Car Wash Marketing Channels
If you’re like most business owners, the passion behind starting a new business begins and ends with doing the thing itself. When it comes to running a car wash business, there is a lot of pride in turning out well washed cars time after time. But just being good at what you do can only carry you, or any other small business owner for that matter, so far. It’s time to consider how you get the word out there.
A Lot of Marketing Channel Options
There are a number of marketing channels that you can invest your profits into to get new customers. Some of them are more costly than others and some of them have a better return on investment than others. It’s best to get a comprehensive list of all of the potential areas where you can advertise your business to gauge what channels are worth it or not.
If you already have an ongoing marketing strategy, you may have to take a step back and compare your list of go-to options to what other choices are available. If you are just starting out with a new car wash, getting the list of potential options is crucial to deciding which ones you want to dominate and invest precious resources in.
Here’s our list of marketing strategies that we see most car wash owners are investing their money or time into:
- Streetside Displays and Inflatables
- Social Media Management (posting to social media for free)
- Social Media Advertising (paying extra money for additional exposure)
- Online PPC (paying for ad space online that charges per click to your website)
- Online SEO (optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results)
- Email Marketing
- Direct Mailers
- Ad Space in Local Shopping Guides
- Radio Spots
- TV Ads
- Online Video Ads
- Charity and Community Events
- Good Customer Relations Management Practices (wash clubs and loyalty programs)
Calculating What’s Worth the Investment
Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer on what channel will work best for your car wash business’s marketing strategy. There are a wide range of variables that make it too difficult to put a finger on any one in particular. For example, on a popular Facebook group for car wash owners to discuss best business practices, TalkCarWash, several group members were discussing the value of paying for advertising on the back of local grocery store receipts.
One member had this to say:
“We’ve had great luck with those. Some of the most effective marketing we do! It depends on the offer you give and the store you put it at, but we have a very high redemption rate for those coupons. You need to change your ad every 3 months so it doesn’t get stale, though.” –Steve B.
However, there was an overwhelming majority of responses like this:
“I try 2 times but no luck at all!!!” –Mark S.
“I tried it. Got no return on it. The grocery store was less than 1000 feet from my wash.” –Gordon L.
“Pretty costly. Did 4 different store over the course of 2 years with different offers. I was actually loosing $2 a car with the cost involved.” –Ryan Davis
One car wash owner had a little more insight:
“We did it for years. IIRC it was about $400.00 for a 3 month Run. we were in about 5 store $400.00 each for 4 locations. Offered Free Sealer wax with coupon. Toward the end each location was getting about 200 coupons a month, but I figured it was costing bout $700 / month for 800 coupons. I think for larger ticket items it may be more worthwhile but for $3.50 to spend almost $1.00 per redeemed coupon was not worth it.” –Earl W.
Even though it is difficult to pin down the best marketing channel with the highest ROI (Return On Investment), there are three general rules that you can use to allocate your budget:
1. Maintain Marketing Spending as a Percent of Revenue
Based on this article published by the Small Business Administration (SBA), spending 7% to 8% of your gross revenue on marketing is a good rule of thumb. This would mean that if you make an even $1 million in gross revenue a year, you can take 7% of this figure to determine your marketing budget.
*As a sidebar, this would break down as the following metrics as per our previous article about car wash cash flow:
- The road your car wash is built on has an average daily traffic count of 30,000 cars
- You’re open 320 days a year
- You have a capture rate of 0.75%
- An average ticket price of $15.00
- A profit margin of about 29%
- 72,000 cars washed per year
At $1 million in gross revenue a year, you should spend between $70,000 and $80,000 a year on your marketing budget. If you have monthly marketing costs, this would come down to around $5,833 per month.
If this figure sounds like a lot, keep in mind that this is a recommendation that includes all of the money that your small business is spending on marketing efforts, not just advertising. There are many ways that you can spend even a generous marketing budget on any number of small details that add up over time.
2. Diversify Where You Invest Your Marketing Dollars
According to this survey research by Taradel:
“In 2019, only 18% of SMB advertisers will rely on a single channel, with the majority (82%) using two or more.”
You can access the average customer of several, overlapping marketing media. The same people who are listening to your spot on the radio could be driving past your car wash location’s sign. The same potential customers watching television could be scrolling through social media. Even in social media, users are on multiple platforms simultaneously. In this article, Marketing Tech says the following:
“According to a new report from GlobalWebIndex, the average person now has 7.6 active social media accounts, with 98% of people having at least one social network account.”
With everyone on multiple social media platforms, it may be smart for your car wash to follow suite. The higher your presence in the marketing realm, the higher likelihood of reaching your target audience.
3. Track Money Spent Alongside Revenue Increase
To figure out what you should spend your marketing dollars on, try to keep a finger on the pulse of two key statistics: the total amount you spend on a given marketing channel and the amount of money you earn from that same marketing channel.
This is easier said than done. It’s hard to tell if customers pulling into your car wash are coming expressly because they saw a man in a banana suit dancing and making a fool of himself on the street corner holding an arrow-shaped sign. Unfortunately for the data junkies out there, the only way to gather data on how many heads turn when the banana man dances is to live under a total surveillance government that records all of the actions of its citizens 24 hours a day and let’s you take a peak at the footage in exchange for a bribe. So… not happening.
Analyzing the success of marketing channels is also difficult because brand awareness can be a long term goal that pays off a long ways down the road without showing much bang for the buck in the meantime.
However, that doesn’t mean we give up. Coupons in direct mailers can indicate how much of the money you spend on print marketing is rolling up to your car wash. Ads in the digital space can include tracking codes that give some idea of how many viewers turn into customers. Surveys of loyal customers can help you determine how they found out about you and where to find more wonderful people like them.
Another method to determine whether specific channels are worth the amount of money you spend on them is to A/B test them. This is where you establish a control time period without using a specific medium to advertise your business. You can use this to gauge how much you make in revenue while adjusting for all other known variables such as seasonal fluctuations, etc. Once you have this figure, turn on the marketing platform that you are testing for effectiveness and monitor the results. If you suddenly notice an uptick in sales when you start this new campaign, you’ve struck gold!
Pulling the Trigger on a Marketing Campaign
While the various avenues of marketing can be overwhelming, it’s best to pick a few and invest carefully to see what works for you. Perhaps you can also solicit the advice of a fellow car wash owner. Even if they’ve only been in the industry for a while, they might know what’s working for them. Heck! Even poorly performing car washes can give you some insight on what NOT to do!
From your friendly east coast car wash pit cleaning company, best of luck with improving your car wash marketing plan! Get in touch if we can help with getting your pits cleaned.
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