The vast majority of auto repair shops rely heavily on word-of-mouth advertising to secure new business. It’s a difficult way to grow a business, especially if your shop is newer or has dealt with a steady, largely unchanging clientele over time. The problem is that you’re at the mercy of your customers telling people about your shop, and many won’t without prompting.
This is becoming truer every day with online reviews being the most prevalent way others use to say good (and bad) things about your business. Social media comes in at a very close second. Since your “word-of-mouth” advertising has migrated almost exclusively online, you need online content to secure new business and retain customers who already bring their cars to you for service.
Now, your first response is probably, “I don’t have time for all that,” and I understand completely. However, I have just one question: How long do you think you can afford not to tap this crucial marketing resource? The world is changing rapidly, and the way that people find the services they need is changing with it. It might not be as difficult to roll with these changes as you think. Keep reading. I think you’ll get what I’m saying by the time we’re done.
There are several key content areas that you should be tapping into and maintaining. Here are a few bits of advice on those focus areas and how you should be approaching them:
Keep Your Website Current and Easy to Find
Many repair shops still don’t have websites, and I simply can’t wrap my brain around why. Your website is the easiest and most effective way for new people to find your business. Having a website isn’t enough, however. You always want to keep your site searchable, and that means knowing a bit about search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO is made up of a number of criteria that help people find your business in a search. Here are the most important few:
Responsiveness
A website that is mobile-ready is a must for good rankings with the major search platforms. It’s mandatory with Google.
Site Design
Sites that are optimized for the best possible user experience tend to rank very high. Again, we’re talking about a predominantly mobile audience, so be sure you’re hitting all the points. Buttons, text size, and content placement are just the beginning.
If you don’t know what to look for, a site audit is a good place to start. SEO auditing provides information about your site most business owners don’t even know they should be considering. I recommend learning as much as you can about SEO and the benefits of SEO auditing or reach out to an agency like Beez that specializes in auto repair content creation.
Long-Tail Keywords
These are essential in a local search. They help pinpoint which users would most benefit from knowing your shop is there. While “affordable transmission services” might be a strong keyword, “affordable transmission services in Albany” is better.
If you have your location, phone number, and other local information up to date, these pieces of information work together with long-tail keywords to help the search engines direct people to your site.
Keep Your Blog Current
Your website is your company’s greatest asset. Your blog is your website’s most important element. It is the easiest way to seed relevant keywords into your pages and also acts as a bridge between your website and the various forms of content you use to promote it.
A steady stream of blog content that contains articles of 500 words or more can help build and maintain good rankings. It also helps you create backlinks and other forms of off-page SEO to develop consistently high rankings.
Tip: Google prefers long-form content and will rank sites with articles and blog posts of at least 1,500 words higher on average. Not all your posts need to be that long, but Google does take a “more is more” approach in determining how sites and site pages get ranked.
Promote Your Content
Anytime you produce new content, it needs to be shared. I recommend using your blog as the anchor for as much support content as possible, and that support content should come in the form of as many of the following types as possible:
Email — Make use of your email contacts and work to capture as many email addresses as possible.
Landing Pages — Directing traffic to pages that describe your services and provide means of contacting you or booking appointments work best here.
Social Media — Share any and all content you produce to your social media channels. Integrating video and other visual content into blog posts doubles the chances of it being seen. Split-test social media posts between blog posts and direct links to multimedia content and see which gets most audience engagement.
If all of this seems a bit undoable, I want to encourage you to reach out to us for help. It may seem like a lot to manage, but with the right help from talented auto repair copywriting professionals (like the ones at BeezContent), you’ll be amazed at how easy it can be to keep good customers and find new ones.
