How a local Auto Shop has been able to get past the Know, Like and Trust with potential consumers using modern marketing components.

In order to stay competitive today, companies need more marketing systems working together to get more sales. It used to be you could hang a sign on your door and pay for some major media advertising via television, radio and print and this would began to drive sales. This is not the case today. Thanks to DVR, internet radio and internet sources like blogs, those old mediums of marketing are now making it harder to reach the masses. And let’s not even began to talk about price or cost based on these routes in a very cost sensitive economy.

The more marketing systems you use, the more reach you have with potential customers looking for your service. One local company is doing just this, Maintenance & More*. Maintenance and More is a Automotive Repair and Servicing Shop. I’ll pick three items to discuss about their marketing:

Know

I have never seen or heard a TV or radio advertisement for M&M, however I have had their offers come up on: my iPhone Groupon app, Frequency528.co a community focused discount site, my Facebook wall stream and at a Hispano Chamber lunch and learn led by a local marketer. I would call this word of mouth or referral marketing. M&M has found a way to put their business in front of me at least 4 times, 2 intentional and 2 non-intentional/word-of-mouth. I really like how M&M was able to combine online and offline marketing in order to expand their reach.

Like

Mass media advertising makes it hard to establish a relationship and actually “like” a company. Social media fills this gap, and M&M’s proof is in the Facebook pudding! As of today, November 2, 2011 M&M’s Facebook page has 1,038 “likes” or fans. When I “like” a page I am opening a door to learn more about the company. M&M also provides valuable content on their page with post about: contests, tips, blog post, quotes, events and special offers.

M&M also has an email newsletter sign up. Email marketing is crucial to the success of the any small business online marketing system. Think email marketing is dead? Consider Groupon. M&M has a special offer for a report on their website, instant value. I really want you to consider this, I know M&M has run Groupon promotion’s so if their emails contained special offers; wouldn’t you want to provide your email address since you already use Groupon to receive these offers? This is a win for M&M since they can save money on Groupon’s fees by building their own email list. If you don’t know anything about Groupon, M&M also has a special report to download and provide instant email. If M&M provides content like they do on Facebook, I would be happy to open that email.

Trust

Trust can be difficult to establish and M&M overcomes this by hosting a blog on their Ask Patty affiliation. The blog is easily found on their website. Scott is the owner and post one article a month. This post allows him to prove he is an expert and people trust experts.

M&M’s Ask Patty affiliation is pure marketing gold. This affiliation is a huge win because it appeals to women, a little marketed to demographic in this industry, and provides an awesome value to their women clients. Ask Patty is a site that was created to help woman feel empowered when they take their vehicle to be serviced, without having to worry about being taken advantage of. M&M had to pass some certifications to be come to market under the Ask Patty brand. M&M promotes this on their website, Facebook page and even host events/workshops to help women understand their vehicle servicing better. To the women readers, is just reading that creating trust?

Maintenance and More is in a competitive market and providing huge value! The various marketing systems here are able to drive new customers and repeat customers.

I challenge you to see if you can put some of these marketing components to work for you. If you have questions about any of the strategies laid out here please ask or comment below.

One more note, if you know a business you might like me to look at reviewing, please contact me as well.

*disclaimer this post is being written by me as an outsider looking in at the following companies marketing, no affiliation or endorsement is being given; it’s only my intent that we learn from this example.

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