You tube is a greatly under utilized resource for hire and rental companies.

You Tube can be used for a variety of purposes such as:

Risk Reduction:

Reduce OHS and Public Liability Risk:

Upload safety instruction video’s for clientsand Contractors/ Staff on how to safely use hire equipment.  With HireEzy you can include the link to the safety instruction video with the client booking documentation.

Reduce Product Damages:

Assembly and Installation instructional video’s can be uploaded.  Often your supplier will have these, so it is simply a case of uploading the video.  Incredibly simple with HireEzy, as the instructional video for each specific item can be uploaded to you tube with one click.  

Reduce Customer Dissatisfaction:

 If a client can not assemble something, then generally they will blame you, before they blame themselves.  You need to make it easier to show customers how to erect or use things.  Showing through a video is far better than handing them a set of written instructions, it is just a fact of human nature.

Increase Revenue:

Youtube can be a very effective lead generation tool or sales reference site.

Examples

We have created a site on you tube which shows examples of how different companies are using You Tube to address each of these business requirements.  Click Here to Go to Our YouTube Channel

Remember HireEzy provides you with a powerful tool to integrate Web2.0 productivity tools like You Tube in to your hire and rental business processes.

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies. Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration. For more information email us sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

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• McKinsey and Web 2.0 (arnoldit.com)
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The incredibly easy to use – integration of HireEzy desktop software, with your on-line store and youtube has enabled clients to become creative in video marketing.

Here are some examples of how video, can be used to promote your hire or rental business.

For example:

Specific Solution Video’s: If you offer a solution to clients, such as complete wedding solutions, event solutions, even construction hire or rental solutions – then video’s can be an extremely effective tool in your marketing  armoury.

General Promotional Videos: These are generic video’s demonstrating your full range of services.

Safety or Installation Videos: As discussed in previous posts, this can be a great tool in reducing business risk and product damages.

So how to make a Video, well the link below shows some ideas, further ideas are available on our youtube site.

HOW TO: Create Online Video That Works

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Remember HireEzy helps make marketing, even your digital marketing a standard and natural part of your business processe – HireEzy puts you in control!!!

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies. Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration. For more information email us sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

However even with the first green shoots of recovery appearing many companies are still forced to ensure that costs are contained.

The question is should the marketing budget be one of the areas in which costs are cut?

Reduce Marketing Spend Yes or No?

For some the question became should you cut your marketing promotion?

The simple answer was no!

According to Malcolm McDonald, emeritus professor at Cranfield University School of Management in the UK, recessions can “focus the mind” and lead {sic companies} agencies to “cut out the waste”. He advises brands to focus on core customers in needs-based segments, adding: “Whatever you do, don’t cut promotional expenditure in the core business. [There is] massive evidence that cutting promotional spend in a recession is disastrous

Green Shoots of Growth

Now the green shoots of recovery are upon us, and many are now beginning to plan for the long term.  The most recent McKinsey report shows that this longer term planning focus is now starting to creep back in to business thinking.  But it also makes the point that many companys’ are still focusing on containing costs.  click here to read the article.

The recession has created opportunities for hire and rental companies that have survived.  Such opportunities include picking up new clients from competitors that are less well placed or who have closed their businesses.

Low Cost Marketing Options

There are a range of alternative low marketing options that can now be considered, the most effective of these is digital marketing.

Why digital marketing, well because as previous research posts in this blog have shown, web leads now account for over 55% of new business for progressive hire and rental companies.  If you are uncertain about digital or social media marketing then read this article, 13 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing is worth your time

Achieving such increases though does depend on doing some basics:

• Web Site: Enabling customers/ prospects to browse your service/ product offering and place in a booking request.
• SEO: Search Engine Optimisation this is a range of things you need to do to help Search Engines, hence your customers find you.
• Blog: Grossly under-rated but shown in the latest UK research to increase web traffic for small business by over 50%.  This is where you post about your solutions, eg how to plan a party, or examples of Marquee Weddings, etc.  Content people are looking for to read and find information, before making a decision to purchase.
• Twitter: Singularly the most effective business tool for letting people know about your latest blog posts or catalogue item changes.

There are a range of other tools that you can use.  But as a basic plan

Making it Easy

If this sounds hard it is not, but it does take commitment.  This is where we can help.  HireEzy provides you with a hire and rental business management solution that has:

WebSite: A fully integrated web site in which customers can browse and place orders requests directly in to your HireEzy system.  HireEZy’s unique web integration tools, any changes you make in your catalogue can be immediately published to your website, if you so choose.  What this does, is to increase your search engine rankings, if you make changes often, that in turn improves you lead generation.

Integrated Digital Marketing Tools: Furthermore it includes a full range of digital marketing tools including Twitter and blog  integration.  A very effective way of maintaining your marketing effort whilst containing costs in times like these is to use HireEzy.  HireEzy comes with an inbuilt range of marketing tools, to assist you producing low cost but highly effective brochures, newsletters etc.  All tools are inbuilt in your Hire Software and are linked to your product catalogue, so that with simple one click steps and you can email, tweet, post on  line or print a range of high graphic image marketing collateral.

