I do not know much about cars, engines or pretty much anything else that goes into a car, accept for gas. I do know how to fill my gas tank. Paying for it, at the high prices today, well that is another story. I have an older truck I like to tinker with and learn on. It is a white extended cab, 1992 Ford F250. It is fairly beat up, but it runs like a champ. When something goes wrong I will at least attempt to try and fix it first, before handing it over to the profressionals.
I went to an auto parts store to pick up something I needed for the truck, and when I walk into one of those stores I get overwhelmed. There are so many items to choose from, where to start looking and so on. Lucky for me the person behind the counter is an expert.
What I lack in auto expertise I make up for in business know-how. I do hold a creative knack for the ability to find better ways to advertise, market, sell and promote products, businesses and services. So an idea hit me to combine my creative skill in advertising and promotions, with the sale of auto parts.
If you own an auto parts store, or work for one, implementing these 5 tips below could help increase and build your customer base.
Start a blog. Blogging is all the rage right now and will be for many years to come. A blog is a great way for someone to get the word out about who they are and what they do. There are many free blogging tools out there such as blogger, Wordpress and LiveJournal. Start your blog today and begin writing to your blog about different auto parts. You can write about new parts, old parts, etc. I know this is a type of blog I would find very useful, especially if it came from an auto parts store that was local to my house. People that are interested in what you do, want to hear from you, because you are invariably an expert in the field.
Write a press release. Local newspapers are always hungry for news, especially about what is going on in the community. A well written press release is a great way to get the word out on your auto parts store. Your press release should be 400 to 600 words in length and answer the who, what, when, where, why and how of your business. If you are not a very good writer, do not worry, hire a local high school student who works on the school paper to write it for you. They are always looking for experience and here you go, being the nice person that you are, handing it to them. Once written, submit your press release to your local newspapers, and editors to magazines that cover auto parts, cars, trucks, etc. Do not forget to put your blog URL, email address and a phone number somewhere in the press release so the readers can get in touch with you.
Start a newsletter. Now that you have a blog set up, you want to capture information from anybody and everyone who visits it. The best way to do that is to start a newsletter. You can easily set this up by visiting feedblitz on the web. It is a free service that is easy to use and implement. Your blog visitors will subscribe to your newsletter by entering their email address. Then once a week, month, etc., depending on how often you want to send it, your newsletter will be distributed to your subscribers. Your newsletter will include your expert information that you post on your blog, as well as a means for your readers to view your latest products to make a purchase. As your newsletter begins to grow, so will your sales.
Advertise online. A no brainer as you will need to generate even more visitors to your blog. A good way of doing this is to advertise. The best part is there are a variety of sites out there where you can advertise for free. Craigslist, Adpost, and Indocquent are great places to start. Advertise with the free version at first to help generate more customers before you dive into paying for it.
Build up your Google page rank through exchanging links. Without going into scientific details, the Google page rank is the means by which google and other search engines rank your blog. The higher your rank, the closer to the top of search engines your blog will appear. A great way to increase your google page rank is through exchanging links. You want to exchange links with websites that are similar in content to yours, and try to exchange links that have an equal or higher rank than your site, although exchanging with a site that is lower than yours will not bring you down, you will just need more of them. We use LinkMarket to exchange links for our website. It is free service and they have over 80,000 other websites to exchange with.
So there you have it. Five great ways to get you going in selling your autoparts. It doesn`t matter whether it is your hobby or something you do full-time, implementing these five tips will help you along your way to a successful auto parts business.
By: Bruce A. Tucker
About the Author:
Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.indocquent.com/, an online resource that allows auto parts dealers, manufacturers and businesses post their products and services for sale in 20,000 cities throughout 200 countries around the world.
Published By: Indocquent.com- An online resource that allows businesses and individuals to promote their business, products and services in over 20,000 cities throughout 200 countries around the world.
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