posted by Ged Wilmot

6 Step Driving School Marketing Plan for Facebook

6 Step Guide – Driving School Marketing Plan for Facebook

Is Facebook a part of your business marketing strategy? Love it or hate it, you would be wise to invest some time in Facebook, as that’s where many of your potential customers are spending their time! Furthermore, many of your competitors are undoubtedly reaping the rewards of Facebook marketing – and if you’re not, you are losing out.

Are you stuck using the ‘old skool’ way of advertising and marketing your driving school, e.g. leaflet drops, advertising in shop windows, local newspaper and magazine adverts, Yellow Pages, Thomson Local? This type of marketing has its pitfalls – it can be very expensive to advertise in local media and directories and very time-consuming to traipse around your town delivering leaflets and postcards. Let’s face it, leaflets are generally perceived as more of a nuisance than a help to homeowners, so they might actually do more harm than good!

If you are using these strategies and you are seeing a good return on investment – great! Keep doing it. But if you’re looking to further increase your client-base and pupil numbers, definitely take a look at Facebook. It’s easy, accessible from your computer or mobile devices, and (for the most part) FREE!

Facebook can help significantly boost your profile

Most ADIs will admit that the best form of marketing is through word-of-mouth recommendation. So there is no better way to spread recommendation than through social media channels, where hundreds, if not thousands of potential clients in your area can hear all about you and your business. Furthermore, when you get to learn more about Facebook, you can actually target specific types of people, from their age, interests and home town, right down to the college they attend and other Facebook pages they may like. You can even legitimately target Facebook ads at people who ‘like’ your competitors’ Facebook pages! But we’ll save that for a later blog article…

We’ve found that having a Facebook page for our driving school is one of the most significant factors in boosting our online presence within our target market. It has been a huge factor in us building a highly successful driving school with 23 instructors, all of whom have full diaries.

So what can you do and where can you get started with Facebook?

Having a Facebook business page is a great way of marketing but it isn’t just about marketing you and your brand. It’s about building trust, engaging with present and future customers and positioning you as a respected and successful instructor or driving school.

When using Facebook, your aim should be to educate, inspire, share stories and post valuable, relevant content. Then every now and again, promote yourself – post a special offer, post photos of pupils that have recently passed with you or your driving school.

Many driving instructors use their own personal profile as a marketing tool instead of having a separate business page. That can work quite well, but you need to understand the pitfalls of doing so, especially if you have not correctly set up your privacy settings to control which groups of your friends can see your content.

I personally use both my personal profile and my business pages for work. But the friends on my personal profile are allocated to specific groups, so I can control who sees what. When I post content or photos relating to something personal about holidays, nights out or my children, for example, ‘Family’ and ‘Close Friends’ see everything I post. ‘ADIs and PDIs I know’ see a little less. ‘Other ADIs and PDIs’ see less still. Those listed under ‘Restricted’ and ‘Limited Profile’ see very little at all. And last but not least, those listed under my ‘Weirdos’ category won’t see any of my non-public content at all!

There are also many advantages of using a Facebook business page – insights, customer star ratings, reviews and advertising being just a few. For a list of 14 benefits of a Facebook Business Page over a Personal Profile, take a look at this excellent article by Jon Loomer.

With more and more people accessing Facebook on their mobile, and especially our target market of 17-25 year olds, can you really afford not to put your face on the book?

Here’s your simple 6-step guide to setting up a Facebook business page

(This guide assumes you are using the Facebook website directly rather than via a mobile app):

In the Facebook header bar, click on the drop down arrow on the far right and click ‘Create Page’. It’s probably best to opt for a ‘Local Business or Place’ as you will be wanting to let people know where you are based. Although your address will show on your page, you don’t have to add your house number if your work address is the same as your home address. On the category dropdown list, just opt for ‘Local Business’ for now. Complete all your details and click ‘Get Started’.

