Marketing Car Detailing HELP

[Bruh]

I'm still in school, and I'm trying to make some money for my projects by detailing cars in my neighborhood. I distributed about 150 flyers, mostly in people's mail boxes (the newspaper/junk one). I got ZERO responses. What can I do differently? How can I improve my flyer? Thanks!

Here is my flyer:

 

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[RyanWhite]

I'm still in school, and I'm trying to make some money for my projects by detailing cars in my neighborhood. I distributed about 150 flyers, mostly in people's mail boxes (the newspaper/junk one). I got ZERO responses. What can I do differently? How can I improve my flyer? Thanks!

I would get out of your neighborhood and go where the money is. Look for expensive cars that aren't clean and stick a flyer under the wiper blade.

Lose the intro about you...all people care about is a clean car if they want your services not the person cleaning it (harsh but true).

Make the headline benefit driven.

Drop the "simple car wash" from your offerings

 

[healthstatus]

Tell them about the experience they will have, something like:

Don't you just love a clean car? I'm talking really clean, not just one of those drive thru rinse jobs. Don't you love how good it smells, how crisp it looks. Make your neighbors jealous with our complete service where we wash and wax your vehicle, taking special care to get all that brake dust off your rims, and bug splatters off your bumper. Then we get inside and vacuum and wipe down every surface getting out all those crumbs and dirt...........

and keep piling it on about how clean the windows will be, what scents you can spray in the car, do you clean out the trunk, do you treat the tires.

From your flier, I don't know what a complete detail is, I don't know where the detailing happens, I don't know what your hours of operation are. Those need to be resolved.

 

[LibertyForMe]

Also, you don't say if the packages tier on one another. If I buy the interior detail do I get the exterior detail and simple car wash as well? If I buy the "Complete Detail" do I get everything?

 

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[rocksolid]

How about going to a limo company, cab company, funeral home and doing a car for free to show them what you can do. Then try and get a contract with them for all of their cars.

 

[1step]

Why do you put your age and the fact that you like cars on the flyer? As a consumer I dont care how old you are and I sure as heck dont care that you love cars.

Tell me that my car will look brand new. And tell me if Im not flipping with joy that I can get a 100% refund.. then I will buy

Dont tell me its a simple car wash, tell me its a thorough top to bottom car wash with care, I dont pay $15 for "simple" I pay $15 for $50 in value and a shiny car that looks amazing

Hope it helps

 

[DarkZero]

Offer to do some for free. Ask certain individuals in person.

Ask them if you can take detailing pictures or even just final pictures of the process.

Make a simple website offering your services and upload the pictures. Put the link address in your ad. Many won't care to go to it. But at least they'll know you're serious enough to have one.

 

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[Get Right]

 

[Ivan]

This is coming from a few years of experience:

- Word of mouth is king. Do one job well, and the guy will tell his buddies.
- target "car guys" who own multiple cars. Also, boats and RV's can be pretty lucrative
- target older folks whose health won't let them do the job themselves
- you say you know cars. Talk cars with them: "hey, is that a 65 Mustang? What kind of engine do you have in there? Blah blah blah" ... Most people who own nice cars love it when their cars are noticed and appreciated. Might seem like a waste of time, but you will probably land twice as many jobs because you'll build a bond with your customer instead of just being some guy who wants their money (this has been my experience)
- dress nice and try door-to-door in a nice neighborhood
- try ditching the flyer completely. Just talk to people.
- charge more. A $99 full detail will net you around $70 at best and should take most of the day (or you're doing it wrong). If you sell high quality work for a slave-labor price, you will burn out in a few weeks. Then either your prices have to go up, or your quality will drop like a stone. Trust me.

The biggest payment in this biz is not the cash you earn. It's the connections you make. You'll meet business owners, engineers, doctors, etc. Not a bad network to have.

 

[CommonCents]

I ran a small detailing biz in college while running valet parking lots. Just handed out cards/flyers to the car valet customers and it worked well. Also targeted businesses where I'd pick up their car while they are at work and have them detailed. I had company bosses buy a few for employees as well.

 

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[Era]

Your flyer needs a lot work.

Take off the "My name is ____ and I am _____ years old and I love cars" No one cares about who are you, they only care about what you could do for them. Also pick a name for your services instead of "complete detailing" call it "Power Detailing...ect"
On your Headline "Car Detailing" change it to something eye catching like "Dirty Car?" -"Get it cleaned by Bruh's Detailing Services." Name it. Hand it out at office complexes. Give them a discount if they get it done at work.

Also change "Contact me to" to "call insert number." That's more pro.

 

[SBS.95]

As has already been said, the part about you and how old you are is pointless.

And while it may be more expensive to print, some pictures of beautiful shiny cars inside and out would remind me of how much mine could use a good detailing.

