Effective auto repair advertising can be tough at times, especially for businesses that are just getting started. Raising public awareness about your auto repair shop takes more than an ad in a coupon book or a service bay banner. You need a cost-efficient strategy that will help you stand out while not breaking the bank.
Creativity will go a long way when it comes to building an advertising strategy. There’s no need to match bigger companies on their advertising spending, but rather develop a plan that you can realistically execute. If you are looking for auto repair advertising ideas that actually work, consider the following tips:
1. Advertise to People, Not Clients
When building out your tire and service advertising strategy, remember your audience. Pretend you’re talking with your neighbors, just everyday people, and not in-the-know industry experts! Your advertisements need to be conversational, relatable and caring. Think of your customers as acquaintances, rather than clients. Show them that you care about their problems, that you can help them with those problems, and that they’re more than just a client. The key is finding a good balance between professional and conversational language. Have a little fun in the process, but make sure not to be too informal.
2. Offer Tangible Experiences
When drafting tire advertisements, it is tempting to limit your descriptions to technical features such as sidewall strength, number of tire plies, and tread pattern sound efficiencies. These features are important, but they are hard to interpret for people who don’t know much about cars or tires. Most front counter associates can tell the difference between a cheap set of tires and premium ones, but it’s likely that your customer’s won’t. So how do you educate them?
Consider offering them the chance to touch and feel the difference between the materials. Load your showrooms with your most popular (profitable) tires. Add different types of tires as well from truck tires, to passenger and performance tires. Physically walk your customers over to the tires you’d like to sell and let them see and touch them.
3. Give Your Products Personas
Giving your product a personality that your customers can relate to will likely help you to build a marketable brand. For example: a set of premium sedan tires can be branded for safe, city driving under all kinds of weather conditions, while the mud-terrain treads can be branded as tires for people who like rugged,outdoorsy activities. After you’ve created personas for your products, you can launch advertising campaigns around each one of them! Be bold and confident in your approach. Don’t be afraid to show your creativity. Your customers will appreciate it!
4. Partner with Other Local Businesses
Your very own neighborhood is full of other entrepreneurs that are also trying to scale their business through effective advertising. The good news is, most of them are not even competitors! They may be coffee shops, clothing retailers, hardware stores or burger joints. You can feed off each other’s growth and share your successes without risking any of your market share by collaborating through a simple partnership.
Consider partnerships like:
- Participating in local Chamber of Commerce events
- Offer up a reciprocal employee discount programs
- Offer each other’s product specials, flyers and gift certificates
- For next-door businesses, participate in sidewalk sales and special events
- Talk to food-based businesses and offer their snacks or drinks at your garage.
Try these auto repair advertising ideas for your shop and see the success! To continue building a powerful marketing strategy, we also recommend integrating a point-based loyalty program that encourages customers to return and redeem discounts and rewards. BayIQ’s customer loyalty program offers rewards that results in repeat visits and increases in average customer spend.
