If you run an automotive business in Utah, chances are you have spent money on marketing that did not work. Maybe you hired someone to run your social media, and all they did was post inventory photos that looked identical to every other dealership in the valley. Maybe you invested in Google Ads but never tracked whether those clicks turned into phone calls. Or maybe you have been doing nothing at all, relying on word of mouth and hoping the cars sell themselves.
Here is the uncomfortable truth: most automotive businesses in Utah are spending money on the wrong marketing channel. Not because those channels are bad, but because the strategy does not match the type of business. An oil change shop does not need the same marketing playbook as a custom wrap studio. A Porsche dealership and a local used car lot have completely different audiences, budgets, and buyer psychology.
In this episode of Grow Smarter Utah, Andrew Hong of Tobe Agency and Brayden Tomicic of B Social break down exactly which marketing channels work for which type of automotive business, so you can stop guessing and start investing where it actually drives customers through your door.
Key Takeaways & Show Notes (Chapter/Timestamp Summary)
1. The Biggest Auto Dealership Marketing Mistake: Content Built to Sell, Not to Connect
Brayden works with dealerships, wrap shops, membership clubs, and automotive brands across northern Utah, from Porsche to boutique independents. The number one mistake he sees across the board is that every piece of content is oriented around selling.
The logic makes sense on paper. Dealership owners come from sales. They want to move inventory. So they post a photo of a truck with a price tag and hope someone bites. The problem is that twelve other dealerships in the Salt Lake Valley are posting the same truck, with the same financing offer, shot from the same angle. There is nothing to differentiate you.
This applies well beyond dealerships. Service centers that post the same oil change coupon every week. Wrap shops that only showcase finished vehicles without showing the craftsmanship or the team behind the work. Detailing businesses that post before-and-after photos with no context, no personality, no reason for a potential customer to choose them over the next listing in Google Maps.
The fix is not to stop selling. It is to stop leading with the sale. Build trust first, and the transactions follow.
2. Auto Dealership Marketing Starts With Brand, Not Inventory
One of the most direct moments in the episode comes from Brayden: your product is basically the same unless you are manufacturing your own car. Every dealership has access to the same inventory, the same banks, and the same financing terms. So if the product is not the differentiator, what is?
Your brand. Your personality. Your story. The way your team treats people when they walk through the door.
Andrew and Brayden both emphasize that small business owners need to answer one question before spending a dollar on marketing: why are you different? If you cannot summarize it in one sentence, you are not ready. And delegating that responsibility to a marketing agency or a content creator is not the answer either. They can help you communicate your brand, but they cannot invent it for you.
For Utah automotive businesses competing in a fast-growing market, this matters more than ever. More population means more competition, and more competition means you need to stand out, not blend in.
3. Transactional vs. Lifestyle: Matching the Channel to the Business
The core framework in this episode is what Andrew calls the "Transactional vs. Lifestyle" split. It is a simple but powerful way to think about where to put your marketing budget.
Transactional businesses are the ones customers search for when they need something done. Oil changes. Tire swaps. Brake inspections. Auto body repair. These businesses have pre-baked demand because the service is a necessity, not a luxury. Customers are not browsing Instagram looking for an oil change. They are typing "oil change near me" into Google.
For transactional automotive businesses, the priority is clear: own your search presence first. That means Google Business Profile optimization, local SEO, and Google Ads with a clear offer. Andrew stresses the importance of having a funnel in place so that even if someone does not buy immediately, you capture their information through an SMS or email campaign to stay top of mind.
Lifestyle businesses are discovered differently. Wrap shops, custom detailing, audio installations, high-end memberships like Warehouse Motor Club or Club Paddock. People do not search for these the same way they search for tires. They discover them through content, through community, through brand identity.
For lifestyle-focused automotive businesses, the priority shifts toward content creation, social media presence, and brand storytelling. Brayden recommends three foundational media assets for any lifestyle automotive brand: a founder story video that tells your "why," a sizzle reel that showcases your work and can live on your website and Google Business Profile, and testimonial videos from customers who genuinely advocate for your brand.
4. What $2,000 a Month Actually Gets You in Automotive Marketing
Andrew and Brayden get specific about budgets. If you are a lifestyle-focused automotive brand with a budget of two to three thousand dollars a month, Brayden frames $2,000 as the starting point on the social and content side. At that level, the focus should be awareness, not transactions. A few videos per month to establish who you are, get eyeballs on your page, and start building trust.
But here is the honest advice both hosts give: if you are a brand new business worried about making payroll, do not hire a branding agency. That is not where the money should go. Building a social brand takes time, and if you need revenue now, you are better off running targeted ads, investing in SEO, or focusing on infrastructure and sales processes.
The question Brayden asks every prospective client: if I brought you a hundred people tomorrow, could you help them? If the answer is no, you are not ready for marketing. You need to fix your processes, your offer, and your pricing first.
Key Takeaways & Conclusion
- Stop leading every piece of content with a sales pitch. Build trust first, especially on social media where you are competing with a dozen identical posts.
- Define your brand before spending a dollar on marketing. If you cannot explain what makes you different in one sentence, pause and figure that out first.
- Match your marketing channel to your business type. Transactional businesses should prioritize search and Google Ads. Lifestyle brands should invest in content, social media, and brand identity.
- Start with three foundational media assets: a founder story, a sizzle reel for your website and GBP, and testimonial videos.
