where to advertise a flight school

[GeneralAv]

We are a newly approved 141, but long time 61, flight school. We have a website and are listed on all the directories and databases, but thinking about paid advertising, banner ads maybe. But we don't know where would be good places to do this. Flight Info looks like a good start. Any other ideas? What websites do ab inititio and veterans go to find a flight school to train with? Any magazine suggestions? We can't afford much, have to pick and choose the smart places for best results.

Any suggestions appreciated!

 

[GeneralAv]

Yes, of course we have always used the local media and have the Intro Flight. I'm looking for suggestions for internet advertising, such as good places for the banner ads such as seen on this site. With our 141 approval and eligibility for Veterans financing , am hoping to find somewhere on the internet to advertise to them.

Thanks

 

[acaTerry]

I wouldn't waste too much money on things like the military channel (discovery wings as it used to be called). People there are usually already pilots and are not looking too much to train. BeAPilot.com gave me a free listing and the phone was ringing off the hook. AOPA.org also has a free listing area. Also you can look at places that realty brokers, doctors, etc frequent and place something professional looking (not a colred flyer, but a sharp-looking brochure) to bait prospects.
I hope it works out great for your school.

 

[AcroChik]

Very Good Responses So Far

At our little school, we've found that properly sized and placed newspaper ads in the local Gannet paper have drawn the most interest in terms of bang for the buck.

The ads (black & white) include a photo of a 172 in flight and an emphasis on fun, instructor qualifications and safety.

Modestly discounted gift certificates for introductory flights have done moderately well. Not brilliantly. Remember that if people get used to paying a deep discount they might be unwilling to pay your full going rate. On any premiums, be sure to clearly indicate that the offer has an expiration date.

I've spoken at career days at local schools and, much to my surprise, pulled a few students.

Involvement in Young Eagles can also be helpful. I got a father and son as students this way.

As well said above, the brochure is key. Either handed to them at your school or picked up in other locations (great suggestions, above). It ought to be color, glossy and fold-out. It needn't be a multipage bound production (at least in our locale and dictated by our finances).

Ultimately, my own experience has been that what closes the deal is the rapport between myself and the prospective student (from your post I can tell you already know this). It's getting them to the airport that's the biggest challenge.

Best wishes in your business!

 

[CurlyD777]

What area of the country is the flight school? The best advertising will always come from your instructors word of mouth. Also, depending if your instructors are hungry enought, there are free databases on the internet that give local addresses to pilots, searchable by student, private, etc. All that needs to be done is put into a word mail merge, and then sent out. I figured the math a while ago at about $0.42 a person for a post card advertisement, and with direct hits to pilots, it goes a long way compared to a couple hundered a month for newspaper.

C.

 

[FlyingToIST]

This is a topic that hits home .. I just put $1000 on the credit card to send 3300 postcards to local pilots telling them "change the way you fly". Remember there are two major group of people you advertise to : pilots and non-pilots.
The thing that I did was the entire database of pilots in my area, sorted by ZIP code, thanks to the FAA database.

I am also getting some brochures made so that I can attract people into flying. The idea is to go after people who already have money. Golf courses, country clubs were brilliant idea when i first started , but i got turned down by all of them saying "you cannot market here, unless you are a member". Even my offer of 'i want to give my students the chance of winning a round of golf in exchange of ' didn't make anything for me.

I am trying to get a hold of people who pruchased a new car, I think the Department of Licensing or department of motor vehicles would have their list. Basically anyone who buys a Porche, Benz, Ferrari, BMW, Audi is a perfect candidate. Then again, how would you convince them to put your flyer in the dealership.

I know couple of realtors that have agreed to put my brochures in the package they send to the home buyer.

The boat, fish, gun shows are pretty good prospects in that order. Usually people going to the gun show are pretty low end of the income level. Just go the the show and hand out your brochure..

I never explored the radio market but i am cluless about it..

Of course, all these cost money and if you are a start up like I am you have to start making money before you spend one..

Oh, don't forget to insert your shameless plugs as well.. Like here www.AcuWings.com



If you could IM me , i'd like to ask you about becomiing Part 141 too. That's where I am headed and would like to talk to you about your experience.

Cheers..

 

[Steveair]

http://www.beapilot.com/indexfl.html

They usually do a lot of advertising on television and it's nationwide. You'd at least maybe get the locals taht see it.

