It happened that a dog had got a piece of meat and was carrying it home in his mouth to eat it in peace. Now on his way home he had to cross a plank lying across a running brook. As he crossed, he looked down and saw his own shadow reflected in the water beneath. Thinking it was another dog with another piece of meat, he made up his mind to have that also. So he made a snap at the shadow in the water, but as he opened his mouth the piece of meat fell out, dropped into the water, and was never seen again.

This fable from Aesop has a moral: Beware lest you lose the substance you already have by grasping at shadows. We have spent a lot of time in the automotive retail business grasping at shadows and not enough time on the substance, particularly when it comes to direct mail marketing. Today’s economy dictates a return to substance as the road to profitability and success.

The following are five points of substance that should be applied to your direct mail marketing.

1.    Spend less money. If you are still buying 10,000 pieces at a time and spraying all over the place to try and produce some showroom traffic—stop! If you are still doing large mailings to your customer database—stop! Your DMS contains so much detailed information about your customer database, your average mailing could be less than 500 pieces and still produce quality showroom traffic and a better return on investment.

2.    Be more targeted with conquest mail. There are so many niche conquest databases available today it doesn’t make a lot of sense to even use garage predictor lists anymore. Insurance data, research data, off-loan/off-lease data are all more targeted and more relevant.

3.    Measure! And don’t just use toll-free tracking numbers. There is so much technology out there that can help you track and capture response on your direct mail advertising. There are ways to cut corners on costs for direct mail, but don’t neglect the investment in the use of PURL’s or lead generation tools with every direct mail promotion you do.

4.    Spend more per piece. Spending less money but spending more per piece may sound like a contradiction, but it isn’t. Smaller mailings that use the best in variable technology are more expensive, but you get a far better return on investment. The more personalization you can add to each mailing piece, the more relevant that piece becomes to the potential customer.

5.    Be relevant. Reach the right customer, with the right message, at the right time. The more relevant a piece of mail is to a potential customer, the greater the likelihood that they will read it and respond. That requires a combination of the four points above.

Despite my protest, I recently had a small dealer do a small mailing the third week of December 2008. They sold 14 cars on the Saturday before Christmas—in a down economy. You know what? Substance in marketing can bring a rewarding return on investment.

Michael Nealy is an independent automotive marketing consultant. He recently founded the Buyers Direct Network—designed for dealers to buy direct mail from some of the country’s premium mail houses direct without going through a middle man and paying markup on direct mail services. He can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .