Driving school marketing for Winter

It might just be september, and as an instructor business might be much healthier than it normally is, especially with the last minute rush from learner drivers to beat the new driving test in october, but one of the secrets of successful driving school marketing is to prepare for the future now.

Anyone who has been in the business for a while or who did their research into the industry before becoming involved would know that things slow down in winter, especially in the run up to Christmas and this year is going to be no exception, in fact things might even be tougher in 2010 due to the announced reduction in government public sector spending, so competion is going to be stronger in getting the few driving lessons that people might be willing to take, so you need to start thinking about how you are going to advertise and market your services from now!

I have already started my advertising and marketing campaign both online and offline, gearing up to make sure that I reduce the fall in income and revenue over the traditional christmas period and not wait till the january new resolution driving lesson craze kicks in.

So you are wondering what can an instructor do as far as pupill generation, marketing, advertising (and this doesn't necessarily mean newspapers, yellow pages, google adwords or student union magazines) is concerned to increase the pupil awareness of a driving school's services and attract enquiries and hopefully sales conversions in a downturning market that generally refocuses on holiday gifts.
Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not going to share my specific targets and goals including steps to achieve them with you, as that would be business suicide. You can have a look through this blog and try and implemet some of my how to market your driving school ideas. If you are one of those that has be putting off getting a driving school website then do so TODAY (not that this will be able to help this winter, but not having one is bad marketing anyway). There are other ideas I have shared here which if you haven't implemented you should try.

Remember your current client base can be used as leverage to get more business, but don't offer stupid rewards like free first assessment lesson! Any loss leader must have a hook, so a better way is third lesson free if you pay for 2 in advance, reward you current pupil with a free lesson if friend takes 10 lessons or half price if colleaugue takes four not one!

The purpose of this post is to get you thinking about future business now while the going might be good, just because you get home at 7pm doesn't mean that you can't spend an extra 30 minutes doing some driving school business marketing and offline advertising before calling it a day. Even if you are at the top of your game, doing nothing will not keep you there!