Text Request Talks
5 Automotive Franchise Marketing Tips with Tint World's Charles Bonfiglio
Business texting can boost your automotive franchise, you just need the right tactics in place.
Here’s how to use text messaging to get your services in front of a larger audience and boost revenue.
This article takes insights from our Text Request Talks podcast with Charlse Bonfiglio and further distills it into advice specific to texting. Charles is the CEO and Founder of Tint World Franchising.
The following tips expand on how to add business texting to your existing franchise marketing tactics like Charles does.
Watch the full interview on YouTube.
1. Give your automotive locations the power to text message.
Bonfiglio stresses the power in finding the right channel for each of your franchise locations. Since 62% of people read and respond to texts within a few minutes, there’s a pretty good chance that right channel is text messaging.
Text-enable your locations’ business numbers, so customers can reach them the way they most prefer to schedule services and receive maintenance reminders.
Text Request enables you to text from each of your location’s business lines, so your entire team can text from the same place. Each location can have its own line, and there’s no limit to the number of users.
Text-enabling your phone numbers doesn't affect voice, plus you can text with customers from your computer or mobile app using your business number. That’s helpful for all the additional SMS marketing tactics we’re about to share below!
2. Create more inbound opportunities by advertising that your franchise locations text.
Now that your locations can text, you need to let the world know. 77% of consumers want to initiate texts to businesses about scheduling services. Bonfiglio says that showcasing options like these are what empower customers to start working with you.
Advertise the call-to-action “Text Us” in your marketing materials. You’ll have to say it multiple times before it sticks for most people. Display this call-to-action on your:
Website
Social media
Digital ads
Email newsletters
General marketing materials
The more you advertise that your business can text, the more customers will use the channel to start sales conversations with you.
3. Share best text messaging practices across franchise locations.
Bonfiglio says that your automotive franchise brand needs to become a symphony of people working together. That includes the marketing strategy behind your locations’ business texting.
You benefit the most from knowing what’s working at high-performing locations. Keeping everyone within your franchise connected is an enormous task, but text messaging helps make it smaller. Mass text everything from:
Upcoming brand events
Tactics
New partnerships or tech
Brand highlights
Customer success stories
Survey links to report performance
Mass texts, like BCC email, give your franchise the power to reach everyone at once. Any replies become one-on-one conversations that can be used to further help franchisees.
Ongoing communication like this is what will drive growth across your entire franchise by creating the perfect symphony Bonfilglio was talking about.
4. Send SMS promotions about the services your locations offer.
Bonfiglio created a larger customer base by expanding his automotive services and marketing them to franchise’s current customers. You can do the same by sending texts about your new services, including:
Undercoating and rustproofing
Window tinting
Regular oil changes
Fan, serpentine, or timing belt replacement
New brake rotors
Winter rims and tires
Start by categorizing your contacts into Groups, or segmented lists, based on things like lead or customer status, vehicle type, typical services booked, and more. For example, consider who's bought certain things that might also be interested in a complementary product or service.
Once your contacts are in Groups, you can send Mass Texts that target their needs. Custom Merge lets you use customizable fields in your mass texts that you can fill with things like:
The customer’s name
Last purchase or service
Vehicle type
All these SMS tools work together to make your automotive franchise’s SMS promotions as powerful as possible.
5. Grow your local presence by texting Google review links.
Cultivating a local presence for each of his individual locations is how Bonfiglio was able to grow his franchise brand as a whole. You can increase your own local presence by gathering online with texts.
Gathering Google reviews ongoing is an absolute must if you’re going to compete with other auto dealers, and texting is one of the easiest ways to get your review link in front of current customers. Use Text Request’s Reviews feature to:
Connect your individual locations’ Google Business pages to Text Request
Insert custom reviews links into your texts asking customers for feedback after services
Monitor and respond to oncoming reviews from inside Text Request
The more online reviews you have—and the more positive they are—the higher you’ll rank in potential customers’ Google searches.
How Else Can Text Messaging Boost Your Automotive Franchise’s Marketing?
The above are just a few quick tips—but we have an entire in-depth automotive text messaging playbook for those who want to learn even more ways to implement SMS into all your processes.
Our business texting software has helped hundreds of automotive centers, and we’re ready to help yours next!