- If you need customers today and you are worried about rent, do not hire a content agency. Run ads, invest in your infrastructure, and build the brand when you can afford to play the long game.
Ready to Grow Smarter?
Not every automotive business has the same marketing playbook. A service center, a dealership, and a custom wrap shop all need different channel mixes, different content strategies, and different budget allocations. The transactional vs. lifestyle framework gives you a starting point to stop wasting money and start investing where it actually works.
If you need help with Google Business Profile, local SEO, or paid search for your automotive business, reach out to Tobe Agency at tobeagency.com. If you need content strategy, video production, or social media management for your automotive brand, connect with Brayden at B Social.
Read the Edited Transcript
Andrew Hong: Welcome to Grow Smarter Utah, brought to you by Tobe Agency and B Social. As a Utah business owner, you know the pressure of making every marketing dollar count. Our mission is to help you waste less and grow smarter with your marketing investments, focusing on what actually matters in the Utah market.
Today we're going industry-specific. If you own or run an automotive business in Utah — whether that's a dealership, a service center, a custom wrap shop, or a detailing business — this episode is for you. Because here's the problem: most automotive businesses are spending money on the wrong marketing channel. The oil change shop is burning budget on Instagram. The custom wrap shop is ignoring it. And almost everyone is neglecting their Google Business Profile.
We're going to break down exactly which marketing channels work for which type of automotive business, so you can stop guessing and start investing where it actually drives customers through your door.
I'm Andrew Hong, founder of Tobe Agency. I handle the technical side — the SEO, the paid ads, analytics, conversion tracking. And Brayden from B Social is back. He specializes in content creation, organic social strategy for local businesses, including automotive clients right here in Utah. So we're splitting the lanes a little bit. I'll cover the search and SEO side, Brayden will cover the creative and social side, and together we'll show you the full picture.
Brayden, welcome back. How are you doing?
Brayden Tomicic: Doing good. Feels good to be back.
Andrew Hong: Awesome. So automotive really is your specialty. Tell me a little bit about how you got into the scene. We all kind of got here through a passion for cars and things like that, but how did you sort of turn a passion into a profession? Not many are able to do that.
Brayden Tomicic: Like you said, it all stemmed from cars — going out to the meets and hanging out. Obviously a huge passion for cars since I was a little kid. To not make a long story long, I started taking photos on my iPhone at that time and was doing quick edits and posting them. And then I met a couple people who were like, "Hey, go buy a camera and start doing this a little bit better." And then it just kept evolving and evolving.
I found a need in the market. I spent a ton of time not only honing my craft, but also just building the knowledge and putting in the time that it takes to really create value for businesses that's actually going to help them grow. So not only could I run a profitable business and do this full time and work in a niche that I love, but also bring benefit to people who are trying to grow and do the same thing in their own business.
Andrew Hong: You've organized a lot of things in the community here in northern Utah. You're involved in Cars and Coffee out here. You've got your own brand that you're building as well — Throttle Therapy Club. Tell me a little bit about some of the clients that you're working with out here. What types of businesses are they? What do you do for them?
Brayden Tomicic: Yeah, so we work with a wide range of businesses. Everything from dealerships — we work with Porsche, a couple other more boutique dealerships, a few OEM dealerships like GMC. That's one part of our niche. We also work with wrap shops, people who do a little bit more on the customization side. We've consulted with a lot of different automotive shops, people on the maintenance side, and just kind of everything in between. We work with Warehouse Motor Club and Club Paddock, which are more membership-based but still heavily automotive. So yeah, just the full range — everything in between that's automotive-related, and a few other brick-and-mortar style businesses.
Andrew Hong: That's a pretty awesome portfolio. And if any folks out there are Porsche, Lamborghini, or exotic car fans, I think Brayden has a portfolio of pretty much every exotic supercar that's in Utah — and there's quite a few of them, actually.
So tell me, Brayden — when you're working across these clients, you're doing shoots for Porsche, right? Obviously a brand like that requires a lot of thought and precision when you execute. Tell me about some of the work that you do there and what drives value for a pretty prestigious dealership with a prestigious brand, versus the work you might do with a smaller business or one that's in a different category — like third-party parts, or maybe they're not OEM. What are some differences in the approaches that you take?
Brayden Tomicic: Yeah, it's actually really interesting because people look at it and think, "That's the dream brand to work with." And yes, it's super cool to work with them. The thing that most people neglect is the style of content, the strategy — everything that goes into it is completely different versus if I was working with a more boutique dealer who is local and doesn't have the brand presence like Porsche does.
Porsche has a worldwide presence. You go anywhere in the world, everybody knows Porsche. So they're not marketing to necessarily bring in new business. They do want new business, but their strategy is different. Especially from the social and content creation side where we're talking about organic reach — it's more about building a community and having a relationship, establishing different channels and new connections with people just to keep them top of mind. Like, "Hey, we are here. Here's some of our inventory." Even though a lot of brand-new inventory you can't necessarily get because they've got a long list of people on preorder depending on the car.
The strategy is definitely a lot different at that level, because we care more about communicating the level of quality of the brand out there and building relationships with the local community. Since we are an arm of Porsche, even though everyone knows them, we need to make sure that people in Salt Lake City know that we're here and we're around. So it's a little bit different. We're not trying to be as salesy. It gives us a little bit more creative flexibility, and obviously they're a great brand to work with.
