Many shop owners believe there is a right time to turn off their marketing. According to Jimmy Lea, there is not. That is one of many misconceptions about marketing that hold shops back. In his second appearance on Maximum Octane, Jimmy shares seven proven marketing methods to help shops grow.
Jimmy is a product evangelist at Kukui who helps owners invest wisely, track ROI, and adjust their efforts. In episode 65, he and Kim Hickey cover websites, Google Ads, clear communication, service areas, social media, and reviews.
What You Will Learn
- Why you should never turn off your marketing
- What kind of website should you get for your shop
- How Google Ads work and why you should invest in them
- Don’t confuse your customers
- Don’t get overly attached to your ZIP code
- Why exploiting the benefits of social media is an excellent idea
- Check your Google reviews and reply as soon as you can
Never Turn Off Your Marketing
Jimmy opens with his most important rule: never turn off your marketing. When shops get busy, many owners cut marketing to save money. When things slow down, they turn it back on and wait for results that take time to arrive. That on-off pattern creates the very feast-or-famine cycle owners want to avoid.
A later episode, Stop Marketing When Things Are Slow: Start 365 Days Ahead, builds on this idea.
Marketing builds momentum in ways that are easy to lose. Search engine visibility, social media engagement, and brand familiarity all grow gradually and can decline quickly when efforts stop. Restarting marketing after a pause often requires rebuilding that momentum from scratch, which costs more time and money than maintaining it. Consistent marketing also keeps a shop visible to customers who may not need service now but will in the coming months.
Staying consistent does not mean spending the same amount every month regardless of results. It means never going dark. When the schedule is full, a shop can shift budget away from immediate appointment drivers and toward longer-term efforts, such as review generation, helpful website content, or community sponsorships that build familiarity. When things slow, budget can shift back toward channels that drive calls quickly. The mistake is cutting everything at once, which leaves the shop invisible right when competitors are building the relationships that will fill their bays next season.
What Kind of Website Your Shop Needs
Around the 7 minute mark, Jimmy explains what kind of website a shop should have. It needs to be user-friendly, fast, and agile, especially on mobile phones, where many customers search for repair shops. It should make it easy to call, request an appointment, and understand the services you offer.
Google’s SEO Starter Guide explains the basics of building a site search engines can understand, and ATI’s How to Quickly Improve Your Shop’s Online Presence offers shop-specific tips.
A strong shop website should load quickly, display clearly on phones, and make key information easy to find: services, hours, location, phone number, and a way to request an appointment. It should also include trust signals, such as reviews, certifications, warranty information, and photos of the team and facility. Helpful content, like answers to common questions, can improve search visibility and demonstrate expertise.
A quick way to test a website is to pull it up on a phone and try to complete the three tasks customers most often want: find the phone number, see whether the shop works on their vehicle, and request an appointment. If any of those takes more than a few seconds or requires zooming and hunting, customers will likely give up and call a competitor. Owners should also make sure the business name, address, and phone number match exactly across the website, Google Business Profile, and directories, since inconsistent information can confuse both customers and search engines.
How Google Ads Work
Jimmy explains how Google Ads work and why shops should invest in them. Paid search ads appear when people search for services you offer, which means you reach customers at the moment they need help. Ads can be targeted by location, time of day, and service type. Tracking calls and appointments from ads shows whether the spending pays off.
Google Ads operate on an auction system where businesses bid on keywords, and ads appear based on bid amount, ad quality, and relevance. Shops pay when someone clicks the ad. Effective campaigns focus on specific services and locations, use clear ad copy, and send people to relevant landing pages. Tracking calls and form submissions from ads helps measure return on investment and guides adjustments.
A common mistake with paid search is sending every ad click to the home page. Someone searching for brake repair should land on a page about brake repair, with a clear phone number and appointment button. Another mistake is running ads around the clock without checking when calls actually come in or whether anyone is available to answer. Reviewing search terms that triggered ads, adding negative keywords to block irrelevant searches, and listening to recorded calls when available all help owners spend more of their budget on customers who are ready to book.
Do Not Confuse Your Customers
Around the 20 minute mark, Jimmy warns against confusing customers. Mixed messages, cluttered websites, too many offers, or unclear calls to action make it harder for people to choose you. Simple, consistent messaging across your website, ads, and signage builds clarity and trust.
Confusion often comes from trying to say too much at once. A website crowded with offers, services, and messages makes it hard for visitors to know what to do next. Simplifying the message to focus on what the shop does best, why customers should choose it, and how to take the next step usually improves results.
Do Not Get Too Attached to Your ZIP Code
Jimmy advises owners not to get overly attached to their ZIP code. Customers are often willing to travel farther than owners think for a shop they trust. Targeting a realistic service area, rather than just the immediate neighborhood, can open new opportunities.
Customers often travel past closer shops to reach one they trust or that specializes in their vehicle. Analyzing where current customers live can reveal a broader service area than owners expect. Targeting marketing to that realistic area, rather than just nearby ZIP codes, can expand reach without wasting budget.
