Jodi Allen
Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
Hertz
Dear Ms. Allen,
Your “blog” (I’m using the term loosely) isn’t worth maintaining. It’s hard to find and difficult to navigate. It appears it has turned into a dumping ground for sponsored content links.
I’m a loyal Hertz customer and proud member of the Gold Plus Rewards club. I drive off your lots a few dozen times a year. Your partnership with CLEAR makes departing an airport so simple and I appreciate the free water on the way out.
But your blog? That experience leaves something to be desired: a reason for customers like me to engage with it.
On a recent visit to your site, I clicked on your Things to Do section, expecting to find smart ideas for one-tank trips around the world or a sharp new angle on renting cars in the age of Uber and Lyft. But no, many of the articles I selected just offered a short teaser paragraph and a link to your sponsored content on sites like Food & Wine or Travel + Leisure. That’s not authoritative, insightful, or even worth sharing with the hundreds of other business travelers I know.
I get it. I’m sure the agency in charge of creating all your sponsored content suggested you do this. And why not? The more people who “read” your sponsored content, the better your agency partner looks.
The whole point of sponsored content is to earn trust with prospects who don’t yet have a relationship with your brand. Right?
Look, if you’re not going to create original content consistently designed to inspire people to rent a car, kill your blog. Spare your content team the wasted effort. Unless you’re going to develop helpful tips on navigating the grueling pace of business travel or content that helps me understand things like when I should pre-pay for a tank of gas, it’s not worth “blogging.”
Here’s the deal, if you remove ALL the sponsored content teaser posts from your blog, I’d be more than happy to shoot my own little one-tank-trip video for Hertz.
What do you say? Do we have a deal?
Whether you wanted it or not,
Andrew Davis
Author of The Loyalty Loop
#UnsolicitedAdvice