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Bed Bugs, Cold Food and Bent Sheetmetal ... Going after the Thin Market (your customer).
Collision repair is what we call in the ad biz ... a thin market. That is, on any given day there are only a finite number of people that will have a need for our service. Unfortunately, we do not know who those people are, or will be.
We do know that on average, people have an accident about every 7-10 years ... so that narrows it down a bit. But it also means that we have a shorter sales cycle than say ... a mattress company. The sales cycle there can be an astonishing 15 years! (OK stop thinking about what takes up residence in that mattress during those fifteen years) ...
Here's the lesson we can learn from our friends in the mattress business, or refrigerator business (another 15 year sales cycle) ... how often do you see a mattress or refrigerator ad or commercial? I guarantee that somewhere, sometime, you saw one today ... either in your newspaper, or on television or on a billboard. The fact is those purveyors understand "The Thin Market".
They know, that in order to reach that finite number of people that will need a fridge or mattress TODAY ... they have to advertise EVERY DAY or there about ... now when was the last time you saw a print ad or commercial for a collision repair shop?
Think about it ... average sales price of a mattress? … about $2500.00 - Average refrigerator? … about the same? The average collision repair is also about $2500 and we have a shorter sales cycle. The major difference is that in any given geography there are probably more body shops than mattress or white goods dealers.
But no matter, as my friend in the earlier post said (coulda told you Jeff was a newspaper guy when he said top of mind awareness!) T.O.M.A. as it's called, is actually a trade marked acronym owned by a guy named Steve Wasserman, but it is true ... if you want somebody's business whether you are selling mattresses, refrigerators or collision repair ... you need to be Top Of Mind when they get in an accident!
Yes, it IS rocket science ... now think about ways to own mind share ... think of the video professor (you've all seen him on TV) ... "Try my product" he says at the end of every commercial. Be funny, be provocative, but for Pete’s sake, be something ... and but be it often enough to make it memorable! Today, someone will buy a fridge, decide to finally get rid of the dust mite farm they’ve been sleeping on, or have an accident. Be in front of them as often as the mattress and refrigerator advertiser so that if they decide that TODAY is the day to have that sheet metal adjustment, it's YOU that they think about.
That's just my opinion ... I could be wrong. :-)
Comments welcome, call me if you like 203-512-0250
We do know that on average, people have an accident about every 7-10 years ... so that narrows it down a bit. But it also means that we have a shorter sales cycle than say ... a mattress company. The sales cycle there can be an astonishing 15 years! (OK stop thinking about what takes up residence in that mattress during those fifteen years) ...
Here's the lesson we can learn from our friends in the mattress business, or refrigerator business (another 15 year sales cycle) ... how often do you see a mattress or refrigerator ad or commercial? I guarantee that somewhere, sometime, you saw one today ... either in your newspaper, or on television or on a billboard. The fact is those purveyors understand "The Thin Market".
They know, that in order to reach that finite number of people that will need a fridge or mattress TODAY ... they have to advertise EVERY DAY or there about ... now when was the last time you saw a print ad or commercial for a collision repair shop?
Think about it ... average sales price of a mattress? … about $2500.00 - Average refrigerator? … about the same? The average collision repair is also about $2500 and we have a shorter sales cycle. The major difference is that in any given geography there are probably more body shops than mattress or white goods dealers.
But no matter, as my friend in the earlier post said (coulda told you Jeff was a newspaper guy when he said top of mind awareness!) T.O.M.A. as it's called, is actually a trade marked acronym owned by a guy named Steve Wasserman, but it is true ... if you want somebody's business whether you are selling mattresses, refrigerators or collision repair ... you need to be Top Of Mind when they get in an accident!
Yes, it IS rocket science ... now think about ways to own mind share ... think of the video professor (you've all seen him on TV) ... "Try my product" he says at the end of every commercial. Be funny, be provocative, but for Pete’s sake, be something ... and but be it often enough to make it memorable! Today, someone will buy a fridge, decide to finally get rid of the dust mite farm they’ve been sleeping on, or have an accident. Be in front of them as often as the mattress and refrigerator advertiser so that if they decide that TODAY is the day to have that sheet metal adjustment, it's YOU that they think about.
That's just my opinion ... I could be wrong. :-)
Comments welcome, call me if you like 203-512-0250
Comment
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Comment by Jeanne Silver on September 29, 2009 at 6:29pm -
Nope you're not wrong Paul, consistency is the key.....
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Comment by Paul Evans on September 29, 2009 at 9:17am -
No kidding Jeanne ... The PPC and PPI model have been around for a while now (that's Pay Per Click or Pay Per Inquiry in case anybody else is reading our dialogue) and being done with varying levels of success in many industries. A friend of mine started Guaranteed Clicks which is one of the bigger ones. But a simple and fairly inexpensive way to start capturing some awareness in this web 2.0 world we live in, is with a twitter page ... at Evans Media Group for instance we have about 2,200 followers, so when we tweet ... we reach 2,200 people in a millisecond and they reach who knows how many as the network extends through re-tweets of our information.
The trick for a body shop is that the tweets have be relevant and not necessarily always about collision repair... in fact, that might get pretty boring for the average consumer, so what to tweet about? Interesting factoids, new car info, technical bulletins like recalls on tires or airbags or BRAKES! Deals to be had on anything auto or family related ... really anything that would make a reader feel like they got something from your shop that made it worth the effort to "follow" you on twitter.
Just a note on print ... most newspapers and local magazines have felt the crunch and are willing to make rate concessions for a commitment of a solid number of ads over time ... all have websites and most will offer combo-buys for print and online ... one just has to ask. The key with any advertising as you know, is doing often enough to drive that Top Of Mind we talked about ... if a shop can't commit to doing an ad schedule of some substance ... in any medium ... they should keep the money. A short run commercial, a single print ad or a web presence without collateral support is just throwing money away.
That's just my opinion ... I could be wrong.
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Comment by Jeanne Silver on September 28, 2009 at 4:12pm
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That is great advice Paul and for the shops that are even marketing, it has to be part of the marketing budget. Going after the consumer is especially important with so many others trying to steer the business away today. If you have a niche, it makes the advertising much more effective, if you don't, it's better to look for advertising that will have the greatest impact. We all know that newsprint is not cheap and there is less and less of it. The trick is where am I going to get the biggest bang for my advertising buck. I am noticing more IT advertising solutions that target a local demographic becoming more prevalent very soon. We have one here called Sudden Values that has pretty much replaced the written version of their advertising local, and they get consumers to sign up for the service so the consumer is not getting an unsolicited email. One of my networking buddies is developing something similar that produces leads and you don't pay unless they send you a lead that is the result of someone actually filling out an internet inquiry. Oh the wonders of the web....will keep you posted.
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