It seems no matter where you're at in your auto body business, the one marketing decision you always must make is whether or not to get on a Direct Repair Program. Whether you're new to the business or old to the business, whether struggling or succeeding, whether seasoned or rookie, you must decide if getting on a DRP is right for you. For some it seems like the Midas touch of your business. "If we just get on a DRP, we'll get a whole bunch of work from the Insurance companies, and we'll thrive." We hear it often. Of course, we also hear the other side as well...I won't quote what we've heard from those with opposing opinions. Regardless of your opinion, though, it's a decision that has to be made.

If for whatever reason you choose no, you're left with a significant marketing challenge. You have to catch those potential customers that are willing to go to a shop not recommended by their insurance company, which is already a fraction of your potential customer base, since many people listen to their insurance company. How do you plan to reach them? More importantly, how do you plan to beat out the competition you have for those potential customers? How are those people searching for those services? Are they still thumbing through the yellow pages? Are they sitting on the couch with a wrecked car in the driveway waiting for an auto body commercial to come on to tell them where they need to go? The dominant form of communication for people in our communities these days is the Internet, and it's a good thing, because marketing on the Internet is easily achievable. You just have to know where and how to start. If you choose not to get on a DRP and are left trying to reach these potential customers, here's a few places you can go to market your business: paid search advertisements, Facebook, and daily deals. I recommend you do all three of these channels of Internet marketing. There's plenty of other things you can do, but these are the hottest, and most fruitful efforts available.

Paid Search Advertising

Paid search advertising, also known as PPC (pay-per-click) Advertising, is basically the purchasing of advertising space on search engines. In my opinion, this is one of the most important ways to build a business through the Internet, especially if you as a body shop chose not to get on a DRP. With this approach you buy ad space on the search engines by the keyword (ex: auto body shop, auto shop, collision repair shop, etc.) by putting a bid a bid on the word that tells the search engine what you're willing to pay them if someone clicks on your advertisement. When that word is searched on Google or Bing by one of their users, you advertisement will show in the results (See the image below to see where your ad will show).

Here's the brilliance of this model: they are actively looking for the services you provide and you get to communicate you're services to them the second they're interested. Think of it, they're searching because they're interested in what you're offering, and you can instantly offer them what they're looking for without much effort. It isn't like a billboard or a magazine ad that someone sees and will remember the moment they are in need. With paid search, you can create campaigns that have your ads display on all mobile devices, so that whenever someone is in an accident, when they do searches on their phone, your ad will come up. This connects you with them immediately. The one drawback is that this method can get pricey. But if its done right, you can easily make that expense back. You can easily get 50-100 website visitors from search engines. If you $500 in advertising and manage to get just one job from those 50-100 website visitors, you immediately make up your expense. If you're interested, shoot me an email and I'll help you get set up.  Check out Google AdWords and Bing AdCenter to learn more.

Facebook

Another avenue of marketing to use if you're not getting on a DRP is Facebook. Facebook is the fastest growing website on the web. It has over 500 million active users. That fact alone makes it an absolute necessity for you to get your business on Facebook. I'm just guessing, but if you're reading this at the shop while you have customers in the lobby waiting for their vehicle, chances are they're playing around on Facebook. Frankly, I say that because the statistics are in my favor. People waste time on Facebook all the time. You might be thinking that Facebook marketing isn't a good model for your business for some reason. Maybe Facebook is too big, maybe it's not active marketing like paid search, or maybe you just don't understand it. Well, I have a thought to share. People will become a supporter of your business on Facebook if you provide good services. You probably won't get all your customers. But you will get a percentage of them. Case in point? Preparation H. Did you know that Preparation H has 300 supporters on Facebook? 300! That's 300 people that liked a page because it provided them with a positive experience. That's 300 people that just declared to their Facebook friends that they had hemorrhoids and were healed of it. That's 300 people that were willing to embarrass themselves because the positive experience was that much of a relief to them. Now...follow me on this logic. If 300 people liked Preparation H (out of the many hundreds that use it but won't say it) because it provided them with a positive experience, how many of your customers are going to support your business on Facebook if you gave them quality work on their vehicle? The market share is there. People are on Facebook and they're willing to become fans of businesses if it does them a good service. All you have to do is lead them there. Put a link to your Facebook page on your website, put it on your invoices, on your email signatures, on your business cards, and lastly, after you've given your customer their invoice, specifically ask them to find you on Facebook and become a fan. Be specific, create a tag line: "If you liked our services, please find us on Facebook and become a fan." Doing this will give you more visibility on the web and will work for you for free. What's important for you is to be active on there. I encourage you to do something like post before and after pictures of jobs you've done for people to see the quality of your work.

