eROI provides a case study on an email campaign that helped a Lexus dealer group present a sophisticated brand presence while generating new revenue streams.

Background history
Client profile. Meade Automotive Group has demonstrated a vastly successful 30-year heritage of satisfying customers in the metropolitan Detroit Area. Since 1971, they have enjoyed representing DaimlerChrysler's Dodge division, consistently ranking among the top 100 U.S. Dodge dealers in sales. Due to these achievements, Meade was awarded a luxury upstart of Toyota Motor Sales in 1989-- the first Lexus franchise in the metro Detroit area.

It didn't take long for Meade to set a new benchmark for quality in sales and service. The Lexus division was so impressed with its relationship with Meade Automotive Group, they awarded them with a "Customer Convenience Outlet" in Southfield, Michigan in 1997. Today, this "outlet" has grown to Meade Lexus of Southfield, the greatest retail sales volume holder in the Midwest.

Project background. Email marketing was an unexplored avenue for Meade Auto, and they were progressively interested in its potential as a tool to help create awareness and sell more units. With this vision in mind, Meade approached eROI for help in implementing email marketing for their Lexus dealerships. Meade's goal was to promote their Service Department as the only place to have a Lexus serviced.

True to form, each Lexus customer was graced with a true luxury experience in the Service Department. Immaculate guest lounges warmly welcomed all with plush leather sofas, flat screen televisions, and a complete espresso bar. Their service department offered factory certified technicians and top of the line advisors, with extensive training and polished customer service skills. Always looking to proactively move forward in a vastly competitive market, Meade was now searching to broaden their marketing efforts to include email marketing. On referral, they sought eROI's advice on how to successfully utilize email broadcasting by targeting previously established customers. During a project consultation, the service manager expressed his anticipation by stating that he would "do cartwheels through the show room" if the campaign brought anyone through the door. In the end, the results have defied all, including his, expectations.

Strategy
Step 1: defining the goal. Through a series of interviews with their service and marketing teams, Meade worked with eROI to define goals for their first email campaign.  First and foremost, they wanted to present a sophisticated brand presence that would catch the eye of their past customers. As for a quantitative return, Meade chose to rely on benchmarks set by eROI that were based on the average results of similar campaigns. Meade chose to utilize a goal of a 300 percent ROI to set a standard by which to measure actual results for reads, clicks, conversions, sales and, ultimately, the overall ROI of the project.

Step 2: creating an audience. Finding a targeted audience is crucial to the success rate of any email campaign. The higher in quality the leads are, the more likely a sale will result from our marketing efforts to them. Based on previous successes and input from marketing, it was determined that the recipients of this email would be those with whom a clear business relationship had been created in the past (i.e., customers who had either already purchased a Meade vehicle or had at one time shown interest in purchasing a Lexus from the Meade dealer group).

The challenge was to find all marketable email addresses throughout a series of different computer systems used by Meade Auto to store customer data. The eROI team worked with the Meade staff to comb the through their customer management platforms, management software and online subscription database. In the end, eROI gathered 3,390 email address of quality prospects. The next project was to craft the right message.

Step 3: creative. With the importance of consistency in mind, the email template that eROI and Meade came up with was designed with the classy, yet sleek look and feel of the Lexus brand. It is a simple truth of email marketing that a clear and concise call-to-action is what makes an email campaign truly successful. This was accomplished by choosing imagery that highlighted the amenities of the waiting room and Meade's world class service, while providing design and content with a clear and impossible to miss choice of offers-either 10 percent off service or a free Lexus-branded wine set. Both proved to be equally successful.

Results
Email statistics: actual. The campaign was launched and the promotion was offered to customers for 45 days. Results from the May Service Campaign were as follows:

Email Statistics: Actual

Financial Results

Customers that redeemed service coupons -- 271
Customers that redeemed wine set coupons -- 20

Total sales: $175,851.42

Goal vs. Actual

As shown in the above chart, the ROI of this campaign was 3417 percent-- over 11 times Meade's goal of 300 percent. Furthermore, Meade received many positive accolades from customers on the both "convenience of the email" and on it's "attractive quality." Both quantitative and qualitative goals were exceeded.

Upon further review, it was only 291 of the 3,390 people who received this email that generated over $175k in revenue. This is less than 9 percent of the total list. The significance of this is that while this campaign was an unbelievable success that generated an unprecedented ROI for Meade Auto, there still remains vast room for growth.

Observations and impact
All involved parties at Meade Automotive Group have proven to be greatly impressed and avidly ecstatic with the amount of revenue their first email campaign generated. With continued efforts, eROI is confident that this success will continue. The keys to this campaign were consistency, targeted leads and strong calls-to-action. By sticking to this type of formula, eROI believes that your next email marketing campaign can be just as lucrative, if not more, than Meade's. We, at eROI, would love the opportunity to show you how.

Alex Williams works with clients at eROI to create their email marketing and website strategies, keeping them ahead of the curve on emerging trends. Read full bio.