What do Honda and Justin Bieber have in common?

[terrencegordon]

This newsletter hit my inbox today from a local dealership. There was one article about a Honda Lease special, one article about snow tires, something about Justin Bieber and an article literally titled, "Fifty Amazing but Completely Useless Facts".

Sorry. I am not in the market for a Honda...nor 50 additional yet completely useless facts (my friends say I have plenty already)...and I surely don't have Bieber Fever.

Are these 2001-style newsletters actually still working for dealers? I'd love to know what the success metrics are...

 

[Foos56]

We send out e-mails with new inventory listings to our potential clients, and occasionally receive inquiries based on those e-mails. We also offer an in-office newsletter that some current customers snag when they come in to pay (we are a Buy Here Pay Here). As far as the type of newsletter you posted, Terrence, we do not send - and I know personally that whenever I get something similar in my own inbox, it goes straight to the trashcan.

 

[malinda.terreri]

Terrence, I think the lesson is that before anyone hits the "send" button on a newsletter or any type of email marketing they should ask:

- How is this really going to benefit my customer?
- Would I read it if I was the customer?
- How does this help me build my brand?

With the right content and mix of social and behavior-triggered options, newsletters can be very effective - maybe Jeff will chime in with his recent experience.

 

[Dan Rudd]

Wow. I am on the news letter of many of our clients but that is first. Honda and Justin Bieber?

 

[terrencegordon]

With the right content and mix of social and behavior-triggered options, newsletters can be very effective - maybe Jeff will chime in with his recent experience.

Malinda - I'm all for keeping in touch with your customers. If I had a business, newsletters MIGHT be a way I would communicate. But I would probably lean much heavier on efforts to get my customers on my Twitter or Facebook accounts. That way I can be more nimble and selective on my messaging...and I would probably handle it in-house so I have full control of what goes out to my customers.

I'm not trying to call out a vendor here, but my real opinion is that the newsletter above is very simply - the laziest form of marketing I've ever seen. In fact, I've received this newsletter from two different dealers - both using the same vendor. The BRAND articles are different but they both contain the same worthless "filler".

As a consumer, the effort is transparent.

 

[BrianEpro]

Terrence- I have no idea why you would take this concept to task. Sending people product and lifestyle content surrounded by promotions is nothing new, yet it remains extraordinarily effective. If your only engagement with customers and prospects is "hey, check out my deals," your engagement isn't going to last long or be nearly as effective. I think most dealers who use eNewsletters know people aren't opening them to read the Justin Bieber article (BTW- this isn't an article about Justin Bieber, but an article about Canadian celebrities). But, the fact that a dealer is including that kind of content provides air cover for the promotional content. And...replacing database marketing with "facebook and twitter" is a recipe for selling fewer cars and services. I'm not discounting the validity of those channels, but I know in our case, they can't even come close to the database we've built, and our ability to proactively communicate with said database. And yes, we do also actively market on Facebook and Twitter.

I don't know if you still have the data on our cancelled web sites, but if you look at our Honda store analytics, you will see that without fail, the day we sent (and send) our Honda eNewsletter (and all of our other eNewsletters) is ALWAYS the day we get the most traffic on our web site and subsequent phone calls, e-mail leads, etc. Regardless of who you use, eNewsletter marketing is a superior form of online marketing.

If anyone has any questions about this, I am glad to help. I spent 6 years with an eNewsletter company prior to heading over to Balise Auto Group to run digital advertising (been here approximately 1 year). I've lived this as a vendor, and I now live it as a dealer.

Thanks,

Brian Epro

 

[ArtMorris]

Regardless of who you use, eNewsletter marketing is a superior form of online marketing. ... I spent 6 years with an eNewsletter company

Not exactly an impartial opinion...

My opinion as a consumer: when NewEgg starts interjecting bullshit about celebrities in their emails to me I will filter all mail from them directly into the trash.

Are you seriously suggesting that dealers should buy frivolous content from some sort of eNewsletter vendor and spam it to their customers? Viagra spam does indeed sell viagra, but I wouldn't recommend anyone who values their reputation to use that method to sell cars.

 

[BrianEpro]

I guess the definition of "spam" is in the eye of the beholder. What you call "spam" makes us a ton of money, and as far as I'm concerned, it's just about the farthest from spam you can get. As for being impartial...I guess I am most definitely biased TOWARD eNewsletters. Why? Because I know they work, from both sides of the fence.

 

[Chris Cachor]

I'm with Terrence on this one. I've seen other tools like this that "mash" together several articles (semi-related) with a brief paragraph pertaining to the main headline. Complete waste of time. You only get so many chances to hold somebodies attention, and I sure as hell wouldn't waste it doing this.

I've seen a lot of businesses make a "ton of money" by reaching a 0.025% of people and tick off the rest. For some reason those companies don't last very long.

 

[joe.pistell]

...My opinion as a consumer: when NewEgg starts interjecting bullshit about celebrities in their emails to me I will filter all mail from them directly into the trash.

Brian,

I am 100% in Arts camp. The net pukes out oceans of noise. The most important marketing hook we have is relavence.

In other words, if you FINALLY get an interested shopper to read your email and it's filled with... noise, then, you've dilluted your PRIME mission.