Digital Marketing for Ski & Snowboard Rental Businesses

As the winter season approaches, ski rental businesses and other winter activities such as transport services are in their golden time to get solid digital marketing strategies and tactical action in place to to get early season sales.

With fierce competition in ski resorts and a growing emphasis on online presence, it’s vital to adopt a robust digital marketing strategy that drives bookings and enhances visibility. Ideally you want to get bookings before people visit your town or resort so they have made their mind up before walking past your competitors.

In this article, we’ll explore key digital marketing tactics tailored specifically for ski and snowboard rental businesses and winter transport, that have allowed us to achieve results for clients like :

• +671% in Pre Season Sales Year on Year for a Ski Rental Business
• Every $1 spent on Google Ads resulting in up to $73.04 in sales in peak holiday month
• A $6000 increase in ad spend this season, resulting in $74,000 more in sales
• Turning $1 in Facebook spend into up to $12.44 in sales.
• Sending emails that bring in $26,850 in a few days and open rates of up to 49.79%

In this article, we’ll show you the winning elements to grow your ski and snowboard rental business using digital marketing and explain how Local Search Engine Optimisation, Email Marketing, Google Ads and Facebook fit into your digital marketing success.

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Start Your Digital Marketing Early & Know Your Market

The earlier you start your digital marketing before the winter season, the better a position you’ll be in. Google will not spend your ad spend if there are not enough searches to spend your budget, and early value added emails will keep you top of mind.

Knowing your market is also key. Here in New Zealand, our biggest spenders are Australians so that’s where we’ll expect to get most of our revenue from. We’ll also adjust budgets as the season changes and move marketing spend towards more of the local and domestic market around school holiday periods.

Is your market from a local city, or overseas, and when are their booking periods and average lead time so you can maximise your visibility.

The chart below from Google Trends shows obvious trends between the northern and southern hemispheres, and you can see (as expected) the demand is lower before the season, but that also means less competition, earlier eyeballs on your offers and cheaper ad costs.

Google Analytics & Google Ads – Track Everything

If you are serious about your digital marketing you need to ensure you are tracking everything.

What you don’t measure, you can’t improve. Digital marketing analytics is vital so you can amplify what’s working, and analyse what’s not.

If something appears to not be working, there may be a story behind it. An example may be if our Google Ads is driving traffic, but you offer a 10% discount if you subscribe to emails, then your email will likely be claiming all the revenue – but that’s misleading!

All your conversion points for sales and contact points should be measured and fed between different systems. They ‘key events’ as they are known in Google Analytics are events like :

• Purchases
• Email Clicks
• Contact Form Submission
• Phone Call Clicks

To get more accurate data you should also have native tracking within different platforms like Google Ads conversions, Facebook pixel events, TikTok and the other platforms you may be using.

You can also customise Analytics so you can additional data like revenue per user to get an idea. One of our clients had an average value of over $8 for EVERY VISIT to the site!

Accurate tracking is particularly important if you are using a third party booking system as if your analytics is not configured correctly more often than not your sales data is misleading as they get attributed to the wrong sales channel (trust us – we’ve seen this in hundreds of accounts over the years).

Note that your booking system could ‘break’ your digital marketing as booking platforms are notorious for not supporting the full suite of marketing analytics and tracking – especially when you want to track natively on each platform like Google Ads (trust us – over the years we’ve dealt with dozens of booking systems, and even helped to fix software code on a few!)

If you are not using the native tracking for the platform you are likely under reporting the success of your campaigns.

Look at the difference between the Google Analytics 4 view of the world (which shows results of last non direct click), and the native Google Ads tracking pixel’s view of the world in this account over one month :

The above screenshot comes from a well configured Google Ads account.

The Google Ads pixel is reporting the impact on people seeing ads throughout the user journey. If your customers were seeing a Google Ads first, then revisiting to book later, but you based results on Google Analytics (which 90% of businesses do) you would be underreporting the success of your Google Ads campaigns.

This could lead to you not having enough confidence to invest more in the right marketing channel.

There’s a $138,000 difference between the two numbers (and this was on a $5100 spend bringing $241k in revenue).

Local Search Engine Optimisation for Ski Rentals : Your Competitive Edge

Local search engine optimisation (SEO) is crucial for ski and snowboard rental businesses. When potential customers search for ski rentals in your area, you want to be at the top of their results. There’s a few elements to this including…

Google Business Profile

Creating and optimising your Google Business Profile is a critical element of local SEO. Ensure your profile is complete with accurate information, including your address, phone number, and hours of operation. Use high-quality images showcasing your equipment and services, and ensure your products and services are listed and described.

