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As a marketing agency that specializes in marketing auto repair shops, we usually stick to the foundational marketing techniques that are repeatable and just – simply – work. Itโs rare that we shy away from working within the realms of your website, email marketing, social media, search engine marketing, and direct mail.
The reason is, we donโt like to do gimmick marketing or marketing that canโt be tracked.
When you get into traditional mass media like television, radio, and billboards, thereโs no doubt that they work. The giants like McDonald’s, Coke, and all of the others you see when youโre watching TV know exactly what theyโre doing with their marketing budgets and they donโt spend money on media that doesnโt work.
But just because it works for companies who are doing 9-figures plus in revenue doesnโt mean it will work for small businesses like auto repair shops.
These large companies spend millions of dollars on awareness marketing. Their goal isnโt typically to do marketing that they can directly contribute to a sale, but rather doing marketing that implants their brand into the consumerโs mind.
Awareness marketing is valuable for small businesses too, but we donโt have the luxury of being able to spend boatloads of money and then sit back and wait for the sales to come months later. Most auto repair shops operate in a place where the marketing dollars they spend today need to produce a return in the following weeks. Thatโs why we love marketing mediums like Google AdWords.
That being said, there was a time when we nailed it with a radio strategy that just kept producing for us. Notice I didnโt say it was an โADโ that kept producing.
The Radio Advertising Strategy That Just Kept Producing
Let me give you a little back-story first.
Back when I first opened up my shop, one of my very first clients was a guy by the name of Jack Boston (at least I thought that was his name). He drove an old Mercedes 300SD.
Over the years, Jack became a great client and I learned that he was a radio DJ. โJack Bostonโ was just his radio name, but thatโs the persona he took on and itโs the name that he went by in his daily life.
One day Jack came to me and told me he wanted to run some radio ads for my shop. Iโd never been interested in doing radio ads, and to be honest, the only reason I entered the conversation was that Jack was a client and friend, and I felt I owed it to him to at least entertain the idea.
Jack wanted to do something different. He didnโt want to do pre-recorded ads. He wanted to do live endorsements during his show. The idea was, he would be talking about a particular topic, and when he hit a point that it made sense, he would relate the topic to getting his car fixed and just start talking about us.
Jack sold me. I signed a six-month contract with the radio station and we were set to go.
Within a couple of days of signing the contract, we got some terrible news that would change everything. Jack found out he had Leukemia โ and he would be spending the rest of his life focusing on overcoming the disease. He would not be continuing his radio work.
But we were in a signed contract, and the radio station wouldnโt let us out of it. They wanted me to just do traditional radio ads with them now. I didnโt (and still donโt) believe in traditional, recorded, set-length radio advertisements.
I spoke with Jack and he recommended going forward with the original plan but doing it with a radio talk-show host on another station owned by the same company. That radio personality was Bill LuMaye, a conservative talk show host on WPTF, 680 AM.
Now I already wasnโt a fan of radio, but I definitely wasnโt a fan of AM radio! But as it turned out, 680 AM is the biggest AM radio station between Atlanta and DC. The footprint and the listenership were huge, and Bill LuMaye had a cult following.
The original idea was based on the fact that Jack had been a client of ours for years and could talk from his heart about the personal experiences heโd had with us. Bill didnโt have these experiences.
I was already into this thing up to my neck, so I figured Iโd better make it work. I went and met with Bill at the radio station, and then had him come visit the shop and meet my staff. When Bill pulled up at the shop, he was driving an old beater of a mid – 90s Camaro. This thing was seriously in rough shape.
My shop, Peak Automotive, was a high-line European shop. We worked primarily on Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche. This Camaro wasnโt something that would ever roll into my shop, but I needed Bill to have โthe Peak Automotive experienceโ.
One of my techs, Josh, had spent years at a generalist shop and he knew domestic cars inside and out. I had Josh go through that car and fix anything he could find broken. 3 days later we handed Bill the keys to his car, and he was blown away. I didnโt charge him a dime for the work we did.
For the next six-months, randomly during his show, Bill would talk about his car and his experience with our auto repair shop. The spots only happened 3 times per week, but people swore to us they heard Bill talk about us every-day. The spots were also supposed to be 60 seconds in length, but they often went up to 3 minutes as Bill raved about us and the amazing work we did for him.
We had truly created a raving-fan of the person who had become one of our largest sources of new business. And when people came in โ we didnโt even have to ask them โ they would tell us โBill LuMaye told me to come see yโallโ, as if they were personal friends.
Today there is a term for this kind of marketing. Itโs called โinfluencer marketingโ. When a person becomes a true influencer, people will listen to them and do what they say. When you can turn that influencer into a raving-fan so that they actually love you and believe in your service โ rather than just being a paid spokesperson โ youโve hit gold.
When it comes to radio, youโd still be hard-pressed to get me to buy a traditional recorded advertisement. But Iโd do live personal endorsements any day of the week.
So hereโs how to create a successful radio ad strategy for an auto repair shop.
- Survey your clients and ask them what their favorite radio station is – or have your technicians or service advisor turn on the radio in the cars of your clients that you like and want more of, and write down the station itโs on.
- Ask those clients if there is a particular radio personality they like to listen to.
- Go make a deal with the radio station to do live endorsements with this radio personality.
- Get that personality to visit your shop – and do some work on their car. Most of these people are not rich and will likely be driving something that you can do some work on and leave an impression with them.
- Give them the 5-star treatment and turn them into a raving fan.
- Let them have complete creative freedom with what they say about you. The best endorsements are completely unscripted.
This strategy brought us a lot of great new clients. I am grateful that Jack convinced me to do radio in this way, and Iโm grateful that the radio station held me in my contract.
Jack remained a great client and friend – but succumbed to the Leukemia a couple of years later. I actually had his car at my shop when he passed. It was a 400E this time. His wife said he would have wanted me to have it, and that car became another amazing blessing that Jack gave to me.
Thank you, Jack.
Looking for rock-solid strategies to market your auto repair shop? Check out our Ultimate Guide to Auto Repair Shop Marketing.
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