Daily Deals

One more avenue to approach is the recent "daily deal" trend you find on Groupon, Living Social, Half Off Depot, Google Offers, and others. There's a ton of them and they keep popping up all over the web. It's the modern day equivalent to coupon cutting. What these websites do is invite businesses to utilize their massive email databases by creating price discounts and special offers. these services then send your deal out to their email database for people to purchase. The important thing to keep in mind with these websites is that the goal isn't necessarily to generate a high profit. Its to build customer loyalty. You might have to discount your service a bit to make it more attractive for people to purchase. But again, the whole point is to generate a customer base from it. Statistics show that 80% of customers who purchase these deals become return customers.  The daily deal programs are mostly available in metropolitan areas, so this might not apply to everyone.  But if you use these programs, as well as paid search advertisements and Facebook, you could find yourself in a position to compete with the DRP shops in a way that'll make them jealous of the work (...and freedom) that you have.

jr@web-est.com

Well, a new year is upon us. Let us all hope that the New Year will bring with it great success, an abundance of blessings to our work and our families and political leadership in D.C. that has the courage to tackle the economic problems of this country (but that's for another blog somewhere else!). Our true hope at Web-Est is just to empower you to run your auto body business as smoothly as possible, while saving you as many pennies as possible. That's not a joke or a company tag line. It's the simple truth. We're in business to bring you business and to help your business.  That is always our goal and that is our hope for you this New Year. So I'd like to spend as much energy as possible to give tid bits on getting maximum exposure to your business at the lowest possible costs. The absolute best way to do that is through the Internet.  The Internet is brilliant.  It levels the playing field for small businesses and gives them a chance to succeed with abundance.  You just have to understand it and know how to work it. Know how to do that, and you'll be on your way to success. So I'd like to spend some time laying some foundation for building an auto body marketing plan, most of which will come from the Internet. In order to do that, you have to do some research on your business, on your customers and competition and set some goals.

When it comes to marketing your business on the Internet, you need to crawl before you can walk. It's real easy to want to jump into the marketing trends of the day without first asking some basic questions. This is one of the reasons why utilizing a marketing plan is so important. If you just jump into the latest trends without knowing your marketing goals, target customers, competition or anything else about the Internet, you'll end up wasting time, money and other resources. It would be like driving to a destination without a road map. Once you answer some of these basic questions, you'll be able to dig into an Internet marketing plan. You'll be able to explore what the Internet can do for the goals you have, namely, how to reach the customers you want, how to accomplish your goals and how to beat your competition.

First and foremost, what is your product? What are you selling? It seems a little too basic, but that's the point, and it will make a difference how you decide certain things later, mainly, your keyword selection. This, of course, is determined by your expertise, resources and interests in general. Are you offering paint services? Frame services? Paintless dent repair? Strictly restoration services? Are you doing collision work? Would you rather focus more on glass repair? Narrowing your products down to what you can handle is important, but from an Internet marketing perspective, it's even more important. If it's just restoration services that you want to offer, then when it comes time to decide keywords, you'll want to focus just on words related to that product. (Side note: keywords are basically the words you identify that your business is relevant to, and work to become more and more relevant to so that you can use the search engines to gain visitors to your website, and hopefully to your shop...more on that later). You'll want to target words like "auto restoration" or "classic car" or "corvette repair," etc. If all you're providing is restoration, then you'll want to avoid the keywords "auto collision repair" or "paintless dent repair" or "auto paint service." If you don't provide (and put it on your website), it will waste website visitors' time and it will waste your money.

What about your potential customers? Who are they? Always an important question. First of all, where do you live? Do you live in the Rippon, West Virginia's of the world (a beautiful, rural town in the Shenandoah Valley that my wife's family hails from...population 250!)? If you live in a town like Rippon, chances are, Internet usage could be scarce, which would require that you either enlarge your reach into neighboring towns, or even explore offline marketing opportunities. Or do you live in the Atlanta, Georgia's of the world (my hometown with a church and a body shop on every street corner, all of which are named Peachtree)? If you live in a place like Atlanta-population 6 million-then there's probably 250 people living within one-quarter of a square mile from where your business is located. And chances are they're all Googling, Facebooking and Tweeting at this very moment (Are you?!). All of this makes a huge difference from a marketing perspective. It will dictate the methods you use. The type of town your business is located may be the difference between you using Facebook to reach your younger audience, Google advertisements to reach online shoppers and searchers, or newspapers and TV to reach an older audience.

