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April 8th, 2011
The WebPresence™ Marketing team loves to share our passion for social media and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how we use it to make our clients successful every single day. Each week, we will post a blog about what’s going on in the WebPresence office and give you some helpful tips to help grow your business’ online presence.
The office here at the Automated Marketing Group has been buzzing with excitement for the last week over the newest addition to our family. Peter Shea, our creative assistant, welcomes a beautiful new baby girl named Elsie Lu to his family. Click here to see how cute she is!
Sharing the joy of a new baby on our Facebook pages serves as the perfect example for what we’d like to talk about in this week’s Social Media Minute: why it’s so important for your business to have a Facebook page! Today’s big lesson?
Facebook makes your business human!
When you own a small business, you don’t just work in a store on 123 Anywhere Lane. You work and live in a community where you take care of (and depend upon) your neighbors!
That’s why having a professionally managed Facebook account for your small business is so important. It’s a chance to build a relationship with customers and to become someone they know, like and trust.
Customers don’t want to buy from businesses anymore — they want to go back to buying from people they trust, because as we all know, money is just getting tough out there. When companies use Facebook as just another outlet to sell a product or repeat the company motto, they miss out on the chance to create and strengthen that relationship.
The benefit of Facebook is that it is non-traditional in the sense that it allows a two way conversation between business owner and customer through comments and messages. This offers an open-ended possibility to engage with your customers and let them get to know the people behind your business. In a sense, Facebook is a platform to showcase the most authentic part of your small business — the people behind it.
Facebook is an easy way to provide amazing customer service!
Facebook is an excellent way to gauge, respond to, and utilize customer satisfaction to bolster your small business’ image…as well as to address potential problems in a very personal way. There’s an element of danger here if you’re not committed to monitoring and updating Facebook throughout the day, since a customer complaint can sit on your wall for hours or days like ugly graffiti beamed out to the entire planet if you don’t pay attention. But with that danger comes the ability to address customer complaints directly, and a chance to fix the situation before they spread their displeasure to friends and family.
The keys to successfully using Facebook to improve your image…
At AMG, we make it a priority to get to know our clients personally so that we can be an authentic extension of them on their social media pages. If you choose to do Facebook and other social media on your own, make sure you’re doing all of these and more like we do for our clients…
- Take the time to consider the kind of customer you want (not every customer is a great customer!).
- Consider what they might find valuable, which is probably different than what you find interesting.
- Bring your personal life into the mix, but remember to avoid all controversy! People with different political leanings than you still make wonderful customers, so don’t turn them off with comments about politics, religion, or other touchy subjects.
- Find and read a variety of sources so you can constantly post interesting, entertaining information.
- Tell great stories! Our favorite story of the week comes from a client in Michigan whose customer came in complaining of noise coming from under the hood of their vehicle. When our client popped the hood, they found a large squirrel nest and a very surprised looking, very alive squirrel. We had fun posting those pictures as well as tying it back to the preventative maintenance checks that our client provides.
- Provide great resources that actually help your customers. We love to link to helpful videos, useful blogs, news stories, money-saving articles, and more.
Why is this important?
The kinds of customers who want a relationship with you are the kinds of customers who will help your business survive and grow in this and any economy. Coupon-chasing customers aren’t loyal. They always run towards the best coupon, leaving you without a second thought. But customers who want excellent customer service, who want a relationship, who want to become your fan on Facebook are the kind of customers who are loyal, who refer friends, who come back more often, and who will help ensure your success. No matter what kind of small business you own, this blog is important in understanding why great customers are the key to surviving and growing!
So go out there and show your customers another side to your business — you and your staff! And remember: there is a LOT to keep track of, manage, research, brainstorm, and think about. If you ever need help in your ongoing creating, or promoting of the human side to your company, the social media experts at the Automated Marketing Group are here to help! We have been very successful in internet marketing for the past 17 years.
Give us a call at 1-866-520-3030!
Tags: effective marketing, facebook, facebook maintenance, facebook marketing, marketing results, social marketing, targeted internet marketing, targeted marketing
Posted in Marketing Ideas, Repair Shop Marketing Tips, Small Business Marketing Tips, Social Media Minute | 1 Comment »
March 31st, 2011
Us members of the WebPresence™ Marketing team love to share our passion for social media and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how we use it to make our clients successful every single day. Each week, we will post a blog about what’s going on in the WebPresence office and give you some helpful tips to help grow your business’ online presence.
