Automotive Email Marketing Benchmarks and Statistics – Q1 2025
Published: April 2025
We recently conducted a nationwide research study on consumer appetite for retailer communications. 63% of respondents stated they would be more likely to stay in contact with a dealership that emailed them about stock closely matching their initial enquiry. Furthermore, the results showed that over two-thirds (68%) of car owners would welcome proactive contact about upcoming service and MOT due dates. This highlights the importance of accurate customer records and ongoing communication for every step of the customer lifecycle.
Email is a key mechanism to effectively reach and engage prospects and should be central to any CRM strategy. Through targeted campaigns, retailers can enhance customer engagement across both sales and aftersales, driving retention and maximising workshop efficiency.
To kick-off our 2025 email benchmarking series, we have reflected on the strong results our clients have achieved during the first quarter of the year, painting a clearer picture of what ‘good’ really looks like. These metrics offer important context for retailers to refine and improve their current strategies and maximise return on their investments.
The numbers in review
In the opening quarter of 2025, our clients received a combined total of 299,407 new enquiries, with VoiceBox distributing over 2,506,839 emails on their behalf to both sales and aftersales customers. These AI-powered emails communicate key information specific to that customer and include prompts about stock, any maintenance work due, as well as end-of-term renewals. Messages are not only tailored to the customer’s lifecycle but also to their individual needs such as bespoke messaging for EV owners, or Motability customers.
Monitor data capture and consent to underpin success
The effectiveness of email communications is greatly impacted by the quality of the customer data. When reviewing CRM data from over 500 of our retailer clients, we found 10% of customer records did not have an email address logged, and 8% were missing a phone number. Where records did have an email address recorded, consent to receive marketing was missing from 27% of records.
Accurate data and consent for use are crucial to the success of your marketing efforts, and high-quality data will be the core of effective marketing campaigns. Our BrainBox reporting platform enables clients to monitor their data quality and consent capture rates across all data sources to aid continuous improvements.
Proactive communication to maximise speed to sale
For active enquiries that haven’t progressed to a sale after seven days, customers are automatically subscribed to receive Stock Alerts emails, keeping them up to date with relevant changes to available stock that match their preferred vehicle specification, in addition to price changes on models they enquired about.
Stock Alerts are a fundamental line of communication for our clients and attract the highest average CTR of all sales enquiry nurturing messages. In Q1, Stock Alerts received an open rate of 51%, with 17% resulting in click-throughs to the retailers’ websites. These AI-powered emails have proven to be a valuable tool for retailers to improve speed to sale by targeting individuals with information on relevant vehicles.
Effective aftersales communications
Our successful aftersales messages deliver timely, proactive communications at relevant points in the ownership cycle to improve retention. Our Service and MOT reminder emails, designed to increase workshop bookings, had a 57% open rate in Q1 and generated 106,033 aftersales bookings, with a 31% conversion rate from our Service reminders and 44% from our combined reminders, where a Service and MOT are due within 30 days of each other, showcasing clear customer engagement with these types of messages.
We have also seen an increase in the adoption of our Aftersales Stock Alerts messages this quarter. Retailers can now reach active aftersales customers with an automated Stock Alerts email before and after their workshop appointment. The email shares details of vehicles similar to the one they already own, but a newer model or one with lower mileage.
The emails can also link to the preferred valuation tool so customers can establish the approximate value of their existing model, to give them an idea of their budget, and a link to book a test drive, encouraging prospects back into a buying mindset. Early benchmarks show an average open rate of 54% and click-through rate of 17%.
Email is a powerful and flexible tool for customer communication and engagement across all revenue streams, which is easily implemented and can deliver immediate results.
Enhanced CRM email open rates and click-through rates for UK car, van, and motorcycle retailers
| Message | Objective | Ave Open Rate | Ave Click Rate | Hard Bounce | Unsubscribe Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enquiry Follow Up | Nurture active leads | 63% | 16% | 1% | 1% |
| Stock Alerts | Engage open enquiries with new or reduced stock | 51% | 17% | 0% | 1% |
| Appointment Confirmation & Reminders | Improve kept appointments | 74% | 8% | 1% | 0% |
| Lost Sale Follow Up | Capture business insight and re-engage unconverted leads | 58% | 17% | 1% | 1% |
| Post Delivery | Capture reviews and introduce aftersales | 78% | 20% | 1% | 0% |
| Motability Messages | Bespoke customer journey for Motability customers | 48% | 20% | 1% | 1% |
| Service and MOT reminders | Re-engage customers and keep workshop front of mind | 57% | 12% | 1% | 1% |
| End-of-term finance renewals | Warm up existing customers to aid sales retention | 50% | 11% | 0% | 1% |
Marketing Delivery builds customer marketing solutions exclusively for the automotive sector, with AI-powered, dynamic, and personalised email, SMS, and social media communications. Our nationwide team of automotive experts boasts 300+ years of combined industry experience, providing solutions to 500+ retailer clients.
If you’re looking to enhance your CRM, contact us today.
Disclaimers
The accuracy of email open rates may be impacted by Apple’s privacy changes and their Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) feature, and this should be considered as you interpret open rate data. The data provided on this page is an average of all emails sent between 1 January 2025 and 31 March 2025 and may vary from email marketing benchmarks data provided within the VoiceBox application.
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