It’s no secret that modern-day consumers are relying more and more heavily on online resources when shopping for a car. Between managing online reputation, social media, 3rd-party sites, lead nurturing, print advertising, web content, and conquest marketing (the list goes on and on), it feels like being a modern, progressive dealership is a never-ending juggling act.

More than that, just one of those tasks requires intensive levels of time and money. Have you ever considered how many work-hours it takes for you and your team to deploy just one 2015-standard email campaign for your dealership? Take a moment to consider the steps it takes.

  1. Identify a list of recipients from your DMS and/or CRM AND get that list to your email deployment tool in a compatible format.
  2. Hire an agency or a graphic designer to produce Tier-1-quality, compliant creative content for all components of the email, along with supporting landing pages, website banners and ad images.
  3. Somebody in the dealership needs to write the copy for the ad.
  4. Assemble the email in a sophisticated email building tool and/or hire a responsive design HTML coder.
  5. For each button, or Call to Action (CTA), create a corresponding responsive design landing page, designed to convert a viewer to a lead, call or chat.
  6. Test every link and landing page extensively to ensure proper rendering on mobile, tablet, desktop and email client.
  7. Collect and submit all material to manufacturers for compliance (if necessary).
  8. Schedule Social Media posts on Facebook, Twitter and more to promote and support the campaign, driving traffic to the landing pages.
  9. Provide your SEM partner images for PPC campaigns with the same look, feel and messaging for consistency.
  10. Provide your website design firm image(s) for homepage banners with the same look, feel and messaging for consistency.
  11. Deploy (send) the email from a whitelisted server, hopefully separate from the dealership's domain or CRM.
  12. Track every click, open, opt out and unsubscribe with extensive reporting tools.
  13. Schedule targeted, automated follow up email to be sent days later to anyone who opened and clicked on a CTA, specific to what they requested.
  14. Collect and submit all material to manufacturers for co-op reimbursement (if available).
  15. Analyze the results and incorporate adjustments for the next campaign.

Do you feel overwhelmed yet? When you break it down, the costs can really start to add up. From hosting and design, testing and deployment, plus the cost in employee time dedicated to this task – are you really getting the most out of your digital marketing budget?

Here at 3 Birds, we think that dealerships need to “Expect More” from their partners. Our data-driven, comprehensive digital marketing solution, ME, helps your dealership market effectively – reaching the right customers at the right time with the right message. With ME, you can expect to eliminate unnecessary layers of account management, access the potential that lies in your database every month, and establish yourself as a trusted partner that your customers will want to turn to when it’s time to buy or service. With everything from conquest emails to a monthly e-newsletter, ME is always on, always learning, and always helping you identify the most valuable components of your marketing strategy.

Get to know ME – it’s simply a better way to market your dealership.