How To Use TikTok For Your Car Detailing Business
How to Use TikTok for Your Car Detailing Business
TikTok is the fastest social media platform today, as evident from its ever-ballooning popularity across all age groups. The platform has over 1 billion monthly active users and out of the total, 138 million active users are from the United States.
It’s not difficult to see why thousands of brands consider it a social media marketing powerhouse. One of its highlights is the ease of use and the opportunity it offers individual content creators and brands to post engaging videos.
As a car detailing business owner, it’s recommended to consider using TikTok to promote your services. You won’t be alone- other car detailers are using it for the same purpose and getting tangible results.
Before we look at expert tips on using TikTok to market your car detailing business, here is an overview of the top 5 car detailing companies that run marketing campaigns on TikTok.
Top 5 Car Detailing Businesses Using TikTok for Marketing
Like other businesses, car detailing is not immune to competition. The huge TikTok user base means that posting videos on the platform will give your brand massive visibility and exposure online.
Get inspired by these top 5 car detailing businesses that have established successful businesses by using TikTok for marketing.
WD Detailing
Since 2021, WD Detailing has been posting new educational and inspiring videos on TikTok. The videos are meant to educate the audience on how to clean different car parts such as seats, dashboards, and more.
The brand has posted more than 100 videos, accrued 13 million + likes, and more than 786.7k followers. The brand owes its success on the platform to the high-quality videos it posts showing the personnel doing the procedures.
WD detailing also goes an extra mile to include overlay text on the videos to give the viewers an idea of about the contents even before they click to watch. They include captions and relevant hashtags to increase the visibility of their videos. Some videos have received more than 5.1 million views, with the lowest having 151.3K views.
Thatdtailguy
Finding accurate car detail tips and hacks is usually a daunting task today. Thatdtailguy is determined to change this tide by regularly posting car detail tips and product reviews. The account has been around since 2021, has 73.1K followers, and videos have received 647.4K likes.
One of the highlights of Thatdtailguy is that he posts new videos almost daily. He takes time to explain the different products in a simple way and even liaises with car detailing companies to hold giveaways.
Like WD Detailing, his videos are authentic/raw, have captions, and overlay text that hints at the contents to the viewer.
Roberto’s Auto Detail
Roberto’s Auto Detail has been around for more than two years but only started using TikTok for marketing this year, 2022. Despite being pretty new on the platform, the car detailer has received more than 153.9K followers, and videos have received 1M+ likes.
The videos are filmed at a close range to show the audience every car detailing step. The videos are concise to convey the intended message fast. Even though the personnel rarely talks during the video, it’s easy to understand what he is doing, thanks to the raw footage of each procedure.
M.A.D Detailing
M.A.D Detailing has been using TikTok to promote its services and products since 2019. So far, the brand has posted more than 300 videos and 1.6 million followers, and the videos have received over 24.5 million likes.
Consistent posting of authentic videos is one of the main reasons for the huge success. The team doesn’t shy away from showing before and after pictures of cars they detail in the facility. The latest video about pressure washing a car exterior got more than 4.4 million views and 94.7K likes
Fivestar Detailing
Fivestar Detailing is another successful car detailing company that actively posts videos on TikTok for informational and marketing purposes. The brand has been using TikTok since 2021, with the first video getting over 42.7K likes and 1.6 million views.
Despite being short, the first video went viral and helped the brand to build a loyal community of more than 263.3K followers. Cumulatively, the videos have received more than 3.1 million likes. New videos are posted every week to keep the audience engaged.
How to Create Car Detailing Videos for TikTok
Clearly, TikTok is a marketing haven for car detailers who want to experience exponential growth and compete effectively with other businesses. Here are tips on creating compelling car detailing videos for TikTok.
Understand Your Target Audience
Before you embark on creating car detailing TikTok videos, you need to have a clear understanding of your target audience.
- Where are they located?
- What are their interests and needs?
- Which car models do they drive?
- Which car detail services do they require?
This background information will enable you to create videos that resonate with the target audience. Conduct surveys online to gather this information, then use it to develop a robust TikTok marketing strategy.
Borrow a leaf from the top car detailers reviewed above, such as the Fivestar Detailing brand, which focuses on high-end car models such as Ferrari and BMW.
Concisely, knowing your niche and concentrating on it will enable you to stand out from the crowd and get a higher cutting edge.
Post New Videos Consistently
The target customers expect new videos from you daily or every time they log in to TikTok. Keep them engaged and interested in your car detailing business by posting more often.
Create a posting schedule to enable you to post a new video at least once every two days or daily. The more videos you post, the more visible your account will be. Otherwise, keeping a low profile will reduce the chances of the TikTok algorithm displaying your videos on users’ feeds.
Virtually all the top 5 car detailers reviewed earlier posts daily. The beauty of TikTok is that you don’t have to spend hours editing the videos before posting. The more authentic and raw the video is, the more engaging and relatable it is to the users.
Only Post High-Quality Videos
Yes, we mentioned that the videos should be raw, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore quality. Use a high-resolution camera or your smartphone to shoot high-quality videos of you or the team detailing cars.
