Top 10 Marketing Tips for Driving Schools

If you’re the owner of a driving school in the UK, you will find useful ways to market your business by reading our top 10 tips below.

• Use Twitter coupons to drive more business

Sites like twtqpon.com are great for setting up Twitter coupons that you can use as a tool to target new pupils online. You may want to offer them a block booking discount or a half price lesson to get them started. The benefit of using Twitter for promotions like this is that it can spread your message quickly if people re-tweet it.

• Get an interactive game on your website

Having something different on your website like an interactive parking game is a great way to keep people on your site for longer and get more visitors.

• Display recent test results on your website

Another useful way to increase your bookings is to display a sample of recent pupils’ test results on your website. You could display the date they passed, whether it was their first attempt or not and how many minor faults they got.

• Create unique videos

Video marketing is a very powerful tool and as a driving school you can take advantage of this by recording parts of your lessons, filming your cars being driven and giving prospective pupils more of an insight into what they can expect.

• Advertise on relevant websites

A lot of learner drivers decide to get lessons while they’re at college or university. It’s a good idea to approach these institutions in your area and ask if you can place a banner advert on their website or perhaps a student union website in a bid to attract more pupils.

• Optimise your Google Places listing

A Google Places listing is a good way to get search engine visibility for your driving school. There are a number of things you can do to optimise your listing, including completing it as fully as possible, adding photographs, encouraging pupils to write reviews and adding discount coupons.

• Have someone to answer your emails and calls

In a competitive industry such as driving instruction you can’t afford to miss a call or email when you’re out on the road. If you don’t have anyone to answer the phone or check your emails during the day you could be missing out on business as people will often call someone else if they don’t get through to you right away.

• Set up a Facebook page

The power of social media can be harnessed for the benefit of your business by having a page on Facebook. If someone’s learnt to drive with you and had a positive experience then they will be likely to recommend you to their Facebook friends which in turn could lead to more business.

• Don’t get caught up in pay per click bidding wars

It’s easy to get competitive when it comes to pay per click and get caught up in trying to outbid your rivals for the no.1 spot on the sponsored listings.

This is not a good way to spend your advertising budget and in many cases, pay per click adverts in lower positions on the first page actually perform better than the advert in the first position.

• Keep in touch with former pupils by email

Even when a pupil has passed their test with you it’s still a good idea to keep in touch periodically by email. For example they may want to take the pass plus course or you could offer incentives for them to recommend a friend or family member to you.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 29th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Industry Specific Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.