Marketing Tips for Charter Bus Companies

 

Charter bus companies must fight to earn customer loyalty and brand awareness in a fiercely competitive marketplace. Becoming a preferred charter bus company means growing your business with marketing tactics that attract and retain passengers.

Potential customers learn about your charter bus business through digital and traditional marketing. You must capture prospective passengers’ interest by explaining your offerings and why they should choose you instead of a competitor. Check out this list of the best marketing ideas to drive more leads.

Research the Industry

Researching the industry and marketplace is the best way to create an effective marketing plan. To stand out from your competitors, start by learning who they are and how they sell themselves to prospects. Understanding your target audience and competitors is an excellent way to generate leads. When researching, focus on the following.

• Pricing: Learn how much your competitors charge per passenger or bus. You want your prices to be similar or better. If they are higher, you need to justify it by explaining the benefits — for instance, if your business features amenities other companies don’t. 
• Customer service: What level of customer service do your competitors offer? Try to exceed it to make your company the better option.
• Amenities: Learn what amenities competitors provide, like air conditioning, Wi-Fi or TV screens. Try to have the same luxuries or better so your company draws attention.
• Main buyers: To decide where to focus most of your attention, determine your competitors’ target audience, whether individuals, tour agencies or travel agents. 

After your initial research, you can create a target audience. With such a large market of potential customers, it can take time to meet everyone’s needs. So, focus on a specific demographic and tailor your marketing messages and services to that group.

Sign up for BusRates

One of the best marketing tips is to sign up for a directory website. They are an excellent way to make your large- or small-scale charter bus business known. People looking for a bus for a road trip will likely search online. Typically, prospective clients know what they want or have a general idea, so narrowing the options by using BusRates appeals to them.

BusRates generates daily inquiries for charter buses, resulting in more quote requests. Other benefits of BusRates include the following.

• Receiving real-time quote requests: When a customer submits a quote request, we deliver it directly to the charter bus company. The quotes are from actual, prospective customers.
• Attracting buyers: You can set your listing apart by including photos and footage of your fleet to show what makes your charter bus business unique.
• Competing in multiple markets: Our website helps you expand your business. You can compete in various markets with one click.
• Generating more leads: Optimizing your listing on our site can generate up to 50% more charter bus leads for your business venture.
• Growing your marketing database: BusRates sees plenty of website traffic for the charter bus services industry. You can expect to attract more business by advertising your small business in a directory.
• Dealing directly with customers: We don’t act as a broker between you and customers. You always deal directly with future clients.

Build a Quality Mobile-Friendly Website

You want to ensure your website reflects your brand, is well-designed and mobile-friendly. Today, 92% of Americans own a smartphone, and 15% only access the internet from their smartphones. The estimated population in the U.S. is 332,403,650, and 15% is nearly 50 million people. If your website is mobile-friendly, you could benefit from targeting smartphone-only internet users.

To make your website more user-friendly:

• Feature your booking engine on your homepage.
• Remove any unnecessary visuals, content and information. You want everything on your website to have a purpose.
• Make essential information like service changes and announcements easily visible.
• Ensure your mobile-optimized site is unique and easy to navigate.
• Outline your services.
• Design your webpage to reflect your brand and convey your message. For example, you could create a company logo, feature it on your website and design your site with consistent colors and fonts.

In addition, ensure your website quickly answers these three customer questions: 

1. What are your services? You can answer this by showcasing your vehicles and services. Discuss the amenities you offer and prominently display your newest charter buses.
2. How can I contact you? Make it simple for the customer to contact you and book your services. Include various contact methods, such as a phone number, email address and instant chat.
3. Why should I trust you? Establish a relationship with your clients by responding to their requests. Streamline your booking system by offering a quote, a way to collect payment and professional and prompt service while on the job.

Create a Robust Social Media Presence

You can reach a broader audience by using social media to promote your company. However, successfully maintaining your online presence may prove challenging on top of your other daily responsibilities. A professional social media manager can be an invaluable addition to your marketing team. You can focus on only one platform if you’d rather not hire a social media manager. 

Once you decide which site to use to reach your target audience, try to create daily posts. Ensure your tone is professional, creative and approachable. If someone reaches out to you, respond as soon as you can. Showcase what makes your company different and why you’re passionate about it. Share your startup story to help others connect with your brand and learn more.

Request and Display Testimonials

Testimonials provide proof to others that they can trust your company. Reviews may be the nudge they need to choose you over competitors. The best time to request reviews is immediately after clients use your services. Everything is fresh in their mind, and they might be more likely to write about their experience. 

Always respond to your reviews, even the negative ones. Negative reviews are a fantastic opportunity to receive criticism and decide what to improve so you satisfy your customers. Here are some tips for responding to negative reviews.

• Address the reviewer: Use their name instead of a generic greeting.
• Thank them: Be appreciative for the review to show your company values feedback.
• Apologize: Offer your condolences for whatever caused their negative experience.
• Take responsibility: Reassure the customer that you hold your company to the highest standards.
• Make things right: Find some way to appease the passenger, like assuring them that you’ll take their feedback to heart or offering them a discount. 

