As technologies advance, so does a dealership’s access to a more effective marketing automation strategy. Marketing departments nationwide now use software to automate many critical customer communications, including recurring SMS, email, and application messages. 

However, not all dealerships employ the right software or strategy to realize the potentially significant benefits of automation. This oversight might be the result of not appreciating the opportunities that automation provides or not knowing where to start. 

This article outlines a successful automation marketing strategy’s primary benefits and implementation methods to aid those dealerships in designing a new customer journey. 

Critical Benefits of a Marketing Automation Strategy  

It Attracts Attention Away from Competitors 

In today’s digital world, consumers prefer conducting most of their auto-buying process online, which expands the potential buyer’s options and increases competition. As such, dealers must go the extra mile to attract potential clients and cultivate relationships. 

These lengths include streamlining and tracking marketing operations and workflows with a marketing automation platform, which dealers can use to quickly and effectively pique consumer interests.  

For example, to adequately capture the attention of those who have just filled out a form on the internet, marketing automation may track all digital activity within the dealership, offering insights into its users’ online behaviors.  

Marketing teams can access information on which customers complete any of the following actions: 

• Opens emails 
• Interacts with digital ads 
• Visits the website 
• Spends the most time on specific landing pages  

With access to this data, marketing teams can identify the online habits of their potential clients and create a strategy based on those findings. 

It Drives Lifetime Value 

Managing the customer’s post-purchase experience is crucial to delivering lifetime value and boosting long-term loyalty. An effective means to provide this value is by automating follow-up emails to notify the customer of upcoming milestones, which might include the following: 

• The lease is expiring 
• The vehicle is due for an oil change 
• The annual inspection deadline is upcoming 
• Purchase date anniversary specials 
• Birthday wishes 

Additionally, dealers can use a marketing automation strategy to improve customer journeys by requesting feedback, aiding the dealership in staying ahead of competitors’ digital processes. 

Ways to Implement a Marketing Automation Strategy  

Automation technologies are constantly evolving, and there are countless options from which dealers can choose. That said, available data suggest that some are more successful than others. 

Below are some of the most popular and efficient strategies to include in an automation marketing strategy. 

Chatbot Marketing 

Automated chatbots are becoming increasingly prevalent, and in many industries, they are currently the fastest-expanding communication tool. And while many businesses have employed chatbots solely for customer support in the past, they are exploring their use as a conversation tool for transaction purposes.  

Dealerships can employ automated chatbot marketing in several capacities as the technology evolves, including the following: 

• Increasing customer satisfaction 
• Promoting brand loyalty 
• Generating more service appointments 
• Boosting virtual showroom traffic 
• Converting more website visitors into high-quality leads 
  
  

SMS Marketing  

Dealerships can send target audiences personalized text messages with offers, promotions, or periodic reminders using automated SMS marketing. 

In recent years, automated SMS software has become increasingly popular as dealers look to leverage its simplicity and convenience more. However, due to the limited character capacity, text messages must be more concise and briefer. 

Email Marketing 

Like SMS marketing, personalized email campaigns are one of the simplest methods to add automated marketing to a dealership. Automated email marketing is a potent tactic that enables dealers to target specific audiences and personalize messages for each recipient through the following: 

• Compiling and organizing customer data 
• Managing high-quality leads 
• Optimizing email campaign launches 
  
  

Application Marketing 

Applications are becoming more popular as dealers recognize the positive impact they can have on the bottom line. Automated push notifications and in-app marketing enable dealers to target current and previous customers interested in their inventory and fixed-op services. 

The Most Successful Strategies Require the Best Automation Tools 

For your dealership to navigate a fast-paced, tech-heavy landscape and stand out from the competition, a marketing-driven customer experience is essential. Implementing the right marketing automation strategy can be the difference between attracting and nurturing potential customers until they are ready to buy and losing the consumer in the preliminary stages of the journey. 

Contact us today and discover how Affinitiv’s Essentials solution can help you build a marketing automation strategy that attracts more captures and converts more leads into active customers.