Automotive / Dealership & Auto Sales Marketing
Dealership Group Marketing
Dealership group marketing from MBI is direct mail, matched Meta ads, opted-in SMS and commercial printing run across every rooftop in a dealer group, built from the group's own customer, vehicle, lease and service-lane records.
Not sure where to start? Talk with our teamDealer groups
What is dealership group marketing?
The short answer
Dealership group marketing is one campaign run across every rooftop in a dealer group rather than a separate plan per store. It is built from the customer, vehicle, lease and service-lane records the group already holds, and MBI plans the file, prints the mail, and runs the matched Meta ads and opted-in texts that reinforce the same offer.
The records. Dealership direct mail commonly uses first-party customer and vehicle data for recurring service reminders, equity mining, lease pull-ahead and conquest offers.
Who it is built for. The dealer groups this is built for are regional and multi-brand groups that can coordinate CRM data, service lanes, sales teams, and co-op/compliance review across rooftops.
Postcard · Direct Mail
Direct mail
How does dealership direct mail work across every rooftop?
The short answer
Dealership direct mail at group scale runs one campaign across every rooftop rather than a separate campaign per store. MBI builds the file from the customer, vehicle and service-lane records the group already holds, prints the piece in house, and mails it on one schedule. Those same records decide who receives it.
The three campaigns. The researched dealership campaigns are a service-reminder postcard campaign, an equity-mining personalized mail campaign and a lease pull-ahead postcard campaign.
Fixed ops to sales. A fixed-ops-to-sales lifecycle program is created for high-repair-cost vehicles.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5 provides that each address, except for mail bearing an alternative address format, in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices or USPS Marketing Mail prices is subject to the Move Update standard, and that each address and associated addressee used on the mailpieces in a mailing must be updated within 95 days before the mailing date with one of the USPS-approved methods, which include Address Change Service and NCOALink.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5
Mailer · Direct Mail
Service reminders
What goes on service reminder postcards for dealerships?
The short answer
A service-reminder postcard tells a customer their vehicle is due back in the service lane. Dealership mail of this kind is built from the first-party customer and vehicle records the group already holds, printed as a 4x6 service-reminder postcard or a 6x9 variable-data card, and mailed as a recurring reminder rather than a one-off drop.
The formats. Dealership mail is printed as 4x6 service-reminder postcards, 6x9 or 6x11 variable-data postcards, and letters with business cards and envelopes.
One team. Data, print and delivery have been in-house at MBI since 1989, so one team answers for a whole campaign.
Postcard · Direct Mail
Postcard · Direct Mail
Facebook and Instagram
What do car dealership Facebook ads reach that mail alone cannot?
The short answer
Meta ads matched to the dealer group's own direct-mail list put the same sale or service offer into Facebook and Instagram feeds. The list decides who sees it, so a household that received the mailing meets the offer a second time in a place the card cannot reach, and the rooftop's campaign is reinforced rather than restated.
Matched to the file. Meta ads can be matched to the dealership's direct-mail list to reinforce a sale or service offer in Facebook and Instagram feeds.
digital advertising services direct mail and digital marketing
Meta carousel · Facebook
Reel · Instagram
SMS
When does dealership text message marketing reach a customer?
The short answer
After the mail has landed, and only for customers who opted in. Opted-in SMS reinforces the associated mail offer with a short, mobile-native call to action, so the message repeats the offer the card already carried instead of starting a new one. The group retains opt-in evidence for every text program it runs.
Opted in. Opted-in SMS can reinforce the associated mail offer with a short, mobile-native call to action.
digital advertising services direct mail and digital marketing
After it lands
SMS
The ask
Why offer an appraisal instead of a price?
The short answer
The mail asks for an appraisal because a multi-brand conquest or loyalty-recapture campaign is written to offer a frictionless appointment rather than a generic price claim. An appraisal is an appointment a vehicle owner can accept, and the campaign works inside sales claims that are current and substantiated, with disclosure, pricing and availability approval kept by rooftop.
An appointment, not a price. Multi-brand conquest and loyalty-recapture campaigns offer a frictionless appointment, not a generic price claim.
The acquisition file. A group-wide used-vehicle acquisition campaign is built from trade valuation, purchase offers and service-lane customer data.
By rooftop. Dealer groups maintain OEM, lender, co-op, disclosure, pricing and availability approval paths by rooftop, use sales claims that are current and substantiated, and retain opt-in evidence for every text program.
Mailer · Direct Mail
Questions
Questions a dealer group asks before it mails
Searched for dealership marketing, car dealership marketing or dealer group marketing? Same work, same answers.
How does marketing work across a whole dealer group?
One campaign run across every rooftop in a group. Dealership direct mail commonly uses first-party customer and vehicle data for recurring service reminders, equity mining, lease pull-ahead and conquest offers, and MBI builds those campaigns from the group's own records, prints them, mails them and coordinates them store by store.
What data does a dealer group need before it can run one campaign?
The records a group already keeps, and the ability to coordinate them. This is built for regional and multi-brand dealer groups that can coordinate CRM data, service lanes, sales teams, and co-op and compliance review across rooftops. That coordination is what one plan, one print run and one schedule depend on.
Where does the list for a used-vehicle acquisition campaign come from?
A group-wide used-vehicle acquisition campaign is built from trade valuation, purchase offers and service-lane customer data - records the dealer group already holds. MBI builds the list from those records, prints and mails the piece, and runs the campaign across every rooftop in the group at once.
Why does the mail piece ask for an appraisal rather than quote a price?
Because a multi-brand conquest or loyalty-recapture campaign is written to offer a frictionless appointment rather than a generic price claim. An appraisal is an appointment a vehicle owner can accept, and sales claims have to be current and substantiated, with disclosure, pricing and availability approval kept by rooftop.
What is a fixed-ops-to-sales program?
A lifecycle program that moves high-repair-cost vehicles from fixed ops to sales. The owner of a vehicle facing costly repair work hears from the sales side of the group, and the campaign is built from the first-party customer and vehicle data the dealer group already holds.
What formats do dealership postcards and letters come in?
The formats a dealership actually mails: 4x6 service-reminder postcards, 6x9 or 6x11 variable-data postcards, and letters with business cards and envelopes. Data, print and delivery have been in-house at MBI since 1989, so the variable data on a card and the stock it lands on are handled by one team.
How is a dealer group mailing priced?
MBI does not publish rates. What a group mailing comes to depends on the piece and its format, the quantity, the list and the postage, and /capabilities/direct-mail/direct-mail-cost sets out what moves the number. Tell us the rooftop count and the piece you have in mind and the team will work it through.
Does a group's own customer list have to be address-checked before it mails?
Yes. USPS requires each address in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices, or USPS Marketing Mail prices, to be updated within 95 days before the mailing date by an approved method such as NCOALink, so the file is brought to that standard before a group mailing drops.
Get started
Start a dealer group campaign.
Say which of the campaigns it is, and the rooftops it runs across. It goes to a real member of the MBI team, not a queue.