Congratulations! You’ve taken the first step in starting your own business. Now what? Well, the next challenge is how to get the word out on who you are and what amazing things you have to offer.
It all seems so simple, you set up the business, buy the equipment, and people will come to you. Unfortunately, it takes a bit more than quality work. You have to create a presence and tell people who you are and how you can help them. We’re going to break down some of the key components of what you need to do to “make a name for yourself”; step by step with examples and links to getting things done quickly and effectively so you can get back to what you do best: detailing cars!
We are going to cover the basics: how do you decide on your business name and logo? What are the different types of marketing and how do you use them? How do you get your name out there and get people to contact you? How do you keep your customers happy and coming back?
Developing Who You Are
Crafting your business name
Every person has a name. A name is something that’s attached to us and establishes our identity; it’s how other people remember who we are. The same goes for your mobile detailing business – it has to have its own identity. This is very crucial as it is how your current, and potential customers know you. In fact, a clever and catchy name makes you stand out from your competition because it sticks in the minds of your audience. Never underestimate the power of a business name, it’s more important than you think!
When coming up with a name for your new business, it’s important to think carefully about what you want your business to be called. There are a few things to keep in mind when brainstorming names:
1. Make it short and easy to spell.
Not only is it more convenient for new customers and even returning customers to remember, but it also makes your advertising process a piece of cake. Shorter names also make you stand out. People will often avoid companies with longer and more complicated names simply because they can’t remember them, or maybe even pronounce them.
2. Make it obvious what your business is about.
Let people know what you offer! Use key words in your name and tag line that encourage people to give you a call first!
3. Make it stand out.
There’s a great website called Bustaname.com that can help you think of an appropriate name for your business. Once you’ve come up with a few names that fit the criteria above, it’s time to start narrowing them down.
Consider how well each name represents your business and how memorable it is. You may also want to do a quick search online to make sure that the name isn’t already taken. Once you’ve made your decision, it’s time to start branding your business!
Before you finalize your business name, run it through a service like namechk.com to ensure the potential name is unique and not already used by someone, either as their website URL or on social media – this will help your online marketing later.
Once you’ve established what your business name is going to be, it’s time to put a “face” on it!
Creating your brand logo
For inspiration, look at the logos your competitors are using. Not only will you get inspiration from these, but they will give you an idea of what style or design elements you might want to incorporate, and which ones you don’t. The last thing you want is to end up with a similar logo to a competitor, as this could confuse your customers and you could also lose your business’s unique identity.
What do you want your logo to say about you and your business? Do you want it to be bright and quirky, or achromatic and minimalist? Are you going for sleek and modern or hip and retro. Either way, you wouldn’t want to choose colors that conflict with your overall brand. It’s like ketchup on your ice cream sundae – it just doesn’t work out. And always keep in mind, the more colors you use, the more difficult and expensive it will be to create your website and print merchandise. Try to keep your color palette to under 5 colors. A great website to check out is http://colormind.io/. You can select a color you like and it will give suggestions on complimentary colors. Make sure to save your palette with the color codes so you can be sure to use them over again.
Once you identify your brand colors, you are ready to create your design. You can do it alone or consult with a logo designer. You can easily find logo designers at freelancer websites like Fiverr, or an online design site like 99designs. Have a designer create a few logos to choose from, and pick one that best represents what your mobile detailing business is all about. If you want to create it yourself but you don’t have any creative experience there are applications like Canva where you can easily alter templates to suit your brand design.
Don’t forget to put into consideration the advertising that will come later – the website, business cards, employee uniforms, etc. Your logo should be adaptable to all potential merchandise. You should be happy with your logo in all aspects, because that reflects how other people see your branding, too.
One final, really important piece of advice, before you go any further, make sure the name you have chosen, and the color scheme and design you use, are not a potential copyright infringement. Always use royalty free, or licensed, images and fonts that are not associated with another company.
Now that you have your brand set up and ready to go, it’s time to think about how you’re going to put it out there.
Getting the word out!
Offline Marketing
Despite the prevalence of digital in our lives, handing someone your business card or a postcard, is still an amazingly effective way to get business. It is a tangible, “face-to-face” method and can’t be simply ignored or pushed aside as not needed.
Business Cards
Business cards are a great, inexpensive way to let people know you are here and ready to do business. It contains your mobile detailing business name, your name, what services you provide, and your contact details. Be sure to include all of your digital contact information such as website, email, and social media handles.
If you choose to employ this type of offline marketing, make sure to always keep your business cards on hand – you never know when you’ll meet a potential customer. Invest in some card holders to keep them in mint condition. Take them with you to local supply shops, car shows, anywhere that you might have an opportunity to hand one to a potential client. You can also ask to leave some at neighborhood businesses for people to take. Remember, it’s an extension of your business and yourself. How it looks when you hand them out to people matters!
