The best way to promote your business is by establishing your presence where your target audience is. If you are looking for a way to improve the reach of your driving academy and get more new customers, you have come to the right place! In this blog, we’ll share tips on how driving schools like yours can use social media in promoting your driving lessons.
Why Social Media Marketing for Driving Schools?
Almost everyone has at least one social media account. With over 4.26 billion people using social media, promoting your driving school on these platforms is a no-brainer. Not only is social media great for brand awareness, but it’s also useful in improving the engagement rate of your marketing efforts and staying on top of the minds of your target audience.
Unlike other platforms where potential customers can only communicate with your business through form submissions, leaving a comment under your blog, or submitting a review, social media platforms give you more ways how they can interact with your brand and vice versa. This includes sharing your posts on their newsfeed, tagging your driving academy on their stories, recommending you to their Facebook friends, and a lot more!
Another advantage of using social media as a marketing tool is that it can help you get increased web traffic.
Let’s say you are regularly publishing articles on your driving school’s website. Social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram allow you to attach a link to your blog post on your regular post or through IG stories. When people click on it, they’ll be redirected to your driving school’s website where you can convert them into leads.
How to do social media for driving schools
Step 1: Identify your goal
Having a clear goal for your social media marketing strategy helps you determine whether your online efforts are working or not. Aside from that, it also gives you a sense of direction in achieving your goals.
Here’s a list of marketing goals you can choose from:
- Improve brand awareness
- Get high-quality leads
- Get more new customers
- Improve customer engagement rate
- Increase web traffic
Step 2: Choose your target audience
The social media platforms that are mainly used by most people are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Facebook is best to use if your target audience is ages 25 and above. It is suitable especially if your goal is to achieve a massive audience reach. However, one of the cons of marketing your driving school on this platform is that you have to create lots of content and engage with your audience, or else your posts won’t be seen by your potential customers.
Instagram is another social media platform that you can use if you want to target a younger audience (ages 18-24). Since this is one of the most popular applications that are used by brands and influencers, it’s a good place for you to start an affiliate program. While LinkedIn is best used if you want to reach out to a professional audience or if you want to establish the credibility of your driving school.
On the other hand, if you want to promote your driving school through infographics or visual images, Pinterest can help you get more impressions. Here, you can share content by creating Pinterest boards so that individuals who are looking for educational content in the form of infographics will be able to see your content.
Here’s an example of an infographic posted on Pinterest:
Each social media platform has its pros and cons. It’s up to you to choose which you are comfortable using and if it has all the features you need based on your marketing goals.
Step 3: Create a posting schedule
Another step that you shouldn’t miss when creating a social media strategy is maintaining a consistent online presence. Consistency is one of the most important factors in every social media marketing strategy. The more frequently your target audience sees your posts, the more likely they will remember your driving school whenever the time comes that they will be needing a driver’s license.
To effectively reach your target audience, make sure to plan ahead using a content calendar. This will help you visualize your marketing plan and check to see if you are reaching your goals or if you need a bit more work to achieve them.
Step 4: Keep track of your progress
Next, make sure that you regularly track the progress of your social media posts. This way, you’ll know which posts perform best to your target audience and which ones need to improve. The key metrics that you should closely monitor are the impression rate of your posts, engagement rate, reach, and conversion rate.
- Impression – This refers to the number of times your posts were shown to your target audience regardless of whether it was clicked or not
- Engagement rate – This refers to the percentage of interactions that your posts got (e.g. likes, comments, shares)
- Reach – This refers to the number of unique views your post got.
- Conversion rate – This refers to the percentage of page visitors that completed an action toward your social media post.
Step 5: Optimize your social media posts
From the data you get from your driving school’s account insights, you’ll have an idea of what areas are lacking in your social media marketing efforts. The reason why you should optimize your social media posts is that it will help you improve your post’s visibility, reach, and engagement rate.
Need help making the most out of your driving school’s social media marketing strategy?
Social media marketing ideas
Now that you have an idea of how to start your social media marketing strategy, here are some post ideas that you can use for your driving school.
