The rental business industry is currently evolving. This means you need to focus more than ever on how to attract new customers and retain older ones. One of the most effective ways of doing so is through your online marketing efforts.
It’s a digital world and businesses are moving online fast which is why it’s extremely important for you to focus on online marketing. However, the online marketing landscape is always changing with new trends emerging all the time. There’s a lot for you to take into consideration – from what strategies you’re going to use to setting your marketing budget.
To help make things easier, here are 5 online marketing tips that you should not ignore in 2020!
1. Streaming video ads
Let’s start by talking about video content. According to IAB’s Video Advertising Spend Report, video ads were a digital marketing must-have in 2019 and will continue to be one in 2020 as well. The report highlights that advertisers are going to spend 25 percent more on digital video ads than they did last year.
To understand this increase, just consider consumer viewing habits. Marketers are going where the consumers spend most of their time – video streaming platforms.
Here are some more compelling statistics from the report:
- 74 percent of US consumers (older than 12 years) stream online videos at least once a week.
- 41 percent of US consumers stream online videos daily.
- 78 percent of consumers streaming videos are willing to watch ads in exchange for free content.
It’s clear! In order to catch the eye of your customers and keep them engaged, your rental business should consider focusing on producing more video content.
2. Incorporating interactive content
Content is becoming more interactive to keep customers highly engaged. Your audience is looking for more than the static experience of going online, browsing, and buying or renting something. They want the entire process to be more exciting and keep them interested. Interactive content marketing is the solution. Examples of such content include:
- Quizzes and polls
- Shoppable posts
- Augmented and virtual reality
- 360-degree immersive videos
While a few pioneering companies have already introduced interactive content, many are still playing catch-up. You can easily start incorporating such content into your marketing strategy via your social media accounts. This is a great way to build your social following and get customers to engage with your content as well.
3. Social media stories are a must-have
Back in 2013 Snapchat popularized the concept of uploading narrative life stories. Instagram and Facebook followed suit and now these are a social media staple. YouTube has launched its own story format called Reels and most recently TikTok enables users to get creative and make entertaining videos with a more “authentic” touch.
But how can these videos help digital marketers? Since this content is perishable, it is a great way to create a sense of urgency and cash in on FOMO (fear of missing out). This is a great opportunity for marketers to capitalize on. Not to mention all the benefits that social media stories bring:
- Grow brand awareness
- Cost-effective ad solution
- Increase traffic to your website
- Ideal opportunity to reach younger audiences
- Constant engagement with followers
When it comes to your rental business, you can always use social media stories to show customers new inventory items you might be bringing in to build up the hype, or conduct competitions for free giveaways and discounts.
4. Increase SEO investments
Some online marketing tips include taking old trends and making sure you continue using them effectively. An important example is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that is here to stay. However, just because it’s an existing trend, does not mean it’s a static one. There’s still a lot for you to consider in 2020. How you optimize content needs to align with the current environment!
For example, you need to optimize for the position-zero rankings. A position-zero ranking is the “featured snippet” that appears at the top of search results. It’s called position-zero because it’s above the search result 1. If you manage to get to that position, then you enjoy appearing twice in the search results!
Google pulls the snippet for position-zero from one of the search results on the first page. So firstly, to have a chance at position-zero, you need to create content that’s on the first page of search results. To optimize for that desired position, you need to take a hard look at your content strategy. Try focusing particularly on FAQ copies. Provide a simple and consistent HTML code. Limit paragraph snippets to 50 words or less.
5. Set up an online store
Brick-and-mortar storefronts are being increasingly supplemented or in some cases, replaced with webstores. Webstores are revolutionizing the way the rental industry operates, and at the same time helping businesses lower their overheads.
This brings us to the last of the online marketing tips – helping you set up an online store. With an online store, marketing your business online becomes much easier. With your own webstore, you have complete control over your customers’ experiences. You can directly connect with customers to encourage purchases.
Apart from increasing orders, a webstore also makes it easier to gain traction or improve it. There are several techniques you can use to improve traction on days where you feel like the volume of orders is decreasing. For example, holding a flash sale!
Shoppers now have access to more data than ever before which helps them compare products and the lowest price before making any decision. A flash sale provides customers with exactly that – the lowest price, but only for a short period of time. The limited duration creates a sense of urgency and ultimately helps boost sales quickly.
However, simply having a webstore isn’t enough. You also need to make it visually pleasing and user-friendly. According to a Kissmetrics study, 93% of buyers consider visual appearance to be the most important factor when making a purchase.
So you need to customize your webstore to make it appealing to your customers. The more appealing it is, the more marketable it is.
Apart from being marketable, an online store also helps you streamline operations. It can help increase order volume by introducing you to a previously untapped market while simplifying processes.
Read More: The Benefits of Having an Online Rental Webstore
Time to improve your marketing strategy!
There you have it – the 5 online marketing tips that will help you take your rental business to the next level. Of course, all these tips cannot be applied uniformly across the board. Consider your product and business needs and incorporate them accordingly to create and execute a successful marketing strategy.
If you’d like to launch an online store for your rental business to improve your online presence and increase customer reach, try out EZRentOut. We are a cloud based rental solution that offers businesses seamless rental management. It also comes with a host of other features like asset tracking, maintenance management, a customized webstore, and much more.
