6 Proven Digital Marketing Strategies for Your Auto Repair Shop

We know that the customer journey for auto repair and servicing is short, with the majority of consumers starting on search engines like Google or Bing. This is why paid search ads, local listings and SEO are so effective for car service marketing. You’ll also need a strong website with convenient and easy ways for potential customers to contact you. The good news is, with a little bit of planning you can ensure you are continually driving customers to your business. Here are six proven digital strategies for marketing your auto repair business. 

1. Search Advertising

You can use pay-per-click search engine advertising to generate more traffic to your website and quality leads for your business. Your ad copy should promote things that make your auto repair business unique or more qualified than your competitors – like satisfaction guarantees, promotions, fast turn-around times, or if you’re able to help customers with handling insurance claims. If you’ve been in business for a long time, highlight the year you were established. Work with a digital marketing provider to set up your Google and Microsoft Advertising campaigns, select the right keywords to bid on, and optimise location and audience targeting to achieve great results from your campaign. 

2. Local Listings & Reviews

Local listings give you another (often free!) way to show up for local searches and give your businesses presence at critical times, like when consumers are trying to find nearby service centres, look at reviews, or compare auto repairers they’ve already identified. The first step is to make sure you’re present on all the sites consumers use, like Google My Business and Facebook, as well as national directories like AutoGuru, and smaller sites specific to your local area. Encourage customers to leave reviews on your profile, and respond to any feedback you receive, positive or negative. Optimising your listings and building out your profile will help you show up for the right search queries and win new customers. 

3. Search Engine Optimisation

SEO is the practice of making sure your businesses’ website can easily be read by search engines, and has the metadata and traits that Google and Bing rank highly. SEO is a continually-changing and technical process, so engaging an expert or professional agency is the best way to ensure you’re keeping up with algorithm requirements, and getting ahead of your competitors. SEO is an essential marketing strategy for ensuring that when someone searches for an auto repair shop in your area, they will find you at the top of the search results. 

4. A Strong, Professional Website

Your website should be easy to navigate, informative and well-optimised to support your SEO strategy. Be sure to include and regularly update all of the things your customers are looking for; including location, opening hours, contact details and what services you offer. We strongly suggest including professional photographs of your business, and creating blog and video content educating your audience with auto repair tips and tricks to become known as an expert in your field.  

5. Live Chat

Adding a live chat widget on your website makes it easy for potential customers to contact you, or ask questions at any time of the day or night. Live Chat enables you to immediately engage with website visitors and provide a positive communication experience. This service collects contact information about your customer and the products or services they are interested in, making it easy for you to follow them up. You will be provided a comprehensive report about each lead obtained so that you can easily measure the success of your investment. 

6. Lead Management Software

Consumers, especially in emergency auto repair situations, are most likely to go with the first company that responds. A Harvard Business Review study (the results of which have since been replicated time and time again), reveals that you are 21 times more likely to successfully qualify a lead within 5 minutes of their enquiry than within 30 minutes. Invest in a lead tracking and management solution that captures lead details, call recordings, chat conversations and more, so can you manage leads effortlessly and follow up quickly. This will give you a big-picture view of how you’re getting customers, so you can make smart decisions and continue to invest in what’s working best. 

If you need assistance attracting more local customers to your auto repair shop, LocaliQ are here to help! With over 16 years’ experience helping businesses with digital marketing, we’ve worked with small local automotive service centers to nationwide repair chains, building their brands to find success online – and we can help you too!