Twenty years ago, the local Yellow Pages drummed up business… the landscape has evolved to a plethora of “Yellow Pages”.
In part 1 of this article, we discussed the basics that every auto repair facility needs to thrive. Among the list, we left marketing, advertising, and software for this article. We felt they warranted a much more informative approach. We thought we were going to be able to curtail this to a 2 part series, but I think we will need to break this down further to provide our readers with something they can actually use. We start part 2 with marketing, as this is usually a job within itself that medium sized firms must hire or outsource someone for. A smaller auto repair business might not be able to afford a marketing person and needs a plan in place to be noticed.
The most effective definition of marketing is simply, “Marketing is the process of teaching consumers why they should choose your product or service over your competitors. “.1 The only way to teach consumers why they should choose your product is by having a good website, an active social media presence, a good process for your customers (ie; good auto repair software like CAR), and an advertising channel that brings it all home. Advertising is covered in part 3.
Having a good web team is a lot like finding a good mechanic, hard to come by and the best usually comes from referrals. But all of them are relative to price, much like the rest of the world. However, you don’t need a crazy expensive website to draw people in. Your website needs the basics. A legible, clean and clear main page that should highlight what your auto business is about. Things like your phone number(s), address, services, and customer testimonials (if you have any) are a great start. Refer to this template for starters. Don’t be daunted by all the things there, cut out all the noise.
When you first start you need the basics! The basics all revolve around these questions:
Follow along with this 4 part series, where we pass on lessons about our experiences running a business in 2018. This is focused on the auto repair industry, but there is plenty here that can be applied forward to help other businesses get off the ground and noticed locally. Even though the businesses may differ significantly, the challenges of getting noticed and operating efficiently are similar.