Social Media Marketing for Towing Companies

Social media has been around since the early 2000s. Aside from using it to stay connected with your loved ones, tons of businesses are now using it as a tool to promote the products and services they offer, share curated content with their audience, and foster relationships with potential customers.

In fact, the average time spent on social media is 147 minutes per day and the top 4 platforms used are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. So, if your towing company is still not on social media, you’re probably missing out on tons of leads!

Why Social Media Marketing for Towing Companies?

If you just recently opened your towing business, being on social media can be quite overwhelming especially if you’re competing with established towing companies in your area.

Fret no more! Since one of the advantages of using social media for your towing company is that it can help boost brand awareness. With the proper use of hashtags, posting various types of content (e.g. regular posts, reels, IG stories, videos), and various kinds of strategies which we’ll be sharing with you in the later part of this blog, you’re bound to get a boost in your social media reach and be in front of more potential customers. 

Another reason why you should consider using social media in promoting your towing company is that it helps improve social engagement. Since each social media platform has its own unique features, it’s easier for you to interact with your target audience by hosting giveaways/contests, asking questions through a poll, sharing relevant content, and a lot more. Because of that, it helps you establish a meaningful relationship with your potential customers.

Lastly, it helps you get a better understanding of what suits the interests of your target customers. Since most of your potential customers are on social media, being active on these platforms gives you a gist of what’s trending in terms of promoting a certain product or service and the type of content that your target audience is more likely to engage with.

Like before, regular posts from business pages get tons of engagement. But today, short videos like the ones you see on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels get more likes, comments, and shares. That’s why being in a place where most of your potential customers are is an important tactic in getting to know more about your target audience.

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How to start social media for towing companies

Now that you have an idea of how effective social media is in getting results for your towing business, here are 5 steps that will guide you in creating your towing company’s social media marketing strategy.

Step 1. Set your towing company’s marketing goals

In the early stages of creating your social media marketing strategy, you should be able to identify the goal you want to achieve. This way, you’ll be focusing your efforts in the right direction.

Here’s a list of common marketing goals:

• to increase brand awareness
• to increase website traffic
• to expand your customer base
• to stay in touch with your current customers
• to deliver customer service
• to gain insights into the current trends in the market

To make sure that your social media marketing efforts are in line with your goals, follow the SMART method.

Specific – Your goal should be clear. For example, the goal you want to set for your towing company is to improve your engagement rate by 2%. It’s not just about improving your engagement rate, you have a specific percentage in mind.

Measurable – You should be able to measure the effectiveness of your marketing goal. For example, to see if you were able to improve your towing company’s engagement rate, you should see an increase in the number of clicks and impressions (likes, comments, shares) to your posts.

Attainable – You shouldn’t set a goal that’s impossible to achieve. It should be something that’s realistic. For example, since your goal is to improve your brand’s engagement rate by 200%, setting a goal for getting a boost in your engagement within a month maybe impossible to achieve if you already have a high engagement rate.

Relevant – Your goal should be significant to your towing company. Something that will help you grow and be closer to success. It should match the needs of your business. For example, if you wanted to improve your engagement rate, hosting a giveaway on social media can help keep your audience interacting with your brand.

Time-bound – Setting deadlines helps you stay on the right track. This is important because it gives you something to look forward to. For example, before you check to see if your social media pages have improved their engagement rate by 200%, you’ll allot 6 months to see if you were able to reach your goal.

Step 2. Plan content for each buyer persona

Once you’ve already set your goals, the next thing to do is to plan the content you’re going to share with your potential customers. Since you want to maximize the reach of your posts, creating posts for each buyer’s journey is the way to go!

The buyer’s journey refers to the process that a customer goes through before they associate themselves with your towing company. It is divided into three stages which are:

1. Awareness stage
   • These are individuals who are aware of the problem they are facing and are looking for ways how to fix them.
   • For potential customers who are in the awareness stage, the types of posts you can publish shouldn’t focus too much on promotion. You should be giving useful information to your target audience. This includes FAQs about towing services, educational videos, or links to relevant blog topics.
2. Consideration stage
   • These are individuals who are in the process of looking for possible solutions to fix their problems. They could be searching for towing companies that can provide the best tow-truck services.
   • For potential customers who are in the consideration stage, the types of posts you can publish could be videos highlighting the benefits they can get from your towing services, and what makes you unique from other towing companies (e.g. open 24/7, reliable, and fast).
3. Decision stage
   • These are individuals who have finally decided on which towing company to choose from their options. For you, this is your last chance to turn that potential customer into your actual customer.
   • The types of posts you can publish for customers who are at this stage are the ones that contain your pricing options and emphasize the best qualities that your towing services have compared to your competitors.

