Stuck at marketing for our Bus Rental business (Ujfigura)

[moniee]

Hi everyone,

So glad I found this forum! I decided to take things in my grasp a while ago and so was looking for online marketing help.
But let me start at the beginning.

My name is Monika, I'm from Hungary, I'm a graphic designer, working in marketing.
And I have no actual clue of marketing as a whole.

Basically me and my partner have launched a bus rental service in our home country, Hungary. We have a tiny bus fleet and we are trying to sell our service and make a living of it. We started by spreading the word across our family and friends – suppose that’s the first step you take anyway – but we are struggling to go any further from that.

Being this my job, I have tried my best with creating the visual look of the company, and launching a FB page and basically trying to invite people by posting (clearly not inviting enough) material.
I am stuck a little bit now. I don’t know where to begin and was hoping you guys would be able to guide me in the right direction?

Service Details:
(did my best to get the hang of it please tell me if something is missing)

• Service: Bus rental service 'Ujfigura' (meaning somethign like 'the new kid on the block') for anyone who needs a 48 seater tourist bus with bus driver(s) provided.
  
• Goal: to be brand that pops into mind of the people from Nograd (this is where my partner is from) when they want to travel from point A to point B in bigger groups. To be the brand that is recognised as 'those nice guys when I want to go on a travel/holiday with my friends'
  
• Country: Hungary, Budapest city and Nograd county. Bus travels more than welcome to be arranged to surrounding countries i.e. most of Europe but are best to start from Budapest/Nograd and close surroundings as bus is parking here. Hence it would have to take a journey for free to actually collect passengers from miles away which is not good for our piggy bank
  
• Target audience: Possibly people who are in contact with groups of people – ie. Schools, groups, societies, clubs etc. Not sure if these can be actual students (15-19yrs) and teachers/leaders of groups (35-40yrs) clearly I have issues with identifying age groups since this.

Random facts that can help:

• Bus has to have a minimum of ~30 passengers on rough average so the money invested in the journey pays back
• Buses have wi-fi on board, large storage, and we are about to purchase a coffee machine with built-in grinder (caaaan you smeeeeell the coffeee toniiiight)
• Nograd is the county where my partner is from and where the competition is the lowest atm. (seems like we already have a competitor here just arising now) We want to fill this gap. Pensioners going to travels, or to church to another city, schools, organizations (police, firefighters etc) on holiday, folk dancers travelling to perform, etc. Although the capital, Budapest where we live is also in reach, there are just many other good competitors that's why we'd rather focus on ealrier mentioned area, Nograd
• Hungary’s financial situation on average is below ridiculous – people tend to be very underpaid and price sensitive. Our buses look nice (compared to other local services) but clearly are not high-end ones so not sure we could grasp the not-so-price-sensitive people above
• This whole bus thing started off from the passion my partner has towards buses from when he was little. Others love cars, he loves buses so this was the acceleration of the whole thing, not just money making. There is also a circle of friends who have the same passion. We have a vintage bus that is a nice attraction for this layer of people.
• So far we had a few journeys abroad which is always nice. We were at close surrounding countries, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and we have plans in the future for Austria and Croatia as well
• We can not officially do what travel agencies do - we can't officially offer full travels with accomodation and such. We can only hire out our buses leaving our clients to organise everything. Obviously we always try and help them throughout our connections. (certificate to be able to offer travel packs is basically out of reach)

So far there is a facebook page set up (and a website which is in the making).
I have been focusing on this FB page for spreading our service.

Facebook strategy so far

https://www.facebook.com/ujfigura?fref=nf

• Profile is set up in a way that it is instantly recogniseable (hopefully) with logos, shapes and colour scheme
• I have been posting pictures of our journeys with the buses
• Pictures and updates about our buses
• Pictures of other outdoorsy things we have been enjoying, not necessarily taken with our buses but still travel-related (ie. latest one is my private flight experience)
• Upcoming journeys with free seats to popularise and sell said seats made in similar stlye

Below is an ad for our upcoming travel in Transylvania. Each day has 2 pics of the locations we are visiting.


Below was a vintage bus convention. We asked people which bus do they prefer to ride to this convention. Title says 'Private route for XY vintage bus convention. Which one would you choose?' We had little response though, even if we thought this will be a nice comment-generator




My questions (please please):

• How to identify my target audience better?
  
• What is the type of Facebook Post content I could engage the most of my target audience with? I feel with the current posts it's just boring.

Thank you so much and sorry for the loads of info. Appreciate if you read it and have a lovely dovey day!
Monika

[Lynn Terry]

Hi Monika.

You've done a beautiful job with the graphics! This sounds like a very exciting start-up.

I would start by listing out all the potential points of leverage. Meaning: Where does your target market start in their planning process, so that they can learn about you and "plan you in" to their trip? Advertise in local papers, magazines and on local websites of course - and anywhere else local that you can, university bulletin boards, community bulletin boards etc.

You could collaborate with hotels, places of interest / touristy destinations for large groups, etc and negotiate a commission for them on recommendations. You can also put the word out to the groups you want to target directly - social groups, churches, folk dancers, etc.

Consider who you want to reach, the easiest/best way to reach them, and how to get in front of the ideal people through channels they're already reading or connected to in some way. Best to you with this fun start-up! *cheers*