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You’ve partnered with drivers. You have vehicles on standby. You’ve employed a top-gear fleet management solution. Now all you need to get your rideshare business humming is customers.
This article dives into how we’ve seen businesses build their customer base and some tools you can use to do the same. We’ll discuss tactics like:
Then we will discuss best practices for linking your new customers to the medium that brought them to your business (in marketing speak, this is called attribution) so you can do more of what won over customers and less of what didn't. We’ll discuss:
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Printed materials like business cards and flyers have helped countless brands make their introduction to new customers.
Strategy:
Find a location your target market frequents and set up shop. Wear your company's branded gear and think of a good opening statement. Open-ended questions that lead to your brand are a great way to begin a conversation, "Are you happy with the rideshare apps you use?" or "Are you paying too much for transportation?" If you are giving out an offer with your business cards, even better. "Take a free ride with {company name}" is sure to score you some new users. Try different conversation starters to see which ones get you the best responses.
Helpful resources
One of the best ways to tell potential customers about your brand is to let their friends do it for you.
Strategy:
As more customers interact with your brand, word-of-mouth advertising will happen naturally. You can speed the process along by encouraging your drivers to ask their passengers to tell their friends about your service. Seriously, asking for simple favors works. Another option is offering your customers referral bonuses in the form of discounted or free rides for every friend they sign up. This was one of the early strategies employed by both Uber and Lyft.
Joining forces with local businesses to promote your rideshare business is a win-win. You will get new customers, and the companies you work with increase their chances of earning repeat business.
Strategy:
Create a packet that introduces your brand to potential businesses. In your packet, tell them who your business is and how they can benefit from working with you. You can offer a variety of incentives that encourage companies to promote your rideshare business. For example, you can offer lower fares to their employees or agree to promote their business on your platform or in your fleet vehicles.
Promoting your brand on social media is a great way to get in front of and engage with lots of potential customers.
Strategy:
You’ll first want to determine which platforms your potential clientele are active on. E.g., if you plan on shuttling business travelers from the airport to downtown, then LinkedIn could be a good starting point. On the other hand, if your rideshare business helps college students find sober rides, you might want to start on TikTok.
All major social platforms have ad management portals that allow you to create a business page and serve ads to potential customers. When uploading your ads, pay close attention to sizing and character count requirements.
You’ll be able to target your ads based on customer demographics (e.g., age, location, and education level). This information will determine how much it will cost you each time an ad is shown. Then, you’ll be prompted to set a budget for your campaign dictating how much you want to spend a day.
Pro tip: Find Facebook groups your target customers are members of and serve your ads to those groups.
It’s best practice to test multiple ads against each other to see which performs best.
Helpful resources
This article has some helpful tips about writing successful social media ad copy.
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If you are experimenting with different ways of attracting new customers to your platform, you need to be able to attribute which methods are working well and which aren't, so you can put more energy into what's working and go back to the drawing board with what isn't.
Coupon codes
Anytime you create non-digital assets (e.g., business cards) or work with a partner business, it can be difficult to know if they are helping you drum up new business. Creating custom coupon codes for each of the mediums you use to promote your brand allows you to easily tie a new customer to a particular source. Plus, the better the coupon, the more likely it is to get used.
Customer surveys
Make completing a simple dropdown menu asking new customers how they first found out about your business part of your sign-up process. This will give you a better understanding of how folks make their way to your platform.
The best way to nab new customers is to give great experiences to current ones. EverTransit fleet management software allows your customers to seamlessly book and pay for rides on any device.
Take EverTransit for a joyride.