Advertising

 Most experienced and long serving driving instructors will tell you that they get all their pupils by “word of mouth”. This may well be so in the case of good instructors who are regularly graded with a top mark on their ‘Check Test’. In practice even they, during quiet periods, have to from time to time actively find pupils. There is only one way to do this and that is by ‘advertising’.

The saying is that “It pays to advertise”, but it is also equally true that you have to “Pay TO advertise”. However, it need not necessarily be expensive.

Hoping that you will get a good start by putting the word around via relatives and friends simply will not work and you will be out of ‘work’ before you really get started. There are various ways in which you can generate a good and constant flow of pupils and these are outlined below. They all work to a greater or lesser degree.

1.        Most obvious of these is Yellow Pages. A well laid out properly worded sizable advertisement covering your area may well cost as much as £1000 for a full year. This may sound a lot, but to put it in context it will work out at only 65 pence per lesson. If it only provides one new pupil per week taking an average of 30 lessons each it will more than cover the cost. (you work the maths out – 52 pupils x 30 hours x £20)

2.        Another useful source of pupils can be a one-off leaflet drop in your area. A properly produced leaflet will at the very least let people know you exist and it will bring in pupils. It need not cost a lot. Printing should be around £10 per thousand and you and your family can distribute them if you do not want to pay for that. The Post Office and various other agencies offer a full distribution service which works out at around a penny per leaflet depending upon where you go. A 10,000 leaflet drop including printing should cost you about 12 pence per lesson.

3.        A less obvious way, but one which works, is a targeted mail shot. This may sound as if it would be expensive in view of postage costs, but in fact it is not. You can purchase a mailing list of all young people in your area that will have their 17^th birthday in the coming year. You then have a leaflet printed, or even a card, which you post to them in advance of their birthday offering them driving lessons, perhaps at a ‘specially’ reduced rate for the first five. It will put your name in front of an eager customer who, even if not booking there and then, may well keep your card for future reference. Such a mailing list is extremely well targeted because it is going out to people who you KNOW cannot drive. The cost of the list should be around £100 per thousand and there would probably be less than that in your area anyway in any given year. With the cost of the list, the printing and the postage added together it should work out at around 20 pence per lesson.

4.        With 60% or more of the population now having access to the internet it is becoming an extremely rewarding method of advertising. Anyone wanting a driving instructor these days is likely to trawl the ‘Net’, after all that is why you are reading this now. Placing an advertisement for example in the DRIVERS WORLD Advertise with Us section will cost you only £100 for a full year of the Premium package, and will bring you a flow of pupils who are actually ‘looking’ for an instructor. This is an extremely cost effective way of advertising – one penny per lesson in fact.

5.        Finally, you will get some enquiries as a result of prospective pupils seeing your ‘headboard’ on top of the car. You should choose a name which is easy to remember without being too gimmicky and ensure your telephone number is clearly shown. The price of the headboard should be around £100 including lettering and depending upon how elaborate it is. This is a one-off cost which over a five year period works out at around one penny per lesson.

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