Digital Internet Marketing for Flight Schools

Become the Best
Flight School
in your area with

The #1 Flight School

Marketing Agency

Are you tired of other schools taking your students? Does your "marketing company" seem out of touch with the general aviation industry? Are you missing out on capturing the new crop of interested student pilots?

Right Rudder Marketing is the leader in helping ONLY flight schools leverage the internet and use well executed marketing strategies to take their business out of the clouds and into VFR.

Discover how to get more students and grow your school with our Flight School Marketing System

We're here to implement our tested strategies to take your flight school to the next level. There's a lot of so called “marketing experts” out there, but they don't know the aviation industry like we do.
They're not pilots.

Our mission is to help you become the preferred flight school in your local area. Increase your flight school's revenue. Train the next generation of pilots.

➡ Learn more about our system

Right Rudder Marketing is a proud member of the following organizations

We all know about the four forces of flight, but have you heard of the...

Four Forces of
Flight Schools

Student Success
Student Attrition
drawing of a cessna 172
New Students
Inadequate Service

According to AOPA and General Aviation News, 80% of student pilots drop out of training each year before receiving their pilot certificate. While we might already know this and not think much about this statistic, this high dropout rate is directly correlated to your profits and revenue.

When student pilots quit, they stop showing up to your school and stop paying for rentals, ground school, and CFI instruction. It also causes the family and friends of the student pilot to solidify and confirm their preconceived notions that pilot training is not worth the investment. This reduces the size of the pool of new students which hurts your flight school! A profitable flight school always has a steady flow of new students and a low student attrition rate.

Pilot training is hard and intense so it is understandable that there are going to be students who don't make the cut. We need to make sure the future generation of pilots fly safely and follow FAA regulations. However, if your school is failing to get a steady flow of new students to join your school to replace the ones that quit, then your flight school will never be able to scale up.

The number of student pilots has more than doubled in the past 12 years. If your flight school has not seen an increase in student pilots, then you are missing out and leaving money on the table. Upgrade your marketing engine to get more thrust to lift your flight school to a higher altitude.

Ideal Aviation Logo

CASE STUDY

Introducing Ideal Aviation. A flight school that relied on word of mouth and needed to take it to the next level.

We helped Ideal Aviation streamline their processes, understand what to do to reach their goals, and increased their revenue.

The Challenge

When the team at Ideal Aviation reached out to Right Rudder Marketing, they wanted to updated their WordPress website because it was clunky and slow. They were paying other agencies and service providers thousands of dollars but not getting the results they wanted.

What We Did

One of the services Ideal Aviation was paying thousands of dollars for was a quiz form that would generate leads for them. They embedded a link on their website to take their visitors to a webpage off their domain. While they were getting a few inquiries, the quiz was not catered to their needs as a flight school and was more of a general template for different industries. We coded up a custom sales funnel using the quiz idea which targeted people who had a specific interest in aviation and then streamlined form submissions directly to their CRM. We also completely redid their website to load fast and implemented SEO strategies so they can start ranking higher.

The Results

Ideal Aviation now ranks number one on the first page of Google Search and Google Maps. With their partnership at a local college, they welcomed 9 new students in the Fall 2023 semester to their fixed wing pilot training program generating more than an estimated $90,000 in future revenue.
Search Ranking for Ideal

Ideal Aviation now shows up as #1 on Google search and Google Maps.

Ideal Aviation is in the top three listings all across St. Louis.

Heatmap of Google Rankings for Ideal Aviation. Ideal Aviation is in the top three listings all across the entire St. Louis area.

Kim

"We have been using Right Rudder for the past 6 months and could not be happier! They revamped our website to make it more user friendly, makes consistent updates, and are very responsive to our needs. We have seen a steady increase in web traffic as well as website driven phone calls since starting with Right Rudder. I can not say enough good things about them!"

-Kim, Director of Administration Ideal Aviation

SimpliFly Logo

CASE STUDY

Introducing SimpliFly. A flight school in the highly competitive area of Mesa, AZ.

We helped SimpliFly 10X the amount of leads coming to their school so they can train more pilots and expand their fleet.

