When you run an oil change shop, you know you have to work constantly to bring in new customers and keep your existing customers coming back.
Fortunately, social media provides an exceptionally easy way to organize your marketing efforts for maximum returns on your investments.
By using just a few key strategies, you can optimize your social media marketing program to deliver incredible results for your operation. That’s why we’ve compiled this small list of the best tips for your oil change shop’s social media marketing plan!
Each profile you manage for your oil change shop should be fully optimized, year-round. This means your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram accounts should be kept up-to-date with the most recent information about your business. This includes phone numbers, hours of operation, your address, and anything else you update on your Google My Business listing.
Plus, you should always include calls to action like links to your other online platforms. This way, if someone wants to learn more information about your business or services, they’ll go straight to your website. If they want to watch a helpful video about vehicle maintenance, they can watch it on your YouTube channel. A proper call to action can nearly double the effectiveness of your social media posts.
This strategy is the best way to constantly drive engagements and keep your online outreach busy with new visitors who could potentially become customers.
Every social media platform comes with handy tools to provide you with data on how well your posts perform. With that information in mind, you can create goals for your posts and schedule them at specific times on specific days.
Most of the platforms also allow you to schedule your posts far ahead of time. Seasonal posts about special deals on springtime oil changes or the best oil to use in the summer months are easily structured months in advance.
We recommend you create a calendar of the content you want to share with followers over the next several months or the full
year to ensure you have a detailed plan of action. This way, you won’t repeat posts or bore your audience.
Ready to create a marketing calendar? Check out some of these handy templates, apps, and tools:
When you create a post, make sure it would get your attention. The content should be interesting, informal, useful, and relevant to your industry. You can talk about yourself sometimes, but try to focus on what your current and potential customers want or need to hear.
Share important industry information, new services, vehicle maintenance and care tips, funny memes and gifs, and utilize hashtags whenever possible. Getting ahead of the curve on a trending hashtag is a great way to bring in more interaction with your posts and your profiles.
Remember, attention spans are shorter than ever. Social media posts should communicate information as quickly as possible in image form or with links to longer-form content. Photos dramatically increase the likelihood of someone engaging with your content, and links provide more depth to your posts.
Part of being active on social media is knowing when and where to post. On social platforms like Twitter, your oil change shop account might post once or twice, every day. On Facebook, where nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults are active, you may only want to post a few times a week.
When you create a schedule for your posts, you should focus on the topics you want to alternate between over the course of the year. Some of those posts will be the main idea posts which can be shared on Facebook and LinkedIn to generate the most interest. The smaller, branching-off posts that fill out the topic in more depth can be shared on Twitter, and relevant infographics or videos can be posted to Instagram or YouTube.
If your followers are interested in learning more, remember to utilize calls to action to link them to relevant posts on your website or other social media platforms.
Running a special on oil changes next month? If you don’t advertise them on your social media profiles, your previous and prospective customers might never hear about it!
Whether it’s a coupon they can print out and bring into your shop or a simple code they can enter on your website, promotions are a phenomenal way to bring in more business.
There’s a reason 73% of marketers believe their social media marketing efforts have been somewhat-to-very effective. By taking advantage of social media, you’ll get more business because of your promotions and have more ideas and incentives for creating future deals.
At Castrol, we think social media marketing is one of the best ways oil change shops can stay relevant and engaged with their communities and customers. We want you to get the best out of your marketing efforts no matter what. If you liked these social media tips, head over to the Castrol Insider resource hub to find more useful guides and info to help your business thrive.