Advertising Automotive Diagnostic services
Discussion
Chaps,
I have a friend, who is running a small business in Automotive Diagnostics. He qualified as a professional engineer, but is indulging his petrol-head tendancies by trying to make his hobby his living. His core business is diagnosis of problems with autmotive electronics - not so much auto electrics (duff lights and wiring) but more electronics - problems with ECU's, Lambdas, sensors, timing and injection maps and so on.
He is based in Havant, Hampshire, and has been going for about 6 months. He is struggling, as he is finding it hard to find work. He is mainly selling into the garage trade (occasional private owner, but not many) and garages don't realise what he can do. He has yet to lose a client (people keep on coming back), but he needs to find new clients as well. If he can't, he will probably fold within a couple of months.
So, what suggestions do people have for advertising such services? He has tried face-to-face visits to local garages (main dealers, independants, back-street places and everything in between), as well as advertising in local papers, and is planning an advert in Yellow Pages.
What else can he do? This post is NOT intended as an advert, but is trawling for suggestions. I strongly suspect that this sort of business is quite local (garages won't send a car very far to have problems disganosed with it), so the advertising would do well to hit the local area.
Any suggestions, please let me know ... I'll pass them on.
Oli.
I have a friend, who is running a small business in Automotive Diagnostics. He qualified as a professional engineer, but is indulging his petrol-head tendancies by trying to make his hobby his living. His core business is diagnosis of problems with autmotive electronics - not so much auto electrics (duff lights and wiring) but more electronics - problems with ECU's, Lambdas, sensors, timing and injection maps and so on.
He is based in Havant, Hampshire, and has been going for about 6 months. He is struggling, as he is finding it hard to find work. He is mainly selling into the garage trade (occasional private owner, but not many) and garages don't realise what he can do. He has yet to lose a client (people keep on coming back), but he needs to find new clients as well. If he can't, he will probably fold within a couple of months.
So, what suggestions do people have for advertising such services? He has tried face-to-face visits to local garages (main dealers, independants, back-street places and everything in between), as well as advertising in local papers, and is planning an advert in Yellow Pages.
What else can he do? This post is NOT intended as an advert, but is trawling for suggestions. I strongly suspect that this sort of business is quite local (garages won't send a car very far to have problems disganosed with it), so the advertising would do well to hit the local area.
Any suggestions, please let me know ... I'll pass them on.
Oli.
I reckon your mate is on to a winner if he can find a way to get to the back street guys and amateur mechanics. The number of thread in the engines forum along the lines of 'my (insert car name) is idling funny, stalls at low revs, has a funny misfire at high revs etc.' is huge and 90% probably come down to electrics in the end. Does your mate do a visiting service. If not I would suggest if he can it would be ideal as it would allow a punter (private or pro) to find out where they should start with the minimum investment of their time.
How about Car Mechanics magazine www.carmechanicsmag.co.uk If he does older vehicles he might want to consider Practical Classics.
I think his biggest problem is probably that he is selling a non-standard product so needs to get to the exact market that would be interested when they have time to think about it. How about getting the local Partco, Cafco, Allparts etc. to have some flyers on their counter top? Perhaps in conjunction with some sort of special offer, particularly as he is retaining customers so well he could probably afford to give away a few freebies.
Hope these ramblings help. Best of luck to him.
How about Car Mechanics magazine www.carmechanicsmag.co.uk If he does older vehicles he might want to consider Practical Classics.
I think his biggest problem is probably that he is selling a non-standard product so needs to get to the exact market that would be interested when they have time to think about it. How about getting the local Partco, Cafco, Allparts etc. to have some flyers on their counter top? Perhaps in conjunction with some sort of special offer, particularly as he is retaining customers so well he could probably afford to give away a few freebies.
Hope these ramblings help. Best of luck to him.
Autotrader (pinpoint the market you want and advertise in that section instead of being lumped with the rest in the accessory & services section), Yellow pages (hurry up they're finalising the proofs for this years book and you get massive discounts on big ads for first year). Scrub up and go visit as many garages and dealers as he can so he can let them know what he does. Register on as many internet car forums as possible and let it slip that he does what he does.
If I can think of any more I'll let you know
If I can think of any more I'll let you know
I think I can offer some help because this is EXACTLY what I used to do; I was a bit like a one man A team and only called in when nobody else could fix it.
I created a simple A5 business card and sent them to every local garage in my area (50 mile radius) something like 1000 cards went out.
I did this about six years ago and I still receive calls from garages.
If he can do his stuff he will do very well. I used to work for everyone from small back street garages to main dealers. If he can get his message across that he can diagnose or repair as opposed to simply replace they will understand the cost saving.
Good luck.
I created a simple A5 business card and sent them to every local garage in my area (50 mile radius) something like 1000 cards went out.
I did this about six years ago and I still receive calls from garages.
If he can do his stuff he will do very well. I used to work for everyone from small back street garages to main dealers. If he can get his message across that he can diagnose or repair as opposed to simply replace they will understand the cost saving.
Good luck.
Gents,
Thank you all very much for your help. (Sorry to take a couple of days to get back to this thread.)
Rustybin, flyers at local parts desks are a great idea, thanks. No, his target market is newer cars, particularly those who are having problems with emissions, lambda, sensors and ECU's. Anything older than mid '90's is simple enough not to have many electronics, therefore would probably be fixed by more run-of-the-mill garages.
Wolf1 and edc, yes, car forums are one thing, but his core market is more likely to be garages rather than end users/drivers. How do you target garages? (As far as I am aware, garages are not big users of the internet, either for websites or forums. However, I could be wrong.) I have looked into advertising on PH, but the problem is that the vast majority of people on here are enthusiasts, not garage owners.
Aceparts - I think he can do his stuff. And he has the results to prove it. Out of interest, why did you stop this line of business? Also, where were you (geographically)?
Vixpy - Many thanks for the post. I've sent you a PM.
Thanks again for your help. It's appreciated. I'll pass on the suggestions.
Oli.
Thank you all very much for your help. (Sorry to take a couple of days to get back to this thread.)
Rustybin, flyers at local parts desks are a great idea, thanks. No, his target market is newer cars, particularly those who are having problems with emissions, lambda, sensors and ECU's. Anything older than mid '90's is simple enough not to have many electronics, therefore would probably be fixed by more run-of-the-mill garages.
Wolf1 and edc, yes, car forums are one thing, but his core market is more likely to be garages rather than end users/drivers. How do you target garages? (As far as I am aware, garages are not big users of the internet, either for websites or forums. However, I could be wrong.) I have looked into advertising on PH, but the problem is that the vast majority of people on here are enthusiasts, not garage owners.
Aceparts - I think he can do his stuff. And he has the results to prove it. Out of interest, why did you stop this line of business? Also, where were you (geographically)?
Vixpy - Many thanks for the post. I've sent you a PM.
Thanks again for your help. It's appreciated. I'll pass on the suggestions.
Oli.
adam g said:
Got a mate with a company that makes automotive diagnostic stuff, seems to be related to what your friend does. No idea if they have an overlap but happy to make an intro if you want to send me his details over.
Adam g, thanks for the offer. Can I ask what the company in question is called? I know that my chum has bought a fair amount of kit, and it is possible that he is already using the products as made by your mate.
However, there could be milage in it yet.
Edited to add: Mindful of the no advertising policy here, it maybe an idea for you to PM me or Email me directly with the name of the company - I don't want to upset the applecart. My Email address is orinocowomble@eurobell.co.uk.
Oli.
>> Edited by zcacogp on Thursday 24th March 10:06
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