Marketing ideas please?

[howletts]

Hi

I was wondering whether anyone had any sensible marketing ideas for me please?

I have just launched a new service called Technician Tax Back through my Chartered Accountancy practice. Basically I claim tax relief for motor trade techncians / mechanics on the tools they have purchased for their job.

I need to target employed motor technicians, i.e not businesses.

Any ideas?

 

[nobrainer]

Facebook is always a good bet at no cost.

Also let them find you, make sure you're SEO is up to scratch and keywords are in your websites metatag.

Drop any promotional material in shops where they're likely to shop for their tools.

 

[ScottG73]

I think some old-fashioned research work and then a print campaign would come in handy here.

Use yellow pages etc to target local motor trade businesses and perhaps send them a letter accompanied by a poster for their workshop or maybe leaflets for workrooms.

Print can be expensive but there are online services that allow you to upload artwork yourself and avoid reps and mark-ups. (my company deeprint.co.uk) is one (sorry for the plug)

You might also be able to do deals with local tool outlets to display some information.

Also some good old-fashioned door-knocking may help.

Hope this helps.

 

[MrBob]

Maybe check out some of the motoring forums, as that's most car people hang out. Pistonheads is one of the biggest I think and has people from all over on it, including car owners etc so it's just a case of weeding them out.

Facebook is another good call as that can be very targeted.

Good luck.

 

[howletts]

Thanks for quick replies
I am already on facebook and update it regular (and have had a number of enquiries from this too)
Will have a look at Piston heads...thanks for that...
Might need more help re the "SEO" and "Metatag"??????Sorry for ignorance!
Somebody else set up my site so this might already be ok.
Thanks again. Really appreciate it.
Suzanne

 

[antonee]

Hi,

SEO can be quite tricky. It can cost you around £10,000 by SEO company to get this done. But if you want you can outsource an employee to work for you on SEO from only £299.00 per month

if i can help you any more with ideas about SEO please ask.

 

[MJBMI]

Hi Suzanne .
Depending on profit margins etc
I think youd be best off going to the tool manufacturers/suppliers and hatching a deal with them where your details go into every sale they make so you get 'introduced' to the purchaser of the tool at the exact moment they would require you.
(either within the manufacturers packaging or as an add on sale at time of purchase )
Win win, the manufacturers could then promote it with a tax saving incentive , ditto the retailers/suppliers ,making both more attractive than those that dont accept your deal, and you get the end customer and the majority of your marketing taken care of at source .
Have a backup website and helpline for them to understand what you do and make it easy for them to say yes and sign up
Mike

 

[howletts]

Thanks Mike for your reply. I really appreciate your advice.
This is something I have thought about as there does appear to be only a few main suppliers of the tools (although sold through franchisees (Snap On, Mac Tools)). My problem is knowing actually how to go about approaching them - whether I go to franchisees or to the company that supplies them. I would also need to work out what to offer them. My fees are pretty low per technician/job, so to work this is going to have to be high volume.
My instinct is to go to the very top but I am not sure how to get the best contact name, or whether to call, write or visit! Being an Accountant, I have no experience of this sort of thing!
Thanks again
Suzanne

 

[wood1e2]

SEO = Search engine optimisation in other words various ways of getting your website to rank higher within search engines like Google for various serarch terms - known as keywords.

META tags are part of your webpages coding. One in particular META Description can help with the seo of your website.

I would look at flyers to all the local garages. And maybe just leaflet the larger ones, as they tend to have employees.

As much as the internet can help, the technicians would have to know they can cliam monies back in the first place to actually be looking for you.

So I would go knocking on doors. MOst of the larger garages have trade desks, which are run by stock/garage technicians so you may end up speaking directly to the people you want to help.

 

[MJBMI]

Thanks Mike for your reply. I really appreciate your advice.
This is something I have thought about as there does appear to be only a few main suppliers of the tools (although sold through franchisees (Snap On, Mac Tools)). My problem is knowing actually how to go about approaching them - whether I go to franchisees or to the company that supplies them. I would also need to work out what to offer them. My fees are pretty low per technician/job, so to work this is going to have to be high volume.
My instinct is to go to the very top but I am not sure how to get the best contact name, or whether to call, write or visit! Being an Accountant, I have no experience of this sort of thing!
Thanks again
Suzanne

if you take a day out looking for the information you require you will be able to discover who to contact etc,
Re your fees and service, is the service something that can be (semi) automated or will it require XX amount of your time for each individual?
How much , ballpark, would you save each person, how much would you charge for each individual (you dont have to answer those here) and could there be a way to factor that into the wholesale or retail price of the tool/s so they automatically get it, the manufacturer hopefully sells more due to the extras on offer within their package
ie the tools and the tax breaks or whatever the correct terminology is

 

[smbchamp]

First thing you need to do is

1. Get your website up and running
2. Do some SEO on your site
3. Add a blog and post articles which will demonstrate your expertise

Now as part of offline marketing goes, try all the normal techniques. However concentrate on places where working people hang out

 

[Direct Print Int]

I'm with MrBob on this one, Forums.

