2021 Marketing Trends That Will Soon Matter In Car Rental
Sometimes, it feels like a good idea to look forward – particularly when it comes to marketing.
In fact, the best marketers spend most of their time looking to the future. It’s how they spot new trends, opportunities and tools which will enable them to reach a wider audience.
2020 has been a challenging year for many reasons, but those challenges shall pass. More importantly, your customers aren’t going anywhere; they may simply need to be found in different ways.
So, let’s put ‘now’ to one side for a moment and look to three key marketing trends we’re likely to see in 2021.
The commoditization of marketing automation
Marketing automation is talked about a lot, but it’s typically viewed as something which needs a great deal of time and expense to be effective.
Thankfully, marketing automation tools are becoming commoditized, which means they’re affordable for businesses of all sizes.
You’ll be acutely aware that the rental industry buyer journey has changed considerably over the last few years, and in order to capitalize on it, your business will increasingly need to rely on automation.
Marketing automation is nothing new, but it will ensure that your brand arrives in front of potential customers at just the right moment – something that is tough to do manually or with traditional marketing techniques.
Voice search
Think about the last time you searched Google for an answer. There’s a strong chance you may have asked Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant to do it for you.
Voice search is a trend no marketer or business owner should overlook. It’s thought that nearly half of consumers now use voice search when seeking answers online.
This changes the marketing landscape considerably – particularly when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). And it’s obvious when you think about it; the way in which we search for answers with our voice is vastly different to the way we do so via a keyboard.
Search phrases are entirely different, and far more natural when spoken. This means that as we head deeper into 2020 and beyond, your website will need to be tuned for voice search. If it isn’t, your rankings could be significantly impacted.
Tracking offline conversions
Just like retail, car rental still benefits from considerable footfall and traditional walk-in sales. However, identifying exactly how those sales came to be will take a fascinating turn in 2021.
Known as offline conversion tracking, this strategy is focused on measuring how and why customers end up walking through your doors. Where did they start the journey? Did their interest in your brand start online, and, if so, which campaign drove their interest?
Tracking offline conversions is becoming particularly important because of the rise in local SEO. Google is placing greater importance on local businesses and their ability to market to audiences in their immediate vicinity, and it’s vital you can start tracking how effective those approaches are.
Wrapping up
The best thing about marketing is that you don’t have to wait for the exciting new stuff to arrive before getting started with it.
The trends we’ve picked out below can form part of your plans now, which means you can start strategizing on how best to make use of them today.
Which 2021 marketing trends are you most excited about for your business?
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