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Growing an established automotive business

Social media marketing, advertising, and growth

Singh

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So for a long while I was very business minded jumping from one ship to another wanting my own business until one day I had an AHA! moment.

My family is in the automotive industry with their own business, they would very happily give me a part of it and eventually pass it on to me if I desire. I am currently working full time in a very good slowlane job with a promising future in the medical industy but like most on this forum its not what I am looking for.

The business itself does very well indeed but has tons of room for expansion. However my family are a bit 'old school' so do not realise the power of the internet. customers mainly come through word of mouth due to the quality of work being good but it is rare to get a new customer without them being recommended by an existing one

It has been around for over 26 years in my families ownership and was founded over 60 odd years ago by its original owners, there is tons of room for expansion and this what I am looking to explore. my aim is to grow the business and build some form of sister branch to it of which I will keep ownership of.

My plan of action is firstly bring it onto social media and promote it as a brand. Apart from an online presence a website would not provide much benefit at this stage so I will be building an Instagram page and growing the following for the already existing Facebook page. I will look into competitors and copy what they are doing for now.

Plan of action for this week:

- Create Instagram page and set up followliker on a low setting to gain some followers as well as organic growth through family and friends whilst learning about hashtags, how to gain followers etc.
- Create Youtube channel which will have ' How To ' videos for general car maintenance as well as some videos of some interesting cars that come in
- Begin design of new business card as current one is a little outdated and does not stand out all
- Look into grants/ schemes available through the local councils

If anyone on this forum has done a similar thing with an existing business then please share you successes and mistakes.
 
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Singh

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It may have look like I gave up but I am still here, I went off track as I interviewing for a new job.

However the Instagram account is up and posting, has been shared with family and friends also.

Haven't done any of the other things but I have the day off work tommorow for which i will
 

LittleWolfie

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What about selling online? What about selling for cryptocurrency, which you convert for fiat? You could post on bitcointalk to gauge interest. It's a shtick bit sets you apart.
 

minivanman

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Gave up? It was only 17 days. Hell, you haven't even got started good yet!

You said, "Apart from an online presence a website would not provide much benefit at this stage", why wouldn't a website help you at this stage?
 
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Singh

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@LittleWolfie - seems like a good plan to accept cryptos as payment for work but in the particular area we operate in I very much doubt it will be of much use but something I will keep in mind for future reference.

@minivanman - the kind of work we do means we cannot make sales online it is all labour based so the only thing a website would do is give more presence to the online world but for the time being Instagram/Facebook seems to be the place I should spend more time on for now and as it grows a site will follow.

The YT channel and new business card is currently on hold for now as I am actively seeking a new job within my current industry (medical) of which will mean a 50-70% salary increase so my time is heavily invested into that for now as that is giving me the best ROI for now.
 

minivanman

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I don't think you understand what people use the internet for. What you described above, yeah, that's what they use the internet for.

Apparently this is on hold for a new J O B so you actually HAVE all but given up. Which is fine, that is up to you, just don't fool yourself. But all of this should come together at the same time. The sooner a website is up and running with the correct SEO, the sooner it will benefit the business. Wait a year, that means at best 2 years for the website to bring in business. All the things you have talked about could be completed within a few days with daily/weekly upkeep of less than 1 hour per week. This sounds like a case of the wantrapreneur. Always gonna but never does. It's Friday afternoon... it could all be done by Monday morning and that way it wouldn't interfere with the J O B. Does seeking a new job really take 12 hours a day? I don't know, I haven't had a J O B in a few decades....
 

Singh

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@minivanman You are right I am just making excuses. I just paid for the site and in the process of finishing up the theme as of now. Will spend time on it everyday and have it fully functional by the end of the week ( I am staying accountable for this)

as for the Job, the reason I am holding on for the new one is that it means a salary increase of 80-100%, i haven't mentioned it before but I am in the process of buying a home to rent out for profit, the salary increase means I can get enough credit to buy 2 quite comfortably. But agreed holding dosent mean shit I should continue executing. The job itself is very technical so I am spending time gathering projects to put on a file so I can show my past work during interviews but it is taking a while to do as I have to remove company information that is considered confidential

So for this week priority is getting the site up and running whilst tweaking the instagram page and experimenting with different hashtags. The business card update will follow this then the Youtube channel
 
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Singh

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Update:

Website is up and running and SEO friendly, just needs some minor tweaks to make it that bit better which I will work on as I learn more about it. Instagram has been optimized in terms of followliker settings so have that going on in the background.

