A newsletter for marketing and management

You want to put together something interesting to the current and want-to-be pilot, and to those simply interested in flying machines. You want your newsletter to be more than just a bragging paper about your school. It must be interesting, informative, and something the reader will look forward to each month.

I suggest following a standardized format. The first item of the newsletter should be from the flight school manager’s desk and be a historical or safety write-up—something like the history of blind flying or a famous pilot that we can learn a lesson from, for example.

Next, a description of programs and events such as safety seminars, EAA activities in your area, and airport fly-ins. Some of those programs you should be organizing through your flight school. In that respect, see my article “Does Not Have Any Upcoming Events” in the April 30, 2018, edition of Flight School Business.

Now you can acknowledge your customers’ first solo flights and FAA certificates and ratings. Then comes the topic of what’s new at your flight school. You can also add an article or two about an interesting place to visit or some other flight-oriented topic. Follow it with a training tip, an aviation trivia Item, and a famous or interesting aviation quote. The last item is a calendar of aviation activities in your area for the next three months.

The words might be interesting, but it is pictures that grab people’s attention. Use pictures from any and all sources, so long as you have permission to do so. This of course includes local aviation organizations and events with which you are involved. You might even hold a monthly photo contest open to all pilots in your area. If you have professional or semiprofessional photographers flying with you, ask if they would help you out with a few photos. You can also invite the local photography club to hold a Saturday field trip at your flight school. You want one eye-catching photo at the top of the newsletter—a picture I call the banner picture.

Your newsletter is for anyone with an interest in aviation as a tool for you as an aviation evangelist; as such you will want an email version and one formatted for printing. Your flight school already has a list of email addresses for students, renter pilots, and staff. When you are at aviation career day events, airport open houses, EAA chapter meetings, or any other aviation meeting, hand out the printed newsletter and a signup sheet to be put on your mailing list. One flight school that I am working with had about 300 customer and staff email contacts, and the mailing list for its newsletter is now more than 700. That makes the newsletter a significant marketing tool.

The flight school newsletter also is an important management tool because it makes you think about planning for programs and events for next month and the following months. Who will you contact and ask to give a program or lead a relevant discussion topic? Always search for calendar information from aviation organizations and airports in your area. I have found that you would not be thinking of some of these things if it were not for getting out your general aviation newsletter. You and your flight school become a focal point of aviation news and accomplishments.

Putting the newsletter together is work, but it will sure help your flight school’s recognition and business growth.