You could also contact motor spares websites and the like and ask them to Tweet about you, it gives them something useful to pass on to their customers, they may even blog about it. Then of course you could also blog about your service.

Perhaps leave Some of your business cards at MOT centres and offer the centre a little commision for every card they give away that leads to a sale for you.

 

[antonee]

Hi Suzanne you can contact my colleague Adam Little who is a bit of an SEO Expert and will be able to guide you. If you dont mind adding him on Skype his ID is adam.little.

If you tell him i referred you for help, it will be best otherwise he will be surprised with someone adding him randomly

 

[wood1e2]

There are many places on the internet you can find out all you need about SEO. And obviously here you can ask all you want to find out what you need.

And obviously it would be good to have your site ranked number for 'Garage mechanic accountants'

But how many people search this keyword?

Wear out some shoe leather, I think you will get a better response.

 

[JoTheEntreprenette]

Can you contact DVLA and obtain a copy of all the registered technicans throughout the UK who have a permit to carry out a M.O.T. on vehicles?

Regards

Jo

 

[chenglinda]

How to attract visitors to the blog ?

First thing you need to do is
1. Get your website up and running
2. Do some SEO on your site
3. Add a blog and post articles which will demonstrate your expertise

Now as part of offline marketing goes, try all the normal techniques. However concentrate on places where working people hang out

 

[howletts]

Can you contact DVLA and obtain a copy of all the registered technicans throughout the UK who have a permit to carry out a M.O.T. on vehicles?

I dont know Jo but I am going to find out! Thank you!

 

[XanderMarketing]

Hi Suzanne,

What you are offering - do technicians etc know there are people out there that offer your services? If so SEO, AdWords etc will work.

If they don't know that services like yours exist you need to educate people. Direct marketing and tele-marketing would be the best ways to do this...

Alex

 

[howletts]

Some know, some don't know. Some think its a scam (which it isnt!)

Other companies doing it but in a "no fee no win" kind of way which is giving it a bad name in some peoples opinion

So all in all, I think both types of marketing are useful as I think there will be techs out there looking for the service but equally techs to seach out and find

 

[Direct Print Int]

Suzzane,

Don't forget Public Relations.

PR could be an excellent way of promoting your service for little expense.

Trade magazines: Contact trade magazines and if your service is fairly unique and offers a good bundle of benefits you may get an article in publication written about you if they like the service.

Another great way to contact trade magazines and industry bodies is via Twitter. A client of ours told me how he managed to get featured in Creative Review, a monthly publication for the visual communication industry because he Twittered with the editor of that pulication, the editor liked his product so he ran a feature.

Of course with certain PR you are at the mercy of the journalist to portray you in the right light, but it sounds like you have a great product so I wouldn't worry about that.

 

[howletts]

Thanks "Direct Print Int"
This is something that I have considered and I have emailed a few local papers (with no luck).
I will look into some of the trade magazines though too...

Thanks again

 

[fusingcreativity]

Hi Suzanne,

Some good suggestions here, although when it comes to places like Facbeook - you will have to work REALLY hard to reach that very specific audience so will need a really good strategy behind it in order to achieve those goals - having had a nose at your FB page, the language used and tone etc. will probably need looking at to attract the right audience - relevancy and applicability are going to be key on FB.

Someone else mentioned about promotional material within shops that these people buy from, I'd go that step further - try and work directly with those retailers to push your service when someone buys a qualifying product, you could then use coded material to pay the retailer commission. Not always the best option, but incentivising the retailer could make life easier!

There are a lot of motoring forums out there to tackle and you are going to need to do a lot of research into where this audience reside in order for your marketing to be most effective. Have a nose at the manufacturer FB pages if they have one and where they advertise as this will help guide you too.

Good luck

 

[howletts]

Thanks Jeni, really appreciate your comments
If you dont mind me asking, what do you mean "language used and tone"? Do you think its too pushy, too sales pitchy (if you know what I mean?)

thanks again

Suzanne