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What's in the Marketing Toolkit?

The Marketing Toolkit: Welcome 

Transit agencies in smaller communities often have limited staff to keep the wheels turning. Of necessity, transit managers are involved in virtually all aspects of their organization, supervising day-to-day operations, vehicle maintenance, customer service, financial reporting, and more. Some even drive the buses.

 

In 2015, National RTAP published The Marketing Toolkit, a comprehensive and practical guide for rural and tribal public transportation agencies to develop and implement successful marketing programs for their systems. The Marketing Toolkit’s goal is to help transit managers when they need to step into the marketing role by supplying them with the information and tools they need.

What’s new?

This updated 2024 edition of The Marketing Toolkit has several new and refreshed features:


  • Newly relevant approaches to building back ridership after a decline
  • Additional information on marketing to non-English speakers
  • New case studies that illustrate solutions to problems many agencies face
  • New photos, graphics, and templates, as well as guidance for using Canva, the design platform we recommend 
  • Instructions for how to use all the tools and templates

What’s in The Marketing Toolkit?

The Marketing Toolkit is divided into two sections: The “How-To Guide for Marketing Transit,” including a marketing plan workbook; and a section called “Tools.” We’ve also included a collection of regularly updated resources such as transit statistics and links to vendors.

The “How-To Guide”

The first section of The Marketing Toolkit is a brief, comprehensive textbook for marketing transit. It provides directions for identifying and accomplishing marketing goals and objectives.

Marketing Basics

The “How-To Guide” begins with an overview of marketing in general. Then it takes a closer look at marketing’s role in the transit environment.

Marketing in the Transit Environment

Transit marketing is a unique kind of marketing. It must pursue a variety of objectives and address diverse target markets. It also needs to be ongoing—a part of the day-to-day operation of the service.

Strategies for Marketing Public Transit

This section of the “How-To Guide” includes a menu of potential marketing strategies. The strategies are ranked by priority: fundamental, recommended, and optional. They are further broken down into strategies to help raise awareness; promote the image of the transit system and build community support; and strategies to generate ridership.


Links throughout the strategies section will take you to the marketing tools included in The Marketing Toolkit that you can customize for your system and use right away.

Developing a Marketing Plan

This part of the “How-To Guide” focuses on developing a practical marketing plan. Like a good road map, a plan will map the route from where you are now to where you want to be, pointing out different options along the way. This section explains the steps to develop a marketing plan.

Marketing Workbook

The “Marketing Workbook” provides five worksheets that are based on the steps to developing a marketing plan. Completing these worksheets will help you understand how to market your system.

Marketing Tools and Templates 

This section consists of marketing tools that can be used to implement the strategies outlined in the “How-To Guide,” as well as information on how to use the tools and templates provided. This section contains examples from other agencies and several video tutorials. The tools are organized into the following libraries:


  • Photography: A library of original transit-related photos you can download and use in your own materials, copyright-free, along with instructions on how to use them, tips for shooting your own marketing photographs, and information on using stock photography.
  • Illustrations and icons: A collection of transit graphics and illustrations downloadable for use in marketing materials, as well as information on how to use them and tips for using stock illustrations.
  • Passenger information design: Templates for creating passenger information such as guides, schedules, and maps, as well as basics on passenger information design best practices.
  • Marketing/promotion design: Templates and information for creating flyers, posters, social media posts, ads, direct mail, and more.
  • Public relations/news releases/radio ads: Information and tips related to public relations, including guidelines for writing news releases and radio spots as well as a news calendar template. 

Additional Resources

National RTAP offers this collection of varied resources to help you market your transit organization. These include Website Builder and GTFS Builder, as well as links to vendor catalogs for fixtures to display your marketing materials. Also here are links to all National RTAP marketing webinars.

 

The “Additional Resources” section includes regularly updated transit statistics that your organization can add to presentations, brochures, handouts, and advertisements to help demonstrate the many benefits and lasting value of public transit. By using powerful data in your marketing materials, you can influence stakeholders to foster policies and improve funding mechanisms that invest in and expand the reach of transit. Statistics in The Marketing Toolkit can also be used in direct consumer marketing materials to attract and retain current and future riders. 

Put The Marketing Toolkit to Work for Your System

As a transit manager, you can cite many reasons for marketing your system. You might be seeking to build back ridership after a decline, perhaps people in the community don’t have a clear picture of what your system has to offer, or your grant funding requires that you “market” your services. Marketing offers solutions to many of the challenges that public transit agencies face, and it is capable of putting a new face on your system.

 

Taken as a comprehensive educational and implementation resource, The Marketing Toolkit can help small rural and tribal public transportation agencies more effectively market their services and do outreach in their community. Use the “How-To Guide'' to learn transit-marketing best practices and choose the best strategies for your agency, work through the workbook to complete your own marketing plan, and choose from the tools and templates to create custom marketing materials, using Canva or your platform of choice. The information, design elements, instructions, and examples provided here will help you put marketing to work for you.

This document was prepared by National RTAP with the financial assistance of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The contents do not necessarily represent the opinions or policy of any agency of the U.S. Government, and the U.S. Government assumes no liability for the contents or use thereof. It does not have the force and effect of law and is not meant to bind the public in any way.

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