But again, the strategy is very different versus some of our other clients who don't have a national presence but have a local presence and they're trying to build and market to the community here. There's a couple dealers that sell a wide variety of different types of cars — they may have a Porsche, but they also have Mercedes and trucks and other cars. And so the approach and strategy is very different between the two, because while we want to sell, we're approaching it from, "Hey, we're here, this is what we sell, this is what we do, and here's why you should trust us over the competition."
Andrew Hong: So let's say you're one of these local businesses, right? You're not an arm of a national or international brand. Let's say you are the local dealership that might specialize in trucks — 80% trucks, 20% random other vehicles or EVs. Or you might be a dealership that specializes in EVs. For these local automotive businesses, whether they're dealerships or other types of automotive businesses — what are the two or three biggest social media and creative content mistakes that you see them make? This can go from planning to execution to publishing the content. What are some examples of big mistakes that you often see and have to consult people on?
Brayden Tomicic: So many. It's like, where do we start?
Honestly, to their credit, they're there to sell. Anyone who's even started a dealership has usually come from the sales side of the dealership. That's what they know, that's what they experience, and that's what they're trying to do.
So the number one issue that I see — every dealer and really almost across the board for a lot of other businesses — is their content is oriented around selling. And it's like, great, okay, here's the thing: because of our complete access to digital media, there's a time to sell, like within an ad. But when I'm posting a car, there might be twelve other dealerships with that same car. So why am I trying to sell you just like the other dealerships? You're kind of becoming a part of all of the other noise of what people are doing.
And that's honestly the number one mistake that I see people make — they immediately want to come in, they want to do content, and then they're like, "All right, hey, so we're going to push this car today and we're going to sell it to you through this piece of media." And it's like, okay, yes, but nobody has the trust in you as a dealer.
Andrew Hong: Why do they always pick that one car to push? Has it been sitting on the lot forever and they want to get more eyeballs? Like what — why do they always pick that one?
Brayden Tomicic: It's a combination. Sometimes it is like, "Okay, this is the hot car. We know we're gonna sell it. We just want to let people know that we have one available." Sometimes it's like, "All right, this car has been sitting on the lot for the last 60-plus days." And they pay interest on every car every day. So they might just be trying to move it a little bit. But yeah, it's usually the latter.
Andrew Hong: And frankly, it's either the latter or there's no rhyme or reason to it.
Brayden Tomicic: Exactly, yes. And it's just funny because buyers are very conscious. They know what they want, to an extent. So why be a part of what everyone else is doing? Why not be different? How do you separate yourself from other dealerships? These are a lot of the questions we walk through — not only how you separate yourself, but what makes you different. Because selling a car is selling a car. But what makes your dealership different? That's what we try to break down for people.
Andrew Hong: I ask that question a lot because when we build websites for people, and even these days when you're doing SEO, it's not just about throwing keywords in there that's going to get you found by Google. Actually, all of us now want to get found in ChatGPT and all the AI search engines. In order for us to do that, we have to talk about why you're special. And we talked about this — I think on the last time we recorded — which is that your brand has never been more important.
When you are working with a client and you're doing that initial consultation — you haven't even shot a photo yet or recorded a video — how do you deal with it when they can't really answer you on why they're special or why they're different, or they give you a generic answer? "Oh, we like our customers and we have the best selection of trucks and we have financing and we have this and we have that." How do you handle that when they can't really tell you why they're different?
Brayden Tomicic: It's very difficult. Because if they don't even really know, you can try to convince them of other ideas. But if they don't know and they can't communicate that to me, and I don't know their business that well, we kind of sit in this middle ground.
Now, we do our best to do our research on these types of dealers. But yeah, honestly, you can walk into any dealer and they're going to offer you the same thing. They work with the same banks. You're just really hoping that their inventory is not garbage — that they're not going to run into mechanical issues and other things. And you hope there's other aspects.
So there are little value-adds that people can do or say that they offer. But really at the end of the day, when someone can't communicate that with me, I think the best thing I do is I just start asking them questions. "Well, why did you get into this business?" "Well, you know, I do this and blah blah." "Okay, so you care about the customer. Great. So let's start there."
And then we start going down this series of questions that help clarify: who are you? What's the brand? What's your personality? Are you the loud salesman that's like, "We're going to get you the best deal, I'm going to work for you"? Or are you the guy who's like, "I'm here to help you"? Because even that right there is a differentiator.
Andrew Hong: The best example of that on a macro level is CarMax. And Carvana as well. Look, everyone hates these companies, right? They are what they are. But CarMax set a very clear value proposition: you come in, you know what the price is, we give you top dollar for your trade-in, we make it easy for you to buy from us so you don't have to haggle. And that actually drove a lot of messaging and branding for a lot of the used car franchises that have been out there.
That's interesting, Brayden. When I meet with a client and they're not able to express what makes them different, I actually tell them, "Hey, we should just stop this meeting and you should think about it a little bit more." And here, to exactly your point — here are some questions that you should be thinking about.
We do a brand messaging project. It's $699. We ask you a bunch of questions over a questionnaire. We do a workshop with you, and then I'll work to tell your brand story and put it together on a one or two pager. It's really interesting — when you ask questions like, "Why'd you get into the business? What do you like about your customers? What don't you like about your customers? What do you hate about this business? What are you trying to change?" — sometimes when you start just asking those questions of yourself as an owner, and I would do it when you're not in the office, somewhere where it's quiet and you're thinking freely, you start to think a little bit deeper about your business.
