We're probably not telling you anything new: launching a car rental agency is a real challenge. The financial stakes are particularly high and the operational processes are time-consuming. To put all the chances on your side, developing an effective marketing strategy is therefore essential. And because you are a vehicle rental company before you are a marketer, we reveal the most impactful strategies for your business.
However, be careful; we will mainly talk here about the marketing strategy in terms of promotion and distribution, and not about each of the four pillars of the marketing mix (namely the product strategy, the pricing strategy, the distribution strategy and the promotion strategy) to be integrated into your business plan.
Also, if you decide to be a franchisee, these questions will arise less, as a good part of the marketing is already defined or even tested by the franchisor (lucky you!), whose recommendations you will generally have to follow.
That being said, here are the marketing strategies that you should not overlook for your car rental business.
Allow you to book your vehicles online
If you thought you could escape digital in your marketing strategy, sorry to tell you that you have fallen into the wrong era. Just look at the stats: in 2024
By 2024, 80% of travelers prefer to plan their vacations entirely online, according to Hilton's latest Global Trends Survey.
Digital has become indispensable.
So yes, the human element remains important to create proximity and lay the foundations of a good customer relationship. But when it comes to booking accommodation, transport tickets or rental cars, customers largely prefer speed and autonomous booking in real time, 24/7, online. No need to wait for the rental agency's need to spend time having the offers opening hours, no and their conditions detailed over the phone or in person: today's customers are looking for efficiency above all! Digital marketing is therefore essential for car rental companies and more specifically, the possibility of booking online.
But how do you set up online booking?
You have two options, which are complementary: You can invest in a natural referencing (or SEO) strategy in order to maximize the chances that your site appears among the first search results for competitive keywords; and thus, obtain visibility and free customers.
If you do not have the human resources to create, manage a site and its referencing: integrate car rental comparators such as, in the Antilles and Reunion, or more general comparators such as Kayak or 84% of respondents use Booking or Expedia for their travel reservations (source).
Afterwards, solution 2 is not the panacea either. A good negotiating force is particularly necessary in order to limit the number of commissions paid to comparators, which can be complicated when you start alone. To arbitrate!
Implementing an omnichannel customer service strategy
Omni what? A strategy is said to be omnichannel when it allows you to offer multiple points of contact to customers. In addition to traditional channels such as agency visits or phone calls, digital allows you to offer more contact opportunities. This can be by email, WhatsApp, private messages on various social networks or even from a chat integrated into your website. The potential customer can thus easily communicate with you if they need additional information to take action or for after-sales service.
Again, this necessarily requires devoting time to interacting with prospects and customers, but chatbots (automated chats providing tailored responses to Internet users' messages) can be set up to handle some of the conversations.
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Mobilizing user-generated content
User-generated content has a higher conversion rate than content created by brands. That said, you absolutely must integrate this type of content into your marketing strategy and encourage your customers to create it. This could be by organizing a contest for the best vacation photos with their rental car, for example.
When preparing a purchase, 71% of French people rely on online reviews (source). Positive feedback from your customers is also content that you can use to communicate regularly and make prospects want to trust you and rent one of your vehicles. comments posted, whether they are …… and money (you probably won't have much of it when you launch, between purchasing vehicles and renting your premises), the CRM or customer relationship management tool will be your best ally. The principle is simple: keep your customers' contact details and past booking information, in order to be able to reactivate them later, that is to say, make them want to book their vehicle with you again.
👆 Small practical point: to feed this CRM, you will need to set up information collection strategies. Subscribing to a newsletter or participating in a competition with a form to fill out, for example, in order to capture Internet users who have arrived on your website thanks to Google Ads or natural referencing. This can also be the downloading of a special guide (Everything you need to know about Long-Term Rental, the best excursions to X tourist destination, etc.), leaving your email and contact details.
Once you have your contact base, you can implement an emailing strategy to move your prospects through the sales cycle and generate repeat purchases and recommendations.
Bringing value on social networks
Do you want to develop a marketing strategy without a presence on social networks? It is possible, but it is a somewhat dangerous tactic. It is simple: there are few digital players who can boast of keeping their users on their platforms for so long. French Internet users spend an average of 45 minutes per day on social networks, and up to 2 hours for those under 25 (source).
However, creating an Instagram or Facebook account just to share promotional rates on your bookings? That’s a big no! While sales content has its place on these platforms, you’ll only get leads and build your community by providing value.
Ok, that's a big word, but in short, it means offering content that answers the questions and needs of Internet users regarding car rental. For example, when we talk about renting tourist vehicles, Internet users rent a vehicle to be able to enjoy a given destination. Offering travel advice on the destination where you offer rental will then have a much better chance of generating interest from prospects.
Also explaining the good rental practices and the processes that are specific to you are also relevant content. We can think of posts explaining the procedure to follow in the event of a vehicle breakdown, an explanation of the different insurance deductibles offered, a map of service stations opens at night in your area... In short, anything that can be practical for your prospect and your customer.
Collaborate with influencers
If you have some money set aside, implementing an influencer marketing strategy could prove to be a success for your rent a car Lahore business. However, this practice requires a good deal of expertise, so don't hesitate to call on a communications agency (if you can afford it).
This will involve identifying the most relevant influencers for the targeted persona, thinking about an impactful campaign, negotiating with the influencers in question, monitoring and optimizing the campaign. Remember: unless you're doing it just for notoriety, likes and new followers are not reliable indicators of the success of an influencer campaign. The only thing that matters is the actual conversion, the purchase, in short, the money from the reservation that lands in your account.
Encourage recommendation
To echo the previous point, it should still be noted that there is influence and influence. Because in itself, any person is likely to influence another, and not just those whose job it is.
Let's imagine that instead of offering all-white with no distinctive signs to your customers, you flocked all your vehicles with the name of your agency, with, let's be crazy, a telephone number or the address of your website https: rafaycars.com. Each of your vehicles on the road would therefore increase the visibility of your brand, thanks to the "influence" of drivers.
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Establish partnerships
Still on the subject of recommendation, forming partnerships with players directly or indirectly linked to your business can prove to be an effective marketing strategy. Let's take travel agencies. These generally allow their customers to purchase a turnkey stay including accommodation, a selection of excursions, sometimes half-board, but above all transport. Do you see where we're going with this? It would be in your best interest to approach independent travel agencies in order to offer them to integrate your services into their offers. And there you have it, vehicles reserved without you having to do anything (apart from the prior negotiation of the partnership)!
This type of partnership can also be extended to the hosts themselves, individuals or professionals, but also to the organizers of events attracting people to your region (large festivals, congresses and trade fairs, important sporting events, etc.).
Don’t forget about press relations and offline
Finally, although due to its reduced costs, digital marketing is a formidable tool for any car rental company launching its agency, traditional communication channels, particularly Press Relations, will allow you to optimize your reputation and therefore your potential sales.
You can start simple, by sending out press releases introducing your company as a newcomer to the market. But you can also create content that is branded but not directly about your brand. In practice, this could be a list of rental statistics in your area that you have compiled. Content that media outlets might want to include in their articles, while still crediting you as the source.
In all cases…
This article is quite dense but you certainly now realize the range of possibilities that is presented to you, in terms of marketing strategy. In any case, three tips to remember in all circumstances:
Always base yourself on your persona, its uses and the needs of the market (essential for developing your model)
Seek to stand out from the competition in your marketing actions, in order to be memorable and to anchor your messages in the minds of your prospects
Test, test, test, optimize, test and retest; to identify the best performing strategies for your car rental agency.