The Challenge

When Blake from SimpliFly gave Right Rudder Marketing a call, they were looking to update their website and get more leads coming into their school to increase their revenue. They had a WordPress website already built out, social media profiles, and a GMB listing, but they weren't seeing much progress in their online rankings. With multiple flight schools at their airport competing for prospective students' attention, Blake knew he needed to do something about his digital marketing. They were ranking way below the first page of search and on the Google Map listings they were #14, well below the view so potential customers had difficulty even knowing they existed.

SimpliFly was using a local agency that wasn't specialized for flight schools and aviation businesses. There was a lot of friction in communication as the SimpliFly team had to describe the pilot training process and how aviation works. They spent a lot of time going back and forth with their previous agency to get things sounding right because the previous agency didn't understand pilots.

What We Did

The first thing we did was research the local area and their competition. With so many flight schools in their area, we had to understand what keywords were being searched for and then come up with a strategy to really accelerate their growth. We created an awesome website for them which really highlighted their main program: accelerated pilot training. We used target keywords in their website and GMB profile to really take things up a notch and we've seen great results.

The Results

They are now getting flooded with inquiries and phone calls asking about their flight school. They're ranking on the first page of Google Search and Google Maps.
Heatmap showing SimpliFly's ranking around their airport

Heatmap showing SimpliFly's ranking around their airport

Our focus now is looking at where they are ranking as #4. This is important because Google's first page listings only contain three businesses. When we get a flight school to rank as #3 or higher, their business exponentially increases.

Blake

"Right rudder marketing has been a huge help and blessing in our business. They made an amazing website for us. They also understand aviation and pilots which is a huge help. If you own a flight school then you definitely need to use Right Rudder Marketing."

-Blake, Owner at SimpliFly

Let's take a look at the strategies we implement to help you enroll
more students than you've ever had before

1. Create a SEO optimized modern website to funnel new students

websites on desktop, mobile, and tablet

The foundation of our Flight School Marketing System is your beautiful website we'll design and develop. We've tested hundreds of different methods to create a website and we know what works and what doesn't. Our websites are programmed line by line from scratch and do not use WordPress and other page builders. This makes them less prone to hacking and load much faster which makes our websites rank higher on Google.

We'll implement slick call to actions on both mobile and desktop to make it easy for future students to call and schedule a discovery flight in the books. We'll publish custom tailored content, imagery, and branding for your flight school.

Your flight school will look spectacular and potential students will want to make contact with you. We've proven it time and time again in our testing. And we'll have your website up and running for your flight school in less than a month.

As a client of Right Rudder Marketing, you'll get every aspect of this site custom built specifically for your flight school. Your website will have the following features:

  • Mobile friendly and responsive design that reformats on any device
  • Dozens of pages of well structured general aviation content to help your site rank immediately upon launch
  • Multi-step high converting forms that push potential students to request more information
  • High quality images and videos
  • Fast loading hosting and top Google Page Speed scores to ensure you don't lose visitors due to slow speeds
  • Completely SEO optimized custom content
  • An updated blog with regularly published SEO friendly content

2. Use SEO to rank high on Google Maps and Google Search

google search rankings for flight schools
Ranking #1 on Google is Powerful

We've mentioned the acronym SEO a few times already and you may be wondering what that is. SEO stands for search engine optimization and it is the art of crafting your website to help Google and other search engines know what your website is about and how relevant it is to user searches.

You'll see a clear difference in the number of students you are attracting when you see your school ranks in the top 3 results. Having you school listed at the top is a game changer and we typically see movement within the first 90 days of working with our clients.

There are two parts to local search engine marketing for flight schools. The first part is on-page optimization:

  • Optimizing page titles and headlines for your geographic area
  • Using relevant flight school keywords throughout your site for search engines
  • Optimizing images and video content
  • Creating content that positions your school as the expert in your area

The next part is off-site optimization. Here are some things we do for this:

  • Building high quality relevant backlinks to your site from related general aviation and local area websites
  • Building mentions and citations for your business in prominent business directories on the internet
  • Making your flight school stand out across the internet by creating links to your web site's content

In the end, you'll be appearing up at the top of search results more than ever before.

