Mobile phones are used at home as much as they are used on the road and they encourage multi-tasking. Smartphone users look for a wide variety of information ranging from news to restaurant information to sports to games and to shopping. When they do search, 89% of them do so with a degree of urgency. They want results now, and if your car detailing business can't give it to them, they will go elsewhere. Sorry, you just lost the sale! Many will be looking for express detailing services and car hand washes. They want something better than just driving their expensive, well cared for car through a tunnel wash.
Read MoreAddThis is the world's largest content sharing and social insights platform. AddThis has easy-to-use tools to help your auto detailing business share your web site content and drive viral traffic to your auto detailing businesses web site. The AddThis in-depth analytics provide insight into your audience and user activity so you can get a better idea of the visitor type that is visiting your web site. AddThis shows the right choices to the right user at the right time. As visitors use AddThis across the Web, AddThis instantly personalizes their experience with choices most likely to be effective at increasing social referral traffic to your web site. This could bring you more customers that may be interested in your auto detailing and mobile car wash services that may of never heard about you before.
Read MoreSlideShare is an online slide hosting services. Auto detailing entrepreneurs can upload files in the following formats: PowerPoint, PDF, Keynote or OpenOffice presentations. Slide decks can then be viewed on the site itself and embedded on other sites. SlideShare was launched in October 2006, the web site is considered to be very similar to YouTube, but only for slide shows. The web site was originally meant to be used for businesses to share slides among employees more easily, but it since expanded to also become a host of a large number of slides which are uploaded basically to entertain. Users can upload, view, comment and share slideshows created with the above mentioned presentation programs. This is a great tool to show off your work and the auto detailing services you have provided to your past customers.
Read MoreHaving a blog for your auto detailing business will provide a low-cost, long-term venue to continuously bring your "brand" to life. Despite the evidence in favor of blogging, with the rise of Twitter and Facebook, many businesses are reluctant to blog. While blogs can require lot of work, they provide a foundation for information on the web and an "owned platform" for your social business
Read MoreVideo is a powerful marketing medium that many auto detailing business people timidly avoid. After all, it can appear to be somewhat complex! What tools should I use? How do I know what kind of video to make? How can I justify the cost? If you can answer these questions, video can be an effective asset for your auto detailing business. Video appeals to both visual and audio senses, video is powerful, emotion evoking content that individuals love to share with each other. Marketers use videos to generate traffic to their websites, build brand buzz and excitement, generate inbound links (which can help your SEO) and grow social media reach.
Read MoreFlickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community now owned by Yahoo! In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to host images that they embed in blogs and social media. Auto Detailing Businesses can upload photos and products and services and tag them so they show up when that particular detailing service is searched online in your area. Flickr also enables users to organize their photos into "sets" or groups of photos that fall under the same heading. Sets can be displayed as a slideshow and also shared by embedding them into your web site.
Read MoreQr codes can help promote your car detailing business by connecting your company literature to information on your web site.QR Codes (Quick Response codes) were developed in Japan by Denso-Wave. QR Codes are two-dimensional bar codes that store up to 7089 characters of numeric code that provide a great, easy way to enhance marketing and content. QR codes require that users have a smart phone with a QR code reader app installed so they can link to the web page the QR code is synced to. Increased smart phone usage is driving QR code use. Smart phone penetration is closing in on about 40 percent of the U.S. market.
Read MoreGoogle is the prominent "go-to" search engine for many Internet users, although there is a large unawareness for the value of its other tools and services. It is important to become knowledgeable about these various tools because they fit very nicely within the type of marketing that many auto detailing businesses do today to improve and become more proficient at it inbound marketing.
Read MoreTwitter is a useful communication tool that allows you to interact with people around the world by sending a short message; to a bunch of people quickly, to a specific person publicly or to a specific person privately. Twitter is also referred to as a “micro blogging” service, meaning you can post short updates limited to 140 characters or fewer. Twitter is also a relationship-building tool for your auto detailing business. The most obvious business use of Twitter is to meet potential customers and leads the same way you would at a networking event or tradeshow. Ask your customers if they are on Twitter and if they are ask them to follow your Twitter business account.
Read MoreHaving an SMS Text Alert campaign for your digital marketing mix can prove to be very effective if you execute properly and use it strategically. SMS Marketing can be incredibly powerful. It's simple to use and most will almost instantly view an SMS message once received on their cell phone. On average, an SMS message draws a 97% open rate with 87% of messages read in the first 15 minutes after receiving it. This tactic in your digital arsenal will allow you to target an audience and almost guarantee they will view your content. Having a slow week? Send a Text Alert to your auto detailing customers and prospects promoting a super deal that expires very soon.