1. Contests/Giveaway
If you want to encourage your audience to interact with your driving school’s social media posts, gain more followers, or improve your reach, hosting a contest or giveaway is one of the effective strategies that you can use. All you have to do is carefully plan the who, what, when, where, and how.
- Who are eligible to join?
- What are the mechanics/instructions to join your contest/giveaway?
- When are the start and end dates of your contest/giveaway?
- How will you announce the winners?
Additional tips when hosting contests or giveaways:
- Choose a prize that is relevant to your driving school business (it should be valuable to your audience)
- Set clear instructions on how to join your contest
- Make the joining process easy
- Make sure that the contest/ giveaway that you’re hosting is in line with the goals of your driving school
Here’s an example of an anniversary giveaway post from a driving academy on Facebook:
2. Testimonials
Another way to attract new customers to your driving academy is through sharing testimonials on your social media pages. Positive reviews help you gain the trust of potential customers. So, if you want to get more new customers, posting positive feedback from your previous customers could be a great idea!
Tips on how to get reviews from your customers:
- Use QR codes to make the steps easier when writing a review
- Personally ask them after they finish their driving course
- If you don’t have time to do it, use a customer review software like Podium
- Guide them throughout the process of leaving a review
Here’s an example of a customer review posted on Facebook:
Customer review posted on Instagram:
View this post on Instagram
3. Customer Appreciation
You can also share appreciation posts with your customers by posting their pictures upon the completion of their driving course. Just remember to ask for their approval if it’s okay for their photo to be posted on your driving school’s social media page.
Below is an example of a customer appreciation post on a driving school’s Facebook post.
As you can see, they posted a photo of their customer who was able to get his license with the help of their driving courses. They also added a few good words about how happy the driving school team is in helping their customer obtain his license. Sharing posts like these add a human touch to your business because you’re showing how much you value your customers.
While this is what it looks like when posted on Pinterest:
4. Staff appreciation post
Another thing that you can share on social media is a staff appreciation post. This works best especially if you see that most of your previous customers have mentioned one or some of your staff in teaching them driving courses. Not just that, posting how much you appreciate the hard work of your team members also boosts their morale and gives potential customers an idea of how much you value your staff.
Here’s an example of a staff appreciation post from a driving school on Facebook:
In the example above, the driving school has mentioned their newly hired driving instructor by tagging their social media profile on the actual post. What’s great about this post is that they attached a relevant photo along with a brief description of their driving instructor. They also added a promotional statement at the end of the caption which guides potential customers on what to do next.
5. Short video clips
If you want to share video clips with your target audience, those that are shorter in length tend to get more views than the ones that are longer. This is because not everyone has the time to spare to consuming several minutes watching a video about a piece of information they want to learn about. So, if you’re planning to post relevant videos on your driving school’s social media profile, make sure to briefly explain its content in just a few seconds or less than a minute.
Like this short clip from Facebook:
And this short clip from Instagram:
View this post on Instagram
6. Share behind-the-scene content
To add a “human touch” to your driving school business, you can also post the behind-the-scenes of your team working. This will make your potential customers feel as if they are a part of your team (makes them feel included) and builds a deeper connection with your driving academy.
Behind-the-scenes content ideas:
- holiday parties
- lunch meetings
- location expansion
- background about your newly hired staff
- images of your driving instructors teaching students how to drive
Here’s an example of a behind-the-scene post from a driving school’s Facebook page:
In the example above, the driving school added a fun vibe in their behind-the-scene photo. Since it was posted during the Christmas season, they used an elf as a student driver following the basic rules of driving. This post is not only relevant to the holiday season but is also entertaining to the driving academy’s target audience.
Tips when posting behind-the-scene photos/clips:
- tell a short story about the photo/short clip that you are going to post
- there should be consistency in the voice you use on your behind the scene posts
- it should be something that’s valuable to your driving school and to your potential customers
- it should be something that’s relatable and fun
- don’t overshare
7. Share your blog posts
Got blog posts (on your website) that you think are valuable to your audience on social media? Start sharing them on your social media pages! This way your blog posts will start getting increased web traffic and aside from that, it’s another way of giving your target audience something to look forward to (especially if you regularly publish them on your site).
