Aviation Marketing by ABCI

The last thing pilots need is more work.  They didn’t get into the business of flying to spend more time at a desk.

But the economy has made it incumbent on all of us (pilots and marketing consultants, too!) to prove our worth. With charts and spreadsheets. Every day, every job, every flight.

One thing I learned from marketing – Never fight with a client or with a public perception.  Just get the numbers, make a nice graph, and prove them wrong.

One of Sun Tsu’s principles in The Art of War is to know the enemy. In this case, that means speaking the language of CEOs and bean counters. (Actually, we’re all on the same side, but many times it doesn’t SEEM that way.)

I’m not advocating that pilots actually go back to school and get their CPA. But pilots, and aviation professionals at charter companies, flight departments and other aviation companies are under a lot of pressure to prove their value.

In many cases, aviation departments are being targeted for elimination or downsizing, not because they don’t add value, but because they can’t prove it.

If a pilot or aviation professional (or anyone else, for that matter!) knows the basics of how to collect and present data that proves value in a convincing and concise way, they have the best possible method of self-defense in this aggressively cost-cutting business environment.

Shaving Expenses

Pilots (and other aviation professionals) can use their skills and “captain’s prerogatives” to make decisions that save the company money, including:

• Not buying more fuel than needed for a flight (including safe reserves, of course!)  You fly cheaper when the plane weighs less. Pilots can check fuel prices on AOPA or a similar website.
• Buying lots of fuel where it’s cheap, and as little as possible where it’s expensive.
• Taxiing out on one engine (A Hawker 400 burns 60 gallons an hour on two engines, 30 gallons an hour on one engine. Every 15 minute of taxi time is 7.5 gallons of fuel, or $37.50 at $5 per gallon.)
• Basing a Cessna 172 at one flight school over another saved a leasing company over $900 per month, between hangar rent and insurance.

Pilots can also use their prerogatives to save money on repositioning and logistics.

Selling “empty legs” through word of mouth or social media, combining trips, managing maintenance and fuel stops to coincide with business objectives, all of these are ways that flight departments can maximize value.

James Williams, a pilot with Travel Management Company (TMC), recently advised his company to send him home rather than stay in a hotel waiting for a broken aircraft that was going to take a week to fix.  He found a cheap commercial ticket home rather than spending $190 per night per diem.

He also negotiated fuel prices at an FBO chain when he happened to get into a chance conversation with the manager.  He asked her to get in touch with the chief pilot at TMC to secure better prices for the whole fleet.

It all adds up!

Proving Value

More importantly than shaving expenses is proving value.  If a pilot knows the purpose of a trip (and they often know, or can find out) he or she can often calculate the savings of the business or charter flight over the commercial flight alternative. Counting the time of the skilled professional(s) who are tied up waiting in airports, opportunity costs for a sale made or lost, cost of shipping parts or equipment separately, etc.

Collecting these facts, getting numbers wherever possible, and being able to present them in a concise and convincing way is key to proving value to the company or to the client.

Most pilots go through this exercise (at least mentally) but it never gets communicated effectively to company execs and other decision makers.

Why This Doesn’t Happen

Pilots (dispatchers, and other professionals) know the tricks we’ve mentioned, and hundreds more. But often they don’t expend the time and effort to calculate and reduce costs and benefits for several reasons:

• Most pilots got into flying for the adventure, not for the paperwork.
• Saving money is sometimes inconvenient. It’s easier to push the throttle all the way forward than to save that 15-25 knots that are the most expensive in terms of fuel burn.
• Justified or not, pilots often don’t feel that they “owe” the company loyalty that the company doesn’t return.
• Collecting and reporting value is hard work. The last thing an overworked pilot wants is an hour in front of a desk staring at spreadsheets.
• Collecting data doesn’t make any difference if no one is listening. (Upper management, clients, etc.)

Which leads us to the final, and probably most important point:

Communicating Value

What should pilots and aviation professionals do with all this data?

• Put it in a format that is easy to understand. It has to be “so easy a CEO can understand it” in 10 seconds or less.  This usually means a visual or graph of some kind.
• Talk to (and give this information to) your chief pilot, dispatchers, other pilots, and managers.
• Companies can use it on their blogs, websites, social media, and other public relations channels. Pilots can publish key bits of data on their own Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn profiles.
• Submit great stories (and there are LOTS OF THEM) with data to your local media, as well as GAMA, NATA, NBAA, and other industry organizations for their newsletters and public relations campaigns, like No Plane No Gain.

Why It Should Happen

It’s a very powerful thing to be able to produce a spreadsheet or graph that shows the value of an activity.

I have to confess that I initially steered toward marketing because I was avoiding math classes in my undergraduate work.  Since that time, I’ve figured out that marketing consultants aren’t safe unless they can prove the value of every campaign.  On paper. With a spreadsheet and a graph.