Read MoreLinkedIn is a networking site for professionals and has more than 100 million members in over 200 countries. LinkedIn is a true "gold mine" and if used to its potential can create many golden opportunities for you and your mobile detailing business that you normally may not have been aware of. LinkedIn has features and tools that will allow you to connect to other individuals and companies that are in the same type of industry as you. Or to connect to potential decision makers of businesses in your area that you have not been able to get through too. You bypass the "gate keeper" and get right to the decision maker through LinkedIn.
Read MoreFacebook has over 750 million active users and that number continues to grow steadily. It is the third most trafficked website in the world (behind Google & Yahoo) and the most trafficked social media site in the world. Think your customers aren’t on Facebook? There are tens of thousands of regional, work-related, collegiate, and high school networks. More than two thirds of Facebook users are outside college and the fastest growing demographic those 35 years and older. While Facebook started off as a community for college kids, it has expanded far beyond that and you will be hard-pressed to find a demographic not yet represented among Facebook's 750 million users. Your auto detailing or auto reconditioning business should have a Face book fan page to interact with your customers. When you create your page be sure you reserve your vanity url after the name of your business. You need 25 fans to do that which is not hard to get quickly.
Read MoreSocial Media, in all of its many channels, impacts our lives as consumers from the things we purchase, to where we go, to what we like and overall how we share this information with others. This influence is moving from the consumer to the workplace where almost 90 percent of B2B organizations are either maintaining or increasing their social media budget, according to HubSpot's 2010 "The State of Inbound Marketing". This is an indication that more companies are making their social media marketing efforts a priority. Auto detailing businesses are no different, they must have a new marketing plan to continually grow their businesses. The key to having success with social media for your auto detailing business lies in how social media is implemented and strategically integrated into the business. The challenge involves moving past social media-based marketing and building an entire social business plan for your detailing business.
Read MoreAs you may know from attending one of Detail King's auto detailing training seminars, Facebook has become a "must have" online networking tool for your detailing business. There are many features that Facebook offers to help car detailing businesses promote, sell, connect and market to their online community or even to local and current customers. A feature that not many detailing businesses take advantage of or maybe don't think to use is the "Tag" option.
Read MoreEvery detailing business large or small needs to make short videos that actually show what you do! If you do not have a camcorder or if your phone does not have the capability to make videos then call the local high school or college. There are students that take courses on producing videos. They can make them for you complete with editing and be very reasonably priced with their fees. Or you can have photos taken with a digital camera and then use an online service like Animoto.com to create an awesome slide show video complete with effects, background music and captions.
Read MoreFacebook has become a huge help for businesses on keeping engaged with their customers and the online community. It is the next best thing to have online besides a website. "Your Facebook address has become just as important to promote as a business name."(Matt Cogley) Whether you are just starting a Fan Page or already have one and are looking to increase your Fan base than here are a couple things that I suggest doing.
Read MoreFoursquare is a location-based mobile platform that makes cities easier to use and more interesting to explore. By "checking in" via a smartphone app or SMS, users share their location with friends while collecting points and virtual badges. Foursquare guides real-world experiences by allowing users to bookmark information about venues that they want to visit and surfacing relevant suggestions about nearby venues. Merchants and brands leverage the foursquare platform by utilizing a wide set of tools to obtain, engage, and retain customers and audiences. Basically this will encourage your customers to come back more often for hand car washes, express details and quick spruce ups for their vehicles.
Read MoreWritten by Roy Miller
Detail King has been in the industry for many years. It is these years spent in providing professional auto detailing services, plus the exceptional care the company takes on the kind of services and products they have to offer that makes it a market leader. detail king also has a wide range of knowledge and experience to offer on all the best auto detailing products and services that guarantees the customers satisfaction. There is a wide variety of products that is offered at detailing.com. These include auto detailing equipment, car detailing products, auto detailing supplies and auto detailing training services.
Read MoreThe new generation of smart phones and the 2D barcode - quick response code (QR code) technology are bridging the gap of online and offline marketing. Print advertising and direct mail has seen their better years in the past. QR codes has helped bring these advertising mediums back to life. QR codes have emerged as a hot topic in mobile marketing as more and more marketers begin to embrace them in offline marketing and advertising campaigns. Flyers, business cards, graphics on your mobile rig, yellow page ad, craigslist ad are only a few places to print a QR Code.
Read MoreIt is imperative to keep your business name in front of your customers. You will want to keep them informed of new service offerings, special offers, package deals, and of course the reminders that their vehicle is due again for a detail. Don't just send boring black and white emails. Sign up for a Direct Email Campaign service like aweber.com or constant contact.com. These services are not expensive and will help you design professional looking emails and manage your various lists of both customers and prospects. A prospect is someone who has not purchased anything from you yet but has some interest.
