Repair Shop Advice

Are you looking for new ways to gain new business for your automotive repair shop this holiday season? Well, Christmas is right around the corner, and you need to start marketing to your customers right away if you want to be successful!
We have put together a list of marketing tips and ideas that will help your shop this December. These tips will help you gain new business and maximize your shop’s profits

• Christmas Cards – This is one of the best times to send direct mail to your potential customers and customers. Who doesn’t like to receive a greeting card? Make the card personal, and also add a promotion to encourage them to visit.
• Gift Certificates – Create gift certificates for your customers so they can give them as Christmas presents. This will help you gain new customers when they come to your shop and use their present.
• New Loyalty Program – Create a new customer loyalty program and enroll customers before 2016. This will create more repeat business for the New Year.
• Customer Referrals – Do you have a customer referral program? Create a program where your customers will receive a discount if they refer someone to your shop.
• Charitable Donations – ‘Tis the season of giving. Give a portion of your profits to a local charity and tell your customers how you are contributing to your community.

We hope that these marketing tips will help your shop be successful this holiday season. If you have any questions or if you need help updating your website, please contact us at 866-665-1605.

Automakers create new technology every year. This can be both exhausting and exciting for your automotive repair shop, because you have to learn about the new features and how to fix them. But let’s push the additional work aside for now, and remind ourselves of some of the cool features that were introduced in 2015.

A lot of motorists find parking stressful because of the tight spots and the other drivers. Automakers tried to improve the parking experience by adding some new features in 2015. Ford added proximity sensors that beep when you’re too close to another vehicle, and vehicles now have the ability to park automatically. You don’t have to touch the steering wheel or worry about scraping the curb.

Another feature that was improved upon in 2015 was cruise control. Cruise control saves you money by keeping your car moving at a constant speed, but it shuts off when you have to brake. So automakers created adaptive cruise control for the 2015 Hyundai Genesis that uses a radar system to predetermine the distance between you and the vehicle in front of you. With this feature, it doesn’t matter how much traffic there is; your car will slow down if it needs to.

What will automakers create next that hasn’t been released to the public? Motor Trend did a great job at answering this question in their article titled, “The Coolest Car Tech Features We Can’t Wait To Try.” Read all about it at Motor Trend.

Another year is over. When you look back at 2015, was there something that you missed out on that would have made your automotive repair shop more profitable? Did your shop adapt to any of the new online marketing changes that took place in 2015?

The year of 2015 was all about mobile and content marketing. This happened because consumers have rapidly shifted towards surfing the internet primarily from their mobile devices. Google’s major update making non-mobile websites disappear from mobile device search results was further evidence of this. Content marketing is key when it comes to attracting and retaining your customers, because it provides them with relevant and valuable information. If you struggled to gain new business in 2015 for these reasons, we can help you get a leg up on the competition with these marketing opportunities.

What are some online marketing opportunities for 2016?

• Must Go Mobile – 2015 was the biggest year yet for mobile. Google announced that mobile traffic for their search engine exceeded desktop traffic in the United States. So if your shop has a mobile-responsive website, you already have a leg up on the competition.
• Pay Attention To Social Media Search – Social media continues to be one of the best ways to connect with your customers and grow your shop’s brand online. It seems that search will be expanding beyond the major search engines and becoming more important in social networks such as Facebook. Your customers will best be able to find your shop in Facebook if your page is filled out correctly and you are staying active.
• Customer Reviews Are Important – If you didn’t make a push for customer testimonials in 2015, you need to add it to your marketing strategy for 2016. The new consumer goes online to research customer reviews before contacting your shop. Do you have any 5 star reviews on Google?

Do you need help with your online marketing strategy for 2016? Do you need help with your website? If you have any questions, please contact us at 866-665-1605.