A new era for Dee – this was the start of Kevlin Tyre Centre – 29 Kevlin Road, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, BT78 1JR
Kevlin Tyre Centre Case Study
I think I have just bought a Tyre shop, any ideas on how to market it?
This was the gist of the phone call I had from Dee, a customer located in Omagh, County Tyrone who I have worked with on numerous web projects for his businesses. A bit of a sketchy call, but he was genuine and had indeed agreed a lease on a building that was a tyre shop in a previous life and now intended to bring it back to life.
Dee who I have known for such a long time, is a well known local driving instructor. Catering for car, motorcycle and trailer driving tests and training. A tyre shop was a little bit different from bike training or driver instructing, but none the less needed a great marketing plan and a strategy that would deliver the results.
The building had been a tyre shop since my childhood, and I always knew it as a garage, tyre and exhaust shop. The previous owner had moved out over a year ago to new larger premises, but had kept the lease in place and the building empty for 1 year. Now he had decided it was time to let it expire and the building was available to rent.
Why did he do this you may ask, all will be revealed later on.
So where do you start, not only was the building in need of work, we had no brand, no name, no corporate colours, identity or a plan of how we would trade and service customers. In an ideal world you would have sat down and planned all of this weeks in advance, prepared and launched. In this case we were going live on a date in 6 weeks time and needed to be up and running yesterday.
On doing my due diligence it became very clear that the previous owner really did not like any competition and saw anyone who would rent this building as a threat. One of the problems I came across very early on was the business citations, all of these were still live for the previous business, he had kept them live and intact alongside his new listing.
The marketing plan started to take shape, we would need a website and social media presence, a way to drive traffic and then offer great customer service and do a great job that people will return and encourage others to do so. We also needed a way to stay in peoples minds and give them a reason to come here as opposed to one of the other; or as it turned out, 10 of the other mechanics and tyre dealers offering the same services.
Initial Plan of what we would need
- Broadband, business phone and mobile
- Brand identity
- Signage
- Modern website (inc mobile version)
- Google My Business
- SEO
- Business Citations
- Blogs
- Image Optimisation
- Google Submission
- Bing Submission
- Facebook Like | Comment | Share
- Customer Promotions
- Customer Social Media Shares
- Advertising on paid media
- Marketing campaign
Where the building was located on the main Kevlin Road I used Streetcheck to work out a rough idea of how many houses would be in our direct catchment area. This would give us an idea what was on our local doorstep.
The results are all within 5 minutes walk of the building. One of our ideas was a person could drop their vehicle off, walk to town and come back and collect.
If you widened the catchment area to go a further 10 minutes this figure easily tripled to 5,000+, and if you changed this to within 5 minutes drive it was 10,000+. The figures were more than adequate to support a small tyre shop.
Housing results within 5 minutes walk
Kevlin Road – 335 houses
Townview… + – 229 houses
Coolnagard… + – 540 houses
Dergmoney… + – 280 houses
With an idea of what we needed to do, we could make a start. Dee would take care of the building fit out, paint, signage and all things to do with the function of the Tyre Shop and I would take care of anything digital as Dee had no idea what I do, but knew he needed it to be successful.
Branding
After a few ideas were kicked around, it was decided to use Kevlin Tyre Centre as the name, Kevlin as it was on this road and Tyre Centre which speaks for itself. Colourwise Dee liked the idea of a navy blue with orange and white or a combination. To help with SEO and optimisation on launch I added Omagh and it was off to the Graphic designer for ideas and samples.
The final result after a few tweaks delivered us a logo, branding sheet and this project now had a name.
Welcome to Kevlin Tyre Centre!
So now we really could get to grips with all the digital content we needed to create, build and get registered. Thanks to my digital agency, WT Designs we were able to get the domain name registered, website built and social media channels created and initially set up ready to market.
Website
WT Designs built the website using WordPress and a wonderful theme from Proteus themes that worked really well for Car Garages, Mechanics and Auto Centres. I worked closely with Dee and we came up with a list of services he was going to offer and what exactly Kevlin Tyre Centre would be able to provide. It was important that we both understood who the target market was and what it was they were looking for. We had a good idea that a customer would be purchasing tyres in 1’s and 2’s and 4 tyres would not be the norm.
In the early stages Dee had found out customers were looking for budget tyres and part worn tyres, there was a huge demand. This would form an important part of the initial marketing strategy and give him a difference from other garages and tyre dealers in the area. Dee also wanted to capitalise on the fact he was only 10 minutes walk from the town centre and you could drop off your vehicle and he would carry out the work while you shopped.
(note*: Dee’s strategy on part worn tyres changed after 6 months and he stopped selling these, opting for a good budget tyre instead)
Social Media
This was outsourced to WT Designs and they created Social Media accounts for all the main platforms, branded the account, added a logo and a brief bio that contained Omagh, Tyres, Kevlin Tyre Centre and a link back to the website – all good for increased search engine visibility.
