The Dealer Impact Blog

Experimenting with the Devil

It’s been said, “the devil is in the details.” Which means, of course, that the difference between success and failure is often something small and seemingly insignificant. This is absolutely true when considering the effectiveness of your dealership’s marketing. Try experimenting with the following little details and you may realize some huge gains in your return on investment.

Timing. Sending your email campaign out first thing in the morning? Try mid-afternoon or midnight for different results. Or trying sending the message on a different day of the week or time of the month. All of these things will make the difference.

Personalization. Have you made an effort to make your direct marketing personal? Does that personalization stop at “Dear John” or are you using everything you know about a prospect to make their communications specific to them?

Email Formatting. Not all emails are created equal. You’ve got the full graphic and multimedia capabilities of HTML or the more traditional, potentially more personal, all-text email. They each have their place. Experiment with when and where you use each format to try and maximize results.

Offers. Which drives more traffic? $500 customer cash or 1.9% financing? How about a $50 bill just for test driving? How about $100? These little details can make a huge difference.

Expiration dates. Trying to drive immediate response, toy around with a 24-hour-act-now offer. Or try stretching it out to 3 or 4 weeks. Again, different timing will drive different responses from different customers.

The difference between mild success and rousing, ring-the-bell success can be found in these little devilish details. Experiment with them and you may very well find the results you’ve been looking for.

D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC

Tags: email campaigns, email marketing

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