We get pretty excited about Facebook in the WebPresence Marketing office here at the Automated Marketing Group! We look forward to new updates with giddy delight, read endless articles on all things Facebook, and relish in keeping each one of our clients’ Facebook pages up to date and growing strong. Why are we so excited about Facebook in particular?
Facebook is FREE Marketing
That’s right. It does not cost a penny to sign up and create an account for your business. Although social media should never replace more traditional marketing efforts, here’s why it’s an important part of your online marketing: Facebook recently passed their 500 million member mark and more than 146,000,000 of those members are in the United States. The largest demographic utilizing the social site is between the ages of 18-54. These statistics are HUGE!
Creating a page does not mean you will connect with all of these people, of course…but there there is a pretty high likelihood that your customers and potential customers are some of those 146 million active users. Facebook gives you a platform to engage with your customer’s one on one, something that will strengthen your online reputation.
More than Just Creating a Page!
The important thing to remember, though, is that people won’t just become your fan just because you create a page for your business! You have to work at it every day…that includes telling customers about your page and then give them a reason to keep following you!
Here are the Automated Marketing Group, we help our clients by doing multiple posts every day, running exciting contests, researching helpful money-saving information that customers want to hear, asking and answering questions from customers…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We also help our clients become advocates in their community — we research upcoming events, communicate with the chambers of commerce, promote our clients’ favorite charities, network with other businesses, and work hard to make their page on Facebook the source for all community news and notes!
And of course, I haven’t even touched on maintenance…we’re constantly monitoring number of followers, updating their accounts, adding photos, keeping track of comments, updating company info and more!
I know it sounds like a lot of work, but when it’s done right, a successful Facebook page will help to build your online social community. The big thing to remember is “done right”! David Rogers, the President of AMG, explains why:
“If your Facebook page reads like a Technical Service Bulletin because it’s packed with so much technical information, it will never get read. If it looks like your 12-year-old nephew put it together because he did, nobody will read or remember it. If your posts are full of jokes you got in your email (and that everyone else got in their email in 2003), you won’t come off as the expert, and again, your Facebook page won’t get read or remembered.”
Whether you’re talking about customer newsletters or social networking or any other internet marketing, it’s not something you should hand to just anybody. You’ll get the best results from professionals who manage social networking full time as part of your whole web presence — including Search Engine Optimization, Content and Localization!
If you’re hesitant to start building that community because of the time commitment involved, drop us a line on the contact page or give AMG a call at 866-520-3030.
Check back next week for another reason Facebook, social media and a professional presence on the web are so important for your business!
Tags: facebook, facebook contests, facebook maintenance, facebook marketing, online community, online presence, social marketing, web presence
Posted in Marketing Ideas, Repair Shop Marketing Tips, Small Business Marketing Tips, Social Media Minute | 1 Comment »
March 24th, 2011
 I recently had a newer client come to me asking us to redesign his local phone book ad. I’ve been saying for years that the phone book is dead…and it’s not hard to see why. Here in Denver, we’re buried under an avalanche of different yellow pages, and there’s simply no way to be in all of them.
Not to mention the fact that people are using search engines instead. (TWICE AS MUCH, according to the graph on the right from eMarketer.com.)
But that doesn’t stop sales people from calling and trying to sell that ad space…which is why I want to set the record straight when it comes to marketing:
Targeted mail outperforms untargeted marketing like the yellow pages in every way.
Here’s why:
“When I finally switched from traditional advertising – yellow pages, neighborhood coupons and an antiquated web site – and focused on a frequent, targeted mailing program and having a comprehensive internet marking presence, my sales tripled and my net profit went up ten-fold. Today, sales and profit continue to increase at an amazing pace in spite of the economy and all the bad news out there.”
Terry Keller
Owner, Keller Bros. Auto Repair, Littleton, CO
Whether you’re talking about direct mail or internet marketing, you need to be working to attract a targeted customer in a targeted neighborhood. In direct mail, that means you should be mailing into specific neighborhoods with a message that targets specific customers.
Trying to sing a song that everyone likes is not going to work for most small businesses…it’s much more effective to determine WHO your customers ARE and focus your ad dollars on precisely what they want to “hear,” and then get busy delivering the mail and the experience once they arrive!
Same with electronic marketing: your SEO should be targeting a specific group of people and your website should be speaking directly to and attracting great customers who buy and refer other great customers. Birds of a feather DO flock together!