Commit to Social Media
Jimmy explains why social media is worth the effort and why it should mainly be used to build genuine relationships. Shops that post only coupons get ignored. Shops that show their people, celebrate customers, share helpful tips, and engage with their community build loyalty.
Ideas for authentic social content:
- Introduce team members and their specialties.
- Share short videos explaining common repairs.
- Highlight community events and local partners.
- Celebrate customer milestones, with permission.
Social media works best when it reflects the shop’s personality. Posts featuring employees, behind-the-scenes moments, customer appreciation, community events, and helpful tips tend to generate more engagement than generic promotions. Consistency matters more than volume. Posting a few times a week reliably is better than posting daily for a month and then going quiet.
Check and Reply to Google Reviews
Jimmy closes with a reminder to check Google reviews and reply as quickly as possible. Replies show customers you are listening and help future customers see how you handle feedback. Google explains how to read and reply to reviews in its Business Profile help center. Jimmy covers reviews in depth in How to Get the Best Out of Your Raving Fans on Google.
Replying to reviews shows customers that the shop values their feedback. Positive reviews deserve a sincere thank you, and negative reviews deserve a calm, constructive response. Prompt replies also signal that the business is active and engaged, which can influence potential customers reading the reviews.
Replies work best when they sound like a real person at the shop wrote them. Mentioning the type of service or thanking the customer by first name, when appropriate, shows the reply is not a copy and paste template. For negative reviews, a short, calm reply that acknowledges the concern and invites the customer to call the owner directly is usually more effective than a detailed public rebuttal. Future customers are reading to see how the shop behaves when something goes wrong. ATI’s article on responding to negative reviews offers more guidance.
How These Methods Work Together
Each of Jimmy’s seven methods supports the others. A strong website gives ads and social media somewhere useful to send people. Reviews build trust that improves conversion from every channel. Consistent marketing keeps the shop visible so that when customers search, they recognize the name. Clear messaging makes every touchpoint more effective.
Treating marketing as an integrated system, rather than a collection of separate tactics, produces better results. Owners who review all their marketing channels together, and look at how customers move from awareness to appointment, can identify weak links and strengthen the whole process.
Measuring Marketing Results
Jimmy’s role at Kukui centers on helping owners track ROI, and that discipline is what separates marketing that grows a shop from marketing that simply costs money. At a minimum, shops should know how many new customers arrived each month, where they came from, and what they spent on their first visit. Call tracking, online booking data, and a simple “How did you hear about us?” question at the counter all help connect results to specific channels.
Looking beyond the first visit matters too. A channel that brings in customers who return for years is far more valuable than one that brings bargain hunters who never come back. Reviewing these numbers quarterly gives owners the information they need to adjust budget with confidence instead of guessing.
Your Seven-Point Marketing Check
- Is your marketing running every month, even when you are busy?
- Does your website load quickly and work well on a phone?
- Are you tracking results from paid ads?
- Is your message simple and consistent everywhere?
- Is your target area realistic?
- Are you posting to build relationships, not just sell?
- Have you replied to every review?
For more marketing strategy, listen to Phil Jackson in Thinking Big on Small Auto Repair Shops’ Marketing and Carrie-Lynn Rodenberg in Stop Guessing at Marketing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should an auto repair shop stop marketing when it is busy?
Generally, no. Marketing results build over time, and stopping completely lets search visibility, social engagement, and brand familiarity fade. When the shop slows down later, it can take months to rebuild that momentum. A better approach is to adjust the mix while staying active, shifting some budget from immediate call drivers to longer-term efforts like reviews, website content, and community presence. Consistent marketing helps smooth out the feast-or-famine cycle many shops experience.
Are Google Ads worth it for an auto repair shop?
They can be, when campaigns are set up and managed carefully. Paid search reaches people at the moment they are looking for repair services, which makes it one of the most direct ways to generate calls. The key is targeting specific services and a realistic service area, sending clicks to relevant landing pages, and tracking calls and appointments. Without tracking, it is impossible to know whether the ads are paying off or simply spending money.
What should an auto repair shop website include?
At a minimum, a shop website should show the phone number, address, hours, services offered, and a simple way to request an appointment, all easy to use on a phone. It should load quickly and include trust signals such as reviews, warranty details, certifications, and real photos of the team and facility. Pages for key services and answers to common questions help both customers and search engines understand what the shop does.
How quickly should a shop reply to Google reviews?
As soon as reasonably possible, ideally within a day or two. Quick replies show customers the business is attentive and active. Positive reviews deserve a genuine thank you, and negative reviews deserve a calm, respectful response that acknowledges the concern and offers to continue the conversation privately. Avoid arguing or sharing private details in public. Many owners set a daily or weekly reminder to check for new reviews so none are missed.
What kind of social media posts work best for repair shops?
Posts that show real people and useful information tend to perform better than constant discounts. Introducing technicians and advisors, sharing short videos that explain common repairs, highlighting community events, and celebrating customers with their permission all build familiarity and trust. Consistency matters more than volume, so a realistic posting schedule the team can maintain is better than a burst of activity followed by silence.
Resources and Links From This Episode
Connect With the Guests
- Jimmy: LinkedIn
