What is The Best Form of Marketing for Auto Repair Shops?
When most people think of marketing for auto repair shops they think of print ads, radio ads or billboards, but many don’t realize that Local SEO achieves far better results. Read on to learn several reasons why Local SEO far surpasses other auto repair advertising ideas when it comes to actually growing your monthly car count.
Things used to be very different in the auto repair industry.
Gone are the days when you could run ads on the local radio station and put your logo on diner placemats and expect to get new customers. Radio ads are ignored, print ads are tossed away and billboards? No one even remembers seeing a billboard. In a world filled with people on mobile devices, your need to show up where they are already looking, on their phones.
If you’re reading this and thinking “Local SEO sounds great and all but I already have print ads / radio ads / billboards set up, why should I bother changing my strategy?” we understand your concern but want to put it to rest. Yes, these methods may have worked back in the day but that was before the internet exploded and people began Googling everything from “what’s for dinner?” to “how do I change a flat tire?”
Old-style tactics are no longer effective forms of marketing for auto repair shops.
In my experience, shop owners spend far too much money on auto repair advertising ideas that offer little to no results. They spend it every single month and never see the ROI they are looking for either because they are inconsistent with their strategy or are spending far too much budget on obsolete tactics.
The problem with print advertising is that there is no way to track how many people have seen your ad or called your shop because of it. How do you know if the money you are spending on that half or full page ad is worth it?
Radio advertising is no better. You can’t track it, you can’t target it to the right audience and you pay for airtime whether anyone hears your ad or not. Nowadays so many people are using satellite or streaming radio that the likelihood of your ad being heard is lower than ever.
Billboards are better than print or radio because at least people see them as they are driving by, but who’s really paying attention when they’re driving? And how often when someone really needs car repair services would they remember seeing your billboard? Not very often!
If you really want to get ahead of the competition, you need to make the decision to let go of the things that used to work and adapt new strategies that are far more effective. Adapt or die, as they say.
Those channels still work for some companies like big franchise dealerships, but they don’t work as well for independent shops.
It’s true that if these marketing channels didn’t work at all then they would have been completely eliminated by now. They do still work for much larger companies who have the monthly marketing budget to plaster their name anywhere and everywhere.
But most smaller shops don’t have the marketing budget to go with brute force name brand recognition tactics. Every dollar must be spent on the most effective tactics or else they will be left in the unfortunate position of having even less money than they started with and no new customers to show for it.
Why Local SEO is far more effective than print ads, radio ads and billboards.
According to Google’s data, 71% of people who search for a local business on mobile phones will call or visit the business within 24 hours (source). This means that if your shop isn’t ranking on the first page of Google when someone searches “auto repair shop near me,” you are missing out on a huge opportunity!
Another huge advantage of Local SEO is attribution. When we run campaigns for our clients, every view, call, click and even request for driving directions is tracked. We closely monitor progress on a weekly basis and can analyze the actual search terms people are using to connect with your shop and use it to further optimize your campaign for better results.
We can even see a map view of where your shop is ranking best, helping us to better understand the neighborhoods that are driving the most business. This helps us create even more auto repair advertising ideas to get your business showing up at the top of Google search results in the most highly populated areas.
Every month we provide our clients with full transparency of all tasks and deliverables that have been created by our team to drive your results. This includes content like posts on your Google listing, local press releases, directory citations, social media brand mentions, guest posts on high-authority websites, and many other tactics that when combined together, result in a meaningful and measurable increase in your monthly car count.
Let me show you how Local SEO can help your shop dominate your local area.
If you want to dominate search results, get more online reviews, convert more site visitors into customers and grow your business then there is no better way of marketing for auto repair shops than Local SEO. Make sure to schedule a call below.
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