Where to advertise?

Don't waste your money! I have never advertised ever. The only thing I have done is word of mouth,car shows/meets and friends. Make sure you show your work so people can see. Some people have used google add words with good results.

Welcome to Autogeek. When I talk to other businesses I find out who is in charge for the hiring out of the detailing work, then make an appointment to see them. I wear my company shirt and bring a pamphlet of my services and pricing.

If it is a dealership they will hack on your prices. When that happens I just smile, thank them for there time and say if your ever in need of a detailer please think of me. My time is of the same value as there's so big discounts for dealerships is not in my cards.

Pureshine said:

Don't waste your money! I have never advertised ever. The only thing I have done is word of mouth,car shows/meets and friends. Make sure you show your work so people can see. Some people have used google add words with good results.

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I would be very careful following this advice. No offense, but marketing is an essential part of any business.

Even Purshine's marketing has cost him money... doing the extra work on the cars to merit a referral from his clients, the cost of going to car shows, the examples of his work he might have done for his clients or friends at no charge.

Marketing does cost money, but make sure that your money is going to the right places, that are getting you quantifiable results.

Google adwords, a website, having the right print materials (business cards, brochures, logo, etc.), other forms of advertisement such as radio, print ads, billboards, all different forms of marketing.

Will all of them work for you? That is for you to find out, or at least to contemplate whether is even worth trying or not.

Marketing is a deep, extremely important subject that most small business owners struggle with, really do your research here to find what may or may not work for YOU.

VP Mark said:

I would be very careful following this advice. No offense, but marketing is an essential part of any business.

Even Purshine's marketing has cost him money... doing the extra work on the cars to merit a referral from his clients, the cost of going to car shows, the examples of his work he might have done for his clients or friends at no charge.

Marketing does cost money, but make sure that your money is going to the right places, that are getting you quantifiable results.

Google adwords, a website, having the right print materials (business cards, brochures, logo, etc.), other forms of advertisement such as radio, print ads, billboards, all different forms of marketing.

Will all of them work for you? That is for you to find out, or at least to contemplate whether is even worth trying or not.

Marketing is a deep, extremely important subject that most small business owners struggle with, really do your research here to find what may or may not work for YOU.

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^^^ what he said! I've struggled with finding the right places to advertise on the cheap. So far I've only spent money on custom postcards which I have placed in the newspaper boxes of about 2000 homes. There are services that will do this for me in my area... around $100 per 1000 homes. Out of 2000 postcards, I've yielded 5 clients (in 3 months). Not a very good return, although who knows how many have the card that will call in the future for an appointment. 4 of the 5 are in more affluent neighborhoods, so that is where I'll focus my next marketing campaign. I've started an aggressive facebook campaign, and time will tell how that works out. Craigslist produced nothing but spam... gave up on that quickly. Everything else has been word of mouth and referral... which still hasn't been much. I have a total of 10 clients right now (started in May).

My next efforts will be another direct marketing postcard campaign targeted at 1 or 2 affluent neighborhoods with around a total of 2000 homes. I'll print 6000 cards, and have a service deliver to each home once per month for 3 months. My goal will be to "own" those two neighborhoods. I expect better results by focusing efforts on one or two neighborhoods... we'll see.

Sorry so lengthy... coffee Im the MAN

VP Mark said:

I would be very careful following this advice. No offense, but marketing is an essential part of any business.

Even Purshine's marketing has cost him money... doing the extra work on the cars to merit a referral from his clients, the cost of going to car shows, the examples of his work he might have done for his clients or friends at no charge.

Marketing does cost money, but make sure that your money is going to the right places, that are getting you quantifiable results.

Google adwords, a website, having the right print materials (business cards, brochures, logo, etc.), other forms of advertisement such as radio, print ads, billboards, all different forms of marketing.

Will all of them work for you? That is for you to find out, or at least to contemplate whether is even worth trying or not.

