How the Customer Journey has Changed
As your customer’s journey grows ever more complicated and buyers are making first contact further down their purchase journey, your marketing has to reflect how people actually shop today. Single-channel marketing simply doesn’t cut it anymore. Customers piece together what they’re getting across multiple touchpoints, whether it be in the moment of their direct search or they’re passively absorbing messages higher in the funnel.
But, where to begin? With so many channels to choose from, how are you to know what will be the most effective? Enter the CARS program, your Complete Automotive Retail Solution Designed to reach customers through a high-impact mix of channels to balance efficiency and effectiveness.
CARS (Complete Automotive Retail Solution) by Epsilon Individual Automotive
The cars program helps you target both new prospects and existing customers by combining email and social retargeting. It’s all driven by the most impactful data, conquest audiences and your DMS database. Plus, with all the lead routing handled by a domestic external BDC, your dealership can increase appointments without adding day-to-day workload for your team.
Who is CARS for?
CARS works best for dealers or dealer groups who aren’t currently utilizing the email and social media channels to their full potential. It’s also a strong fit for those who have limited BDC capabilities (or even none at all) but are confident in their ability to close a sale once the customer steps on the lot.
CARS works best as primarily a new-vehicle sales program, then supported by used vehicle and service incentives to keep relevant along the different stages of the buyer journey.
How CARS Works
CARS is designed to offer your dealership high-quality, high-intent appointments without forcing your team to manage extra lead volume. Here’s how we do it:
1- Data handling
You input your DMS data so we know who your existing clients are. Then, we source a conquest list of high-potential customers to broaden our outreach for your campaign. The two groups are handled separately to optimize for cost-efficiency while maximizing the potential impact in appointments and showroom traffic.
2- Campaign Launch
Once we’ve crafted your high-intent audiences, we launch email and social retargeting campaigns to put out your heavy-hitting messaging. The more people engage with your message, the more we’ll stay in front of them to set appointments with retargeting and external domestic BDC outreach. That way, your team can focus on closing.
Campaigns follow the cadence of your offers and their expiry, typically running for 3-week intervals each month for the duration of your CARS program.
3- Reporting
Following each month of campaign runtime, we can provide a matchback report detailing sold customers who were reached by the campaign. We’ll never claim responsibility for your sales—instead, we’ll illustrate the impact of CARS through the one metric that matters most: vehicles sold.
What Dealers Get
As part of the CARS program, you’ll be free to choose from a selection of data-backed creatives based on what fits your look and your incentives for the month. Creative is mirrored across channels for a consistent and coherent customer journey.
You choose the hardest-hitting message you can provide to pique the interest of prospects, and we deliver the ad to the people it’s most likely to resonate with. As part of the program, you’ll get expert reporting, recommendations, and strategy development to ensure effective campaign delivery and results.
Why Conquest + DMS Data Wins
Your DMS data is a great representation of the kind of people who are likely to buy a car because, well, they already have. Using that data to structure our campaigns and conquest for incremental growth, we can combine the “easy wins” of your DMS data with the market share expansion provided by conquesting buyers you haven’t yet had the opportunity to sell.
Key Terms
CARS: Complete Automotive Retail Solution; a multi-channel marketing program driving sales through email, social, and BDC support.
DMS Data: Dealer Management System records used to target your existing customer base.
Conquest Data: Data used to target high-potential buyers who haven’t bought from you before.
Domestic BDC: A U.S.-based Business Development Center that handles lead follow-up and sets your appointments.
Matchback Report: A report cross-referencing campaign data with sold units to show actual ROI.
Social Retargeting: Re-engaging prospects on social media after they interact with your emails.
CARS Frequently Asked Questions
What data is required?
We require DMS data with a minimum of name, email, address, and opt-in status. To produce a matchback report following the campaign (if desired), also need sales data for the reporting period.
What kind of conquest data can you target?
The standard conquest contacts we’ll target are same-make or like-make vehicle owners within a practical buying range of your dealership, as we find these are the most likely customers. Alternative targeting strategies can be discussed with your Epsilon representative.
How will the appointments come in?
Our domestic BDC will route confirmed appointments directly to your CRM via your CRM leads address. If you do not have a CRM leads address, appointments can be sent to any email of your choosing.
How do we measure success?
The program is designed to increase your exposure and top-of-mind awareness among highly actionable and relevant customers. Some key metrics we focus on include reach, frequency, clicks, leads (routed to BDC), appointments (set by BDC), and matchbacks.
How to Get Started with CARS
CARS is built on a repeatable delivery framework supported by proven results in our case studies. If you’d like to see how your dealership can feel the uplift of the CARS program, get in touch with us today for a no-obligation consultation. We’ll walk you through the approach, recommended audiences, and give you an idea of what to expect (before the results speak for themselves).