What about your competition? Who's your strongest competitor? I've had the chance to speak with shop owners the last several years, and you guys are like a fraternity that bands together like no other. But any business is competition, plain and simple. It certainly doesn't have to be nasty and ugly, but you're trying to run a business, thinking about your future, your family and your employees. You're faced with the task of building out your brand to be the best on the block. So what about the competition? What are other shops doing? Where have they dropped the ball in the community that you may be able to pick up and nab a few new customers? What services are other shops not providing that you have the resources to provide?

These are just some simple questions to be asking before you start developing your Internet focused marketing plan. It will go a long way. Perhaps you already have these things decided in your business plan. That's great. It means less research for you and for your team. But once these things are decided, then you can get into more technical decisions like your keyword selection, website development and structure and where and how you market online, such as with Facebook, Google Search and pay per click advertisements. More on that next week.

Questions? Feel free to contact me at jr@web-est.com

As the popularity of the web shows, people are looking to have their voices heard. Allowing clients to provide information and opinions about the services offered by a business is a cheap and effective marketing tool. Using social media such as Twitter and Facebook allows people to share their experience with a company. This form of automotive marketing requires little time and effort for the business owner. Providing a means for people to leave feedback is one of the most successful marketing auto services invented. These comments and opinions can easily be shared with a large audience.

The rise of the Internet has introduced the concept of virtual marketing. With a business becoming an active participant in the Twitterverse, it can take a simple automotive marketing idea and literally transform an organization overnight. Providing the Twitter feed as part of other marketing auto approaches will encourage people to become involved in spreading the message the company is trying to convey. Special promotions or services can be shared by other people provided they understand where to find the information. One simple Tweet can allow a basic advertising message the ability to reach a wide audience that has opted to receive this information.

Incorporating social media into the marketing efforts of a business is vital in today's business climate. Including the Twitter account for the company on other automotive marketing material will invite people to sign up and find out additional information. Use this form of advertising to announce special promotions and services that cannot be found in other marketing auto techniques. This will allow the account to grow and let customers share the Tweet with others. With a little effort, one simple message can reach a multitude of people while costing the company the time it took to produce the Tweet.

Even though the services that are being offered in the marketing for auto repair shops campaign is useful for all people, the message itself does not bode well for every individual. Adopting a one size fits all approach for auto repair shop websites can alienate a significant portion of a potential client base. In an effort to add more value to an existing page, it may prove useful for a company to create content that can be easily consumed by different people. Creating clear and distinct areas within the website can help an advertising promotion reach more people and provide real meaning for various audiences.

Some marketing techniques are very effective in attracting the desired audience with a simple approach. For some other companies and auto repair shop websites, real benefits for the company can be accomplished by providing a diverse perspective. Providing information geared toward different people means that a number of approaches toward marketing for auto repair shops need to be developed. This will require more effort to be put forth by the company but the added business is worth the energy. Conveying a message that the company understands the unique needs of various consumer groups can improve upon customer relations.

An organization that adopts marketing for auto repair shops concepts that accounts for various audience needs will be met with customer appreciation. Presenting auto repair shop websites in a manner where all people find usefulness will result in better returns for the investment. These techniques will be noticed by consumers that often feel neglected by the industry. With the added support of diverse groups, a business can continue to improve upon their profit margin and improve customer relations. Taking into consideration all audiences that will benefit from the services provided will result in well-designed website that establishes real significance for all people.

Related Posts:

General Rules for an Auto Body Shop Website

General Rules for an Auto Body Shop Website Part 2

Spending available funds on various tools that present the services of a business to the general public without documenting an approach and understand the objectives is a wasted effort. If the goal of an auto body marketing proposal is to increase consumer traffic within the company by 10% in a given period, place this objective in writing. This will help you formulate a way to measure the success or failure of a specific auto marketing design. Carefully lay out the different approaches that will be attempted. Before sending out advertising campaigns in mass distribution, start with a test audience.

Creating a test auto body marketing audience can be done utilizing a specific target population. This can consist of regular customers or could be a promotion to invite previous clients to reconsider visiting the business. Regardless of the message contained within the auto marketing message, the main focus should be to gauge the response of the recipients. When customers do respond to the idea, try to understand what portion of the message attracted their attention. If a certain communication failed to make much of an impact, this is a sign that more work needs to be done to improve upon the content of the promotion.

There really is no magic formula in order to make auto body marketing work. It takes patience and persistence to create a viable ad that contains real meaning for the consumer. With the average client receiving a growing number of advertisements geared to attract their business, it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd. Continuing to utilizing different test audiences for a number of unique auto marketing messages will eventually strike gold. Once it has been determined which of the techniques is most successful, then expand the effort to include a wider audience.

