I need ideas on promoting a auto parts store

Hi guys,

I'd really appreciate if you can give me some fresh ideas on how to promote my online car parts store offline. I'm doing flyer advertising and it's paying off good but I want to try something new. I have a good budget I'm not limited ro guerrilla marketing only.

Thanks !

Looking to promote offline? Post some pub in newspaper, leave some busness cards in a library, Bar, supermarket,... Make some nice looking t-shirt and gice them to your friends how are going to dancing club

In many areas, radio commercials can be very effective.

Print out a flyer and put it on the car's windshield like the picture above and put something like this, 'Keep this flyer in your glove compartment so when you need parts, you know who to call.' Give it a twist, but good luck.

Or you could go blackhat...Pay a bum to break parts on cars it should be parts that you sell near the neighborhood that your shop is in...atleast 5-10 people will come a day...I remember a windshield shop around my area doing that...he used to know which window was broken before i even told him i had a broken window... lol..




NVM it's late here and this sounds like an extremely bad idea.

...the last post was great, I guess you would earn big$ until they burn down the shop.

Well, how about flyering at weekend-nights in front Discothekes and offer huge discount on tuning parts and in general. And add a referral scheme, if one buyer brings his pals, he get more discount...like an affiliate scheme offline, I bet NO car part biz does that!

Thanks for all the ideas guys, most of this Ive been already doing, I was hoping that someone would give me a more outside-the-box idea The idea to break cars and sell parts later is really good if you have a bunch of goons to protect you from the angry mob with torches later A couple of months ago there was news coverage about a tire shop that was punching people's tires around their shop, but they made the stupid idea to cut the tires of absolutely all the cars in a 300m radius and were caught by the police

craigstlist and ebay?

Good offline work is not easy.. If you're already doing some of these things mentioned above, then you're off to a good start. Cold calling, Newspaper ads and FLYERS on windshields work like a charm. Don't forget postal mail.. Postal mail is also very effective and there's no law against it. Do it right, and work hard and it'll pay off; however, there are some things that must be taken into account such as name branding, hours of operation, customer service, and store location.. These things are very important; and if left unchecked can be a failure from the start.

A referral system is also very important. Along with a referral system, send coupons in your postal mail outs. They'll eat it up if you send them a warm up letter with the referral system, and then the "coupon" in the second mail outs. Space your postal mail outs by a couple of days but never let them get cold!

If your autoparts store offers some kind of service, then you should follow up with your existing customers who have made a purchase (be it accessory, OR service)

Contact them like this: From sales dates, after the third day, then 15th day, then 30th day, then 60day.

After the THIRD call and you've developed rapport with them, (30 days from first sale) ASK FOR A REFERRAL.

"We have a referral program "which consists of...(short and sweet!)" Is there anyone you know that would like to "take advantage of incentive?" It could be an incentive like, bring a friend and get a free oil change, or X percent off your next purchase or service rendered. Sound as natural as possible and expect a few "no" but if you work this system I've outlined for you, you'll be on your way to success. Good luck!

OUTSIDE the BOX : Send mobile phone sp4m via BLUETOOTH to a mass number of individuals at existing autoparts shops, racing venues, festivals, and anywhere else you can find cars.. Pass out flyers on windshields at these same locations. (EXCEPT for existing businesses, we send sp4m to those places rendering AUTO services as well, but we shouldn't pass out flyers for your business at auto-z0ne! Everywhere else is fair game.)

Tip: Customer retention is KEY to your referral program. Your auto parts store should have a good customer service department or you will NEVER get referrals. You can also ask for referrals after you've helped; even if you only answered a few questions via telephone during your follow up calls.. You can ask like this, "Now that I've helped you, will you help me?" You will always hear a yes on this one. Now, tell them about your referral program. You can also ask for their friends' name and phone number.. Remember, you're helping them. So, neither party has anything to lose. If they refuse to give up their friends' number, then respect that and politely ask them to call their friend, so you can give them X incentive (short and sweet.)

