A new report from Borrell Associates indicates that US automobile manufacturers will increase their online local ad spending by 14% in 2010.  New and used car dealers will also increase their online ad spend by 8.6%.  In total, new vehicle online spending will rise by 11.4% over the next year.

This means that spending will total roughly $19.2 billion, which is up from 2009’s $18.4 billion.  Although, not as high as in 2008, the predicted spending shows a 4% growth rate from that of 2009, a time with which General Motors and Chrysler declared bankruptcy.

The online ad spend will most likely surpass all other media in 2010 as the main source of new-vehicle advertising.  This will be done mainly by email and social networking, while streaming audio and video will become the big “break out” stars.

Also shown in the report is that newspaper and broadcast TV advertising has been hit the hardest, declining 20% this past year.  Despite this drop, these outlets are not nearly hit like directories and other print media, which are down roughly 8.1%.  These two sources will continue to freefall negatively within the next year.  Only cinema advertising is expected to gain the highest growth, by 18% in 2010.  This means that the money spent in this medium will jump from $65 million to $77 million by next year.

1. Why do you use email as part of your marketing efforts?

Email is an easy way to communicate with large amounts of people in an instant. You are able to track your efforts as well as allow people quick and easy access to your company for questions and comments.

2. What does email do for you?

Email allows us the freedom to market and follow up during non-traditional hours. Many of our clients are in different time zones and we are able to communicate with them and they can respond when it is convenient for them to do so.

3. How long have you been doing email marketing?

Almost 5 years-since the inception of the business.

4. Are you doing it yourself or do you have an outside company help you?

I use a third party email marketing company, IMN (www.imninc.com ) for our monthly newsletter mailings. Other emails are done in house.

5. How did you get started?

I just realized that there was a need to communicate with people all at once.

6. What works well for you?

Sending or monthly newsletter with updates on what’s been going on as well as sending any specials we are offering and directing people back to our website.

7. What have you learned that doesn’t work?

Too many emails can backfire. No more than 2-3 a month works the best.

8. What do you put in your emails?

Specials, information, surveys.

9. How often do you send them?

Usually monthly unless we have a special offer going on, then it is 2 emails that month.

10. How do you add names to your email lists?

People have the ability to forward our newsletter and there is a subscribe area on it where you can sign up as well as a sign up page on our website.

11. Does everyone get the same emails, or do you segment your lists in any way?

Everyone currently receives the same emails unless the email is a follow up mailing for a local event.

12. What should a business think about before starting an email marketing campaign?

Find a good company to work with for a third party. IMN seems to work well for us- they have fabulous reporting and tracking for ROI as well as great support staff. Make sure you have a decent sized mailing list to use before attempting to email and always offer a way to Opt out of your mailings for Can Spam act compliance. If you are going to be doing your mailings in house, test the mailings prior to your ‘live’ send and see if they get caught in spam filters- otherwise you are wasting your time creating the mailing if no one will receive it. Determine what the purpose of your emails is: will it be for sales? Marketing? General info? Events? You don’t just want to send random emails just to send ‘something’.

Chop Shop Customs, located in Woburn, MA, offers a combined experience of over 100 years of automotive restoration, hot rod fabrication and design.

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