Step 3. Use a social media calendar

After planning the type of content to post on your towing company’s social media pages, the next step is to create a schedule of when you will be publishing your posts. For you to stay on top of the minds of your potential clients, you have to make it a habit to regularly post on your business pages. Consistency in terms of engaging with your audience and posting relevant content is one of the keys to having a winning social media marketing strategy.

Here’s a quick summary of the recommended number of times you should post on each social media platform:

• On Instagram, at least once a day.
• On Facebook, at least 3-7 times a week.
• On YouTube, at least once a week.
• On TikTok, 1 to 3 times a day.

Step 4. Track your performance

Social media platforms usually have built-in metrics that give you an idea of how well your posts are performing based on your goals. However, you’ll only be given a limited amount of data to analyze. To help you get more in-depth data, you can use third-party apps or software like HubSpot and Sprout Social.

Key metrics when analyzing the performance of your social media marketing strategy based on your marketing goal:

For Engagement, these are the likes, comments, shares, and clicks.

• Likes – means that your audience approves of your posts
• Comments – gives you an idea of your audience’s thoughts about your posts
• Shares – indicates how relatable your posts are
• Clicks – the number of times a user clicks to see your post

For Awareness, these are the number of impressions and reach.

• Impression – refers to the number of people who have seen your post but didn’t do any action about it
• Reach – refers to the number of people who have seen your post (which includes followers and non-followers of your towing company’s page)

To see if you’re getting a good Return On Investment, you’re going to look at the number of referrals and conversions.

• Site traffic – refers to the sources of where your potential customers come from before ending up with your towing company’s social media profile
• Conversion rate – refers to the percentage of individuals who have taken action toward your social media posts. This could be in the form of making a call, subscribing to your monthly newsletter, etc.

Step 5. Optimize your posts

After that, don’t forget to optimize your posts to get better outcomes. If some of your posts aren’t getting enough impressions and engagement, conduct an a/b test. This way, you’ll have an idea of which works best for your audience (and apply it in your future posts) and fix those that don’t work well.

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Social media ideas for towing companies

Now that you have an idea of how to create your social media marketing strategy, here are some ideas that might inspire you into publishing posts on your towing company’s social media profile:

1. Story behind your towing company

Creating posts about how your towing company started helps establish a personal connection between you and your potential clients. It’s like a rapport that introduces your brand to individuals who want to get to know more about your towing business.

Here’s an example:

As you can see, they started the caption with a greeting followed by the details about who owns the company along with their advocacy and what makes them stand out from their competitors. They’ve also mentioned the name of their towing business and relevant keywords which is a good strategy in helping them get discovered by their potential customers.

2. New equipment

If you bought a new truck or upgraded your old one, you can also share that on your next social media post! This could be your selling point to show your potential customers that apart from providing the best services, you’re also making sure that the equipment used is maintained.

Like in this example:

In the example above, you can see that the towing company has shared with its audience a short clip of its new tow truck. They highlighted its best features and wrote them down in the caption. Location and branded hashtags were also used which makes them easily show up when someone looks for towing services in New Jersey.

3. Participation in community events

If your team has participated in events or community services, it would be a great idea to share it with your audience. This way, they’ll know that apart from providing towing services, you are also active in supporting events held in the community.

Here’s an example:

In the post above, you can see that the towing company’s crew has participated in the annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. They decorated their truck in line with the theme of the parade and also took some photos to share how happy the team was in participating in the said event.

4. Inspirational posts

If you have an inspiring story that will surely touch the hearts of your target audience, sharing it on social media can is another good idea.