On the next page, you will be prompted to provide some more details about your business. You can now select ‘Driving School’ from the category section, complete the ‘about section’ and add in your website address. Also on this page, you can choose a unique Facebook web address to make it easier for people to find your Page. Make sure your URL has your driving school name, not just the default Facebook generated URL. Your Facebook address should be formatted in the following way: www.facebook.com/yourdrivingschoolname. This will make it easier for your customers to find you on Facebook and it will help with your search engine optimisation (SEO) as Google ranks Facebook highly. For this reason, don’t be surprised if your Facebook business page appears above your main website in searches. This is great news if your actual website doesn’t rank highly just yet!
(If you already have an active Facebook business page and want to change your Facebook URL, go onto your business page and click ‘Edit Page’ at the top, then ‘Update page info’ and then click on ‘edit’ next to ‘Facebook Web Address’. Note that you can only change your Facebook URL once!)

Choose an appealing profile picture. A smiley picture of you in your car will appeal to potential customers. People buy from people so make your page as personable as possible. Using your company logo isn’t usually a good idea – your potential clients aren’t interested in a logo – they want to see who they are going to be buying from. If you’re photo-shy or perhaps feel your photo might turn potential customers away, then perhaps use a photograph of a happy pupil, smiling broadly with their driving test pass certificate. Please don’t be tempted to rip a photo from Google images or use a stock photo – your profile image is your first point of contact from which your potential customers will glean their first impression. Make sure it’s a good one!

Once your business page is set up, make sure you link your personal profile page to your business page. Then if people find you using your name, they can easily click through to your business page. To do this, go to your Facebook personal profile, click on ‘About’ and add your new page to ‘Work and Education’. Then on your personal profile, your business will be displayed in your about section and people can click straight through to your business page from your personal page.

Make sure you also utilise the ‘About’ section on your business page. Let potential customers know that you can offer what they want. The about section also lets you add hours of opening, a contact number and links to other social media sites that you may use (Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram, etc). Make sure you include links to your company website.

Use your cover photo wisely. Again choose an appealing photo for your cover but then add words including a clear call to action. For example, below you can see the cover photo we used this Spring on our Facebook business page – ‘Call us now and pass for Summer! 0161 345 3452’. Also make sure you add a description so when people click on the cover image there are more details and further calls to action, e.g. ‘Start learning now and take advantage of our great deals! Call us: 01234 567 890, Visit our website: www.drivingschool.com, Follow us on Twitter: @drivingschool’

So that’s how to set up your Facebook page in 6 easy steps. Easy, wasn’t it?!

The next step is to start using your Facebook page to grow a fan base (‘fans’ being people who ‘like’ your page). Don’t worry if your ‘likes’ don’t grow overnight. It’s more about QUALITY than QUANTITY. The key is to grow a fan base of people in your coverage area who match your target market. This won’t happen by itself and you will need to invest some time into growing your business page. Look out for our upcoming article on how to build ‘likes’ and use your new Facebook business page effectively.

There’s so much you can do with Facebook. We haven’t even touched on insights, apps and Facebook Ads yet!

What have been your experiences with Facebook? Have you been using it actively and what results have you got? Please post your comments below so that others can benefit.

Finally, if you liked this article, please share it by clicking one of the buttons below!

posted by Ged Wilmot

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10 Tips to Reduce Driving Lesson Cancellations

Time is precious. And for driving instructors, lost time equals lost income. Using the top ten tips to Reduce Driving Lesson Cancellations can save you time and money. Yes, it’s great to be able to catch up on other essential business matters when last-minute lesson cancellations arise, but we all have bills to pay. So what can we do to minimise cancellations and loss of income? Here are 10 top tips:

Reduce Driving Lesson Cancellations – Top Tips!

Tip 1 – Be upfront and honest:

In our experience, this is the number one way to reduce your cancellation rate. Don’t take it for granted that pupils will understand the ins and outs of self-employment, because the vast majority won’t. For those of you that are franchisees, many learner drivers will incorrectly believe that you are paid a wage by the company named on your roof sign, so when they cancel, they’re actually not affecting you at all – as far as they’re concerned, the ‘company’ just loses out. For most people (and especially teenagers), this will be the first time that they will be held financially accountable for cancelling an appointment of any kind. Try to think from your pupil’s perspective – they don’t have to pay when cancelling their dentist, doctor or hairdressing appointment! So why does their driving instructor want paying for a lesson they haven’t provided?! Don’t expect them to be psychic or to just read the fine print about cancellations on your website or on the back of their appointment card. Whether you work for yourself or on a franchise, take a few minutes to candidly explain how important it is that they give you plenty of notice if they need to cancel. Don’t put it across in a threatening way – just explain in an honest and friendly tone how it affects you and your business if they cancel at late notice. At the same time, make your commitment to them – that if you ever need to change their lesson date or time, that you will compensate them too. This builds trust and shows your integrity – they are much more likely to respect you for it. Outline the conditions for cancellation (see below) and end the conversation by simply asking for their verbal understanding, “so are we OK with that, or do you need me to clarify anything?” Ignore this first tip at your peril – if you decide not to heed this advice, don’t be shocked when a pupil who’s called a few hours before their lesson to cancel gets a bit shirty when you tell them they’ll have to pay for it!