I think most of us as small business owners are just so busy that we don't have time to get deep on our business, which is frankly a travesty. Marketing agencies that don't do marketing for themselves — that was us. And so I think the more that you can just maybe pause and think about what makes you special, that'll give professionals like Brayden an opportunity to really show you what they can do.
Because there's been so many times where the clients are like, "Well, Andrew, you know what's best. You know how my brand should be." No, I don't actually. In fact, I think I know what it's like, but you may not like it. And so never delegate the responsibility of your brand to another party. They can guide you on what you should be thinking about, and they can help you bring it together. But you've got to really be able to tell why your brand is different and what makes you special. Because I could pull out something that might be interesting, but you're like, "I hate that idea."
You're the one who has to live with your business, not me.
Brayden Tomicic: Yeah. No, it's funny because I hate when they try to delegate it to you. Because it's like, look, I can only come up with what I think your brand represents based on my perception of you. And maybe I gotta reword that a little bit, but I will perceive your brand a certain way based on what you've already done, and that may not be what you're trying to represent.
Andrew Hong: One hundred percent. People got to figure that out. And if anything, they just got to figure out if they can summarize it into one sentence of what they stand for or what they stand against. That helps immensely.
Brayden Tomicic: Totally. That can give creative direction. We can build more content off of those angles. And then all of a sudden, you don't just have some really flashy video with a million jump cuts, different trucks and cars, and cool music in the background. Because that's just not interesting. It's eye-catching, but it's not going to particularly help you for your own marketing.
So yeah, I think that's a really good discussion. Don't delegate the responsibility of your brand and what makes you special to somebody else. If you feel like you're doing that, that means you're being lazy. You need to really put in the legwork, because that's the job of a founder and an owner — to really differentiate yourself and talk about why you're different. Especially here in Utah, there's so many similar businesses. And as we're growing, sure, there's a bigger population, but that just means you've got to stand out more from the competition.
And one thing I want to put a bow on — the number one mistake I see businesses make is that they think their product is going to be so good that that's why customers will come. No. Especially in the dealership space, your product is basically the same unless you're manufacturing your own car. Your product is the same as anywhere else that anyone can go and grab it. So finding a different way and understanding that your product isn't just solely what makes your business — it's your brand, it's who you are, it's who you represent, how you go about your business, your personality. All of that will play into it, and that needs to be portrayed well so people can trust you.
Any business, when you rely on your product to help sell your business, you're going to lose. Or at least always feel behind and feel like you need to catch up.
Andrew Hong: One hundred percent. So I want to talk about another topic, which I think is a nuanced topic that I don't think many automotive business owners see — this idea between whether you're a transactional business or a lifestyle business.
When I say transactional, it's like: you need an oil change, that's a transactional thing. You need to get your winter tires swapped out. You need new tires. You need wiper blades changed. You need a service done for a specific car. These are what I call transactional types of businesses, where generally speaking, people are searching for them when they need to get something done. It's a maintenance-related thing, it's a regular thing they're going to go to.
And for anyone who's old enough to know this — the Yellow Pages. They're going to go look for that particular oil change business, tire shop, automotive repair shop. They're going to be looking you up by and indexing you by the type of business you are. And there's a very good chance that they're looking for someone today or this weekend to get their errands done. It's one of the things on their to-do list.
There's a very different style of marketing for transactional businesses like that versus what I would call more lifestyle businesses. These are businesses where people discover it more through the content or brand. It may not be something that is 100% needed or required. In some industries it might be required; in some it's more of a lifestyle thing. It could be a wrap business, installation of stereo systems, body kit installations, painting rims — extra things that go along with that.
Brayden, I'm kind of curious — for the lifestyle types of businesses, what types of content do you think are important for them? I call these more identity-building types of content. In your opinion, what types of automotive businesses really need to have this brand and lifestyle content to remind people they're there? And there's also businesses that need that kind of content to educate people on why they might need their service.
Brayden Tomicic: Yeah. So when you're talking about the idea of transactional versus lifestyle, it's even getting kind of a blended line nowadays. People want to work with brands that they like and love versus just some transactional deal.
Certain businesses, like McDonald's, it's a transaction. We don't need to absolutely be in love with the brand to transact with them. But when you're talking about especially higher-ticket items in the automotive space — if you have a wrap shop and you are trying to showcase what you do through content and who you are and your value to the community through your services, how do you separate yourself from everyone else that has a wrap shop?
The lifestyle type of content — you can keep it a lot more raw. You can keep it a lot more authentic. Everyone immediately jumps to this corporate marketing style because we've been inundated with so much content over the years where marketing was so corporate. And it's like, "Well, that works for that large company. But you're not them." How do you separate yourself and be different? Because especially if you start to sound like them, that might even push some people away who want to work with someone who is local.
When we talk about lifestyle content, I almost like to reframe it: look, we're keeping it authentic, we're keeping the content you and your shop. How do we build trust in the community? Because people like to rely on their name and their brand to be like, "Well, our name is something." That might be true, but people want to connect with a human, not with another brand. Especially if I'm going to spend three to five to potentially ten thousand dollars for a wrap on my car, or PPF, or tint. Maybe it's audio-related, maybe it's even just buying a car.
