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Marketing in the Transit Environment

Marketing in the Transit Environment

Transit must fill a need in order for people to use it. That means strategic transit marketing requires that you understand the needs and wants of your current and potential riders and the benefits your service delivers. Identifying the target groups who have needs your transit service can meet allows you to tailor your marketing messages to audiences with realistic ridership potential.

 

The needs people have for transit fall into three categories:

  • Ongoing
  • Temporary
  • Discretionary


Ongoing—Riders and potential riders with an ongoing need for public transit service make up a system’s core ridership. This audience includes students, low-income individuals and families, low-wage workers, older adults, and persons with disabilities. Some of these groups have limited transportation options, while others ride to avoid the cost of driving or owning a vehicle.

 

Temporary—Those with a temporary need might be tourists and other visitors; people who normally drive, but their car is out-of-service; those unable to drive due to an injury or suspended license; or people who want to avoid traffic or parking hassles at their destination.

 

Discretionary—People with a discretionary need include commuters who find using transit more convenient and economical than driving to work; people who use transit to save money or avoid the need for a second family vehicle; and those who ride to benefit the environment.

Identifying Your Target Markets

Poster sample images with young man and older woman riding a bus

In marketing your transit services, it is likely that you will need to communicate with:

  • Current riders
  • Potential riders
  • Non-riders

Current Riders—Current riders are the foundation on which greater ridership is built. These people’s needs are already being met by public transit. Effective communication with current riders is vital to retaining them as customers and convincing them to ride more.


In addition, understanding the needs of current riders is important to identifying potential riders. Groups with needs and travel patterns similar to your existing ridership are likely potential riders.


Potential Riders—Potential riders are the group from which you want to attract new ridership. They have transportation needs that could be met by public transit. Effective marketing raises their awareness of the system, educates them on what it does and how it works, and helps develop a positive image of your service. When they know that transit can meet their needs, potential riders are ready to take their first ride.
A blue banner with a light bulb and the words

The relevant potential riders for your system will vary with the type of service your system offers. For example:


Fixed-route service offers a predictability that generally appeals to work and school commuters, as well as most groups without mobility limitations.


Demand-response service, such as dial-a-ride, microtransit, and deviated fixed-route service, typically is suited to those who need the convenience of curb-to-curb service. Some older adults or parents with small children, for example, may find it difficult to access a bus stop for fixed-route service.


ADA-complementary paratransit, by definition, is limited to persons with disabilities that prevent them from using fixed-route service.


Specialized services, such as express commuter routes or intercity services, may appeal only to target groups with specific travel needs.


Once you have identified potential riders whose needs you can meet, you can target your marketing to those specific groups.

Non-Riders—Well-run public transit enhances a community’s image and benefits many individuals and organizations that do not use transit: 


  • Employers benefit from having a mobile workforce; 
  • Schools and colleges may count on transit to get students to class; 
  • Healthcare providers experience fewer missed appointments when patients have transit access; 
  • Retailers profit from increased traffic when customers can get to their stores; 
  • And quality of life for all is improved when traffic congestion and air pollution are reduced.


These people and institutions have a stake in your system. Marketing to them will help you build ridership and maintain public support.


Among the non-rider population are many individuals and organizations that serve as “gatekeepers” for target groups that are likely transit users. These gatekeepers include employers, educational institutions, social services, and other organizations that can provide access to potential transit-user groups, and therefore serve as marketing partners for your transit system. These gatekeepers make up a target market that is key to your research and communication efforts.

 

Those who make decisions about transit funding make up another important group to consider in your marketing efforts. Elected officials, board members, and staff at local jurisdictions must be made aware of your system’s presence and impact on the community. This goes for voters and the general public, as well: marketing to these non-rider groups can help shift public opinion in your favor, resulting in long-term community support.

 

National RTAP maintains an up-to-date resource of transit statistics that showcase the community benefits of public transit, which can be added to your presentations and marketing materials for these groups.

Crafting the Message

To create messaging that raises awareness and increases ridership, you first have to understand why people don’t ride as well as what the benefits of riding and of having an active transit service mean to your community. 

Barriers to Ridership

There are three categories of reasons that people who have other transportation options decide not to use transit: 


  • They don’t know how to use the system (the knowledge gap). 
  • They think people like them don’t ride the system (the perception gap). 
  • The system doesn’t meet their needs (the service gap). 


While no amount of marketing can sell a service that doesn’t meet the potential user’s needs, marketing has remedies for the first two barriers. 

The Knowledge Gap

People who don’t ride your system may not know it exists or how to use it. Well-designed passenger information helps educate this audience on transit basics like where your system goes, how much it costs to use it, and how to transfer. All materials, including capital assets like vehicles and bus stop signs, should make it easy for people to learn more about how to ride your system by promoting your website and providing a customer service phone number.

The Perception Gap

Some potential riders may think your system only serves older adults or persons with disabilities. Marketing materials that show many types of riders benefiting from your system can help change this perception. 

Benefits of Transit

Two print ads with older woman and a man. Both have provided quotes

Messaging should state the benefits of using a product or service. When messaging addresses target audiences with benefits specific to that group, the people in that group can make informed choices about whether to use or support transit.  

There are two general categories of benefits of transit, the personal and the societal.  


Personal benefits are relevant to riders and potential riders. These are the benefits a person will enjoy if they use transit. All transit systems offer the most basic of the personal benefits: mobility, that is, getting someone to the places they need or want to go. 


Other relevant appeals include: 

  • The convenience and ease of riding 
  • Independence 
  • The cost savings of riding versus having a car 
  • The time for reading or relaxing, even working, while using transit

Societal benefits are the importance of public transit to the community as a whole, including non-riders. Transit provides great economic and social benefits, enabling people with no other means of transportation to get to work and participate in the community. It’s also an environmentally sound alternative to driving a car, since using transit consumes fewer resources overall and can cut down on local air pollution.


When speaking to a target audience, it is important to include appeals and information that are relevant to them. Targeted messages that speak to specific needs and benefits are more likely to generate action than generic messages.
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