😱 Are you struggling to promote your rental business?
😫 Are you tearing your hair out with SEO? What is SEO anyway? ☠️
😓 You KNOW that communication is key, but you don't know where to start?
Don't panic, this guide from Coach Lokki is here to save your bacon!
When you're a bike rental company, communication is key to attracting customers. It's therefore essential to implement an effective digital marketing strategy, as well as a local communication strategy, to maximize your business's visibility and attract new customers. But how can you do this without spending all your time and money? Lokki gives you lots of tips to boost your business without breaking the bank!
In this guide, you will find:
💥 All the tips you need to get to grips with digital communication without breaking the bank
👉 Understand the basics of marketing to have a professional, visible, well-referenced website:
💥 Tips for improving your communication in your area: local roots are the BASIS!
👉 How can you make yourself known within your local ecosystem?
💥 Information on the role of tourist offices as facilitators of connections for rental companies?
💥 Lots of tips to excel in your customer relationships, essential for the health of your business
👉 How to create a quality experience to promote your business
Ready? Let's go for a quick overview of communications and marketing, go, go, go! 🚀
The first point of contact online is your website. Don't neglect it! An unattractive website with no information or incorrect information could cause you to lose potential customers. With Lokki, you can easily create your website and list all your products. Whatever happens, as a professional rental company, you must always provide the following information:
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To make your site more dynamic and stand out from the competition, you can also add optional information:
Mobile devices account for 60% of web searches. Your website design must therefore be responsive, meaning that it must be readable and fluid on mobile devices.
Optionally, if you have time, you can also create some quality content on your website, on a "Blog" or "Tips" tab, including, for example:
On the internet, dullness doesn't work. Consider brightening up your site with photos and videos, either ones you take yourself in-store (but pay attention to quality) or royalty-free images. This humanizes your content and gives it authenticity. Very useful for engaging your community!
Finally, you can also use social media to promote your business and reach a wider audience by posting information about your activities. Using platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, you can share:
Taking care of your digital communication also involves simple little steps, particularly with Google tools. The first step is to create a Google My Business listing to stand out in search results.
The Google My Business listing appears when you do a Google search. It is a free tool that is very easy to monitor and improve. To do this, you need to:
Respond to ALL reviews.
Thank you for the kind comments—everyone loves to receive love! It's very important to show that you value the feedback you receive. It doesn't take much time and shows that you are particularly committed to the customer experience and the well-being of your users.
🗣️ Thank you very much, Jean-Paul Belmondo, for your comment! We are very happy that you enjoyed your time with J'aimelevélo.com. Come back and see us anytime!
🗣️ We're so glad you had a good time, Sophie Marceau! Thank you for placing your trust in us. We hope to see you again very soon!
🗣️ Jean Dujardin, thank you very much for your kind comment. We really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience with us. Hope to see you again soon.
🗣️ Marion Cotillard, thank you for your kind message! We couldn't agree more—Jean-Charles is a gem, and we're lucky to have him on the team. We're so glad you enjoyed La bicyclette de Juliette!
Be polite, okay? Stay calm, like the salesperson you are. Suggest, for example, that they come back to the store so you can offer them the best possible solution. Above all, don't get upset, as this may scare off other potential customers! Most importantly, don't try to justify yourself or get into an argument with this person, as this could be detrimental to you.
Furthermore, some negative reviews are constructive and allow you to reflect on yourself. Whatever happens, polite responses are essential (sorry if you're feeling nervous, we understand, but it's bad for business... and karma?).
🗣️ Thank you for taking the time to leave your comment, Booba. We are truly sorry that your experience with Le vélo rose did not meet your expectations. We will do everything necessary to ensure that this does not happen again!
🗣️ Hello, Céline Dion. Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please come back to the store so we can find a solution together!
🗣️ Hello Florent Pagny. We are sorry to read your message. Keeping our customers satisfied is our primary motivation, and I would like to ask for another chance to prove it. Please stop by the store tomorrow, we will be happy to help you!
🗣️ Hello Daft Punk. We are truly sorry that you were disappointed with your experience with us. Please contact us at 068978787 to discuss this further. However, let's remain courteous if you don't mind, as good vibes are contagious 😉.
