Dealerships & Garages

Leaflet Drops & Direct Mail For Car Dealerships & Garages

Thanks to many years of working alongside national car dealerships and local garages, we have learned what works and what doesn't. This page reveals our most effective strategy to ensure you see the highest possible return on your leaflet distribution and direct mail campaigns.

Car Dealership Gift Marketing

The gift marketing principle has probably generated the highest ROI for our car dealership customers than any other sector. I'm sure you've received a flyer with information about how long the garage has been in business, a list of services, and a picture of their showroom. You didn't respond, right? They didn't give you anything to respond to - it was just a montage of irrelevant info.

Marketing needs a call to action, and the usual option is a discount. But to perform a flyer distribution campaign with a discount your margins can justify, it will look like a joke: '0.5% discount with this flyer'! Typically, if a discount isn't 20% or more, it's not going to be considered - but in your industry, such margins are fantasy, which is why a gift works so well.

"Advertising mail delivers increased customer value by increasing sales activity through long-term engagement." DMA

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Our Flyer Design Solution

We cover our three keys in every flyer design, which have proved time and again essential for maximum returns:

Icon of a webpage layout with a header, text blocks, and an image placeholder.

A bold headline. Pose this as a question relevant to your target audience. E.g. 'Want to get in shape for free this summer?' Then follow with a sub-headline, 'Now you can with a 7-day FREE PASS'.

Simple white outline of a human eye on a transparent background.

An eye-catching image. Not your premises (it's likely not inspiring!), but a before and after picture, or an inspirational man and woman on gym equipment..

White outline of a megaphone on a black background.

A call to action. Based on the above, it would reiterate your 7-day pass gift. It should also highlight a prompt expiry, so you see a quick return on your investment.

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Leaflet Distribution Fundamentals

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Gift marketing is the overarching strategy for car dealerships and garages, but this must be supported with the Mr Flyer fundamentals to create a complete and successful campaign.

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This includes:

Initial consultation: This will establish your ideal customer, locality, goals, timescale, budget and more. Our sales consultants can then make recommendations and build your quote accordingly.
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Demographic targeting: Your ideal customer will determine where and how we target, usually with the aid of free Experian demographic reports. The report provides the most appropriate postcode sectors for you.
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Actionable artwork: All flyer designs should include three keys: a bold headline, an eye-catching image, and a call to action (a gift). See above a successful case study for a leaflet targeting lower-income families.
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Appropriate print: The choice of paper quality, size, shape, and finish all represent your dealership. The case study above was printed on A5 170gsm gloss as it wanted some quality but still to be affordable. However, for Mazda, the artwork is often invitation-style, so we use a DL size and print on premium 350gsm silk, as they have a more affluent target audience.
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Drip effect marketing: This is the most critical fundamental; without it, the gift strategy and all the pointers above reduce effectiveness dramatically. Drip marketing is where you repeat to your audience regularly - this builds awareness, trust and then engagement. We recommend a minimum 3-stage campaign, with each distribution repeated 3 times over 12 weeks.

"Your advertising mail (including leaflets, flyers and brochures) will deliver the best results if you design it with a big-picture view. Ensure that you map your customer journey out over a full year." DMA

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Gift Marketing Implementation

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Choose a gift relevant to your target audience, and then make it easily accessible. For instance, at Mr Flyer, we regularly distribute flyers to various Mazda dealerships, so for their target audience, we chose a £10 M&S voucher. If you were promoting a little Citroen C1 with free insurance for 18-year-olds, a Topshop or McDonald's voucher would be more appropriate.

The gift works best when getting prospects through the door rather than upon completing a sale. For instance, a bottle of wine with a test drive is much more effective than a bottle of wine upon sales completion (even if the wine was more expensive).