Cars Get Cars
Hi Friends!
This is kind of an important one for the Z260. One year ago this week, from a wet and soggy hotel room at the Quail Motorcycle Gathering in Monterey, California, we officially launched this newsletter. Originally started as something directly focused on people working in and around the industry, obviously, we’ve grown a lot and fast. We now reach enthusiasts of all types and from all corners of the globe and although our focus has somewhat changed to accommodate a broader audience, our mission is still to try to give you something of value, that you can digest quickly with the ability to chime in, share your thoughts and influence real world decisions (if you’ve been with us since summer 2024 or so, you saw this happen in real time with Arizona Car Week). It’s also an exciting week, as on this upcoming Wednesday, we will be debuting our first “Cars” email too. These emails will encourage even more interaction, so we’re looking forward to getting your input, not only regarding the subject matter of the emails each week, but the overall product itself.
Anyway, I had an interesting conversation with a dealer friend (a friend, not a client) earlier this week and seeing as this is our first anniversary, it makes sense to relay, as it’s a bit of a throwback to what we first started out trying to talk about here.
He had mentioned that he was having some difficulties with his email marketing numbers. Traditionally very strong, for some reason his open rates and click rates were both down significantly. I asked him to send me a couple of examples of recent emails that were performing in a fairly average capacity for him as well as some older ones that were hitting the numbers he was desiring. He sent me about a dozen, but after two or three, the problem was really obvious.
If you’re familiar with me in any capacity, you’re probably aware of my “band room to boardroom overnight” Batman origin story. I’ve told this tale here and basically everywhere else since I came into this industry in 2014. No matter how important that story is for me, the situation that occurred just minutes after, is likely as important if not more.
Following my introduction to the team at Russo and Steele, I was ushered downstairs into the Consignment Director’s office. After about 45 minutes of listening to him bluster while intermittingly launching threat laced incoherent nonsense (Peanuts adult moment – I still don’t like the guy) in my direction, he stated a simple phrase that for me remains one of the absolute marketing bedrocks of the classic car business: Cars get cars.
The gist of this is pretty simple. Take the best cars you have, lead with them and have success. It’s a formula that all of the top auction houses and all of the most successful dealers use. Not only are you showing potential consignors that you have the ability to handle bigger cars properly, but it shows potential buyers that when you’re selling a 1965 GT350, they can definitely trust you on the purchase of their 1967 Mustang Convertible. This is why ads have feature cars and why auction companies oftentimes seed upcoming events with the biggest cars they have available at the time.
Upon going through my friends email samples, it was clear that he was not up to speed with this philosophy. On one email in particular, his top two cars were (although values are consistent, actual vehicles have been changed to protect the guilty) a Porsche 944 Turbo and a small block Chevy Nova. About halfway down, he had a Mercedes 280 SL. Towards the bottom, a Series 1 Jaguar E-Type. When looking at his better performing emails, he got this right. Ferrari Dino or a Yenko Camaro on top, everything else below.
Following this conversation, I got a little bit curious, so I started digging into my own email inbox. What I discovered was interesting. It’s pretty easy to tell when an organization is struggling and over the last year, I’ve gotten a number of comments regarding a couple a fairly major players in this space that seem to be losing their way. When looking at their emails, they were making exactly the same mistake as my dealer friend and it’s probably a major reason for their difficulties too. Burying their best cars and best results in the middle or at the bottom of an email or an ad and leading with cars in a far lower price range and in many cases, with far less impressive results.
I asked my friend what the rationale was behind his decision to change around the order of cars that he was featuring and his answer was to be expected. “I’m trying to appeal to a different buyer and get new people into the pipeline.” Although, logic might dictate this to be a winning strategy, it almost never is. This business and this hobby are very aspirational. The frequency where we see that 1967 Mustang Convertible buyer come back a couple of years later and get themselves into a GT350 is as common an occurrences death and taxes. If they see that GT350 at the top of their ad or email, even if they’re not in the market, it elevates your status as a seller and often inspires them to look deeper. On the other side as a seller, selling bigger cars demonstrates similar status and says you know what you’re doing and others recognize this as well.
If there’s one thing to count on when building your marketing strategy basically anywhere in or around this business, it’s always going to be “cars get cars”. This is thoroughly fundamental and pretty unlikely to ever change. Use it and use it often.
That’s it for this week……
Darin Roberge
