I was recently visiting with a dealer about how to expand his marketing list. He was excited to start putting more time and energy into marketing his dealership, but he didn’t know where to start. If we are looking for an easy place to start, that costs us nothing, let’s focus on growing our marketing list by utilizing our own customers. This is the easiest, least expensive, and most ethical way to grow your list. It also allows us to market to people who already like and trust us. 

When a customer comes into your dealership, after we get their name, we want to ask for their email and cell phone number. This is important information to get regardless of what we are doing with the customer, but even more important since we are looking at how to reach them with new products and specials that we are doing.  After you receive their phone number and email address, you need to ask them “Would you be interested in getting updates on new products and specials as we have them?” Most people will say “Yes” and opt into our marketing. 

Another important area to focus on, as we are thinking about utilizing our existing customers and turning them into repeat sales through marketing, is through analytics. Sure, I know what you’re thinking, you are running a business and the idea of diving into another set of numbers can seem overwhelming. Here’s the thing, if we are going to put money into our marketing, we have to make sure it’s working.  Your money is too valuable to throw at marketing and hope that it works. By using some very basic functions of google analytics on your website or analytics through your social media streams, you can continue to expand your marketing list and make sure that you are focusing on the right items with your marketing. For example, let’s say that your google analytics are telling you that when people are coming to your website, they are coming from Facebook marketplace and they are searching for used equipment on your site. There are two questions you should ask, “Do I already have these customers on my list?” and “Is my used equipment easy to find on the site?”. 

We would make sure that we have these customers on our list by adding a pop up on our site to collect their email. Typically, you would ask for their email in return for something. It might be a hat, a discount, or even an exclusive piece of content that explains how to make the best decision when buying used equipment. 

The last thing that needs to be said is there are constantly changing rules and regulations on what needs to be done in order to market legally to your customers. But, if we can get the consent we need on the front end and have a process to show the consent, we will be moving in the direction of keeping our customers engaged and buying from us for years into the future.