Repair Shop Times » shop web site http://www.repairshoptimes.com/wordpress News for the Automotive Repair Industry Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:27:19 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Your Website – The New Yellow Pages http://www.repairshoptimes.com/wordpress/2010/02/09/your-website-%e2%80%93-the-new-yellow-pages/ http://www.repairshoptimes.com/wordpress/2010/02/09/your-website-%e2%80%93-the-new-yellow-pages/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:55:30 +0000 molly.moore@wingswept.com http://www.repairshoptimes.com/wordpress/?p=1181  For many years shop owners and other small businesses have seen their marketing dollars be swallowed up by Yellow Pages.  They had slick talking salespeople convince them that without an ad in their Yellow Page book their business was doomed.  They also felt that they had to have the biggest ad going and finally, they felt it had to be a full-page ad and then a full-color ad.  Thousands of dollars were spent on this endeavor.  At best it was a prospecting piece as it was in no way targeted marketing.  The shop owner had…

]]>  For many years shop owners and other small businesses have seen their marketing dollars be swallowed up by Yellow Pages.  They had slick talking salespeople convince them that without an ad in their Yellow Page book their business was doomed.  They also felt that they had to have the biggest ad going and finally, they felt it had to be a full-page ad and then a full-color ad.  Thousands of dollars were spent on this endeavor.  At best it was a prospecting piece as it was in no way targeted marketing.  The shop owner had to hope that a prospect would pull out the book, turn to automotive repair and out of all of those listed, pick them to call and do business with.

 

Then along came websites.  At first they too were very expensive and took weeks or months to put together.  Overtime though they have evolved so that they are very affordable and can be functional in no time.  People today are surfing the web instead of letting their fingers do the walking through the Yellow Pages.  Today, if a business doesn’t have a website they are viewed suspiciously by the general public as a non-reputable business or at the very least as a not very state-of-the-art shop. 

 

My advice to all shop owners is to rethink how you spend your hard earned dollars.  If you feel you must have a presence in the phone book, make it a one-line bold listing or a very small ad.  You will be in the white pages anyway and most people know where your business is and the name of your shop because seeing it as they drive by is why they are considering doing business with you.  They can go to whitepages.com and put in your business name to get your phone number too.

 

One of the business trends predicted for this year is the combination of direct mail and web-based campaigns.  This trend started in 2009 with much success and shop owners are targeting their best customers with direct mail that will lead the customer to their website to visit personalized URL’s that deliver segmented targeted information.  Web-based campaigns are keeping businesses thriving in this economic downturn and customers and prospects of all ages are very web savvy. Gen Y is set to be the largest generation replacing the Baby Boomers as the biggest group and they grew up with the web.  They certainly won’t be using Yellow Pages. 

 

If you don’t have a website yet, get one very soon.  You will be pleasantly surprised at how affordable it will be and what it can do for your business.  

By Rhonda Hiltbrand

NWZ WORX Multimedia

 A Repair Shop Websites Partner Story

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