Putting out leaflets and advertising can be a costly and is sometimes a hit and miss approach. Ask yourself ‘where are the learners?’ There is little point in doing a leaflet campaign to bungalows lived in by the elderly. Whilst you might pick up the odd pupil here, the time and effort is not worth it. Start in one area, usually looking for the three and four bedroomed properties and distribute your leaflets. Then look at this area and see what shops allow postcard adverts and put your postcards in these shops. Use these shops if you need a bottle of water or anything and if you need to park up in between lessons and have a sandwich etc. then do this in the same area. Try to drive through the same area on lessons as much as possible too. Four weeks later go back and deliver more leaflets to the same houses and the same again in four more weeks. What you are now doing is saturating your area and getting maximum presence. Advertising specialist will tell you that you need to touch your customers many times before they will buy. This multi approach can reap you customers just like the pizza advert we see come through the door. True, we put them in the bin, but when we need a pizza where do we go!? Do the same again in another area once you have picked up some pupils from the first. Too many instructors sit at home when they have no pupils, just waiting for the phone to ring. If you are not being pro-active about pupil generation, it can be a long wait.
Where do you go for your breaks? I used to use the café opposite the college where the 17 year olds would be. Again this got my car noticed and many times pupils would come and ask me how much my lessons were. I would offer a discounted or even free lesson there and then. My pupils also knew where I was and would often bring their friends for help with the theory or booking of their test, and guess how many started having lessons!
