Online vs. print advertising: which should your auto body shop choose?

The big topic we’ve been addressing this week is how online marketing stacks up against other types of marketing you might choose to try for your auto body shop.  We’ve talked about television and outdoor advertising, so today I’d like to address another mainstay of body shop advertising, which is print.  If your shop relies on print ads and coupons in your local or regional newspaper, then you’re in the same boat as many other shops across the country.  Print is not a bad choice to allocate your marketing dollars towards, but it is in a very precarious position at the moment.  With more and more people turning to the internet as their primary news source, newspapers are facing a bleak future.  Lots of companies are downsizing and/or hiking up the cost of ads to make up for the loss of revenue. 

So what should you do? 
I know your marketing budget is precious and of course you don’t want to waste your money on something that’s going to yield only minimal results.  At Stratosphere Studio, we’ve chosen to be a digital marketing agency for a reason.  We’ve spent countless hours studying what the best marketing strategies are and we believe in online marketing over every other form.  So, if you’re faced with having to decide where to put your marketing dollars, here are the main advantages of choosing online marketing over print advertising:

·         Online marketing is more cost-effective than print advertising.  With a print ad, you spend a chunk of money to run in the paper only one time.  With online marketing, you have many options for what you can do with your budget, so it’s not a direct comparison.  However, if you spend money on Google ads, for instance, you can run a lot more ads for the same price as one print ad. 

·         Online marketing is more targeted than print.  When you run a print ad, you can only hope that the right people will turn to the page your ad is on and actually give it a second thought.  Online marketing, however, can be directed at only the people you think would be interested in your collision repair shop’s services.

·         Online advertising is trackable, unlike print.  With print advertising, you can only really base your tracking on how many customers mention that they heard about you in the paper.  With online marketing, however, you can easily track how many people clicked on your ads or visited your website.

·         Online marketing is great for lead generation, compared to print.  Because any marketing you do online can lead directly to your website, you have the opportunity to quickly and easily capture lead information with the right calls to action.  With print, you have to hope that people call you or remember to visit your website after seeing the ad. 

Ready to give digital marketing a real shot?
If you’re looking for a digital marketing agency to help you bring more cars into your body shop, then give Stratosphere Studio a call.  We specialize in online marketing for auto body shops and have an excellent track record for bringing our clients more business.  Our clients span the U.S. and are some of the most successful shops in their respective cities.  We would love to help you next!