What are you currently doing for advertising?

[Car_Wash_Guy]

I know this has been asked before, but the advertising industry and technology associated with it evolves rapidly.

I've been open for a year now, and am looking to spend some money to perhaps accelerate the growth and get more, new customers.

I'm considering:

1. Digital Display - I'm on a corner with roughly 32K CPD passing my wash. I like the thought of constantly being able to send messages to people - after all, aren't most car washes an impulse purchase? What better way to capture more than being able to communicate with a customer within eyeshot of your location? Drawback - Possible technical and costly maintenance.

2. Billboard - Spendy at $1500/mo, but would be placed roughly 1mi from my location with 18K CPD passing. Drawback - Costly expenditure with limited way to measure effectiveness.

3. Direct mail - Probably send out a FREE WASH mailing to all residences within 2-3 miles of my wash. Benefit would be being able to directly measure success via redemption. Drawback would be having to man the site from 8-5/6pm every day until the offer is over.

4. Social Media - I've done a bit on Facebook, with ok results. My website is basic.

I haven't decided on what my plan of action is. I can win all but could probably pick 2 of the first 3.

Just curious what other are doing, and what, if any, are the results.

Thanks

 

[robert roman]

The first thing I would do is conduct a customer satisfaction survey to determine the customer attraction rate and loyalty rates.

The reason is many car washes are not an impulse purchase.

In the beginning, the attraction rate is nearly 100 percent and loyalty rate zero. Here, almost all purchases are impulse.

However, over time, the attraction rate decreases and loyalty rate increases as more and more of the customers makes a conscious or planned decision to visit.

So, over time the impact from billboard or digital display lessens, generally speaking.

Exception would be high volume express where a large portion of highway traffic is pass-by trips.

There are billboard/sign experts or consultants that can help you make the right decision based on your budget.

This outfit has 30 offices across the U.S.

http://billboardconnection.com/

 

[getnbusy]

I pay a guy $8/ hour to stand out at the road on the edge of my lot and wave a sign and act stupid. He does a great job and it is VERY effective. SOmetimes I put him in a costume that i buy from costumes direct. So far he has been santa clause, the easter bunny, cupid, uncle sam, jimi hendricks(with a toy electric guitar), and many more. I usually do this on Fridays and HOlidays. NOw hear this, he is good at what he does. He's not out there pickin his nose waiting to get paid. He interacts with the traffic and has fun with it. He waves a sign that just says "carwash". He keeps the lot full. One thing that probly helps this method work is that I'm in a small town, and my "barker" knows everybody by name.

I like your digital sign idea. If you can get it permitted that would be great. You can change your message all you want, and put a girl in the office to sell add space too. I would not do a "normal" billboard

 

[Washmee]

I bought a digital billboard 3 years ago. 8'w x 6'h double sided. It has definately been a great purchse for my wash. Even though I agree with Robert that buying a wash is not an impulse buy for most consumers, there is a reason why McDonalds, etc constantly flood the market with advertising. It's called top of mind marketing. My sign is marketing my wash 7 days a week from 6am to 11pm.

 

[mac]

Well it's good to hear that some operators advertise. Of the self serve w/automatic operators that I deal with, maybe 0.01% actually advertise. When I sell a new automatic I recommend doing an advertising program. It's been effective and it's usually the first time they ever did it.

 

[Waxman]

advertising is tricky because often times i don't know what works and what does not.

i recently dropped my newspaper ads and radio as well. newspaper pi$$ed me off by printing a letter to the editor from a disgruntled customer. she wanted a small job done and asked to be fit in the schedule on a day we were fully booked. we sometimes make concessions like this. then she asked for a more involved job instead. in the mean time, an employee had a death in the family and we became short staffed. i called the customer to explain we would not have time to detail her car. she became nasty. i remained professional. in 2 days, her article appeared in the paper, calling me rude, unprofessional, etc. i called the paper, asked what my final bill was and said i intended to pay in full and close the account.

radio station i had used for years was local. they had never made money. they began circling the drain and i paid up and closed my account.

since dropping these 2 major sources of ads, my business remains fully booked for detailing and car wash and used cars sales are steady.

i do advertise; mainly print ads on restaurant placemats and a few local town flier type places.

