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How car dealers can use text messaging to reduce costs

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Car Forecourt
Image supplied by flickr.com/photos/jeremy_vandel/

Mobile marketing campaigns do not always take the form of bulk messaging, where you have a database of mobile numbers that you broadcast a message to in the hope that you receive a response. An inbound SMS campaign such as tellmeTXT can tap the power of consumers and their mobiles by offering an informative and unobtrusive service to your potential customers, while at the same time reducing your own costs. Sounds too good to be true? Read on…One way in which car dealers attract visitors to their forecourts is through advertising in the local press. By advertising locally you will attract those people who are thinking of buying a new car, who will often travel to your dealership just to look at a specific vehicle they have seen advertised. It is a powerful lead generation tool.

This method of winning business does have its drawbacks though:

  • Cost – Traditional advertising in the printed press is notoriously expensive. You want to feature all of your stock, but larger adverts mean a larger expense. Instead you may choose to simply promote selected vehicles, with your other stock not being discovered until the visitor arrives, or when the prospect decides to call you to find out more
  • Out of date stock list – There is a lead time to having the advert set, the paper published, and it being read by the prospect. All of this contributes to you supplying the consumer with out-of-date information, which can be frustrating for both them and you.

An inbound text campaign can solve both of these problems:

  • Lowered Costs – Smaller adverts can be run, to highlight key stock, but still make all of your stock available to the prospect in a very convenient manner.
  • Up to date stock list – You can ensure the prospect automatically receives an up-to-date list of your current stock, regardless of the age of the advertisement they are viewing.

This is easily achieved with an inbound mobile campaign. Let’s show you how…

Rather than trying to show all of your stock in the advert, simply replace a large portion of it with a message like this:

We have many more vehicles in stock.To receive our up-to-date list of cars text

INF CAR + your email to 60777

Upon doing this, your prospect receives an instant text response and email, with a PDF attachment showing them your entire stock list in whatever presentation style you deem appropriate. Unlike the printed advert, you are free to give the client as much information as you choose without seeing any increased costs. Additionally you receive their mobile number and email address, so you can give them a call, engage with them and book an appointment. Such a pro-active method is more likely to lead to you doing business with this person. Not only that, but you can add the contact details to your database and use them in future marketing campaigns.

If you would like to see this in action, send the text above, this is a live example campaign we have set up so you can see how it works. It will cost you one standard rate text message to give it a try, typically around 10p. Hopefully this has shown how an inbound text message service not only reduces your marketing costs, but improves the effectiveness while offering an enhanced service to your prospective customers.


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