Marketing is a deep, extremely important subject that most small business owners struggle with, really do your research here to find what may or may not work for YOU.

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Local car shows and meets are free! I don't do work for free and doing small extra things making a new customer happy will bring you in 5 times the money spent taking 10 extra minutes doing something small to make the car look better. Before you make claims about me make sure they are right first! Do not ever put words in my mouth please! I have very successful detailing business and theses things have worked very well for me.

Pureshine said:

Local car shows and meets are free! I don't do work for free and doing small extra things making a new customer happy will bring you in 5 times the money spent taking 10 extra minutes doing something small to make the car look better. Before you make claims about me make sure they are right first! Do not ever put words in my mouth please! I have very successful detailing business and theses things have worked very well for me.

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Come on guys, lets not get into a heated discussion about this. Look, Pureshine may have found the perfect formula for success. That doesn't give anyone the right to criticize his advice to the next guy. Its up the recipient of the advice, to use this knowledge as a positive thing or negative.

If you're making a good living by not advertising and using only word of mouth and referrals, then that says great things about you. That could mean you do a GREAT job and people trust your judgement. Are you happy Pureshine? Are you content? If yes, then continue to do what you do and don't worry about someone says about you.

We don't know what Custom Quinton wants from his business. Is he just looking to do part-time work and add customers as they come? Or, does he have a plan to quit his job and make detailing his life. I am a marketing major and yes, marketing is very important but can be very costly. Marketing teaches us to be very strategic about what you do and save money as you grow your business. You may not be in the position to do postcard marketing or advertising on the radio. Marketing is also about being creative and gaining customers from the most unlikely places. Do you live close to a park or recreational center that host sports teams? Call someone from the board and ask them to add your logo to all reading material and pamphlets. Now of course, you got to give a little to get a little, they may ask for a donation or your free time to help out with events.

Network with other businesses in your field and make yourself visible. Talk to the tint shops, tire shops, repair shops and anyone that deals with the auto industry. I can tell you from my experience that postcard marketing will not give you the returns you're looking for. Our business is more visual oriented and people aren't going to GO CRAZY over a nicely printed postcard. iAre you mobile? Find a good place to setup a detail and make sure you do it in a high traffic area. Go to private businesses and offer the employees there discount prices for using you. You want to stay local and close to home? Contact local businesses and ask to speak to the owner or manager. Talk to him/her and discuss a possible partnership. I added a banner ad to my friends website and I get more business than I can handle. I only wanted to do this part-time but now I am overwhelmed with tons of calls and crazy busy weekends.

Whats my point? Brainstorm and find what works for you and your business needs. Pureshines method may not work for you but it sure works for him, thats what counts. Do you want more of a laid back approach or do you want to do BALLS TO THE WALL type of detailing. All of us don't want the craziness of dealing with people week in and week out and choose more of a moderate to slow type of approach. You may want something totally different.

Pureshine said:

Local car shows and meets are free! I don't do work for free and doing small extra things making a new customer happy will bring you in 5 times the money spent taking 10 extra minutes doing something small to make the car look better. Before you make claims about me make sure they are right first! Do not ever put words in my mouth please! I have very successful detailing business and theses things have worked very well for me.

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Sir, I did not put words in your mouth. I'm sorry you perceived it that way. My point is that there is no such thing as free advertising. Nothing in business is free... even a little extra sweat and brow effort costs you somewhere. Telling people to not market at all is just bad business advice. Most people can not get enough business, especially when starting out, by just relying on word of mouth.

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VP Mark said:

Sir, I did not put words in your mouth. I'm sorry you perceived it that way. My point is that there is no such thing as free advertising. Nothing in business is free... even a little extra sweat and brow effort costs you somewhere. Telling people to not market at all is just bad business advice. Most people can not get enough business, especially when starting out, by just relying on word of mouth.