Take a look at this example:

As you can see, the towing company surprised the little boy on his birthday because he was fond of watching tow-related tv shows and tow trucks. It gained lots of engagement from their audience because you can see the genuine smile on the boy’s face and making child’s dream come true is such an inspiring story to anyone. This creates a positive impression on the towing company’s image knowing that they listen to their customer’s requests and are willing to make things possible.

5. Reminder for extreme weather changes

One of the goals of your towing company is to keep your customers safe when on the road. Whenever the season changes like for example, there’s an incoming snowstorm or extremely bad weather, reminding your customers to be cautious while driving is another social media post idea you can use for your towing company. This is something that would make them feel that you really care about the safety of your target audience.

Like in the example above, the towing company informed their customers about the current weather condition, and along with that, they added a reminder to stay safe if they’re planning to go out and if not, it’s best to just stay at home.

6. Host a giveaway or contest

If you want to keep your customers engaged with your brand, hosting a giveaway or contest is a good idea. You just have to briefly explain the instructions so that the participants won’t get confused about how to join it and use exciting prizes for them to be motivated to join.

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4. Accomplishments/ Awards

Another social media post idea is by sharing with your customers the accomplishments received by your towing business. For example, if you won an award or got nominated as one of the best towing companies in town, that’s something that’s post-worthy!

Here’s an example:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Reliable Towing Services (@reliabletowingservices)

5. Customer feedback

If you have several good reviews on your Google My Business profile or on other business listings, you could also share them on your social media pages. This way, potential customers (who haven’t visited your business profiles yet) will have a basis that your towing company is fast, reliable, and efficient.

Here’s an example:

6. FAQs

If you notice that you’re getting the same questions over and over again, you can use that as an idea for your next social media post! All you have to do is briefly answer some of the frequently asked questions and then if you have a blog that further explains the topic, you can add the link under your post.

Here’s an example:

In the example above, it’s great that they were able to briefly explain why towing is not harmful to vehicles and added a call to action to guide their potential customers on their FAQs page. However, it would have been better if they used a different image to make their post look new and attractive because they already used the same image in one of their recent posts.

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7 Best practices when using social media for towing companies

At this point, you probably have lots of ideas for your next social media post. However, as you regularly publish new posts, you have to make sure that you’re following these 7 best practices:

1. Fill out all of the sections in your social media profile

Having an optimized social media profile helps you in establish your credibility in the towing industry. So, make sure you have a decent profile picture (could be your towing company’s logo), a relevant cover photo (could be an image of your tow truck), and a complete About Us Section. 

Tips for optimizing your Facebook page

• Your profile picture could be your company logo or an image of your tow truck
• Use 1×1 format for the profile picture (or else your photo might be awkwardly cut)
• Add the link to your towing company’s website
• Add tabs to make it easier for your potential customers to find what they are looking for (e.g. reviews, services, events, videos, etc.)
• Check out what strategy your competitors are using
• Customize your towing company’s Facebook URL so that your customers can easily find you
• Pin a post (if you have an ongoing giveaway, event, or important announcement) so that it doesn’t get buried along with your new posts

Tips for optimizing your Instagram profile

• Switch to a business account (it’ll give you more features)
• Add your business hours and contact info
• Use IG Highlights if you want to provide more details to your customers (make it like a FAQs section)
• Use the same handle (username) from Facebook (if you have a FB page)
• Add the link to your towing company’s website
  • Make sure that your website is mobile-friendly
• Add emojis to emphasize sections in your bio (e.g. 📞 for contact details, 📍 for location, ⏰ for business hours, 📧 for your towing company’s email address)

2. Post diversified content

Social media platforms can be used not just for getting new customers but also for attracting potential customers and retaining existing ones. With that, you shouldn’t just focus on posting regular posts, but also various kinds of content for your audiences like carousel posts, reels, shorts, and other formats.

Types of posts you can share on social media

• Educational posts
  • This includes the trips and tricks and relevant articles about tow truck services.
• Promotional posts
  • This includes your towing company’s latest promos, deals, and discounts.
• Inspirational posts
  • This includes inspiring stories from your crew, customers, or your towing company.
• Posts to build a connection with your customers
  • This includes behind-the-scenes, customer reviews, and employee appreciation posts.