Don’t forget to put posts on your Google Business Profile either – that’s a good way of keeping your profile active and up to date, and making deals visible.

If there are no Google ads, Google Business Profile listings appear at the ‘top of google’ for most business category searches as shown below.

You can also track all the referrals from your Google Business Profile as shown below so you can see its impact within Google Analytics – it may be significantly more than you think, and if it’s not – how can you improve it?

Note : this tracking does need to be configured and is not default behaviour

Ski Rentals Stores Online Reviews Matter

Actively managing your online reputation through customer reviews is essential – it’s the modern word of mouth. Responding to reviews – both positive and negative – demonstrates excellent customer service and can influence potential customers’ decisions.

Encourage customers to leave reviews via post visit emails, as positive feedback boosts your credibility and ranking in local search results.

Don’t be afraid of bad reviews – everyone gets them at times, just reply to them politely and move on.

Good reviews get your skis and boards onto racks on the mountain like this.

On-Site SEO for Ski Rentals : Enhancing User Experience

Optimising your website for search engines will help you rank higher and attract more visitors. Here are some key strategies:

• Keyword Research: Identify relevant keywords that potential customers might use, such as “ski rentals [your location]” or “best snowboard rentals in [your location]” Incorporate these keywords naturally throughout your website content, including headings and meta descriptions.
• Quality Content: Create informative and engaging content that answers common questions related to skiing, rentals, and transport. This not only boosts your SEO but also establishes your authority in the industry.
  Don’t be afraid to widen your content – people who are looking for bus timetables are likely to be looking for ski rentals as well. Maybe there’s a way to partner with other local businesses on this too.
• Mobile Optimisation: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly. Many customers will be searching for services on their phones while on the go.

Can you offer an alternative to content people are looking for regularly? I’ve often wanted a client to write an alternative snow report so when you know it’s a “day for enthusiasts” it’s really “icy as Antarctica with a 185km/hour wind” ;-) Obviously you’d want to write that in a way that doesn’t discourage your sales though!

Email Marketing for Ski & Snowboard Rentals : Nurturing Leads & Relationships

Email marketing is a powerful tool for engaging with past customers and potential leads.

I can remember one client who was wary of ‘blasting someone’s inbox’ but their mind was soon changed when we grew towards sending an email that brought in $27,500.

Consider these strategies:

• Welcome Series: Create an email sequence for new subscribers that introduces your services, highlights promotions, and shares valuable tips for skiing and winter activities, and how to maximise the ‘off days’ when they are tired.
• Regular Updates: Keep your audience informed about new gear, special offers, and seasonal promotions. Use enticing subject lines to boost open rates.
• Email Subject Lines
  Don’t be afraid to use simple email subject lines like “Are you coming back to [your location] this winter?” A subject line like that got us an open rate of 49.79% to a list of past customers of 51257 that were not used to the client emailing them.
• Clean Your Data
  In today’s email marketing climate you need to ensure your clean your email by using a third party verification service to ensure old emails are removed so you don’t get spam warnings and a high bounce rate. Be aware of your local legislations and ensure you are compliant at the point of registration and always make it easy to unsubscribe.

Email Marketing for Ski & Snowboard Rental Businesses : Database Reactivation and Re-engaging Past Ski Rental Customers

Don’t let your previous ski and snowboard customers slip away. It’s usually cheaper to sell to a previous customer than a new one. Many stores will have regions that will bring repeat customers from a local city or overseas. Re-engaging prevous customers can lead to repeat bookings. Here’s how you can tackle this using email marketing for ski and snowboard rental stores :

• Personalised Campaigns
  Use your email database to send tailored promotions to previous customers. Offer discounts or exclusive deals to encourage them to book again.
• Surveys and Feedback
  Reach out to past customers for feedback on their experience. This not only shows you value their opinion but can also provide insights into improving your services.
• Bring Your Customers up to speed with changes
  You live and breathe your location. What new restaurants or activities have opened up since the previous season? This is a great way to add value.

Google Ads for Ski Rentals : Getting Ahead of the Competition

With many businesses vying for attention, Google Ads can give you an edge. Google ads is the most direct intent based advertising platform as with search campaigns people are telling you exactly what they are looking for, and it’s the advertising platform that’s most likely to bring you the most bang for your buck and highest returns (outside of a highly engaged email database).

Everyone wants to be the ‘top of Google’ but when most people say that they think of organic searches.