Improving your positioning in search results is the second step to achieving better digital visibility. Remember, optimizing your natural search engine optimization is essential for visibility on the web... otherwise you risk being lost among the 2.2 million queries made on Google. According to a study conducted by GE Capital Retail Bank, 81% of internet users use Google to search for a product before going to a point of sale. This shows the importance of digital... SEO can help you appear among the top results in searches. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) means "optimization for search engines" in French. Behind this obscure term lies a set of more or less complex techniques that increase the quality and quantity of traffic to a website through organic search results (i.e., the searches that you and I do every day with our little fingers tapping away like crazy on the keyboard) that are not paid for. Basically, SEO is the Google robot that analyzes three main criteria:
This is the backbone of your site, the first thing Google sees. To do this, it must index it in its database. Check by typing "site:" in the Google search box followed by your domain name. For example: "site:jelouedesvelos.com." The results displayed will show the pages of your site that have been indexed in the search engine index.
Good content is high-quality, unique, well-structured, and appealing. In summary: proper English, no spelling mistakes, cool royalty-free images, and thousands of emojis to avoid sounding like a boring encyclopedia. You're not selling a thesaurus, you're selling a great vacation: be fun and lighthearted!
The popularity of a website has nothing to do with its appearance, unlike in high school. It is calculated based on the number of links it receives from other websites, which mention you or refer their users to visit your website. Be nice to your partners so that they talk about you!
What is your positioning relative to your competitors? If they are very well positioned, it is worth putting a little extra effort into SEO.
First, learn the basics of SEO: you can easily find information online to improve your website without spending too much time on it. Learn before hiring a service provider, so you can fully understand the subject. This will also help you understand the language of the experts :-)
Don't be too greedy at the beginning: SEO takes time. You won't be able to rank first on Google in two weeks!
👉 The Lokki Touch: Here is an interesting website to help you understand SEO:
Getting your name out there online is great. But getting word of mouth through your local network is just as important. How can you do that? What are some tips for establishing a strong local presence? To learn more about this topic, we met with Justin, manager of LocVélo, located in Bayeux, Normandy, and Didier LLorca, director of the Bayeux-Bessin tourist office and the Bayeux Intercom tourism department, who told us about their "win-win" partnership in their region of Normandy.
Justin, manager of LocVélo, located in Bayeux.
“I had no experience in tourism when I arrived, but I am very attached to my region, located a few miles from the D-Day beaches. And I am eager to share that with our customers. For me, the key was to build a network and better understand how to successfully develop our business. When I joined LocVélo, we had a fleet of 80 bikes. Within five years, we had grown to 400 bikes. So there was a real need in the area, and it started with presenting my company and reaching out to service providers in my region. Campsites, accommodation, hotels, but above all tourist offices, because they are a meeting place where people go to find the right information. We know that they are ambassadors for the area, and I wanted to get closer to them. Today, it's a two-way partnership. We are making progress in the region in terms of customer needs, but they are also the primary promoters of our business. Our context is favorable because of Covid and because it is a civic-minded act that benefits the environment. Today, this very positive ecosystem linked to the tourist offices has allowed this work to flourish.
But the most important thing is to do our job as well as possible, in collaboration with other stakeholders. And the cost of membership is nothing compared to what it brings me on a daily basis, in terms of attracting more and more visitors and giving them the best possible welcome. Before the start of the season, we have to visit all our partners: human contact is essential for promoting our service. And then we have to consider partnerships, with Pricing , small discounts, and free delivery services, for example.
For example, we have created self-guided tours, which are a real bonus for our customers. And we have set up a route sharing service with local hotels. In practical terms, this means that we have shared our GPX tracks with hotels, which give them to their customers free of charge as an extra with the bikes, so that they can ride in the best areas. We know it works! We see the Google reviews: tourists come back with smiles on their faces. Yes, it's hard work, but it's like when you're a cyclist and you compete, and I think many people in our business will understand this metaphor. It's the groundwork you do in the fall and winter that pays off in the following season. The efforts we put in during the low season to make ourselves known will ultimately have a positive impact on the business. And besides, I'm still knocking on doors to talk about myself!
Finally, one last thing: stay in touch! At the end of the season, take the time to go out into the field and gather everyone's impressions and and to thank them. It's important to meet these influencers of our services, even if you only had one client referred by them.
Also consider organizing meetings at the start of the season for all our field representatives. In my area, every year, we organize educational tours, a day trip starting from Bayeux during which we explore one of our circuits with tourism partners, to bring everyone together around our service.
1️⃣ Before the high season, present your company and its offerings through promotional events and informal meetings to build your network.
2️⃣ Offer partnerships (Pricing , free delivery service, or personalized experiences)
3️⃣ Maintain contact, even if you have been established for a long time and even with seasonal workers, who are major influencers of your offering.
