Index
Why email marketing makes sense for a dealership
How to build your contact list from scratch
What tools to use and how much they cost
What types of emails to send and how often
How to write an email that gets opened and read
Segmentation: not all contacts need the same thing
How to measure if your email marketing is working
Dealcar and dealership contact management
Frequently asked questions
Why email marketing makes sense for a dealership
Most used car buyers don't buy on their first visit to the dealership or during the first contact. The decision cycle can last weeks or months. During that time, the dealership that stays in touch has a real advantage over the one that disappears after the first interaction.
Read also how to recover cold leads in a dealership.
Email allows you to maintain that contact systematically, at a very low cost and without relying on social media algorithms or the buyer's availability at the exact moment you publish. An email arrives in the contact's inbox and waits to be read, unlike an Instagram post that disappears from the feed in hours.
For a dealership with a list of 300 or 400 contacts consisting of previous customers, leads that didn't close, and potential buyers, a monthly email with the new stock or a specific offer can generate between 2 and 5 active contacts per send with no additional acquisition cost. With a 20% conversion rate on those contacts, that's between 0.5 and 1 additional sale per month at practically zero cost.
How to build your contact list from scratch
The email list is built from the contacts you already have, not by waiting for people to voluntarily subscribe to a newsletter that didn't exist.
Previous customers are the first block: anyone who has bought a car from you has an email address registered in the file of the transaction. If you've been in business for 3 years and closed 400 sales, you have 400 potential contacts for your list.
Leads that didn't close are the second block: people who showed interest, enquired about a vehicle, or visited the dealership but didn't buy. Many of them are still looking or will look again in the future.
The third block consists of contacts that come in organically: website forms, valuation requests, content downloads (guides, ebooks). Each of these forms can include a consent checkbox to receive commercial communications, which is the legal requirement to be able to send them emails.
Read also how to create a local brand for a car dealership.
Spanish law (LOPD and GDPR) requires explicit consent to send commercial emails. You cannot send emails to just any contact you have had: you need them to have given their express consent, whether by filling out a form, signing a contract with a communications clause, or through a verified opt-in process.
What tools to use and how much they cost
To start with, the most accessible tools for a dealership are Mailchimp and Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Both have free plans that cover initial use:
Mailchimp: free up to 500 contacts and 1,000 emails per month. Intuitive interface, good visual email editor, and basic statistics included. From 500 contacts, the paid plan starts at around 13 euros per month.
Brevo: free up to 300 emails per day (no contact limit). It has native integration with WhatsApp and SMS, which can be useful for combining channels. The paid plan starts at around 19 euros per month for 20,000 monthly emails.
For a dealership with fewer than 1,000 contacts and a sending frequency of 2 or 3 emails per month, the cost of the tools is practically zero or very low. The real investment is the time spent preparing the emails.
What types of emails to send and how often
There are three types of emails that work well for a dealership, and they have different objectives.
The new stock email is the most direct: when interesting vehicles enter the inventory, send an email to the list with photos, the price, and a link to see more details or contact you. There is no need to send it every time a new car comes in: a weekly or fortnightly send with the 3 or 4 most prominent cars of the week is enough.
See also the best portals to sell cars in Spain to coordinate your distribution strategy.
The specific offer email serves to sell off vehicles that have been in stock for a while or to communicate a price drop. "This Seat Ateca has been in stock for 60 days and we've dropped it to 14,900 euros" is an email that generates a response because it is specific, has implicit urgency, and offers a clear reason to act.
The informational or content email is the one that builds the relationship with contacts who are not buying right now but may do so in the future. A helpful article on how to change a car's ownership, how to know if a vehicle has outstanding debts, or what to check before buying a used car adds value without selling directly and keeps the dealership in the contact's mind.
The recommended frequency is between 2 and 4 emails per month. Fewer than one a month causes the list to go cold and contacts will forget why they are on it. More than one a week starts to generate unsubscribes if the content is not relevant enough.
How to write an email that gets opened and read
The subject line of the email determines whether it gets opened or not. A subject line like "October Newsletter" is opened by no one. A subject line like "2021 Tiguan at 17,500, interested?" or "This Clio has been here 60 days and today we've dropped the price" sparks curiosity and gets opened.
