Marketing Private Hire Business

[Krprop]

Hi

A friend of mine has a 8 seater mini bus and he does airport runs, clubs, hospital trips, school runs etc

He’s printed 10,000 leaflets and has been putting them out everywhere he can think of.

He also has a Facebook page which his daughter actively posts on with competitions, offers, discounts etc

But he’s still not very busy, he’s asked me for advice to get more business so I thought i would ask on here.

He’s cheaper than the completion so I don’t think pricing is the issue.

Thank you for your help.

Kiran

 

[Mr D]

What customer market is he aiming for preferably?

Just thinking airport runs and school runs can be problematic with one vehicle. Kids to school for 8.45, people to airport an hour away by 9.30, picking up from same airport at 2.30 and dropping off half hour away from where picking up at school at 3.30....? Never mind half hour delay in flight arriving - come back to do school run or wait for airport passengers?

My parents have been frequent fliers and always took a taxi to airport if it was their local one. Booked a local firm in their area for airport taxis. One car down or delayed, no problems another was available.

A couple of my old employers used taxis for airport transfers rather than covering car parking. They used corporate contracts with taxi companies.

 

[Dario.c]

He should be looking to market a bit himself in the digital marketplace. Does he have a website? maybe can run some partnership that can provide him leads?

I would look into building a website that would highlight my services.

 

[Paul Murray]

He also has a Facebook page which his daughter actively posts on with competitions, offers, discounts etc

She's doing it wrong. Organic growth on Facebook for small business is pretty much dead, you need to pay to have content seen, and that's only half the battle, you'll need to test multiple variations of ads to get the best response rate.

The flyer could also be an issue – what it says, how it looks, and especially where it's located. Hard to advise without seeing it really. Don't forget Uber makes it really convenient to book a ride that will be there in minutes. A lot of people now prefer to just tap their phone rather than actually speak to someone. And no need to keep a flyer around the place.

 

[Jason Howard]

shopping centres are a great place to advertise

 

[comperio]

As was said, make a website and get either organic traffic or PPC (adwords) traffic to your website.

The problem with leaflets is, how many people are you going to find who are looking to hire a minimus to the airport? On the other hand if you have a nice website and do either SEO or PPC campaigns to it, then only (or mostly) the people who are looking for your service will come to your site.

So instead of chasing demand, get the demand to chase and find you in google.

 

[Mitch3473]

From my rental days mini bus hire was very seasonal, usually summer hols and christmas plus the odd weekend. It also helps if he has some connection with local authorities, schools, councils etc

 

[technick1]

Google places / reviews. It's the first place most people will look for nowadays for non Uber Taxis

 

[Andy Harris]

He needs to be in the right place at the right time. I haven't seen his online presence, but hope this contributes in some way ...

1. Map out his target geography (how far radius around he will travel for initial pickup).

2. Create Facebook videos that act as lead bait and pay to advertise them to the geographic/demographics target area (e.g. men and women aged X to Y). They will get very cheap views/clicks in his geographical target area/demographics.

The lead bait would not focus on his core business, but on something that gets someone to a page that then allows remarketing/retargeting to happen. For example, a short video that focuses on how to be safe when using any form of hired transport, that gets people to a page that has more detail.

3. Those that get to his page can be retargeted with adverts about his core services. For example, Facebook tracking pixel/Google remarketing.

4. Those people will keep seeing his adverts online and some of them will want to re-engage at a later stage when they are ready to engage his type of services.

The key here is finding ways (click bait, but with value to the people) to get people to go to a website page, that then enables those people to be followed for months afterwards with adverts that promote the core business.

 

[southerntrader]

I own an 80 vehicle taxi fleet with an annual turnover of £3m +. He’s better off joining a company, paying his commission and living a stress free life! Unless he’s got a minimum of £10k to get him off the ground I wouldn’t bother. You can earn £50k a year stress free with some normal working hours with some of the better chauffeur based companies.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I think a website with good local SEO and a good job done on the Google business places listing would be a strong advantage

Facebook does work but many people misunderstand how and what type of businesses this should apply too .
I have a couple of customers that have built their whole businesses on Facebook but these are hobby based or home improvement type companies where it is fun to interact. This does not apply to anybody in the transport industry

Try to find the local /education contact and approach them too I also find that when looking for long term contracts this often achieved by old fashioned could calling

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I own an 80 vehicle taxi fleet with an annual turnover of £3m +. He’s better off joining a company, paying his commission and living a stress free life! Unless he’s got a minimum of £10k to get him off the ground I wouldn’t bother. You can earn £50k a year stress free with some normal working hours with some of the better chauffeur based companies.

This would depend on the area that the Op is based if he applied this to a rural area he may need some more hobbies

 

[Cash Cow]

He needs a Google Business page (Google it).
That's going to mean people find him locally when they search for his services.

I'd say, for a private taxi firm it's pretty much a must-have.