Infiniti Dealer uses E-zines to Keep Customers Informed

(Direct) Years ago, when it came to the car buying process, dealers felt like they were the one behind the wheel. Most customers relied on them for information about what vehicles best suited their needs.

Today, most prospective buyers have done extensive research about what they’d like to drive well before they even consider going to a dealership.

“In the old days, the customer was controlled. Now, the customer is in control, because he has much more information,” says Gary Andrews, Internet sales manager at Infiniti of Coconut Creek, FL. “Things have changed tremendously. Today, we like well-informed customers. Years ago, we didn’t like it when they came in with a lot of knowledge, but now it makes things easier for everybody.”

Of course, the Internet is a prime resource for these in-the-know car buyers. To help them in their quest for knowledge—and help build relationships with customers and prospects—Infiniti of Coconut Creek is embarking on a major e-newsletter program. The dealership has partnered with Waltham, MA-based e-communications firm iMakeNews Inc. (IMN) to create the monthly newsletter, which at press time was slated to roll out at the end of August.

The effort will utilize IMN’s Loyalty Driver program, which was created to help auto dealerships manage e-newsletter campaigns. The newsletters will include Infiniti product news, as well as region- and lifestyle- relevant articles such as information about local events like summer fairs, art exhibits and movie reviews, says Brian Epro, director of IMN’s automotive services group.

“The overall goal of the newsletter is to keep customers’ attention and stay engaged with them from month to month, and have mechanisms that can help dealers know when a customer is ready to buy,” says Epro.

Since the launch of Loyalty Driver in August 2004, more than 60 dealers have decided to participate, says Epro, noting that many dealers that tried starting e-mail efforts on their own saw customers opt out in droves because the communications weren’t relevant to their needs.

“Smart dealers are realizing that because of the relatively low cost of using e-mail as a marketing tool, they need to treat that list like gold and send out only appropriate material,” he says.

Infiniti of Coconut Creek has been doing some occasional e-mail marketing, such as messages promoting monthly sales. Video e-mails are also sent to some customers, thanking them for their business or for coming to the dealership. In the latter case, videos feature information about a car they looked at during their visit. Although the ROI of these efforts isn’t seriously tracked Andrews does know that many videos are viewed multiple times. Loyalty Driver’s reporting functions allow the dealership better analytics to determine how to edit the material in their communications, he says.

“We’ll be able to get a better read on how we should present specials and content,” he adds.

“Hard sell alone doesn’t work anymore in automotive sales,” says Mary Anne North, IMN’s vice president of marketing. “We need to pull people along with additional steps, a soft-sell [approach] that’s results-oriented and analytical.”

One feature of the Loyalty Driver-created newsletters is Buy Signals, places within the articles where readers can click through for more information.

This helps dealerships track which articles were read and for how long, helping them qualify leads, says Epro.

These analytics can help inform other marketing efforts. For example, when a high-end vehicle debuts, dealers can use a list of people who read an article about the car to create an invitation list for a wine-and-cheese event introducing the new product.

The venture with IMN is the dealership’s first effort toward using e-mail as a relationship-building mechanism. “We want to try to give something back to customers,” says Andrews. “Our customers expect service from us in different arenas, but they also want to be loved. Hopefully, they’ll look forward to the [e-newsletter’s] information and articles, and see some value in it, so it will help create a relationship outside of the car buying experience.”

Dealerships measure the e-newsletters’ success by the number of leads generated, the number of appointments set and how many of those prospects actually bought a vehicle, says Epro, adding that most dealers say about 2% of the leads that come in through their Web site result in a sale.

Currently, the dealership has about 6,000 e-mail addresses on file. E-newsletter recipients will have the option to forward to a friend, a feature Andrews hopes will expand the database.

New names also are generated via opt-in boxes online and programs within the dealership itself, says Epro. Salespersons and service professionals will ask customers for e-mail addresses, and point-of-sale materials like hang tags for rear-view mirrors are used as well.

Andrews says the dealership’s clientele tends to be upscale and affluent. Infiniti’s vehicles range in price from $31,000 to $64,000. However, the age of buyers skews a bit younger than other luxury products because the vehicles offer “luxury with performance,” he notes. “It’s a driving man’s car.”

The dealership has been open for about 18 months, so it’s hard at present to get a strong reading of retention rates for things like repeat leases. This year to date, Infiniti of Coconut Creek has sold 1,309 cars, at an average of 187 per month. Andrews anticipates soon being in the 300 range, and approaching 350 to 400 next year.

According to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), 16.86 million new vehicles were sold by dealers in 2004, for a total dealership revenue of $714 billion. The typical dealership spent $384,000 on advertising last year; per new vehicle sold, an average of $493 was spent

Andrews sees the e-newsletter initiative as the start of an integrated customer loyalty program. He hopes it will help drive more traffic to the dealership’s own Web site, which is more cost-effective than going through a third-party site like Autobytel. The dealership’s site—accessible via 877infiniti.com or infinitiofcoconutcreek.com—is currently being redesigned; feedback from the newsletter will help determine content. Getting those leads is vital in a state as competitive for car buyers as Florida. According to NADA, as of Jan. 1 there were 951 new car dealers in the state—only California, Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania and New York had more.

On average in 2004, NADA data shows that new vehicles accounted for 60.9% of the typical dealer’s sales (about $20.1 million). Used vehicles made up 27.5% ($9.09 million), while service was 11.5% ($3.8 million). “We encourage people to come back in for service,” says Andrews. “It’s all about nurturing that lifetime relationship.”

The dealership has done a limited amount of direct mail, mostly to existing customers and promoting monthly specials such as the current fad, “employee pricing.”