Auto Body Shop & Car Painting

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Doctore

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Looking for some marketing ideas for a local auto body shop I own. Right now I utilize:

Facebook/Twitter
Craigslist
Website/SEO/SEM
Local maps(Y/G/B)
Listed in all directories(also for citations)

Also going to call up local dealerships/fleet type businesses.

Just seeing if anyone can help me think of creative ways to get out there and snatch more jobs.
 
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I actually have one of my large clients who owns a body shop. We are currently just using organic SEO and having great results and lots of business, but we are in large city.
 
Whats the population? My city has about 150k and we try to reach out to a neighboring city that has 300k plus all the little towns around.

I mean I am getting a phone call or two a day right now which is great seeing how there was zero marketing in place last month.

Also if you wouldn't mind sending a few keywords that work well for you. I mean we rank for the main ones but if you have any additional insight that I haven't thought of that would be great.
 
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Organic search engine optimization is really pretty easy. It just takes time and effort.

First, do some research on keywords for your niche. Go to googlekeywordtool.com and search for auto repair, car repair, automobile repair and then pull out the keywords that you want to optimize for.

Second, create one page with optimized content for each keyword you want to rank for. Ensure that you have good on-page optimization for every page (city qualifier, meta tags, keywords, description, h1, h2, etc). Ensure that you have your main keyword on every page, possibly in the footer that is linked to your site. Example: mycity auto repair

Third, use senuke, xgen-seo, evo II or some other type of automated software and start creating backlinks and rss feeds that are pointed to those specific pages.

Fourth, make sure you have some kind of lead generation (opt-in) form on every page and give them something of value to get that email address. That list will make more money for you than any other creative thing you could do.

Fifth, wait for the calls

Now, you must understand that this is pretty basic stuff but it will work just fine. There are plenty of other things you can do but this will keep you busy and get you started.

Hope that helps.

Rick
 
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The SEO and all that is already in place. Just looking to see if anyone has any ideas beyond what ive done
 
sounds like you have all your bases covered. you can do dealer work or do special paint jobs too. i have done my share of bodywork. can't stand the bondo dust anymore so we send it all out now. i would not call the dealers i would go there and show them your work and give them a good price.
 
angelas111 said:
sounds like you have all your bases covered. you can do dealer work or do special paint jobs too. i have done my share of bodywork. can't stand the bondo dust anymore so we send it all out now. i would not call the dealers i would go there and show them your work and give them a good price.
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Yea good point. My uncle owns a screen printing and embroidery shop. Going to get a very nice collared shirt with our logo and bring a portfolio.

marketingwise said:
call tow campanies and make them a sweet deal to bring you work they find
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Was planning this as well. Though should I target the owners or the actual drivers. The other problem is a lot of these tow truck companies have auto body shops. Trying to get tons of business so we can get our own tow trucks and then I can rank for that as well. Domination at its finest!
 
This would cost a little money but it is a unique idea for body work.

Find a car that you can beat the crap out of on one side and make the other side showroom new and drive it around town or place it in a prominent area that people can see it.

It would be one of those viral things that people would talk about. You could use photos of it in advertising as well.

You could come up with all kinds of little slogans for something like that:
The showroom side bright red and shiny and the other side gray and beat up
Slogan - From Dead To Red

Slogan - You beat em, we fix em
Slogan - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Slogan - From primer to prime

You get the idea.
 
I actually like that idea. When I moved out of this shop and owned my own place I was going to have a "car smashed into the building" type of thing to kinda make an impression. If I can get a clean split between the two i think it will def put my business in peoples heads
 
I've never seen anything like that done. I would imagine that once the car is completed you could send out a press release to all your local TV stations and get some free TV time on the local news.
 
Doctore said:
Looking for some marketing ideas for a local auto body shop I own. Right now I utilize:

Facebook/Twitter
Craigslist
Website/SEO/SEM
Local maps(Y/G/B)
Listed in all directories(also for citations)

Also going to call up local dealerships/fleet type businesses.

Just seeing if anyone can help me think of creative ways to get out there and snatch more jobs.
Click to expand...

One way to generate more business is via financing.

