Dr. StrangeEmail or “How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love High-Quality Email Templates”
James Lawrence
COO & Co-Founder at SDPCompliance.com, ADCO Certified Dealership Compliance Officer and CEO/Founder of DealerEFX.com
The Cold War of Current Sales Process vs Digital Retailing is Heating Up
The Diabolical Disconnects in Digital Auto Retailing
Dealers struggle to manage the precious industry expenditures on multiple marketing channels emerging from the ongoing innovation in new and existing forms of social media and sales communication technology, including the venerable email sales process.
Growth and market demographics represented in FB, Instagram, etc., force Dealers and OEMs to try and manage multiple forms of digital communication. They are spending millions to figure out how to accomplish a singular brand message across accompanying promotional campaigns while customizing multi-channel marketing for each platform’s target audience, managing through the complexity of overlapping demographics. Manager meetings look something like this:
On top of this Dealers are trying to manage wave after wave of new Legal and OEM requirements. From the CFPB, FTC & other .GOVs to facility Update Requirements to OEM-subsidized websites to promotions to brand presentation compliance in all the old and new marketing channels, especially email communications.
With no choice for dealers in whether or not to join in the digital whirlwind of competing vehicle merchandising services, it may feel something like this for dealers, no matter the horse they choose to ride:
Within this bombardment of stringent and sometimes confusing Legal and OEM requirements comes the need to support the dealer’s specific social media efforts across the usual suspects as well as manage, practically on an hourly basis, their online reputation garnered from the increasingly important (and squirrelly) reviews that define a “good customer experience,” considered the holy grail of the modern online sales cycle. Oh yeah and sell cars.
In the dealers’ MAD rush to address new communications channels, existing sales processes experience the entropy (i.e. the naturally occurring spread of chaos) associated with lack of management focus.
Online and frontline sales process quality suffer a Cold-War of competing DSP interests, as dealer management across the country (the planet?) expend resources and attention in a vain attempt to engage all the new channels with difficult to measure strategies.
As MarComm efforts move away from easily measurable “Moments of Truth” (MOT) like email, walk-ups and phone-ups, inconsistent communications across multiple social media channels leave prospects feeling unsatisfied with the quality of their customer experience.
With this minefield of liabilities in mind, controlling a dealer’s “First Contact” Email Lead Response is a new frontier for GMs/GSMs/ISDs and OEMs alike. Right now, email communications coming from dealerships is a “Wild West” of poor quality, impersonal presentations, non-compliance and missed opportunities.
The problem is unknowingly caused by screaming busy, high-turnover, perennially under-trained salespeople, not well versed in design, HTML, OEM & Legal compliance nor professional copywriting.
This Cold-War on salespeople’s ability to communicate with dealer prospects and clients in a personal, professional manner causes of series of customer experience failures across multiple marketing channels. One of the most critical is the “First Contact” email response to incoming leads.
Mutually Assured Devaluation (MAD): Why Higher Quality Email Templates Matter to Dealers
Consider most prospects research on the Internet and know the vehicle they want. Industry research shows they will visit less than two stores to buy it. So, dealers have very few chances to make a positive first impression and must enable new ways to engage prospects in the emerging “showroomless” digital sales environment or have their brand equity devalued immediately at “First Contact” with your costly internet prospects.
DealerEFX removes dependence on these stressed sales teams, reducing their burden by building and maintaining OEM-compliant lead response email templates within any CRM, for an easy, professional-looking and “personalized” Select & Send lead response simple for the "average" dealer salesperson to perform.
We replace dealers' “home-made” poor quality templates to compliantly present and visualize vehicle brands to internet prospects for higher response rates & "engagement" and more deal opportunities. All of which add/preserve the value of a dealers’ or OEMs’ digital brand equity at "First Contact," every minute of every day as salespeople send email to the costly and exclusive prospects OEM and Dealer marketing efforts have generated.
