This month, we’re excited to showcase Yokem Toyota, a dealership making waves with its innovative approach to marketing and vehicle acquisition. Located in Shreveport, Louisiana, Yokem Toyota has built a strong reputation for putting customers first while embracing smart and efficient digital strategies.
We connected with Brandon Redwine, BDC Marketing and Digital Marketing Director at Yokem Toyota, to learn how his team uses TradePending to generate leads, drive sales, and streamline the trade-in experience.
Tell us about the campaigns you’ve been running. Email, text, social, what’s the mix?
We’re running email and text campaigns through our customer data platform (CDP), layered on top of TradePending’s tools. We built a trade-in “VYT” (Value Your Trade) focused campaign that’s simple and fast for customers to engage with. We segment it toward people in equity positions or customers who haven’t bought in two to three years.
Where did the idea for this campaign come from?
Our CDP gave us the idea because they have pre-existing templates. You tell the system what you want to do, and its AI will build it. Setting up the campaign took about 20 minutes. It’s not complicated; you just define your goals and the system does the heavy lifting.
When did you launch it?
We turned it on in July. It’s still early, but the performance so far is validating the strategy.
What landing page or destination does the campaign lead to?
We drive traffic to our Value Your Trade page: https://www.yokemtoyota.com/value-your-trade/ there, customers can quickly engage without dropping off.
What messaging are you using? What’s the tone or strategy?
We aim for a “soft touch”, just reminding people that trading in makes sense. The campaign is framed around the value of trading now, combined with how long it’s been since their last purchase. It’s not heavy on sales, more of a nudge.
What kind of results have you seen so far in terms of leads, sales, or inventory impact?
Over about four to six weeks, we generated around 220 leads, and from that, 11 sales. That’s a strong start out of a narrow, targeted segment.From some internal messages, we’ve also seen months where it pushes 14 vehicle sales. One internal note even suggests a 7% conversion rate from source to sale, which is quite strong for a campaign of this type.
What role does TradePending play in this setup?
TradePending makes the process seamless for the customer. The integration allows us to keep them in the flow without a clunky handoff. And on our end, the segment updates automatically as new customers qualify.
Do you handle all this in house? What’s your role in this?
My job covers any digital, BDC, or marketing functions that don’t fall under sales, service, accounting, or facilities. So yes, I set up the campaign. I also use tools like Ideagram AI to generate banners or creative assets when needed, sometimes on the fly.
Any challenges or surprises so far?
The biggest surprise is how little time it took to get it running and how cleanly it’s integrated. The challenge ahead is sustained optimization: getting the content sharper, dialing in messages, and continuously refreshing the segment logic.
Congrats to Yokem Toyota and Brandon Redwine for executing this campaign so well— looking forward to watching this grow and evolve.