If you've only got a limited amount of time and money, then investing it in the right place is vital for the success of your aftermarket auto restoration, performance, race, or restyling shop!
To ensure your marketing investments hit the nail on the head, you have to prioritize the most important places to invest.
From blogging and social media to video and email marketing, they're all essential for your company's online success.
But where should you put all your time and effort first? What should you prioritize to make the most of your marketing and get the best ROI?
Today we'll guide you through each type of marketing you can use to get your name out there. We'll show you what they're used for, how to use them, and what the best option for your shop is.
What type of marketing should you invest in for your automotive aftermarket shop?
There are a lot of marketing strategies out there that you can invest in to make your shop stand out online. But what is the best one to invest in first?
Video, blogging, social media, email, PPC (pay per click)?
With so many options, it can be pretty overwhelming when you're starting off.
Let's take a closer look at the top five marketing strategies for the aftermarket auto restoration and performance industry to help you get a better idea of what you're dealing with.
NOTE:
For each section, we used $ dollar signs to indicate the possible cost range in time and money.
1. Social media marketing - $$$ - $$$$$
Be sure to update your social media with a variety of content too, so your audience doesn't get bored. You can post videos, images, and even audio. It's important to post promotional posts and valuable, educational content to help your audience.
Valuable content can include:
- Tips
- How-tos
- Statistics
- Entertainment
- Behind-the-scenes videos
Promotional posts are important, but if you post too many, they might appear spammy to your followers.
Keep in mind that you first need to know where your audience lives online. For example, if they’re a CEO and they’re on LinkedIn and not on Facebook, spend your time focusing on LinkedIn rather than Facebook.
Also, remember to keep all your social media platforms up to date, even if you post once a week. We can’t tell you how many aftermarket shops have pages that haven’t been updated in months or even years. If someone hits those pages in search, they might think you’re no longer in business, so be consistent. Even if it’s once a week or once a month - post on your social media!
Social media marketing doesn't have to be very expensive either; you can do it yourself if you want to or have someone on your team do this task. If you don't have the time, skill or a team member to do it but still want to reap the rewards of active social media, then hire a 3rd party team that specializes in online digital marketing to take care of your social media for you.
Social media advertisements
Facebook and Instagram ads can be a fantastic way to gain more followers on your social media page if done correctly. They can get you traction quickly and help you gain the audience you’re looking for.
However, social media advertising takes a long time, can be expensive over time, and takes a bit of time to build up a good ROI. Plus, it only works as long as you keep paying for them.
Social media advertising can be great, but building up your online presence on social media will benefit you more in the long run.
We’d recommend investing in social media marketing, and when you’ve built up a following, invest in Facebook and Instagram ads if you have the budget for it.
Pro Tip: See if any of your employees are good at social media and give them the task of updating your social. They could even post live updates of projects they're working on. This will save you both money and time!
2. Content marketing - $$ - $$$
3. Video marketing - $$$ - $$$$$
Video marketing is a brilliant strategy to educate, generate leads, and convert customers.
86% of businesses use video marketing as part of their digital marketing strategy, and thanks to all the technology out there these days, video marketing is relatively easy to do. Even a modern smartphone can record high-quality video!
Video marketing is a lot easier for people to consume too. People tend to interact more with videos online than any written content. With video, your audience will be more likely to like, comment, and share with their followers.
A good video marketing strategy will improve your SEO and encourage people to convert. If you have videos on your website, people will stop to watch them, spending more time on your website and showing Google that you're a reliable and exciting company to push to the top of the search results.
Video also appeals to mobile users and helps build trust with your audience by providing them with educational content. Plus, video marketing enables you to improve the like, know and trust factors between you and your audience. When they see you and your team in the videos and listen to what you have to say, they'll see you're an expert team and will trust your capabilities more.
Here's how to get started with video marketing:
- Find the best place to post videos
- Set a timeline and budget for your videos
- Are you hiring somebody or doing it yourself
- Figure out what you want to showcase - behind the scenes or tutorials
- Don't forget to track your progress and set goals for yourself
- Interact with comments
- Mention your audience in your videos to help them feel involved
- Include you and your team in videos - this optimizes the like, know and trust factor
If you’re posting videos to social media, why not post them to YouTube too?
