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 It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of direct mail. It’s tangible, it’s personal, and it just plain works (when properly executed). However, I’m a bigger fan of “fishing with multiple poles in the water.” One of the biggest mistakes made with dealership marketing is using one type of media as a stand-alone advertisement.

You’ve heard the story of how synergy works, right? Steven Covey gives an example of synergy by explaining that if one horse can pull 1,500 pounds and another horse can pull another 1,500 pounds, when you hook them together they can pull over 5,000 pounds. This is exactly how your media works. 

The official phrase used by stuffy ad agencies is ‘integrated media.’ This simply means to deploy multiple different media methods that work together to promote the same message and desired outcome creating a synergistic effect with the results of your campaign. The opposite of this is to deploy one-and-done advertisements or to use multiple media with each one promoting its own message and desired outcome. Neither are effective. 

The right way to start a professional marketing program for your dealership begins with a marketing calendar that lays out the foundation for the dates and themes of your marketing. Once you’ve decided on your overall strategy you can then create a marketing checklist that gets everyone in your dealership involved in the execution. This creates buy-in from your team and reduces the stress of the D.P. or G.M. trying to do everything himself (which, by the way, is the reason most plans aren’t consistently followed through with).

And there is one media that your dealership should be using every single week to execute your plan that bolts on complimentary to any other media you are using (especially direct mail). 

Email. 

Email is here to stay, and without a doubt the most powerful marketing tool available today for dealers. I realize that’s a bold claim, but check this out: 

A four-year study of over 72 million customers across 14 different industries revealed 40 times as many purchases came from email links compared to Facebook and Twitter (Source: Custora).

This seems pretty logical to me. People use social media as entertainment, and as a way to follow their friends and family or even celebrities. But when it’s time to take care of business, most of us login to our email.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, email leads the way on media return on investment by nearly double any other media with a 41 to 1 ROI.

The fact is, everyone with a real job, real income, and decent credit uses email. According to McKinsey, those in the workforce spend about 2.5 hours a day using email. And with the technology of smart phones improving the email experience, it isn’t limited to just time at the office. Members of the workforce are looking at emails during breakfast, lunch and dinner, too. 

So while there are plenty of workers who don’t use Facebook or Twitter (like me and many others) the same can’t be said for email. 

Email is the preferred method of communication across all age groups according to Merkle. 

But unfortunately, very few dealers are truly leveraging the power of email due to the clumsy nature of creating a quality looking email, and providing quality content. 

Have you ever sat in front of your computer and pulled up your email system to craft a quality marketing email and ended up staring at a blank screen not knowing which direction to go? 

Part of the challenge for the dealer is that most commercial grade email systems have been designed for the butcher, baker, and candlestick maker, and the themes and templates provided are useless. 

So, what a lot of dealers now do is copy and paste a plethora of different images and banners into an email. And while this can provide okay content, it is still under utilizing this powerful media. For the same reason your accessory department should be merchandised with matching fixtures and gondolas, your email should be tied together with an overall theme and graphics so it doesn’t look like you’re having a yard sale.

The other challenge is, going back to the previously mentioned marketing calendar, you have to have a plan that integrates email into your overall marketing strategy. 

To solve this challenge, we’ve created Firestorm™, the industry’s first motorcycle dealer specific email marketing solution built from the ground up by our team of programmers to integrate and compliment your overall marketing plan. Essentially, we’ve built the marketing calendar for your dealership right into the system, and you can now create and deploy professionally crafted emails that integrate with your store merchandising, direct mail, social media, etc. and are proven to get quality results in just minutes. 

For more information on our new Firestorm™ email system, contact us at 877-242-4472 or schedule a free demo of the program at www.firestormemail.com.