6 Steps to a Winning SMS Strategy (and 30 Use Cases for Dealerships!)
Welcome to the final article in our short series on SMS marketing for auto dealerships! Throughout this series, we explored why SMS is gaining traction and addressed some common challenges that might be holding you back. Here's a quick recap:
This final article outlines six steps to formulate a winning SMS strategy and shares 30 practical use cases for auto dealerships (organized into five important business areas). Whether you're just starting with SMS or looking to enhance your current approach, this guide has actionable insights to take you to the next level.
Creating an Effective SMS Strategy for Your Dealership
Before implementing text messaging, you'll want to develop a well-thought-out SMS strategy to ensure your efforts are effective, compliant, and aligned with customer expectations. Without a clear plan, dealerships risk overwhelming customers with messages or facing compliance issues that could lead to penalties and fines. Here's a roadmap to set up a successful SMS program.
1. Define Your Goals and Use Cases?
Start by identifying the primary goals of your SMS program. Are you aiming to improve customer retention, enhance service communications, or boost sales conversions? Knowing your objectives will help you choose use cases (from our list below!), craft relevant messages, and measure the success of your campaigns. We suggest starting small, focusing on just one business area or a few key use cases. When you're up and running, you can always build out from there.?
2. Know Your Audience?
Tailor your messaging to meet the preferences and needs of your customer base. Consider demographics, such as age, gender, and location, to determine the best types of content and communication frequency. The better you know your audience, the more effective your messages will be (this is true with all marketing and sales—including business SMS!).
3. Ensure Compliance with Regulations?
Dealerships must adhere to regulations like the TCPA to avoid penalties and fines. For example, The Campaign Registry (TCR) is a requirement that mandates that businesses must register their 10-digit long codes (10DLC) to send texts to consumers. The registration deadline is December 1, 2024, and if you fail to do so, your outbound texts will be blocked. If you're a Clarity Voice customer, we handle the entire TCR registration process for you! If you need some support in this area, reach out to our team.?
4. Craft Clear and Valuable Messages?
Texting is a direct line to your customers, so make every message count! Focus on concise, informative, and relevant content. Avoid being overly promotional, and always offer value. For some text message examples, check out this page.
5. Establish Frequency and Timing Guidelines?
Decide on an appropriate frequency and timing for your messages to avoid overwhelming customers. For instance, service reminders might be sent monthly, while special promotions could be limited to once or twice a quarter. Also, follow TCPA guidelines, ensuring texts are only sent between 8:00 AM and 9:00 PM in the customer's time zone.
6. Set Up Opt-Out Management?
Make it easy for customers to opt-out by including clear instructions, like "Text 'STOP' to unsubscribe," in every message. Automating opt-out management can help ensure customers' preferences are honored immediately while keeping your contact list clean and compliant. For more on managing opt-outs, see our previous article.?
Now that you've laid the groundwork with a strong SMS strategy let's explore specific areas where text messaging can significantly impact your dealership.
30 SMS Use Cases for Dealerships
With a solid SMS strategy in place, it's time to look at how texting can transform different areas of your dealership. From enhancing customer service to driving sales, here are many SMS use cases to improve communication, engagement, and satisfaction across various departments.
1. Service Department
The service department is one of the most critical areas for building long-term customer loyalty in an auto dealership. However, managing customer expectations and maintaining efficient communication can be challenging. Customers want updates on their vehicles, reminders about scheduled maintenance, and a smooth scheduling experience without spending excessive time on the phone or waiting for email responses.
Text messaging can streamline service department communication and make it easier to meet customer demands while increasing operational efficiency. Here are some ways to leverage texting in your service department to enhance customer satisfaction and streamline workflows.
2. Sales Department
In the sales department, communication is vital to nurturing leads, driving conversions, and delivering a positive customer experience. Traditional methods like phone calls and emails can sometimes feel intrusive or slow, leading to missed opportunities and frustrated customers. With competition high in the auto industry, dealerships need to be able to engage prospects quickly and provide the information they need without overwhelming them.
Text messaging offers an efficient way to keep sales communication light, timely, and responsive. By allowing customers to engage at their own pace, texting can help build rapport and maintain a connection that is often hard to achieve through other channels. Here are some ways to use text messaging in your sales department to drive engagement and create a seamless buying experience.
3. Customer Retention
Customer retention is crucial to the long-term success of any dealership, as repeat business and referrals often contribute significantly to revenue. However, staying top-of-mind with customers after a sale or service visit can be difficult, especially if communication is sporadic or solely focused on marketing and sales. Effective retention strategies require consistent, value-added interactions that make customers feel valued beyond their initial purchase.
Text messaging provides an effective solution for maintaining regular touchpoints without being overly intrusive. With SMS, dealerships can send personalized messages that remind customers of important dates, acknowledge special occasions, or offer relevant updates, all of which reinforce a positive relationship. Here are some text messaging strategies to help foster loyalty and strengthen customer retention in your dealership.
4. Marketing and Promotions
Marketing and promotions are essential for attracting new customers and keeping existing ones engaged. However, standing out in a crowded inbox or through traditional advertising can be difficult, particularly when customers are inundated with promotional content from many other businesses (including your competitors!).?
Text messaging allows dealerships to bypass some of these traditional marketing obstacles by providing customers with a direct line of communication. SMS marketing cuts through the noise to deliver exclusive deals, limited-time offers, and invitations to events that resonate with customers. Here are some ways to incorporate text messaging into your marketing and promotional efforts to boost engagement and drive results.
5. Customer Service and Support
Customers expect quick, efficient, and convenient interactions with businesses, and auto dealerships are no exception. Text messaging offers dealerships a powerful way to face the challenge of meeting high expectations with limited resources. By integrating texting into service processes, dealerships can improve response times and create a more streamlined, user-friendly experience.
Using texting for customer service also enhances the dealership's ability to build long-lasting relationships. With quick, informative, and personalized messages, dealerships can build trust and make customers feel valued and supported at every stage of their journey. Here are some practical ways to incorporate texting into your customer support and service strategy.
Creating Your SMS Strategy
Incorporating text messaging into your dealership's communication strategy can elevate customer satisfaction, drive engagement, and streamline operations. By following these steps to create an SMS strategy and exploring the SMS use cases for dealerships, you'll be well-equipped to launch or optimize your business texting program.
If you haven't already, check out the other articles in our series for more insights on SMS marketing (listed at the top of this page). We hope this series has inspired you to embrace business texting as a valuable tool in your dealership's toolkit or take your existing SMS strategy to the next level!