More and more businesses are moving their marketing online. While handing out your business card at auto shows and relying on word of mouth are still excellent ideas, having an online presence is essential to the success of your car detailing business.

Potential customers rely on the internet to find a reliable detailing service, and it’s your job as a business owner to take advantage of the opportunities in front of you.

Even if you’re not entirely comfortable with social media and online marketing, the sooner you start your online marketing campaign, the better. Find a digital marketing agency that has worked with many auto detailing business owners and has the expertise to help you thrive in this new space.

Perfect Your Car Detailing Website

Great marketing starts with a great website. People tend to trust professional-looking websites, so spend the time to create a website that loads fast, is mobile-friendly, and looks good. Consider adding a blog that showcases past customers along with your previous detailing work.

If you’re not sure what your website should look like, take a look at your competition. Figure out what they’re doing right and what you can do better.

Set Up a Car Detailer YouTube Channel

Many people will first try some DIY before heading for professional detailing services. The car community online is vast, and auto videos represent a large portion of YouTube’s videos.

What you put up on your YouTube page will depend on you, but try to have a mix of DIY projects for your viewers to try and some videos showcasing advanced techniques and projects that you’re particularly proud to show off.

Create a Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok page

While younger people have moved away from the site to Instagram and TikTok–which are also well worth using to establish your digital presence–Facebook is still an excellent way to reach the older, more discerning customer who used to rely on business cards and recommendations from friends and family.

As with other marketing channels, make sure to include all your business information so that new customers can easily reach you. Sprinkle in some auto detail projects and photos of your auto shop, and you’ll be a magnet for new customers. TikTok specializes in short videos, while Instagram is great for photo-based posts. Create your brand personality on each social channel.

Get on Online Directories

Listing sites, like Google My Business, are an excellent way to provide detail about your shop. You will find generic sites, like Google’s directory, as well as car-specific and even detail-specific directories that are invaluable to a detailing shop.

If you decide to put your auto detailing business up on multiple directories, make 100% sure that your information is the same across every platform and that you update your contact details as soon as they change so they will stay consistent.

Start Measuring Performance

Marketing is all about reaching potential customers and enticing them to your auto detailing business. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to get caught up in marketing and spend lots of money on strategies that don’t work.

That’s why you need to have some form of measuring tool to measure your marketing performance. Most analytics tools will measure the change in your customer base and revenue.

Taking the time to measure these metrics allows you to focus on aspects that work and discard those that don’t.