BY TOM GRESHAM

Domenick Candelore, Director of Operations for Fast Trac Express Car Wash in Alabama, said the most consequential mistake he sees among car wash operations in their approach to marketing is simple – they just ignore it.

“They feel like they will open up the car wash, people will come in, and it’s just going to run itself,” Candelore said.

Unfortunately, drawing customers to a car wash is a lot more work than that. Often, savvy marketing is an essential component to building and maintaining a customer base that will make a location an enduring, long-term success. However, marketing budgets are finite, and operators have a bevy of options to consider when determining how to spend their marketing dollars. Candelore said those decisions must be made judiciously.

“We’re not in that business where we can spend four or five grand on a television commercial because you never know when it’s going to rain for a week straight and then you’ve got no money coming in,” Candelore said. “As much as I would like to say, ‘Oh yeah, it’s easy. You just go out and throw money at everything.’ It’s not that easy. It really isn’t.”

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Jason Baumgartner, President of Suds Creative, said business operators can get caught up in the tactical details of how and where to spend marketing dollars while overlooking the message itself and how they will identify “quality targets.” He said Suds advocates a five-step process of identifying an operator’s goal, target audience, message, messenger and delivery vehicle. The decision to allocate marketing spending should come only after the goal, audience and message are clear, he said. Otherwise, the money won’t be spent optimally.

“Marketing strategy should always be based on business goals, not marketing for marketing’s sake,” Baumgartner said. “Identify revenue opportunities and create business goals first, then create marketing strategies to support those goals, and finally marketing tactics to support the strategy. Don’t start with tactics.”

Alan Nawoj, Founder and CEO of Beacon Mobile, said it is critical for businesses to understand their customers if they want to resonate with them through marketing. Even within the same chain, different marketing strategies may work for different locations, Nawoj said. Research is essential.

“The goal of any marketing campaign is to try and reach the right people with the right message and at the right time,” Nawoj said. “Of course, it is very hard to pull this off, which is why any successful marketer knows that the secret to success is to test lots of different channels, offers and ideas. If you spend a lot of time at your car wash observing the different types of vehicles passing through and ask your customers what they like most about your wash, you will start to develop a ‘profile’ of your ideal customer... and this is an important first step in order to make your marketing as effective as possible.”

Baumgartner agreed that knowing your audience and understanding who you’re reaching through advertising channels is key.

“For example, parts of Naples, Fla., have a much higher median age than other parts of the country,” he said. “By understanding the percentage age distribution you can make tactical marketing decisions and promotional decisions based on which groups you are targeting. A wash in Tampa, Fla., has a much different marketing mix than a wash in Naples. It’s important to know the difference.”

Nawoj said businesses too often attempt to apply an ill-fitting marketing strategy to an operation based on the success the strategy created elsewhere.

“One of the most common mistakes when weighing how to allocate marketing dollars is assuming that because some marketing campaign worked well for someone else that it will also work well for you and your business,” Nawoj said. “Every business is unique and your marketing plan needs to be uniquely tailored to your products or services and your ideal target customers.”

DOING MORE WITH LESS

Candelore’s favorite marketing opportunity is a fundraiser, partly because it costs so little. In his roles at car washes, Candelore has worked with local schools, churches and charities.

“It gets your name out there as a company that’s willing to give back to schools and charities and local organizations and it brings in revenue,” Candelore said. “Across the board, fundraising has been the easiest and most effective marketing tool that I’ve used.”
As an example of a fundraiser, Candelore, in a previous position, worked with a local high school band hoping to raise money for a trip. Candelore worked out an arrangement that allowed the students to sell $25 gift cards for the car wash and receive $5 back on every card they sold. When the students sold hundreds of cards, Candelore’s operation made thousands of dollars while strengthening its brand. Many cards were never redeemed, while many others led to future purchases for the cardholders.

“Fundraisers will never get old as an effective marketing channel for car washes since the benefits are twofold,” Nawoj said. “Not only does the charity or cause benefit from increased exposure and revenue, but the car wash becomes more connected with the local community and will draw in new customers who support the cause or value a local business that gives back.”

Baumgartner said sponsorships are a great marketing tactic for a similar reason. He said car washes can investigate whether a school district or large employer would be interested in exchanging a sponsorship in exchange for an employee rate at the wash.

Candelore said he seeks efficiency in his spending by attempting to barter with other businesses for as many marketing opportunities as he can – “it’s always better to get it for free.” For instance, he’s currently working with a local radio station to trade outdoor advertising at his locations in return for on-air advertising on the station’s airwaves. The steady flow of traffic at a car wash can make it appealing to other potential advertisers willing to negotiate an exchange. Similarly, Candelore has worked with a pizza chain that received large delivery orders from the shop to place fliers for the car wash on pizza boxes, helping to spread the word in a low-cost, potentially high-impact way.

REACHING CUSTOMERS “WHERE THEY ARE”

Candelore believes that print – although old-fashioned – continues to provide some of the best marketing opportunities available. Part of its appeal is that tracking the use of print coupons gives him the ability to see how effective an ad proved to be.

“The tricky part about marketing is that it’s the easiest place to cut and save money in this business when you need to, and it’s the hardest spending to justify – unless you can track how it does,” he said.

Similarly, Nawoj said social media represents one of the most cost-effective marketing and advertising channels, partly because of the ability to micro-target consumers and gauge response to an ad.

“With Facebook and Instagram (which is owned by Facebook), you can laser target your ideal customers and control a large number of variables on your paid advertisements,” Nawoj said. “For example, you can target just people who live within 15 miles of your car wash within a certain age group and who have specific interests. Not only is the targeting very powerful, but you can also very easily evaluate the ROI on your ad spend since Facebook gives you detailed metrics on how many people have seen your ad and what percentage of them have clicked through to the offer.”

For online advertising, Nawoj said, “Facebook ads tend to perform better for businesses that offer products or services that are more of an impulse buy, whereas Google Ad Words tend to perform better on products or services where people first do their research online before making a decision.”

Online marketing is not just about purchasing ads – it’s also about managing social media accounts and a brand’s online presence, including monitoring reviews on Facebook, Google and Yelp. Candelore said Facebook, in particular, is a place where Fast Trac Express pushes visual content that can catch a customer’s eye, such as when an exotic car gets washed at a location. Social media’s prominence in customers’ lives makes it a difficult marketing area to ignore without consequences, and Fast Trac Express has an employee whose job responsibilities include managing the brand’s social media presence.

Similarly in the digital space, Nawoj said mobile apps and technology meet customers where they are – on their smartphones. Some car washes have begun to offer their own apps that allow customers to buy and activate washes, earn reward points, enter contests, and manage fleet accounts, among other tasks.

“Having a branded app that occupies valuable real estate on someone’s smartphone … is not only a great subtle way of reminding that customer that you exist, but it’s also a powerful communication channel to reach those customers using push notifications,” Nawoj said. “When you incorporate a loyalty rewards program and other marketing ‘hooks’ or incentives, like contests or games, into a branded mobile app, you are greatly increasing your chances of having a customer come back for future visits.”

The return on investment in marketing spending can be boosted when it leads to information that has long-term value. For instance, capturing contact information through promotional discounts and contests provides opportunities for an operator to target customers and prospective customers directly on an ongoing basis for years to come.

“Generating a customer contact should be a secondary goal of every campaign, if possible,” Baumgartner said. “It pays huge dividends down the road. These are impressions you don’t have to pay for.”