The principles of a good subject line for a dealership: be specific (mention the car or the specific topic), keep it between 40 and 60 characters long so it shows fully on mobile, and avoid words that spam filters often block like "FREE", "OFFER", or "DISCOUNT" in capital letters.
The body of the email must be brief. Emails that work for a dealership are not long: they are 2 or 3 short paragraphs, one or two photos of the vehicle if it's a stock email, and a clear call-to-action button or link (view car, call, send WhatsApp).
The first paragraph is the most important: if it doesn't capture attention in the first two lines, the rest of the email won't be read. Get straight to the point: the car, the offer, or the useful information, without a corporate introduction.
Using the contact's name in the opening ("Hi Paul") when the tool allows it consistently increases the open rate. It is basic personalisation but it works.
Segmentation: not all contacts need the same thing
A list of 400 contacts is not a homogenous group. Within it, there are buyers who have already bought and may be in a renewal cycle, leads who looked at SUVs but didn't find what they wanted, and contacts who were just looking for information and never had immediate buying intentions.
Sending the same email to everyone is less efficient than sending targeted emails based on the profile. With tools like Mailchimp or Brevo, you can create segments by vehicle type of interest, by date of last contact, or by whether they are already customers or just leads.
A practical example: when a 7-seater SUV comes into stock, sending that email only to contacts who at some point showed interest in family or larger vehicles generates a higher response than sending it to the whole list. The contact feels that the email is addressed to them, rather than being mass advertising.
Segmentation does not require a complex infrastructure: 3 or 4 basic tags applied to each contact (vehicle type of interest, lead status, if they are already a customer) are enough to make send-outs more relevant.
Check which car brands rotate fastest in a dealership to segment by buyer profile.
How to measure if your email marketing is working
The three metrics to review after each send are the open rate, the click-through rate, and the unsubscribe rate.
The average open rate for business emails in Spain is between 20% and 30%. For a dealership with a list of qualified contacts (people who at some point showed interest), an open rate of 25% to 35% is reasonable. Below 15%, the email subject line is not working or the list is too cold.
The click-through rate measures how many of those who opened the email clicked on the main link. For emails about specific stock, a click-through rate of 5% to 15% of those who opened is reasonable. For informational emails, it may be lower because the goal is visibility rather than the click.
Unsubscribes are a sign of list quality. An unsubscribe rate of 0.5% or less per send is normal. Above 1%, the content or frequency is not being relevant to contacts.
What these metrics do not measure directly are the sales generated. For that, you need to track manually: when a contact comes into the dealership or calls after receiving an email, record that source. Over time, this data tells you how many sales per month the email channel generates.
Read how to calculate CAC and marketing ROI in a dealership.
Dealcar and dealership contact management
Dealcar's CRM centralises all dealership contacts, complete with the history of each interaction, the vehicle of interest, and the lead status. This database is the starting point for building your email marketing list: contacts are already registered with the relevant information for segmenting them.
Exporting that database to an email marketing tool like Mailchimp or Brevo, or using the communication features of the CRM itself, allows you to activate the email channel without building the list from scratch. If you want to see how contact management works in Dealcar, request a demo at dealcar.io.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need explicit permission to send emails to my past customers?
Yes. GDPR and the Information Society Services Act (LSSI) require express consent to send commercial communications by email, even to past customers. A prior business relationship is not sufficient to send marketing emails without consent. The cleanest way to manage this is to include a consent checkbox in the sales contract or on the website contact form.
How many emails a month is too many?
It depends on the relevance of the content. A well-segmented list can handle 3 or 4 emails a month without generating significant unsubscribes if the content is relevant. A poorly-segmented list with generic content starts to have unsubscribe issues after 2 emails a month. The practical rule of thumb: if you don't have anything specific to offer, it's better not to send.
Does email marketing work for all vehicle price ranges?
It works better for mid and high ranges (from 8,000-10,000 euros) where the buyer has a longer decision time and the email can support that process. For very cheap vehicles (under 4,000 euros), the decision cycle is shorter and the buyer usually already has a specific portal or channel where they search. Email has less impact on that segment.
Does it make sense to invest in email marketing if I already use Meta Ads and portals?
Yes, because it covers a different stage of the process. Portals capture active demand. Meta Ads generate new demand. Email works the contacts you already have: people who already know you and who at some point showed interest. The cost of this communication is very low and does not compete with other channels: it complements them.
