Should my Aviation School Look Into Aviation Marketing?

I’ve had that question thrown my way on numerous occasions. My answer? It depends on how fast you want your aviation school to grow. Marketing doesn’t happen for the sake of marketing; marketing is a function to directly support sales.

Before trying to decide whether or not you should spend on aviation marketing take a look at two key numbers: your Cost of Acquisition (COCA) and Life Time Value (LTV)

First calculate Cost of Acquisition (COCA)

For most flight schools your COCA will be pretty easy to calculate. Add up all your customer acquisition spends (last 12 months) on: advertisements (newspaper, yellow pages, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, AOPA) + salaries of people who work on sales and marketing (even if that’ you, your time is valuable!) + cost of Intro-Flights and divide by the number of customers you had in the past 12 months.

(Advertisement + Salaries Sales & Marketing + Cost of Intro Flights) ÷ (How many students you received) = COCA per student 

Next let’s take a look at lifetime value (LTV)

Look at what your average student spends with you, anything from first time students, to commercial or CFI certifications. Remember you students (customer) can buy from you multiple times in a long period of time. So, you need to calculate how long your students stay on your aviation school and how much do they spend.

(The average spend per student added up) = LTV

These two numbers represent the unit economic of your individual flight school and now you have a decision to make. Aviation schools can typically be placed into three categories: 

1. They are growing and want to keep growing
2. In the past they’ve grown but things have stagnated
3. Flying is more of a lifestyle business and so growth isn’t a priority

If you select option number 3: “I don’t have a rush of growing my aviation school”

For those lucky enough to be in category number 3 take, congratulations!! Now get off the computer and get back to flying!

If you select option number 1: “We are growing and want to go to the next level”

Let’s start by taking a look at your unit economics. Now ask yourself, how many more customers you’d like and how much it would cost to get you there. If you’re overall marketing spend is less than 10% of your annual revenue you’re actually underspending (The Small Business Administration suggests you spend anywhere 10-12%). If you are spending more than 10% but you’re not getting your desired results it might be time to re-evaluate your strategy and the desired ROI (Return on Investment)

If you select option number 2: “We have grown but now things are slow”

If you’re in category #2 look at the COCA : LTV relationship again, the case might be that you are underspending, or perhaps you need to re-evaluate your goals. You might be at a crossroads. Flying is a dream and something that might have started as a hobby. It’s time to make a decision, how much do you need to sell to make this business something scalable? Is that worth it? What are your S.M.A.R.T. goals?

One way I recommend kick starting growth is through blogging. Blogging creates an audience and it can be a great way to start educating prospective students, the more prospective students you educate, the more likely they are to buy from you. For more information on blogging and strengthening your business content aviation marketing strategy, check out our "free eBook Business Blogging" We can help you learn how to effectively turn your blog into an efficient marketing tool with optimized posts, content ideas and promotion tips.