The available dealer marketing channels to distribute your communication to the greater public are forever evolving. Whilst newspapers and magazines are still published on a large scale unless subscriptions have been purchased these mediums rely on the consumer collecting the latest edition from a store which is normally only open during business hours. Are you happy to wait for a prospect to pick up a newspaper, which may contain an advertisement that was approved the week before? Or would you prefer to customise your dealer marketing strategy to allow you to be spontaneous with the advertising content and more relevant to consumers.

What is the benefit of an SMS? It goes directly to the recipient’s mobile allowing your dealer marketing strategy to be more effective, targeted and immediate.

The traditional methods of dealer marketing such as an email campaign, newspaper advertisements and television commercials only have a small chance of being opened or even seen.

Here are a few quick pointers on SMS dealer marketing:

• SMS Marketing can be used for a variety of communication methods; service booking reminders (previous day and on the day), customer satisfaction surveys from recent interactions with your dealership (service or showroom), new model releases or even to wish your customer a Happy Birthday

• Replies can be handled using an email address or mobile phone and the communication can then continue if a call is not required

• Reports based on delivery will identify all of the recipients of the text message

• An SMS is extremely time efficient, no need to play around with HTML email templates ensuring mobile responsiveness

• A cost effective form of advertising when considering other mediums such as television campaigns, radio advertisements and large format signage

• Highly effective within a retail environment especially amongst the age group of 40 or younger

A recent study conducted by a well-known SMS provider discovered two interesting facts. The average age a human became a mobile phone user in 2015, was 11 years old. And two, 6 out of 7 billion people have a mobile phone. If SMS isn’t a part of your dealer marketing plan then it’s something which should be on the to-do list, add it to your customer process now to set your business up for effective communication well into the future.

Research has also shown that 98% of people will open and read your SMS and of those people, the majority will open the message in the first three minutes*. Think about the power you have right at your fingertips with this information, dealer marketing can be more effective just by choosing the appropriate channel.

To allow your dealer marketing strategy to integrate with your DMS, Pentana Solutions’ SMSLink is an extremely easy and user-friendly platform to use. The portal allows you to send an SMS instantly from your DMS or scheduled for a specific date and time. Once sent, details of the message and all communication is recorded accurately in your customer’s contact history. You will then have usage report within your backend.

It’s time to take this next step and create more opportunities for your dealership.

If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits SMS can provide your dealership, lodge an inquiry below.

*source: www.mediajunkies.com.au - recent study based around customer campaigns