on top of the fine post by Jon, read marketing books, lots of them, and learn bits and pieces from each of them, start with Godin and Levinson and work your way from there
[EDIT Added] Recommended reading • Start Your Own Automobile Detailing Business by Eileen Figure Sandlin • Automobile Detailing Business Startup Guide eBook - http://bit.ly/4XtYaD • A Guide to Liability Insurance - http://www.valeters-insurance.co.uk/liabilityguide.htm • Selling The Invisible" by Harry Beckwith • Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days, by Al Lautenslager • The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber • What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business – Harry Beckwith • Mentored By A Millionaire by Steven K. Scott Amazon Books • Guerrilla Marketing for the Home-Based Business, Levinson and Godin
[EDIT added 06.01.10] Using Video and Social Media Taking a video of a detail (seek owner’s permission beforehand) and then up loading it to YouTube, facebook or other social networks is a good and inexpensive form of marketing. It’s also a good idea to send a copy or a hyperlink to your client; they will proudly show them to their friends, thereby expanding your network of future clients. You could also add it to your Blog and / or Website Search engine optimization (SEO) [:is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) which may deal with paid inclusion. The theory is that the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines This gives a web site web presence] [1] SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization or more simply; how to get more ‘traffic’ to your Website or Blog. The practice of obtaining high search engine rankings by performing keyword research, modifying the HTML code to reflect such keywords and building relationships with other websites to promote your site via a linking campaign Some things to include; keyword research, title tag and word search optimization, search, working on HTML source code, image, hyperlink and header tag optimization and page ranking Web Crawlers A web crawler is a relatively simple automated program, or script that methodically scans or crawls through Internet pages to create an index of the data it's looking for. Alternative names for a web crawler include web spider, web robot, crawler, and automatic indexer. There are many different uses for a web crawler. Probably the most common use associated with the term is related to search engines. Search engines use web crawlers to collect information about what is available on public web pages. Their primary purpose is to collect data so that when Internet surfers enter a search term on their site, they can quickly provide the surfer with relevant web sites. All the content is taken by the Web Crawlers and copied onto indexes. The frequencies of the visits by web crawlers to websites depend on the popularity, quality, size of the website and the number of visitors a websites receives. A website such as face book is crawled several times per day, however, if we have a website that receives only a few hits per month the web crawlers may only visit once every few months in order to check for updates.
One option that worked for me is google business submit. Check it out: https://www.google.com/accounts/Ser...ttp://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter
Incentive Rewards Rewards for client referral will provide an incentive to your existing clients for recommending their friends and relatives by offering them a discount from their next detail. Create a similar promotion to encourage repeat business from your existing clients as well, it is always easier to retain clients than it is to obtain new ones. Testimonials are the best way to obtain new clients and in letting potential clients how good your services are. Public relations Involvement in the community can boost your company’s recognition. Attend local car shows and Concours d’élégance, write car care tips and How-To articles and submit them to the editors of various car clubs and the media in your area. Become the credible “expert” source for car care that editors contact and refer to in articles, interviews, or stories.
