Data is one of your dealership’s most valuable assets. Between your own database and third-party vendors, you have endless opportunities to target current customers, conquest vehicle owners, emails, credit data, and much more.
A common issue dealers run into with data companies is that these third parties usually can’t guarantee their data is 100% accurate. Before you go in blindly and blow your budget on conquest marketing lists that won’t produce results, why not take a look at what your own database has to offer? You can discover new ways to completely revamp your marketing strategy just by starting with your own data.
Are you collecting emails and phone numbers?
How will you market to customers effectively if you don’t reach them on their favorite platforms? Every time you interact with a customer, you should be collecting their phone number and email address. This valuable contact information can be used time and time again to benefit your marketing efforts. Email marketing is relatively cheap to deploy, and is one of the most effective ways to keep up with your database. Phone numbers are beneficial for everything from text message marketing to cold calling.
While you can certainly pay additional money for email appends on your conquest data, the data accuracy is rarely guaranteed. Leverage the customer data your own employees have collected for cost effective and accurate marketing.
What percentage of your customers are new vs. repeat business?
Customer retention is much cheaper than acquiring new customers. Your database can shed some light on how well your sales and fixed operations departments retain customers. How many of your customers visit you at regular service intervals? Do you see a large percentage of customers who buy a car from you and never come back? This information can reveal a lot about the type of customer experience your various departments offer.
Furthermore, you can look at the last service dates of customers in your database to determine which ones are overdue for a visit. Using this data, you can send targeted marketing messages to customers who may have dropped off your radar over the last few months. Don’t let your leads grow cold! Your database holds all the information you need to reel customers back in and boost your retention rates.
What do your customer demographics look like?
You never need to assume anything about your customers when you leverage database marketing. You can pinpoint a customer’s age, gender, income, location, and so much more; all extremely valuable demographics for marketing. Do you sell more cars to men or women? Do you have a healthy range of millennials, baby boomers, and in between, or do you skew toward one demographic? This information can help you shape specific goals and focus your marketing on areas that need improvement.
Why spend all this time in your database anyway?
Simple: Because it costs a lot of money to get new customers. Once you’ve got them, the biggest mistake you can make is letting them sit in your database untouched. Conquest marketing is valuable, but you shouldn’t downplay the value of marketing to your existing customers. Database marketing helps you continuously sell your repeat customers while keeping gross profits high.
Interested in taking your database marketing strategy to the next level? Explore our newest database marketing tool, Owner Verification Technology.