Postcards and Flyers
Another low-cost marketing choices are postcards and flyers. When designing flyers for your mobile detailing business, you can just opt to do it yourself, using an online design platform like Canva. 24hourprint.com and vistaprint.com are great resource for professionally printing out small batches of the flyers and help to keep the costs down while providing great quality. Just like business cards, postcards and flyers contain important information about your business. They can also be used to announce special events, discounts, or coupon codes. Although they are considered offline marketing, they can be connected to virtual marketing strategies. The latest techniques involve including a QR code on any marketing collateral leading to your website so the prospective customer can get more information about your business and the services you offer.
If giving out flyers as a marketing strategy sounds good to you, make sure you have an end goal in mind. As simple and mundane as it sounds, giving out flyers to people shouldn’t be taken lightly. Your focus is always on growing your business through gathering interested leads, leading people to your website, and providing information on your services. Mindset matters.
Focus on what you want your audience to know. Keep it simple and to the point. Overloading your flyers with busy images and too much information can make it too heavy on the eyes, therefore your audience wouldn’t want to read it. But don’t leave out creativity! Use attention-grabbing colors, a compelling headline, and interesting designs to capture your audience. Keep it in line with your brand’s image and style. Get your audience hooked and get them to keep reading. And to call you to book an appointment for mobile detailing.
Virtual Marketing
You have your name, your logo, your colors and design, now it is time to take it all online!
Your business’ website
You have two options for building your site, you can outsource it to a freelancer or build it yourself. There are so many tools out there for building your site that even someone with little to no experience can have it up and running in no time. Find a good host, like GoDaddy, BlueHost or, if you want to go with an one-stop-shop, take a look at SquareSpace or Wix. Do your research to find what is going to work for you for the long term, you do not want to spend time building a site and realize you need to switch to a different platform. Most of these will give you an option to register your domain name through them and will have a support team to help get you up and going. Find a template that is going to fit your goals. Did you want to allow customers to book online? Are you going to be selling merchandise? Do you want to provide a way that you can be paid virtually for your services on the site?
When it comes to virtual marketing, your business’ website is the best and most powerful marketing tool. Not only can you use it to display information about your products and services, it’s also an online space for you to showcase your work. If you want to provide merchandise you can build an online store. Make sure you include your social media handles, an “about” page, pricing and services provided and an online contact form.
In order to get more visitors on your website, you should optimize it so that you appear at the top of the search results. The free service Google Trends can help incorporate current and popular search trends into your website (for example, your blogs). This way, people can find your mobile detailing business easier, gaining you customers. Another service by Google called Google Analytics helps out by providing statistics for your search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing needs.
As you grow, think about adding a blog and videos, you want to show potential customers how passionate you are about what you do. Focus on services and products your customers need, and show how your business can help them out.
Once you have established all of these, working on your website doesn’t end there! Continue to observe how your website does along with the current trends. Figure out what works and what doesn’t and adjust accordingly. Services like W3 Counter can help you figure out the where, how, and what of the audience that visited your website so far and you can further develop your website from there.
Social media
Social media marketing is very important. People spend a lot of their time on social media, so it’s the perfect way to spread the word about your mobile detailing business.
As with everything, it isn’t simply a post-and-go task. It requires a well-thought-out strategy and clear goals. From creating your business profile to posting content, to engaging with followers, and even paying influencers to endorse your brand, it’s a marketing strategy that takes planning to be successful.
Create a strategy around what you want to post and how often you want to do so. What platforms do you want to use and for what type of media? Facebook is great for small businesses, you can join local community groups, interact with other detailers, post coverage areas and interact with your customers. Remember to always keep it professional, this is a visual representation of your business. Create an approachable persona for your clients, one that generates knowledgeability and trust. Your audience can also directly contact you with a push of a button, helping you build relationships with them. The more online presence you have, the more interested potential customers you get.
Take this one for size: according to localiq.com, Facebook itself has around 2.74 Billion active users. Just imagine how much traction a single post can get. If you are interested in this strategy, you have to know your brand and audience. You should know what you want to convey and how you’re going to convey it to a specific group of people. To increase social media presence, you also must be able to have regular activity to stay on top of your marketing strategy and keep up with trends as needed. Use interesting content with informational, promotional, and a little emotional approach to organically promote and grow your business. Content creating tools like Canva.com have beginner friendly tools to make professional looking publicity materials.
