What were your most successful e-blasts? Looking for best ideas, companies, strategies, etc.

[SeanWoodruff]

We're all trying to find that new idea or company that can get us more sales. As we all know, a lot of times it's really just about throwing a bunch of stuff against a wall and seeing what sticks.

I've done many email blasts that I've gotten almost nothing from, but one of the most successful ones I did involved creating a large graphic for a "Memorial Day Private Sale" with a bunch of exclusive offers on it and a paragraph basically inviting them in for this "exclusive private sale". I then sent the email out of our CRM (autobase) to all of our current customers and made it look like it was sent from their salesperson saying:

"Dear Mr. Customer,

Here is your invitation to our private sale event for Memorial Day.

(large Private Sale graphic here explaining the details of the private sale)

Click here for a special video message and to RSVP."


The customer clicks it and it takes them to this page on my website:

AutoFair Ford | New Ford dealership in Manchester, NH 03103

Then there's a video of me on the page and a form that they fill out to register for the sale.

The only way you could get to that page on our website was through the email. We had over 500 page visits to that page and just over 30 form submissions. I directly attributed about 20 deals and $40,000 in gross to that email blast, and it was 100% free.


What has worked for you? What was your most successful email marketing campaign? Was it something you did or did you hire a company? Sound off below.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Mine were best started when one of our used car managers would say something like "we are really low on Odysseys" or "what I wouldn't give to have a higher supply of Avalons." My response would be: "what year would you like?" and "got a trim in mind?" Usually the response would be "20xx's are hard to get at auction right now and it looks like the xx is on fire." "Cool" would be my reply and then I'd ask a simple question: "would you pay more than Rough Black for one of those in decent shape?" ...."yep."

That's all I needed to get to work...

Hop into the CRM and search for customers who bought a car like that more than 4 years ago - usually there were less than 50 customers like that who we knew were still driving them. Write up three sentences:

-------

Hello <customer first name>,

You are one of 50 people who are still driving your <year> <model> and we would like to buy it back from you. We play the supply and demand game, and our supply is low. That means the money is in your favor. All you have to do is respond to this email to let us know you'd like to get a price for your car.

-Alex Snyder
Director of eCommerce

---------

Rince and repeat for people who took out a loan on one of these cars 3 years ago then change the verbiage up a little to be more relevant to a loan. Do the same for people who leased a car like this whose lease matures in less than 8 months and then again for 9-15 months.

You'll end up doing approximately 4 customer searches and editing a sentence to send 4 slightly varied emails. I ended up with response rates in the 60-80% range, no pissed customers, the reigniting of some new opportunities, and a 30%+ closing rate.

I recall the last time I did one I sent 33 emails and ended up with 9 deals. Took 3 minutes of my time to send out that one email blast.

 

[jscole86]

Mine were best started when one of our used car managers would say something like "we are really low on Odysseys" or "what I wouldn't give to have a higher supply of Avalons." My response would be: "what year would you like?" and "got a trim in mind?" Usually the response would be "20xx's are hard to get at auction right now and it looks like the xx is on fire." "Cool" would be my reply and then I'd ask a simple question: "would you pay more than Rough Black for one of those in decent shape?" ...."yep."

That's all I needed to get to work...

Hop into the CRM and search for customers who bought a car like that more than 4 years ago - usually there were less than 50 customers like that who we knew were still driving them. Write up three sentences:

-------

Hello <customer first name>,

You are one of 50 people who are still driving your <year> <model> and we would like to buy it back from you. We play the supply and demand game, and our supply is low. That means the money is in your favor. All you have to do is respond to this email to let us know you'd like to get a price for your car.

-Alex Snyder
Director of eCommerce

---------

Rince and repeat for people who took out a loan on one of these cars 3 years ago then change the verbiage up a little to be more relevant to a loan. Do the same for people who leased a car like this whose lease matures in less than 8 months and then again for 9-15 months.

You'll end up doing approximately 4 customer searches and editing a sentence to send 4 slightly varied emails. I ended up with response rates in the 60-80% range, no pissed customers, the reigniting of some new opportunities, and a 30%+ closing rate.

I recall the last time I did one I sent 33 emails and ended up with 9 deals. Took 3 minutes of my time to send out that one email blast.

Targeting specific customers and keeping the email content highly relevant and personalized are the 2 main aspects to a highly successful email campaign. Email "blasts" is a term usually referring to a non personalized, email campaign to your whole customer database.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Email "blasts" is a term usually referring to a non personalized, email campaign to your whole customer database.

I wish people would think of "blasts" like I do: anytime you are sending the same email to more than 1 person. That way "targeted" would start to find its way into a medium that has commonly been abused because most people think of "blast" like you do Josh.

