Knoxville, TN garage First Choice Automotive has boosted its sales by about 30% in the past couple of years thanks to locally targeted postcard mailings.
During that time, the company’s annual sales rose to about $1.2 million a year, up from about $850,000 a year.
The operation began sending out targeted postcards to addresses isolated from local U.S. Postal Service Carrier Route areas that contained households pulling in about $75,000 in annual income, says owner Mark Wisham.
Within the past year or so, the two-location repair shop has also begun using opt-in email to supplement the postcards.
“Before [the postcards] we were doing saturation mail,” he says. “It didn’t bring in the exact type of business that you would want-it.
“The average repair order on saturation mail piece was not anywhere close to what it is on a direct mail piece,’ he says,
“One Zip Code for one of our stores many have 21,000 people but one Carrier Route may have 1,800 households you want to market to,” he says. “You can target one neighborhood, planned community or one exclusive subdivision most of the time.”
First Choice typically sends out 12,000 postcards in the local areas each month.
“June, July and August are our busiest months so don’t have to advertise as much,” he says.
This number does fluctuate during slower months such as April, Wisham notes.
The mailings promote such services as oil changes, air conditioning system maintenance, brake checks or such seasonal offerings as winterizing.
“You can put any kind of offer on that [mail piece] but the majority of the time people are coming in for an oil change because that’s what people need three to four times a year,” he notes.
For about the past year, First Choice has also been sending out about 1,400 opt-in emails to customers as part at the end of each month. Those emails typically offer things like 20% discounts on certain services.
Email addresses are collected when customers come into the shop for service, he says, noting that email is also used to encourage customers to book appointments online.
Going forward, Wisham says he’ll probably maintain the current level of marketing.
“If you’re not careful, you might drive more business than you can handle,” he says, noting his operation usually employs four mechanics, three managers and two oil change workers.
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