Deep inside your CRM sits a long list of email addresses and phone numbers of people you have either sold cars to, leased to, serviced or just missed out on. Why let it just sit there when you can put it to good use? With Google’s Customer Email Remarketing Audience and Facebook Custom Audiences, you can specifically target the people you’ve worked with or have collected information from in the past.
Put That Lengthy Email List To Work!
With Google and Facebook essentially offering the same form of targeting, you have the ability to drop that loaded email list into both advertising accounts. Targeting abilities are slightly different but both valuable.
Through Google, you can only target / match email addresses. With Facebook you can match with both email addresses and phone numbers. PCG has seen match rates between 75% and 99% for Google and around 60% for Facebook. However it’s important to note that match rates can be much lower depending on the amount of emails, phone numbers and active profiles that exist in the email list.
Why Are Your Past Customers Valuable?
Treat your customers right, and they become loyal. Many dealerships and small businesses see repeat business from a certain percentage of customers, so why not try to increase that number? Creating a long-term relationship with a customer can lead towards a lifetime of business.
Imagine a millennial purchasing their first “entry level” vehicle. Because that youngster bought a vehicle from your dealership, you now have the
ability to target them directly through paid advertising and on Facebook. Now, imagine the potential in consistently targeting this person:
- Millennial is targeted with service coupons, creating return visits and upsells
- Millennial gets a promotion at work and decides to trade in their Impreza for a Legacy
- Millennial decides to lay roots and get married; maybe their spouse needs a new car
- Millennial has kids and needs to trade that Legacy in for an Outback
- Milennial’s first kid grows up and needs a car for college
By targeting and serving this customer ads and treating them like more than a one-time sale, this person can create a life time of business for any dealership. Circle of life. Get it?
How Can I Target My Past Customers?
So let’s get a little deeper into how we can set up campaigns to effectively target a current audience or past customer. Three campaign ideas could be Lease, Missed Opportunities and Service, and then we’ll break that down a little bit further with some examples.
Example 1: Lease Campaign
If your dealership has at least three years of email lists, targeting people with lease specials should be simple. The best way to do this would be to segment an email list that you can easily dump out of your CRM into a few separate lists. You can easily create a list that has ONLY the email addresses for customers that your dealership has leased to in a specific time period.
So let’s say we have a list of people from June through December 2014 who have leases that are expiring soon. Your dealership can create a campaign that entices past customers to return their lease early for special pricing. It’s that simple.
Example 2: Missed Ops
Create another separate list that contains all of the email addresses of past potential customers your dealership was not able to sell to. Offer this group of people specials like an early lease return, conquest cash or a simple branding message offering a value proposition like “free oil changes for life” or “lifetime tires.”
Example 3: Service
This can be a combination of lists. New cars will need service, so try creating a campaign offering a special price on a first-time service. You can even just remind that specific group of people about your “lifetime oil changes” so they remember to bring the car in. Another option could be targeting an email list that contains only service customers. Incentivize this audience with exclusive promotions like 10% off their next service, one complimentary oil change, and so on.
What? Why? How?
There you have it. Targeting your past customers can keep your dealership in front of them and create loyalty with your brand. Interested in Customer Match through Facebook and Google but not sure where to begin? Give me a call and we can talk about it together.