ss ownership is not about having a unique product or service; it's about making your product stand out--even in a market filled with similar items.
Winter is upon us, and for many it is the most dreaded time of the year because business slows down as many learner drivers either take breaks or divert money usually spent on driving lessons to the pay of the Christmas bill and then the following month have a huge credit card bill to pay, this year has been no exception, but with the current credit crunch some might feel the effect more or even earlier than normally. Well this is time you can use to step up your driving school marketing efforts not only to get more learner drivers during the less busy Christmas period, but more importantly for that new year rush when people renew their resolutions of getting that highly desired full British licence.
Even national organisations like AA/BSM, LDC and Red driving school recognise this trend and normally put special offers to try to boost earnings for their franchisees to help lighten the financial burden at this time of the year.
Now if you don't hold a franchise that has these benefits, or are an independent operation that still has to pay for the driving school car lease and other running costs what marketing efforts can one do to make good use of the extra time we might have on our hands while hopefully finding a few more clients that might want our services. I'll share a few tips that might help.
Marketing is one of the most ignored aspects of a business for many instructors, we spend time on administration (you keep records for the tax man I hope), accounts, checking with current pupils on lessons for the days or week ahead, clean the tuition vehicle, but not enough on advertising our services to generate more learner driver clients.
Being a good instructor is not good enough, it will get you recommendations, but you need to consistently market yourself to generate regular enquiries.
You need to learn from Red driving school and how they are aggressively advertising to take advantage of the current economic climate, while I don't condone their business model, if you ask anyone in the UK about
Work actively at promoting your web site, see if there are any improvements that need to be done on it. A website can be one of the most effective driving school marketing tools available to the instructor to promote his/her business and if setup and promoted properly could be the only means of pupil generation required to keep those enquiries coming in and one's diary booked with adequate work, and contrary to what you might believe, setting up and maintaining an online presence need not cost a fortune. You can have an effective driving school website for as little as £10 a year.
Important: From 1st March 2011 online marketing communications on websites in the UK will now be regulated by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA). Ensure your site is accurate, honest and truthful any claims of pass rates or grades must if challenge be able to substantiate the accuracy of figures claimed. There are other acts that need to b complied with such as The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002