Follow us on twitter

What more information or an on line demo, then go to our website  www.makinglifeezy.com.au or email us at sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

One of the quickest and most effective is to go back through your previous leads.

Leads are previous sales inquiries that have not converted to a sale or booking.

Don’t be concerned that the inquiry may have been for a specific event that has past.

The key point is that they are prospects who have contacted you, therefore they have shown a propensity to consider hire or rental.

Secondly, unless otherwise stated by them, you have the opportunity to make contact with them again. Even if it is to seek permission to send information to them.

HOWEVER please check your local spam laws first.

The most cost effective way to do that is via email, or if you have the time try telephone or letters.

However email is probably the best way, it is quick and low cost.

More importantly you can track the contact through your leads section in HireEzy.

Here is an example:

Email Subject: Follow up from your previous inquiry

Dear Jane,

Previously you contacted Making Life Ezy about hiring (renting) some items for a function you were planning. If you are still planning the function or considering another function then we would love to be of assistance to you.

For your information here, I have attached a brochure of a special theme night packages we are offering.If you are interested in further information on these or would like to talk to us about other ideas, then please contact me.

Kind regards
Ron

Un -subscribe statement

Ensure you include an unsubscribe email link, so that the prospect can elect not to receive ay further information from you.

A note can be made in HireEzy against that lead, that they do not wish to be contacted again. Increasing leads generation especially in the current economic climate is an ongoing challenge, however the inbuilt tools of hireezy can make it easier for you.

HireEzy more information www.makinglifeezy.com.au

Read more about using free Google Marketing Tools as well.

It costs nothing but can be quite effective, and is certainly worth the effort. Googles marketing description for the service is below:

Reach new customers on Google Maps and Google.com
Local customers are already searching for the products and services you offer. Why not make it easy for them to find you on Google search and on Google Maps? The Local Business Centre is the place to start.

To register your business click on the your country to open the relevant Google site.

Australia and New Zealand

United States

Canada

United Kingdom

Registering your business on tools like this is worth the effort.

How to proceed next and other Google tools are explained in the Google Must Tools article.

Remember HireEzy is the hire software and rental software for the digital age.

Hire and Rental companies have been slow to adopt Twitter as a marketing tool.

This post points you in the direction of a couple of great articles as well as a free advisory service for Hire and Rental industry companies considering using Social Media marketing.

Hire and Rental companies would benefit substantially from using Social Media as a lead generation tool, starting with Twitter.

How to Use Twitter for Business

5 Reasons Why Twitter’s Growth Cannot Be Stopped

As a service to the Hire and Rental industry we provide a free advisory service to Hire and Rental companies considering using Social Media marketing.

To make use of the service email our Globally Recognized Social Media Expert – Cam Gleeson

[contact-form]

Many small businesses talk about branding!   But what do they really mean by branding?

Brand

A brand is a collection of your symbols, images and even customer experiences. Consider the MacDonalds bill board advertisements:

A simple billboard with the Mac Donalds logo and the words “Loving It”

The advertising says nothing about price, products or locations, rather as a billboard advertisement in it own right it is really serving as a prompt to your memory.

Why Brand and is it Worth It?

Major Corporations have invested heavily in branding over many decades, for a number of reasons such as ability to charge a higher price, that it will carry them through tough times or that it makes customers more loyal.  But is this true?

Brand Translates to a Price Premium?

Brand marketing has really been the foray of the major corporations. In some ways brand marketing was meant to translate to customers being prepared to pay a price premium. But consider this:

Would you pay a 20 to 30% price premium to buy a known brand plasma TV from a reputable well known branded store? Or would you buy an unknown brand from another store who offered roughly the same specifications and warranty, for 20-30%?

Despite what most people say face to face, the reality is most people will buy the second one.

The real truth is that the power of brands has been declining for some time as has the ability to charge a price premium without significantly losing sales or market share.  For more inforomation one good book to read is The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki.

Brands as Insurance in Tough Times?

Previously Corporations traditionally invested heavily in their brands, as a form of insurance to carry them through when tough times, what the Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila, called mis-steps. [1]  However as Nokia also found out, it is insurance than no longer guarantees results.  Nokia estimated brand value in 2002, was $30bn, next year (2003) failed to produced want customers wanted and so Nokia lost $6bn in brand equity. [2]

Brands Build Customer Loyalty

Building brands meant focusing on building customer loyalty. However Jean-Noel Kapferer, Professor of Marketing at HEC Paris, Graduate School of Management makes the point that marketers have sort the holy grail of customer loyalty by restricting their choices [3].  The problem is customers are no longer loyal.

customers .. more fickle than ever, established brands are vulnerable and new ones have a real chance of succeeding….. Consumers are continually looking for a better deal, opening the doors for companies to introduce a raft of new products.

Brand as an Asset

Yes if you were bigger, then the power of your brand can add to the intangible asset value  of your company. That is the premium a company is prepare to pay above you actual earning multiple. However intangible asset values have received some short to medium term collateral damage from the Global Economic Crisis.   The effect of this collateral damage will be to contribute to a further short to medium term erosion of the power of brands.

