Does Your Community REALLY Know You? [E004]

Summary

The question was posed to a group of panelists, “As an auto repair shop that hasn’t been doing any marketing, where do I start?” There are a lot of different ways to answer this question, but we look back at how we started marketing our own shop and had great success. Not all marketing looks like what we tend to think of with websites, digital ads, direct mail, etc. The most effective marketing we’ve ever done was face-to-face, and some of the most successful shops still attribute their success to tactics like the ones we talk about in this episode.

TWO

Talking Points

“As an auto repair shop that hasn’t been doing any marketing, where do I start?”
Blog: Is That Really Marketing?
Businesspeople are the ultimate referrers
BNI Groups
What is BNI?
Overview of the meeting format
BNI specific to auto repair
Chambers of Commerce
“I joined the chamber and never got anything from it”
Chamber breakfast, Leads for Lunch, BAH
Committees
Hosting events at your shop
BNI
Chamber events
Car care clinics
Merit badge workshops
Katrina drive
Halloween “Trunk-or-Treat”
Car shows
Mevert Automotive’s Customer Appreciation Mevert Vacation Open House
Who manages all of this?
Future podcast episode “Should your shop have a dedicated marketing director?”