For over 25 years Douglas Automotive has provided “Service with Integrity” to local drivers. For the last 10 years, they have been working with JMS Marketing to build their brand and draw in vehicles from around the area. Maintaining a successful business for more than a quarter-century means Douglas Automotive has seen their share of recessions and downturns, but when shelter-in-place orders became “the new normal” in 2020, they needed an action plan that worked around a customer base that couldn’t leave the house.
Target
Douglas Automotive serves drivers in the areas surrounding Barrington, Crystal Lake, and Fox River Grove, Illinois. As a secondary target, they also provide fleet maintenance programs to businesses in the area.
Challenge
Although sheltering-in-place orders made planning difficult enough, rapidly changing safety recommendations also made it necessary for Douglas Automotive to communicate updates with their customers quickly and frequently.
Solution
Since 2010, Douglas Automotive worked with JMS Marketing to be proactive with marketing when they were busy. Because of this, they were prepared for economic downturns with a strong marketing foundation including a well-defined brand, a website linked to a robust customer relations management system, an active search advertising campaign, a large base of social media followers, and an extensive email list. Douglas Automotive also built on this foundation with radio Facebook advertising to help promote the ways they were keeping customers safe and specials for first responders.
Result
Early results show Douglas Automotive was able to partially mitigate some of the economic effects of the pandemic. With an extensive foundation already laid, Douglas Automotive could communicate with customers and the community as rapidly as the situation changed with COVID-19. As a result, even though April marked the first full month of shelter-in-place orders Douglas Automotive began seeing some of its busiest months ever.
