Welcome back to our ongoing series about how to drive success in your auto dealership with a CRM (customer relationship management system). So far, you’ve learned about using a CRM in lead management and customer service. Today, let’s talk about marketing!
A CRM is a potent weapon for targeted, data-driven marketing. In this article, we’ll share ten compelling strategies that leverage the power of a CRM in marketing. Whether you’re looking to nurture long-term customer relationships or drive immediate sales, a CRM can help you level up your marketing game. Let’s explore how below.
10 Strategies to Use a CRM for Marketing
Unlock the full potential of your CRM system to supercharge your marketing efforts. From personalized email campaigns to data-driven digital ads, here are ten strategies to help your auto dealership go from good to great by using a CRM for marketing.
1. Newsletter
An email newsletter is a fantastic way to keep your auto dealership’ top of mind’ for customers and prospects while building and nurturing relationships. Your newsletter should be a mix of helpful content and marketing messages. Offer valuable tips, like how to maintain your vehicle in different seasons or safety measures for long trips. Share stories about your dealership and spotlight your team to add a personal touch. Then, you can also sprinkle in some non-pushy marketing messages, such as your latest promotions or new models. Keep a consistent schedule, like once or twice a month, to ensure you’re always the dealership they think of when they need a vehicle or have a service need.
2. Targeted Email Campaigns
Your CRM is a goldmine of information that enables you to send hyper-personalized marketing emails. Use details like purchase history, age, and geographic location to segment your list and create content that resonates with each segment. Personalize these emails by inserting custom fields like the customer’s name or the vehicle they purchased. This tailored approach will increase their interest in your offers, so you’ll see better results.
3. Retargeting Campaigns
Don’t let potential customers who’ve browsed your inventory drift away. Your CRM can help identify these individuals for retargeting efforts. Personalize the retargeting emails or ads to show them models they previously viewed or even a special incentive to encourage a showroom visit. By meticulously tracking user behavior, your CRM ensures that these retargeting efforts are focused and effective, turning those ‘almost customers’ into actual buyers.
4. Seasonal Promotions
Your CRM is ideal for timing your seasonal promotions just right. By creating automated campaigns, you can set up an email series in advance and have it run at the proper time. For example, you could create an email series in the fall/early winter to promote special discounts on winter tires. In the spring, you could have fun with the ‘spring cleaning’ idea by sharing deals on interior and exterior detailing services. Meanwhile, a summer campaign could promote your air conditioning service. The CRM’s automation feature makes seasonal campaigns an easy ‘set it and forget it’ task.
5. Loyalty Programs
While the concept of loyalty programs isn’t new, many dealerships aren’t using their CRM as well as they could to amplify the program’s effectiveness. Your CRM can help you track customer interactions, purchases, and service appointments. When a customer reaches a certain threshold—based on frequency or total spending—you can automate the CRM to send them a special offer or advance them to a new tier in your loyalty program. Moreover, CRMs can track customer responsiveness to different types of rewards, allowing you to refine your program for maximum impact.
6. A/B Testing
A/B testing, also known as split testing, compares two versions of a webpage, email, or other customer experience against each other to determine which one performs better. In the context of auto dealerships, A/B testing can be crucial for discovering what messages resonate most with your audience.
The first step is creating two different versions of an email or landing page with just one variable changed—perhaps it’s the call-to-action, the layout, or even the timing of the message. Your CRM can handle this complexity by splitting your customer list into two groups and sending each a different version. The analytics will show which version got more opens, clicks, and conversions. That way, you can continue to use the ‘winning’ version in the future (or do another A/B test for further fine-tuning).
Interestingly, your cloud phone system can also help you with A/B testing. With call tracking, you can assign different phone numbers to each of your marketing efforts. For example, you might use one phone number for email A and another for email B. Using call tracking software, you’ll know exactly which number (and corresponding email) was the most successful.
7. Behavior-Triggered Marketing Automation
Behavior-triggered marketing is about sending automated yet personalized messages based on specific user actions. For instance:
- Test Drive Scheduled (But Not Purchased): Trigger an email two days later offering an additional incentive to buy.
- Browsing Habits: If someone looks at SUV models for several weeks, your CRM can send them a targeted promotion on SUVs.
- Post-Service Follow-Up: After a customer has completed their service appointment, trigger a thank-you email with a coupon for their next visit.
8. Upselling
When a customer nears the end of a lease, or their vehicle is due for a service, your CRM can send you an alert. This is a golden opportunity for upselling. For instance, if you know that a customer loves tech features and a newer model includes advanced tech, reach out to them with a personalized offer. Don’t limit yourself to the immediate sale; think about the upsell as a way to enhance the customer’s long-term experience with your dealership. Your CRM can also help you monitor the success of different upselling strategies, allowing you to refine your approach over time.
9. Digital Advertising
Your CRM isn’t just for emails and customer service; it’s also a tool to help you enhance your digital advertising. Knowing your customers’ age, location, and preferences lets you fine-tune your audience targeting settings on platforms like Google Ads or Facebook. This ensures your ads are seen by those most likely to convert. Beyond demographic data, you can also use purchase histories and interactions tracked in the CRM to develop more complex audience profiles for more nuanced targeting.
10. Analytics
Use analytics to understand your customers better and refine your marketing strategies. Here are some things to pay attention to:
- Email Engagement: If emails aren’t being opened, test different subject lines to grab attention.
- Click-Through Rates: If people are opening your emails but not clicking through, consider changing the Call-To-Action (CTA) or the email content.
- Customer Segmentation: Use the CRM to identify the most responsive segments and tailor future campaigns to those specific interests and behaviors.
Unlocking the Full Potential of a CRM in Marketing
Today, we’ve explored ten diverse yet interconnected strategies to use your CRM in marketing. Implementing even a few of these can drive your auto dealership toward increased sales and customer loyalty. After all, the power of a CRM lies in how you use it to create meaningful customer experiences.
Next up, we’ll discuss how a CRM can help you make better business decisions in your dealership. See you then!
