Challenge

To increase customer frequency through a cost-effective direct marketing program for a medium-size import dealer in the Midwest. On average, just over 18% of a dealership’s customer base comes in three or more times a year. The dealership needed to increase customer frequency in order to increase profits and retain clients more effectively.

Approach

We suggested the dealership begin running our service reminder program, which signals customers to come in by: reminding them of upcoming mileage and time-interval scheduled maintenance and/or reminding them of declined recommended maintenance from a previous service visit. The approach was unique to what they had been doing because the letters were personalized to customers’ specific vehicle needs, contained dealership pictures and represented the dealer’s brand and logos. The dealership included this program along with their other direct mail initiatives in order to build their brand using the familiarity of the staff and facilities to drive in customers.

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Challenge

As consumers become more technologically savvy, many new avenues of contact become available. One of the possibilities is using e-mails in conjunction with traditional mailers. E-mail coupons are common for tangible consumer products, but how effective are they when accompanied with a traditional direct mail piece?

Approach

One of our medium-sized dealers sent out about 4,500 mailers each month. To reach his tech-savvy customers, he decided to accompany his mailer with an e-mail campaign. We had e-mail addresses for about 15% of his database, so we sent an e-mail to those customers about three weeks after his mailers were sent. The e-mail was an electronic version of his direct mail piece, featuring the same design and offers.

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Challenge

A service manager wanted to create a compelling e-mail message to accomplish two goals. He wanted to bring in more customers to celebrate his dealership’s grand opening and increase traffic during a slower time of the week. The idea behind an e-mail blast is to have it follow a mailer, to remind customers that a promotion is running. Typically, a dealership will see its highest number of repair orders during the beginning of a month as a result of a direct mail promotion. In the first 12 days of January, the dealership lost an average of 7.3 customer-paid repair orders each day. In addition, there is a trend of declined coupon usage in winter months. For this month, the dealership’s repair order drop-off was particularly severe.

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Challenge

In this time of ever-increasing postal rates, it can be a challenge to follow all the details of executing a successful direct mail campaign. As a market-savvy consumer, you know that getting your name out there is all about the frequency. So you plan ahead, set your budget, and keep the mail pieces rolling, but how can you be sure that the mailers reach the intended targets?

Here’s the other challenge: According to the United States Postal Service, over 40 million Americans change their address annually, which creates formidable obstacles in maintaining a high-quality mailing list.

Approach

To maximize the effectiveness your dealership’s promotions, you should have all of your mailing lists checked against the National Change of Address (NCOA) list every time. The NCOA standard requires a list to be checked every 90 days, and although having the list checked every time is time-consuming and more expensive, the benefits far outweigh the added cost. There are also several other processes that need to be followed in order to avoid sending messages to customers who are highly improbable to respond. Not all marketing partners cleanse information the same way. Some partners avoid meticulous efforts because they only lower the volume mailed and therefore lower the invoice that can be sent.

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Challenge

Addressing environmental issues and making “green” benefit a dealership.

Approach

Kerry Collision (affiliated with Kerry Toyota) in Covington, KY, is one of the first collision centers in the region to embrace the green initiative. Tom Dolan, service manager of Kerry Toyota, says getting internal support for the green process was easy. “Lots of people really wanted to get onboard to make this happen. Being green is where it’s all going to go. The environmental issues are coming to the forefront.”

Marc Carmado, manager of Kerry Collision, is working with Tom Dolan of the Kerry Toyota dealership to promote his green initiative. The We Auto Go Green™ logo is on each Traffic Builders-produced mailer for Kerry Toyota, along with Kerry Collision’s own “Gone Green” logo. These visuals help to remind their customers about Kerry Collision’s contributions to the green initiative.

Carmado says the highlight of their green initiative was waterborne paint. In September 2008, Kerry Collision switched from using solvent-borne paint to waterborne paint. Waterborne paint, in which water is the major ingredient (98%), emits less organic solvent into the atmosphere. For Carmado’s team, who usually paints 125-130 cars per month, that’s a lot less toxicity in the air. “We’ve reduced our pollutants to almost nil,” says Carmado. “It was a decision that I made for the shop. I think we have a three to four–year jump on upcoming national emissions changes.”

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Challenge

It is an all-too-familiar scenario in almost any business setting: do more with less. A parts and service manager was asked by his general manager to reduce the advertising budget by 25%. The challenge was to analyze the advertising in a given time frame to determine the consequence of reduce the budget.

Approach

This can be examined both from a general marketing perspective, as well as a results-oriented perspective. It’s a given that by having the dealership’s message in front of his customers on a frequent basis is more likely to ensure success than a one-time mailing because frequency is a basic marketing and advertising principle that would be violated if this dealer decided to reduce his monthly participation. Since reducing frequency could not be recommended, the dealership explored reducing the mailing list size by 25% (per promotional period) to reduce the costs.

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Challenge

The challenge was to grow business from areas previously designated as “poor” retention markets, which in this case meant bringing customers in from previously untapped zip codes.

Approach

Based on Urban Science’s manufacturing reports, it was identified that 10 zip codes in the dealership’s region had not yielded customers. A mailing list was created to show how segmented targeting would be effective. Customers received a 45-day direct mail piece with a winter-driving focus.

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