Here’s an example of a blog post shared on a driving school’s Facebook page:
As you can see in the post above, they’ve written the caption to their shared post in a way that it will make their target audience curious about the content of their blog.
Or if you have a podcast or a YouTube channel that people who want to get their driver’s license can use as a reviewer, you can also share them by adding the link along with a paragraph that will hook the attention of your target audience.
Like this Facebook post:
And this LinkedIn post:
8. Brief introduction about your driving school
If you’re posting regularly on your driving school’s social media profile, there’s a high chance that important announcements will get buried by new posts. When that happens, first-time page visitors will not be aware of the latest updates in your driving school.
However, in the latest updates on Facebook and Instagram, there’s a feature that allows you to pin important posts on your social media profile which makes it more convenient and keep your potential customers informed about the latest happenings in your driving school.
Here’s an example of a pinned post from a driving school’s Facebook profile.
As you can see, their pinned post is a brief introduction to their driving school. This is another strategy that you can use so that your potential customers no longer have to scroll down to the bottom of your profile to see more details about your business, tell urgent info to your target audience, and showcase your promotional offers.
View this post on Instagram
9. Holiday greetings
Another type of post that can help you stay relevant with your target audience is by greeting them during the holiday season. To make your posts more creative, you can add visuals along with your post.
Like this example:
As you can see in the example above, they have used a relevant image along with their post. This makes your post consume more space unlike regular posts (text-only posts on Facebook). They’ve also added emojis in their caption. Using emojis on your captions is great but only if you use them to emphasize a thought, not to replace a word.
View this post on Instagram
If you don’t have that much time to create visuals or looking for design inspirations for your social media posts, there are tons of templates that are available on Canva, Freepik, and Venngage.
10. Share a post about the most frequently asked question in your driving school
You can also use social media to address the questions raised by most of your potential customers. If you are getting lots of queries about, how many hours it takes before you complete a course, what requirements are needed when applying for a driver’s license, and other queries that you mostly received from your students, creating a post about it is another idea that you can use for your driving school.
Here’s an example:
View this post on Instagram
Don’t know where to start in promoting your driving school on social media?
10 Social media marketing best practices
Now that you have an idea of the types of posts you can share on your driving school’s social media page, here are tips on how you can optimize your posts.
1. Establish your online presence across all platforms
When people hear about your driving school whether it’s a recommendation from a friend or someone they know, one of the first few things that they do is to check if you have a social media page. Having a page for your driving school is important because it helps them get to know more about your business and most of all, it can be easier for them to tag or mention your business on their posts.
Aside from that, another way to help you get easily found on social media is by using relevant hashtags on your posts. When it comes to hashtags, you can use trending (but relevant) hashtags, branded hashtags, or location hashtags. If you have no idea what hashtags to use on your posts, you can check out what your competitors are using on their posts.
You can also use hashtag tools if you want to look for more details such as the average monthly search volume for that hashtag, the average CPC, as well as the competition.
Don’t know how to get your driving school listed on Google? Check out our blog about Google My Business for Driving Schools to learn more.
2. Don’t be too salesy
Social media was mainly created to help people build connections with each other. With that, you shouldn’t be posting too many promotional posts on your driving school’s social media page or else, they will feel that you only care about gaining profit. Instead, you should use this platform to build trust with your potential customers and increase their confidence in engaging with your driving academy.
When you start gaining the trust of your target audience, you can start adding a subtle promotion to your posts. For best results, make sure to follow the 80/20 rule.
What’s the 80/20 rule?
It means that 80% of the content that you post should be all about something that your target audience will find informative and at the same time, entertaining this includes educational posts like infographics and basic information that people who wanted to learn how to drive should know.
While the remaining 20% can be used to promote your driving school. This could be posting about your ongoing promos, driving lesson packages, or discount vouchers.
3. Stay updated with the latest algorithm
From time to time, social media platforms randomly change their algorithm. Like for example, on Instagram, a few years back, regular photos get the most views and likes while in today’s time, reels get more impressions and engagement. With that, you have to make sure that you regularly check your account’s insights for drastic changes that happen in your marketing efforts and look at relevant forums or discussions on Quora or Reddit to see if other people are also going through the same situation as yours.
