Automotive Email Automation and Drip Campaigns

The first reply goes out in the minute a lead arrives, the fifth email goes out on the day the plan says, and every one of them is on the lead where the salesperson will see the answer.

A dealership sends three kinds of automated email, and each needs a different tool. Automotive email automation in LeadLocate CRM covers all three on the same customer records.

• The first reply. A lead arrives at 11:00 PM and gets an email in the store's voice within the minute. That is Automated Templates: an Automated Email on lead receipt per lead source, plus a confirmation email when an appointment is set.
• The drip. An unsold lead gets a scheduled series over days and weeks, with the wording changing as the lead ages. That is Follow Up Processes, where each step is a task for the salesperson or, with Auto Send on, an email template that goes out on its own at the step's time.
• The one off. A customer says email me Friday with the numbers. The rep opens the Email Automation window from the lead, writes it, picks Friday at 10:00 AM and moves on.

Sending to a whole list at once is Bulk Email, under Marketing Tools on the dock. Together these are the dealership drip campaigns most stores want: a reply in a minute, a plan for weeks, and a person in the loop. They fit a franchise BDC, an independent or used car store, a buy here pay here lot, RV and boat dealers with long buying cycles, and brokers who follow clients for months.

Here is the email side of the New Lead 14 Day Follow Up, one of the nine processes every account starts with. Calls and texts sit between these steps; the table shows the emails. The subjects are sample wording your manager edits, and in this example the manager switched Auto Send on for two steps. The defaults ship with every step as a task for the rep.

If the shopper books on day 3, the rep sets the status to Appointment, the 14 day plan stops and the Appointment Set Reminder puts a call, text and email reminder on the rep's Workspace 24 hours before the visit. If the shopper never answers, day 14 closes the plan and moves the lead to lost with the reason Lead Process Completed, so nobody keeps emailing a cold lead by accident.

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The nine default processes mix calls, texts and email on purpose. Here is where email already sits in each one, and where stores often add it.

Add an email to any step by ticking email under Channels and writing the Optional Email Template, then decide whether that step goes on its own or stays a task.

Merge fields fill in per lead at send time, so the twelfth email still talks about the car the customer asked about. These are starting points, not scripts.

The first reply

Hi [leadfirstname], thanks for asking about the [unit]. It is here and I can have it ready for you today at 5:30 or tomorrow at 11:00. Which works better? [myname], [companyname], [myphone]

The day 8 check in

Hi [leadfirstname], are you still shopping, or did you find the right one? Either answer helps me. If you are still looking, here are a few like the [unit]: [inventorylink]

The missed appointment

Hi [leadfirstname], we held the [unit] for you yesterday. No problem at all. Want to pick another time this week? Reply with a day and I will set it up. [myname]

[inventorylink] is each rep's own inventory link, so the shopper lands on their salesperson's vehicles. The AI writing assistant helps a manager draft these and helps a rep rework a message before sending it.

Nobody adds leads to a drip by hand. Enrollment follows what happens on the lead.

• On arrival. Each lead source has an Auto-message follow ups setting that runs your standard drip messages on inbound leads, and the source's first reply goes out from Automated Templates.
• On a status change. A process with Starts When set to Lead status changes to starts the moment a lead moves to that status, whether a rep set it or the source's Default Status for New Leads did.
• On an appointment event. Appointment completed, Missed appointment and Hours before appointment each start their own process.
• One plan at a time. A lead runs one process. When a new one starts, the old one stops, so a customer never receives two sequences at once.

The automotive follow-up automation page covers the Process Builder field by field.

A drip earns trust by stopping at the right time. These are the ways an automated email stops in LeadLocate.

• The status moves on. When the lead's status changes, the running process stops or hands off to the process for the new status. Every email still waiting for the old plan is cancelled, and a note on the lead names the process that stopped.
• The plan ends. After Last Step sets a final status or moves the lead to lost with a reason.
• The customer is on Do Not Call or deleted. A scheduled message to that customer reads Will not send and never goes out.
• A person cancels it. The rep cancels from the lead's Scheduled emails tab, or a manager cancels from the Scheduled Messages slide-out, one message or a whole sequence.
• The address is bad. The Email Validator marks invalid addresses with a validity dot on the lead before they enter a list.

Deliverability is the other half of suppression. Email domain authentication sends from your dealership's own domain, so automated email carries your reputation, and our team sets it up on request.

