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Every business relies on marketing.
It can be said that a popular company like Tesla does not waste money on marketing. But this is not true. Its claim that it is not marketing itself shows a planned marketing strategy that works for it.
For this reason,
Marketing is important!
Marketing is as important as the backbone of a human being.
The same goes for auto repair shops.
Let’s be honest. If you own an auto repair shop, body shop, or polish shop, you know that you can’t just sit around waiting for potential customers to come to you for their car service.
Right?
You need to prepare various marketing strategies for your auto repair shop and develop a marketing ecosystem around your business.
So how do you actually build a marketing ecosystem?
As experts in this field and having sold more than 100 service centers, we know exactly how to grow your auto repair business.
So let’s start from the beginning. Let’s say you’re just starting an auto repair business. How do you start marketing? What should your thought process be?
There are many marketing ideas for the automotive industry as a whole, but they need to be more specific to the after-sales service aspect of the industry.
We will share everything step by step.
Step 1) Start by building a strong market presence
You’ve successfully decorated your garage. All the physical aspects, including tools and equipment, are set up. But how will people know you’re there?
So the first step is to establish your presence in the market.
- First, register your garage on Google My Business (GMB).
- List your garage in every local yellow pages.
- Place appropriate signs/signage near your work area to let others know your location.
- Attract and impress potential customers by installing a professional and attractive billboard at your workplace. Create an auto repair advertising slogan for your company.
- Create a beautiful website that showcases your brand voice and the services you offer. Adding an online booking portal to the top of your website and adding a live chat option can work wonders.
- Create a business page on Instagram and Facebook. For a repair shop, Twitter might be an option since the first two social media platforms mentioned tend to work best.
Step 2) Research and understand the market well
Now that your online presence is defined, it’s time to understand the audience of your garage location.
- Research the market and find out what types of services your competitors offer and how much they charge.
- The target market for an auto repair shop is very broad, so do a broad analysis of the types of people who live in or around the area.
- Find out which category of people would be the best target audience for your garage (middle class, upper class, or the type of cars and bikes they own) and gain additional insights into their behavior, thought process, etc.
Step 3) Increase awareness in your target market to generate leads
Now that you have clearly defined your target audience, it is time to shout and grab people’s attention. Target the right audience and don’t waste time or effort targeting everyone.
- Now is the time to properly advertise your garage sale items.
- Be active on social media. Post actual photos of vehicles being serviced (need to add infrastructure and staff) and talk about the services you provide.
- Now run ads (promotion/awareness) on Facebook targeting specific customers with photos or videos about your workshop and service offerings based on POS. (We recommend Facebook ads as your brand has higher reach on this platform)
- Hosting or sponsoring a community event gives you the opportunity to socialize and participate as a valued member of the community. Potential for great recognition. (Due to Covid times try using digital platforms)
- This may seem intrusive, but talk to your neighboring store and try to reach an agreement. If necessary, both can suggest customers to visit other stores.
- Create flyers and banners and distribute them in your neighborhood and beyond. You can put signs in car windows (make sure you target the right cars).
Step 4) Create a well-defined sales process
If everything is done correctly, you should now be able to see some results. You will start receiving inquiries and appointment offers (via ads) on Facebook. However, you need a clear sales process to ensure that 100% of these offers are converted into active leads.
- It is a good idea to appoint a professional to handle all potential clients.
- All leads generated from social media should be contacted within 5 minutes. (Before they lose interest and forget about you)
- Use CRM software like Hubspot. This will help you keep track of all your leads.
- The most important thing is to learn how to develop your sales skills. Teach the shop technicians proper sales skills and greeting/communication.
Step 5) Provide an extraordinary experience that will make an unforgettable first impression.
- The first impression is often the last impression, so give new customers the right attention.
- Build strong relationships from day one
- It is important to not only carry it, but also take good care of your vehicle.
- See how satisfied your customers are after a few days of service. Ask for service evaluations and feedback via text. Direct your reviews to your Google My Business (GMB) listing.
- One of the best ways is to record your testimony.
- If you receive a negative review, talk to them, understand their concerns, and resolve them. We do not turn away dissatisfied customers and resolve issues honestly and quickly.
- Authentic and fresh reviews build a strong reputation and easily attract new customers.
- Enjoy the benefits by promoting/posting your reviews and testimonials on your social media/website.
Step 6) Communicate and retain customers
This is another important step. Your goal is to retain at least 90% of your new customers. This requires communicating with them regularly. But how do you do this specifically?
- It’s simple! Use social media to connect with your customers.
- Post tips about car care.
- Take quizzes and create surveys on Instagram to engage and educate your customers about auto repair.
- Create coupons and loyalty programs to recognize your loyal customers. This will help them stay connected with your business for life.
- Communicate with your customers using email, SMS, and WhatsApp. These text media are great marketing tools for auto repair shops. Remind customers about their next maintenance visit and share billing and other service information.
- Sending promotions and celebrations through this is a great way to communicate.
- Ask for referrals and reward them for them. Creating an auto repair shop referral program is a great way to grow your business.
How do you manage your marketing funds?
If you are just starting out, your marketing budget works differently. You will need to decide how much money you are willing to spend out of your own pocket and your budget will depend entirely on the scale of your business and the type of market you are creating.
For professionals who are just starting out in business, the best advice is (as a rule of thumb) to allocate 5-15% of your revenue to your marketing budget.
It is important to remember that an investment of 5-15% should provide a return on investment (ROI) of at least 40-45% (although this may vary from company to company).
This data can be used as a basis for evaluating the quality of your marketing efforts.
While it can be difficult to narrow down your search and determine whether an increase in sales is entirely due to your marketing efforts, there are a number of criteria you can use to determine certainty. If you’d like to learn more about how to make sure your marketing efforts are paying off, please leave a comment below.
Conclusion
With this strategy, your marketing plan is ready to be implemented. All you have to do is work on the implementation, pay attention to your budget, and monitor your profits.