Read MoreYou can actually generate revenues and make new customers from the cars you would detail at the park & fly facilities located near airports. These businesses are typically located within a mile or so from major airports. Travelers drop off their car and the park & fly takes them and their luggage to the airport. Their vehicle is then parked in the park & fly's lot anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. The average stay is 5 days. This is a perfect opportunity for you to provide your detailing services. Work out a plan with the park & fly establishment where they promote car wash and detailing services to their patrons. The greeter at these establishments must mention they offer detailing services and hand them one of your flyers.
Read MoreDetail King would like to personally welcome Matt Cogley as our newest member to the Detail King management team. As many of you may already know Dan Reash our long time senior national account manager has stepped down from that position after seven very successful years and has joined our training staff. Jason Fung our former Director of Marketing has taken Dan's position. Matt has already stepped up to the plate and is contributing to our many marketing projects. Some of Matt's responsibilities will be to produce our weekly special offer newsletter, oversee our Facebook page, produce short informational and seminar videos, and other various marketing projects to help keep our customers "engaged" with Detail King. If you have questions about your marketing program give Matt a call or email him for some expert advice.
Recently Detail King has added a Customer Review submission page to our web site. It has been so successful that we have decided to include a Customer Review feature to the Authorized Licensee web site platform. Very soon all Authorized Licensees that have a Detail King built web site will be able to add this new feature to their website. Your customers will be able to write and submit a review after you have completed their detail.
Read MoreFacebook is becoming the most popular visited website venue of all time. If you do not have a facebook page you need to create one right now. Social Media will keep your customers "engaged" with your business and also be a helping hand to get new customers for you. Over 1 billon people have a personal facebook page and many of them that own businesses and have also created a facebook fan page. By having a facebook page you can keep your past customers and future customers up-to-date with the latest news about your business. You can post images of vehicles you have just detailed, write about car care tips and even promote your services and car detailing specials that you are offering.
Read MoreYou may of heard about the Groupon craze sweeping the country today. Groupon negotiates huge discounts usually 50% off or more with popular businesses like your detailing business. They send your offer to thousands of the subscribers they have in your area. The offer is usually good for one day and the subscriber purchases your offer directly from that email that Groupon sent. You and Groupon decide on how many offers need to be sold to "tip the offer" or in other words…. to make it valid. Many successful detailing business owners have tried this and have generated new customers and enjoyed a quick infusion of cash flow. Groupon pays you usually within 30 days and I have seen checks as high as $100,000.00+.
Read MoreMillions of people use Google every day to find places and businesses. Auto Detailing and mobile auto detailing businesses are being found today through Google Places. Car Detailing business owners that have a Google Places listing can manage their presence on Google. Google Place Pages connect people to information from the best sources across the world wide web, displaying your photos, customer reviews and important facts about your business, as well as real-time updates and offers from you.
Read MoreEvery auto detailing business should develop some type of a social media marketing program to keep the customer or prospect "engaged" with your auto detailing business. The days of just having a web site are gone. You still must have a professional and well coded web site but you must also now drive new traffic to your web site and to your business through other "digital" marketing mediums. Having and managing a facebook page, and keeping your business and it's latest news in front of your customers thru emails, videos, text message alerts and tweets are a fabulous way to help drive sales up.
Read MoreNick Vacco, Founder, Owner, and President of Detail King, started his career as a hard working proprietor of his very own personal auto detailing and reconditioning shop for 13 years. This started Nick’s journey to operating his own Auto Detailing Supply Business and Auto Detail Training Institute. This 25 year expedition has allowed Nick to gain the experience and knowledge of the business to separate him from competitors and provide a unique niche to his customers.
Read MoreTrain ‘em early, train ‘em often and train ‘em right for detail shop success.
by: Nick Vacco
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Know who your competitors are and develop a plan for how you will be better than they while providing your customers the very best value. I have been in the auto detailing industry for over 25 years and have seen many competitors come and go. Some competitors claim they were going to “put me out of business” while others were “low ballers” when it came to pricing and quickly went out of business. Whatever the case may be know your competition’s strengths and weaknesses so you can professionally sell against them when the occasion arises.
Read MoreHaving the proper towels and keeping them clean and maintained will produce great auto details. You should have different towels for each detailing task and it’s a good idea to have them color coded so you will not cross contaminate them. You should have at least five different groups of towels for all of your detailing tasks. Here is a breakdown of how you may want to organize your towels.
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