Marketing your auto repair shop to a distracted audience

June 28, 2018
Thanks in large part to digital devices within arm’s reach that give us instant access to the internet, email, texts, video, games, online shopping, newsfeeds, music, social media, and more, we’re constantly bombarded with the "what else is happening?" phenomenon.

Believe it or not, scientists have figured out that goldfish have the attention span of 9 seconds. Aside from wondering how the heck they figured that out (or even why), you’d probably agree that 9 seconds isn’t very long, right?

I bring that up because the same scientific community that brought that amazing fact to light has also figured out that the attention span of the average person (aka your potential customers) is only 8 seconds according to a study in 2015 — a full second less than that slimy little goldfish. Crazy, right?

Thanks in large part to digital devices within arm’s reach that give us instant access to the internet, email, texts, video, games, online shopping, newsfeeds, music, social media, and more, we’re constantly bombarded with the "what else is happening?" phenomenon. How often do you find yourself watching TV while searching the internet on your phone? Going through email while talking on the phone? How about texting while carrying on a conversation with someone across the table from you? We’re not immune; neither are your customers.

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You’ve no doubt realized that attracting more car count to your shop has become a lot more difficult, too. What used to be a highly effective marketing message, now seems to be falling on deaf ears. And it might as well be. Your marketplace may be hearing it, but amongst all the noise, clutter, and short attention spans out there, it’s being totally ignored.

Not long ago, your advertising choices were pretty limited. Yellow pages, newspaper, and direct mail made up the bulk of media being used by shops. But now, there are literally hundreds of choices to choose from to get your message out there — email, text, Facebook, video, blogs, podcasts, and more — which is causing even more distraction because the marketplace is being bombarded (and continually numbed) with a constant barrage of advertisements selling everything from ab workouts to Zombie Apocalypse Survival Kits. According to many studies, the average person is exposed to more than 4,000 advertising messages per day — and that number is now growing by leaps and bounds.

So how do you get noticed among all the noise and clutter? I teach dozens of attention-grabbing strategies, but due to space limitations, I’d like to cover the four most important ones here.

Be the familiar face

Have you ever been in a room full of people and amongst all the noise and chaos, you heard someone mention your name? It immediately caught your attention and you zeroed in on the person that spoke it? Or maybe you walked into that same crowded room full of strangers and saw someone you sort-of recognized and were drawn towards them because it made you feel more at ease?

You can use this phenomenon to your advantage by focusing your marketing efforts towards your current and past customers. Your logo, shop name, and maybe even your own name will be the familiar face in the crowd for them. Whenever possible, use your prior relationship with them to your advantage by personalizing your message with their name, vehicle, and any other relevant information you have about them to help them zero in on your message.

Stand out in the crowd

Same is lame. In a fast-paced, action-packed environment, blending in is the last thing you want to do. Yet in the follow-the-leader world of marketing, the media is filled with ads that do little more than just blend into the landscape.

Just like you’ll notice a building for the very first time after it has been freshly painted with a bright new color (even though you pass by it every day on the way to the shop), or a man that’s wearing lederhosen and standing in a sea of suit-wearing businessmen, your eye is naturally drawn to what is different.

I’ve been experimenting a lot with Facebook ads recently and, by far, my most successful ad to date is a video I recorded while escaping from a straightjacket (a skill I figured would come in handy once my clients finally drive me over the edge and I’m whisked away to a padded room). Amongst the thousands of look-alike posts, videos, pictures, and advertisements you’ll see every day, seeing a guy writhing around in a straightjacket is very likely to stop you in your tracks and take notice, wouldn’t you agree?

Use video

Every minute, a whopping 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube and almost 5 billion videos are being watched every single day. Video is a media that continues to explode. You can no longer ignore it as a key strategy when attracting more car count to your shop because your prospective customers are more likely to watch a video than to read anything you send to them. As a mentor once told me, the easiest way to attract attention is to find where the stampede is heading — and then stand in front of it.

Video also has the distinct advantage of making your prospects feel as if they already know you, therefore, they are more likely to pay attention to you the next time they see your videos. I recently spoke at a conference and had a half dozen shop owners walk up and start chatting with me as if we were lifelong friends. I thought that either I had lost my mind and didn’t recognize these old friends, or that I was somehow wearing a t-shirt with my name scrawled across my chest. It wasn’t until the sixth guy told me how much he enjoys watching my Car Count Daily videos that I finally realized why I was such a familiar friend to them.

Market to their pocket

Ninety-five percent of your marketplace now carries a cell phone with them at all times. We’ve become so dependent on them that a new term for the irrational fear of being without a mobile phone has been coined called “Nomophobia.” (Okay, I’ll admit it. I’ve turned my car around more than a few times after realizing I left my phone on the nightstand. How about you?)

These phones are probably the major cause of distraction because they are constantly ringing, buzzing, and dinging with alerts. When these alerts happen, we can’t help but stop whatever we’re doing to check them out — and this is where you can use this to your advantage by sending them an offer via text message.

Here are a few stats that show just how well text messaging cuts through the clutter and distraction and why you should consider adding text to your marketing arsenal:

  • 98 percent of texts are opened
  • 95 percent of texts will be read within 3 minutes of being sent
  • The average response time for a text is only 90 seconds

Now once you have their attention, your job isn’t over. Nope, not by a long shot. Remember you’re dealing with a market that has an attention span of less than a goldfish, so once you’ve caught their attention, it’s important to get them to act RIGHT NOW — before the next text, phone call or Kardashian tweet yanks their attention away from you. Here are a few powerful ways to do it.

Be the obvious choice
Before making a decision to come to your shop, 91 percent of folks are going to check you out online first. Thanks to those tablets, smart phones, and desktop computers that are within arms reach at all times, finding the dirt on you has never been quicker and easier. If you have a poor reputation, or star rating, it’s going to be a deterrent to any prospective customers that are considering using your services. (We’ve developed a unique — and free — online reputation tool that will show how your shop rates in your marketplace and will give you tips on how to improve your score. Simply go to www.Soapboxx.io to check it out.)

Have an attractive offer
By all means, I’m not saying you need to give away the store, but you’ve got to put together an attractive enough offer to grab their attention. Keep in mind that you have zero chance of making money off a vehicle that’s not in your shop, so do whatever you need to do put together an offer that gets the phone ringing.

Use scarcity
A great offer will help grab their attention, but combining it with a limited time and/or quantity will get them to respond right now.

Make it easy to respond
You’ve just accomplished the Herculean task of cutting through all the noise, clutter, and confusion, then grabbed their attention, given them an attractive offer, and gotten them to respond immediately — now don’t blow it by asking them to jump through hoops to make an appointment. Allow them to make an appointment online by clicking a link if they wish. If they are going to call your shop during business hours, the call must be answered by a human. If they call after business hours, forward the call to your cell, or hire an answering service to handle the call. That answering machine that you may be using is costing you more money than you can imagine!

Customers are the lifeblood of your business because without them, you’re doomed. Attracting more car count can often be an exercise in futility, especially if you’re blending into the scenery and not getting noticed. If you’d like more tips, tricks, and tactics on attracting more car count, I invite you to check out my free Car Count Daily videos on Youtube or subscribe and have them delivered to your email every week by going to www.CarCountDaily.com.

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