Quick Takeaways
- A well-optimized website with business details, services, and promotions is crucial as it acts as the digital storefront for your shop.
- Utilize AI tools like ChatGPT to develop tailored marketing strategies, especially for small businesses with limited resources.
- Mobile optimization is essential since over 70% of 'near me' searches happen on phones, making it vital for attracting local customers.
- Showcase your team, services, and certifications through videos and bios to build trust and improve SEO.
- Claim and manage your business listings on Google, Yelp, and other platforms, and develop a review strategy to boost your online reputation.
Setting up a quick lube shop requires more than installing bays and equipment to handle service. An online and mobile presence is just as important for getting and retaining customers. A site optimized for the web and mobile is essential. Listing a business name, address, hours of operation, services, coupons, and other helpful information provides customers with the information they need for a service visit.
“As we move forward, websites are very important,” says Greg Sterling, co-founder of Near Media, an applied market research firm. “They're not optional. This is the new storefront—the digital storefront.”
A website is essential. However, it is only one key piece of a shop's digital marketing plan for success.
The Challenge
There are obstacles to establishing an online marketing plan. “Lack of resources, lack of time, money, and technical skills,” details Angeli Gianchandani, brand strategist and NYU faculty. “Their business is running a shop, not a website. It becomes a resource for them that requires time, money, and expertise. They're lean. They're doing everything.”
Operators might opt to hire an agency to maintain a site, manage email lists, handle listings on sites like Google and Yelp, and even venture into social media. Other shops might look for ways to get up and running on their own.
“There's a lot of things you can do on a DIY basis as a small business that will be helpful with your marketing,” Sterling tells NOLN.
A franchise location can look to the corporate parent for support with websites and other marketing tasks. “With a franchise, you may get varying degrees of support from the head office,” Sterling tells NOLN. “They can give you some of the perspective that an agency might provide.”
An independent operator has to do the work on their own or find support within a budget. It is easy to become overwhelmed.
“There's a lot of information online. It's hard to know what to trust,” explains Sterling. “A lot of SEO (search engine optimization) advice and information, it's hard to parse through that.”
The Solutions
One option for the shop that wants to go it alone is to use artificial intelligence, which can tailor a marketing strategy for the shop.
“It can give you a plan,” suggests Gianchandani. Plug in details of the shop, or state goals such as increasing the monthly car count or attracting new business.
“You can easily go to ChatGPT and give it directions,” Gianchandani continues. An example of a prompt might be, “A small business, location, hours, and 'I do oil and lube services with 20 customers a day, and I want to improve the number of customers.'“
Gianchandani says you are your own limitation. “It can give you a whole plan based on what you have and can prescribe you a plan of what to do,” she says.
“You can tell it what you want, and once you start doing that, it gives you the empowerment and the ideas,” Gianchandani explains.
Mobile is a channel that can't be ignored, Sterling believes. “When you think of a website, I think you need to also think about how that spills over into mobile optimization.”
When searching for a quick lube location, most customers are on their phone, and some may have an urgent need for the service. Over 70% of “near me” searches happen on mobile, Sterling says. “And quick lubes rely on that exact search behavior.”
Give your shop some personality. “Biographies for each of your team members on the website,” says Brian Walker, CEO of Shop Marketing Pros. The agency practices putting information in writing and in video. The video can also be shared on social media to promote the shop.
“Putting it out there on YouTube and on social media and everything,” Walker instructs. “Meet the team or meet the techs or something like that. When you start talking about their specialties, a lot of technicians will have some things that they specialize in.”
Services and certifications are also important to highlight on the website. Details that call out the shop help draw in customers. Such information also aids SEO and AI, and helps customers find your business. While you might be using AI to create a marketing plan, customers might also use AI to search for a quick lube. AI searches will be more specific than “oil change near me” and might include parameters such as location, wait time, car make and model, or the friendliness of the techs.
“They will use much more detailed prompts, and AI is able to look at all these different things online,” Walker explains. “Instead of just returning a result like a search engine would base on words, it is returning a result based on the knowledge that it has gained.”
The Aftermath
Once the basics are addressed, start looking deeper into an online presence. Be sure to claim your business on listing sites such as Google and Yelp. Once claimed, manage the profiles with updated information, including location and service hours. Take things further by listing services and calling out awards and offerings that customers might not realize a quick lube does.
Sterling calls listings management a “nice to have” practice. He also suggests developing a strategy for encouraging customers to leave reviews on listing sites.
“Getting reviews is important,” Sterling explains. “You need to have some strategy for getting reviews. Reviews are a ranking factor.”
A best practice, Sterling notes, is to use email after a service. “If you ask for a review at the point of sale, it runs afoul of Google guidelines.”
Consult guidelines on listings services and AI to develop a proper strategy. “It is very easy for people to make innocent mistakes” when soliciting reviews, Sterling says, adding that using the wrong tactic “potentially puts pressure on the customer.”
The Takeaway
Maintaining a digital marketing plan is as important for a shop as continued training and improving efficiency. It is also possible to take on marketing in-house.
“AI is going to help an owner make smarter business decisions to optimize their business for someone who currently doesn't have a website or mobile footprint. This is a way to start a website or strategy. It's a fraction of the cost of an agency,” says Gianchandani.
Once the basics are in place, shops can tackle the next level. Once the website goes live, review messaging and social media, and monitor your listings and SEO for improvement.
About the Author
Enid Burns
Enid Burns is a writer and editor living in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and is a freelance contributor to NOLN. She has covered a wide range of topics from video games and consumer electronics to online advertising and business. When living in Manhattan for 20 years she did not own a car, and is often mistaken for that woman who brings her car to the shop and knows nothing. She has learned a great deal from writing for NOLN, but also learns from those shop owners who try to educate her on their services. Enid is a news junkie who spends evenings streaming TV shows and time off on long walks, bike rides, and fiber arts.