It would have been great to see the presidents of the auto companies pull out a nice graph showing the value of their flight departments. Let’s show THAT on CNN!

Most of the articles in Forbes Wheels Up series have contended that business aviation is an excellent value.

The typical corporate aviation operation has progressed well beyond the realm of flying carpets for the rich and famous (though of course there is a segment of the market that serves these), to becoming an integral tool for getting business done by connecting staff with customers, factories, mines, plants, and Wall Street, in addition to “going to Washington.” From How To Defend Aviation As A Business Tool? The Answer: We The People. June 27, 2010 Elizabeth A. Clark, MBA, CAM

Another advantage of present times is the reduced cost of getting into business aviation. The aircraft market has dramatically discounted prices; training prices and insurance prices are down. There are also many different ways to arrange a company’s position in, or use of, aircraft, including tax incentives. Tough Times Are The Right Times For Business Aviation July 1, 2010 Jeffrey Reich

That’s all great stuff.  But the current business climate has little patience for great stuff, unless it has great numbers to go with it. In the words of Jerry McGuire, “Show me the money!”

We all have to put on our bean-counter hats, get out our spreadsheets and prove it!

Are you spending a lot of time and money on marketing without getting the results you expect?

There are a lot of possibilities:

• Technology changes may have affected your product or advertising
• The demographics you’re selling to may have changed
• There may be some key detail that you’re missing
• Your sales copy may not be convincing enough to inspire sales
• A competitor may be offering a product that is “better”
• There might be a technical issue with your website or an online marketing component
• Your prospective client list might need to be updated, segmented or augmented

You can search out the problem and solve it yourself, or you can save time by getting a consultation from ABCI.

Two possibilities come to mind immediately:

• We send new clients a questionnaire that asks detailed questions about their marketing objectives and current marketing efforts.  We evaluate your responses and send you a detailed set of recommendations.  Some of these recommendations may involve our services, some do not.  But everyone who has completed one of our questionnaires has said that they learned a lot from the conversation.
• Our Web Site Audit is a great way to dig into the details of your website and expose any weaknesses that might be leaking possible sales to your competitors. We use a 31-point checklist to review your website, and those of your competitors.

If either of these services would be helpful, email us at Paula.Williams@AviationBusinessConsultants.com and we’d be happy to get you more information.

I was listening to Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer’s audiobook “The Conspiracy of the Unmotivated” and it occurred to me this was one of the biggest reasons  I love working in aviation.

Although the rest of the world may be struck with a profound malaise and overcome with excuses; aviators, on the other hand, are NOT unmotivated people.

I talk to a lot of people every week, many of whom are not aviators, or it’s been a long time since they’ve flown.  You can tell this because most of them are very nice, agreeable, pleasant people, but they would rather make excuses than make money.

If we have an hour to spend together, they will spend forty five minutes of it giving very good and creative reasons why nothing will work, despite any efforts to turn the conversation to a constructive direction. They blame the economy, the President, their divorce, their plumber, their kids, and their accountant for the fact that their competitors are passing them as if they were backing up.

They won’t invest in marketing, they won’t take risks with their product, pricing, or positioning, They won’t give quarter to any possibility of improvement in their situation.

There’s nothing I can do to help them.  And I don’t take them as clients. (I have a neat little questionnaire to weed them out so that I don’t take their money and they don’t take my time.)

Aviators, on the other hand, find a way or make a way.

If their current market isn’t buying their current product or service, they’ll research new markets or ask their customers what they’d like to see changed.  If they don’t have the capital to do a direct mail campaign, they find a partner and do a joint mailing. If they don’t have the right contacts on their list, they’ll find someone who is in touch with the right people and come up with a mutually beneficial arrangement.

If they need to learn a skill, they get a book or video or they’ll hire a consultant.  If they’re not technically inclined, they’ll get someone with computer expertise. If writing’s not their thing, (or they don’t have the time) they’ll hire a ghostwriter.

They may be conservative with their money, but they’re willing to give value for honest value, and they’re NOT conservative with their optimism, creativity, resourcefulness and work ethic.

There are couple of reasons for this:

• People who are afraid to take risks and really live life stay in their nice safe corporate cubicle and stay far away from this industry. There is no “comfort zone” here.
• In an airplane, pilots use the airspeed and altitude they’ve got to work with, and don’t waste a split second or an erg of energy arguing about why things should be different than they are. Indecision can get you killed.

Oh, and lazy aviators don’t live very long!

(Darwin at work?  It’s a not a nice thing to say, but the world could use a few less lazy people to get us out of the mess we’re in.)

Thank God for aviation people, and other courageous, motivated businesspeople. I don’t know WHAT we’d do without them!

Okay, done ranting. Thanks for reading! Carry on with your Monday.

We do a lot of things for our clients – we write great sales copy, direct mail, blog posts, and ebooks, among other things.

