BY MARY LOU JAY

Has your business growth stagnated? Are your competitors’ lines longer than yours? It may be time to shake up your marketing efforts – and having the right people in place is critical Should you hire an in-house person Select an agency to assist? Use a combination? There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach.

FILLING AN IN-HOUSE ROLE

An on-staff marketing person will focus solely on your company and have a deeper understanding of your business and your culture. But they aren’t likely to have an agency’s skill sets, resources or depth of experience.

If you decide to take the in-house route, look for a straight talker. “You want someone who is willing to be brutally honest with the owners about what’s working and what’s not,” said Jonny Law, Business Development Executive at Flood Marketing. The person should be upfront about their own abilities and limitations, as well. People who are great working with social media may not be talented designers and vice versa.

Every company will have different needs. Benny’s Car Wash wanted someone who could manage social media like Facebook and Yelp, who understood marketing analytics and who had the design skills to develop marketing materials, according to Co-owner Justin Alford.

Mammoth Holdings, on the other hand, has a library of marketing materials it can use for its eight car wash brands. Chris Pressword, Managing Partner, said they needed a process-oriented person who could execute planned marketing campaigns, but was also able to react quickly when a marketing opportunity, like a snowstorm, came along.
Even if you have a staff marketing person, you may want to work with agencies or freelancers for creative needs, purchasing of television or radio advertising, or for special occasions.

GOING THE AGENCY ROUTE

Agencies provide you with access to professionals with varied skillsets and to many technologies. They keep up with marketing trends and can bring fresh perspectives to your marketing campaigns. But you won’t be their only client, and they may be unfamiliar with the industry.

When working with a marketing firm, make sure you have realistic expectations about what effective marketing requires, what it will cost and what results you can obtain.

Car wash owners will sometimes call DripDrop Marketing – which specializes in new customer acquisition with plastic postcard direct mail campaigns – to request an immediate mailing of only 100 post cards. But that’s not how you get results, said Scott Wheelon, Partner, DripDrop Marketing. Although the marketing firm doesn’t require long-term contracts, it does ask clients to commit to at least 2,000 postcards, mailed out in small quantities over several weeks. “We want to make sure that they do enough to drive measurable results,” he said.

But clients don’t always recognize good results. “They think that if they communicate with 100 people and only three respond that’s a failure. But it’s not. That’s three new customers, and a 3% response rate is pretty good,” Wheelon said. It is important to determine, however, how much it costs to get that customer.

Owners need to develop a marketing budget and communicate it to the agencies they’re interviewing. Research indicates the industry average is about 3% to 5% of gross revenues, said Mark Law, Director of Business Development, Flood Marketing. “It could be significantly higher if the business is really trying to make an impression.”

CHECK OUT POTENTIAL PARTNERSHIPS

Companies that partner with car wash clubs may have access to ready-made marketing assistance.

“We have built an infrastructure, and we basically become the marketing arm for our car wash partners,” said Max Pulcini, Director of Marketing, EverWash. They offer website hosting and design, seasonal and regional promotional materials, targeted emails and newspaper ads/graphic design – all free of charge. Signage, menus and other marketing initiatives like direct mail are cost-shared.

“We take pains to make it simple for the car wash owner and bring them packaged solutions that they can opt in or out of, but that we know are going to work,” Pulcini said.

Product manufacturers can be another lower-cost marketing resource. Simoniz offers startups assistance with everything from site design to business plans and marketing.

PDQ will provide a variety of branding and marketing services for car wash businesses of every size, from one-site operators to large corporate accounts.

For example, “PDQ worked very closely with Dino Stop to build a visual brand for their car wash program that would be attractive and exciting for customers,” said Sheryl Turner, Director of Marketing for OPW Vehicle Wash Solutions, PDQ’s parent company. “Dino Stop took advantage of our branding capabilities and customizable product options to build in-bay excitement.” (Editor’s Note: See the Winter 2019 CAR WASH Magazine article at carwashmagazine.com.)

Zep provides car wash owners with advice on zone signage. “They’ve broken down the lot into zones, and they put a lot of resources into researching what kind of signs work where,” said Scott Pashley, Chief Revenue Officer at EverWash, which has been working with Zep on some marketing initiatives.

As you’re evaluating various marketing approaches, remember to take advantage of one very valuable resource – your peers. “There are groups and forums out there who talk about the marketing vendors in the car wash industry who do produce. You can rely on those people for great information on partners that will truly move the needle for you,” said Townsend.

Whether you decide to take the in-house route, go with an agency, work with a distributor or take advantage of car wash club offerings, you’ll need to be patient and persistent in your marketing efforts. “It’s not realistic to expect a change to happen overnight. You have to set your expectations, be realistic about the impact that it’s going to make and have a date for when you want to see that happen,” said Law. “You need to recognize that it takes time to build that customer base.”