Impactful marketing - Automotive Dealer Association Convention

Impactful Marketing with Autotrader Group

The Australian Automotive Dealer Association Convention in early June played host to a number of exciting conversations – not least the one led by our very own Manisha Seewal, Chief Marketing Officer for Autotrader Group, CarsGuide, and Gumtree.

The panel discussion, titled ‘Impactful Marketing with Autotrader Group: What Strategies Industry Leaders will Prioritise in 2022’ offered fascinating insights into the real-world strategies of industry experts who have been powering through an incredibly challenging period. The following paragraphs offer a few highlights from the discussion, hosted by Manisha and featuring panellists Michael Olek (Alto Group Marketing Manager), David Hanlin (Universal Internet Services Director), and Tim Stanton (Maserati Australia and New Zealand National Marketing Manager). In search of growth opportunities Manisha kicked off the panel with a question that hits right at the heart of what we all do: What does impactful marketing look like within your organisation? What’s clear from the panellists’ responses is that the concept and measurement of impactful marketing is unique to each organisation. Tim, for example, explained how the longevity of the Maserati catalogue plays a huge part in how they approach the topic: “Our product portfolio was pretty stable, was pretty old in many senses. The newest car we had on fleet was about five years old. That, in terms of this industry, is a very long time frame and you sort of get stuck in a bit of a cycle of doing the same thing, generating the same sort of results”. And how did he accommodate this cycle? A period of critical analysis when he first started in the job two years ago, seeking opportunities for growth. At that stage Maserati had time up its sleeve to do some forward-thinking, look to the future, and shape the business to prepare for the release of new products to market. Under Tim’s direction a new media agency was brought on board, along with some talented data scientists, to build a complex dashboard to manage and analyse live data. “Some of our senior management teams, they have a really basic version of it that gives them those key touch points and it’s all live data. We’re not waiting a month for a media agency to come back to us and say ‘hey we had success, or hey we missed some opportunities – let’s address that next month’. It’s all live”. An unconventional approach According to Michael, dealers are increasingly taking an unconventional approach in their pursuit of growth. Gone are the days of relentless email marketing – pushing hard and often. Instead, Michael explained, social media has allowed Alto Group to make contact and touch base with customers in an environment that’s most comfortable for them.

“As a group we sell close to 15,000 cars a year, we service around 65,000. So we’ve got a vast database and that’s growing every year. Really for us, it’s about how do we make the most of that without spending any money on retail marketing?” Of course, as Michael admitted, there are always times when traditional marketing methods have a part to play. “There are a few problem cars or some models that just don’t seem to ever move regardless of what’s happening in the market. So we will still go to market with those, specifically for those cars. We’re trying to solve problems the whole time. We don’t do anything without purpose”. Most importantly though? “We don’t blast. We stopped doing that. Every time we blast, whether it be via EDM or SMS, we get massive opt-outs, and really my job is to protect that database”.

Happy Birthday to you Birthdays are hardly unconventional, but their power in the marketing world may well be slightly under-appreciated. As Manisha highlighted during the discussion, birthday emails have the highest opening rates of any email marketing (upwards of 90 per cent, according to Michael, and no opt-outs – ever!) During the discussion Michael elaborated on the relationshipbuilding strategy behind the birthday email: “We all capture the birthdays of contacts. We’ve all got the data so we send out messages. And it’s not to sell anything. It’s not a coupon code for discount on accessories or something. It’s really just to say, you know, “we’re thinking about you today. We hope you’re having a great day”. As Manisha put it: “everybody loves a Happy Birthday!” Chasing cars, chasing leads In this world where consumers are not being blasted by advertising, does it then follow that marketers are no longer chasing leads quite so voraciously? Michael explained to the panel that there was certainly some truth in that line of thinking. “During Covid we saw a 40-50 per cent increase in leads. Our conversion crashed to around 15 per cent…. That’s a poor experience for the customer, not being followed up, and we just had too many leads when we weren’t set up to have that number”. Michael went on to explain how the best course of action is not always the busiest course of action. “I think as dealers we do a lot of activity because we feel like we always have to be doing something. Always chasing more and it’s not the best mentality. It does cost a lot of money to do that when it’s not achieving anything. So everything needs to have a purpose”. A peek inside the crystal ball Where do the panellists see automotive marketing heading in the near future?

David explained that he has his eye on two very important future trends. The first: parts and accessories sales. While he admitted this area is not an easy nut to crack, he maintains it is one that needs to catch up to the rest of the business. The second: wholesale, which David describes as another area that needs opening up and one that would offer a significant boost to business.

Tim emphasised his belief in a “back to basics” approach, especially in the luxury car arena. “I think that whole customer relationship piece is changing. I think that intimate one-to-one relationship is coming back and I think that’s going to be quite important as we move […] into that less transactional element”.

Tim went on to explain that, in his view, the way to achieve this is a balance between the old and new.

“People want to embrace the brand a bit more and understand a bit more and have a proper feeling around it. So yes, we’ll use digital technology to enhance that process and find those customers, but then we still need that one-to-one relationship with people to really sell that business going forward and make some growth and have the confidence to retain that growth going forward as stock starts to free up”. Manisha agreed with Tim, noting that the chip shortage is here to stay a while longer. She urged that the key to impactful marketing in the near future is stretching the marketing dollar using customer data. “The first-party data that we have is really like gold and we should leverage on that as much as possible”. Manisha ended the panel with a positive assessment of the industry in the current era: “In my experience times that are challenging bring out the best in us. I look forward to watching your journeys and to see where we all land”.