Getting Opt-outs to Opt BACK IN - Any Ideas?

[Dave Erickson]

Does anyone have a best practice(s) that has worked for them for re-acquiring CRM email opt-outs to opt back in again?

 

[craigh]

This is a bit of a challenge. It depends on which laws you're working with as well.
Our laws are pretty strict, so our only option is to add an incentive to the maintenance or recall related emails that we can still legally send the client.

We had decent success using a restaurant gift card as an incentive for people to opt back in, but unless you change whatever drove them away the first time, you tend to lose them again. We maintain a separate list at each dealership of the customers who opted in with full intent - the open rates and unsubscribe rates on emails to that list are far more favourable than the people who don't know they opted into promotional emails.

 

[john.quinn]

Anyone have a best practice that worked for them to get CRM opt-outs to opt-in again?

The first question to ask and asnwer is: Why did they opt-out in the first place?

And really... there's only one answer: the email they received which prompted the opt-out did not provide any value. When you opt-out of email, you look at a note that's arrived and decide, "this note means nothing to me, (and this was probably the umpteenth email I received that means nothing to me) so please stop sending this stuff."

Before I worry about trying to re-engage with potential-potentials I've already alienated, I'm going to make sure I'm actually providing a value to those who still show an interest.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Anyone have a best practice that worked for them to get CRM opt-outs to opt-in again?

Are you referring to Sold customers or Prospects in your CRM? And what type of message did you, or are you sending?

Email - still one of the most underutilized channels in a dealership's marketing strategy. Maybe that's a good thing since most dealers would need to manage several lists and several different programs that do not, and never will speak to each-other.

Your basic dealership lists/segments include:

Prospects > Customers > Repeat Prospects

Prospects - through the CRM
Customers - through the CRM, Service Dept, Newsletter
Repeat Prospects - through the CRM, Service Dept, Newsletter, Equity Mining

Most often each segmented list is being sent from an entirely different program/service provider.

Sales Prospecting - CRM or outsourced campaign management
Post Sales - dealership newsletter
Service Dept - scheduling through BDC or online/mobile scheduler
Service Dept - lane management & post service reminders and marketing
Repeat Prospects - equity mining

I listed each one separately because I would venture to say most dealers are NOT using the same program to communicate by email. Some may overlap - using your CRM for Sales Prospecting and Repeat Prospects (equity mining). Many times, mandatory OEM efforts will get in the middle. Let's pretend you have a CRM that provides each of the services listed, but a mandatory OEM effort forces you to not use your CRM for Service Lane Management, breaking your SINGLE point of communications with every customer coming through your service department.

Imagine being a former customer and trying to unsubscribe to all communications

 

[Jeff Kershner]

@Dave Erickson sorry for going a bit off topic and down a different (but relevant) path.

It's rare to find an email capture feature on a dealership website, outside of the traditional lead form ("more information" or "price quote".) Plug OptinMonster into your dealer website. A previous opt-in that signs back up through a service like OptinMonster could then be manually opt-in within your CRM.

Sharing:

4 Ways You Can Instantly Increase Your Dealerships Email List
Email capture at Website Exit​

 

[ed.brooks]

The first question to ask and asnwer is: Why did they opt-out in the first place?

And really... there's only one answer: the email they received which prompted the opt-out did not provide any value. When you opt-out of email, you look at a note that's arrived and decide, "this note means nothing to me, (and this was probably the umpteenth email I received that means nothing to me) so please stop sending this stuff."

Before I worry about trying to re-engage with potential-potentials I've already alienated, I'm going to make sure I'm actually providing a value to those who still show an interest.

I love the question @JQuinn - I'm reminded of this "Gary V vs Grant Cardone" video -

 

[john.quinn]

I love the question @JQuinn - I'm reminded of this "Gary V vs Grant Cardone" video -

Amen Ed!

Recently, for the first time ever, I purchased a car like a "regular" customer. Visited a bunch of stores to test drive, filled-out some website forms.

I honestly think that if dealers understood the outright damage poor email practices do their prospects, brands, and reputations, they'd Outlaw Outlook.

