From the Magazine: Ironing out your marketing strategy

In good times and bad, you need to be marketing. Here’s why you should and how to do it

What an interesting time we’ve been living in these past five years. It seems that as soon as we get comfortable with the “new normal”, something happens that changes the way we need to do business.

I know we’re all sick of hearing about how we need to pivot, but isn’t that what’s required to run a long term, successful business in the automotive industry? Not only do we need to adapt to the changes in vehicle technology on a yearly basis, we also need to change the way we attract new clients and retain current clients.

If your business is struggling to increase revenue in this unpredictable economy, it’s time to take a look at how you attract new clients.

First, you need to know who your ideal client is. Our ideal client is happy to pay us to maintain and repair their vehicle to the best of our ability. This client understands that quality work costs more, which means that they are willing to pay for diagnostic charges. They expect us to install quality parts.

During these financially challenging times, we have found that there are fewer ideal clients out there. This means we need to increase our advertising efforts to reach more of these people.

Once you have an idea of who your ideal client is, you need to decide what advertising channels you will use to get your message to them. The first investment we made when we opened in 2011 was on a website, as it tells potential clients who we are and what we offer. The majority of people hop online to find, research and choose who to do business with; if we’re not there, they can’t choose us.

For paid advertising, we run local TV commercials, targeted digital commercials and Google Ads. The rule of thumb for a business’ advertising budget is three to five per cent of the revenue you want. For example, if you want your yearly revenue to be $1 million, you need to spend between $30,000-$50,000 on advertising.

Now, for those who say they can’t afford to advertise because their sales are down, my response to that is you really can’t afford not to advertise.

Next, consider what your messaging will be. With all the uncertainty regarding vehicle manufacturing and the increased cost of a new vehicle, we are in a position to help people save tons of money by maintaining the vehicles they already own — this is our message.

When your advertising works and brings in a bunch of great clients, your mission is to keep them. Other than performing quality service (which is a basic expectation), this can be achieved by using software to communicate in a few ways: Texts thanking them for their business, automated emails reminding them about deferred work and regular emails providing them with vehicle maintenance tips.

If you’re thinking, “I don’t want to harass people,” I get it. I used to think the same way. But like Dr. Seuss said, “Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” Our clients rely on us to keep their vehicles safe and reliable, so we ensure we are communicating with them about what their vehicles need, why it’s important to maintain them and when they’re due for service.

Now, for those who say they can’t afford to advertise because their sales are down, my response to that is you really can’t afford not to advertise. If your ideal client doesn’t know you exist, you need to find them and explain how you can help them.

To keep costs down, look into opportunities to advertise your business without spending much money: Partner with another local business to promote each other on social media, donate gift certificates to be auctioned off at community events, or sponsor a kid’s sports team.

As long as you’re reaching new clients and taking great care of the current ones, your revenue will increase and you will be back to hitting your 2025 goals.

Erin Vaughan is the owner of Kinetic Auto Service in Regina.

This article originally appeared in the April issue of CARS magazine