The automobile servicing business is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States, alone. Thousands of small firms and big chains are jostling for a share of the action. Traditional advertising  methods are becoming increasingly expensive and less effective.

As a business owner, you may believe that the most important thing your auto repair shop needs is a fantastic business plan, as an auto technician and entrepreneur. Have you ever considered how marketing plans might help you enhance what you’re already doing well at your small firm?

Marketing campaigns are an important component of any small business’s success, yet they are frequently neglected in the planning process.

In this blog article, we’ll go over the fundamentals of how to develop a digital marketing strategy for your auto repair business so you can grow it and stand out from the competition.

What Goes Into a Marketing Plan?

Before we get into marketing ideas for your store, let’s take a look at what goes into a marketing strategy.

The marketing strategy is made up of a number of key elements: the market, goals, and action steps. There isn’t any one-size-fits-all approach to executing a marketing plan; instead, it’s more of a learning process.

There are, however, certain factors to consider while developing a marketing strategy for an auto repair store. The first step is to understand your company’s goals and what makes it distinctive.

Start By Answering Some Questions

Small companies frequently make the error of attempting to sell goods or services without first understanding their customers’ requirements.

Understanding this and incorporating it into all of your marketing decisions will assist you in providing what your consumers are searching for while also allowing you to get a better return on investment (ROI) for your marketing efforts.

Start by asking yourself these simple questions: 

• What services do we offer? 
• What do we have to provide them with?
• Who is our target market? 
• How will we ensure excellent customer service?

Once you’ve figured out what your consumers want from you, you may begin creating marketing plans that connect with them. For example, a regular oil change may be part of your auto repair services. If your clients need an oil change every 3,000 miles, you might send them discount coupons for an oil change via direct mail.

This is just one approach to retain a devoted client base that can develop thoughtful comments and eventually participate in a referral program by referring family and friends to your service.

Set Your Business Goals

The best approach to start charting your company’s path ahead is by drawing a line on what you want to accomplish.

How will you know whether or not you’ve succeeded if you don’t have a target to aim for? How will you know where you need to improve in order to bring more clients? It is critical to establish business goals during your marketing strategy.

For example, if one of your objectives is to boost sales and develop long-term, satisfied consumers, you may consider using incentives in your marketing plan to encourage first-time buyers to keep returning to your store.

Set Your Budget

Automotive repair business marketing is only one aspect of your company. It can’t use up all of your cash at the same time, and it shouldn’t be ignored. Setting aside a budget for your efforts will allow you to see how much money you have available and give you a better sense of the return on investment (ROI).

Take a Benchmark Measurement

If this is your first time developing a marketing plan, keep in mind to take a baseline measurement of where you are now so you can compare your campaign to when it’s time to evaluate how well your strategy worked.

For example, if your aim in marketing is to increase the number of new customers you acquire each month by 10%, knowing how many clients you currently gain on average each month may be useful.

How to Market an Auto Repair Shop

Because of the numerous different methods to market a company, developing an auto repair shop’s marketing plan might be difficult. Regardless of niche, all marketing plans need the same components discussed in the previous section.

Even though you’re not a marketer, you know your clients and services better than anybody else.

Here are some ideas for how you can put that information to use in your business.

Create a Website

First and foremost, you must have a location where consumers may find you. While having your own website is essential, having a presence on business listing sites like Yelp is also crucial.

Content marketing  is one of the most efficient and effective ways to connect with your target audience, build brand awareness, and improve your search engine ranking.

It’s also critical to ensure your company page or website is optimized for search engine optimization (SEO) so that potential clients can locate you when googling online.

Search engines are one of the most common ways that contemporary consumers find services, so it’s essential to make sure your marketing strategy includes SEO.

Essentially, SEO simply entails including those crucial phrases that consumers are looking for into the content.

For example, include “local automobile repair shop in San Francisco” on your home page, since it’s likely that the majority of your consumers are looking online and using a similar phrase.

When it comes to enhancing your website’s visibility, there are a slew of strategies you may use. Creating an online presence to assist clients locate you is just one of the many web benefits you may take advantage of.

Use Word-of-Mouth

This is one of the most well-known marketing techniques ever.

Mechanics can attract new consumers by providing excellent customer service and quality service to existing customers. As a result, you may request that your clients refer their friends and family or post a positive review about your company on Google, Yelp, or other business listing site.

Advertise

Another popular technique to improve auto repair marketing is through advertising. There are many different varieties of advertising, each with its own set of perks and drawbacks. Using the ads manager for social media sites like Facebook or running Google advertisements are examples of common kinds of advertising.

Paid advertising, on the other hand, can help you reach a larger audience that doesn’t know about your firm yet by assisting in the growth of your business. Mobile marketing, television commercials, and radio ads are all effective paid marketing strategies.

Email Marketing

Another approach to stay in touch with your current consumers is through email marketing. You may reach out to communicate upcoming discounts and nurture those connections by gathering email addresses once people have become customers.

Furthermore, keeping in touch with your current consumers ensures that your business is top of mind for them and that they will return to your automobile repair shop for future service requirements. Marketing automation software can make this process easier by removing some of the manual labor. Marketing messages  may also be sent to a wider audience through email marketing blasts.

Social Media Marketing

Have you ever thought of using social media marketing for your auto shop? This marketing strategy can help you establish a greater online presence than your website alone because it puts your business where people are already hanging out online.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are a great way to connect with your customers and increase brand awareness for your business to local customers that might need your services. 

You can promote your work, announce new services or goods, and answer consumer inquiries on social media. It’s critical to be active on social media and to have a strategy for addressing customers who contact you via social media quickly.

Market Your Business with Broadly 

By following guidelines outlined in today’s article, auto repair shop owners may efficiently promote their businesses and increase revenue.

Creating a marketing strategy and measuring its effectiveness is essential for any small firm, and it’s critical for those that rely on word-of-mouth recommendations. You may retain more of your current customers and attract new consumers to expand the company by following through with a good marketing plan.

We assist small businesses such as automobile repair shops in developing and scaling their online marketing and lead generating efforts at Broadly. We can also help you communicate with your staff better and improve your customer service.

Schedule a demo now and discover how the Broadly platform may help you expand your automobile repair company.