Your Marketing Worked. Did Your Dealership?
A campaign goes out. Customers open the email, click the ad, respond to the SMS, visit the landing page and submit their information.
The marketing did exactly what it was supposed to do: it created an opportunity.
But then what happened?
Did someone call the customer? How quickly? What happened if they didn't answer? Was there another attempt tomorrow? Next week? And what happened when the customer said, “I'm interested, but I'm not ready yet”?
Before we decide a marketing campaign didn't work, maybe we need to look at what happened after the customer raised their hand.
Marketing Can Only Take the Customer So Far
There are really two conversions happening in dealership marketing.
The first is turning a consumer into an interested prospect. Your marketing gets their attention, gives them a reason to respond and creates an opportunity for the dealership.
The second conversion happens inside the dealership. Someone has to turn that opportunity into a conversation, an appointment, a showroom visit and, ultimately, a sale.
Marketing can open the door. Your dealership still has to walk the customer through it.
If a campaign generated 50 leads but only 15 were successfully contacted, did the marketing fail? If a customer submitted a form Tuesday evening and didn't hear from anyone until Thursday afternoon, was that a bad lead? If someone said they might be ready in three months and nobody contacted them again, was that an unsuccessful campaign - or simply an unfinished opportunity?
Are They Really “Bad Leads”?
We've all heard it before: “The leads weren't very good.”
But what makes a lead good?
Not every customer who responds to marketing is going to be ready to purchase a vehicle this weekend. Someone asking about their trade, exploring an upgrade offer or considering replacing their vehicle later this year may not be a sale today, but they've still done something important.
They've shown interest.
That customer has given your dealership an opportunity to start a conversation and build a relationship.
If we only consider customers valuable when they're ready to buy immediately, we're potentially walking away from the customers who will be buying next month, six months from now or next year.
“Not today” doesn't necessarily mean “not interested.”
How Quickly Do You Give Up?
Speed matters when responding to a lead, but persistence matters too.
What happens when the first phone call goes unanswered? Does your team leave a voicemail and try again? Do they follow up by email or SMS? Is there a process for continuing to nurture that customer, or does the lead slowly disappear from everyone's radar?
A customer's buying timeline doesn't always match the timeline of your campaign.
The marketing may have found them at the beginning of their journey. That's not a failure. In fact, it gives your dealership the opportunity to build familiarity and trust before that customer is actively shopping every dealership in town.
Marketing created the opportunity. Follow-up determines what happens to it.
The Campaign Doesn't End When the Form Is Submitted
Dealerships often think of the campaign as the mail piece, email, SMS or digital ad.
But from the customer's perspective, the experience continues.
How quickly someone responds is part of the campaign. How the customer is spoken to is part of the campaign. Whether the salesperson understands the offer they responded to is part of the campaign. The appointment process, reminders and follow-up are all part of the experience.
You can have great creative, a compelling offer and strong response rates, but if the customer experience breaks down after the lead arrives, a successful marketing campaign can quickly look unsuccessful.
Before You Ask for More Leads, Look at the Ones You Have
It's easy to assume the answer is more leads. More advertising. More traffic. A bigger audience.
But more leads won't fix a follow-up problem.
Before investing more money at the top of the funnel, look at what's happening to the opportunities already coming through it.
How many leads were generated? How many were actually contacted? How quickly? How many conversations happened? How many appointments were booked? How many customers showed? And how many opportunities are still sitting there waiting for the right follow-up?
If 50 customers raised their hands and your dealership only had meaningful conversations with 15 of them, the question shouldn't immediately be, “How do we get another 50 leads?”
It should be, “What happened to the other 35?”
Don't Stop at Lead Generation
Sometimes a dealership doesn't have a lead-generation problem. It has a lead-conversion problem.
Marketing's job is to create opportunities. The dealership's job is to make the most of them.
So before calling your next campaign unsuccessful, take a closer look at what happened after the customer responded. Were they contacted? Were they followed up with? Were they nurtured when they weren't ready? Were they given every opportunity to take the next step?
Because sometimes your marketing worked exactly as intended.
The opportunity was generated. It just wasn't converted.
At RMN Marketing, we believe a campaign shouldn't stop at lead generation. From direct mail, email, SMS and digital advertising to lead capture, automation, BDC follow-up and performance tracking, we can help connect the dots between generating an opportunity and turning it into a dealership conversation.
Don't just generate more leads. Make more of the leads you're already generating.
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