The contractor rental industry can be a tough nut to crack. Not only do you have to keep up with offering the most cutting-edge equipment available, but you’ve got to deliver a second-to-none rental service and competitive prices if you want to be successful long-term in equipment rental.
Rental centers can struggle to attract more customers to their websites, and more importantly, the right kind of customers.
That’s where a little insight into the magic of lead generation can help rental centers readjust marketing strategies to improve lead generation.
What is lead generation?
Although lead generation is a marketing buzzword, it’s very straightforward. Lead generation is the process of attracting online users to a website and converting them into leads – meaning people who might become potential customers, or better yet, loyal customers.
Through strategic digital marketing efforts, rental centers of all sizes can zero in on their target audiences and guide them through the sales funnel, turning them into leads and ultimately into clients.
Digital marketing and lead generation: Transforming how you reach your ideal clients
If you’re looking to attract, engage and convert your target audience, then digital marketing is your secret weapon. Here’s how an effective digital marketing strategy can help reel in the right kinds of clients to your website:
#1 Levels up traditional lead generation tactics. Now that we’re living in the digital age, the way we do business has naturally changed along with the times. Where most deals used to be done by word of mouth, digital marketing has opened a whole new realm of possibility in terms of accessing and gaining the attention of prospective customers.
Of course, traditional lead generation efforts like cold calls and trade shows remain a goldmine for opportunity in terms of making connections and solidifying your brand’s place in the market. However, having a solid, strategic online presence will give your brand a competitive edge.
With an existing digital lead generation strategy, potential leads are much more likely to be familiar with your business. This makes it easier for them to trust your brand and check out what you have to offer. That way, you can skip trying to talk them into being on your side and get straight to the selling process.
#2 Widens your potential audience. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website to make it rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs), boosting your brand’s online visibility.
It’s all about infusing your website content with SEO-targeted keywords that relate directly to your niche. When you do that, you greatly increase the likelihood of reaching your target audience in those crucial moments when they’re actively searching for your products and services online.
Together with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, you can crack your target market wide open and tap into pockets of potential clients you wouldn't be able to access otherwise. But it’s worth noting that these two methods have very different timeframes; a PPC campaign is a fast track to leads, while SEO takes 6 to 9 months to build authority and improve rankings.
To generate qualified leads instead of wasting time and money advertising to the wrong crowds, it’s important to get super specific and focused in your targeted marketing.
#3 Deepens the client-brand relationship. Your brand is your company’s personality. It’s how you show the world who you are and what you stand for. When it comes to relating to your audience, it makes all the difference.
Your company website should be infused with distinct brand visuals, identity and messaging to help your company to connect with your ideal clients and generate leads in a meaningful way.
It goes beyond your primary website; social media marketing is another great way to build relationships and authority with potential and existing clients. In fact, 68 percent of marketers believe social media is a highly effective lead generation tool.
You can build a strong presence across social media platforms with a personalized content marketing strategy that engages your audience and positions your brand as industry experts.
Many platforms now have lead generation tools built-in, making it easy to zero in on your niche when creating and publishing content.
#4 Nurtures leads with e-mail marketing. Just like any good relationship, you need to nurture your relationships with your leads if you want to turn them into customers.
E-mail marketing is an incredibly effective way to nurture leads. Through personalized, segmented e-mail campaigns, you can deliver content that’s interesting and genuinely valuable to the reader and spare them the spam.
Segmented email campaigns allow you to analyze your audience’s data, so you can send them e-mails that relate to their needs at any given time based on their interaction with your website.
This way, you can showcase to your readers just how personalized your contractor rental services are and how your expertise and attention to detail can make their lives easier.
With 87 percent of marketers increasing their e-mail marketing budget to facilitate lead generation, why not invest in a professional email marketing strategy if you haven’t yet?
Need help transforming your marketing and sales efforts?
Attracting, nurturing, and converting high-quality leads can be extremely difficult – especially when you’re already so busy with the day-to-day tasks of running an equipment rental company.
There are marketing professionals that deeply understand the construction industry’s target audiences and how to tap into their unique needs through expert branding and digital marketing.