Soak, lather, rinse, repeat. It seems simple and effective enough, right? Those steps are sufficient for the three minutes your customer spends getting their vehicle washed and waxed at your car wash location. But your car wash marketing efforts demand more time and attention than a few minutes once a week. Your company’s success is directly related to effective and intentional car wash marketing. The hours you spend discovering who your target audience is, how to reach them, and how to implement strategic marketing moves will grow your company and boost sales.
Let’s address the car wash industry in America as a whole. Here are a few findings from the first primary research study commissioned by the International Carwash Association. The purpose of this study was to quantify the size of the car wash industry. Check out these astonishing statistics:
- Over 2 billion cars are washed each year in North America, equaling over $15B in car wash retail sales.
- The percentage of drivers that report washing their vehicle at a professional car wash location rose from 48% in 1994 to 77% in 2019.
- There are 62,688 car wash locations in the United States.
- Gross sales of chemicals into the car wash market are nearly $1B annually in North America.
- Gross sales of car wash equipment and parts exceed $700M in North America.*
Those statistics say a couple things you can’t ignore:
- Your car wash has competition.
- Americans spend ample amounts of money each year at the car wash.
- The popularity of using professional car washes continues to rise.
- Sales related to car wash services drastically affect the economy.
Hopefully, now you have no doubt that you need to push a very well-made marketing strategy to boost the success of your car wash. We can confidently say these car wash marketing tips will help you meet your marketing goals:
1. Car Wash Marketing Tip: Display a Stunning Car Wash Website Design
A user-friendly car wash website design is the foundation for great marketing. When a potential client is searching “car wash near me” on the Internet, they will click on your website to find your location, hours, and services. If your website is not user-friendly or lacks in functionality, your potential customer will likely choose your competitor instead.
2. Car Wash Marketing Tip: Ensure Complete & Accurate Listings
Most car wash customers decide to get their car washed as a spur-of-the-moment decision. They’re getting in their car, see that it’s dirty, open Google, and search for a nearby car wash. Your essential information such as hours, directions, and website link, should be easily accessible and straightforward. Listings are an excellent marketing service to ensure this information falls directly into your potential customer’s lap.
When set up and managed correctly, search engine optimization (SEO) will push your listing to the top of the search results. The listings that show up first have complete information, plenty of reviews, a link to a complete website, and more. Google, Yelp, and Facebook are three of the top listing platforms, but there are 60+ listing platforms available. The more platforms you can manage, the better! M&R Marketing uses software to fill out the correct information and push it to the listing platforms.
3. Car Wash Marketing Tip: Implement a Geofencing Strategy
Gone are the days where advertisements only reached your potential customers if they physically stumbled upon them. Today, hyperlocal targeting allows for advertisements to reach your target audience and remain with them.
Geofencing is a highly effective form of advertising that places an ad before your potential customers instead of waiting for them to search for your product or company. Consider these statistics:
78% of businesses are not using hyperlocal targeting accurately
77% of consumers own and regularly use their mobile device
51% of consumers have found a new company or product via a mobile search
Geofencing places a virtual fence around a physical location. After the fence is set, digital ads can appear to anyone who enters the virtual fence. The fence can be placed around any geographic location – from a small building to an entire zip code. When you choose to incorporate this newfound technology into your marketing strategy, you will see effective advertising results!
4. Car Wash Marketing Tip: Focus on Your Local Community
Your most loyal customers are the ones who work, play, and live a short distance from your car wash. These people drive by your car wash every day while running errands, heading to work, or dropping the kids off at school.
Meet them where they are!
Talk to local business owners and school administrators and ask if you can drop brochures and coupons off at their location. By leaving tangible ads, customers and students can pick them up and will be reminded that your car wash exists and is available for their car wash needs.
Sponsorships are another great way to get in front of athletes and their parents. You can sponsor club or school sports teams which helps your community thrive and puts your name and services in front of potential customers every time they hit the field!
Additional Recommendations
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a valuable component to add to your car wash marketing efforts. with a solid understanding of SEM and the right strategies in place , your car wash can see increases in:
- Brand awareness
- Conversion rates
- Visitors to your location(s)
SEM utilizes pay-per-click marketing campaigns to present search ads, display ads, and landing pages to people searching for the services your car wash provides. Through detailed keyword research, Smart Bidding, multi-point targeting, account monitoring, and more, SEM can lead to a boost in brand recognition and conversions.
Social Media Ads
Social media advertising is a fast, strategic way to improve your car wash marketing. Billions of people worldwide spend time daily on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and so many others.
By knowing your objectives, your audience, and what organically speaks to your followers, you can seize the opportunity to put your car wash ads in front the right users. Doing so can increase clickthrough rates, conversions, and on-site visitors.
Social Media Page Management
Along with advertising on social media, it is important to manage your car wash’s social media pages with strategy. A well-planned yet flexible presence on social media increases your potential to organically attract new but relevant users, earn trust, provide information, and further increase business.