 

[Mouse McCoy]

Here's a tip:

Wash with ONR W&W two bucket method
Clay barred the car with Mother's clay kit
Wax with Optimum Car Wax spray

Picked up some ONR W&W last weekend and had some time to wash and detail the car. First time using the stuff and only used 4gal of water total without bringing the hose out or having to move the car into the garage for detailing. I don't know how I've washed cars for so many years without this stuff

Wash with ONR W&W two bucket method
Clay barred the car with Mother's clay kit
Wax with Optimum Car Wax spray

Shit is wet son

Puppah on patrol

Amazon.com: 32oz. Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine: Automotive

 

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[Bruh]

Thanks everyone. I will be revising the flyer and trying your suggestions. I'll come back with the results if anyone is interested.

 

[Bruh]

Revised Flyer

Hey guys, this is the revised flyer that I'm trying out now. I changed a lot. What do you think? Is there too much text? Would you be a customer?

 

[Tom.V]

Much better, IMO. I'd throw in a picture of an absolutely FILTHY car for emphasis. Also under #2 "smells real good" just doesn't fit, it's actually a kinda funny. I'd split test it.

 

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[Milkanic]

I'm going to be honest and that flyer looks like shit. You are selling a visual service so the flyer needs to pop.

Hire someone on odesk and/or use a template. Get them printed on glossy stock.



Auto Detailing Flyer & Ad Template Design | StockLayouts
Cheap Flyer Printing (includes 11 X 17) - PrintKEG

 

[1step]

Hire someone on odesk and/or use a template. Get them printed on glossy stock.

This is an MVP for a kid in school looking to make a little extra money, while this may be a good next step I think he should focus on getting clients and keeping costs low for now. I do agree it probably should atleast have a picture for now.



I would work on the headline.

I would add "100%" before money back guarantee

I would also add a PS that mentions the 100% money back guarantee

I would change the "Plain Wash" I think this was addressed above in many posts.

I also believe you should work on your pricing. Sometimes too many options can be a bad thing, you want to lead them to choose the option you want them to choose. Now I have no idea what a realistic price is for this type of service but the interior and exterior detail for $75 seems like a good deal (I will hire you right now to clean my car)... So I would lead your clients to choose that option, so I would price both interior and exterior details at $49.99 and make the "plain wash" be $29.99 or something. There are lots of resources on the psychology of pricing and strategies that I would suggest you look at.

5 Psychological Studies on Pricing That You Absolutely MUST Read

That above article is a decent start, check out the part about Dan Ariely, maybe you can do something similar

 

[CommonCents]

depending on where you live, boats are a hidden gem niche. Almost nobody targets boats. Boats get beat to crap every season by sitting in the water, beat by the sun, interiors trashed, windshields dirty. Go down to docks and hand out flyers, network with boat storage places, most of them do not offer boat detailing/hull cleaning You could be busy detailing boats over the winter in storage places., gas docks, boat transport companies, network with dock service companies that put in and take out docks. Docks have boats on them. call all the boats for sale ads in boat trader or any boat ads($300 detailing will help you sell your boat faster and for more etc...) .

My neighborhood on a lake has 50 homes, and about 70 boats n jetskis in our private harbor. I went out myself and got bids from detailers and mechanics for winterizing. Nobody ever thought of contacting us. Nobody, ever in 13 years. We save a ton of money and the vendors make a ton.

You could try calling all the cars for sale ads too, many cars for sale only have a $10 car wash. Probably some stats out there that says a proper detail gets X% more in price and sells Y% faster.

 

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[Kung Fu Steve]

I may suggest placing your lowest price services at the top to catch the eye.

Offer a first-time buyer half off to draw in some business and call them once per month to see if they need additional cleaning. Your business doesn't exist unless you have a list! (of customers)

 

[Kak]

I'm still in school, and I'm trying to make some money for my projects by detailing cars in my neighborhood. I distributed about 150 flyers, mostly in people's mail boxes (the newspaper/junk one). I got ZERO responses. What can I do differently? How can I improve my flyer? Thanks!

Here is my flyer:
View attachment 5542

I would call small car dealerships. Cut a weekly deal. I did this in high school. I stopped looking for business worked 2 days a week and made about $250 bucks a day.

A pretty decent gig for a 16 yo.

Sent from my C6606 using Tapatalk 2

 

[RealOG]

Your prices are WAY too low. I look at your prices and think, "There is no way that's a good job." Raise your prices 20-50%.

Explain the benefits to the customer for each tier. Everyone knows that detailing includes touching up the interior, shampooing blah blah blah. Stop talking features and start talking benefits and experience. People want clean cars because they are going on a date, picking up an important client, selling a car, busy and don't want to wait around at the car spa for two hours, etc. Tailor your messaging to the customer you are pitching - you'll have a much higher success rate. If you pitch the same vanilla game on everyone, you will get lukewarm results.

 

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[vtlambo]

Don't underestimate the power of the forums. Automotive forums. I know a guy who lives across from me, who planted his ads on every single local car forum and now at the beginning of every February, he's booked all the way till October.

 

[mentalic]

Congrats on trying to sell your services (probably for the first time?).
Please show a perfect clean car, it is absolutely a must. Everybody loves to see something clean. If you don't think that you can do the flyer yourself then ask some friend of yours who is more profficient at design.