Remember that there are competing interests among the DSPs relied upon by dealerships for the “How-to” make more sales with their latest DR gadgets. There are over two dozen Digital Retailer Software Providers. Many of these demands the dealership change their sales processes before they can call their software successful. According to research from Accenture, up to 75% of people would do the whole thing online if they could. How’s that for “disintermediation?” Remember that bit of jargon from the last dotcom boom? Well, now it’s happening, and it is happening at scale and across all platforms, most importantly on mobile devices, so get ready to evolve, improve or perish.
From Christina Raab, Accenture Automotive’s global managing director-digital consumer services:
· “The impact of the digital customer is becoming pervasive, disrupting the traditional car-buying experience and the competitive landscape. This is clearly supported by the fact that many would consider conducting the entire car-buying process online.”
A Policy of Containment: Slow Dealer Digital Retailing Adoption
In a recent video release by Brian Pasch from a panel of DR experts - Digital Retailing Panel Discussion - AAAS 2019 - https://youtu.be/JXxjWbxDP0E - and opinion was expressed that dealers have applied DR systems and processes in an inconsistent manner, generally without changing current sales processes and in response to consumers’ vast preference for a test drive, arranging financing, trade-in services, etc. Most of the DSPs and OEM DR representatives on the panel suggested that without changing current sales processes, Digital Retailing will have a very difficult time with dealer adoption. In short, the ROI for DR isn’t there yet because business conditions are not in place for the much-hyped transition to digital retailing. So, what can dealers do during this slowly evolving transition period? Simple, what makes you money today?
Email Marketing ROI vs Social Media ROI: Measuring The Precious Bodily Fluids of the Internet Sales Process
When asked what the most important metric is to gauge the effectiveness of any given marketing channel, most professional marketers agreed that the return on investment (ROI) is the most important. So which yields the greatest ROI: email marketing, or social media? It’s email. By a Mile! Email marketing yields $44 back for every $1 you spend – a 4400% ROI. If you are wondering what your ROI is for your costly social media effort, so is everyone. Regrettably, there isn’t a great way to track it. While one brand may have a method that works for them, another brand probably tracks it a different way making comparisons between the two difficult and somewhat meaningless. So here we are...
"Personalization" is 2019's word-of-the-year, according to results of an annual survey of the members of the Association of National Advertisers... "Personalization is the Holy Grail of brand marketing. It provides the ability to speak directly to the shopper with the right message, at the right time, in the right medium."
The McKinsey & Co. Email Effectiveness Survey states:
· Email is nearly 40 times more effective acquiring new customers than social media marketing on Facebook and Twitter combined
· Approximately 45 percent of all marketing emails today are opened on a mobile device
NADA & Google Research:
· … today’s shoppers only visit 1.4 dealerships before purchase, DOWN from 4.6 in 2005.
Ford Direct Research:
· “… 84 percent of shoppers indicate they would prefer emails. Millennials preferred email compared to other possible channels, including mail, social media, phone and text. 91 percent of them (Millennials) would rather be contacted via email.”
DrivingSales Announces the Most Valuable Insight of 2015 at Presidents Club in New York City
· "SCI MarketView analysis demonstrates how dealers can quadruple their chances of bringing shoppers into the showroom and close deals...it is not just the speed of the initial response, but also quality: responses that are personalized with a high correlation to the consumer’s initial interest, increase the chances of success."
The following might seem self-serving but because DealerEFX provides OEM-Compliant Email Response Quality Assurance Services to Dealerships; a Service where we design, build, upload and sustain YMM-specific Email Response Content inside any CRM system for New Vehicle Lead Response and Sales Communications, we have unique insight into the content quality of email communication templates. Plus we have performed over 1000 mystery shops and found ~90% of dealers have an email response quality problem, hurting their digital brands and suppressing response rates that engage prospects for more appointments and deal opportunities.
“Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!”
