lead generation
Why Small Businesses Should Blog?
Blogs can be a excellent tool for the vast majority of hire and rental businesses.
Specifically party, audio visual and general equipment type hire and rental businesses.
Did you know?
Companies that blog have 55% more visitors
source: hubspot industry survey
Increasingly as other posts have discussed the primary lead source for most successful hire and rental businesses is the web. Hence the marketing objective becomes how to increase web site traffic.
Janet Meiners Thaeler in an excellent article for Small Business Trends shows that companies with blogs generate 55% more web traffic than those who dont. The full article is a must read, on the upside it is also short and easy to understand. Link to the article is below.
Blogging: The Best SEO Tool for Small Businesses
Remember that in HireEzy 2.1 we provide you with desktop integration to your blog, and even help you set one up.
Making it so much easy for you to get started and maintaining your blog.
Not sure how to write a blog article, then read this -[intlink id="1471" type="post"]How to Write a Blog Post [/intlink].
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
Related articles
- Using Twitter to Promote your Blog
- Great Resources to Improve Your Blog
- 6 Easy Sources To Find Blog Topics (smallbiztrends.com)
- 3 Keys to Small Business Marketing Success (marketing.blogtanker.com)
- Gaining Blog Subscribers (toprankblog)
Renewing old hire and rental leads
If business is slowing down, then consider some form of lead generation.
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
RonUn -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 [intlink id="absolute-must-google-marketing-tools-for-hire-and-rental-companies" type="post"]Google Marketing Tool[/intlink]s as well.
Updated – Is yellow pages still effective for marketing???
Increasing research in the US and Australia has found that the use of the traditional yellow pages is declining.
A survey in May 09 in Australia by Core data, identified that over half of the population DONT want yellow pages even delivered.
People are increasingly turning to the Internet to find information, even local information. Some figures suggest that this the use of on-line search can be as high as 80% of all information searches. The following citation from blognow.com.au, shows the impact:
Even Wall Street acknowledges that the days of printed directories like Yellow pages are numbered.
Dr Lynella Grant is the author of Yellow Page Smarts, she makes the points that relying on just yellow pages is now longer safe: (click any point below to be taken to the article – well worth reading)
Further proof, recently emerged that the recession may be accelerating the decline of Yellow Pages, where the Australian Yellow Page provider Sensis announced on 31 Mar 09, that it was reducing staff numbers by nearly 50 due to a large drop in print classified advertising.
So what to do?
Well the answer is to look at your marketing advertising mix. The Yellow Pages still has a role – but should it be the dominant element? There are alternatives now – the question becomes where to most effectively spend your marketing budget?
This question of balancing the marketing mix is becoming a challenge for all companies. It is no longer static. The Yellow Pages is a barometer of this change. The days of solely relying just on Yellow Pages has finishedfor some companies - we are in a different more social and connected world – where the marketing rules change almost daily.
Rental and Hire Company Web Lead Statistics
1HireEzy Web Integration Brochure- PDF download
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!
|
Benchmark Yourself |
Your Answer |
Survey Results – Industry Leaders |
|
What percentage of your new business sales inquiries come from the Web?
|
|
55%
|
|
What percentage of converted new business sales come from inquiries that started from the Web?
|
|
35% |
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!

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