Generate More Sales & Maximize Your ROI! AUTOMOTIVE MARKETING ebook 1
Generate More Sales & Maximize Your ROI! BY DREW PALMER FIND ME ON TWITTER @PALMERADAGENCY FIND ME ON LINKEDIN Drew Palmer has been the Agency Principal at Palmer since he founded the agency in September 1987. He has seen this industry go through remarkable changes and make it through ups and downs. At Palmer, Drew aims to offer the creativity and service of a small shop combined with the capabilities and talent of a big agency. Drew has spent 25 years perfecting the Palmer Process, making it scalable and affordable and built on a foundation that fits clients immediate and long term goals. AUTOMOTIVE MARKETING ebook 2
Table of Contents Introduction 1: Direct Mail 2: Social Media 3: Analytics 4: Email Marketing Conclusion AUTOMOTIVE MARKETING ebook 3
Introduction We all want more interested buyers, but how do you go about getting them? The average consumer is bombarded with car advertisements daily. On billboards, television, radio and in magazines. HOW EFFECTIVE ARE THESE ADS? Well, these car advertisements are effective for big name car brands at large, yes. These brands also have very big advertising and marketing budgets. BUT WHAT ABOUT AT THE DEALER LEVEL? At Palmer, we ve adopted software programs, created by auto dealers, that are turn-key solutions. These programs give you real-time analytics to watch your campaign deliver results. WHAT KIND OF RESULTS? Our direct mail campaigns have produced a 280% response rate as well as a 40% redemption rate. Our email marketing campaigns have produced twice as many online sales and a 900% ROI, 900%! That s not a type-o. This ebook will break down how effective direct mail campaigns and email marketing have proven to help dealerships generate more sales. AUTOMOTIVE MARKETING ebook 4
1 Direct Mail Program The automotive industry is one of the industries that still sees worthwhile results from traditional direct mail endeavors. However, it is essential to customize a direct mail piece that accurately reflects your dealership s unique promotional offerings. That direct mail piece has several ways for the user to enter into the sales funnel where we use our progressive software to analyze and track their buying process. Each campaign drives customers through a personalized website (Personalized URL or PURL) and/or through Interactive Voice Response (IVR). After the consumer gets their direct mail piece, they will either be encouraged to go online with the PURL or call our interactive voice response. Once on the PURL or the automated phone call, they will be required to provide their unique information in exchange for their offer. When the direct mail piece hits your target's mailbox you will immediately start seeing increased leads through the software and in your store. AUTOMOTIVE MARKETING ebook 5
UNIQUE CODE TO PHONE IVR ACTIVATION DIRECT MAIL CAMPAIGN Acquisition and Retention DEALERSHIP CHECK-IN CRM INTEGRATION Using standard XML email pushes, your leads can get funneled into your CRM in real-time. PERSONALIZED MESSAGE Once unique code is entered, the IVR delivers a personal message including the customer s name. DATA CAPTURE The unique code pulls the address and caller ID information for your database. TELE-SURVEY The same poll questions are asked with numeric values that allow you to learn valuable information about your customer. In the market to buy? Approximate income? Self-reported credit history? PRESS-TO-CONNECT Dealerships have the option to have callers contact the dealership. At any point in the call press "1" to be connected to your salesman PERSONALIZED URL TO CUSTOM MICROSITE LANDING PAGE Personalized experience that captures name, full address, DOB, mobile number, gender and vehicle desired. SURVEY PAGE Learn valuable information about your customer with simple surveys: In the market to buy? Approximate income? Self-reported credit history? SHARE PAGE Increase your reach through online peer-to-peer recommendations. THANK YOU PAGE Drives customers to your dealership with a personalized voucher. Extra call-to-action for future specials and discounts by "liking" on Facebook. FIRST PARTY LEADS SALES SHOWROOM CONTROL Mailers and vouchers are equipped with unique barcodes and numbers allowing users to be "checked-in" upon arrival at the dealership - controlling crowds and delivering valuable data about who is in your showroom. REAL-TIME "UP SHEET" Once checked-in, print the customer's info in a standard format to reference while you explore their buying options. LIVE ANALYTICS Watch your campaign results as they happen. Understand what area customers are coming from as well as their method of responding. Export all the data to capitalize on immediate interest and build a database for future sales. AUTOMOTIVE MARKETING ebook 6
2 Social Media EXPAND YOUR REACH EVEN FURTHER The landing pages we create incentivize customers to share offers with friends on a multitude of social media sites. These microsites act as a home to house the special offer your dealership is providing. With social sharing icons and incentives for consumers to share, your offer reaches a much broader audience of potential new customers. The integration of social media, coupled with the interactive nature of the campaigns we produce, drastically improves campaign performance, ultimately increasing sales. 68% of people say a positive referral from a Facebook Friend makes them more likely to buy a specific product or visit a certain retailer. 90% trust peer recommendations. AUTOMOTIVE MARKETING ebook 7
3 Analytics Most importantly, all of this is tracked and verifiable through our real-time analytics, which literally turns your campaign into a spectator sport. Google analytics confirms and tracks all new visitors clicking through to your web site directly from the direct mail campaign. Powerful analytics platform collects rich data on who your customers are, how to contact them and their product/service preferences. All of which can be used for smarter marketing in the future. AUTOMOTIVE MARKETING ebook 8
Analytics AUTOMOTIVE MARKETING ebook 9
4 Email Marketing HOW IT WORKS When creating email marketing campaigns, it s important to offer something of value to the recipient. Creating email content that clearly expresses that offer and is also an aesthetically pleasing design that generates maximum click-through-rates. Furthermore, it s important to create the email with a goal in mind. What are your service and sales goals? How does this email help you generate them? While the design elements are an important aspect, almost equally important is having interested consumers to respond to your email offer. It s important to conduct an in-depth analysis of your market. We identify all the automotive "double opt-in" email data available in your market with matching postal addresses using our proprietary databases. Then we suppress all your existing sales, service and CRM customers against our "master opt-in" e-mail list to insure that every sale is a TRUE incremental unit sale that has never bought from your dealership or has been worked in the CRM in the last 90 days. We have found that deploying this email marketing campaign every 2 weeks delivers desirable results. Ultimately the system drives traffic to the landing page where they learn of the offer that then drives consumers into the dealership to redeem their offer. (All email campaigns are deployed on the leading U.S. "white listed servers," meaning that all emails are sent to people who opted in to receive emails. Our emails are NOT SPAM). This email marketing program GUARANTEES sales within your promotional period or you are refunded the goal not met. AUTOMOTIVE MARKETING ebook 10
Examples of Email Marketing CREATED BY PALMER AD AGENCY AUTOMOTIVE MARKETING ebook 11
Email Marketing Case Studies Dealership A 2,968 website visitors in 2 weeks 79% of which were first time visitors 3:40 average time on site Dealership B 5,981 visitors in one month Over 79% were first time visitors 4:01 average time on site Dealership C 2,015 visitors in 2 weeks Over 74% were first time visitors 4:47 Average time on site AUTOMOTIVE MARKETING ebook 12
Conclusion We know the importance of generating more leads and more sales. We also know that traditional advertising averages a 1% response rate. The software programs that we have adapted were created in order to increase the response rate. The platform was created by "auto guys" for "auto guys." They implemented a system that has closed loop analytics so that you can see the actual value behind your advertising and marketing efforts. With these software systems and Palmer s creative team we can create a unique, fresh campaign for your dealership that delivers results. The software programs are narrowly focused on increasing: 1. Response 2. Engagement (in the form of conversion) 3. And most importantly, ROI. Want to learn more? AUTOMOTIVE MARKETING ebook 13