Tip 2 – Have clear, accessible Terms & Conditions

Having clear terms and conditions is a must if you want to enforce payments for cancellations. Terms and conditions need to be fair and work both ways. If your customer cancels and is held financially accountable, surely it’s only right that you offer some form of compensation if you cancel, too? Make your terms and conditions easily available, have them on your website and appointment cards. Go through cancellation policies at the time of booking and/or on the first lesson. Even so, it can be hard to enforce and if reliable customers have a genuine reason for cancelling, waiving the cancellation on that occasion can make good business sense. You don’t want to lose an otherwise reliable customer all because you charged her for a lesson when she was in hospital with her son.

Tip 3 – Don’t GIVE them the excuse!

I remember meeting an ADI for some skills development training a few years ago. He was really down-in-the-dumps about his cancellation rate, which in that particular week was over 50%! I asked him about his terms and conditions, how he explained them to his pupils, and how strictly he enforced them. His reply went something like this: “Yes Ged, I tell them that they have to give me 48 hours’ notice of any cancellations, otherwise I’ll charge them. But obviously if they’re ill, I don’t want their germs, so it’s fine to cancel then” When I asked him what the pupils’ reasons for cancelling that week was, can you guess what his reply was? Yes, you got it – “they’re all ill”. Hardly surprising, was it? It’s a good idea to waive the lesson fee if your pupil is genuinely poorly, but don’t tell them in advance that this will be the case, or else the same excuse will be used every time they just can’t be bothered with their driving lesson!

Tip 4 – Keep regular lesson slots

Where possible, keeping the same time and day for pupils can help reduce the likelihood of them cancelling. Having the same time allows the customer to plan the rest of their week around this regular commitment. When lessons are moved around a lot it’s easy for the pupil to ‘forget’ when their lesson was or double book that lesson time with some other commitment. Also, bear in mind that if you keep changing their lesson time around from week to week, they’ll expect you to allow them to do the same. Having said that, do bear in mind that learners will benefit from experiencing driving at different times of day, so moving a lesson time to another ‘regular slot’ for a few weeks should work well.

Tip 5 – Be reliable

This is one that I feel is extremely important. I like to treat others the way I want to be treated. So if you want your customers to be reliable, you need to lead by example. It may suit you to ask that customer if they can do their lesson earlier (because someone else has cancelled) or if they can do a different day (because you don’t want to go out for just their lesson that afternoon) but be warned! If you think it’s acceptable to expect them to regularly change their plans for you, they will the same in return!

Tip 6 – Take payment in advance

When Claire worked as an independent ADI, she asked for payment in advance. On the first lesson, she charged for 2 lessons. This never caused a problem and she always made her cancellation policy clear. If she had a cancellation, it was already paid for and they would need to bring payment for 2 lessons next time to be in advance again. If you’re on a franchise, you may be restricted by the policies of your franchise agreement, but if you’re independent this is a good way to reduce cancellations AND be paid for the cancellations that you do get. Claire noticed a big drop in cancellation rates when she started implementing this method. Great tip on how to reduce driving lesson cancellations and not lose money or a client.

Tip 7 – Encourage block bookings

It’s much easier to charge for cancellations when you have the money up front. Block booking discounts offer an incentive for customers to pay for 10 hours at a time, but is your incentive enough? We noticed a big difference in the amount of pre-payments for blocks of 10 hours when we put our hourly rate up but kept the block booking the same. Instead of a £10 discount, customers get £20 discount (almost the price of a 1 hour lesson!). Now customers are much more likely to take advantage of the £20 saving.