Email Automation is the window that opens from the clock on a lead's Email button. It schedules one email for that customer, and a time is required: pick it under Send at or tap a quick time like Today or Tomorrow. Write the subject and message or start from a template, and the window reminds the rep that it goes out at the time above, and that to email now they use Send an Email.

Once saved, the email appears in three places.

• The Scheduled emails tab on the lead, beside Timeline and System Log, where the rep edits the subject, the words or the time, sends it now, or cancels it.
• The Scheduled Messages slide-out, opened from the clock in the Email header, which lists every text, email and voicemail drop waiting to go out with search, status, source and time filters.
• The phone app, where the same scheduled emails sit under the customer and the subject and time can be changed between deliveries.

Managers with Whole Team View see the whole team's queue. A manager's edit keeps the author's signature and shows who changed it, and everyone else sees their own messages and those on customers assigned to them.

Sends are not a result. Replies, appointments and sales are. Because every automated email is written to the lead, you can measure the plan against what customers did.

• Status on every email. Each scheduled email reads Scheduled, Sending, Sent or Failed, and a failure names its reason in plain words.
• Replies on the lead. A reply lands in the CRM email inbox under the lead and alerts the owner, with the whole history beside it.
• Opens and clicks. Email lists show opens and clicks, and Bulk Email History records who sent each blast and how many went out.
• Outcomes. Appointments, statuses and lost reasons come from the same records, and the Reports dashboard rolls them up by user and by store.

Read the replies by step. Most sequences have one email that does the work and two that do nothing. Rewrite the quiet ones, keep the one that earns answers, and watch the time between a reply and a human answer, because a drip that earns replies nobody answers has made the store worse.

Automated Templates and the nine default processes come with every account, so a new store has a first reply and a working sequence on day one.

What we need from your store

• Your sending domain, if you want email to come from it.
• Your lead sources and the first reply each should get.
• Your lead statuses and your current follow up rule.
• The emails your best salesperson already sends.

What our team does

Our team sets up email domain authentication on request, puts your wording into the templates if you send it over, and walks your manager through Automated Templates and Follow Up Processes on a training call. Training is part of every plan: the video library, Live Training and Schedule Training from the top bar.

What your manager does

1. Write the first reply for each source in Automated Templates.
2. Add email templates to the process steps that should carry one, and set Auto Send step by step.
3. Send yourself a test lead and read every email it produces.

Email rarely works alone. Pair it with automotive SMS automation, because a customer who ignores three emails often answers the first text, and with voicemail drops for the step where a human voice says more than a paragraph. Bulk Email handles the one time send to a list.

Email automation is part of the LeadLocate CRM subscription on every plan, including CRM Only. Each plan includes a login to start and more users are an add-on, and usage credits cover bulk email, bulk texting, validation and voicemail deliveries. Plans, add-ons and credits are on the pricing page, month to month.

How do I schedule one email for a customer?

Click the clock on the lead's Email button to open the Email Automation window, write the subject and message or pick a template, choose a time under Send at, and save. It waits in the lead's Scheduled emails tab until it goes.

How does a lead get into an email drip?

Automatically. A Follow Up Process starts when the lead's status changes to the status it watches or when an appointment is completed, missed or coming up. Each lead runs one process at a time.

What stops a drip for a customer?

A status change stops the running process or hands off to the next one, and its waiting emails are cancelled. The last step ends the plan with a status, and anything scheduled to a customer on Do Not Call reads Will not send.

Can managers review scheduled emails before they go?

Yes. Auto Send emails in a process are queued the moment it starts, days before they go, and managers with Whole Team View see every queued email in the Scheduled Messages slide-out, where any one can be edited, sent now or cancelled. Steps with Auto Send off stay tasks the rep sends personally.

Where is Email Automation in the CRM?

It is the window that opens from the clock on a lead's Email button. Every scheduled email is then listed in that lead's Scheduled emails tab and in the Scheduled Messages slide-out, opened from the clock in the Email header.

Can drip emails come from our dealership's domain?

Yes. Email domain authentication sends from your own domain so automated email carries your store's reputation. Our team sets it up on request.

Is email automation an add-on?

No. It is part of the CRM on every plan. More users beyond the included login are an add-on, and bulk email and the other high volume tools use usage credits, all listed on the pricing page.

Watch the pre-recorded demo to see a lead arrive, the first email go out and the drip take over, then compare plans on the pricing page.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.