To close out our week of discussing the various types of marketing outlets available to your auto body shop, let’s address another big one: radio advertising. Are you on the verge of placing a buy with a local radio station, but you’re worried that you might be making the wrong decision?
Because marketing can seem like a crapshoot at times, it’s no wonder you’re worried. Combine this uncertainty with the fact that most auto body shops tend to cut their marketing budgets when times are tough, and you’re faced with a monumental task. Radio is not a bad form of marketing, by any means, but we’re firm believers in online marketing at Stratosphere Studio. After years of experience in both the field of marketing and the collision repair industry, we’ve come to the conclusion that digital marketing can give you the most bang for your buck.
Are you trying to decide between radio or online marketing for your auto body shop? Here are the reasons why we would recommend online advertising over radio:
· Online advertising is more cost-effective than radio. We’ve talked before about how expensive it can be to place a radio ad. First, you can spend upwards of $1,000 just to produce the spot and then it costs thousands more dollars just to run the spot for maybe one month. While it’s usually not as expensive as television, depending on which market you’re in and which station you’re buying with, radio is still a costly medium. Online marketing, however, can mold itself to your budget. The more you put into it, the more you’re likely to get out of it. But, even if you don’t have a large budget, you can still get much more online for the same money you’d spend on a radio spot.
· Online marketing gives you many more options than radio. With radio, the only real variety is in how long you want to run your spots and on which stations. With online marketing, the only limitation is your imagination! You can embark on a cross-platform contest, a mobile marketing campaign, a social networking agenda, a complete website redesign, a series of videos, a group of Google ads, or even all of the above.
· Online marketing is more trackable than radio. With any online marketing you do, you can track how many people click your ads, visit your website, respond to your social networking feeds, watch your videos, follow your calls to action, and so on. With radio, the only real tracking you can do is to ask your customers if that’s how they heard about your shop.
· Online marketing is much more targeted than radio. People often listen to the radio while they’re distracted by some other activity, like driving, working, or shopping. As an advertiser, you have to hope that people not only listen to your ad, but they remember what they heard and pursue you either online or by phone afterwards. With online marketing, however, you can target the very people who are looking for collision repair in your area.
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!