The reality is that ‘top of Google’ is usually an advert. If it’s not, that could be an opportunity for you!

(Note that ads are shown in real time bids based on your behaviour and location, so just because you don’t see any, doesn’t mean no-one is running them at the time!)

Then for most business category searches you will get several Google Business Profile results, and finally you’ll get the organic search results.

In some industries the ‘top of Google’ in organic could be 4 scrolls down a mobile screen.

That’s where Google Ads comes in. You have to be in it to win it, but the payoff can be big – as long as it’s done correctly.

The biggest mistake we see with most businesses when it comes to running Google Ads is they set up a campaign in house, follow Google’s wizards and before you know it you’ve ticked off the ‘running Google Ads’ box, but the downside is that you are likely :

• Targeting keywords that are a waste of budget
• Wasting a large percentage of budget
• Not tracking your results

Here’s how to maximise your Google ad spend for your ski and snowboard hire business :

• Targeted Campaigns
  Create ads specifically targeting ski rental and transport keywords in your region, and more so the region your customers will be coming from. Use location-based targeting to ensure your ads reach potential customers actively searching for services like yours. Consider splitting budgets – if you get more customers and a higher return from Washington customers than Vancouver, then it’s ideal if you split campaigns and allocate budget appropriately.
• Different Campaign Types
  Google is not just search ads. Google has a variety of campaign types including video, display and remarketing. Combining these will help you be more visible.
  There are also many interest groups and affinity groups that can be targeted based on audience demographics. A favourite of mine is to target sites that have local ski reports…and a lot of advertising banners :-)
• Remarketing
  Implement remarketing strategies to reach users who have previously visited your site but didn’t convert. This keeps your brand top-of-mind as they consider their options.
• Be Curious – Keep Testing Google Ads
  Approaching your Google Ads like a targeted test. Be willing to spend money to test campaign types. If you go for the highest return on ad spend, you’ll be missing out on visibility and vice versa. Don’t be afraid or recording a store walkthrough on your phone for a video ad. It’s a great personal touch.
• Spend Enough
  Many businesses approach Google Ads thinking you can through a few hundred bucks a month at it and it’s the golden ticket to sales. Limiting your budget will limit the number of campaigns you can use, or you’ll end up with a bunch of campaigns on a trivial budget of a few dollars a day. You can’t pull out an ad in a ski magazine for a few hundred dollars, so don’t expect to reach the world on less of a budget.

Google Ads bringing in the visitors

Don’t forget that the job of an advertising campaign is to get reasonably qualified visitors to your website. It is up to your website (and offer) to convert the visitor into a customer.

A good ad campaign won’t instantly fix your sales if your offer sucks.

Facebook (Meta) Ads vs Google Ads For Ski & Snowboard Rentals

Are Facebook Ads or Google Ads better for ski and snowboard rental stores? When we discuss Facebook Ads here we’re really talking about the Meta platform including Instagram.

Both Facebook Ads and Google Ads are good, but they are different, and they can serve different purposes.

Many businesses rush to run Facebook Ads as it’s perceived as the easiest to run, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best, and more often than not they are not run by a real marketer.

If you want the best value for money, it’s not always a great idea having your ski tech run Facebook Ads (unless they have many talents!).

The success of these ads come down to knowing your audience. Google Ads are generally far more intent based than Facebook Ads. The exception is some campaign types like Google Display but again it depends how you use them, and this is where experience and intuition comes into play.

A great starting point for Facebook Ads is remarketing. If a visitor has been to your website you can get more creatives and messaging to people who have not converted on your website to stay top of mind. This is one of the cheapest forms of advertising you can get. Most would say it’s the biggest returns as well, but not always.

In the example below you can see an extract of some Facebook campaigns we ran for a business. Remarketing had a higher return, but an outreach sales campaign worked almost as well as we had great creatives and location and interest targeting.

$12.44 for every $1 spent is a great result.

Facebook Ads are also a great way of targeting people who are already in the area, but bear in mind you can’t target people on Facebook who are looking for ski and snowboard rentals like you can on Google.

On Facebook you can target people who are in Aspen and are interested in skiing but many of them may well have their own skis, or they may have already booked their rentals.

This is why Google will usually give you the most bang for your buck – people are telling you what they are looking for.

Where Do Your Sales Come From – A Sales Attribution Warning

When you are running multi channel marketing, remember all ad platforms are likely to claim their unfair share of the revenue.

We’ve been in a situation before that if you added up what email marketing claimed, Google Ads claimed and Facebook Ads claimed, you’d have more revenue than was actually taken in.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the platforms are lying – they all have different attribution windows, and may well have all contributed to the overall success of your business.

