Most dealers are sitting on a massive but underutilized data goldmine. In today’s episode of Marketing Matters, Colin Carasquillo, digital marketing director at Nielsen Automotive Group, discusses how to use first-party data and CDPs to create more personalized, scalable and profitable marketing strategies.
First-party data
First-party data is customer information that dealerships already own. This is information a dealership has directly collected from the customer, including contact information, service history, purchase records and leads who haven’t converted. This data is stored within the CRM and DMS.
Depending on how many years a dealership has been in business, these platforms can contain upwards of hundreds of thousands of prospects. It’s a treasure trove of insights into people who have purchased, serviced, or at least engaged with the organization.
"You have a database full of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people. This is the opportunity for you to capitalize on what's already under your nose. The gold mine that you're standing on."
Customer data platform
A customer data platform, or CDP, integrates data from CRM, DMS, paid ads, emails, social media and more. It builds a 360-degree customer profile that includes historical and real-time behavior, purchase lifecycle stage and marketing engagement.
CDPs enable dealerships to move beyond static customer lists by automatically organizing and updating customer segments based on their behavior. This includes re-engaging prospects who haven’t bought yet, triggering automated marketing messages when leads revisit the website, or identifying customers who may be ready to upgrade.
Instead of relying on staff to manually export contact lists or upload data to different platforms, the CDP does the heavy lifting and offers fast, centralized tools to create better-tailored, personalized messaging.
Cross-brand re-marketing
If a shopper doesn’t buy from a specific brand or store, the CDP can enable targeted re-marketing from a sister location. Carasquillo shares an example: a customer who didn’t convert at one of his group’s Ram stores might be retargeted from a sister Chevrolet or Ford location offering similar inventory. This cross-brand strategy helps keep customers within the dealer group, even if the initial store didn’t close the sale.
Department handoffs
Dealers can also use the CDP to identify opportunities for service-to-sales upgrades or sales-to-service loyalty campaigns. By tracking customer behavior and life cycle changes, stores can proactively identify buyback opportunities.
Upselling and cross-selling
Recognizing customers’ significant life changes, such as getting married, having kids, or relocating, can help dealers pitch vehicle upgrades more easily. The CDP can help detect those moments and connect the dots between a customer’s needs and your inventory. For example, a sedan owner may now need a larger SUV, or a truck buyer may be interested in accessories or service offers based on usage.
