Best way to market my mechanic shop ?

A website is not about doing quotes online, it is about helping people find you.

It is your "Yellow Pages" on the internet. Imagine how many leads you are losing from people who have problems with their cars, grab their smart phone, and search for a mechanic. They are not finding you.

That should be a high-priority for you.

You need a website. You are right. People don't look on facebook for mechanics. However, if you use facebook to build a following in your local area by posting repair and maintenance tips, you have a pool of people who already know who you are before they go looking to call someone when they need service.

Using facebook to connect with your community is a proactive way to generate business rather than a reactive way of just waiting for the phone to ring.

You are leaving LOTS of money on the table by not having a website and not building a relationship with locals through facebook.

Getting reviews on Google and Yelp is not that hard. You just need to engage your clients and ask them to give you reviews.

You should be collecting email addresses of your clients so you can ask for those reviews, remind them of routine service, and keep your shop forefront in their minds so they recommend you to friends.

Get a website & also get current customers to post testimonials on Facebook.

Make some Youtube videos.

11,891 home addresses of Poles are available
for rent in greater Chicago.

Can reduce it to the ones nearest to your biz.

That's a mailing list there.

Then there is the Polish Societies.

Ask them if you can either advertise in
their publications or rent their member list to send out your offer.

I'd look at writing your mail/ads in Polish
if they are fluent in Polish.

Best,
Doctor E. Vile

I'll bet some of your customers stay at my hotel about every other summer - to go four wheeling.
Nice rigs, too. They do come from the same neighborhood in Chicago and are mostly just friends
with each other, some related to each other by birth, and more recently by marriage. For first generation, they were just in their thirties and forties and their English comprehension was really very good. I had several enjoyable conversations without difficulty, and I do not speak a word of Polish.

SO, I think you do keep on doing well in that demographic to have your bread and butter customers and then expand.

Do you specialize in any area, such as 4 wheel drive?
Or, in any make or type of car?
If you do, get known in those circles via print or internet publications that cater to the work that you do best.

To start with, though, at least get a mobile website up and claim your Google My Business spot (and the equivalent on Bing and Yahoo).

Below is an older style website, but provides a pretty good example of how to establish credibility and expertise and getting found. They come up tops in a google search for "transmission repair Denver, CO" and don't quote prices on the site.

(I understand why you don't quote with out seeing a vehicle first, but I do think shops could say something like " about $150 per axle for a routine brake job, but of course it depends upon exactly what is needed and how badly worn everything is. How long has it been since you had the brakes serviced?...")

http://www.advancedtransmission.com/

Dan

Why not do a mass mailing of color postcards featuring your business to residents in your local community offering a ten cent discount to new customers or you could pay a company like Val-Pak to include your business in its mailings.

daveski,

From my experience, most Poles are Catholics.

One church may have thousands of members.

Do you by chance advertise in the church bulletin?

Not Polish but I was born in Pittsburgh....LOL

Polish Sons and Daughters - sponsor a polka night or something

Polish (Orthodox) ad in church bulletin

with the amount of Poles in Chicago I am sure they have some sort of newspaper right??

here it is >>> Polish classifieds, ads, jobs, real estate ads, newspapers. - Newspaper ads

online too - check it out

Google is your friend - I typed in Polish Chicago Facebook and got lots of possible connections

work Linked in too - get your keywords right and connect with suitable people

seems that Chicago has lots of Polish festivals and stuff too....every Catholic church Polish or not loves a carnival....be there...have a booth or someone passing flyers

I still think you should have a facebook and website , "bi lingual"....check on any sites from Miami to see how it works...how you can have 2 flags - here usa and spanish....or check sites in canada where they manage bilingual english and french - it can be done..why not polish too? realize that many of your online customers may be english speaking...but the other thing is many people CAN READ AND UNDERSTAND ENGLISH>..they just don't like to but they can...and/or they have a kid who can and will read it....or read it and tell them"hey this shop looks good and they speak Polish"

so ...there are lots of ideas

as far as reviews....well you can encourage your english speakers to write them but honestly a review in polish on yelp ain't gonna help you

hmmmm...now I am hungry for some pierogies LOL

Thank you everyone for all the copious amounts of useful information!

Great stuff, I read everyone's post! I liked the little argument earlier, made me EL OH EL!

Anyway, I forgot to mention that my main goal is to focus on marketing my business online, because I feel like I kinda have the "offline" marketing part fairly covered with TV ads, newspaper ads, etc..

