Marketing advice

[Anatol]

I'm preparing a marketing campaign to drive customers to visit our new premises for the grand opening.

So far, I'm going with what I know - full page ads in both the free weekly and pay evening papers the week before opening and 2 weeks of saturation radio on the two local commercial stations. The message is announcing the new place, and publicising the grand opening discounts we're going to be offering.

Allowing for all that, I have a few grand left in the budget.

I'm after advice on what to spend it on that PH'ers can recommend that they've had success in driving potential customers to an event (rather than any other marketing outcome). I'm considering 'bring-for-a-discount' flyers, or scratchcards - but I'd be very grateful for input from marketing gurus on good use of the remaining budget.

TIA

Tol

[V8mate]

A minibus. Definitely a minibus.

Someone clever will be along shortly, however.

[jas xjr]

what kind of business is it? this would have a bearing on how to target potential customers

[papabear]

Prize draw - £500 worth of car detailing.
- Track day

[Anatol]

jas xjr said:

what kind of business is it? this would have a bearing on how to target potential customers

Minor accident bodyshop and valeting centre.

Tol

[Anatol]

papabear said:

Prize draw - £500 worth of car detailing.
- Track day

Thanks - you'd suggest just using prizes in the existing media to draw people? Hmm.

The majority of our customers aren't complete petrol heads - they're Mrs Jones with the 6 month old Focus and Mr Smith with his leased 320d company car.

Not sure what sort of prizes are the best draw to an 'everyman' customer type.

Thanks for the input so far...

Tol

[ShadownINja]

First prize: free car wash and wax (nobody outside of the car world knows what the hell a detailing is) once a month for a year.

Scale down prizes...

Last prize: one free car wash and wax voucher.

Do a deal with a local Halfords for 10% discount vouchers for everyone that turns up?

Edited by ShadownINja on Friday 12th February 16:46

[papabear]

Anatol said:

papabear said:

Not sure what sort of prizes are the best draw to an 'everyman' customer type.

Thanks for the input so far...

Tol

I hear what your saying.

One thing I think would appeal to 'everyman' is free fuel. Say £1000 worth.

eta
If this was implemented with an independent petrol station you may (as you are putting money there way) also be able to advertise your services on the pumps.

Edited by papabear on Friday 12th February 17:01

[Dick Dastardly]

This kind of thing will spread well by word of mouth, so give it a kick start on the social media channels.

Are there any local forums you can chuck an annuncement on? If there is a local bestof site, then they allow events to be listed. Start a Twitter profile and maybe a facebook one and hit up a load of local people.

[DonnyMac]

Why not do a data count for every car driver within 5 miles of your premises?

Purchase the data on 2 times use, and email them all –

• Hi, this is what we do, here’s why you should come, and this is what we’ll give you
• Don’t forget tomorrow, reiterate, reiterate, reiterate

Tremendously improve your conversion rate by using dynamic content based on gender –

---

Hi Julie, he thinks he can driver better than you?

He bumped the car in the last couple of months whilst parking?

We’re having a cheese & wine tasting for you on Saturday (whilst we show him how to remove the scratches he’s put on the car), we’ve invited all your neighbours in XXX Road.

Turn it into a social occasion whilst we gently explain that your partner isn’t Schumacher!

See you on Saturday….

---

Hi John, misses keep bumping the car?

We’re having a social evening on Saturday so you can clean up her body-work.

No, not the other half, but your car; we’re having a cheese & wine tasting so she’ll turn up on Saturday (whilst we remove the scratches she’s put on your car), we’ve invited all your neighbours in XXX Road, so she can chat with them whilst we make the car look like new .

Turn it into a social occasion whilst we bring your car back to life.

See you on Saturday….

---

As you can see I’m not the best copy writer, but with dynamic email content you can communicate with a differing audience with a targeted personalised message based on gender and location which ensures a better conversion rate than blanket coverage.

Combine this with your print branding of the event and I guess you’ll be rammed.

All you need to do is find a data broker and email marketing company that can create dynamic content campaigns…

PM me for info.

All the best,
Donny

[ymwoods]

My advice for the remaining budget would be some sort of opening day that is publicised well before so people have plenty of notice and lots of interest.

