Automotive Email Marketing Benchmarks and Statistics – Q4 2025

Published: February 2026

Using Q4 benchmarks to plan a successful Q1 and beyond

It is always helpful to reflect on the successes and opportunities of the previous quarter to see what adaptations can be made to maximise the impact of marketing spend for our retailer clients.

The depth and volume of data available to us from managing email marketing campaigns for hundreds of clients allows us to develop benchmark figures that help retailers better understand their performance within the broader motor retail industry context so they can refine their approach where appropriate. In essence, it’s about understanding what ‘good’ might really look like.

Notably, comparing performance against general indicators of data accuracy, such as bounce rates and unsubscribes, allows marketers to easily identify areas for improvement and ensure the highest return on investment.

Email marketing is one of the most productive tools available to retailers, and analysing open rates and click-through rates for the sector as a whole can help guide future campaign efforts.

The numbers in review

In the final quarter of 2025, our clients received a combined total of 255,844 new enquiries and distributed over 3,112,439 emails using VoiceBox for sales and aftersales. Across our clients, an impressive enquiry to sale conversion rate of 10% was achieved.

These AI-powered emails communicated key information specific to each customer, such as prompts about available stock, details of maintenance work due, or end-of-term renewals. These communications nurture enquiries to maintain high customer engagement while alleviating pressure on the sales team.

Monitor data capture and consent to underpin success

Analysis of the CRM data from over 500 of our retailer clients revealed that 9% of customer records lacked an email address, and 7% were missing a phone number. Among records with an email address, 27% did not have consent to receive email marketing messages, and 35% did not have mobile consent, meaning a large proportion of potential customers could not be contacted.

As ever, high-quality data provides the foundations for effective marketing, and accurate records with appropriate consents maximise chances of success.

Tailoring marketing efforts to deliver bespoke customer journeys

Offering a tailored customer journey can help maximise the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and drive higher open and engagement rates. Targeted journeys for Motability customers delivered an exceptional 23% click rate last quarter, demonstrating the value of approaching the right group of customers with the right message at the right time.

Another high-performing journey for retailers last quarter was end-of-term finance renewal messages, which are sent automatically those customers reaching the end of their finance agreement, reducing the administrative strain on sales teams. A 62% open rate, alongside over 650 conversions, indicates that when delivered in a timely manner, these emails are very effective for steering customers back into the sales funnel.

Using marketing to maximise workshop retention

Consistently high-performing are post-delivery emails, which prompt reviews and introduce customers to the aftersales department. At 70%, these emails receive the highest open rate of all email campaigns our clients send and, with an average CTR of 19% we know that nearly one in five customers are engaging with such communications.

Our service and MOT reminders are designed to increase workshop utilisation and have a 55% average open rate and generated an extra 59,000 aftersales bookings for retailers in Q4 2025. Data from our retailer clients across Q4 shows that combining MOT and service reminders, in those instances where both appointments are due within 30 days of each other, have an increased conversion rate of 50% compared to sending the MOT and service reminders separately, which only achieved 19% and 41% respectively.

We expect that each of these benchmark figures will increase throughout 2026, as a result of our integration with TekCor4 and its Catalyst For Aftersales solution. The powerful combination of our email delivery systems and TekCor4’s rich set of OEM data can be used to predict and highlight to the customer work needed on vehicles already due into the workshop.

Enhanced CRM email open rates and click-through rates for UK car, van, and motorcycle retailers 

Across 2026, we expect to see a continued focus on data-driven activity, and the best way to equip retailers for this shift is to ensure that the data they use to build a campaign is as robust as possible. Our BrainBox reporting platform enables clients to monitor their data quality and consent capture rates across all data sources to aid continuous improvement. Alongside this, each client has a dedicated account manager, who can assist in making sure that data is continuously reviewed.

Marketing Delivery builds customer marketing solutions exclusively for the automotive sector, with AI-driven, dynamic, and personalised email, SMS, and social media communications.

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 October 2025 and 31 December 2025 and may vary from email marketing benchmarks data provided within the VoiceBox application.

Related Posts