As a franchise dealer, you’ve built strong relationships with customers in your local market. But what about the car buyers who don’t know your dealership yet? How do you reach them and turn them into loyal customers?
]With franchise dealers making roughly 33% less profit per vehicle than they were a year ago, every additional sale counts. Expanding beyond your existing customer base with incremental sales is one of the best ways to grow revenue without increasing overhead.
The challenge?
Finding and engaging brand-new buyers efficiently, without overspending on marketing.
The solution?
Why Expanding Beyond Your Backyard Matters
Many dealerships focus heavily on loyalty marketing, reaching out to existing customers with trade-in offers, service specials, and financing deals. But while that’s great for retention, it won’t bring in new business. If you want to grow, you need to target consumers who have never visited your dealership.
Here’s why conquest marketing is a game-changer:
- Buyers enter the market unexpectedly. Research shows that while the car buying process has become more efficient, consumers shop for vehicles somewhere between 60 and 100 days before making a purchase. If you don’t reach them early, you risk losing them to a competitor.
- Your local market has limits. Even with a loyal customer base, you need to expand your reach to drive incremental sales.
- Targeted email beats broad advertising. TV, radio, and direct mail are costly and imprecise. Email marketing delivers the right message to the right buyers at the right time. It’s the most cost effective way to fill the top of your funnel.
How Conquest Email Marketing Delivers New Customers
Instead of relying on outdated, low-quality purchased lists, AutoSweet builds a fresh audience of high-intent car shoppers based on your dealership’s past buyers.
Here’s how it works:
- We use DMS data to remove existing customers from your conquest campaign so you’re not marketing to people already in your CRM. This ensures your conquest campaigns are laser-focused on new business.
- We create a new audience of local car buyers who share key attributes with your past customers. These consumers are more likely to be in-market and more likely to convert.
- We introduce your dealership early in their buying journey, so you stay top-of-mind when they’re ready to purchase.
This data-driven approach ensures you’re reaching the right audience with the right message—without wasting money on ineffective mass marketing.
Why Email Marketing Is the Smartest Way to Capture New Buyers
Some dealers rely on traditional advertising like TV, radio,and direct mail, but these methods can be expensive and hard to track. Digital marketing platforms like Facebook and Google are effective, but are exceptionally strong when paired with an effective (and affordable!) email marketing campaign.
Email marketing provides a cost-effective alternative that delivers real results:
- Precision Targeting – Reach only high-intent, in-market buyers
- High Engagement – Email is a direct line to your audience’s inbox
- Lower Cost Per Sale – A fraction of the cost of TV or paid ads
- Trackable ROI – Know exactly how many sales your campaign generates
Omnichannel Retargeting to Boost Conversions
Reaching new buyers is just the first step. Keeping your dealership top-of-mind is just as important. That’s where AutoSweet’s omnichannel marketing comes in.
If a shopper clicks a link in your conquest email but doesn’t convert immediately, we retarget them with:
- Dynamic Facebook & Instagram ads featuring the exact vehicles they viewed
- VIN-specific display ads that keep your inventory in front of them
- Follow-up emails designed to nurture leads and drive them back to your website
This multi-touch approach keeps your dealership visible and moves shoppers further down the marketing funnel without requiring extra effort from your team.
Measure Real Sales with AutoSweet’s Transparent Dashboard
Unlike traditional marketing, where ROI is often unclear, AutoSweet’s conquest email campaigns are fully measurable.
You get real-time visibility into performance on our proprietary dashboard, available 24/7. We measure sends, opens, and clicks. We also match conquest leads to actual offline sales with our certified DMS connection, so you know exactly how many buyers came from your emails.
This level of insight gives you a clear view of how your marketing dollars are performing, and the confidence that your campaigns are driving real sales, not just website visits or ad impressions.
Expand Your Reach and Boost Sales with the Right Email Strategy
If you’re only marketing to past customers, you’re leaving money on the table. Conquest email marketing helps you:
- Reach high-intent buyers before your competitors do
- Increase sales without increasing your marketing spend
- Track real sales results—not just ad clicks
Want to see how effective email marketing can be for your dealership?
Download our free guide:
The Car Dealer’s Email Marketing Power Pack: 3 Game-Changing Templates to Boost Sales
This exclusive resource gives you proven email templates to attract, engage, and convert more car buyers.