But many of our clients say that one of the best things we bring to the table is structure, discipline and time management.

Here are some of the time-management techniques that we, and our clients, have found helpful.

• Measure the return on investment for each marketing activity. If something isn’t “earning its keep,” stop wasting time and money on it. This gives you more time for activities that generate good results.
• Group marketing tasks and tackle them at a specific time each week or month.  Many of our clients write blog posts on a  particular day of the week, we run reports and have marketing status meetings at a specific time each month.
• Write a series of emails or blog posts in a single sitting, then edit them later.  Writing is easier when you’re “on a roll.” If you can produce four at a time, you may be done for the month!
• Limit the time you spend on social media – spend an hour a day while enjoying your coffee and getting up to speed on the day’s news, as an example.
• Limit the amount of time you spend on email – check it two or three times a day, but don’t let it constantly interrupt your other tasks.
• Consolidate meetings. If you can meet once a month rather than once a week (with follow ups and action items by email) do it.
• Work in small groups. A group of three people producing a brochure or video will get it done much faster than a group of five or seven.

Some of the things that ABCI does to help our clients with time management and marketing:

• Automating and managing lead generation and fulfillment, by using your website to collect leads and sending regular emails and postcards to your prospects.
• Structuring your products and services into seasonal and time-oriented offers.
• Creating materials that match the editorial schedules of aviation publications.
• Handling regular, time consuming tasks like keyword research and search engine submissions.
• “Ghost writing” drafts of blog posts, newsletter articles, and white papers.
• Capturing and following up on marketing action items in our Monthly Marketing Reviews.

Although some of our clients have full time marketing staff, ABCI’s economies of scale allow us to perform these tasks in a way that is more professional and less costly than training your current employees and committing their time away from other tasks, or even worse – hiring, and training, new people.

We spend several thousand dollars a year on social media and search engine optimization seminars and books on the latest marketing techniques and technologies.  But since we use this knowledge for several clients, we can afford to stay current in a very expensive and rapidly changing field.  Our learning curve is short since we know marketing, we know business, and we know aviation!

Marketing should be the LAST thing that you should consider downsizing in a poor economy. Finding new customers is crucial to your cash flow and your sanity.

You might remember the old Burma Shave billboards – from 1925 to 1963, series of six small billboards would appear along a roadway, usually rhyming and with a punchline:

You’ve laughed / At our signs / For many a mile / Be a sport / Give us a trial / Burma-Shave

More modern companies have copied this tactic with billboards, and usually with better results than a single large one.

Series advertising works well in print and online media as well, for several reasons:

• They get attention! (The most difficult task in marketing!)
• The potential customer starts to look forward to the next one.
• They establish a relationship over time – it takes time to develop an idea of needing a product, being able to afford it, picturing its use, getting questions answered, and so on.

Series don’t have to rhyme, or even be entertaining, although that’s always a plus.  They could be informative, useful, friendly, reassuring, or even scary (raising concerns about a problem your product solves.)

Series can be delivered in many media. Here are some to consider:

• A series of small print advertisements in each issue of a magazine rather than a single large one.
• A series of postcards rather than a long sales letter.
• A series of blog posts rather than a static web site.
• A series of emails (delivered by an autoresponder, if you like) rather than a single email blast.
• A series of press releases over time to a selected group of media contacts, rather than a single “shotgun” to every publication you know.

Need some help?

If you contract with ABCI during July for 5 writing tasks, we’ll give you the sixth or equal value (up to $1500) for free.

Here are some ideas for using this offer:

• A series of blog posts
• A series of emails for your list of prospects or customers
• A series of newsletters
• A series of sales letters
• A series of case studies, white papers, press releases or product sheets.

Note – you can use your series over time. As an example, if you have a monthly newsletter we can contract now for five months  to receive the sixth free.

The summer is flying by, August will be here before we know it!

Write us today to get started on your series! Paula.Williams@AviationBusinessConsultants.com

The thing I like best about Search Engine Optimization is that it’s one of the most helpful and least intrusive marketing methods.

To be successful, an advertisement traditionally has had to be so bold and arresting that it actually makes you stop what you’re doing and do something else. (Click a link, call a phone number, grab a pen and fill out a form, or whatever.) In David Meerman Scott’s excellent book The New Rules of Marketing and PR, Scott calls this  the “interruption technique.”

You probably remember the phrase – “We interrupt this program to bring you this important message from our sponsor.”   This usually preceded a commercial for Tide Detergent or Oscar Meyer Baloney on one of the major networks.

The interruption technique doesn’t work so well on television these days since people have the technology to skip commercials, and since we’re not all watching the four major networks, but all television advertising still depends on this technique.

The interruption technique is also used in magazines, newspapers, radio, and even an email like this one. I’m hoping you’ll find the information useful enough to make the interruption worthwhile enough to reply or click the link below!

