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Team Dieselmatic has had an extra-exciting June. On the 8th, Managing Director Nick Adams headed south to the desert—Phoenix, specifically. He didn’t just go there for fun in the sun, either; he jumped on a plane to put on a presentation for a crowd of diesel repair shop owners at the first-ever Diesel Connect.
The topic? C’mon, you know us. We stick to what we’re good at: digital marketing.
Those who attended will receive a recording of the presentation once it’s ready, but we’ve got a pretty sweet recap to tide you over.
DIGITAL MARKETING FOR YOUR REPAIR SHOP
Repeat after Nick: “If your customer doesn’t know you exist, they cannot become your customer.”
Louder, for the folks in back:
IF YOUR CUSTOMER DOESN’T KNOW YOU EXIST, THEY CANNOT BECOME YOUR CUSTOMER.
Everything you do in marketing should be geared toward making customers aware of you.
This can be difficult if you look at marketing the way this writer looks at kombucha. After all, there’s so many things you have to do in marketing. Google Business accounts. Websites. Forms. Blogs. Social media logins. There’s algorithms to deal with. SEO to optimize. At times, marketing jargon can feel like something out of a Mission: Impossible movie: “Quick, Ethan, plug in the keywords and make sure the search engines can crawl the new page or it will explode!”
Nick acknowledged that difficulty: “Marketing can feel like black ops,” he said.
In theory, this is where we’d plug in a shameless Dieselmatic mention (“Let us handle the black ops missions for you!”). But we’ll save that for the end, and instead focus on the three most important things any shop owner can do right now.
REPAIR SHOP MARKETING TIP #1: GET A GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE
Does it feel like we scream about Google Business in every other blog? That’s because we do. Look, we even wrote an ebook about it. Because it is important, and too many shop owners are still just looking at Google Business, shrugging, and pouring themselves another cup of coffee.
Look. Take that cup of coffee around the shop with you as you take some pictures (we’d rather you hire a professional photographer, but y’know what? Your smartphone pics will work in a pinch). Then upload some information about your shop, along with those pictures, to your Google Business page. Make sure you’ve got accurate info on there—your hours, services, and so on.
This, Nick said, helps make it clear to potential customers what your shop looks like. This is part of building trust. Seeing is believing—it works for magicians and for repair shops, too. (After all, technicians are kind of diesel wizards, right?)
REPAIR SHOP MARKETING TIP #2: TRACK YOUR MARKETING
Unfortunately, marketing is not yet a “Set and forget” situation. You’ve got to keep an eye on what you’re doing—otherwise, how will you know what’s working and what isn’t?
Grr, arg, we can hear the complaints now.
Here, let’s put it into monetary terms: by tracking your marketing, you can do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. “If you run a campaign poorly, you’ll spend more money,” Nick told the audience. “If you run it well, you’ll spend less money.”
REPAIR SHOP MARKETING TIP #3: PUT YOUR VALUES ON YOUR WEBSITE
Okay, so admittedly this tip depends on you having a website. Please get one. Or let us make one for you.
If you do have a website, let people know what you stand for. This is a big deal not just for your customers, but for potential hiring. Nick shared a story about how he was introduced to Fullbay; our parent-sister company has its values prominently displayed. You land on that page and you know immediately what Fullbay cares about, and can extrapolate how it will treat staff and customers.
It’s the same story with repair shops. Show people who you are and how you’ll treat them (needless to say, we hope you mean to treat people well). If you’ll excuse the simple example, “We work hard” will signal to potential job applicants that they too should expect to work hard. Slackers need not apply.
OR LET US DO IT FOR YOU
The tips above may seem small. But look, small things compound. Most diesel repair customers are not high-intent. They’re researching ahead of time—looking for someone who can take care of them eventually. Odds are they’ll look at your shop, and then another, and then maybe see an ad for your shop (thank you, retargeting).
It all adds up. Each little thing you do keeps you in front of your potential customers. Then, when they’re ready to make a move, who are they gonna call?
The Ghostbusters, of course.
But after that, they’ll call your shop.
We stand by the above tips. They’ve helped our customers increase their brand footprint and bring in new clients and applicants. But if the idea of adding more work to your plate just seems…eh…well, here’s the shameless plug you were waiting for. We are Dieselmatic, and we can handle all of the above and way, way more.
Broadening your digital footprint doesn’t need to be difficult or time-consuming for you. Just get in touch with us and let us be the Ethan Hunt to your Marketing: Impossible.
(This blog will self-destruct in 30 seconds.)
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