The research is clear…In today’s digital-centric sales & marketing battlefront, these overlooked and under-appreciated email templates have emerged as the primary and prospect-preferred messaging bridge across the customer communications lifecycle, reinforcing other marketing channels until they are ready to walk-up onto your lot.
Poor email response quality is a major brand problem in the “Digital-centric” prospect and client communications lifecycle. This lack of consistent, OEM-compliant, store branded, “personalized” response templates is adversely impacting the “Digital CX,” which is becoming critical to lead conversion and brand loyalty. These last two stats basically outline what dealers must understand to sustain their business.
· 89% - Most shoppers are fully prepared with as much research as possible before walking into the showroom. -> Car Shopping Trends, Edmunds.com
o This means make dead certain your “Digital CX” is the best it can be because there is not much more information you can offer when they walk onto your lot and you are getting no second chances at a great first impression!
· 1% - Only 17 car shoppers and buyers out of 4,000 — less than 1% — chose the current process as their ideal experience. -> 2015 Car Buyer of the Future Survey, AutoTrader
o When 75% of shoppers would be willing to do everything online rather than experience most dealers’ brand of “CX,” your digital marketing has got to be the best at EVERY digital Touchpoint!
Over the last 5 years we have had the chance to review the quality of “home-grown” and “canned” email response templates from dealer personnel, OEMs and CRM service providers in dozens of different CRM systems. We found most email “Touchpoints” in the customer communications lifecycle do not reinforce the OEMs’ or a Dealership’s brand messages they have spent $Millions$ to help build and sustain!
Given the widespread lack of high-quality email response content, there is an Email Quality Gap (in some cases an abyss) in email response quality at nearly all “Touchpoints” in Customer Communications Lifecycle. Controlling the quality of your “uncontrollable” templates is a challenge few DSPs can address, but when “terrible templates” = “Poor digital CX” it is time to review your current template management efforts. And we haven’t even opened the regulatory can of worms associated with email response quality…so let’s get started!
The Compliance Methods Crisis: DealerEFX Supports Dealership Email Communications Compliance
The sales and marketing compliance rules you think you know have evolved in the digital sales environment in which you’re doing business. And the sharks are circling!
Dealers, GMs, GSMs, Marketing & eComm Directors: Can you say with 100% certainty that the banner advertisements you’re running across multiple marketing channels are compliant? Because it’s not the FTC that will come knocking on your door. It will be hungry lawyers in regulation-heavy states looking for a score! Auto dealer marketing compliance is a complex mass of regulations that require consistent marketing and sales communications management to ensure your advertising is compliant and free from liability.
Consistent Email Marketing & Banner Advertising Compliance: Help sales and marketing teams get on-board
Gen. "Buck" Turgidson: Your average Ruskie (Dealer eComm/Marketing Director) doesn't take a dump (send an email blast) without a plan (without a plan).
DealerEFX.com’s email lead response and general communications templates reside in your CRM to support your compliance effort at the front lines of prospect and client email touchpoints. DealerEFX removes dependence on busy, High-turnover, perennially under-trained sales staff to build and maintain Legal and OEM compliant lead response templates. We replace a dealership’s “home-made” non-compliant templates, to properly present and personalize dealer & vehicle brands to prospects for higher engagement & appointments and more deal opportunities.
Our content comes with legal disclaimers, Dealer website & OEM sourced banner advertising and OEM-compliant YMM-specific imagery; all of which can be updated in near real time should the need arise using our SaaS-based template content management system.
This technology reduces the onerous regulatory burden (and liability) when it comes time to share new and CPO pricing with your prospects and clients. Some major email-related rules dealers need to comply with for their marketing and advertising:
1. Truth-in-advertising laws
The FTC’s truth-in-advertising laws protect consumers from fraud and deception. It’s your job to ensure all marketing materials placed online, in an email, on TV, in print, or anywhere else represents the truth. In addition, you need evidence to back up claims and will likely be required to use specific disclaimer language if sharing information about leasing and financing, rebates and incentives, etc. Potential fines: Depending on the violation, penalties range from thousands to millions of dollars.