And while we’re speaking in the terms of birds…which would you rather be doing — shooting wildly in the dark or taking precise rifle shots from a comfortable, planned position of knowledge and experience?
For more info on how to get affordable, but highly targeted direct mail and internet marketing solutions for your business, give us a call at 866-520-3030 or click here to send us an email!
Tags: effective marketing, marketing results, phone book ads, search engine optimization, search engines, targeted internet marketing, targeted marketing, targeting great customers, yellow pages
Posted in Marketing Ideas, Repair Shop Marketing Tips, Small Business Marketing Tips | 2 Comments »
March 18th, 2011
What if I told you that most of your advertising is a waste of money?!
A living marketing tool helps you make sure you’re spending correctly and only in the right areas. It’s the difference between a predictable and effective marketing plan that helps you stay busy all year long…and one that doesn’t.
If you’re an automotive repair shop on RPM ToolKit™, you’ve got this kind of tool already. But if you’re not, here’s how to get started…
First, you need to track sales by source. Your POS software should be able to break this down for you if you’ve been diligent about tracking every ad you place and every piece you send. This doesn’t just mean external sources either…it should include all of the costs involved in maintaining your affiliations and credentials as well as your cost to market to your internal customer database (through newsletters, cards, bounce-back coupons, and more).
Next, track your referrals by customer, making sure to track the referring customer back to the original source so you understand which coupons lead to customers who refer.
Then you need to track the true cost of each source, including the amounts of discounts and giveaways. This means tracking the cost to design, the cost to print, the cost to mail and the cost of the discount.
Once you’ve got it broken down by category for each month, you’ll have a true picture of how much you’re spending on marketing dollars as a percentage of sales. Why is that important? If you’re not spending 6-10% of sales, you’ll never get the growth you want!
These days, if you’re not spending at LEAST 6-8% of sales on marketing, you’re probably not even holding steady, much less growing!
Now, as you break down your spending by month and get an accurate picture of how much you’re spending as a percentage of sales and where you’re spending it, consider this…
On average, it takes 4-6 weeks to see the FIRST results from marketing. The marketing you do today won’t see the biggest impact until almost May!
In other words, you can’t wait to until June to start advertising if you want customers in June!
The same goes for your slow months…if you wait until business is already dead to start advertising, you still have six more weeks of no business to survive before an influx of customers!
If you want to make this your best year ever, you need a living marketing plan, and you need to stick to it. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy fishing a LOT more when I know the fish are biting!
(We’d like to help you create a living marketing tool for your business. We help all of our clients create one! Give us a call today at 866-520-3030 and make this summer your best ever, and next winter, your warmest!)
Tags: living marketing tool, marketing budget, marketing results, marketing tool, measuring marketing, measuring marketing effectiveness, rpm toolkit, tracking marketing
Posted in Repair Shop Marketing Tips, Small Business Marketing Tips | No Comments »
March 2nd, 2011
Does your business have Top Of Mind Awareness? It’s what makes your customer think of YOUR business first, before any of your competitors!
A customer newsletter is an INDISPENSABLE part of any marketing budget because when it’s done well, it can mean TOMA. But it has to be done well — people have to want to read and hang onto it!
There’s a new blog up on Search-AutoParts.com about customer newsletters that every business should read. The focus is on Automotive Customer Newsletters, but every small business owner will get something out of this blog!
Click here to read ” TOMA: Do you have it? Why your business needs a customer newsletter!”
Tags: customer newsletter, TOMA, top of mind awareness
Posted in Marketing Ideas, Repair Shop Marketing Tips, Small Business Marketing Tips | No Comments »
October 5th, 2010
We’ll be at CARS next week, October 11-13 in Las Vegas, NV. Stop by booth C1382 and see us!
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
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Almost every time I ask my clients how they got my email address, they said that they went through my website. They said after reading my website they said ‘that’s the charter boat I want to go on.’ Your building skills are what make my business go around. I just wanted to say thanks for all the hard work.”
Captain Dave Schugar,
Sweet E’nuf Charters
- Marathon, FL
New customers from the Dear Neighbor Letter™ are very different than the usual customers. They seem to come in with trust already instilled, like a referral from one of your best customers. They are looking for quality, for service after the sale and to be taken care of. Price is not that big of an issue so there’s no need to portray it.
However! Be ready — I mean really ready — to provide 125% service to these people, because for once it will be appreciated.
