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Optional Strategies

Optional Strategies

Awareness, Image, and Support-Building Options

Paid Communications Channels

Radio

Hand turning the volume dial on a radio.

Check out the radio script template.


If local radio stations serve the communities in your service area (rather than stations from a larger market outside your service area that happen to overlap your service area), then radio ads could help you build awareness and promote ridership. 


Local radio tends to have loyal audiences and can offer unique sponsorships to advertisers. Radio advertising also offers the advantage of targeting drive-time audiences. Captive in their cars, these drivers may be very interested in a better way to travel. Different radio formats may allow you to target different audiences. For example, news-talk radio might reach an older audience, while a pop-music station will communicate with teens and college students.


Sponsorship of local news or sports shows can be particularly effective, as local audiences may tune into these broadcasts even if they use streaming services to access music and other content.


Radio production is inexpensive, and the radio station you use generally will produce your commercials for free, using on-air talent to voice the spots. In addition, local stations often will augment your paid ads at no charge by airing your commercials as public service messages as well as paid spots.


Radio stations in languages other than English may help you reach audiences with limited English proficiency. Consider seeking out these stations and putting them on your media list as well as considering buying paid advertising on them.

Keep in mind that radio commercials are fleeting. You’ll need to repeat the same message over a period of time for people to remember it. And you won’t be able to convey the kind of detailed information (such as routes) that you can in a print ad. Use your radio ads to promote your phone number or website. 


Station staff can help you determine what type of programming suits your needs and which times of day reach the largest target audiences.

Television

Television ad time is usually expensive and reaches a broad, not targeted, audience. That means it’s usually not a cost-effective choice, though if you can afford it, it can help build awareness and visibility. TV production costs are considerably higher than for radio, though your local station may provide low or no-cost production services.

 

If your area has local television affiliates or a cable provider who sells commercial time specific to local subscribers, then television advertising may be an option for promoting your system. Generally speaking, the most effective time to purchase advertising for your system will be during local news programs.


Digital ads on television station websites can be both more targeted and much less expensive than a TV commercial. They can be a simple static graphic that clicks through to your website, rather than a fully produced video ad.

Digital Advertising

Digital advertising on Facebook.

Check out the digital ads tool.


Digital ads are online ads people see on their phones or computers. This includes ads that run on websites, on social media, and even on the sites of your local TV and radio stations, as referred to above.


Digital ads can be precisely targeted to local and specific audience demographics. Digital ad buys are more flexible than traditional media: You can set the budget yourself, rather than having to buy ads based on the published rate. Search ads are digital ads that appear when the viewer uses a search engine such as Google to find information. For example, you can create a search ad with information on service to your local library and program it to appear when a viewer searches “parking at the library.”


Each social media and search engine platform has systems that the person listed as your account’s administrator or manager can use to set up ads. If you’re interested in buying digital ads on local media websites, contact the local media’s ad rep. Ask for demographic information on their audiences, reach of their media, and data on others’ digital campaign results. Set a small ad budget and review the success metrics on your ads. Many smaller communities have local digital ad specialists who can help you develop successful campaigns. Your chamber of commerce may have a referral, or consider looking for businesses in your community who are running digital campaigns and asking them for a referral to a provider. 

Ridership-Generation Options

Partnering to Offer Fare Programs

There are several ways you can work with gatekeeper organizations to encourage transit ridership by making fare media more easily available to customers.

Sale of Fare Media to Social Services and Schools

Some social service and education programs have funding to purchase transit passes for their clients. Make sure you have a mechanism in place that makes it easy for these purchases to be made.

Gatekeeper Sales Outlets

Gatekeeper offices can serve as convenient sales outlets for transit tickets and passes. Since customers are going there for other services, they can purchase their transit fare media without making a separate trip. Locations such as senior centers, one-stop centers, and school bookstores make ideal pass-sales outlets. Talk with your gatekeepers about their willingness to take on this task and how you can make it easy for them.

Specialized Fare Media

Fare media designed around the needs of specific types of riders can encourage greater use by those target groups. For example, some transit agencies offer semester passes to college students. These prepaid passes are good for the full college semester and offer a significant discount. College students can purchase the pass when they get their financial aid at the start of the term and then have their transportation guaranteed for the rest of the semester.


Lower-income riders often find shorter-term fare media, such as day passes, to be more attractive and affordable than traditional monthly passes, which require a more substantial outlay of cash.

Brochure on prepaid fair programs with teal and white background displaying text.

Prepaid fare programs are a formal partnership between a transit agency and a community organization. Under a prepaid program, the organization pays a fixed amount to the transit agency and, in return, all members of a defined group (for example, enrolled college students or employees) ride fare-free.


Prepaid programs have been shown to significantly increase transit usage. They also create a natural marketing partnership between the transit system and the community organization. The transit agency wants to build ridership, and the community partner wants to receive benefits for their investment. That means the organization has an incentive to promote the transit system to its constituents through the types of strategies outlined in the previous section.


While prepaid programs are most common with colleges and universities, they also have been implemented with secondary schools, employers, apartment complexes, public housing programs, and neighborhoods.

Incentives

Corner of brochure displaying a free 5 day-pass.

To encourage potential riders to try transit, you may want to include an incentive as part of your communications to target groups. The incentive might be a free ride, or some other type of value. Examples of incentives include:

  • Free round-trip ticket for participants at a travel training presentation to encourage them to make their first solo ride
  • Free one-week pass for students or commuters to encourage them to try commuting by transit
  • Free-ride day for all riders or for a specific group—older adults, youth, service workers in uniform, etc.
  • Premium gift (such as a T-shirt or water bottle) for riders who take X number of trips during a promotional period
  • Raffle at community events to win a free monthly pass or other prize
  • Rewards for regular riders—e.g., buy 11 monthly passes and the 12th is free

Remember that, like the message, the incentive needs to be selected to fit the needs of the target group.
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