One of the more traditional forms of using video for auto body marketing is television commercials. Although these can be fairly expensive, many cable companies are offering very good rates for local business owners. Also, as video cameras of high quality are now readily available, it is possible to produce a TV spot without needing professional help or equipment. Although the added costs for this kind of auto body shop marketing cannot be denied, it is still a good way to convey a professional image that will inevitably reach a large number of viewers.

However, one of the newer ways to go about utilizing video for auto body marketing purposes is by taking advantage of the internet. With media innovations, such as YouTube, virtually anyone can produce a video for all to see. Although you can use video sites like these on their own, it is also a good idea to incorporate this kind of media into your other auto body shop marketing methods as well. For example, if you have a website or a blog, consider posting a video on those web pages. This can give potential customers a view into what kind of services you provide, while giving you a chance to introduce yourself in a more personal way.

You can also use these videos as a way to showcase your work as well as your customer's satisfaction. You can show examples of cars that you have worked on that illustrate your range and quality of service. Also, taping testimonials to use on your website can have a major impact in converting someone into a paying customer. If you already have a website, including these videos will cost you very little, if any, money and are a fun way to go about auto body marketing.

If your offer is attractive enough, you will see a large increase in clients. Even if they are just in it for the one-time deal, in a down economy, this can bring in a large sum of money in a short amount of time. Even at a reduced price, if a large enough amount of people take advantage of it, you are able to multiple the amount you take in by quite a bit. However, the key to this kind of auto body shop marketing is pricing it right. Of course, you want to make it worth your while, but you need to price your services way below the competitor's. This will ensure that you have a substantial increase in your number of clients. If lowering your prices worries you, keep in mind that it is only for a limited time and they will go back in a short period of time.

Although, with this type of auto body shop marketing, you will inevitably attract some one-time-only customers, this is not typically the case. Much like offering samples, people are much more likely to continue buying the product once they have been exposed to it. Similarly, once a customer has gotten a taste for your quality of service, they have a much higher probability of becoming a repeat customer. However, this also means that you will want to make sure that you provide quality work and do so with a smile. Treat it like an interview and you are sure to increase your clientele.

Another benefit to auto body shop marketing through low-priced promotions is that it provides motivation for the customer to take action. Most ads simply drum up interest. However, without a reason to act, many people will not convert into paying clients. Therefore, highlighting that your deals are for a limited time only will create the sense of urgency that is needed to draw in loads of customers, making this a phenomenal method for auto body shop marketing.

Here are examples of what some shops are doing.  One shop we know is offering $100 off to customers for every $1000 of work they need.  Alot of shops offer free transportation for the customer while the shop is working on the vehicle.  Many of the shops using Web-Est take advantage of our internet estimating technology and take their business on the road, offering their customers on-the-spot estimates at their customers' home or place of work.  Some shops even go so far as to pay for their customer's deductible (depending on the size of the vehicle).  Ultimately, the idea is the same: How is our shop providing powerful reasons for our customers to choose us over the competition?  Ask yourself the question, "What deals can we offer customers to bring in business that won't kill our profits?"

The winner is....(drum roll please)...G&G Automotive from Texas!

The G&G Automotive team offered to us one of the keys to their success:

We purchase incident police reports weekly, since they are public data, then we offer free estimates to them by phone and buy post cards in the mail letting them know we work for them not the insurance company. The post card covers all the pros about my shop.

In a word: brilliant. After doing a little more research on that idea, we found that this is a practical and very efficient way to communicate with people in your community that are in need of your services. The incident report that local police departments produce should be public information, so all, including businesses, should be able to have access to it at a fee. Most police departments will not offer the report at an itemized rate, where you can pick and choose which incidents you would like to have information for. You will most likely have to purchase the entire report that includes a list of all the incidents in your area. These reports should be available on a weekly basis.

Upon purchasing the report, send post cards or business cards in the mail to the persons listed in the incident. By providing information about your services to a person in need of services your business provides offers an excellent opportunity to connect with potential customers your community directly. In the post card, include information about your business that will seem relevant to the customer: special pricing, works with all insurance companies, willingness to cover the deductible if over a certain amount, free transportation and estimates, etc. Make it easy to read, yet directly to the point. The pricing of getting post cards developed is not much. An internet search of printing companies that provide post card services shows that 1,000 post cards cost only $100. That many post cards should last 6 months to a year...well worth the $100.

