Whether you’re looking to increase sales, grow your business, or maximize your profit potential, you need a marketing plan. That marketing plan should include the right mix of marketing strategies aimed at meeting your business goals.
For auto glass companies, experience shows that the best marketing strategies that deliver the most impact are search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) Internet marketing, Internet radio, local radio and television, streaming platforms advertising, and online customer reviews.
Here’s how each of these marketing strategies can deliver results that maximize your bottom line.
SEO
Definition
Search engine optimization, more commonly referred to as SEO, is the process of applying various tactics to enhance the quality and quantity of traffic to a website.
How It Works
Search engines like Google and Bing use certain factors when determining which websites will rank higher than others in search results pages. Among them are:
- Keyword relevancy;
- Quality content that addresses searcher intent;
- Load speed;
- Web design and structure;
- User experience;
- Online reviews.
When designing or redesigning your website, have an SEO professional evaluate its design, structure, and content for local SEO.
How It’s Effective
Done correctly, SEO results in your website ranking on the first page of a search engine’s non-paid (also called organic) search results. This is huge because most people rarely go beyond one or two pages of search results.
PPC
Definition
Pay-per-click or paid search advertising is a type of Internet marketing where traffic is directed to your website through the use of a digital ad associated with a particular keyword.
How It Works
First, hire a digital marketer to manage your campaign from start to finish. Business coaches will tell you that successful companies hire experts for the things they don’t know or are not their core business function.
Next, decide on a budget for your PPC ad campaign. A digital marketer can help you in determining the best return on your investment based on your goals for the campaign.
There are several steps digital marketers perform when running a PPC campaign:
- Establishes an account for your campaign.
- Identifies your target market and local areas to target.
- Determines the best keyword or keyword phrase for your ad. Often times, companies run several ads featuring different keywords simultaneously to compare which keywords are the most effective.
- Identifies effective calls to action to use, whether it’s clicking to get a coupon code on your website or calling to schedule an appointment.
- Creates content for your ad that contains the focused keyword or keyword phrase and a call to action.
- Bids for ad placement on the agreed upon search engines.
- Determines how long the campaign should run.
- Places your PPC ad.
- Analyzes the ad’s effectiveness and provides a report to you.
When someone conducts a search that matches the keyword in your PPC ad, your ad may appear as a sponsored link at the top of the search results page.
You pay a fee each time a visitor clicks your ad and visits your website. The campaign ends once it reaches the specified time or web impressions.
How It’s Effective
PPC campaigns drive traffic to your website and is a proven way to increase new business leads. A PPC ad also puts your business in the spotlight, attracting attention and interest it might not otherwise receive in organic search results.
Internet Radio
Definition
Internet radio, also known as digital radio, distributes all genres of music, as well as news, sports, and talk shows, over the Internet 24/7/365. Pandora and Spotify are examples of Internet radio.
How It Works
In order to run an ad on Internet radio, you have to call the provider’s sales team, which handles the ad creation and its airing. Request a media kit to review pricing options since some may have a minimum spend.
You choose your target audience from options that are much more laser focused than that of traditional radio. For example, among the numerous demographic targeting options are location, age, sex, generation, marital status, parental status, hobbies, language, vehicle ownership, listening times, and playlists.
You also have a choice of different ad formats, among them branded playlists, display ads, audio ads, video ads, billboard ads and an advertiser page, as well as the duration of the ad campaign and the length of individual ads.
Internet radio services typically charge on a cost per thousand (CPM) basis according to ad type. It should be noted that users of Internet radio can pay an annual fee and bypass all advertisements.
A benefit to advertisers is that Internet radio services limit the advertisements they run per hour, so users generally pay more attention to them.
How It’s Effective
Advertisements that air on Internet radio services are super targeted, which means your ad is being heard by those consumers you want to market to and are interested in hearing about your services.
Plus, Internet radio runs 24/7, so you can target people while at home, commuting, at work, or anywhere in between.
And since very few ads run within an hour, listeners are more likely to pay more attention to its message and heed your call to action.
Local Radio and Television Ads
Definition
Local radio and television ads are locally produced commercials that air during programming on national commercial television, satellite, or cable television networks, such as NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, TNT, Discovery Channel, etc. Local stations are provided an allotted time to run local ads during national programming.
How It Works
To run ads on your local radio and television stations, contact their sales department. You’ll be provided with a media kit that outlines the various programs and their advertising costs.
