So you created a website and then braced yourself for the onslaught of customers that were waiting to beat down your door to give you money.
But wait… nothing happened.
A long of nothing happened. How can this be? Something must be wrong! Everyone said, “Get a website!”, so I got a website. But nothing happened. If fact, I’ve had a website for several months and no one even knows that I have it!
Did I get ripped off? Answer: Maybe, but most likely you didn’t.
Let’s look at how to make your website work for you.
First let’s focus on the website itself:
- Does it look professional? Is it easy to read and easy to navigate through? Make sure you don’t have anything spinning or blinking. That’s a dead giveaway that you have an amateur looking site.
- Does everything work? You should personally check every button or link on your website. If something doesn’t seem to working properly, contact your website design immediately. Like it or not, in your customers’ minds, the quality of your website is representative of the quality of your work.
- Have real pictures on your site. When I say “real”, I mean pictures of your actual shop, technicians working on cars, or photos of cars that you’ve fixed. If you have “stock” photos on your website, that’s okay to get started, but you should be looking for opportunities to replace them with “real” photos.
By the way, clean up a little before you take pictures. It doesn’t have to be spotless, but you shouldn’t have a week’s worth of filler dust on the floor and old masking paper in the corner.
For tips on taking good pictures go to this website, www.kodak.com/global/en/corp/top10tips
Now let’s turn our attention to getting the word out about your website:
- Run an ad in the local newspaper that points to your website. Give them a reason to go to your website. For example, offer something for free (what-to-do in case of an accident brochure, car buying tips, maintenance tips, motorist bill of rights).
- Send out a letter to all of your previous customers. Again, give them a reason to go to the website.
- Start capturing the emails of everyone that comes in for an estimate and then send them a “Thank you” email that has a link to your website.
- Email a newsletter to your customers which links to your website, of course. Make sure they know that you don’t share their information and always offer them the option to opt out of future emails.
- Let the insurance agents and dealerships in your area know that you have a new informative website (to better serve their customers).
- If you have the budget, do a targeted direct mail program or doorknob hanger campaign.
- And of course, the most obvious thing is to put your website address on EVERYTHING, business cards, estimates, billboard, and all signage.
Lastly, let’s focus on the reason for getting a website, to bring customers in the door.
The overwhelming majority of people will search the internet before deciding to do business with someone. In fact, 83% of your potential customers will look online for a collision repair center. Your shop needs to show up on the search results. But how can you make that happen without spending big bucks on Google ads? Well, that can be challenging. Two things that dramatically affect your search engine ranking are the size and content of your website, as well as the longevity of your website. If you recently put up a small website you already have a few obstacles to overcome.
The topic of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is very involved and not within the scope of this article. There are entire books and week-long seminars on the subject of SEO. However, there are a few things you can do with a little help from your website person.
Let’s look at a few ways to improve your chances of being found online:
- Make sure your website has been submitted to the major search engines.
- Links to your website from other reputable websites help your search engine ranking. Find businesses that offer complementary services (mechanical shop, detail shop, glass shop, local tire store, local parts store) and offer to link to them if they will link to you. Obviously you don’t want to trade links with someone who offers the same services you offer.
- Search engines prefer blogs that are updated regularly. Consider adding a blog to your website. Meet with your website designer to get you started on successful blogging.
- Change your website content from time-to-time.
- Be patient. Results may not happen overnight, but if you develop a plan and stick with it, you’ll reap the benefits down the road.
Well, there you have it. If you follow these strategies you will be well on your way to generating more traffic to your website and more customers though your door.
Tags: auto body, blog, business, Collision Repair, Marketing, website, Website Design