Flying is one of the greatest feelings any person could experience. You and I know that to be true because we’ve done it before.
However, if you’ve never flown a plane, and you want to, you’re probably going to go to Google and ask, how do I become a pilot?
Times have changed, but in the past there were two main avenues an aviation school would generate new students - visits and word of mouth.
Visiting the aviation school
Past: People who were interested in flying had to come to an instructor or aviation school to find out all the details: how much does it cost? what are the requirements? how old do you have to be? and how long does it take? This will allowed schools to have a direct contact with future pilots and start a close, tight knit relationship from the beginning.
Present: Today, potential students don’t really need to leave the comfort of their own home to get their questions answered. Google (or Yahoo, or Bing) becomes the first point of contact as they begin their research. In other words, a prospective student doesn’t need anyone before he or she can make up his, or her, own mind.
Word of Mouth
Past: a word of mouth referral will always be the best source of leads. Someone is talking great about you because he or she wants to! This the most common methods used by flight schools to generate students. However, if they become dependent on word of mouth, they put their hopes on the shoulders of strangers who don't have a vested self interest. In other words, I might be happy with the service, but I am in no way obliged to tell everyone how great the service was. Word of mouth is limited by the time and ability to the actual or former student pilot to refer a potencial student to his/her school. Growth does not relate it to the schools’ efforts but the time available and the capacity of the students to communicate their experience with anyone who is interested
This is problematic because of two reasons, number one, it hurts your ability to produce quality service to everyone. If you don’t know how many students you might get in a given month you might not have enough bandwidth to manage everyone’s expectations, and the last thing you want to do is provide a bad service, harming the reputation of your school.
Secondly, you can’t predictively grow. Schools need to predict how much income is coming in month after month. This is how they can afford to hire, acquire more planes, and provide a better service. If you don’t know how many students are coming in in a quarter, or next month even, you won’t be able to effectively plan for growth and the school will stagnate.
Present: If a student refers your school to a friend, chances are the friend will ask “what’s the website?”
The consumer is in control. They do not have to go and visit the school; if they are referral by someone else they will still conduct research online to find what is the best option out there. Schools that do not provide the information they seek are thirsty losing territory to other schools that already have a stake in the internet. It is clear that before taking any decision a prospect will do some research on the options she/he has before contact any aviation school.
Well, how we can attract more future pilots?
Through Inbound Marketing your flight school can more easily connect with prospective pilots and begin to create a framework to ensure consistent and predictable growth for the future. These are the four basic stages your school needs to concentrate in order to achieve the goal.
Attract Strangers to you Flight School
Blog impacts customer acquisition frequency. 92% of companies who blogged multiple times a day acquired a customer through their blog. (HubSpot State of Inbound Marketing, 2012)
As aviation school you have so much content that you can share on the internet through a blog. This blog should be use as an educational tool where you answer common questions and challenges your prospects pilots might have to make their dreams a reality. Every time a blog post is published on your website is a gateway to new pilots. Once these blog post are published on your website. It is the time to share them on social networks to capture more users with the same doubts.
By blogging you’re also creating an avenue for future growth. Think of blog articles as assets that add up. Every blog post you add/ every question you answer, you’re creating one more avenue for students to find you. Maybe today you publish one and in a week you publish another one - now you have two, and these continue to work.
Convert your actual website visit in contacts
Companies with 30 or more landing pages generate more leads than 7x Those with fewer than 10 (HubSpot)
Once you've attracted the prospective pilots you want to know who they are. Offer some kind of content offer, like a checklist, eBook, a seminar, maybe a video. You share these through landing pages where a visitor exchanges information for high value content. You're sharing creating a win / win for both parties.
Close actual contact in future pilots
50% of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy. (Source: Gleanster Research)
Now that you have the information you need to track the prospect’s activity on the website. You can now be relevant with the information you provide! It’s not about spam. It’s about adding value. If a student is looking at a beginners course, send him or her information on beginners. If you have a more advanced pilot, send him or her more information on classes for advanced pilots! Nurturing with emails will take your prospect by the hand and guide them until they’re ready to make the decision to register for your flight school.
Delight your current and former students
Now is the time to make current and former students ambassadors of your school. Create content and delight them with events! Monitor what is happening in social networks and provide them the tools and relevant content for their journey. This will be more easy for them to promote your school.
By following these 4 steps you'll be able to close the cycle of marketing for your aviation school. You'll also have a framework for determining how fast you can grow! The future needs to have a scalable growth.
Related Article: How Inbound Marketing Can Revolutionize Aviation School Recruiting
photo credit: PeterThoeny via photopin cc
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