 

[wheelsup]

We are a newly approved 141, but long time 61, flight school. We have a website and are listed on all the directories and databases, but thinking about paid advertising, banner ads maybe.

As far as your website/internet advertising, start with Airnav, with your home airport. Tell your webmaster to hook up a tracker so you can see the rate of return of it.

-Try to get your site on as many different listings as you can (for free) and don't do any reciprocal links - those just hurt.

-Without looking at your site, I can't tell if its effective at advertising your services or not, or search engine friendly, etc. If you're drawing people to your website with banner ads, you don't want to turn them off when they get there. Also, just throwing a banner ad that says "learn to fly here" isn't going to get noticed, you need something unique that draws the attention (such as 200 hours multi engine etc. etc. etc.).

-If you're a cessna pilot center, cessna provides a source of students that log onto their site and fill out a short form. You can access that database and call those people requesting information. It's effective, I landed 12 students in a month doing that at my first flight school.


~wheelsup

 

[AcroChik]

CurlyD's point about postcards is well taken. We did investigate this option. Our cost per card, when all was said and done, was going to be about a dollar (including the cost of a bulk-mail-zip-presort indicia), because we had thought of putting a color picture on the face to attract the recipient's attention.

It's so easy to get lost in the clutter that appears daily in mailboxes.

The number of prospective students to send the card to, within a 50-mile radius, turned out to be lower than we had at first imagined. People aren't going to come to us for CFI training. This might not be true in your area.

Speaking with a former university colleague of mine, who is now in direct response advertising, I learned that a "bounce-back" (response) rate of 4% is considered high even when a list is "heavily pre-qualified," and that your "conversion" (sales) rate will be some fraction of that. Given that it is a high-ticket service being sold, that may not be a bad thing at all in your particular case. A couple students will pay for the campaign, one imagines.

In our case, given what people are likely to come to our rural field for, this didn't seem like the best way to go. Non-pilots and initial instrument seem to be our audience.

I'm not trying to tell you that post cards are a bad idea, just what our thought process was and why we determined it wasn't an effective tool for us in our specific case.

It was emphasized to me that in any advertising program, multiple "impressions" work best, and so any campaign proves it's worth over time, not in a single execution.

Porsche, Audi, BMW? Absolutely. SUVs? Just as good. A local car dealer who signed on with us and keeps his "classic Mooney" at the field has his brochures at the dealership. We've pulled a few students through this.

Bundling your brochure in realty and other collections of advertising is a great idea.

I recently finished a wonderful book by Malcolm Gladwell, a lucid, insightful writer who has an interesting perspective on things such as marketing, word-of-mouth, and how these things behave like epidemics, spreading far and wide with a life of their own: The Tipping Point. I enthusiastically recommend it to anyone trying to sell, literally, anything.

And directly in line with the thesis presented in the book I'll quote CurlyD: "The best advertising will always come from your instructors' word of mouth."

The truest words in this thread.

 

[GeneralAv]

Why are reciprocal links bad?

Thanks for all the suggestions, we're listed on all the free internet directories and databases, and we are actually doing a pretty good business. But want more, especially for the new 141 designation. We are in a very rural area, but here's the shameless plug. (Is that allowed here?)
Shenandoah Aviation Center

All suggestions appreciated!

 

[wheelsup]

Why are reciprocal links bad?

Thanks for all the suggestions, we're listed on all the free internet directories and databases, and we are actually doing a pretty good business. But want more, especially for the new 141 designation. We are in a very rural area, but here's the shameless plug. (Is that allowed here?)
Shenandoah Aviation Center

All suggestions appreciated!

Ouch! Ok, let's just say that reciprocal links aren't hurting your site placement on search engines. It's the site design itself - in frames. That's 1998 technology . I took a schools site out of frames and it increased their hits 60% the first week, and the referrals from search engines 300%. I'd focus on that if I were you if you want to increase internet search results.

Re: Links ---

I do this stuff for a side business - reciprocal links don't draw search engines to your site, they cancel out what linking was done from another site. The only thing that helps rankings is people linking to you, and you not linking back. That's the way it is.


~wheelsup

 

[Crimson03]

The guy teaching the local FIRCS was/is a career CFI (by choice) anyway he claimed to have the best luck at building trades trade shows, those guys have plenty of money and according to him are into flying at a much higher percentage than the luxury car/country club crowd.