Radio
Some local radio stations offer various options beyond an ad. For example, you can pay to be a sponsor of a hosted show, buy time to air your own show, or appear as a guest on a show.
Many radio stations have converted to digital streaming, so instead of an ad being read live on-air, you can run a digital ad that is inserted within their digital streaming programming. This allows radio stations to offer more targeted demographics based on the age, gender, and location of listeners during a certain time or show.
If the radio station is owned by a media conglomerate that has other radio stations in its portfolio, you have the option of running your ad across several stations. Radio stations also can run digital ads on their apps and website for any device the listener is using to access the station.
Television
Like local radio, local television also offers different advertisement options beyond traditional commercials. For example, you can be a partner in a charitable or community event the station sponsors and promotes on air or buy time immediately after the news to run a longer, infomercial type ad.
In addition to traditional advertising, some television stations produce local lifestyle or entertainment shows where businesses can pay to be a sponsor or appear on air in a segment of the show.
How It’s Effective
You probably have one or more radio and television stations located in the communities your business serves, so having a presence on them builds customer recognition for when your auto glass repair or replace services are needed.
By advertising locally, your company is more likely to see an increase in business from those who directly heard or saw your ad, as well as from word of mouth by people who saw or heard the ads and passed along the information to a friend, neighbor, or coworker.
Streaming Platforms Ads
Definition
Streaming platforms distribute live audio or video over the Internet. Viewers watch the live broadcast over a streaming device, such as a streaming media player like Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV, a computer, or a home entertainment system.
How It Works
Your ad is produced by an advertising agency that creates ads for streaming platforms. Since ads on streaming platforms are targeted to an IP address to capture location, they can be made interactive and pop up according to certain conditions.
For example, if a hailstorm is expected in your location, one of your ads would appear on the streaming platform letting people know that if their windshield is damaged by hail, your auto glass shop is the place to go to have it expertly fixed.
How It’s Effective
Streaming platforms offer their customers personalization and choice in the programming they watch. And they do the same with their advertising philosophy, which results in a win-win for their customers and advertisers.
According to a national advertising agency survey of digital versus interactive ads, interactive ads have a six percent click-through rate versus the 0.0175 percent rate for digital ads. The difference has to do with the fact that when an interactive ad airs, it is during a time that is relevant to the viewer.
Because streaming platform ads are targeted and interactive, they add value by keeping viewers engaged to your message. They also have 99 percent viewability. This, in turn, translates to viewers taking action that leads to increased sales.
Online Customer Reviews
Definition
An online customer review is feedback from a customer who purchased a product or service. This online feedback covers a wide range of topics, including the quality of the product or service received, the price, customer service, and the ease of using the website to order a product or service.
How It Works
Think of online customer reviews as a virtual word-of-mouth referral.
Customers are prompted to write a review about businesses where they shop or have a service performed. These prompts might come from the business itself – which is why it’s important to have an online customer reviews initiative as part of your marketing plan – or customers might be registered members of review sites.
Online shoppers write a review of their shopping experience on the review site, such as Google+, Yelp, or Angie’s List. The review is available to all to read and, depending on how many reviews your business receives, the review site may rank high in search results for your company’s name or local SEO keywords like windshield repair or auto glass replacement.
How It’s Effective
Online customer reviews increase your website ranking on search engines. The more reviews you receive, the greater the influence search engines place on your business when returning search results.
A higher search ranking is crucial to local businesses because it increases sales. Many people read online reviews before doing business with a company. So in a way, customers who have done business with your auto glass company are doing the marketing for you.
Whether reviews are positive or negative, they allow your auto glass business to interact with consumers. That’s why it’s so important to monitor online customer reviews to see what is being said about your company’s auto glass services and respond to both positive and negative customer feedback in a timely and professional manner.
Your company’s interaction with online customer reviews can enhance your online reputation and create customer loyalty. This is particularly true with negative reviews because consumers can see how you address the situation.
Online customer feedback also helps you learn more about how you are conducting business. From the reviews, you can determine whether you need to enhance customer-focused services, if employees need additional windshield repair training, or how you can better serve customers.
Conclusion
Auto glass shops that make marketing a priority by spending time daily marketing, advertising, and generating sales opportunities achieve the results they are seeking.
The best marketing strategies for an auto glass company target its local market in such a focused manner that consumers learn about the business at a time when its services are most likely needed.
Take time on a quarterly basis to evaluate your marketing plan to ensure it’s serving your goals in the most effective manner.