The adage that sending mailers as a marketing tool is outdated is one that a shop coach initially agreed with but is now a big believer in them as a key tool.
But they have to be done correctly or else you might as well light $100 bills on fire, observed Jay Huh, a business coach at Shop Fix Academy and owner of CarMedix.
He laid out the keys to a good mailer during the session How to Run your Shop Stress-Free at the Midwest Auto Care Alliance’s Vision Hi-Tech Training & Expo.
Any mailer must have an irresistible offer attached to it. This is an offer so good that the person receiving it in the mail feels they have to take advantage of it.
Your mailer should have three perforated sections on the mailer: One with the irresistible offer, another off a certain dollar amount when they spend at a certain level (such as $50 off $300) and the third can be experimental, such as offering AC service or a free second opinion.
Design it with an image of the most popular make and model you work on in your shop, along with your business name and logo.
He also offered other tips for sending them out, such as not restricting mailers based on geography. People will drive by 10 other shops to go to yours if your offer is irresistible enough. “Distance trumps dollars,” Huh said.
Have a look at your “backyard” and determine how many mailers you need to send. For someone in an urban area, it may be a smaller geographical radius that captures many homes; in rural areas, a bigger radius may be needed to get the same numbers.
Want to go further? Drive the routes those potential customers may have to drive to get to your shop. It may be geographically close but maybe there’s a river that acts like a natural separator for the town. Maybe traffic congestion is bad and it takes too long to make the drive.
Mailers shouldn’t only be sent to a specific income demographic. People of all income brackets need auto repair and service — lower income earners may need you even more because they may not be able to afford a new vehicle at today’s prices, Huh noted.
It’s up to the shop owner as to how they want to send out the mailers. Some send out bunches every week, others like Huh send them all out at once.
And they work. He used one shop as an example: It sent out 30,000 mailers with an irresistible offer. He showed attendees the shop’s financials before the mailers and after. It saw a 50 per cent increase in business.
“They have the cheap oil changes on [the mailer and] sent out 30,000 of these,” Huh said. “They work.”
