There are a number of reasons to believe that we will witness significant growth in the demand for rental vehicles over the coming months and years. But in order to take advantage of this growth, car rental companies need to have an effective marketing strategy in place. Whether you are starting a brand new business or you are hoping to take your existing business to the next level, you need to plan carefully to reap the rewards.
In this guide, we are going to look at the most important factors you need to consider when putting together marketing strategies for car rental companies and discuss ways in which you can achieve your primary goals more easily.
Factors to consider when planning your marketing strategy
For car rental companies, the following factors are among the most important to consider when creating a new marketing strategy.
- Your target audience – Possibly the most important factor of all is your target audience. If you are not sure who you are marketing your services to and why they would want to take advantage of what your business has to offer, you will find it almost impossible to formulate an effective strategy. If you are starting a brand new rental company, the easiest way to identify your target audience is through market research. If you are running a well-established business and you are still not entirely sure who your target audience is, you can use car rental software to analyse your rental transactions and discover where your most profitable customers are coming from.
- What you have to offer your customers – Once you know what your key demographic is, you need to think about what your company has to offer that will appeal specifically to these potential customers. The benefits that your company has to offer its target audience are what you need to highlight in your marketing campaign. This part of the planning process involves a certain amount of common sense but it may also involve more research. By talking directly to the people you believe are most likely to use your services, you can find out exactly what they want.
- The competition – Having identified who the target audience is and what exactly they desire and expect from the car rental companies they deal with, you should now take an in-depth look at your closest competition. Your business will not be operating in a vacuum, so it’s important to identify your competitors and analyse what they are doing. Then, take the time to consider how you will be able to offer your customers something that they cannot get from these other service providers. Why will people want to hire a car from your firm rather than one of your competitors? What can you give your customers that they are not going to find anywhere else?
- Advertising channels – The work you have done so far will have provided you with detailed information about the type of customers you are trying to attract and what exactly they want from your business. It will also inform you as to what other car hire companies in your area are doing to attract customers and how they satisfy them. Armed with this information, you should now have a very good idea of the main points your marketing plan needs to emphasise. Now, you need to consider how you are going to get these points across: that is, which media will prove to be most effective in reaching your target audience and will also suit your brand image (which we will discuss next).
- Brand image – Car rental companies, like all other B2C companies, need to create and nurture a brand image. Customers who pay for your services aren’t just paying for rental vehicles, they are investing in a business that they believe in and, most importantly, in what your business stands for. For this reason, it’s crucial to create a positive brand image and to make sure that it is an image with which your target audience will readily identify. You can use the information you gathered about your target audience and the intelligence you gathered about your competition in the previous steps to help you create an effective brand image.
- Delivering on your promises – It’s very important for companies in all industries and geographical locations to include practical measures that will help them deliver on their promises when formulating their marketing strategy. You can make sure that your business runs smoothly and that you can provide a first-rate service to all your customers by adopting a software platform that automates many of the daily tasks your company has to accomplish. A software solution that makes it easy to manage car rental, car subscription and micromobility services will provide you with the tools you need to offer your customers a flexible and highly efficient range of services.
There are other factors you will need to consider but those listed above are crucial to the success of marketing strategies for car rental companies in all locations.
Executing your car rental marketing strategy
If you have carefully considered all of the factors we have covered and believe that you have an effective marketing strategy in place, you will now need to think about how you are going to execute this strategy. You must look at your current cash flow and assets, decide how much you can afford to allocate to your marketing budget and whether you will need to enlist the help of any specialists to put certain parts of your plan into action. This is also a good time to audit the current software you’re using for your business and upgrade.
Loopit is a software service company that powers car subscriptions, rideshare and modern fleet rental management solutions. It makes it easier for you to manage your business with a wide array of convenient features that can fit seamlessly in with your business.
If you would like to find out more about the advanced car rental software platform that many of the most successful companies are already using, get in touch with the team at Loopit now. Our software suite can help you to organise your administration and sales activities, enabling you to take full advantage of the business opportunities your new marketing strategy creates.
