A solid foundation of lifelong customers is the key to establishing a dealership that sees revenue increases year over year.
How do you go about turning those occasional repeat customers or one-time visitors into an audience that always chooses your dealership for their automotive needs?
Well, direct mail can grow customer loyalty for your dealership and help you push your targeted demographics along the car-buying journey. Ready to learn more?
Take a look at this rundown of the customer loyalty benefits that you’ll see from building a solid, data-driven automotive direct mail marketing strategy with the help of the professionals at Aspen Automotive.
What is Customer Loyalty?
To begin our exploration of how direct mail can grow customer loyalty for your dealership, it’s important to first understand what customer loyalty actually is.
According to Market Business News, customer loyalty is defined as: “…the likelihood that existing and previous customers continue purchasing from a specific company.”1
Now, you’re probably wondering why it’s so essential to earn a following of well-integrated, engaged consumers.
Well, not only does customer loyalty help you create a trustworthy brand image, but happy customers also buy 90 percent more frequently and are likely to spend 60 percent more per transaction.2
In addition to that, a five percent increase in customer retention rate can increase your business’ profits by 25 to 95 percent.3 All in all, encouraging your existing customers to stick around is a critical part of any successful dealership.
How Direct Mail Can Grow Customer Loyalty
Luckily for you and your dealership, growing your customer loyalty is as simple as harnessing the power of direct mail.
By designing an automotive direct mail campaign that targets inactive consumers, you’ll have a chance to understand why they’re no longer engaging and what they’d like to see at your dealership.
Check out some of the best techniques to include in your next direct mail marketing strategy to increase your customer retention rate:
Contact Old Customers
For instance, incorporating a Personal URL (PURL) onto your next auto direct mailer provides them with a portal through which they can submit feedback about your customer service and business strategies.
This equips your team with further insight into the tactics that are working for your dealership and the ones that aren’t.
As an alternative automotive marketing approach, sending your dormant customers a discount coupon or promotional mailer is a great way to spur them into action.
Not only are you rekindling the line of communication, but you’re also presenting your consumers with an incentive for doing business at your showroom.
Reward Loyalty
Due to the fact that about 80 percent of a business’s revenue is created by the top 20 percent of their customers, you want to treat this audience like VIPs.
Start by rewarding their continual business with an exclusive discount or coupon on a certain automotive service or special APR financing on a new vehicle sent right to their mailbox.
The benefits of this type of automotive direct mail approach are twofold: not only does it fortify customer satisfaction, but it also increases the likelihood that your audience will recommend your dealership to their friends, family, and other acquaintances, thereby driving more traffic through your showroom doors.
Personalize Your Approach
Part of engaging with your most loyal customers is to design an auto direct mail marketing campaign that speaks directly to their needs and lifestyles.
So, if one of your frequent clients recently purchased a vehicle from your dealership, you’ll want to send them a maintenance coupon within the first few months of ownership.
That way, they’ll already have a reason to choose you as the place to service their car. Plus, direct mail incentives only encourage repeat business from your visitors.
Boost Your Dealership’s Customer Loyalty with Direct Mail Today!
At Aspen Automotive, we understand the importance of customer retention for your dealership’s growth. That’s why we’ve created a proven automotive direct mail marketing approach that’s worked for over 10,000 dealerships across the United States and Canada.
So, if you’re ready to reap the benefits of a carefully crafted automotive marketing plan that’ll increase sales and deliver a solid return on your investment, give us a call or send us an email today!