3. Strategically use hashtags

Hashtags are mainly used to help people find you. However, using walls of hashtags along with your captions can be an eyesore to some. With that, you have to do lots of research to make sure that the hashtags that you’ll be using on your posts are the ones that are relevant to your post and at the same time, has the ability to drive traffic and potential lead to your towing business.

Before we proceed with the number of hashtags you should be using on each platform, it’s important to know the types of hashtags you can use:

• Industry hashtags  – These types of hashtags are highly competitive because you’re competing with a general topic that’s relevant to your post. For example, #TowTruck, #TowLife
• Niche hashtags –Compared to industry hashtags, these niche hashtags are more specific. For example, #TowingServices
• Branded hashtags – These types of hashtags are used to promote your brand.
  • For example #NameOfYourTowingCompany
• Location hashtags – These types of hashtags are used to help you get found easily whenever someone is looking for towing services near a specific area.
  • For example, #TowingServicesMiami

4. Partner with influencers

Instagram is the most used platform by influencers followed by TikTok. It’s because IG works well with visual content and makes it easier to tag a brand.

If you’re not that familiar with influencer marketing, it’s another tactic that brands use nowadays because they are partnering with content creators that already have a huge number of followers. What happens is that you’re going to compensate (which could be in the form of cash, discounts, or free products or services) the influencer in exchange for promoting your brand on his or her account. This strategy is effective not just in reaching a brand-new audience but also in influencing the purchasing decisions of potential customers.

Tips for choosing the right influencer for your towing company

• Find out if their audience is a good match for your towing business
  • Looking at the number of followers alone isn’t enough when choosing which influencer to partner with, you have to see if the target audience is also interested in towing services. Failing to do this will not give you the results you wanted and is just a waste of time because you’re promoting to the wrong audience.
• Take a look at their profile’s engagement rate
  • Apart from the number of followers they have, you should also check the comments under their posts. From there, you’ll have an idea if they are really effective when it comes to interacting with their followers and promoting a certain product. You’ll also see if they have a good reputation under their posts.
• You share the same values 
  • Lastly, you have to make sure that you share the same values. You don’t want to partner with influencers who don’t support the same advocacies as yours (e.g. providing/recommending the best and most reliable products and services to their followers). Check out their IG profiles to see if their posts are somewhat related to your towing company.

5. Add CTA in your captions

Call to action basically consists of words that guide your target audience to take action toward your post. Its goal is to reach new people, drive more traffic, and improve your follower’s engagement with your towing company. Having one clear CTA on your social media posts is enough because it won’t confuse them on the next step they should take.

Here’s a list of CTA that you can use along with your captions:

• “Save this for later”
• “Like if you agree”
• “Comment down below”
• “Tag your bestie”
• “Link in my bio”

Best practices when using CTA

• Should create a sense of urgency
• Use of strong action words
• Use a conversational tone
• Use a sentence before your call-to-action

6. Use subtitles/captions

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In your videos, make sure to use subtitles/captions. This way, you’re making your content inclusive for all and at the same time, grabbing the attention of your audience.

Subtitles – These serve as translations for individuals who do not speak the same language as yours.

Open captioning – These are the ones that are part of the video file that’s why they can’t be removed/ switched off.

Closed captioning – These are the ones that can be switched on and off.

Best practices when using subtitles/ captions

• If you’re transcribing audio manually, make sure it’s 100% accurate.
• Proper placement. It shouldn’t block elements from your video.
• Make it readable. It shouldn’t exceed 160 to 180 words per minute.
• Subtitles should be synchronized with what is being said in the video.

7. Keep track of the latest algorithms

Due to lots of content that can be found online, social media platforms set criteria to identify the type of content that should show up on a user’s newsfeed. Because of that, social media algorithm changes from time to time. One thing you can do to stay updated on which type of content is prioritized in each platform is to make it a habit to check your analytics if ever there are fluctuations in your posts’ impression, conversion, and engagement rate because sometimes it can be because of the sudden changes in a platform’s algorithm.

Want to know how to create your Ad campaign? Check out our blog post about Google Ads for towing companies to learn more.

Key Takeaway

Social media marketing when done right can help you with brand awareness, get more new customers and retain existing ones. You just have to follow the best practices we’ve mentioned earlier and you will surely notice an improvement in your towing company’s social media marketing efforts.