Do some research in your area to see if the local police department offers the incident police report to the community. Of course, since the decision to offer that information will be made by local officials, not state or federal, we can't guarantee that every municipality in the U.S. will offer this information. We encourage you to contact your local police department to see if these reports are offered to the public. Find the contact information to your local department by visiting usacops.com.

We were overwhelmed by the responses people provided in the contest, but the practicality and efficiency of the idea provided by our winner seems the most creative, yet accessible method for shops to attempt. Give it a try and let us know if it works out for you.

Below you will find honorable mentions from the contest:

-We accept referrals from new car dealers who have no bodyshop. In return, we buy the parts for the repair from the refering dealer, handle their warranty and used car repairs, along with sending back to the referring dealer any mechanical repair we do not perform here. We currently provide this service for 6 dealerships and the referrals provided by satisfied customers as a result of those referrals is incalculable.

-internet ads, flyers

-do seminars at the body shop for customers

And of course, a Web-Est staff favorite:

We give away a new Mercedes with every oil change. We hope to make up the difference on volume. So far its not working , but accounting says to give it 6 months. You know they are always right.

We don't encourage you try that strategy, but good luck with that.

Thanks for participating. Congrats again to G&G.

One of the best ways to accomplish this type of auto body marketing is by pairing up with other, related, service providers or retailers. This means working with companies that deal with various aspects of a vehicle. Of course, in order to make this sort of relationship successful you will need to offer something in return as well. Word of mouth referrals are always a great way to drum up business. However, its potential is even greater when coming from a trusted professional. As many people already have a relationship with a certain service provider, when looking to get auto body work done, they are very likely to take a recommendation from them.

Therefore, this type of auto body shop marketing serves you both by building up clientele for one another without putting in virtually any extra work. It is truly a situation in which everybody wins, including the customer. However, you may be wondering who you should pair up with for this kind of auto body marketing. Although not every single business you approach will be open to it, a few good places to start are car dealerships, both new and used, gas stations, and car washes.

Reaching people while they are in the "auto mindset" is key to successful auto body shop marketing. This way, you are not simply putting ad dollars into coupon books or newspaper ads that simply get glossed over and then pushed to the back of someone's drawer. Not only is this method highly effective at reaching your target audience, but you are also helping other businesses in the process. Therefore, this type of symbiotic auto body marketing is a great way to grow a successful business as well as a community.

Once the contest is complete, we will post all the ideas on our website for all of our customers to see and utilize at their own shop. Afterwards, our customers will pick the winner, with the top-3 vote-getters winning one free month to the Web-Est Collision Estimating Software.**

Click here to share your marketing idea and attempt to win a free month!

**Non-Web-Est Customers who have not purchased will receive $100 discount on the program if they win the contest.

You can advertise your auto body shop website in all kinds of public relation situations. Any time a press release, editorial or trade article is written by someone from your shop, attach your website to it. This will be especially beneficial if the writings are published and distributed to possible clients in your area. Web-Est would be more than happy to post articles of any kind written by our customers. If someone from your shop wrote valuable material for the industry, send it to us, put your web-site on there, and we'll post it for you. Anytime your business name is mentioned as being part of the collision repair industry, you should automatically attach your website to it. There is never a shortage of people needing collision repair, and an easy-to-remember website to them may stay with them when it comes time for them to need your services.

The ability to combine your online presence with advertising offline is a great benefit for the collision repair industry. Since you will obviously not be selling car repairs online, your website can be a simple one-page representation of the prices your auto body shop offers. It is also a great place to list specials and discounts of services. Obviously, creating a simple website for your collision repair industry business is easier than creating a more complicated website.

Never pass up any opportunity that presents itself allowing you to participate in auto body marketing in an offline situation. Of course, if you only focus on advertising offline, you will be missing other opportunities awaiting you in the digital world. Your key to running a busy, successful auto body shop is combining many forms and venues of advertising. Balance your priorities and advertise where your skills are. If you know nothing about online ads, you may want to tackle offline auto body marketing first. It is clear that there are many opportunities for you if advertising online seems out of reach right now.  The key is to just be thinking about it for yourself.  Ask yourself the question: "How can I use the resources available online to market my business, and how I can I balance that out with offline marketing efforts?"  

