Starting a mobile car wash business is certainly a lucrative opportunity to get into entrepreneurship. You’ll need a relatively low amount of startup capital and technical requirements.
However, although starting the mobile car wash business is relatively easy, doesn’t mean we’ll automatically get prospects and customers flocking to get our service: proper marketing and advertising efforts are still required.
Obviously, customers now have a lot of options when it comes to washing and detailing their vehicles. So, if you can’t properly communicate your competitive advantage and why your service is unique, it can be difficult to get more clients.
The right marketing strategy will help you attract customers to your mobile car wash service, and below we will discuss how.
1. Improve Your Online Presence
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It’s no secret that traditional advertising in promoting a local business like a mobile car wash service is no longer effective.
Nowadays, there are two primary ways people learn about new local businesses: via social media (i.e. when someone reviews or mentions a website), or via Google search.
This is why you should aim to improve your presence on social media and Google (and other search engines).
Figure out which social media platforms your target audience frequents, and build your presence there. Use your social media accounts to engage with potential prospects and customers, give them valuable content so they’ll have a reason to follow you and consume your next content.
The next thing is to ensure your business is positioned on the top-3 spots of Google Maps ranking in your location for “mobile car wash near me” and similar keywords. While this might seem like a daunting task at first, actually improving your Google Maps ranking will only involve a few essential steps:
- Claiming and verifying your Google My Business account. Google Maps only display businesses that are listed on Google My Business.
- Optimizing your Google My Business account. Focus on providing complete and comprehensive information for your human audience.
- Building local citations. Listing your mobile car wash business on various online directories and business listing sites. Make sure to maintain consistency and accuracy in information.
- Encourage reviews. Both on Google Maps and other platforms. We will discuss more of this in the next step.
That’s it! Do these four steps consistently, and you’ll see your business listing slowly but surely climbing the Google Maps ranking.
2. Deliver High-Quality Services To Encourage Positive Reviews
In this day and age, most people always check for online reviews before they make a purchase or use a service. So, ensuring you have a positive online reputation is important if you want to attract more clients and grow your business.
Above anything else, the best way to get more positive reviews and also word-of-mouth promotion is to always deliver quality services and make your customers happy. When they are happy with your service, they will recommend your business to their friends and peers.
One of the most important things you can do here is to ensure you always deliver your services on time, and this is why it’s important to invest as early as possible in a mobile car wash and detailing software like fieldd to ensure seamless and automated time management in your mobile car wash business.
After you’ve ensured customer service excellence, only then you can use various tactics to encourage more positive reviews, including:
- Offering incentives. For example, offering discounts and freebies for those who’ve left a (positive) review on your Google Maps listing or social media
- Sometimes all it takes is to just ask them at the right time. For example, when they are returning for their second car wash (which means they are happy for your service), ask them for a review
- Always respond to all reviews, including and especially the bad ones. Ask the reviewer what the problem was and how you can make up for it. People are more likely to leave reviews for businesses that don’t ignore negative reviews.
3. Plan Your Advertising Strategy Carefully
Although traditional advertising isn’t as effective as it used to be a few decades ago, you can still use advertising to grow your mobile car wash business when you do it right.
See what your marketing budget allows, and try running small ad campaigns. Above, we have discussed the importance of building your social presence, and you can use the social media platforms’ paid advertising options to improve your reach on these platforms.
Google Ads is also a good option to reach a lot of people interested in car washes in your area, which in combination with your Google Maps strategy, can be an effective approach in building your local audience.
Also, set up retargeting ad campaigns for people who have visited your website. This can be effective in staying at the top of your target prospect’s minds when they finally need your service.
Be strategic with your advertising spending, and use it to support your organic marketing (Google Maps SEO and organic social media) in generating more leads and customers.
End Words
A mobile car wash business is, above anything else, a service business, and the best way to market your business and attract more customers is to consistently deliver high-quality services to build rapport and generate social proofs.
By delivering customer service excellence, you can retain happy customers and turn them into advocates: they will leave positive online reviews for your business, mention your business on social media, and recommend your service to their peers, friends, and family members.
By ensuring customer service excellence paired with a proper marketing strategy we’ve discussed above, you can effectively grow your mobile car wash business.