There's certain things where you have to go one or two steps deeper to help build trust, not only with the community, but just also showcase who you are. And the great part is you don't have to appease to everybody. In fact, you shouldn't appease to everybody. There's certain people that are going to like your personality, and we have to be okay with that. But that type of content can start to help you separate yourself.
I think it works great for more lifestyle, more local companies that care about their customers and their relationships. I know a few wrap shops where their entire business is built off of those relationships that they've curated over the last few years. And if that's the business style that you work with, that's who you are, that's what you need to focus on. Because those types of relationships and the communication you're going to have with the community — who you are, what you stand for — is going to go so much farther than just trying to sell somebody on a wrap.
Andrew Hong: And while we're talking about wraps, we have a mutual client who's a wrap client. I was really talking with him, trying to figure out, "Hey, how can we bring an angle to you that's a little bit different?"
What became really clear was that he's a marketing expert — an offline marketing expert. We all talk about digital, social, all the digital channels that get all the attention these days. But let's not forget — especially in Utah — offline, regular direct mail, that kind of stuff still works very well here. There's a reason why Yes Co is putting up billboards all across the I-15 right now. I'm starting to see them up in Wyoming, Montana, and going east into Colorado as well.
There is something to be said about this. Remember, there's a lot of people who pass through Utah. I think three or four times as many people come here to visit as there are that live here. I-15 is a major thruway in the United States — you've got people road-tripping, you've got truckers who are coming through. We live in a really interesting part of this country, and there's a lot of attention on it.
So when you're thinking about this type of offline marketing, I was telling him, "You need to educate your audience on why offline marketing is actually a really important channel." Because I can guarantee you a lot of these business owners are thinking about online and digital and all of the things that I do. But the reality is that there's a lot of people who are trying to understand how they can use wraps or vinyl to help them improve their offline marketing if they're a business owner.
That was the through line we came up with: "Hey, look, if we can position you more as an expert in marketing to drive demand — to get people to consider, 'Hey, I could buy a billboard, or I could wrap my fleet and get unlimited ROI for as long as the wrap is there' — we need to bring awareness of that as a potential solution to folks."
And that's just an example of trying to think a little bit outside of, "Oh, well, we're the best quality wraps, we have the best designs, we do it fast, there's no bubbles, there's no this, there's no that." That's all expected. We talked about that last time — a lot of these things that we say are our values are kind of just par for the course.
Brayden Tomicic: Baseline. Yeah.
Andrew Hong: And so I think that's a lot of why you bring in professionals like Brayden or myself, which is: we'll help you think through an angle that might help you pull out the thing that makes you unique. But you've got to tell us what makes you unique. And then our job is to figure out how we translate that into media, into SEO, into blog posts, and Google Business Profile posts.
One thing I wanted to touch on, Brayden, was the transactional side. Some people call these the "boring" versions, but the reality is most small businesses out there have some kind of transactional nature in them. You've got to get an oil change every X miles. You've got to take your car in for service every X miles. You've got to swap out tires every season or after every X miles.
And so there's already pre-baked demand. You don't have to generate demand for these things. The problem I see, though, is that when a customer is searching for one of these transactional businesses, they don't make it easy to buy from them. And that's usually where you've got to have an offer. You've got to have a coupon.
Why do you think Jiffy Lube sends out those $29.99, $39.99 specials? Brayden, since we were in high school, probably. We've been seeing those things come through the mail. They keep doing it because it produces an ROI for them. It gets the customer to come back or come in the first time. If they've stalled out for a while, it reminds them that they're there.
And so my advice to anyone who is doing more transactional marketing — focus on organic search and paid search, but also make sure that when you're running any kind of paid campaigns, you have some kind of offer in place to capture them. And most importantly, when you have that offer in place, link it up to an SMS campaign, an email campaign, or something so that you're staying top of mind with them.
And that top of mind — that's where some of the lifestyle content Brayden talked about earlier comes in, because you don't want to keep top of mind by sending them a promotional coupon every single week. Sometimes you might want to mix that up with a piece of educational content or how-to content or something else that's a little more lifestyle-driven.
But I would say if you are one of these transactional businesses — focus on search and making sure that you have a good offer and a funnel in place so that if they're not ready to buy from you right away, you're reminding them of why you're there.
So that's just my two cents on the transactional businesses. Maybe going back to the lifestyle side a little bit — Brayden, when you are working with automotive businesses that sell identity, aspiration, or visual appeal — like a high-end membership, for example — what does a real social media and content strategy look like for them? Do you need really sexy shoots and really high production quality? Or to what you were talking about before, do you try to lean more towards authentic content? And what does that authentic content look like to you?
Brayden Tomicic: So there's a few different things we like to lean on. When we break down content strategy for a brand like that, let me take a step back. One thing — it's really easy to fall into the trap of making the same content over and over again. Now it works, especially when you find something that works. You want to replicate that because now you've found the formula.
I think Gary Vee talks about it, or Caleb Ralston — you take 80 to 90% of what works, and then you change that last 10 to 20% and remake the next video. So it's good to find what works. But if you're doing the same thing over and over again and it's not working and you keep doing it, hoping it will — that's a problem.
What we like to do from a content strategy side is, "Okay, hey, we picked apart your business, we understand the direction, we understand what your brand wants to do, what you offer." And then by observing what the market has responded to with other businesses who are doing the same thing, we take all of that and funnel it down into individual columns that we can then pull content from.
