response go out in all text, and in the body of the email in bold red letters, I remind my customers that they should check their SPAM folder if they do not receive my quote within a certain period of time. I have found that people do see that line and have confirmed they received my quote in their SPAM folder because they looked for it.

I think that by asking the question, and responding to everyone's excellent observations, that I do actually like quote template I am using. However, if it becomes cumbersome to continue to implement due to SPAM issues, I have no problem going back to a text only quote.
 
#10
MullerToyota said:
Ok, I am back and forth on this a ton. Based on everyone's experience, do you think utilizing text only emails for quotes and autoresponse emails to reach customers is the best idea? Or does presentation count and a nicely designed layout with buttons to our website, etc provide a better chance of actually seeing the customer?
Click to expand...

I prefer a happy medium. I did several split tests, adn find an arrow or 2 to the main points makes a huge difference.

I also found by making it to "corporate" they seemed not be scared away.

Good luck!
 
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