Sector — Automotive & Dealer Groups
From first lead to fifth service visit.
Dealers fight for the sale, then leave the most profitable relationship in the building — the service drive — to chance. Automotive lifecycle is a retention business wearing an acquisition costume.
How this sector buys
Leads go cold in hours
Internet leads convert on speed and persistence. A structured follow-up sequence works every lead long after the BDC has moved on.
Fixed ops is the margin
Service absorption pays the bills. Recall, maintenance, and tire-season programs keep bays full without buying a single new lead.
Every car is a countdown
Lease maturity, warranty expiry, equity position — automotive customers run on predictable clocks that almost nobody emails against.
What I run for dealer groups
- Lead follow-upMulti-week sequences for internet leads segmented by model interest and trade-in status — persistence the BDC can’t sustain manually.
- Service retentionFirst-service onboarding, maintenance-interval reminders, declined-work follow-ups, and seasonal tire campaigns.
- Ownership lifecycleLease-end and equity-mining programs that put customers back in the showroom a month before they start shopping.
- Multi-store campaignsGroup-level promotional calendars with per-store localization — built from 14 months inside a major GTA dealer group.
- Showroom-grade creativeOEM-compliant campaign design honed on BMW, Honda, Volkswagen, and Nissan accounts.
The maintenance & oil-change flow
Post-purchase, every vehicle already carries its own service clock — mileage and install date, not a marketing calendar. This is the flow that reminds the customer before the quick-lube chain down the street does.
Service record saved
Confirms the visit and logs the mileage so every later message is timed to a real interval, not a guess.
Email"Your [Model] is coming up on its next oil change"
An early heads-up while there's still time to plan around it — triggered by predicted date or mileage, whichever comes first.
Email"Ready to book?"
Direct booking link to the same service advisor from the last visit — no phone tag required.
Email + SMS"Due today"
Short, direct nudge timed to the actual interval — not a generic monthly blast to the whole database.
SMS"One more reminder — plus a free multi-point inspection"
Final nudge with a small, low-cost incentive before the customer drifts to a quick-lube chain out of convenience.
Email"See you tomorrow at [time]"
Cuts no-shows, and resets the clock — the next interval's Day 0 starts the moment this visit is logged.
SMS- Books at any step → jumps straight to the day-before reminder, skips whatever's left in the sequence.
- No response after the overdue reminder → drops to a slower quarterly check-in instead of nagging weekly.
Design goal: keep the service bay full using vehicles already sold — no new lead cost, no phone tag.
I served as Graphic Designer at Zanchin Automotive Group, one of the GTA’s largest dealer networks, producing campaign creative across BMW, Honda, Volkswagen, and Nissan stores. I know OEM co-op rules, compliance review, and the rhythm of a dealership month — and how to build lifecycle programs that respect all three.
Start with the audit.
Two weeks, one document, zero ambiguity about where the money is leaking. Free — no cost, no catch.
Book the audit View the rate card