The marketing company that you hire could spell the difference between dramatically expanding your limousine company customer base or slowly stagnating and losing more market share to your competitors.
If you have never worked with an outside marketing firm to promote your limousine business or if you have had less than stellar results with a previous marketing team, you will want to do some research before deciding which marketers to go with. To that end, here are eight questions you should ask before hiring a company to do your limousine marketing.
1. What's your knowledge of the limousine industry?
This is your first question, because it's not in your best interest to work with marketers who lack experience and deep knowledge of all aspects of the limousine business. According to a recent post at Co-Communications Marketing and Public Relations, It will also be a good idea to see if the marketers do promotional work in related industries, such as meeting planning and hospitality, since these often go hand in hand with limousine transportation.
2. What sets you apart from competitors?
The answer to this question will quickly show you how the marketers think on their feet and how well they can assess their own position in the industry. They will be applying this knowledge to showing how your limo company is different from your rivals.
3. Who will be the members of my marketing team?
Different marketing professionals will have different skill sets. If you are concerned with boosting your social media efforts, for example, you will prefer to have marketers with plenty of experience in digital communications.
4. How much time do I need to budget for working with the marketers?
It will take more time initially to set up your marketing approach, but once you settle into a routine, you need to know how much time and resources you can allocate to working with the marketers.
5. How do you measure the results of a marketing campaign?
They should reply with information on how they collect statistics and use analytics to determine how well various aspects of the marketing campaign are doing. Much of this can be automated with software, but experienced marketers are needed to interpret the results and then take action.
6. How long should I expect to wait before I see results?
No two marketing campaigns are going to be alike, so you cannot easily predict how long it will be before you start seeing a boost in traffic to your website, more calls to the sales team and an increase in bookings. Campaigns targeting corporate travel managers typically require more time to get results than efforts to reach out to tourists or bachelorette party planners, after all.
7. What is your strategy if the initial campaign does not work?
If at first the marketers don't succeed, it's time to try, try again! Find out how the marketers will react when a campaign fails to deliver the results you were hoping for. How will the team evaluate the results so far and then figure out what changes to make?
8. What do you charge for the limo marketing services I need?
Don't ask about costs until you get answers to all the other questions, because that would be a waste of your time. Once you have a good idea of what the marketers can do for your limo company, you can better evaluate the worth of the services they propose to give you.
When you partner with a marketing company that is limousine marketing-savvy and has a proven track record in promoting the chauffeured transportation industry, you will be better poised to surpass the competition and develop more loyal customers.
DriveProfit's senior marketing team has more than three decades of marketing experience and specializes in developing marketing programs for operators in the chauffeured transportation industry. If your limo marketing efforts are not getting the results you’d like to see, our team is standing by to help you boost your ROI. For details, please contact the professionals at DriveProfit today at 203.426.7780 or email us at info@driveprofit.com.