If you’re reading this, chances are you want to learn more about marketing and what you should and should not do to make your business’s marketing work for you. We both know your business is great, but you want the right audience to know how great you are too. After all, what good does being an amazing business do if no one else knows about it? That’s where good marketing comes in!
Before you start focusing on your marketing strategy, goals, or content you should try to answer these three questions:
- Why did I create my business?
- What is my business’s voice?
- Who (what audience) am I trying to reach?
Once you have answered these questions clearly and positively it’s time to start focusing on your marketing strategy. These questions will help guide you in your marketing journey to create content that appeals to your target audience and stays true to your brand. Now let’s dive in!
DO: Stay Active on Social Media
All too often social media is overlooked by automotive shops and other businesses as trivial or pointless but developing the right social media strategy for your business can help spread brand awareness and make current and potential clients more aware of your products and services. You also can utilize social media platforms to generate one of the most effective forms of marketing: reviews. Gaining reviews of your business can help in building your online reputation. One size does not fit all regarding marketing, specifically for social media, so it is important to choose the platforms that will keep you most connected to your target audience and post quality content that will appeal to them often enough to keep them engaged but not too often as to drive them away with annoyance (think quality over quantity here.)
DON’T: Forget to Respond
Utilizing social media for your business you’re likely to generate reviews and comments that are both good and bad, and you should address these responses as immediately as possible. Whether you are receiving a compliment, criticism, or complaint, be sure to respond professionally and address the customer just as you would in person or on the phone.
DO: Engage Your Audience
You should have a content plan or schedule consisting of industry relevant, interesting, and up-to-date content including videos or high-quality images to engage with your audience. Posting only text posts, outdated information, or information that is completely irrelevant to your business will not engage your audience and will likely drive them away from your social media pages, so it is important to post what high quality content that captures your audience’s interest and keeps them coming back for more.
DON’T: Constantly Pitch to Your Audience
No one likes ads constantly clogging their social media feeds, so why should you constantly post content that reads like a sales pitch? Your audience is going to respond to content that is relevant to their interests and that they haven’t seen repeated dozens of times before. Every business has something that makes them unique, so using generic sales content or imitating your competitors more often than not is a missed opportunity. Instead, you could focus on localized, high quality content that appeals to your audience specifically. This both promotes your business with originality and doesn’t fill your audience’s feeds with monotony, instead providing them with useful and informative content.
DO: Focus On Your Customer’s Needs
Ultimately, you are providing a product or service for the customer, so focusing on what they need is a good strategy for success, not just in marketing, but in all aspects of your business. What solution(s) do you offer your clients? Do you save them time, money, effort, all of the above? Showcase to your clients what it is that your business can offer them to make their lives easier and fulfill their needs, and you will have a better chance of creating brand loyalty and returning customers.
DON’T: Be Afraid to Change Your Plan
As previously stated, marketing does not have a one size fits all solution. This means that sometimes your marketing strategy may need a refresh. It could take some time to get into the swing of a regular marketing schedule or realizing what you want your brand voice to be, so if what you’re doing isn’t yielding the results you’re looking for or if your brand voice isn’t what you think it should be, don’t be afraid to start again. Following best practices can help your marketing be successful, but don’t hesitate to adapt them to your marketing needs. If you need to modify your marketing strategy, remember, you’re not starting from scratch this time, you’re starting with the experience and knowledge to be able to improve.
With these do’s and don’ts, you’ll be a marketing pro in no time. But if you need assistance, Epicor MechanicNet Cloud CRM is here to provide automotive service providers with all of the web-based customer retention solutions needed for success.