Busines Citations
This was a painful job and really took a lot of time to sort out. All of the local directories still had an active listing in their directory for the previous business and it showed as still live with a working phone number.
We created a new listing complete with photos, text, new logo and business details and then needed to contact every directory, submit the new listing and request the old one was removed. This all took two to three months of back and forward, but in the end we had fixed and verified all the listings and they were now showing the new business details.
Google My Business
This is one of the quick wins I teach all my customers and really does make a huge difference to getting found on Google. We needed to be found in the search results and more importantly we wanted that map listing and 3 pack positioning. In simple terms if it was tyres in Omagh we wanted to be at the top of Google.
Blogs
A set of blog articles were created with the keywords in mind and focused on making sure that they could be found easily on Google. Optimising for tyres and Omagh and the services that are being offered, Google was so important to getting found and customers finding out what we do.
Images
From my SEO optimisation days, I have a great tactic for getting images ranked and found in Google. This method increases your digital footprint when people are searching for services and helps get you found.
Images were created in groups of 10, focused on keywords and key products that Kevlin Tyre Centre would be offering. These sets were uploaded to various platforms and social media accounts, all with hashtags and links.
Google Submission
At the time it was possible to publish your page, go to Google and add it directly to the index. This is a very quick way of getting the site indexed fast and on Google. There was a few other tactics we used, but the site was live and indexed on Google, now tie to drive traffic and get found.
Bing
We did not do a lot for Bing, but what we did do was to copy the Google My Business listing across and verify it – it all helps in the world of search.
Promotional Material
Valve Caps – A simple one, every customer who visited Kevlin Tyre Centre, got a free tyre and pressure check and the valve caps were changed to blue ones.
Air fresheners – A nice colour printed air freshener in the company colours with the logo, phone number and web address.
Key Rings – We were able to find an online supplier who could manufacture a cut out printed rubberised keyring. Added to all customers who had work done and gave away along with invoices and bills.
Beanie Hats – Great for Facebook giveaways, embroidered on a navy and orange beanie using local supplier.
Thermal Cups and Mugs – Another item that was great for Facebook and regular customers, printed with the logo and contact details, perfect to give away.
MOT / Service Reminder Sticker – Each time a customer had work done, a branded sticker was stuck to their windscreen / door pillar with their renewal dates.
Text Message Marketing – Using an online text marketing tool, we created a database of customers. Each customer would get reminder messages for when their service or MOT was due and collection messages when their vehicle was ready.
So at this stage, we had all the digital assets in place, the building was looking great, the signage had arrived and we just about made it for the December 15th launch!
We now had a functioning tyre shop, a website and social media channels – time to get some customers and traffic!
Social Media
One of the most popular Social Media strategies in the local area, is the like, share and comment post. This involves a Facebook post detailing a service or offer and a small prize at the end of the competition. The idea is to get people to like the post, comment on it and tag or share with their friends. These actions force the post to become popular and Facebook will show it more.
Facebook was proving to be the main source of traffic at this time, followed closely by Google searches. We added a live Facebook messenger option to the website and this allowed the customer to ask questions and book appointments in real time. This action transformed the business and soon each day was busy and fully booked from customers.
The next thing we added was social media check ins, when a customer arrived we had a nice area and we asked them to check in on Facebook with a selfie. This started to elevate our position within the local town and soon any search for tyres in Omagh or a combination of these search terms was returning Kevlin Tyres and showing photos of our customers. All of this was good proof and was adding to our credibility as a local tyre outlet. Building trust in the local community, was massive.
Our customers loved the before and after photos and especially if we had a tyre with wire sticking out, these worked a treat for getting, shares, likes and great publicity.
Paid Advertising
Dee decided he would like to try a Radio advert and on talking to the local radio station Q101, an advert was crafted, recorded and went live. We really are not sure how much this did work, but one thing it did do was to really upset the previous owner of the building. So much he pulled all of his current radio advertising down and called Dee to complain. It was a bit laughable as when I did all my research there is at least 10 – 15 people selling tyres and exhausts, so a very saturated market in a small area.
We also decided to run a six month advertising campaign in the local community magazine. This was great for visibility and they added a listing on their website, Facebook and included a Facebook featured post every few weeks. It all worked really well and was good for adding local trust and credibility. Customers would bring in the advert hoping to get a little extra off their bill or a better deal!
The Future
We continued to work with Dee over the next six months and helped run simple social media campaigns update the website and perform good local optimisation for him. All was working well for him, customers could find Kevlin Tyre Centre easily through Google, talked to him via Facebook messenger and where booking in their cars for tyres.
A name change – after all of that hard work!
Dee decided the business was doing so well he needed to expand and move into light mechanics and car servicing. This fitted in so well with the tyres, exhausts and brake pads and was a really natural progression.
