Challenge
Kristy Elliott, Dealer/Operator of Sunshine Chevrolet, joined the family business in 2014 after spending 20+ years in non-profit marketing. She brought with her not only deep marketing knowledge, but the ability to run it inexpensively. “I’m big on measurement,” says Elliott. “I want to be able to measure everything, and then jettison things that aren’t working.” As a result, one of the first things she did at Sunshine Chevrolet was to transition the company away from traditional marketing such as TV and print advertising and go 100 percent digital, so that everything could be measured.
At first, Sunshine Chevrolet relied primarily on email campaigns for marketing – twice a month, generic campaigns (meaning all customers received the same offers). It was more effective than print ads, but Elliott wanted to do more.
Solution
Through her participation in the dealership’s Local Marketing Association (LMA), which drives creative content for local GM dealer advertising, Elliott learned about DTG Octane, a digital marketing platform provided by Agency720 and powered by Outsell. It was exactly what she needed for Sunshine Chevrolet. She lobbied for the LMA to add the program to its advertising portfolio, making it available to dealers.
With Outsell, they could improve relevance of digital marketing to increase open rates and draw more customers into the store, do a better job mining existing customer/prospect database, increase new and pre-owned vehicle sales and number of service customers, and measure every marketing and advertising product they use, jettisoning the things that weren’t working.
“The Outsell platform has become an integral part of our overall marketing process,” said Kristy Elliott, Dealer/Operator for Sunshine Chevrolet
• Email open rates approaching 10 percent (1-2% is typical for most marketers)
• New car sales up by 40%
• ROI of 13:1