It’s critical that your auto shop has an online presence–over 70% of consumers research a company online before visiting it or making a purchase. That’s why it’s key that your auto shop develops an effective online persona early. It builds an avenue of connection between you and your audience that nothing can replace. In this article, we’re going to break down five things that need to be on your auto shop’s website.

Contact Information

Customers need to have a way to get in touch with your brand. Including your contact information shows them that you’re available for any needs or questions they might have. And considering 96% of consumers say customer service is an important factor in their choice of loyalty to a brand you should include the following on your website:

• Phone Number
• E-mail
• Social Media

The rise of social networks has transformed the way that consumers and brands interact. In fact, over 1/3 of U.S consumers have reached out to a brand via social media, evidencing its major importance in effective customer service.

List of Services

When potential customers visit your website, they need to be able to see everything you have to offer. That’s why you need to include a comprehensive list of all your services in a clear, visible, and easy-to-access location on your site.

Not only does this save your customer time and builds credibility in their eyes, but it also saves you time–no longer are you burdened by customer calls asking you simple questions about your services.

Testimonials

Another powerful way to level-up your auto shop’s online presence is via testimonials. These are essentially sectionals on your website that display the reviews of satisfied customers. These consumers are confident in your auto shop’s ability, and thus choose to speak out advocating in your favor. There are a variety of benefits that testimonials bring to your brand, such as:

• They build trust- The primary benefit of putting testimonials up on your website is that they immediately build trust between you and your potential customers. In fact, nearly 89% of customers read online business reviews before deciding to make a purchase.
• They work like referrals- 79% of consumers say they trust the reviews they read online as much as personal recommendations. That’s why consumer testimonials work like referrals, convincing potential consumers that they can trust your business.
• They explain the benefits of your business- Each testimonial has the chance to explain your services and how they helped specific customers.

Ways to Use Testimonials on Your Website

There are a variety of ways you can scatter consumer testimonials across your website. Let’s explore some of the most popular styles!

• Quote testimonials- The first method is via quote testimonials on your homepage. This is as simple as it sounds; you simply place text blocks of positive reviews on the most important pages of your website. It’s an effective way for consumers to take in reviews while scrolling.
• Video testimonials- With the rise of Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram, video content has become the norm. Why not take advantage of that with your testimonials? It’s one of the quickest and most impactful ways to tell your shop’s story, leaving a meaningful message with first-time visitors.
• Social media testimonials- Social media often has a further reach and by boosting posts you can get in front of someone who has yet to see your shop.

Call-To-Action

The most important element of any successful website is the call-to-action; it’s essentially the actionable next step that you want the potential consumer to take. There are three aspects that make an effective call to action:

• Clarity- What action would you like the consumer to take? This should be a direct statement with a visible button to take that action.
• Context- Why should the consumer take this action? This context can come in the form of social proof (testimonials!), pure benefits of your service, or some other component that advocates for the CTA.
• Creative- Does the font, color, and style match your brand? Your CTA should be attractive to the eyes so consumers are pulled towards it.

Content

Building out a library of industry-level content brings your shop a variety of benefits including:

• SEO- The primary advantage of generating and posting content online is that it elevates your brand’s SEO. It builds external links to your website, which improve your domain authority. Domain authority is the search engine’s way of measuring how credible your site is on any given topic. The more credible you are, the higher you’ll rank in search engines like Google.
• Trust- Quality content can show your potential consumers that you know what you’re talking about, that they can trust your shop to get the job done right. It helps prove to them that you’re an expert on this topic.
• Touchpoints- Content creates another avenue of connection between you and your consumers. When you have more consumer touchpoints, customers have more ways to interact with your shop. That builds a relationship over time that translates to sales and growth.

Round Out Your Strategy

Having a solid auto shop website is crucial for your business, but it doesn’t end there. To truly cut through the noise of your competitors you need to take other steps to market to your customers like SMS text, email, a loyalty program, and soliciting and monitoring reviews. Each of these helps to round out your marketing efforts to create a holistic strategy. But how can you fit that into your already busy schedule? That’s where BayIQ comes in.

BayIQ is a marketing software company that specializes in tire and auto repair shops. In fact, they were founded by former shop owners with the goal of solving this major problem. The BayIQ software automates SMS text marketing and emails. It has a built-in loyalty program that seamlessly integrates with your current POS. And automatically solicits reviews and posts them to social media for you. Marketing is an absolute necessity, but it doesn’t have to be hard.

Stop The Guessing Game

Email done right is a great way to reach your target audience and get them to convert. But even with the knowledge of writing effective marketing emails, implementing a digital marketing strategy can be challenging for small businesses. Automated marketing software like BayIQ eliminates the guesswork and stress allowing you to focus on running your shop.

Beyond email marketing, BayIQ can also help you create a loyalty program, solicit and manage online reviews, send SMS texts, implement an appointment scheduler, and provide easily integrated reports and dashboards to analyze how your shop is doing. 

If you’re ready to uplevel your shop’s marketing efforts and reach audiences like never before, it’s time to meet BayIQ.