HELP! My Auto Service Shop Marketing Sucks!

The typical auto service and repair shop creates and runs advertising spots or yellow page ads that are just about identical to each other. It's not your fault. When you started, you looked around at what the other shops in your area were doing. You created similar type advertising with (maybe) just some slight changes. The problem is, the shops you're copying did exactly what you're doing when they started out. They looked at their competition is sort of did the same thing. This is what I typically call marketing incest. You're doing what everyone else is doing and they're doing the same thing.

So what's the problem? Why don't you get any results? There's a few reasons that I can assure you of that are working against you. They are:

• You Must Stand Out: You don't (and can't) stand out because everyone is doing the same thing. Take this little 'acid test' that I use with clients. Look at your last ad of your yellow pages ad. Now change the names and phone numbers on the ads. Does it make a difference? Probably not. The point I am trying to make is that your ad looks just like everyone else's. So if you couldn't tell the difference, how would you expect a customer to pick YOU instead of your competition?


• You're trying to sell from your ad: You've got specials and deals that YOU think are really good money saving offers and can't figure out why nobody is coming. Part of the reason is that people only purchase from those they know, trust and like. What you're doing is asking a prospect to 'trust you' and bring you their vehicle. But they don't even know you, never mind trust you. If you get any response, consider yourself lucky.


• You're trying to sell when YOU want them to purchase: That's not when they're ready to buy. Think about it. Don't you do the same thing? When you're going to make a purchase (let's say over a couple of hundred dollars) don't you do a little research? Don't you look around first before you buy? Well, your customers are the same. Just because YOU want them to buy now, they may not be ready. That just means you're not going to get any response.

How do you fix this? Start by taking a different approach. Don't try to sell from your ad (because that's not going to work; we know that otherwise you wouldn't be reading this). Use your advertising as nothing more than a Lead Generation Tool. By that, I mean focus on getting prospects to give you their name and contact details (being either e-mail or have them text to your mobile marketing campaign) so that you can continue to market to them in the future.

In the meantime, send them helpful information. Do you think your customers would be interested in knowing the most common reasons for unexpected roadside breakdown and the simple things they can do to prevent them? I would think so.

Then write that report and get their names and contact details. Make that report a download from your website. Better yet, mail it to them if they give you their mailing address. Doing that accomplished two very important things:

• You start to establish yourself as the authority in your market. You begin to be seen as 'the go-to-person' for auto repairs.


• You've got their contact details to send them offers and promos as a follow up. That way they can buy when they're ready; not necessarily when YOU want them to.

Best of all, you can do all of this for very little money and the list of prospects you gain will be worth a ton of money. That's because they've already expressed and interest in what you're doing, they have gotten to know you and now view you as an authority. It works! I guarantee it!