Updated: October 21, 2016
One multi-rooftop dealer group was seeing solid performance from its monthly Digital Newsletter—but their 3 Birds account strategist wasn’t satisfied. Learn how we helped the client implement a targeted newsletter strategy that dramatically improved engagement and generated multiple handraiser lists for future campaigns and other follow-up opportunities.
The Client: A multi-rooftop dealer group in the Nashville area selling new and pre-owned Honda, Volvo, Subaru, and Buick-GMC models. The dealership also provides specialized service and maintenance for each make.
The Challenge: When you maintain an inventory of over 5,000 new and pre-owned vehicles, being able to accurately generate and gauge customer interest and intent is essential. The client’s strategy included a single monthly Digital Newsletter featuring handraiser news articles and inventory from each of its brands.
After several months, the client was seeing solid performance—the most recent newsletter had an Open Rate of 10.03% and a CTO (Click-to-Open) Rate of 9.62%. However, the client's dedicated 3 Birds account strategist wasn't satisfied with these results and started a conversation with the client about how to improve these key engagement metrics.
How We Helped: After reviewing the dealer’s recent sends, we identified a common database marketing issue: lack of segmentation. The client was sending a single group-wide communication to its entire list, and as a result, interested customers weren’t finding their way to the dealer’s OEM-specific content.
3 Birds recommended a pilot send of four different newsletters: Honda, Volvo, Subaru, and Buick-GMC. Each newsletter was to feature an OEM-branded design and include a review, news articles, promo images, and coupons specific to that make. In addition, we reached out to each of the group’s rooftops for individual lists.
The Results:
The client saw a significant increase in engagement for each of the pilot sends. The average Open Rate for the four newsletters increased by 134% from that of the original combined newsletter with an increase of 181% for the Subaru-branded newsletter. The average CTO Rate increased by 69% with an increase of 127% for the Volvo-branded newsletter.
In addition to achieving the main engagement goals, the client also gained valuable insights into current prospects in its database. The auto review (spotlighting a recently released model) was among the top three most-clicked pieces of content in each newsletter, providing opportunities for future targeted campaigns. The client also saw positive engagement with its featured inventory and service coupons.
As this study shows, it pays to test your marketing strategy on a regular basis. Not sure where to start? Contact us today to learn how to put our “Always On, Always Learning” enterprise-level marketing and analytics platform to work for your dealership.