M&R Knows Car Wash Marketing—Let Our Full-Service Team Help Yours Gain Even More Success! 478-621-4491
M&R’s Portfolio for Car Wash Website Design
M&R Marketing creates stunning, professional, and user-friendly car wash website designs that serve customers well. Through a deep understanding of our client and their needs, we have brought their website vision to life.
Our car wash clients requested elements on their website that would benefit both the business and customer, such as:
- About Us
- Blog
- Contact
- Employment
- FAQ
- Fleet Plan
- Fundraising
- Gift Cards
- Locations
- Map
- Membership
- Partners
- Resources
- Services
Take a look at three car wash clients we have helped grow by producing an excellent website:
Tidal Wave Auto Spa
As Tidal Wave Auto Spa expanded their locations, they asked M&R to improve their branding and take their website up a notch. We developed a custom website, wrote SEO content, added a location feature which allowed the website visitor to easily find their locations – all while ensuring their brand reflected their fun and playful personality.
Customers can now easily find which location is closest to them. Tidal Wave currently has 100 locations across the United States.
| Atlanta, GA | Douglas, GA | Kennesaw, GA | Milledgeville, GA | Sharpsburg, GA |
| Augusta, GA | Dublin, GA | Lawrenceville, GA | Morrow, GA | Thomaston, GA |
| Columbus, GA | Evans, GA | Macon, GA | Moultrie, GA | Warner Robins, GA |
| Dacula, GA | Fayetteville, GA | Marietta, GA | Newnan,GA | |
| Decatur, GA | Hinesville, GA | McDonough, GA | Roswell, GA |
Beyond a total website revamp, they partnered with us to produce print material that reflects their website branding. Now, both their website and print material – such as brochures and coupons – boast the same fresh and modern look.
Car Wash POS Design
We also improved the look and design of their Point of Sales (POS) system. (The POS is often the first physical connection the customer has with your car wash, so it’s important to impress them from the get-go.) We updated the branding on their car wash icons and everything a potential customer would see displayed on the POS screen.
Island Car Wash
Before it was acquired by Zips Car Wash, Island Car Wash served the South Carolina community with locations in Hilton Head, Bluffton, and Okatie. They approached M&R with the need of improving their website with fresh content and design. In addition to the new website, Island Car Wash also wanted to improve digital advertising efforts to reach their target market more effectively.
Our Website Strategy
Throughout the website process, we were able to work with Island Car Wash’s team to build a fun, engaging, and clean website. We showcased some unique videography and photography of the Island Car Wash locations that added a personalized feel to the site.
Customer-Centered Design
In addition to the great look and feel, we designed several features that were built specifically with the customer experience in mind.
The first was to build individual locations pages so that anyone looking for a wash while out and about could easily find the nearest location.
The second was to make the memberships as prominent as possible. By building a page dedicated to the monthly memberships, customers could easily sign up online!
Our SEM Strategy
Upon completion of the website, M&R launched a Google Ad campaign that drove traffic to the new website with the goal of generating new business. Due to Google’s highly targeted capabilities, we could run ads in Hilton Head, Bluffton, and Okatie that target individuals searching for car washes on Google. Once users clicked an Island Car Wash Google Ad, they would be directed to the great new site and could make the move to becoming an Island Car Wash member.
Crystal Clean Auto Spa
Crystal Clean Auto Spa, formerly known as Cherry Blossom Express Car Wash on Bass Road, serves people in Middle Georgia with locations in Macon and Bonaire and two locations soon to open in Griffin and Locust Grove.
Launching the Vision
In 2020, Cherry Blossom Express reached out to M&R needing a new website. They wanted help differentiating themselves from other car washes in the Macon community. They also wanted new promotional materials and services.
Our production team created an engaging, SEO-focused website, along with an eye-catching postcard, banner, trifold, and billboard. In addition to our creative services, we also managed their direct mail campaign and strategically targeted drivers in the community. Our primary objective was to increase visitors to the Bass Road location and to promote monthly membership packages.
Evolving into a New Brand
By 2021, the owners of Cherry Blossom Express rebranded with an entirely different name. They soon became Crystal Clean Auto Spa and needed all marketing elements that came with the name change. M&R designed their new logo and performed a thorough sweep of the Cherry Blossom Express website. We updated the website with fresh content, changed all the design elements to reflect the new branding, and created new domain names/URLs. Plus, we provided new profile and cover photo graphics to feature on social media.
Crystal Clean Auto Spa has greatly benefitted from its new, unique rebrand and is looking forward to expanding its services across Georgia.
Partner With M&R Marketing
Your car wash marketing strategy needs to be created and implemented with a success in mind. From creating your car wash web design to managing your car wash social media account, our team can do it all. Give us a call today with your questions: 478-621-4491.
Want more car wash marketing advice? Check out our additional articles:
Car Wash Website: Why You Should Have One & Things to Include
How to Market Your Car Wash & Stand Out From the Crowd
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*Source: International Car Wash Association