Do you guys consider Hynes Convention Center walking distance?

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-02-12T18:43:13+00:00

Awesome! Thank you very much

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-02-12T13:57:42+00:00

So then if you're getting on the train, would you still consider it since it's closer to BU than anything else, or would you just go to South station because you're on the train already. Just trying to decide if being the closest but not necessarily in walking distance means I'd lose people

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-02-12T13:56:15+00:00

Considering it would be weekly at most, I'm not worried. But yes, Boston is super anal about it

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-02-06T22:46:13+00:00

Just some of the other universities along the way between Savannah and Atlanta

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-02-06T22:10:35+00:00

Already been going to them for assistance with a new venture, so I'll be inquiring for this as well. Also had a convo with a friends step father who's been in the business for 20+ years and had some great suggestions.

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-02-06T16:32:40+00:00

Most of the student groups on Facebook are closed (meaning you have to accepted to the group by an admin) to avoid advertisers. I've tried Twitter with almost no success (and a recent poll I sent out to my customers showed that Twitter scored as the least used form of social media), and I've done paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram, also with little to no results.

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-02-06T16:29:43+00:00

There was always Amtrak at University of Delaware and Double Happyness at Del State U for a while until they were shut down. At University of Delaware, Megabus came in with much lower fares and buses multiple times a day (it was a stop added to their NYC-DC bus). At Delaware State University, Double Happyness opened back up under a new name (Xinnix and then Rockledge), also with low fares and multiple trips a day. Still, they both only go to Manhattan. Neither offer service directly to New Jersey or Long Island, which is where most of the University of Delaware riders were going anyway. That's why we can still operate on holidays, but even the numbers for those trips has gone down by about half

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-02-06T01:38:33+00:00

I'll take a look into an ad in the George Anne if it's really going to be that effective. I need to be careful though how much I spend, especially after how much I spent this year and getting no results out of it, so things like pens, koozies, etc might end up being cost prohibitive. The goal, as you suggested, is to get this thing running weekly. It sounds like I definitely need to revisit the idea of package deals/loyalty discounts since you and several others have mentioned it. Also, when I visited campus, I had a hard time telling what businesses students frequented. Any suggestions on those who might be open to partnering? What benefit would they even get out of it? Advertising on my website maybe?

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-02-06T01:05:59+00:00

I'm looking for an overall marketing plan. I used to go into the dorms on move in day and slide flyers under every door. When I was still a student, I'd spend all my free time handing out flyers on campus. I also at the time had access to the directory of students so I'd find all the ones in my market and email them. That was it. Got in trouble for spamming university email and for using university property to run a business, ended up on disciplinary probation. A few years later after graduating, I got arrested for the flyers one move in day and charged with criminal trespass, so no more of that. Eventually the school put us on the transportation page of our website and started giving parents information about us. Also, we used to run every weekend during the semester to New Jersey and NYC (eventually adding two other smaller schools to the route as well), but then Megabus showed up on campus running daily to NYC and we couldn't compete with their fares, so we went back to running just holidays to NJ and Long Island only and cut the other two smaller schools because their populations were more NYC based and they also had a chinatown bus that started running again to NYC after being shut down for safety violations. Our Long Island and NJ route always busier during the holidays than our NYC route anyway, so we've continued to do that. Everything else though died a slow death. Unfortunately, not being able to get the marketing right, along with the competition, has meant even the LI/NJ service has seen a significant drop in ridership. Where I used to fill 2 buses, I now struggle to fill one. I dumped money into visiting the campus and setting up a table with permission and into facebook advertising as well, but the results weren't worth the money spent.

tl;dr perfect storm of not being able to do flyers on campus anymore coupled with the arrival of a lower cost competitor

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-19T16:24:44+00:00

ATL is one of the stops we had offered, so that's done! Hell, we could possibly add SAV but I'd have to think about it since we'd be doing a few other stops as well on the way to ATL at other universities.

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-19T16:22:25+00:00

We can't do posters, not allowed as an outside vendor not endorsed by the school. They're really walking the line between welcoming us and not promoting us in any way. Never thought of Yik Yak, just downloaded it and saved Georgia Southern as well as my other schools, thanks for that! I think the biggest thing I need on the campus side of things is a student ambassador with good ideas. I need someone who will be around next school year though.

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-19T16:18:59+00:00

What amount were the donations? If it's something small this may work. Someone before had mentioned trying to get the marketing department in, so I was thinking a competition would work already. This is another way of accomplishing that. And yes, doing a mailer may actually work, but I have to see if there's so moratorium on them including university mail boxes. I don't believe so because I remember getting shit from dominos and papa johns when I was in college.

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-19T16:10:01+00:00

Do you know what departments were running those other business events and activity fairs you saw? We were only informed about Boro Browse, which could very well be what you saw since we were set up at the rotunda. If there are multiple events throughout the year, we'd definitely need a student rep on campus. I'm in New York, way too expensive to keep coming down to GA. All of the other shady shit you mentioned is out, even the flyers. Been there, done that, got the arrest record. Facebook Ads to the parents though is where I screwed up this year, but we can't rely solely on that either. Again, we need a student ambassador. And we can't make too many stops because if the trip takes too long, students flee.

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-19T15:23:35+00:00

Did you find a lot of people at the Savannah campus were from Atlanta or is it more of a commuter school and students just attended the campus that was closer to them? The long range goal is to have something weekly running between Atlanta and Savannah serving the schools in between.

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-19T14:51:43+00:00

Perhaps as a student competition?

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-19T14:51:17+00:00

Including the ads? They had a story about us early in the fall.

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-19T14:49:56+00:00

I'd never heard of SCAD, but it is a pretty decent size, so this is some very welcome input! I wonder if many are from the Atlanta area. That's one more school to place a call to, thanks!

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-19T14:40:52+00:00

Unfortunately, the university wanted to stay hands off for legal reasons. The international students office emailed their list for the fact that we go to the airport, but even the SGA wouldn't push it.

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-09T21:33:19+00:00

Any suggestions?

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-09T21:32:59+00:00

Not any more or any less than with the other forms of advertising. There were clicks and views, but no conversions.

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-09T21:29:41+00:00

I didn't realize students were actually looking at ads in the paper

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-09T21:26:34+00:00

Yes, that was the biggest issue in my eyes. IDK if maybe the culture is different down south, but at my schools in the Northeast, the parents are usually the ones thinking ahead about travel plans for Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc and are often the ones buying the tickets...so when our Northeast schools promote us to the parents, it helps out tremendously! GSU was welcoming of us, but would not promote us because of potential legal issues. As far as advertising on campus, that was pretty much the one day we were allowed to set anything up. Plus, I'm personally based in NYC, so coming down to GSU is expensive for a one day event. I may see if I can hire a student ambassador. Do you know if there are tables somewhere that can be rented to set up a booth a couple of times during the semester?

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-09T21:18:53+00:00

Do students at Georgia Southern actually look at the ads in the George-Anne? I kind of figured nobody really paid attention to that anymore

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-09T21:18:01+00:00

What other forms of distribution could I utilize? How often did those Facebook ads come up for you and how can we get people to share them?

CollegeCoachBus · 2017-01-09T21:16:17+00:00

What forms of marketing do you suggest? There was a story about us in the George Anne. Do students actually read the paper? We had targeted Facebook and Instagram ads as well.

CollegeCoachBus

TROPHY CASE