As a charter bus operator, customers are the lifeblood of your business. You do everything possible to achieve one overarching goal – get new customers and keep your existing ones coming back. Creating a remarkable customer experience is a great way to keep customers coming back, but how do you generate new charter bus leads?

While generating repeat business is the most profitable activity you can engage in, you must also maintain a consistent flow of new customers. Whether you are just starting out in our industry or you’re a seasoned operator, you must continuously generate new charter bus leads and convert them to new customers.

In this article, we will take you through proven ways to generate qualified leads for your charter bus business. 

Qualified vs. unqualified leads

If you’ve been in business even for a little while, you likely already qualify your leads as part of your process. However, this is an important enough topic that we think it deserves a recap. 

A lead can be classified as any person who shows interest in your services. When a new lead comes in it is extremely important to qualify them as the very first step in your process. This will allow you to separate unqualified leads, those who are unlikely to become your customers, from qualified ones, or those who are likely to convert.

The BANT method of qualifying leads

There are many ways to qualify a lead, and the specifics will come down to the unique offering and needs of your business at any given time. However, most leads can be quickly qualified using the BANT method:

  • Budget – what is their spending ability? This one is pretty self explanatory – how much are they looking to spend? 
  • Authority – who is the decision maker? Is the person you are talking to the one paying for the trip, or is someone else is?
  • Need – what immediate needs do they have? What do they need a bus for / what kind of trip is it? 
  • Timing – in what time frame will they need the solution? When are they going to need the buses? Are their trip dates set? 

As we’ll discuss below, all of your lead generation efforts will require exactly, well, effort! This is why you should do your best to qualify leads as they come in. Doing so will enable you to focus your time and money on those that are most likely to convert.

So, how do you get charter bus leads? There are generally two types, paid and free.

Generating paid charter bus leads online

We are going to classify paid leads as ones you pay for directly through advertising and marketing. While there are many places you could advertise, the following channels are the most common: 

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Invest in Google or Bing ads that display your company as one of the top results for a given search term. In other words, if you’d like to appear at the top of the search results for “charter bus companies around me” for example, you can pay to accomplish that. 

  • Pros: high intent; people searching for your key terms most likely plan on purchasing soon since they are actively searching. 
  • Cons: due to the high intent, this is generally a very competitive place to advertise. This makes SEM one of the more expensive channels.

Social media advertising

Display your company’s ads or content on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, or other platforms your customers use. 

  • Pros: reach a wide audience in a cheaper way when compared to SEM. Build your brand in the process.
  • Cons: low intent; you will be advertising to a large audience without knowing if they are interested. This typically generates a lower conversion rate as a result. You will also need to create well designed content including image and video ads. 

LinkedIn Ads

if you are trying to reach a business audience, LinkedIn is the place to be. It offers a similar experience to social media advertising channels, but for people in a professional setting. When people are using LinkedIn, they are more likely to act on behalf of their companies.  

Online publications

Advertise with publications your target audience reads (a local school news website for example), with general display ads. These could include images and videos showcasing your services.

  • Pros: target your clientele more efficiently than social media ads while building your brand. 
  • Cons: might require a one-off contract or relationship with the publication you want to advertise with. This could be time consuming and costly. 

Generating free charter bus leads online

Nothing in life is free, so let’s get that out of the way first. Even “free” channels will include some kind of cost to you, whether it is time spent or indirect expenses. 

However, the below channels could prove much more efficient than paid channels over time; the trick is to stick with it and continue to invest in them, as the big benefits come establishing your business for a while. 

Let’s review some of the most common free channels for motorcoach leads.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Show up at the top of search results for certain search terms organically, generating charter bus leads without having to pay for them. 

  • In order to achieve this, search engines must determine that your website offers the best content for the searched term. 
  • This means your website needs to be fast, look good, and offer the right content, so that users stick around for a bit after landing on one of your pages. 
  • Blogs such as this one are a great way to attract your target customers. Think of what your customers are searching for the most, which might not have to do with your business directly, and create helpful content around these topics. 

Social media presence

Grow your social media presence by creating interesting content that your audience would consume and share with others. Think current events, hot topics in the charter buses industries, and highlighting your own business activities. 

If you generate a sizable following, you can establish a reputation as a trusted leader in our industry, which in turn should create more free leads for your business. 

Customer referrals

This comes back to providing an excellent customer experience from booking to drop off. The more satisfied your customers, the more likely they are to refer others to use your services. 

The key here is to be proactive and talk to your customers throughout the process to find ways to improve your service.

Consider sending surveys at the end of trips to learn more. You can even incorporate an NPS metric, getting a clear idea if your customers would refer others in their network to you.

Working with brokers to get charter bus leads

Whether you like them or not, brokers generate a lot of business in our industry, and establishing relationships with some is a great way to keep a steady flow of trips coming your way. 

Keep in mind, however, that not all brokers are created equal, and you should work with ones that have the right network and business model for your business. 

Offline brokers vs. tech-enabled brokers vs. tech marketplaces

Generally speaking, traditional, offline brokers are the most prevalent. They take an average of ~20-30% commission, which could be costly, but would essentially replace your paid leads expense. Offline brokers are more difficult to work with by nature since they don’t have a seamless way of sharing information with you. 

Tech-enabled brokers are fewer in number, and are able to scale faster and keep costs lower, allowing them to take less commission than offline brokers. 

There are only a couple of true online charter bus marketplaces out there and they are typically the easiest to work with for motorcoach operators. They make the entire process relatively seamless using technology and take the least commission from operators. They are a solid source of charter bus leads.

The added benefit of tech marketplaces is their ability to integrate with charter bus management software like Busify, making it even easier for operators to manage all of their trips in one place. 

Converting leads into paying customers

Now that you have some ideas on how to generate new leads, what do you do with them once they come in? Generating leads is not easy, which is why it is crucial you take advantage of every opportunity that comes in. 

To give yourself the best chances of converting more quotes, you must create the experience that your customers expect. We suggest focusing on the following best practices.

Quote conversion best practices

  • Speed – your customer is actively exploring a solution to their need when they contact you. Getting back to them while they are still in that mindset will result in much higher engagement than if you wait a long time. Simply put, all things equal, the faster you get back to your charter bus leads, the higher your conversion rate will be. 
  • Online checkout – these days, customers expect a seamless experience from any business they interact with. They would much rather access a quote and pay for it online than have to download a PDF, sign it, and send it back. The easier you make it to book, the higher the chances of conversion.
  • Trust – customers need to trust your company before they will do business with you, and first impression is key. Send clean, grammatically correct emails, with thoughtfully designed and easy to view quotes. Brand everything your customer sees with your company’s logo and colors to convey that you are an established and trusted operator.