Instagram and TikTok are essential for showing potential, and current, detailing customers exactly what you do. On the site images and videos, posting before and after ASMR content, using the correct hashtags will expand your audience. Use quality images, be sure that any videos are well formatted to best represent what you do. If you are doing a voiceover, keep it professional and upbeat. Social media is your business on the global stage.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is the process of mass sending promotional messages to leads. Your business can reach people on the go, too. With email marketing, advertisements about your products and services reach your leads within seconds. You can also utilize email as a way to send out drip campaigns to previous customers, reminding them about upcoming offers or to schedule an appointment. According to emailmonday, email marketing has an estimated ROI of $38 for every $1 you invest into it, making it another efficient tool you can use to market your mobile detailing business.
So, how do you do it?
First, create a list of leads. Use your website to get the email addresses of potential prospects. For example, you can offer a coupon in exchange for their contact information. Second, just like any other marketing strategy, you need to establish your goals – it is the key to an effective marketing strategy. Draft emails meticulously and meaningfully to convey your message effectively and to avoid the spam filter. Remember, sending an email to someone’s inbox is easier said than done, most especially if it’s sent in large quantities. Avoid spammy subject lines and make sure your prospects know you have their email address to avoid being reported for spam. Applications like MailChimp.com, ContactContact.com, and Omnisend.com can help you develop an effective marketing campaign. And many offer a free trial so you can test them before signing up.
Merchandise
Merchandise is a great advertising method since the act of advertising is extended to your customers. They, too, can advertise your business by simply seeing or using your merchandise. Start simple, maybe a simple keychain, or pen. Another fantastic way to show your customers you care, is, after you have cleaned the interior, place custom paper floor mats over the freshly cleaned floors. You can get a pack made with your logo at https://www.americanfloormats.com/custom-paper-floor-mats/.
Merchandise, for consumers, holds value and is a passive reminder. A notepad with your company’s logo can potentially get way more exposure due to its usability. Merchandise materials such as mugs, shirts, pens, and others are also cheaper in bulk – these are less likely to drill a hole in your budget.
When just starting your marketing process for your mobile detailing business, promotional merchandise is a good idea to give first-time customers a memorable first impression. Happy customers are more likely to become an extension of your marketing process by telling friends and family about your business. You can also use your merchandise as a giveaway prize for promotional events.
Keeping your current customers interested
Now that you’ve done the process of marketing and you’ve started to establish a good customer base, it’s time to make sure they stay interested. An excellent way to do so is to nurture your leads through drip marketing. It’s a lot similar to the primary marketing process of turning potential customers into actual customers, but this time it focuses more on keeping in touch with people who have interacted with your mobile detailing business. Even when they’ve just taken a quick peek at your website, completed the contact form but never made an appointment, or if the lead has simply become cold, the process of ‘drip’ marketing can still be applied to them.
‘Drip’ campaigns are usually done by reaching out to someone after a certain amount of time. They can come in the form of automated emails, which makes it convenient for you as well. Drips can be triggered by signing up to your website, customer birthdays, and more. These are usually dates that are important to your customers.
You start your drip campaign by choosing your trigger. Do you want the automated email to be triggered by a sign-up, abandoned items in the shopping cart, or first purchases? Next, figure out who you want to send these emails to. You can keep this organized in a mailing list. For example, do you want to send out first purchase notifications to people who spend more than $50? Third, draft your drip email. Make sure they are consistent with your brand and personal for your customers. Lastly, review and constantly improve your emails. With the fast-paced marketing scene, unmaintained drip marketing material may become stale. Companies like mailchimp.com provide automation tools that can help you with your drip marketing campaigns while you focus on other aspects of your mobile detailing franchise.
Another great way to keep your customers coming back are promotions. Special offers and repeat customer benefits are a great way to increase sales, gain customer traction, and spread the word about your mobile auto detailing business. We all know we can’t turn down a good deal! Promotional offers like limited time offers, free trials for first-time customers, promo codes, discounts for returning customers, and many more are excellent ways to get started. These sales promotions can be announced over free platforms like social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.).
More useful tips
You’re well on your way to marketing your mobile detailing business to success! If you need more help, there are digital marketing services that can help. 2DaMax Marketing is a great service that can help you build a website, create social media profiles, and build reputation for your auto detailing business.
Below are some more tips to help you along the way.
Budgeting is something you’re definitely going to be doing repetitively. Base your budget on what aspects of your business you want to improve, as well as short term and long term goals. Be practical about this and make sure that you are acting within your means – this is crucial for small businesses. Analyze costs. Draft a budget plan for materials and leave some allowance for unexpected costs that may come. If you discover later that you actually need more money for something, it can create a domino effect and be detrimental to your business. Don’t go crazy buying a bunch of promotional material that you can’t turn over and eat your profits. Start small, focus on building clients and keeping them happy. Use your marketing strategies to promote your goals.
Remember, your mobile detailing business represents you and you represent your mobile detailing business. This is your own brand – you start it and build it up. Stay professional and at the top of your game. Involve yourself in your business and always keep your values and goals in your mind. Work smart and efficiently to create the best mobile detailing service in your area.