Having the weekend tied up with family events so wont have much going on but for next week I am looking into business cards and doing continuous improvement on the website
 

Singh

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Had an SEO report on the site and need to dive a bit deeper on SEO, its good but not brilliant at the moment but got a good plugin and using Google Search Console to help.

Not bothering with the business cards for now but have been growing the instagram and facebook. I will this week begin writing ideas/scripts for the youtube videos which I think will help the instagram and facebook grow a lot more
 
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Singh

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Been a long while it seems

Updates:

Website is fully SEO'd however still not on top of google search! Instagram has grown to 3100 followers and one new customer turned up today from finding us on there. Business cards I have not bothered with as they are 99% of the time taken by existing customers.

Youtube channel has not been started but I am now looking for an up and coming drone flyer and photographer to help with the channel whilst promoting their own name in the process
 

minivanman

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If you have done things correctly on your website it will probably take 3-9 more months before it's ranking very high. But.... even if it's on the 1st page for a relevant search term, your potential customers must find it easy to use and helpful or else it still won't help. The internet can be good but it's really a bitch to do all the things it requires to make money. I wish you luck and keep us updated! :)
 

Jaden Jones

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- Create Youtube channel which will have ' How To ' videos for general car maintenance

I think this would devalue some of the services you offer. While not everyone would want to do it themselves, they might wonder why your charging them 30 minutes to do something you did in a 3 minute video.
 
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Singh

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I think this would devalue some of the services you offer. While not everyone would want to do it themselves, they might wonder why your charging them 30 minutes to do something you did in a 3 minute video.

I have pondered this and now taking a different angle. Rather than show maintenance I will instead just go over simple checks, oil etc and how to spot issues and how we investigate problems using customers cars as examples.

That way when they spot these issues they can come to us for the repair as the videos act as proof we can spot and rectify faults, which in itself can generate business.

Whats your view on this?
 

Jaden Jones

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I have pondered this and now taking a different angle. Rather than show maintenance I will instead just go over simple checks, oil etc and how to spot issues and how we investigate problems using customers cars as examples.

That way when they spot these issues they can come to us for the repair as the videos act as proof we can spot and rectify faults, which in itself can generate business.

Whats your view on this?

I think that might have potential if done right. I think you would still be devaluing the inspection, but you may be able to build trust in its place. Would be an interesting experiment to see how things go.
 

SEBASTlAN

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Been a long while it seems

Updates:

Website is fully SEO'd however still not on top of google search! Instagram has grown to 3100 followers and one new customer turned up today from finding us on there. Business cards I have not bothered with as they are 99% of the time taken by existing customers.

Youtube channel has not been started but I am now looking for an up and coming drone flyer and photographer to help with the channel whilst promoting their own name in the process

Want me to take a closer look?
 
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Singh

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Singh

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An update:

- my page is now on first page of google for my keywords
- Youtube channel has been started, I did not do any how to videos but went to car meets hosted by other companies in the same sector who are not in competition with me (car rentals/restoration), So I would make a video of the day of which they would promote on their pages bringing more attention to both of ours companies

To Do:

- Youtube how to videos, I will do this with know cars on instagram so this will act as free publicity for both of us using their cars in my videos
- Instagram now at 8K followers, however hovering around this number I have reached saturation on local followers so will now go global with my hashtags and geolocations.
- Bit more signage on the road to make it more noticeable

Overall what have I noticed:
- I am not really getting new customers but I am getting return customers who come around more often possibly due to them seeing our facebook/instagram feeds
- going by instagram stories and analytics my page gets a fair amount of views

It is still early days yet on social and internet so I will keep posting regularly as the framework has now been built, I just need more interaction on the page which I am aiming to do with the youtube channel and collabs with known cars/car guys
 

Startup Steve

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This would be my 30-day playbook.
  • Create and automate the cataloging of your inventory to include 360 photos. This will increase the conversion rate of online buyers and open your market nationally.
  • Create and automate social media accounts FB, WhatsApp, Tumbler, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Every time you get new inventory or sell something you socialize it.
  • Create a campaign to incentivize return customers. They are your best margin.
  • Create channel partners. Getting a warm lead is the next best margin.
After this, I would create another 30-day playbook.
 
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Singh

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Bouncing back after nearly 1.5 years

I disappeared for a while and fell off, reason being I was working on my career and managed to set up my own consultancy and increase my income by 3x, so been lazy...yes but had my priorities elsewhere.

Looking to restart this again now, Instagram page sitting at 6k and planning to release a new YT video in the next week or so
 

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