Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine is the daily operations publication serving the retail automotive industry. This automotive publication serves dealer principals, officers and general managers with the latest best practices.
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By Greg Wells BU SINE S S DE V E LOPME NT BATTLE OF THE INBOX The magazine���s business development expert says to burn those e-mail templates, then lays out 10 steps to making your e-mail stand out. E fectiv Efectiv ectively communicating with your i online customers via e-mail is extremely i mp o import important. But winning the battle of the inbox i b inbox is no easy task. Even if you are fort unate e n e tunate enough to get your message opened, you bet e you bet have something worth reading. better e don���t fag spam and they don���t reply People d to ���blah, blah, blah.��� Te DNA of an awesome e-mail is a mixture of personalization, relevancy and congruency. It should be personalized for the simple reason that there is a living, breathing person on the other end. It should be relevant because, well, it is relevant. It should also be congruent in that it makes sense as a component of an ongoing conversation. Take a few minutes and browse through Greg Wells is president of AllCall Automotive Contact Center. He has spent almost 25 years working in automotive retail, with specific expertise in business development centers and Internet sales. His work has been recognized nationally by the NADA, and his indealership sales training experience has launched many successful selling careers for his students. GWells@AutoDealerMonthly 38 10 e-mails in your CRM that have gone out to customers. It���s best you do this while sitting down, because you may not be too happy with what you fnd. Te good news is you can make it better by following these 10 steps. STEP 1: BURN YOUR TEMPLATES I took part in a template burning event back in 2006, and it was pretty cool. We printed out all of our templates, put them in a trash can, took it outside and set them on fre. Why? Tey didn���t work. Tat���s because the only thing templates are good at is creating spam. A template is used so that the format does not have to be recreated each time it���s used. T ink of a template as a piece of stationery, not as a message. So your canned e-mails that go out on whatever day to whatever recipient are a waste of cyberspace and your customers��� time. Please stop. STEP 2: USE PERSONALIZED SUBJECT LINES Your customer is going to skim his or her inbox, looking through the clutter for something that catches his or her attention. It could be the sender or the subject line, but nothing will catch it like their name. AUTO DE ALE R MONTHLY ��� APRIL 2013 In fact, one of the most efective subject lines I���ve seen is: ���Hi, John, it���s Ashley at BDC Motors.��� We tested it and that subject line generated a 62 percent open rate, which is phenomenal. Not bad for something so simple, right? By the way, the subject line with the No. 1 open rate in the study we conducted was: ���Happy Birthday!��� How���s that for personal! STEP 3: TYPE LIKE YOU TALK David Kain, Internet sales guru, has a saying. He says you should type like you talk and talk like a ff h grader. Tat���s good advice. So, before you put your fngers to the keyboard, think for a second about what you would say to the individual you���re going to e-mail if you could say it in person. So, if you had the customer in front of you, would you say: ���We have an exceptional selection of quality pre-owned vehicles���? Or would you say: ���We have a lot of nice used cars?��� Look, avoid the $10 words at all cost. You���ll fnd customers are more likely to respond when you are having a conversation than when you are using ���ad speak.��� STEP 4: BE RELEVANT For heaven���s sake, think about what you are saying. Relevancy starts with reading their