Email Blast Bastards

[Alex Snyder]

Are you an EBB? Is your boss the EBBM: Email Blast Bastard Master?

I’m labeling any dealer who blasts more than 100 people with an email an EBB from here on out. Yeah, I’m talking to you, you bastard. You’re guilty. And I’m guilty too. But this shit has got to stop!

If you have a message that you think is pertinent to more than 100 people you need to rethink that message. You need to get more targeted. You need to send multiple emails with more messages.

Single digit open rates with less than 1% click thru rates means only one thing: you’re f&%king annoying

Want to discuss better Blast tactics, you’re in the right place.

 

[john.quinn]

What about Newsletters?

 

[Alex Snyder]

What about Newsletters?

iMakeNews died a long time ago. I think that's a sign that people don't give a shit about a car dealer's newsletter. Especially when it went to every single customer in the DMS and CRM database.

 

[Steve Stauning]

people don't give a shit about a car dealer's newsletter

Bingo.

 

[craigh]

I have to disagree with the cutoff at 100 people.

We send emails and letters to well over 100 people in highly targeted campaigns and still hit 5-10% conversion on the campaign.
You just have to do it properly, not blast them all about your tent sale.

We send personalized emails that target the customer by name, specify that we want their specific vehicle and provide them with a personal landing page that also furthers the personalization. Also works for service campaigns and prospect campaigns for showroom traffic.

You probably just need more hyper-targeting

 

[Karen Ann]

That's awesome, do you use a service (with your CRM? or) does your website provider do the landing pages/registration for you?

 

[Jeff Kershner]

iMakeNews died a long time ago. I think that's a sign that people don't give a shit about a car dealer's newsletter. Especially when it went to every single customer in the DMS and CRM database.

We have been using 1to1News here at MBH for YEARS! Only post purchase and service customers are added to the list. We have a near 40% open rate month over month, and a click through rate of about the same. We receive solid traffic that turns into quality leads - monthly. We also get several direct email contacts each month. Malinda at @1to1News does a great job for us.

 

[craigh]

That's awesome, do you use a service (with your CRM? or) does your website provider do the landing pages/registration for you?

It's a product we built for dealers. I used to run the same campaigns by hand in 2011 but it became far too much work and the labour costs made no sense.
http://bumperapp.com

Import a CSV (or DMS integrations) of customers and it generates everything for you.
Just have to provide some sort of offer and messaging, but "best practices" are the difference between 1% conversion and 12% conversion rate. The targeting is critical as well, which Alex was right about, but I still find we can group 500+ customers and nail a high conversion rate.

 

[Alex Snyder]

I have to disagree with the cutoff at 100 people....You probably just need more hyper-targeting

:LOL: no kidding! That's what I'm really trying to say. But you, Craig, are not the average dealer sending a blast to 30,000 people about the dog appreciation week going on. So, to those dealers I say keep it under 100. And in the case of the dog email, only send that crap to the people you know have dogs.

P.S. I have two dogs and I still found the email annoying.

 

[malinda.terreri]

@Alex Snyder , it's not the quantity, it's the quality.

No matter what industry you are in, customers are triaging their inboxes, and if you are not sending relevant, helpful and interesting information, they will flag your message as spam AND unsubscribe.

Even with interesting info, personalizing that message makes for better results.

For instance, we saw a nice jump changing this headline: "7 Things You Should Never Leave in a Cold Car" to "7 Things You Should Never Leave in a Cold Corolla" with "Corolla" personalized with each customer's model.

Our U.S. dealers typically get a 23% to 27% open rate with a 27% to 35% click-through rate on our newsletters - Mercedes dealers average much higher as Jeff mentioned (thanks for the plug @Jeff Kershner ). Our Canadian dealers usually have higher open rates of 36% - 44%. Good newsletters work.

It surprises me how much money some dealers spend to acquire customers and then won't spend a few pennies to maintain that relationship which is exactly what a newsletter does.

Alex, I'm curious what kind of personalized follow-up messages are you sending to customers after the sale?