Top 7 Easily Executable Marketing Strategies for Your Detailing Business

You could have the best products or services, but there will be no sales if your customers are unaware. 

Now, this is a fact if you’ve just launched your auto detailing business with only a few clients.

To get more businesses, you must market your company and services. Things get a little thick because some strategies are complex to execute or require heavy funding. 

But guess what, marketing for auto detailing business doesn’t need to cost an arm and a leg or be complex. Keep reading to learn some easy strategies to apply.

Easily Executable Marketing Strategies for Your Detailing Business

Here are some reliable and easy to apply auto detailing marketing approaches:

Word of mouth.

Word of mouth is still a powerful way to market your auto detailing business. And the best part? It doesn’t cost much at all apart from lunch and gas money for doing the rounds.

But you can’t stop everyone passing by your shop. So how do you go about this? Well, first attend local car meet-ups. Spot a nice car and approach the owner. Tell them you admire their car and inquire about how they’ve managed to keep it so clean and in mint condition. Just focus on making them feel good, and don’t forget to point out that you are a detailer.

Besides car owners, it’s great to talk to car event organizers. These people know many car owners and can easily link you up with potential long-term and short-term customers. Of course, you need to always have your business card in your pocket or your car’s glove box. 

Make use of social media.

Marketing for auto detailing business can happen online as well through the use of social media channels. Practically every organization, small or large, creates a Facebook business page to interact with its clients.

Facebook and Instagram are all the rage right now. You can post before and after pictures of a detailed car, share car maintenance tips and other helpful info to keep your audience engaged.

Your social media page isn’t going to get massive followers in a day. There’s some leg work involved in gaining a huge audience. Besides posting great content, a few worthwhile tactics include resharing other detailers’ content, working with influencers (if you’ve got the budget), connecting your blog, and running contests.

Strategic partnerships (Cross-marketing).

If you are not partnering with fellow detailers in your city, you are certainly leaving a lot of bucks on the table. It doesn’t matter whether they offer similar services as you or not.

Good partnerships result in free endorsements, and when you get a detailing gig without spending a dime on marketing, that’s a good saving on costs, right?

It helps you grow your detailing business and get more clients.

Remember, partnerships will only last longer if they are mutually beneficial. If a customer needs new rims or decals, recommend your partner, and when they spot a car that needs a redress, they’ll remember you.

Set up a business website.

You cannot underestimate the power of digitalization in the car detailing industry. An online presence caters to a massive population of digital consumers who would read everything from your website, check quotations, see your online reviews and browse through a few of your previous jobs.

Having a website is not only a good strategy but affordable as well. With a bit of research, you can easily find someone to get you a highly professional and SEO-focused website for under $500.

Consider your website as your portfolio to showcase your expertise. As such, you need to post high-quality photographs and DIY quick fixes so your readers can handle minor issues on their own. Doing this makes you not only a valuable person but trustworthy as well. And when it comes to modern business practices, trust translates to more sales.  

Related: Want to know how to start a profitable auto detailing business?

Come up with a referral program.

A freebie for bringing in a friend or wife’s car? Who’s not in for that? Incentivizing your customer is a reliable way to market your auto detailing business. A referral program is a double-edged sword that creates more sales while fostering good relationships with your clients.

Contribute to the community.

Yes, we are used to big corporations running charity programs and donations. You can do it too with your small profits. Partner with a local children’s home to donate a few bags of food a month or sponsor a needy student in a nearby school.

The idea behind implementing a charity program is that people will be motivated to bring you more jobs because they are happy a part of their money will be directed to a good cause.

Start a loyalty program.

Loyalty programs are great at pinning customers to the same brand. This method has allowed many retailers to enjoy a good flow of sales around the year. But it’s not that straightforward.

To come up with a good program, you must answer questions like:

• Who is your target customer?
• Do you know their needs well?
• Why are they choosing your company?

Once you get the correct answers, go ahead and create a great loyalty program. If lost, visit a nearby successful car detailer and find out how they went about their program.

Wrap up

Marketing for mobile detailing businesses would have a few differences compared to doing it for an auto detailing business. At the end of the day, superior customer service makes them happy and willing to recommend others.

Of course, you might need to take things to a whole new level depending on your financial standpoint to include marketing strategies that leverage auto detailing software. If an expo opens up in your area, it would be great to attend and set up a shop as well.

Like everything else in life, you must be patient and persistent before your empire catapults from a startup or mid-tier to a huge multi-service empire. We wish you the best of luck.