Ten Ways to Market Your Business: From E-mail to Demos and More

AGRR magazine publisher Debra Levy offered attendees a look at ten innovative ways to market, from collecting e-mail addresses to offering demonstrations at local school events. Read on for an overview of these.

1. Attend both traditional and non-traditional events.  Levy suggested auto glass shop owners consider attending both auto and insurance events where they might be able to market, but also less traditional events such as bridal shows, safety eventsts, antique car shows and environmental events (especially for windshield repair businesses) to tell people about their services.

2. Wrap your vehicle. “Show what you do and how you can help,” said Levy, in suggesting attendees have their company vehicles wrapped in a way that shows potential customers clearly what they do. If cost is an issue, she suggested bartering with a wrap company, such as a film company, to provide work or even referrals in return for the service.

3. Network everywhere. Levy suggested business owners look at joining their local Chamber of Commerce to meet other business owners and potential customers. And offering demonstrations to them are a major part of this, she said—especially for windshield repair technicians. “To me, with windshield repair, the most important selling tool you have is doing a demo,” she said.

4. E-mails are as good as gold. “I really think [e-mail] is going to be the future of our industry,” said Levy.

In an informal survey of the audience, she found that approximately six in attendance currently collect e-mails from customers and potential customers.

“Those are your marketing lists of the future,” she said. “Every time you have a special or something exciting that happens, you want to get it out there.”

She also suggested attendees consider conducting online surveys of customers after a job is done. “It’s very easy to do online,” said Levy.

5. Market to keep customers from the cradle to the grave.  “Aim to get that customer for life,” suggested Levy. “Record the date of their wedding and send them a card on their anniversary.”

She advised tracking children’s ages, so when a customer’s child is nearing driving age, you can send a new driver alert.

“Another company I know does demonstrations for drivers’ education students,” she said. “With kids, if you can imprint early and often it works.”

She also suggested sponsoring small scholarships for graduating high school seniors.

6. Become a certified child safety seat inspector. “The great thing [with this] is that the parent has to bring the car in for this to be checked,” she said. On a similar note, she suggested doing something like a windshield repair-a-thon—repairing windshields for free and asking for simple donations to a charity, so potential customers will associate your company name with a good cause.

Seasonal marketing also can work, she said. Levy suggested customers send out press releases, for example, warning potential customers about back to school dangers and suggesting they pay attention to the cleanliness of their windshields at this time for safety purposes.

“It cements you as an authority on safety,” she said.

7. Become registered with the Auto Glass Replacement Safety Standards (AGRSS) Council. “I think that is one of the best marketing things you can do,” she said.

8. Be a big fish in a small pond. Levy credited Cindy Rowe Auto Glass in Harrisburg, Pa., which was purchased by Belron in 2008, with this piece of advice. She said she was once told by Rodger Pickett, who was vice president and general manager of the company at the time and now serves as vice president of customer relations for Safelite, that the company “made a decision to dominate the small, local market [of Harrisburg, Pa.].”

She suggested that business owners take the attitude of “I want everyone thinking about me in my small town.”

9. Utilize social media. “There’s all this stuff out there, and everyone says you need to be on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, and, at some point, you want to say ‘why?’” she said. “It’s because all your customers are there.”

She suggested companies with commercials consider placing them on YouTube, and perhaps making a page about your company on Facebook.

“It’s very difficult to know what to do and how to make it work,” Levy said. “But the web is forgiving and you’ll find that out for yourself.”

10. Publicize your company. “Always remember that a lot of what you do is promote-able,” Levy said. She suggested that attendees send about press releases about what they’re doing, or come up with an innovative press release that will get media attention.

For example, she referenced a story that ran in many news outlets about a survey conducted by the United Kingdom-based AutoGlass about how people might respond to being cheated on by a spouse or significant other and highlighted that many of those surveyed advised they would be prone to damage the spouse/significant other’s vehicle’s glass. “They knew the story had legs, and in every single one of those stories the name of the company was there,” she said.

Levy also provided attendees with a sample press release they might send out about attending the conference, and offered other ideas as well, such as issuing a press release about “the weirdest installation you’ve done.”