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As I know you have read my other thread it takes time to build a business. So no matter what you do for any kind of advertising you do it doesn't work over night. So I what I meant was do not spend a lot of money on advertising its a waste of your money. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising for any detail business when your first starting out. In detailing your work is everything to make it in this business. So the extra sweat will pay off in the end and all that cost you is a little time not money.

CustomQuinton said:

Thanks I appreciate it. How do you think places would react if I walked in and just asked them if they were interested, gave them my card. And so on

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I have a fire station by my house and do all their cars and the cops personals cars by me. I just walked into both places talked to the chiefs and told them if they ever needed any of their cars detailed I would give them a good rate. Now I have 12 new customers it stuff like this that doesn't cost anything but some time.

Pureshine said:

As I know you have read my other thread it takes time to build a business. So no matter what you do for any kind of advertising you do it doesn't work over night. So I what I meant was do not spend a lot of money on advertising its a waste of your money. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising for any detail business when your first starting out. In detailing your work is everything to make it in this business. So the extra sweat will pay off in the end and all that cost you is a little time not money.

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I agree 100% that everything comes back to the work... but not all advertisement is fruitless.

Example... I used to work at Sams Club and purchased a large flashing arrow sign for only $50 at one point. Sat in my garage for years. Fast forward to the start of Visual Pro Detailing... I needed some branding and name recognition so o placed the sign at a relatives house on a main road in my small town with my business info on it. Paid relative some money each month for effort to mow around it and for electricity to power it at night. I have made many thousands of dollars off that sign since I first put it up, including many regular clients and dozens of people I have put expensive coatings on for. Most of them were not referrals, but simply saw the sign and either called or went to my website.

If word of mouth works great for a business, keep with it! But you might be missing out on a LOT of quality work just by not doing simple advertising campaigns.

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One thing that realllyyy helps is being a car enthusiast. sponsoring local car clubs, attending meets/shows, being able to talk cars then work in your detailing business. it has yield great results for me

this thread is why i love this forum!!! there are so many different methods for what works for someone that might not work for someone else. and even though we might not see eye to eye on everything, at the end of the day the members of this forum respect for each other and come back and make things right where they dont see eye to eye and we are able to get over it and still have a great conversation to help a fellow friend who is trying to make it in the business.

VP Mark said:

I agree 100% that everything comes back to the work... but not all advertisement is fruitless.

Example... I used to work at Sams Club and purchased a large flashing arrow sign for only $50 at one point. Sat in my garage for years. Fast forward to the start of Visual Pro Detailing... I needed some branding and name recognition so o placed the sign at a relatives house on a main road in my small town with my business info on it. Paid relative some money each month for effort to mow around it and for electricity to power it at night. I have made many thousands of dollars off that sign since I first put it up, including many regular clients and dozens of people I have put expensive coatings on for. Most of them were not referrals, but simply saw the sign and either called or went to my website.

If word of mouth works great for a business, keep with it! But you might be missing out on a LOT of quality work just by not doing simple advertising campaigns.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using AG Online

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:dblthumb2:

Spend most of your money on an amazing website with great content and SEO. You can build from there.

1. Do not ever... ever... EVER do Living Social or Groupon
2. Facebook and enhancing your website's SEO is the best way to attract clients

craigslist and facebook

I bought a laminator for $20 and made my own flyers and pinned them up on any community board I found.

Also, doing a great job and giving the customer and extra business card or two will get extra customers and clients

CustomQuinton said:

Thanks I appreciate it. How do you think places would react if I walked in and just asked them if they were interested, gave them my card. And so on

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You should hit every body shop and mechanic shop in your area and dont just give them a card ,give them at least 20 cards so they can give your cards out for you . Offer to refer them business and take some of there cards as well. Also hair salon , barber shop , realtors, dry cleaners , any where where someone would go to make there appearance better. After all thats why they would bring you there car. Again i have said it before google ad words works great and a website!!

craigslist is a good way to show your work and its all free.ps dont hide from the big jobs as they make real good money. rv's, boats,