Taxi marketing is one of the crucial yet overlooked pieces in the chain of taxi business growth. The advent of on-demand services redefined the taxi marketing strategy with some new app-specific approaches. CabStartup’s experience of working with taxi industry in the ongoing decade enables our experts to compile a list of most effective marketing strategies.
Following are some of the approaches toward taxi business promotion. Please note that they all are equally significant regardless of their order in the list.
1. Business Brand Highlighting Local Culture
There is barely any part of the world where taxi industry does not have firm roots. Almost every country has an established taxi union with multiple businesses vying for the major market share.
In such circumstances, any new player has to have an attractive brand name which signifies local culture. Besides name, the company’s motto should also reflect the traditions of native population. This approach is assisting businesses in many industries to grab attention of customers immediately.
Apart from highlighting culture, the aspirants can raise trending matters of social domain and create awareness about them among public. Meanwhile, they can also reach a broader range of audience.
For instance, you may introduce a scheme under which your company plants a tree for ten rides from a customer. Research indicates that CSR activities leave a substantial impact on consumer buying behavior.
2. PR and Social Media Marketing
It will be foolish to promote a business without considering social media. Facebook – the biggest social network – alone has over 2.3 billion monthly active accounts. Social networks are some of the first sources for a company to reach customers.
Another factor that makes SMM essential is the cost of this kind of marketing. Marketers can promote companies at remarkably low rates.
The emphasis on SMM allows businesses to grow global outreach. In comparison to traditional billboards, the SMM reaches far greater volume of population – and in various parts of operational region.
3. Promotional Discount
There is no better treat for taxi passengers to have free or discounted rides. Although the owners may have to subsidize the process to attract customers, yet the return makes it worthy enough.
Discount is among the effective taxi marketing ideas because it keeps a customer base. If a user stops using a service, one may return to use it later when discount is available.
Promotions are one of the primary components of Uber digital marketing strategy.
4. Acquiring Customers’ Feedback
Your customers need to know that you care for them. This is one of the core differences between traditional taxi services and ridesharing apps. The traditional companies require lodging a complaint through the call, email, or on-site.
However, passengers rarely bother to go the extra mile. In contrast, the app provides the ability to lodge in-app complaint. Moreover, many software systems also enable the complaining individual to see the status of their claims or query.
Feedback acquisition allows companies to find loopholes in their business. Besides, it also enables them to assess customer behavior toward occasional changes in policies.
5. Business Partnerships for as Taxi Marketing Strategy
Partnerships are vital for business growth. If your taxi company manages to make alliance with a large-scale company, your growth rate comes at par to partner.
It is advisable that the partnership is beneficial for both allies. Such alliances grow mutual trust and allow business owners to work for the success of their partners as much as for themselves.
The collaboration of food outlets and delivery companies present a pertinent case. GrubHub delivers food for KFC and Pizza Hut among others whereas UberEats for McDonald’s. These collaborations ensure cost cut for both stakeholders. Besides, they also improve the services in process.
Similarly, collaborations are also essential in taxi industry to give a tough call to competitors. However, it may not always be companies from another industry. Taxi companies can run decent business partnerships between them too. For instance, Uber and DiDi take the leverage of local companies at times instead of rivaling them.
6. Visibility over Search Engines
This is a crucial aspect of marketing strategy for taxi services to grasp new customers’ attention. If a passenger, who has never used taxi apps before, would most likely look for one at search engine.
Besides new passengers, existing ones looking for the alternate option will also search it over the web. Inviting passengers and marketing companies to write reviews on PR sites works well. The eventual objective is to increase the visibility on internet.
7. Referral Code
This is one of the proven marketing ideas for taxi companies. If a passenger invites another passenger to download the app, the companies reward the referee with a free ride. This strategy is similar to the one mentioned in promotional discounts. However, discounts are repeated, but the referral code remains for once.
Apart from other reasons, the codes present a successful on-demand taxi marketing plan because people download the app. There will rarely be a case when riders delete the app after acquiring the discounted ride. The presence of app in phone will always provide them a secondary option if their primary choice service is unavailable.
Even if a rider does not frequently use your service after getting the first discounted ride, the promotional activity will give a huge boost to app on app stores.
8. Seamless Technology
This taxi marketing strategy has more to do with user experience. Nevertheless, it indirectly impacts marketing campaigns too. Over 80% of the taxi app users are not well-versed with complicated mobile apps. An apparently fancy interface can also cause annoyance regardless of efficiency of the app.
Moreover, the case of the other way round also backfires. An app with decent interface and high usability offers little help if the speed is not up to the mark. Hence, both cases prompt the users to look for an alternate option.
Cabstartup assists taxi businesses to enhance profits with the most suitable cloud-based dispatch system. Evaluate the efficiency yourself by using the free trial.