You could do many things you could do for an Open day to break the ice/raise awareness/make people only come to you for repairs etc. Here are two examples of Relatively cheap ideas. (I have more though)

Buy two bangers exactly the same (don't even have to run) and make sure they are REALLY dirty. Invite some of your guests to valet one of them (protective coveralls advised) and then have your team valet the other time both of them and then once they are done have the crowd/guests walk around each one and vote on which is the best.

Whilst the guys are cleaning the car you could either leave them to it or do a running commentary, firstly taking the Mick out of the way the guests are doing it (all in good sport) and then talking about why and how your boys are getting a better result.

Not only does it show your boys in action but what kind of job they can do (turning a pile of crap into a gleaming car again) as well as providing some entertainment/laughs. Ultimately, this should result in return business, when they think about their dirty car they will think about that funny open day, and give you a ring.

The same thing could be adapted to body shop repairs, think small pretend panels to spray where you show the results for each? Have one person from the group walk out and just attempt to spray one panel (show results) then have one of your guys spray another that is the same and show the result…then show them a panel that you did earlier which has had all the coats and lacquer added so it looks sexy.

Something like this is hard to pull off as it takes some creative thinking, and some faith in the turnout, but if you did pull it off it would be one hell of a day.

ETA - Have you also looked at local garages that do not do body repair work? they may be willing to send their customers your way if you were to give their customers a deal on the bodywork when they have something done at the garage?

Edited by ymwoods on Saturday 13th February 04:00

[the prescotts]

Hi Anatol, if you are going to promote your new business to motorists have you thought about using bus backs? You will be safe in the knowledge that every person reading your advert will be sat in a vehicle and therefore one of your potential customers. For a grand you should be able to get a three or four bus rears for eight weeks, although we do not cover Cambridge if you want any advice feel free to drop me a pm. Very best of luck with your new venture!

[Anatol]

Bus rears in Cambridge start at a minimum of £5370+VAT for a 4 week run.

Maybe once we're up and running, but that's not a good fit for our launch campaign.

I'm grateful for the suggestion though

Tol

[the prescotts]

Are they trying to convince you that you will need to take at least 15% of all the buses that come out of that depot by any chance? Is the quote from CBS or Titan?

[CCCS]

Full colour advertisements on the back of parking tickets issued at all local authority car parks costs £8 per 1000 tickets. You'd have to commit to being on about 200,000 tickets which would cover an eight week period.

We've done this for clients in the past, send me a pm if you want more accurate information.

[Wheelrepairit]

Is there beer and Pies.

Count me in if there is.

[Anatol]

the prescotts said:

Are they trying to convince you that you will need to take at least 15% of all the buses that come out of that depot by any chance? Is the quote from CBS or Titan?

CBS. "Sold in packs of 30" was how it was described to me...

[Anatol]

CCCS said:

Full colour advertisements on the back of parking tickets issued at all local authority car parks costs £8 per 1000 tickets. You'd have to commit to being on about 200,000 tickets which would cover an eight week period.

We've done this for clients in the past, send me a pm if you want more accurate information.

PM en route

[Anatol]

Wheelrepairit said:

Is there beer and Pies.

Count me in if there is.

There's probably going to be a get together the night before we open with local automotive trade types - glass of bubbly more than beer and pies, but it's still free booze.

PM me if you want in invite

Tol

[the prescotts]

Anatol said:

the prescotts said:

Are they trying to convince you that you will need to take at least 15% of all the buses that come out of that depot by any chance? Is the quote from CBS or Titan?

CBS. "Sold in packs of 30" was how it was described to me...

Hi Anatol, if you want to go down the route of bus rears tell CBS that you only want five panels. They are able to do this but often like to lead clients to believe that you will need to have loads of them. This is totally untrue if you have a specific offer in a certain geographical area. If they let you have the same rate for five panels it works out at around £40 per bus per week which is a fair price especially if that includes the production. I would advise that you sign up for no more than 4 weeks if it includes production as CBS tend to leave the adverts on the bus till a new one is fitted, this can sometimes be months after your contract ended.