Automotive Direct Mail Resources

Direct mail is the oldest thing we do and the part of the business with the most written about it, because almost every question a dealer asks about a campaign turns out to be one of four questions: who gets it, what does it look like, what does it say, and how will I know whether it worked. The sections below are those four questions in that order.

The list is the part that decides the campaign, and it is the part dealers think about last. A conquest list, an equity list, a lease pull-ahead list and a credit-challenged list are four completely different campaigns that happen to arrive in the same envelope. The direct mail services page covers what we run, pricing covers what it costs, and co-op mailers covers getting the manufacturer to pay for a share of it.

One caveat worth stating plainly, because it is the mistake we see most: mail generates phone calls and walk-ins, not sales. If the phone is answered badly the campaign will read as a failure that was actually a BDC problem. Track the calls before you judge the mail — several of the articles in the cost and ROI section are about exactly that.

Still looking? The frequently asked questions answer the short version of most of this, what dealers say covers the results side, and Auto Industry News is everything we publish in date order. Or start with the full resource index.