If there’s one thing marketing experts want small-business owners to know about retail brands, it’sthat they have something in common with diamonds, skyscrapers and beer guts: They take considerable time tobuild. It takes sustained effort, a recognition of the small but significant ways your car wash stands out and amarshaling of resources toward your own proven strategies.

So says Shama Hyder, Chief Executive Officer of Zen Media, a global online marketing and digital public relationscompany. Hyder, the author of “Momentum: How to Propel Your Marketing and Transform Your Brand in theDigital Age.”

“It’s not a matter of devoting X amount of resources to a single campaign,” Hyder said. “It’sreally rethinking every customer interaction and how it can be enhanced and better utilized.”

According to Hyder, you need to know your audience, have a keen differentiator that gives people something totalk about and stay consistent. “A brand is not created overnight,” she said. “It’smany small tactics and gestures that over time build a brand. What’s important to avoid is chasing thelatest fad and looking for overnight results. Anything that promises that it will skyrocket your businessovernight is probably too good to be true. Real marketing and brand building is consistent work that pays off inspades, but it is a long game.”

Finding that keen differentiator and hammering that message to consumers is vital, according to Barry Silver,Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Bullseye Marketing, which runs advertising campaigns for smallbusinesses such as quick lubes, tire stores and car washes. He said that if it were possible to compare everyaspect of your business to that of your biggest competitor, you likely would find that there isn’t muchseparating peer from peer. Competing car washes might be buying their equipment and chemicals from the samecompanies and likely are offering similar wash packages and prices.

The key, Silver said, is to find the one or two ways your business truly stands out and build your brand aroundthat. Maybe your location is the most convenient, maybe you have the cleanest restrooms and best coffee around,or maybe you donate $1 for every wash to local charities. Whatever it is, identify it and try to capitalize onit.

“When you sit down at a branding meeting, you have to decide who you are as a company – that smallpercentage that differentiates your business from the rest,” he said. “That becomes your brand, andthat’s the message that you have to get out to the public.”

Supporting Good Causes

Silver points to the Bombas socks and clothing company as an example. The company uses a two-pronged approach toits marketing messaging, telling customers why it makes a better sock and pledging to donate a matching item ofclothing to a homeless shelter or charity for every purchase. The company says it uses only the “softestlong-staple yarns from the best cotton and merino wool producers in the world,” and that unlike almost allsocks, Bombas socks do not have a seam running across the toes. The company also prominently displays itsgenerosity with a continuously updated counter on its homepage. At the end of May, it showed that about 20million items and been donated to match customers’ purchases.

Displaying a counter at your car wash and on its website showing total donations to charity over time can be aninvaluable marketing tool. Having a factual, compelling argument that your car wash is playing a small role inbettering the community – or even the world – goes a long way with today’s consumers, Silversaid.

Maybe your car wash is the greenest around and is committed to limiting its contribution to global warming. Maybeyour car wash works with local animal shelters to host a monthly pet adoption day, with every customer whoadopts a pet getting a free wash. Whatever way you choose to make an impact, showcase it to the public, hesaid.

“Today’s generation, that’s what they’re looking for: Give me the distinguishingcharacteristics of your company that make it special and show why you are good for the community,” Silversaid. “Take an issue like global warming. As a business today, I believe that should be part of your brandin your community. In households with the younger generation, what they’re passionate about filters up tothe older members of their household and becomes part of the household philosophy.”

Use Data To Determine ROI

Hyder said there is no rule of thumb for what percentage of a small business’s operating budget should bespent on marketing, and Silver agreed that it can vary widely, though he said around 6% is in the ballpark.Similarly, Hyder said there is no ideal breakdown for the allocation of advertising resources among digital,print, direct-mail or television campaigns. There is one important best practice, however: Carefully track theresults of each campaign and then calculate the cost of customer acquisition. You can then identify whichmarketing efforts are proving most fruitful and lean more heavily on those.

As an example, Silver said, every car wash operator should know what percentage of the company’s couponsfrom each medium are being used and how many of those customers are visiting for the first time.

“You have to see what your expense ratio is for getting new customers,” he said. “At somepoint, I’m going to spend a certain amount of money that has a return that makes sense. What many smallbusinesses fail to do is track their dollars. They really need to look at how much money they spend, the cost ofacquiring a customer and that customer’s lifetime expenditure, and then you’ll come up with yournumber. For every business, it’s going to be different.”

Hyder agreed, adding that as a business gets to know its customer base, it can better tailor its marketingstrategies.

“The best kind of marketing isn’t divided by an arbitrary percentage but by testing and doubling downon what works for your business,” she said. “The challenge most people have is that they want to seeinstant results, but the best marketing requires consistency over time. It’s important to know youraudience. When you send out unsolicited direct mail, it can cost far more than it delivers. On the other hand, atargeted Facebook ad campaign can really yield strong ROI if you have a clear sense of your target market.”

Old School, Newer Look

Hyder may not be the biggest fan of direct-mail campaigns, but that strategy is strongly endorsed by Silver andRandy Townsend, a Founding Partner of DripDrop marketing, which runs direct-mail campaigns for smallbusinesses.

Both of their companies harvest data from strategic partners to identify the best target audience, taking intoaccount factors such as location, age, household income, whether they own a vehicle and the age, make and modelof the vehicle. And both produce plastic postcards with punch-out coupons because they believe thehigher-quality, heavier postcard stands out from other pieces of mail and won’t be crumped up and thrownaway. But there is one key difference in their approaches.

Silver’s company sends out the plastic postcard to customers who recently visited the car wash or quicklube for the first time. The cards typically say something like, “Welcome to our family. You are a VIPcustomer at our store now,” and are designed to improve customer retention. Potential customers beingcontacted for the first time and repeat customers may get a standard postcard. Silver said the plastic cardsalways feature punch-out coupons that easily fit in a wallet.

“Here’s the secret to couponing that most people don’t know: You need to use an odd number,”Silver said. “A $9 discount will work better than a $10 discount. I read this years ago and tested itprobably a hundred times, and odd numbers really do work better. Think of one of the greatest marketers of alltime, Walmart. For years and years, they sold things at prices like $19.97. It was that weird number that madeyou look at it. It kind of struck you and changed your perception.”

Townsend’s company sends the plastic postcards to potential customers who have not visited the car wash orquick lube before. Some car washes will offer a coupon for a free wash, while others will offer one free monthin the unlimited wash club.

“The biggest thing is that it’s an aggressive offer with a call to action so that the car washoperator can have penetration in their marketplace,” Townsend said. “Most people are getting theircar washed somewhere; you’re trying to get them to switch to your business. If you don’t have astrong call to action, your direct-mail or marketing piece is going to become devalued and not as effective. Andthe fewer strings that are attached, the more likely the customer is to take that offer.”