One approach to use before releasing a message for automotive marketing services on various websites is to perform thorough usability testing. Select a diverse group of people and record their feedback. All messages that pertain to repair shop marketing should be easy to understand and to the point. While humor can be an eye catching method to attract attention, the wrong approach can hamper the ability for an advertising campaign to make a positive impression. If a humorous approach is attempted, keep the tone very friendly and basic. Try not to single out a specific topic that may cause some people to react negatively.  You also want to use discretion when it comes to the hot button topics of our culture: politics and religion.  Those topics may get some crowds to look favorably upon your business, but there's the other side of the conversation that may not hold your view.  An effective business owner should welcome everyone's business, even those whom you disagree with.  Don't give them a reason not to receive your services.

There are many reasons why social media tools have become so popular and effective for distributing information. The ease of use and ability for consumers to interact with experts for various services allows a thorough exchange of information. Responding to client queries when using repair shop marketing techniques in a timely fashion will help a company build up a large following. Minding your manners has never been more important than when a vast audience is exposed to the automotive marketing services messages. Choosing your words carefully so that the majority of customers gain value out of the posting will greatly enhance your social media savvy.  And if for some reason, a customer is being unreasonably angry with you and your staff (which will happen in the life of a business), keep the high ground.  Don't fight fire with fire.  That's not a good ingredient for business growth.  Always respond to angry customers with a cool head.  It doesn't mean you attempt to appease an unreasonable customer with unreasonable concessions.  Be firm, but don't unleash anger.  Word spreads quickly in the Internet age.

The use of various online tools is the rule rather than the exception in today's day and age. Companies that are not making efforts toward utilizing the power of automotive marketing services at their disposal run the risk of losing clients to the competition. A repair shop marketing process can be easy to establish and does not require a huge investment in either personnel or financial resources. Allowing the web to do the work of sharing your message to the world can have a great impact upon the success of an organization. Treating others as you would hope they treat you can reward your efforts with a number of new clients.

It may require an organization to devise and test many different messages to generate a buzz worthy idea. Holding a brain storming session with employees may result in some very interesting concepts. Another possibility is to create a contest for customers to submit unique ideas that will be used in new automotive repair advertising initiatives. The winner of the promotion could receive discounted service or even become involved in the actual implementation of the auto repair advertising campaign. This is one way to create excitement about the company and allow individuals to obtain a vested interest in the outcome.

The formation of automotive repair advertising takes some effort and a little bit of luck. While it is likely that not all auto repair advertising campaigns reach the level of attention that leaves people buzzing, all it takes is one chance endeavor. Creating the one message that will help people become familiar with a small business can have long lasting implications. With a little luck and a lot of hard work, a unique marketing campaign can be used for a lifetime. The ads can become synonymous with the organization and influence advertising efforts well into the future.

The communal nature of the Internet allow buzz worthy automotive repair advertising initiatives to take on a life of their own. With a carefully planned approach to designing a distinctive auto repair advertising crusade, an organization can reap the benefits for an extended period. Occasionally updating the message to keep it relevant and attract new audiences can improve the longevity of this simple idea. Allowing customers and employees to play an active role in the creation process will leave a favorable impression upon the community. Working together with the community that you serve conveys a message that you are concerned about the customer's well-being.

An Internet marketing consultant understands the dynamics of an effective web presence. There are a number of factors that can impact the ability of an auto body shop marketing effort to reach the desired people. Even if the various auto repair marketing ideas are solid and provide real value for consumers, they are ineffective if people are unaware of them. The Internet coach can examine your current approach to utilizing the web to reach a vast number of people. Improvements upon the automotive service advertising tools being used can greatly enhance the effort put into the campaign.

One of the more difficult aspects of creating a popular automotive service advertising effort is getting the popular search engines to take notice. While the use of search engine optimization techniques can greatly improve a websites rank, some auto repair marketing ideas still struggle to attract users. An Internet marketing consultant can examine traffic patterns in depth and put together strategies that will improve upon results. This can turn a current auto body shop marketing initiative into a high traffic information portal. The increased awareness of the business will help a small company grow their client base.

Because of the vast number of organizations engaged in auto body shop marketing on the Internet, it requires a lot of time and effort to maintain this web presence. Auto repair marketing ideas that are out of date or not continually improved upon run the risk of becoming forgotten. The time and effort needed to keep automotive service advertising relevant in the mind of web users may be prohibitive for the small business owner. This is where the services of an Internet marketing consultant can prove useful. Their efforts can maximize the effects in a short amount of time, letting the business owner concentrate on the company.