So Where to Focus your Brand Marketing Efforts

There is one discrete little phrase in the opening definition of a brand used in this post “customer experiences”.  For small businesses this is the real key – for this is where sales leads come from through satisfied customers word of mouth.  Sales leads are the life blood of small business and primary purpose of small business marketing.

Keeping Your Promise

I have heard it said (not sure by who) that “your brand is your promise kept”.

For Small business I think this is the best way to look at a brand.  For example if your differentiation in the market is your service, rather than the products you offer, then your promise (brand) is going to built around your service offering.  You want your customers to experience that service positively and then have them share through word of mouth their endorsement or validation of your promise.

Such positive word of mouth in small communities or within industry sectors spreads.  Especially so these days with Social Media.  The converse holds true as well, dont keep you promise and you can guarantee the word will spread.

So therefore in terms of brand marketing, the real expenditure should be on your systems, processes and people to make sure that they all assist in ensuring that they deliver the brand promise that you have made.   Hence the question becomes only one that you can answer – should your priority of expenditure be in to high end brand logo’s, brand advertising  or in to your people, processes and systems needed tosupport your promise?   Only you and your resource capacity can answer that question.

Consider Social Media as Your Major Marketing Channel

Social Media has been said to be the great brand leveller.  Why because traditional media advertising effectiveness was directly related to how big your marketing budget.  Social media is not the case, marketing effectiveness on Social media is dependent not on your budget (well not to a great degree) but more on how well you engage with your customers/ prospects.

Brands have a disadvantage on Social Media of their own creation.  Brands have put their brand value on balance sheets – its an asset.  Brands perceive Social Media as a risk, they are cautious – have a need to “control” the marketing.  The problem is social media is not controllable by the brands it is controlled by the consumer.

There is only one way to control your brand on Social Media

Consistently deliver your promise – each and everytime.

Where to Focus Your Brand Marketing

It is simple deliver what you say you are going to do!  To this make sure that your people, your business processes and systems enable you to deliver the promise.  If you are an equipment rental or hire company then our business software certainly will help.

If you do this then people will spread the word as they have always done.  Given the growth of Social Media “the word” can now be spread faster and wider than ever before – both good and bad!

References

[1]Surowiecki, J. The Decline of Brands, published in www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.11/brands_pr.html

James Surowiecki is the author of “The Wisdom of Crowds”

What is it and how to do it – well this article below does a great job explaining it.

5 Easy Social Media Wins for Your Small Business

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Remember HireEzy 2.1 is a functionally rich hire and rental management system with inbuilt integration to social media tools – plus your website and blog.  For more information email us at sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

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A survey of HireEzy clients and prospects revealed some interesting insights into the major sales lead sources for rental and hire companies.

Whilst there was a range of results, those that clearly lead in their rental or hire market segments all showed similar statistics.

The clearest result was that the leading hire and rental companies in Australia, UK and the USA now generate over 50% of all new sales inquiries from their web site. This can be a combination of direct web submitted inquiries or customers who have checked out their web site prior to calling.

Secondly that most now find Yellow Pages or Yellow Pages on Line a rapidly declining source of new business. One customer with a long established business, cited that his father use to spend $25 000 a year on Yellow Pages, they now spend less than $2000. The reason is that yellow pages is no longer the major source of new business for them, rather it is business from the web.

Compare yourself to the best performers from the survey!

If you are below these benchmarks, then here is what they were doing.

The websites of those that were successful in achieving more than 50% lead generation, demonstrated some common characteristics:

· Frequent changes to the content;

· Ability of customers to view their hire and rental catalogue;and

· Ability of customers to place orders.

Cost of website development to achieve this frequency of change and maintain catalogue updates was however cited as an issue.

Now this is where HireEzy comes in to its own, HireEzy enables you to make changes in your back end catalogue and have those posted straight to your web site. The Website provided by HireEzy also enables customers to create booking requests, these booking requests then appear as sales leads in your HireEzy system.

The attached brochure provides more information.

This solution is perfect for:

· Party Rental and Party Hire;

· Fencing Rental or Temporary Fencing Hire Companies

· Tool Rental and Tool Hire

· Equipment Rental and Equipment Hire

· AV rental and AV Hire

In fact most companies who hire or rent products or services!

No wonder HireEzy is the innovation leader in the global hire and rental market.

For more information go to www.makinglifeezy.com.au or download our brochure at the top of this post!

]]> http://www.hireezy.com/index.php/294/rental-and-hire-company-web-lead-statistics/feed/ 1 http://www.hireezy.com/index.php/254/creating-a-digital-marketing-foundation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=creating-a-digital-marketing-foundation http://www.hireezy.com/index.php/254/creating-a-digital-marketing-foundation/#comments Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:17:41 +0000 HireEzy Research http://blog.makinglifeezy.com.au/?p=254 In the last blog we discussed the decline of traditional media (including yellow pages, print and TV) as a source of advertising effectiveness to create sales leads.  Research has shown that such media is still part of you advertising mix.

The fastest growing advertising media is the internet.