How to Get More Customers For Your Car Detailing Business

Getting customers is the most important thing you should be focusing on when starting your detailing business, it's also the hardest thing to do. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. So here's my top tips on how to land more clients.

1. Get organic (no paid advertising) customers from posting on social media:

Of course this will be completely free as it doesn't cost to post to social media, so that means you should be making a great profit. But there is another "cost" to it. And that is time. Expect your business to grow at a very slow pace and this can be inconsistent/unsustainable, especially if you have signed yourself up for high overhead (expenses) from the beginning. One viral video can make you very busy for an amount of time, but can quickly drop after it has died off the algorithm.

You can also become a celebrity in the industry and get free advertising and grow a huge business. It is going to depend on your talent and work-ethic. Social media content creation is a very hard job to do. but can really pay off if you are consistent.

Focus on making video/photo content at scale. This content needs to be centered around you as the owner. This can be behind the scenes, story time, Q&A, tips/tricks, and more.

You also want to make quick educational content, before/after videos (don't be cliche). Something like a "finger snap transition" would be amazing. Google it.

Think of your social media channel as a tv station. You want to have different episodes (content pieces) going throughout the day.

Fun Fact: I have 3 phones full of SudzBox content (videos/photos) throughout the years. So record as much as you can!

2. Know your prices - The number one mistake I see from detailers is that they don't know their prices! Do you really expect a customer to go out of there way to go see a list of prices at your website?

Pro Tip: Keep your detailing packages simple. Don't try to be clever and offer so many options.

Study your prices. I cannot stress this enough. When people call you it's because they want to know the price. The simpler your packages are, the easier it will be for you to remember. Be confident when you tell them over the phone.

Not knowing your prices will lose you business.

3. Advertise Your Business - The most sustainable way to grow and achieve success in your business is going to be paid advertising. This is because nobody can buy from you if they don't know you.

You can do this in many ways: digital advertising (facebook/instagram ads, tiktok, google, etc.), local town billboards, car show sponsors, + more!

I recommend digital advertising as it can really build your brand. There are many options like conversion ads, boost profile ads, lead gen ads, message us ads, more followers ads, etc.

Here's the reason why advertising is hard. It takes time and dedication figuring out what works and at the lowest cost.

It's like being a scientist while studying analytics. You really shouldn't mix ad types in the beginning, this way you know which ads are performing the best.

ROAS - An important term you need to know when advertising your business.

Return on Ad Spend. For this to even matter though, you need to know your profit margin.

ROAS tells you the amount of revenue that is earned for every dollar spent on a campaign.

Ex. Lets make this simple. You invest $100 into your ad campaign and generate $350 in revenue from those ads, your ROAS is 3.5.

Pro Tip: Use higher ticket package offers to achieve better ROAS and increase your chances of being more profitable when advertising. This is assuming you have consistent profit margins on each package. Ex. $700 Paint Correction Package, $900 Ceramic Coating Package (using hypothetical numbers here).I would NOT recommend advertising inexpensive $20-40 car washes, you will most likely lose money.

It's important to know your margins because ROAS will tell you have if you have profitable advertising. If you don't know your costs, you can easily lose money. Advertising is always a risk, but without risk there is no reward.

Pro Tip: Test at least 50 content pieces organically on social media. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat + more.

Use the top performing posts and run those as creatives for your ads. These usually perform the best for ad campaigns.

Think of your social media ad campaigns as modern day TV commercials. If you wanted to sell your services on commercials while a hit TV show was on, which videos would you use? This is your campaign.

Different types of content for your advertising include: promo video showcasing your services (B-roll, action clips detailing the cars), a graphic sharing a current special priced package, blog posts to drive people to your website, client testimonials, UGC content, + more!

Make sure you are targeting your location of your business. How far of your area you want to service is your decision.

Test ads and study the analytics. It's a great idea to make a spreadsheet breaking down daily advertising cost and revenue. Advertising does indeed take time. So base your results from 7, 14, and 31 days.

Using your profit margin and ROAS, determine if your ads were profitable. If they weren't try something else. There are so many ad types, but you need to figure out what works for you! Every brand is going their own unique way of advertising/marketing.

You will most likely lose some money testing it out so start with a little amount of money a day. It can be as little as $5 a day. Once you have consistent profitable results, you can scale your ads if you wish to do so. Make sure you slowly scale and not put all your chips in. Scaling too fast can literally put you out of business.

Advertising is truly a risk, but if you study your analytics can make a plan, raise your budget, and profitably scale your business.

Thanks for reading! Do you have any questions about starting your own detailing business? Comment below. - Jesse Aquino (Founder of SudzBox)