Email marketing remains one of the best tools for growing your dealership, but only when done right. And, the first step to growing with email? It’s all about the list.
How to Create a High-Value Top-of-Funnel List
How you begin creating your list first starts with understanding a few basics about the ideal target audience for any top-of-funnel list you would create.
- 4% of the U.S. is in the marketing for a vehicle at any given time.
- You can try to figure out exactly who this 4% is in your local area, but it’s much easier to cast a wide net with a relatively inexpensive marketing campaign, like email
- We recommend starting with a list of at least 50,000 initial prospects. This ensures roughly 2,000 of the prospects you’re marketing to are actively in-market for a new vehicle
But, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be strategic when you create your list…
Simply targeting a geographic range won’t get you exactly where you want to be. You still want to make sure the list is comprised of shoppers most likely to buy from you.
With that in mind, leverage your own data to identify the top-of-funnel prospects that will be the most valuable to your dealership.
- Start by analyzing your own DMS to find your most profitable zip codes and your most common trade-ins
- Find as many shoppers as you can that live in your most profitable zip codes and/or own your most common trade-ins
- Filter in more and more nearby zip codes until you’re able to reach a list size of at least 50,000
- Filter out past customers to ensure you’re focusing on new growth opportunities
Now, that you have a top-of-funnel list you’re ready to get started with a growth-focused email campaign!
The Power of a Good List
Purchasing your lists from a reputable affiliate partner is a great way to get started with your list, but it’s not all you need to do. You also need to ensure you’re removing any risky email addresses, such as those likely to be spam traps, expired emails, or chronic unopeners.
Removing these email addresses will not only ensure you are complying with CAN -SPAM laws, but it also means you’re focusing on real people, which will keep your open and click rates as high as possible.
Not only does this mean more potential buyers see your email messages, but higher open and click rates will help ensure you aren’t flagged as a spammer or promotional emailer by large email providers like Gmail or Outlook.
This is something that needs to be done consistently as more people move in and out of your area and email addresses are abandoned.
This will keep your list clean, fresh, and profitable, and not just for email marketing!
The best thing about a growth-oriented email marketing campaign is the many omnichannel connections you can use to spin up an even more powerful campaign…
Retargeting on Facebook and IG
Once you’ve sent your email, move on to the next step: Retarget your email list with ads on social media channels like Facebook and Instagram. Feed your list to Facebook and make an audience out of it, and run ads to those email addresses.
Inventory ads are the right choice, they allow you to be visible in a user’s personal feed, where they get updates from friends and pages they follow. Ads should push interested parties to your website, where you can track performance and match back offline sales.
And with Facebook Ads for car dealerships, you can create custom messaging to tell shoppers why they should buy from you by running interactive ads in multiple formats.
Of course, AutoSweet is an expert at using Facebook and Instagram to retarget the right audience. Our Facebook Ads strategy has helped dealerships generate leads for as little as $5/per lead and sales for as low as $60/sale.
Retargeting on Google
Google search network (GSN) is yet another place to retarget your list. The Google Search Network is a group of search-related websites and apps where you can place paid ads. Dynamic search ads are displayed in search results when someone searches with terms related to one of your keywords.
Another option is to retarget your list using the Google Display Network (GDN) ads.
These are the Google display ads that are shown to you when you navigate to the internet, like a blog, weather, or news page.
Last Step: Measurement
Finally, measure the success of your work by measuring with Google Analytics, or work with a partner like AutoSweet to ensure attribution of your offline sales to your campaign, matching back to your DMS sales data.
Including UTM codes (tracking tags) on each link in your emails is a great way to ensure you’re measuring the success of your emails.
Want AutoSweet to strategize your next email marketing campaign, retargeting for maximum effectiveness?
Contact us today and set up a free, five-minute strategy session with one of our digital marketing experts!
