The State of Email Marketing in The Automotive Industry

We’re @ Where?

Well, the best place to start is the numbers, our friends over at Martech Alliance broke it down into key stats:

• There are 4 billion daily email users.
• In 2022, the total number of worldwide email users are estimated to be 4.25 Billion
• 35% of marketers send their customers 3-5 emails per week.
• 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months
• 4 out of 5 marketers said they’d rather give up social media than email marketing.
• 89% of marketers use email as the primary channel for generating leads.
• The average click-through rate was 6%.
• The average unsubscribe rate for 2020 was 1%.
• The spam rate average in 2019 was 02%.
• 86% of professionals give priority to email
• In Europe, North America, and APAC, email marketing is the most widely used technology for customer engagement – 6% (compared to 62% produced by content management and 61% shown by social media).
• Countdown timers in emails can boost registrations by 30%.
• Email click-through rates improve by 200% when interactive elements are added
• Sales emails with 200-250 words witness the highest response rate of 19%.
• When text in a call to action button is changed from second-person viewpoint to first-person viewpoint, clicks improve by 90%.
• As per 20% of marketers, email design has improved their email engagement
• Including videos in emails can boost click-through rates by 300%.

So there’s the good news. Email marketing is still kicking butt and taking names in the marketing world. So let's get into the changes we’re currently experiencing.

First and foremost, we may anticipate increased state-level privacy regulation in the later part of 2022 and into 2023. More states have passed rules in recent years, such as the two-part California Consumer Privacy Act, and this trend is unlikely to slow. We may even see something specific at the federal level, though sweeping data privacy legislation is improbable. Regardless, these new regulations will have an impact on marketers, and email will not be exempt. However, because it relies on perhaps the most important piece of first-party data: the email address, email marketing is well positioned to weather the storm of several sorts of data privacy regulation. So overall, email marketing, regardless of the changes, will be mostly unscathed moving forwards, even with more consumer privacy focused world. 

Best Practices 

User-Generated Content

This is one of the simplest and most successful techniques to increase conversions and improve organic traffic. In a nutshell, user-generated content refers to your customers' reviews of certain products, their ratings, images of your clients using the products, and so on. Positive feedback from a varied collection of consumers will help to establish a good image if people see it on a frequent basis. This enhances the likelihood of conversion. To easily collect user-generated content, ask your consumers to upload images of them using the product or include a CTA on a poll or survey. This practice can be beneficial in three ways; 

• Your customers help generate content for your company - at no cost to you
• It social proofs your company to potential customers
• It raises brand awareness

Incorporating this into your email marketing campaigns will put your company on the right track.

Customer List Segmentation and Micro-segmentation

Customer segmentation is a highly effective approach for increasing conversion rates. By 2023, it will be time to transition from segmentation to micro-segmentation. This entails delving deeply into customers' behavioral data, preferences, geography, personality, and so on before categorizing them in specific email list groups. According to research, the needs of your audience's behavior are never the same. It will fluctuate over time, so keeping up with what your customers are doing is crucial moving forward. For example, segmenting your lists into different activity or engagement stages will allow you to customize your content to their specific needs and be more effective in converting them - A thorough segmentation of your email list can boost your open rate by a whopping 203 percent, pretty important in our eyes! An example of this would be segmenting your service customers from your vehicle sales customers, so you can provide them with relevant content they want to see and not waste your ad budget on showing them products or services they don't want or need!

Optimized Landing Pages

This is the page that the user arrives at after clicking the CTA button in a marketing email. The issue with many marketers is that they concentrate all of their time on writing a well-crafted marketing email but place less emphasis on developing a landing page. A landing page requires significant effort and time to develop in order to get a higher conversion rate. In short, your landing page should say what is indicated in the email and deliver value to customers who find it. If the landing page, for example, is for a sale your dealership is having - make sure it's just as strong as the hook email you sent to the customer so you know that you'll be able to retain the customer through the process!

Customized Content For Different Customers

Creating custom content for customers in your pipeline is huge - but knowing where they are at is half the battle. As we mentioned above, segmenting your email lists is a best practice, and will allow you to take advantage of the custom content you create. If your customer is still in the consideration stage, it may be best to leverage incentives your company offers to help them make the choice to go with you, or if they’ve defected, send an email touching base with them and trying to figure out why they did. 

Stay In Contact With Our Help!

All of the other recommendations in this article pale in comparison to this tip - keep in contact with them. Seriously! Keeping in contact with your customer will give you a leg up on your competition because staying in contact with your customer will allow you to know where they are in the buying process - and there are a couple of ways we do this using email;

• We keep track of the cars your customers are looking at and send them updates on the inventory they have expressed an interest in.
• Because everyone has a different schedule, we change based on client engagement with your emails, website, and CRM status.
• Our tailored emails are sent automatically, allowing your sales team to have more time to focus on leads with the most potential to convert to a sale.
• We track everything your leads do on your website, including every search, filter, form, chat, and page view. It also recognizes when you make inventory changes. 
• Your CRM contacts, as well as any new website leads, are now qualified to receive emails about your inventory.
• We discover the inventory that best suits each lead's online purchasing preferences using our Vehicle Algorithm.
• Leads receive emails from your company that is tailored to their interests based on their activity and the changes you make to your website.

Pretty awesome right? We think so as well. With all these tips, you should be well on your way to generating more traffic for your dealership! Remember, There are so many different avenues to travel when it comes to custom content for different customers, so make sure you expand into this practice moving forward!

Have more questions about Email Marketing, or have some questions on how we can help you achieve your goals? Reach out to us below! Also make sure to subscribe to our newsletter here!