The annoying thing about interruption marketing is that it requires a screaming headline or a shocking claim to make you actually stop driving down the road listening to the radio to pull over and write down a phone number. Or stop reading the story in the magazine you were in the middle of and pull out a cell phone. Or stop reading your email and click a link or go to a web site.

How Search Engine Optimization is Different

Search Engine Optimization is great because people only encounter your blog article, video or web page when they’re actively looking for the information you’re providing.  People go to the internet and type a phrase into Google when they’re actively seeking information. By providing links to helpful information about your subject area, product or service, you’re providing an answer to their question or problem.

Starting a relationship with a customer in this way positions you as a helpful provider of information, rather than an intrusion on their time, privacy or productivity.

Other methods of marketing are usually necessary – few companies can run their entire business solely based on connections they make through search engine optimization. It’s also necessary to have a great sales process and have a well-written site to lead your customer through it.  It’s also necessary to have a good product and a really great offer that’s better than what your competitors are offering.  It’s necessary to have excellent customer service and a good reputation for follow through.

Search Engine Optimization is especially important for aviation

The majority of the aviation companies I consult with have most of the items above, but most could do a better job of creating and optimizing content that effectively connects with customers using the search engines to look for your product or service.

Search engine optimization is especially effective in the aviation industry since much of what we do is business-to-business advertising.  People don’t have time to pay attention to your marketing messages unless they’re very well-timed and well-targeted.   Search Engine Optimization is designed to give people exactly the information they’re looking for, the instant that they need it.

Another reason it’s really great in the aviation industry is that few companies are really doing it well, with the exception of the major airlines. So it’s still a really quick and inexpensive way to get a competitive advantage.

Does marketing that uses the  “interruption technique” drive you crazy?  Does it work for you as a business person, or does it work on you as a consumer?

P.S. – The first time you do something, it’s nice to have someone look over your results & make suggestions.

There are only two days left on our Special Offer!

Order your Search Engine Optimization Do It Yourself Kit by June 30 and we’ll include a certificate for a free written review of your baseline. This includes custom advice about your particular website and situation.  (A $200 value.)

Would you build a billboard like this and set it on a dirt road in Kansas?

Of course not. If you were going to spend  that kind of money, you’d make sure that you placed it where a lot of traffic would be driving by.

More than that, you’d be sure to place it where the people driving by are likely to be interested in the products and services you’re advertising on it.

If you’re curious, this multi-thousand dollar billboard is located on the Las Vegas Strip, right next to the Bellagio property.   The cars that go by on the Las Vegas strip are not commuters- people who live in Las Vegas have long since learned to AVOID the massive, continuous traffic jam of the strip and take alternative routes to work and home.   The only people driving by this sign are people who are on vacation, have lots of time on their hands, and are out to see the sights.

They are the ideal prospect for the shows and restaurants that this billboard advertises.

So, lets compare this to a lot of websites.  Many people pour a ton of money into their website, adding light and color and content, without giving much thought to location.  They may not know how much traffic is going by, and whether the people that do visit are interested in the products or services the website advertises.

They don’t realize that their beautiful, expensive website is plunked next to a sleepy dirt road in Kansas.

How can you change the location of your website?

Essentially, through a process called Search Engine Optimization (or SEO.)
This is an emerging discipline which allows you to do the following:

• See how much traffic your website is currently getting.
• See how your site compares to those of your competitors.
• Research which keywords the majority of people actually type into Google to look for the product or service you sell. (Finding the best parts of town to find your ideal prospects.)
• See how many searches each of those keywords generates.  (Finding the “busiest streets” on which to place your billboard!)
• Just like in a town, moving a couple of blocks can make a huge difference. (Just as using the keyword “jet photography” rather than “aircraft photography” can make a huge difference!)
• Optimize your site by making changes to the code, headlines, incoming links, and other factors.
• Measure your results month after month to see your progress. (And enjoy the sight of your competitors being left in your dust!)

So, how do you go about doing this, and how much is it going to cost?

There are two options:

• Full service SEO consulting. I’ve gotten six in a row of ABCI’s aviation industry clients to the first page of Google results within the first three months of working with them. (This service starts at $2000, depending on the size of the site, keywords and competition.)
• Do-It-Yourself SEO Kit. We’ve just published the previously-secret formulas that I successfully use for full-service SEO consulting for you to use today.  It’s available as a series of videos, workbooks and sample documents that allows you to “look over my shoulder” as I optimize a site. ($270 to start, then $49 per month.)

Not sure which to choose?  If you try the Do-It-Yourself Kit and decide that it’s not for you, I’ll apply your entire initial investment toward the Full Service SEO Consulting.

Click here for more info about the Do It Yourself Program (be sure to see the Overview video!)

Click here for more info about Full Service Search Engine Optimization Consulting