I suggest marketing the environmental benefit and water conservation opportunity to bring your car to a commercial car wash or detail center!

Last week, I was on the local TV station … marketing green.

Today, I was on the local Radio Station … marketing green.

Next week, I will start a weekly column in the local news on local water issues … marketing green.

It is easy & fun, gets me very involved in the community, provides an outlet for my passion about water ... and it is FREE.

Coupons are a tool.  They provide a call to action.  I sold them for almost 10 years.  Val Pak & Money Mailer are full of local car washes trying to pull in the local trading area.

Trouble is that it is mass marketing.  Try and give a high offer to stimulate trial and you wind up wasting money as it is a fire sale to an existing customer base.  To low a value, and you will not attract new customers.

Maybe the best tactic is to have multiple offers.  One to create awareness & trial, one to drive repeat and another increase services per occasion. 

Try as one might, those are the only 3 ways to increase volume.  I am a fan of the “Leaky Bucket”.  Think of your business as a bucket.  In order to grow volume, you must do 2 things.  First, plug the leaks.  Leaks are because they moved, started washing at home, chose a competitor.  Strategy is to increase frequency and services per occasion, preventing them from lapsing.  Then, you can turn on the tap of bringing in new customers.  Once new, then they are a customer, you can shift to the tactics of frequency & services per occasion.  Businesses that decline have leaks, with nothing from the tap, or they leak at a greater rate than the volume of new cusotmers.  Those that are flat mean that the tap is flowing at the same rate of leaks.  Those that grow plug leaks and turn on the tap!

I am not a big fan of a discount, so I try to do throw ins vs $ & % off.  Although, I operate in shopping malls, where every store has a big ole 40% off sign, or something screaming discount.  So I must often face my own reality.  Once they have come to you, then awareness & trial have been accomplished, now you have to give’m a reason to come back.  These days service and a smile may not be enough … don’t let’m leak!

The Leaky Bucket is a conceptual approach to thinking about your business as a bucket.  There are lots of tactics, but the process is always the same.  First, you have to create awareness.  That leads to trial.  Once a customer, then there are only 2 ways to grow their business and it is to change behavior.  Either increase frequency and / or increase services per occasion.