Tip 8 – Buy slots in advance

In really restricted weeks (such as the week between Christmas and New Year), it may be an idea to book slots well in advance. Not all of us like working these days, I didn’t as a full day of lessons soon became a day with a lesson in the morning and one in the afternoon after the cancellations had come in (family party/ill/hungover, etc). The next year I decided to ‘sell’ these slots on a first-come-first-served basis. I would have slots available for each day I worked and if my learners wanted a lesson between Christmas and New Year, they would pay for it in advance to secure the slot. Do keep the money separate though! If you can’t do the lesson for whatever reason (e.g. adverse weather or illness), they have still paid for a lesson and you don’t want to work the first week in January knowing you’ve already spent the money for those rescheduled lessons!

Tip 9 – Give out appointment cards

I think most ADIs use appointment cards, but there are still some that don’t. Yes, the pupil forgets to bring it sometimes, or they lose it. Simple answer for that – give them a new one. Just one lost lesson at £24 will pay for a bulk purchase of around 1,000 cards, so it really is worth the investment! Use one side of the appointment card to outline your terms and conditions – this way your pupil always has them to hand when they’re thinking of calling to reschedule their lesson.

Tip 10 – Reminder texts or emails

SMS reminders or emails can be sent out to your pupils, manually or automatically, to remind them of their lesson time and date. A message can be sent out a couple of days in advance of their lesson so that they remember when their lesson is booked for. Results for this strategy can vary. When we had these for our driving school customers, some instructors said they reduced cancellations and some said they had more last minute cancellations. We’d be interested to hear what your experience has been if you use reminder texts or emails. What other strategies do you use to minimise cancellations and loss of income? Was has worked well and what hasn’t worked so well? We’d love to hear your stories so that others can benefit from them too. Finally, if you liked this article, about how to Reduce Driving Lesson Cancellations please share it on Facebook and Twitter – simply hit one of the social media buttons below. Thanks!

posted by Claire Wilmot

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What makes SUCCESS?

Things have changed a lot in the 16 years I’ve been part of the driving instruction industry, and the way in which I have run my driving school has had to change keep up. One thing that hasn’t changed though is my definition of success.

From starting as an independent driving instructor as soon as I qualified, to starting a multi-car school 4 years later, I’ve learnt to adapt along the way. So what are those changes I’ve had to make? I’d like to share them with you, as I’m hoping you may find some of the following information useful.

The Road to Success

Back in 1997, I set up as “Claire Moores’ School of Motoring”. Right from the start I was incredibly busy. I think I had the low number of ADIs and the large number of 17 year olds partially to thank. Other things that I think contributed were:

Being female – there were less female driving instructors to choose from.
Using my name – gives a more personal touch and learners looking for a female instructor knew from looking at my car (and looking at me hopefully!) that I was a female driving instructor.
Doing a good job – Recommendations contributed to probably 99% of my work.
My desire to better myself – Launching myself headlong into a journey of CPD, this made me a better ADI and my confidence grew with everything I learnt.

4 years later in 2001, I set up a driving school with a business partner, Glyn. We looked to build a multi-car school. This went from strength to strength, with 26 instructors at the height. So what did we do to ensure that outcome?

I was responsible for training most of the instructors we had working at the school
We had a great team of instructors
I used to nag our instructors to do CPD, and not always with a positive outcome!
We spent heavily on advertising – a whopping £9000 a year on our Yellow Pages advert alone!
My business partner and I were excellent at converting calls into customers
We later had to go online and our first website was launched in 2005
Shopping centre promotions proved a big hit

Things were going good until the recession hit in 2008/2009. Business got harder and supporting the amount of instructors we had was going to get tough. We had to adapt.

Changes we made:

Now all the cars were to be sign written and about 6 instructors didn’t want their cars done (they were their own cars), so we had to part ways
Prices were reduced from an earlier price rise a year or two before
We introduced a first lesson half price offer
A second and better website was launched
Directory advertising continued
We had stands at trade shows
We encouraged the instructors to promote themselves and get more recommendations and introduced a franchise review where the franchise was reduced the less work they took directly from us.

