Recently I went shopping for new tires. While doing so, it crossed my mind that tire shops aren’t terribly different from auto glass shops, or are they? Since I’ve spent many years serving an auto glass client base, I’m particularly interested in new ways to do things and emulating what works for other markets when it looks like a good fit for auto glass. To make a long story short, well shorter…here’s a quick observation that came to me while sitting in the tire store waiting room, drinking my hot, fresh coffee made just 4 or 5 days earlier.

When it’s time to buy new tires for our cars, most of us walk into the local tire store and choose a set of tires based on our own knowledge of which brands are best, the information shared by the resident tire expert and price. Which has the most impact on our decision-making process? Our own perceptions tend to weigh heavily on which brand we choose, even when the price is slightly higher. How do we gather this “product knowledge”. . .mostly from marketing driven tire manufacturers who market to consumers. Does it work? Absolutely. Most of us can name three tire manufacturers without hestitation.

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Recently we had the opportunity to work with Precision Auto Glass in Portland Oregon. Through basic word of mouth they learned of Donaldson Resources and Autoglass Marketing and contacted us about helping them develop a stronger internet marketing strategy.

We started with revamping the look and content of their website. Read the rest of this entry »

Today I had a discussion with a prospect about the traffic on his website. He had been talking with another glass shop owner and they were trading numbers about how many visitors they were getting to their websites. When I asked how much of that traffic was coming from site visitors in his service areas. . .there was a silence on the phone. He had not been looking at the incremental growth of local traffic vs. overall traffic. Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t be fooled into thinking that because you serve a small geographic area, search engine optimization, or getting your website to the top of the search results isn’t important.

More and more consumers are turning to the internet for phone numbers, local services and information about what you do and where you’re located. The internet has become the telephone book for many of us. No longer do we thumb through the pages looking for a glass shop - instead we type “auto glass repair my-town, my-state” and choose the listing that looks most inviting. Read the rest of this entry »

When: Wednesday - Oct 3rd, 2007

Time: 3:00pm EST til 4:00pm

Topic: Google Analytics - Analyzing the traffic on your website.

Hosts: Sandra Donaldson & Chris Brown
Cost: $29.95

Since early this year - February 2007, I have been holding monthly teleseminars designed specifically for independent auto glass shops to discuss marketing as it relates to the internet and how glass shops can best take advantage of the tools available. Read the rest of this entry »