What's The Best Form Of Advertising?

BY DAVID ROMAN

ASK THAT QUESTION TO A GROUP OF SHOP OWNERS and invariably most will come back with the same answer: word of mouth.

New shop owners as well as those looking to grow their businesses face having to decide where to focus their advertising dollars. And yet, diving deeper into what’s exactly meant by “word of mouth” will get you a whole mess of different responses. Sometimes it’s simply handing out your business card every chance you get. Other times it’s thinking that if you do a good enough job, your customers will feel compelled to tell others about their great experience. Either way, it doesn’t constitute a sound marketing strategy, regardless of the specific tactics being used.

Shops that grow their list of customers without having to do any formal advertising often rely on a large social network to get people in the door. Tapping into the relationships you have with family and friends or even with your local church can spur quick growth. But eventually, you run out of people in your immediate circle of influence. Those that don’t have the benefit of a large social network simply hustle to ensure people know they exist, often inserting themselves into any remotely relevant conversation. While there’s nothing inher- ently wrong with this tactic, it sends shivers down the spine of any introvert and can easily devolve into becoming obnoxious. We’ve all experienced the person offering their services when someone is just asking a question about their vehicle online. And of course, they always make sure to mention how cheap they are.

The real problem with these ideas of word-of-mouth advertising is that they don’t constitute actual marketing. Any tactic used to advertise needs to be systemized. And any system has to have three things. It needs to be replicable, trackable, and scalable. Unfortunately, what most people believe to be word-of-mouth advertising doesn’t meet this criteria. For example, while it’s certainly a great advantage to live in a small town with a lot of friends and family willing to give you their business, that dynamic isn’t something you can replicate should you open a second location in the next county over. The usual notion of word-of-mouth advertising can also be difficult to track. People may mention that they heard about you from a friend, but if you’re in a highly-visible location, their choice in coming to you can just as easily be attributed to the fact that they’ve driven by your sign every day for several years. Second and third-tier referrals are almost impossible to track as well. If a friend of a friend of a customer referred you because they heard your customer raving about your service, deciding which

person to thank becomes difficult. Even if you’re able to overcome the problem of replication and tracking, you still face the challenge of scaling your efforts. After all, you’re only one person. You can only hand out so many business cards every day. At some point, you’ll run out of time which caps your business’s potential.

The question then becomes: What can be correctly called word-of-mouth advertising? Recall that whatever we do needs to be replicable, trackable, and scalable. It’s completely possible to physically tell others about your business in a systemized fashion. One example of this is a business referral group, like BNI. When you join a BNI group, regardless of geographic location, you’re able to tell others about your business within the same structure. Because group members are incentivized to tell you if they’ve referred someone to you, you’re able to track exactly how many referrals you’ve received as well as the revenue they’ve generated. You can also scale this by sending employees to other groups in the area as your shop grows, spreading your sphere of influence to as many groups as you have employees.

Another way to systemize word-of-mouth advertising is by using a referral card that’s attached to a specific customer and carries a unique offer. For example, you might provide your customer with a free oil and filter service coupon to give away to someone they know. You can explain to your customer that if the person they refer uses it, you’ll give them a free oil and filter service as well. Now you have something that can be replicated regardless of who does it and where it’s being done. You’ll also be able to track response and it’s completely scalable, as the offer can be given to an infinite amount of customers.

You’ll likely find that most of your referrals are coming from a small handful of customers. Those that are not only raving fans of your services but also like to tell anyone and everyone that will listen about their experience with you. The key is tapping into the potential revenue those people can generate. Yes, it begins by offering a great service. But it also requires that you build a system around it that can be replicated, tracked, and scaled. Anything less isn’t advertising, but instead, just wishful thinking!

David has spent 20 years in the automotive industry, having successfully managed several multi-million-dollar retail parts stores in Illinois, the St. Louis area, and eventually Kansas City. He's owned his shop since 2012 and now shares his experiences as the co-host of The ASOG Podcast.