Why Equipment Rental Companies Should Leverage Digital Marketing
Building an online presence is non-negotiable for businesses nowadays. It used to be possible to get by with just strong word of mouth and customer referrals but the fact of the matter is that most customers start their product searches online, even for equipment rentals. While word of mouth and referrals are still a large part of finding new customers, they can't be the only marketing practice you lean on anymore. This blog will act as an overview of digital marketing and why equipment rental companies need to utilize it in their business plan in order to grow.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is an extremely broad term but it is essentially any marketing that takes place on electronic or mobile devices including phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. This is important because according to reports from DataReportal, Americans spend an average of 7 hours and 4 minutes on their electronic devices per day. And while lots of this time is a combination of personal and professional time, this average amount is only expected to increase as our lives become more online and younger generations get older.
Common digital marketing techniques could refer to almost anything you see on the internet. This includes online videos, blog content, search engine marketing, display ads, and both paid and unpaid social media posts. While the construction industry has always been a fan of traditional media like brochures, print media, direct mail, and magazine ads, and while we doubt this will ever leave as they are great marketing tactics in their own right, adapting to the demands for a digital presence is becoming more and more important.
This is because digital marketing allows rental companies and equipment services to get more return on investment (ROI). For the most part, the cost of digital marketing is much easier to control and can give you better results, especially when done well.
Why Rental Companies Need to Practice Digital Marketing
While the construction industry is typically one that has, at times, seemed reluctant to mobile adoption, many software and tools are being built that will change everyone's reliance on these machines. Contractors are spending more time doing mobile orders, using scheduling and estimator software, and project management apps are also becoming more popular.
As solutions become more digital, contractors will continue to rely on mobile devices even more. That's why you, as an equipment rental company, need to practice digital marketing tactics because one of the first rules of digital marketing is to be where your customers spend their time. We will go over some of these techniques and tactics your rental house should be implementing below.
What Digital Marketing Practices to Invest In Most
As mentioned above, there are several digital marketing practices that are incredibly important. We're going to cover the most important ones here.
1. Content Marketing
Content marketing is essentially anything a company creates online that highlights the brand, answers questions that your ideal customers are asking, and provides information about resources or products. This blog you're currently reading is an example of content marketing. It's a way of keeping your customers up to date on what's happening at your company, talking about new features, informing them of trends, or just general education on a range of topics targeted towards your customer's interests and needs. Companies that create content online are more likely to generate more leads simply through the process of education and content creation.
Other examples of content marketing include answering frequently asked questions (FAQs) in both short form and long form, video content, product pages, online forums, online chat services, downloadable guides, checklists, and more. Essentially everything else on this list falls under the broad term of "content marketing" itself as well.
2. Search Engine Optimization (Especially Local)
Search engine optimization, also commonly known as SEO, is the process of making your website and brand more searchable on search engine platforms like Google. The overall goal of SEO is to rank on the first page of the search platform. Even better if you can become one of the top three links on the first page. This is because most people don't go scroll past the first page when trying to find what they're looking for. Think about the last time you did this in your own search! It probably wasn't that recent. People would rather change their search requirements than scroll endlessly for a better answer.
Additionally, you'll want to make sure that your website and online presence are focused on creating locally focused content, especially if your business is active in only a few regions. This will help you rank near the top of search results in the cities you market to while ensuring that people outside of your range won't rent from you.
The reason why it's so important to rank locally, especially for equipment rental companies, is that almost every equipment rental search starts with something like "skid steer rental near me" or "skid steer rental in [city]". Obviously, you can sub out skid steer for any other piece of equipment, but the point still stands. Most contractors are looking to rent equipment in their local area to make equipment delivery or pick-up easier and cheaper. They don't want results for renting equipment in Los Angeles, California if they're all the way over in Atlanta, Georgia.
Ways to increase your local search engine optimization strategy is to make sure your address and phone number are listed in almost every piece of content you produce. This will help search engines not confuse your location with another. You will also want to create content that is specific to your local markets. Creating blogs and content about the best equipment to rent for snowy environments if you're located in Florida is probably a waste of everyone's time. There's also no need to create content about hurricane season if you're in Seattle, Washington. The best way to create locally focused SEO is through a coherent content strategy that focuses on the problems and challenges that your customers are facing and topics that are unique to your region.
3. Email Marketing
Another form of digital marketing worth investing in is email marketing. Email is a great way to keep your customers and readers updated on the content you're writing and some of the deals you may have at your company. Often used to try and get more of your customers to rent, email can be a great way to stay top of mind, answer questions, provide customer service, push seasonal deals and content, and offer additional services.