2. CAN-SPAM Act
The CAN-SPAM Act affects your email marketing initiatives, including the commercial messages you send. There are seven primary requirements for auto dealerships under the CAN-SPAM Act:
1. Don’t use false or misleading header information.
2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines.
3. Identify the message as an ad.
4. Share your location with recipients.
5. Tell recipients how to opt-out of receiving future emails.
6. Honor opt-out requests within ten business days.
7. Monitor what other Dealer Service Providers are doing on your dealership’s behalf.
Potential fines: ~$40k per non-compliant email. This means that if you’ve been sending non-compliant email responses to your prospects for a year, you will pay a serious fine.
3. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) governs any of your dealership’s text message marketing. If you want to send a customer text messages, you must obtain prior written consent before sending anything. Written consent can include hand-written signatures or information submitted via electronic or digital forms like emails or website forms. Any advertising and promotional materials must clearly display opt-out information.
Potential fines: If you violate the TCPA, you may end up paying the FTC between $500 to $1,500 per text message. That adds up!
NOTE: Always consult your attorney or your dealership’s compliance officer if you have any questions or concerns when it comes to advertising and marketing compliance.
We’ll Email Again. Dealers Know Where. Dealers Know When. (With apologies to Vera Lynn)
The automotive retail arena is seeing a blast of new digital communication technologies specifically enabled for automotive digital retail. Facebook, Twitter, and others have increased the marketing complexities, along with each new option, assisting the DSPs’ self-serving interest in new revenue opportunities in digital retailing whose outcomes are generally opaque to Dealers, GMs and GSMs dependent on their DSPs for education.
Marketers consistently rank email as the “single-most-effective tactic” for raising brand awareness, lead acquisition, conversion, and retention. According to an Adobe study from 2018, “60% of customers … prefer to be contacted by brands via email.” Forrester Research places this figure as high as 72% prefer email.
Despite social media’s growth, email adoption is growing even more rapidly. Yet dealers are not taking advantage of this evolution nor taking notice of successful uses for this venerable communications technology that keeps making money! Thanks to smartphones and Wi-Fi, email is omnipresent. It’s also consumers’ preferred way to communicate, as research from the Data & Marketing Association (DMA) found 73% of people report email as their preferred marketing channel, over-shadowing eight other channels, including social media, text message, online (e.g. banner ads), face-to-face, messenger apps and phone. Cox Automotive research reports this figure is even higher for consumers mode of communication when dealing with dealers.
This is good news for vehicle marketers, since email offers several advantages over other forms of digital communication. Internet Lead Response Email is ALWAYS opt-in because recipients choose to fill out the form, whether it be 3rd party lead providers or the dealers’ own webpages, so internet sales personnel don't waste time and money targeting audiences who aren’t interested. Email also avoids many of the compliance and privacy concerns plaguing newer social media and the emerging regulatory burden mirroring the EU’s GDPR here in the US (i.e. CA, MA and others).
With all this in mind…
Gen. Jack D. Ripper: I (DealerEFX) can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration (Poor Email Response Quality), communist indoctrination (Onerous Regulatory Burdens), communist subversion (Missed Advertising Opportunities), and the international communist conspiracy (Non-Compliant and Impersonal Email Lead Responses) to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids (Costly Internet Prospect Leads).
About the Author
Jim Lawrence is Founder and CEO of DealerEFX.com and is experienced in Dealership Software Product Management, Marketing, Business Development, Strategic Partnerships, with core competencies in SaaS-based CRM, Lead Management and Dealership Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) software. A dealer systems subject matter expert, he is leading a team in a ground-breaking new business model providing Email Template Managed Services, a new concept in Email Response Quality Assurance and enterprise-class template content management within any CRM system, to avoid the cost of additional software and the burden of training an ever-turning sales force. For more information call 503-318-3621 or email: [email protected] or visit www.DealerEFX.com.