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Whether you’re still familiarizing yourself with “owner marketing” – marketing to your existing customer base - or whether you already have an owner marketing plan at your dealership, these five campaign ideas can help you gain long-term, repeat customers. While there’s nothing revolutionary about focusing on maintaining long-term relationships with customers, what is revolutionary are the new methods used in today’s owner marketing. Sending the right message to the right customer at the right time is dramatically more effective than blasting a bulk email to a list of 5,000 email addresses. Today, the Internet, improved data collection, and other key technologies have come together to make the actual planning and execution of owner marketing highly affordable and effective.

1. Two Birds, One Stone

Are there any high-resale models that you’d like to see on your used car lot? You already know where to find them: your own customers. For example, a campaign informing owners of 2004 Accords and their higher-than-usual trade-in value can net you some 2007 Accord sales and some valuable additions to your used-car inventory.

2. The Missing

The problem with many incentive offers is that they wind up rewarding loyal customers who would remain loyal with or without the offer. But a campaign targeting just those customers you haven’t heard from in the last 12 months, for example, is low-cost and high-reward. A $9.99 lube, oil, and filter special presented to the right audience is a great way to re-establish contact with customers wit whom you’ve lost touch.

3. Here Comes the Rain

Another great way to get in touch with customers who bought a car from you three years ago is to offer them a free set of replacement wiper blades, installed, especially right before the rainy season. You’ll have a good shot at a number of service up-sells, and you might sell a few new vehicles too.

4. Ouch, That Hurt!

A big out-of-pocket repair can put a customer in a foul mood. Offering to discount a new car purchase by an equivalent amount (up to $1,500, for example) can ease the customer’s pain and put them in a buying mood. All it takes is the ongoing ability to identify customers who paid for large repair orders in the past month.

5. Total Recall

The VIN information stored in your DMS makes it easy to identify and communicate with customers that own vehicles that are subject to a recall. Proactively offering them Saturday service and a discount on additional repairs is a great way to build goodwill and generate some profitable service business.