Check the resolution and audio before posting to get the best results. Like Roberto’s Auto Detail, you don’t have to speak. Let the sounds of the equipment and machine do the explanation for you. Shooting the video at close range is one of the surest ways of capturing all the sounds and effectively relaying the intended message to the target audience.
Make sure that your camera is steady when recording and if the sound captured is not good, consider using an external microphone. TikTok offers different editing functions and features that you can use to polish your videos before posting. Preview them before they go live to be sure everything is OK.
Including Trending Hashtags and Caption
Hashtags are super effective in increasing the visibility of videos on TikTok. They make videos discoverable and enable the TikTok algorithm to know the context of the videos.
Increase the reach of your car detailing videos by including trending hashtags relevant to the industry in the description. Go the extra mile to write a compelling caption that describes the video.
With human attention span getting shorter by the day, you cannot afford to have a lengthy caption. Keep it under 10 words – let the hashtags do the hard work of increasing the video’s discoverability. Besides, few TikTok users take time to read the caption. A majority are only interested in watching the video.
Here are the top five car detailing trending hashtags on TikTok today.
- #cardetailing
- #carcare
- #cardetailproducts
- #cardetailingtips
- #detailingproducts
You don’t need to use all the hashtags, though. Choose two or three that best match the video. Also, check out hashtags that your competitors and top car detailing brands use to popularize their videos and use them.
Add Overlay Text
The hashtags and captions will increase the visibility of your videos, but to get even more views and engagement, add overlay text to your TikTok car detailing videos.
Use special font and colors to create contrast with the background so that the text pops out without overshadowing the video.
Here are the steps for adding text to TikTok videos.
- Open the app and upload the video
- On the bottom menu displayed on the screen, click on “Text”
- Type the text and change the color to create contrast
- Tap on the “Done” icon in the top right corner to complete the process
You can also spice the text up by adding stickers. All you need to do is click on the “Sticker” icon and select the preferred sticker or emoji.
More importantly, it’s advisable to set the text to disappear once the audience starts to watch the video. Here is how to set the time the text will be onscreen.
- Tap on the text on the video
- Choose the set duration option
- Drag the red box around the timeline to set when the text should appear on the video
- Once through, tap on the checkmark icon located at the bottom right corner
Collaborate With Influencers
Influencer marketing has an average ROI of $5.20 for every dollar spent. Scour the platform to discover potential influencers whose followers have the characteristics of your ideal car detailing customers.
One of the benefits of working with influencers is that they increase brand visibility by showcasing your brand content to their followers. The followers trust them, and so they are more likely to engage with your videos and take the desired action after watching the videos.
However, you need due diligence to find the ideal influencers for your TikTok car detailing marketing campaign. Your niche and the target audience will help you locate the best influencers for your campaign.
Cut the chase and save time using the following online tools to connect with potential TikTok influencers.
Vet the influencers suggested by any of these tools and have them sign a contract to avoid inconveniences down the road. More importantly, monitor the results to know which influencers to continue collaborating with and who to expunge from the team.
Engage with Viewers in Comment Section
The TikTok algorithm uses likes and comments to determine the relevance of videos to users. Spur engagement and work the algorithm by engaging with viewers in the comment section.
Spend several hours daily responding to the comments to start a conversation with them. Be open-minded when responding to positive and negative comments to cultivate your reputation and show potential customers your car detail business is the best.
Post User-Generated Content (UGC) & Behind the Scene Footage
48% of customers consider user-generated content as one of the best ways to discover new products. 41% are tempted to purchase a service or product after reading or watching 1-4 reviews.
Break the norm and serve your viewers something different from the typical car detailing videos. Post user-generated content such as reviews from satisfied customers when they come to collect their cars or you deliver the detailed car to their premises.
Behind-the-scenes footage showing how you prep for different car detailing procedures will work like a charm.
Both forms of content will convince clients who are on the fence that you are the best car detailing service provider in the market. Make sure they are authentic and genuine – savvy clients can “smell” a fake video testimonial from a mile away.
Share TikTok Videos on Other Social Media Platforms
TikTok is a great marketing platform but shouldn’t be the only one you use to promote your car detailing business. Post the videos on other platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to get even more exposure.
While at it, it includes links to your TikTok account where the viewers can watch more videos. There is also no harm in sharing a link to your website to generate free organic traffic and possibly generate leads.
How TikTok Algorithm Works
Like other social media networks, TikTok has an algorithm that determines which content is displayed to users. Not so much is known about this algorithm, but the primary factors that it uses to recommend videos to users are;
- Accounts followed and interacted with
- Hashtags followed
- Number of comments
- Number of likes
- Audio clips listened to
- Videos liked and commented
These factors should guide you when creating a car detailing TikTok marketing strategy. For example, engaging with the viewers via the comments section will increase the chances of your videos being displayed to people interested in car detailing services and products.
Final Thoughts
TikTok has the immense potential to help your car detailing business get a firm footing in the market. Use the above tips and stay abreast of new trends and features to benefit fully from the platform.
More importantly, consider bringing on board a social media expert with vast experience in TikTok marketing to enable you to create and run successful marketing campaigns on the platform.