In the multi-channel world there’s an aspect of instinct as well, and also experience goes a long way.

It wouldn’t be unusual for an email marketing channel to attribute a bunch of sales to the success of email, but often it’s Google paid ads that brought in that email subscriber originally – especially if there’s a pop up on your site that offers a discount when you sign up to an email list!

The flow here could be Google Paid -> Email -> Sale.

Always think of the story behind the data, and never just look at the black and white numbers.

Conversion Rates & Ski Rental Deals

Conversion rates of your website and the clarity of your pricing and deals is key.

Conversion Rates on Ski & Snowboard Rental Sites

Do you know the conversion rate of your website?

This is the percentage of website visitors that turn into buyers. Improving your conversion rate will improve sales across all channels.

Make the path through your website easy and make it easy to buy. Every improvement in each aspect of your digital journey will improve the overall results.

Remember it is up to your website to secure the sale – the ad campaigns and emails are just to get the potential customer to your website.

Ski & Snowboard Rental Deals

Deals are a great way to entice early season sales. Make them visible across all platforms – Google Search (change your page title tags and reindex!), Google Ads, Google Business Profile posts, emails and social channels.

Make your deals easy to understand in a split second.

Stay away from deals that make people think – that makes your deal hard to understand and could introduce an element of mistrust or confusion.

Don’t say “Up to 30% off and 2 extra days”. That’s likely easier to understand if it was translated to “Up to 35% off.

Let people know your deals are ending, and that can lead to emails that bring tens of thousands of dollars in (we send two emails in a deal closing week – each one brought in over $26,000 in sales).

Ski & Snowboard Digital Marketing Conclusion

This article has given you a kind of blueprint to get you started with your digital marketing for your ski and snowboard rental businesses this upcoming season.

Start your foundations early and get everything in place. You can build and plan a lot in advance, so when silly season comes and the powder days arrive you’ve already got the money in the bank, got everything dialled, and you can go and lap the chutes leaving your team to fulfil your ski rentals.

This article goes over digital marketing elements we’ve used repeatedly for multiple seasons for ski and snowboard rental businesses, and winter transport businesses. Every season has brought out clients more confidence, and an increased willingness to try more tactics.

However, we’re true believers in ‘the devil’s in the detail’. Whilse the above gives you a blueprint or template to follow for your ski and snowboard rental digital marketing, you need to know how to use the platforms well, and to track everything.

Our Proven Track Record in the Industry

At Fully Charged Media, we have a proven track record in driving revenue growth for ski rental businesses and winter transport services. Our tailored strategies have resulted in increased bookings, improved online visibility and higher return on investment season upon season, with some of our clients working with us for over 8 years.

We have consistently achieved results like below for ski and snowboard rental businesses, and ski transport services :

• +671% in Pre Season Sales Year on Year for a Ski Rental Business
• Every $1 spent on Google Ads resulting in up to $73.04 in sales in peak holiday month
• A $6000 increase in ad spend this season, resulting in $74,000 more in sales
• Turning $1 in Facebook spend into up to $12.44 in sales.
• Sending emails that bring in $26,850 in a few days and open rates of up to 49.79%

In the last few years we’ve helped pivot a ski rental company towards more of an independent traveller and away from their reliance on inbound tourism operators so their business is more diverse. We’ve increased pre-season sales to build confidence, and at the end of each season we do a wrap up to discuss what worked well, and what can be improved on or tested.

Before you know it, it’s time for the next season to roll around so we can get in there early, so there’s only really a few months of little digital marketing activity.

Note that these results may not be applicable to you. You could be an overnight success, or it may take a few seasons to get things really dialled, but if you do it well, your success could be the same week you start.

It all takes planning, attention to detail and interpreting the results and being prepared to adapt. Be willing to spend your marketing dollars as an investment – if you look at it as a cost you’ll always be looking to prune it.

Read one of our client’s views :

Conclusion

The winter season presents a prime opportunity for ski rental businesses and mountain transport services to thrive. By implementing these digital marketing strategies—focusing on local SEO, on-site optimisation, email marketing, database reactivation via email, and Google Ads—you can enhance your visibility, attract more customers, and boost your bookings before the competition does.

If you would like us to work with you on a digital marketing strategy for your ski and snowboard rental business, get in touch today and let’s get you the market share you deserve.

Read about one of our other long term client’s success stories – 30 years in business and we’ve partnered with them for over 8 years.