Didier LLorca, Director of the Bayeux-Bessin Tourist Office and the Bayeux Intercom Tourism Department
It is thanks to partnerships with bike rental companies, who are ambassadors for their regions and express their needs, that the region will be able to develop networks of bike routes, bike paths, infrastructure, route signage, and service areas for cycle tourists (parking, toilets, repair equipment, lockers, charging stations, picnic tables, tour operators, for example). It is therefore essential to work closely with your local authority or community of municipalities to lobby for change and ensure that things move in the right direction.
The tourist office also plays a role in connecting you with your entire ecosystem: accommodation providers, campsites, sites, museums, monuments, restaurants, and bike guides. If they don't come to you, go to them so that your entire ecosystem is unified and the sector is healthy, particularly to encourage them to carry out joint initiatives.
The office also aims to help you qualify your offer, via a standard Accueil vélo brand or its own label, if it has one.
The tourist office helps you promote your offers. You can encourage them to make reservations on your behalf or pre-bookings to send you customers.
1️⃣ Be open about your needs in terms of facilities and infrastructure: keep in mind that tourist offices and local authorities are there to make life easier for businesses and facilitate connections, so that activity can grow in their area. Don't forget that this will give you influence over your political and economic environment, and that by sharing your needs, you can influence decision-making within your area. Soft power works!
2️⃣ Help tourist offices understand your work, your needs, and your challenges by inviting them to come and see you. They need your feedback on customer needs and don't always have a perfect understanding of your business .
3️⃣ Don't hesitate to suggest innovative ideas to tourist offices. In return, they will not hesitate to suggest developments to you when they hear about them. It is also their role to promote projects at the local level to ensure that economic activity remains vibrant.
To stand out in his highly touristic region, where bike rentals are particularly competitive, Janys, a partner in the bike rental shop Au coup de pompe, wanted to go further than his competitors. So two years ago, he created "Bike & Fly," a full-day event offering a unique experience. "We pick up tourists at point A, take them cycling, then paragliding, and at the end of the day, we drop them off at point B," explains Janys. The idea was to create an environment with another activity that is emblematic of the region. I think it's very important to create truly unique adventures with local partners. Today, a large part of the clientele wants to be swept away on a real getaway where they don't have to think about anything other than enjoying themselves. And the possibilities are endless: it could also be an introduction to local wines, gastronomy, etc."
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Communicate effectively on your website? Check. Network with all your local partners? Check. What else? Well, the foundation of any good business: perfect your customer relations. Remember, a happy customer inspires others to follow suit!
Have you ever set foot in a store where the salesperson acts like a bulldog? Um, no. Okay, so as a rental company, you're not really in the retail business, because people come to have fun and they've usually already reserved their bike. Still, they're there to enjoy themselves. So you also have a duty to be at least minimally pleasant 😀.
We're not going to insult you by telling you how to do your job.
We know. The high season is crazy and people are sometimes in a hurry to get their bikes back... We know it's not easy, but a customer's quality experience depends on your good communication. So always take a little time to explain the adventure, even when there's a huge line outside.
Keep smiling during rush hour. Remember that you are there to spread joy. No one wants to start their day of cycling after a grumpy exchange.
Promote the area, send people to the right places, and be honest about what's available. Don't send people to a gourmet restaurant if they just want a quick, greasy snack... That's what will set you apart from your neighbor, the other rental company. So, to reiterate, you are an ambassador for your client, and your job is to ensure that tourists return home with their heads full of memories.
Have your pitches ready for different customers so you have time for a little joke: sometimes customers are stressed and afraid to ride a bike, so it's really important to connect with tourists and help them relax before the big ride!
Improve your English a little bit: even if it's just a few words, customers always appreciate seeing that you're making an effort, even if you're not perfectly bilingual.
Pay attention to your communication and brochures. For example, consider providing maps on which you have marked the different routes yourself. Decorate your shop with photos of beautiful landscapes in your region to whet people's appetites...
Think about your customers' comfort!
💙 Make your store a beautiful, tidy, well-decorated haven.
💙 Provide restrooms so people can change their clothes and wash their hands after working with grease.
💙 Provide picnic tables for those who wish to grab a quick bite to eat before leaving.
💙 Install a canopy to protect tourists in case of extreme heat or storms!
👉 The Lokki touch: Remember to use Lokki's review booster and always ask customers to leave a review on Google or TripAdvisor when they visit your store.
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