Another four post lift was installed and Dee decided as they were not doing tyres as the main focus the name needed to change. After much debating and heated conversation it was decided to subtly change the name to Kevlin Tyre and Service Centre – this would help the existing marketing that had been carried out and would not look too dissimilar from the previous name.
So now we have Kevlin Tyre and Service Centre!
The business flourished and being able to offer a few more services really helped with the average customer transaction and Dee started to see good returns and healthy profits. The marketing we had put in place was working and the business was getting some great Google reviews and Facebook reviews from some very satisfied customers. All of this added up to a thriving business that was working really well.
We continued to advise Dee and keep his marketing on track, right up until the sale of the business. Yes things were going so well Dee decided to check out and make some money.
Kevlin Tyre and Service Centre – is for sale.
Dee who had built this business from nothing, had decided to sell it now it was able to generate some good profits and make money on its own. We wished Dee all the very best and were really glad to have helped him build a profitable successful brand.
Dee we wish you all the very best for your future and look forward to working on our next project together.
30 Days to get on Page 1 of Google – how we did it!
Below is an outline of the roadmap we used to get ranked, found and indexed on Google in 30 days. It involves creating lots of content and getting it out there, then telling Google you have made an update or created a new piece of content. The output must remain constant for up to 90 days to make a real difference and stick on Google.
You need to use your blog and all social media channels for this method to make a difference and work.
Our end results, provided map listings, 3 pack listings and good search results for our keywords on page 1 of Google.
Every time a new service was offered from Kevlin Tyre Centre, we applied our strategy to get it ranked and indexed.
Day 1: 15th December. Website launched | Google Sitemap Submission | Blog Article | GMB Post | G+ Post | FB Post | FB Gallery – Interior | FB Gallery – Tyres Stocked | FB Gallery – Address | FB Gallery – Marketing | FB Gallery Omagh Tyre Services | Pinterest – Kevlin Tyre Centre Omagh | Blog Pinging | Social Signals | Backlinks Indexed | Local Citations | Geo Tagged Image Upload |
Day 2: 16th December. FB Post | Pinterest – Vehicle Servicing Omagh | Twitter Post | Instagram – 10 posts | Backlinks Indexed | Website Technical SEO Update | GMB Optimised 10 Photos |
Day 3: 17th December. FB Post | Pinterest – Omagh Tyres Supplied by Kevlin Tyre Centre | G + Post | Backlinks Indexed |
Day 4: 18th December. FB Post | Online SEO health check and updates |
Day 5: 19th December. FB Post | Bing Places |
Day 6: 20th December. FB Post |
Day 7: 21st December. Blog Article | FB Post | FB Gallery – Omagh Vehicle Servicing | Blog Ping | Google Sitemap Update | Social Signals | Backlinks Indexed |
Day 8: 22nd December. GMB Post | FB Post |
Day 9: 23rd December. FB Post | GMB Optimised 10 Photos |
Day 10: 24th December. Blog Article | GMB Post | FB Post | FB Gallery – Omagh Tyres | Instagram – 10 posts | Backlinks Indexed |
Day 11: 25th December.
Day 12: 26th December.
Day 13: 27th December.
Day 14: 28th December. Google Sitemap Update | FB Post | Blog Ping | Social Signals | GMB Optimised 10 Photos |
Day 15: 29th December. FB Post |
Day 16: 30th December. FB Post |
Day 17: 31st December. FB Post |
Day 18: 1st January. FB Post | GMB Optimised 10 Photos |
Day 19: 2nd January. FB Post |
Day 20: 3rd January. FB Post |
Day 21: 4th January. Google Sitemap Update | FB Post | Blog Ping | Social Signals | GMB Optimised 10 Photos |
Day 22: 5th January. FB Post |
Day 23: 6th January. FB Post |
Day 24: 7th January. FB Post |
Day 25: 8th January. FB Post |
Day 26: 9th January. FB Post |
Day 27: 10th January. FB Post |
Day 28: 11th January. Google Sitemap Update | FB Post | Blog Ping | GMB Optimised 10 Photos |
Day 29: 12th January. FB Post |
Day 30: 13th January. FB Post |
1st 30 days Keyword tracking and ranking for Google UK (BT78).
After 30 days we have success, 8 out of 9 keywords ranked on page 1 of Google with the key main phrase ‘omagh tyres‘ page 1 position 10.
Google My Business listing
Google 3-Pack this is the method Google uses to display the top three results for local SERP. After 30 days we have success!
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Its free and easy to do – why are more business owners not talking about how they can help and who they can help. Blog – its easy and very effective.
Part 7: What Happens Next
Its time to talk to Osmond and get help with all of this, mentoring, coaching and getting it done. Time to step up and get leads for your business and a system that works and help and support for your business.
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Kevlin Tyre Centre Case Study
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