In order to make email marketing worthwhile, you're going to want to create ways of getting your customer's email addresses. Whether this is through the blog, when they order online or in person, or any other form is up to you, but creating and building your email network and database is a necessary step.
Lastly, you're going to want to ensure that your emails are providing value. Almost everyone's inboxes can get filled with useless content. You need to ensure that your emails are timely, informational, attention-grabbing, and worth opening. Any subscriber you lose is a potential customer lost.
4. Text Marketing
In the same line as email marketing, many companies practice text and SMS marketing and services nowadays too. Just like an email, you can push out blogs and offers that they may be interested in directly to the contractors that you have on your client list.
Think about all the ways you could use text to drive revenue too. Sometimes contractors just might not have the time to call you. Imagine you created a process at your rental company that allowed contractors to text you something like "looking to rent a scissor lift for 3 days" and you're able to set up the contract all over text messages.
Or suppose you created an automated chat that asked the important questions about what they're looking to rent, the size of the equipment, how long they'll need it for, whether they want to pick up the machine or have it delivered, and more. This puts more time back into the contractor's schedule, a common pain point, as well as your staff. By providing texting options, you're allowing for another touchpoint for customers to connect with you, get questions answered, and provide service.
Since contractors are increasing how much time they spend on their phones, it only makes sense to provide them with more options for mobile service. However, just as with emails, you're going to want to be careful as to not send too many updates and outdated information that gets them to subscribe. Everything in moderation is a good approach to email and text marketing.
5. Web Design
When creating a digital marketing strategy, you're going to want to make sure you have a great website with an easy-to-navigate design. This is because every time you post on social media, send an email, or write a blog, everything will ideally link back to your company's website and get them to rent from you. As loading time and user experience are two of the most common reasons why people may leave a site, it's important to prioritize both of those in the website design strategy.
It's also important to design a website that points your customers towards action and conversion as quickly as possible. Whether that's accessing the blog, calling a service rep, finding where you're located, or actually renting equipment, all of these details should be easy to find within just a few clicks. Contractors are busy people. They want to search and find the equipment they're looking to rent and make the deal happen as quickly as possible. That's why your website should be organized for simple navigation with information exactly where it needs to be.
If you're looking to set up a website that integrates with your company, you can explore DOZR WebStores.
6. Social Media
Social media is one of the most easily accessible forms of digital marketing currently out there. By just setting up a company account on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the like, you can start posting your content across the internet to billions of people. However, every platform has different user bases and it's important you focus on posting where your customers are.
For example, Facebook has thousands of popular groups that are catered to contractors and construction workers. Posting your content in these channels is going to be more relevant than posting on your own company's page as they can have more engaged and dedicated audiences. Reddit is another great social media platform for education, learning, and community with hundreds of forums dedicated to construction and contractor professionals.
You'll also find it important to create types of content that are specific to those channels. Videos are incredibly important visuals for platforms like Instagram and YouTube, but text content often does better on Twitter and LinkedIn. How you communicate on these channels and through what types of content will set you up for success.
The last tips we have under social media marketing are to be consistent with your posting and do your best at creating a community. Consistency will make your brand stand out more frequently and show up in more people's feeds on a daily basis while creating a community will help you connect more with your audience, allowing you to understand their needs and make more content catered to them. This will automatically strengthen your digital marketing strategy and presence.
7. Provide Online Ordering
The last part of digital marketing we wanted to touch on was providing online ordering. With the usage of eCommerce continuing to trend upward, allowing your customers to rent equipment online is no different. With transparent pricing and product listings, you can create online stores for your customers to do the entire renting process online with just a few clicks. We've seen this successfully done across so many industries including restaurants, car rentals, hotels, and more. The heavy equipment rental industry is next and you can help lead the way!
As contractors and customers move more online and desire mobile experiences, allowing for digital rental processes opens you up to more business, especially if you implement the digital marketing practices above. While setting up an online equipment rental store can be daunting, DOZR has made it incredibly easy to modernize your eCommerce rental processes.
Build Your Own Website with DOZR WebStores
Since our inception, we've proven that the construction industry is ready for eCommerce. We started proving this with DOZR Marketplace, our product that allows you to utilize location-based search for the equipment you need from thousands of suppliers across North America. However, we quickly realized a significant challenge for suppliers: they want to have their own eCommerce store but don't have the infrastructure to make that possible.
That's why we developed DOZR WebStores. WebStores gives you the ability to create your own online, touch-free store to allow customers to book equipment rentals online. The product is built by the DOZR team, allows you to post your own price rates, and brand the website your company's colors. Plus, it can be easily integrated into your site.
Designed for positive user experience and increased SEO, WebStores is an amazing digital solution for any equipment rental company looking to create an online presence. Book a demo now to talk with a sales representative from the DOZR WebStores team.
