Your potential and current customers have options when choosing how to interact with your dealership, and this includes communication methods. They expect businesses to understand and cater to their individual preferences, and ignoring these preferences can have a significant impact on your marketing efforts.

Missed opportunities, decreased customer satisfaction, and even lost sales can result from a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing. By optimizing your marketing channels to align with customer preferences, you can not only improve your overall effectiveness but also build stronger relationships with your customers while growing your business.

Decode Customer Preferences to Pinpoint Your Communication Methods

What Are Customers’ Preferred Marketing Channels?

In addition to collecting and managing customer contact information for future marketing and sales opportunities, it’s important to ensure you notate preferred method of communication as well so your messages reach your intended audience.

According to our recent survey data, email is the most preferred marketing channel for consumers of all ages. After email, younger consumers prefer to receive marketing communications via SMS text messaging, while consumers over 55 prefer to receive direct mail.

Although email marketing is most preferred by your customers, this isn’t a guarantee that your messages are getting through—that’s why your marketing strategies must include content personalization, targeted offers, and other elements that help ensure the best results.

Make Every Message Count: Email Marketing Best Practices

Even before a customer opts in to your email list, there are a few best practices you can implement to help increase your email marketing effectiveness:

1. Segment Your Lists: Consider demographics, appointment or purchase history, online shopping behaviors, and interests as you build email lists for your marketing communications.
2. Personalize Your Content: Use the customer’s details such as their name and vehicle model, reference past shopping interactions, and tailor the messaging to fit various points in the ownership lifecycle.
3. Optimize for Mobile: Ensure every marketing email is easy to view and navigate on mobile devices, and that your offers can be added to a customer’s digital wallet app with a click.
4. Track and Adjust: Monitor key metrics such as open rates and click-through rates, dive into detailed reporting to identify areas for improvement, and make performance-based adjustments.

Expanding Beyond Email: A Multi-Channel Approach

While email marketing is a powerful tool for your dealership, it’s essential to recognize that customers are active across multiple marketing channels. To maximize your reach and engagement, you’ll also want to expand your campaigns to include:

• SMS: Text message campaigns can deliver time-sensitive offers or appointment reminders directly to customers’ phones.
• Voice: Call and/or voicemail campaigns can be another effective way of reaching your customers directly.
• Direct mail: Print mail can complement your digital marketing efforts while building your brand and making an impact with older shoppers.
• Social media: Leveraging social media can help further increase campaign visibility and keep your store top-of-mind.

By diversifying your marketing efforts, you can reach a wider audience, increase brand awareness, and drive more traffic to your dealership. Choosing a comprehensive marketing platform can help you manage these campaigns more efficiently and ensure a consistent brand message across all channels. The right tool should:

• Centralize your campaigns: Manage all your marketing channels from a single dashboard.
• Automate repetitive tasks: Save time and resources by automating tasks like email sends and social media posting.
• Track and analyze performance: Measure the effectiveness of your campaigns across different channels.
• Integrate with other tools: Connect with your CRM and other essentials you use day-to-day.

Dial in Your Success on Every Marketing Channel

Matching your customers’ preferred methods of communication with your marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. A robust marketing platform can help you manage each channel efficiently and ensure a consistent brand message through all customer touchpoints.

Affinitiv Essentials helps you market to your customers in the ways they prefer, whether via email, mail, SMS, voice, and/or social media. Plus, you can easily access customizable campaigns, proven list recommendations, and actionable insights that help you connect with customers and drive revenue. For more information about Essentials or our other marketing solutions, contact us today.

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