 

[rph9168]

Probably the easiest promotion I was involved in was to give a customer $1 off their next wash if they brought back a wash receipt within 15 days. All we did was have a sign at the wash promoting the program. I have always felt it was easier and cheaper to increase frequency over gaining new customers. Too many times operators spend money and have promotions to add new customers instead of increasing frequency.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

Probably the easiest promotion I was involved in was to give a customer $1 off their next wash if they brought back a wash receipt within 15 days. All we did was have a sign at the wash promoting the program. I have always felt it was easier and cheaper to increase frequency over gaining new customers. Too many times operators spend money and have promotions to add new customers instead of increasing frequency.

Sounds like a good idea. How do you adjust the price of the discounted wash - is your was a tunnel and/or staffed all day?

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

I bought a digital billboard 3 years ago. 8'w x 6'h double sided. It has definately been a great purchse for my wash. Even though I agree with Robert that buying a wash is not an impulse buy for most consumers, there is a reason why McDonalds, etc constantly flood the market with advertising. It's called top of mind marketing. My sign is marketing my wash 7 days a week from 6am to 11pm.

That 24/7 constant messaging at my POS of the display is what is appealing. Although my area goes pretty much silent after about 6/7pm as this place is a bedroom community.

Did you buy a Daktronics?

 

[Washmee]

My sign is from Watchfire. They had a much more user friendly software package than Daktronics. I can create a new message in minutes that is very high qualty imagery.

http://www.watchfiresigns.com

 

[Kevin James]

These are some of the things that we’ve tried to do to bring in more customers:

Radio ads, they didn’t work.

Direct mailing, free car wash coupon, we sent out 1500 coupons, we got back 6, 4 where current customers and the other 2 wanted something for free.

“A” board signs advertising today’s specials, “A” board signs aren’t legal, the city sent us a nice letter to remove them.

Feather signs/banners, again we got a nice letter from the city telling us to take them down or face fines, not legal.

Sponsored youth sports teams, that didn’t bring in enough business to make it worthwhile.

Looked at a digital sign, the price is out of sight, $55,000 for a 4’ by 8’ sign. Found out later the city would not permit a digital sign in our area.

About the only thing you can do is play with the pricing.

 

[DiamondWash]

Kevin, I feel your pain I too have a city ordinance code dept that likes to play God, anything we do to improve our business with signage is a NO NO, we have signs on the auto coinbox (shh don't tell the Government) and has worked out for us we also have special wash times 6-9 a.m and 4-7 p.m on Mondays and Fridays $2 off washes, we also used Vista print for direct mail and it too didn't have the return we expected so social media seems to be the next avenue.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

These are some of the things that we’ve tried to do to bring in more customers:

Radio ads, they didn’t work.

Direct mailing, free car wash coupon, we sent out 1500 coupons, we got back 6, 4 where current customers and the other 2 wanted something for free.

“A” board signs advertising today’s specials, “A” board signs aren’t legal, the city sent us a nice letter to remove them.

Feather signs/banners, again we got a nice letter from the city telling us to take them down or face fines, not legal.

Sponsored youth sports teams, that didn’t bring in enough business to make it worthwhile.

Looked at a digital sign, the price is out of sight, $55,000 for a 4’ by 8’ sign. Found out later the city would not permit a digital sign in our area.

About the only thing you can do is play with the pricing.

WOAH. $55K for that sign.

I got an estimate, granted from a sign guy who he and I hit it off when we met on other interests, a 5' x 10' Daktronics On a poured slab, built up with a stone veneer/stucco base to mimic my building, and with either a illuminated LED sign above with my logo(additional $1000), or a metal roof mimicking my building for $22.5K.

I'd shop around if you haven't done so already.

 

[rph9168]

Always tough to put up signs in some areas with tough zoning regulations. We couldn't even put up banners in our locations. Most of our signage was grandfathered in. On one sign it was outlined in light bulbs. We wanted to upgrade to LED or neon but were told the sign would have to come down rather than allow that upgrade. We did some couponing and bartered for some radio spots and ads in local newspapers or Bargain Shopper type magazines. We were lucky because we were established in our market. Tough to start up something new in most markets where signage laws are so strict or strictly enforced. In some small towns though it is much easier and cheaper.

