Five Major Marketing Mistakes
Stop throwing your money away, a smart detailer is an educated detailer. You need to avoid these marketing mistakes.
A typical problem in the detail industry is the tremendous amount of money spent on incorrect marketing and advertising, which results in no business and a big expense. Marketing and advertising should be an investment.
So, what does it take to get the phone to ring? What does it take to get the business you want? What does it take to stop throwing your money away when it comes to advertising or marketing your detail services?
There are five specific basic money-wasting "opportunities" that hurt most ailing detail companies.
Let's analyze what they are, and how you can improve your bottom line and obtain better results.
These are the five marketing mistakes to avoid:
Marketing Mistake No.1: Not understanding what 'marketing' actually is.
"Marketing" is one of those terms defined in a lot of different ways. Here is a good definition of marketing: The quickest way to bring your detail service to the right market.
That may sound confusing, to make it easier, let's define the difference between sales and marketing.
Sales: What you do when you have someone on the telephone or in front of you, and are making a sales pitch.
Marketing: What you do to get those people on the telephone or in front of you in the first place.
This means that marketing, done correctly and most effectively, is really just great positioning, where you are viewed as a welcome guest instead of as an annoying pest.
Marketing Mistake No.2: Not having an effective marketing system for selling your detail services.
The best type of marketing to use is direct response marketing instead of institutional (image) marketing.
Direct response marketing allows you to sell your detail services in advance, instead of just saying, "Here I am, here is what I do, and here is my phone number.
That's just offering your name, rank, and serial number.
What you need to do is properly position yourself with education-based marketing strategies.
Have people call a 24-hour, prerecorded message, visit a website, or read an educational sales letter or a consumer awareness guide.
These strategies educate clients in advance of buying your service.
They give them reasons other than "price" to distinguish your business from other detail operations.
There are many great education-based marketing tools a detail owner can use. A main difference today (compared with those of several years ago) is that there are new delivery systems to educate people, such as the Internet, e-mail and Podcasts.
Marketing Mistake No. 3: Not using a headline in all of your ads
Believe it or not, your company is not a headline. A headline is the advertisement for the ad itself.
You want to use a statement that will get immediate interest and pull in consumers, such as:
- A New Car without the Payments!
- When Was the Last Time You Gave Your Paint a Tune-Up?
- You Car Can be One Detail Away from Perfect
Marketing Mistake No.4: Not raising your prices
It is amazing how many detailers will go out and spend money on the best possible equipment, the best training, and educating themselves so they have so much more knowledge than their competitors, but they still continue to try to compete on price.
"Best quality work, and lowest price do not belong in the same sentence, not to mention the same company.
But many of the best detailers end up pricing themselves out of business because they don't understand that consumers will pay more than what they are charging.
If you are going to try to compete on a low price, then you have got to compete on the same level of service.
It makes no sense to raise your level of value in one area (education and skill), but not raise it in terms of what you get paid.
If you want to service high-end vehicles and higher-end clientele, you certainly want to price yourself in a way that says you are "high-end."
How much you can charge for something is based on your ability to sell it, which means the more you learn about marketing and the more you utilize powerful marketing techniques, the more you will be able to charge for your services.
Marketing Mistake No.5: Not using testimonials in your marketing
One of the most powerful ways to promote and communicate the value of your detail services is by getting other people who think the world of you to say so to others. Package up those testimonials in the form of print, audio or video and use them in all of your communications with new prospects and clients.
Put testimonials in your brochures, in your Yellow Page ads. Use audio testimonials on your website and in your e-mails, and video testimonials on your website.
No one sells your services better to prospects than happy customers, and this is one area sadly underused by most detailers.
Put it all to work
Having good information isn't enough. You have to put it to work.
Compare these five marketing mistakes to your own business. While you won't get slapped on the knuckles, your business just might.