So we'll find a general topic — and when I say general, I mean we can create a thousand subtopics underneath that. So we'll create these different pillars of content that we can generate ideas from. So it always feels fresh, it always feels new, even if we're maybe hitting the same type of video. Like, how many times can you educate somebody on tint? Well, there's a few different ways to do it, and a lot of different ways you can approach it. But if we're always only posting about education on tint, people are going to be bored.
So we try to throw a couple different other opportunities in there to create content. That way you don't just have the really cool trendy content or the crazy hype reels — sizzle reels as we call them. You can mix in a few other things.
We'll create the pillars, we'll put levels of importance on them, but we also try to attribute those pillars of content to where it might fall in on the funnel for people who are watching it. So maybe someone doesn't know who you are and doesn't know anything about wrap or PPF — we're going to have content that fills that awareness gap. Same thing for the next level down, and the next level, and so on.
So it's very strategic in that sense, where we try to appease from the top of the funnel to the bottom and keep it entertaining, keep it raw, keep it authentic — all aimed towards your brand and the goals that you have over the next five to ten years.
Andrew Hong: Let's get a little specific. I'm kind of curious — people always like to know budgets. What should I be spending? Let's say you're working with a more lifestyle-focused automotive brand. They're heavy on social media. They get a lot of attention, followers, engagement on social media — maybe less so on the website and SEO side, but clearly they're growing their business social-first. What would you recommend if they had a budget of about two to three thousand dollars a month?
Brayden Tomicic: Yeah, so again, it's very demand-based. What is the goal? Because $2,000 is kind of the starting point on the social media and content side, just because it is so heavy overhead. That's kind of where the start really is, truthfully.
So we go, "Okay, hey, at $2,000 a month, what's most important to your brand right now? Is it customers? Are you fighting for money? Are you worried about next month's rent?" When that notification comes up and you've got to pay the landlord — do you worry about that? Because if so, let's do one video, let's run that as an ad, and we run that in conjunction with you, where we need to bring in customers and bring in money.
But when we talk about specifically just social media and the brand strategy side, we go, "Okay, what does your brand need right now?" If you're new and you're growing, typically it's awareness. It's not even the "hey, we need transactions" as far as bringing in customers — obviously that is the goal. We're in this because we need to make money at some level.
But with that, we try to go, "Cool, your brand needs awareness. So what's the type of content that's going to bring you the most eyeballs possible but still be reminiscent of your brand?" Not just a cool video that people go, "That's dope," and then click and swipe to the next one. We want people to look at this and go, "Oh, that's cool," and then want to engage with you further and then have a ton of other content.
So that's kind of where we start. We'll do a few videos a month just to get the ball rolling. And then from there, the intensity increases, we can do a lot more, our bandwidth becomes greater, and we can really start to dial in the content to fill those different parts of the funnel. But typically when somebody's at that level, it's like, "Great, let's just get you eyeballs. Let's get people to know who you are and see your page."
Andrew Hong: Here's a tricky question. What if they are new and they want customers now?
Brayden Tomicic: That's a great question. I would say we are probably not the right fit.
Andrew Hong: Yeah. Me too.
Brayden Tomicic: Like, to be frank — here's the thing. Time value of money. If I have $2,000 and I'm worried about next month's rent check that I've got to fork out, or I've got employees and I'm worried about payroll — well, you got to take care of your bills. So we're not going to be the right fit, because building your brand is a huge investment over time. And when I say huge investment, it's not that large, but over time, it takes time to do it. We can't just provide results within one month.
We can get you eyeballs. We can get you viewership that will bring in clientele. But when you are really a new business, you can do a lot of content yourself to start. But I would say dump it into the parts of the business that are going to bring you that type of value. Like SEO, running ads — put some of that money towards an ad budget. So that way you can start targeting people around in your community. Social media, you've got a lot of noise, and the quickest way to stand out in the noise on these platforms is unfortunately to pay the platform.
But the great part is, with that, we're throwing it out to the masses. By doing an ad, you can throw that directly at your ideal ICP. I've had those conversations many a time.
Andrew Hong: I have to ask the question, and again, as another agency owner, I always want to see what another agency owner says. And I'm glad to hear that we're of the same opinion.
But you should not expect customers when you first open your doors — if you haven't done sales, if you haven't done networking, if you haven't literally gone out there, knocked on doors, told people about your business. If you just start with marketing, you're going to be negative ROI from day one, guaranteed. One hundred percent.
And the reason Brayden says we're not the right fit is because the way I look at it — you see us as a silver bullet to solving your payroll problems, and that's not what marketing does. Marketing is one piece of the growth equation.
Marketing sometimes doesn't work because your product sucks. Marketing sometimes doesn't work because you haven't differentiated yourself as a brand. Marketing sometimes doesn't work because the way you packaged and priced your products — even though they might be really good — you'll be shocked at how many times I'll come in and I have to build a service page for a business. "Oh, we charge $250 an hour." Okay, how many hours does it take usually? Does it always take that many hours, or does it take more? Is there anything else included in this? You've got to make it easy for people to buy.
And when I start running ads to a page where things aren't priced and packaged well — sure enough, we get tons of clicks, like 8-10% click-through rate, high ad quality, all that stuff, and they fail. "Andrew, we're not getting any leads." That's because when they come to your website, they're not liking what they see. It's really simple.