From there, you’ll be able to easily cope with the changes in the algorithm, and at the same time, your marketing efforts won’t be negatively affected by these changes.
4. Keep up with the trends
Another way to stay relevant with your target audience is by keeping up with the trends that go viral on the internet. Viral content is when a post gets tons of shares and gets featured on other platforms and even in news articles.
What makes a post go viral? Most of them trigger one’s emotions (e.g. anger, joy, surprise, excitement), are relatable, and offer practical value to the majority. If you have no idea how you can do that, you can look at the strategies used by your competitors by checking out their top-performing posts and using analytical tools like Google Trends.
5. Fill out the basic information about your driving school
To increase the chances of your driving school showing up on relevant searches whenever someone is looking for a driving school on social media, make sure to fill out the basic information about your business. This includes the name of your driving school, contact details, pinned location on Google Maps, your logo, and business hours.
6. Monitor the performance of your social media posts
To know if your social media marketing efforts are effective, make sure to check your account’s insights. This gives you an idea of whether the majority of the impression or engagement your posts get is from your followers or non-followers or if the number of people who have seen your posts decreased or increased over time. You can usually see these kinds of data on the social media platform’s account insights however, they will only provide you with limited data.
If you want to get in-depth information about your target audience, you can use social media management tools like Agorapulse. Not only will it help you see which posts lead to a high ROI, but you’ll also be able to manage all of the reviews you get, along with the comments and direct messages from your potential customers in one place.
7. Be consistent
In social media, you have to be consistent so that your potential customers will be familiar with the specific services offered in your driving school. When we say consistent, it’s not just about being consistent in posting but even with the tone you use in your posts. If you started with an informal tone, make sure to apply it to your future posts. This way, when your target audience sees one of your posts on their timeline, they’ll immediately know that it’s from your driving school.
If you’re just starting out in marketing your driving courses on social media, here are types of tones that you can use on your posts:
- Fun and conversational
- Authoritative
- Sympathetic tone
- Assertive tone
- Approachable tone
No matter which tone you use, make sure that it matches your target audience and suits your driving school. For example, if your target audience belongs to Gen Z, don’t use terms that are used by Baby Boomers.
If you want to check the readability level of your captions before publishing your posts, try Hemingway Editor. It’ll give you suggestions on how to make your writing clear and easy to read. For best practices, make sure to follow the recommended level which is grade 8 or below.
8. Use a social media calendar
A social media calendar helps you visualize the content you have planned throughout the week, month, or year. It’s also a tool that allows you to schedule and manages all of the upcoming and previous posts you have for your driving school. Without it, you’ll find it hard to keep up with regular posting and you might also miss the chances of sharing relevant posts on important events like holidays, business anniversaries, and the like.
If you’re looking for a social media calendar, some of the tools you can use are:
9. Listen to your audience
Another strategy that you should apply on your driving school’s social media page is by listening to your audience. This includes monitoring the reviews and tags or mentions you got from your previous customers. The reason why you should listen to your audience is that it gives you an idea of the areas in your driving school that needs to be improved, optimize your customer’s journey, and helps you resolve issues (if there are) right away.
Tools like Hootsuite and Digimind are some of the social listening tools that you can use for your driving school.
10. Engage with your customers/ potential customers
Since social media platforms encourage their users to engage with other people, you can use your driving school’s page to interact with your target audience. The main reason why you should engage with your potential customers online is that it gives them the impression that you genuinely care about your customers. This can be done in several ways such as responding to tags or mentions, posting comments under relevant posts, or responding to queries, and direct messages from your customers.
Want to know how to create ad campaigns for your driving school? Check out our blog about Google Ads for Driving Schools to learn more.
Need help promoting your driving school?
Key takeaway
Social media is one of the popular applications that most people use nowadays. As someone who runs a driving school, you can use this platform to get more new customers, retain the existing ones, and improve your engagement rate. Just make sure to stay updated with the latest changes in each platform’s algorithm so that your marketing efforts won’t go to waste.
