Troubleshooting 5 common collision repair shop marketing problems

One of the most frequent problems we find among collision repair shops all over the country is that they seem to be doing everything they can to market their businesses, but that marketing just isn’t translating to sales.  This can be a huge frustration—especially when you’ve been devoting so much time you don’t really have to this area of your business.  When our auto body shop clients first come to us for help with their marketing, we carefully evaluate what they are already doing and then recommend what steps we can take to increase the success of their business.  A major part of this process involves troubleshooting where the problem areas are.  Some problems are so common among body shops that we wanted to create this guide for you in case you are in the process of evaluating your own marketing.  See if any of these issues match your own situation:

Problem #1: You have lots of website visitors, but hardly any leads.
If your collision repair shop is suffering from this issue, don’t worry—you’ve at least conquered the first marketing step of getting people to your site.  Now it sounds like you need some really attractive offers in order to convert your visitors into leads.  Post calls to action on every single page of your website that ask visitors for their contact information in exchange for irresistible coupons, downloadable body shop guides, videos, and more.  Sometimes, the most attractive CTA is a page for scheduling an appointment.  Test out various offers and see what people respond to most.

Problem #2: You have lots of CTA clicks, but still no leads.
If people are clicking on your call to action and visiting the page devoted to your offer, then your offer must be attractive.  It sounds like the problem is your lead page itself.  Is your form way too long and complicated?  Try not to be too greedy in what information you’re asking people for; instead, try to keep it to name, email address, and only a few other essentials.  Make sure your CTA page is also simple, clean, and to-the-point.

Problem #3: You have lots of leads, but hardly any lead conversion.
This is certainly a complicated issue, since you are clearly providing attractive offers.  It could be a matter of putting a more definitive call to action on your site.  For instance, instead of only coupon offers, have CTAs that encourage website visitors to schedule an appointment or estimate right away.  If you can get people to sign up for an appointment at the moment they’re on your site, you’ll increase the likelihood of their conversion.

Problem #4: You blog every week, but your page views are either stagnant or declining.
This is a tough problem to diagnose without deeper analysis of your marketing, but sometimes it boils down to ineffective blogging.  You may need to try out a new range of topics, some new keyword phrases, and better titles.  If you’ve had success in the past with your blogging, then the problem might be with your website.  You may need to overhaul the language on your entire website for search engine optimization—especially if it’s been a while since you’ve done so.

Problem #5: You have a great website, but can’t seem to land on the first page of Google.
Again, this comes down to search engine optimization.  Some collision repair websites are gorgeous, but if they are lacking the proper SEO, they’re just not going to land on Google.  Review your SEO and be sure to blog at least once a week, if you aren’t already.

Do you need assistance with your collision repair shop marketing?
At Stratosphere Studio, we are experts at automotive marketing and we are proud to call some of the best shops in the country our clients.  We can help your body shop rise to the top in your town, too.  If you don’t have time to market your business, let our team do the work for you and bring you powerful results!