 

[Randy]

WOAH. $55K for that sign.

I got an estimate, granted from a sign guy who he and I hit it off when we met on other interests, a 5' x 10' Daktronics On a poured slab, built up with a stone veneer/stucco base to mimic my building, and with either a illuminated LED sign above with my logo(additional $1000), or a metal roof mimicking my building.

I'd shop around if you haven't done so already.

So how much was your estimate?

A few years ago we were going to replace one of our signs with a LED sign. Contacted a local sign company and they came out with demo sign. Looked pretty cool, 8” x 4’ bright, only $60K installed. The demo sign was mounted on the back of a pickup and the sign could be raised up about 10’ or so you could how it would look. They left the sign in front of the car wash for 30 days. We saw no increase in business during the time that the sign was out front. The LED sign is cool but I think it’s out of the budget for the average car wash operator. We still have our old neon sign.

We’ve done pretty much the same things that Kevin has done but we also gave coupons for a free car wash to the local “Welcome Wagon”. It seems that the only coupons that were being redeemed were from the real estate people who were supposed to be handing them out with the Welcome Wagon packet.

 

[rph9168]

Couponing can be a waste of time and money if it is not controlled or a serious effort is not made to have it get to the people you want to get it. I found giving coupons to auto dealers, real estate agents or organizations like the Welcome Wagon did not go well. We used to offer discounts to cab drivers or real estate people if they showed their business cards. We offered discounts to students, teachers and municipal/county/state employees that showed some form of identification. I know some have done well running promotions on the back of super market receipts but that didn't seem to be cost effective for us. However we also did some cross marketing with local businesses where customers could get a discount if they showed dated receipts that was okay because it meant a minimal investment in some signeage. Sounds like we discounted a lot but it was not really that large percentage of sales but many of those that took advantage of the discounts were loyal, repeat customers.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

So how much was your estimate?

A few years ago we were going to replace one of our signs with a LED sign. Contacted a local sign company and they came out with demo sign. Looked pretty cool, 8” x 4’ bright, only $60K installed. The demo sign was mounted on the back of a pickup and the sign could be raised up about 10’ or so you could how it would look. They left the sign in front of the car wash for 30 days. We saw no increase in business during the time that the sign was out front. The LED sign is cool but I think it’s out of the budget for the average car wash operator. We still have our old neon sign.

We’ve done pretty much the same things that Kevin has done but we also gave coupons for a free car wash to the local “Welcome Wagon”. It seems that the only coupons that were being redeemed were from the real estate people who were supposed to be handing them out with the Welcome Wagon packet.

Edited my post - $22.5K

 

[Washmee]

My double sided 8 x 6 Watchfire sign was $42k installed.

 

[CoburgCarWash]

New guy here.

I've owned and managed a few different washes over the years and here's what I experienced.

Radio: Complete waste of money. Impossible to track. Even with "mention this ad"

Electronic Reader Board (Daktronics)- Worked well. Ran specials, promotions, holidays, etc. Definitely could see up and down the road, but not sure I ever recovered the astronomically high cost to purchase.

Direct Mail- Like what was mentioned. Sent out a bunch. Only got a few back and most were upset because they wanted something other than the coupon we sent.

A signs/stand on corner-Never seemed to get much, but hard to track.

Social Media- Just started trying to explore this more. Have heard good success from other non car wash businesses.

Web site-Thinking about promoting or adding a wash club/member to the site that I can continually remarket to. Anyone keep a database or customers to send promotions to?

 

[Earl Weiss]

My local Chamber of Commerce had a libalized format membership list. I used that and had my daughter stuff envelopes for 10 cents each and enclosed a letter and coupons for a free wash that I could send for minimum postage, I think I fit 8 coupons in the envelope. Letter asked that they share them with customers and employees. Got a decent return. Also dropped off some at local schools. One for each teacher and employee. Post office as well and any local place which seemed to have a large group of employees. Usually went to employment office and asked them to distribute them. Home Depot turned me down. Got a really good return on this. Perhaps 3000 out of 12000 distributed over a month.