One of the most important aspects of running a customer service oriented business, is most obvious, which is servicing your customers at the highest possible level. The ability to quickly send a "thank you" letter or a customer survey, is the easiest way to keep your business exposed to your customer base. Email templates can be drafted and saved, allowing you to apply the template to a customer address book, instantly reaching your entire customer base in a matter of seconds.

Let's take a closer look at the possibilities. As of the third quarter of 2010, it is reported that 28 percent of U.S. Mobile cell phone subscribers are using Smartphones. This trend is continuing to grow as statistics show that 41 percent of new cell phone subscribers opted for a Smartphone over the standard-featured phone.

Smartphones, as you may know differ from the standard cellular phone in many ways; most importantly, Smartphones have the ability to allow the user instant access to his or her email inboxes. This means that when an email is received by a Smartphone user, they no longer have to be in front of their computer to read and/or respond to email messages. Keeping a steady stream of emails flowing to your customers also keeps your name in front of them and you will likely be remembered first if a need for a repair shop comes along.

Another way to stay on top of your valuable customer base is to keep them informed of any new services or specials offered. An example of this could be announcing a menu of new services available to your customers. Full Vehicle Detailing Services, Oil Changes/Maintenance, Tire Rotations, are just some of these examples that you could send an "Email Coupon" to your email list.

Lastly, an important habit to get into when gathering information about your customers, is to ask for their email address. This simple step will open the door to endless opportunities when it comes to communicating directly to your growing customer base.

Build a website-  This is an absolute must in today's business world. We at Web-Est have talked about this at length (click here for more entries on building a website: General Rules for Building an Auto Body Website). It bears repeating, because you'd be surprised how many businesses don't value the Internet. The Internet has become the first place people go to look for their services regardless of if you're there or not. If you choose to market your business by doing online marketing (search engine advertising, social media marketing) then you'll need a website. If you choose to only do offline marketing (mailouts, yellow page ads, newspaper advertisements, tv), consumers will still want to look you up online to get more information about your business. The point is, you're going to need a website. You can get a site built by Godaddy.com or you can use Web-Est's Shop Find Local program to build you a site with your needs in mind. Click here for more info on that.

Internet Marketing- Internet marketing has to do with all the efforts you do to market your business on the Internet. The most effective form of Internet marketing is search engine marketing (SEM). This form of marketing allows you to put up advertisements on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Those advertisements appear whenever a search engine user enters a search query by typing a term that's relevant to your business, "auto body shop" for example. That advertisement lists a link to your website and those users become exposed to your business. Its targetted to Internet users that are specifically relevant to the services you offer, so its the most effective form of Internet marketing on the block. Visit Google AdWords or the Bing AdCenter to begin your campaign. Because it can be a bit pricey though, there are other options. You can create a local listing on the search engines. Those listings are free and still targeted to relevant Internet users, but they don't have as much of a reach as advertisements. Web-Est's Shop Find Local program thats mentioned above can help you get started on a local listing campaign with Google, Bing and Yahoo. Another Internet marketing option is on social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. These sites are very popular, but are still in development in marketing usage for auto body shops. Marketing with these sites are free and can be effective in reaching an audience in your local area and its continuing to grow in influence. Visit this recent postings for more information:

Offline Marketing- While marketing is now heavy on the Internet, there's still plenty of opportunity to be had off the Internet. Sending out fliers to particular communities can still spread the word. Offering specials or marked down prices in newspaper or yellow page advertisements still have some sway in reaching out to perspective customers. Another offline opportunity to consider that has been around for a while and has gone down significantly in price is television advertisements. One may think that those ads are too expensive for small businesses, but you'd be surprised. While advertising during the Super Bowl may be astronomical, tv ads during daytime television, local evening news and late night television aren't as expensive as they used to be. They now run at about $5-$10 per 1,000 viewers. So depending on the market available, it could be pretty low cost for you. What you'll want to do is to reach out to your local cable company and contact their media sales department to get a quote. Visit these sites for more info: Guide to Local Advertising and Televisionadvertising.com.

Business signs- It may seem too simple to be significant, but if you have just started your business or are getting ready to, do what you can to get your sign up near traffic so people know where you are and how to get to you. People may not find your shop if they don't know where it is. The marketing efforts that are described above will do good at getting your name out there to the public, but getting some pointers out on the roads to where your location is will make it easy for those customers to know where to go.

To continue some assistance to all those small business start-ups, visit recent articles written by Executive Vice President Matt Shanks, who has over 20 years of experience in the auto body industry: Building a New Auto Body Shop and Advertising for a New Auto Body Shop