Email marketing for car dealerships: a simple plan

Social media reach goes up and down; your email list doesn’t. Every customer who bought or serviced with you is someone who already trusts you, and email reaches them for almost nothing. You don’t need a fancy program — just a simple rhythm and emails people are glad to open.

What to send

1. A monthly update: this month’s sales event, a few featured vehicles and one service special.
2. Seasonal service reminders: tire changeovers, winter checks and air conditioning. Ideas in service department marketing ideas.
3. Event invitations: a launch night, an EV evening or Cars & Coffee.
4. Trade-in offers to customers whose vehicles are three to six years old. See trade-in ads.
5. Lease-end reminders six months before a lease ends.
6. Thank-you and anniversary emails on the anniversary of a purchase.

Write emails people open

• Subject lines under about 45 characters: “Your winter tires are ready to book” beats “November Newsletter”.
• One main message. One headline, one image, one button.
• The offer in the text too. Many people have images turned off, so repeat the key offer and button in words.
• Personal and local. Use the customer’s name and their vehicle where you can, and sign from a real person.
• A clear button: “Book service”, “See the vehicles”, “Get my trade value”.

Image sizes

Most email designs are about 600 pixels wide. Make your images at double that so they’re sharp on phones and high-resolution screens:

• Email header: 1200 × 400, with big, simple text.
• Feature image: 1200 × 600, for the main offer or vehicle.

Every other size is in the car dealer ad size cheat sheet. Match your email to your homepage banner and social posts so a campaign looks the same everywhere; see website banners.

The rules

• US (CAN-SPAM): an honest “from” name and subject line, your physical address, and a working unsubscribe link that you honour within 10 business days.
• Canada (CASL): you need consent first. A purchase or service visit in the last two years, or an inquiry in the last six months, usually counts as implied consent; after that, ask for express consent. Identify your dealership and include an unsubscribe link, honoured within 10 business days.
• Payment and rate offers need the same fine print in email as anywhere else. See how to advertise payments, rates and leases.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Measure what matters

Open rates are less reliable than they used to be, because some email apps load images automatically. Watch clicks, service bookings and replies instead.