No matter how the economy impacts your car sales, one thing remains steadfast in the automotive industry: people will always need their vehicles serviced. Your fixed ops can be the bread and butter of your business through good and hard times, so it makes sense to put effort into marketing these services.
One of the most cost-effective and efficient ways to do so is through email marketing, specifically via email flows.
Email flows have some key benefits that make them an excellent choice for marketing your fixed operations:
Maintenance and repair schedules are pretty consistent, making it easy to create both content and a schedule for your email flows.
Email flows are automatic: set it and forget it!
Customers can be automatically added to your email flow list when they purchase a car, receive a service, or do business in some other way with your dealership.
Many emails sent through your flows will simply be reminders to book a service appointment, and these emails are proven to have very high click-thru rates.
A recent survey from HubSpot found that 59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI, and marketers who used segmented campaigns noted as much as a 760% increase in revenue. Furthermore, 59% of respondents in this survey say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions. - HubSpot
Learn More About the Benefits of E-Mail Marketing
Creating email flows is pretty easy when you’re tapped into the needs of your customers and the vehicles you sell. For example, you might want an oil change reminder to go out automatically every 12 months after a new car purchase or a series of emails that go out in the fall and spring to remind customers about tire services.
Here are a few more ideas to get your wheels turning (pun intended!):
Electric vehicles (EVs) require more frequent tire rotations and tire maintenance due to the weight of the vehicles, so get your EV customers into a specific flow that makes sense for the maintenance schedule of these vehicles.
Most customers start thinking about custom upgrades and accessories within a few months of purchasing a new vehicle, so target them with enticing offers.
Set an email to go out in the spring to truck and SUV owners for things like roof racks, trailer hitch services, and accessories for adventuring.
Use seasonality to your advantage: you should have automatic emails for both winter and spring services.
Email marketing campaigns can feature products or services, encourage customers to purchase after abandoning their cart, or deliver special offers to your customers. Your email marketing campaigns can easily incorporate messages to encourage a purchase to an audience more likely to buy from you because they've opted-in to your messages and updates. Additionally, you can use email marketing to automate part of your sales process, which can also help increase sales. - HubSpot
Don’t forget to include a CTA (call to action) in each email. The whole point of using email flows to get more service bookings is to entice your customers to click those booking links, so make it easy for them with prominent buttons. Your CTA should be something like “book now,” “reserve your tires/accessory/product,” “schedule an appointment,” or “learn more online.”
Your DMS (Document Management System) will have some email capabilities, but other platforms like MailChimp and Klaiyo can help take your email marketing efforts to the next level. They have email flow templates that lead you through creating these emails. All you need to do is plug in some content and images, pick a schedule, add a CTA button, connect your email list (it’s simple), and you’re ready to go.
This is just the tip of the iceberg - there are so many ways to use email marketing and email flows to help boost your overall dealership sales! Please don’t hesitate to contact the FlexDealer team for help setting up your next email marketing campaign; we’d love to see your service bookings soar!