If you want to successfully promote your auto detailing business, a marketing collateral checklist is extremely useful. It will ensure that you will not miss anything important. It can also help you keep your marketing collateral in one accessible place. For example, a physical folder for all your printed material and an online folder for digital documents and images. Having this collection of mixed media readily to hand makes it much easier to market your auto detailing business at any given moment or when you are planning campaigns.

Items to Include on Your Marketing Collateral Checklist

Your marketing collateral is your entire range of digital and traditional (printed) media material. These are what you use to raise awareness about and publicize your auto detailing business. There is a lot to it. Therefore, being organized and prepared makes car wash marketing more manageable and effective. Your marketing collateral checklist is an essential part of this preparation. To make sure you never miss an opportunity to promote your brand, include the following items on your marketing collateral checklist.

Use an Executive Bio to Build Credibility

An executive bio should be a part of your marketing collateral. Your professional bio tells people who you are and what you do (owner of an auto detailing company). This is your “story”, so make it personal but keep it professional. For example, you can talk about your experience, education, career path and your passion for auto detailing, cars or similar. Write a short version (around 200 words) and a longer version (400 words), so you can use them across different promotional materials. For example, use them on your:

• Auto detailing website (long version)
• Marketing catalogue or brochure (long version)
• LinkedIn profile (short version)
• Facebook for business page (short version)

Sharing your executive bio is a great way to connect with people, raise customer awareness of your brand and build credibility in the car wash business.

Tip: Keeping a digital copy of your bio on your phone or computer also means your bio is written and ready to email/print/share with new or potential clients at a moment’s notice.

Promote Your Brand with a Company Fact Sheet

Write down “company fact sheet” on your marketing collateral checklist. This printed fact sheet will give a succinct overview of your business, highlighting important and relevant facts that define and promote your brand while also connecting with customers. For example:

• Introduce yourself and your team
• Include when the business was founded
• Outline your company achievements
• Write brand mission and values. For example, green eco car wash
• Highlight what additional services you offer

Tip: Make important facts stand out with infographics and figures to attract positive attention and give people a better understanding of your auto detailing business. Your fact sheet has more impact when the important information can be absorbed at first glance.

Include Business Cards on Your Marketing Collateral Checklist

Make sure you include auto detailing business cards on your marketing collateral checklist. Business cards should always be to hand so you never miss an opportunity to share information about your auto detailing business. Print out a generous number so you always have a business card available to distribute in any kind of social situation when the conversation turns to business.

Tip: You can also use a daily checklist for your car wash to make sure your business runs smoothly from when it opens first thing until it closes for the day. You may also find that a new employee training checklist is invaluable, too.

Use Promotional Flyers to Raise Awareness About Your Business

It is also a good idea to put flyers on your marketing collateral checklist. This is a cost-effective way to advertise your auto detailing services. If you maintain a stock of flyers, you will always be ready to distribute them whenever you see an opportunity to attract new clients or remind existing customers to visit you again.

You can hand out flyers at local community events, leave them in reception areas of businesses, pop them through letterboxes or pin them up in public places (shopping malls, parking lots etc). However, it is polite to seek permission first and always check with your local government about public distribution guidance.

Tip:  The latest graphic design platforms and apps have made it easier and more affordable to print flyers. Keep designs and wording bold and simple. Use your brand colors, logo, and car wash slogan. Producing professional-looking flyers can be part of creating a brand identity as you grow your business.

Produce a Catalogue Highlighting Your Auto Detailing Services

Should a catalogue be on your marketing collateral checklist? Yes, if it represents your brand, is well-designed and communicates your brand message. For example, a green car wash could include the following:

• List of services from an exterior wash to a presidential detail car care package
• Details of water-conserving steam car wash technology
• Mentioning eco-friendly car wash products

Effective car detailing marketing ideas include both digital and print media. Online marketing is now very popular and effective because people spend so much time on digital devices. However, print media, such as a catalogue, gives people something to flick through at their leisure without any other distractions from the internet.

Tip: To maximize your marketing efforts, why not do a print and digital version of your catalogue? The print file can be made available as a downloadable PDF on your business website.

Build Brand Loyalty with a Newsletter

A newsletter is also a type of marketing collateral that is useful to include on your checklist. Emailing a newsletter to your list of subscribers is one of the most effective digital marketing trends because these people have already signed up to hear what you have to say. This is a great opportunity to keep your brand top-of-mind. Moreover you can share additional information about car wash services that could lead to a scheduled appointment. For example, DetailXPerts includes a reminder on its popular blog to sign up for our monthly newsletter, promising car detailing tips and other interesting car-related news and information.

Tip: Don’t forget to include a call-to-action email button on your newsletter. For example, this could be “schedule your next appointment” to receive a promotional discount, or a reminder to visit your website to discover more about your list of new and exciting car wash services.

Conclusion

Using a marketing collateral checklist is an excellent way to create, prepare and organize all your print and digital media for promotional opportunities. It will help you become more organized and less likely to forget something. Thanks to a checklist, you will always be prepared to promote your auto detailing business. This enables you to have an effective presence within the marketplace. Additional benefits are increased productivity and greater confidence in the task at hand when you are thinking up car wash marketing ideas to increase profits and how to stand out from the competition.

If you are interested in owning a business and would like to partner with an established name in the industry, make sure you check the DetailXPerts franchise opportunity. We provide excellent support to our franchisees in their detail business sales and marketing. Moreover this includes all necessary marketing collateral to help make your business a success.

Ready to get started? Go to the top right section of this page and fill out the form to download our Free Franchise Info Kit for more details.