From what I read, I will be creating a website just like @bizgrower mentioned, both in English & Polish & give out rough estimates for repairs.

I would like to optimize my Facebook fan-page and rank on Google..however, what type of keywords should I focus on? Should I focus on polish keywords or would that be pointless?

I feel like it would be much easier to rank for the polish ones, instead of like "auto repair chicago" in English because it will be competitive.

Let me know everyone's thoughts.

Once again, thanks for all the help! It's really giving me a lot of ideas!

Like I said - check similar sites in Miami and ? Montreal/Toronto etc to see how they handle it

do a google search for your local polish org facebook pages..see how they handle it

you could work a deal to have them promote your page on their facebook page - that would be the best way online IMHO

pay or barter or link exchange with other Polish websites

Here's why I think the whole neighborhood idea is holding you back.

Real example.

My brother has a 1 hour drive to work, his AC went out on his car. He didn't get the car repaired near his house, he found a mechanic within a couple of blocks from where he works.

You're in Chicago, I'm sure there's a boat load of businesses in your area where all kinds of people work, not just Polish people.

You need to drop the Polish traffic tunnel vision If you're serious about expanding sales.

To summarize:

1. Build a website.
2. Optimize your website after doing a proper keyword research.
3. Make use of social media sites.
4. Improve and manage your online reputation.
5. Have an animated explainer video.

Hi there,

Pay close attention to the advice ewenmack gave you. In fact, if I were you I'd hire him to do a direct mail piece for me.

Polish in Chicago will use you if they feel you speak to them directly. They will refer their friends and be loyal.

I lived in Chicago when I was younger. There was a club called "Touch of Europe". It should have been called "Touch of Poland" - I was the only European (not Polish) there anytime I went.

It was said at the time that there were more Polish in Chicago than there were in Warsaw (at that time). Big market. Old school market. Great market.

All the best,

Sasha

As you mentioned in your post that you have your business presence everywhere but don’t have business website yet. These days, even small business should have website. Any business that does not have a website is missing out on one of the most powerful marketing tools available to them. These days’ people love to go online and search for the product before buying any product, if you don't have a website you are missing out on all of this potential business.


So according to my perspective you should work on your business website and then marketing.For any help feel free to ask

Well you just said you're "trying to target all types of people, not just the polish". This is contradicting. Why not run the Facebook add if you're trying to target all types of people?

Join local Facebook buy sell and trade groups and look to advertise on those groups if they allow it.

I run a local group that has 23k members and people have made their own businesses flourish because of the power of word of mouth via local members.

If your already doing well in the "Polish market", why would you waste time/money to market to them? They are already your customer base.

I would recommend you to actually invest in building your own website. It doesn't really have to be to give quotes. It should be to tell your potential customers about you, leave you reviews, share images, connect with people, etc.

You have to learn more about building a connection with potential customers. Learning a little bit of human psychology can really make a huge difference in your business!

I read an article a few weeks ago, where they say showing potential customers images of your services and of your workers socializing with customers, will make the potential customer really consider doing business with you. A lot more than if they did not see these images. You get what I mean?

Having your own website, will also give you more authority in front of potential customers. You can even have this website on your business cards (and I hope you do have business cards). That will give your business a more professional look too!

In today's world, not taking care of the online side of your business, even if your entire business is offline, can really cost you missing out on a lot of money!

Once you have your own website, you can hire a Search Engine Expert to help you rank it up for local keywords.

Just imagine your website ranking up on the first 3 spots in Google, when someone is typing the term; "best mechanic shops around chicago, IL"

That is someone who is ready to buy a service! .... because, obviously, they are looking to fix something, right?! ... otherwise they would not make that search!

And there a few keywords like that, that you can rank for!

You can also rank your Yellow Pages and Google Listings. I recommend you to hire a search engine expert.

But I would definitely invest in my own website, if I was you.

I hope this helps!

I would like to know if Daveski is running a small shop, or looking to get more business for a fifteen
bay shop. And, any specializations.

To me that makes a difference in profiling and reaching his ideal customers.

That statement speaks to what Ewen Mack is proposing, which I think is a brilliant strategy, but leaves one glaring problem in my mind...

Their 16-30 year old kids DO SIT ON FACEBOOK, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc..

I'm 55, but I frequently help my two sisters, my kids, my mother, and other relatives find someone to do services for them. I instantly turn to the internet, as I suspect those 16-30 year old kids will, too.

The best thing is to combine what both sides of the argument are suggesting, but choosing how to split the marketing budget based upon the shop's goals.

