July 26, 2024

This is an excerpt from the e-book "The Complete Guide to Optimizing Your Car Wash Marketing." Download the full e-book

Effective car wash marketing depends on having a strong foundation. Make sure you have the following areas shored up before you start planning any marketing promtions.

It All Starts With The Customer

Before you can effectively attract new customers, you must understand your current customers. Collecting customer feedback doesn’t need to be a daunting task. Here are a few ways to get started:

• Do a customer survey – These can be online or on paper, but the goal is to ask a few key questions about what your retail customers and members value in a car wash and what keeps them coming back to yours.
• Read reviews – A quick scan of your Yelp, Facebook and Google reviews will unearth a treasure trove of intel. It won’t take long for some consistent themes to start jumping out at you.
• Ask your employees – Your employees are engaging with customers all day every day. Start picking their brains and empower them to solicit honest feedback during their shifts.

The biggest hurdle to getting high-quality feedback isn’t logistical, it’s emotional. It can be tough to hear where you’re falling short or where customers are feeling frustration. On the flip side, you’ll also discover positive insights that weren’t on your radar, like maybe your extended hours are a game-changer. This information will allow you to better tailor your marketing efforts going forward.

Know Your Baseline

If your goal is to improve, you need to know where you’re starting from. That means tracking your KPIs (key performance indicators) over time, with a particular focus on promo vs. non-promo periods. Some common KPIs to track include net member count, capture rate, churn rate, ticket average and total revenue.

Tracking these KPIs will help you measure the success of your marketing efforts. For example, say you run a promo offering the first month of a wash plan membership for $1, and you find that your churn rate is higher the month following the promotion. This indicates that the new members enjoyed their almost-free washes for a month and then quit. For your next promo, you might instead try a lower discount off of three months so they have more time to appreciate the value of a monthly membership.

Set Up Your Customer Communications

Getting new members is half the battle; you also need to retain them. Setting up email and text automation can help with that. By setting up automated communications, like a new member onboarding series and reminders for credit card expiration to reduce churn, you keep your brand at the forefront of your members' minds, encouraging them to make the most of their membership.

A Strong Foundation For the Future

Doing this foundational "homework" may take some time upfront, but you'll find it's well worth it in the long run. Setting a strong foundation ensures that your future marketing efforts are timely, targeted and effective.