I hope this helps. Take care!

an idea i've had is to come up with a target group of buyers with a strong following and market directly to them. An example is pelican parts. they have lots of different catalogs, but most people only know about the one they always buy from. you can then advertise that catalog in that niche's publications and forums. of course to get any traction in this kind of market you have to win the price wars, or at least regularly be the cheapest.

Thanks for all the tips guys. CL and Ebay arent really an option because the shop we're talking about operates in Eastern Europe. Thanks to Peepers for the great post.

If you have the technology chops, offer to help the owners verify all the upkeep they've been doing on the car so when it sells they'll have a "record" of work performed. Position it as a way to get more for the car if they're going to sell it direct (probably not worth it if they'll trade it in). This could also keep the new owners loyal. Set up a sheet in Google Docs and share it with the owners. They can scan in invoices and attach them to the Goog Spreadsheet along with date of work, what they fixed, notes etc.

Offer to send clients "reminders" and put them in a touch campaign in autoresponder. Bi-annual stuff, monthly stuff, seasonal stuff (winterize, change snow tires, etc) or event-based (christmas trip, family vacation prep checklist). Make a set of list types, put them in the ones they want to get reminders for.

Start a "Buyer's club" - deep discounts for small ($5?) monthly fee. Don't know if you already do this, think like "Direct Buy" where you get inventory below retail but you pay to be in the club. To prevent churn, you could offer a coupon worth a substantial part of their annual membership fee that's redeemable at the end of every year. Could also become a referral tool - new customers who give you name of referrer get something for themselves and the loyal client.

Set up a "layaway" program for large ticket items, then do a promo for things like a kit that makes the car speedier, sexier, safer, etc. I'm thinking performance type kits.

Do JV with complementary list owners - oil change franchisees, self-storage (perhaps they stash inventory there...tires, etc), wash n'wax places, bundle your own set of discounts, each of you promotes the other's stuff in this closed set - make it scarce (only 100 are avail - who's to say when 100 is actually reached?) and only avail til some set date. I'm thinking calendar-based winterize, spring clean, long hot summer, Thanksgiving we're thankful for your business and here's how...that kinda thing.

Hope this helps, good luck

I'd digg through the phone book and find all the small time repair shop operations and find some way to give them an incentive to purchase parts from your site instead of the local parts stores.

In fact searching for all of those places in smaller towns offering them some type of incentive. I believe only the large dealerships are the ones that receive discounts.

I just got an even better idea. In this small town I used to live in there was an auto parts store right next to a billboard. I would purchase an add on the billboard right next to the auto parts store. That's guaranteed to bring some customers.

sign up for an affiliate program and have other people promote it for you.

I like the idea of settinG up customer accounts for a 'history' that would also givE you tickle dates for oil, filters, tune ups etc. Have it set up as a blog that allows each customer to access their personal account and maintain the info or to check out their purchases.

the luxury market is kicking, so that might help you in the customized inventory items. Customized rides of all kinds are hot. ( in our area, the ghettos refer to their 'tax rides' ..autos bought with their tax refund for not working )

do jv with local restaurants ...give special discounts,

get their phone number . text coupons ONLY to the list

get nakked girls in front of the shop ...or maybe, in bikinis...you know the success associated with girls in bikinis? car wash, house painter, etc..

finally , you need to motivate them to save your info in their glove box, or put a magnet business card on their car...you can get those fairly cheaply from me or someone else...you DO NOT adhere them to the car...you wet the magnet and stick it on glass...not the paint!

Six flags entertainment did that for years with the bumper stickers...I went around with theirs on my station wagon for years.

I also use OTHER COMPANY DISTRIBUTED COUPONS...you guys have a valpak type of advertising? check out the advertisers, call them up , ask if it is ok to distribute more of the coupons for free...all of them say SURE! then print up a good coupon for restaurant , and ON THE SAME FLYER INSERT YOUR INFO.

hope some of this kicks off your brainstorming a little.

dongosho do you mind telling me what script did you use,
I`m starting an online auto parts store in my country and I would like to ask some questions

Get some images and make a 60 second video and upload it to Youtube.
Go get the download called Video Bazzoka in the downloads section and get the video on Page one of Google.