For a detail shop, the photo is the product

A customer cannot feel a coating or run a hand under a wrap edge before buying. What they can do is look at photos of other cars. The site exists to earn that trust.

Module 4 of the Castells Media academy for contractors: The website.

Three kinds of site, and this trade usually needs the middle one

Before and after is the whole argument

The booking calendar belongs on the site, not in a phone tag

Package pricing, shown, not hidden behind "call for quote"

How many jobs pay for a site. A page built around one clear offer usually pays for itself within the first month of paid search running against it, because it is doing one job well instead of a whole site doing many jobs loosely.

Do this next: Pick your five best finished cars and find the "before" photo for each one. If it does not exist, start shooting a before photo on every car starting today. In six months you will have a portfolio that argues for itself.

Written by Castells Media, a marketing agency at 1298 Antelope Creek Drive, Roseville, California, working with home service businesses across the US.

Castells Media Inc, 1298 Antelope Creek Drive, Roseville, California