It’s a common conundrum facing small businesses: they want and need to market themselves to spread awareness and attract customers, however, traditional marketing approaches (such as purchasing PPC, directory site listings, direct mail, print, radio, billboard or TV advertising) are expensive.
Traditional marketers may be quite good at what they do, but they often have tunnel vision. They may focus on creating an outstanding direct mail piece or catchy radio spot for a client. That’s great - but it doesn’t get to the heart of what the client really desires: building a relationship with your auto repair shop before they pick up the phone or email you. Luckily, there’s an alternative to traditional marketing that’s transforming the auto shop growth equation - growth hacking.
What is Auto Repair Shop Growth Hacking?
Where traditional marketers focus on specific pieces of the marketing puzzle (crafting an e-mail marketing campaign or pay-per-click advertisements), growth hackers are more transparent in their end game. Their goal is to obtain more clients, make a company highly visible and ultimately grow the business in a long term sustainable way. Growth hackers will do whatever it takes to achieve growth, regardless of how unconventional it may be. Growth hacking takes “Marketing 101” and turns it on its head. It’s gaining momentum because it works.
Effective Growth Hacks
Read on for concrete examples of how growth hacking and content marketing techniques benefit small business.
- Blogging. Rely on this tool because great content is at the heart of effective growth hacking. Blogging is a natural way to deliver a steady stream of fresh, value-driven content.
- Collecting e-mail addresses (and using them). It may not be new, but it’s nearly twice as effective as social media-based marketing at boosting visibility and generating purchases. E-mail marketing has huge growth-hack possibilities. Consider equipping your website with an e-mail opt-in form (visitors can’t view it unless they provide their e-mail address). The count of email addresses in your Shop Management System or DMS has a direct correlation to your car count and new customer count.
- Closely evaluating your data. Accurate data is at the core of any successful marketing initiative. Who are your customers? How is your content performing? Google Analytics is okay, but it’s not nearly sufficient for all your data analysis needs. You need to pursue systems that not only collect data but analyze it and provide a snapshot of what’s working and what’s not.
Want to learn more about growth hacking versus traditional marketing strategies for auto repair shops? Contact us. Business Actualization is results driven, not marketing-program driven. We understand that the most carefully crafted marketing program or cleverest advertisement is worthless if it doesn’t result in more customers and an increase in profits. That’s your ultimate goal in a marketing program. It’s ours, too.