Also make sure you follow up with them three days after service. If there is a problem they seem to be more forgiving and understanding and trusting the relationship. If all customers were of this nature, what a perfect career this would have been!
Jim Gesell, Gesell’s Automotive
-Oconomowoc, WI
I had a customer walk through the door today, DNL™ in hand. He explained that he had been doing his work with a Mercedes specialist for years. That specialist had just closed. He explained that he had been getting our mailer for some time now and was ready to give us a try.
“With all the dealer and independent closures going on, we have had 2 to 3 of these people a week. I can’t thank you enough for your help with my marketing. My bank account definitely shows how much it is working.
Alan Heriford, Johnson County Automotive
-Merriam, KS
I’m getting $800 and $1,000 R.O.’s and they are a completely different type of customer than new customers from other types of marketing. I’m even having to adjust my thinking about how new customers act because I don’t seem to have to try as hard to please them. They are already sold and I need to just take care of them.
Joe Lynn, Performance Plus Automotive
-Greensburg, PA
“My expectations we not only met, they were exceeded!!
Exceptional service is what we look for from a vendor, especially in areas of our business where a need is realized, but we lack the expertise to accomplish the goal. AMG™ has proven they are dedicated to exceptional service. We have used AMG’s direct marketing programs in the past with exceptional results, so it was a natural fit having AMG™ develop our web site. Will Johnson, Director of Marketing did an outstanding job….he a true professional. If you want old fashioned customer service that delivers on time and on budget, call Will at AMG. You won’t regret it!”
http://www.pacificmotorservice.com
Kevin & Sue Anne Donohoe, Pacific Motor Service
-Monterey, CA
“I just finished accounting for the last 6 months of our advertising. As you know, we track all of our advertising with coupons and discount offers. Over the past 6 months, we advertised in the 2 local newspapers, with Money Mailer, Buy Colorado, in Founders Keepers, Tidbits and with the DNL direct mail thru AMG™. The DNL piece has gone out twice in the past six months, and both times the pieces hit, the response was almost immediate and very noticeable. We had an increase in phone calls, and in walk in traffic. No other form of advertising gives us that kind of response or excitement. Statistically speaking, 64% of all coupons over the past 6 months came from the DNL pieces. On the whole, our average repair order directly related to coupons was $381.78. That’s not a bad figure, but DNL coupon driven repair orders averaged $614.52, and in the month of October, the average repair order was $767.39!
“The DNL is the best piece of advertising we have ever used. It always out performs anything else by an almost 2 to 1 ratio! And, the customers that the DNL drives to our shop are the type of customers that make life-long customers. They usually have 2 or more cars, and they are willing to spend the money required to keep their vehicles operating at peak efficiency. In the past 6 months, we have dropped the Buy Colorado and Founders Keepers ads because they generated zero response. The newspaper ads will be next. The fact that we can count on the DNL to create interest and excitement makes it that much easier to stop spending money on things that do not work. Plus, with a change in wording, or adding a different photo, in no time you can have a direct mail piece that has a different feel or look, but still conveys a message that creates interest and excitement. I would recommend this advertising to anyone interested in getting maximum bang for their buck!”
T.C., AMC
The marketing program you set us up with has once again exceeded my expectations. Our mailing have always had exceptional response, but this one tops it all — last week a new customer handed me a mailer you created for our company for our first mailing at the beginning on 2003. I couldn’t believe it!
“I had to ask what made them keep it for so long. Their response was, they “could feel the value and sincerity in its statement, how it was constructed, and simply could not throw it out.” I have heard this in the past several times, but now two years later, unbelievable!
Brion Fuller, Automotive Specialists
-Tucson, AZ
Customers who call in because of the Dear Neighbor Letter™ consistently compliment us AND spend more money than with any other marketing we use. Several people have come by just to meet us after receiving it and later became customers. The DNL Works much better than anything we have used before. The repetition of mailing each quarter pays off and we have had new customers bring it in from mailings 6 months ago and beyond. It pays for itself!
Bob & Su Walker, S&S Automotive
-Mesa, AZ
The benefit we get from the mailer [Dear Neighbor Letter™] is it helps the consumer realize that we do actually care about them by educating them about our products and services, without feeling like we’re trying to sell them anything. The value is the consumer perceives they are actually getting a lot for their money because they understand what we will do for them before they ever enter our business. It works for me
Kenny Walters, Mufflers and More
Walled Lake, MI
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