5 Ways to Attract More Customers to Your Rental Website (with Examples)

Getting online bookings is nigh-on-impossible through your rental website if you aren’t getting the right traffic. It is often misunderstood that any website visitor is suitable for your rental business, but the reality is that low-quality traffic is detrimental to conversion rates. These people have no interest in what you’re renting out and are extremely unlikely to become a customer.

So, how can you attract people interested in renting your products and who are highly likely to become a customer? There are many ways to achieve this, from using social media to appealing to shared interests, optimizing your content, and reaching out for reviews. Let’s look at 5 ways to attract more customers to your rental website.

1. Be smart with social media links

Whether you like it or not, social media is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your rental website. However, these social media platforms don’t like it when you lead people away from them. Most only allow one link, so it can be difficult to direct people to several different products. This makes it challenging to run social media campaigns directly affecting web traffic.

A workaround for this predicament is using a “one link” platform like Linktree and Linkin.bio to create a mini landing page that can direct people to the pages you want them to visit. For example:

• Your most rented products
• A new product you’re promoting
• Special rental bundles
• Blog posts
• Links to other social media profiles

A great example of using a “one link” strategy like this is Sugar Bump Gown Rentals, who use their Linktree landing page to advertise try-on appointments, rentals, upcoming content days, and frequently asked questions. This helps her followers to find what they need with minimal fuss and ensure they visit the right page for their intended purpose.

2. Create relevant blog content

Almost 50% of people shopping and renting online start their journey on Google, which means SEO is very important. You want your rental business to appear on the first search results page for relevant keywords. You can create blog content that targets those keywords.

When creating blog content, it is important to follow SEO best practices to get the most out of it and help it to rank highly on search engines. Some keys practices include:

• Using the keyword in meta tags, alt text, and heading
• Creating internal links that direct visitors to relevant products
• Keep your URL structure short and clear
• Share your blog post on social media
• Get backlinks from other websites

For example, Bicyclean Helsinki saw that a lot of people were searching for an answer to the question, “is it too cold to explore Helsinki on a bike?” so they created a detailed blog post about the topic. This blog post features lots of relevant information and images with proper tags and currently ranks 5th for the phrase above news outlets like Euronews.

3. Optimize your product pages

Something you may not consider to be pieces of content on your website are your product pages. You already have them, and they’re likely ranking in search engines, so why not optimize their content to drive more organic traffic to your rental website? Product descriptions should reflect your customer’s language, pull at pain points, and reference your target keywords.

Cloth and Confetti is a great example of this type of optimization as they include a beautifully detailed description of their products. They not only contain descriptions of the products but also appeal to the inspirational aspects and target keywords without being too wordy. This not only helps the products rank for relevant search terms but also acts as a sales tool.

4. Create video content about relevant topics

As you will know, YouTube is one of the most-visited websites in the world, and video marketing has become very important. You can take advantage of the potential of YouTube by creating videos surrounding your rental business. It can be helpful to do some market research to discover what your audience may be interested in.

It’s also worth noting that YouTube combines a search engine and a social media platform. So, you can increase your chances of reaching your target audience by following SEO best practices for YouTube:

• Encourage users to watch your video with an enticing thumbnail
• Add relevant tags
• Use callout boxes to link to things you talk about
• Optimize your video description to include the right keywords
• Link to your website and social media

Lee Jones from Saskatoon Party Rentals does this very well with his YouTube channel, where he gives advice to people who are looking to start their own party rental business. This positions him as an expert in this field and is likely to not only attract entrepreneurs but also potential customers who are looking to rent the products he discusses in his videos.

5. List your rental business on a review aggregator

Did you know that 93% of customers actively seek reviews before deciding to make a purchase or booking from a new business? This number has grown over the past few years, and social proof has become incredibly important in the purchasing behavior of consumers. That’s why you should list your business on websites like Trustpilot and Tripadvisor.

Irish mountain bike rental store, On Yer Bike found success on Tripadvisor when they started asking customers for reviews. This has led to them receiving Tripadvisor’s Travellers Choice award for the past two years running and ranking #1 in their area for outdoor activities. Since using the platform, the company has seen significant growth in bookings.

Getting more traffic to your rental website is a goal for every rental business, and these examples have proven successful. Some of them are quite hands-on, but each of the companies featured only had one or two staff members, and they were able to increase bookings using these methods. Good luck in your journey to expand your reach, and let us know if you have success!