Marketing your automotive aftermarket restoration, performance, race and restyling shop goes beyond showcasing your products and services – it's about building connections that fuel growth, customer loyalty, and industry recognition.
By Barry Alt
10 Ways To Grow Your Shop or Online Store With Organic Marketing
Organic marketing, in particular, takes center stage in propelling your automotive aftermarket business to new heights.
Unlike the traditional, pedal-to-the-metal marketing approach, a successful organic marketing strategy follows a smoother route. It generates consistent traffic and nurtures customer engagement over time, all without the costs of paid methods. While we were writing this article, we also learned that a surprising 86% of people ignore paid advertisements.
Here, we’ll delve into the world of organic marketing, revealing the top ten ways to leverage organic campaigns for promoting your shop.
Let’s kick things off!
What is organic marketing?
Organic marketing revolves around crafting a strategic approach that continually drives valuable traffic to your business without solely relying on paid methods or no methods at all. 49% of marketers say that organic search has the best ROI.
It’s about having real conversations and sharing genuinely helpful content and information. You’re not just saying, “buy this” or “choose our business,” you’re showing why doing so would be a great investment through engaging stories and helpful information.
Rather than relying on immediate paid visibility, an organic marketing strategy focuses on creating a lasting impact, gradually establishing your brand as a trusted authority in your industry, unlike paid advertising that goes away if you stop funding it, organic marketing drives visibility and awareness for the long term.
10 steps of how to use organic marketing for business growth
Here are ten useful ways to leverage the power of organic marketing to boost your shop’s online presence:
1. Define your target audience
When you’re in the automotive aftermarket industry and want to attract new customers, it’s essential to know exactly who you’re trying to reach.
Your ideal customers are those who have a passion for cars and want to enhance their vehicle’s appearance, performance, or both.
These could be car enthusiasts who love to personalize their rides, collectors seeking to restore classic cars to their former glory, or individuals looking to boost their vehicle’s power and performance.
By grasping their preferences and challenges, you can tailor your marketing strategies to resonate with them effectively.
Pro Tip: Comprehensive understanding of your target audience ensures your marketing efforts hit the mark, fostering genuine engagement and sustained loyalty.
2. Develop a quality website that converts
3. Prioritize content marketing
Content marketing is a powerful tool for connecting with your audience and is a great tool to help your site show up in search, as Google loves great content that’s informative and helps your clients and prospects.
Here’s how to effectively engage your audience through educational or entertaining content:
- Helpful blog posts: Share articles and guides about restoration, tuning, and restyling on your website. Brands with a dedicated blog have a 55% more traffic rate than those that don’t.
- How-to guides: Empower enthusiasts with step-by-step guides for DIY tasks.
- Behind-the-scenes: Showcase transformations and stories of expertise.
- Visual Social Media platforms: Use Instagram and Facebook to write about and share photos of projects that you’re working on in the shop.
- Informative articles: Address common questions and concerns with informative articles.
Pro Tip: By providing valuable insights via organic content, you’ll engage with your audience and establish your shop as a reliable expert that they’re looking for. Helping increase your website’s search rank in the process.
4. Focus on search engine optimization (SEO)
By prioritizing search engine optimization, you’ll amplify your shop’s online presence. Pay attention to these critical aspects:
- Keyword optimization: Sprinkle your website and content with relevant keywords that relate to your business. Use keyword phrases that your clients are using in their searches to boost your rankings in search engines like Google. If Google doesn’t know that you offer products or services, then you will not show up in search when your prospects are searching to find that product and service you offer.
- Local SEO: Implement local SEO strategies to attract local customers in your targeted geographic area. Some examples include claiming and verifying your Google Business Profile listing, creating blog posts, articles, or landing pages that focus on local topics or events, and listing your business in local directories relevant to your industry.
- Don’t forget about social media: When posting to social media, make sure to include important keyword phrases in your post copy and ALT tags, as social media posts, especially LinkedIn, will show up in search results.
Currently, organic traffic is responsible for 53% of traffic to all websites.
Pro Tip: Using the right keywords and optimizing for your local area can greatly increase how many people find your shop online. This helps you connect with customers exactly when they’re looking for what you offer.
5. Use social media marketing
Social media channels are pivotal in modern marketing strategies, providing businesses with dynamic platforms to connect with their target audience.
Follow these useful tips to get the most out of social media marketing:
- Choose the right platforms: Pick social media platforms that match your industry and audience.
- Content strategy: Create diverse content that resonates with your audience’s interests.
- Consistent posting: Post regularly to help maintain your online presence.
- Engage and Interact: Respond promptly to comments, messages, and mentions.
- High-quality visuals: Invest in high-quality visual content like images and videos that align with your brand identity.
- Hashtags and trends: Use relevant hashtags and trends to expand your reach beyond current followers.
- Influencer collaborations: Partner with industry influencers to reach a wider audience and enhance your brand’s credibility.
- Optimize your profiles: Make sure that all of your social media channel profiles are aligned with your business and that they all correctly match your brand and messaging
Don’t forget about LinkedIn: If you don’t have a LinkedIn business page and your project and products are targeted at the high-income market, get one started today. Here are some stats that will convince you to get your business on LinkedIn.
- 10 million executives and 37% of US adults use LinkedIn
- Over 50% of LinkedIn users earn $75,000 or more per year.
- 4 out of 5 people on LinkedIn “drive business decisions”
- 45% of content readers on LinkedIn fall under “upper management” in companies
- 40% of marketers surveyed indicate LinkedIn as the most effective channel for driving high-quality leads
Pro Tip: Make your social media strategy genuine and engaging, crafting a compelling narrative that builds a strong community around your brand.
6. Implement email marketing –>
Please head on over to the Motorhead Digital Blog for the rest of this article.
The Motorhead Digital team are digital marketing expert with over 25 years of experience. They’re focused on supporting automotive aftermarket restoration, performance, and race shops. Their signature Site, Location, and Maximizer™ programs will supercharge your digital marketing including website design, social media, SEO search engine rank, content marketing, and your entire online presence so you attract better leads who want to spend more money with you. You can reach Motorhead Digital at (585) 766-9785, via email, or online at MotorheadDigital.com.
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(585) 766-9785
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