The advent of social media and email’s ease of use has greatly increased a car wash owner’s ability to connect with current and potential customers in a timely manner. Combining these tools with other forms of marketing — direct mail coupons, loyalty programs, community event sponsorships, signage at locations — gives owners myriad tools to increase awareness of the business.

However, as many car wash owners have found, just having the tools at your fingertips doesn’t mean your public relations efforts will be successful.

While many public relations activities can be handled in-house if the business has the resources, one way to ensure that all messages are consistent and geared to meeting your goals is to have an expert assess your current situation and create an overall marketing and public relations plan and calendar that can be followed throughout the year, suggests Megan Gilchrist, marketing director of Focused Car Wash Solutions, a car wash business consulting group. During one client assessment, she discovered three different pamphlets describing different wash descriptions — none of which matched each other or the descriptions customers saw when they pulled up to the wash.

“There were five different variations of a logo on materials developed by multiple sources over time,” she said. “Consistency throughout all materials is important for a car wash brand.”

At Wild Blue Car Wash in Colorado Springs, owner and current ICA President David Begin has used billboards and radio advertising to promote his two locations, but the introduction of a new loyalty program was the catalyst to seek outside expertise. “Even though we used Facebook, it was in word only — with new posts made every few months,” he said. “We knew we needed to be more active on social media, but we did not know how to get started.”

Part of Focused Carwash Solutions’ efforts to help Begin launch his new loyalty program was educating Begin and staff about the use of social media. “The agency helped us decide where to post, how to post and what to post,” he said. “We handle the actual postings and updates but look to the agency for ideas and other support when we need it.”

Social media is an important part of Finish Line Car Wash’s public relations strategy, says Chris Presswood, co-owner of the business. The family owned five-location business relies on timely content shared through the company’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram accounts as well as text and email customer lists. “The content cannot always be one-sided or self-serving, it must be fun and give followers a reason to share the post with their friends,” he said.

Presswood does have an annual marketing calendar that identifies appropriate messaging for different seasons, events and contests but messages are created well before they are needed so they can be posted quickly. “Even if outside expertise is used for some activities, I believe it is critical to manage social media in-house,” Presswood said. “Several staff members rotate the responsibility of responding to posts — negative and positive.” Timely responses show customers that the company values their feedback and is paying attention.

Although Presswood outsourced the development of the company website, the updates and management of it are handled in-house. He recommends keeping your website updated regularly to keep it fresh and make sure the messages on it are consistent with messages through other media.

Community relations is also a critical component of public relations for a car wash. Involvement in local organizations and chambers of commerce as well as participation in, or sponsorship of, charity events raises awareness of the business.

Get Involved in Community

Because Autobell Car Wash has 77 locations in five states, creating ties to local communities is an important part of store and district managers’ responsibility. “Requests to sponsor a local sports team or to support a local event come from the store or district managers because they know what is important to their community,” said Chuck Howard, Autobell chief executive officer. “We also offer a fundraising program for nonprofit organizations. The organization keeps one half of all money raised through the sale of car wash gift cards.”

According to Howard, last year organizations raised $750,000, with most groups raising around $2,000 and some as much as $25,000.

Autobell promotes employee participation in events such as “creek walks” to clean up local streams and highlights awards and recognitions in newsletters, social media and press releases. “We work with a public relations firm for the media activities because they have the contacts and the expertise to know what is newsworthy and what is not,” Howard said. A recent recognition as the Family Business of the Year by the Charlotte Business Journal was the result of the public relations firm knowing about the contest and nominating the business.

“Nominating us for various awards is a time-consuming process because of the thorough and ever-changing information that needs to be well-written and professionally presented. I heard from many people who saw the coverage in the newspaper, and it is also very gratifying for our employees when we win these awards,” Howard said.

“Working with a public relations firm that represents multiple clients and is constantly dealing with many media outlets and establishing relationships with a variety of journalists is a huge advantage that an in-house PR person does not enjoy,” said Bruce Hensley, co-owner of Hensley Fontana Public Relations, the firm used by Autobell. Tapping into the media expertise of an outside source can be an efficient way to garner wider press coverage for the business than the owner or in-house staff can achieve.

Autobell has always relied on expert help for some services, including creation of advertisements when the business was only one location, Howard said. “Small businesses can take advantage of the creative services of local publications or radio stations but they need to be sure to have exact specifications for their logo, colors and brand-related images,” he said. “As we grew and placed more ads, we used a professional to handle our media buys.”

One way car wash owners can increase paid advertising without significantly increasing their budgets is to trade services for media placements. “Radio stations are often looking for giveaways for promotions, so free car wash passes can be traded for advertising space,” Howard said. “Another advantage of this tactic is the publicity your business receives as the passes are awarded to winning listeners who are potential customers.”

Measure and Track Results

A year ago, Aaron Green, president of Focused Car Wash Solutions, sold his car wash business to concentrate on consulting services to car washes. “Historically, car wash owners rely on the building and signage to create traffic, and when they don’t achieve their goals, they turn to coupon and discount programs,” he said.

According to Green, while these programs can be effective, the key is to have a plan, set goals and measure results to determine what is working and what is not. “We tracked everything by conducting monthly coupon audits to see where we needed to continue putting our money,” he said. Green recommends committing to a program for one quarter to allow enough time for customers to use the coupons.

Green also recommends special events at the car wash location as another way to generate publicity. An example of one successful event was a celebration of the “Dog Days of Summer.” The car wash partnered with a local mobile dog wash and a dog adoption organization. “We gave away free ice cream, washed between 50 and 100 dogs, and saw between five and 10 adoptions,” Green said. Because the events were planned well ahead of time, Green was able to promote them one month in advance, which created buzz on social media and generated local publicity.

“As an owner and operator of a car wash, it is easy to get overwhelmed by everyday tasks and emergencies,” he said. “It is easy to forget about public relations when you are busy, but maintaining a consistent, ongoing program to connect with the community, you can attract new customers and retain existing customers more easily than if you wait until you are struggling for business.”