If I can't win that battle, then I'd love to see "blast" equate to something really bad and become an accepted no-no

 

[SeanWoodruff]

All good points. I've done email blasts like that before but you're right, it's easy to get greedy and be like "WOOOHOOO let's send it to EVVVERRRRYYBODDDDYYYY!!!"

 

[SeanWoodruff]

I was really also hoping to get some new ideas in this post! I'm surprised nobody has any feedback on this subject. We've ALL done an e-blast or two. Maybe the names of some companies worth checking out? Somebody doing something innovative? Going into the winter, we're all looking for that edge to keep our sales up. I thought maybe this thread could help with that. Jeez, come on Dealer Refreshers! You're letting me down.

 

[joe.pistell]

I was really also hoping to get some new ideas in this post! I'm surprised nobody has any feedback on this subject. We've ALL done an e-blast or two. Maybe the names of some companies worth checking out? Somebody doing something innovative? Going into the winter, we're all looking for that edge to keep our sales up. I thought maybe this thread could help with that. Jeez, come on Dealer Refreshers! You're letting me down.

Sean,

I'll leave you with the MAGIC KEY to email blasts. It's called relevance.

Relevance:
"the ability to deliver material that satisfies the needs of the user"

Uncle Joe Rule #262: Email success is shot from a sniper, not a B-52 bomber.

 

[SeanWoodruff]

Sean,

I'll leave you with the MAGIC KEY to email blasts. It's called relevance.

Relevance:
"the ability to deliver material that satisfies the needs of the user"

Uncle Joe Rule #262: Email success is shot from a sniper, not a B-52 bomber.

Oh absolutely. For me it's about balancing relevant, targeted email blasts, with large bulk email blasts that generate a ton of traffic (if done effectively). You can successfully do both, as I have several times. I'm just looking for some new ideas.

What are some good ideas you have for smaller, more relevant, targeted email campaigns? Here are some I've though of today:

Eblast to all Equity Alert customers with fiestas, escapes, mustangs (these are vehicles we are being extra aggressive on right now)
-Buy a Fiesta for XXXXX or lease for XX/mo, etc., for all 3 cars

Eblast to all customers with birthday this month and offer them a $250 off coupon or gift card or free oil change, or something

Eblast to all Equity Alert customers whose payment will go down at least $25/mo

Eblast to all equity alerts who have had a Customer Pay R.O. over $300 and can upgrade and keep their payment the same or lower it

Eblast to all customers with some type of warranty (manufacturer or SVC) expiring within the next few months


I dunno. These are just a few of the ideas I've been playing with.

 

[joe.pistell]

Here's how I use to do it:

Theme:
A catalyst for a trade-in happens at select odometer points (like 36,000, 50,000, 80,000, 100k, etc). Create custom emails for your past customers that fall into these buckets.


How To:

1. #1 Collect sales spread sheet for last 3 years.
2. #2 Eliminate all sales that are 18 months or less
3. #3 From the date of sale, calculate how many months have passed to today*.
4. #4 Multiply that by 1,250 miles.
   1. (You now have an estimate on how many miles your customer has driven since the delivery).
5. #5 Take that number and add it to the original odometer reading at day of delivery.
6. #6 Sort by total projected miles.
7. #7 Place clients in mileage buckets
8. #8 Send them a custom letter based on the mileage theme.

If you're REALLY interested in juicing the ROI, make the letter even more personal (i.e. relevant) by inserting the clients personal info into the letter**.

Content idea: Vehicles under 50k make nice retail units. Think trade bait!

HTH
Joe


*How to calculate the number of months between two dates in Excel
**https://www.google.com/search?q=mai....2.69i57j0l3.30005j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[SeanWoodruff]

Here's how I use to do it:

Theme:
A catalyst for a trade-in happens at select odometer points (like 36,000, 50,000, 80,000, 100k, etc). Create custom emails for your past customers that fall into these buckets.


How To:

1. #1 Collect sales spread sheet for last 3 years.
2. #2 Eliminate all sales that are 18 months or less
3. #3 From the date of sale, calculate how many months have passed to today*.
4. #4 Multiply that by 1,250 miles.
   1. (You now have an estimate on how many miles your customer has driven since the delivery).
5. #5 Take that number and add it to the original odometer reading at day of delivery.
6. #6 Sort by total projected miles.
7. #7 Place clients in mileage buckets
8. #8 Send them a custom letter based on the mileage theme.

If you're REALLY interested in juicing the ROI, make the letter even more personal (i.e. relevant) by inserting the clients personal info into the letter**.

Content idea: Vehicles under 50k make nice retail units. Think trade bait!

HTH
Joe


*How to calculate the number of months between two dates in Excel
**https://www.google.com/search?q=mai....2.69i57j0l3.30005j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Good stuff Joe. I'm going to add this to my list!

Anybody else got any great ideas? I'm surprised there's not more action in this thread. I know people are prepping for some slow winter months. You'd think they'd be interested in how they can get some extra business!