Franchised dealer Fife Seat has invested in mobile marketing to boost its sales and CRM.

Managing director Steven Graham has been using the system at his dealership for the last five months and says the impact of the messaging “blows people away.”

Graham said mobile marketing allows him to  ‘push’ information directly to prospects: “It’s like a virtual showroom. You can have a customer on the phone and within about 20 seconds send a vehicle ‘brochure’ straight to them while you are talking.

"The template also allows you to tailor personal messages to the individual customer.”

In one instance, a customer from outside his usual territory contacted the dealership at 9.30am, was texted the information while he was on the phone, was in the showroom by 2.30pm and drove away in his new car two hours later.

“This type of sale really demonstrates the power of the mobile marketing solution to extend our sales reach and impress prospects with our innovative marketing communications. It’s a small investment for state-of-the-art technology that delivers a real ‘wow factor’ and can only grow in popularity as more people upgrade their mobile phones,” said Graham.

John Simpson, managing director of Manheim Retail Services, which supplied Fife Seat's Vehicle Mobile Marketing solution, said as the market toughens dealers need to be using a full suite of communications channels to optimise every sales opportunity.

"By embracing new technology we are now able to help dealers make it simple and instantaneous for prospects to access stock information though their preferred communications channel, whatever that may be.

"Mobile marketing is now one of the fastest growing technologies in the UK and dealers should be thinking very carefully about incorporating it into their marketing strategies due to the low cost-base, easily measurable return-on-investment and the instantaneous call to action that it provides.”