Objective: Leverage branded content to position Hertz as the conduit through which travelers can reimagine travel as something more extraordinary.
Goals:
1. Traffic: Drive search, social, and referral traffic to hertz blog.
2. Engagement: Increase engagement with Hertz branded content.
3. Conversion: Convert that traffic into booked car rental reservations.
Content Strategy
Hertz started by developing compelling, evergreen content based on searcher intent and need. To start developing our content, we turned to travel statistics, search volume and trending data to find topics and regions with established interest. Search volume and Google Trend data allowed us to develop a priority list of U.S. cities that have the most search interest around "Rental Car" and "Rent a Car" over the past year
We then aligned our content to one of three strategic pillars:
1. Shared Passions: The intersection between what our audience cares about and content Hertz could credibly offer. Our topics in this category covered vacations, travel adventures, cruises, roadtrips, and dream cars to name a few.
2. Expertise: Content that helps demystify complex topics such as renting cars under 25, insurance, loss damage waivers etc.
3. Differentiators:
Our last content pillar was differentiators. These are the things that make Hertz unique including things like history, philanthropy, sponsorships and community involvement.
Content Amplification & Social Influencers
Once our content hub was built out, we began a dedicated effort to distribute and amplify the content.
The cornerstone of the content amplification strategy was social influencers, specifically activating micro-influencers at scale and partnering with them to distribute Hertz-branded content to their followers.
Our Approach:
1. Influencer Identification: Identify influencers with a sizable following and contextual fit with Hertz.
2. Audience Analysis: Review the audiences of influencers to ensure each lines up with Hertz target as closely as possible.
3. Channel Selection: Identify the social channel (Facbeook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn etc) most appropriate for the content and goals.
4. Distribution. As Hertz produces content, influencers select pieces that will resonate with their larger audience and share across their social network.
5. Measurement & Optimization: Based on results, Hertz & Catchweight either expanded relationships with individual influencers or added new influencers, content types, or channels into the mix.
Since launch in May of 2017, the program has driven hundreds of thousands of visitors to Hertz digital ecosystem and far exceeded every goal for engagement, car rental reservations, and associated revenue.
Each month since launch has also experienced double digit increases in sessions, pageviews, reservations and revenue.
Furthermore, the organic content and influencer program has proven to be one of the most efficient drivers of traffic and engagement in Hertz' marketing mix.