We're targeting the people that you want to target. Here's the report. They're clicking through at a rate much higher than we would normally expect. But if you're telling me you're not getting the next step in the funnel, they didn't like what they saw there. So you got to fix that.
I think if you have not shown a history of getting random people to buy stuff from your website, through your phone, or whatever — you should not expect the marketing agency to come in there and fix it. Because the reality is there's more than a marketing problem there. There's maybe a product problem, maybe a pricing problem. There might even be a customer service problem. Because if no one's there to pick up the phone and they don't have the right talk track — they're going to bounce and you're going to blame it on marketing. "Oh, my marketing agency sucks."
Every experienced marketing agency, when you come across a new brand that starts to say, "Oh yeah, we want to get customers through the door like yesterday" — that is the first red flag that any experienced agency owner is going to see. Because inevitably, unless the conversation I have with them is like, "Look, it's gonna take you six to eight weeks just to build the foundation. And just because you build it, they will not come. Then we need to start doing the marketing." So are you willing to wait eight to twelve to sixteen weeks before you start potentially seeing some revenue from some of the efforts that we're doing? And most of them don't like that.
Which is why I have a very common phrase in the emails that I send: "You're not going to like to hear this, but..."
So I'm glad to hear that you've kind of experienced the same thing on your end as well.
Brayden Tomicic: Yeah. And to your credit, it is interesting because working with a lot of these new and up-and-coming and starting businesses, if they really don't have a foundation there quite yet — I just always ask them this question: "If I brought you a hundred people tomorrow, could you help them?"
And they'd be like, "Oh my gosh, no."
"That's great. You're probably not ready to take that step because you got to grow into it. You got to build your processes. What is your offer? Is it something people care about? And also, even if I brought you a hundred people tomorrow, if your prices are too high and it's out of their budget for the type of clientele you're thinking you're going to attract, well, then either you're pushing to the wrong clientele, or you need to adjust some things in your business."
There's so many different things from an infrastructure side that you kind of have to go through the motions on as a business owner and really figure out and understand. Because we can only understand so much by our own research and by looking at other people. But if your product isn't serving what the market is demanding, or maybe it's too high-priced — whatever the reason is, we can only do so much for you.
Andrew Hong: Here's another one. Brayden, I'm kind of curious — when a business wants to move forward with marketing, but they have no awareness at all. Is there any sort of foundational media that you think they might want to start with?
I ask this because a lot of times as someone focusing on websites and SEO, I'm like, "Look, if you have to invest in something right now, it's got to be a website. You've got to have a storefront." And for me, it's always — if you really want your website to communicate brand and value, you probably need to invest in some media. So for you, let's say they are starting out. They are okay with not getting the ROI on the investments they're making right away. Is there a foundational package that you might recommend them to start with?
Brayden Tomicic: Yeah, actually, it's kind of funny. It's the Founder's Package that we have. And it's actually really interesting because this applies for a lot of brands, whether you've been around for ten years or you are just starting out.
The foundational package essentially breaks down this way. One — we want to tell your story as a brand. So we call it the Founder's Story. It's something that really builds trust. It shows you as an individual, as a business owner. We kind of start to have you be vulnerable on camera, but tell your story. Why are you doing what you're doing? Why did you get into this? Because sometimes we don't wake up — I didn't wake up one day and say, "Oh, the dream job is a photographer." I stepped into it out of passion. And some people don't sit there and go, "Oh my gosh, I wake up and I want to wrap people's cars." You kind of come into it. So what's that story? Tell that, tell why you're doing what you're doing. That's kind of the first step.
Second — it is cool to showcase your brand in a really cool light. So a sizzle reel that kind of highlights it. Something you can use as a banner video on your website, something that you can throw on Google Business Profile too. You can put this type of video on your GBP, because those people who are searching on GBP, when they click on your profile, they're looking for someone. And if you have that sizzle reel right there, that is just an awesome piece of content that can help them take that next step to tap or pick up the phone and call.
Andrew Hong: Absolutely. It's like chef's kiss, I call it.
Brayden Tomicic: Yeah, one hundred percent. So that's the next kind of piece of content that really adds to it. And then where we can start to really build trust past even all of that is testimonials. So after you've got two or three clients through the door that are advocates for your brand — and not just people who are like, "Yeah, it was good working with you," but people who absolutely love you, who are endeared to you now, who always call you up and say, "Hey, my friend just did this. Can you help him out?" — those are the types of people we want to get on camera to tell that story.
What it was like working with you. Because a quick testimonial video now takes you out of the light. Because you, as a business owner, are going to be biased about your product. But if you can have someone who's worked with you and loves your product — and maybe isn't just your wife or your friend or your kids being advocates for you, but somebody who's real and who's worked with you — talk about you as a brand, that goes so far.
Unless people know that you're a trustworthy person, that you are someone that when they go to work with, they're going to have a similar experience — the testimonial piece is so important.
Andrew Hong: And I actually think when I meet a new business and we are trying to build their foundation — we're not just focused on leads at the beginning — it is so shocking to see what happens to the lead generation, the calls, all those things, when you start to have testimonials on your Google Business Profile.
Like, we've built the best websites in the world. Awesome SEO, great content, answered every question up front. But the new sites we built that don't have a lot of social proof on them — they don't convert. It's really simple. And in automotive, people don't want to spend three to five thousand dollars on a wrap or do some of these more lifestyle-focused things if they're seeing bad reviews. It's like going to a Yelp restaurant that has three stars. I could go to it, but do I want to? I'm rolling the dice.