YouTube is the second most visited site on the planet, and all those videos you post on social media can easily be uploaded to YouTube. Along with a great keyword-rich title and description, you’ll be able to improve your SEO and chances of appearing in search results.
Pro Tip:
If you're uploading videos to YouTube or another video platform, create custom thumbnails and descriptions for your video to make them look even more professional, and make sure your intro is interesting so people keep watching.
4. Email marketing - $$ - $$$
How do you create an email marketing campaign?
The first thing we recommend that you do is to get an account with one of the top email marketing providers: ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact, and Mailchimp. We’re a huge fan of ActiveCampaign and a partner - so you can guess which platform we’d recommend.
Next, you have to start building a list of emails. You can easily build a list of emails by creating an irresistible lead magnet. You can offer your clients complete how-to guides or videos in exchange for their email. Even product discount codes can work - as long as it's valuable to your audience, they'll bite!
And don’t forget all your current clients. They can be included in your list too. So without even doing any of the above, we bet you already have a great list!
Start sending emails, develop a strategy, determine the type of content you want to put into your email, and send it out regularly. You can include your latest blog post with a link to the post, giveaways, discounts, tips and trick and deals in your emails to keep your audience engaged.
Remember, you must send regular emails for your campaign to work properly. Weekly or monthly emails are a great choice but don't spam your audience with daily or worse, hourly emails. We've seen it happen, and it can be extremely annoying.
Email statistics say:
- Email is the 3rd most used marketing channel in 2021
- Email marketing can yield as much as $36 for every $1 spent
- 64% of small businesses currently use email marketing as part of their marketing strategy
- When it comes to customer acquisition, email is 40x more effective than social media
- ¾ of marketers say personalization increases engagement
- This one surprised us: Birthday emails generate over 3x more revenue than regular marketing emails
- A/B testing can improve email conversion by as much as 49%
- Over 60% of people will delete or ignore emails that don’t work well on mobile
Source:
Blogging Wizard
Also according to the statistics Saturday is the worst day to send emails and Friday is the best!
Email marketing is an affordable way to get more people interested in what you have to offer - much more affordable than PPC (Pay Per Click) advertisement!
Pro Tip:
Highlight important events that have happened in your shop to get people invested in your business more. Don’t forget to showcase any new products and projects you’re working on too!
5. Search engine marketing - $$$ - $$$$$
Search engine marketing, also called SEM, is a marketing strategy you should invest in if you want to make the most out of your money.
SEM uses Google and other search engines to advertise and promote your shop, aiming to make your shop appear high on the SERP (search engine results page).
How does SEM work?
The best strategy for search engine marketing involves improving your SEO (search engine optimization).
70% of marketers agree that SEO is better than PPC (pay-per-click) when it comes to generating sales and traffic.
Social media, content marketing, and even video help to improve your SEO. But there are other ways you can enhance it too. For example, Google Business Profile is a key area to target when trying to improve your SEO.
If you don't have a Google Business Profile, then be sure to set one up to enhance your SEO. Google Business Profile is a great tool that doesn't just enhance your SEO it also improves credibility and trustworthiness. It's a fantastic marketing tool to invest your time into, and it's free - why wouldn't you set one up?
Some people also use PPC advertising for SEM, but this method isn't as kind to your wallet as other SEO improvements.
Pro Tip: Optimizing your digital footprint (see our article in the December 2019 THE SHOP Mag) for your website will also improve your SEO. Getting backlinks from trusted websites will show Google or other search engines that you're a reliable company, and they'll push your site to the top of the search results.
Now that you’ve read this article, we hope you have a better idea of what you should focus on regarding your marketing strategy.
There's a lot to think about, and choosing the perfect marketing investment for your aftermarket auto restoration, restyling, race, and performance shop is difficult. But getting the help you need to create the ideal strategy for your shop's marketing is the right step forward.
By investing in an in-house or 3rd party team that knows what they're doing, you can rest assured knowing you'll get a great ROI and improve your company's conversions and sales.