Responding to customer reviews shows people that you care and want everyone to have a good experience. Make sure to display the reviews and your answers on your website.

Create Content

One reliable marketing trend is publishing new blog posts on your website. This fresh content can help direct people to your webpage through search engine optimization. For example, a customer could search for “best places to travel in the United States in 2023.” If you’ve written a blog post about that topic, your website will appear in their search results.

When the client clicks the link for the blog post, they’ll land on your website. You can create a call to action at the end of the blog post to promote your services and what sets you apart from your competition.

Ensure the content you create is relevant to what you offer. In addition to blog posts, you can post videos such as walk-through tours of your popular charter buses or interviews with your team members about why they love working at your company. 

Partner With Influencers

You must establish a reliable reputation to promote your business. Aside from testimonials, you can inspire trust by working with influencers. 

An influencer’s job is to maintain a social media presence, project an image, gain followers and maintain trust. So, if an influencer goes on a trip and recommends your charter bus service, some of their followers will take that advice, and you’ll gain more customers. Find influencers for your target audience and reach out to them to establish a partnership and promote your company.

Implement an Email Marketing Strategy

Most Americans have at least one email account, which makes email marketing an effective strategy. You can start an e-newsletter to promote your business and develop a relationship with your clients. You could also try emailing: 

• Discounts
• Company updates
• Sales promotions
• New blog posts

Establish a Loyalty Program

Attracting new customers is only half the goal of marketing. Ultimately, your objective is to foster a community of loyal consumers. You can maintain your clients by offering a loyalty program or other incentives, so they use your service again. A loyalty program is practical and informative. It allows you to gather data about your customers and their preferences to improve your offerings.

Offer Promotions

If you have an online booking system, you can use a promo code campaign to promote your services and track the results. You can create a custom advertisement featuring the code and display it on your website, social media channels and newsletters. Flyers are an excellent option if you want to implement traditional marketing strategies. 

Promo code marketing strategies increase consumer awareness. You can see how many people booked your services based on the promo code and adjust your marketing strategy or target audience. Additionally, promo code campaigns are short-term, so they are cost-effective.

Aside from promo codes, you can offer discounts and coupons. People love to feel like they are getting a good deal and saving money on the things they need and want.

Respond to Quote Requests

The most common complaint among BusRates users is that the charter company doesn’t respond to their quote request, which leads to customer dissatisfaction. Here are some tips to ensure you always respond to quote inquiries.

• Set up an auto-reply: If you cannot provide an immediate quote, you can designate a company email address to receive the requests. The email address can send an auto-reply, keeping customers happy until you can reply. The auto-reply should include your company’s information and highlights to promote it subtly. Include a phone number and instructions to call for a quicker response if you are more accessible by phone.
• Inform customers when booked: Be honest if your buses are unavailable for their chosen dates, and suggest alternative motorcoaches. If you don’t have any alternatives available, it’s still courteous to inform the customer. It also advertises your company to them.
• Check spam filters: Sometimes, the quotes don’t reach the right people in your company. Mail servers can block quote requests because they include the customer’s reply-to address. Additionally, responses to quote requests from the customer may end up in the spam folder. So, you’ll want to check your spam folders daily to ensure you don’t miss any quote requests. 

Invest in Search Engine Optimization

SEO has been around for years and is one of the most trusted and profitable ways to advertise your business. Unfortunately, it is competitive. With so many companies trying to optimize for keywords like “charter bus rentals,” it’s easier to focus on a niche market. For example, you can choose specific keywords like “sports travel charter bus rental” for your content to rank.

Search engines offer ads for you to rank for your chosen keywords. You can also look into digital marketing companies that specialize in creating SEO content.

Make Safety and Cleanliness a Priority

You can attract customers by advertising your buses as clean and safe. Routine maintenance and cleaning can give you a leg up on the competition. Additionally, you can showcase your drivers’ experience and safety training on your company website.

Invest in Luxury Amenities

Try to offer desirable luxuries. You can take pictures showcasing comforts such as leather seats or TV screens. Including these pictures on BusRates can attract customers.

Create a Marketing Plan

Decide which marketing strategies you want to implement and create a plan to promote your business. Include a mixture of digital and traditional marketing tactics to reach as many people as possible. Choose promotional tactics and publicity that target your audience and convey your brand. For instance, if you wanted to focus on group travel, you could promote your company as “luxury charter buses for group travel.”

Get More Customers With BusRates

Bring your company to the forefront of the market with BusRates. Our website is an easy-to-use platform that connects customers with charter bus companies. We make it simple for clients to request a quote from your company. Their quote requests go directly to you — we don’t act as brokers.

Since customers can specify what they are searching for, the ones that reach out to your company are more likely to choose you. We can help you generate more business. Sign up for our website today as the first step in your new marketing strategy.