If you're getting "give me an estimate" calls and a high percentage aren't converting, you can change that by offering a flexible financing program. Also, if you're losing business because people can't afford to pay for the entire job, can't qualify for any traditional financing, have maxed or no credit card....you can capture that business you may be losing now.

I'm talking about a no credit check, flexible, in-house financing program that works particularly good for the automotive service industry.

"Make it easy for your clients to do business with you, and your sales will increase"

In this troubled economic environment, where a lot of people are strapped for cash, can't get financing, etc., you should accept payment any way your customers can make it.

Give them a little time to pay, and you'll generate more business.

Anyway, the gist is, offer some sort of payment options besides cash/check/charge.

If you want to know more about the financing option I'm talking about above, just pm me.
 
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Have you done any direct mail? Post cards could do you a world of good.

Get a list of people in your area who subscribe to Car magazines and your local auto-trader.

If you can write decent direct response copy write the post card yourself, or else hire someone to do it for you. Since it's a post card it won't cost to much.

Then just mail. You're putting the car repair station directly in front of the mostly candidates to need or want a good mechanic.
 
Another idea....

I had a client that offered to do "off site" estimates.

On their website, a customer could make a submission explaining the damage and also upload pictures of the damage. Then they could receive a rough estimate "estimate" without having to come in to the shop. Generates a decent amount of new work.
 
I'd imagine that Google Adwords wouldn't be that expensive for a geographical targeted keyword like auto paint. Ask around for someone with an extra 100.00 or 75.00 adwords voucher, set up the adwords account and use that voucher. Set up a campaign that targets keywords like "Miami Auto Paint", "Chicago Paint Job" (replace Miami/Chicago with your town and nearby towns) or what the best keywords are that get the best search results and see how far that voucher gets you. When they call, always ask how they heard about you and document it. After a couple of months, this documentation will tell you where you should really focus your advertisements.

Cheap business card refrigerator magnets are very nice for a business like yours as well. The main problem with advertisements is, getting a call to action to the people that need a paint job. You can advertise to 1000 people and only 1 will need their car painted. With the magnets, they stick them to the fridge and don't really think about it until they need a paint job. USPS is going to be the best way to get those magnets out there.
 
you can also make a deal with auto repair shops that don't do body work. you refer them repair work and they refer you body work. that works very well in most cases.
 
ShiftySituation said:
I'd imagine that Google Adwords wouldn't be that expensive for a geographical targeted keyword like auto paint. Ask around for someone with an extra 100.00 or 75.00 adwords voucher, set up the adwords account and use that voucher. Set up a campaign that targets keywords like "Miami Auto Paint", "Chicago Paint Job" (replace Miami/Chicago with your town and nearby towns) or what the best keywords are that get the best search results and see how far that voucher gets you. When they call, always ask how they heard about you and document it. After a couple of months, this documentation will tell you where you should really focus your advertisements.

Cheap business card refrigerator magnets are very nice for a business like yours as well. The main problem with advertisements is, getting a call to action to the people that need a paint job. You can advertise to 1000 people and only 1 will need their car painted. With the magnets, they stick them to the fridge and don't really think about it until they need a paint job. USPS is going to be the best way to get those magnets out there.
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Shifty makes a good point.....identifying prospects at the time of need.

What about referrals from insurance adjusters? What would it take to become a certified service provider for insurance companies?
 
This thread could easily turn you into a JV broker :)

The end goal is for the body shop to make more money right?

If you go to a tire dealership and work out an exclusive deal where the body shop only buys tires from them but gets the tires at a discount (body shop still sells them at the regular price - making them a higher profit on the tires) that meets the criteria and now gets your foot in the door as a consultant to the tire dealer as well.
 
I have adwords all setup as well as bing and yahoo.

Maybe in the future well apply to insurance companies but they get you by the balls. The traffic is pretty steady enough that I dont have to worry about them but as we grow well prolly end up with them.

The marketing is in place now we just have to build brand awareness. Weve booked 6 paint jobs in the past week alone.
 
Video marketing is like having a free commercial online. People are visual, they like to see stuff. Can you make a video/commercial. Get a youtube channel and build it up. Post your videos on your site/facebook/tweet them.

I also have some other ideas, but I would have to share them through a PM. Because they are things that I actually do for clients for money.
 
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