I don't think you can ignore either side of the argument as a long-term marketing solution.

A way I would use Facebook is to remind existing customers to brag about you.
I'm not a Facebooker, so if it does not violate TOS, maybe incentivize it with
something like a free tire rotation with oil change if they do brag about you.

Something to tap into the word of mouth aspect of FB. I had a housekeeper who is not
computer person at all, but she does FB with her bajillion relatives in Colorado and Oklahoma,
and that group helps each other find anything needed to buy or sell or get fixed...

Maybe just a "Remember us when you use Facebook" sign by the register...

This thread is a prime example of a little bit of information shared causing a whole bunch of assumptions.

After reading everything I understand one thing. You feel you are neglecting the online world because you have offline covered. That in and of itself is not really a sound business reason to do anything online. I am not saying you should not, just saying it is best to dig deeper to make this as profitable as possible since this feeling will likely cause you to take some sort of action online.

To that end I would ask you to consider the following ( and if we had this information we could of served you much better with less argument about ethnic groups etc.. lol )

What is your capacity?
At what level of your capacity are you operating?
Do you have droughts in business that you wish to level off?
Given the choice are there certain types of jobs or clients you would rather focus on?
If you are actually attracting one ethnic group over another do YOU see a reason for this or is it just based on population and if for some reason your offer resonates better with one group than others do you see growth potential as it relates to the reason they choose you?

Without this info all the recommendations are generic shots in the dark.

Now in regards to doing something online, or post cards etc.. the most important advice I can give you is to focus your efforts in such a manner that the least amount of effort and cost will yield the best results and base that decision on what you already know.

I believe EwenMack was going down that path but I also share concerns of other posters that we may be making some assumptions without facts.


In regards to focusing your efforts for least cost/trouble and maximum returns consider the following.


Maintaing social media takes time and effort and is easily done wrong. Ranking for all kinds of key phrases takes time, effort and results change constantly. If you are already operating at a high maximum capacity and all you want to do is generate a bit of extra business during slow times then there are much more efficient ways to do this than going for full blown web sites social media and seo.

Here is an example of keeping it simple and making a killing:

I took on the marketing for a locally focused commercial paving company.
In business 22 years, Italian descent, anyone in paving knows them as the go to guys.
Tons of Italian clients but of course also non Italians.
They had zero online presence. All work by referral. They too had that nagging feeling about missing out due to no web presence. They were pitched all kinds of expensive internet plans and complicated do it yourself plans.

By simply putting up a quick web site and putting them on Google maps and getting it ranked ONLY for their company name and the owners personal names quote requests started to flow quickly.
Why? because they were indeed being referred constantly BUT the person receiving the referral
would go looking to good old google for phone number or address, not find them and invariably hire the competition.

They were also doing radio and some print ads.
We noticed an immediate jump in sales of their radio offers after fixing the web
BUT
the leads came in through their web site even though the web site name
was not even mentioned in the radio spots!
Again, people hear the name and hit Google later just to get their contact info.

NOTHING on their site tries to sell anybody on anything.
Its just easy to find and easy to contact them via the site.

Could they run ads, do seo, build a facebook yada yada....
yes! but their specific business goals were met with a small effort that is easy to maintain
and cost them very little and will require almost no upkeep.
In 12 months, their next expansion phase we will take it to the next level.


There is nothing better than having an existing spend like radio and with a tiny investment in another channel make that first investment skyrocket. You could easily do the same wth all kinds of options like printable special offers on your site etc.. for things like AC service, oil change but in the end my advice is keep it simple or to be more accurate keep your effort inline with your desired result. There is no need to crack a nut with a sledgehammer.

P.S On another note to those selling online marketing an average job cost for these guys is HUGE so I could of gone in like everyone else with 20k plans and baffled them with bullshit to get the check. Instead I gave them a cheap fast solution. Did I make less upfront? Yes. But the referrals I am getting from these guys has yielded serious income and will for a long time into the future.

My wife found our current HVAC guy from a recommendation on Facebook so I know peer recommendations work.

You guys make simple things over complicated, lol.

Have you thought about working with tow companies?

I would do a cheeky Ad along the lines of this:

Free polish sausage with every oil change:
Free Polish sausage with every MOT:
Free Polish sausage with every Tyre change:

How you actually make the Ad is up to you!.. however i would make a life sized cardboard laminate picture of a mechanic holding a polish sausage!.. outside your garage!.. now what polish guy or girl would turn down a free sausage do get their car done.

You can market such a website in local ads directory or you can use news paper advertisement too.