It was always relatively hard to pick up the phone and initiate meaningful dialogue with a stranger or near-stranger. Outlook has provided the Easy Button; no pain whatsoever in hitting that 'send' button. And CRM has provided the Stupid Easy Button -- all the messages are already typed -- don't even have to think to send these emails!!

But look Boss, CRM said I completed 200 tasks last month!!! I'm CRM Salesman of the Month!

[haha... sorry to rant this convo into another direction!]

 

[Dave Erickson]

Are you referring to Sold customers or Prospects in your CRM? And what type of message did you, or are you sending?

Email - still one of the most underutilized channels in a dealership's marketing strategy. Maybe that's a good thing since most dealers would need to manage several lists and several different programs that do not, and never will speak to each-other.

Your basic dealership lists/segments include:

Prospects > Customers > Repeat Prospects

Prospects - through the CRM
Customers - through the CRM, Service Dept, Newsletter
Repeat Prospects - through the CRM, Service Dept, Newsletter, Equity Mining

Most often each segmented list is being sent from an entirely different program/service provider.

Sales Prospecting - CRM or outsourced campaign management
Post Sales - dealership newsletter
Service Dept - scheduling through BDC or online/mobile scheduler
Service Dept - lane management & post service reminders and marketing
Repeat Prospects - equity mining

I listed each one separately because I would venture to say most dealers are NOT using the same program to communicate by email. Some may overlap - using your CRM for Sales Prospecting and Repeat Prospects (equity mining). Many times, mandatory OEM efforts will get in the middle. Let's pretend you have a CRM that provides each of the services listed, but a mandatory OEM effort forces you to not use your CRM for Service Lane Management, breaking your SINGLE point of communications with every customer coming through your service department.

Imagine being a former customer and trying to unsubscribe to all communications

For us our Equity mining and CRM (unsold prospects and sold customers) are together (although this wasn't always the case), but yes there are a lot of different things going on with a newsletter and service reminders/scheduling moving in their own world (that would make it very frustrating for a former customer to unsubscribe to).

What's bothering me right now is that when I'm helping the team with repeat customer sales I'm really not happy with the amount of customers that I noticed are unsubscribed. I'm a little worried this uptick is since we went from a separate CRM and equity mining to an entirely new CRM that combines both.

The new CRM implementation had a few hiccups with dupes and some user access and assignment issues that allowed some sales people to go beyond the scope their skills and email more previous customers (with very poor emails) than they should have.

There are some great ideas in this thread to repair some of the damage

 

[Chris Leslie]

I know in dealersocket you can still send emails on a 1:1 basis when someone has opted out. You could always send out emails from your crm asking them to update their preferences. You'll need some pretty good messaging though.

There is also the ol' export, import into something like mailchimp. Thats not the best bay to go about getting your emails to people and is probably terrible advice but it works non the less.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

A feature you may want to check into - allowing the subscriber to ability to update their subscription preferences within the list. For example: when you sign up to receive DealerRefresh updates by email, you're automatically added to the following groups within the main DealerRefresh list:

• Latest Blog Posts
• Latest Forum Discussions
• Special Offers
• Important Communications

At the bottom of each email campaign, there two options:

1. Unsubscribe from this list
2. Update subscription preferences

I would rather all subscribers "update their subscription preferences" so they can manage which communications they currently prefer and bypassing the "unsubscribe from this list" option all together (but I believe it's mandatory with MailChimp.) Under the "update subscription preferences" the subscriber has the option to opt-out completely OR opt-in and out between groups/messages.




You should check if your CRM provider offers this option. It may be a feature some are not even are of, so get in front of someone that really knows the CRM. It may even be a feature that's available through the api (if they outsource it like many do) and your CRM provider isn't aware or never thought about themselves. We would hope not.

If your CRM provider offered your customers/subscribers the ability to opt-in and out of different communications during the different phases of ownership and those phases matched the different programs/features of the CRM, that would really improve the "customer journey" and relationship with their dealer.