Marketing and Advertising Campaigns For Auto Service Locations

Any and perhaps all advertising and marketing account executives will tell you that the last thing you want to do is cut your advertising budget. Yes, that sounds a little self-serving because they are trying to sell you advertising and marketing strategies using their media venues, but in reality there is a lot to be said for that wisdom. You can have the best product or service in the world, but if you aren't a good spokesman, or you don't do enough marketing, no one's ever going to know about it.

It is not always the best company that wins in business, often it is the one that does the best branding, advertising, and marketing. Not long ago, I was discussing this with a gentleman who is an entrepreneur considering starting an auto service location. He realizes that he needs to come up with a decent advertising budget and a good marketing strategy campaign. If you are considering something similar you might go to Microsoft Word Templates Online and download yourself a marketing plan where you can fill in the information.

My acquaintance, the entrepreneur, asked me if I had any decent advice on preparing such a marketing plan. Indeed I replied that; yes, plenty. But, I also noted that sometimes the best marketing didn't cost a lot of money. Grassroots marketing works the best, and printing up advertising flyers costs very little. Most of the money will be spent in good old-fashioned hard work and hustle. Now then, I'd say blitz the ten-mile radius first, spend time walking precincts, hitting up fleet business, direct mail, community based, radio; "Free Auto Service for the 5th caller" and things of this nature.

Many auto service companies these days are franchises, however, if you're going to run a franchised outlet then you must know up front that there will be stipulations in the franchise agreement that you follow the confidential operations manual, and inside will tell you how you should run your advertising and marketing campaign. Therefore, you should definitely follow the Franchisor's marketing plan for new openings whatever that might be as those types of campaigns are quite evolved and extremely efficient.

Still, even if it is a franchising business you should ask the regional rep for permission to go "balls to the wall" with the community based marketing, and develop a plan for each promotional event, 5-10 pages and execute, your franchisor might copy that plan and duplicate it nation-wide as part of their program. That's how we did it in my franchising company. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this when you are preparing your own advertising and marketing campaign.