The omnipresence and reach of social media has changed the business landscape forever. Business Marketing especially, has had to shift a vast amount of effort, talent and investment into making sure their messaging hits home over a wide array of new, digital, app-based channels. The vehicle rental market needs to quickly adopt to this sea change in marketing also.
"77% vehicle renters prefer to interact with vehicle rental companies through social media."
In fact, social media now plays a central and vital role in building awareness and advocacy of companies and brands involved in the tourism, holiday and travel industries.
As an innovative vehicle rental software company, Coastr has been mapping the use of social media since its inception. We have noticed that the pandemic’s arrival and subsequent spread has led many companies to now spend less time viewing social media as a revenue channel and more time on making sure operational facilities are run safely in our new, health-conscious normal.
However, a Coastr survey recently revealed that nearly 77% vehicle renters now prefer to interact with vehicle rental companies through social media. This statistic clearly underlines that vehicle rentals operators need to rethink their social media plans and usage.
That’s where we can assist you.
Our Social Media Starter Kit is a step-by-step guide that aims to help car and van rental companies understand the power and necessity of social media.
We discuss how simple strategies and management of social media channels can help grow your brand and improve engagement with your customers.
Top tips on marketing your brand on social media
1. Post content that is valuable and relevant to your audience
It is very important to share important updates related to your rental business on the social media to build a personal and direct connect with your followers or fans. For instance: use Instagram and Facebook to highlight new stock, offers or discount or talk about unique features of your product/ service.
You can also run polls or Q&A section to engage with your online audience and drive traffic to your pages. Always remember the rule of thumb: create content that your audience will want to read and engage with. This is important to reach your audience who can be your potential customers.
2. Enhance your digital marketing efforts
In today’s tech-savvy world, digital marketing is key to getting new customers. Social media marketing (SMM) and email marketing are two effective strategies for car rental businesses to increase web traffic. Active promotion on social media is the most effective and lucrative option to target the right audience and helps attain the desired marketing goals.
Working with influencers and travel bloggers is another way to scale your digital efforts. Other useful digital marketing strategies for car rental companies include Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Google Analytics and Pay Per Click (PPC).
3. Talk to your audience
Social media is not merely a broadcasting tool, it's a place for conversation with real people. Your customers are on social media. Every single one of them. Hence, building a healthy customer relationship is crucial to your car rental brand’s success. Timely and transparent communication helps put a human face to your business operations. As much as bot-functionality and AI is making the process of rentals and fleet management easier and more efficient, people still want to talk and build relationships with people. And social media is their direct link to connect and talk to a brand.
Hence, only posting on social media is not enough. Keep an eye on comments and queries and answer all questions/ doubts related to your brand. You can search for conversations around your brand on other pages and respond to their questions too.
4. Provide quick solutions via social media
Social media can also help deliver effective customer service by letting you respond to customer questions or queries at the press of a button. Always remember, effective customer care is what will differentiate you from your competitors. It makes all the difference in retaining existing customers and gaining new ones. Through good and bad times, maintaining a strong customer bond will help sustain, reduce churning of customers and increase lifetime of a business.
5. Create loyalty programs
Social channels are direct lines of communication with your customers. An interesting way to keep your clients engaged and happy is by creating customer loyalty programs that offer value addition. These can be in the form of discounted packages, flexible rates, gift cards, coupons and even awards! These will not only help you draw new customers but also build brand loyalty and repeated customers. Repeat customers are incredibly valuable any your business as they spend 67% more than first-time customers.
As most social sites make it incredibly easy to share and cross promote deals, you’ll see an exponential rise in engagement through this strategy.
6. Participate in events
Be it online or offline, events are a great communicative and brand awareness tool for vehicle rental companies. Your rental business can create a local community of like-minded automotive and travel enthusiasts who can serve as your brand ambassadors in the long run. These are also great tools for lead generation.
The bottom line
Social media is an important tool for promotion and branding and by using it smartly, rental companies can benefit in amazing ways. So, make sure you involve your audience as much as possible, communicate with them regularly and operate as an open, approachable brand on the channels you are present. Ask your marketing team to be reactive and informed and gradually build an effective, audience-focused social media strategy.
Why build a social media strategy using our Social Media Kit?
Our Social Media Kit is not designed to break your bank - in fact, it’s full of helpful and easy to roll out tips and hints to get you started on social channels for free. The kit enlists various organic ways your team can grow followers, gain more likes and acquire new customers.
Coastr is proud to be supporting vehicle rental companies, both small and large, as they enter a more digital, interconnected and competitive world.
You can download our free Social Media Starter Kit here and reach out to more customers online.