At the lowest point during the recession, we had 13 instructors and from that point onwards it was about growing organically. We built up again steadily and today we have 20 instructors. So what has worked and what hasn’t? We have always monitored where new learners found out about us and this helps target the right kind of marketing. Here are our findings:

What doesn’t work well?

Newspaper advertising: I did this once when I was independent and got one new learner – I didn’t bother with it again after that! As a multi-car school, we tried it several times without much success. My guess is that not many 17 year olds read the newspaper! Is it where parents may look? Possibly in days gone by, but probably not now in this age of technology.
Directory advertising: This worked well for a number of years pre-internet. Almost everyone used the books to find what they needed. Again, in this age of technology, the books have become a poor investment for new customer leads. We haven’t used them for about 4 years.
Leaflet drops: These are notorious for their low conversion rate. Does anyone who lives at that house want to learn to drive? And if so, will they see your leaflet before it goes in the bin? Is it likely to be filed ready for when someone in that house is ready to learn to drive? The probable place it will be filed is in the recycling bin!

What can work:

Directory web sites: In my opinion, not a good way to invest. Most people searching for a driving school want to see a driving school website in as little clicks as possible, and going through a directory only lengthens the process. However, sites that allow reviews can work well and, if linked to your website, can boost your search rankings.
Trade shows: If targeted properly these can get leads, especially if you are willing to give away lessons as a prize draw; it’s a great way of getting email addresses from potential future customers.
‘Staff discounts’ for people working at a particular place. For example, offering discounts for anyone working at your local McDonalds (most people working there will be in your target age range).
Printed butty bags: At carefully located butty shops near colleges, your name will be seen literally every college day by all the students buying their lunch (or dinner depending on where you’re from!).
Shopping centre promotions: Our local shopping centre was within walking distance of the two main colleges in Oldham and our stand always used to be outside Greggs, which was very handy when the students were queuing to get their lunch!

What does work (for us anyway!):

Recommendations! This continues to be one of our main sources of work. An excellent reputation virtually guarantees referral after referral.
Sign-written cars: Especially if Mum or Dad are responsible for finding a driving instructor for their son or daughter, it can create a more ‘professional’ image. I would guess that the majority of Mums and Dads booking with BSM and AA do so because they ‘appear’ to be the more professional and more established driving schools. It also makes cars stand out and people notice them more. I’ve lost count of how many times people say to me ‘I see your cars EVERYWHERE!’
A top ranking website: This is a MUST for us. A website will only work if it features highly on search engines when potential customers look for ‘driving lessons Oldham’ and such like. I think it’s also important to have good content and make it customer focused rather than instructor led (where have we heard that before?!).
Facebook and other social media – Love it or loathe it, it’s where our potential 17 year old customers interact. I’m still learning how to use it (and always will be!), but using Facebook has been the one big most recent change that has found its way into our marketing strategies.
Under 17 Driver Training – We have run our ‘Head Start Programme’ for 15 and 16 year olds since 2003. It really helps younger drivers get to grips with the basics of car control in a safe, off-road environment before they start driving on the road at 17. When they do turn 17, the majority of them book their driving lessons with us.

None of these strategies would work for long though without an excellent team of instructors to back us up. Who you choose to represent your driving school is one of the most important business decisions you can make. Anyone who doesn’t measure up has to go; you can’t afford for the reputation of your instructors to be tarnished by one that isn’t doing anything less than a great job!

I know there are many other things that you can do to market a driving school, either as a sole trader or a multi-car school, but really think about where to spend your time and money. Find a few things that make a big difference and work on them rather than doing lots of little things that make a small difference.

In future posts we will look at what works well in more detail.

So what’s my interpretation of ‘success’ in business? If you’re still interested and you’ve read this all the way to the end……

‘Success is finding something you love to do, doing it well and always striving to do it better. Success for me isn’t about financial reward, it’s about achieving excellence and being the best!’

ACTION STEP: Write down YOUR definition of ‘success’ in business. List the strategies that are working for you at bringing in new business. What strategies aren’t working so well? What new strategies will you start to implement? When will you start?

We’d love to hear your stories of what strategies are working well for you and your driving school, so please add your comments below. And remember, if you liked this article and know someone else that could benefit from it, please hit one of the social sharing buttons below!