During the hiring process, my hope is you’ve taken time to hire people based on their excellent skills, professional achievements, their passions, or their powerful reputation. If you have, show them off!
Show them to the world. If you need an online marketing tactic that is cost-efficient, easy to prepare, and creates a deeper narrative for your community, show off your people and tell their story. Making the people behind your service counter and bays come to life to your community is a way to not only make your shop more transparent to your surrounding viewers, but it drives a deeper connection and familiarity. Familiarity is a wonderful thing in the sales and marketing world. Let’s lean in!
To start this staffing showcase, create a list of your team members and their roles. Then list their certifications, achievements, great moments in their professional/personal history, and a fun fact or two that you know about them. Once you have this list together, start organizing your thoughts per person and build short blurbs on them that make them pop off the page. There is a reason you hired them, tell it! But don’t tell it all because you’ll want more stories for future content. Here are some examples below.
The introduction post can be as simple as this: "14 years as a Master Technician makes (tech name) the best in the bays. And you deserve the best. For your (make/model) needs, we recommend visiting (tech name). Let (tech name) be your trusted & trained ASE Certified Master Technician at (insert shop name)."
It could also sound like this: "Not only great under the hood, but also great with six strings, we introduce our guitar loving, Brake Specialist, (tech name). Let (tech name) keep your vehicle stopping as smooth as the songs he/she softly strums. There’s no shake, shimmy, or sound he/she can’t take care of. Visit (shop name) to make (tech name) your cars new favorite automotive technician."
Now, add a picture or video to this. Maybe it’s something fun, or maybe it’s something meaningful. You could also ask your team to give you a picture they love of themselves to share. But captivate your audience through words AND images. You want the online community to connect with them in a personal way. Putting an image/video to a story often drives the trust level deeper. It breeds the familiarity a brand needs to become a household name.
Showing off your team to the public isn’t just for your marketing, though. It should serve as a dual purpose. This shows how proud you are of your team members. And that is so important, and should be prioritized over the marketing piece. Your people should know they are valued regardless of this campaign.
But, in general, most people enjoy a good shout out. Throughout all the marketing campaigns I’ve run over the last 9 years at the shop, I’ve never had a teammate unhappy because I said wonderful things about them. They usually share it and get excited when people comment. Currently, in my shop, there’s a competition between our techs to see who gets the most love on our team TikToks. That’s a fun part of our shop culture: shouting each other out and lifting each other up.
I know a shop owner who showcases their team on monthly mailers. They always look crisp, clean, and inviting. I would feel extremely comfortable taking my car to their shop based on the quality of content they are pushing into their communities.
It’s a subtle marketing moment. A high-quality postcard arrives in your potential customers' mailbox, and a bright and friendly, smiling face is there inviting them to visit your auto shop. No gimmicks, no coupons. Just an interesting blurb about the person you’re looking at on the card, and a friendly welcome with a request to be their auto shop of choice. If you’re in a community that does well with mailers, this is a nice approach to consider putting into your marketing campaign.
“But Lola, I’m a solo shop,” you say. Well, since you are the owner, the tech, and the service writer, it also means you get to be the social media manager and content creator. I know it may feel like one more task to do, but I urge you to make a few videos showing what you do. Show people your life in small segments so they can get to know you and your shop. You can set the tone, the expectation, and the culture of your brand when you’re the only face there is. Tell them why you’re the best, and invite them to see why. I promise this is worth your time and efforts.
Whether it is just you or you have a team, showcasing talents and greatness within your business walls is important. Be proud of the business you are building, and the people who dedicate their time to furthering the brand. They are the heartbeat of your shop, and the reasons your doors open each day so cars can come in and out. Get excited about them. Show them off!