For George Witt, owner of George Witt Automotive in Lincoln, Neb., marketing is an essential tool for independent repair shop owners, but it is also an essentially misunderstood process. Too often, Witt says, shop owners don't take demographics into account when considering marketing campaigns, choosing instead to use (and misuse) advertising strategies that just don't play out in their particular market or speak to the type of customers they are hoping to attract.

"You can't think about advertising in terms of getting new people in," Witt says. "You're already tripping over tons of money. Look at your customer base. If you can stay top-of-mind with your current customers and help them remember to stop in for their regularly scheduled maintenance, you'll increase your business without any problems."

Witt says one of the easiest ways to keep your shop front and center in the customer's mind is to send out regular service reminders. At Witt's shop, the counterstaff will make a notation of the customer's next service visit at the bottom of each bill. Then, 30 days before the customer is scheduled to come in, the shop mails out a letter to remind them of the upcoming appointment. Witt says that this is an effective tool because many people simply forget they have appointments in the first place.

"You'd be surprised how many people don't even remember they've scheduled a service visit for their car," says Witt. "You may have gone over the bill with them, but their mind was somewhere else — making lists, running errands, getting the kids to soccer practice. People get busy. But if you make an effort to stay in touch with your customers, you'll be astonished by the results."

Amy Mattinat, owner of Auto Craftsman in Montpelier, Vt., applauds Witt's marketing strategy. "It's much more cost effective to market your shop to existing customers than to go after new ones," she says. "Those are the people who have already come into your shop and spent their money. You need to create a relationship with them so they don't think about going anywhere else."

According to Mattinat, almost 50 percent of new customers come to her shop after being referred to her by existing customers — which only goes to prove how important it is to pay attention to them.

"Your existing customers are the best advocates you will ever have for your shop," Mattinat says.

Like Witt, Mattinat sends service reminders to her customers, as well as a monthly newsletter filled with car care tips, maintenance advice, recipes, jokes and a monthly special. The newsletter generates a lot of interest among her customers, which ultimately translates into more business for her shop — and, she says, a phone that won't stop ringing.

You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours

But Witt and Mattinat didn't come up with their marketing strategies overnight — their individual successes have come after long years of trial and error.

"Most shop owners don't have any kind of business background," says Mattinat. "They want to do a good job of fixing cars their way, but there's a lot more to running a repair shop than fixing the cars."

So, where can a shop owner turn if he or she wants to learn how to better market their shop to existing, or new, customers? In some cases, it's best to go straight to the source — that is, to the manufacturers who provide shops with the parts to repair the vehicles in their bays.

Sheryl Bomia, a marketing manager at Tenneco Inc., is in charge of the company's Expert Plus program. The program, which is now in its 10th year, allows the company to be in continuous contact with installers, and to disseminate information about products, promotions and training events to shops across the country.

"This program is a vehicle that allows us to 'touch' the installer all year long," Bomia says. "It ensures that our products and brands will stay top-of-mind with our customers, while giving them the right tools to promote our brand to the end consumer."

As a member of the Expert Plus program, installers receive an annual Point-of-Sale (POS) kit that includes a safety-triangle poster to display in their shop, inspection tags, coupon books and push-pull decals, as well as promotional material featuring Monroe's new "save a squirrel campaign."

"This is a fun campaign that can help installers educate their customers about the importance of replacing their shocks at 50,000 miles," Bomia says. "But at the same time, it can help them increase shop traffic and boost their revenue."

For Tenneco, servicing customers is a number one priority. "If we don't have our customers, we might as well just pack it up," she says. But she also acknowledges that the success of the installers means success for Tenneco, too.

"The program's payoff continues right back to Tenneco," she says. "It helps us garner a larger customer base and greater customer loyalty. And, at the end of the day, it means we've sold more product and gained more customers."

Like Tenneco, ACDelco provides marketing support to installers across the country. The company does this through its ACDelco Advantage Web site, which has been active for five years. The site features photos of ACDelco products that installers can use to create promotional materials for their shops, as well as newsletter templates, brochures, banners and posters.

"Our AC Delco Advantage Web site is designed to function as an international and domestic tool for our WDs, alliance jobbers and our ACDelco field employees and staff in general," says Kim Lucas, an advertising specialist with the company. "It also provides a way that we can cross-pollinate and share best practices with WDs and installers across different regions of the country, as well as globally."

Referred to as a "total value proposition" for ACDelco customers, this site allows users to easily create customized newsletters or direct-mail campaigns for their businesses. According to Lucas, this saves the Web site's users both time and money — the ad materials are easily accessible to online users, who don't have to pay an advertising agency to create them.

But it also allows ACDelco complete control over its brand," Lucas says. "The Web site protects our brand by ensuring that product photos and logos are used properly and displayed appropriately. This allows individuals to select and simplify the ways they choose to sell our products. It's to our benefit to make it easier for them. "

Fishing for customers that fit your business model

Unlike many independent repair shop owners, Larry Moore, of Larry's Autoworks in Mountain View, Calif., has a degree in marketing. The degree has served him well through the years, and allowed him to figure out which marketing techniques will attract customers to his shop.

"When I am looking to attract new customers, I want to focus on the kind of people who appreciate and understand what I do," Moore says. "I don't want to deal with price shoppers. I want a good fit."

To get to this point in his business, Moore went on a spying mission. First, he identified his "A+" customers. Then, he poked around in their cars during service visits to see what kinds of newspapers and magazines they liked to read, and what stations they tuned into on the radio. Moore finally realized that the customers he wanted to attract had specific habits and ideas he had to appeal to if he wanted to win their business.

"Marketing is like fishing," says Moore. "You don't go looking for trout in the middle of the ocean, or by running a big net behind a boat. You go out to the middle of a stream and put a fly on a fly rod, then use skill and technique to lure the fish to you."

By narrowing down the focus of his advertising, and keeping it car-centric, Moore has kept his business running smoothly for years. "Even though I'm selective about finding new customers, I like to treat the ones I have right. If I have a good customer, I'm going to bend over backwards to give them value-added service. And why shouldn't I? Each customer that I have is worth approximately $18,000 over the life of a car."

Treating customers right doesn't have to be an expensive, or time consuming, proposition, Mattinat adds.

"If shops would just clean up their waiting rooms and make sure the counterstaff is trained, they'd see big returns," she says. "This is all a part of marketing. Sometimes, the small things are more cost effective than a radio ad."

Of course, it doesn't hurt to offer existing customers discounts throughout the year to reward their loyalty, Mattinat notes. But like Moore, Mattinat thinks that focused marketing will bring more quality customers in the door than discount ads.

"You have to think about who your customer is," she says. "For example, in my shop, we work mostly on Asian imports. In fact, we specialize in them now. We spent a lot of money on tools and training sessions for hybrid vehicles, too, because that is what is popular in Vermont right now. So, that's the type of customer I market to — the customer who drives an import car or a hybrid vehicle."

In the end, most industry players admit that it comes down to one thing: education. That is, educating customers about the importance of regular maintenance at reputable shops, and then training repair shop owners and technicians to use tried-and-true marketing techniques to attract the demographic they want to attract to grow a stable business.

And if you don't think you have time to do that? Well, that's an easy fix, says Mattinat. "Hire someone. If you don't want to do the marketing for your shop, find someone to do it for you," she says. "It's just like hiring an accountant to do your books or a technician to fix the cars in your bays. You've got to find a professional who is willing to do what it takes to make that phone ring if you are unwilling or unable to do it yourself."