Our SEO team is one of the best in the flight school marketing business. We stay on top of all the latest SEO trends. This ensures that you're getting the best strategies deployed for the fastest results.

3. Use targeted social media and Google ads to get in front of interested students

example of a paid google ad for flight schools

We want your flight school to be seen everywhere that prospective student pilots look. It's how our proven system generates so many leads so consistently.

That starts with Google Ads and other pay per click advertising sources. We'll have your company running campaigns almost immediately and showing up for the terms you want to show up for on Google in your local area.

In addition, we'll implement a social media strategy which can go a long way. There are a billion registered users on Facebook and Instagram and it's growing everyday. You need to reach these future students which are spending their time on social media.

Facebook and Instagram ads are a great way to do this. We can target users on social media platforms with ads for your flight school directly and show them offers, branded videos, and more at the click of a button.

We'll work with you to create highly targeted ads that showcase your flight school in order to build trust and confidence before future students end up requesting a discovery flight from you.

  • Google pay per click ads
  • Branding ad campaigns
  • Retargeting ad campaigns
  • Discovery flight ads

4. Get more online reviews

five star reviews of a flight school on google

Your reputation matters more than ever for your flight school. With the advent of the internet, prospective students are able to do their own research online and determine which school to call first. Sometimes, your customers will give you reviews on their own accord, but more often than not they will need a little encouraging.

When your future students research flight schools in their area, they want to choose a school that has verified and trusted reviews.

We'll give you the tools you need that help to get your business more 5 star reviews than your competitors in no time. Our reputation management part of our Flight School Marketing System provides the following:

  • Send out emails to pilots who have gotten their certificates and ratings from your flight school to leave a review
  • Use automation to send out requests to previous students on a specified basis to request reviews directly
  • Embed and display these reviews on your website for higher visibility and establish your leadership position in the flight training community

5. Set your flight school apart with video

If your flight school doesn't have a video, you're missing out. Big time. If you think your flight school can survive in the upcoming years without using video, then "good luck".

More than 62% of internet users browse YouTube daily. More than 8 billion views are generated from Facebook videos each day. 78% of marketing professionals say that videos have helped sales as a marketing tool.

Right Rudder is all in with video because it just works. Plain and simple. It gets your flight school's messaging across clearer, it shows true authenticity for your flight school and the team behind it. And most of all, it conveys trust.

person recording video during a flight over mountains

We'll show you our video advertising framework and get all of the video ads you'll need shot and edited for the next 12 months of your advertising campaign.

We'll help create the following types of ad campaigns:

  • Brand awareness video ads
  • Lead generation video ads
  • Informational video ads
  • Retargeting video ads

Join the leading flight schools that have turned their online presence into predictable revenue

We make your flight school look as good as the planes you fly and help you make more money with ease.

Flight School Owner Calling Right Rudder Marketing

Step 1. Start a conversation with Right Rudder

After understanding your goals and understanding your current situation, we'll develop a marketing plan to help you reach your goals.

Launch Marketing Plan

Step 2. Launch your marketing plan

Get your marketing plan launched without the stress, hassle or guesswork. Right Rudder Marketing has you covered.

Flight School Owner Happy

Step 3. Get results


Grow and scale your flight school with a predictable plan and have a full scale digital marketing agency on your team to keep you on track.


Fly with digital marketing experts that know the flight training industry.

We are a team of pilots that know the flight training industry. Because if your marketing team doesn't know what the pilot training experience is like, then how can they be successful for you? See what we're talking about by booking a call now!

Book a Strategy Call
Right Rudder Marketing Logo White

We are a rapidly expanding pilot owned digital marketing agency working exclusively with flight schools throughout the United States. We're on a mission to help 100 flight schools double their student body and dominate their service area by 2025.

Contact Us

Newsletter

Sign up for our latest news and articles. We will not send you spam nor share your information with other third parties.

Copyright 2024 Right Rudder Marketing LLC.
All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Service