Marketing for Independent Auto Repair Shops

There are 3 things to keep in mind. First, not that long ago Google issued guidelines on what its AI will pay attention to when ranking pages  - those are pretty straightforward, and if you have well developed website with good SEO, then getting Google AI to rank your website does not require any major projects. It’s a natural progression from SEO to SEO+AIO (AI Engine Optimization). Some practitioners make a big deal of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) vs GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) vs AIO (AI Engine Optimization) vs AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) – in our view, it needlessly complicates things.  There is plenty of overlap among those, so create a strategy that matches what AI wants with your resources (ok, this may take some finesse – you don’t have an unlimited budget), then just do it! Second issue: advertising on ChatGPT. If you use Chatty with some regularity, you have likely seen ads that pop up when you enter a prompt. An unscienti ... read more

Well... it's been a while... How the world has changed. 2020 turned out to be a good year as revenue goes - many clients were up over 10% year over year, despite California lockdowns. 2021 is looking good as well - lots of shops hitting new revenue highs, AROs are solid. And then there is the year 2022 - inflation is not just on the radar screen - it's here. It will get worse in 2022. Parts shortages / delays are likely to continue. So what's the good news? Building out your website still works, pay-per-click advertising is doing ok, (though you do have to watch your cost-per-click), customers are keeping their cars longer, so we get to do more services and more repairs. So have you started working on your auto repair shop marketing and advertising plan for 2022? What is your revenue goal for 2022? More domestic makes or more foreign? Services? List the ones you want to focus on in 2022. How will you convey to your customers your unique strengths? What are they? H ... read more