Having the testimonials is so critical because what SEO can do is get people to find out who you are and what you're about. What SEO cannot do is convince them to pick up the phone and call you. That's all about your content marketing. That's all about your media. That's all about the brand that you present. SEO is just one part of the equation.
And when I meet clients who've already been doing SEO and they get the traffic but they're not seeing customers — I'm just licking my chops. Because the hard part is done, which is getting the eyeballs. Now we just gotta focus those eyeballs and get them converted. And many, many times I see the conversion rates increase as we provide more social proof, as we use more testimonials. It is a direct correlation between the two.
So I think that's a really important piece of media. Are there any other pieces of foundational media that you include in that package, Brayden?
Brayden Tomicic: Yeah, we try to create the media in that package to be formatted for multiple uses. We might do a couple other style videos, but the formatting I think is the most important part. We want to format it for your Google My Business page. We want to be able to format it so it can go on your website, and then even make a cut so you can put that type of stuff on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, wherever you want.
There are other pieces that we might include, but from a foundation side, especially for the cost, we really hone in on those few first and then branch out from there.
Andrew Hong: I want to wrap our episode by kind of straddling the middle a little bit here. Because the reality is, whether you're a transactional business or you're a lifestyle business, you probably need a little bit of both of this kind of marketing.
A used car dealership, for example, probably needs both search and social presence. If you're a detailing shop, you probably want to get Google searches, but you also want to get found through social as well. So you might lean more on one channel or the other depending on what your budgets are. But in general, good marketing — you should be tackling all of these channels, identifying the right channel mix.
For me, if you're in that two-to-four-K-a-month budget for marketing — and that includes ad spend — you might want to be thinking about where you want to split your budget. Do you want to split it more towards social? And if you're going to split it more towards social, you probably need to be investing more dollars with someone like Brayden, because it doesn't make sense to be putting most of your channel budget onto social without investing in media.
On the flip side, if you see a lot of value in Google Ads and that's basically where you're looking to convert all day — you probably need someone to manage your Google Ads, an expert, because we do things like feed the conversion data back into Google, which can help you drop your cost per acquisition.
So regardless of what you're doing, you're probably picking multiple channels. Just make sure that you're allocating budget for the expert that's going to help feed not only the strategy for the channel but the content and the management and everything else that goes into the channel itself.
Any advice for anyone else out there who might be thinking about, "Do I want to do search or social, and where should I put my budgets?"
Brayden Tomicic: Yeah, I think the biggest thing I would say is — if you're sitting there and you're wondering how to take your brand to the next level, consider what your goal is with that. What does that even mean? Does that mean, obviously, you've gotta make more money — so maybe that's more clientele — but what does that actually entail? And what can you afford right now as a business? Because this is a long-term play, both on the social side, but even on the SEO and some of the other strategies.
So to me, I think the biggest thing is: identify who you are as a brand, where you want to be in the next three to five, potentially ten years, and then understand what you can allocate towards it. And can you allocate that and commit to yourself for doing that for at least a year?
And then based on those goals, you can kind of dissect — does it make more sense to put money into ads? Does it make more sense to invest into the branding and social media side? Or does it make more sense to maybe invest in your own infrastructure in the business? Because sometimes that is the right answer — to reinvest back into the business.
So that's what I would say: break that down, understand your goal, understand who you are. And then from there, just dissect it. Talk to professionals, have a conversation, see what they offer and see what advantages their services might bring your business. Because there's also a thing that I've recognized with a lot of people — they don't know what they don't know. And so if you as a business don't even know what's going to help take it to the next level, obviously everyone's going to pitch you on their services, but talk to them, understand what they offer, what value they bring, and then see if that lines up with what you are trying to do. And if it does, find the right individual to do it and go from there.
Andrew Hong: We talked a lot about just general business strategy this episode, Brayden. Don't go throwing dollars out there if you just started your business. If you need customers through the door yesterday, there's other things you probably have to be thinking about before you go put that money out there.
And so not every automotive business has the same marketing playbook. In fact, it's probably a mix of multiple playbooks like Brayden and I talked about today.
If you're a transactional business, you want to own your search presence first. You're still going to need social, for sure, but the dollars on the tree are probably closer to you by starting with search.
If you're a lifestyle brand, it's a little bit harder to get folks. You're going to need to invest in content, invest in a brand, invest in building an identity to get there. And that's going to take you potentially longer to get to that revenue than a transactional business. And that just makes sense.
And if you're somewhere in the middle, now you've got a framework to split — how much do I invest in social, how much media do I need, do I just need to invest a little bit in search? Use the framework that Brayden and I have been talking about to split your budget without wasting it.
If you need help with your Google Business Profile or any of your local search marketing, reach out to us at Tobe Agency. And if you need any help with content strategy, video, social media management for your automotive brand, make sure you connect with Brayden and B Social. He's seen a lot of different scenarios, a lot of different case studies, and he can be the right person for you to figure out how to tell your brand story.
Thanks for watching Grow Smarter Utah. We'll see you in the next episode. Brayden, thanks so much for dropping all your knowledge and experience here today. I'm sure we'll have some other interesting topics to talk about as we get to the near future. Thanks for joining me again, Brayden. Take care.
Brayden Tomicic: Thank you.
