Marketing the Mundane
The auto glass repair industry is a straightforward one. Car glass cracks or breaks, the glass shop orders replacement glass, then they repair it. That’s it.
While other industries offer a wide range of services and products, that just doesn’t exist for the auto glass industry. There is one type of glass for each vehicle and one basic type of chip repair.
It’s not a flashy industry, but nobody ever said it was. People don’t window-shop for windshields nor do they ever buy a windshield out of sheer whim. The auto glass industry is need-based. Because of that, the targeted customer base is narrow; people with a car, disposable income or insurance, and broken auto glass.
Why is this an interesting subject of literature? That’s just the thing, it isn’t! The auto glass industry is one of the most difficult industries for marketing. The chance of becoming dull and repetitive is almost a guarantee. The auto glass industry has arid substance.
Auto glass is breakable, essential, and taken for granted.
That about sums up the only reason people ever think about windshields or auto glass in the first place. We don’t blame anyone though, why would you think about it unless it breaks. Its sole purpose is to provide an unnoticeable experience for every vehicle.
This, however, is why marketing is as tough as it is for auto glass companies. Sure, large chain auto glass repair shops have huge budgets with Nastrucks (Nascar trucks) and various expendable ideas to shove auto glass into.
Smaller, local shops do not have massive budgets and instead must harness their savvy abilities to come up with new ways to break the monotony of windshield marketing. With all honesty, this is a challenge, but, personally, we do think we’ve done well so far.
Anchor Content
If you were to look at any of our social accounts, you likely will come across content relating to customer reviews. While we advertise these more frequently than our competitors, we believe customer reviews to be of the utmost importance for the success of local businesses. Plus, not to toot our own horn, we do have a 5-star rating and why not let the people know!
Blogs
When it comes to blogging, no one wants to read about windshield replacement techniques every week. We try to shake up our topics as much as possible, ranging from business advice to road trip essentials. As always though, we try to tie in the topic of windshield replacement, automotive care, or small business into each article.
Other Content
Of course, repetitive and doldrum blogs and posts on the same topics aren’t all we do. In between each consistent post, we do our best to sprinkle in fun posts our audience can engage with. They don’t always relate to auto glass or windshields, but they do liven up our feeds. They allow us to interact with our customers and even have a little fun. We enjoy actively participating in social media rather than just scheduling the same post months out and we aren’t the only company to do this.
Look at Wendy’s for example. Go through their Twitter feed and you likely will find a multitude of tweets roasting their competitors or placing retweet bets with their customers; all in good fun of course. Denny’s can be even more bizarre. Their Instagram page is brimming with hilarious photos, puns, and humor. All of which completely shatters serious corporate expectation.
Although we haven’t quite reached the sass level of Wendy’s or adopted the odd humor of Denny’s, we try not to take ourselves too seriously on any of our social platforms. We just try to keep people interested, informed, and entertained at the least with our posts.
With all that said…
We may have a less than exciting industry to work with, but we make the most with what we have. No, not everyone gets ecstatic about windshields and that’s alright. You don’t have to be, nor do we expect you to be. All we want is to make your experience with us, whether online or in-person, as smooth and enjoyable as possible. Thanks for stopping by, now go out and have an adventure!
Author: B. Delamater