-JR

The benefits of a referral system are far reaching. The first notable benefit is that a greater amount of customer assistance, relationship development and loyalty improvement can be had with a referral system. Also, such a system grows with time, so you will see a sequential increase of referrals after each year passes. You can appreciate all these benefits within your auto body shop while at the same time saving your employees time, giving them a greater opportunity to spend their time doing more useful things for the collision repair industry. Strangely, even with these obvious benefits, many marketers do not view it as a serious auto body marketing method. You can see how much of a myth this thought is when you put it into practice for yourself.

To start a referral system for your auto body shop, learn what works the best for the collision repair industry. Many businesses today, when implementing this system correctly, can offset one-fifth, one-half or even all of their yearly advertising efforts. If a company can reach the point of generating business with 100% referrals, the auto body marketing fund will practically be zero, allowing the saved funds to either become increased profit for the owner or put toward other elements to better the shop.

When you set up your business to reward customers for referring their friends, you have an increased probability that it will work, in the collision repair industry or virtually any other. The rewards and financial benefits you can see in your auto body shop are undeniable, no matter what angle you look at setting up a referral system in addition to or even to completely replace your other auto body marketing efforts. No matter exactly how you choose to implement a referral system in your business, the general purpose is to assist people in loving your service enough to tell their friends and family "what is so great" about your business.

If you are looking for the best way to distribute information quickly and at a low cost, email marketing is the answer. Compared to traditional printing of newsletters and flyers, email is both more effective at reaching your audience and less expensive to do so. However, email marketing is not something you can simply jump into, because if you approach it wrong, your efforts could just end up in dozens of "junk" email boxes. Here are some useful tips you should be sure to implement.

First, send out emails to existing customers that express interest in receiving email updates. This will promote customer loyalty and repeat visits. Sometimes, a customer will visit and then become "inactive" over months of non-visiting. Reconnect with them online! You can use email as a way to distribute coupons and information about deals your auto body shop has to draw old customers back. Contacting existing customers is not enough. Prospective clients should be contacted as well, letting them know more about what your business offers to the collision repair industry and why your shop is the best choice.

Other than auto body marketing, email contact can be used as a way to send thank you notes to customers. Letting them know you appreciated their business will make them feel important and increase the likelihood that they will do business with you again. As you expand your email auto body marketing efforts, make sure to use list building techniques. Include on this list a combination of loyal and old customers, of anyone you want to contact who has expressed interest in email communication with your auto body shop. List building will increase the effectiveness of your marketing and makes it less time consuming. In the collision repair industry, time is everything, and you can save a lot of time by using list building with your email marketing.

When you are researching your approach to building your social network, first determine your target audience. To whom do you want to promote your collision repair services? You are looking for a social networking site whose mission will complement that of your business. Look at the features the site offers and determine if they meet your needs. Next, create a profile page that will be attractive to your customers and a true reflection of the mission of your shop, and what makes you stand out. Most social networking sites allow photos and videos among other links. Provide images of your products, and include a call to action. You could also embed a video with a link to your website.

Flickr is a particularly good choice for marketing your auto body repair or restoration business. Dedicated to photography, you could post before and after pictures of repairs or restorations (be sure you have your client's permission, however) and invite feedback and publicize what a great job your body shop does. Let's say you specialize in Mercedes. If you post pictures of different models, anybody who searches "Mercedes" is going to find a link to your Flickr page. So be sure that your profile and other information is clear and encourages people to contact you.

Other networking sites auto body and repair shops may want to consider include Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace. Twitter can give your followers quick news, special offers and events. LinkedIn, being more business and less socially oriented, is a great way to scope out the competition and conduct market research by seeing what kind of demand there may be for a product or service. Your Facebook or MySpace page can be a great place to advertise for potential customers and to encourage word of mouth promotion. Setting up and maintaining a presence in the Web 2.0 world can be time consuming, but there are ways to automate. Find out what your customers are using. Those sites may work especially well for you.