Click here to view the embedded video.

As an email marketing specialist I was able to detect that this may be due large in part to a misconfiguration in the CRM which is probably mostly the dealer’s responsibility but also a training issue with the CRM provider. I suspect this because of the variable at the very bottom %%ChannelUser%%.

But as a customer, this is confusing and unprofessional.

From a branding perspective, this is completely user unfriendly. As part of the set up process the vendor should make sure this unsubscribe page is properly branded. If the system does not support that then, well, that’s a different story. This page must be branded to represent the dealership.

From a functional perspective this is completely confusing. What do customers think when they see this? This certainly takes away any warm fuzzy I may possibly have with this dealer.

There isn’t much more to be said about this. The visual speaks for itself. It is an abomination that stands as one of the leading examples of how not to use a CRM and how not to do email marketing.

When I first got in to email marketing I spent much of my time setting up, configuring, and maintaining automated email campaigns but more and more I find that the best way to connect with people via email is to take the time to craft highly personal communications and avoid automation to some extent. One benefit for doing this is that you often are able to nip a misconfiguration like this in the bud because you do a walk-through of your opt-in and opt-out processes.

If you are going to pursue automation in your email marketing, definitely take the time to put control measures in place to help minimize or avoid scenarios like this by testing your process when you initially set up the campaign and anytime you make a change, even the tiniest change to any part of your process.

Implementing the necessary steps to true permission-based list building is becoming increasingly more important. Companies that do so establish a major competitive advantage over those that do not.To give you an idea how much a difference true permission-based email marketing can make, look at the 4 sets of reporting data on recent email campaigns.

The first 3 sets are from monthly newsletter campaigns by 3 different dealerships sent to their mass email list of recipients which was compiled using conventional industry practices. The 4th data set is the combined result of 3 different email campaigns with 3 different messages over the course of a 2-month period to the same list of double opt-in recipients built over the past 6 months.

Newsletter Campaign to Sample Conventional List A
12659 sends
2045 unique opens (16.2%)
716 unique clicks (5.6%)

Newsletter Campaign to Sample Conventional List B
4457 sends
447 unique opens (10%)
111 unique clicks (2.5%)

Newsletter Campaign to Sample Conventional List C
13387 sends
1326 unique opens (9.9%)
322 unique clicks (2.4%)

Combined Result of 3 Campaigns to Double Opt-in List
968 sends
607 opens (62.7%)
189 clicks (19.5%)

This double opt-in list of 350-plus recipients belongs to the dealership with Sample List A and effectively demonstrates QUALITY vs. QUANTITY. The messages sent in each of the 3 campaigns were completely different too. One was for a free haircut at a local salon; one was for a free battery check; and one was to solicit an actual car in stock.

The quality over quantity factor is a reality and particularly challenging for car dealers. Customer expectations of dealer intentions are low to begin with, and permission-based list building requires time, commitment, and a genuine understanding of your audience. But with the right tools and the right approach, incorporating this should return good dividends for car dealers realtively quickly.