Printed Newsletter

[david Graber]

We have been doing a newsletter for about 6 yrs, Our first newsletter was all automotive only. When we had switch to a newsletter that wasn’t all automotive, and we started putting a insert inside with some coupons, we started getting better results. We have customers tell us they had our newsletter laying on their table for a couple weeks and remember they needed to call for a appointment for service. If they hadn’t seen our newsletter, would they have remember to call or even call us for the appointment and not another shop. We run a report in our management system and who ever has been in for service / repairs in the pass 12 months, they are the ones we send them to. I also look at it this way, for what it cost to run a add in the newspaper for only 1 or 2 days, I can spend the same or less money and market direct to my customers that I know who have been in for repairs and will spend money. Hope this helps you.

[Tom Piippo]

My experiences are similar to Dave, who commented above. We have been sending out a printed newsletter quarterly for many years. Not all of my customers have access to or are willing to use Facebook or even email! Direct mail has the highest measurable impact for me. I use a commercially available, personalized newsletter, but I add my own personal message inside as an insert. It used to be about the benefits of maintenance, coupons, or other service related info. I have since changed the subject matter over to a personal blog sort of thing, random thoughts of the season such as gardening, camping, outdoor sports, etc… I have found that people like to know about the things that I like to do besides servicing their cars and cashing their checks.

In the days and weeks after a newsletter mailing I can expect to get calls about the best way to store carrots and potatoes for the winter, or the best way to waterproof a tent, or maybe a neat trail I haven’t been on yet. This fosters relationships other than the one you make between the car and the customer. I have found that many car/ customer relationships dissolve when the customer upgrades their ride. I found out that it wasn’t a technician/ customer relationship, it was a technician/ car relationship (in the customer’s eyes) This idea is further confirmed when I find that the 2 cars that I have been servicing for the Jones is only half of the fleet. While servicing the wife’s car and the son’s car, father prefers another shop. When I make the relationship personal, I start getting ALL of the family’s business. I hope this helps

[acoliajja]

 What criteria do you use ?  Top spenders ?  How many times they have been in ? 

[adamkushner]

Awesome thread, I forgot the days of sending out a printed newsletter. At my families shop we called it Sven News. Included Trivia, car care tips, specials, employee and family news, as well as cars we had for sale. Sometimes we listed old snow tire inventory or wheel and tire packages.

Newsletters of some kind on a consistent basis are key. Why not format them for print! We did scrub the mailing list for geographic area and visits/spending. 

Tom’s perspective is great. we leveraged the content in the newsletter to make the relationship personal.