Just like every business, a car wash company relies on customers for its very existence. There is nothing scarier for an entrepreneur than the thought of losing his customers to the competition. In an industry where customers have a plethora of choices and alternatives, car wash companies have to up their game if they want to keep the business as a going concern. The first, and probably most important step, to becoming a fierce and formidable player in the car wash business jungle is to arm yourself with the most effective marketing plan you can cook up.

Effective marketing plan 101

Whether you’re striking out on your own with a self-styled start-up company or you’re buying into an existing car wash franchise, you should know what you’re getting into. This is where the marketing plan would prove most useful. It serves as your guide map, your itinerary, and your compass all rolled into one as you navigate the often confusing and ever-changing business landscape. If you own a car wash business or a car franchise, you need to be using social media as the online central hub for your public relations and marketing efforts, it is second to none as the raising popularity of social media is undeniable.

Facebook is a phenomenal and novel way to be part of the conversation with your target audiences. It has no geographical borders, has a huge database of users and best of all, the service is free.

And while you’re at it, you should focus not on writing just any marketing plan. No, you should strive to come up with the most effective marketing plan possible as you build your own company.

Formulating your marketing plan takes time, energy, patience, and willingness to learn the car wash industry inside and out. Many technological, financial, and environmental developments have made the car wash industry a very lucrative business opportunity. The only thing left for entrepreneurs to do is to build their companies in such a way as to take advantage of the boom.

Start with solid research

Writing the marketing plan itself is a little like putting icing on a cake—it’s the last step, and it ties together everything that you have been working on. Just like a cake, your marketing plan’s good looks is only as good as what is in it—namely, the content that backs up all the conclusions that you will draw at the end of your research.

To be effective, your marketing plan should straightforward and simple. It should answer the basic questions of 5Ws and 1H: the who, what, where, when, why, and how of your business. However, the path to these answers is too often tortuous and complicated. You will have to sift through large amounts of data before you find the information that will help you build your business from the ground up.

Doing painstaking market research is the only way for you to come up with an effective marketing plan. In an industry as complex and ever-changing as the car wash business, you have to know all the various factors that motivate a car owner to avail himself of car wash services in the first place.

The big questions

Many decades ago, you wouldn’t see average income car owners regularly taking their cars to the auto shop for a through professional wash and tune up. Car owners simply did the job themselves. Now, however, professional car wash is part of most car owners’ monthly, if not weekly, budget. They understand that their car is an important investment that must be cared for and maintained by professionals every once in a while.

Convenience, professional services, and top calibre results are just some of the main points that you should consider as you design your marketing plan. How do you highlight these factors so that customers will choose you over your competitors?

Second, think about what makes your company unique, what makes it stand out from the crowd of car wash companies just waiting to get a customer call. Why should a car owner pick you out from the rest? You can brand yourself as a green-only car wash company and focus on providing environmentally-friendly yet highly-effective car cleaning results. This should definitely attract the eye of car owners who are becoming more conscious of how their lifestyle—including their car cleaning habits—can impact the health of the planet.

Third, ask yourself what you want to achieve by opening your own car wash business. Do you want to become financially independent? Are you looking for ways to expand your skills? These questions will ultimately shape your company philosophy and the way you interact with your target market. A simple SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis may not be sufficient to answer all your inquiries. You will have to dig deeper and find out exactly why you want to go into the car care industry.

Other, more complex questions will pop up as you continue to do research for your marketing plan. But it is only when you have the answers that you can work on strategizing how to position yourself in the market, so take these questions as guide posts to help you reach your goal.

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